🏹 The systems will be part of an artillery package worth around $300 million, which also includes five counter-battery radars and related funding.
https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1910733717162655844
Posted on 02/24/2024 5:59:01 AM PST by SpeedyInTexas
This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When a vehicle is captured and then lost in service with its new owners, it is only added as a loss of the original operator to avoid double listings. When the origin of a piece of equipment can't be established, it's not included in the list. The Soviet flag is used when the equipment in question was produced prior to 1991. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available.
(Excerpt) Read more at oryxspioenkop.com ...
Russia's external debt reached $312.4 billion by April 1, 2025, up 7.6% from the beginning of the year, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reported.
At the end of November last year, the State Duma adopted the law on the federal budget for 2025 and the planning period 2026-2027. According to it, the limit of the state external debt should be at the level of 61.1 billion dollars at the beginning of 2026, 59.2 billion dollars at the beginning of 2027 and 56.5 billion dollars at the beginning of 2028.
https://ura.news/news/1052916080
These figures and the article about pensions point to alarming problems that cannot be solved easily.
🏹 The systems will be part of an artillery package worth around $300 million, which also includes five counter-battery radars and related funding.
https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1910733717162655844
https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1910723017937748021
And what do you think happened next? You guessed it – Russia attacked.
On February 9, 1918, Ukraine signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Türkiye, and Bulgaria.
💬 It stated: “The Ukrainian people have declared themselves independent…They wish to take the first step toward a lasting and honorable peace for all parties.”
In exchange for food and raw materials, the Central Powers provided military aid to Ukraine to fight off Bolshevik aggression.
What happened next?
Read:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1888630180949680156.html
Fix your own country AdmSmith, and stay out of our foreign policy.
https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1910752695331287489
Very effective against cruise missiles and shahed drones.
Actually my interpretation of Putin’s belly kiss and explanation was that it was a spontaneous response to the clean innocence of this young boy. I spent ten years counseling adults who had been severely abused as children. One man I knew had been deliberately raped by his older brother who used the family dog to do it, while the alcoholic mother was not paying attention. That man is dead, and is by no means the worst case I was dealing with or being told about.
Given the Russian attitude regarding rape as a “manly” punishment, I wonder how Putin was treated as a small, fairly attractive youth. Perhaps his early treatment explains his absolute need for $200 billion or more and huge high security palaces to feel even a little safe. Frankly, I pity him, although I pity his victims far more. Severe treatment in childhood can result in some seriously bizarre behavior if they survive to functioning adulthood. Often they don’t survive, or drink or drug themselves to death in young adulthood.
“If Russians now pay 22% of their salaries to pay pensions, how much will they have to pay in a couple of decades?”
In addition to the changing ratio of contributors to recipients, as a result of Russia’s demographic collapse, there is another, and more urgent 800lb gorilla in the room.
Many Russian pensions in Russia are paid from the National Wealth Fund, which has been massively depleted over the course of the last three years of war.
At current rates of expenditure, Russia will run out of the remaining liquid buffer in that fund, this year. Hard financial adjustments will have to be made.
They will likely try to distribute the pain across several areas (e.g. some more taxes here, some more spending cuts there) but the likely biggest replacement to National Wealth Fund contributions to funding Russia’s deficit spending on the war (and indeed, pensions), will likely be increased lending to the Government from the Russian Central Bank (i.e., expanding the money supply more rapidly, AKA “printing money”), which will further accelerate inflation in Russia.
“Russia’s External Debt Has Increased to $312.4 Billion
Russia’s external debt reached $312.4 billion by April 1, 2025, up 7.6% from the beginning of the year.”
That’s about a $22 Billion increase in the first quarter. Four quarters like that would increase Russia’s External debt by $88 Billion, but many expenses in Russian accounting, are not booked until the end of the 4th quarter. So a $100 Billion increase for 2025 would still be a conservative estimate. The rate of external debt accumulation has accelerated sharply. I would be interested to learn who they owe it to, and for what.
Those Q1 results are from before the oil price crash, so there is significant further upside risk to Russia’s External Debt for 2025 - far above the $61 Billion increase in their budget planning. Add to that risk the likelihood of the National Wealth Fund exhausting its capability to continue contributing to defraying budget deficits this year, to the degree it has been during the three prior war years (about $35 Billion/year).
Bigger budget shortfall equalization measures will be required as this year progresses, than has been the case in the three years prior. As challenging as those were, more of the reserve buffers and easier alternatives (like raising the Government’s taxes on oil and gas companies) have been or are approaching exhaustion, while the war requirements continue growing.
A financial train wreck seems to growing more likely in Russia this year.
Yes, Muscovy Central Bank: If the SVO does not end by the summer, or at the latest in June, a terrible, very severe crisis will hit the Russian economy.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4219673/posts?page=14131#14131
Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to emphasize Russia's large-scale and long-term investments in Russia's navy and naval strategic nuclear forces. Putin held a meeting on April 11 to discuss Russia's development strategy for the Russian Navy through 2050.[21] Putin claimed that the Russian Navy plays a “vital role” in ensuring Russia's security and defense and in protecting Russia's national interests in the “World Ocean.” Putin stated that one of Russia's priority tasks is to strengthen its naval strategic nuclear forces. Putin stated that Russia has allocated “significant funds” towards constructing 49 vessels in the past five years and that Russia has allocated 8.4 trillion rubles (about $100.9 billion) toward the construction of new vessels in the coming decade. Putin noted that Russia has introduced four Borei-A class nuclear submarines and four Yasen-M class nuclear submarines into the navy between 2020 and 2024.
Putin specifically highlighted the Zircon cruise missile, claiming that the missile has a range of over 1,000 kilometers and a speed of nearly Mach 10. Putin also called for Russia to develop ship-based unmanned aircraft systems and unmanned underwater and surface boats and to integrate these unmanned systems into a “single reconnaissance and strike [system], linked to [Russia's] satellite group.” Russian forces have launched a limited number of Zircon cruise missiles in ground attack mode against Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces have successfully shot down some of the Zircon missiles.[22]
Russian opposition media provided additional details regarding Russia's efforts to recruit Chinese citizens to serve in Ukraine following Ukrainian reports about Chinese nationals fighting in Ukraine.[85] Russian opposition outlet Vazhnye Istorii, citing official documentation and contract recruitment data from June 2023 to May 2024, reported on April 11 that Russian registration and enlistment offices in Moscow Oblast processed at least 51 Chinese nationals applying to service in the Russian military between June 2023 and May 2024. Vazhnye Istorii reported that most of the Chinese nationals arrived in Moscow shortly before signing military service contracts with some arriving in pairs at the recruitment point and that at least four Chinese nationals returned to the People's Republic of China (PRC) after visiting the recruitment office. Vazhnye Istorii reported that several Chinese nationals have reportedly returned to the PRC after concluding their one-year term of service with the Russian MoD. One former contract soldier who returned to the PRC in March 2024 told Vazhnye Istorii that he complained about poor medical care in the Russian military to the PRC embassy, indicating that some PRC officials may be aware that Chinese nationals are participating in military operations in Ukraine.
UK outlet The Guardian reported on April 10 that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is circulating recruitment ads designed to target young men on Chinese social media.[86] The Guardian noted that numerous recruitment ads on Chinese social media platforms are emphasizing recruitment salaries ranging from 60,000 to 200,000 Chinese Yuan (roughly $8,200 to $27,300). The fact that many of these recruitment ads and videos of Chinese influencers promoting Russian military recruitment have circulated on Chinese social media platforms for months may suggest that Chinese authorities are either unwilling to or uninterested in combating such informational campaigns. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated that Russian authorities are actively leveraging Chinese social media to recruit Chinese nationals.[87]
The Russian MoD appears to be recruiting contract servicemembers at an increased rate. Russian opposition outlet Verstka reported on April 11 that statistics from the Unified Selection Point show that monthly contract recruitment rates have almost doubled in late March and early April 2025 compared to January 2025.[88] Verstka noted that there was a sharp increase in the recruitment rate in mid-March 2025 after Russian forces retook most of the Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast and reported that more than 6,300 people have signed military service contracts since the beginning of 2025. An unnamed Russian recruiter told Verstka that money is still the most common motivating factor for new recruits. An unnamed Russian source in Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s office told Vertska that Russian authorities are trying to attract new recruits with intensified patriotic appeals instead of financial incentives, indicating that Russian authorities are likely having to develop various recruitment strategies based on other motivating factors due to Russia's deepening economic constraints. An unnamed source close to Moscow Metro management told Verstka that Russian authorities and recruitment organizations are intensifying military recruitment campaigns and opened new recruitment points at several Moscow metro stations on April 1 that operate during morning rush hour. ISW continues to assess that the Kremlin is unable to provide ever-increasing financial incentives to boost recruitment efforts as Russia is forced to confront compounding economic challenges.[89]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-april-11-2025
According to him, Russia has declared the occupied territories part of its country.
“How can they back down from this? Ukraine, like the whole world, considers these occupied territories part of Ukraine, Azerbaijan also considers them Ukrainian.”
“As for our position: we have always supported, support and will continue to support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”
“As the leader of a country that has experienced two hot wars and the period between them, I can tell you: a ceasefire never stops the war. Never. It is just a temporary relief for countries to regroup, mobilize and start all over again.”
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