Ukraine is making good progress on their own more affordable system.
More affordable, and less reliant on the latest whim of the US.
I’ve heard (secondhand) some speculation that the death of Lindsey Graham, who was apparently part of negotiating this agreement, might lead to it falling apart. I guess we’ll have to see…
The assault on tankers, bulk carriers, tugs, ferries in the Sea of Azov continues. “Ukraine claims that 28 Russian vessels were hit by aerial drones in the Sea of Azov on Saturday. The strikes are the latest in a campaign that Ukrainian authorities assert has resulted in nearly 80 Russian vessels, mostly so-called shadow fleet oil tankers, being attacked in that body of water on a daily basis since July 6.”
Other areas of interest: The attack has caused the Russians to halt traffic on the major grain shipping canal; European grain futures went up 4%. The most likely drone used, FP-2, has an upgraded warhead (200 kg now). The earlier FP-1 drone now has enough range to reach over the Urals to Siberian territory, Omsk refinery 3000 km away. Videos of attacks and aftermath included below.
I’m frankly amazed that a/ this hasn’t happened before and b/ that Russia is still using the Black/Azov seas to bring in vital supplies, given what’s already happened to their navy there.
It’s a big country. Maybe it’s not economical to launch these ships from any of their other coastlines?
Most of the huge Russian coast is on the artic ocean. Ports, year around are non-existent. Also the Siberian area has hostile weather much of the year. The USSR and now Russia has always hungered for warm weather seaports. With the Black Sea closed for military transport and Ukraine interdicting grain and oil, they are in a world of hurt.
Leave Ukraine, return the children and adults that were kidnapped, start paying reparations. Peace is easy. 
Otherwise, their only other useable ports are in the White Sea, which are not feasible for half the year. That’s why Peter the Great made capturing territory around the Black Sea a priority.
Summary
To make sure Trump’s fingerprints are undeniably on it?
Moderating
Reminder, this is the breaking-news thread. Keep the politics and conjecture out of it please.
I’m hiding the prior post as it is doubly off for the thread.
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The war machines are coming. This was a small start. Think proof of principle.
Drones are downing helicopters now:
Ukrainian drone strike on Russian version of Amazon. Considered legit because they supply a large portion of military gear, via China.
Ukraine’s devastating overnight drone attacks on Wildberries warehouses in Russia are likely intended to cause damage across the Russian economy and increase public discontent. The estimated losses may exceed $1.2 billion.
For context, Wildberries is the Russian analogue of amazon.com. Imagine Jeff Bezos and Tony Soprano in business together. [!] Since the Russian soldiers on the line haven’t had proper equipment for four years + now, Wildberries is deep into the black market supply of military equipment. The warehouse in question supplies 10% of their Russian business, so it IS a military target. Slava Ukraini!
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More info w/ picture.
For once I can empathize with Russian actions in denying that it was used for military supplies. No country will admit that they are failing their frontline troops so badly that they are forced to supply themselves on the black market. Nonetheless, if the troops are indeed doing so, then that makes the warehouse a military target.
Potentially one of the most impactful Ukrainian strikes this year. It’s going to have a massive impact on the average Russian citizen. The smoke clouds are visible in Moscow and from planes at cruising altitudes long distances away. To make it worse for Russians, Wildberries changed their terms of service recently to eliminate refunds to sellers in the event of Ukrainian strikes. This means thousands of Russian businesses / individual sellers are out a large amount of money. Life continues to get harder for the average Russian, something that must terrify Putin.
Does that mean there’ll be public acknowledgement that Russia is taking significant damage from the police action (or whatever they call it).
I don’t have a good idea of what Putin is like, but what I do get is that he doesn’t really care what the average Russian thinks. As long as his security people can keep the lid on protests and other anti-government actions, he’s not worried.