How many of them are actually over hostile territory in Ukraine?
Now that you mention that, I do not know specifically what defines a sortie. Or if each side defines them in the same way. But I don’t think a flight over ones own held territory would be included in such a report. I think a reported sortie, would be one of an aircraft penetrating enemy territory for some form of attack. Probably even excluding such things as a flight delivering parachuting troops, which would be included in an enemy ground offensive, even if initiated by air.
Maybe a detected aircraft doing surveillance with no attack, would also be considered a sortie.
Which bridges specifically are you talking about? The offensive towards Kupiansk hasn’t crossed any bridges of note. In fact it seems more likely that the Ukrainians would be trying to destroy bridges over the Oskil to prevent Russian retreats and further cut off Izium.
You must be getting this from Russian sources.
Every commentator I’ve heard or read talking about air superiority says how surprised they are that Russia have never been able to achieve it over Ukraine.
Take this article, for example:
Well, a sortie in military aviation is pretty much an aircraft taking off from an airfield on a combat mission. You launch six aircraft and they return to base without attacking anything, that’s still six sorties. Most Russian air attacks since April seem to have launched their munitions as close as possible to Russian airspace. If they had anything approaching air superiority, they would be launching their missiles much more closely, where they can achieve greater accuracy. Most of this war, they’ve been hitting a shitload of non-military targets.
Any penetration they have achieved has come from flying close to the ground to avoid the quite effective late Soviet/Early RF anti-air systems the Ukrainians seem to still have, which exposes them to the aforementioned MANPADS.
So, their lack of air superiority is obvious. Neither side has superiority, so that might be some comfort to the Russians.
Whoa! Quiet Quitting is also happening in Russia’s armed forces. 
unconfirmed - but I am reading more and more info on the Rus. front completely collapsing and Ukr. forces already fighting WITHIN Izyum… with lots of Rus. surrendering.
(info from an ex-deputy-mayor of Izyum on FB … to be taken with a grain of salt)
I guess tomorrow we will learn more…
I wonder if WarGonzo got his tire fixed.
Carlson should just head over to Russia at this point. He gets his talking points directly from them anyway.
I’m sure you are.
Here is what the Ukrainian government is saying.
If I’m not mistaken, both Russian and Ukrainian forces make heavy use of 152mm artillery shells. I would assume that any Russian 152mm shells that fall into Ukrainian hands can be fired from 152mm Ukrainian howitzers.
Same may also apply for 122mm, a Russian/Ukrainian caliber that is unseen in the West.
I’d rather pay more for energy than have an army of orcs coming over the hill to kill, rape, and pillage, who ban all languages but their own, making me a stranger in my own land. Those actually next to Russia feel this even more strongly. What good is cheap energy if I lose my freedom and/or my life? What good is cheap energy to someone tortured and maimed, or gang-raped?
Russia is trying to hold Europe hostage with energy and other nations hostage with food, as if there really were no other alternatives in the world. Of course alternatives will be found and used. As the true nature of the current Russian regime becomes more and more apparent more and more people will be willing to oppose it.
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
There are ways to manage that. See what happened recently in California where alerts to customers resulted in sufficient drop in demand to avoid major blackouts despite there being an unprecedented heat wave and demand for power to run air conditioners (sort of the flip of winter cold, but really the same problem in regards to energy).
I do not think this war will end “quickly”. I’d love to be wrong on that, but I doubt I am.
Pure capitalism means people would freeze to death in winter, or starve to death. Society at large, at least our type of society, frowns upon that which is why no nation in the world has pure capitalism or markets with unlimited freedom.
Ukraine and Russia may be in a hot war, but the EU and NATO are in a cold war. A war footing means sacrifice is required and as usual the greedy profiteers are squealing loudest.
Putin will never negotiate. I don’t think this ends without Putin ending first.
Did you miss the whole point about price gouging?
There’s a middle ground between “make them run at a loss” and “let them charge exorbitant rates”.
And if the government is setting rates/capping profits/whatever you wish to call it they could set prices high enough to prevent increased demand, but prevent gouging above that.
A lot of it has to do with a certain segment of America projecting on Europe. They’re assuming ya’ll will run things like Texas, which had most of their power grid collapse due to incompetence and greed in a place where government is prevented from protecting its citizens. I suspect you’re more like California, which does impose controls on industry to protect the populace and gets traction from a text message saying “the grid is about to collapse, please reduce your energy use ASAP to help us prevent that” that actually works.
The Russians are retreating with only what they can carry, which does not include all the stuff in the pictures. Stuff that the Ukrainians will soon own, and will use against the Russians. Most militaries will blow that stuff up before leaving precisely to avoid being shot in the back with their own weapons, but if the retreat is a rout then it’s left behind intact. That’s a sign of panic, not orderly retreat.
You forgot 3. Inform people that if they don’t cut back voluntarily either 1 or 2 or both will be in effect. Which, admittedly, doesn’t work well with many Americans and their “I got mine, f*** you attitude” but we’re talking about Europeans here.
There is also 4. do f*** all until the whole house of cards collapses but I’m going to assume no one wants to see that.
That is sort of how armies advance - infantry and special ops always move faster than armor and artillery.
Seems that the Ukrainians in this war have largely done that for the Russians.
Actually, the Ukrainians would be wise to leave an avenue of retreat for the Russians, which I assume is why they haven’t blown them yet - cornered rats fight much harder than fleeing rats. Given the way the Russians are leaving material behind I suspect they won’t be blowing the bridges, either, because no one is organizing such a sensible move.
The Ukrainians have been wargaming with the US before proceeding with new initiatives, as well as getting intel. They’re getting arms and support from dozens of nations.
Putin invaded Ukraine for no reason and has already reduced half of it to rubble. What is there to negotiate? It’s not as if the two sides both have valid grievances and there is some middle ground. It would be like trying to negotiate with Hitler, when his non-negotiable intent was to overrun all of Europe. Which attempt at negotiation, one might recall, became the lamentable legacy of the hapless Neville Chamberlain.
The longer I live here, the more I realize that Americans just simply do not get Europeans. Yeah, every European country and culture is different, but it’s taken me years to understand that there’s this fundamental mindset underpinning everything that creates a collective European similarity separating the continent from American ideas and attitudes, in a way that Americans flatly do not grok. So, as a result, you’re right, when Americans try to comment on European culture and make predictions about policy responses, they end up primarily revealing their own limited perspective and projecting their own biases and assumptions.
It is possible that if and when things get really rough, financially and otherwise, there could be public pressure on European leaders to cut and run, and I’ve conceded as much in other discussions. But I suspect the threshold for this will be much higher than American outsiders predict, and that a successful collective effort to resist Russia’s neo-czarist bullshit will end up bolstering European resolve and confirm the strength of a unified Europe, directly contrary to Putin’s attempts to sow discord and tear the Union apart. I mean, everything else he’s done has had the opposite effect as intended, so why not this too?
So however much Putin loyalists might wring their hands and express disingenuous concern about energy crises and coming hardship, I believe Europe will properly recognize that for what it is, dismiss it, and buckle down to the task at hand. I really do have faith.