A photo-illustrated article on some of the feline survivors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you’re a fan of cats… prepare for a “Jurassic Bark” sort of response.
May 012022
May 012022
Horror footage shows moment Chechen commander killed while boasting about victories
He’s jabbering away, filming himself with his cell phone …
… when something comes zipping in and explodes right next to him. The moment of the explosion is not captured well, as you would expect with a millisecond-moment on a crappy cell phone… but what is caught – badly focused, motion-blurred, jarred, etc. – looks like we’re seeing this guys soul being sent directly to Hell:
Neato. A Chechen fighting for Russia to invade another country? Hell would seem an appropriate destination.
Note: I saw the video yesterday, but durned if I can find it again. Oh well.
UPDATE: link to the video after the break. I have also put three frames there… “normal,” “uh-oh” and “transporter malfunction.” Seriously: modern pseudo-Star Trek *loves* horrible things and horrible people; I’m surprised I haven’t seen horrible transporter screwups. If they decide to do such a thing, that third frame could serve as a template. A disturbing template.
May 012022
Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine – to find they’ve been remotely disabled
Nothing locks up like a stolen $300,000 John Deere combine shipped by Russian invaders to Chechnya.
What would be best would be if these stolen vehicles could go on some sort of Killdozer rampage. Or just burn themselves up. But turning themselves into bricks is a nice start. Sure, the thieves will simply take them to a chop shop and make some money on the spare parts (something Russian farmers are going to need since doubtless John Deere customer support is likely thin on the ground in Russia these days), but they won’t do near as well as if they’d had functional equipment.
Maybe don’t steal things.
Apr 302022
This sort of thing is not new… I recall seeing drones like this being used like this in the middle east a few years ago. I imagine China is thrilled that they are unwittingly serving as arms dealers for the forces opposing Russia… and giving ideas to those who may soon have to face Chinese forces.
Also notice: that looked like it was, before the invasion, a pretty nice house. Russia will have one *hell* of a reconstruction bill when all this is done.
Come Back Alive fund showed work of Mavic 3 drone which they upgraded. (It costs only $3000).
The fund not only bought 17,000 body armor, 3,500 optics, 77 vehicles and more since 24 Feb but also created many IT and technical upgrades for🇺🇦armyhttps://t.co/o77FjneGq2 pic.twitter.com/u0RZqqTv9b
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 29, 2022
I suspect the bomb that was dropped was a fairly simple explosive, basically a hand grenade or small mortar round.For anti-infantry purposes, this works: the video shows one guy likely killed, another guy crawling away and then stopping, either injured or dead. What you *want* is a weapon that injures as many as possible, but not necessarily kills. The dead are dead… but the injured are costly liabilities, requiring resources and personnel to take care of.
But imagine if it was a shaped-charge warhead, perhaps taken from an RPG… and smuggled into a port city such as Sevastopol where cruise missiles are being loaded onto submarines. Poke a few holes in a surfaced and docked sub and boy, you might really make a mess. If you can penetrate the torpedo compartment (honestly, I suspect it would take a fairly massive warhead to do that, but who knows) or zap a cruise missile… scratch one sub, and block one dock.
🇷🇺submarine stroke Ukraine with cruise missiles. Reportedly this is the 1st time🇷🇺military used submarine strikes agst🇺🇦–Reuters
A satellite image collected this morning revealed the loading of probable Kalibr missiles on Kilo-class submarine in Black Sea Sevastopol port @Maxar pic.twitter.com/7n1CQR5GxJ
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 29, 2022
An armor-penetrating bomb would be useful for taking out tanks like this one that spent a good long while destroying a building that apparently had a number of civilians sheltering in the basement:
🇷🇺tank in Mariupol destroys residential building where ~20 civilians hid in basement; then, occupiers herd survivors in unknown direction
"A visual explanation why Mariupol civilians R afraid to leave basements, don't believe 🇷🇺 on safe evacuation from the city" – Azov Regiment https://t.co/2wyLwhdwcv
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 30, 2022
Apr 292022
The best of the Russian military seem to be getting smacked about by *farm* equipment. I saw these sort of vehicles all over rural Utah; they are great for tooling around farms, ranches, small towns. And now it seems like they’re great for mounting smallish anti-tank missile launchers and crew served machine guns and harassing million-dollar main battle tanks.
Ukrainian Battle Buggies Are Out To Kill Russian Tanks
They’re cheap, fast, maneuverable, cheap, maintainable/repairable and cheap. Being small, they’re probably a *little* hard to hit. And I’ve little doubt that rural Ukraine is as filled with them as rural Utah is.
#Ukraine: A curious buggy (all terrain vehicle) armed with a Stugna-P anti-tank guided missile was recently destroyed in the vicinity of Izium, #Kharkiv Oblast. Such vehicles are currently used by many Ukrainian hit-and-run and raid teams in the region. pic.twitter.com/6JW9FbDpLB
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 28, 2022
🇺🇦 mobile ATGM, 2x Skif and 1x Corsar pic.twitter.com/cDW1cGGbor
— Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) April 21, 2021
Apr 252022
Large fire at oil depot in Russia’s Bryansk, near Ukraine
It’s impressive if nothing else. Ukrainian choppers attacked the region of Bryansk about a week and a half ago… if Ukrainians did it *again,* this would *really* indicate a massive series of failures on the part of the Russian military.
Apr 242022
An interesting summary of the American career of a Russian-speaking comedian, one Nurlan Saburov. I was previously unaware that there was much of a market in the USA for comedians to come here and go on tour doing their stand-up *in* *Russian,* but live and learn. Saburov is apparently really popular in the Russian-speaking world, and his tour through the USA was scheduled well before Certain Recent Events. But once Certain Recent Events kicked off… Ukrainians in the audience started demanding that he address the Events. It does not go well.
Apr 212022
Well, not *that* Moscow, it’s at the bottom of the sea. And not quite *that* Moscow, but the city of Tver, a few miles to the north west. It’s *probably* not related to Ukrainian sabotage, but… who knows? It’d be a dandy target and a propaganda coup if this fire was started by some Ukrainian Doolitle raider.
Fire At Russian Defense Ministry’s Research Institute In Tver Kills Six People
Reportedly this facility develops missiles of kinds used in Ukraine, and space weapons. The claim is that the fire is due to old wiring, and looking at that ancient building, I can believe it. But that’s not a whole lot better of an explanation for losing a “space weapon” laboratory than enemy action, any more than “it just caught fire” was a better, more comforting explanation than “It caught a couple anti-ship missiles.” If their work was related to weapon systems currently being expended, perhaps they had ramped-up work hours and an increased demand on the power and other systems.
Apr 172022
Seems legit. Notes: it’s shown in daytime, so it survived a number of hours after the late-night attack. The seas *seem* calm, belying the “sank in a storm” story. The hull *seems* to show a vertical split; the forward part of the superstructure is obscured by smoke, but it seems kinda trashed. The bow may be gone. if so… The Front Fell Off.
Here is another image of the same ship, for those who cry "fake" immediately. pic.twitter.com/Vfprvs3VSg
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 17, 2022
Apr 142022
First tanks, then ships, now cities:
Heavy fire tonight in Belgorod city, Russia as the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations stated that the situation is under control… pic.twitter.com/TGo3XWSdwe
— CaucasusWarReport (@Caucasuswar) April 14, 2022
Belgorod seems to be about 25 miles from the border of Ukraine. Gee. I wonder what happened.