The Telegraph (UK) reports:
Ukraine launches new high-powered sea drone to terrorise Russia’s Black Sea Fleet
"Ukraine has unveiled a new high-powered version of its naval sea drones that have been used to devastating effect against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The new version, named Stalker 5.0, features a 60-horsepower speedboat engine and can carry explosive payloads of up to 150 kilograms.
Details of the unmanned vessel, which is five metres long and 1.2 metres wide, were first made public by Ukrainian officials at the Black Sea Security Forum.
It can travel at speeds of up to 40 knots (46mph) and has an operational range of around 372 miles – roughly enough to target the Kerch bridge between occupied Crimea and mainland Russia – officials said.
The drone is equipped with a Starlink satellite internet terminal that relays a live video feed back to its operator. In addition to an explosive kamikaze mode, the Stalker 5.0 can be used for reconnaissance and coastal patrols, and can also deliver food, water, military and medical supplies to hard-to-reach locations.
Its logistical mode could play a particularly important role in helping Ukrainian marines hold the Krynky bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnipro River that has become increasingly hard to resupply using conventional boats.
The fast-evolving maritime drones have become one of the main successes of the efforts by Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion.
A combination of different unmanned vessels used by Ukraine’s SBU security services and its HUR military intelligence agency have forced the Russian navy to flee the Black Sea and allowed Ukraine to reopen a grain shipping corridor vital for the country’s economic survival.
But an explosive attack by the SBU on the Kerch Bridge remains one of the standout attacks of the maritime campaign.
When the SBU smashed its SeaBaby model into the crossing, it temporarily severed a key military supply route between Crimea and mainland Russia.
Since that strike in July 2023, new iterations of the drones have seen versions fitted with mobile grad rocket launchers used to bombard Russian coastal targets.
And in response, Russia has continued to build unconventional defences around the Kerch bridge, including floating booms and layers of netting that it hopes will prevent future Ukrainian drone strikes."
Reporting From Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/@RFU/videos
Reporting From Ukraine Uncensored Combat Footage (from this and past Reports) is found on Telegram:
https://t.me/RFUEnglish or @RFUEnglish
[ You need to have the Telegram app to view. ]
The complete transcript.
—
[ “Only 12% Survived the First Attack”: Last Words of a Russian Soldier Unravel The Terrifying Truth ]
—
Day 845: Jun 17
Today, there are a lot of updates from the Kharkiv direction.
Here, over the last several weeks, Russians have made a series of desperate attempts to accelerate their offensive operations to finally overcome the first Ukrainian defense line.
However, all their attempts have failed and Russians have gradually lost momentum, while Ukrainians have developed a more offensive stance and taken the initiative into their own hands, creating an even more deadly environment for those enemy troops trying to move forward in the directions of Lyptsi and Vovchansk.
This spiked the daily death toll significantly, and the resulting high number of accumulated losses led to the further slowdown of the Russian offensive and the turn of events in favor of the Ukrainians. [ 1500+ daily ]
The first main reason for such huge losses was that Russians tried to use a new tactic, which did not work as the Russian commanders expected. At the beginning of the Kharkiv offensive, military analysts from different countries reported about the change in general tactics that the Russians were deploying.
The main idea of this tactic was to use smaller assault groups of no more than 5 people to penetrate Ukrainian positions through many points before merging with other such groups and uniting into a larger strike group.
Experts recently started to put this tactic into doubt, as it requires a high level of coordination, so in reality, many of these small groups never merged. Russian military analysts issued concerns that the use of it may be not only contributing to higher Russian manpower and material losses, but also resulting in the premature decline of the offensive in the Kharkiv direction.
This was confirmed by Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets, who noted that these growing losses are leading to a significant decrease in the overall pace of Russian offensive operations.
Secondly, one Russian military commentator, who previously served as a “Storm-Z” unit instructor, complained that using small groups while trying to advance is indicative of poor training and preparation and not an effective new tactic.
One video from a drone that was published by operators of the Ukrainian Third Separate Assault Brigade gives a shocking confirmation of this statement and the state of preparedness of these troops.
A Russian soldier can be seen sitting in a trench when an FPV drone approaches him for an attack. There was some initial defect in the drone, and it couldn’t detonate. What happens next is beyond imagination, as the Russian soldier decides to push his luck too far and starts hitting the blocked drone with a stick, which leads to a successful explosion and a suicidal outcome.
More confirmations for the high casualty rate in the Russian army are provided by their soldiers in the following videos.
The first footage comes from the vicinity of Vovchansk, where one Russian soldier from the 1009th Motorized Rifle Regiment is complaining on camera that the initial size of the 5th company in which he serves was 100 people and after an attempted assault against the city, they were reduced to only 12.
The second footage is from one Russian prisoner of war, whose campaign lasted only 2 days as he was reasonable enough to surrender quickly to Ukrainian forces near Vovchansk. He can be seen explaining that his unit consisted of 50 soldiers, but after the first attack, only 6 survived, and they all immediately surrendered to avoid being sent into attacks again.
These grim confessions of ordinary Russian soldiers about their survival rate of 12% sounds in correspondence with other numbers provided by Ukrainian authorities.
For example, the Ukrainian Chief of the General Staff Anatoliy Barhylevych, stated recently that during the peak heat, Russian forces have lost up to 1740 wounded and killed soldiers in the Kharkiv direction in a single day, which is an insanely high rate of casualties, especially if compared to the initial forces the Russian command summoned for their endeavor.
It is no surprise that this number skyrocketed even more after Ukrainians started targeting enemy evacuation and supply roads on Russian territory with weapons provided by Western partners.
Overall. the Russian tactic of using small poorly coordinated assault groups has been ineffective, resulting in isolated units being easily targeted.
Additionally, inadequate training has led to high casualty rates as seen in numerous incidents and firsthand soldier accounts. These losses have slowed the Russian offensive allowing Ukrainians to capitalize on their defensive strengths and further undermine Russian efforts.
The dire situation for Russian troops compounded by targeted Ukrainian strikes on evacuation and supply routes underscores the strategic failure of the Russian offensive and the resilience and tactical superiority of the Ukrainian defense.
Kremlin snuff box, 06/18/24
https://t.me/s/kremlin_secrets
A dollar will cost 200-300 rubles. But “only in one case”
A high-ranking source in the Central Bank contacted us and asked us to publish what he said was important information. This interlocutor, close to Elvira Nabiullina, often gave us predictions, and usually they came true. Therefore, it is worth heeding his warnings. Here are the main ones:
The sanctions that the West recently imposed against Russia are indeed very serious, “we haven’t had such a blow for a long time.” It will not happen without rising prices and falling ruble exchange rates, this needs to be understood.
At the same time, the fall of the ruble may not be tragic, within the range of 120-130 rubles per dollar in the next three to six months ( we wrote about such a forecast ). The official rate is unlikely to be so high, but the black market “will do its job,” the source states.
The dollar can soar to 200-300 rubles and above. Prices in this case will increase by 50-60% . But this will happen “only in one case - if the authorities listen to crazy ideas about banning the dollar in Russia ( we talked about them - ed. ).” “Dugin ( the author of this idea - ed. ) and his associates can come up with anything, but they will not stop the market. People will buy dollars, just at a very high price. And living in Russia will become unbearably difficult and expensive,” the source explained.
Our interlocutor hopes that the president will not listen to Dugin’s advice. And he believes that Alexander Gelyevich “needs to be put in prison for subversive activities and attempts to weaken Russia.”
Let us note that we are ready to give the floor to supporters of the dollar ban. The accusations against them were serious.
