Ukraine plans to hire retired foreign pilots to fly Western fighter jets and fight against Russia. American politician Lindsey Graham stated this after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The government will look for retired pilots from NATO countries to fly the transferred F-16s until Ukrainian pilots complete their training. “If you’re a retired F-16 pilot and you’re looking to fight for freedom, they will hire you here. They’re going to look throughout NATO nations for willing fighter pilots who retired to come help them until they can get their pilots trained. We are looking for pilots who will fight for freedom,” Graham said.
The critical need for experienced pilots is related to the pace of training of Ukrainian personnel and pilots, which is not keeping pace with the plans to transfer fighter jets. At the same time, the already trained pilots will be adapting and practicing cooperation inside the country, performing air defense tasks, and will not appear near the front line for a long time.
Serhii Holubtsov, Chief of Aviation of Ukrainian Air Force, in particular, said that it would take a long time to get the F-16s into combat operations, and that everything would happen in three stages. At the first stage, the pilots will perform air defense tasks inland, then drive Russian frontline aircraft away from the front line, and then begin to conquer the airspace. “In a nutshell, it sounds like this: crawl, walk, run. We have not yet learned to crawl. When the planes arrive, we will realize that we have learned to crawl somewhere in the country, we will try what these planes can do, learn, get used to it, and master the space that is relatively safe,” says Holubtsov, speaking about the use of aircraft for air defense in the country’s rear. “Then we will continue to walk, and when we learn to walk, we will run.”
The involvement of experienced Western pilots during this period will make it possible to compensate for the time gap and quickly organize the capabilities necessary to perform complex combat missions.
Previously, this initiative was publicly supported by some retired pilots. In particular, in March 2023, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hampton said he was “ready to fly the plane for the Ukrainian military himself, if necessary.” Hampton, 58, known as “the deadliest F-16 pilot in the world,” spent 20 years in the Air Force, flying 151 combat missions from 1986 to 2006. He fought in the wars in the Persian Gulf, Kosovo and Iraq.
However, the growing fleet of Western fighter jets and the extensive network of airfields also require ground maintenance and repair personnel. Perhaps the Ukrainian military will look for such specialists outside the country as well.
https://mil.in.ua/en/news/ukraine-seeks-retired-f-16-pilots-to-fly-its-jets/
Comment: I choose this article on the efforts to launch a new AVG for Ukraine because it lays out the broad strategy of how the F-16s will be used over time. This go slow approach outlined by Serhii Holubtsov makes eminent sense to me. This article suggests Ukraine will hire pilots and probably maintenance personnel and incorporate them into the Ukrainian Air Force much as they did with foreign volunteers coming into the Ukrainian Army.
Trent Telenko lays out another approach. He actually laid it out two year ago.
All the long term training required logistical support necessary to operate a Patriot battery, an M1A1 Abrams Tank and an F-16 with AMRAAM can be hired done via contractor logistical support through a LOGCAP contract. This includes the weapons system operators.
Folks like Dyncorp or Halliburton-KBR can sub-contract to L3’s MPRI division to put together “private military security contractors” for a Patriot Battery, M1A1 tank crews and F-16 pilots w/ground crews. Pres. Zelensky would then give “security contractors” legal status as …” Ukrainian Foreign Legion” members for protections under the Laws of War. However, to do it quickly requires using the kind of Presidential patronage FDR provided to Chennault to hire away active or reserve US Military servicemen. IOW, give MPRI DoD service files & OPM recent retirement papers for people with the right MOS series skills to fill out a ‘private security units’ quickly. Getting the latest US weapons to Ukraine is a ‘money solvable logistics problem’ the USA has done for 37 years.
Under the Biden administration’s current policy of escalation management, this is not going to be happening. The best Ukraine can hope for is for this administration not throwing roadblocks in front of any pilots or maintenance workers willing to sign up. We recently moved to shut down the effort of UK based Livingstone Aerospace to hire instructor pilots for China. I can’t fathom how this company would think the USG would allow that. But pilots for Ukraine is an entirely different story. Perhaps some Polish or English equivalent to our Dyncorp or MPRI can organize this effort for Ukraine.
I bet there are some retired French Mirage pilots willing to do the same. There are at least two companies, Draken and Textron, with a lot of upgradable Mirage F1s that may be willing to take a Ukrainian contract. And those companies already have Mirage pilots on the payroll.
At any rate, we might be one step closer to Colonel Lang’s vision of a new Flying Tigers AVG in the skies of Ukraine. The only real impediment is political will. Grow a set, dammit!
TTG
A video of Graham’s (the old lady of South Carolina) remarks in Kyiv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBx9lFaQO_k
TTG –
Forbes has been highlighting the Khalino air base as one of Ukraine’s primary targets in the Aug 6 incursion. Interesting to me because the other media outlets don’t mention it AFAIK. Telegram post below translated.
https://t.me/briefsmi/25351
Forbes: Ukraine Intends to Demolish Khalino Air Base, Just 50 Miles from Front Line
▪️Khalino Air Base, located in the city of Kursk, is the closest military airfield to Sudzha, a border town, Sudzha is the center of Ukraine’s sudden invasion of the Kursk region.
▪️ The 14th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Russian Air Force is based in Khalino. The 24 Su-30SM fighter-bombers that are part of the regiment can carry KAB glider bombs weighing up to three tons and with a range of 25 kilometers or more on retractable wings.
▪️No sooner had the five Ukrainian brigades crossed the border on Tuesday than the Russian Air Force began launching about 50 KAB strikes a day against the brigades and their bases in Ukraine’s Sumy region — half the total KAB strikes the Russians have been dropping along the entire 700-mile front line.
▪️The Ukrainians know how important Khalino is. That’s why they began attacking it in earnest a week before the invasion.
▪️ Khalino is just 65 miles from the border, making it accessible to a wide range of Ukrainian deep-strike weapons , including ballistic and cruise missiles and explosive-propelled drones. The Ukrainians have carried out several strikes on the base since February 2022.
▪️A drone strike on Khalino in December 2022 sparked a fire at the base’s fuel depot. Eight months later, another attack involved unique Ukrainian cardboard attack drones.
▪️The attacks escalated. On July 31, just six days before the Ukrainian invasion, Ukrainian Navy Neptune cruise missiles struck an ammunition depot in Khalino and burned part of it to the ground, possibly destroying the KABs stored there.
▪️The danger to the 14th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment and other Russian forces in Khalino will only increase as long as the Ukrainians control the territory of the Kursk region adjacent to the border.
▪️If they had attacked Khalino from inside the invasion zone, the Ukrainians could have targeted the airbase with their shorter-range ground-launched missiles , including the M30/31 fired from US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.
▪️It is unlikely that the Ukrainian army would risk its precious HIMARS so close to the front line. But if it wanted, it could hit Khalino harder than ever. #Россия #Украина
F&L –
Ukraine struck Khalino Airfield last night with drones. They also hit three other of Putin’s airfields – Savasleyka, Borysoglebsk and Baltimor. Per the Ukrainian General Staff “The main objects of destruction were warehouses of fuel and lubricant materials and aviation means of destruction.”
Leith,
From telegram this morning …
https://t.me/infantmilitario/133982
The Pentagon is considering sending long-range cruise missiles AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles to Ukraine, — Politico
They are reportedly currently working on making it possible for Ukrainian fighters, including the F-16, to launch these missiles with a 450 kg warhead.
————————
Specs are here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-158_JASSM
Range listed as “greater than 575 miles” for ER version. Original is 230 miles.
Weight: 2600 pounds.
———-
My read on that is that it’s likely.there already, meaning in Ukraine or at least nearby in Rumania, Poland or one of the Baltics. I’m tentatively thinking that Vladimir Catastophovich might want to consider withdrawal from Ukraine. Not because I’m on one side or the other but because they are in fact up the creek sans canoe. But what do I know?
I wonder how much all those defense contractors donate to the little old lady from SC. If memory serves the AVG flew for Generalisimo China Kai-shek of the oh so honest nationalist government of China. Now located on Taiwan, which Biden won’t defend. They lost, too. Apropos of nothing I’m sure.
I wonder if the great Master Sargeant who, shorty after seeing the communists crush pro-democracy protesters in Tianamen Square, decided to show his true character and go anyway to earn at living working for that same government for a year, will side with Taiwan or that successor communist government that is still crushing dissent?
Fred,
The AVG did fly for Cheng Kai-shek, but they were fighting the Japanese. Mao didn’t start his revolution until 1945.
Walz has a better, more nuanced understanding of China than most and has always been a vocal supporter of pro-democracy protesters in China, far more than most in Congress. He spent his political career criticizing the Chinese government, especially its human rights record.
TTG,
“Mao didn’t start his revolution until 1945”
Where did you learn that atrocious piece of misinformation? Try the 1930s.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-long-march#
Fred,
You’re right. The communists and the nationalists were battling each other since the 20s. They more or less stopped to fight the Japanese and Mao restarted the civil war in earnest in 1945.
TTG,
And one of our governors and current VP hopeful went to China right after the massacre in Tianamen Square.
Fred,
Walz taught American history and English to Chinese high school students in that first year long trip to China. Although the US suspended military sales to China after that, we kept up trade and most favored nation status with China. Walz went to China some thirty times after that and was consistent in his praise for the Chinese people and criticism of the Chinese government.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/08/12/tim-walz-china-record-us-election-harris-trump/
TTG,
Thanks for the clarification. The same year China butchered its pro-democracy citizens in the streets of Beijing Walz went over to collect a paycheck as a teacher. Got it. He “praised the people” but kept collecting a check from the communist government. Got that too.
Seems likely that, in addition to strengthening his socialist tendencies, China is where Walz learned how to terrorize a population with military force.
https://nypost.com/2024/08/13/us-news/cops-enforcing-tim-walzs-curfew-shot-residents-with-paintballs-video/
Fred & Eric –
Who would make a better VP, the guy on the left Tampon Tim? – or the guy on the right in drag JD Vance?
https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/1823033903470481793
Fred – you just don’t trust people, do you? Oh wait … Donald Trump … I believe you trust him. And Jed Clampett, do you trust ol’ Jed? He famously sang a mean elegy.
The Ballad of Jed Clampett:
https://youtu.be/HExX4sU6pgE
I Think My Dog’s a Democrat – Bryan Lewis.
https://youtu.be/H3VLqLLWxbQ
F&L,
I trust Scooby Doo. He taught me that all the monsters are people.
Fred,
Thanks for the tip. Here’s a monster for you or anyone who wants to look. How do they allow this cretin on the air? I’m speaking of Soloviev. It’s unreal. Really unreal. We have some baaad TV but goodness gracious. I’m guessing it’s a method of conditioning people to emulate crude neanderthal brutality. In Churchill’s memoirs he says that one way he and his committee of the thirties assessed that Germany was in fact preparing for war was to collect data on corporal punishment in their schools – in fact the data said it was increasing. (Oh if only a certain corporal had been punished.)
Putin’s Favorite in Trouble. | Break the Fake.
https://youtu.be/EpTh8FzTGzg
F&L are you talking about the GREAT Great Leader Churchil? For your kind information he diverted a ship that was bringing wheat to starving people in Bengal (India) during a great famine and was kind enough to say let those Brown Peons starve we have to make sure that we have enough food for ourselves. Talk about Corporal punishment Hitler has nothing against these Monsters. Thanks
Muralidhar Rao,
Yes I know about Churchill and the India famine. He also gleefully dropped poison gas on Iraqis in the 1930s and might have been involved in the gassing of northern Russians during their revolution-civil war period. And they invented the concentration camp in South Africa. I lived in that rainy foggy England as a child and went to their schools in 1959 and 1960. I considered their school systems to be institutionalized child abuse. The students with rare exception were racist mobsters. Oh – and their general Geoffrey Amherst distributed blankets to American “Indians” which were laced with small pox and caused a huge numbers of fatalities. But my intention was to illustrate what a crude pig Vladimir Soloviev is and wonder why he has been the unofficial media face of the Putin administration for years. It’s not a “good look” to put it mildly. The question is rhetorical and answers itself — they are inculcating cruelty and using him as a cudgel to keep their people in line. My borrowing an observation from one of Churchill’s books wasn’t meant as an endorsement of him — he was a brilliant but very emotionally disturbed human being. Having experienced the British treatment of little children I can say it’s no wonder he was as he was.
Crikey! Don’t let Halliburton anywhere near this if you want to keep it graft-free. Same for MPRI, they did some timecard shuffling and billing for ghost employees. Similar to what some of Putin’s generals do: submit a roster with a thousand extra troopers and pocket their pay and rations.
These pilots and ground crews should work under Ukrainian leadership. Similar to the Lafayette Escadrille and the Kościuszko Squadron.
When Lindsey Graham starts trying to act and talk like George Patton that’s when you know where this is heading; Marianas Trench.
I was going down marianas trench not so long ago and i must admit i was in over my years.For the experienced divers only.
Any F16 pilot stupid enough to fly for ukraine deserves what he is going to get which is either death in the airframe or at the hands of fellow Russian convicts in a russian jail.
Apparently the mercenaries jailed in Russian don’t last very long. Apparently Russian inmates are quite patriotic.
Even under the most rosy NATO planning, the life of an F16 in a heavy AD environment would have to be measured in minutes and seconds.
F16 pilot = guinea pig.
walrus,
And that’s why those F-16s will start by performing air defense tasks as Holubstov explains. Those tasks will be over Ukrainian territory where the heavy AD environment has kept Russian aircraft at bay. Right now those air defense tasks are more critical to Ukraine than risking combat in Russian controlled air space.
Well, retired US, French et al fighter pilots don’t need to learn to crawl before they walk & run, do they? N0?
TTG sir last time I read that Russian fighter jets have liquidated most of the AD. So what is left of the AD system can’t even protect their power stations which are systematically destroyed. So how are these guys supposed to protect Ukranian air space when the Russian aircraft have a free hand? I just don’t getit.
Muralidhar Rao,
For a few months, Russian missiles and drones targeted the Ukrainian power system and were fairly successful at it. But they haven’t kept it up. It’s a missed opportunity from a Russian point of view. Russian aircraft don’t dare venture into Ukrainian airspace. Their missiles and FAB glide bombs are launched well behind their lines. Ukraine’s AD system is still effective, though not impervious. It has even been effective in the Kursk offensive.
Gary Powers came through OK.
I would imagine they are searching for merck’s because they can’t trust the ukrainian pilots not to surrender taking their F16 with them as a gift to Russia
walrus,
You do realize that it was a Russian pilot who stole a Russian aircraft and flew it to Ukraine, not the other way around.
Who was the top campaign donor to Lindsey Graham?
See
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/lindsey-graham/summary?cid=N00009975
“TOP CONTRIBUTOR 2019 – 2024
Republican Jewish Coalition
$103,794”
Interesting.
For information about the RJC, see
https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/republican-jewish-coalition/C00345132/summary/2020
That URL is set for the 2020 election cycle, when Graham was up for reelection.
You can get the data for Graham by clicking “list recipients”.
At least your Senator Graham looks to be a nice bloke, TTG. You don’t have to watch him, as one watches so many English politicians, and say “Gawd. Where on earth do they dig these people up from?”
So all good on that front. You could expect an agreeable evening were Senator Graham to drop round for dinner. You’d have to be very tactful, though, if the conversation ever turned to politics.
Here’s a senior politician of what used to be the most powerful country in the world. Still is, in many respects. Certainly the most powerful by far in the West. And it’s a country, never mind the rights and wrongs of it, engaged in a bitter struggle. Shaping up to take on China. Going all out on taking on Russia.
So standing tall in the world and resolutely defending Freedom and Democracy for the West. Coming to the aid of a Ukraine that’s on its last legs and losing two thousand men a day. And at this moment of existential crisis for its ally the very best of what the heirs of Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima are offering is a few retread pilots and a handful of aircraft saved from the scrap heap.
Chickenhawk time. Embarrassing. One would have to be very tactful indeed and keep the conversation firmly on the weather.
EO,
Losing two thousand men a day? Not even the most optimistic figures put Russian losses as that high. Your source for those loss figures is clearly delusional. No wonder you think Ukraine has already lost. As I asked walrus, when did Moscow install a compliant government in Kyiv. I must have missed that momentous occasion.
TTG,
EO:”Coming to the aid of a Ukraine that’s on its last legs and losing two thousand men a day.”
He means Ukraine not Russia. Nevertheless I would have failed him purely on style (faux chumminess) and character analysis. Lindsay Graham’s “a nice bloke.” [????]
Yes, for a drooling and rabid neocon who is also a psychopathic madman, maybe he is. A nice bloke like Jack the Ripper was a nice bloke.
English will be telling Tom Brady which plays to run next. Maybe give Lebron James a few pointers on his jump shot.
“Chummy!” The hell F&L. I say to your faces your politicians are a bunch of contemptible chickenhawks, and Lindsey Graham the worst of them, and you call that “chummy”. Words fail me. Just as well.
But you’re OK on Gaza if you’re hopelessly adrift on Ukraine, so leave it at that. I don’t think you’re aware that you’re living through a period when any pretensions to credibility we in the West had are crumbling to dust. And some oaf of a politician happily condemning tens of thousands more of our proxies to death is our new normal?
Not in my name. Here’s Daniel Davis expressing exactly what you ought to be feeling watching this murderous clown show the City on the Hill is putting on for us.
https://youtu.be/gvOw6iQMqZk?t=901
Set to somewhere around 15 mins.
EO,
Don’t lecture me on Ukraine, EO, I’ve been against American policy on Russia since before the SU fell. I never supported any of it. You haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, in fact you’re so far off it isn’t worth going into for reasons of time and the possibility that you are incurably obtuse. You have an insinuating writing style and just don’t understand how awkward and transparently flattering it is I guess. Even Eric Newhill pointed out your lazy and frankly obnoxious use of the pronoun “we.” Transparent flattering is annoying. I complemented you on the two occasions you infact wrote some effective prose sans the maudlin BS and your long personal asides. It’s my opinion that the Putin administration is incompetent and frankly borderline stupid — look what happened to Putin in his atrocious decision to attack in Feb 2022 — because he decapitates anyone who voices criticism, even helpful criticism, he doesn’t get important information relayed to him — the boss must not be displeased. So he didn’t understand how woefully poor his forces actually were or how badly his intelligence agencies underestimated Ukrainian resolve. I’ll say again what I said to Lars and Eric in an earlier thread — his KGB trainers highlighted in writing that he showed passing competence except for one thing, namely a dangerously underdeveloped sense of danger.
Did you see his reaction when the Kursk submarine sank in August 2000? It was ghoulishly inhuman. Even that marvelously and mercilessly tender humanitarian Margaret Thatcher, your former PM, said so and rather eloquently:
https://x.com/lucianocapone/status/1611661724339273728
And:
https://www.newsweek.com/margaret-thatcher-gave-damning-assessment-putin-resurfaced-clip-1772344
TTG – back in early ’22 I didn’t have much to go on when looking at this war.
Didn’t seem to need it. It seemed obvious that Russia versus Ukraine was a truck versus a bicycle. Given that the truck was more or less in working order, why bother to look further? Equally obvious that all the press talk about the Russians “failing” to take Kiev and the rest of it was nonsense.
Also obvious that after the initial week or so the Russians settled down to what I at that time called “the Falkenhayn scenario”: just using their massive artillery and missile superiority to demolish the men and equipment we were sending in against them.
Those were the basics then and they’re the basics now. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the press say. That’s how it is.
If I could see that then your experts in the Pentagon could most certainly see it. They’re not all four-star muttonheads in there. So from the start the unresolved questions for me have not been whether we’re going to win or not. They have been 1, what were the Americans doing fooling around like this and 2, how do the Europoodles fit in to this debacle. Europoodles being one of the more charitable terms for that bunch of no-hopers in Berlin-Brussels. Or Berlin-Brussels-Paris-Westminster if we wish to include the Europoodle also rans.
I’m still not a lot further on in answering those two questions. Maybe there isn’t an answer. Maybe we’re just looking at more or less random seeming emergent behaviour. Maybe that’s all history is. “History is just stuff that happens”, to quote the Colonel. Butterfly’s wings, to steal the reference from one of your own historians. Put a load of Macgregor’s “donors” in with venal politicians and acceptant electorates, stir well, and the Ukrainian fiasco is what emerges from the mix.
Saying this will undoubtedly lead to a chorus of “Putin pal” from my fellow commenters here but I don’t, however, see a similarly random seeming pattern on the Russian side. I see a remarkably well integrated approach. Military, international diplomatic, internal political, economic. The whole working together flexibly to achieve the goal. Some people have been doing some thinking over there. While we in the West have been writing the Russians off as a slovenly heap of losers they’ve been quietly getting on with a purposeful strategy encompassing all those aspects.
I expect the bastards have been reading Clausewitz or Svechin or somebody. Or just using common sense. While our bastards just run around waving their arms aimlessly. We really do have to kit ourselves out with a better class of politicians, TTG. This lot’ll do for us.
Thoughts occasioned by your video of that fool prating about his F16’s. Like the rest of them, he’s no more than a pork barrel merchant and both you and I know it.
………………….
On the casualties, I’m afraid it may be worse than that. You’ll recollect Putin saying a while back “we haven’t even started yet”. We’re seeing them starting now.
That should really bring on the “Putin pal” chorus. But given that “Putin pal” is the standard chickenhawk response to reality, might as well get used to it.
English –
Falkenhayn? Aye, there’s the rub. Putin’s version of “the Falkenhayn scenario” did not use massive artillery and missile superiority to demolish the Ukrainian Army. Instead he uses those assets to bombard residential buildings, churches & hospitals. How does he win a war of attrition by murdering innocent civilians? How does he prevail in a diplomatic campaign while murdering women and children? How does he feed the Russian people and put a roof over their head when he has to sell oil to China & India for less than the cost of pumping it out of the ground? If he wants to win the war of attrition he needs to start building more and better weapons instead of buying 2nd rate ones from North Korea and Iran.
Senator Graham is definitely a chickenhawk. Most people here are not that I know of. But you seem to throw the insult around if anyone dares to call you out. In any case there is no shame in standing up for the oppressed, nor in cheering for their victories over a wannabee goliath.
But Leith. You’re the most chickenhawkish of the lot. And you know damn all about what’s happening in Ukraine. Never have. Nor have you shown any inclination to find out.
Is there some site rule I’m not aware of here? That you and your fellow chickenhawks may dismiss as “Putin Pals” those who find what we’ve done in Ukraine barbarous? As with what we’ve done in Syria and Iraq and a host of other unfortunate countrie? But to finally lose patience and state you’re no more than a bunch of chickenhawks is throwing insults around?
I suppose it is. But it’s also the plain truth.
EO,
Barbarous? Ukraine is defending her very existence and we are assisting that defense. I believe that assistance is far too measured. Was our lend-lease assistance to Great Britain and Russia barbarous?
Do you realize the term chickenhawk refers to someone who has not served in the military, not just someone who supports Ukraine’s defense rather than Russia’s invasion? You best be careful about throwing that term around among us.
TTG,
Too measured? You mean we need to declare war and send our own forces in rather than continue the charade we’ve been engaged in for years? Our UK friends can further hide in the shadows while they wash their hands of responsibilities for the war.
Fred,
We’ve slow rolled the supply of weaponry to Ukraine under our policy of escalation management. We can easily send several hundred more Bradleys and more than the current 31 Abrams. We limited the use of our missiles to Ukrainian territory for too long. That doesn’t mean we should be arming them to bomb the Kremlin or send our forces in or even declare a no fly zone which is about as close to formally declaring war as there is these days. Hell, Russia hasn’t even declared war on Ukraine.
English –
You’re getting nasty now that the invader is being invaded and the tide is going against the oppressors. And you apparently have no clue as to what a chickenhawk really is or is not. Yet you use that term to insult anyone who does not agree with your view. So it appears you have coined your own definition now.
I don’t believe I’ve ever called you a Putin Pal. But you do show a gigantic gullibility for Kremlin agitprop. I’m starting to doubt that you are English.
TTG – On the Kursk offensive, have just read this blog:-
“After being stopped much farther south than anticipated, there are now reports that Zelensky is attempting daring air-assault helicopter landings behind Russia’s rear to desperately capture something near Lgov:”
“Russian commander Apti Alaudinov confirmed earlier that based on POW confessions, the Ukrainian forces were meant to capture Kurchatov by August 11th in their operation. If that’s true, it can be seen that they’re way behind schedule and thus must now resort to desperate measures.
“It became known from the captured airmen that the capture of Kurchatov and the Kursk NPP from the enemy was planned for August 11. After that, Kiev wanted to negotiate with Moscow and issue an ultimatum.”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-81424-zelensky-doubles-down
There are also rumoured to be tactical nuclear warheads for Iskanders stored near the Kursk NPP.
If any of this information or surmise is correct, then the Kursk offensive could have had more purpose behind it than a mere PR offensive. Or it could mean that information warfare’s going the other way for once. Maybe it’ll become clearer as more information comes out.
English –
Don’t jump to conclusions. Alaudinov is an agent of dezinformatsiya. He was caught in a lie two days ago when he claimed the Ukrainians had been pushed back beyond the border and that Suszha was held by his Chechen troops. In fact, some of those Chechen troops are now POWs. Regular Russian soldiers call them “TikTok soldiers”. Because when they are not shooting Russians for retreating, they make movies of themselves next to armored vehicles destroyed by other troops, and then brag that they did it.
EO – Once again, Kudos to you. I still check back every long once in a while to the late Colonel’s site chiefly to see where you are on the moment. I admire your long suffering in trying to inject reason into these well meaning but unreconstructed old bubbleized Cold War I vets. It is hopeless but an excellent exercise in the virtue of patience. Here we are a couple of weeks after the Kursk PR stunt, a day after Russia has demonstrated with an air strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure that it is “the truck, not the bicycle” and the effectiveness of the stunt fades from the narrative of the day. From Day 1 in the course of this neo-con Nuland generated debacle, it has been plain for those with eyes to see that without full scale direct NATO involvement, and very likely even with NATO involvement, Ukraine was doomed. Shame on the proxy perpetrators of its doom – ‘5 eyes, EU, NATO: it never needed to have happened. 56 year old retired F 16 Aces from the Gulf Wars! Really! You couldn’t make it up.
Anyway, best regards.
This is a real good 8 minutes and hot off the presses, needs watching by all. From the looks of the shoulders and necks on a few of those guys (who are clearly very smart too) I’d advise the Man From Glad to install window guards.
Pundits Urge Russians to Prepare for the Worst Case Scenario. English Subtitles embedded. Mecto Vstrechi (Meeting Place) NTV.
https://youtu.be/T3Af4KzIzho
Let me emphasize the key issue here:
The subordination of the American national interest to the Ukraine lovers.
All this business of mercenaries being hired by Ukraine
is ultimately going to be paid by the American taxpayer.
How many more billions does America have to go into debt to gratify the Ukraine lovers?
I think it is way past time for America to tell Ukraine to cut a deal with Russia.
This will cost a whole lot less than having NATO to defend a member state that will be attacked by Russia. I realize that is speculation, but if Russia prevails, the possibility increases. Russia has imperialistic aims and that needs to be thwarted. Any peace deal that lets Russia occupy Ukrainian territory will not last long and they would have to deal with a persistent resistance. As far as American taxpayers, there is a large and wealthy segment that could afford the extra money. Then there is the educational aspect that many militarizes are getting from this war that could save a lot of lives and money in the future.
Lars,
It might have escaped your notice but Ukraine is not now, nor has ever been, a member of NATO and any country actively engaged in war can not become a member. Sucks to be them.
Fred –
Lars was speaking of NATO members of Eastern Europe that Putin will try to pick off one by one if successful in Ukraine. That was my take.
Xi is watching also. If we abandon Ukraine, he will take that as an invitation to take o ver Taiwan.
Leith,
So domino theory, Eastern European edition. Because the boogie man of Russia wants his fictional empire back. Sure. Ukraine is winning though, just like they have after ever few billion gets shipped to them. Minus “carrying charges” .
Fred –
Taiwan edition, NOT Eastern Europe.
Let me mention this:
I knew very well what the chief concern of the U.S. Army was in the 1970s when I was on active duty:
Ensuring that V Corps could defend the Fulda Gap from a possible attack from the Tank Armies and Shock Armies of the 20-division GSFG.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Soviet_Forces_in_Germany
For the Brits, it was the “British Army of the Rhine”.
That was the concern then.
Why we are now concerned with what happens over 1000 kilometers to the east seems a waste to me.
Pilots are the tip of the spear, and also the tip of the iceberg. The last paragraph of the OP [before TTG’s commentary] hints at the bigger problem: Ukraine will need maybe a dozen trained ground personnel for each pilot. The F-16 has been around for a [long!] while, so there are lotsa of ex-military people who have done that work, likely including many who would be willing or eager to take the risk for the right price. And Ukraine has a surplus of the “right price”: lonely blonde widows.
Those F-16’s will also need a constant supply of spare parts, which means a lot of money for a lot of parts manufacturers (including companies I’ve worked for). At least that translates to a few more jobs in each factory and the surrounding communities, but the big winners (as usual) are the MIC & their pet Congresscritters.
Just a minor point, the administration would have to remove the existing road-block, not throw up new ones. Inactive/retired US military personnel need Congressional permission, per the Emoluments Clause:
https://dodsoco.ogc.osd.mil/Portals/102/summary_emoluments_clause_restrictions.pdf
I do not know if something similar exists for other NATO nations but I suspect it likely to be so. Reservists are very much a part of their war planning and it’s logical for nations to put some sort of leash on the important ones.
elkern –
Those spare parts would be more likely to come from one of the two production lines in Europe, or from Turkey or Korea. Whoever gives them the best price. Except perhaps for the radar or some other electronics.
I still want to see a Flanker vs F-16 engagement. Let’s get ready to rumble!
This is the closest I have been able to come to see a Flanker vs F-16 engagement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhhOQqCOmMA
I do like Mr. Growling Sidewinder, but DCS is DCS and real life is real life.
My expectation is that if we suppply a missile with a 575 mile range air launched missile to Ukraine for use against targets in Russia, then Russia is going to declare a 575 mile no fly zone., into western europe if necessary; just for safety.
walrus,
Russia hasn’t been able to create a no fly zone over Ukraine. It would be an empty declaration.
” I’m starting to doubt that you are English.”
Leith – if to be English one has to get behind the policies of a Johnson or a Starmer, or to be American one has to get behind the policies of a Nuland or a Blinken, then both our countries are in a pretty bad way. We might as well both become Germans and follow our leaders obediently wherever they care to take us.
And is it “anti-American” to deplore the such policies? For me the real America, the America of the straightforward and the moral, is exemplified in that Daniel Davis video I linked to above for F&L. Daniel Davis is indignant at the twisted and debased arguments of the neocons and so am I, in America and even more so in Europe. So you keep to your America and I’ll keep to mine and we’ll just have to recognise they’re two different countries.
Looked up “chickenhawk”. “Generally, the implication is that chickenhawks lack the moral character to participate in war themselves, preferring to ask others to support, fight, and perhaps die in an armed conflict.” Seems to describe the Senator Grahams of this world correctly, and all Westerners who are eager to see Ukrainians die for for the West as long as they can ensure no Western soldiers die for Ukraine.
It was the Mexican President who remarked of the Ukrainian war that the we provide the weapons and the Ukrainians the corpses:-
“Mexico has voted to condemn the invasion, but refused to join in sanctions on Russia.
“López Obrador said Monday that the allies’ policy was equivalent to saying “I’ll supply the weapons, and you supply the dead. It is immoral.”
“How easy it is to say, ‘Here, I’ll send you this much money for weapons,” Lopez Obrador said. “Couldn’t the war in Ukraine have been avoided? Of course it could.”
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-mexico-caribbean-nato-b9aaddc8e3da3ad2b2cc013a6e8ff4bb
English –
I choose to get behind the policy of freedom from aggression. Obrador has a valid point; the war in Ukraine could have been avoided if the Mouse King in the Kremlin had not invaded. Although I note that several Mexican corporations left Russia after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Mexico “condemned Russia’s action and requested the respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.” and “also condemned Russia’s action at the United Nations Security Council”. And back in 2014 when the Mouse King annexed Crimea, Mexico voted in favor of UN Resolution 68/262 recognizing Crimea as part of Ukraine.
Regarding ‘chickenhawk’, a better definition in the political sense is “a person who supports war yet actively avoided military service when of age.” That definitely fits Senator Graham. It also fits Vladimir Chickenhawkovich Putin who avoided service in Afghanistan. Which is why I ask about your past. Before you started cheering for the Russian invasion of her neighbor, did you serve in uniform for England – or for any other country?
Leith – no military background. Though obviously we of the Twelfth Directorate are expected to know a bit about things that go bang.
Enough fooling around. My guide and mentor on the ATO, Professor Paul Robinson, has put in an article about the Kursk incursion to a Canadian magazine, Canadian Dimension. Very unusual for anything useful to come out of that woke Banderite hellhole on your northern border but there it is. A most interesting ensuing discussion leading unexpectedly to a look at the part of this conflict that interests me most – those first few crucial days of the SMO.
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/ukraine-rolls-the-dice-on-kursk-incursion
We really do need to get to grips with what happened during those crucial days, Leith. To clear our minds of the ISW junk the sewer rats of the Western media have been off-loading on us, and work out what really happened. I do believe that that period is the key, not only to the subsequent military activity, but to divining what the hell was in the minds of the Washington/Berlin psychos when they kicked this thing off.
If the West’s part in the disaster wasn’t, as suggested above, due to anything more than emergent behaviour. There’s a lot to be said for that explanation. The Nulands and the Scholz’s and the Baerbocks just the visible flotsam thrown up by a random and chaotic brew.
English –
Your mentor Prof Robinson taught you too well. You have exceeded him. His writing is stilted and thin gruel when I compare your written words to his. You do a much higher-grade job of putting forth the lies of the from Putin’s Kremlin bunker to make them more palatable to Western readers. You have a talent for fiction and should be writing novels or drama instead of Moscow’s malarkey.
I assume the 12th Directorate was a bad joke. But your admission that you never served and your praise of Kremlin aggression in Ukraine taints you with the same slur you used on me and many others in this committee.
By the way, if the ‘sewer rats’ are getting into your loo, they were sent there by the mouse king in Kremlin, not the Western media.
Leith – should say that “mentor” means I read as much of him as I could get hold of and had sent to me some quite stunning videos he put out in the early days of the war (pre SMO). That’s it – no personal connection.
Nor any “slur”. I just find the whole business of proxy war repulsive. No objection to putting up defences if truly required. In fact as you probably know we in the UK are being negligent in that respect. But using third parties to achieve offensive aims, no. What we’re getting up to at the moment is psycho stuff and no two ways about it.
That’s not too extreme, you know, saying that. Particularly with respect to sanctions. Starving and otherwise disadvantaging entire populations with the deliberate and stated aim of destabilising countries we are at odds with is not what we should be about.
“I choose to get behind the policy of freedom from aggression.”
I see.
Just what do you call Israel’s ongoing takeover of the West Bank, since 1967?
Keith –
I think it started as a reaction to Jordanian tanks and artillery there during the Six Day War. Since then it has turned into vicious aggression. It gets worse and worse every year.
In a just world they would have given it back to Jordan after 1994 peace was signed. Similar to the way they gave the Sinai back to Egypt the early 80s.
I agree.
Let me adduce this for the benefit of English Outsiderovich Outsider. (Hope you can take a friendly joke, if not I promise not to do it again).
Karen Shaknazarov concedes Russia may lose (English Subtitles Embedded).
https://youtu.be/GHhWFrYKf_8
If you don’t know who he is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Shakhnazarov
So first of all — Soloviev allowed that on his show. Second — Shaknazarov is one of Russia’s remaining truly brilliant intellects. His movies are remarkable, funny and in at least one case “White Tiger,” unquestionably “patriotic,” to use a term I’d rather not.
My point is that if you love and care for someone or something you have to be willing to criticize them when necessary. And that events have reached a point where you wouldn’t even be allowed on Soloviev’s show with your absence of reality testing in such full view that it borders on delusional at this point.
“Outsiderovich”
You are incorrigible F&L, and I admit defeat. I was called the “Putin Troll” so often elsewhere – on Dr North’s site in England – that I finally gave up there too.
It’s not easy, you know, as I told the people on that site. Someone called Volodya keeps sending me wads of roubles and it’s the very devil getting roubles changed over here. You’d think my bank would’ve got used to it by now.
Do keep finding these links. Most interesting and instructive. Not Soloviev though. Martyanov says he’s rubbish. I think that’s correct. Soloviev, the few times I’ve tried him, does seem to be something of a waste of time.
Here’s a man very much worth spending some time with. Sleboda. Still listening to it but so far he’s put the subject of the Kursk offensive to bed. Reckons the Russians screwed up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csQcpKzM_Ao
EO,
I don’t post links to Soloviev as a way of recommending anything worthwhile about him. He’s an obnoxious thug albeit clever and smart. Only to illustrate the thuggery and induced delusion of the viewership. You’re right that Sleboda is far better but he was in denial about the importance of the Kursk dilemma the last time I looked. He has to be, because he lives in Moscow or St Petersburg. They are cracking down on media as I write. Closed several seemingly innocuous Telegram channels. Everyone was perplexed until it was found out something critical of Patrushev had been posted and apparently that was the last straw.
front line NATO allies are the ones transferring F16s to Ukraine. they have years of experience in support of F16s… from pilots to grd crew to spares. Poland must be pretty strong in both commitment & capability. {a young US acquaintance of mine working in F16 support moved there about 15 yrs ago… & his wasn’t the first team going over}.
I believe it is best, for both image & effectiveness, for the frontline NATO partners to take the lead while the US backfills those allies needs for more / better AC. meanwhile focusing on providing support & novel capabilities that the US uniquely holds. also, we should bear in mind the F16 primary mission in Ukr : SEAD / DEAD, where it functions as tip-of-spear of a many-layered system.
Colonel V Kvachkov has received or read a letter from Igor Strelkov who still remains imprisoned. Pasted below is an excerpt.
https://t.me/KvachkovV/1923
From a letter by Igor Strelkov:
“Regarding the situation at the front: I am closely monitoring it. I consider the Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region to be a distraction. We should expect a second – the main one, in which they will mainly use their remaining reserves and aviation (F-16). Most likely, in the Crimean direction.”
I messed up the formatting of the message posted at 3:25 pm. Sorry. Also sorry I forgot to mention that evacuation of civilians is now seriously impeded. Markov says it all well. You can also follow the sarcasm and fury at Putin in the comments. Don’t tell EO or Scott Ritter.
——————–
https://t.me/logikamarkova/13513
The Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to destroy the bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovsky District of the Kursk Region. This will greatly complicate the evacuation of residents of 20 settlements. Civilians in the Kursk Region are increasingly becoming the subject of struggle. Russia is trying to evacuate as many civilians as possible to safe areas in order to save them. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying the opposite, to disrupt the evacuation of civilians in order to use them as human shields in the future in the style of ISIS, as they did in Mariupol. This is a huge drama.
True, False? I don’t know. From telegram just now. But 2-Ukraine & their assistants in Kursk oblast just destroyed the bridge over the Seim river – Glushkovsky district – it’s said to be a huge disruption to RF logistics. It’s theorized to have been hit not by Himars but a “French Hammer aerial bomb.
1-
https://t.me/nonetutto/1936
Information has emerged that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are planning to strike the Zaporizhzhya and Kursk NPPs, targeting the storage sites for spent nuclear fuel. In particular, the possibility of using dirty bombs is being considered. The goal of these actions is to accuse Russia of a nuclear provocation. Special warheads have already been delivered to the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which raises serious concerns about the possible consequences for the security of the region and international stability.
3/ The CNN video is astonishing – the guy is British.and obviously military or intelligence. It’s pretty unreal how they’re just driving in.
2- https://t.me/vicktop55/25902
The enemy posts footage of the attack on the bridge over the Seim River in the Kursk region.And I think that this is not a Haimars, but most likely a French Hammer aerial bomb.
3- https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/15/world/video/ukraine-russia-border-nick-paton-walsh-digvid
Video at link. Quite something.
They’ve also been hitting the Crimean bridge, so far it’s still functional.
Enough with the Eastern European obsessions!
About myself:
I am equally Irish, Welsh, English, and German.
I could not care less about the structure of Eastern Europe.
That is their problem, and issue, for them to resolve themselves.
Whatever the result is, I am sure some will be unhappy.
That is their problem, not the problem of the USA.
Way past time for the USA to disengage from those Eastern European quarrels.
F&L –
The Ukrainians just took out the third bridge over the Seym River at Karyzh. Nothing left except the wobbly pontoon bridge they set up three dyas, which Ukraine will be taking out next.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/ukraine-destroys-3rd-key-bridge-threatening-cut-off/story?id=112939280
The Ukrainians have been very good keeping the information and aims rather dimly about their foray into Russia, which is unusual today. Regardless, I am sure the Russians did not expect this and seem to have trouble dealing with it. To me, the action is more political than military and if that changes, Russia is in real trouble. Military history is full of incidents when the few beat the many. What is still unknown is the reaction within Russia as the reality is dispersed. I think Hans Christian Andersen had something to say about that quite some time ago. In the meantime, I wish the Ukrainians well. The Russian Empire Redux needs to be put on what Ronald Reagan said about the Soviet Union that they belonged on the ” ash heap of history”.
You’re surely not worried about them taking over Texas or somewhere, are you Lars?
It might pay, I suppose. Lot of good stuff in Texas and worth grabbing. Nice people too. It’d make a very handy little add-on to the Russian Empire Redux.
What no one over your way seems to grasp, nor a single soul in Europe, is that there’s nothing much in Europe worth grabbing. Tried to tell you. The Russians would have to fuel and feed the Europeans and it’d cost a fortune. You think the Russians are that dumb?
Best thing to do would be to pack in the all singing all dancing neo-Nazi extravaganza your Mrs Nuland and our Mrs Merkel got going in Ukraine and leave it at that. Preferably before you’ve fought the Russians to the last Ukrainian.
But I think – can’t promise, mind you! – that Texas is safe. From the Russians, anyway.
EO,
Not worried about Texas. Although there are some Mexicans who possess such fever dreams, the government in Mexico City does not. Nor am I worried about Alaska although Putin signed a decree to look into returning Alaska to Russia. It was probably a joke, like declaring it “be kind to earthworms day,” but other Russian politicians have made empty threats about getting Alaska back. Medvedev, the drunk within Putin’s inner circle wants Alaska back along with all former Soviet Union and WTO territory, including the former GDR.
TTG – Medvedev a drunk? That might explain one or two things.
On ownership of various parts of the USA I’ve always understood that you bought Alaska fair and square from the Russians. The Louisiana Purchase fair and square from the French.
Might not be a good time to bring this up, but you never paid us for our bit.
????? Your bit ????? The United States of America bailed out your perfidious [unprintable] asses twice! Eisenhower had to sit and listen to that lunatic Churchill — instigator of Gallipoli for s’s sake .. a real strategic genius — for endless hours on end in 1944 to make him understand that Normandy was preferable to going up through the Adriatic and landing at Trieste to go on a twisted ridiculous trek to Germany from the south. Yes through the Alps or something. We have to live down forever how we genocided the American Indians when in fact it was a British General Amherst who infected them with smallpox. And you were bloody gd slavers to boot. And burned our capitol in 1812.
The Battle of New Orleans – Johnny Horton.
https://youtu.be/50_iRIcxsz0
F&L –
Not to mention the Marshall Plan, of which the Brits got the largest share.
EO,
Texas is safe — you don’t say?
Unfortunately Texas Russell Bentley isn’t safe at all. Rather he’s dead after torture by Donetsk heroes who he fought for for years. TRB was indefatigable in his support for the Putin regime even fighting on the front lines since 2014 when he moved to the DPR from Texas. Check it out, English. This is who you support. One of the regimes most devoted admirers and fighters — and this was his thanks. This is indistinguishable from 1937 under Stalin.
But be warned — the thread is not for the squeamish.
https://x.com/chriso_wiki/status/1824501968821256208
What no one over your way seems to grasp, nor a single soul in Europe, is that there’s nothing much in Europe worth grabbing. Tried to tell you. The Russians would have to fuel and feed the Europeans and it’d cost a fortune. You think the Russians are that dumb?
Why do you keep erecting straw men? Insinuating this is what your curious, supposedly all-embracing “we”, in other words, your readers–“us”–think?
It’s not about Russia wanting to conquer Europe it’s just Putin drumming his chest, look here guys how big I am, you can’t ignore me and/or my wishes any longer.
You are not the unique, all-knowing and understanding and thus misunderstood mind you feel you are, E.O.
” … it’s just Putin drumming his chest, look here guys how big I am, you can’t ignore me and/or my wishes any longer.”
Is that the way you see things, LeaNder?
Moving from the personal to the general, it’s possible that that way of seeing things – very common indeed, judging from your media – tells us more about your own country than it tells us about Putin or about Russia. In attributing that way of thinking to your enemy you tell us about your own.
Get the feeling there are many in Germany who see things like that. Not just the politicians and journalists.
Many in England see things that way too, I’m afraid. As if it’s all about chest-beating. We really are in a bad way, if too many of us in Europe think in those terms. Sportpalast terms.
You go back to those times, if you must. I’m not going with you. Festung Europa isn’t for me.
English –
Speaking of Texas: “Russell Bentley, the so-called “Donbass Cowboy” from Texas who fought for the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DPR), is reported to have been tortured to death in an abandoned mine being used as a concentration camp for ‘remotivating’ Russian soldiers who refuse to fight.”
Bentley fought for Russia for ten years and posted Kremlin propaganda on YouTube. He is 64 years old now. So when we took a break from combat he gets kidnapped, thrown in in zindan pit, gets pissed on, and is tortured to death. That’s a great recruiting strategy, maybe it will convince a few more idiots to flock to the Mouse King’s banner?
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1824501968821256208.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Bentley
Yes, there was a lot of talk about it at the time. Appalling business.
Interesting view from 2017
https://www.runi.ac.il/media/n1pl4lsw/redseabasinshaulshay25_9_17.pdf
Wait – is the Vicar of Christ on Earth a no account stinking leftist now? What’s wrong with shooting nuns or a mother and her daughter? Nothing evidently because, you see, snipers need practice. President Joe Biden. I think Colonel Lang called him a lapsed Catholic. I guess he was a pretty fair judge of character, eh?
See video of Pope Francis at link with English subtitles.
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1824370664855212461
Pope Francis: “I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza. Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings. A mother and her daughter were killed by Israeli snipers while going to the restroom. It is terrorism.”
I am trying to decide whether those who do not realize that Russia is a military threat are obtuse or naive. Maybe I have to settle for both. I think the Baltic states would agree with me on the threat and so would the former Russian colonies in East Europe. Regarding the intelligence of Russians, it appears that the cream has not risen to the top in the government. When you have to resort to the level of suppression there, it is an indication that something is wrong. What eventually brought down the Soviet Union is being repeated and it has to do with rot at the top.
A long time ago Stalin cut off the heads of almost everyone who was intelligent or brave enough to speak out. Those two traits I’m guessing are hereditary. As for being a military threat —- I don’t quite agree. They’re incompetent boobs or more correctly those who are competent have been rendered impotent by mass thievery of equipment etc. It’s been 2 and 1/2 years and they haven’t taken Donetsk yet. They are a joke? Not really, it’s a tragedy. Their leadership is at the level of an African or South American dictatorship. Why are they in Africa now? One theory — to be around people they can feel superior to. The kindest thing you can say on Putin’s behalf is that Covid-19 created conditions which kept him cooped up for two years so he couldn’t continue regular inspections of his military whereby he might have detected the wholesale theft, lazyness and resulting disastrous unreadiness.
TTG –
I trust I don’t have to explain to a retired US Army intelligence officer why it is very interesting indeed that these two items appear today 11 days after the Kursk incursion. I owe Lars an apology for speaking too soon. He’s quite possibly right and maybe for reasons he didn’t suspect. Sorry Lars.
It may be time to dial it down a bit, I don’t know. Items 1 and 2 may be bluffs, yes they might, but better safe than sorry. Remember, those of you who hasten to say — don’t be silly that would be suicidal to …. , Yes remember a nice man who owned an Alsatian named Blondie once upon a time … He didn’t give two hoots how many of his countrymen died — he knew he was a goner if captured (that’s why indicting the Russian president at the Hague may have been counterproductive). Simultaneity with Monkey Pox pandemic alert by the virginally uncorrupted and uncorruptible WHO -?- -!- -?- well that’s another of those coincidences, don’t you think Marshall Dillon Sir?
Volcano (with Tsunami alert)
Monkey Pox
Kursk invasion
Nuclear Blast protection doors in Moscow Subway
What are the odds?
But my real question is: Did Deborah Harry know?
1: “Became active again today.”
https://x.com/true_dispatch/status/1824902308443959531
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Russia’s Far East hours after the Shiveluch volcano, known as the most active volcano in Russia’s Kamchatka Krai, became active again today.
2:
These 3 go together. Pictures at links.
——-
https://x.com/rwapodcast/status/1824773144927678524?s=46&t=jXfbX09Tb2BmY-rS_dg5ag
At the Arbatskaya metro station in Moscow, a hermetic blast door, designed for use in the event of a nuclear attack, was inadvertently activated. Later, it was deactivated.
https://t.me/vchkogpu/50025
A blast door suddenly started closing at the Arbatskaya metro station in Moscow when many people were walking to and from the escalator. It swept away the dividing bars and stopped halfway.
https://t.me/vchkogpu/50026
A video has emerged of the explosion protection door being triggered at Arbatskaya station.
———
Rapture — Blondie (anyone get it?)
https://youtu.be/pHCdS7O248g
leith above suggested a relation between Russia/Ukraine/the U.S. and
China/Taiwan/the U.S.
https://turcopolier.com/ukraine-seeks-retired-f-16-pilots-to-fly-its-jets/#comment-241685
Here is another take on those relations:
All the effort we have put into aiding Ukraine reduces our ability to respond to a Chinese move on Taiwan.
Why?
1. Wars are expensive.
We have increased our debt to aid Ukraine.
Bringing us that much closer to when our credit runs out, i.e..
our debt becomes so large that no one will buy our bonds.
2. Our stockpiles of munitions have been drawn down.
Leaving less to ship to the Pacific theater if that should be needed.
The U.S. has limited manufacturing capacity.
Much of what it once had has been hollowed out, for one reason or another.
Consider a worst-case scenario.
Suppose tensions between Israel and Iran escalate even further.
Suppose at the same time China actually made a move of some sort on Taiwan.
All while the U.S. is so heavily involved with Ukraine.
Could the U.S. aid all three of its allies at the same time?
That Rand report about over-extending Russia has a mirror image: the U.S. being over-extended.
Keith Harbaugh,
The munition stockpiles most needed for a Taiwan scenario are the Navy’s SM-3 stockpiles. It’s our operations against the Houthi missiles and drones that depleting our SM-3 stockpiles. Our support to Ukraine is spurring us to rebuild our armaments industry. That’s where most of our money is invested, some 90% of that money.
“Breaking”
Germany to cut off Zelensky due to ‘budget crisis’. I guess someone is gouging the Germans. Better call Kamala.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/17/germany-freezes-ukraine-military-aid-as-budget-crisis-hits/
Discovered right after Zelensky said…..
re:Times of India:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS8T53VuKsU
Fred,
It’s a damned good thing the EU decided to use 1.4 billion euros of frozen Russian money to provide military aid to Ukraine. And that’s for starters.
Great thing for the EU. That ensures all the other governments of the world Trust the EU banking system with their government assets. On the brightest of notes, none of the monies will get misused by the Slava Ukraine people.
Fred-
Be of good cheer – Joe Biden and Kamala are sterilizing their supporters. But what services are on offer for 12 year old sex change victims?
“I bought free marijuana at the local bodega and suddenly I wanted to be a man,” said little Clarence – formerly Claricia, who will celebrate her 13th birthday in three weeks. Clarence formerly Claricia said he intends to vote Democrat.
Joe and Kamala are equal opportunity baby killers. Palestinian or American, it matters not.
I hope someone hacks into their ridiculous convention and projects images of thousands of butchered Gazan babies on the huge screen behind Kamala while she gives her acceptance speech. What will her reaction be? Circle your answer:
A) Giggle giggle cackle giggle
B) Cackle cackle giggle giggle
C) Shut down that screen, I’m talking!
D) Do you want Donald Trump to win or something?
E) Israel has a right to defend itself
https://nypost.com/2024/08/17/us-news/free-abortions-vasectomies-will-be-available-to-dnc-attendees/
https://archive.is/2024.08.17-080250/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/us/politics/dnc-abortion-rights.html
1 Trillion USD is added to the debt every 90 days.
Was it Bob Marley who sang “One day the bottom will drop out.” (?)
In other news Monkey Pox has been renamed Mpox.
“Why not call it Honkey Pox?” Said the little mouse.
Is Zelensky losing his marbles? You reach your own conclusions but there’s plenty unknown especially in light of the frenzy on display at 2 below. I mean, what with Nuclear blast doors being tested, er I mean malfunctioning, in the Moscow subway, and nuclear bomb tests, I mean 7.4 Richter scale earthquakes suddenly popping off out of thin air …
[And now for something completely different – the UK PM is Keir Starmer. Here goes
Starmer —- St Armer —- Saint Armer.]
1:
Zelensky Openly Criticizes British Government.
https://www.rt.com/news/602739-zelensky-british-support-slowed-down/
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has said that his administration will “insist” that its Western allies take further “bold steps” to support Kiev’s war effort, singling out the UK as a country that once showed “real leadership” but is now falling behind.
In his daily address on Friday, Zelensky expressed his intention to “fix” the situation with Western allies allegedly limiting Ukraine’s “long-range capabilities” and preventing Kiev from fully utilizing donated weapons to support its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. (More at link)
2:
Former US Army Officer Stanslav Krapivnik wants Russia to threaten America with Nuclear Weapons .. (English Subtitles Embedded).
https://youtu.be/7zjN25dAnFI
Apropos of nothing. You can listen to your heart’s.content and there’s much fascinating historical material but what jumped out at me is at t = 16 minutes et seq where he quotes the famous traitor General Vlasov as saying “Russia can only be defeated by Russians,” as he explains why Germans have never been successful, and promotes formation of his famous corps. That struck me because that’s what is going on now — the West has got Slavs to fight Slavs (Russians vs Russians). And there’s the humorous aspect, however in poor taste it may be to mention it — namely the genius Ru leadership today defeating itself. “Don’t step on that rake.”
These AI reconstructions are fascinating. Supposedly this is Himmler’s voice if he spoke English. The Hitler videos really surprised me — see below, where you listen to him speak in English recreated from sampling recordings, applying wave analysis, removing noise and thru the magic of AI — and voila. Now I finally understand how mesmerizing he actually was.
1-
Heinrich Himmler in English speech at Posen – AI reconstruction
https://youtu.be/otsKsIZoR10
This is a remake of a speech by Heinrich Himmler after 3 days after losing Naples Italy to the allies. It has been rebuild in English as a historical reconstruction.
2-
Adolf Hitler FULL SPEECH in English AI Reconstruction “Freedom or Slavery.”
https://youtu.be/rxUGlj6ogqk
This is the full speech “Freedom or Slavery” given by Adolf Hitler on July 28th, 1922 in Munich, Germany @ The Bürgerbräukeller Beer Hall. The words are the EXACT words spoken by Adolf Hitler during the speech. They have NOT been altered.
The shake sheik is happening now,for sure sure amigo.Tweeter and the monkey man
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8rzksozWBPY
The problem is that the AVG flew aircraft that were as good as the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and that meant that the American pilots who flew them had a fighting chance.
Before the AVG the Nationalist Chinese government had foreign mercenaries flying a hodge-podge of second-rate aircraft (Gloster Gladiator, Polikarpov I-16) and as a result they were decimated.
I suspect that the F-16 would represent the modern-day equivalent of the latter, not the former, and the result would be their decimation not their triumph.
It’s the Kursk submarine disaster redux times 100. 200,000 Russian refugees – children, women, grannies and grandpas — and JDAM Cruise missiles with 980 km range approved and the great helmsman is off to Azerbaijan. Visiting a Cathedral of Holy Myrrh Bearing Women? Well, in that case it makes eminent sense. If only Hitler had visited the Cathedral of Holy Myrrh Bearing Women — Berlin would not have fallen. And Tojo could have avoided surrender.
Oops, I think I got it! It’s a clever trick — now people will think he’s lost his mind and take his red-line nuke threats seriously.
The comments to this post on site tell a tale of disgust and weariness, though maybe half are Ukrainians. Maybe there’s a town named Butlerina in a Pennsylvania Oblast.
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https://t.me/logikamarkova/13535
Putin’s program during the state visit to Azerbaijan
18.08
📍Arrival in Baku
19.08
📍Laying a wreath at the grave of Heydar Aliyev
📍Putin’s arrival at the Zagulba residence
📍Joint photoshoot
📍Negotiations 🇦🇿🇷🇺 in a narrow format
📍 Negotiations 🇦🇿🇷🇺 in an expanded format
📍Signing documents
📍Drive through the territory of “White City”
📍Visiting the Cathedral of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women
📍State reception on behalf of Aliyev in honor of Putin at the Gulistan Palace
Russia is no different than the US in one sense particularly. Their military makes a fortune from this war and therefore doesn’t want it to end. Same in the USA. So the greatest obstacle to peace (in addition to the weapons companies) is the military itself.