Day 1015 War in Ukraine

Great weather with which to move around in Kherson as drones can’t hunt people during bad weather.

Russia launched 2,576 kamikaze Shahed drones against Ukraine in November. Putin wants to vastly increase the number of drones that Russia produces. As drones are inexpensive, Ukraine has developed inexpensive ways to fight them. “Using both mobile fire groups and EW, Borsari says that only around 5% of the drones” make it through to Ukrainian targets.

“House Speaker rejects Biden's request for additional $24 billion in Ukraine aid.” $2 billion of that would have gone to restocking US weapons so that we could give older weapons to Ukraine.

How does Trump plan to end the war in Ukraine? Getting Ukraine into NATO is “off the table.” Pressure on Zelenskyy seems very highly likely. People are highly skeptical as to how Russia can be pressured.

US insists that Ukraine draft more people. Blogger blasts this as hypocritical.

Russia used a missile on Dnipro that’s hypersonic and is capable of using nuclear warheads. It was a great propaganda success.

Tibilisi demonstrations – seventh night in a row. Calls for national strikes. Police going after opposition figures.

Russia assembling 300 boats to try and launch an amphibious assault on Kherson.

Russia trying to empty out Kherson using drones to attack civilians. Kherson civilians move around at night and during bad weather. Civilian casualty figures are horrible. Russians enjoy posting videos of drone attacks. The drones “have ranges up to 15km, fly at low altitudes and zip around at speeds of more than 100km per hour, making them difficult to track and take down.”

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/12/04/war-for-ukraine-day-1015-a-brief-wednesday-night-update/

 

Neighborhood meeting on proposed 76ers arena

The meeting concerning the proposed 76ers arena was held in a neighborhood church. Lack of parking meant it pretty much just got a local crowd of people who had walked to the meeting. Mayor Cherelle Parker played a very active role in presenting information and answering questions. Very lengthy meeting. I got there around 5:30pm, left after 8:00 and there were still many questioners left. A great deal of time, maybe an hour & a half, was taken up by the city administrations presentation. At one point during the presentation, an audience member made an accusation and the administration took about five minutes to explain that everyone would get their turn and that they would stay as long as necessary to answer everyone’s questions.

During the questioning, a member of a community group complained that the mayor had never met with her group. Parker went through a list of the groups that she had met with and suggested that somehow, the questioners group had been inadvertently left off the list. One of the problems that the questioners had was that they carried on at great length, were able to ask just one question and weren’t allowed any follow-ups. This was especially aggravating to one fellow who got an answer he didn’t like, tried to clarify his question and was told that he had used up his one question.

My recommendation is that questioners write their questions down beforehand, not so much to get every point in, but to make sure that their questions are as concise and as to-the-point as possible. Yes, it would be nice to have follow-ups. Perhaps a group could arrange for member #1 to ask a question, then for member #2 to say “Y’know, a previous audience member asked (---) and I’d just like to get a clarification about your answer…”

The city administration tried very hard to make the case that the area in which the arena would be built really needed the economic boost and that as the area was at the center of city traffic and as games would end after the regular traffic had departed anyway, that it was a good investment.

Day 1009 War in Ukraine

Demonstrators in Tbilisi, Georgia, still believe the election was stolen and that a majority wants to conduct a Maidan revolution, to seize power and to turn against Russia. Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered in multiple cities.

Massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Energy providers have to shut down until damage is fixed. This was the 11^th large-scale attack this year.

Zelenskyy concludes Putin wants to escalate before Trump takes office. Putin brags about the Oreshnik missile, which hits with temperature of 4k degrees, turning everything under it to dust. Experts believe Putin is exaggerating, but it’s part of a psyop, trying to freak out Europeans.

Putin has a deeply paranoid point of view towards the West. He feels Ukraine is an artificial construct put together by Lenin. “There is a sense in Moscow that the West has become too comfortable with the war…” To those who know Russia best, their answer is “Keep calm and carry on.”

German intelligence chief suggests NATO invoke Article 5, to go to war in answer to Russia’s provocations.

It is a category error to think we can negotiate peace at this point. Russia began this in 2007 and has mostly pursued it in non-kinetic ways, but war is definitely Russia’s objective.

The reason the US authorized long-range missile launches is “that US officials have concluded that Putin’s nuclear threats were just hollow saber rattling.”

Lots of weaponized pushback from Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainians still had their Thanksgiving feasts!

$5m Russian radar destroyed.

Oil refinery hit.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/28/war-for-ukraine-day-1009-russia-attacks-ukraines-energy-infrastructure-in-the-small-hours-of-the-night/

 

Day 1007 War in Ukraine

 

Yeah, imagine people being so gullible today! Sigh!

Russia launches a staggering 188 drones. Not many got through to their targets, but the Ukrainian air defense forces had to work very hard.

Zelenskyy cites the nearly 200 drones and missiles as proof that Russia isn’t interested in peace.

Biden is working to strengthen Ukraine, but Trump might very well push them to accept a bad deal from Russia.

Russia’s testing the US and Europe with attacks on defense companies to see how far it can go. Those companies have been warned to increase their security. “Putin considers that he is at war with the West.”

Unidentified drones have flown over three U.S. Air Force bases in the U.K. in the past week

Very interesting. British have some cool anti-drone systems.

Europe reacting to Trump’s election to continue helping Ukraine.

Good! Germany will get air defense systems to Ukraine before Christmas!

Interview with Andrii Biletskyi, the commander of the Third Assault Brigade. The motivation of Ukrainian troops is fine, but they could use more people and equipment. Very lengthy interview, video with subtitles supplied.

Interesting! Ir strike hits building from the side instead of falling straight down.

Five unarmed Ukrainian soldiers captured and executed.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/26/war-for-ukraine-day-1007-russia-throws-188-drones-4-iskanders-at-ukraine/

Day 998 War in Ukraine

Nataliia Hrabarchuk left her job as a preschool teacher to become an anti-aircraft gunner. She “downed a Russian cruise missile on her first attempt.”

Russia launches a very broad, deep and wide assault of drones and missiles that it takes an enormous amount of space to document it all. “120 missiles and 90 attack drones. “ F-16 jets were used to repel some of the missiles.

NY Times reports that Ukraine can now use ATACMS missiles to strike targets in Russia. Ukraine can at first use the missiles in Kursk province, but that might be expanded later.

Many Ukrainians welcome having permission to strike Russian targets, but feel that permission should have been given over a year ago. Ukraine doesn’t have enough missiles to hit all the worthwhile targets in Kursk. Our blogger is less than impressed.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Russia’s latest attack against Ukraine proved the ineffectiveness of telephone diplomacy.

Moldova complains that their airspace was violated.

A European coommenter blames German Chancellor Scholz’s phone call to Putin and Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy for the massive aerial assault as both demonstrated weakness. Strength doesn’t provoke Putin. Weakness does.

Russian aerial assault was aimed at Ukraine’s energy grid. The attack was aimed at the “cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, as well as in the Khmelnytskyi and Volyn oblasts.”

Counting up the damage to civilians as a result of the mass aerial assault. The missiles and drones were “targeting not for victory but for deprivation – aiming to plunge the nation into darkness and cold.”

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/17/war-for-ukraine-day-998-sumy-burns/

Day 994 War in Ukraine

 

Heartbreaking! Ukrainian children rush to school in the bomb shelter as air raid sirens sound!

Kyiv has denied that it seeks nuclear weapons and with the nuclear materials available to it, it could only build a very small bomb anyway. Ukraine’s Foreign ministry says that it’s committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. All that being said, it would be quite possible for Ukraine to obtain nukes if Trump seriously threatened to stop funding Ukraine’s war against Russia’s war of aggression.

Biden Administration would like to see additional funding for Ukraine in 2025 budget. It will increase funding in the meantime.

Tulsi Gabbard is being nominated for director of National Intelligence. NATO countries are likely to stop sharing intelligence with the US if she takes that position.

Ukraine will get 6^th German air defense system.

Candidates for German Chancellor differ on getting long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

Pretty good score against Russian aerial attack, but some got through.

Molniya drones hitting in Kharkiv.

Some attacking Russians near Kupiansk violated laws of war by wearing Ukrainian uniforms.

Russian counter-offensive near Kursk doing poorly, suffering heavy losses. Ukraine takes out “1,950 personnel and 104 destroyed armored vehicles” in a single day.

Pion is Soviet-era self-propelled 203 mm cannon (18 kg of explosive) that Ukraine is using.

Explosion kills Russian officers.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/13/war-for-ukraine-day-994-a-brief-wednesday-night-update/

Day 990 War in Ukraine

Press exploring a city that embodies resilience.

Zelenskyy spoke with Trump and was pleased, but an aide of Trump’s warned that Crimea is los to Ukraine forever. So the situation is as clear as mud.

Zelenskyy reports that Ukraine’s military factories are in good financial shape. He wonders why Europe has plenty of air defense systems sitting idle, while Ukraine could really use some of those.

Estonia, at least, is offering more air defense.

Biden Administration trying to get $7 billion worth of weapons out the door to Ukraine prior to the inauguration. They’re concerned that many of these weapons will still be en route when Trump takes office, but somehow many more weapons were supposed to have been delivered than were ever actually delivered.

Russia will be able to produce 30% more artillery shells than all EU member states combined next year

Another Ukrainian POW executed.

Would it actually help Ukraine to get restrictions on use of ATACMS lifted? Tatarigami’s Frontillegence has concluded that Russia has move strategic assets back from the front lines, but that many assets remain within range.

Ukrainians have recovered a downed, but intact, Russian Shahed drone with a thermobaric warhead.

Russian oil refineries in Saratov hit.

Schools in the Voronezh region of Russia received a prank demand that they make tinfoil hats to protect against NATO signals. Some complied.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/09/war-for-ukraine-day-990-mixed-signals/

Day 988 War in Ukraine

 

Trump wants a quick, simple answer to war in Ukraine. Not gonna happen.

Kyiv was placed under a nine-hour drone assault. Now the Shahed drones are equipped with thermobaric warheads. Again, these drones are hitting civilians areas of the city.

Trump wants to delay Ukraine’s entry into NATO by 20 years. In return, Ukraine would continue to be armed. Not sure how the war gets solved “in 24 hours” then. Of course, that means freezing the current front lines, which is no solution at all. Neither side agrees with Trump’s idea of peace in 24 hours.

Tatarigami adds that Europe would have to do the heavy lifting of arming Ukraine AND to increase aid well beyond what it is. The US has great leverage over Russia, but must be willing to use it and it’s clear Trump won’t.

Russia opposed Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine. Russia seeks “control over the government in UA, its military and defense industrial capabilities,” in other words, Ukraine’s surrender.

Good! “The U.S. will send Ukraine the full $6 billion” that’s in the pipeline before Inauguration Day.

There’s absolutely NO reason to presume that Trump has ANY desire to aid Ukraine.

A 12-story residential building in Kharkiv is bombed.

Two gas pipelines in Odesa blown up. Russians “targeting port infrastructure and damaging several civilian vessels.”

Russian two-star general killed.

Dagestan is used for Iran to get drones to Russia. Ukraine is hitting that area with drones.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/07/war-for-ukraine-day-988-a-brief-thursday-night-update/