Soltsy-2 airbase, which is home to Russian Tu-22M3 Backfire swing-wing bombers, was hit by a drone strike yesterday. Images of black smoking billowing from the base further solidified those reports, but it wasn’t clear what was burning. Now, photos have emerged that show a Tu-22M3 engulfed in flames at the base. The images first appeared on Telegram and have since made their way onto other social media platforms. Russian MoD has said one unspecified aircraft was damaged due to a drone attack, stating the following on its Telegram channel:
“At around 10:00 Moscow time today, the Kiev regime carried out a terrorist attack using a copter type UAV against a military airfield in Novgorod region. The UAV was detected by the airfield’s observation outpost and was hit with small arms fire. As a result of the terrorist attack, a fire broke out in the airfield parking lot, which was promptly extinguished by firefighting teams. One airplane was damaged; there were no casualties as a result of the terrorist act.”
The installation sits roughly 115 miles south of St. Petersburg, 315 miles west of Moscow, and 100 miles east of NATO member Estonia. This puts it about 415 miles north of the border of Ukraine. Kyiv’s long-range drone arsenal has expanded dramatically in recent months, with regular attacks on Moscow now a reality.
Tu-22Ms were produced between 1969 and 1993, with over 500 examples built. Today, Russia’s long-range bomber force features about 60 Tu-22M3 bombers at three operational bases — Belaya, Olenyegorsk, and Shaykovka — plus additional aircraft at the Ryazan training base. So, hitting just one would be a significant loss for Russia.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/tu-22-backfire-destroyed-in-drone-strike-deep-inside-russia
Comment: As the now old Ukrainian joke goes, “what air defense doing?” Surely Russia has the hardware and knowhow to protect airbases. She’s done a pretty good job of defending Hmeimim Air Base in Syria for years. Failing to protect strategic bombers on a Russian air base after more than a year and a half of hostilities is more than an oversight. It’s a major military blunder. To add insult to injury, this happened not long after Russian Air Force Day.
I have to wonder if Russia is running short of trained air defense units. Rather than bringing such units in to protect the strategic bombers at Soltsy-2, they repositioned at least six of the Backfire bombers to an air base near Murmansk. This will give Kyiv hours more warning time of future Kh-22 and Kh-101 missile launches.
All reports I’ve seen claim this was a long range strike from Ukrainian territory with a quadcopter type drone. That’s a hell of distance to fly and control any drone never mind a quadcopter drone. Perhaps this strike was launched by a team that infiltrated much closer to the Russian air base. I believe that’s what happened with the strike that damaged the Beriev A-50 AWACS at an air base in Belarus last February. Mission planning would have been a snap if we had such drones in 10th SFG(A) back in the early 1980s.
TTG
More likely launching points, based on distance only, are Estonia or Latvia. The shortage of air defense units you posit is likely due to a decision, not likely to have been widely discussed, to pull units back to protect Moscow & St Petersburg — I’ve read mumblings of that nature since the first drone attacks. Building hangars for their remaining fleets is probably too expensive and needed lead time anyway which isn’t available any longer. Their entire SVO showed little to no planning that anyone who writes for the sources I read has been able to detect. They always needed their strategic buffer in their west but it’s long gone now. The US & Britain care not at all for the inhabitants of Ukraine, the stated strategy is unfolding exactly as you see — to bleed Russia til collapse. Those who say that Ukraine will run out of troops have a good point, but the US strategy can adjust for that by incremental providision of more powerful weapons and systems, especially fighter jets, drones and various missiles. Tass and other government publications monitor Trump’s travails diligently, an indicator so sad it’s barely worth comment, because they thought he was their hole card last time, but I suppose it tells the observer something. They are cursed by geography, their tempting resource wealth, climate, authoritarian governing culture and their gigantic tragedies of the 20th century – 1917, Civil War, wars of collectivization era, WW2, etc up to dissolution of their Union in 1991 and ongoing with transfers of wealth overseas, and loss of a fine educational system. You wanted me to stop joking – now you see why – my underlying outlook is such a downer that as an old friend from Hoboken used to say: “you could ruin a [XXXX]’s funeral.”
Actually, I think your intelligent analysis here
is far more interesting than finding random patterns of no evident significance.
Thanks for this comment 🙂
My inclination is to lean towards either a non-quadcopter long range drone launched from Ukraine or a quadcopter launched from within Russia over an origin in the Baltics – I really don’t think Ukraine wants to risk disrupting any aspect of the support they’re getting from NATO, and that might piss the Russians off to the point that it would have an impact there. In any case, an impressive job.
“Damaged” Back fire bomber. That level of understatement would make a traditional Englishman envious. I hope there are many more ‘damaged’ aircraft, along with some ‘dinged’, ‘bruised’ and even ‘a tad smudged’ to go along with the photo. The English language can be a marvel.
Warning,
Someone might construe your use of “Back fire” with “bomber” in the context of a catastrophe to constitute evidence of wordplay, offences concerning which are strictly monitored.
In further sordid news on the Luna 25 crash and its antecedents, see below. Warning, the channel is rumored to be funded by a man who was imprisoned for 10 years, the exiled billionaire Khodakovsky. So it may not be unbiased.
In other news not linked to below, China is said to have called it quits on their space station collaboration with Russia in light of Luna. In further news which is quite pitilessly sad, which is linked to below – a 50 yr old Time capsule was opened in Yekaterinburg – see text pasted lower down – that blurb’s text is from a prominent Ru political scientist:
—————————–
https://t.me/vchkogpu/41040
The opinion of the source of the Cheka-OGPU about the collapsed “Luna-25”:
“The Luna-25 station that crashed onto the moon is the product of the ruined NPO named after S. A. Lavochkin, or as it is also called Lavochka. Lavochka’s products have not been flying anywhere for a long time and lag behind their foreign competitors in all technical parameters for years. 30. This fact is not a secret for professionals.
Luna 25 was developed and assembled at the Lavochkin production association back in the late 90s and early 2000s. All this gathered dust and rusted until there was an urgent need for Russian leaders to splurge on the “successes” of the space industry. They shook it off, mastered a few hundred million more dollars, and with the ideology of scientific thought from the 90s, the apparatus rushed to the moon, where it crashed safely. There could be no other outcome for this space expedition. The main advantage of Lavochka now is its location – right next to the Moscow ring road. Soon, the former industrial and scientific areas will be demolished and new residential complexes and business centers will appear instead of the once famous structure. This is the fate of many enterprises that are part of Roscosmos and not only now … This is the fate of almost all Moscow factories and design bureaus of the defense complex, machine tool building, mechanical engineering, microelectronics, etc. The entire scientific and production potential is rolled up in asphalt and concrete – there are almost no qualified scientific personnel left, as well as the teaching staff. The main thing is that there is no vector for the development of Russian science and industry. More precisely, it exists, only the focus is not on high-tech production and scientific developments, but on the appropriation of the lands on which the former flagships of the Soviet cosmonautics and defense industry stand.
NPO Lavochkina has been in the news lately mainly because of the constant criminal cases and arrests of leaders, which is what the NGO is famous for today, and not the nomenclature produced. In place of some thieving general directors, others come again and again, and again and again due to the topic, huge amounts of money are mastered (Lavochka’s annual budget is at least $15 billion), which are thrown open into the right pockets, flooding state structures with false reporting and statistical information.
——————-
TTG might want to look at the map here:
https://t.me/logikamarkova/7899
Rabotino on American maps looks like this. Huge forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are thrown there, they hope for a breakthrough to the city of Tokmak, and then to Vasilyevka and Melitopol.
——————————
https://t.me/logikamarkova/7896
In Yekaterinburg this weekend, they got a time capsule, that is, a note with a message to descendants, laid down by Komsomol members 50 years ago on the central square. Received but not opened. Because it’s embarrassing. Because it is clear that our ancestors thought of us much better than we are now. They decided to carefully hand over the time capsule to historians, let them read it first. Then the bosses. Then public opinion will be prepared. And only then can people be shown. Ashamed.
F&L,
Advice taken. BTW, wouldn’t the launching of drones from Latvia or Estonia be too big a risk for each country?
Whitewall and F&L,
Launching from Latvia or Estonia would be far too risky and foolhardy. I now think it’s very likely this was the work of Ukrainian Special Operations or Intelligence using a commando team and/or resistance cell.
TTG,
I don’t follow re riskyness. They are NATO members and US President Biden has vowed to defend “every inch of NATO territory” under article 5. Do you mean risky politically because it would put JB in uncomfortable water with his election challenge ahead? Or that it would call the bluff of some other wavering members? I guess you favor or understand the command as favoring reducing all risk to the absolute most minimum possible, which certainly jibes with Austin & Miley’s (non) war fighting strategy up till now. There has been some brazen stuff tho.
Forgot this – Zeihan on F16s, extended range fuel tanks, armaments he “doesn’t want to go into detail” on yet and especially his ominous hints that the gloves are coming off but not yet, in the foreseeable future regarding strikes inside Russia proper. You’re right that L or E would be risky for them given there’s no need at the moment to make such moves. My confusion often leads me to think that’s sufficiently obvious and plausible so that it might be risked because – “well, they know we’re not that foolish,” but that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny because “oh but we have the films and maybe we captured your guys too and have people in your camp.” TTG’s idea makes far more sense.
F-16 Jets: Updates to Ukraine’s Defense strategy – PZeihan (5 min)
https://youtu.be/cem-58_NKjA
Another angle which supports your observation and our host’s.
————————–
Confrontation with Russia leads to the bankruptcy of Estonia. Russian news source: VIEWPOINT
Estonian deputy Chaplygin: Rising prices have devastated the wallets of Estonian citizens
https://tinyurl.com/wsj8npxe
From Nesmiyan’s Telegram. I’m forbidden to mention that “Tyranny” was possibly foretold by means of the transgender movement’s idolization of the “Tranny” by hiding an extra “y” behind the “y” in “Tranny,” and placing it between the “T” and “r,” but since Tyranny was a focus of SST & Turcopolier, maybe I will be granted an occasional infrequent indulgence. Today, in other news, Putin signed into law the use of a form of digital money in Russia which is controlled by their Central Bank, but it’s going to be implemented incrementally. Remember, Sputnik preceded our spaceshots.
—————————————
This is still a pale, but already working mechanism of the restrictive economy “according to Schwab”. In essence, the consumer will be limited by the algorithms that will determine his life. Digital money will track almost any human action, being at the center of a large integral control system.
In this case, in Sweden, control is carried out using ordinary money, but algorithmized by a mechanism for tracking transactions made by a person. So far, this mechanism is tied to a single criterion, but if necessary, an unlimited number of similar control mechanisms can be added to it.
For wild countries and economies with a high level of gray economy, these mechanisms will work with great difficulty, since escaping control in such gray areas is a national sport, and, in fact, the government quite successfully fits into it, since it is the gray economy that allows to an official to rob the budget.
——-
https://t.me/banksta/40812
Sweden has a credit card that tracks how much C02 is being used in your purchases. If you exceed the monthly carbon limit, then your card will be blocked until the end of the month. @banksta
—————
https://t.me/anatoly_nesmiyan/12230
But the developed countries will take a sip in full. In Australia, cash has almost been abolished, and there are severe restrictions on it in other Western economies. There, too, there are gray areas and black holes for the marginalized and the scum, but they will remain out of the digital economy, so they are of no interest from the point of view of control. The digital concentration camp is primarily for the support of society, the current middle class. If you don’t want to go to the barracks, you can go behind the barbed wire. But then you will be trash and an outcast. There is only one choice.
Half the links lead to articles that are a lot older than a week ago. Launching from Latvia or Estonia are perfect ‘we dare you to respond’ neocon ideas. Article 5, Article 5! Just like the folks who dreamed up all the White Helmet actions in Syria.
Fred,
What links are older than a week? This attack only occurred a few days ago. Today Vladislav Shapsha, Governor of Kaluga Oblast, announced there was another drone attack on the Shaykovka Air Base, home of another Tu-22M3 unit.
“Ukraine Situation Report: Belarus Admits Russian A-50 Radar Jet Damaged In Drone Attack
The Belarusian president has now admitted that a drone attack by partisans caused some damage to a Russian A-50 radar plane last month.
BY
THOMAS NEWDICK
|
PUBLISHED MAR 7, 2023 6:44 PM EST”
That’s the second link of yours – March of this year. The others are within the text you quoted. (The author is using ‘old news’ to highlight his story. Which detracts from his credibility.)
Fred,
That’s because that drone attack happened last February as I said in my comment. I included that because it was so similar to what happened a few days ago, very likely done by Ukrainian SOF or Intelligence.
The author referenced an article on the Tu-22-M3 as background since his current article focused on the loss of a Tu-22M3. I don’t see how that detracts from his credibility.
TTG,
My bad for not reading too closely then. Two planes in a year? Doesn’t sound all that devastating.
Fred,
The loss is not at all remarkable except for the type of planes lost. It’s the equivalent of us losing an AWACS and one or two B-52s on their CONUS air bases to cheap drone strikes.
TTG,
While the FBI did ‘neutralize’ a mobility scooter ‘threat’ to Biden, and the Fargo police stopped an Islamic terrorist (who killed a cop and injured a couple more) I don’t think actual hostile actors would have much trouble launching attacks like this on our aircraft. Heck just a damaged civilian liner at any major airport would do to shut down civil aviation.
https://apnews.com/article/fargo-north-dakota-police-officer-shooting-d289e29344a93f623620acef9912dfda
https://www.insideedition.com/75-year-old-utah-man-shot-dead-by-fbi-agents-after-allegedly-making-threats-against-president-biden
Fred,
The drone attack seems to have definitely occurred. Too many reports and discussions for it to be otherwise, by people who are close to everything and are themselves quite critical. Elena Panina is very close to the administration and appears regularly on the big state propaganda news shows like 60 minutes. And she’s brilliant. She wouldn’t be mounting a public response like this if it didn’t happen – translation pasted below link; she leads by saying The Moscow Times is owned by a Dutch company, which is true. Her MO is vigorous defense of the country using plentiful references which range far and wide – runs her own daily Gazette. There was indeed a drone strike in Belarus awhile ago as you say. It’s easy to mix this stuff up, the scenery is drab and flat and the photos aren’t ideal and it pays to be skeptical with these characters.
—————————————-
https://t.me/EvPanina/10764
Russia has a solid backlog in the modernization and construction of strategic bombers-
The Dutch The Moscow Times is trying to hype on the strike on the Soltsy airfield in the Novgorod region. They say in Russia “there is no engineering and technical base left for the new construction of strategic nuclear bombers.”
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, one aircraft was damaged. We are talking about the Tu-22M3.
We note right away that Russia needs to strengthen the entire range of measures: both security and counterintelligence, to protect the places where our aviation is based. Fighterbomber and Vladislav Shurygin wrote professionally on this topic.
▪️Now about the theses of The Moscow Times. The air component of the strategic nuclear forces of the Russian Federation includes two types of aircraft: the Tu-160 strategic bomber bomber and the Tu-95MS strategic missile carrier.
The Tu-95MS is in the process of upgrading combat vehicles to the Tu-95MSM version, which will double its combat effectiveness.
The Tu-160 project has two branches of development : the modernization of combatant Tu-160s to the level of Tu-160M, as well as the production of new Tu-160M2 vehicles. This is to the question of whether Russia has engineering and technical competencies for new construction.
▪️ The Tu-22M3 long-range bomber does not belong to strategic aviation. There are 60 such vehicles in service with the RF Armed Forces. Upgrading to the Tu-22M3M version is underway. It will bring the aircraft’s capabilities closer to strategic bombers by returning the refueling bar and a new line of missile weapons.
Another same number of Tu-22M3 is in storage. So the potential for qualitative and quantitative growth is sufficient.
As they say, do not rush to bury us.
On Topic in a doubly parallel sense? ( – 1- Loss of big mil asset + 2 – disputed story).
Subtopic: “We have no evidence of you beating your wife.”
Differences – subs much bigger than bombers and lives might have been lost.
Sounds like an information provocation possibly.
https://t.me/rian_ru/212840
Taiwan’s defense ministry has found no evidence of a Chinese nuclear submarine crashing in the Taiwan Strait, a spokesman said.
Earlier, there were reports in the media and social networks that the nuclear submarine allegedly recently crashed in the Taiwan Strait, and its crew died. Beijing has not yet commented on this information.
Nesmiyan has several posts today on the gas&oil situation as well as domestic fuel supply which is dwindling in several areas. His discussion of sanctions effects more broadly outlined how sanction regimes gave the IRGC much more power in Iran, and turned Venezuela & Iraq into mafia states.
See:
https://t.me/anatoly_nesmiyan/12239
This papagaz channel is one of his references, one post therefrom pasted below. How the numerous emergencies affect fuel & transport – unknown here. Very significant labor shortages are reported in several industries, particularly those needing engineers.
https://t.me/papagaz/14633
Fuel chaos is gaining momentum: there is no one in the country to ship gasoline
Following reports that a number of gas stations in the Saratov, Ryazan and Novosibirsk regions, as well as the Crimea formed a shortage of gasoline, our sources report that a shortage has formed in the Stavropol Territory.
As we already wrote , in addition to repairs, damper reduction and “gray exports”, the fact that refineries are forced to stop production due to warehouse congestion, as there is simply not enough transport capacity, is added. The railway is overloaded: there are not enough locomotives and tanks. But that’s not all.
According to our sources, in the Stavropol Territory, at the fuel and lubricants warehouse, which belongs to Rosneft, in the city of Mikhailovsk, workers are leaving en masse.
“They stopped paying nightly wages, wages are not indexed, as a result of a shortage of workers, the local authorities have to work for the workers. For this money, the workers do not want to work in such conditions. Hence the shortage of 95 gasoline at remote Rosneft gas stations in the Stavropol Territory. There is no 95 gasoline in the city of Stavropol in the network of gas stations “Gazprom” (not to be confused with the network of “Gazprom Neft”, – the source reports.
Of course, whether or not to index wages is up to the management of companies, but the market always dictates. The country simply does not have enough people with working specialties, many of them leave for Ukraine, where they are paid not 40-50 thousand rubles a month, but two hundred. And in this case, you either accept the conditions of the market, or turn off the business. And, as we all understand, the choice will fall on the first option, but then wait for the rise in fuel prices and there is no escape from this.
Reason I post this is that the photo used by the DT here is almost a color carbon copy of the one used by our host to illustrate the drone hit(s) on the bomber(s). Grimly amusing.
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Two Ukrainian boats destroyed as Black Sea tensions soar.
————————————-
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/22/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-drone-attack-belgorod/
Russia claims to have destroyed Ukrainian military and intelligence vessels in the Black Sea amid soaring tensions in the region.
A Russian bomber reportedly destroyed a US-supplied military speedboat and its Ukrainian crew some 25 miles east of Snake Island on Tuesday.
The island, which became a famous symbol of Ukrainian resistance early in the war, was retaken by Kyiv last summer.
The reported incident came after Moscow said on Monday night that one of its fighter jets had sunk a “reconnaissance boat” near a Russian gas platform off the coast of Crimea.
Rybar, a pro-Russian blogger, said the vessel was carrying Ukrainian intelligence personnel who may have been planning operations on the annexed peninsula.
Clashes have intensified in the Black Sea since Moscow withdrew from a UN-brokered export deal aimed at ensuring the safe passage of Ukrainian grain to global markets.
Russia has repeatedly struck the ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv, while Ukraine has targeted Russian ships.
Puzzling contradiction. We’ve been given the impression that remote surveillance – satellites, aircraft observing from outside – is now so complete that neither side can move units or equipment without being detected.
However, many reports of strikes on ammunition dumps, artillery units, AD, small bases in clearings, are now accompanied by the announcement that these targets were detected by reconnaissance drones. That implies that remote surveillance does not succeed in identifying such targets.
The ISR war is the hidden war. It’s where NATO is of the greatest assistance to the Kiev forces and where the Russians are also pulling out all the stops. The fancy netcentric approach that all talk about seems to boil down to getting the fastest response time. The time between identifying an often mobile target and hitting it. If drones are more useful in this respect than remote surveillance that implies that satellites and AWACS aren’t quite all they were cracked up to be.
More amateur pondering, TTG, but it’s an interesting question.
On the wider picture, what’s been obvious for months is now receiving further confirmation. NATO strategy is two pronged.
In the immediate future the war is seen as a cost effective way of “bleeding” the Russians. The Ukrainian forces are kept in the game at relatively small cost to NATO by supplying equipment that was often due for scrapping anyway, with the cosmetic addition of small amounts of more advanced equipment.
In this connection, and setting on one side disagreements on the “who’s in the right” question entirely, we have behaved badly with our proxies. The expansive promises of “as long as it takes”, the massive increases in military aid and equipment, the insistence that the Ukrainians do not engage in peace negotiations – and when it comes to it, that all ends up with telling them “We are not Amazon” when they’re really up against it and need genuine support.
From statements coming out of Kiev the Ukrainians know full well they’re being left to hang out to dry but have to accept it because they have no option. This follows the Western pattern of leaving proxies or allies in the lurch when convenient and is for me, together with the massive casualties now being inflicted on the Ukrainian PBI, a shame on the West now fully as grave as what we did in Syria.
The second prong of the NATO approach I don’t think will work. It’s been obvious for a long time, and is now being further confirmed, that what NATO wants is a frozen conflict. Ukraine must give up the territories it has lost and the war must stop. It must be stopped either by the declaration of a ceasefire or the imposition of a DMZ.
This will enable NATO to continue arming remnant Ukraine. The arms deliveries now promised are too far off in the future to be of much use in the current war. They will, however, do very well to build up remnant Ukraine. This will enable remnant Ukraine to be what it was before 2022; a source of annoyance to the Russians and possibly a means of continuing the unbalancing and overextending of Russia that had been the previous NATO policy.
I don’t think that’ll work, that second prong of the NATO approach. Further, it now looks as if the Russians have the bit between their teeth and are looking at more than their original aims of demilitarising and denazifying Ukraine. They look to be intending to return their 2021 European Security demands and now have the means to enforce those demands.
We are a hell of long way away from Minsk 2. As intimated to Bill, the neocons and their European sidekicks are now finding out what FOFA means. So are the Ukrainians. So too the hapless and ineffably dumb European voters. But don’t think I’m one little bit happy about that. I’m one of them!
EO,
By the way, speaking of surveillance, the drone strikes on Russian territory we’ve been seeing are also surveillance flights of Russia and it’s air defences. They seem not to have very effective “zone” defense but they do have effective “focal” defenses since they do shoot down many of the drones which as they approach targets. So imagine a real swarm of hundreds, which we haven’t seen yet inside Russia. A barrage of non nuclear tomahawks or whatever the F-16s can shoot off? They will reach targets while carrying much heavier loads. Barbaric or psychopathic (your pick)? But they needn’t be used murder mothers and children, they can destroy airfields, military headquarters and other infrastructure. The humiliation will be equal or greater to the humiliation after the Russian Empire defeat by Japan in 1905 which led to the first of the revolutions. I respect you, but think you’re either dreaming or an incurable optimist. If incurable diseases are what’s on offer, there’s maybe none better. Was it a genie who popped out of a bottle after you rescued a poor maiden whose finger had got stuck in the bottleneck after an evil sorcer who trapped the genie tricked her by saying “your little puppy flew into this bottle, Missie, just fish him out now, but I must be off now?” Foolish man. It’s older than Methuselah. Or did the Bobby who told you “they work as a team, mate, an the genie’s a bloody liar, only yer first wish is granted – e’s inna gang ‘e is ‘e is awwright now just run along, yer a wanking bloody incurable optimist all yer life now, I’m done with yas..” It would explain many things if so.
F&L! – Been busy. Returned to the computer just now. I like to see what’s going on.
Martyanov’s just put up a Tucker//Macgregor interview that covers a fair bit of ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMUAaWK79Vc&t=2s
Take time out to look at it. Tell me if you see any flaws. Me, I reckon Macgregor puts it all together.
“Bring industry back home. Also the troops. Ensure an adequate defence. Drain the swamp.” Isn’t that what he’s saying? Isn’t that what Trump was saying?
……………………
Don’t forget what I said to do when you vote for him. Vote early. Vote often. It’s how we do things in the Western Democracies now.
Imagine facing the challenges of finding anything dubious in a Col Macgregor – Tucker Carlson interview. Or exceeding it in perfection?
I rise to the occasion:
How to confirm that Vladimir Putin is actually Tinkerbell: Just ask Scott Ritter to interview Vladimir Soloviev, the notorious propagandist, professional rude person, businessman and graduate of the Moscow Metallurgical Institute.
Scott Ritter is really intergalactic here. Probably exceeds Freud, Scotland Yard and Sherlock Holmes. Maybe next he will interview the Lone Ranger’s horse Silver on whether Tonto is as good a shot in real life as in the movies.
Scott Ritter: W/ Vladimir Soloviev Talks What Putin Is Really Like*(4 min)
https://youtu.be/eX8M6jsWDCk
Bring industry home? More acid rain and back to the days of when major rivers caught fire? Not being able to see across the street on a sunny day? Choking half to death because you went outside in Los Angeles? No thanks.
First time I’ve ever disagreed with you, F&L. Pistols at dawn disagreement at that. Of course we must bring industry back home. Do we in the West imagine we can remain pensioners of the rest of the world for ever!
You’ll be telling me we’re Borrell’s “Garden in the Jungle” next, living high and mighty off our sullen neighbours. Those times is over! Over on February 21st 2022 and they will not return.
But enough of the bitter reproaches. If even Homer nods from time to time you must be allowed your neoliberal heresies. When we meet at that fateful dawn, the cloaked seconds gravely attentive and the Physician waiting resignedly by the coach, I shall of course fire wide. Where else but here would I find that wild mixture of fantasy and hard information that you provide?
Er, that Putin bloke they’re talking about in your link. Got to say, he sounds awfully like our Donald.
Yusov of GUR of Ukraine takes credit for two strikes including the one at Novgorod. Regarding the Kaluga strike his comments conform to our host’s estimate. Does it tend to make you think the drone hit on at Novgorod must also have been launched from inside Ru? Yes, if you believe him and that he isn’t trying to throw investigators off.
https://t.me/moscowtimes_ru/15199
Russia evacuated strategic bombers from Novgorod after Ukrainian attack
The Russian Ministry of Defense evacuated all aircraft from the airfield near Novgorod, where on August 19, a Tu-22M3 strategic bomber was destroyed as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike.
There were at least six nuclear-capable bombers at the Soltsy base in the Novgorod region, where the 40th Composite Aviation Regiment is based, but none were left on August 21, according to satellite images published by Joseph Dempsey, a military analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The photo also shows a black trail from a fire in one of the parking lots, which probably confirms the loss of the Tu-22M3, writes Dempsey. “The remaining Tu-22M3s appear to have been redeployed after the attack,” he adds.
The representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of Ukraine Andriy Yusov said the day before that the attack on the airfield took place at the time of preparing the vehicles for a combat sortie: this is evidenced by the presence of a ladder for the crew and a bright explosion, which means that the aircraft was refueled.
Yusov also confirmed Ukraine’s responsibility for the attack on another strategic bomber base, the Shaikovka airfield in the Kaluga region, on 21 August. According to him, it was a sabotage organized from the territory of Russia by people who performed tasks “in clear coordination” with Ukrainian intelligence. “They came from central Russia, worked hard and successfully returned,” Yusov said.
RESCUE OF CHILDREN FROM 1,200ft CABLE CAR IN PAKISTAN SUSPENDED.
Frustrated residents take over daring rescue of children in cable car hanging over 1,000ft valley. Locals begin their own operation to save the stranded youngsters as military’s operation is suspended.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/22/pakistan-cable-car-trapped-8-people-6-children-valley/
Frustrated residents appear to have taken over the daring rescue of schoolchildren trapped in a makeshift cable car hanging precariously over a 1,000ft ravine as darkness falls.
The military was forced to abandon a helicopter rescue after winching two children to safety, as another six were left dangling with a teacher on their way to school.
As darkness fell, locals began edging across the valley on a platform attached to an adjacent rope.
A man in his 30s, said to be a cable crossing expert, was seen sliding on the rope to reach the cable car and bring back one of the children.
Those gathered to rescue the children said the military had blocked their alternative mission, while the helicopters had been engaged in its own risky rescue in high winds.
—————————————————
In other news:
President Joe Biden immediately after the Maui fire: NO COMMENT.
In other OTHER news:
Biden arrived on the burned-out Hawaiian island of Maui, where he was not welcomed.
Daily Mail :
Biden was greeted with outrage, with some giving the president the middle finger and others holding up a “no comment” sign, referring to the president’s response to reporters last Sunday about thoughts on the Maui fires.
New York Post :
On one of the posters there was a demand to explain the inconsistency between the exorbitant spending on supporting Ukraine and the low financial aid against this background to Hawaiians affected by the fires. Biden mispronounced the name of one of the Hawaiian senators (before that, his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had not coped with their names).
Wall Street Journal :
The Biden couple walked through the scorched streets of Maui, inspecting the “charred remains of houses” and smelling the ash lingering in the air.