Pretty weird that Russia has made little to no use of drones so far and it’s all Ukraine doing all the droning.
Give it time. I’m sure Russia has all kinds of weaponry we’ve never even dreamed of, and they’ll bring it out if they need to.
It would be interesting to know where their money is going, It is believed that these oligarchs are holding their wealth for Putin.
Wouldn’t the time they need to bring out all this new weaponry be a month ago? Unless that’s snark.
It is pretty weird that neither side seems to be making much use of decoys.
I seem to remember reading that the Moskva was following a regular, routine route, which means it would be pretty easy to predict its location.
The Russians use the Orlan UAV:
It only seems to be for reconnaissance, though, while the Ukrainains have combat drones, such as the Turkish-made Bayraktar.
Maybe those howitzers we sent them are being put to good use?
I’ve noticed on-the-ground reporting has nearly stopped. CNN and Fox had reporters in and around Kyiv. I remember the news during the early weeks of the war. The guy from CNN was very good.
I know the reporter from Fox got badly wounded and his camera man killed. IIRC it was at a Russian checkpoint. It’s become too dangerous for media to travel in Ukraine. Russians consider them targets.
Imho some up and coming reporters should embed with Ukrainian units. That would be safer than driving unescorted in a van labeled press.
It’s dangerous but there’s a long history of embedded reporters in WWII, Korea, Viet Nam and of course the Gulf Wars.
The war can be won or lost by information. International funds and weapons are pouring into Ukraine. Battlefield reporting is the only way to know if the Ukrainians can successfully win battles.
Or the news cycle has moved on.
P-8 Poseidons’ missions are anti-maritime which is a minor factor right now. The naval AEW aircraft is the E-2 Hawkeye, and without a carrier in the area, I doubt any of those are around. Like you said, Air Force E-3 Sentries make a lot more sense.
Or the obvious answer: the main battle was easy to locate before, since Russia’s main push was toward Kyiv. Now it’s spread across a 300 mile front. It’s hard to get your reporter to a spot where there’s actually something happening now, and to do so is more dangerous than it was in Kyiv.
The large battlefield and danger makes it impractical for reporters to roam around developing stories.
Reporters chafe at the restrictions of embedding with troops. They definitely complained during the Gulf Wars. Raw footage has to be checked and cleared for distribution.
I’m not sure the Ukrainians could do it on their own. NATO militaries already have well established protocols for screening out sensitive information and still allow news reporting.
Maybe they’ll work something out after the Ukrainians get better established. We’re going to liberate this town. Any Journalists want first hand access to the battle?
The Guardian blog is reporting the hit on a Russian command post near Kherson. Two dead generals. There had to be other casualties in the command post.
Gee, I wonder about that precise targeting intel. 
It had to be a lucky hit.
I doubt General Alexander Dvornikov is actually in Ukraine. The Butcher of Syria is needed for leadership and organization skills. He has to fix a lot of problems in the Russian units.
It’s also unclear if Russia plans, or has a realistic shot at, occupying Odesa, which would remain a port of significant capability in Ukraine’s hands.
As the war moves to areas of Ukraine with a number of pro-Russian separatists in the population, there may be some behavior on the part of Ukrainian forces that will make the struggle appear a little less black and white to western eyes. Ukraine will try to restrict reporter access to anything that makes their forces look as brutal as the Russians’.
Ryan is a retired anti-tanker specialist.
His brief analysis of Russian photos is very interesting. They seem staged. They’re wearing Soviet era badges and Russian. Appeals to the older viewers back home.
That still makes me laugh. If we hadn’t seen the shoddiness in Russian equipment already, I would have thought this was a joke.
What a complicated set up just for short range reconnaissance. And it looks a lot like the one above that had a cheap camera and was held together with glue and duct tape. Plus, you can’t even land them, you shut down the engine and deploy a parachute. I guess $120,000 doesn’t go as far as it used to.