MarQ
(Power still on for now). Intel Slava info (can make I.S. ping list if people want). Newest first, images and most videos can be seen by non-Telegram members.
It’s honestly insane how unprepared for a major war the United States is, not only would they rapidly exhaust their smart munitions and long range stocks of missiles, decades of neglect of the defense industrial base would see them unable to replace them in a timely manner.
From the 2022 Pentagon budget, with the newer SM-6. The production of naval missile interceptors is quite small. From what I understand SM-2 production had been stopped ages ago and was partially restarted in order to supply allies.
The latest report I could find was this Raytheon contract in ‘21 to refurbish 54 SM-2 for the USN and 215 new missiles for allies. I am honestly a bit surprised by the low numbers, since these will have to be fired in the 100s to deal with a serious attack.
In addition to the SM (Standard Missile), the US DoD procures ~100 sea sparrows and ~100 stinger-equivalent RIM-116C per year, for medium and very short range anti-air/missile defense. Boutique numbers.
A number of EU and NATO countries sent $60 billion worth of lethal weapons to Ukraine, which made them parties to the conflict, said Laszlo Köver, speaker of the Hungarian parliament.
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Video:
Battles in Artemovsk: Destroyed Ukrainian militants and broken equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Our units methodically break through the enemy defenses in the city. The fighters of PMC “Wagner” told about the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Artemovsk use their favorite tactic - they hide behind civilians.
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It is reported that two Ukrainian pilots arrived at a military base in the United States so that American instructors could evaluate their skills.
The goal is to understand whether pilots from Ukraine will be able to start learning how to fly attack aircraft, including F-16 fighters. This is reported by the NBC channel, citing two congressmen and a high-ranking American official.
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Map viewable:
Bakhmut/#Artemovsk is almost encircled. The O0506 road through #Khromove is unusable due the blown up bridge. The bridge over T0504 road was blown up as well. The last way, how the Ukrainian forces can retreat is through muddy fields.
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Video:
Fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the fire of the Russian troops are knocked out of Bakhmut, taking out the wounded on construction wheelbarrows
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Video:
Intimate footage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, gradually leaving Artemovsk (Bakhmut), leaked to the network. It is not known for certain why the Ukrainian soldier decided to take a toilet seat with him when leaving the city.
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Under the threat of a cauldron: the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is trying to keep the “road of life” Konstantinovka-Bakhmut and is transferring more and more reserves from the Kharkov region to this front.
This road is the only remaining supply route for the Ukrainian forces in Artyomovsk and is the only way they can make an organized retreat.
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Incredible photos:
Apocalyptic shots of Marinka
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According to the Ukrainian media, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is sending a Territorial Defense Brigade from the Volyn region to the combat zone in the east of the country.
The unit, which had not previously been involved in battles and covered the border in the west, recruited men with health restrictions.
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Between the multiple reports of growing political difficulties in the West, the abandonment of their insane casualty claims and now starting to frame Ukraine in these terms, it honestly strikes me that the groundwork to justify abandoning Ukraine is being made by its Western backers.
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“Deadly for the AFU.” The Czech general gave Ukraine a disappointing forecast
Czech General Sandor said that Russian tactics are deadly for Ukrainian troops
Ukraine has lost the opportunity to regain lost territories,the AFU is failing. This opinion was expressed in an interview with Parlamentní listy by the former head of the Czech military intelligence, General Andor Šándor.
“Russian tactics are deadly for Ukrainian troops. With daily artillery attacks, short sorties, they keep the Ukrainian troops in suspense, make them constantly conduct military operations, bear maximum losses,”
In his opinion, the equipment supplied by the West does not cover all the needs of the Ukrainian army and comes late.
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Few things capture the brittleness of the Western alliance like the otherwise discrete issue of tanks. For months, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was seen as the sole obstacle to providing Ukraine with two battalions of German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, which are maintained in arsenals all over Europe. Scholz claimed he simply sought guarantees that a tank package for Ukraine would be seen as a Western rather than a German initiative; his critics, including the author, suspected he was really just seeking to forestall a Ukrainian victory in order to protect German relations with Russia. Scholz finally caved at the end of January under pressure from NATO allies and his coalition partners in the German government, and after obtaining a commitment from the Biden administration to send its own M1 Abrams tanks.
Only a few weeks later, however, the tank coalition started to come apart. Portugal announced it would send three tanks, Spain six, and Norway eight. But the Netherlands, having pledged 18 tanks, suddenly revised its offer to zero. Ditto Denmark, which will now offer none of its 44 Leopard 2s to Ukraine. Greece, which has more of the tanks than any country but Germany, has also declined to participate. Sweden signaled that it wouldn’t provide any battle tanks to Ukraine until after it becomes a member of NATO, a process that could outlast the war. Finland will supply three Leopard mine-clearing vehicles, but no battle tanks. The effort to put together two small battalions—just 62 Leopard 2 tanks out of a European inventory of 2,000—nearly collapsed, leaving Germany (and Poland) holding the bag.
The political consequences of the battle tank fiasco should not be dismissed. A large percentage of German voters already oppose arms deliveries to Ukraine on principle; now, German media and public opinion leaders will find it hard to complain about Scholz’s gut policy of hesitance and reluctance, which Western and Northern Europe have revealed to be justified. The tank episode will likewise weaken the position of Germans in favor of further military aid like fighter jets and long-range missiles—which means those requests may have to find their way through Western, Northern, and Southern Europe without the decisive backing of Berlin. Scholz’s more hawkish coalition partners in the Green and Free Democratic Parties have taken a hit, and forces opposed to NATO and to higher defense spending have been strengthened. America and Europe remain more united in Ukraine than they ever were over Serbia or Iraq, but there are reasons to worry about the future and value of Western solidarity.
A Devastating Moment of Clarity in Ukraine Few things capture the brittleness of the Western alliance like the otherwise discrete issue of tanks. For months, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was seen as the sole obstacle to providing Ukraine with two battalions…
🇺🇸🇺🇦 As a recent Bloomberg essay by Niall Ferguson and a New Yorker interview with historian Stephen Kotkin vividly brought home, Ukraine is using up far more ammunition, artillery, rockets, and missiles everyday than the U.S. defense industrial base is capable of replenishing—to say nothing of reserving stocks for possible conflicts in the Taiwan Strait or the Middle East. The Pentagon has ordered a review of U.S. arms stockpiles, and further budget allocations to ramp up production are likely. But it’s not clear the United States can simply spend its way out of the consequences of a 20-year industrial offshoring frenzy in a time frame relevant to the military needs of Ukraine.
Perhaps even more severe than the physical limits are the political ones. For now, talk of waning GOP support for Ukraine is mostly overblown—a recent House resolution calling for the end of military and financial aid to Ukraine won the support of just 5% of the GOP caucus. But the stage is clearly set for a fight. As the Fed tightens policy to lower inflation, a real or perceived U.S. recession may not be far away, even as Ukraine—which is already battling 30% inflation, currency debasement of some 70%, and burning through its foreign exchange reserves—becomes more desperate for a financial life vest.
According to recent polls, between March 2022 and January 2023, the percentage of Republican voters who favor military aid to Ukraine fell from 80% to below 50%. Regardless of the ironclad support of Republican congressional leadership and doomed GOP presidential contenders like Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo, every additional dollar of U.S. aid to Ukraine plays into the hands of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis—both of whom are likely to argue, with an entirely predictable measure of success, that fiscal support which might have gone to poor and working-class American families is going instead to Eastern Europe.