>

Likely planned escalations with the seasons + intelligence pointing to another Russian mobilization.
New post can be found here >

They absolutely should. Making Europe militarily less dependent on the US is a project mostly driven by France, so they shouldn't hide behind Abrams, even if Germany does. >

Yes but it's not easy. Out of 200 tanks, some are in maintenance and 70 are out of service to be upgraded to XLR standard this year. That doesn't leave many >

Similar to the Challenger numbers.  226 total and many of those not close to combat ready and yet UK still sent a full squadron.  I know it;s slightly easier for an island to give up its tanks but realistically what other land war are France expecting to fight in the next ten years? 
Leclerc's use standard NATO ammo as well which makes for easy resupply. >


but realistically what other land war are France expecting to fight in the next ten years? 

To be fair, they do border Spain, and as we all know, no one expects the Spanish inquisition. >

Or as I once joked as Santander bought out the company I was working for...
​
"no one expects the Spanish Acquisition."  
I thought I was really funny at the time.  
No one I worked with had watched Monty Python so 20 years later I'm determined to get a positive response on the best joke I ever came up with. >

Those glorious Viking bastards. >

important article
upvoted, thanks for posting >

Sweden just announced that it is transferring 50 Combat Vehicle 90 to Ukraine.
CV90 is a really good IFV. It has a 40 mm autocannon  and can carry 7-8 soldiers.
Sweden will also send artillery system Archer (unspecified amount), more NLAWs and AT-systems (presumably more AT4s), mine clearing equipment and automatic rifles.
Source is press conference with Swedish Prime Minister. >

Good news! >

Holy shit CV-90 is amazing news!
Ukraine now has like a lot of good armor. Like 400+
Thats great. In the beginning of the war, our defenders did marlvels and inflicted heavy damage upon Russians using our domestic BTR-4E. We lost a lot of them defending our land. This type of tech, its such an improvement! I hope it will help us free our land! >

So now that russia has captured Soledar, they feel obligated to hold on to it at all costs.
Meanwhile Ukraine has parked themselves next to the town while russia has no strength to secure a perimeter around it. Drones, artillery and recon forces on the ground hitting russians in the town pretty much 24/7. 
No matter how many losses they take, Soledar must'nt fall. So we can be sure russia doubles down. 
Sounds like a honey trap to me. But surely Prigozhin is a master strategist and I simply fail to see the big picture. >

I wonder if this is where the massive KIA numbers are coming from. >

That’s awesome! >

1% of GDP, damn. Heroes >

Previous post
Day 329-330 of my updates from Kharkiv.
It was relatively quiet during the last 2 days, we had no missile or drone strikes in Kharkiv, but they continue to shell and send S-300 missiles at Kupiansk every day. Just a couple of hours ago, at around 10pm, there was an air raid alert and people living in Kupiansk reported that center of the town was hit yet again. Also, the tragedy that happened near Kyiv yesterday can’t really be called quiet either, a helicopter crash is just horrible, hopefully something like that won’t happen again.
All those new announcements about more military aid are really exciting, but I wonder why do them right before the next Ramstein meeting starts instead of during it? I guess everything that is getting announced right now is already approved and doesn’t have to be discussed with anyone. It will be interesting to see what we will get out of the meeting, most likely more new tanks will be approved, but I wonder what else could also be announced.
The new US military package that was just announced seems amazing, that’s almost 1000 vehicles in just the last 2 packages, it’s an enormous amount of armor to get in a single month. Well, obviously we’re not getting them all immediately, but the amount is still staggering. I hope the rumors about us getting GLSDBs are not just rumors, because the 160km range would be really helpful. They are HIMARS ammo, so technically they still might be included in this package, but in that case, we won’t know about it until later. >

You've been a constant in many of our lives this past year and I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I can't wait for the day where your daily update is that you went out with your friends for a night on the town. >

Estimated Russian losses from 24.02.2022 to 19.01.2023 (Day 330):
|Category              |Change*|Total     |
|:---|:---|:---|
|Personnel             |+760      |118530    |
|Tanks                 |+6      |3136      |
|APVs                  |+10     |6235      |
|Artillery             |+14     |2122      |
|MLRS                  |-      |442       |
|Anti-aircraft Systems |-      |220       |
|Aircraft              |-      |287       |
|Helicopters           |+1      |277       |
|UAVs                  |+6    |1882      |
|Missiles              |-      |749       |
|Warships / Boats      |-      |17        |
|Other Vehicles        |+7      |4896      |
|Special Equipment     |-      |190       |
*Change since the previous day.
Source: The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine >

After the ruzzians took Soledar, their casualties only increased. Keeping that city might not go as planned, it seems! >

For anyone deciding whether to watch the video, please do. I am in awe at how this masterpiece works. >

Saab makes incredible tech. Their cars from back in the day were loaded with wicked cool technology too. >

Denmark is sending all 19 of their CAESARS. >

Respect to Denmark. >

Before this all started I (an American) thought Europe would be cowed by Russian threats. I thought we would see some condemnations and some furrowed brows but nothing more. Needless to say, I was pleasantly and happily surprised. The Baltic states in particularly have absolutely channeled the spirit of Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-dûm. >

I’m swedish and i NEVER thought our government would aid Ukraine with weapons. We have been neutral for two hundred years and been firmly in the don’t provoke anyone camp and here we are handing out shipment after shipment of things that do real damage to the russian army. It’s like i ended up in a parallel universe.
I love it. Fuck the russian government.
Slava ukraini >

Yeah, you know Russia fucked up pretty bad when Sweden abandons neutrality. Glad to have you on board! >

The Tallinn Pledge: nine nations commit to equip Ukraine to push Russia out of its territory.
Signed by Estonia, the United Kingdom, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Slovakia, along with a long list of the latest hardware going to the war and an intention to push other allied nations at Ramstein to do the same. >

You love to see it.
Send to theater area. Shortens logistics, keeps em guessing, bolsters defenses. >

Challenger 1 are a surprise.  
But if even the Bundeswehr hardly has to give up anything, I'm definitely in favor of it. >

Good to see. Hopefully this will be the making of Kazakstan. >

Spot on, Ukraine needs to reach a point where they are fucking the Russian raw on the battlefield.
They need Russians to be thinking "but sending me to the frontline is imminent death". >

Abrams in 3-2-1... >

Strykers and Bradleys are much more useful in this conflict and don't require extreme logistics to support, like Abrams, that takes 10 gallons of high grade jet fuel to start the engine. >

If it takes Abrams to finally push Scholz to release Leopards then I hope it happens. Announcing maybe 10 Abrams to open up the floodgates wouldn't hurt. >

Vladimir Milow on Foreign Affairs

The Sanctions on Russia Are Working! Slowly but Surely, They Are Weakening Putin 
The assertion that the Russian economy has shown remarkable resilience to sanctions hinges on misleading macroeconomic indicators. Specifically, critics of sanctions point to the strengthened ruble, the modest contraction of Russian GDP, and low unemployment. But these figures do not in fact reflect the situation on the ground. >

No trial or anything, just murdered. Disgusting behaviour from the SBU. >

It's being investigated by Governmental Bureau of Investigations at the moment. >

Leopards gonna be eating Russian faces >

r/aleopardtankatemyface >

I'm not a fan of our government but at least they've been handling supply and funding of weapons for Ukraine quite well. >

No one wants to recognize annexation like that as legitimate >

Plus the fact that Iran has had border problems in its own history, with the Iraq/Iran war being a recent example. >

Precisely >

Boris Pistorius has now been officially appointed as the new defense minister of Germany.  At around 9:40 a.m., Pistorius will be received by the Inspector General of the German Armed Forces, Eberhard Zorn, with military honors and a short press statement is also planned.  At around 11 a.m. the minister will receive his first foreign guest, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Edit: At CET Time. >

I still love that the inspector general is called Zorn, meaning anger/wrath in German. >

.
@BWallaceMP
 has announced the UK is sending 600 Brimstone radar-guided missiles to Ukraine. 
The British-made Challenger 2 tanks will be delivered “in the coming weeks.” >

Swedish Archer system in action >

Now I just hope we Finns try to outdo the Swedes and give the Patria AMOS to Ukraine. That thing is the best mortar system in the world. >

time for Dark Brandon to just show up with Abrams. >

It is kind of wild that we don't have a stock of older tanks in the U.S. without such unique maintenance and fuel needs.
I guess it would be a challenge to keep them maintained if they're using obsolete parts. >

Why maintain old tanks when you can just military industrial complex yourself a whole armada of new ones >

At this point, it seems possible, perhaps even likely that Ukraine will eventually get the 700 IFVs requested by Zaluzhnyi. The 300 MBTs, on the other hand.... Let's just see what happens in Ramstein tomorrow. Fingers crossed. >

Going from the latest info from German minister of Defence, the rhetorical change in Polands communication and the more or less promise of several other states to send tanks, we will see approved Leopards shortly. >

I think it’s hilarious that we’ve basically dumped something like a thousand humvees in Ukraine and have a endless supply to go, they’re gonna be literally everywhere there for the next three decades lmao >

From 3 day millitary operation to this... They're probably expecting strikes on Moscow after their next big escalation. >

Gotta keep the population scared. 
"Oh we HAVE to continue fighting Ukraine because they are going to kill you all if we dont. Didnt you see the air defense systems we set up. Clearly Ukraine is an enormous threat" >

Ramstein is the airbase, Rammstein is the band. >

It should be 50 CV90 from Sweden and 100 Stryker plus 50 Bradley from the US (100 total with the previous 50) >

Lol... they set the entire truck on the roof.
That actually kinda explains why they thought 'HIMARS on the third floor of the building' might have sounded plausible not that long ago. >

What you wanna bet the roof ain't exactly engineered to carry a load like that? >

The load plus the structural deflection and rebound when the thing is fired would be concerning. I imagine they know that, but they're definitely going to have to fire off a few shots at something when the locals realize that UA will not be attacking Moscow. Got get their fearmonger on. >


Make this make sense, please.

I'll take a shot:

"We are taking Kyiv in 3 days because evil Nazi Ukrainians and their Western handlers pose an existential threat to the brave Russian Federation. The enemy is both weak and strong."

 

"We are installing a [Pantsir air defense system] on [the roof] of our own Ministry of Defense [building] in Moscow" because the people we're trying to recruit didn't buy the nonsense of the former statement. So we're conducting some performative bullshit to hammer home the notion that the Russian motherland is under attack, and it's really important that you sign up to die in a ditch. 
The enemy is both weaker and stronger than we thought. >

Russian telegrams were squealing over the last couple of days something about the end of the "special military operation", with speculation here and probably other places that that would end up being a legal conversion to a "war".
Did anything come of that or was it nothing as suspected?
I've been out of the loop today but a search of the now-locked day's thread shows nothing as well as all the usual places. Just Russian telegram having a tantrum again? >

It was a whole lot of nothing, afaik. >

Sorry, can you explain this reference >

The ex-prime minister is known to pepper his speech with literary references, here citing a servant character in Charles Dickens’ novel, The Pickwick Papers, known as the fat boy, who tells an old lady “I wants to make your flesh creep” with a shocking revelation. >

Cant wait for the Crimea Boogaloo 2.0 to begin. Hopefully it will give Putin a heart attack which he dies from >

implying he even has a heart >

Objective: "demilitarize" Ukraine
Progress: Ukraine turns into most widely scoped military in the world
Title: In praise of folly - russian revision >

Nearly all Putins plans blew up in his face.
Split and weaken NATO
Use energy to blackmail the west
3 day invasion
Topple Kyiv
And on, and on. >

I remain a master strategist >

I don't know what made Western countries open the flood gates, but I'm all for it.
Ukraine is basically getting a new modern army.