The Wagner reputation is almost more valuable than the fighters themselves. Though this article asks what the next “Wagner” will be now that it’s been torn apart and Prigozhin has fallen from grace. He had his fingers in so many pies and now their valuable fighters are up for grabs by everyone. Belarus has a bunch, for example. And Russian oil company Lukoil has its own PMC who will probably grab some of them. As of March, 25 Russian private military companies operated in Ukraine.
i think you need many, many moneys to have a standing army nowadays.
- who has many, many money?
- who needs a standing army?
I think answering those Q. will help with the answer.
my guess: a couple of hundred of wagnerets will be cherry-picked by the mercenery-ecosystem (africa, middle east…?) …
the rest will fight in the russian army - possibly in meatgrinder units to reduce their numbers to non-system-threatening numbers (they are merceneries after all) - or go home and become alcoholics.
He didn’t fall from grace, he fell from the sky.
And any hope for grace, he lost long ago.
Maybe one of the flight crew was named Grace.
Maybe his plane was not full-on struck, just grazed?
Are you saying this not a dead Prigozhin?
“…we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air…”
Pskov may be the deepest strike yet into Russia:
That’s $43 billion from the U.S. since Russia invaded last year. I wonder how much NATO has spent in total?
Looking at that map, I have to wonder if the UAVs were actually launched from Ukraine. Latvia and Estonia are right there, and while I’m sure the governments wouldn’t approve of the potential for escalation, it’s probably not too hard to find Ukrainian sympathizers there who would look the other way, or even cooperate with an attack.
Pro-Russians on social media are suggesting that, but I think launch from within Russia would be more likely.
There’s also video of explosion in city of Bryansk.
drones over russia…
luckily for russia, no damage to report
/s
All those shells are coming down … somewhere.
meanwhile in Bryansk …
russia not getting hit
I’m sure there’s a rational explanation.
- Fireworks for a Russian holiday.
- Signal fire to welcome new Astronauts
- Night time mosquito fogging.
- Various Putin critics fleeing in private jets
Not sure, but given the US Defense budget is 750 billion or so PER YEAR, that seems like a good return on investment to basically neuter Russia’s conventional military.
US Aid to Ukraine 29 Aug 2013
This is a drawdown of existing stocks.
AIM-9M missiles for air defense.
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, also called HIMARS.
155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds.
Mine-clearing equipment.
Tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided, or “TOW,” missiles.
Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets.
Hydra-70 rockets.
Over 3 million rounds of small-arms ammunition.
Armored medical treatment vehicles and high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle, or Humvee, ambulances.
Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.
Spare parts, maintenance, and other field equipment.
search-light to find a lost moon lander?
Not at all. Just that others were saying that he fell from graze.
I thought you were going to say he’s pining for the fjords.