I hope the West provides Ukraine with some armored bulldozers.
From the Gulf War:
Now I’m confused. I thought the pictures of the downed drone, the UJ-22, was the type that attacked the A-50. That should have blown apart that radar. If the drone/payload was as small as you say, it’s no wonder there was such little damage. Especially if it wasn’t a directional charge. I’ll have to go back and re-read the reports.
At the G20 in New Delhi, Lavrov talks about “the war which we are trying to stop and which was launched against us”. The audience laughs derisively.
Slightly altered by me, I think this quote is appropriate.
“Until this moment, Minister, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”
That is absolutely horrifying and also… logically efficient. But then, that’s war, isn’t it? When you break things and kill people.
Much has been made of comparing Putin to Hitler, but there are also parallels with Iraq’s attempt to swallow Kuwait. I sometimes think Putin thought he could take Ukraine the way the Americans/Allies took Iraq during Desert Storm. If he did, recent history shows that no, he could not do that.
The UJ-22 is a different much large drone with a range measured in hundreds of km/miles. The drone making the video and the ones that did the attack on the plane were very small consumer drones (little quadcopters) with short range and small payload. They were controlled by local partisans/Ukrainian special forces.
Thanks for saving me the time going back! They would have had to have excellent placement to do any serious damage with a payload that small. Can you imagine the disappointment in getting a shot at a target like that and coming away empty?
From what I’ve read the attack on the A-50 was claimed by a Belarusian opposition group.
Here’s more video of other surveillance of the airfield from right outside the fence by drones. At least one of the A-50s was badly inoperative before the drone observed the aircraft. A still shows windows missing and snow in the cockpit along with a plywood board on another window.
Latest aid package (drawdown of existing stocks) light on details.
This military assistance package includes more ammunition for U.S.-provided HIMARS and howitzers, which Ukraine is using so effectively to defend itself, as well as ammunition for Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges, demolitions munitions and equipment, and other maintenance, training, and support.
So more detail from me:
HIMARS guided missiles
105mm and 155mm howitzer ammo
25mm ammo for the Bradley IFVs; M791 AP and or M792 HEI-T
Armored bridge launching vehicles based on M60 tanks. Used to cross trenches, small streams, obstacles. etc… more in depth here: Former M60 Tanks Fitted With Folding Bridges Are Headed For Ukraine
Both Germany and Brits have supplied bridging equipment as well form last year.
Those might also come in handy for increased mobility during the rasputitsa (mud season).
I’d like to think their missile silos are covered with plywood and filled with snow.
How quickly will they arrive? I read a story that the Russkies took out a bridge where Ukraine is attempting to evacuate civilians.
Ukraine will have to decide where to deploy a limited supply of bridges. Whether they choose to use them for humanitarian, or tactical -not sure.
I think tactical would be best use given the current conditions on the ground. And a tactical win could (in theory) help the humanitarian situation.
but wait - there is more …
for all interested in how a RU military airfield in belarus looks from the “inside”
I’ve seen some speculation that the drone landed on the radome in order to capture it’s exact GPS coordinates. Too bad that the actual attack drone didn’t have the firepower to completely disable the whole jet.
That’s good, but I would think the Ukrainians or terrorists or who ever would have used that within hours.
I’m sorry, I’m not following you… what is good? And, what is it that you would think Ukrainians or terrorists or whoever would have used within hours? It’s not clear to me who you are responding to.
This war is so different. I used to think liberated cities were free. Like in WWII the allied army fought the Germans and freed Italian and French cities. The German threat was usually over.
The fighting never stops in Ukraine. Freed cities get shelled into oblivion. There’s always a threat from artillery and missiles.
And relatively cheaply, too. There was a TV documentary here which showed Ukrainians making a simple home-made (well, with a 3D printer) adaptation to an ordinary hobby drone that dropped a grenade on to, occasionally directly into, a tank.