Putin’s hilarious explanation is that Russia is liberating the Ukrainian people from evil overlords. I’m not sure how this helps:
That is, admittedly, a hell of an image. I’m honestly a bit surprised that with all that damage the apartment building is still standing, though I imagine it will have to come down. Add that to Russias reparations bill, I suppose.
I’ve always figured that a Molotov cocktail would be minimally useful against an armored vehicle. Sure, it’s liquid fire, but it’s not that much when you consider it’s spread over perhaps several square years of several inches of steel armor.
But then there’ s *this:*
Reasonably certain it got a little warm in there.
UPDATE: Original video removed for some reason. Why? Dunno. One possibility: like so many videos and photos… *maybe* it’s not actually from the current conflict, but from something else. Hard to tell. However, here’s a copy:
Over the past day or two, lots of reports have been made about a single Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter pilot who has shot down five or six Russian fighters. It’s a great story with a couple problems that boil down to: “fog of war.” Adding to the problem of determining just what the frak is going on is the fact that while there is footage of some of these supposed aerial victories… they might well be computer generated simulations. Some of the combat simulators available to be played on standard home computer equipment produce footage so realistic that even at full resolution and on large screens they’re a little hard to see as fake; scale them down and blur them a bit and make them look like crappy cell phone footage, and the digital artifacts are largely gone.
*Could* there be a Ukrainian ace prowling the skies? Sure. It’s certainly a target rich environment. Look at World War II… the highest scoring aces were on the Axis side, because their skies were *filled* with Allied pilots with relatively low experience. But *is* there such a pilot? Who the frak knows. If the war ends in a week with Putin strung up in Red Square, a complete Russian withdrawal from Ukraine and a serious international tribunal that investigates every last bullet fired, we might still never know for sure. But if the Ghost serves as an enduring source of morale and pride for the Ukrainians… then the myth will never die.
If you’re going to go down… go down defiantly.
“Suchomimus” seems to be a Ukrainian, gathering together a bunch of short videos from on the ground of the Russian invasion. So long as Ukrainians maintain the ability to communicate with the outside world (I’m surprised the Russians haven;t taken out all the cell towers and satellite dishes), this will remain an unusual war… the world can watch it happen live from the ground, from the viewpoint of the civilians watching an invasion force coming in.
For example, a Hind firing rockets in a city. I don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian… but I recognize some words here, and I don’t think the cameraman is happy.
And finally, Ukraine deploys the Ultimate Weapon: Karens.
And then there’s this:
That’s got to be a hell of a morale boost to the Russian troops: “If you fall in battle, don’t worry… we’ll reduce your remains to ashes so your family need never know what happened to you.”
Given current events, perhaps buying model kits is not the top priority… but if it *is,* now might be the time (if it’s not already too late). In recent years, Russian and Ukrainian model kit companies have done a fine job of producing unusual subjects and high quality kits, and sometimes both at the same time… but now, it’s safe to assume that for the time being nothing will be coming out of Ukraine, and the only things coming out of Russia will be via expensive back channels.
Examples available from Amazon (remember, if you buy *anything* after going through these links, I’ll get a pittance, so if you want to support this blog, here’s a way to do it):
Ukranian company “Mikro-Mir” produced a surprising range of submarine model kits in 1/350 scale, 1/144 scale and even 1/35 scale. You can click on this link to see the wider subjects, or here are a few specific kits that might be of interest (just text links to save space; as of this typing, they are listed as available):
1/350 USS Thresher 1/350 USS George Washington 1/350 USS Skipjack 1/350 USS Nautilus 1/144 Holland class 1/35 “Turtle” 1/350 USS Growler 1/35 CSS Hunley
A Russian kit company with a really good reputation for quality is Zvezda Models, which has a wide range of armor and aircraft, military and civilian. Really far too many to link to, but here are a few of interest:
1/144 TU 160 “Blackjack” 1/72 Sukhoi SU-50 1/35 T-14 Armata 1/72 SU-57 1/350 Kursk submarine 1/2700 Imperial Star Destroyer 1/144 Beriev BE-200ES
Also Ukrainian is the company Amodel. They have a bunch of different aircraft kits, but these two might be of particular interest:
And under the circumstances, the German Revell AN-225 might be of interest, because that plane, even if at this very moment it’s intact, is almost certainly doomed. If fighting doesn’t damage/destroy it, when the Russians are eventually driven out they will either steal the plane or wreck it.
Note: this is not only unconfirmed, it’s is *probably* false. But fog of war and all that…
Expect the price of gas to skyrocket, and everything else to follow. At least we have *fine* leadership to see us through this…
REPORTER to Biden: “Do you think you may have underestimated Putin?”
BIDEN: *smirks, stares blankly, picks at his teeth*
pic.twitter.com/H8JOsSUei7— Matt Batzel (@MattBatzel) February 22, 2022
“On January 23, 2022, the Department of State authorized the voluntary departure of US direct hire employees and ordered the departure of eligible family members from Embassy Kyiv due to the continued threat of Russian military action,” the State Department said in a statement. “US citizens in Ukraine should consider departing now using commercial or other privately available transportation options.”
Given the crappy job the State Department did in warning Americans to bug out of Afghanistan, this announcement is indicative of either “holy crap this is bad” or “let’s over-react.” I could go with either.
As an aside: I’ve always seen it spelled “Kiev.” When did it become “Kyiv?”
Anyway, I’m just glad that we have such stellar leadership just now, smart and awake like no administration ever before.
It’s a possibility. it’s not a popular possibility in Finland, apparently, with more of the public opposing it than supporting it; and of course Putin doesn’t like the idea of a nation that the USSR attempted to put under its bootheel standing up to him. Given that Russia continues to occupy a fair amount of Finish territory, it’s not unsurprising that the Finnish government is not terribly fond of Russia.