Briefings by Russian Defence Ministry | The Vineyard of the Saker

https://t.me/mod_russia_en/313

◽️ Units of the Russian Armed Forces advanced another 4 kilometers overnight and completely took control of Sladkoe. Currently, scattered groups of the nationalist battalion “Donbass” are being destroyed.

◽️ The grouping of troops of the Donetsk People’s Republic completes the defeat of the remnants of the 53rd mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, developing an offensive in Novomikhailovka direction.

◽️ In total, up to 50 militants, 3 tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 field artillery mountsand 4 all-terrain vehicles were destroyed in this area overnight.

◽️ In addition, units of the Donetsk Republic are fighting with units of the 25th airborne brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the capture of Verkhnetoretskoye is being completed.

◽️ In Nikolaevka in the suburbs of Kiev, Russian servicemen took control of a protected, buried command post of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 61 Ukrainian servicemen of the command post voluntarily surrendered, among them more than half were senior officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

💥On the night of March 21, high-precision air-launched cruise missiles struck the Training Centre for Foreign Mercenaries and Ukrainian Nationalist Formations at Novaya Lyubomirka combined arms training ground in Rovenskaya region. More than 80 mercenaries and nationalists were killed.

💥Also, high-precision air-launched cruise missiles destroyed an ammunition depot and the headquarters of a mechanized brigade near Selets.

🚁💥A group of “Night Hunters” consisting of Ka-52 and Mi-28n helicopters destroyed 8 tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles and 3 armored personnel carriers during night strikes.

✈️💥Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 44 military assets of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Among them: 4 command posts, 2 multiple launch rocket systems near Nalivaykovka and Zolocheva, 6 Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3 artillery mounts near Vyshgorod, 4 missile and artillery weapons depots, as well as 23 areas of military equipment concentration.

💥Russian air defence means shot down 2 more Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle in the air over Chernobayevka and Circuny.

💥In total, 216 unmanned aerial vehicles, 180 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,506 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 152 multiple launch rocket systems, 592 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,284 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation.

❗️In Sumy, a planned provocation of Ukrainian nationalists was carried out at night. The Russian Defence Ministry officially warned about this provocation a few days ago.

◽️According to the head of Sumy regional Administration, there was an ammonia leak at Sumyhimprom plant. There is no threat to the residents of Sumy, since the air masses were moving “not towards the city.”

◽️Let me remind you that back on March 19, we officially warned about the mining of this enterprise by Ukrainian nationalists to commit a provocation in order to accuse Russia of allegedly using “chemical weapons”.

◽️I want to emphasize once again that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have not planned and are not striking any Ukrainian facilities for the storage or production of toxic substances. The coordinates of all such objects and data on the toxic substances stored there on the territory of Ukraine were obtained by us during the seizure of the combat documentation of the 4th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard.

◽️The Kiev nationalist regime is directly responsible for any possible incidents with Ukrainian storage facilities of toxic substances.

◽️ In total, up to 50 militants, 3 tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 field artillery mountsand 4 all-terrain vehicles were destroyed in this area overnight.

◽️ In addition, units of the Donetsk Republic are fighting with units of the 25th airborne brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the capture of Verkhnetoretskoye is being completed.

💥Also, high-precision air-launched cruise missiles destroyed an ammunition depot and the headquarters of a mechanized brigade near Selets.

🚁💥A group of “Night Hunters” consisting of Ka-52 and Mi-28n helicopters destroyed 8 tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles and 3 armored personnel carriers during night strikes.

💥Russian air defence means shot down 2 more Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle in the air over Chernobayevka and Circuny.

https://t.me/mod_russia_en/318

▫️Ukrainian nationalists continue to use residential areas of settlements and social facilities as a “human shield” to deploy their artillery systems and conduct massive fire on Russian servicemen.

▫️So, on Kiev outskirts, in Vinogradar district, Ukrainian nationalist units covered themselves with residential buildings for several days and fired multiple launch rocket systems at Russian servicemen.

▫️At the same time, the areas of the nearby shopping centre were used as a large base for storing rocket ammunition and reloading multiple launch rocket systems.

▫️The coordinates of the position of Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers were confirmed by Russian reconnaissence through several channels, as well as the location of warehouse with rocket ammunition was discovered.

▫️Live monitoring and recording system clearly shows how a Ukrainian multiple launch rocket system enters a shopping centre on the outskirts of Kiev to hide and reload missiles.

💥High-precision long-range weapons destroyed a battery of Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and a storage base for their ammunition in closed shopping centre on the night of March 21.

❗️We would like to draw the attention of the Western media once again. We have presented absolute evidence of the criminal use by Kiev nationalist regime of civilian objects in residential areas of Kiev and other cities of Ukraine, as firing positions of artillery and rocket systems.

💬 I have to comment on the words of the adviser to the office of the Ukrainian President, Mikhail Podolyak, that allegedly Russia is fighting only with “manpower and cruise missiles.”

▫️I must emphasize that the special military operation is carried out by a professional army, which actually uses cruise missiles.

▫️Their use is highly effective. They carry out precision strikes against military infrastructure and never against civilian objects. The nationalists themselves and the Ukrainian Armed Forces are hitting civilian targets. There are a lot of people’s testimonies about this, and we have just presented one of them.

▫️Returning to the actions of the Russian Armed Forces, not only cruise missiles are used, but also hypersonic weapons. Which is absolutely high-precision and is also used only for military targets.

▫️In particular, we are talking about the Kinzhal aviation missile systems with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles.

▫️The Russian Defence Ministry has analyzed the results of the destruction of the military infrastructure assets of Ukraine by aviation missile complexes Kinzhal with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles.

💥Underground protected storages of Ukrainian aviation weapons and combat units for Tochka-U missile systems located in the Delyatin, Ivano-Frankovsk region, as well as large fuel depots in Konstantinovka, Nikolaev region, were destroyed.

ℹ️ I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the use of a hypersonic aeroballistic missile of Kinzhal complex was carried out from a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. The flight time of the hypersonic missile was less than 10 minutes.

💥Due to hypersonic speed and ultra-high kinetic energy, the warhead of Kinzhal missile complex destroyed a protected underground arsenal located in a mountainous area, built in Soviet times to store special ammunition and missiles.

💥The destruction of a large fuel depot in Konstantinovka by Kinzhal hypersonic missile was due to its invisibility and invulnerability to any means of enemy air and missile defence.

▫️Combat use of Kynzhal aviation missile system confirmed its effectiveness in destroying highly protected special enemy assets. The strikes on the military infrastructure of Ukraine by this missile system will continue within the special military operation.

▫️I would like to emphasize that Kinzhal system is used with a conventional warhead. Although experts are well aware of the capabilities of this weapon, not only in terms of range, but also in terms of the type of charge.

▫️Other latest means of destruction are also used, as well as modern aviation.

▫️All these weapons systems, as well as other weapons, if Mr. Podolyak does not know, are called the modern Russian Army and the Navy.

▫️So I do not recommend misleading anyone about the real capabilities and professionalism of the Russian Armed Forces. All the alleged “real data” about losses of military equipment and personnel of the Russian Armed Forces, including senior and superior officers, disseminated by Mr. Podolyak is propagandistic lies.

❗️In turn, I would like to draw Mikhail Podolyak’s attention to the actions of the Ukrainian Security Service, neo-Nazi formations and other so-called “special Ukrainian structures” that terrorize their own citizens trying to leave the territory of Ukraine. It is these representatives of the Kiev regime who create a stir on the border.

▫️They still let children and women through. Although not all of them.
As for the male population of Ukraine, they are forcibly conscripted into the army as so-called “reservists” at the border. In fact, they are used as “cannon fodder”.

https://t.me/mod_russia_en/320

🎥 Live monitoring and recording system (https://t.me/mod_russia_en/318) shows how Ukrainian MLRS uses a shopping centre as shelter to reload missiles.

💥High-precision long-range weapons destroyed a battery of Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and a storage base for their ammunition in closed shopping centre on the night of March 21.

Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 10:54 pm EST/EDT

One way to think about it is this: U.S. and Russia have the famous concept of M.A.D. (mutually assured destruction) and so both are in equal strategic ‘parity’ there, and unable to ‘tip’ that parity into one’s favor. But on an actual tactical level battlefield, the U.S. believes its 5th generation technology has “tipped” the parity scale beyond Russia because the U.S. has fielded numerous advanced 5th generation “stealth” objects/capabilities–I use this term loosely because it includes both planes like the f22, f35, b2, f117, etc and also missiles like modern LRASM, AGM129, and several other “stealth” cruise missiles or glide bombs.
So if you study U.S.’s war doctrine against “near peer” adversaries and specifically Russia, they truly believe in their superiority / ability to use stealth SEAD/DEAD to breach Russian air defenses with stealth planes shooting low observable munitions and therefore “overmatch” Russian capabilities since Russia in their view wouldn’t have the same capability to breach American air defenses.

So basically, what the hypersonic missile does, is it now asymmetrically resets the parity back to an equal scale, like the M.A.D. scenario. Because now, Russia can also strike U.S.’s rear guard and command C&C units with impunity because the hypersonic missiles are theoretically unstoppable by modern air defenses. So if you think about it, this creates a huge ‘deterrence’ in the same way MAD did. Now U.S. knows it can’t simply attack Russia at whim and be confident of victory because the U.S. forces will be extremely vulnerable to an unstoppable munition just like they believe Russian forces are vulnerable to U.S.’s “invisible” stealth force.

And by the way, as a final note: many people debate whether hypersonics are actually unstoppable or not. Of course in the west, American military apologists will claim they can stop them and of course it’s all a matter of (dubious) opinion one way or another. But one thing that can be stated that is not an opinion but an objective fact is the following simple characteristic of the hypersonic threat:

In order to hit a missile, YOUR missile has to be able to catch up to it or be faster than it unless you’re positioned in a vector where the missile is coming directly “over you” and you have enough time to react and “intercept it” halfway. But if the missile is fired from a vector where your air defense has to “play catchup” then it’s physically and scientifically impossible to shoot it down. The U.S.’s first line of defense the Patriot Missile system claims its missiles can go Mach 4 (the earlier versions of Patriot goes Mach 2 or less, and I’m not sure how many U.S. army units are outfitted with the latest Pac3’s). So if a missile is going Mach 10 over your head, a Mach 4 missile will have a really hard time catching up with that unless it happens to be heading directly towards and OVER it, and the Patriot is able to acquire/track it with enough lead time. But even if the incoming hypersonic is somewhat off axis a few dozen kilometers off to the Patriot’s side and is streaking past it towards somewhere to the rear, that Patriot will never be able to catch up and intercept it. And given the fact that the Kinzals as an example can be fired from multiple directions at once by MiG31’s which themselves can accelerate up to Mach 3, it can create an extremely dicey environment where many of the missiles will come from directions that an interceptor simply has no chance of ever catching them.

120 Comments

Anna on March 21, 2022 · at 12:25 pm EST/EDT

“Due to hypersonic speed and ultra-high kinetic energy, the warhead of Kinzhal missile complex destroyed a protected underground arsenal located in a mountainous area…”

It would be nice to see a map of the most prominent and/or luxurious deep underground bunkers for western Deciders, which should be designated for destruction if the Empire of Lies and Hypocrisy continues its War on Russia.
- Network Admin on March 21, 2022 · at 1:14 pm EST/EDT
  
  From here: http://blog.kob.tomsk.ru/2098
  
  The former chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Ivanovich Esin, told me such a case. After his dismissal, he continued to work in the apparatus of the Security Council and once came to the Americans as part of a delegation. So he says: “I’m driving around San Francisco with the Americans on the bus. Everyone is talking and laughing. And then – we pass by the lighthouse. I looked at him and said: “I know this lighthouse.” Americans – to him: “How can you know him if you are in San Francisco for the first time?” And he replies: “You forgot that I was engaged in nuclear planning. And here is the lighthouse – it was the aiming point. I will tell you more: next to this lighthouse is the collapse of the earth’s crust. So, if a multi-megaton block gets here, a landslide will happen. And half of California will be in the ocean. After that, everyone silently drove to their destination.
- Dirk Manly on March 21, 2022 · at 5:25 pm EST/EDT
  
  Revealing knowledge of such locations is not advisable. The people planning to use such bunkers would simply rent them out to people who they regard as ignorant suckers, while moving on to new locations and building again. With current unemployment rates, finding construction laborers should be easy.
  
  It’s best to let the mice think that the cats have no idea where they live.
Nunjapiznes on March 21, 2022 · at 12:37 pm EST/EDT

Professional, factual, structured, free from emotional overload. Even though the briefing from mod is a table of terrible death, destruction and finality, it is an enjoyable read for a thinking individual. Meanwhile in the west, DW aed BBC programs are now filling in the gaps between regular news reporting in Nordic countries. Propaganda non-stop, and everything 180 degrees spun, mixed with carefully selected stories about eyewitnesses, or individuals who had to wait an hour or two in line….guaranteed to bring out tears of the gullible 80-90%. Oh well, nothing new.
- Thomas Turk on March 21, 2022 · at 7:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  This morning, (in Siam), we heard a BBC debate making excuses for the Azovs.. ”.. well, there was nobody to save the day after 2014, so the Azovs formed and did that.. but now they’re not extremists, as their social media posts show,.. ” said the dumb, mumbling Murikan lady.
Exile on March 21, 2022 · at 12:49 pm EST/EDT

Ukie order of battle is shrinking quickly. I tally 4 entire brigades written off in last 4 days. The 25th airborne brigade appears next on the list for destruction as a fighting force.

We should also be hearing more battalion sized unit surrenders over next few days.

Demilitarization proceeds apace.
- Mark Glass on March 21, 2022 · at 1:31 pm EST/EDT
  
  Can you give the names of the brigades eliminated?
  - Exile on March 21, 2022 · at 2:21 pm EST/EDT
    
    53rd Mech
    95th Air
    81st Air
    14th Mech
    Donbass Battalion
    Plus a smattering of Support units
    
    All this reported public sources
Oso on March 21, 2022 · at 12:51 pm EST/EDT

I would like to assume there are some forms of rational adults in the US power structure, be they military, political or oligarchical observing the use of superior Russian ordnance in Ukraine and understanding all of the implications, especially with respect to the US military’s actual strength and capabilities.
Ernest on March 21, 2022 · at 12:53 pm EST/EDT

“Due to hypersonic speed and ultra-high kinetic energy, the warhead of Kinzhal missile complex destroyed a protected underground arsenal located in a mountainous area, built in Soviet times to store special ammunition and missiles.”

This must have been so well protected with thick layer rocky ground that normal supersonic missile perhaps won’t have destroyd totally that target.
Lone Wolf on March 21, 2022 · at 12:53 pm EST/EDT

Thank you, Saker & Team for this update.

Just FYI, the section copied below is twice printed on the bulletin.

❗️In Sumy, a planned provocation of Ukrainian nationalists was carried out at night. The Russian Defence Ministry officially warned about this provocation a few days ago.

◽️According to the head of Sumy regional Administration, there was an ammonia leak at Sumyhimprom plant. There is no threat to the residents of Sumy, since the air masses were moving “not towards the city.”

◽️Let me remind you that back on March 19, we officially warned about the mining of this enterprise by Ukrainian nationalists to commit a provocation in order to accuse Russia of allegedly using “chemical weapons”.

◽️I want to emphasize once again that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have not planned and are not striking any Ukrainian facilities for the storage or production of toxic substances. The coordinates of all such objects and data on the toxic substances stored there on the territory of Ukraine were obtained by us during the seizure of the combat documentation of the 4th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard.

◽️The Kiev nationalist regime is directly responsible for any possible incidents with Ukrainian storage facilities of toxic substances.

Lone Wolf
- jojo on March 21, 2022 · at 3:42 pm EST/EDT
  
  Yes more than that was repeated twice.
ariadna on March 21, 2022 · at 12:55 pm EST/EDT

This weaponry (link below) must have been “secretly acquired” while Russia was methodically plundered during Yeltsyn’s time. Carefully stored and maintained all these years by the US just in case, for who knows what possible use, including staging false flag attacks somewhere?

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/here-are-all-latest-news-and-developments-ukraine-war-march-21

Looking forward to reading in future briefings about the targeting and destruction of any such shipments.
- Bonami on March 21, 2022 · at 11:24 pm EST/EDT
  
  My first thought was that the equipment was to be used in a FF. My second thought was the US was giving the stuff to Ukraine for a FF as well, assuming you could even get it over the border.
  
  And given its age it will probably blow up, assuming they could even get it going.
Black Cloud on March 21, 2022 · at 1:03 pm EST/EDT

RT has a video of the shopping center strike.

A drone tracked a Ukie MRLS from firing back to its base in the abandoned shopping center. A hypersonic missile came in white-hot and absolutely leveled the wing of the building it hit. The remaining mid-rise structure was completely gutted.

This was with a single strike of a conventional warhead.

As has been asked many times before: how is it that the poorest country in Europe has such a massive military?
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 2:44 pm EST/EDT
  
  Here’s the full video. I think RT posted a truncated version. Full one is even more telling
  
  https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1505950649166540805
cynthia on March 21, 2022 · at 1:05 pm EST/EDT

These reports are so sobering. They reveal that Russia takes no joy in performing this operation. I still remember when the usa invaded Iraq, how people here were proud to cheer and were actually happy, celebrating, filled with smug satisfaction. When one dared to say that we should be saddened at needing to do so even if one thought it necessary to go kill “an enemy” – well, you were just plainly un-american. Dismissed.

It is mind-boggling and heartbreaking to think, to know, that all of this, the death and destruction, the devastating suffering – all of it is so unnecessary, was perfectly and easily avoidable, is happening only and precisely because a fraction of the human species, a few western-aligned wealthpower giants, aspire to gain enough wealthpower to influence and control the affairs of humankind right round an entire planet.

A few humans want cemented superiority. They lust after the capability to subject those they inferiorize to their arbitrary whims. I pray Russia and China will put a hard stop on those wicked plans and lead the humans toward peace and justice. Meantime, I hope Ukraine defies usa/nato orders and surrenders soon. Chills my bones to witness the evil of using civilians as human shields.
- WTFUD on March 21, 2022 · at 1:35 pm EST/EDT
  
  Yes Cynthia, to think the destiny of the west is in the hands of a few megalomaniacs is truly frightening.
  
  Can I ask you what happened to the anti-war protest in the US. You had some small ones in several cities and the last I heard 3 weeks or so ago, was that the organisers were planning a big one?
  - cynthia on March 21, 2022 · at 3:42 pm EST/EDT
    
    Sorry, I’m not able to answer your question about anti-war protest, WTFUD. I’m in Iowa and the only recent protest I heard about was one organized to protest “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”!
    I wouldn’t go to an anti-war protest right now. It would be like saying I think Russia has no right to self-defense. Can’t remember who said it or the exact words – but there’s a quote basically saying the violence used by the enslaved to break his chains and escape his enslaver cannot be equated to the violence of the enslaver. The two things are not alike. USA/NATO violence is what I protest. If the megalomaniac’s plans aren’t defeated, the whole planet will suffer, not just the west. E=mc2 changed everything.
  - Black Cloud on March 21, 2022 · at 3:45 pm EST/EDT
    
    There will be zero coverage of anti-war or anti-military protests.
    
    There is no shortage of reporting on various Russian propagandists, Douglas MacGregor, Scott Ritter, Tucker Carlson …
BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 1:46 pm EST/EDT

Once again (but to nobody’s surprise), the russian defence ministry seems to be deliberately obscuring the actual capabilities of the Kinzhal missile. Again this isn’t unusual for any military to do with brandnew weapons.

Yesterday i and user Nightvision debated this. I claimed that the whole talk about “kinetic energy” is complete BS: In my opinion the missile accelerates to hypersonic speed and then “glides” towards the target in a ballistic arc. Due to drag by the time it reaches the target, it’s barely supersonic – not hypersonic. Nightvision argued it might actually strike at hypersonic speeds, but likely in the low range (Mach 4-6).

I both cases it is NOT a kinetic weapon! To get enough speed for kinetic energy to be the major factor in damage, an object needs to travel at suborbital speeds, which is above mach 10. Notice those are similiar to re-entry speeds of spacecraft, and even spacecraft only maintain those in the upper atmosphere. At sea level such a missile would need a giant fucking heatshield, to not just disintegrate like a comet.

Another infobit which Nightvision contributed is, that even though the missile is claimed to have a range of over 2000km, that’s not actually the missile’s range, but the combined range of the launch platform (MIG-31) and missile. For reference, the combat radius of a MIG-31 is about 1500km.

Now we get this in the above article:

“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the use of a hypersonic aeroballistic missile of Kinzhal complex was carried out from a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. The flight time of the hypersonic missile was less than 10 minutes.”

First off, a range of 1000km seems implausible for something carried by a MIG-31. But even if for “What-If?”s sake we take it for granted, 1000km in 10 minutes equates to mach 5 average speed. Yes, some of that time would be spent accelerating, but still this doesn’t add up: At least one of the stated qualities of the missile must be false.

My argument is: Take the whole hypersonic missile hype with a grain of salt. Just like every brandnew military technology, it is deliberately shrouded in mystical properties. Remember all the fancy claims back when stealth planes were first developed? Yeah, we’re in that mode again.
- Paul Spencer on March 21, 2022 · at 2:23 pm EST/EDT
  
  K.E. is proportional to velocity squared. That should cover the question as to advantage of increased speed in destructive capability. Question is how fast is the missile going on impact. Video in-theatre of a putative Kinshal shortly before impact showed it glowing. Video appeared to be normal speed via comparison to background in view. Elevation looked to be less than 1 km, and missile hit ground at maybe 2 km further from observer. If so, missile was moving ‘way faster than anything that I’ve ever seen in any terrestrial context.
  - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 2:52 pm EST/EDT
    
    “K.E. is proportional to velocity squared. That should cover the question as to advantage of increased speed in destructive capability.”
    
    No, it doesn’t answer the question at all, because you haven’t done the actual maths. All you did is state an equation, without putting in the numbers. I have run the actual numbers, and the results are what i stated: You need to be over mach 10 for kinetic energy to be significant. In any other case you may as well use a chemical warhead instead.
    
    Why anyways would a missile like Kinzhal be a kinetic weapon? It’s designed for nuclear warheads first, and conventional second. On the big chessboard, it’s role is like an SLBM for aircraft. A nuclear weapon gains no advantage from kinetic energy, so why would it be designed for that purpose in the first place?
    - Dane on March 21, 2022 · at 4:11 pm EST/EDT
      
      It´s impossible to accurately “guesstimate” an object in the sky, here we have no idea of the distance and the human eye and brain isn´t designed to tell the difference between Mach 2 or 8, or even higher.
      
      Regarding if Kinzhal is a “Kinetic” weapon or not I have no idea, but when developing a weapon system with that velocity it´d be surprising if they didn´t develop the capability to both the software and hardware to utilize it as that, but that´s just my “guesstimate” that together with a Dollar will buy you a cup of coffee.
      - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 4:38 pm EST/EDT
        
        “Regarding if Kinzhal is a “Kinetic” weapon or not I have no idea, but when developing a weapon system with that velocity it´d be surprising if they didn´t develop the capability to both the software and hardware to utilize it as that”
        
        Rocket science is the most brutal accounting department ever. Every gram counts. You can’t just add capabilities for free, and neither can you create things like heatshields by software. This isn’t the matrix. Bottom line: Everything is a tradeoff.
        
        Wait a moment: The above is true for ICBMs. But this is not an ICBM: It’s a missile carried by a cute little fighter jet. Nevermind what i said above: It’s outright impossible to “just add major features for giggles”.
        
        Christian on March 22, 2022 · at 6:57 am EST/EDT
        
        Perhaps you are overthinking it. I’m not convinced the claim is the explosive power comes from kinetic energy, more likely the claim is the kinetic energy, far greater than a gravity bomb, is more effective at destroying underground bunkers. The kinetic energy allows the warhead to bury deep in the ground or bunker before the high explosive detonates. The explosive power comes from the high explosives – not the kinetic energy – the kinetic energy gets the warhead to a more effective location.
- Blackring on March 21, 2022 · at 2:26 pm EST/EDT
  
  “This was with a single strike of a conventional warhead.”
  
  Inside was storage of ammo and fuel for Grads and such. There was secondary explosion in the building and basement.
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 2:28 pm EST/EDT
  
  Yep, I ended up doing the same calculation and came up with Mach 5-6. But a couple notes:
  
  -almost any missile velocity is listed with a broad range usually several Mach values apart. For instance look at the official wikipedia entry for Kaliber cruise missiles. The speed is listed as:
  
  “Maximum speed: 0.8–2.5–2.9 Mach”
  
  There’s a host of factors that play into what speed a missile actually achieves, not least of which is the target that’s selected, the range and distance that it’s fired, and various other factors, such as the fact that many missiles can be dialed in and selected to which parameters and characteristics they should be flown. Most hypersonic missiles follow a known hypersonic trajectory rising upwards to the stratosphere before descending down. In fact, what most people don’t know is that almost ALL missiles do this. even air to air long range missiles on jets actually climb upward thousands of feet for better speed/maneuverability before descending downward towards the enemy jet. So my point being that a Kinzhal just like any missile’s speed is listed as a range. The Mach 10-12 is a speed it can likely attain at some point in its trajectory, but that doesn’t mean that’s the velocity it can maintain the entire time, nor the terminal phase velocity.
  
  -The missile also likely has different parameter configurations for different types of targets. There may be a configuration/profile for long range static ground targets that emphasizes fuel consumption efficiency and other “all out” configurations meant against ships/battlegroups that emphasizes a short violent burn at full speed, etc.
  
  -And lastly, take all such blithely mentioned figures with grain of salt. Here on the famous “Combat Approved” show which just released its 2nd long awaited episode on the Zirkon hypersonic missile yesterday, he states that the Zirkon flew 1000km in 2 minutes, you can see for yourself https://youtu.be/Zuk4-AQZ4X8?t=200
  If my math is correct that’s over 18,000mph, Mach 24.
  
  So make what you will of that. And by the way ironically on episode 1 in the title itself it says
  
  https://youtu.be/r1u6NfPlPJU 11,000kph which would be Mach 9 (more realistic/believable). With that said I suggest to watch that episode, very informative and good stuff.
  - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 6:32 pm EST/EDT
    
    Do you have a good link for Zircon’s “supposed” specs? At first i wondered if that one is even small enough to be carried by an aircraft. Then i red it has that capability, but found now info if we’re talking big fat bombers or small multirole crafts.
    
    On a completely different (but related) topic, do you have any information on if the other brandnew weapons from russia (most notably the infinite range “nuclear torpedo” and the Avantgarde) use nuclear rocket motors? IIRC, the russians were pretty much the only ones to experiment with that tech back in the cold war. It was discarded for manned vehicles, because they couldn’t get such vehicles shielded properly, without making them useless for warfare. But if we’re talking unmanned vessels like stratosphere-surfing missiles or nuclear torpedoes, nobody cares about shielding. So i was wondering if the russians perhaps revived that tech for such weapons.
    - Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 7:15 pm EST/EDT
      
      The Zircon is going to get an aircraft version later. For now it’s only ship or ground launched. The Zirkon by the way is supposed to be a breakthrough Scramjet engine, not simple “rocket” so it’s particularly classified to the extent that they won’t even show you the missile up close (it’s blurred in footage) likely to hide the purported scramjet intakes and their design etc.
      
      The Avangarde isn’t the one with nuclear engine. Avangarde ascends on a traditional ICBM and when it detaches, it’s an engine-less glide vehicle. The one you’re thinking of is the Burevestnik missile, which incidentally I read that supposedly a few days ago Russia announced it will restart tests of that missile as an obvious “signal” to NATO.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik
      
      The Burevestnik is the one that’s capable of loitering indefinitely and traveling around the world on a nuclear powered engine.
      
      As for the sub you’re probably thinking of the Poseidon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status-6_Oceanic_Multipurpose_System
      
      This also operates on a nuclear reactor engine and has unlimited range.
      
      For the record, Poseidon and Burevestnik are both still “under development” though they are clearly in the final stages and have already been tested etc. The Avangarde, Kinzhal, and Zircon on the other hand are already all officially in service and deployed.
      
      And yes in regards to ‘shielding’ and such questions, this article mentions it https://radiosputnik.ria.ru/20180312/1516134267.html
      
      and the challenges they had to overcome to create an object that can withstand the intensity of a plasma field generated from such high speed for the Avangarde since it pretty much goes into outer space at Mach 20-30 and has to re-enter. Similarly if you watch the Zircon documentary I posted, there’s an entire section showing how they worked on the heat shielding and the various tests to endure hypersonic flight.
      - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 8:52 pm EST/EDT
        
        Great info. Thanks, you’re awesome :-)
- Blackring on March 21, 2022 · at 3:13 pm EST/EDT
  
  @BOFH
  
  You assume that modern hypersonic missiles behave like old school ballistic missiles, than conclude it is impossible to achieve such speeds in thick air due to heat and resistance. And you are right.
  
  Your assumption is wrong. Kinzhal is not ballistic missile. It has variable thrust during flight. In available videos it attacks target almost vertically. Similar to bunker busters. It uses gravity for additional pull. My guess is that Kinzhal engage full thrust in final approach and accelerates to speeds that are impossible to maintain for long. But, in this case, it doesnt have to. In combination with ablative surface, and state-of-the-art insulators, it is quite possible to strike target at speeds well over 5 Mach.
  - JackJC on March 21, 2022 · at 4:17 pm EST/EDT
    
    I was wondering if there’s a terminal fuel source that kicks in during the final approach.
    
    Expend fuel to hit Mach 5 or so in travel mode, kick in terminal boost approaching target. Technically this is possible.
  - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 4:25 pm EST/EDT
    
    “In available videos it attacks target almost vertically. Similar to bunker busters. It uses gravity for additional pull. My guess is that Kinzhal engage full thrust in final approach and accelerates to speeds that are impossible to maintain for long. But, in this case, it doesnt have to. In combination with ablative surface, and state-of-the-art insulators, it is quite possible to strike target at speeds well over 5 Mach.”
    
    Sounds semi-believable. Just one problem: The official flight ceiling is 20km (65000ft). Haven’t done the maths, but from my experience with flight and space simulators, i expect terminal velocity below mach 10. Think i’m wrong? Go ahead and do the maths, then post it here.
    
    Again: I’m not claiming that Kinzhal is not a hypersonic missile. I’m claiming it is not a kinetic weapon, and i suspect it’s actual max range is below 800km. Does that mean it’s bad or useless? Not at all: It’s actually amazing for it’s designed purpose. And that purpose is not a kinetic weapon,
    - Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 5:11 pm EST/EDT
      
      Take all given characteristics with a big grain of salt. The 65,000 ‘ceiling’ listed on wikipedia is likely completely false. The truth is as far as I understand, Russia has never specified almost any of the actual ‘official’ characteristics of the missile and we’re left simply with assumptions and piecing things together. For instance in this article (once again, not authoritative, but just more grist for the mill for us to process and theorycraft)
      https://militarycognizance.com/2022/03/20/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-intercept-russias-kinzhal-hypersonic-missile/ (who might be Russian but sounds like he works for some Western thinktank, so I’m sure he doesn’t know the facts with any true authority either) states that the Kinzhal can be fired at 25,000m by a MiG-31k. This alone is 82,000ft+.
      Missiles don’t really have ceilings per se, only ones manually built in. They’re not aircraft with human pilots who require pressure suits at certain “ceilings”. Their rocket motors can function in any environment including outer space if need be. Don’t know where they got the 65k number but it could be a reference to some sort of operational ‘ideal’.
      Anyway, there is only one major flaw with your otherwise sound theorycrafting. You base your premise on the incorrect assumption that all hypersonic missiles are in fact designed to “burnout” and glide down inertially. There is no proof whatsoever that this is the case. If you have some I would love to see it because I want to be informed of every confirmed characteristic of these missiles as well, and would love to be ahead of the curve. But as far as I’m concerned, these are characteristics of course of “Glider” style hypersonics (of which the Kinzhal is not one) and we know SOME nonglider missiles perhaps have a burnout style profile, but there is no confirmation the Kinzhal is one of those. For all we know, the missile continues full thruster capabilities up to and past terminal phase all the way until target destruction. So the assumptions about free fall and terminal velocity could be completely moot because the missile could in fact continue thrusting at Mach 5-10 (or whatever) right into the target. We simply don’t know, anyone who claims otherwise is likely lying because there is no extant literature on this.
      Btw interesting note is that the strike on the “mall” (aka Ukie base) yesterday showed a bright burning trail as the projectile came down https://twitter.com/war_noir/status/1505951534105993218 there is all sorts of speculation that this was Kinzhal or Iskander etc.
      I would assume at the minimum this was an Iskander due to the damage because a single Kaliber missile I don’t think has that type of damage profile, and the top down trajectory makes more sense whereas most of the Kalibers and alleged KH-55s we’ve seen seemed to fly low under radar and have more of a diagonal approach.
      
      But the interesting thing you’ll note is like I said the bright fiery trail. Let’s say this was an Iskander or Kinzhal, how could they make a fiery trail if they are no longer burning fuel/thrust and are inertially guiding downward? It can only be that 1. ballistic missiles do continue to thrust towards termination or 2. it is traveling hypersonically at impact and the fiery trail is the glowing superheated casing of the missile.
      
      But I’m open to ideas.
- Stand Easy on March 21, 2022 · at 9:03 pm EST/EDT
  
  Hi guys,
  
  Personally I have very little interest in whether the Khinzal was launched 25 km up in the sky or whether its top speed is Mach 10 or 12 or 20. Trainspotting stuff, although I understand why some people are interested in it.
  
  What I’m interested in is whether weapons like Khinzal — hyped up or not — brings a difference to the fight. Obviously, from this MoD briefing and from various sound discussions of hypersonic weapons that are easily found on the internet (even here), hypersonic weapons do make a difference.
  
  Although not always stated, the reason hypersonic weapons make a difference is that they defeat the enemy’s available defences as per John Boyd’s venerable OODA Loop.
  
  Now, Russia has just used Khinzals — as per the above sitrep — in the special operation. The purpose, to my mind, is two-fold: to validate the weapon and as a demonstration.
  
  The military implication, to those who understand, is of course, enormous. A single khinzal — I believe it was a single missile, not a salvo — destroyed an ammo dump dug into a mountain. Now imagine the same missile slamming into an aircraft carrier — relatively immobile even if it’s steaming and zig-zagging away at 30 knots 1000 nm from the launch point. Or a hardened AD HQ in another mountain.
  
  In one fell swoop RF has demonstrated that it does indeed possess a weapon capable of great destruction, and that that weapon works and cannot be defended against (I read that no alarm was raised, meaning it was either not detected or detected too late for the alarm to be raised). It matters little if the ‘operational’ speed is M 10 or M 20; there are simply no counter-measures available presently.
  
  It would interesting to see if Zirkons will also be employed in this operation. I think they will, and for the same reasons: validation and demonstration.
  
  Finally, no point breaking sweat over what the RF MoD spokesman, Maj Gen Konashenkov, said about the range and flight time, to wit ‘the use of a hypersonic aeroballistic missile of Kinzhal complex was carried out from a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. The flight time of the hypersonic missile was less than 10 minutes’ — the good general was addressing the public, not giving a proper military briefing to Shoigu or Putin.
  - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 10:32 pm EST/EDT
    
    Completely agree. The real purpose of the Kinzhal IMO is simply that of an air-launched cruise missile with the following new features:
    
    – Low prewarning time, due to high cruise speed
    – Hard to defend against for the same reason
    – Capable to be equipped with a nuclear warhead
    
    It’s the combination of the above – air-launched from a cute little fighter jet, low warning time, hard to defend against and nuclear capability – that give it such a wide range of applications in war. Imagine any fighter jet having the capability to erase any ground target within 2000km – that’s what we’re looking at here. Right now only the MIG-31 seems to have used it, but in theory it could be mounted to all kinds of planes.
  - Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 10:54 pm EST/EDT
    
    One way to think about it is this: U.S. and Russia have the famous concept of M.A.D. (mutually assured destruction) and so both are in equal strategic ‘parity’ there, and unable to ‘tip’ that parity into one’s favor. But on an actual tactical level battlefield, the U.S. believes its 5th generation technology has “tipped” the parity scale beyond Russia because the U.S. has fielded numerous advanced 5th generation “stealth” objects/capabilities–I use this term loosely because it includes both planes like the f22, f35, b2, f117, etc and also missiles like modern LRASM, AGM129, and several other “stealth” cruise missiles or glide bombs.
    So if you study U.S.’s war doctrine against “near peer” adversaries and specifically Russia, they truly believe in their superiority / ability to use stealth SEAD/DEAD to breach Russian air defenses with stealth planes shooting low observable munitions and therefore “overmatch” Russian capabilities since Russia in their view wouldn’t have the same capability to breach American air defenses.
    
    So basically, what the hypersonic missile does, is it now asymmetrically resets the parity back to an equal scale, like the M.A.D. scenario. Because now, Russia can also strike U.S.’s rear guard and command C&C units with impunity because the hypersonic missiles are theoretically unstoppable by modern air defenses. So if you think about it, this creates a huge ‘deterrence’ in the same way MAD did. Now U.S. knows it can’t simply attack Russia at whim and be confident of victory because the U.S. forces will be extremely vulnerable to an unstoppable munition just like they believe Russian forces are vulnerable to U.S.’s “invisible” stealth force.
    
    And by the way, as a final note: many people debate whether hypersonics are actually unstoppable or not. Of course in the west, American military apologists will claim they can stop them and of course it’s all a matter of (dubious) opinion one way or another. But one thing that can be stated that is not an opinion but an objective fact is the following simple characteristic of the hypersonic threat:
    
    In order to hit a missile, YOUR missile has to be able to catch up to it or be faster than it unless you’re positioned in a vector where the missile is coming directly “over you” and you have enough time to react and “intercept it” halfway. But if the missile is fired from a vector where your air defense has to “play catchup” then it’s physically and scientifically impossible to shoot it down. The U.S.’s first line of defense the Patriot Missile system claims its missiles can go Mach 4 (the earlier versions of Patriot goes Mach 2 or less, and I’m not sure how many U.S. army units are outfitted with the latest Pac3’s). So if a missile is going Mach 10 over your head, a Mach 4 missile will have a really hard time catching up with that unless it happens to be heading directly towards and OVER it, and the Patriot is able to acquire/track it with enough lead time. But even if the incoming hypersonic is somewhat off axis a few dozen kilometers off to the Patriot’s side and is streaking past it towards somewhere to the rear, that Patriot will never be able to catch up and intercept it. And given the fact that the Kinzals as an example can be fired from multiple directions at once by MiG31’s which themselves can accelerate up to Mach 3, it can create an extremely dicey environment where many of the missiles will come from directions that an interceptor simply has no chance of ever catching them.
    - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 11:50 pm EST/EDT
      
      “In order to hit a missile, YOUR missile has to be able to catch up to it or be faster than it unless you’re positioned in a vector where the missile is coming directly “over you” and you have enough time to react and “intercept it” halfway.”
      
      I think you actually undersold yourself here Nightvision. Way undersold yourself. Lemme unpack how much information (or implications) is actually contained in the above quote:
      
      1. An off-angle interceptor would not only net to be faster, but WAY FASTER. But that’s physically impossible without the interceptor selfdestructing in the atmosphere. In short: A hypersonic attacker cannot be intercepted off-angle, AT ALL!
      
      2. That only leaves defense from a tight cone towards where the attacker is headed. Oh fuck! Turns out stealth-tech – for all it’s flaws – is best towards the frontal angle. And any vessel shaped for hypersonic travel will lend itself to minimal frontal radar cross section. In short: You can basically forget radar tracking for anything but early warning – not target aquisition. But wait: Missiles are tiny, so let’s check the wavelengths of… nevermind, it’s invisible.
      
      3. This only leaves frontal IR-detection (anything traveling hyper is gonna be a big fireball on IR). But all existing IR-defenses are designed for close range. With something travelling hypersonic, such systems will be completely useless.
      
      Bottom line: Hypersonic attackers are invincible right now. And the only technically known defense at this point in time would be mid-range IR. No such systems exist yet, so hypersonic will be undefeatable for the next 10 years at least.
      
      There you got your parity: All existing missile defense is useless, so M.A.D. is back.
      - Blackring on March 22, 2022 · at 10:10 am EST/EDT
        
        @BOFH
        
        “An off-angle interceptor would not only net to be faster, but WAY FASTER”
        
        Exactly. Rule of thumb is twice faster to have reasonable chance of intercepting. There is one more technical issue that limits frontal interceptors : when attacking maneuverable missile, interceptor must be capable to sustain double G-force of target. That is huge problem for engineers, because hypersonic missiles are already constructed to withstand 50-60G during evasive maneuvers. That’s at the technological maximum for known materials. So we are talking about 100G+ strain at sharp turns, which is currently in science fiction domain.
        
        Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 12:40 pm EST/EDT
        
        Yeah great points to both of you. Also there’s the theory that plasma forces around hypersonic objects actually nullify radio waves thus if the object is truly traveling hypersonically there is chance according to this theory that radar will actually have major trouble picking it up or even tracking/targeting it because the wild plasma forces chaotically interfere with the electromagnetic waves of the radar unit.
        Also keep in mind the Iskander-M which the Kinzhal is arguably based on, has huge amounts of defensive countermeasures and “PENAIDS” as they’re called (penetration aids I believe) and some of them have already been found in Ukraine, in the dirt. These are various countermeasure systems released by the missile such as electronic jamming units, chaff or other things. There’s a twitter account tracking these esoteric and pretty secret stuff that’s been discovered from Iskander hits. So there’s a chance that Kinzhal may inherit some of this stuff as well.
  - Zzzz on March 21, 2022 · at 11:10 pm EST/EDT
    
    Another interesting information that was revealed by NightVision’s link to the video’s, is that none of the hypersonic missles developed by Russia can be ‘tracked’ by radar, its trajectory and location of where its going to hit is arbitrary even to the absolute moment of the strike.
    
    If the Americans flapped there lips with the ‘they tracked it’, but no air-defence weapons were activated, means an admission of an uncosy embarrassment, and only defensive weapon they have is there endless ‘lies’.
    
    In other words, for NATO, they would all be sitting ducks…. correct me if I’m wrong.
  - Blackring on March 22, 2022 · at 3:15 am EST/EDT
    
    I would add precision of the missile, whatever it was. It hit bulls-eye in both videos. At such speeds, guidance can be questionable.
San on March 21, 2022 · at 1:57 pm EST/EDT

I felt really upset by reading this today morning.
https://www.rt.com/russia/552355-senio-russian-officer-killed/
:(
- Zzzz on March 21, 2022 · at 11:18 pm EST/EDT
  
  I read this too, but take it with a grain of salt, there was no actual ‘confirmation’ from MOD, and there was also reports of this incident within various news outlets and telegram which don’t always qualify as valid sources. The story of 10-15 generals killed is mostly western pys-op, and made up of lies.
  
  Bare in mind also, if true… for a high profile commander, there was no footage of a funeral ceremony, family etc… it leads me to think its fake.
  
  o I do not recommend misleading anyone about the real capabilities and professionalism of the Russian Armed Forces. All the alleged “real data” about losses of military equipment and personnel of the Russian Armed Forces, including senior and superior officers, disseminated by Mr. Podolyak is propagandistic lies.
Jock on March 21, 2022 · at 2:11 pm EST/EDT

Are NLAW’s making tanks, or specifically Russian tanks in this Ukraine conflict, obsolete?

Are Russian infantry being “schooled” by the supposedly more mobile and effective Ukrainian infantry?

This is what the western press is telling me of. Is this the reality? Somebody please explain. It is a bit concerning that in these Russian MOD briefings, they are talking in the main about the success of long-range missile systems and not so much about these brave Russian men risking their lives in ground operations? Is the lack of disclosure about Russian ground forces more about operational secrecy ,or because of a genuine lack of success?

This is not a psyop. I am genuinely concerned and wish for explanations about the performance standard of Russian infantry.
- Exile on March 21, 2022 · at 2:27 pm EST/EDT
  
  Regarding infantry – these days close combat is nearly unheard of.
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 2:42 pm EST/EDT
  
  The problem is, Russia’s overperforming aerospace capabilities have actually in some ways been a victim of their own success. The reason being that, in the opening days of the conflict, Russian airforce destroyed such a vast amount of Ukraine’s armor that subsequent Russian BTG incursions, which expected to fight heavy armor were in fact fighting nothing but entrenched infantry with NLAWS. One of the “weaknesses” attributed to Russian BTG’s by “western military experts” (a bit of a oxymoron I know) is that they are slightly low on infantry and heavy on vehicles. Because they emphasize fast mechanized maneuvering and abilities to get into enemies’ rears and flanks. So Russian BTG’s sort of flew in Blitzkrieg style but found no armor resistance because the airforce obliterated 90% of Ukie tanks, and so the force distribution of the BTG’s was not really optimal for fighting against a mostly infantry disposition. This is what results in many of the BTG’s not having a lot of ground infantry support to cover flanks on sides of roads which were open to ambushes.
  
  With that said, the #1 most important thing you have to remember is anywhere from 50-90% of the “losses” you’re seeing on western media/social media is coming from DNR troops, as they have “Z” painted on their equipment as well. So a lot of the losses are being attributed to some form of Russian nominal disorganization etc etc but in reality it’s based on a completely false premise because Russian troops are not DNR troops and so you can’t make conclusions of RF fighting potential based on a completely separate paramilitary force that is only operating in conjunction with it.
  
  The Ukrainian infantry is not “mobile” at all, it’s the complete opposite they lack mobility and are basically just hiding in entrenched positions and ambushing passing convoys. They don’t have the ability to be “mobile” as they are not only out of armor they are out of fuel and lubricants as all their stores were bombed and depleted. There are daily calls which I’m sure you haven’t seen from internal Ukie sources that are desperately pleading for civilian organizations, dealerships, etc to donate vast amounts of jeeps, vans, flatbeds, etc just so Ukie troops can move around.
  
  No one’s talking about “Brave Russian men” because there is very strict OPSEC from the RF side so you’re not seeing anything from their direction at all. Even embedded journalists are not allowed, with 1 or 2 small exceptions. Anything you’re seeing publicized, embedded journalists etc etc are either Chechen forces or DNR forces. I’m not sure what channels you’re following that you’re seeing a possible “lack of success”, have you noted Russia’s maneuvering forces capturing 2 towns outside west Kiev yesterday, forcing the surrender of 2 large units separately?
  
  https://i.postimg.cc/rwhrRNGL/FOSd-Ik2-WUAUMEAn.jpg
  https://i.postimg.cc/mrtFY1V1/FOSd-Ik2-WYAAU7-Z.jpg
  - mind meld on March 21, 2022 · at 5:27 pm EST/EDT
    
    Looks like same unit on both photos. Same location for sure. What about those blue jackets? COs?
    - Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 5:38 pm EST/EDT
      
      No you’re right it is the same unit, I wasn’t referring to those 2 photos being different. I was referring to a separate mass surrender that occurred elsewhere, I simply don’t have photos for those unfortunately as there doesn’t seem to be any yet. But it was in the same region not too far away as I understand it.
- BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 2:42 pm EST/EDT
  
  “It is a bit concerning that in these Russian MOD briefings, they are talking in the main about the success of long-range missile systems and not so much about these brave Russian men risking their lives in ground operations?”
  
  Nothing personal, but the problem isn’t the MOD, but your lack of understanding and knowledge:
  
  1. The MOD is not CNN. It’s job is not to tell emotional stories, but to report unit movements and successes.
  
  2. It’s called a “special operation”, not “war” or “invasion”, for a reason: The goal is not to permanently occupy land, but to destroy western military and the ruling ideological party (nazis).
  
  3. Tanks and infrantry do not destroy military installations. Airstrikes, artillery, MLRS, cruise missiles destroy major objectives. Tanks and infantry then secure them and mop up the survivors. This isn’t WW2 or some western quagmire against “insurgents”: It’s military operation against military installations.
  - Ugh... on March 21, 2022 · at 8:39 pm EST/EDT
    
    Because you they don’t put Heroic acts in the operational summary report. They release daily, multiple heroic acts by their officers and soldiers. One that was released today, was a man from Dagestan who fought to the end. He was surrounded and ended himself and would be capturers with a grenade. These stories are direct from the Ministry of Defense and these soldiers are receiving the Hero of the Russian Federation titles.
    
    Information flows into the English sphere is poor. As for the people who come asking about what’s going on and have a CNN view of the world. They are about hopeless. Today, they used the game “War Thunder” to claim a victory against Russia. The Western stories are so stupid it is unbelievable, yet people believe it. Another fun fact today. The social media Ukrainian girl who was used in that bombing of the maternity ward. Yeah she was fine. She was in there picking up humanitarian aide from Russia today. Go figure.
  - Jock on March 21, 2022 · at 10:05 pm EST/EDT
    
    Cheers for your robust response. To be fair I did rhetorically answer in the comment that I did about ” lack of disclosure about Russian ground forces more about operational secrecy ”
    
    As for the rest from you and the other commentators who responded, you are all of course wholly right. I am merely putting out what western disinfo “journalists” and ukrotrolls are mendaciously propagating.
    
    Although they are getting caned out there, I only mention about “mobile Ukrainian infantry”, because these bastards in their fake country are trying to claim their Zaporizhian Cossack “ancestry” is being showcased in those ambushes against a few Russian convoys ( and I accept that most of these are fakes ). I know its funny, but they are subverting history on any small aspect so as to continue this sick “nation-building”
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 3:05 pm EST/EDT
  
  Also I find it interesting that so many people are focused on putative Russian drawbacks and not many are focusing on the hugely exposed “western” capabilities we’re seeing in this war.
  
  What have we seen so far that can be said about “Western capabilities”? I’ll name a couple things off the top of my head.
  
  1. The TB2 drone is absolutely worthless against Russian forces. Over 30-40 TB2’s have already been shot down and in all that time of a month of conflict, they managed to score about 3-4 hits, mostly on empty Russian supply trucks, doing very little damage. This has massively exposed drone warfare as utterly useless against Russian forces. I know most armchair laymen that don’t follow conflicts professionally know nothing of the significance of this, but I can assure you, a conflict with thousands of armored units and columns all over the country everywhere, for you to have only scored 3-4 minor hits in a month’s time means your capabilities are UTTERLY NULLIFIED in that space.
  
  2. The U.S. Javelin has been completely exposed as possibly the single most overhyped and useless pieces of equipment EVER developed in the history of armed conflict. A month now and we’ve seen hundreds of videos (maybe thousands) of various engagements between the 2 sides, and NOT A SINGLE successful useage of the alleged 17,000 Javelins sent to Ukraine has been recorded. NOT ONE. I’ve seen at least 1 successful NLAW being recorded, I’ve seen multiple successful other RPG-7 style weapons as well. But no Javelins whatsoever. They have proven to be a completely ill-designed and inadequate weapon. And by the way, there’s a reason why no videos ever emerged from Syria either when U.S. forces were “fighting ISIS” and had plenty of Javelins on them. And there’s also a reason why there’s only like 2 or 3 Javelin training style videos in existence on youtube and they are suspect. One of them shows the firing of a missile and then when they cut to the angle, it shows a completely different tank being destroyed which means “careful editing.” There is something seriously wrong with the Javelin that they’re hiding. It is ineffective, nigh useless.
  
  3. U.S. Stingers were called “completely useless” from the horses mouth itself. An Azov officer released a video from Mariupol begging Kiev to send “real air defenses” because the Stinger manpads they were given “are useless against the aircraft of the aggressor”. Just today RT published a video interview of a Russian Mi-24 Hind pilot who said 15 Stingers were fired at him and he still survived. Why is no one talking about how dominantly Russian equipment is performing against Western/American JUNK? It’s a true cognitive selection bias that’s happening.
  
  4. Btw does anyone remember Syria where the much vaunted Leopard 2 tanks (said to be the world’s best, even better than Abrams) was humiliated and completely destroyed by Russian weaponry in the hands of ISIS?
  
  https://youtu.be/X6nZvDn6gRQ?t=8
  https://youtu.be/jpPpCWEZjSo
  
  A company of ~15 Leopards completely wrecked in 10 minutes by simple Russian RPG’s, every single tank and supporting vehicle irreparably destroyed and blackened to a crisp, turrets popped off. And by the way the Leopards were operated by “NATO” with NATO training standards.
  - Tired Westener on March 21, 2022 · at 6:49 pm EST/EDT
    
    My point here as a Westener, I am not surprised that all our technology is rubbish.
    
    I don’t know how anyone could expect otherwise. Any clever analyst have seen the cultural, social and individual degradation of the West.
    
    Technology is not different. We have seen Boing lying to approve 737, we saw Volkswagen lying to pass emission rules, we have seen technological leaks everywhere. We still generating somehow useful things, but only an idealistic would thing that our militar technology is the only sector of our society that is not lying constantly.
    
    In addition most Western cool technology is sustained now by non Westener engineers. Russians, Indians, Chinese, Líbano…
    This people don’t get security clearances to work in defence.
    Put this together with full corruption and lobbies, high salaries and you get this results.
    An defence engineer in US can earn 200000 dollars. One in Germany 80000€. There goes all the the budget difference…
    And Russians Engineers are the most skilled engineers I have seen.
    - Alabama on March 21, 2022 · at 7:55 pm EST/EDT
      
      Whos going to be the one to tell the average American citizen, that they have been duped.
      
      I’ll be long out of view by then.
      - Bob on March 21, 2022 · at 10:09 pm EST/EDT
        
        I understand VP did tell those who could hear.
        
        “They steal your money
        They take your children
        They burn your life to the ground”.
        
        More are “getting it” every day.
  - BOFH on March 21, 2022 · at 10:11 pm EST/EDT
    
    @Nightvision:
    
    Re Javelin: I only had to see one picture to realize the stupidity of this weapon. Yeah, it may sound nice on paper, but the sheer fucking size of this thing makes it useless for infantry. As a vehicle-mounted weapon perhaps, but those already have better options.
    
    Re Stingers: Absolutely no surprise here either. The Stinger was developed back when nobody knew yet to “just fly above the altitude AA and MANPADs can reach. It’s pretty much effective only against helicopters, but those can just go nap-of-the-earth and therefore be out of view before you even have time to ready that Stinger.
    
    Will they make ocassional hits? Answer: Even a broken clock is right twice of the day. That about sums it up.
    - Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 11:15 pm EST/EDT
      
      Yep, I agree. A lot of the western gear is really ‘overly engineered’, heavy, bulky, overly complex and takes very long to setup and actually shoot. Now British want to send their Starstreaks to Ukraine. You’ve got to be kidding me. Have you seen this thing? It looks like it needs 5 guys to operate and carry and half an hour to setup. This type of stuff isn’t going to work against a fast maneuvering force army like Russia. From what I’ve seen the Ukies are abandoning most of the American junk and using the much easier to use and more effective Russian style RPG-7’s and such. Almost all the newly found (dozens and dozens of them) western NLAW/Javelins I’ve been seeing in past few days is all un-fired and unopened in boxes, which probably is a sign that Ukies have given up on trying to use the junk.
      - KL on March 22, 2022 · at 3:12 am EST/EDT
        
        Do you know anything about the swedish antitank weapon AT4?
        The swedes proudly donatet 5000 of them, but I haven’t heard anything about them after that.
        
        BOFH on March 22, 2022 · at 5:20 am EST/EDT
        
        Firstly, 90% of ukranian “big dudes” was destroyed in the first week. We’re way past “standard mlitary”: The ukros got no standard organized military left, weeks ago.
        
        The confrontration now is hard encampents using urban obstacles (human shields) as defense, because otherwise the russions would already have dommed all defenses and would be walking thoughout the entire nation without resistance.
        
        I’m not just saying this to make an ideological point (i do have one, but it really doesn’t matter for what i’m about to say next, because it’s true anyways).
        
        So lemme summarize what happend so far in fast-worward, so i can answer your current question: The UK millitary as a strategic formation is completely gone. It was gone weeks ago, and now we’re only countinting “degreeds of tactical – not strategic – gone”.
        
        What does that mean for your specificic question? I’ll just be honest: I have no fucking idea about the AT3 in real combat conditions. Buti do know one thing which neither the MSM now anyone of your government will tell you: If it actually makes a major difference, your psyops will report it over and over, simply because there is nothing else of substance to report.
        
        So yes, that’s what you’re at in terms of real information: Getting any successful feedback at all, because there’s nothing else they will willingly report.
        
        Have a nice day. Also good luck on picking the right nation to emmigrate from.
        
        BOFH on March 22, 2022 · at 8:54 pm EST/EDT
        
        Above poster is not me. He likely either wanted to quote me, and accidentally entered my name in the name-field, or it’s an imposter.
        
        Ugh... on March 22, 2022 · at 9:10 am EST/EDT
        
        They’re good. They’re a disposable complex. They are more similar to other RPG’s other than than rpg7. West also has systems that reload rockets. The rpo launcher in Russian service is thermobaric.
        So, I would say the AT4 fits well within its generation development amongst it’s peers. I don’t think it’s so magical that you would be in search for one and drop your RPG 28, to use instead. Depending on the warhead it contains inside, it can go through 400 to 600mm of armor. (Please note that is with whoever tested. What type armor and it’s composition, angle of penetration are different).
  - Blackring on March 22, 2022 · at 6:05 pm EST/EDT
    
    “A company of ~15 Leopards completely wrecked in 10 minutes by simple Russian RPG’s”
    
    It is not about high-tech weapons, it is all in mindset of infantry, similar to suicide bomber. No tank can survive against well dug in soldier who is willing to risk his life at over 90% odds, just to punch hole in the back of the iron beast. It is primal hunter thing. Western Men lost that, that’s why They are losing Empire one colony after another. Russia closed technological gap, while maintained warrior mentality among its troops.
    
    Winning combination.
tranquilocomp on March 21, 2022 · at 2:14 pm EST/EDT

It’s impressive how great armies keep an exact tally of all results.
Ernest on March 21, 2022 · at 2:48 pm EST/EDT

“Take the whole hypersonic missile hype with a grain of salt.”

That’s true. Just checked the Wikipedia article and the link was

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-47M2_Kinzhal#cite_note-6

https://ria.ru/radio_brief/20180312/1516134267.html

Victor Baranets: “”Avant-garde”, “Sarmat” and “Dagger”: what is the latest Russian weapons”
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 5:57 pm EST/EDT
  
  Not sure which specific point you’re referring to but interesting thing in that translated Russian article is they state the Avangarde missile travels in a plasma cloud. But of course that’s a different type of “missile” that’s a glider that goes into outer space and goes Mach 25-30 then has to re-enter, completely different than Kinzhal
- Alpine on March 21, 2022 · at 10:13 pm EST/EDT
  
  Sarmat is the beast. Push of button, it comes up the south pole and takes DC in 30 mins. Loading it with a regular charge is a waste of time because by the time it’s launched we are in nuclear war territory. Might as well tip it with the good stuff
  
  Even better part is it can fly for ever
  
  All this is available in the public domain
  - grr on March 22, 2022 · at 12:48 am EST/EDT
    
    South pole?
    - Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 2:10 am EST/EDT
      
      I guess he means it can technically circumnavigate the world the other way rather than go over the north pole towards the U.S. since that’s where U.S. has all its early warning ICBm / ABM radars stationed. If you approach from the south you can bypass them all and kaboom
Dave on March 21, 2022 · at 3:02 pm EST/EDT

Ukrainian Armed Forces are defeated. Nationalists are destroyed. As it should be. I was in my doctors office this morning and the TV was on in the waiting room. What nauseating propaganda I had to sit through. Russia did this, Russia did that, Ukrainian grandmothers destroyed Russian tank column with can openers, blah,blah,blah.
- Otter on March 21, 2022 · at 4:54 pm EST/EDT
  
  I expect the Russians already have a stock of the relevant canopeners; a bunch of coquetish grannies are showing them how to do it.
- Thomas Turk on March 21, 2022 · at 8:32 pm EST/EDT
  
  Doctor’s office? Wot, no Vit.C 3-5gms/d, Vit.D3 8-10iu/d? Change from your quack to an Optimum Health Advisor..
Eggie Offo on March 21, 2022 · at 5:09 pm EST/EDT

I am very interested in hypersonic missiles that fascinates me in terms of its speed. MACH 1 = 1,234.8 km/hr.
So if Khinzal travels at MACH 10 , at 20 degrees celcius then it is 12,238 km per hour. With simple arithmetic for 10 mins maximum then the distance travelled must be (10/60) × 12,348 = 2,048 km which is over 1,000km stated.
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 5:28 pm EST/EDT
  
  Mach 12 is the ‘stated’ “top speed” of the missile. It doesn’t mean the missile travels at all times at this speed. There are different ‘stages’ of the missile’s flight profile and unfortunately they’re top secret. There are also different profiles for the missile and can be programmed for a variety of missions with different objectives/speeds based on the mission profile. So it will not always travel at its absolute maximum speed. No one knows how fast it will actually go at any point.
  - Eggie Offo on March 21, 2022 · at 5:48 pm EST/EDT
    
    Ok. I always read in the news that it’s top speed is MACH 10. Thanks.
  - Eggie Offo on March 21, 2022 · at 6:06 pm EST/EDT
    
    Thanks, I have checked the top speed which is stated at Wikepeadia as (MACH 10 – MACH 12)
    - Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 6:29 pm EST/EDT
      
      There’s all sorts of numbers. One “official” supposedly said its speed “exceeds” Mach 12. https://radiosputnik.ria.ru/20180312/1516134267.html
      “”The development of hypersonic missiles of this class has long been in parallel with the United States. When the Americans jumped over Mach three (one Mach is the speed of sound), they made a universal advertisement, but, nevertheless, even when they got to Mach 5, they had one after another failures and test failures. So I want to remind you that our rocket, according to official data, flies faster than Mach 10. And one of the creators of this weapon let it slip last year that actually the Dagger flies at a speed exceeding Mach 12, ” said Viktor Baranets.”
- Tommo on March 21, 2022 · at 7:37 pm EST/EDT
  
  I am lead to believe they are powered by scramjets, which would give a huge speed boost when fired up. If they are also fully controllable and can travel through the high atmosphere, conventional missile behavior/technology would be very irrelevant.
  If, as claimed, they are designed to take out a carrier, we are talking stuff that has to use kinetic energy.
Felipe Brazil on March 21, 2022 · at 5:35 pm EST/EDT

Man, i’m in Brazil, and NATO info is here in our news. They make us think that russia is losing this war.
I follow your site and it make the things more clear.
Thank you
- ariadna on March 21, 2022 · at 11:27 pm EST/EDT
  
  Not so if you can get C5N every night at 7 PM-8 PM (Buenos Aires time) when Victor Hugo Morales presents the situation quite accurately and shows the comedian in all his infamy. Other channels (Argentinian, Uruguayan and Chillean all follow the CNN/BBC script.
Carlos on March 21, 2022 · at 6:02 pm EST/EDT

I hope for the best but is taking a lot of time to end this mess.
Karl luck on March 21, 2022 · at 6:07 pm EST/EDT

I believe the Russian side totally, and truth will conquer evil.
Frankie on March 21, 2022 · at 7:30 pm EST/EDT

Not the next question. What does it really means that “military unit is eliminated”?

Mentioned here:
-53rd Mechanized Brigade
-95th Air Brigade
-81st Air Air Brigade
-14th Mechanized Brigade
-Donbass Battalion
-Plus a smattering of Support units (perhaps majority of all “eliminated” units)

Were they destroyed (killed, captured)? Likely not. It think these units have lost so much material, weapons, mobility, ammo that they can only fight with limited small scale defending battles. Units mentioned above have had likely 30,000 soldiers (there are like many AA regiments which are now just rifle units). Plus support units becoming 3rd class rifle units.
- Nightvision on March 21, 2022 · at 7:40 pm EST/EDT
  
  Probably using the U.S. army definition which if I recall was something along the lines of, if a unit loses ~30% of its combat potential / equipment, then it is considered an incapacitated unit and is taken off the battlefield to reform up or get dispersed into other units etc. Not sure how true that is, but my point being is that going by that methodology the term “eliminated” could mean the units suffered over 30% losses and thus were no longer capable of functioning as an organized unit and would be considered taken off the battlefield and possibly just absorbed into other still functioning units, etc.
  - vt on March 21, 2022 · at 10:31 pm EST/EDT
    
    Eliminated means the unit is no longer a credible military threat anymore as an organised unit.
  - Exile on March 22, 2022 · at 12:31 am EST/EDT
    
    Nightvision,
    
    Yes – that’s roughly my understanding. However, the 14th was reported to have lain down their arms as a complete unit.
    
    By the way – have you approached Saker to offer to write a daily summary ? He needs back up
    - Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 1:07 am EST/EDT
      
      Yep, thanks I have. He said he’ll email me back tomorrow.
      - Exile on March 22, 2022 · at 10:33 am EST/EDT
        
        Oh yeah !!!
        
        SAKER – this Nightvision guy is a godsend for you. Take him up on his offer.
Little Black Duck on March 21, 2022 · at 10:18 pm EST/EDT

The observation that the west will fight to the last Ukrainian seems prophetic now.
So the war goes according to plan.
Everyones plan.
The wests immediate reaction to Russia’s invasion?
Sanctions which would damage its own economies by causing further price inflation.
What is more likely to be the ambition of the west, nuclear annihilation or inflation?
Let me just remind the reader of a few small news stories of the past year or so;
The blockage of the Suez Canal
Fire in one of three microchip manufacturers
Mayhem in the ports and on the trucking industry
Restricted supplies of gas, oil, fertiliser.
Covid shut downs leading to monopoly positions for large retailers.
Many others, the latest one being bird flu in the USA and the culling of chickens.
Do you get the idea?
This is a war to create inflation, not holocaust…..I think.
Either way, people are being sacrificed and I reckon it’s to delay the day of reckoning for the money lenders.
Man, do I look forward to that day.
- Little Black Duck on March 21, 2022 · at 10:45 pm EST/EDT
  
  Mind you, it will be the money lenders who design the replacement future, unless……
  
  Unless nothing…..unfortunately.
John Neal Spangler on March 21, 2022 · at 11:46 pm EST/EDT

I really enjoy these MOD briefings. Good idea presenting them, Saker.
JMF on March 22, 2022 · at 12:16 am EST/EDT

Good news all around for several days now!

Thanks again, Amarynth, for all your hard work.
Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 1:15 am EST/EDT

New video of more prisoners who surrendered near Kiev. An all female unit?

https://www.bitchute.com/video/JhBxRGZ3v1ZS/
- Ranko on March 22, 2022 · at 5:05 am EST/EDT
  
  These surrenders are small ones when they start surrendering in the Donbas that will be a big deal.
Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 1:19 am EST/EDT

Ukrainian army committing racist pogroms, where is the human rights organizations? They are lynching women and children. Crazy photos

https://twitter.com/SDyorin/status/1505957514076213248
https://twitter.com/SDyorin/status/1505957988015742979
- Han on March 22, 2022 · at 3:14 pm EST/EDT
  
  Twitter moved quickly to suspend that account. Do you know of alternate site where it’s posted?
Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 1:35 am EST/EDT

~70 more Ukrainian Prisoners taken in Kiev, another new video. Looks like mass surrenders are happening.

Video footage: https://www.bitchute.com/video/4lXVXFtiiPnQ/
Exile on March 22, 2022 · at 2:59 am EST/EDT

German Media report ( machine translation )

…. Ukrainian counterintelligence stops possible attack on Zelenskyy

According to Ukrainian counterintelligence, a possible assassination attempt on President Zelenskyj has been stopped. A group of Russian saboteurs, led by a secret service agent, was arrested in the city of Uzhgorod in the border triangle between Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary, the Unian agency reported on Tuesday night. In addition to the attack on Zelenskyy in Kyiv, the order of the approximately 25 men also included the execution of a series of acts of sabotage in the government district and in other parts of the Ukraine…..

Link to article
https://www.merkur.de/politik/ukraine-krieg-anschlag-selenskyj-widerstand-video-russland-putin-biden-nacht-ueberblick-zr-91426620.html

Exile’s Comment – if this is true, then this news illumimates two signifcant items. 1) Zelensky is nowhere near Kiev as purported 2) Zelensky’s minor overtures towards peace are unacceptable to certain sectors of Ukrainian society.
ΚΓΨ on March 22, 2022 · at 3:42 am EST/EDT

It might be useful :
About That Russia Attacking a Shopping Center Story
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/21/about-that-russia-attacking-a-shopping-center-story/
epsa on March 22, 2022 · at 3:58 am EST/EDT

Soros keeps up the fighting spirit of zone A and 404 (excerpt dated March 16th from https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/george-soros-says-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-is-the-beginning-of-a-third-world-war/ ):

I don’t know Putin personally, but I have watched his rise very closely, aware of his ruthlessness. He reduced the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, to rubble, just as he is currently threatening to do to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

Putin used to be a canny KGB operator, but he seems to have changed recently. Having developed an idee fixe, he appears to have lost touch with reality. He certainly misjudged the situation in Ukraine. He expected Russian-speaking Ukrainians to welcome Russian soldiers with open arms, but they turned out to be no different from the Ukrainian-speaking population.

Soros doesn’t quite seem to grasp Putin’s standing in Chechnya and the tangible results it has brought in the current war theater in 404. As for Putin’s ’misjudgment’, suffice it to say that the armed forces of the Russian Federation are wholly successful meaning, most ominously, that Open Society Foundation in 404 will find itself in the very same predicament as the Azov Batallion: Out of business. Sad but true.
esten on March 22, 2022 · at 4:16 am EST/EDT

По данным Минобороны РФ, в ходе спецоперации на Украине ВС РФ потеряли убитыми 9861 человека, ранения получили 16153 человека:

Читайте на http://WWW.KP.RU: https://www.kp.ru/online/news/4672522/
https://web.archive.org/web/20220321131726/https://www.kp.ru/online/news/4672522/

(According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces lost 9861 people killed, 16153 people were injured).
- abc123 on March 22, 2022 · at 5:01 am EST/EDT
  
  Please provide where those numbers originate from as those links you provided appear not to be from the linked articles.
  - esten on March 22, 2022 · at 5:33 am EST/EDT
    
    The news was online in Komsomolskaja Pravda (russian tabloid) for a few minutes and then removed. It is available only in web archive. Russian Ministery of Defence has not commented these numbers afterwards – could be a data leak, which was not meant to be public.
    - Greg Galloway on March 22, 2022 · at 7:07 am EST/EDT
      
      Likely vastly exagerated: not matching combats intensities, available videos pictures etc…
      Likely in the hundred rather than thousands.
    - Martin Herold on March 22, 2022 · at 7:52 am EST/EDT
      
      Sure, bro. It rather reads like an added item sneeked in by some hackers or a saboteur inside KP.
      The MoD doesn’t “leak ” this kind of data to a newspaper and then says “but don’t publish them by accident”.
      Im mean, how gullible are you???
      
      Oh, and how likely is it that someone “by chance” sees that for the very few minutes that this was online and that in addition, just at that particular time the page was archived?
      use your brains, folks!
- Micron on March 22, 2022 · at 5:14 am EST/EDT
  
  What ? Can it be true ?
  - Martin Herold on March 22, 2022 · at 8:57 am EST/EDT
    
    No. It’s a fake.
    Debunked here: https://twitter.com/elenaevdokimov7/status/1506134907663577090
- Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 12:17 pm EST/EDT
  
  the site was hacked. This has already been proven. Another Ukrop psyop.
mind meld on March 22, 2022 · at 5:17 am EST/EDT

It’s all about timing…

https://www.mycity-military.com/imgs4/412872_149812758_iskanderr.png
- Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 12:45 pm EST/EDT
  
  Lol. This also happened several days ago. Russian jets drew this in the sky above Crimea “pointing towards Ukraine”
  
  https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1505049918347612163
epsa on March 22, 2022 · at 5:37 am EST/EDT

”We would like to draw the attention of the Western media once again. We have presented absolute evidence of the criminal use by Kiev nationalist regime of civilian objects in residential areas of Kiev and other cities of Ukraine, as firing positions of artillery and rocket systems.”

Well, you most certainly are drawing their attention all right. But they are not in it for revealing the truth about anything; especially not when more or less all is objectively going straight to hell from zone A’s point of view. Also, please keep in mind the mental status of the average zone A media consumer. I think zone A’s 99% have the media they deserve.

In short: Do keep up the very good work in the real battlefield and forget about ”PR” nonsense altogether.
vt on March 22, 2022 · at 7:28 am EST/EDT

US Navy Deploys Carrier Strike Group in Med to Implement Ukraine No-Fly Zone If Biden Gives Order

https://sputniknews.com/20220322/us-navy-deploys-carrier-strike-group-in-med-to-implement-ukraine-no-fly-zone-if-biden-gives-order-1094082091.html

“In Iraq, authorities estimate that up to 1,400 civilians were killed in US and UK-enforced no-fly zones between 1991 and 2003. In Bosnia between 1993 and 1995, NATO jets bombed civilian infrastructure and killed over 150 civilians, and polluted the country with cancer-causing depleted uranium shells. The no-fly zone instituted over Libya in 2011 played a crucial role in overthrowing the Gaddafi government and turning the country into a failed state with open-air slave markets.”
Uncle Bob on March 22, 2022 · at 7:52 am EST/EDT

I will never understand any reasons why Russia has not cleaned the media that is meant to represent Russia before the world. Here is an example of the comments RT allowed to be posted on their comment page ,” Kill-Russians-Now Anybody wearing a Z deserves to die”. Reading RT is at best the same as reading a little less Russophobic Western media. If it wasn’t for the name you’d never know it had a connection to Russia from the articles. Maybe requiring at least a little loyalty to your country should at least be a requirement to work at a government funded news provider.
SomeSalt on March 22, 2022 · at 11:04 am EST/EDT

“I will never understand any reasons why Russia has not cleaned the media that is meant to represent Russia before the world.”

That is highly likely since you believe that the purpose of RT is “to represent Russia before the world.”

Others share your illusion and this is partly why they banned it’s broadcasting in various countries.

As was observed by some in 1969 – Mr. Lenin was wrong. The opponents don’t sell you the rope with which to hang them – they give it you for free.
Travis on March 22, 2022 · at 11:05 am EST/EDT

The series of study made by Dupuy Institute have for years suggested that though fire power of Armed Forces has increases radically during the last 150 years the military personal casualty figures at least after WW2 have gone down quite a lot. The results for that “surprising” trend is the growth area of battlefield. During the WW2 frontline zone was normally 20 km, now it’s 500-600 km as cases of Ukraine/Iraq/Syria confirm it. The area is 500 even 1 000 bigger than 80 years ago.

That’s why it’s likely that true personal military loss figures of both Ukie and RF/DPR are lower than most wildly exaggerating figures are suggesting. One of the biggest questions is how many Ukrainian non-Azov soldiers have already deserted and gone to civilian living.
- Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 12:35 pm EST/EDT
  
  Yeah my personal opinion is the ‘true losses’ on each side are 500-1000 for RF and maybe 2000-7000 for Ukraine. This could be wildly off simply due to fog of war, none of us truly know. But I am using some extrapolations from known precedents like casualty rates in similar conflicts, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iraq war, etc etc. For instance, the U.S. storming of Normandy in WW2 was a famous bloodbath and had about 7 – 15k casualties on the U.S. side. U.S. invasion of Iraq only killed by some sources 7-10k Iraqi troops (in the initial invasion only, not counting insurgency afterwards etc), and we know U.S. was killing in a much more indiscriminate fashion than Russia is doing with its soft glove approach. Nagorno-Karabakh war also had about 3-4k casualties on each side and that lasted about a month and a half (although admittedly it utilized far less troops than the current Ukraine operation). The Russo-Georgian war of 2008 had about 60 casualties on Russian side, and 170-300 (off top of my head IIRC) on Georgian side.
  I personally can’t believe figures in excess of 20k deaths that is just WW2 level figures. The Russian MOD has only once officially listed Russian casualties 2 or so weeks ago and it was 498 and this might have included LDNR forces as well. Since that time, Russia has been taking MUCH LESS losses as they not only shifted tactics but also built up and secured more comfortable forward bases and supply lines that were more protected etc. So since that time period, I don’t see their losses as having went up too much higher than that since we’re not seeing any “Russian columns” destroyed anymore. Maybe at the most it eked up to 750 or something. Ukrainian forces are not only good at bunkering up and hunkering down, but they’re good at retreating in organized fashion (at least the ones in Donbass who were hardened by years of war against the ‘rebels’) and so while they take much more losses than Russian troops, I don’t see them being outright slaughtered so I can’t imagine their loss ratio being more than something like 4:1 or 5:1 to Russian troops. The only big question mark is how many losses are they truly taking in the RF strikes on compounds and concentrated troop positions, this could be the only factor we’re missing or miscalculating that could *potentially* lead their losses to be much higher than we think. But personally I still can’t imagine them being over 5,000. With that said some institutions and people count “casualties” as disabled/out of action/wounded as well so of course if you have 5k “KIA” then typically you’d have at least another 15k WIA or more so total “casualties” in that respect would be in the 20k range.
  Oh last thing, there was an article days ago that gives us insight into how many true casualties Russia has. An actual confirmed report in Russian media that said 1,400 wounded servicemen were being released from hospitals in Moscow and were eager to return back to their positions. If you go by my metric of WIA to KIA ratio being something like 3x then 1500 confirmed wounded would in fact signify an accurate KIA count of roughly 500 which is exactly what the MOD announced a couple weeks ago, so that is why I’m fairly certain Russia’s losses are in that accurate ballpark.
Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 2:57 pm EST/EDT

Nasty graphic losses of Ukrainian forces around Kiev

https://www.bitchute.com/video/oz5kDwiFW8Ra/
Nightvision on March 22, 2022 · at 3:18 pm EST/EDT

Report that NATO is not happy with the performance of its supplied equipment thus far:

“НАТО не очень довольны опытом применения своих вооружений, поставленных на Украину, так как их эффективность оказалось намного меньше ожидаемой с учетом числа уже переданных систем. Такая ситуация вызвана следующими причинами:

🔺Необученностью личного состава к применению современных ПТРК и ПЗРК
🔺Невозможностью качественного обучения личного состава ВСУ обращению с этими системами в силу отсутствия времени, полигонов, инструкторского состава, тренажеров, учебных материалов
🔺Высоким уровнем активной и пассивной защиты российской тяжелой бронетехники и армейской авиации
🔺Истечением сроков хранения отдельных систем, что приводит к нештатному срабатыванию
🔺Большой уровень потерь в виде российских трофеев, уничтожения складов и во время транспортировки, утери и тд.

Прогнозируется, что по мере выбытия кадрового состава ВСУ ситуация с падением эффективности будет только ухудшаться”

Translated:

“NATO is not very happy with the experience of using its weapons delivered to Ukraine, as their effectiveness turned out to be much less than expected, given the number of systems already transferred. This situation is caused by the following reasons:

🔺Untrained personnel to use modern ATGMs and MANPADS
🔺The impossibility of high-quality training of the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the handling of these systems due to lack of time, training grounds, instructors, simulators, training materials
🔺High level of active and passive protection of Russian heavy armored vehicles and army aviation
🔺The expiration of the storage periods of individual systems, which leads to abnormal operation
🔺A large level of losses in the form of Russian trophies, destruction of warehouses and during transportation, loss, etc.

It is predicted that as the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine leave the situation with a drop in efficiency will only worsen”
Dirk Manly on March 23, 2022 · at 8:25 am EST/EDT

Revealing knowledge of such locations is not advisable. The people planning to use such bunkers would simply rent them out to people who they regard as ignorant suckers, while moving on to new locations and building again. With current unemployment rates, finding construction laborers should be easy.

It’s best to let the mice think that the cats have no idea where they live.