re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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An increasingly panicked Vladimir Putin is pulling all his fighter jets out of Crimea after Ukrainian special forces staged a series of daring attacks on Russian military bases deep in the occupied peninsula, NATO officials reportedly believe.

The secret document dated August 22 reported that Russia has already moved 10 of its most capable fighter planes - six Su-35S and four MiG-31BM jets - out of the territory it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and back to airbases in mainland Russia.

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The remainder of Putin's air force is expected to follow suit in the coming days, according to the report which was seen by Insider.

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Daily Mail

Russia is burning 100MM cubic feet per day of natural gas just before it reaches Nordstream 1. So they are burning what would be going to Germany. This does make sense if you want to save money from not having to rework wells sanded up from lack of flow.

A couple of minutes of some of the bloopers from the International Army Games. They didn't show my favorite when the Russians had to replace their tank because it broke down. Oddly enough they had the time to get a new tank removed as "administrative" time and suffered no penalty.


YT

British Defence Intelligence
UPDATE ON UKRAINE 27 August 2022
INTELLIGENCE UPDATE

Over the last five days, there has probably been an increase in the intensity of Russian assaults along the Donetsk sector of the Donbas. North of Donetsk city, there has been intense fighting near the towns of Siversk and Bakhmut. Pro-Russian separatist militia have probably made some progress towards the centre of the village of Pisky, near Donetsk Airport. However, overall, Russian forces have secured few territorial gains.

There is a realistic possibility that Russia has increased its efforts in the Donbas in an attempt to draw in or fix additional Ukrainian units, amid speculation that Ukraine is planning a major counter-offensive.

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Russian occupation authorities remain unlikely to successfully conduct sham referenda to annex Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation by early September, despite reports of advancing preparations for referenda.

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If it’s a sham, why wouldn’t they be able to conduct it in early September. Seems like Moscow could announce the results today.

Have to say The quality of the ISW reports seem to be down as compared to the beginning of the war. Perhaps that’s a function of less real estate changing hands which is more easily discussed in a daily bulletin.

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. I’m not lying.

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I posted your lie then you doubled down

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Go DIAF

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Classy for a doctor. Now we know im right

What Ukraine needs to win the war

Richard D. Hooker, Jr. - Makes the case for more advanced weaponry assistance including aircraft, tanks, ATACMS, etc.

Richard D. Hooker Jr. is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council. He previously served as Dean of the NATO Defense College and as Special Assistant to the US President and Senior Director for Europe and Russia with the National Security Council.

The Atlantic Council

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it’s a sham, why wouldn’t they be able to conduct it in early September. Seems like Moscow could announce the results today.

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From ISW

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Spokesperson for Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Vadym Skibitsky stated on August 26 that Russian authorities have completed administrative preparations for referenda and created election headquarters, drawn up voter lists, and created election commissions, which Skibitsky stated indicates that the preparatory process for referenda is “almost complete.”[4] Russian-backed occupation authorities in Zaporizhia Oblast announced that they have already audited polling stations, analyzed voter lists, and selected candidates for work in voter precincts and territorial election commissions.[5]

However, Russian occupation authorities are unlikely to be able to carry out referenda as they intend (with cooperation from local collaborators) by the purported September 11 deadline due to continued frictions within occupation administrations and ongoing partisan attacks. The Ukrainian advisor to the head of Kherson Oblast, Serhiy Khlan, stated on August 26 that the Kherson occupation administration is struggling to find people to head administrative units in charge of referendum preparations, likely due to a lack of willing locals and low levels of trust in Ukrainian collaborators.[6] Khlan notably stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have ordered occupation administrators to avoid importing Russian administrators to fill these roles in order to make the referendum process appear like a grassroots initiative with local support.[7] Ukrainian sources have previously reported that Ukrainian resistance and increasing partisan attacks are inhibiting preparations for the referendum.[8] While Russian authorities could hypothetically forcibly annex Ukrainian territories on an arbitrary date, they are unlikely to do so without holding staged referenda. All observed indicators suggest that Russian authorities seek to create a veneer of local support and participation before conducting the referenda to frame them as widely supported initiatives but face ongoing setbacks that will delay any annexation effort.

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I typically only post the highlights but all of those bullets have lengthy descriptions behind them

They need to make a decision on what aircraft they are going to send soon because it will take 6 months at the very minimum to train their pilots on the aircraft systems and proper tactics. The f-16 is the obvious choice because of its numbers and neighboring countries to Ukraine are already flying them so parts aren’t an issue either. On the other hand I think they should really give the Swedish Gripen a serious look as well. The Gripen is renowned for being an easy aircraft to work on compared to the f-16 and most importantly it is capable of using short or rough takeoff and landing areas like highways or even fields while the f-16 needs longer runways to land and isn’t suited to operate out of areas that aren’t well maintained airfields as the Gripen has a more robust landing gear than the f-16. In a war where Ukraine really could use the capability to operate in areas other than air bases this is important. It’s a little bit of a conundrum. As a long term point of view there is no question the f-16 is the better choice but for this war right now you can make the case that the Gripen fits the Ukrainian’s needs more. In the end I think they end up getting 2 squadrons of older block f-16 aircraft and possibly one squadron worth of A-10’s just so the military can write off some of those older airframes and save money but the Gripen should be given a hard look.

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I posted your lie

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You have been bringing up the tinder girls for months and I just assumed you meant the ones from Minsk because you had always prevented referred to the girls from Minsk. So you didn’t post anything that caught me in a lie or a gotcha. You just posted evidence of a misunderstanding.

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then you doubled down

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I was not doubling down. I was telling the truth. The girl from Mariupol is now in London and she had told me that if I was ever in London then she and her parents would like to invite me over for dinner or buy me dinner for putting them in touch with my friend’s brother who was able to help them get around the bureaucracy and bribing required to get on a bus and evacuate Mariupol through one of the convoys through the humanitarian corridors. I wish you would have reminded me because going to dinner with them and hearing their stories would have been more entertaining than spending hours in a lounge in heathrow making small talk with strangers.

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Go DIAF Classy for a doctor.

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1. This is the OT. Telling someone to go DIAF is standard operating procedure here.

2. Just because I am a physician doesn’t mean that I have to be classy on the OT.

3. If you cannot stand people telling you off, getting RA’d (which wasn’t my doing fwiw), getting PM’d, or getting banned for your shite throwing then maybe you should stop shite posting on the OT.

4. Go DIAF

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Now we know im right

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