Lukashenko spills the beans

Update on the drone attack on the Russian airbase in Pskov: Belarusian air defensives observed the drones, reported them to command, but never received authorization to fire due to orders from Lukashenko not to interfere in the conflict.  

Putin: “Luuuukiiieee! You got some splainin’ to do…”

Per the non-affiliated TG Channel @KremlinRU – 

“Several sources in Minsk confirmed that President Lukashenko had ordered an investigation into the reasons for the mass drone overflight of Pskov through the territory of Belarus.  The KGB of Belarus sent a report to the president of Belarus, which says that the country’s air defense did not react to the drone overflight, while the duty group informed the command and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, but there was no order to shoot down.

An official who previously worked in Lukashenko’s entourage believes that Lukashenko gave an order not to interfere in the conflict and explained to Moscow that the drones could be launched by saboteurs and guerrillas who were being held back by the Belarusian army.”

After thinking about this, I began to wonder why Lukashenko would  leak word of the investigation and his discussion with Putin when the Russia’s wanted to stir trouble in Europe by claiming the drones came from Latvia or Estonia. 

Lukashenko didn’t get where he is because he acts as dumb as he looks. In fact, the complete opposite is true as he is a master of political intrigue. So, my conspiracy theory is that when Putin asked him to go along with the Russian narrative and lie about where the drones came from, his survival instincts kicked in and what was supposed to be a secret report unfortunately got leaked. In other words, he didn’t want Belarus to get involved in a shooting war with NATO and, more importantly, he senses Putin’s time is short and he is posturing to survive in the aftermath.

https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1697279835683312032

Comment: This is from another Twitter commentator going by the handle of OSINT (Uri), He is US based and bills himself as a “sometimes irreverent Military Conflict OSINT analysis. USAF Veteran, Retired Engineer, USCG Master Captain living on dirt.” If true this settles the question of who attacked the Pskov airbase and how they did it. Given that the same airbase is under drone attack again tonight, a long range drone strike from Ukraine appears to be the logical answer.

This was rather ballsy of Lukashenko to admit this. The Kremlin and their talking heads were heavily invested in the attack from Estonia scenario. Now they look pathetic and weak. I agree with this commentator that Lukashenko is hedging his bets. Perhaps he’s betting that Putin knows that without Lukashenko alive in Minsk, Belarus will plunge into chaos. That’s his insurance policy. But I wouldn’t be flying to Moscow if I were him.

So, Ukraine has demonstrated another long range strike capability. She also released footage of the testing of a long range missile capability said to have a range of at least 700 kilometers. Maybe it’s a development of the Hrim-2 program or the Neptune. Back in June 2023, Reznikov spoke of Ukraine having good prospects for the production of its own long-range missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers or more. I’ve seen reporting on a Neptune modified with an additional booster designed for precision ground strikes. Are all these strike capabilities just so Kyiv can bring the war to Russia? I’m sure there’s some of that, but I think this is primarily to demonstrate an effective counter to a repeat of last winter’s missile and drone campaign against the Ukrainian power grid. It made life tough for all of Ukraine. Luckily, Russia either chose not to follow through or lacked the capability to follow through. If they try again this winter, they may face a similar campaign against the Russian power grid west of the Urals. Checkmate, mudak. 

This should be my last drone post for a while. 

TTG

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50 Responses to Lukashenko spills the beans

  1. babelthuap says:

    Biden needs to declare war on Russia and emergency powers. Start the draft. And nobody exempt. Men, women, trans, gays. Equality Warfare.

    • TTG says:

      babelthuap,

      Biden doesn’t need to declare war on anybody or anything, nor does he need to start the draft. But I do agree that if it ever was started, no class of people should be exempt.

      • Lars says:

        I was rejected in 1966, at age 22. I doubt I would be accepted today. But I agree that the system needs to updated. At the time, in late 1960’s, There were lot of college students who had no business being in college, but got enough grades to avoid the draft.

  2. F&L says:

    Fascinating but too weird to wrap my head around this early in the morning, so in honor of weird drone theories I’ll put this 6 minute moonlight sonata of Zeihan’s up. He makes all kind of interesting sense until suddenly he doesn’t. The Pentagon will implement it’s “Replicator project” contra China by purchasing the drones from China. Either I slept through that class too or Peter needs to reduce his magic mushroom teas titer.

    That said, believing Lukashenko and the Belarus KGB as presented on X (formerly Twitter) by a self-reputed x USAF — it’s not a faith healers clinic but it’s in the vicinity.
    Without a doubt though, “father” Sasha (Alexander Lukashenko) needs a NATO vs Russia conflict in Estonia about as much as Levon James needs growth hormone injections.

    Ukrainian Drones: A New Issue for Russia and China || Peter Zeihan
    https://youtu.be/CN-W_IKapmQ

  3. fredw says:

    This seems like a step way too far, a nearly open defiance of Putin. I wonder if someone in the Belarus chain of command deliberately misconstrued the operational instructions to produce the delay. That is the story I would expect if Lukashenko decides he needs to walk it back. It might even be true. The story as told just does not fit the character or history of Lukashenko. If he is to the point of defiance, then truly Putin is done.

    • Graeme says:

      Lukashenko does this a lot. Just recently he talked about how Putin surely didn’t take down Prigozhin. But did it in such a way that he called Putin sluggish and left one with little doubt that Lukashenko blamed Putin for Prigozhin’s death.

      Then early in the war he leaked the Moldova plans.

  4. mcohen says:

    No droning on.Just the odd one up the navy

  5. Lars,Fred says:

    Meanwhile America’s best and brightest:

    “In over 20 years of working with Americans, I have never seen them so desperate…”
    https://thegrayzone.com/2023/08/29/niger-coup-victoria-nuland-africa-tour/

    I wonder if they’ll be able to blame this on Russia and Wagner? Maybe when Joe’s back from vacation well be able to find out what is ‘really’ happening…..

    • F&L says:

      Scrolling down to the photo of Nuland on the right hand side of the panel with Christine Amanpour on the left. She’s a living version of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Grey whose portrait changed to depict the vile, souless monster that he was.

      Back to Drones – translated short piece “Controlling the Sky” by Nesmiyan.
      https://tinyurl.com/6uuykv7a

      • Fred says:

        I wonder what the defund the police crowd are going to do once the cartels that have planted thousands of operatives across the republic start going after recalcitrant city councils here like they do back in Mexico, only with drones now.

        • F&L says:

          What’s your problem, Fred – you don’t like Governor Newsom’s haircut? According to some prognosticators, he’s our next president.
          Can we count on your vote, Citizen Fred?

          You know it’s very late in the day when an old liberal like I once was can watch an entire Victor David Hanson interview, fully aware of the lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations, but nonetheless not shutting it off. Because it really is that f-ing bad. Problem is, the republicans are also horrible and complete liars.

          The De-Civilization of America -Victor D Hanson
          https://youtu.be/D7e34f22HXY

          • Billy Roche says:

            As I have previously explained there are no Republicans. That party was thrown aside by professional politicians in ’48. That Republican Party was a coalition of libertarians and conservatives; it had an ideology. The current GOPe/RINO group has none. They are neither liars nor believers. They are w/o any philosophy for governing. They are offset by socialists who used to be called Democrats. That party also no longer exists. It has been gone since 1992. The socialists party is not liberal in the classical sense but totalitarian. Look, you can’t enjoy the show if you don’t buy a program. That is the problem. People keep asking (again and again) “why don’t Republicans DO something!”. Answer; they don’t care. Not; they don’t care to. No, they just don’t care. People who still think they are “old fashioned” liberals say “well, Democrats wont show up at 5 AM w/dogs and swat teams to arrest old people.” Well, they are today b/c they are not democrats. They are socialists and they only difference b/t a socialist and totalitarian is a matter of degree. You gotta buy a program today to know who the players really are. We no longer have a DOJ but a DOIJ; the FBI is b/c the FIB, and the CIA is now the C Domestic IA. Buy a program. Otherwise you are watching a light show “I was blinded by the light …”.

          • F&L says:

            Right you are again, Billy Roche.

            To drive home your point, not that it’s necessary, about how bad it is, even John Dean, Trickyness Dickyness’s own White House Counsel during the Watergate scandal was …..
            —————
            His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland. After his plea, he was disbarred.
            Wikipedia
            —————–
            was so appalled and uncomprehending of the levels of knavery afoot in the 2000 Presidential election and the subsequent demonisms of the Dubya – Chainsaw administration that he enrolled in graduate psychology and criminology courses, studied hard, and published a book about levels of evil in American politics he claimed he had never suspected to ever be possible. I don’t know how true that is but in his book he details how much he came to value the concept of “personality disorders,” specifically the psychopathic personality disorder. He hadn’t known that people exist who literally don’t have a conscience, and said it came closer than anything else he knew of in coming to grips with what he was witnessing.
            Poor naive California lawyer?

            MOST CORRUPT: Lyndon Baines Johnson – LBJ – FORGOTTEN HISTORY
            https://youtu.be/Ef_79INE2m8
            When it came to subterfuge, lying, intimidation, hypocrisy, bigotry, fraud, and possibly murder, few can touch US President Lyndon Baines Johnson. So, who was the real Lyndon Baines Johnson? Hosted by Colin D. Heaton. Forgotten History is a 10th Legion Pictures Production.
            ————————-
            Colin D. Heaton is a former USMC and US Army sniper who became a professor. In this video a good case is presented that President Lyndon Johnson murdered his own sister.

            Democrat or Republican? Step right up. Pull the lever.

    • Lars says:

      Fred: Please remove my name.

  6. Billy Roche says:

    At least for me this provokes bigger questions. Who are the White Russians? My guess is a mix of Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. W/O Lukashenko controlling Belarus, is its army willing to kill Ukrainians? Litvaks? Poles? Who is Lukashenko? Its a Ukrainian last name. Was his father was Ukrainian. Imagine an uprising in Belarus causing at least a fracture b/t it and Moscow. Could that even happen. The board needs someone w/better knowledge of local conditions in Belarus and Lithuania. Anyone come to mind?

    • TTG says:

      Billy Roche,

      Lukashenko has been the only president independent Belarus has ever had. He’s been in charge since 1994 and he’s clearly a skilled survivor. He was born and grew up in what is now northern Belarus and became a loyal Soviet aparratchik. The skills he learned as such have served him well over the years.

    • F&L says:

      Beli (Russian) – White (English)
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus
      Between the medieval period and the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus’, the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917, different states arose competing for legitimacy amid the Civil War, ultimately ending in the rise of the Byelorussian SSR, which became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. After the Polish-Soviet War, Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland. Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were finalized after World War II. During World War II, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources. In 1945, the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union. The republic was home to a widespread and diverse anti-Nazi insurgent movement which dominated politics until well into the 1970s, overseeing Belarus’ transformation from an agrarian to industrial economy.

      The parliament of the republic proclaimed the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus gained independence on 25 August 1991. Following the adoption of a new constitution in 1994, Alexander Lukashenko was elected Belarus’s first president in the country’s first and only free election after independence, serving as president ever since. Lukashenko heads a highly centralized authoritarian government. Belarus ranks low in international measurements of freedom of the press and civil liberties. It has continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Belarus is the only European country that continues to use capital punishment. In 2000, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, forming the Union State.
      ( Continues at link)
      ————————————
      Your question is apt. For example in the Version of the Ukrainian group Via Gra in an earlier post, the girls all sing in Russian, two are Ukrainians and the fine boned blonde beauty is Hungarian. Via Gra has had many artists in it’s lineup over the years. They’ve all been very popular in Russia as well as Ukraine and Belarus and also in areas of Eastern Europe such as former East Germany (Chancellor Merkel speaks Russian fluently) and the Baltics which all still have Russian speaking people. Ukrainian artists performed in Russia and Russian artists in Ukraine. Belarusian is a Slavic language of the villages, Russian is dominant, and they’re very similar, a bit more so than are Ukrainian and Russian. The President of Ukraine is Zelensky who can’t speak Ukrainian (though he tries for the cameras) he speaks Russian and a little English, poorly.
      Lukashenko speaks Russian, there’s a gratuitous nod to the Belarusian language though to keep certain folks on board. The “enko” ending of his name is associated with some Ukrainians, yes. But taking that overly seriously is not particularly smart. Brezhnev and Krushchev were from Ukraine, and were Russian speaking Secretary Generals of the USSR. Eisenhower, Roosevelt I and II Kennedy, Obama, Lincoln, Grant, Jefferson, Adams, Biden — German, Dutch, Dutch, Irish, Kenyan, English, English & Scots, English, English, Irish etc in extraction to first approximation – all spoke English and were Americans. Many of the Russian Tsars and earlier rulers were in part ethnic German and Swedish. The whole Russkiy Mir (Russian speaking World) is quite multiethnic.

      • Billy Roche says:

        Tnx FnL for your comments. Yes, I know that Russia is an ethnically mixed nation. That’s rarely mentioned. But boy oh boy when it come to Ukraine, some describe it as a polygot land of mish mash which can’t be sovereign b/c it is not ethnically pure. Go figure. I grew up in a neighborhood filled w/eastern European immigrants from the Baltics to Romania. Anyone whose last name ended in “enko” was a Ukie. It made me wonder if Lukashenko is even a little bit conflicted in his animosity towards Ukraine. It makes me wonder about the fidelity of the Bylorussian troops of Ukrainian descent in Lukashenko’s army.

        • F&L says:

          The Byelorussian troops are not considered a factor in any serious conflict according to every source I’ve read.

          With Vlad’s atom bombs? I don’t think they have that profound a death wish, but you never know. I’m certain Lukashenko doesn’t. Normally I’d say Putin doesn’t either. But the Russians have realized how stupidly they’ve screwed up and There is a countable %age of their stupid segment who scream to use nukes. I watched a long interview with a Ru pol who was really close to Putin in the sense that he was actually a bodyguard. He didn’t think a launch order would be followed – too many people needed who don’t want to be vaporized. The madman Prigozhin and his killers did in fact do their worst mayhem in a place where nukes were stored. Did they get any? I doubt it, and anyway look what happened to him – they killed him and his leaders. Probably had zero to do with loose nukes but actually, think about it. That’s what gives some small credence to the people who think the CIA got rid of him – why not? It certainly was plausible that they made a play for nukes. And the Wagner sorts are exactly the ultra patriotic lowbrows who might use them, if they could crack the permissive action links. That might be one of several reasons they were after Shoigu btw, and its especially frightening if Putin organized their rebellion, another theory I don’t believe. But the element of alarm is real – and here’s why. To launch or drop a Ru nuke, you need more than Putin’s OK and order according to the best info available. They’re not stupid at all, or, the Soviets who designed all this stuff sure weren’t – you need Putin plus Shoigu plus Gerasimov .. (someone else too on the security council, I don’t know who, but call him X and assume that X is the most hawkish of the lot). Shoigu goes back to the days of “the family” who were Yeltsin’s daughter, husband, and some very few powerful oligarchs especially Abramovich. The family is stil quite a force and Shoigu is absolutely one of them. The family is more opposed to using nukes than Bertrand Russel or Albert Einstein – it all goes back to agreements and clever interlocking wealth sharing deals under Bush I and Clinton as they were disarmed. Putin is thought by some to have been vetted too. But Shoigu is intimatey tied in to that old power network as is Abramovich. That set off alarms here given that Shoigu (along with Gerasimov) was the primary focus of the criminal psychopath Prigozhin’s complaints. It’s good for everyone that he’s gone if you buy that sequence of reasoning. But Prigozhin is understandably a hero to many Russians but not the ones you’d bring home to mama. Maybe Ma Barker.

          • jld says:

            someone else too on the security council, I don’t know who, but call him X

            I would call him Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov.

    • leith says:

      Bill –

      He’s at least a quarter Ukrainian heritage. His grampa was from Sumy Oblast in Ukraine.

  7. Barbara Ann says:

    So let me get this straight, the source for this nugget of intel is a pro Ukraine Twitter account citing a “non-affiliated” Telegram channel called @KremlinRU (the link provided is to a Twitter account with 11 followers) citing unnamed “sources in Minsk”.

    The actual source is here: https://t.me/thekremlinru/340. This alleged “non-affiliated” channel with a couple of thousand subscribers billed as having “Еxclusive information about Russia.” consists of a stream of similar intel nuggets (in English) all from anonymous sources. In the absence of any evidence whatsoever of events actually happening as described here, I think we must file this under ‘big, if true’.

    TTG, you have made it clear that you support the Ukie’s information war and your posts here are clearly part of that effort. No problem there, as you are open about your partisan feelings. However, I’d respectfully suggest that you are scraping the bottom of the PSYOPS barrel with this one.

  8. F&L says:

    Excuse this maudlin interlude but Bill Mauldin might appreciate it.

    The beautiful and spectacularly gifted Russian singer Slava – Anastasia Slanevskaya – offered up what can only be interpreted as her thoughts on the horrors going on now and underway when she performed this cover of the hugely popular Ukrainian pop group’s 2015 (1 yr post Maidan) hit Peremiriya (An end to the fighting or Truce). Slava is singing in 2016 here. According to liner notes on an album of hers I had found photographed on the net, she had recently visited the Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd, the site of the famous giant statue The Motherland Calls, where she had a vision of the horrors of memorable dictatorships. I felt goosebumps remembering that written on the grass at the foot of the great feminine warrior portrayed there holding her sword high are the letters in Cyrillic:
    С Л А В А
    Which means Glory in Russian and by coincidence is her stage name.

    Music powerfully influences me, and watching her performance here she seemed to be the Motherland statue herself, come down to life descended off her monument overlooking the Volga, the mighty sword in her hand transformed into a microphone.

    Here’s Slava, followed by Via Gra’s original official video release.

    World famous Ukrainian artists and a Russian Diva of surpassing genius singing Peremiriya – Truce.

    Слава – Slava (Glory) – Перемирие (Peremirie) – An End to Fighting (Truce) 2016.
    https://youtu.be/RH9tsgkaGiA

    Via Gra – Truce – Peremirie – Перемирие (2015)
    https://youtu.be/CSkHoQRQMsE

    Go-to bottom & press translate for interlinear Russian – English lyrics. Romanizing the Cyrillic is also available for the hat trick.
    nu virgos peremirie lyrics https://g.co/kgs/VsrUwh

  9. leith says:

    Head of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov claims that the attack on Pskov was done from inside Russia.

    https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3755775-attack-on-pskov-air-base-launched-from-russias-territory-budanov.html

    Of course he could be lying in an info op to bamboozle the Kremlin. But I tend to believe him because there is an overhead video out there of the attack that appears to be taken by one of those short range quadcopter drones.

    https://t.me/operativnoZSU/112637

    Or maybe it was a combination of long range and short range? The timing on that might be tough to coordinate, but it is doable. And there are mixed messages coming from OSINT sources on the type of drone used; some say it was the Bobr or Beaver, another claims it was the Aussie Cardboard Crusader, and one contended that it was done by FPV quadcopters.

    I’ll wait for more data. Perhaps in the coming days the Kremlin will show photos of drone debris?

    • TTG says:

      leith,

      I saw the video this morning of a drone dropping bombs/grenades on an Ilyushin. Sure sounds like a job done from very close to Pskov with short range drones. Too far for an Estonia-based attack and certainly too far for an attack from Ukraine. For the Ukrainians to launch a second drone attack at Pskov the next night is doubly ballsy for an SOF and/or resistance team. Unless the Russians were just seeing ghosts on the second night.

  10. F&L says:

    Channel “Russian decadence” is piling on maliciously. However the video on the far right of the bottom row of Putin with the schoolchildren sure does look like North Korea. Not a fair portrait of Russia by any means, but nonetheless the leader manages to appear as though he keeps his head in a bag of stones. With the other heads, that is. Appearing soon in theaters: The Mummy.
    ——————————————————–
    https://t.me/beregofic/11465

    Mishustin came to a Moscow school on Knowledge Day to raise the mention , inspect a new educational institution and congratulate the students. The prime minister is being molded by all means into the image of a kind peasant who is ready to drink compote from dried fruits, play ping-pong with a child, and nostalgic about his favorite bun with jam.

    However, the piquancy of the situation is given by the fact that a large number of schools in Moscow are fed by Prigozhin’s structures . Before his death, Putin’s chef managed to conclude contracts in the capital to provide students with buns and compotes until the end of August 2024 for 85 billion rubles . Perhaps Mishustin and Sobyanin also tasted the products of Prigozhin’s firms today. The Irony of Fate.

    But even such a plywood Mishustin, around whom there are more guards than schoolchildren , looks more advantageous than the president, who talked with schoolchildren via video link , and then in person. An absolute Truman show with children stretched out to the line and the same tense officials in the background. And it should be noted that the prime minister is again in company with Sobyanin and even wished good luck to the mayor in the elections.

  11. F&L says:

    Translation from ВЗГЛЯД (Viewpoint). Makes a great deal of sense at first glance. There is an ongoing fuel shortage in Russia however. Probably they’re going to have to rely on old fashioned methods of gruesome torture of captured sabotage groups who launch the drone attacks? Doubt it. Problems with that are several and obvious: similar gruesome retaliations, loss of prestige, and the more powerful long distance attacks which don’t use sabotage groups on Ru soil, not to mention swarm attacks using multitudes of drones. Is there a likely zone defense which can use numerous powerful radio and other frequency E&M emitters whose waves f up the pesky drone innard’s circuits? Is that difficult for solid state stuff? Would maybe mess up TV and other communications.
    —————————————————
    Helicopters will stand up to protect Moscow from Ukrainian drones.
    https://tinyurl.com/yn8ycyd9
    Moscow is carrying out comprehensive work to protect the capital from attacks by Ukrainian drones. In particular, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported on the construction of a whole network of air defense facilities. And judging by the words of the mayor, helicopters will take part in the defense. How effective will the developed protection model be and how else can the air defense of the capital be improved?

  12. F&L says:

    Unfortunately this is relevant though the drones are naval. Translation from ВЗГЛЯД..
    Interesting detail re remote maneuvering. Can these nasty semi-submersible remote controlled buggers be launched out from under the bellies of B-52s or civilian aircraft and, carried by forces of attached rockets or jet engines glide their way into all kinds of other bodies of water, N, S, E and West?

    “It wouldn’t require intergalactically acquired alien technology,” said Rip Van Winkle before he dozed off.

    How the protection of the Crimean bridge from Ukrainian attacks works:
    Military expert Dandykin: Russia drew conclusions from Ukraine’s attacks on the Crimean bridge.
    https://tinyurl.com/yvbe7uab
    Ukraine again tried to attack the Crimean bridge with the help of naval drones, and again unsuccessfully. “Conclusions were drawn and the boats were destroyed, as were their earlier places of production in the Odessa region,” military experts say about this. How is the protection of the Crimean bridge from such attacks finally arranged?

    • TTG says:

      F&L,

      Sounds like a variation on the old torpedo bomber. The last use of those that I know of was in Korea with a Skyraider torpedo attack against a dam. How about a drone delivered smart torpedo/submersible?

      • F&L says:

        Why not — Can I get one “to go” with organic mustard on a 7 grain bun? Or will it be delivered by robot courier whose lithium batteries were charged by renewable energy sources left over from the tales of Don Quixote’s delusional rampages as observed by his companion Sancho Panza?

      • F&L says:

        NATO prepares for war with Russia in the Baltic Sea.
        German Navy: NATO will conduct exercises in the Baltic Sea for the first time in case of war with Russia. URA.RU

        https://tinyurl.com/2p8yuuj8

        • Billy Roche says:

          I could make a snotty comment about the Bismark a/or the Tirpitz and the German Navy in gen’l but I wont. I will ask, does Germany even have a Navy?
          This puts Finnish “sisu” on notice b/c, if I remember correctly, Helsinki and St Petersburg are only 100 miles apart across the Gulf of Finland. The Finns are looking the Russians right in the eye. I don’t think we are talking about big boats here. Beefed up coast guard vessels plus an American and British large ship.
          This also raises the question about the strength of Russia’s Baltic fleet. WW I began so suddenly that I don’t think there was time for Naval maneuvers in the Baltic in the summer of ’14. I think this was also true for 1940. So these exercises are unprecedented and are a real show of resolve.

    • F&L says:

      Overheard in the Ural Mountains.
      ——————————————————

      Danilov: Ukraine can hit targets in the Russian Federation at a distance of 1.5 thousand kilometers.
      https://ura.news/news/1052681723

      Ukrainian weapons are capable of hitting targets on the territory of Russia at a distance of up to 1.5 thousand kilometers. This was stated by the head of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Alexey Danilov.

      “Citizenship of weapons that are used on the territory of the Russian Federation is Ukrainian. There are two areas that have been worked out for a certain period of time: this is a missile program approved back in 2020 to create our own Ukrainian missiles, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. They are very powerfully unfolding today in our country with the involvement of a large number of private companies,” Danilov told fakty.com.ua.
      According to Danilov, Ukrainian equipment is capable of hitting objects at a distance of both 700 kilometers and 1.5 thousand kilometers. He noted that this is the merit of “a very large number of professional people.”

      Danilov has already said that Ukraine attacks Russia only with weapons of its own production. Cardboard drones were used to attack the Kursk region. At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling not military infrastructure, but exclusively civilian facilities. Most often, residents of the Belgorod region come under fire. Thus, when hitting the Crimean Bridge on July 17, a married couple from the Belgorod region died, their teenage daughter was seriously injured. In August, a child died during the shelling of a school in the Belgorod region.
      Comments (3)
      Olga
      So they can hit the Urals, we need to get ready…

      Reply
      Russian
      The capital of Russia must be moved to the glorious Russian city of Arkhangelsk! Arkhangelsk is located next to the famous Northern Sea Route, which will allow you to smoothly provide the new capital with any goods!
      Reply
      Rusu
      To ensure this path, all ships must be accompanied by at least two icebreakers, and in winter they will not pass there, any ship will be crushed with ice or mashed..

    • leith says:

      F&L –

      van Winkle is right! There is no reason that an aerial drone couldn’t carry and launch a submersible UUV. I’ll speculate that the Ukrainian Tolova TK-150 underwater drone could be carried by and launched from aerial drones similar to the Bayraktar TB3 with a payload capacity of 280 kg (620 lb). Although they would have to have a fold-able mast for the Tolova if it doesn’t already have that ability.

      Or a larger UUV can conceivably be carried by aerial drones similar to the Bayraktar Akinci with a payload capacity of 400kg (881lb).

      While such aerial UAVs are being developed, Ukraine could possibly launch the Tolova UUV from one of their MI-14 ASW helicopters. Or it could be done from the Westland Sea King ASW helos given by the UK to the Ukrainian Navy.

      US Navy SH-60 helicopters have been capable of launching torpedos the size of the Tolova for decades. P-3 fixed wing aircraft (and the new P-8) can do it as well. The Russian Navy has a similar capability.

  13. F&L says:

    Mearsheimer today on why he thinks Ukraine’s offensive failed and that they or their bosses need the concept of “blitzkrieg” explained to them. Corresponds well with my readings on it many years ago in several sources, British, German, Soviet, American.

    https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/bound-to-lose

    • TTG says:

      F&L,

      Mearsheimer doesn’t appear to realize that the much ballyhooed blitzkrieg is not the only form of offensive action and it is not always the most appropriate form.

      • F&L says:

        Dear TTG,
        I appreciate that too. However I regret to have to inform you that according to the NY Times, by way of RT, things really aren’t looking good at all for the Ukrainian chaps at the moment. They include a link to that esteemed American periodical, which curiously goes directly to an internet archive, leaving me to suspect, devil that I am, that they’ve been ordered to take it down.

        The illustrious Admiral Jake Kirby, spokesman for the administration via the Pentagon, said today in reply to a reporter’s query: “Criticism of the offensive doesn’t help.”

        (I’ll remember that next time I’m accused of being offensive.)

        RUSSIA ADAPTING TO NEW TACTICS – NYTIMES.
        https://www.rt.com/russia/582274-russia-ukraine-counteroffensive-tactics/
        Drone surveillance and flaming deathtraps have hampered Kiev’s counteroffensive, the US newspaper has reported.

        While Ukrainian troops have used small-unit tactics to capture a number of hamlets along the Zaporozhye front line, Russian forces have developed devastating traps in response, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

        • TTG says:

          F&L,

          I don’t see that much adapting, but I do see the Russians planning and conducting a good defense IAW with established military principles. Keeping obstacles under observation and fires is basic as is having preplanned fires on wherever the enemy is expected to break through. But that flaming field technique is ingenious.

          • F&L says:

            Thanks. It’s very interesting. I reached the conclusion long ago from my readings that fires were used by the Soviets in at least WW2 and probably their Civil war. Also that it’s an ancient tactic of combat as I expect you must know. It’s frighteningly obvious, that. It’s not on TV or in the movies because they want to terrify people but not that much.

        • LeaNder says:

          which curiously goes directly to an internet archive, leaving me to suspect, devil that I am, that they’ve been ordered to take it down.
          I wondered what happened. Very, very sad indeed. They were gone occasionally before. Hopefully they surface again …

    • English Outsider says:

      This point renders the others redundant:-

      “Still, even if the Ukrainians were able to pull off a miracle and make the blitzkrieg work, the war would still go on, because Kyiv’s blitzkrieg did not aim to decisively defeat the Russians, who would survive to fight another day.”

      As Mearsheimer intimates, the blame game is going to be ugly. Berlin/Brussels, the various factions in Washington, and the factions in Kiev, if they manage to get out of the mess with a whole skin – conflicting Dolchstosslegenden all over the place and a lot of time wasted arguing them.

      FAFO will cover the lot.

  14. drifter says:

    To sum up, it seems the Russians are winning.

    • TTG says:

      drifter,

      Losing far more ground than they gained in the last year plus, losing a lot more men and equipment than their foe, it’s hard to call that winning. Although I do see them staving off catastrophic defeat for a good while longer.

    • Billy Roche says:

      Drifter; You can always hope can’t you but 1 1/2 years into war w/a bunch of untermensch and the Russians are still stuck in the Donbass. If Ukrainian “bullochs” can hold on another 16 weeks the war will march forward into 2024. Ukraine hangs in. Meanwhile, not a hint of negotiations. Ukrainian weaponry improves and their missiles now reach Moscow. Perhaps Putin should consider if he intends to kill every Ukrainian and destroy their country that they will take a piece out of his a…ss first. Why not? The Russian will destroy Kiev, the Ukrainian will destroy Moscow. How appropriate for “brother” Slavs. “Empire” must be existentially important to the Russian.

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