At least three ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, including the Admiral Makarov flagship, were damaged as a result of the unmanned surface vessel [USV] attack on 29 October.
Ukraine now has artillery superiority in the area, commanders and military analysts say…
Falling rates of Russian fire also speak to ammunition shortages, he said. “There is an idea the Russian army is infinite, but it is a myth,” he said. “The intensity of fire has fallen by three times. It’s realistic to fight them.”
Christ, that’s pathetic. Total disorganization, nobody knew what they were supposed to do. And that wasn’t even particularly heavy shelling. They finally get their shit together and the driver can’t even stay on the road. I really hope this is the best Putin has to offer.
I thought the report addressed to “Товарищ комаидующий” was interesting. Reuters translates it to “Comrade commander”. That’s certainly how it would have translated in Soviet times, but is that still what it means? Are they seriously still running around calling each other “Comrade” thirty years after the end of communist rule? I realize “товарищ” more generically translates as “friend”, but is it a typical military honorific in Russia? It certainly wouldn’t be in an American status report.
“Movement starts when it gets dark. Never give it (a thermal imager) to a soldier. It’s better go into battle yourself. Because these f***ing soldiers grab everything and send that home. So many imagers have been stolen.”
And this is when corruption starts to get non-sensical. I can understand some guy in a warehouse selling off equipment for money, but these guys on the front line need that stuff to have even a chance of survival. Who in their right mind would sell off their own equipment, that they need right now?
Deserters selling their stuff while running away, okay, that makes sense. But these guys are apparently still fighting…
And/Or they assume they’re going to die anyway with or without thermal imagers but maybe their family can get a few bucks out of it by selling the equipment.
This is what happens when your government is a fascist kleptocracy. You reap what you sow.
Oh, and Putin is, ironically, the only real fascist major nation world leader. As is common he started as a right wing Populist, then became a fascist dictator, just like Hitler and Mussolini. (I say "major nation as some of the 'stans, and similar minor nations also qualify).
There are reports that Ukrainian pilots will soon head to America for training on F-15s and F-16s. My hope is that it’s the Strike Eagle variant, and not the lamer F-15C.
There was this image of a soldier holding a yellow and blue flag in Red Square captioned “The Kremlin has been liberated!”, below it an image of a flustered Zelenskyy, “Crimea! I said Crimea!”
I’m not surprised the grain export deal ended. Russia was looking for an excuse.
Ukraine needs to include a couple camera drones with their attack. Position them away from the action and they would be more likely to survive and return
Wide angle footage of the damaged Russian ships would be important intel.
Sure, but neither of those translates to anything like “mate”, “partner”, "pal, “chum”, “helpmate”, “butty”, “mucker”, or “comrade”. Assuming it’s not a bizarre communist anachronism, it’s just a strangely familiar form of address to ones military commander, which isn’t shared by the English, Spanish, and French ritual phrases you cited.
Given the photos in @Walken_After_Midnight’s post, my money is on bizarre communist anachronism.
