Mamoulian War

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Also I forgot to answer one part of the question, she had here for some time some a friend from University, and other girl from the same University. But they moved few weeks ago to UK, because they both were directly for Mariupol, the second girl's father was even killed by Russians, despite they being at some point during this conflict in Crimea , so there was nothing left to return to for them back in Ukraine. Our "kid" wanted to go at first to UK with her as well, but her desire to finish her education won in the end. She sometimes met some other UA "kids" around the city, but she spent most of her time alone, as she was pretty big kind of introvert.

Finally the best youtube channel, I follow, which covers the war for Ukraine, started to cover it in English. It is the channel of Austrian Army, so it is very professional, and neutral channel, which covers successes and failures of both sides equally. A lot of the info I have shared in the past, was based on their assessments. If you know German language, and want to have more detailed and unbiased look on what is going on, I really recommend to watch some of the past videos, as well. And another looks at why Russian Army under-performs so much, by another guy, which I find has very good research behind his videos. Beware, it is 1 hour long video 😄

Also, while Russians are pushing with all of their available force to gain political goals of seizing Luhansk Oblast, while loosing hundreds of soldiers weekly, Ukraine continues to push to achieve tactical goal of liberating west bank of Dnipro in Kherson Oblast. "In the Kherson region from the direction of Dnipropetrovsk region, the Armed Forces have already liberated more than 20 settlements - the head of the Kherson Regional State Administration Gennady Laguta" https://t.me/ukrinform_news/72339

As I said some weeks ago, the logistics is currently less in favour for Ukrainians like around Kyiv, so at some point it possible, that the UA soldiers can be some time without enough weapons/ammunition to fight. But I presume, it is not as catastrophic as Russian propaganda is trying to depict it.

what language do you speak with each other, I assume English? - (Slovak, Ukrainian, Russian, English - Ukrainian is in some way close to Slovak, but she is from Russian speaking family, and me and my wife learned Russian language at secondary school. I use mostly English, my wife mostly Russian) did the student have family who stayed in Ukraine or were her family also refugees - (they family stayed almost two month at home in Dobropillia in Donbas, after Russian Army moved away from Kyiv and started Donbas offensive, they moved to Krivyi Rih. Her brother is "available" for mobilization in Kyiv. So in the end, they are refugees, but they are still in Ukraine) who paid for the food and other costs and if you paid was it expensive - (We have 7 EUR a day reimbursement for 1 person from government, but the girl started to work 1 about 2 weeks after she moved to us, so we were sharing most of the costs, but more of the costs were of course on the side of me and my wife. I would not say that it was expensive, but I think some Slovakians with worse income than our family might consider it expensive) what did she use to do during the day, did she have friends and or other Ukrainians that she associated with - (First two weeks she tried to explore the city, then she started to work, and two weeks, before her leave, we bough her cheap guitar, so she spent a lot of time learning the instrument 😛) And then did your family get on with her? I know it sounds weird but what was it like, did she use to talk about the war? - (We tried to not talk with her at all about the war. Only very very occasionally when we were all outside and talking about all the stuff. My wife had pretty good relationship with her, but she did not talked much to me. She said that she does not understand my English, but you never know 😄)

I bet, after some negotiations, there will be some solution, how to make it a part of the Lend Lease. As we found out, how to exchange our S300 for new Patriot.

Nope, she went back to Ukraine this Saturday. But in the meanwhile, me and my wife "adpoted" one 17-years old dude, who would like to study IT here. 😁 And or laws demand, that students under 18 years need to have an "supervisor" in Slovakia, if his parents are abroad. But go ahead, ask your questions.

Well, this is expected in the aftermath of every single conflict on earth, not only in Ukraine. The good news is, that Europol and responsible people learned hard lesson from Yugoslavia aftermath.

And looks like that helicopter news was misidentification

Little bit more on the Officer losses of Russia:

Yesterday Lithuania has announced, that as a first country in the world is completely Russian Free on energy imports. No more gas, oil and electricity imports from Russia.

Also, here is pretty interesting interview, which pretty much confirmed, what I was "thinking about aloud" last few days in this thread

This one is pretty implausible... from the department of to good to be true 😛

Little bit more on the Harpoon deals by Ukrainian sources. Probably overestimation, but even if that statement is 50% true, this is pretty big deal, and all the wheat might be able to get out of Odessa soon... Also yesterday report of ISW was very interesting, and pretty much confirms, that the Ukrainian tactics of waiting for Russian implosion, although greatly costly, works. More and more pro-Russian bloggers are talking about the mismanagement and incompetence of Russian officers, which has catastrophic consequences for already shaken servicemen and officer morale... Well this is what you get, when you assign your promotion based on how much are they up in your ass, instead on how competent they are "Ukrainian forces are also suffering serious losses in the Battle of Severodonetsk, as are Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure. The Russians have concentrated a much higher proportion of their available offensive combat power to take Severodonetsk than the Ukrainians, however, shaping the attrition gradient generally in Kyiv’s favor. The Ukrainians continue to receive supplies and materiel from their allies as well, however slow and limited that flow may be. The Russians, in contrast, continue to manifest clear signs that they are burning through their available reserves of manpower and materiel with no reason to expect relief in the coming months. Evidence of eroding military professionalism in the Russian officer corps is mounting. The Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that Russian commanders are attempting to preserve military equipment by forbidding drivers from evacuating wounded servicemen or providing supplies to units that have advanced too far.[1] Refusing to risk equipment to evacuate wounded personnel on the battlefield—other than in extraordinary circumstances—is a remarkable violation of core principles of military professionalism. Such behavior can have serious impacts on morale and the willingness of soldiers to fight and risk getting injured beyond their own defensive lines. ISW cannot independently confirm the GUR’s report, but commentary by Russian milbloggers offers some circumstantial support for it. Russian milblogger Alexander Zhychkovskiy criticized the Russian military command’s disregard for reservists on the deprioritized Zaporizhia Oblast front. Zhychkovskiy reported that Russian commanders trapped lightly-equipped infantry units in areas of intense Ukrainian artillery fire without significant artillery support and did not rotate other units through those areas to relieve them.[2] Zhychkovskiy noted that Russian commanders are responsible for high losses and cases of insanity among servicemen. Another milblogger, Alexander Khodarkovsky, said that Russian commanders are not sending reinforcements in a timely matter, preventing Russian forces from resting between ground assaults.[3] Waning professionalism among Russia’s officers could present Ukrainian forces with opportunities. Russian morale, already low, may drop further if such behavior is widespread and continues. If Russian troops stuck on secondary axes lose their will to fight as the Battle for Severdonetsk consumes much of the available Russian offensive combat power, Ukraine may have a chance to launch significant counteroffensives with good prospects for success. That prospect is uncertain, and Ukraine may not have the ability to take advantage of an opportunity even if it presents itself, but the current pattern of Russian operations is generating serious vulnerabilities that Kyiv will likely attempt to exploit."

And sorry for triple post, I have just noticed it now. It looks like, that after a very long time of stalemate, the Ukraine started at least some small scale counteroffensive in Kherson Oblast. https://t.me/lumsrc/1589

The ones, which make big bad kaboom. On a more serious note, Danes have RGM-84A. According to some site, which about which credibility I have no clue, it is possible they get some mix with other variants from other countries as well. But the deal is done by the Denmark.

Bacause we are now paying for 60+% of our gas to Norway and Croatia and other Netherlands in USD/EUR. The last 30+% we got from Russia is also payed in USD, because all of our Gas import is performed by state owned company, which gives us much better leverage, than private companies in the west, which must obey their shareholders as well. And if they turn us off, we have already enough gas stacked to have a chance to survive this winter. So we have now 1 and half year to find a way, how to substitute the last 30+%.

To put it bluntly, you are correct… oh also, circling back to the “urban legend” of how Russia is minimising the civilian damage, which some people still wants to believe… here you can see in comparison how the real minimising of nonmilitary damage actually looks like when performed by UA artillery. And compare it to Russian “advancements”..

The other thing, that UA is waiting for, is that the EU will do their homework, and will make stricter and stricter sanctions to Russia. In the west of EU, there might be some people spewing bull**** like Kissinger, but for the east of EU (except Hungary ofc), it is unthinkable, to allow Russia win this war. On one hand, economic might take long to affect the Russian ruling elite, but there is serious lack of a lot of stuff, which Russia depends on, which was imported from the West. And they just simply cannot count on China to substitute EU in all of the stuff. The fact, that many people are omitting is, that Russia is more dependent on EU than vice versa. Slovakia less than month ago was whining, that we will pay to Russia in rubles for their gas. In less than a month a second biggest **** in our government, who wanted to pay in rubles, managed to make deals around the world for the same price as current Russian price, that we will be cutting off 60% of all Russian gas imports on June 1st 2022. If our useless **** in government are able to make such advantageous deals, everyone can... The Russian economic elite is already starting to become very worried how dire the whole economic situation in Russia might get, if the war does not end soon. Today 4 Duma members of Communist Party, signed the demand to stop the war... Something unthinkable just few days ago... And the discontent slowly grows. The easiest to notice, that the situation in Russia is getting to hell is to follow some Russian social trolls in Eastern Europe. They write a lot, about how awesome the denazification goes, but as soon, as Kissinger opened his mouth about ceding some Ukrainian soil to Russia for exchange of peace, the activity all of these trolls has arisen tenfold, with all of them praising how wise this guy is... If EU will do their homework as good as Slovakia did with the gas, and adds oil to it as well, Russian economy will implode sooner than anyone would dream of few weeks ago. And Russian army with no money, will be no threat anymore. T-62s instead T-80s will be then just the tip of the iceberg of their army's issues then... End if you really think, that ceding some soil to Russia will change anything, just look back at 1938, how did the ceding of Sudetten, Silesia and South Slovakia to Germany, Poland and Hungary helped to change something at that time...

Well the fact is, that all the weapons from e.g. Lend Lease has not yet arrived, that's why the Ukraine is going full defense with leaving their positions as late as possible (see Lyman). As I said, even Zelensky says that on Donbas battleground the Russia has 5-times more equipment than Ukraine. The reason is simple. Russia has allegedly 50% of all troops currently in Ukraine around Severodonetsk and Lysichanks. So the most logical thing to do, is hold the ground as long as humanly possible, retreat, and be sure, that Russian casualties are bigger than Ukrainian. This really sucks, but they do not have any other option until more weapons arrive On some fronts, like Avdiivka this works for more than 3 months already, without need to retreat. At some other places, like Popasna and Rubizhne, it did not work, due to the terrain being less in favor to Ukraine, than around Avdiivka, which is like 5km away from the capital of DNR - Donetsk City. If enough weapons arrive soon, UA may start counteroffensive around Kherson, and hope, that the danger of turning off the water-pipe to Crimea again, would make Russian move some of the tremendous army power away from Severodonetsk and Lysichansk cauldron...

And here is the article about the Doneck spearatists complaining, which I've mentioned earlier. Google translate. But it is pretty much very close to what the WP says about Ukrainians. And it also states the obvious, that the collaborators who betrayed their own nation are for Soviets/Russians worth less than women for Taliban... https://www-startitup-sk.translate.goog/odmietame-tu-zomriet-separatisti-z-donecka/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Also the Eastern Front is real mess, no doubt about that. The lack of equipment has been even addressed by Zelensky, Arestovych and even pro-Ukrainian bloggers. So the Washington Post article, pretty much states the obvious and logical things happening. I just don't understand, that some people are thinking, that being pro-ukrainian automatically means being a goof living in alternate reality... I'll leave that to consumers of Russian "news"...

In other news, more than 50 tons of stuff looted in Ukraine by Russians since February 24th, including their own army's Orlans... And people are wondering, why I am still making fun out of their soldiers, that they are dismantling even their half century old tanks, where is "nothing to gain". LOL If you really think, there is nothing to gain from gutted T-80 or even T-62, then you have absolutely no clue about the mentality of some people in post communist countries. And the more you are going to the east, the more is this mentality prevalent, because of their "standard of living"...

Well the fact is, some of the american politicians are as big **** as russian... And yes we have such big **** here as well, and I bet there are that kind of **** everywhere else as well

Sooner or later he would, and then another and then another... he considered West weak, due to how they **** up their "mission" in Afghanistan, and how much Eastern and Western block in EU was quarreling all of the time before the war... He did not expect the unity he got in the end... And I think with Trump up, there would be no way to establish such a unity as we have now...