By Nightvision for the Saker Blog
We start with the biggest scoop today. We finally have high level confirmation from Russian officials that NATO instructors and foreign fighters are in fact trapped in Mariupol.
Firstly Russian State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov in an interview with RT has openly stated he estimates around 100 such foreigners there, and that they are in communication with them and the rumors are true that they are trying to negotiate a release and escape corridor. It seems to imply all those Macron rumors were accurate.
Video: https://www.bitchute.com/video/72MTe5On9t9Y/
Igor Konashenkov on the other hand, also confirms that significant numbers of foreign fighters are known to be there because Russia can hear them crying in over 6 different languages in intercepted radio calls.
Not to mention there’s now a report that they tried to break through the blockade with a ship to rescue them (ran out of helicopters I guess?) https://sputniknews.com/20220409/ukrainian-cargo-ship-tried-to-break-through-to-russian-black-sea-fleet-blocking-mariupol-port-mod-1094624584.html
So this is no longer the realm of speculation and fantasy.
Now about yesterday’s Kramatorsk strike – it had multiple objectives all of which we foresaw in the previous SitReps when I specifically said that Ukraine was now shifting to a psychological and terror war exclusively, because it cannot win a conventional one.
The goals were: to terrorize civilians into not fleeing so they can be used as human shields in the upcoming showdown in Kramatorsk, to blame the falseflag on Russia for the same reasons as in the ‘Bucha massacre’ to continue extorting NATO sympathy and funds.
They cleverly did it right after Russia had announced the new measure of strikes against railyards, because they knew it would appear ostensibly as just the latest Russian strike targeting that category of infrastructure. But of course they messed up when Arestovych and their own side first reported it as a Russian Iskander, not knowing that a Tochka shell would be discovered.
Once again, this is proof of something else we wrote two sitreps ago when we said that Ukraine was forced to do the Bucha massacre to try and stem the momentum behind the soon-to-be liberation of Mariupol, and that the falseflag was in fact evidence that Mariupol was ready to fall since they must have known that the large 501st marine battalion was getting ready to surrender any moment.
Similarly here, rumors continue to mount that Phase 2 is very close to kicking off, or has already kicked off in part (as reported by those like Gonzalo Lira, etc) and so again Ukraine badly needed something to stem the coming momentum, and to make sure civilians don’t flee as they are the UAF’s only hope, as human shields. We also wrote a couple sitreps ago that the frequency and intensity/seriousness of the falseflags will only increase from here on out, and this appears to already be happening. Clearly the civilian population has been deemed completely expendable by the UAF.
There are reports that Russia is still keeping a decent-sized force (1/3 of what was previously there) north of Kiev (on Belarus side). If true, this would effectively continue to pin UAF forces around Kiev, not allowing them to fully redeploy to Donbass or elsewhere (perhaps why Zelensky only requested 15,000 to be sent, and not the whole force in the area, which some have estimated anywhere in the 50k – 70k range or more). The reason being of course that if they were to leave Kiev undefended, the much faster Russian maneuver force could rapidly blitz in under their noses and capture Kiev.
Now the Pentagon is stating that Russia has positioned 40 BTGs around the Donbass, adding a new 10,000 troop infusion, and Phase 2 is ready to kick off any moment. This by the way is a confirmation of the new reality where they have backtracked on the original “180 BTGs” just as I’ve written previously, and are now using more realistic numbers. This is further evidence that Russia is not utilizing the amount of troops in theater as they wanted us to believe.
Now on this topic, as Phase 2 is set to begin, let’s talk tactics or ‘Why the UAF Is About To Get Smashed’.
One of the most important takeaways from the first phase of this conflict has been that the UAF stands no chance whatsoever against Russian forces in a straight up head-on, full frontal fight. To understand the reasons for why that is, you must understand the basic structure and functions of the Russian units, including the infamous BTG (battalion tactical group). Without going into too much detail, just know that unlike U.S. forces which have some of the larger force coefficients like artillery, rockets etc more on the Corps level, the Russian units have them down to the battalion level, allowing faster maneuvering forces to have their own massive firepower capabilities and direct decision making.
But besides this ability to outmaneuver an equivalent Ukrainian force with far more firepower, just understand that the Russian BTG comes equipped with large precision artillery capabilities, in the form of 2S19 Msta for the more elite groupings. Ukraine’s artillery has been surprisingly well implemented, but it is still no match for a full Russian artillery unit equipped with its own detachment of spotters, counter-battery systems, scouts and the like. In general, the Russian units will have more fires(artillery) density per engagement, and at greater ranges with better accuracy differentials.
There has not been a single recorded Ukrainian victory in a full head-on fight, with the arguable exception of some of the engagements in the Bucha/Kiev area where we saw a column or two of Russian light cavalry forces take decent losses and retreat, but these were light VDV detachments with their own special objectives, not much protection, etc., and they took risky chances which led to ambushes.
But the majority of large scale engagements in these modern peer-to-peer conflicts mostly consist of medium to long range artillery duels. The only time tank/mechanized forces typically come into play is during transport or repositioning/redeployment, or once the artillery has softened the defense enough—or more commonly has ‘routed’ them—the other forces will begin moving in to finish them off.
The ONLY way the UAF has scored any recorded successes at all so far is via asymmetric and mostly ambush operations on MOVING columns. The reasons for this are many, such as the fact that U.S. feeds satellite intel to UAF forces to alert them of exactly where larger RF columns are moving and where they’re likely headed. This allows UAF forces to setup ambushes in depth at forward areas. The secret to how they do this is via RTP (Registered Target Point). The concept is very simple: a UAF artillery unit will shoot at a road with spotters watching and feeding them corrections until the artillery ‘solution’ is perfectly honed onto the center of the road. That artillery will then be covered with camo. Then as the Russian convoy passes that RTP mark, a hidden spotter will give the signal by radio and the UAF artillery will score instant perfect accuracy kills.
This is all fine and good. But when two, let’s just say equally-sized, forces do a classic position battle where they have taken their positions, dug in, both are aware of each other’s dispositions more or less with an accuracy dependent on the effectiveness of their ISR scouts and drone surveillance teams, etc. In this type of direct face off akin to a classic confrontation between two forces like in the days of Napoleon, the Russian force will always handily destroy the Ukrainian force 10 times out of 10 with minimal losses to itself, as all the advantage in this setup goes to the Russian side. As mentioned before, the reasons for this are simple:
- Russia can bring a higher density of artillery firepower to bear – more units, higher quantity across the contact line, period.
- Though Ukrainian units are no slouches (particularly the elite in Donbass) and should be commended for their skill, they are still inferior in training and capability compared to RF artillery troops. It may not even be a huge edge, but it’s an edge nonetheless. Sure they have the experience edge, but the RF artillerymen are highly trained, and are already gaining tons of valuable experience on the fly – they learn fast.
- The RF equipment is far superior. We’re talking highly modern Msta 2S19s (superior to ANY artillery unit even in the U.S. arsenal, a fire rate 4-5 times higher than U.S.’s M109 equivalent, with greater range, etc.) with pinpoint accuracy, longer ranges, higher RPM (~10rpm to Ukraine’s maybe 3-4), better sights and optics, better surveillance capabilities as Ukraine mostly uses prosumer DJI drones which can be good for shortrange tactical stuff, but have limited range, duration, and optics compared to Russian Orlan-10s and the like. And don’t get me started on the legendary Krasnopol ammunition which the 2S19s can and HAVE been firing in Ukraine, which is a laser guided artillery munition that flies exactly to its pinpointed, laser-designated (by Orlan-10, etc) target, even if the target is moving. And keep in mind, in most cases the UAF won’t even have any 2S3 Akatsiyas or Gvozdikas or 2S7 Peonies anymore, but rather will use either BM-21 Grad or legacy Soviet towed artillery like D-30 howitzers or equivalent (the latter being far inferior for variety of reasons).
So in short, Russia can bring to bear firepower that is more accurate, longer range, faster shooting, and in greater number, all while having more ammo/fuel for it, etc. So what is the big point I’m making with all this. It is the following:
The ‘maneuver war’ which gave Ukraine certain ambush opportunities seems to be coming to an end. Russia is concentrating troops for the ‘final battle’ of Donbass, which will be a conventional, frontal war fought in the manner described above, with massive artillery fires opening the salvos and mechanized forces moving in to attrition off the routers. The major problem for Ukraine this presents is, this may be survivable when you have space to retreat and can continue falling back, away from the massive artillery advantage. But when the noose continues to close on the cauldron, the UAF forces will find themselves in a situation of continual concentration. They will have a smaller and smaller area for the troops to consolidate into, with no room for maneuver. And this area will have an increasing number of massive artillery firepower bearing down on it that will outgun and outrange them exponentially. There will be no more asymmetric cheap shots and ambush strikes because Russian forces will not be roaming in rapid, exposed columns on highways, but rather defensively postured with protected flanks, etc, dug in and inching forward one protected-in-depth section at a time. In short, this will be an absolute killzone onto the UAF troops.
We have already had a taste of this in what I’d call the first engagement of Phase 2, even if it hasn’t officially kicked off yet. But the battles in the south of Izyum, around Kam’yanka were in the spirit of what I described above. Not fast maneuvering and ambush/asymmetric warfare, but rather stand-off artillery duels in the spirit of what one commenter recently brought up as the famous Russian ‘Reconnaisance-Strike-Complex.’ And the results were brutal for UAF – I attached the video in the last SitRep showing the fields literally littered with UAF corpses after the battle of Kam’yanka while Russia had very little losses. https://www.bitchute.com/video/eEictBBTEOQe/
Read this military analyst’s twitter essay on Russian BTGs and how they can, in his opinion, be characterized as basically mobile artillery groups due to the sheer fires disparity https://twitter.com/ArmchairW/status/1511888189153185796
Excerpts: “This is a 1:1 ratio of maneuver to fires(artillery) elements. Western doctrine is 3:1. What this means is that a Russian BTG has an area of influence (where it can reach out and touch you) equal to or greater than a NATO-style brigade. (representative BTG organization pictured)”
If you read his post to the end, you’ll see he comes to the same conclusion as I do, in that Ukraine is about to get badly wrecked by RF artillery in the cauldron killzone. To think of it another way: picture the UAF forces very dispersed and not as susceptible to mass artillery as they have room to disperse/maneuver. Then as the RF forces press in on them from one side, and DPR/LPR from the other, the UAF forces continually are concentrated into a smaller and smaller region where the massive artillery bombardments will now be hitting a dense zone of troops with increasingly greater casualty rates.
Anyone doubting some of these assertions need only to hear it from the horse’s mouth itself. We all know the MIC bigwigs have to tote a certain line in public for policy and marketing’s sake, where they say Russia is inferior or weak, etc. But behind closed doors in their own secret analyses they are saying much different things.
https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/earmor/content/issues/2017/spring/2Fiore17.pdf
From an interior army report at Fort Benning, here’s what the U.S. Army expert says about Russian BTGs as compared to the equivalent American BCTs (Brigade Combat Teams). Some salient excerpts:
‘Although some BTG systems are technologically superior to the corresponding U.S. equipment, the BTG doesn’t
have the capacity to observe, target and attack the BCT simultaneously across a broad front.’
‘BTG capabilities are extremely lethal when concentrated against individual units.’
BTGs field a brigade complement of artillery that outrange and outgun U.S. BCTs, but the BTGs only have a reinforced battalion of maneuver detectors. Local fires superiority gives BTG artillery the confidence to remain in place, and it provides the BTG with constantly available indirect-fire support.’
BTGs assume that fires and air-defense superiority gives them the freedom to employ long-range strikes whenever visual or electronic contact is made, regardless of infrastructure
and civilian damage. Local fires superiority gives BTG artillery the confidence to remain in place, and it provides the BTG with constantly available indirect-fire support.
‘Finally, the king of all Russian protection assets is their integrated air-defense system. Although Russian ADA was not employed against warplanes or bombers, the Ukrainian Army lost six helicopters and a transport plane early in the conflict to well-coordinated Russian ADA systems. Also, shoulder-fired missiles are ubiquitous at all levels of regular units.’
‘American BCTs, or at least American-led brigade-sized task forces of coalition units, may be deployed in the future to deter10 or defeat11 a BTG…If a conflict occurs in the near future, technology to overcome Russian ADA is unlikely to be available therefore it is unlikely that the conflict will start with a high-intensity CAM attack.
The BTG will presume fires, EW and ADA superiority in the anticipated fight, but numerically the BCT fields many more combat systems and has a much better sustainment reach.
‘Assume that the BTG strike will disrupt the U.S. C2 needed to coordinate a brigade-level attack. The attack may also neutralize the brigade reserve and fires batteries. Therefore, every U.S. battalion and company should have a ready-to-execute attack planned and rehearsed, including authority to initiate if communications are lost in an
attack. The BCT must plan to counterattack on a broad front to assure that the threat is dangerous, because if the BCT counterattacks on a narrow front, the BTG will be able to mass to defend effectively.
Although several of the BTG’s high-end systems are technologically superior to the corresponding U.S. equipment, the BTG doesn’t have the capacity to observe, target and attack the BCT simultaneously across a broad front.
If the BTG construct continues to prove its utility in Ukraine, Syria and future conflicts, and American and Russian ground forces find themselves on opposing sides in a conflict, it is likely that BCTs will have to defeat Russian Army units organized as BTGs in the near future (before 2025)’
So what are our takeaways from the above? The most important being that the U.S. army admits to the following:
- Russian air-defense is not only superior, but shockingly the army admits that by the time of a confrontation between Russia/U.S., “technology to overcome Russian ADA will unlikely to be available”. So they are counting on the fact that even in the distant future, they will not be able to innovate anything that can pierce Russian ADA.
- Russian EW (electronic warfare) is superior and will likely disrupt American C2 (command & control).
- Several other Russian systems are superior to anything U.S. has, in particular here they are referring to what I already mentioned earlier: Russia’s artillery systems are superior in every way to that of the U.S. This goes for both self-propelled units like the 2S19 Msta which is far superior to the M109, to the tube rocket and MLRS systems like BM-27 Uragon, etc. Also in my opinion Russian light IFVs are superior (though this is a more controversial view, while the others are widely accepted) due to the fact that BMP-2s and BTR-82s have much stronger 30mm cannons than American Bradley / Strykers which have 12.7’s and 25mm’s, and with higher RPMs as well. But that’s for another time.
- Russian artillery outranges and outguns U.S. equivalent (see above)
- In any upcoming conflict, U.S. army is to presume as a given that its C2 will be disrupted AND its fires (artillery) batteries will be neutralized (i.e. blown up by superior Russian counter-battery fire etc)
Now, of course they prescribe all sorts of antidotes on how they may still tactically overcome Russian units. But who can for a moment imagine that Ukrainian forces stand a chance in full frontal, non-asymmetric confrontation given these admissions by the U.S. Army itself about its own forces?
Also to add, this report was from 2017 and many of the weaknesses it attributes to Russian units have long been corrected or improved upon. And it’s quite ominously prophetic that they foresaw a confrontation between the super powers happening by 2025. Seems we’re ahead of schedule.
But with that said, here’s why I think a confrontation between Russia / NATO may be very unlikely. The simple reason is that, particularly in today’s global economic depression (which is really what it is if you look past the fudged figures), the U.S. economy is nearly kept afloat entirely by its MIC, which has emerged as probably the most significant remaining U.S. export and manufacturing potential – its military arms. The retain this final vestige of economic authority, the U.S. has to keep up the ‘mythos’ and image of invincibility of its arms and military products.
Given what you saw above in the report, it is an absolutely undeniable fact that at the minimum, in any Russia vs. Nato engagement, the opposing side would suffer some humiliating defeats to their vaunted systems like the F-35s, Patriots, U.S. Carrier Groups, advanced drones, missiles & PGMs, etc, etc. The scale of the shock and disruption this would create for the U.S. MIC is too heavy to bear. They would never risk their cashcows being ‘exposed’ on the world stage, and having all the mythical mystique stripped away.
Any even small incursion by the U.S. risks a massive image blowback that would destroy the credibility of American arms world wide. They cannot risk showing the world the superiority of Russian systems. Imagine the gungho U.S. sending in F-35s to help Ukraine only to see them get shot down by Russian S-400s? Do you realize the symbolic shockwaves the shootdown of American F117s over Serbia sent around the world? And do you realize that the entire F117 line was literally retired due to that ONE highly humiliating and symbolic event? What would happen when several of U.S.’s key systems are shown in high-definition youtube videos to be completely overrated when Russian systems expose them? It is too great a risk to bear. They cannot allow the last dying profitable sector of their economic engine to be taken offline.
Just a few small on the ground updates today to keep the report from being overlong:
Mass Russian armor continues moving into the Donbass areas from every direction. Z’s are pouring north, V’s and O’s are pouring South and West from Lugansk.
https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1512846971580600325
https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1512848390702444552
https://www.bitchute.com/video/vTo3UjIZlWuJ/
As reported last time, the artillery hammering on Mariupol industrial districts is heating up, even more units are now firing full time on the Azov positions: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Qk3XiP2nA5jw/
Allied forces have finally reached the Mariupol port and taken most of it over. This is a big achievement, but if you look at the maps, there is still a large city district in that western section that will likely take long to clear. But these are still very good advances.
You can see Wargonzo reporting from the area already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCQ-BwSf-c
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512451886720421901
The map is now something like this. The left-most section is where forces have captured the port and advanced. The middle blue is the big Azovstal factory complex which is besieged on all sides now. And the top blue is the last Kalmiuski district with the Illych Factory grounds as well.
The combat is heavier than ever because not only are the last most fanatical groups remaining (3000 or less of the 14,000 – 17,000 they started with), but they are now being compacted into an ever-tightening concentration of areas which means the density of urban warfare is increasing as the following videos attest:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/hryBpxC8jTK6/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6XsAIl2L0c58/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/JjQ76QLz3rvX/
That’s all for now, as we get closer to the big action of Phase 2 I will provide more in depth on the ground SitReps, but for now I felt the need to include the rubric above to contextualize what we are soon going to witness in the battle for the ‘Great Cauldron’.
I’ll leave you with this look at how proud Russian citizens give a farewell to their beloved reinforcement troops as they leave to the frontlines.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/i3TIzKjg9LzM/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/q5bIjFBfEQli/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/qw66pUy04Tgk/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6x7TVAhynfzq/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZNDpzZErs0SK/
And this quick story of Mariupol: https://www.bitchute.com/video/g2Q68upErJ05/
Very thorough sitrep as usual, nightvision.
I think folks had gleaned that there were instructors and foreign fighters trapped in Mariupol.
The question is will they, at the least, face trial for acts of terrorism or be simply allowed to “slip away”?
Seems there are quite a lot of these foreign fighters and instructors in Ukraine at the moment.
Just one other question if I may.
Further down in your report you say –
” Russia is still keeping a decent-sized force (1/3 of what was previously there) north of Kiev (on Belarus side). If true, this would effectively continue to pin UAF forces around Kiev, not allowing them to fully redeploy to Donbass or elsewhere (perhaps why Zelensky only requested 15,000 to be sent, and not the whole force in the area, which some have estimated anywhere in the 50k – 70k range or more).”
From Kiev to Dnipr is about 300 km.
How are all these 15,000 Ukrainian troops going to get there? Do they have transport?
Thanks
Well there’s no guarantee they WILL make it. As I think I wrote previously, basically just because Zelensky ordered such a reinforcement doesn’t mean he will actually get it. They will TRY to get it, but there’s good chance many of those troops never make it and in fact it was about 2 or so days after that announcement of his that I believe some major Russian strikes occurred on transport hub corridors around the city of Dnipro which is exactly where those troops might conceivably/hypothetically be coming in from. And I believe the MOD announced vaguely some reinforcements were destroyed at least in terms of equipment so there’s a good chance some of those forces have been hit and are going to continue being hit as they try to deploy eastward. But more likely many of them will “trickle” in via civilian vehicles which is the method they’ve been using for a while now. Hitching rides to the east in any way they can, backs of ambulances, DHL trucks, civilian cars, etc.
“The question is will they, at the least, face trial for acts of terrorism or be simply allowed to “slip away”?”
My take on that is that high level Russians have officially admitted that 100 or so NATO scum are trapped that they will face public trials if captured. Adam Delimkhanov has publicly mentioned they are there too.
To admit to this publicly and then allow them to slip away would enrage the Russian public (and the awake Westerners too).
I would think that if they were to be used as bargaining chips there presence and subsequent capture would be kept secret.
Public capture and trial would destroy the moral high ground and innocence that ZOGUSA and NATO/EU have been falsely claiming.
The NATO “scum” need to be ground to rubble along with the Asov & Uki zombies –
to let them go to play another day would give a replay of the cauldron of 2015 when Putin got the Minsk Agreement in return for their release which was …worthless – the death of all these NATO war experts would give the next batch pause to enter the playing field again
I’d be happy with either capture and public trial and execution or being turned into pink mist. Or both/and.
Seems like a problem in search of a switchblade solution. It would be even better if Russia used Ukraine’s supply of switchblades delivered by the US ……
ABSOLUTELY 💯 agreed with every word!
I wonder whether the Bundeswehr is among them. It would be the ultimate idiocy by the German Government.
Of course they are.
The ultimate idiocy?
Not so much as the natural order of things.
The guys are just following the footsteps of their forefathers from Wehrmacht.
My understanding from everything I have been reading and researching is that there are French Special Forces Advisers, a senior US general, as well as a number of mercenaries hold up in the Azov facility. The French have supposedly been taken hostage by the very people they were supposed to be assisting.
There are 600 Canadian soldiers hiding in Kiev and they all got covid. My friends son is one of them and he said they are fighting not training. So Trudeau lied yet again
That is quite shocking. i read a post on a social media site by a DPR soldier saying it’s nato they are fighting now in Ukraine.
It had been the belief up til now that there may be a number of “trainers” or whatever in Ukraine but that nato would not send forces as such into the country.
In fact it is increasingly looking like they are there and as the Ukrainian forces get depleted, they are replaced by nato,
How on earth do you get 600 troops with all their weaponry, kit etc into Kiev and nobody noticed?
That would be 20 plus truckfulls, or a full trainload, or multiple transport flights – hardly invisible to astute observers.
If it’s possible to get 600 Canadian troops into Kiev and nobody has noticed, the sky is the limit as far as greater numbers are concerned.
(For example, Reg Tremblis interviews a Ukrainian anti-fascist activist now living in Moscow who tells him that British special forces are there in even greater numbers than the Americans !
https://www.bitchute.com/video/yUH5Lm0XQ6pp/) – from about minute 40.
And the “supply corridor” from the west is not closed.
I believe there is a stealth infiltration by nato into Ukraine going on.
Is it not possible that they were there the whole time? Or rather long before the war started.
Your conclusion sounds more plausible considering whatever NATO has been sending in has been mostly destroyed by Russian Forces…
I check aircraft movements several times a day to see what is up. One thing is clear, and that is there are far more tankers up over Poland, Romania (mostly) than are needed to support the RC-135/ E8 / RQ4 flights trolling up and down the borders, so there must also be a great number of other military aircraft with transponders off to prying eyes (or free publicly available trackers!)
As for the Canadian part, there are daily C17 and C-130 flights into Poland and have been for quite a while, so they have definitely been shifting a lot over there, probably not all equipment but the troops to use it as well. All taken in via the rail link from Poland and I am guessing any NATO troops would be in civvies rather than full battledress, picking up their kit at another point once over the border.
It’s wouldn’t surprise me if Turdeau has sent troops, after all he needs to support his fellow WEF alumni.
Well, your son’s friend is an idiot, to put it mildly.
As for those trapped mercenary scumbags in Mariupol, as someone mentioned above, either way would work just fine. Turn them into dust or if they surrender, mass media exposure should follow, including their trials.
They MUST NOT be allowed to leave, as that would be a slap in the face for those boys risking their lives by fighting these abominations.
I always thought that it was unusual for an Army that used Soviet era equipment who taught them to use the Javelin with such proficiency? I’d bet it was U.S.and U.K. Merck or special forces using them.
Also are the Joint Chiefs and NASA so used to fighting irregulars in the sand that they don’t realize the moment they unveil our involvement their spy and GPS satellites will suddenly go dark? How will the Army and Navy function since hardly any are used to navigating by compass, map, stars and sextant?
The U.S. military has classifications of troops the Higher IQ folks get the better jobs. The lower IQ get the simpler jobs. And muscle up more. the general attitude toward battlefield weapons is KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I know I used to help develop older systems, and test them in the field. Later I progressed into the UAV systems. the battlefield systems must be simple to use, light enough for a team of two to carry and hopefully fire and forget,
If it is reloadable then the tube must be simple and light. I worked with the stinger program and a few others. the tube is not all that heavy and can be reloaded for some systems. But the best is fire the rocket and leave the tube.
Pick up a fresh system and use it. In a battlefield situation, It is much easier to pick up a fresh system. Because after you fire a rocket your position is then a TARGET. So you must move if you don’t want to become the reciprocal of what you did. Become a TARGET.
Thank you Saker!
Can I ask a question not directly related to the above, have you heard anything about a Ukraine probable false flag in Makariv?
Another question to Nightvision:
The VDV has suffered catastrophic losses around Kiev, for rather questionable gains, to say it diplomatically. To my uninformed mind, this can be attributed by the fact that these light mechanised forces were not quickly withdrawn but ordered to stubbornly defend their advanced position or mill around rather aimlessly, even after the initial battle at Hostomel had revealed that the Ukraine was deploying significant combat power in that area, and in the Kiew region in general.
Could someone please explain to me why mechanised airborne forces are once again on the move, on land, to the frontline, this time near Kharkov, as it seems:
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1512849100684902409
I don’t get what purpose the heavy and, as it seems, rather conventional (for lack of a better word) use of VDV forces has?
Would it not make more sense to airdrop or fly in a substantial force (including supplies for a few days),closer to say (purely hypothetical example so as to stress my point), Ukraine’s Western border and let them wreak havoc there, against presumably rather lightly defended rearguard units, before they are withdrawn to Belorussia? Or, alternatively, use them as a highly mobile reserve that is used to shore up thrusts by more armour-heavy units on critical sections of the frontline?
Sending these lightly armoured vehicles with inferior fire-power (vs. main battle tanks) to go in first, when an where the enemy is concentrated, well prepared, in entrenched or fortified positions and expecting an attack seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Or is my understanding of the matter flawed?
“The VDV has suffered catastrophic losses around Kiev”
What’s your basis for that? Because the western media says so?
Did they suffer losses? Sure. Catastrophic ones? No, they didn’t. From what I can tell, it wasn’t even remotely close to that. For reference, calling them catastrophic implies manpower losses of 50% or more, rendering the entire formation incapable of combat operations for a prolonged time.
Well, at least as far as the 331st regiment is concerned, the losses seem to have been quite horrendous
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60946340
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-failures-in-ukraine-dent-airborne-paratroopers-elite-status-2022-4?op=1
I do take these reports with a grain of salt, on the other hand: Where there is (a lot of) smoke, there must be a fire.
BBC or Businessinsider are 110% propaganda. No relevant news ever: only manipulation and support for flawed politics … More over all that is published is paid for by “someone”.
Well, firstly, the BBC is the propaganda arm of the UK government, and their statements should be viewed with that in mind.
Secondly, the article you referenced does NOT state what you claim it does. First you said the losses were ‘catastrophic’, now you call them ‘horrendous’. Both are emotional terms that convey little actual information. In fact, these are terms typically used to invoke certain specific emotional responses in the reader.
The very article you claim as your source explicitly mentions the number of casualties they (the UK propaganda arm) claim to have verified. That number is 39. For the entire regiment. They don’t say or explain how they verified them, but even the deeply biased BBC itself apparently can’t find more than 39 potential casualties to add to their list.
Thirty-nine casualties for a whole regiment is nowhere close to ‘catastrophic’ or ‘horrendous’. Even the higher number of 100 casualties alluded to in the article (which they indirectly say themselves is just rumor and hearsay) would not come close.
So why are you using these emotional terms when even your own, deeply biased, source does not support your assertions, at all? Are you yourself emotional and overreacting, or are you deliberately obfuscating the issue and making it seem much worse then it is?
Emotional verbiage is something we should all try to avoid when trying to analyze events. Journalists especially.
Andrew is right … paratroopers are there hold key/ strategic positions for 24-48 hours before the land troops with heavy equipment is coming to take over.
I think the initial Russian thought was that VDV troops being more lightly armed and certainly more mobile could penetrate fast and deep into the Ukrainian territory and take on Kiev. However that whole plan was based on the false premise that the Ukrainians would be- if not supportive of Russians- at least complacent enough to permit the advance. Clearly that was not the case.
The fact that the northern part of Ukraine is more forested ( and susceptible to ambushes) and has population that is certainly more hostile to the Russian, did not help either. In the south were paratroopers have not been used ( or not to my awareness) the losses were also far less, and certainly within the expected attrition rate of war of this scale in magnitude.
I too question the use of VDV troops on the front line. They ought to be used to disrupt enemy communication lines behind the front line ( railways nods, bridges, supply convoys etc and then quick extracted by helicopters.
What the heck are the paratroopers going to do with their light equipment against the well entranced Ukrainian positions. I hope the new commander Dvornikov will know better on how to use his man power than his predecessor.
I am not sure about VDV losses, but the use of the troops so far has been totally misplaced. You only win war if you admit to your mistakes and are quick to correct them.
We don’t know the proper context of the video.
It could have been a redeployed force or it could not. It could have been Kharkov, or it could have been somewhere else up in the north. Even if the video was done faithfully, we can’t be sure that the VDV (at least they looked like VDV to me) were going for a head-on clash with a superior, entrenched force as you think. They could have been redeployed for something else — seizing a bridge, cutting off the enemy, a raid in the enemy’s rear, or even heading to their own rear to act as reserve or for a bit of rest, for instance.
This guy gives good tips on how to approach videos on the Ukraine operation:
https://youtu.be/W9pVEP0AzZ4
I believe Hostomel was a ‘coup de main’ operation, seizing and holding the airfield until the arrival of the main force which, if I’m not mistaken, was delayed by fierce Ukrainian resistance. In the interim the VDV faced a counter attack and suffered losses as a consequence. We don’t know how heavy the losses were — perhaps significant losses, perhaps not.
OK, fair enough, you are of course right, the video by itself does not tell us what the forces shown in it are up to. They could be on their way to an airfield. I think Malthus has summed up my thoughts pretty accurately. My main point is that according to my (purely subjective) impression the VDV was thrown into and possibly kept for too long in the vicinity of strong defending forces near Kiev, after it turned out that the coup de main operation at Hostomel would not work. Clearly, I do realise that losss are a fact of life in war and that initial plans can go badly wrong. It will be interesting to see how the VDV will be deployed in the following weeks and possibly months.
Excellent overview Nightvision.
Anyone know what happened to Patrick Lancaster? he was one of the best hands-on journalists I have ever
seen covering this war, I really hope him and his crew are safe.
All the best
Nothing posted for three days……
I have posts from 7th, 9th, 10th on his telegram channel, last one arrived about 30mins ago about ukies opening fire on Elenovka, near Donetsk
He’s on telegram inteslava channel reporting on an area in Donetsk getting shelled by UAF. Seems on form and the vid looks up to date. The courage of that guy is amazing
Patrick Lancaster just posted a brief video on his Telegram account, an artillery attack by the Ukraine army hit a residential area, they are striking civilians and its sickening. Patrick said he will post the full report soon, probably tomorrow I suspect. I was wondering about him too because he hasn’t posted in a few days
Patrick Lancaster tweeted 2 hrs ago.
.
https://twitter.com/PLnewstoday/status/1513082110659158022?s=20&t=941EfoqeSkRwdzcorkTtUQ
Chechen fighters always look happy.
Welcome to the world of war time propaganda.
I do have to admit that Ramzan Kadyrov has been pretty good for the image of both Russia and Chechens in general.
Not actually happy at all, but we say that they are in high spirits, seriously, since the very beginning, always in high spirit, these men loves to fight, pretty much love to die as martyrs, I check their actions regularly, you can see it yourself through Ramzan Akhmatovich’s Telegram channel https://t.me/RKadyrov_95 even I could say that most of the actions we saw on the ground lots of them coming from Chechen fighters, good recording and I think the MoD allowed them extra freedom to record everything, but they seemed to limited their recording at this moment…. Thanks.
I have not seen any combat footage of them in an actual battle, just firing from one position. I am getting more and more convinced that they are there for the paycheck and couldn’t care less about wining battles.
LOL, did you miss the ones where they extract one of their own who wounded and pinned down by enemy fire? Or the other ones showing wounded Chechens? Or the ones with the POW’s they took? Or the ones where they fire around a corner and you see the incoming hits on that very same corner?
Here shows that the Western powers have helped create,train,and fund the neo-nazi militias. And that they made up around 40% of the Ukrainian pre-war military:
The Military Situation In The Ukraine
https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/
What the West created in Ukraine:
Fact Checking the Fact Checkers: Why Does Ukraine Seem to Have So Many Nazis Nowadays?
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/03/22/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers-why-does-ukraine-seem-to-have-so-many-nazis-nowadays/
I was going to post the Part 2 of this report,but it has disappeared from view.
Nightvision, Is there any reason for Russia not to use Thermobaric weapons or any other type of powerful weapons on the cauldron in east Ukraine other than trying to avoid civilian deaths?
I believe Russia/Putin wants those Western Commanders (NATO’s best & brightest ) ALIVE! Giving the War Crimes Tribunals a more International flavour, dispensing sensitive embarrassing information for the Evil Empire.
Wouldn’t be surprised if NATO would wish them all dead themselves rather that under the hospitality, well interrogation of some unsavoury acquaintances of Mr Martyanov. lol
Mr Martyanov? Maybe you mean Mr Kadyrov, who is less… patient
I think they will use them as soon as the TOS-1’s start pulling up once the positioning gets more figured out and there’s enough reinforcements in the region they definitely will be using them. Including as someone else mentioned the likely use of heavy bombers that Russia has not yet used much, dropping massive 1500 and 3000kg bombs, like Tu22m’s, Tu95’s, Tu160’s etc. They just probably want to get the cauldron a little tighter so the forces are grouped up in a more concentrated fashion then let the big guns rip on the concentrated troops.
They seem to be everywhere, like money is too tight.
“I was going to post the Part 2 of this report,but it has disappeared from view.”
Here it is
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/04/how-ukrainian-nationalist-movement-post-wwii-was-bought-and-paid-for-by-cia/
The stupidest thing that NATO could do at this point is to send a ground force into the Ukraine from the west. The smartest thing that NATO could do is just to stay out of it. I hope you are right, when you suggest that American military-industrial complex might be reluctant to get involved, but I have my doubts.
When President Putin sells the Germans the oil that they need in order to manufacture weapons for the Ukraine, he sells the Germans the rope that they need to hang themselves in the hearts of the Russian people. He must justify to the Russians what he knows they will soon suffer. He is a man of his culture.
No movie better portrays the culture of West Texas than Hell or High Water. No movie better portrays the culture of the diamond districts of New York and Philadelphia than Uncut Gems, and it is a metaphor for the war that has begun in the Ukraine. In its last scene, Howard Ratner is NATO, Arno is the Atlantic Integrationist, Phil is the Russian Sovereigntist, and Julia De Fiore is the American Oligarch, while the security doors are America’s nuclear arsenal. The plot is the classic tragedy.
The Ukraine has even gotten the attention of the Pope, but the papal consecration of March 25, 2022, falls short of the mandates of Fatima. Pope Francis said, “affidiamo e consacriamo al tuo Cuore immacolato noi stessi, la Chiesa e l’umanità intera, in modo speciale la Russia e l’Ucraina” (i.e., “we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.”) According to the late Sister Lucia, the visionary at Fatima, God wanted “the consecration of Russia and only of Russia, without any addition,” because “Russia is an immense and well circumscribed territory, and its conversion will be noticed, thus bringing the proof of what can be obtained by the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
Russia is crucial at this time not because she is at war with the Ukraine but because she is at war with the United States of America, as you indicate. This is World War III. The war may have begun gradually, but it will end very abruptly. Many will be annihilated. President Putin is ever so much more intellectual than President Biden. He can be expected to have thought every permutation of moves to the end, while the same cannot be expected of President Biden. This is an unequal intellectual match. All the intellect is on the Russian side.
America is run by swindlers. President Putin, by contrast, got his start as an extortionist for the KGB. He was a lieutenant colonel when he entered politics, and he thinks like a general. Russia is a cornered animal. A cornered animal is dangerous, because it will not back down but will escalate instead.
The swindlers who rule America are in the grip of the devil. They think that President Putin is a chump, but he is no chump. While they focus their attention on money and lies, President Putin focuses his on the nuclear warheads atop the missiles at the American bases surrounding his country and on the genocidal intention that American bioweaponry reveals. His aim is to eliminate every American missile and bomb in Europe, by diplomacy if he can, and by force if he cannot. President Putin thinks like a general and an extortionist. He worries about his country being vaporized and about how to eliminate American missiles and bombs, from Europe, without vaporizing his country in the process. He pays little attention to money and lies.
Russian airstrikes may have degraded Ukrainian forces by 70%, but this only makes the roughly 200,000 rebels and Russian troops in the invasion force and the roughly 600,000 Ukrainian troops that they face somewhat evenly matched. Russians quickly advanced in only a few days but have held their positions for weeks now, in a crescent along the northern, eastern and southern borders of the Ukraine. These numbers and this placement are not weakness. They are deliberate.
Today the swindlers rub their hands with glee. They think to themselves that President Putin has finally fallen for their deception. Some of them seem to presume that now they can advance a small NATO force into the middle of the Ukraine, tip the scales the other way, engage Russia in protracted warfare like Afghanistan, and glory in the profits to, and kickbacks from, armament manufacturers for years to come. President Biden recently led his troops in the 82nd Airborne Division to understand that they would soon be sent into the Ukraine, saying, “You’re going to see when you’re there.” Led by swindlers, rather than by generals, NATO forces sent into the Ukraine will advance straight into an encirclement. When President Putin takes no prisoners, will the swindlers respond with nuclear strikes against the Russian forces remaining in the Ukraine?
If so, President Putin will vaporize EUCOM in its entirety. The Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Italians, Poles, Romanians, Turks, Ukrainians and many Americans will then experience a come-to-Jesus moment. They will learn the hard way that war with a nuclear power is more than a steady stream of profit and a few dead Deplorables. The elimination of the nuclear component of EUCOM is President Putin’s ultimate objective, whether by diplomacy or otherwise, and it has nothing to do with the Ukraine. The Ukraine is just a diversionary tactic for him.
Can you imagine the looks on the faces of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and General Austin when they are told that EUCOM has been vaporized, together with every country which it occupies? Their thoughts of money and lies will flee to the hills, leaving them without a thought in their heads, like deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.
Sister Lucia, the visionary at Fatima, said, “that many nations would disappear from the face of the earth, that Russia would be the instrument of chastisement from Heaven for the whole world if the conversion of that poor nation is not obtained beforehand.” She said, “various nations will be annihilated,” but in her vision she understood St. Mary to say that in the end “The Holy Father will consecrate to me Russia, which will be converted, and the world will be granted a certain time of peace.”
Chastisement is more than tribulation or affliction. It is a deserved reprimand. Consecration is more than a blessing. It is a setting apart. It signifies holiness too. It is as impossible to consecrate everyone at once, as it is for Heaven to chastise the righteous for their righteousness.
Should Pope Francis manage to survive the vaporization of Italy, it is not unthinkable that he might move the headquarters of his Church elsewhere, such as to Buenos Aires. Should he not survive, the next man to be elected Pope may move the ecclesiastical headquarters, just the same. The prophecies attributed to St. Malachy, the twelfth century Archbishop of Armagh, foretell Pope Francis to be the last pope of Rome. The prophecies of St. John (Rev 17-18) are relevant as well.
The prophecies of Garabandal foretell that on April 13, 2023, which is the Thursday after Easter and the Feast of St. Hermenegild, the Pope will make a solemn proclamation of some sort, a miracle will occur in Garabandal, Spain, between 8:30 and 8:45 P.M. the same day, and Russia will convert (i.e., restore communion with Catholics, by May 28, 2023). What proclamation? Perhaps a pope, for once, will consecrate Russia without crossing his fingers behind his back.
Prior to this prophesied miracle (on April 13, 2023) the prophecies of Garabandal foretell a worldwide warning (no earlier than April 13, 2022) and an announcement (on April 5, 2023) of the forthcoming miracle. Divine Mercy Sunday, April 16, 2023, is to see an outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Sinners are to have until Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023, to repent, after which point all Hell will break loose.
As Niels Bohr once said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future!” The prophecies of Garabandal are dubious, but you never know. Soon we will know for sure. In any event, it would take a miracle for the schism with the Russian Orthodox to heal so soon. A generation from now, who is to say? But to happen in 2023 would take an act of God. 2023 is just about as unlikely a year for this schism to end as one can imagine. All the anti-Russian hysteria in the media serves only to convince President Putin’s troubled conscience that his apparent stratagem is the right thing to do and that the risk is worth taking.
The conversion of Russia in the 1920’s could make some sense, but in today’s world, it makes much less sense. As a sedevacantist, I still prefer the orthodox to Bergoglio and his followers.Especially when the Kherson local authorities adopt the ‘Christ Roi’ flag with an icon of Jesus Christ. I was never sure regarding Fatima.
The schism is an entirely papal and originates from Rome.
That is why Roman catholic church is NOT blessed with the miracle of Holy Fire on Great Saturday.
And don’t forget the greatest prophet of them all, Saint Z.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/NdLdJvskxWSK/
Yeah, sadly Zhririnovsky is gone. He was a much needed person not only for Russia but for us all also today.
There! Loved that ol jew. RIP:
https://youtu.be/CCARp5WV-gM
The main advantage of the western propaganda is not ability to sell a lie, but to hide the truth.
Bergoglio has no business “consecrating” Russia. That’s an arrogance he must have learned form his best friend, rabbi Skorka. Isn’t he busy enough welcoming the LGBT as our “brothers” into the church? Or peddling the jab? Or persecuting Vigano?
Bergoglio may “identify” as a Catholic, but it makes as much sense as how Bruce Jenner “identifies” as a woman.
where do you get the 2022 and 2023 dates from for the Garabandal prophecies?
Many catholics have come to the conclusion that Pope Benedict XVI had an impeded see and resigned the ministry of the Papal office but not the munus (office). He is almsot certainly a prisoner in the Vatican and many saints, including St Francis had visions of this period in time where there would be two popes. One good the other bad. Even the children of Fatima, particulary little Jacinta, seem to have seen two popes. Jacinta, it is said, saw an old Pope in distress weeping in his appartment. St Pius X had two visions where he saw an eledrly Pope fleeing Rome over the dead bodies of his bishops and priests and was told that the Pope’s name was Joseph, his own baptisimal name. Joseph Ratzinger is the only pope since to have had this christian name. Pope Benedict may well be the true pope, which means Pope Peter the Roman is still to come. Perhaps it will be Pope Benedict who makes the announcement next April (2023) and performs the correct conseration as asked by heaven? It will indeed be a miracle when Russia converts to the Catholic faith. Papa Bergoglio would be an anti-pope who could well be the “bishop in white” who is put to death by invaders as the children of Fatima saw in a vision. We are very likely in the great apostasy foretold by St Paul in his epistle to the Thessalonians. A short period of peace may well be given to the world before the “man of perdition” is declared to the world who puts Pope Peter the Roman to death. That will be in the reign of Antichrist!
Vous avez un peu de retard pour ce qui concerne les prophéties car voici le Saint Pape de plus de 100 prophéties attendu par toute la chrétienté depuis des siècles, il s’agit d’un curé de Rome nommé Évêque par Dieu le 20 juin 1999 (définition de Pape) :
https://www.madredelleucaristia.it/root/fra/vesmar/vesmar.php
Voici le complot orchestré par Mgr Ratzinger, Mgr Ruini et Mgr Bertone pour l’exclure de l’Eglise en profitant de la faiblesse physique de JPII :
https://www.madredelleucaristia.it/root/fra/sto/page/ST_18_10_02.php
Voici le véritable 3ème secret de Fatima dont le cardinal Ratzinger inversa le sens en 2000 :
https://www.madredelleucaristia.it/root/fra/jou/page/ART_FATIMA_BIS.php
Comme Dieu est véridique, “l’Eglise” brime les Saints pour les faire taire or les Saints sont l’Eglise donc c’est une période obscure.
Vous saurez bientôt pourquoi l’espion Russe Oswald a tué Kennedy mais une autre fois sinon ça ferait un peu trop à la fois, non ? Je blague, l’assassinat de Kennedy est bien entendu un “inside job” made in USA.
“if the conversion of that poor nation is not obtained beforehand”
Conversion of what? Just why should Orthodox Christians convert to the Roman Babylonian mystery religion under its queen of heaven idolatry?
Excellent!
I have no doubt that future US arms purchasers are already aware of the ineffectiveness of those not at all cheap but much-hyped Javelin ATGMs, and Lockheed-Martin’s ATGM cash cow has taken a considerable hit, with the widely reported cancellations (along with the “mothballing” of a large number of the “oh so amazing” F22’s).
This is also probably another reason why the US does NOT want this conflict to “go nuclear” since if their ABM system is as ineffective in a “real world” engagement, ANY Russian strategic attack will be the end of America as it currently stands.
Any Russian strategic attack will be the end of the northern hemisphere power structure as it currently stands. That includes Russia. ABM systems are all smoke and mirrors, but ICBMs are very real and Russia and America have a lot of them. This will not go nuclear unless there is a miscalculation over Kalingrad or the Baltic Sea.
The thing is, the corrupt “West” is run by demon-possessed, theistic Satanists. And as we can see by everything they say and do, they are desperate and increasingly irrational. In light of this, it seems nuclear war is a distinct possibility in the near term if not a certainty at some point during the ineluctable collapse of their evil empire.
I’m pretty sure that F22 aren’t mothballed because they suck. Instead the US is literarily destroying public property for the sole reason of enriching the MIC. It’s the equivalent of destroying a perfectly good working car, just to create a need for new cars.
I’m saying this because unlike Nightvision, i do not believe the F22 is a bad fighter jet. Yes, it’s overpriced, overhyped and expensive to maintain, but it’s not a bad plane. In fact it’s about the only decent current-gen plane the US has (F35 is a mountain of horseshit).
I suspect the biggest “problem” with the F22 is the cost, and complexity of maintenance, compounded with a significant need for frequent (and of course costly) maintenance, hence the “hangar queen” label.
Whilst it is certainly capable (or so we’re told, mind you), is it capable of dealing with currently-demonstrated Russian air defence assets? If not, then there are going to be “more than a few” of these $200 million EACH airframes being lost – which again will hardly support the “US weapon systems are the best” mantra.
The F 22 is the best plane the US posesses
F22 do “suck”. They are not a 4th gen, let alone 5th gen plane. Added to that the maintenance downtime plus other many other negatives.
I think all of you are underselling a key point here: the poor quality, low IQ malingerers who now populate much of the US military, which has become even more of a welfare program with the globohomo dopes now in charge.
yup.
As far as that goes – aside from the Poles, I do not think there is a decent fighting force on the ol`continent at this time. Mabbe the Serbs, since they are not at sleep. Dunno.
You can throw any equipment at them – wont know what to do with it…or how or why…
all your base belong to us
Keep in mind I don’t think F-22 is bad, it’s probably still the #3 plane in the world in my eyes after the Su57 and Su35 ;-) and that’s in air to air dogfight, in BVR maybe it can edge the others out or at least be tied with them, not sure, it depends alot on the context and situation and other aerial support assets like Awacs as the F-22 greatly relies on support craft (if it turns on active radar it will obviously be seen, and unlike the Su-57, the F-22 doesn’t have IRST infrared tracking, a major disadvantage when fighting other stealth craft). It has many other disadvantages compared to Su-57 like obsolete 2d thrust vector compared to 3d vector of latest Sukhois, no L-band radar, no IRST etc., but of course you can find tons of western cheerleaders that will extoll its other superior virtues, multiband AESA primary radar etc etc.
At the end of the day it’s definitely one of the top 2 or 3 greatest planes, and I don’t think they’re mothballed cus they outright “suck” but merely because they are infamously hugely expensive to upkeep, and what most people don’t know is that about 20-30 of them were destroyed in the florida hurricane on eglin base about 2 years ago and so this cancellation probably has something to do with that anyway. And so while I agree you’re right that overall it’s still all about enriching the MIC, but I believe that they’re taking the tradeoff in ditching the overly expensive to maintain F-22 and utilizing the freed up funds to bankroll new projects that can create bigger windfalls down the line in the endless development cycles.
But ultimately such things are usually a combination of justifications/reasons, and one of the strongest reasons likely still is (as per my assertions) that the Pentagram spotted some things in Ukraine that made it realize the F-22 is best left in the past and a new regimen pursued.
With that said though unfortunately we may never even know how “great” or bad the F-22 was, or what its potential could be, because the U.S. is too cowardly to ever put it up against any real competition. It has only been used like 1 or 2 times in real combat against sandal-wearing ill-equipped middle-easterners.
In fact the only test it’s ever had was when Russian Su-35’s confronted it over Syria and the F-22 scrammed for dear life
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-su-35-allegedly-chased-away-f-22-over-syria-2017-12
https://www.businessinsider.com/f-22-su-35-intercept-syria-us-major-disadvantage-2017-12
@Nightvision: Completely agree with your post.
The only thing i would add is, that the US has openly stated they plan to replace all scrapped planes (F22 isn’t the first one they’re trying this with) with F35s. Then again, one could argue that: 1. Nothing coming from the US-gov is trustworthy anyways. 2. They have an incentive to make the F35 look desireable to international buyers, to pay for this trainwreck of a program.
So yeah, even if the US admitted to scrapping decent planes for F35s, it doesn’t have to mean anything.
“Yes, it’s overpriced, overhyped and expensive to maintain”
Sorry, that is definition of a bad plane.
Par the course for US military equipment. F-22 is decent but too expensive.
You could say the same about the MK-VI Tiger tank. It was overpriced, overhyped and expensive to maintain but was arguably the 2nd or 3rd best tank in WW2.
The only concern is how West will switch narative from “Ukraine is beating Russian invaders” to “All Is lost”.
I am afraid they will go for realy massive false flag, big enough to explain Ukies “sudden” surrender.
Something on the scale of nuking Kiev.
Look at what the USA did in Afghanistan.
It was an abrupt withdrawal leaving enormous amounts of valuable, ok, maybe not so valuable after reading Nightvision’s fabulous explanations above, military weapons and communications behind.
Not to mention our civilian allies who had been promised safe passage for them and their families to the US.
The Process to get to the withdrawal is the increasing intensity of the False Flag info at the same time the public is getting bored and the media coverage of the War is pretty much gone from local newspapers and TV newscasts.
Americans will notice that news about another Covid variant moves into the spotlight.
Keep Fear alive—change the Fear object as necessary.
I may be wrong, but this is my understanding and so far, i am sticking to it.
My theory is based on how clear it has been from the beginning that the USA was willing to spill endless European blood but will not enter Ukraine, send troops, declare a No Fly Zone, nothing except unload a gazillion weapons so that US companies can manufacture more of them
“nothing except unload a gazillion weapons so that US companies can manufacture more of them”
Yes but destroying Russia is a greater objective and predates even the existen of the US war industry. It is a smoldering, festering judaic hatred
You know…this thing is about to enter common knowledge.
Something swept under the rug for so long, covered and protected…
They will never admit defeat, imperialist hubris won’t allow it. They’ll ‘spin’ it.
What did they say after legging it out of Afghanistan only last summer, what ‘spin’ did they use?
‘Strategic withdrawal’ and ‘mission accomplished’ were just two of the most oft repeated memes they trotted out.
If they told me it was going to be sunny and warm tomorrow I’d take an umbrella with me before leaving the house.
You are right. The US will not admit defeat.
They call a conflict a Victory. They call losses Wins, especially when they are False Flags.
But they will be backing down and leaving no matter what they call it.
“If they told me it was going to be sunny and warm tomorrow I’d take an umbrella with me before leaving the house2.
Yes, I too am familiar with the BBC and Met Office weather forecasts. If they say the sun will shine, anything may happen. If they say it will rain, anything may happen.
Hubris like this:
How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. (Rev 18:7)
And whose end is this:
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. (Rev 18:8)
_____________
America is “Babylon the great,” the “hammer of the whole earth.”
Yes-heartbreakingly obvious if you read the Scriptures. Also unmistakable in Jeremiah 50 and 51. She is the “Proud One” spoken of in Jeremiah 50:31. American PRIDE.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
There is a curfew in Odessa since 21.00 local time. Problem massive nr of people want to go to the station.
Hope nazis are not going to play the false flag again ‘let’s bomb a station’ 2.0 , full of people waiting as target.
Anyone has any idea of how many nazis azov and co(maybe nato, mercenaries) in Odessa? Compared to Mariupol?
“Something on the scale of nuking Kiev.”
Or gas Kiev. What are wrong with those? Nothing, serve those cruel terrorists right.
But, just think, why US/NATO are not engaging physically with troops in Ukraine? Why? Because they knew if they did, it would be WWIII. And in WWIII, which side will win? US/NATO or Russia/China? Think hard.
So false flag Nuke Kiev? US/NATO don’t have balls to do that. Don’t worry.
Yes something so egregious like instead of starch Putin substituted itching powder into their brown shirts and Nazi emblemed Y fronts.
The rats are in the trap and the fattest rats are trying to negotiate special conditions for themselves..i hope they don’t get them . I really hope that. They are all truly terrified of the Chechens and, appropriately enough. what they are really terrified of, is the consequences of their own national crimes. The Chechen soldiers are of the highest quality.The are professional highly disciplined and honorable men, if they weren’t they wouodn’t be in the special military police units. These mercenaries and NATO spooks are frightened of the memories of the head slicing Chechen terrorists who their own masters, the Saudis the Israelis , the British and Uncle Shem unloosed against the Chechen and Russian people. I hope they are stewing in fear , and I really hope that the leaders of these cornered criminals don’t get to squirm off the hook, as a favor to NATO courtesy of some liberal minister in Moscow.
Concur here. HIred foreign mercinaries being basically “phyco-killers for hire” do not need any break. The sooner such scum is cleared off the earth the better for all people in the world.
I hope they do not let those foreign instructors go. After what Ukraine has been doing to the Russian prisoners it just would not be right. Rank should not have any privilege when they are illegally there.
Special deals only if it confers an advantage, such as an intel/PR advantage.
Such as being paraded in Moscow, have eggs thrown at them by Ukrainian civilians and Russians, and then they are put on trial.
I hope more decent Ukie’s can surrender to save themselves. The Azov nazis will try to flee but there is no escape. I have no sympathy for mercy and nato officers cornered in Avovstal. They had no mercy for the innocent people of Donetsk for the past 5 + years that were shelled by Azov nazis.
Russia needs to get and take away any money and assets of oligarchs like Igor Kolomoisy who controls Azov nazis and Zelensky.
First thing Russia must do is to kill as many English soldiers (and not only their hired mercenaries ), English spies masquerading as British and BBC journalists and mercenaries as possible as in shortest time. That will settle the problem of the WORLD being destabilized by the England pirate island and there will be no more plotting for wars by English pirates. But Russia does opposite! It let English mercenaries escape safely from donesk (Debeltsov enckave) in Feb 2015!
Troll alert, please ignore, and I mean that .. Ignore!
Not a criticism by any means, I appreciate highly these SitReps, but no mention of Russian strategic air forces. With the skies clear, I would expect not just artillery, but also the strategic air-forces to rain down hell. We may even see the White Swan appear.
I have the distinct impression this will be shock and awe Russian style, to send a message to NATO. BTW heartwarming to see the send off videos at the end of this SitPrep. The boys will not be going hungry.
I’m rather mindful that one of the Russian objectives in the east was to obtain the “desired result” with the absolute minimum of civilian and infrastructure damage, since Russia will be the one helping restore a sense of normalcy.
Now, seeing as Russia’s not that concerned with reconstruction in the western parts of Ukraine (which Russia has no real interest in), then it is quite possible that they won’t be so worried where infrastructure damage is concerned – “that’ll be the EU’s problem”. If the Ukrainian armed forces capitulate (which they won’t), infrastructure damage will be at a minimum. No capitulation? Well, stubbornness has consequences (and since the conflict will be well within EU / NATO surveillance range, possibly an opportunity to “showcase” what Russia is REALLY capable of doing – as a disincentive to NATO meddling).
The West has already been shown how Russian equipment is very “multi-role” (e.g. use of the Bastion coastal defence system for attack on land-based targets); one may well suppose “us in the West” are going to see a lot more of Russia’s capability in the next few weeks (assuming the Special Operation lasts that long).
The ukranian nazis in the east know they are fighting on a foreign land and they do not care what destruction will be left behind them.
Ukrainian forces embed themselves in civilian areas, use schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and Russia doesn’t just want to pancake all the buildings U.S./NATO-style in order to give civilians a chance to get out, and so that’s why Russia chooses the more difficult ground and street fighting.
” The ONLY way the UAF has scored any recorded successes at all so far is via asymmetric and mostly ambush operations on MOVING columns. The reasons for this are many, such as the fact that U.S. feeds satellite intel to UAF forces to alert them of exactly where larger RF columns are moving and where they’re likely headed. This allows UAF forces to setup ambushes in depth at forward areas.”
This paragraph almost has the tone of someone complaining that the other side is not fighting fair. In war, you dont fight the enemy on its own terms and do what you have to to win.
For the most part, the Viet Cong also never really scored any major victories in ” head on ” battles. However, we all know how that war turned out. Either way, this is a dumb conflict which pits Slav against Slav for the benefit of the Khazar. The sooner it ends the better.
Well if you want to compare to the Vietcong scenario, Russia does have homeground advantage given their long history amd culture in this part of Ukraine.
The USA had to depend on local vietnamese translators etc and is literally half a world away, in a society it barely understands.
Have you seen the video of the Ukr soldier bullying an elderly waving a soviet flag on twitter?
You meant to say ‘vietnamese traitors’ rather than vietnamese translators, right?
Very well said. A very dumb conflict indeed that wouldn’t even make the Ukrainian foot soldiers any richer themselves if they win (the Khazars make the profits, the soldier pays the taxes for the interest due on the national debt). On the other hand there could be a good outcome for everyone (excep for the Khazars of course) if they stop it right now.
“In war, you dont fight the enemy on its own terms and do what you have to to win.”
Well at some level of consciousness the UAF must *know* they’re ultimately not going “to win” anything so what are they actually fighting for? Essentially they’re terrorists, fighting for the sake of the insatiable bloodlust of their jewish supremacist masters.
“For the most part, the Viet Cong also never really scored any major victories in ” head on ” battles. However, we all know how that war turned out.”
And for that matter we also know how the Taliban drove the mighty U.S. military out of Afghanistan. But neither of these are a valid comparison to the Ukraine situation because the U.S. “government” and the armed groups it supports are always the aggressors fighting an unjust war. Russia has the moral high ground here and that is a very big advantage.
” Well at some level of consciousness the UAF must *know* they’re ultimately not going “to win” anything so what are they actually fighting for? ”
Not if the Western part remains unconquered as it will provide a save haven for further attacks. The Russian ” good faith ” withdrawal actually gave the Ukies more hope to fight on.
” And for that matter we also know how the Taliban drove the mighty U.S. military out of Afghanistan. ”
Seeing the fortuitous timing of the ZioAmerican ” withdrawal ” , I tend to suspect they were just repositioning their forces for the upcoming battle in the Ukraine. Timing is everything especially in the geopolitical sphere.
“Not if the Western part remains unconquered as it will provide a save haven for further attacks. The Russian ” good faith ” withdrawal actually gave the Ukies more hope to fight on.”
Obviously Russia is not going to walk away from Ukraine leaving any situation where the threat could easily reemerge. The UAF show themselves to be nothing but terrorists on the same moral plane as ISIS, fighting for the sake of the bloodlust of their jewish supremacist masters. Accept it.
“Seeing the fortuitous timing of the ZioAmerican ” withdrawal ” , I tend to suspect they were just repositioning their forces for the upcoming battle in the Ukraine. Timing is everything especially in the geopolitical sphere.”
LOL! An ignominious exit after 20 years of failure and the squandering of over 2 trillion dollars – with the rapid collapse of the Afghan army proving the utter hopelessness of the nation building project – and you wouldn’t call that a defeat? It’s just some kind of tactical “repositioning”? Seriously?
Nation building story is for the plebs. They were selling arms and drugs In Afghanistan. The people killed were a bonus. An offering to their God. In that way, the project was a great success.
“This paragraph almost has the tone of someone complaining that the other side is not fighting fair.”
That is just your negative spin. The paragraph in question factually states that the reason for minor Ukie wins were due to sacrifices the RFs made to gain the objectives. IE move fast and light.
So yeah, a few minor lossess happen along the way, regrettable but not a big deal.
But they were due to the RF calculated and intentional risk taking not due at all to Ukie mastery.
I wonder whose side you are on….
Trolls are like chameleons, they can take on the colours of others as a disguise.
” I wonder whose side you are on….
Trolls are like chameleons, they can take on the colours of others as a disguise. ”
Questioning someone’s ” loyalties ” is a classic authoritarian tactic. Who do you work for friend ?
At last, a sensible comment.
Re: artillery lying in wait for the enemy to reach a particular point. Field artillery is a precious asset. Dedicating a piece or an entire battery to a single target locked on and waiting for the “fire at my command” signal means that asset is not available for any other missions. Also, once that mission is fired they need to skedaddle or be destroyed. It’s not like they can lie in wait for the next column. They will be dead before it arrives.
Decentralized control over indirect fires is a significant benefit as described in the article. If you try to call in a target to division or corps artillery and convince them you have a high payoff target you will in almost every case be blown off because those batteries have already been tasked with missions approved at that level and are not allowed to deviate from the plan without permission.
You bring up a good point. It seems for some reason Americans think that the U.S. army has the monopoly on ‘decentralized’ command because they constantly tout their superior / sophisticated “NCO” force and for some reason they have this warped view of Russian military structure as being some sort of old fashioned Soviet style very centralized beaurocracy sort of thing. But in reality it may very well be the opposite, or at least relatively even because half of the brigades operate as these highly independent BTGs. And it’s funny just yesterday I saw one of the daily Russian MOD ‘recognitions’ they did for some young Captain / Lt. Colonel equivalent, and they described the mission which got him his award. And the mission was basically such that he identified some kind of threat (I’m recalling it vaguely from top of my head) and he solely got his company together and maneuvered around the enemy platoon and destroyed them. And it was a remarkable thing to read, though I’m paraphrasing it, because it showed the Russian command structure allows for ingenuity and decentralized, good leaders with vision to make their own individual decisions to an extent and operate without having to wait for some overlong feedback/approval chain. So it was a pretty informative / eye opening report on that account.
During the first few weeks, I saw photos and videos of a shocking amount of towed Art. used by the Kiev regime – I was flabbergasted, because I was under the impression that towed Art. went out of service like a generation ago, Kinda difficult to shoot and scoot with a towed piece of equipment
Might be category 3 equipment. More modern stuff already inop. Hell, a couple of weeks ago, they called up Ukrainian Volkssturm. That’s cat 4
Nice job Nightvision! And thank you Saker for letting Nightvision provide these Sitreps!
What’s most telling about the Fort Benning report is that they make a big effort of showing how a US BCT (Brigade Combat Team) can defeat a Russian BTG (Battalion Task Group). But what they actually do, is show that it takes a full BCT to (potentially) defeat a single BTG, and even that only if certain conditions are met.
A BCT is about three times the size of BTG though. So basically this report admits that US heavy formations need a 3:1 numerical superiority to deal with a Russian heavy formation.
To put this in perspective, there are different numbers being thrown around about how many BTG’s the Russians are actually employing in the Ukraine now, ranging from 40 to 180. If we assume the lower number, 40, it would take the US that many BTC to deal with them in a manner they feel gives them a decent chance to win (but as the report also illustrates, no guarantee at victory).
But the US Army only has 12 (!) active heavy BCT’s. In the entire US army! There’s another 5 in the National Guard, but it is doubtful they have the required quality and skills this report makes clear are needed. So even if the US manages to field all twelve of these BCT’s, they would only be able to deal with 12 Russian BTG’s. Even double that number, 24 BTG’s, would be more than the Americans can handle, as made clear in their OWN report!
For those of you who still have doubts, this is why NATO is a paper tiger which stands little chance in a conventional war with Russia.
Russia is also a major arms producer.
Countries certainly notice how well weapon systems work under REAL battlefield conditions, and (despite the Western obfuscation), “those who need to know” in terms of purchasing have been given a VERY clear picture of “whose equipment not only works very well, but is considerably cheaper to buy and operate”.
I would imagine that, after the dust settles, Russia is going to make a LOT of roubles on the arms trade market – and all that profit will go into R&D, unlike the US system where the profit goes into the pockets of the connected.
More investment = more innovation.
More innovation = better “product” for a comparable price.
If managed carefully (and we all know this WILL be managed carefully), oil / gas sales won’t be the only “bonanza” for the Russian economy
and the funniest part is, for all the crying propaganda they do about “Russian supply lines” which is an outright comical farce to anyone who understands that not only is Russia the world’s largest producer of natural resources, it’s the largest producer en masse of various types of armaments – and they’re RIGHT ON THE BORDER of Ukraine. How can you possibly have supply line problems with the world’s largest country right on the border only a few kilometers away directly supplying your own army?
And yet the U.S. envisions a conflict where American forces would NOT have supply problems while operating on European soil? Ummmm hasn’t anyone seen recently how Russia can completely nullify most of europe’s oil & gas. How is it that the U.S. expects to have fuel and supplies for its own forces that are 7000miles away from home in comparison to Russian supply lines in a direct conflict in Ukraine? It’s clear to any military minded observer that the U.S. would stand no chance in a war of attrition against Russia and the U.S. would be in a massive uphill battle in terms of resupplying its own army compared to that of Russia. The logistics of it would be an absolute untenable nightmare. And when the hypersonic Zircons and Kinzhals start hitting the supply ships desperately carting oil from the homeland, it’ll basically be game over at that point.
It is useful to recall that, until VERY recently, Russia was a major smaller-calibre ammunition supplier to the US domestic (i.e. civilian) market!
Looking ahead, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of reality to envisage a large number of those NATO ATGM / MANPAD systems finding their way into the possession of “shady operators”. Bearing in mind that Europe seems keen to make itself reliant on US LNG shipments, wouldn’t it be a shame if one such vessel (carrying upwards of 200,000 cubic metres of liquefied gas) was to be on the receiving end of such a weapon, especially within, or in the process of entering, a major port facility? The amount of energy “stored” is amazing – fully vaporised, these ships carry over 5 billion cubic feet (14.2 billion cubic metres), with a combustion energy value of 550 Terajoules. By comparison, this is “about” the energy yield of a 130kt “city-killer” nuclear warhead.
Even the threat of such an event would be an ideal extortion tool – and as times become harder in the EU, the “less than honest” will become more inventive, in order to maintain their lifestyle. The range of these weapons (4km or so), ease of use / concealment, coupled with an extremely large, un-defendable target will certainly be attractive to “certain persons”.
In the “fog of war” accountability for such compact systems becomes well nigh impossible, so no-one will really know where “missing” ones went. It only needs “just the one” for an environmental disaster the likes of which the EU (or for that matter anywhere else) has never seen before.
Not sure I would want to be within 4km of 550 terajoules of energy being liberated by a missile I had just fired. Extortion is only a viable strategy if you are alive to enjoy the payoff, and after the demonstration preceding the demand you won’t be. You would probably get a Darwin Award for it though.
I recall a LNG tanker accident in a gorge not far from where I grew up. The local brigade were told to block the road 5 km back from the accident until the specialists had completed their ass puckering task of determining if it was safe to go any closer. That was only a tiny little tanker trailer, not a bloody big ship.
You need enough oxygen and the right mix for an explosion. There is just not enough oxygen in the air around for a huge explosion. But it certainly gives an interesting fire.
Do the calculation for a ’empty’ oil tanker. Its also a small Nuke.
5 billion cubic feet is 142 million cubic meters, not 14.2 billion, so only 1% of your figure. Still a big bang, though.
In defense of the US, normally you need 3-1 odds attacking to defeat an enemy. So what they say is true.
Amazing that Russia attacked at less then 1-1 and done as well as they have.
I hope I am able to read an unbiased history book of this war in the future.
“In defense of the US, normally you need 3-1 odds attacking to defeat an enemy.”
But that’s not what they’re claiming. What you state only applies when there is an actual attacker and an actual defender in the engagement in question. Also, the notion that you need a 3:1 advantage is pretty much a military version of an urban myth, but that’s a whole other debate.
In this report they’re talking about maneuver warfare between a BCT and a BTG which would be more like a ‘meeting engagement’, where neither is either a dedicated attacker or defender, but both are conducting maneuver warfare.
Let me help you with the analysis; if the Americans had found out they had any chances to beat the Russians, they would have attacked a long time ago. They know they would get their asses handed over to them by the Russians and that’s why they can only talk empty threats.
By God, the ‘Muricuns and N.A.T.O. are determined to fight to the last Slav. Brother killing Brother for the profit of another. The Hate everything Russian massive BRAINWASHING of the western world/colonial genocider’s M.S.M. continues unabated. To a HELL with THEM! False accusers and serial LIAR’S are they!
Who are “they”?
I anticipate a further escalation of war between the East and West. Is it nationalistic?
On its face, Russia has the moral high ground. If we delve deeper, does it?
Does any “government entity”?
I am for the human race – no matter national origin, no matter skin color, no matter ideology (caveat – as long as it does not impede on beliefs of others or do harm in its practice), Freedom! Freedom to think as we will. Freedom to act as we will. Freedom period.
Some will say freedom begets anarchy.
Well anarchy is defined as the lack of rulers, not the lack of law. There is natural and divine law. That is the crux of human existence in a benevolent/ benign world.
There is no future in War and warmongering peoples. This only results in death and destruction.
All of us can make a different choice. One of Love. One of differences enhancing the whole.
Goodness!. Why not embrace each other vs. choose nationalistic sides? Ludicrous!
We will come together as a global human race or we will annihilate one another.
Our choice.
‘We will come together as a global human race or we will annihilate one another.’
wow
deep thought
The hegemon, with its endless extortions, will become so big and tyrannical that we will eventually come together as one global human race and we will not be able to annihilate one another because only the hegemon will have the means to annihilate everyone. So, let’s not challenge the hegemon. Let it be.
Is this what you mean?
«By God, the ‘Muricuns and N.A.T.O. are determined to fight to the last Slav»
Even Zelensky said that, and it was published in an interview to ultra-neoliberal “The Economist”:
https://www.economist.com/europe/volodymyr-zelensky-on-why-ukraine-must-defeat-putin/21808448
«Mr Zelensky divides NATO into five camps. First are those who “don‘t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this means the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives”.»
For having let that appear on the record perhaps Zelensky will soon be “martyred” by “the russians”, perhaps with “novichok”.
World war is underway but not in military aspect – Italy’s Foreign Minister
We will not support the military engagement of NATO in the conflict in Ukraine, Luigi Di Maio said – tass
“No one else in Russia has the power to stop this war,” as Putin is the only one who “decides when this war will end.” – Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
😂😂😂😂
“Today Ukraine has no way out other than to sit down at the negotiating table.” – Volodymyr Zelenskyy.😂🤣
Counter coup taking place in Pakistan, people in the streets.
“Today Ukraine has no way out other than to sit down at the negotiating table”
No. You cannot negotiate with dishonest, sadistic sociopaths. Russia has, several times already, made that mistake and it has backfired, caused harm and staged massacres.
Russia needs to smash Ukraine’s ability to fight and then make the rules and arrests of Ukrainian criminals, including those who tortured the Russian soldiers, Ukrainian civilians and those involved in the Odessa massacre in 2014.
Thanks for your great, highly detailed report, Nightvision!
The American/Western empire was defeated post WW2 when the hard discipline needed to create an empire and to produce a competent technologically advanced society was lost to such ideas as affirmative action, the destruction of the family unit and multiculturalism.
What has now started in the Ukraine is the final dispossession of the decaying empire.
Sodom and Gomorrah is going to suffer the wrath of god.
And then the process starts again as a new empire takes its place, and go through the same process.
It is the decadent ideas that cannot be killed, they are seeds that just need fertile ground to grow again.
@cookie
You are right and spot on in your estimation of the West. I was formerly pro West but the crazy ideas of affirmative action, glorifying immorality and debauchery as demonstrations of ‘freedom’ and ‘higher morality’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘gender confusion’ becoming a fashion and an ends, and a West that wants to export these liberal dystopian ideals to every nook and corner of the world turned me ‘against the West’. I am not from the West and I do not wish such ideals to be normalcy in my part of the world. This is in fact my primary and main beef against those debauched elites now in power in the West. These ruling elites of the West are despicable people that disgust me. Whenever they spew moralistic rhetoric, they only demonstrate their moral corruption. These ideals are anti-civilizational and nation destroying.
I think this is the problem when a relatively ‘young’ country like the USA becomes a superpower and world hegemon. The immense power and wealth and world recognition that comes with it corrupts their elites when America has not been able to deal with its internal issues like race relations and then a flux of migrants all over the world come in ‘the land of opportunities’. America is unlike the old world nations where concepts of ones nationality is rooted in deep ethnocultural history. America is unable to build such concepts because its population is a constant ethnocultural flux as a country of immigrants. A stabilized nation building as a cohesive society , forming an ‘American ethnos’ similar to the old world cannot take place. Then comes migrants from the old world with toxic ideals which they could not or failed to grow in their homelands taking root as ruling elites in the USA. All these factors coalesced to form the decadent Western empire of today. Debauchery is the ends of rich, idealistic, corrupt, exploitative elites. Affirmative action, multiculturalism are projections of USA dealings with its internal societal problems globally. Hubris is their elites belief their solutions are THE solutions for every country in the world, and that America-like society should be emulated as the goal for every nation -and these elites will not take ‘No’ to their advances: they will sanction, war or resort to regime change to get a ‘Yes’ from dissenting countries or rivals.
In terms of decadence and widespread embrace of these ideals by the population and elites alike, Western Europeans beat even the Americans to this. Explains their Russophobic hysteria. They really believe these ideals are indeed the highest of Human morality.
“It is the decadent ideas that cannot be killed, they are seeds that need fertile ground to grow again. ”
So true!
The problem is decadence is part of Human nature. Morality is supposed to hold this animal part of humanity in check. The upside down of current day Western morality, or should I say social liberal morality , is to celebrate loss of inhibition of more primeval and animal instincts as the highest form of morality. Anti-civilization.
ALL that on a shoulder of one man…
Dire straights indeed…
The Russians need to stand firm. Those NATO Advisors and French Legionaries have the blood of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian Civilians on their hands. They can’t be given a free pass just on account of their citizenship in the US/UK/Canada/Australia/NZ or the EU States. They must pay for what they’ve done. They need to be POW’s at the very least and prosecuted for their war crimes, but I wouldn’t blame the Russians for just executing the whole lot of them as an example to the West, let them know that there is a price to pay for what they’ve done in Ukraine.
No, I want a full-length documentary with the ‘noble foreign warriors’ singing like canaries and spilling all the beans in their guts. Then they should be tried and imprisoned and only released one at a time if and only if their respective countries lift the sanctions they placed on Russia.
“spilling all the beans in their guts”
That’s called mixing your metaphors LOL However I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments.
Exactly.
I hope the Russian forces deal with this kickly. We have an election going on in France and showing some of our troops are complicit with Azov would help us kick out our current American boot licker in chief.
This would be a highly beneficial use of the foreign troops if there are French among them, which seems likely.
The Russians need to move quickly though before this advantage is lost.
Neah, the Russians should have them parade on the Red square with street cleaning water trucks sanitizing the square behind them from the human dirt.
Ideally, they should be paraded during Victory Day parade, in May.
Silent disappearance is the good way. That would send a strong message to their dear watching colleagues.
Please do not release these terrorists. Use them in war trials by all means but then execute them.
Nazi war criminals who were “just doing their job” were not spared in WW2… those whom the West didn’t resettle, at least.
These NATO filth have no values and cannot be compared to the captured UKR soldiers who surrendered and laid down their arms and showed true human values. These soldiers will live to help rebuild their new states and live by true Russian values with real pride and freedom.
Nightvision,
Once again an excellent report. You actually made me feel more confident. I am worried about a direct confrontation with the US although we know this is a proxy war.
The videos…Thank you for posting these. Lovely. They made cry. Victory for Russia! God wills it.
Superb, as usual, Nightvision. And, yippie! I can almost smell the victory in the wind.
Slava Russia, and to hell with the Ukro-Nazis.
” Superb, as usual, Nightvision. And, yippie! I can almost smell the victory in the wind. ”
Careful. The reports of imminent Russian / Syrian victory in Syria were announced every couple of months for years on end. Yet, here we are.
Deplorable Commissar, you have shown the colour of your stripes, again – Syria was not even mentioned by JMF’s hopeful succinct comment, and here you come making a devious comparison to doubt Russia’s accomplishment (no wander grr, above, was suspicious of you). In this case, you appealed to the Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war to raise doubt about their victory against the enemy. You even guess that a similar (unsatisfactory, according to you) end can be expected from the Russian military involvement in Ukraine.
If you had understood how the Syrian conflict developed, and what the Russian involvement meant for Syria and for the whole world, you would certainly not have made such a comment. It actually changed the world. It was a historic move and a gigantic military and political victory from day one. A victory that most of humanity celebrate, as finally their enemy started being challenged by a superpower! The challenge that has a tangible possibility to make a historic advance to the present barbarian human condition has finally started! If you cannot understand this, then you should not post in this blog.
You also seem not to have understood the relevance of the military involvement of Russia in Ukraine. Because Russia is making history, again, although on an even higher level: it is now challenging the socio-economic, political and military authority of the same enemy who poses itself as the undisputable guardian of humanity.
Those who understand the significance of the present historic time certainly respect Russia’s courage and expect that the countries that will benefit from Russian sacrifices offer support in other levels. China is certainly doing its part, as is India and several other countries. The BRICS example comes to mind:
https://www.rt.com/business/553614-sanctions-brics-states-russia/
I would not consider a statement by any US Senator or Representative to the press on any subject to be authoritative, unless a member of the house or relevant committee leadership; is this the case here?
Forgive me for being old- fashioned , but why can’t the Russians just drop neutron- bombs on all the ukros in azovstal? From memory it only kills people, and leaves infrastructure and documents whole.
Penetration into lower levels of Azovstal ,then delayed neutron – bomb kills all in there?
Anyone?
Because it would start an unnecessary global scandal and panic, when the same thing can be done in other ways.
There are “rumors” that there are serious talks being conducted by Russian engineers on how to flood or smoke out the factory. Don’t know how true they are but I’ve heard from several sources that they really don’t want to waste soldier’s lives sending them into a giant booby trapped factory basement and would rather flood the place by pumping water from the Azov Sea and kill everything hiding down there.
would that mean there are no bio labs?? flooding…they would have to be very sure the labs were entirely sealed & unlike ft detrick.
A neutron bomb is a FUSION BOMB, or at LEAST a “fusion enhanced” bomb albeit engineered for lower efficiency re: heat and blast effect by enhancing “fast” neutron production from fusion and then allowing those neutrons to escape & irradiate whatever is close enough, not using those fast neutrons to fission depleted Uranium tampers/reflectors for additional heat & blast effects as was generally done for “city buster” sized nukes.
It’s STILL A FUSION BOMB, TRIGGERED BY A FISSION DEVICE. It is STILL a far more destructive device than ANY conventional chemical explosive or fuel/air device weapon in present military use from the quite significant heat and blast.
It would wreck most of the city, not just kill the people in that plant.
Mod: Please refrain from using caps as per the blogs moderation policy. I’m sure everyone understands the gravity of using such a device without being shouted at.
Apologies!
Policy re: all caps is noted.
There must be a good explanation on the reason why there is no capture of politicians/officials as yet.
Saw a picture of Bernhard Henri Levy with mayor Kitschko… would love to see these two on trial for war crimes.
BHL hasn’t been seen since March 28 in Odessa. He is an ultra high value target, and one whom Russia would be hard pressed to catch and release. A Russian writer at cont.ws/@voenkorr speculated today that BHL is dead.
Staged Attack Fails To Convince Many…
The Independent Newspaper of UK posted a twitter video of one UK-donated ambulance being blown up by a “Russian Airstrike” inside a “Children’s Hospital” in Nikolayev (Mykolaiv). Except that the whole video production was so obviously fake that an endless thread of twitter commentators (without exception) made fun of the claim.
Even people with Ukraine flag on their twitter handle denounced it as a fake
https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1511682633662537735
al Jazeera accidentally showed that Ukro-Nazis use ambulances to move around.
https://twitter.com/AlenaS87082669/status/1509487503795003393
Boris Johnson visited Kiev.And is pictured here with Zelensky both of them holding statues of roosters. Oh the irony of them holding chickens is priceless. And the woman standing in the middle of them I think gets it.The look on her face says a lot:
https://t.me/boris_rozhin/41159
Looks like we’re fighting to the last brit here.
“Boris Johnson visited Kiev”
Best place for him. Shouldn’t be allowed back.
Doesnt make sense to me that his aircraft was able to fly in, unopposed…and i also thought that Zelensky was stuck in Poland?
The Russians should arrest Boris Johnson and find out what happened to the daughter of Skripal…
I was alarmed at how close Ukrainian Forces managed to get to Kherson. Mind you, they have taken a lot of losses doing it and probably used a lot of fuel which they can ill afford but, nevertheless, maybe Russia should not transferring all detaching forces north but also send some west? The Ukrainian grouping in and around Nikolaev maybe even larger than that in the Donbass by this point. Still do not understand how thousands of troops are able to transfer to such vast distances under the noses of Russian Aviation.
In Ukraine they are now undergoing the third round of mobilization!! One can only speculate at their losses, but I don’t think it can anything less than at least 50,000 by now. In that figure I include all Volkssturm (Territorial Defenders), Nationalist Groups and regular AFU.
Meanwhile, within Russia, the calls for general mobilization get louder by the day. Not only by what many consider to be too small a force in Ukraine, but also because of NATO’s almost daily deluge of war drum beating with their own build up in Eastern Europe, of about 150000.
Better to go to a battle with one trained soldier than with a thousand untrained gun holding future casualties.
Thanks Nightvision. I appreciate the effort to collect the info.
Just a couple of points though.
BTG
It may be misleading for us to estimate RF fighting strength by counting BTGs; rather we should count brigades or higher formations (divisions, etc). The reason being, BTGs are fielded by (usually combined arms) brigades but more importantly, they are temporary fighting units, formed by brigades to suit tactical requirements. IOW, they are formed on the fly. So, we can have 40 BTGs today, 30 tomorrow and 50 day after tomorrow — simply because once a tactical objective has been accomplished, the BTG reverts to its usual role as a mechanised infantry battalion with all brigade assets (which makes it a BTG) detached from it.
Having said that, I believe the RF basic manouvre unit, the brigade, fights by employing one or more BTGs at a time. Theoretically, the brigade can field three BTGs but it’ll probably keep a normal mechanised/motorised battalion in reserve and operate with two BTGs on the brigade ‘front’ or FEBA. Attrition of course will also play a part in the number of BTGs fielded.
Type of operation
… the ‘final battle’ of Donbass, which will be a conventional, frontal war fought in the manner described above…
The RF may employ a frontal assault as you say but looking at the ground in the Donbass — the Steppe, flat and open, ideal tank/mechanised country — I would say that manouvre warfare is still an important aspect of ‘Phase 2’ — inverted commas because we do not really know what RF plans are, and indeed how many phases there are planned in the SMO. For what it is worth, I believe the phase has already started with the move south from Kharkov towards the DNR, several days ago.
Assuming the Ukrainians, with C2 restored — the minimum required for a cohesive defence — are holding a static defensive line — or most likely, several defensive lines in depth — in their bunkers, perhaps with mobile forces (armoured and infantry) in reserve to mount counter-attacks, a frontal assault sounds like a battle in WW1, a meat-grinding affair.
Manouvre will allow RF to bypass resistant strong points and to attack the rear of the AFU, preventing replenishment, destroying reserves (men and materiel), and generally causing havoc; while at the same time also working on degrading the said strong points.
Manouvre can also be used to ‘corral the cattle,’ as it were, and concentrate the AFU into, as you say, an ever decreasing space, basically a ‘killing ground’. Needless to say, very massive fire support — air, missile and artillery — will be employed throughout to degrade the AFU’s combat power.
Last but not least, we have to remember that the object of ‘defence’ in conventional war is to destroy the enemy.
“BTGs are fielded by (usually combined arms) brigades but more importantly, they are temporary fighting units…”
Like the German Kampfgruppen of WW2. And the Russian formations based on the same ideas.
Yes, we could say BTGs are similar to the battalion-sized Kampfgruppen.
The Soviets had combined arms battalions (aka BTGs) as they’d envisioned a fragmented battlefield and an infantry battalion with tank, artillery, engineers and other specialist units attached could fight by itself if isolated. But there were problems too: the battalion was too big for the small battalion staff to handle, the question of maintenance and admin during extended operations, etc.
Looking more and more like the Dnieper river will split East and West Ukraine .Let Europe deal with the Nazi hotheads in the Western part although Russia is on the record of denazifying Ukraine and their word is worth gold ,just like their ruble .
Oh no no, you are so wrong. Under no circumstance Odessa would stay in Ukraine. Mark my words.
Thanks for the SITREP and for the extensive additional info.
In several of the videos showing the support of the people for their troops going into harms way, there are many red flags with the hammer and sickle (and text that I am unable to make out) in addition to the Russian flags that are displayed.
Why is that? Are people not patriotic for Russia but still yearn for the old USSR? If so, why? And if that’s not the case, an explanation of why they display the red flag with hammer and sickle would be appreciated.
For whatever it’s worth, I expect that the feelings of most westerners (and especially to eastern Europeans who experienced nearly a half century of Soviet occupation after the war) to the hammer and sickle is the same as the reaction of Russians to a swastika.
In short, the flag is meant to be symbolic for the victory over Nazism in WW2 which is primarily how the RF public is digesting these events, at least in the older generations. To my knowledge the very first unit that went into Ukraine at the start of this conflict, was officially sanctioned to carry the hammer & sickle flag on the tank because of the symbolic message it is sending vis a vis the defeat of Nazism.
The thing you have to understand is, the term/concept of Nazism has been weirdly bastardized, watered-down, co-opted and misappropriated in the West. Liberals have appropriated it to be some kind of weak epithet against anyone they don’t like, and so in the West the typical conception of “Nazis” is something fairly bland, not a real tangible threat or evil, but more of an abstract concept of disapproval. But in Russia, it is diametrically different to this. The concept of Nazism is very real and ingrained in the very bones of every person living there as EVERYONE has had family members who fought and/or died against Nazis. And for them to not only be rising in Europe again but supported openly and heralded by the EU, it has really stoked a sort of PTSD / Patriotic fervor in Russia to crush this evil Nazi specter again. You must understand that the toll Nazism had on Russia is so great, that if you look up sociological statistics, you will read that to this day Russia has a male/female population disparity that’s measurably lower than average in the rest of the world due to how many men Russia lost in WW2 — and to this day it still sends those shockwaves through time to affect Russian gender disparity. So in short, Russia does not take the Nazi threat lightly and will revive the symbols of the age of heroes who defeated them to help defeat them again.
Would love to see an entire article on the differences in the East/West concepts of Nazism. Most Americans wouldn’t recognize a true Nazi without a swastika.
Well, the Nazi concept in the West is very easy. That are all the bastards, that are not aligned with them. And all the bastards that are on their side are called democratic. (From the NewSpeech Dictionary 1984-2021 :-) )
It is like in a comedy sketch, Germans who’s president is half voted by B type celebrities (granted, he has no real power) are condemning states with presidents electing directly by the public as undemocratic. And do not get started with the political structure of the EU.
PS:
Even the anti corona lockdown and anti-(forced)-vacination movement is associated with Nazis these days. (Also granted, the old Nazis never had a forced vaccination mandate)
” For whatever it’s worth, I expect that the feelings of most westerners (and especially to eastern Europeans who experienced nearly a half century of Soviet occupation after the war) to the hammer and sickle is the same as the reaction of Russians to a swastika. ”
Not a good way for Russia to win the hearts and minds of the East Europeans. Even if innocuous the imagery is questionable.
We, the East Europeans, lived under the hammer and sickle for 45 years. Our social services, standard of living and trust in progress were much higher then.
Under the 12 EU stars, we have lost our hopes and dignity. All the promises tuned sour, better life is reserved for a very small minority. Our voices are lost in the cacophony of Old Europe which treats us as imbeciles. Our young and educated emigrate an mass.
Don’t be so brainwashed by the Red Scare propaganda. Whatever we wanted then, it was not freedom to chose between 30 variants of tooth paste.
Thank you for your message. I agree
Anyone who knows pre and post-communist eastern Europe can only agree. EE has become a colony of the West.
The hearts and minds of the majority of Eastern Europeans is the same of the Western Europeans. Russia =Evil, NATO/West = Good.
Russians could carry blue EU, LGBTQ or Hello Kitty flags…that wouldn’t change the heart and mind of someone who has no qualms about supporting/defending/encouraging/funding/arming literal Nazis running amok in Ukraine. Their heart and mind has gone.
I have never witnessed so much visceral hatred directed towards one country in my lifetime.It is unprecedented. Yes, there are dissenting voices in Europe, but the majority are on board- even if half of them do so casually, it is still the majority. Russia be damned, whatever it do.
Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. Live with it.
Between their pounding with the Hammer and their ripping with the Sickle, the Soviet Army chewed up 80% of the Nazi Wehrmacht while most of Europe was actively helping the Nazis or lying supine or (like the British and U$ Armies) taking it easy and watching to see who would win. Europe was liberated by the Red Army. Live with it.
I viewed Soviet film shot in January 1945 of Auschwitz being liberated. Brief clips from the film tend to be shown in documentaries but it was interesting to view the full hour or so of it. A sign in German left near the camp was filmed, stating “Besser tot als rot – gedenke es!” It could be best translated as “Better dead than red – think about it!” The Nazi German anti-Communist mentality obviously survived 1945.
“while most of Europe was actively helping the Nazis”
You’re dead right about that and this is how they did it.
http://whale.to/b/guyatt32.html#36
PRINCES OF PLUNDER
By David Guyatt
Powerful European, British and American family and business concerns that did business with Hitler’s Germany before the war also scrambled to benefit financially from the fall of Berlin and to keep Nazi booty out of the hands of Allied governments.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/David_Guyatt
Guyatt had a twenty eight year career in investment banking (Member AIBD) based in the City of London.
The Red Banner is the banner of Victory against the Nazi in 1945, even better, Victory against Fascism as a whole and those who supported and funded them behind the stage.
To see it waving again brings not just memory ALIVE but it is EXTREMELY POWERFUL SYMBOLISM that the GREAT RUSSIAN ARMY since Napoleon’s time is now MARCHING FORWARD again! And once those army are on their way to the battleground, better repent and save your soul because Hell is coming with them! To punish those who had been murdering its people since 2014, their cause is just and Victory will be theirs!
@Peter K: “the feelings of most westerners (and especially to eastern Europeans who experienced nearly a half century of Soviet occupation after the war)”.
Yes, I understand those feelings because I was born in 1934. Most of Europe in the late 1930s was either openly Fascist (Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland) or sympathetic to or actively supportive of Fascist regimes (Britain, France, Sweden). Most westerners (and especially those eastern Europeans who were liberated by the Red Army) would have preferred a thousand years of occupation under the Third Reich in a united Europe under the New World Order. They still long for their New World Order.
This is the second time that Russia has been saddled with the unpleasant task of de-Nazifying “the West”. The Russians were not thanked last time, and I suppose they do not expect any thanks this time; but it has to be done.
It will be done, and this time it will be done properly, by cutting all the hydra’s heads (not nine, but twelve). Why twelve, you may ask?
Hammer and sickle is what made Russia under Soviets strong enough to fight English parasites’ plotted World War (to destroy both Russia and Germany).
Russians should be proud of the clunist periodwhoseacheievent Russia isstienjoying in the armed forces and air force.
Maybe the Bucha hoax in the making: https://ok.ru/video/3384110811776
Someone posted this before and the “claim” from the Ukie side was that they were pulling the body with a rope because they feared that “Russian soldiers booby trapped the body with mines”. Who knows if it’s b.s. but I’m just relaying what the official explanation of that video allegedly was
So they shot them in a rage massacre, then went back and booby trapped the bodies, which then sat around for days. The solution to this situation is dragging the corpses with a rope. Is that in the NATO field manual for de-mining? or maybe the guys sent in to clean up the mess don’t really trust the ones who made it.
I know it sounds really pathetic as an excuse but that’s what they reported
Yeah, pathetic is the right word for it. If that body was seriously mined the guy yanking on it would still be dead (or close enough). It’s wild that the west and its Ukrainian trainees are so sloppy. Why leave the serial numbers on a tochka? Why leave days between the Bucha withdrawal and discovery of a massacre. I guess they have a really low opinion of the collective intelligence of their audience. (Probably rightly so.)
Question though, my understanding of the situation is that fuel has to be running low on the Ukrainian side. I’m not sure what good delivery of heavy armaments from Europe do without the associated fuel requirements. And it’s not like Europe has a lot of diesel to spare or good means to get it to the front. I’m sure AFU has protected/hidden military stocks, but again, can they get it where they need it to be?
I assume that a mass collapse of the AFU will be directly related to fuel supply issues. Not that it will include the territorial defense militias since they’ll be performing as in Mariupol. But that’s a different type of military problem for the AFR to solve, especially if those forces can’t move their heavy equipment around in cities.
if one thing the Ukies have in plenty is a bunch of explanations
They also have a plenty of Nazis!
In the video clip I’ve seen after pulling the body into position, they stand beside it. Some booby trap; even less effective than novichok!
Anyone who has served in a front line combat arms unit during wartime is trained to be careful with enemy soldiers who are incapacitated, and when handling the remains of ANY body (human or animal) which there is any uncertainty as to whether the body could be booby-trapped or not.
Badly wounded soldiers who know they are dying sometimes take a grenade, and while holding the spoon-safety, pull out the pin-safety and any other safety mechanisms, and then place the grenade so that the weight of their body is the only thing holding the spoon safety. Similarly, sometimes soldiers will do the same thing to wounded (of either side) who they expect to be recovered/captured by enemy forces. And it’s MUCH more common to be done with dead bodies.
This sort of precaution is especially observed when fighting against an enemy which has not been following the Geneva Conventions.
As it has been observed time and time again over the last month that the biggest danger to Ukrainian civilians are the deliberate actions of Ukrainian soldiers (as either “human shields,” hostages, or outright deliberate targets of lethal attacks), I personally would be EXTREMELY careful around any body which could have been tampered with by Ukie soldiers before I or my fellow soldiers come upon it.
Thank you for the excellent updates Nightvision.
It makes a big difference to ordinary readers of the blog to have someone of your ilk to explain the ground situation.
Nightvision, I love your sitreps my friend.
If I can share a bit of constructive criticism:
– given the detail of your reports, some big picture context would do a lot to make your reports more assessable to a wider range of readers
– more pictures, graphs, illustrations, and other visuals would make these sitreps pop
– a little bit easier formatting (easy to read that is), enabling a means to skim the article with some efficiency (e.g. bold letters to show emphasis, the occasional red bold letters for extreme statements, shorter paragraphs, etc.
Excellent content though, seriously. I hope my critique is well received and helpful, and again thank you for your hard work.
Liz
And to add just one other very minor quibble with entirely constructive intent and fully recognizing that English vocabulary can be tricky at times. When speaking of such matters as the losses among Russian light cavalry forces, “significant losses” might perhaps be a better choice of words than “decent losses”.
Russia in general has had significant losses in the conflict, that I do attest. But I simply don’t have the information that they had significant losses in that PARTICULAR engagement simply because there is tons of proof of Ukrainian propaganda / psyops in those engagements (like the infamous video of american merc James Vasquez standing in front of a burned out Ukrainian Bmp with clear anti-cumulative defense cages that only Ukraine uses in that setup, and claiming it’s a “Russian tank” which not only is it not a tank, it’s not even Russian). So I can’t in good faith and honesty say there were significant losses in that particular engagement. I can only say that to things I’ve had absolute verification for, sorry if my absolute commitment to honesty is annoying or troubling. But like I said in GENERAL the confirmed Russian losses so far are already significant of course as they are greater than any Russian engagement (Syria, Georgia) since the Chechen Wars already, and may eventually even rise to the level of the Afghan war.
But you must understand there was tons of propaganda surrounding the Bucha/Irpin engagements and I covered it very precisely here on these forums, when Ukraine lied and claimed they shot down several Russian IL-76’s destined for the airfield of Vasylkiv south of Kiev, and I was the first one here on February 25 or 26th stating that it was a hoax and no Russian IL-76s were shot down, and was later proved correct as that is now widely regarded as a giant fake hoax by Ukraine. So pardon me for not being able to characterize Ukraine’s propaganda as “significant losses” for Russia in areas where I know Ukraine was particularly aggressive in their fakery.
With that said, it should be also acknowledge that Ukraine suffered FAR more losses around Kiev than Russia did, EVEN if you characterize Russian losses as “significant”. The fact of the matter is, if you were here on the first 2-3 nights of the invasion, you might recall me going frantic about how Russian forces breached Maidan square 300 meters away from 11 Bankova Street where Zelensky was holed up.
But as Zelensky top staff are currently reporting, they believe Russia will actually come back for Kiev after Donbass is done, and I think that could be likely
The most recent number from official sources (Peskov) cites under 1500 Russian lives lost since the war began over a month ago.
‘sorry if my absolute commitment to honesty is annoying or troubling.’
Absolutely not, Nightvision. Please continue, by all means, to describe events exactly as your honest view of them dictates. It’s just that characterizing losses as “decent” tends to convey, to me at least, some measure of acceptance or even approbation that I’m not sure you actually intended.
In any case, it was a mere sematic quibble. It certainly involved no question whatever about your honesty on my part, and I apologise most sincerely if it could be taken that way. To the contrary, your honest reporting and assessments are of the highest value to this forum — and also to this individual for whatever that’s worth.
To amplify Arvy’s remark, with which I agree, the word “decent” is usually employed with a positive meaning. You might perhaps speak of inflicting “decent losses” on your enemy. But your own losses can never be decent.
Saker/Nightvision,
Corporate media is reporting that Putin has made a change in the top general for Russia’s SOP. According to them, the new general will be Army Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, commander of Russia’s Southern Military District.
I’m reluctant to believe anything written by corporate media and I find it odd that there is nothing in those Russian sources I go to (RT, Sputnik, Pravda, Tass) that report that this is true.
Do you have any insight on this? Of course, corporate media suggests this change is being made as Putin is unhappy with the progress on the field. I for one do not believe that this is true, but since there are no reports in Russian media about this change, there is nothing to suggest otherwise. So again, I look to your insight.
Thanks!
Honestly I have no information on this matter. The truth is Zelensky already fired 2 generals and that’s 100% confirmed fact from Ukrainian sources themselves. What I do know is, 90% of the generals and top officials that MSM has claimed were “killed” in this conflict ended up being alive and well, and so there’s an obvious campaign to discredit and demoralize with alot of these reports. Also as you know from my last SitRep the Pentagon has admitted to utilizing a new strategy of outright lying and making up fake ‘intel’ in order to ‘beat Russia’ (or whatever). However with that said, we also do know that the Pentagram gives good/accurate intel when it serves its purposes. For instance we know they accurately predicted the Russian invasion. So could this be accurate? Maybe. But according to Wikipedia there is this laughable bit of intelligence he’s linked to:
“On 20 March 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) alleged that Bortnikov was a favorite to replace Vladimir Putin among a group of Russian elites plotting to assassinate Putin in a bid to stabilize the economy and reestablish ties with the West following sanctions imposed on Russia for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.[12]”
So just given that one laughable hit-piece propaganda above I’d grade their latest attempt to implicate him in their psyop an F but we’ll see.
The ukranian generals are irrelevant, they are not not commanding the ukranina troops, the NATO’s ones are.
Don’t forget that the west in general and the MSM in particular has a very strong tendency to personalize everything. To them, it’s not Russia atacking Ukraine, it’s Putin. To them it’s not so much about the resistance that Ukrainian soldiers put up, but about the ‘heroic’ Zelensky is put front and center.
It’s not entirely deliberate either. It’s been pretty much how we, int he west, have been conditioned over many decades to see the world and international politics. It’s a lot easier to get people to hate or adore a person rather than something abstract like a country.
They make it seem like it is a big deal if a general gets replaced. But even if it is true, so what? Maybe the other general really is better. That’s what happens when a real war breaks out. You get to find out just how good/bad everyone is when it’s real bullets and missiles.
Or maybe it’s just because the Donbass, which will be the main battlefield for phase 2, falls under the responsibility of the Southern MD, so their commander will take charge for now. Gives the other one time to prepare for phase 3. :-)
“Russia can hear them crying…”. As in….blubbing? I must have read that…wrong.
Yes, rescue them. Remember when a Soviet icebreaker rescued thousands of Belukha whales? The ship’s captain and crew trained the little whales to follow the ship out of the trapped ice by playing classical music over the loudspeaker, which the animals loved. A great Pied Piper story. Then, another Soviet icebreaker, decades later, carved a path to freedom for those three trapped Grey Whales near Alaska. See, the Russians don’t manufacture PR, they simply perform the acts of kindness, and that is their public relations. It speaks for itself, take it or leave it.
Please, Russia, rescue those poor forlorn foreign special forces trapped in Mariupol. I can’t stand to hear a grown man cry. No, but, seriously, take the high road and rescue them. The good karma will come later.
I didn’t mean it literally crying, it was more of a dig at them. But who knows maybe some of the intercepts really were crying. But more along the lines of pleading and begging
The diplomatic term to use would be ‘misty eyed’…😭
Another excellent report from Nightvision.
With the recent death of Zhirinovsky, who for all these decades, put real backbone into the Supreme Council of Ministers of Russia, i start to worry whether some wobbling will start and a deal about to be made to release the NATO advisers and Mercs from Mariupol …only for the combined West to then understand from this, that Russia is a soft touch. I hope the Chechens can do their bit before the Russian politicians can do any wobbling…
Politician and figures come and go, someone as equal or better than him will come up and take over his role, maybe it takes time to see since, but we knew that Russia has always had great people in the past and till today…
Don’t be overconfident as lots can happen.
Battalion Tactical Group (BTG)
Very good feed-back. Please understand that there is nothing unique about the make-up of the Russian Military.
In Vietnam, I served with the 2d Brigade 101st Airborne. A Brigade is about 3,000 men. Broken down into 3 Infantry battalions + 1 aviation battalion + 1 artillery battalion (with 105mm, 155 and 175 guns) + much other. No tanks and few personnel carriers because they were useless in Vietnam (terrain and mud).
We had tremendous support from off-shore naval gunfire; quick help from Marine and Navy jet pilots; B-52 strikes (carpet bombing 1 x 1 km grids) and bunker busting drops of 10,000 lb bombs.
50 years ago, the precision electronics of today did not exist. Much of what happened then involved lobbing bullets, bombs, projectiles and explosives.
Today, when the enemy’s position is known and registered, the only questions are:
How many bombs; How deep the explosion; and what type of ordinance (shock, shrapnel, other).
This is war in a conventional sense. There is no mention/use of electronic weapons (ultrasound and/or laser); gas and other poisons; destruction of communications and weapons-guidance satellites.
“Please understand that there is nothing unique about the make-up of the Russian Military.”
Actually there is. You said it yourself, your brigade had 1 artillery battalion for 3 maneuver battalions. The Russian BTG approach has 1 artillery battalion for each maneuver battalion. That’s triple the artillery. As far as I know, that’s pretty unique. Especially because these are not higher echelon (Division/Corps/Army) artillery units detached to lower levels.
‘Clearly the civilian population has been deemed completely expendable by the UAF.’
In which case, one would then expect the “what are they fighting for” question to arise amongst at least some of those providing material support — unless, of course, those supporters share the same true objectives rather than the “humanitarian” concerns being sold to their publics. The sheer hypocrisy becomes just a bit overwhelming at times, but on the other hand, what else is new.
“…the shootdown of American F117s over Serbia sent around the world? And do you realize that the entire F117 line was literally retired due to that ONE highly humiliating and symbolic event?” — It was not one, but three, one of which fell on the Serbian territory but two managed to land outside of it – one in Tuzla in Bosnia where NATO held an airport, and one in Zagreb in Croatia. There was na article in the British magazine “New Scientist”, issue 2215 of 4 December 1999, titled “Seek and destroy” by David Fulghum where this was described, and how the US AF stopped flying them soon after. Serbian air defence, the same unit that shot the F117 has stated that they also shot down a B2 which fell just over the border in Croatia.
Yes you’re right, I was referring to the “incident” in general of U.S.’s humiliation in Serbia but if you want to get specific then yes off the top of my head I know that 1 F117 was shot down, another was definitely wounded enough that it landed but never returned to service and had to be scrapped. Not sure if I heard of the 3rd one but I definitely know the whole story of the famous B-2 ‘Spirit of Missouri’ that was shotdown and covered up by the U.S. because the 2 billion $$$$ dollar plane was too much of a loss for the MIC to handle. Anyone interested in that just google the rabbit hole of B-2 ‘Spirit of Missouri’ and there’s tons of info on it
B-2 is a joke. It has to stay most of time in hangar due to fragile antiradar paint. In case of serious confrontation with Russia it won’t even fly off the airstrip. Airport with B2s will be just nuked.
F117 was retired because of fear of MIC that the stelt-hoax will be revealed, resulting in canceling contracts for upcoming projects.
After word was out, that F117 was perfectly visible on low frequency radars, “stealth” hunting season was open. MIC could not alowe another loss on different battlefield(s).
It was not military, but business decission.
What’s going on in Zaiechenko (east of Mariupol) over the past 3 to 4 days? Looks like a significant battle there.
BREAKING NEWS: EU leaders enjoyed a delicious meal of Waygu rib eye steak and jumbo shrimp in a 5 star hotel as they discussed more sanctions to impoverish their citizens. Olaf Scholz reportedly said “sacrifices must be made.”
This war is bigger than Ukraine and Russia. – Pentagon.
The Commodity-Currency Revolution Begins…
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/commodity-currency-revolution-begins
Whatever the outcome in Ukraine, one thing is for sure the economic reverberations will be felt by everyone for years to come as the world divides between the West and a rapidly reshaping Eurasia.
Host, Ross Ashcroft met up with Economist, Michael Hudson to discuss the tectonic shifts and fractures in the world and how sanctions against Russia are likely to reshape a set of new global geopolitical realities.
https://youtu.be/9t66zZwR0cA
Thanks Nightvision for that excellent sitrep. I really appreciate your detail sitreps. I do hope for a Russian military decisive victory over the Ukrainian regime, proving all my apprehensions and doubts to be but me being a psychological victim of Western propaganda/media. I don’t read or hardly read Western media nowadays but google and YT algorithms bring me to channels or articles that affirm narratives by Ukraine/West. One doesn’t have to read the articles or watch the videos – the titles already sent the ‘needed’ messages. I guess this is the West’s strong points – spinning and persuasive BS. Probably they have every trick for every type of psyche. ‘Russians are stalling’, ‘ Russians are losing’ propaganda were meant for less patient or more ‘hardline’ folks who prefer a more showy demonstration of military might, folks like myself. Western propaganda seems to be working well amongst the well educated folks in my country Malaysia , not surprising because ‘well educated’ here means good proficiency in English and Western oriented in opinions(Western media are still respected and perceived as unbiased by the educated class, especially the youths). Being pro Russia in my country is sadly a minority view amongst the more ‘aware’ folks here. A lot of trust and faith in the West is due to its reputation, or rather PR of its image as ‘fair’, ‘unbiased’, ‘beacon of democracy’and all such fictions most commenters here are aware of. Destroying this reputation in the wider ‘educated’ population is important psychological warfare in my opinion.
Well, I do hope that your predictions do come true for the Russian army.
Cheers!
«One doesn’t have to read the articles or watch the videos – the titles already sent the ‘needed’ messages.»
And that is important! Because often the text of the article is the opposite of the title, if one reads it carefully. Many “western” journalists are not entirely their masters’s servants, and try to preserve both their jobs and a part of their self respect by writing things carefully; there are standard conventions among journalists as to that, e.g. “Putin ordered genocide, says ukrainian source” (the fact being reported is what an ukrainian source said, not what Putin said), or “Is sadistic insanity Putin’s only motivation?”, which is a question, even if the innuendo is that it is a valid question, or the classic.
The titles also are chosen by the editors, and editors are political appointees, and they know many people just skim the titles anyhow.
«Being pro Russia in my country is sadly a minority view amongst the more ‘aware’ folks here.»
I am rather pro-Donbas: whatever the merits of the Russian Federation vs. Ukraine sides, the people of Donbas had the right to live peacefully in autonomy or independence, without being massacred by a war of aggression from the Ukraine, just as the people of Crimea had the right to choose whether their republic be member of Ukraine or the Russian Federation.
Did Russia shoot down these NATO planes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Npbk3_390
Real reason fo the war:
“Ukraine will become Greater Israel,” said Zelensky.
Wayne Madsen explains the conspiracy behind this Ukrainian Greater Israel concept:
“The Times of Israel’s explosive story about the Khazarian roots of the Ashkenazis also revealed that Israel, knowing that a Palestinian state is inevitable, considering the increasing pressure for it from Europe, is preparing to resettle Ashkenazi settlers in the West Bank to Ukraine. Israel’s advanced research in genetics resulted in a direct DNA line being established between Israel’s Ashkenazis and the Khazars who were dispersed across eastern and central Europe after Russia conquered the Khazarian Empire in the 11th century…
“In Ukraine, the so-called «second Israel,» (Ukrainian Jewish billionaire tycoon) Ihor Kolomoisky and Kiev have enlisted a number of ex-Israel Defense Force members in their volunteer battalions, including the (Nazi) Azov Battalion. One of the Israeli units is known as the «Blue Helmets of Maidan» and is commanded by an Israeli using the pseudonym «Delta». If Israel did not have a vested interest in expanding its influence in Ukraine it could easily prevent these units from going to Ukraine…
“Some Russian speakers in the Donbass are wary of the intentions of pro-Israelis in the Kiev government. Oddly, Kolomoisky has recruited a number of neo-Nazis from western Ukraine and Europe to fight in his battalions whose right-wing organizations have always subscribed to the notion of a future «battle royale» between Russia and the remnants of Khazaria in Israel, Ukraine, Poland, and the Republic of Georgia to avenge Khazaria’s defeat in the 11th century by the Russian Empire.”
It is quite possible that the Israelis are not just interested in revenge and in resettling Jewish land thieves (aka settlers) from the West Bank of Palestine, especially when the Jewish establishment of Israel has vowed that there will never be a Palestinian state, let alone remove Jewish land thieves from land stolen in the West Bank.
Their openly discussed plan for Israeli land thieves to ‘resettle’ in Ukraine might be a cover for the more nefarious purpose of reconquering the whole of their Khazar Khaganate where the entire Jewish population of Apartheid Israel will migrate once the Big War starts in the Middle East.
But would the Ashkenazi Jews be okay with just Ukraine – minus Crimea and Donbass – as their new base wherefrom they would project Jewish power to destroy their perpetual Russian nemesis, along with all other imagined enemies, and preserve their grip on the world’s financial system using their Federal Reserve issuance of fiat US Dollar as the undisputed World Reserve Currency?
Revenge Round 3? Nyet.
AND THE ARROGANCE STOPS HERE
The Jewish Cabal controlling the Western financial world thought that Russian forbearance in the face of their unrelenting aggression in Ukraine to destabilize their country was weakness, and therefore miscalculated.
“It is a fact that over the past 30 years we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe,” said Putin in February 2022. “In response to our proposals, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance continued to expand despite our protests and concerns. Its military machine is moving and, as I said, is approaching our very border.”
Now Russia has acted, and after a long hibernation the Bear has awoken with fury. Putin has ordered his army to liberate the Donbass region from the Ukro-Nazis and demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine entirely (i.e., the Donbass region will be cut off from Ukraine and become independent while Ukraine is to be reverted back into Russia’s orbit and away from Jewish control).
“President Putin’s special military operation to defend the people of Donbass from an imminent general offensive by the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev not only is it fully justified in international law by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, but it is fully consistent with the military praxis and doctrine of the legitimate self-defense of States in the face of an imminent threat emanating from a neighboring state or enemy forces,” explains Heinz Dieterich, director of the Centre for Transition Sciences (CTS) at the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City, and coordinator at the World Advanced Research Project (WARP).
And if the Zionist/Neocon conspirators and their bought-and-paid-for Western politicians did not get the message clearly, Putin made this unequivocal pronouncement:
“I would now like to say something very important for those who may be tempted to interfere in these developments from the outside. No matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history. No matter how the events unfold, we are ready. All the necessary decisions in this regard have been taken. I hope that my words will be heard.”
“I saw the prosperity of the wicked… Their strength is firm… Pride serves as their necklace; Violence covers them like a garment… This is what the wicked are like—always free of concern as they go on amassing wealth… Surely (Lord) You place them on slippery ground… How suddenly they fall and are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!” Psalm 73:2,4,6,12,18,19
CONCLUSION
Russia has been in the crosshairs of the Jewish elite for more than a century, and its very survival depends on it pushing back with all its might.
In fact, in confronting the Israeli-trained Ukrainian neo-Nazi proxies of this satanic Jewish cabal, which hopes to subdue the world and destroy the Christian foundation of Western civilization, Russia is fighting not just for itself but for the West and all of humanity.
A win for Russia will begin the destruction of the financial system by which this Jewish mafia is controlling the world. Russian Andrei Bezrukov, member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, concurs thus:
“I want to state the fact that the West succeeded in dragging us into this war. No matter how we tried to resist, this is their tactical victory. They succeeded in colliding two brotherly nations against one another.
“From this we can draw the following conclusion – now we have been practically forced, especially after the latest packet of sanctions, into a position where we have no other choice but to totally restructure our economy, financial system, and in essence our domestic policy.
“The point is, by tactically winning and by successfully quarrelling us with the Ukrainian people – war, naturally, is the ultimate level of quarrel – they have not understood that by doing so they have totally destroyed the very system which they had built in the world. It is not visible yet, but in a few months their severed financial chains, broken ideological messages, and broken security system will become apparent.”
Bloomberg appears to be of the same mind and concludes as follows: “Booting Russia from the critical global system – which handles 42 million messages a day and serves as a lifeline to some of the world’s biggest financial institutions – could backfire, sending inflation higher, pushing Russia closer to China, and shielding financial transactions from scrutiny by the west. It might also encourage the development of a SWIFT alternative that could eventually damage the supremacy of the US dollar.”
And when the IMF joins the chorus that sanctions on Russia could backfire against the US$ position in the world, then the situation is getting really serious.
“The IMF’s first deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, warned that Western sanctions on Russia, and more specifically, the confiscation of dollar- and euro-denominated reserves held by the Russian Central Bank, could backfire by making other foreign central banks more reluctant to hold such a large amount of their own foreign reserves in dollars and euros,” wrote Zero Hedge.
Taking things up a notch, Putin officially decreed that, as of April 1st, 2022, Russia will only accept rubles, gold, or bitcoin as payment for energy exports to “unfriendly” countries.
“If Putin enforces his demand of accepting only rubles, gold or bitcoin for energy exports, the dollar instantly loses significant utility in the world,” wrote Mike Adams. “Those nations that wish to buy energy from Russia — which includes most European nations — will need to first buy rubles, then trade rubles for energy. This gives rubles instant commodities backing… Putin’s latest move threatens the very future of the dollar (fiat) currency and may spell the beginning of the end for the dollar.”
“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it and whoever rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.” Proverbs 26:27
https://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/the-truth-about-the-conflict-with-russia/
Scythians were nothing Japeth Turk,
proven by Scythian burials predominately Euro type fair with much blond, red hair, many blue eye.
Russians descend largely from Scythians.
Subverted History – Par 2 The Scythians and Their Kin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1OVwuCdkK4
Part 1 YouTube censored, @ Asha Logos channel Bitchute.
Thank you; to war is on!!! Fianlly sombody explian to the point about ashkanazi [ Gibbrish] plot!! on the first part of youre comments!!! Nothing to ad !!!! thanks agian !!!
That’s an interesting point about the US not wanting to destroy customer faith in its cash cow munitions.
The decision to sink a US aircraft carrier would be a strategic decision of highest importance and importance. It would break the leash the US has on it’s vassals, a void a large threat against each of it’s foes. It would create a power vacuum. I don’t think Russia or China wants to do that until either or both is prepare to manage that vacuum. At the same time, I expect the US will keep it’s carriers far away from hot Russian theaters.
The videos of a late model US carrier badly listing, on fire, and then slipping beneath the waves, would go viral.
The F35 seems, to this bumpkin, to be the product of hubris and pork barter, not the product of someone who expected to live or die by it’s effectiveness. I don’t know what it’s flaws are, but I suspect they are deep.
They are not ‘customer faith’ more like ‘forced buyer’ cause they do not have freedom to choose, they are slave of the Zionist.
Yes, these sitreps are very excellently and tightly written; clear and concise language without wasting words. Iran possesses the technology to sink a carrier group in the Persian Gulf – but – they don’t, and they won’t. For obvious reasons. The US Navy can throw their weight around for the time being, daring anybody to take them on. So far, nobody does. China takes extreme offence at Gunboat Diplomacy, for obvious reasons, but Chinese like to work around their enemies rather than engaging in direct conflict with them and time is on their side. Russia, unfortunately, never seems to have that luxury and are always pressed for time, hence the Ukraine conflict. Taiwan will most likely fall into China’s hands like a ripe plum when all is said and done.
Thank you Nightvision!
Bless Russia and the warriors of LPR and DNR.
Victory soon!
Of course, there is another factor not mentioned above. The Russians are defending Mother Russia, the yanks would simply be engaged in yet another foreign war. Just remember how fiercely the Red Army defended the USSR in the Great Patriotic War and think how US/UK/NATOstan forces would fare against one of the best, if not THE best army in the world today!
As for the foreign forces in Mariupol, when they are captured, put them on trial and then hold them for ransom.
The US government has asserted that we don’t have any troops or advisors in Ukraine. Capture them then publicize them to expose the lie.
War Gonzo is showing video from inside the port
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCQ-BwSf-c
At least to Westerners, Kadyrov’s propaganda videos appear to be the most effective (from the Russian point of view) — competent, brave warriors cheerfully engaging the enemy while also helping unfortunate, traumatized civilians. I’d like to know how these images have played in Russia. Has the Chechen involvement in this operation “redeemed” them in the eyes of Russians? Is this the moment when Chechens become trustworthy allies to the Russian people rather than potential terrorists (Beslan)? Or has that story long flowed down the river?
Honestly that’s a good question and I’m not 100% sure myself. But I do know that Chechens are really making a great case for themselves worldwide. https://www.bitchute.com/video/QbRP0KRhz2Bx/
One thing it has redeemed them so far to some people is the fact that in the Georgian 2008 war, the Chechen battalions got a really bad reputation where they supposedly rampaged into Georgia and did a lot of brutality and theft. If you remember the infamous stories of the legendary ‘Zapad and Vostok’ Battalions (meaning West and East in Russian) which were mostly ethnically Chechen battalions. They (according to the West) did a bunch of bad things in Georgia like stealing toilets and robbing houses. But ofcourse 99.9999% of this is probably propaganda as usual but either way they got a really bad rap. But now, the Chechens are really shining. The one thing that shouldn’t be overlooked though is the Chechen forces from Irpin/Bucha (NW of Kiev) were relocated to Rubizhnoe in Lugansk and are now helping the LPR in the cauldron and so there are very glorious Chechen battles happening there at the moment, not just Mariupol, and those Chechens are arguably in more danger and working even harder because Mariupol is mostly a done deal. But the Rubizhnoe axis is the brutal heart of the Ukrop Donbass Cauldron and extremely dangerous – the veritable viper’s pit
«One thing it has redeemed them so far to some people is the fact that in the Georgian 2008 war, the Chechen battalions got a really bad reputation where they supposedly rampaged into Georgia and did a lot of brutality and theft.»
That is sadly fairly credible. Brutality and theft in Caucasus wars is nothing new, and georgians and chechens have been uneasy neighbours for a long time.
However that hints at a very important theme: when the Saakashvili fascist government initiated that attack in the war of aggression against the Ossetian, the Russian Federation forces that were sent to stop the massacre ultimately won, but but their performance was terrible, because of poor logistics, training, communications, discipline, and general corruption, mostly inherited from soviet times.
That prompted Putin to reform and “professionalize” the russian armed forces, without which the current operations would have been impossible. I suspect that the reform should have gone further.
«If you remember the infamous stories of the legendary ‘Zapad and Vostok’ Battalions (meaning West and East in Russian)»
Which are the best explanation for Z and V on Russian Federation vehicles: during the Belarus training exercises those were the two sides in the exercise, instead of the “blue” and “red” sides in NATO exercises (Zapad-Blue, Vostok-Red of course :->). Ironically it was the units from the Zapad-Blue side in the training exercise that were most visible in the “special military operation”.
Thanks for the replies.
My feeling is that I think that Russians can learn to forgive. The Chechens themselves tell captured UKR soldiers in the current special operation of how they were played by the US and Saudi Wahhabis who inflitrated the Chechan army… the US are doing the same with Ukraine by using Nazi extremism to wage a similar war against Russia.
Extremism and Terrorism is the West’s greatest export yet the West are seen to be the ‘good’ guys through the eyes of Westerners in general. Meanwhile, Russia has a habit of ending all wars, not starting them yet they are generally perceived by the West to be the ‘bad’ guys.What a twisted world we live in!
God help us all.
The Russians can forgive, but they never forget.
Really excellent interview with Scott Ritter. That guy does more for Russia’s case in the West than most Russians do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPYYqhqO74&ab_channel=RichardMedhurst
I heard he was banned from Twitter. I hope he gets a Telegram account or something similar so he can keep sharing his thoughts. He’s a valuable source.
He has a telegram account. https://t.me/ScottRitter
I don’t get why he doesn’t crosspost to it! It’s just a matter of time before he gets twitter banned again.
Ritter’s twitter restored.
It is suspended again.
Agreed – Boom! Gone!
So I wonder if he’ll migrate to Telegram. I watched his channel for a few days but deleted it because he didn’t post anything.
Everyone has a love/hate relationship with Twitter. Just freaking leave and migrate to Telegram.
Nightvision, thanks as always.
Considering that NATO and the combined west are using the ukros as infantry for causing all possible damage to Russia, and arming the former to the teeth for that effect, including the announced lend lease that supposedly includes manpads and antitanks with the intention of inflict enormous damage in Russian assets, do you see that the Russian forces are acting with enough strenght to prevent that scenario? Do you think that Russia has the time on her side for prevent the NATO project of her submission via the ukros?
I’ll put it to you this way: believe it or not, if you actually heavily research the 80’s Afghan war and the infamous “Stinger” legend, you’ll learn that there are some different sides to the story that state the whole ‘Stinger’ propaganda was conjured by the U.S. and the Stingers in fact had very little effect on anything in the conflict. In fact, according to Soviet records, the Stinger had a 10% success-kill rate and was utterly irrelevant to the overall conflict. I’m not saying which side I believe, but simply that there ARE other sides to the story and that one shouldn’t just blanketly believe the obviously biased western/U.S. side.
So with that said, this example can be used as an argument for the idea that mass weapons procurement may not have as much of an effect as people would think. There are experts out there that believe much of this is a smoke screen. Sure it has some effect and will bleed some forces from Russia but overall it will not deter or change the outcome. For instance, I wrote this before in a comment as an example: the West is claiming to provide 70-100 tanks to Ukraine. But Ukraine’s tank attrition rate according to Russian MOD has been in the 10-30 per day from Russian strikes etc. So how much difference can this make when even 100 new tanks is really about 3 days worth of stock for Ukraine. So that gives them 3 days longer to survive…not really a game changer.
Similarly with other western Wunderwaffen, not only are many of them ineffective against Russian technology but much of them are being captured and used AGAINST the Ukies themselves: https://www.bitchute.com/video/A5cpsvzaOc9c/
And then on top of that, much of the supplied product is defective as this report about British Nlaws states:
(autotranslation): “It’s not every day that you see this: two sealed NLAW ATGMs are tied to the roof of a “penny”, the total cost of which is approximately $40-60 thousand.
Why do ours capture so many of these missiles? The problem is that many of them are defective. They were stored for years, and the batches of those supplied to Ukraine are far from fresh.
The main problem is a dead battery or none at all. As we were told, the problem is completely solvable. Due to the fact that there are no official chargers and spare batteries, you have to power them from the outside, in a makeshift way. DPR units have already mastered this process.
And from damaged installations, they simply remove the sight and mount it to rifles and machine guns – the sight alone costs more than $1,000”
(from this video: https://www.bitchute.com/video/vqiQxfeXMSSQ )
Now as far as “time on her hand”. I think that Russia has a massive ace in her back pocket. If you watched the videos I included in the SitRep you’ll see that the Russian public is massively backing this campaign. That means all the calls from worried detractors for ‘mass mobilization’ in Russia can easily be done by Putin as a last resort. So even if things don’t go as well as hoped, with the level of support, backing, and national pride that’s currently happening in Russia (thanks to Russophobic campaign from the west that has massively galvanized Russian unity), Putin can easily call for mobilization now without much political danger whenever he wants. So honestly the way I see it is Russia has all the cards and even has the time advantage…
Some videos for today.
Battle for Mariupol in final stage with Russian forces taking the city:
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/mariupol-final-stage:2
Russian and DPR troops help evacuate civilians from Mariupol that live in areas of the city that can still be shelled by members of the “Azov” Banderite death squad:
https://rutube.ru/video/ffcf7dba4b0ce0fea5844b22faba12c2/
Kiev-regime tank and disguised warehouse destroyed with precision strikes:
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/targets-destroyed:f
Russian armor moves across the Severskiy Donets river on a pontoon bridge:
https://rutube.ru/video/102963cbb33030d59bfc78a3c7e13de4/
From the Benning report: “Second, the pace of modernization slowed dramatically when the price of oil fell in May 2014. Recently the price of
oil has recovered somewhat, but the revenue provided is 40 percent of the revenue Russia enjoyed from 2007-
2014 (Table 3). At the same time, Russia’s combat operations in Syria consume resources at the expense of
modernization. Until the price of oil returns to 2010 levels and Russia increases modernization expenditures, triage
in modernization funds will prevent the Russian Army from modernizing its entire force and then reorganizing
them into deployable brigades and divisions.”
So the USA imposes “sanctions from hell” on Russia, which look like they will cause much pain for normal US citizens, and economic destruction of Europe, while actually increasing revenue to Russia. I don’t see how any amount of propaganda can overcome such stupidity. Did the neocons actually think China would “help them fight Russia now, so they could fight China later”?
Comments by Saker or others welcome.
All I’ll say on this is, the cost of the Syrian campaign has been a famous point of Russian pride when Putin himself announced in a speech long ago that the Syrian campaign was actually costing Russia almost nothing, much to the great chagrin and humiliation of the west who were hoping that Russia was somehow bankrupting its coffers with said campaign. So no, the Syrian campaign is absolutely NOT consuming the resources of modernization, that is one thing I can say is an outright 100% debunked western lie.
The West is the one that’s in trouble, Germans were caught using broomsticks for tank barrels because of how unfunded their military is, and the U.S. army hasn’t hit recruiting goals in years and the standards of its armed forces are dropping drastically, they have had multiple F-22s, F-35s, and F-18’s drop out of the sky in just the past month alone, not to mention Ospreys and E3 Awacs. And they were just hit bad in Syria where multiple U.S. soldiers suffered “brain damage”, not to mention Iranian missiles bypassed U.S. patriot systems in striking Iraq AND the Jeddah oil fields which also are protected by Patriots. The U.S. is a laughing stock right now.
Chinese Global TV is worse than sky news. The reporters seem to be all British and the worst Anglo propagandist. They do not even know their government position, they are just EOL parots.
Nothing is worse than Sky News….apart from BBC, ITN and Channel 4 news.
I know nothing about military matters or what may happen, but what are the contingency plans if things were to suddenly change? What if USA, UK, NATO decide to directly intervene? Would the Russians be exposed if a joint missile and air battle was to suddenly erupt? Would that be a nuclear red line?
The Empire of Lies is not in position to do any stupid things other than PR stunts as The Saker mentioned, and remember, Russian Nuclear Forces are in High Alert Mode since beginning of Operation.
Sadly, I do not see any hope in people in USSA, UK, EU, they failed to realize that their lives are at higher stake than before, the economy crisis already hit them hard, failed to take any real action, and they can only sit and watch their government decide how their lives would end now. Having corrupt government is demoralizing, I felt the same things here, so I knew how the other sides feel at this moment. We can only pray to God, perhaps He would give us another chance and time….
Nuclear red lines are probably any attempt to overrun Kaliningrad or deny Russian access to the Baltic Sea. NATO simply doesn’t have the strength to defeat the Russian militiary absent the use of nuclear weapons.
«NATO simply doesn’t have the strength to defeat the Russian militiary absent the use of nuclear weapons.»
That is a famous myth: NATO outspend the Russian Federation on military funding by 10-15 times, and in WW2 just Germany (even if enlarged by supplies from conquered countries) defeated easily the USSR military.
«From as early as August 1941 – just two months after the Nazi invasion of the USSR – American convoy ships supplied the Soviets with what would eventually amount to more than 14,000 airplanes, 44,000 jeeps, 375,000 trucks, 8,000 tractors and 12,000 tanks. Not to mention 1.5 million blankets, 15 million pairs of army boots, 2.6 million tons of petroleum products and 4.4 million tons of food supplies.
“The Americans gave us so many goods without which we wouldn’t have been able to form our reserves and continue the war”, admitted Georgy Zhukov, one of the Soviet Union’s most famous WWII generals.»
As to the “14,000 airplanes”, the USA in both 1943 and 1944 came close to producing 100,000 fighter airplanes a year; during the war the USA sold/gave/lent 13,000 fighter airplanes to the UK and 10,000 to the USSR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_production_during_World_War_II
Now much of the USA production capacity has moved to China, but so has much Russian Federation production capacity.
The Russian Federation switched from “never first use” to “if the state’s independence is threatened” for nuclear weapons precisely because there is no chance that conventional RF military can stop NATO. The role of the RF military is to protect the borders long enough for the political leadership to decide whether the state’s independence is threatened.
The enormous disparity between USSR or Russian Federation military capacity and that of the USA/NATO is also why “Washington Consensus” propaganda about the threat of soviet or russian aggression was and is ridiculous.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/rachel-maddow-is-bill-oreilly
«On March 26, 2014, Maddow saluted Barack Obama for rolling his eyes when asked if Mitt Romney had been right to identify Russia as America’s biggest geopolitical threat. “America has got a whole lot of challenges,” Obama said, but “Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness.” “Serious presidential shade!” Maddow gushed, adding that this was, “President Obama … explaining that Russia is basically a gnat on the butt of an elephant. Calling Russia, in his words, merely a regional power that does not rise to the level of a major challenge for the United States.”»
Taking over the Russian Federation with a “color revolution” is for the USA just a nice stepping stone to being “invited” to put a chain of CIA/DOD bases on China’s western and norther borders from which to train, fund and arm many “freedom fighter” groups inside China. After all it took not many years for the USA to do the same to Ukraine.
Completely wrong. Russia was not even deemed “eligible” for Lend Lease until the end of 1941 when the German army’s back was already broken and they were on retreat. The real bulk of lend lease materials didn’t start peaking until probably around 1943 when USSR was already winning easily. Germany knew they didn’t have the logistics for a long term campaign against USSR which is why the entire plan was to blitz them before the winter of 41 and finish it, otherwise even Hitler knew Germany was screwed. And so USSR broke Germany’s back at the battle of Moscow in 41 and had them retreating, at which point Lend Lease was not even active yet.
As for your assertions that NATO outspends Russia, it’s an irrelevant and misleading figure as the majority of NATO’s nominal budget is obviously the U.S. military budget, and the majority of the U.S. budget is actually spent on upkeep / maintenance of its 900+ foreign bases, and so the budget doesn’t exactly translate into direct firepower equivalencies. Of course the argument depends on who is attacking/defending and I’m not saying Russia can successfully invade all of Europe with full NATO might defending.
But if NATO with all its might, including the U.S., attempted to invade Russia they would lose, badly. And I’m talking conventional war, not nuclear – in which case they would lose in an even worse fashion.
Moreover US companies supplied the trucks and gasoline with which Hitler invaded .
Historian Richard Overy’s book, Russia’s War, also shows that US aid was not a critical factor in the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
@DM
Back in 2012 I used to worry: “What if USA, UK, NATO decide to directly intervene?” in Syria. But in 2013 they did intervene directly in Syria — and provoked Russia to intervene likewise. So Russia’s military technology helped Syria, Iran and Hezb’Allah to fend off these direct assaults by the NATZO powers. NATZO’s self-proclaimed “irresistible armed might” only works if the opponent is a tiny nation like Serbia, Libya, Georgia or Ukraine.
But in 2022 an additional thought has struck me: Maybe the U$A, UK and other NATO powers are no longer eligible candidates for a War Loan? I do not claim to understand finance but I believe the usual condition for a War Loan is that the winning side should guarantee also to repay the loan to the losing side (because usually both sides apply to the same High Financiers for their respective War Loans). My suspicion is that this condition rules out U$A, UK and the rest of NATO getting a War Loan: firstly, because U$, UK et al have maxed out their credit cards, secondly because it is highly unlikely that NATZO will emerge as the winning side, and thirdly because Russia has been blacklisted (“sanctioned”) therefore Russia can neither take out a War Loan nor undertake to repay War Loans made to the NATZO powers.
“USA, UK, NATO…………..provoked Russia to intervene ”
No, they did not “provoke” RF to intervene, they did not expect Russia to do so. Russia intervened upon the direct advice of Qasem Soleimani. It was he that is credited with convincing the Russians it was in their interest to do so.
And for that the Yanks cowardly assassinated him.
Great information. Thanks Nightvision.
It’s stunning to me how anybody could fall for the ridiculous false flags of the Ukes. I mean, they supposedly wrote on the missile they launched at Kramatorsk “for the children”?
No professional military would do this. This is the work of clowns. Desperate clowns.
I agree with your saying that no professional military would do that, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. Americans used to write messages on their bombs in Iraq (I believe). I can’t quite recall which illegal war it was, but I think it was Iraq.
@Citymouse
“In bombers named for girls we burned
The cities we had learned about at school” — Randall Jarrett, U$ airman and poet of WW2.
The Special Operation in Ukraine is a tragedy for Putin because he worked hard and long to avoid it, and risked much of his prestige by placing strict limits on military action. It was already apparent in Syria that President Putin is a man who much prefers building to burning cities.
Just wanted to add as someone living in the USA that I very much doubt that the USA wants to be involved in any larger war. As Nightvision said, the USA/NATO would be humiliated in a way (I’m sure) that would hurt arms sales and the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). But also, for some time now, the USA public has become more isolationist. Sure, we’ll do financial warfare but the public, in general, does not want boots on the ground.
We saw this in Syria and Crimea. The USA talks tough, but does not want to commit seriously to the fight in my opinion.
Politically, as well as for the MIC, I just don’t think getting involved in any kind of major conflict is (especially in a different hemisphere) is viable for the USA.
Just want to calm the nerves of some here.
Yep. And keep in mind I’m a realist, I don’t think U.S. military is bad, of course in general they’re still the most powerful in the world. For instance, Russia or China could not successfully INVADE the U.S. or even defeat it on a distant neutral area like somewhere in Africa (as a random example). But on Russia’s home turf, U.S. (in my opinion of course) would not defeat Russia because there are too many logistical disparities. And I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea when I speak of American equipment, in many categories it IS still the best in the world, I merely have highlighted some of the crucial categories where Russia is superior. And so even when I spoke of “humiliation” I didn’t mean the complete defeat of the U.S. per se, but remember, the U.S. is a country that prides itself on the fact that it has NEVER lost a single f-15 or m1a1 Abrams etc in combat (not to mention many other of its assets), and so even a single loss of its flagship F35, or F-22 etc etc would be a monumental loss of prestige globally. Like I highlighted in my writeup, just 1 or 2 losses of the F-117 Nighthawk resulted in the retirement of the entire program, such was the blow to its reputation. As such, U.S. cannot risk losing even a single F-35 or F-22 (or several other systems) to Russian systems. Same goes for Carrier groups to Russian hypersonic missiles etc. So it creates this intractable situation where U.S. really cannot engage Russia in direct combat but must rely on proxies.
Re: “the U.S. is a country that prides itself on the fact that it has NEVER lost a single f-15 or m1a1 Abrams etc in combat (not to mention many other of its assets), and so even a single loss of its flagship F35, or F-22 etc etc would be a monumental loss of prestige globally”
It’s a weak molehill of hubris that they build their prestige on, given that since the Korean War the US has yet to fight a ‘peer foe’ in battle. Per The Ledeen Doctrine, the US is great at “taking some small crappy little country and throwing it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.” But fighting a county such as Russia or China (or Russia and China and Iran and N. Korea should a global hot war appear)?
My scientific wild-assed guess is that that pride, prestige, and hubris would be knocked off of its pedestal as a multi-polar military reality dawns. Of course, before they are tipped off of their pedestal I imagine the US/NATO will let the nuclear genie out of its bottle.
Btw – @Nightvision I enjoy your analysis. Keep it coming!
On no, Nightvision no offense taken and I did not think you were putting down the USA military in any way. I agree with your assessments. I also try to be a realist.
I love my country (USA) and am a nationalist. Much as Saker (and yourself, as far as I can tell) seem to love Russia and have (appropriate, in my view) nationalist, good feelings about Russia. Even if you guys don’t live there currently (I don’t know if either/both of you do or don’t, and you don’t need to tell me). I think it’s great that we should all like “our” homeland.
That being said, I think the USA is way, way, way off track right now. I think we’re soft. I am no traitor, simply someone who feels a significant correction is needed here to right the wrongs. And some of what is being done in places like Russia and Hungary makes sense to me as compared with what is currently going on in the USA.
If someone criticizes the USA or the USA’s military and the information is on point (which is the case here), not only am I not sensitive about it but I welcome it. Especially given the deluge of propaganda we are currently experiencing about the greatness of the Ukraine effort and the supposed ineptness of the Russia operation. As we know, that’s nonsense. So someone telling the truth about things, rather than a fantasy Zone A wants to believe, is much appreciated.
Although I am a layman and you are clearly an expert (and I and everyone else here loves your analysis, thanks for it and keep it coming!), I agree with you that the USA military is not beating Russia’s military in Russia (or possibly not in some other places).
Again, as a layman who has some basic knowledge of tactics and equipment, I found myself shaking my head in agreement when you mentioned the report written by the American military source talking of the superiority of the Russian anti-aircraft (ADA) devices. It’s my understanding, and I may be wrong, that if and when Russia occupies a given space and has time to set up their ADA devices then that’s it, you’re not taking the space back unless you commit some massive number of ground troops (and good luck on that plan, too) because sky attacks are basically over. This is what I think has happened in Syria and what I’m hoping will eventually take place in a reclaimed Donbass as well as Russian-occupied Ukraine coast.
As always, appreciate your work (and the work of all the blog’s authors) and have a good night.
NV I distinctly remember watching a video from the 2nd illegal Iraq invasion in which an Abrams was blown to bits by a powerful IED. The turret went flying and the 80 ton beast was lifted off the ground.
I also watched a short doco about a repair workshop that repaired badly damaged Abrams before sending them back to Iraq.
Of course this depends on what defines a “loss” is. Is an Abrams that has it’s turret blowoff, it’s electrics burnt/fried but is then subsequently repaired at a huge cost a loss?
I wouldn’t call the U.S. the most powerful anymore. They’re definitely the most expensive, and quite possibly the one with the most pieces of equipment, and both are measures that Americans equate with quality, but I think that’s a mistake. The U.S. makes their equipment to be ‘cool’ with lots of expensive gadgets, many of which never quite work right. The designers, spread out across many vote districts, do not have a driving sense of necessity to defend the homeland, because that’s not how they envision them working. Every new piece of hardware that comes out has numerous and large problems. Russia has fewer pieces, but the work like Energizer Bunnies. Their designers are dead serious about turning out equipment that will save the day when needed. Remember in Syria when Russia started running sorties how the U.S. was astonished that the same planes ran sortie after sortie, 24/7. The U.S. has planes that run one sortie and then go down for hours and hours of maintenance. I am convinced that if the two militaries met in a third location (no home court advantage), that it’s Russia who would prevail. They have weapons we can only wet dream about, and we admit that we don’t have them. Russia has missiles that we can’t stop because we don’t even know they’re coming. Remember the story of the Donald Cook in the Black Sea? We’ve been making shareholders rich, but Russia has been making weapons to insure that they’re never again hurt like in WW2.
In a third location Russia would prevail I think too. Their superior submarines and missile tech would decimate enemy supply lines.
And Russian military has motivated professionals, not like the US where the majority are unfit, weak willed soy boys, and only doing their military service to earn a degree or treat it as just a job like any other.
And then there are the clot shots….
Do not forget the logistics. The US military has a huge logistics department. Lots of ships and cargo plans. And aircraft carrier groups that can operated all over the world. I doubt Russia could manage more than 10% of that man and tech power far from home.
Of course the big ships might be an easy target and the cargo flight can be shot down. Might cause a lot of problems for the US. But all depends how you setup the battle of the super powers. (Because fully escalated everyone dies)
“And I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea when I speak of American equipment, in many categories it IS still the best in the world,”
I respectfully disagree with that statement, and in particular with the word ‘many’. I believe that in the majority of categories the US is now behind either Russia or China.
Take a look at the ground forces for example. Both the M1 Abrams and the M2/3 Bradley are designs from the 1970s. Both have seen considerable upgrades since then, but both types are pretty much at the end of the line when it comes to further upgrading. Both are in need of a replacement, but there is nothing in the pipeline. No viable designs or anything.
But that’s not the worst part. All of their tanks and AIFV were produced a long time ago. The US hasn’t manufactured a new tank or AIFV hull in well over 15 years. Not only are the production lines now absent, but so are the people skilled at building a tank. As are the people who can teach those skills to others. They simply aren’t there anymore. The same goes for the designers.
And it’s not just an Army problem. In the navy and air force too, the US designs one specific type to fill a niche and then builds that type for decades. There’s no continuity in their design approach, it’s always intermittent. And each time, when they finally do decide to start designing again, they have to ‘reinvent the wheel’, so to speak. They don’t retain institutional knowledge about military design and production like Russia does. The quality of US military design has been rapidly declining for long enough that there’s no easy or quick way out of it.
There’s also the major US problem of their “MIC” being very much profit-led. Whereas Russia will build on existing designs, and so minimise the need for additional component holdings, the US model is “designed” to extract the maximum profit (hence the multitude of arms manufacturer lobbyists in Washington). So, interchangeability is minimal (which leads to unnecessary logistical problems).
The classic (and for me best) example was the Russian development of their “Kennel” AS-1 cruise missile – very short range mind you (less than 100nm) but a useful way of “re-tasking” superfluous MiG 19 airframes – and a typical example of the Russian “waste not” mindset.
Many M1 Abrams were destroyed in Iraq by ISIS – these were Abrams supplied to the Iraqi army, whether US forces lost any I am not sure but I would find it odd that they did not, I know what they claim, but they generally down played their losses during the Iraq insurgency 2003 – 2010. ISIS even had a video in which they demonstrated a large number of compiled video footage of attacks on Abrams tanks, I have to say, from a purely military perspective, it was quite impressive. That video just so happened to be presented by British ISIS captive John Cantlie – what ever happened to him?
Just generally, you all are talking about equipment, but Andrei Maryanov speaks from a totally different perspective in his two books that I read .. the first one, Losing Military Supremacy and the second, The Real Revolution in Military Affairs,
What he conveys, is that this weapon or this thing or that pair of boots does not really mean anything, because the nature of warfare has changed. And Russia with its network-centric methodology now carries the higher ground, no matter how you look at it.
Those are two seminal books that folks should read.
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/
Russia should not give up the NATO military personnel. If they are ‘released’ they will all go home and treated as heroes, given medals, and promoted – sort of like the Captain of the Vincennes in the Iran-Iraq war.
… and many Soviet flags … who would have thought …
@ Nightvision
“…If you read his post to the end, you’ll see he comes to the same conclusion as I do, in that Ukraine is about to get badly wrecked by RF artillery in the cauldron killzone…”
Not so easy.
Ukronazis are “embedded” with the civilian population, had several years to dig their bunkers close to houses and villages, RF Army cannot consider this a “killing zone” and unleash artillery/MLRS galore. Battles in Ukraine, due to the nature of the beast using civilians as human shields, will be more akin to a surgical operation à la Mariupol, than to a full battlefield artillery campaign. Artillery will play a role, no doubt, in terms of denying escape/retreat/evacuation routes, directing the enemy to a “killing zone,” or asphyxiating them by blocking supplies (gas, food, medicines, etc.), however, I envision a greater use of UAVs playing a role not only with reconnaissance, but also with attacking drones (think Zala Lancet, already proven in Syria), and kamikaze UAVs.
As the propaganda war goes, Russia cannot afford more negative publicity than the already permeating the mountain of fake news coming from the Empire of Lies. Just yesterday Colonel Cassad published a set of directives issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense,
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7547758.html
“On the behavior of the Russian Armed Forces in the liberated territories,”
emphasizing the conduct of the Russian Army with the civilian population.
Directive No. 192, 02/24, states loud and clear,
“…When performing combat missions during a special military operation, know and follow the following rules:
1. Use weapons only against the enemy and their military installations…
3. …Do not cause unnecessary suffering to the opposite side. Don’t do more damage than necessary…”
Colonel Cassad, with reason, complains about the lack of reciprocity from Ukraine,
“…In general, if you look from February, these orders are observed, otherwise Ukraine and its owners would not have to fabricate cheap fakes – there is a problem with the real invoice, which is ensured by the actions of such orders.”
Russia is not having a battle in an open field, à la Kursk. Russia is having to battle an enemy that is cunning, not so much in the military field, but asymmetrically with PSYOPS. Ukronazis are winning the war in the media waves (according to A. Martyanov, they are at the “gates of Moscow”), and Russia will not provide them with more ammunition, even though Russian Army behavior has nothing to do with winning or losing the propaganda war, it has to do with entrenched principles.
I am sure Russia’s intention is not to lead 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers into a “killzone” and exterminate them. If Mariupol is the model to follow, there will be many phases to the boiler, the main intention being to get as many Ukro soldiers to surrender as possible. The door to surrender will remain open all along, while turning up the pain-dial on the hard core Ukronazis and mercenaries, and any other useful idiots willing to die for the “fatherland.”
—————————
On BTGs
Indispensable A. Martyanov, in his latest video “What is the Plan?,” dismissed many requests demanding from him a talk on “tactics,” instead turned his video into a lecture on “logistics,” a must see for anyone interested in understanding the unfolding of Russia’s special operation, and the utter defeat of 404.
https://youtu.be/j8a_e09FvXA
Toward the end of his video, and for those who demanded a lesson on “tactics,” he recommended a book that is available in PDF for free, “The Russian Way of War” (Grau & Bartles). Even though published in 2016, and the Russian Army has made giant leaps in the last 6 years since, the book provides an insight into the RF Army “force structure, tactics, and modernization,” including but not only, BTGs. At 400+ pages, it is a breeze to read, and the links to the current conflict, jump at you. Highly recommended.
Lone Wolf
Agreed. This is going to be a grind, not a turkey shoot.
This is truly a humanitarian mission.
A number of surrendered AFU soldiers show clear evidence of starvation. Unfortunately the same effects are being felt by civilain hostages, so time is of the essence.
Agreed Lone Wolf – my guesstimate is it will be 12 weeks (early August) before the peacekeepers will be able to move on to the post-cauldron phase
Also – my guesstimate is the full demilitarization and denazification war of Ukraine will take 3 years.
Scott Ritter video (this guy works 24/7)
https://youtu.be/klPYYqhqO74
great article
Very interesting and explanatory for a layman like me. You shoot the ball precisely, efficiently. Sincere congratulations.
What are the Russian plans for the vast numbers of Ukies who will soon be surrendering? I hope they are not simply sent home as they were earlier in this conflict. Those guys probably either popped up again as combatants or maybe they were slaughtered as traitors by the Ukro-Nazis? Perhaps they will be marched “deep” into Russia and be interned there for the duration of the war. Even the Azov brigades will not be summarily shot, even if they deserve it for doing the same to captured RF troops. Keeping any of these dangerous SOBs in country would be a drain on the invasion force and does not seem like a good idea. These 100,000+ pawns need to be taken off the chessboard. Russian attention can then focus on Kiev (or Lvov) and trapping the rat named Zelensky. If he has fled the country, simply declare him decapitated from the presidency (as the Ukies did to Yanukovych) and name your own flunky to negotiate a surrender, borrowing the American Juan Guaido Gambit. It doesn’t have to remain a “frozen” conflict just because big Z chickens out.
@ Realist on April 10, 2022 · at 1:18 am EST/EDT
“What are the Russian plans for the vast numbers of Ukies who will soon be surrendering?…”
—————————
My humble opinion?
Turn them into a Russian version of chain-gangs, get them to work cleaning the mess they have made out of Mariupol and other cities, then help rebuild the cities destroyed by their cowardly recklessness. Ukraine’s countryside as we can see, is an ecological disaster, Azov “battalion” POWs should be put to clean what they have created, IMHO.
Lone Wolf
PS: Of course, Russians will never do that, chain-gangs are unique to the US, a shameful slavery times concoction.
Hey you might be more right than you know
https://www.bitchute.com/video/EN13sGhu8GoQ/
Run ’em through the minefields to demine first. (uhm, a little wild there!)
But it is a serious question though.
I have no problem whatsoever with China’s option of putting these kinds of radicals in re-education camps.
I believe France did that as well somewhere but it is just a factoid .. I don’t really know about it.
Russia and Syria ran them all into Idlib like a large concentration camp (where they are probably killing one another.)
But it remains a problem for humanity.
Trans siberian railway …
They will cut birches with tiny nail cutters, barefoot in the snow for 20 years or more,
Then live in relegation in log barracks close to Perm for the rest of their lifetime.
Long haired and bearded, crazy gaze …
Sing songs, write books, pray the Lord, talk to birds … stuff like that.
@ Greg Galloway on April 10, 2022 · at 11:18 am EST/EDT
“Trans siberian railway …
They will cut birches with tiny nail cutters, barefoot in the snow for 20 years or more,
Then live in relegation in log barracks close to Perm for the rest of their lifetime.
Long haired and bearded, crazy gaze …
Sing songs, write books, pray the Lord, talk to birds … stuff like that.”
—————————–
LOL…best of all solutions, Greg, it beats mine.
What a visual…just one question, write books on birch bark, cut with nail cutters? :-)
Lone Wolf
Don’t forget that the US Military “actively strives to maintain a balance between combat readiness and the lactation needs of it soldiers” (US Army memo, 1990s) so perceived threats from that direction need to be appropriately discounted.
All of this surely shows the complete lack of care by “our leaders” last December when the chance to give security guarantees to Russia and reduce the claimed value of NATO (which is obsolete if it ever had any value) was waiting to be grasped. NATO is the greatest threat to the possibility of peace and it is time the populations of the EU started using their brains and voting for those who want the world to continue and not be destroyed for the hubris of the USA and its lackeys.
Night vision,
Question 1 – NATO AWACS have a range limitation of (recollection) 400 miles. This might partially explain the RF ‘hugging’ the border regions.
Question 2 – it would be useful to do some simple math on the troop density (per km) In the Cauldron. Troop density per km of front is a crude measure for predicting how ‘tight’ the cauldron is besieged. How long of a front must each RF/DPR battalion cover ?
Also – extraordinary solid report today. The Battalion details are invaluable and answer many questions as to RF operational doctrine.
According to latest MSM reports Boris Johnson following his Kiev visit will now be providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine. What is the military purpose and strategy behind this move?
Ukron is going to be landlocked. No access to either the Azov or Black Sea, so there is no military purpose unless they’re going to go ‘all out’ to hold Odessa.
Profits for BAE may be the overriding strategy.
Appeasing the puppetmasters.
the UK, has just promised Ukraine a huge supply of heavy offensive weapons –
https://avia.pro/news/velik…
“Moreover, the UK will allocate half a billion dollars to Kiev for the purchase of weapons, ammunition or other property required by Ukraine.
Journalists of the news agency Avia.pro managed to find out that we are talking about the supply to Ukraine of anti-ship missile systems (presumably we are talking about ground launchers of Harpoon missiles – approx. ed.), cruise missiles, armored personnel carriers, tanks, kamikaze drones, portable anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as anti-tank missile systems.
The statement said Johnson had provided additional military assistance in the form of 120 armoured personnel carriers and new anti-ship missile systems “to support Ukraine at this crucial juncture while Russia’s special operation continues.” This is in addition to the UK’s announced assistance on Friday in the form of additional Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles and another 800 anti-tank missiles, as well as “loitering” drones for “pinpoint strikes”. As world powers held a round of fundraising for Ukraine, Johnson also pledged an additional $500 million through the World Bank.
In addition, a number of sources claim that the UK will also transfer to Ukraine multiple launch rocket systems and barrel artillery (presumably we are talking about wheeled self-propelled guns – approx. ed.).”
I am awaiting Russia’s reaction to this, as in my mind this constitutes a significant escalation and crosses a Russian red line. The UK seems intent on actually starting a war.
UK is ahead of the rest of wolf pack in terms of causing trouble for Russia. Faking traitors Litvinienko and Skripals poisoning comes to mind. Now they are scared that they Bandera proxy is loosing. All those heavy weapons will be perfect shooting target for Russian missiles.
The troops will arrive late at their destinations 9 but well supplied) thanks to the Russian people. That’s how they hate Putin and “his “war.
«The troops will arrive late at their destinations 9 but well supplied) thanks to the Russian people. That’s how they hate Putin and “his “war.»
History has long shadows:
http://ww2today.com/1-march-1944-the-red-army-marches-across-ukraine
«The population welcomed us warmly, regardless of how hard it was for them to provide food to soldiers; they always found some nice treats — some villagers boiled chicken, others boiled potatoes and cut lard (soldiers dubbed this kind of catering ‘a grandmother’s ration’). However, such attitudes were common only in the Eastern Ukraine.
As soon as we entered the Western Ukraine, that had passed to the Soviet Union from Poland in 1940, the attitude of the population was quite different — people hid from us in their houses, as they disliked and feared the Muscovites and Kastaps [a disparaging name for Russians in Ukraine – translators comment]. Besides that, those places were Bandera areas, where the nationalistic movement was quite strong.»
BTW my usual argument: they fascist xenophobes are not “ukrainian” nationalists, they are *ruthenian* nationalists from Galicia/Volynia etc., who want to establish “Greater Ruthenia” across Ukraine and Belarus, as the ruthenian homelands were attached to Ukraine and Belarus after WW2, and they want to use that to take over the rest too. In this they are aided by the polish “prometheists”, even if Pilsudski and Bandera were enemies and the ruthenians massacred a lot of poles (and I think also viceversa).
…. And do you realize that the entire F117 line was literally retired due to that ONE highly humiliating and symbolic event?…..
Much more than just 1 F117 knocked out of action;
Recollection is there were 24 F-117s used in the attack on Serbia. 17 were knocked out of action.
12 were damaged enough by air defense that they needed to be remanufactured. 1 shot down and crashed in Serbia. 4 others hit and crash landed outside Serbia. These 4 were scrapped.
This is my recollection. There were a few articles on these details published in the 2001-03 period, but are buried somewhere deep in the web,
What’s the rationale, besides a PR move, for Bojo and EU commissioner (dumb and dumber) to risk visiting Kiev with the Zelensky clown dude?
What would be reason for Russia and the UK/EU allowing them inside a warzone. It doesn’t make any good sense.
They didn’t visit Kiev. They visited Poland and met Zel in Poland :)
How do you explain the video that came out today of Bojo walking around in Kiev? a double?
I believe you are correct, that it could be staged in Poland, as I can’t understand the rationale or motivation to have extremely high profile visits inside a insecure war zone, how did they even arrive there?. The entire PR stunt is quite bizarre, the costs associated to secure the areas, all with UK tax money, makes no sense.
There was a comment in the early days of the war, where the US remarked that they need to prepare dealing with a president in exile, maybe that was code to stage the entire setups.
It only embroils the notion that Kiev will not fall, perhaps that is the only reason needed.
I’m sure for the Russian point of view, it makes no difference whether Xelensky is putting on a clown show, since he would be irrelevant for Russia, if it were to make Ukraine a state.
Regarding first phase of mobile operations, you commented on USA satelllite (and probably AWACS) intel having been fed all the time to Ukrainian side. How that goes together with alleged superior Russian EW capabilities? Probably it is not possible to just jam all enemy communications across large area?
Russia probably only Jam partial areas, who knows…. and there is a constant stream of videos from the battleground, maybe no Jam at all I think. Also, Russian Army is fully aware of steady reconnaissance and surveillance by the NATO’s eyes of movement of Russian Military, they surely take notes about it, and you can find the flight map of their planes around Ukraine, Baltic States and Black Sea… again, I see that even though the UkroNazis got their intelligence from NATO, they barely can do nothing since day one, they just gone one by one got hit by missiles and artillery.