Mamoulian War

I have just finished a hour or so ago the optional arcade dungeon in Final Fantasy XV - Pitioss Ruins. I was postponing it, because I usually suck at arcades, but the dungeon was in the end easier, than I have expected. I did get stuck at few places, but little bit of patience helped me to overcome them. All in all it took me about 3 hours to finish all the puzzles

An interview with Russian officer, who went to Ukraine, but did not want to fight Ukrainian people. He was later dismissed and fled Ukraine. summary: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/02/2/7387569/ full article (in russian, so you have to run it through google translate): https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-64491016?ocid=wsrussian.social.in-app-messaging.telegram..russiantelegram_.edit

Girkin and Grey Zone, are probably only two pro-russian sources, where a pro-ukrainian people can find information which is not aligned with their information bubble, and still find it trustworthy, even if they do not like what they say. Rybar on the other hand is one of the most used sources in pro-ukrainian medias, when talking about Russian advances. So his information are probably considered reliable as well. I do not follow him, I can’t comment on his current reliability. Stopped following him, during Kherson counter-offensive, as he was at that point summoned with few other milbloggers to Kremlin, and I noticed much bigger increase of propaganda narrative in his reports. For the same reason, I stopped following few western sources as well

A little bit in-depth investigation into the guy/organization behind the Rybar channel and his credibility. Approximate expenses of this channel are about $30-50k per month, as he is paying a lot of insiders in Russia and Ukraine. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/11/18/who-s-behind-rybar

It looks like the GLSDBs will be in the next aid package from USA. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-readies-2-bln-plus-ukraine-aid-package-with-longer-range-weapons-sources-2023-01-31/

It might raise a doubt, but there is reported much lower presence of VDV recorded content from their combat missions on Telegram since September or so. Reasons might be also completely different, but this might be underline the above statement.

Something different and little bit less sad from the conflict.

Yeah read about him as well, that guy has pissed on the grave of his business partner during a funeral… Russians must be proud to have such heroes… in other sad news 3 days ago has passed away one of the Major pilots, after 141 sorties during the war. Pretty impressive record for “non-existent” air forces.

AFAIK Healthcare in Russia is currently getting worse. According to wikipedia since 2014. Life expectancy is dropping since 2019, and in rural areas it is 10 years less than in urban areas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Russia

And even more unpleasant stuff

Spanish will send older variant of Leopard 2 to Ukraine. Rumours on the internet says up to 53, although Spain did not confirm any number yet. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/01/28/7386889/ Slovakia will provide to Ukraine all of our Mig-29. This means two things. - 0 jets in Slovak Army, until F-16 arrives. One of our industry companies has already transformed to be able to maintain and repair F-16s. - 0 Russian military personnel at our Air Bases. Up to 20 are still servicing the Migs, despite Slovakia being on the list of enemy countries to Russia.

I am sorry, if I didn't notice it in your "review". But from what I understood, some of the guys who had the "luck" to play it, has told me, that the loot was boring. How did you enjoyed this reward aspect of the game?

Big increase in destroyed Russian iron in the last three days. 2 more jets and 1 more chopper downed yesterday as well. (Thats’s 5 jets and 5 choppers in three days). Something big started for sure. Most likely attack on Vuhledar and Zaporizhia frontline by Russia cost them a lot again.

From what I’ve read by various UA sources, they did 10-20 daily sorties during liberation of Kherson. I do not remember to read much news about airfights in Donbas region nowadays. One notable news, which went viral, was one Ukrainian pilot doing his sortie in Ded Moroz “outfit” during december/january. So either RU has very heavy AD in there, or there is a blackout on this kind of information. And another RU SU-25 shot down today there. Back to F-16. Lockheed Martin is prepared to ramp up production, to accomodate for third-party reexport needs. Still no official green light on this. But it looks to me, that more and more sources are slowly “preparing the audience” for opening these floodgates. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/01/25/7386542/

There are no plausible information for UA airforce performance on the east, but Russia sometimes hammers ground forces of UA with their airforce, and sometimes gets completely obliterated themselves, like two days ago, they lost 4 helicopters (3 of them Alligators, and 2 Su-25s). a little bit in favour for UA says, that they can use antiradar missiles on their jets already.

Netherlands has already promised, that they will pay for F16s for Ukraine, if someone puts the jets on the table. There are some "rumours" that UA pilots are already training on F16s. No one sane enough would confirm that information for us though So take it as a psyops for now

Different look on the Leopards...

Evolution of the Russian Tactics. Most of the tweets are bout the Blitzkrieg, which was succesful in the south, but cost them a lot in the north.

@pmp10 some insights on possible Russian struggle to modernize/refurbish tanks.

A lot of our politologues (is that a correct english word?) have suggested this solution as well So hopefully something could be done to get through this "obstacle" as soon as possible

Morocco as a first African country is sending thei tanks to Ukraine. The article mentions another north african country, willing to help, but I ahve not found who it might be. IMHO only Algeria or Tunisia are the likely candidates to be that second one. https://kyivindependent.com/news-feed/media-morocco-sends-soviet-made-tanks-to-ukraine

And looks like, that Baerbock “greenlit” donating Leopard 2s to UA by Poland.

Intel/rumours on Russian next moves.

I know, but the only games, which I have on Steam are Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione and EU4, and I am not planning to make it bigger. I have pretty big backlog, so I do not mind to wait 2-7 years for a release of good game on GOG

Few days old, but it is worth to mention it. Looks like, there are still few good people left in Russia. They are silently creating small memorial sites for the civilian victims of the attack on Dnipro housing. Although some of them were immediately taken away by police after putting their flowers on memorial. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/01/18/7385430/