Posted on 08/10/2022 4:28:51 PM PDT by ToxicMasculinity
KYIV, Ukraine — A powerful attack on a Russian air base in occupied Crimea was the work of Ukrainian special forces, a Ukrainian government official told The Washington Post on Wednesday, suggesting an increasingly important role for covert forces operating deep behind enemy lines as the country expands efforts to expel Russian troops.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, did not disclose details of how Tuesday’s attack was carried out. The attack marks a significant escalation in the nearly six-month-old war, demonstrating a new ability by Ukrainian forces to carry out attacks further behind the front lines than had previously been thought possible.
At least three explosions rocked the Saki air base Tuesday, in a coastal area of the Crimean Peninsula...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If that happened to us in Iraq or Afghanistan it would all the media talked about for a week.
The Russian people have zero idea, but word of mouth has to be trickling out that Putin picked on the wrong corrupt little midge of a country.
Is that you Beto?
And I suppose that Putin and the Russians are as pure as the driven snow, right?
Tomahawk missiles or JDAMs, not SOF.
Stuff like that is why I quit smoking Russian cigarettes.
If this image is correct (actually of the airfield in question), it seems very unlikely that this was the result of a special forces operation. There are regularly spaced large craters among the revetments (protective berms around aircraft), as one would expect from large caliber explosive munitions. What this looks like is an accurate bombardment by some sort of cruise of ballistic missiles.
Special forces would not do that, as the weight of explosives required to make those craters (maybe 50 kilos per charge) would not be feasible in a special forces operation. It also does not make sense to place them in this way. Smaller charges right on the aircraft/in the revetments would make far more sense.
I don’t think those 3 sided structures used to be buildings, I would guess they are earthen walls built to protect various machinery, planes, howitzers, etc.? Anyone know for sure?
You are correct.
The launches and travel were captured by several countries for sure, even while Kiev is downplaying this. As you noted, there are large strike craters across a large area, but not perfectly aligned, or set off next to what would have been the perfect maximum damage locations. This also suggest remote attack. Additionally, the warheads blew out large sections of berm, concrete tarmac, and steel I beams from hangers.
Still trying to get clarification, but nothing less than a possible JDAM type Grim-2/Hrim-2 experiment, or even more plausibly upgraded Neptune’s.
As well, some of the bda suggest both SRBM heavy warheads, and some suggest something in addition, or possibly in line with an MGM-140 ATACMS, with possible cluster munitions. There were actually at least 6 large warhead strikes, which resemble something in the family of JDAM, and possibly something more cluster oriented.
Probably never know.
However, UA definitely has the ability to strike RU proper, which suggest they really have been fighting with more restraint.
And yes, a lot of Western Russians who have been laughing this off, and hamming it up 70 miles South in Crimea, from where Russian forces have deliberately targeted and killed tens of thousands of people (and displaced millions), suddenly headed to the Kerch Strait Bridge en-mass. Obviously getting a tiny clue, getting out of “Dodge”, and as one conservative Russian told me today, will now have to be shut up by a wider KGB/FSB effort, in order to put a lid on what they saw and experienced.
Also, as all leftists around the world possess the propensity of, watch for Putin to express a little more of his sociopath genocidal tendencies.
It is the leftist mindset globally. How dare you try to stop me from violently stealing all of your belongings, raping your daughter and wife, and killing them slowly in front of you.
“I don’t thin those 3 sided structures used to be building, I would guess they are earthen walls built to protect various machinery, planes, howitzer, etc.?”
Those are called revetments, and have been used for thousands of years in various types of warfare. They are also used to separate accidental blasts from one area from impacting another, and are generally not covered (but can be).
As is normally the case, these were not covered. OS satellite imagery clearly reveals pre and post strike imagery of these.
While not covered, there was a wide area of significant destruction of planes, vehicles, and hardened and critical infrastructure.
Слава Україні!
Difference between Russia and Ukraine is, Ukraine has corruption because Russia exported oligarchy and deference to the crime bosses. When it suits, they take Russian money.
More recently, American and European money has become more attractive because complete subservience to Russia is extremely dangerous (the Putinistas regard the ethnic Ukrainian population as untermensch).
Russia has corruption because that’s the foundation of Putin’s power base. It’s also why western business interests are tolerated only if they’re washing the money... Dodgy deals must always give a cut to Putin, so dodgy deals with the West that cut him out of the proceeds are considered to be political rather than “just business.”
Difference between Russia and Ukraine is, Ukraine has corruption because Russia exported oligarchy and deference to the crime bosses. When it suits, they take Russian money.
More recently, American and European money has become more attractive because complete subservience to Russia is extremely dangerous (the Putinistas regard the ethnic Ukrainian population as untermensch).
Russia has corruption because that’s the foundation of Putin’s power base. It’s also why western business interests are tolerated only if they’re washing the money... Dodgy deals must always give a cut to Putin, so dodgy deals with the West that cut him out of the proceeds are considered to be political rather than “just business.”
How much of their character and blood is Mongolian? I am talking about what we would call ethnic Russians. Like Putin, Brezhnev, Lenin...... I believe Winston Churchill has a quote on this. Or was another famous Englishman.
Слава Україні.
The could take the Ukrainians to school. And what of present-day United States? Ukrainians are armatures compared to Brandon and those pulling his strings.
Take them to school for what? How to bungle an invasion and lose wars?
I don’t think it is about ethnicity. It’s very Machiavellian.
The culture fostered by the Soviet Union was inherently bureaucratic and based on upward mobility through allegiance / compliance (playing it safe) and exploitation (moving up when those above left or were forced out) rather than through actual success.
Timing and planning helps, but opportunities in Russian politics and the military depend on who your friends and enemies are.
Putin’s regime has sidelined many of the most forward thinking, visionary minds at its disposal, just because they might one day attempt to overreach through political ambition.
Who in Russia foretold the importance of Cyber warfare, the Internet, and intellectual property? Nobody in Putin’s circle, that’s for sure. Putin took some of the ideas but then decided those folks were more likely to topple him than prop him up. So almost all of the folks who Russia should credit for winning the information war up to February 2022 are in exile.
Putin prefers to put compliant minds that have no real record of achievement in important positions. It’s why probably 80% of Russia outside of the top five cities are no better developed than central Africa. The money is there but Putin has a vested interest in keeping those regions in the dark ages with very limited ambitions.
RUSSIAN, n. A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. A Tartar Emetic.
— Ambrose Bierce
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Very Machiavellian as far as any persons struggle to into the top ranks in Russia. Also, who do you think does the very tough, roughneck labor in Russia’s oil and gas fields? That are making Putin and connected oligarchs wealthy? My bet is the impoverished Russian minorities. Muslims, Buryats and so on. Same as they do much of the fighting in Ukraine.
Russia is spread way too thin, and has left key assets almost totally undefended. And Democrats are desperate for good headlines as November approaches, so Biden is going to step up direct NATO involvement in these attacks.
“Putin’s regime has sidelined many of the most forward thinking, visionary minds at its disposal,...Putin took some of the ideas but then decided those folks were more likely to topple him than prop him up.”
I am wondering if some of the 5 or 6 men and families that were brutally murdered a few months ago were people who fell into the category of men with good ideas who were better eliminated, not merely allowed to go into exile like the family murdered near Barcelona?
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