Posted on 02/24/2024 5:59:01 AM PST by SpeedyInTexas
“You know what the prime drone and missile targets are. Distillation columns are number one.”
Hundred pound warheads on drones damage those towers. Thousand or two thousand pound warheads on Tomahawks or Flamingoes will destroy them - knock them down.
“What has it been something like 18 months to take a small town?” (Pokrovsk)
I’ve seen some assessments that the main assault started 15 months ago, and others that the Operation began in earnest 21 months ago. So 18 months is a good round number.
Lucky thing that they are so SuperPower and all that, or it would take them even longer...
“Moscow and St Petersburg lord over all & call the shots.”
That is why in planning for nuclear warfighting, they are amply targeted, to ensure thorough destruction. it is a known Center of Gravity for Russia.
“Moscow and St Petersburg lord over all & call the shots.”
That is why in planning for nuclear warfighting, they are amply targeted, to ensure thorough destruction. it is a known Center of Gravity for Russia.
Not sure how good their targeting is but if they can hit the towers that pretty much shuts down the refinery
“moron”
Pithy.
Saves time, for more worthwhile things.
“the first of these steps will be the holding of special, especially powerful prayers... special, secret prayers.”
Breaking out the good stuff.
This never gets old...
“It would be rich to see the gas station with nukes have to buy back from China fuel at a premium, made from oil that Russia sold at a loss.”
Arguably, that could surpass the economic inefficiencies, of even the old Soviet Union! Quite a feat!
Putin is a real pro, at this destruction of wealth thing.
“Russia has been predicted a severe fuel crisis.”
At this point, it would seem that only a miracle will prevent that this Winter.
Perhaps it is time for the Double Secret, Extra Special Prayers.
Certainly, that is a more reasonable approach to avoiding a fuel crisis, than would be halting hostilities. That would be crazy talk.
Bet he hasn’t dipped into his vast fortune to finance his folly 😎
Sometimes the answer is NO
Imagine Krill won’t be attending any of his double secret prayer sessions 😎🤡
FP-5 Flamingo: Ukraine’s New Missile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Xjv5NnULg
Thanks for the link to that video on Flamingoes.
Very Interesting.
...Awaiting the Flight of the Flock.
I am guessing before Christmas.
Successful strikes on Moscow’s infrastructure - and also a strike on Russia’s oil fuels infrastructure (Twofer).
Kyiv Independent (1 Nov):
“Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) struck a key Russian military fuel pipeline in Moscow Oblast on Oct. 31, disabling a key supply route used by the Russian army, the agency said in a statement.
HUR said the strike targeted the Koletsvoy (Ring) pipeline, a 400-kilometer-long fuel artery used to supply Russia’s armed forces with gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Moscow.
The operation reportedly destroyed all three major fuel lines of the system simultaneously near Ramensky district, south-east of Moscow. Despite anti-drone nets and armed security on-site, the pipeline infrastructure was successfully taken out of service, HUR said.
“The Ring pipeline was capable of transporting up to 3 million tons of jet fuel annually, as well as millions of tons of diesel and gasoline,” HUR said, calling the strike a “serious blow” to Russia’s military logistics and its economy in Moscow Oblast.
“Our strikes have had more impact than the sanctions,” HUR chief Kyrylo Budanov was quoted as saying in the post.
“It’s just a mathematical truth. We caused much greater damage to the Russian Federation through direct action than any economic levers of influence that had been introduced on them until now,” he added.
The reported strike was part of a broader Ukrainian drone assault on Russia overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it intercepted 98 drones overnight across 10 regions, including 11 over Moscow Oblast, six of which were reportedly headed toward the capital, Russian independent news outlet Meduza reported on Nov. 1.
In Zhukovsky near Moscow, power outages were reported overnight. Local authorities attributed the blackout to “automatic equipment shutdowns.” In Tula, drone debris fell onto city streets, prompting officials to restrict traffic.”
“What has it been something like 18 months to take a small town? (Pokrovsk)
Former Squadron Leader for the US Navy’s SEAL Team Six, Chuck Pfarrer, waxed eloquently about Pokrovsk in the Kyiv Post today (1 Nov). Some of his insights:
“Let’s cut through the hype and separate tactical fact from fiction.
Approximately 25 Russian assault teams – 5 to 10 men, many dressed in civilian clothes – have slithered into the rubble and massacred civilians. An atrocity, but not a victory.
Captured Russian prisoners have revealed a new tactic: they’ve been ordered to enter the city and avoid contact with Ukrainian defenders. These small groups of infiltrators have been told to hide out in the city until they can link up with other Russian units, so united forces can then assault Ukrainian positions...
...the fighting in Pokrovsk is a fierce, frightening grind. But do not forget, it has taken Russia four bloody years to advance from Donetsk to Pokrovsk – a distance that a hiker in peacetime could cover in a day...
...The Russians claim that Pokrovsk’s ground lines of communication and supply are severed. Again, not exactly. Both sides struggle with logistics in the lethal “drone zone” that lies in a 20-km belt on either side of the zero line.
To the west, Ukraine’s lines of communication and supply are dispersed and provide more than adequate logistics into the battlespace, while logistical snarls hamstring the Russian horde...
...Russian casualties in the Pokrovsk area of operations alone are conservatively estimated at 70,000 during Putin’s vaunted “summer offensive.” That’s 70,000 casualties in a desperate lunge for a city that’s long since morphed from logistical lifeline to dead end...
...The same script is playing out in Pokrovsk that ran in Bakhmut. Russia lost tens of thousands of dead to take the “strategic city” of Bakhmut. And they finally did – when there was nothing left but moonscape. Victory? Again, not exactly.
West of Bakhmut, the key terrain surrounding Chasiv Yar is still held by Ukraine – definitively thwarting any Russian advance. The takeaway? Russia bleeds for yards; Ukraine adapts for miles.
As in Bakhmut, there will be no victory in Pokrovsk – just the Russian vampire feasting on its own veins – with thousands, even tens of thousands of unrecovered Russian corpses littering an irrelevant battlefield.
Like Bakhmut, Pokrovsk has been irresistible kryptonite for Putin’s generals; and there’s delusion at the core of their desire. Pokrovsk’s so-called “strategic significance” is a mirage peddled by Putin’s bots and open-source intelligence keyboard commandos.
Is Pokrovsk relevant? It was once a vital logistical nexus – 24 months ago – when it pumped bullets, beans, and band-aids to the east during the defense of Avdiivka.
Two years ago, Pokrovsk was a main artery, a major hub feeding Ukraine’s fight. No more... Pokrovsk was once vital, but is not now. Ukraine has rerouted its logistical sinews westward; the city is now a terminus, not a waypoint; a scarred, end-of-the-road outpost clinging to relevance by circumstance, not topography.
But Putin hasn’t captured a Ukrainian city since he took the town of Velyka Novosilka last winter. Ukrainian attacks on Putin’s refineries have caused kilometer-long lines at Russian gas stations. Putin knows he needs a win, no matter what it costs in blood and treasure.
Taking Pokrovsk, like Bakhmut before it, will not change the calculus of the eastern zone of conflict. The city is not, and never has been, the keystone of Ukrainian defenses.
We can call Pokrovsk what it is now – a deadly three-dimensional urban battlefield. A kill box, like Bakhmut, that greatly favors the Ukrainian defenders. You may be sure that Russia will pour tens of thousands of forces into the city, and most of them will die in the rubble. Just like Bakhmut...
..Russia has again blundered into a classic “attritional battle” ripped right out of the pages of von Clausewitz. With causality rates remaining firm at 5:1, these battle sap Russian manpower, vehicles, fuel, ammunition and morale.
A look at the map will underscore what Russia will “gain” from occupying Pokrovsk. For again, like Bakhmut, the options for Russian advancement beyond the city are as vague as they are pointless. Open country, rolling fields, little or no cover – a place of drone strikes, crushing counterbattery fire, and minefields.
The loudest Pokrovsk prophets – those who tweet defeat without tasting the cordite – miss this point. Ukraine doesn’t defend red lines on a map. She defends the spaces between, three-dimensional kill zones where Russian dreams are sent to die.
What after Pokrovsk? Disaster again beckons Russia. Putin’s generals, promoted like mafia Dons, not tacticians, have been slow to pick up that in 21st-century war, Ukraine’s open terrain is not space for maneuver – it’s a killing field.
Ukrainian technology has turned open space into unbounded “fortresses” prowled by hundreds, even thousands of Ukrainian FPVs, smart bombs, and HIMARS artillery systems that do not miss their targets.
The cost of this charade – tens of thousands of Russian widows, a mechanized graveyard – and Russia gains that amount to another burned-out rind of a city. Pokrovsk will again prove that Russia can only destroy the places it touches. Putin and his hordes bring only death and misery, not liberation or freedom – Russki mir writ large.
Ukraine, meanwhile, hones her edge: drone swarms that rewrite the rules of land combat, and deep strikes that burn the refineries that fuel Russia’s Imperial ambitions. For Russia and Putin, the futility isn’t just tactical; it’s existential.
Ukraine will not lose this war, and Putin cannot survive if he loses.
The Russian people know, even if they do not say it aloud – this war was Putin’s idea. A 72-hour walkover he told them, and 1.3 million Russians have paid for his hubris. Putin knows that his fate, like that of all warmongering dictators, hangs by a slender thread.
By Jan. 12 of the coming year, Putin’s Ukraine adventure will mark a grim milestone. Russian invaders will have tried to subdue Ukraine for 1,418 days—exceeding the time the Soviet Union fought Nazi Germany in World War II.
Here is a fact: once upon a time, the Soviet army won a World War in less time that it has taken Putin to capture an area equivalent to the US state of Ohio. A piece of ground less than 19 percent of Ukraine’s total land mass.
Putin knows the narrative is shifting from “special military operation” to quagmire. He fights on because he knows this inevitable defeat will devour him. Moscow’s war machine grinds on, but each shell screams the same question: For what?
Pokrovsk won’t break Ukraine – but it will bury another Russian illusion.”
My guess is Ukraine makes flamingoes in Poland. Where Putin dares not bomb. This checkmates this Pukin’ Tsar. ESAD Vlad.
Hat tip to Chuck Pfarrer:
“Jan. 12 of the coming year (2026), Putin’s Ukraine adventure will mark a grim milestone. Russian invaders will have tried to subdue Ukraine for 1,418 days—exceeding the time the Soviet Union fought Nazi Germany in World War “
“My guess is Ukraine makes flamingoes in Poland.”
They are assembling them around Ukraine, from a few major components, including old jet engines that had reached the end of their safety service life for use in commercial aircraft, but still work (they only need a few hours of flight time remaining). Ukraine reportedly has thousands of these.
Some of the components may well come from safe havens outside of the country.
OPEC+ to meet again tomorrow (2 Nov).
Let’s see if the raise the production quota again (over Russian objections again), as they have every month since April’s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.