Does Pootin’ have any ability to have loyalists use nuclear weapons independently of the presumably safeguarded chain of command? Like maybe a missile sub officered by handpicked cronies, or the ability to release control of tactical nukes to field units, or even the Russian equivalent of Doctor Strangelove’s “Plan R”?
That article surprised me. It seems like Russia is trying to deny the numbers of dead. Ukraine POW Exchanges for Russian bodies goes against that policy. Its probably the front line Unit commanders that care about their fallen men.
Wow, trading live POWs for corpses. The higher Russian casualty counts become a lot more believable with that news.
If my math isn’t mistaken, this means that on a deaths-per-day basis, Russia is suffering losses over 400x worse than what America suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s almost like they are trying to set a record for ‘futility in war’ or something.
There’s a lot of very stiff competition in that category. I can’t seem them winning there either.
I wonder if the Ukraine has issued their own most wanted deck.
I dunno. Maybe don’t wear rank insignia outside of secure buildings. Or at all?
Explosions and big fire at the Russian-controlled port of Berdyansk.
Sabotage? Accident?
This seems to be location of fire:
Lots of secondary explosions. Maybe ammo burning up.
Difficult to speculate whether this is Russian incompetence or Ukrainian brilliance, but it surely can’t be good for Russian supplies in the south-east.
I’m not sure how the Ukrainians could have done it. It’s deep into enemy-“controlled” territory on the Sea of Azov, around which the only remaining Ukrainian-controlled area is Mariupol, up the coast, which is obviously besieged.
An air strike would seem risky, and I’m not sure whether Ukraine has missiles to do this sort of mission at this range.
If it was the Ukrainians, it’s pretty epic whichever way it was done.
If it was a Russian smoking a cigarette by some fuel barrels, then that would also seem conceivable.
If it was a Tochka-U (SS-21) missile, then it has a range of 100km or more.
Yes, was just looking at Wikipedia. It says the OTR-21 Tochka third variant has a range of 185 km (115 mi), so that’s well within range of Ukrainian-controlled territory to the north.
Could be the Orsk. There’s only three ships in its class in active service. Not sure where the other two are.
Wikipedia suggests that there were only three Russian Navy landing ships of this size in active service in the Black Sea Fleet. Now there are two (both Ropucha class).
Here’s a Russian invader gushing about gaining control of the Berdyansk port earlier this week:
At least four Russian warships were seen sailing rapidly away from from Berdyansk.
Their cargos were obviously destined for the attack on Mariupol, so this will be a setback for capturing it. Especially if they lost a lot of ammunition and fuel.