The video above sure looks like an M270 firing off an ATACMS missile from somewhere on the Ukrainian steppe. There’s probably a lot going on that we don’t know about yet.
TTG
RSS- The battle for Ocheretyne
- Supreme Court oral arguments to be heard on April 25 about presidential immunity for official acts
- Nasa’s Voyager-1 sends usable data from deep space
- The Wondrous Oak
- Three Seas Summit: Vilnius 2024
- Tit for tat until it all goes boom
- Deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain detected on mainland Antarctica
- “BYD is launching its next-gen Blade EV battery soon with more range and even lower cost”
- Iran launches air attacks on Israel
- ISW on the developing Ukrainian defense industrial base and Russias strikes on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure
Well, this conflict is escalating nicely.
Unless ofc this video is one these
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cx68dNKKhX4
It’s worth remembering; Ukraine d/n invade Russia and d/n have troops killing Russians. Russia has troops inside Ukraine killing Ukrainians. Ukraine’s troops are “home”. Russia’s troops can go back home. Isn’t this obvious? Some would have people believe there is a moral equivalence b/t Ukraine and Russia. B.S. Escalation can end this afternoon if Putin calls his troops home. Why is the Ukrainian girl smiling? Russia, can send rockets to kill Ukrainians, but Ukraine has rockets too. Russia goes home, escalation stops, war is over. Here is the question no one wants to answer. Why is Ukraine an existential threat to Russia? Why won’t Russia allow Ukraine to exist? Why, b/c in Putin’s mind (and in the mind of many Russians) Ukraine IS Russia. Russian troops are “home”. Ukrainians are engaging in rebellion against their masters and need to be taught a lesson. BTW, this Russian thinking extends to Finland and the Baltics. It is wrong thinking. A lot more will be killed unless Putin and many Russians accept the Russian empire ended in ’91. Roy Orbison sang it best “Its over”.
Bill
Why is Ukraine an existential threat to Russia? For similar reasons that Khrushchev considered nukes in Turkey an existential threat to the SU 60 years ago and look where that lead. Khrushchev was seemingly ready to go all the way in 1962, but for some reason people today think Putin is not. Why am I in the minority here in thinking he does truly believe Russia is existentially threatened by a hostile and NATO-ized Ukraine and will be willing to use all means to avoid defeat by NATO – do people simply think Putin is lying/bluffing?
BA In that case Ukraine has to go. It threatens Russia so it must be dissolved into the greater mass of Russian superiority. Putin’s point that Ukrainians d/n exist as a separate people must be accepted as anthropologically correct as does his idea that Ukraine is just a Russian administrative unit. NATO- ized Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and soon Finland, must also threaten Russia. Perhaps the Baltics can once again enjoy the status of “little Russias”; how quaint. There are Slavs and Balts in Europe, other than Russians, who have a right to exist as sovereign states. Ukraine d/n threaten Russia’s existence, Russia threatens Ukraine’s existence. I was 16 during the Cuban Missile Crises so I remember it well. As a NY metro area resident I expected to receive the first Soviet bomb any night. It was scary. Russian hegemony over eastern Europe is also scary. Russia simply w/n give up on the idea that they superior Slavs and others are subordinate. Russians will not accept their empire ended in ’91. That’s the root issue.
“Why is Ukraine an existential threat to Russia?”
Because today with the Security Apparatus so tightly in control of the Kremlin, the army and the economy, it simply must be a threat. If not the unwinding of power and wealth from those who guard it so jealously will set off internal fighting and powerful figures dying or fleeing. I doubt the under 50 age group across Russia sees any “existential threat” at all. We in the West with our media and tv analysts keep telling them that they are under existential threat over and over again because they simply must be for the Western status quo—State Dept, Defense Dept, media and defense contractors to exist as they always have.
Bill Roche:
I have read your ascriptions of motives to Russia.
That is your opinion, nothing more.
There is another view, which I wholeheartedly endorse:
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/some-of-us-dont-think-the-russian-invasion-was-aggression-heres-why/
Questions:
Lots of chat on twitter and telegram accounts about this video. Some saying ATACMS, some saying definitely not. I’m no expert but I have to wonder about the camera angle. We appear to be looking right up the backside at the engine exhaust flames. Does that make it appear to look larger or brighter than other videos of GMRLS launch?
No US M270 is in Ukraine that I’m aware of. Is that a British M270 or the German MARS variant?
According to Wiki, neither the Brits nor the Germans have ATACMS. The Romanians and Turks have them. And possibly the Poles as they were scheduled to receive them the same time as the Romanians. If it is in fact ATACMS, then could it have come from PL, RO, or TR instead of the US?
Forgot to add:
If it is ATACMS will the folks involved in the video and its release face charges of breaking OPSEC restrictions, or was it approved for release by Ukrainian MoD to taunt Putin and Surovikin with?
Leith,
That was one of my first thoughts. That soldier’s going to be in trouble. Being that Ilya Ponomarenko also republished the video, I suspect it’s either not an ATACMS launch or Ukrainian MOD is really dicking with the Kremlin. You got Fateh-110s, we got ATACMS. Let’s dance.
My vote; Ukrainian MOD is dicking w/t Kremlin. My comment to Borko was about who is doing the escalating.
Russia raised the ante on 2/24!