RE. Isreal blocking weapons for Ukraine due to safety reasons: Any thoughts as to why the Iranian Almas ATGM(Spike clone) havent been seen in Ukraine yet? Would seem like a powerful weapon for the Russians to have access to.
As far as I can understand, Iranians demand knowledge transfer of building and maintaining Sukhoi jet fighters like the Su-35 for their ballistic missiles, something that even Putin isn't ready to provide
Thanks. Don is a little bit more sarcastic than Tom, but I guess that was a given. But to the Russian analyse saying the situation is difficult for both, well amen.
Great round-up, as ever. The mention of two treelines being captured daily reminded to ask if anyone can point to an OSINT source that tallies daily, weekly, monthly and annual ground gained/lost by both sides. I struggle to persuade people who are not well-informed that the Russians only gain a field or row of houses here or there every day. They have the impression that Ukraine is in full retreat. The ISW maps are not a great help. Most people struggle with the scale and have no comprehension of just how big Ukraine is.
Last week I created an image showing the Russian progress around Robotyne over six month. The map I used was DeepState, which can advance through the updates since they created the map in April '22. https://deepstatemap.live/en#10/46.5276/33.1787
"The Republican head of the House intelligence committee said that some members of the Republican party are parroting Russian propaganda."
Over on SpyTalk's weekly Substack roundup they have a good summary of this in their Moscow Calling section. Everyone's favourite senator, Tommy Tubervile, leads the pack of parrots. SpyTalk also names some of the fake-but-convincing news outlets that push the disinfo: D.C. Weekly, the Miami Chronicle, the New York News Daily, The Boston Times, and the Chicago Chronicle. Note the clever choice of names.
300,000 shells were bought back on March 7. They found a total of 1.5 million shells and 20 nations have funded or pledged to fund the initiative. " At the moment, we can say that there is more of a shortage of money than shells."
Estonia found another million shells than need to be funded.
The shells also need to be inspected to determine if they are in working condition.
Most reporting said they'd be arriving in June. There was one government spokesman that said...back in March?...that the first shells would be arriving in "weeks". And this article says: "According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, our country expects that the first batch of ammunition will be provided to our defenders already in April."
Thanks Don and Tom!
RE. Isreal blocking weapons for Ukraine due to safety reasons: Any thoughts as to why the Iranian Almas ATGM(Spike clone) havent been seen in Ukraine yet? Would seem like a powerful weapon for the Russians to have access to.
Yup. Just lacking time to write that down. Would be the Part 2 of this feature: https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/the-mess-of-russo-iranian-arms-deals
What would the Russians offer in exchange?
As far as I can understand, Iranians demand knowledge transfer of building and maintaining Sukhoi jet fighters like the Su-35 for their ballistic missiles, something that even Putin isn't ready to provide
That DragonFire is very interesting as long as it can be operated with enough precision.
Thanks. Don is a little bit more sarcastic than Tom, but I guess that was a given. But to the Russian analyse saying the situation is difficult for both, well amen.
Great round-up, as ever. The mention of two treelines being captured daily reminded to ask if anyone can point to an OSINT source that tallies daily, weekly, monthly and annual ground gained/lost by both sides. I struggle to persuade people who are not well-informed that the Russians only gain a field or row of houses here or there every day. They have the impression that Ukraine is in full retreat. The ISW maps are not a great help. Most people struggle with the scale and have no comprehension of just how big Ukraine is.
Last week I created an image showing the Russian progress around Robotyne over six month. The map I used was DeepState, which can advance through the updates since they created the map in April '22. https://deepstatemap.live/en#10/46.5276/33.1787
Andrew Perpetua has a map that can also advance day by day: https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/
Thanks. Both will be really useful.
"The Republican head of the House intelligence committee said that some members of the Republican party are parroting Russian propaganda."
Over on SpyTalk's weekly Substack roundup they have a good summary of this in their Moscow Calling section. Everyone's favourite senator, Tommy Tubervile, leads the pack of parrots. SpyTalk also names some of the fake-but-convincing news outlets that push the disinfo: D.C. Weekly, the Miami Chronicle, the New York News Daily, The Boston Times, and the Chicago Chronicle. Note the clever choice of names.
https://www.spytalk.co/p/new-in-spyweek-war-clouds-and-terror
Just some articles to give a more realistic picture of state of things.
Exclusive: Russia restoring oil refining capacity knocked out by drones
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-sanctions-hamper-russian-efforts-repair-refineries-sources-say-2024-04-04/
Russia boosts 152mm Krasnopol artillery shell output 20-fold
https://bulgarianmilitary.com/amp/2024/04/07/russia-boosts-152mm-krasnopol-artillery-shell-output-20-fold/
Austria’s dependence on Russian gas rises to 98%, two years after Ukraine war
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/austrias-dependence-on-russian-gas-rises-to-98-two-years-after-ukraine-war/
Don't mess with the Austrian oligarchy there. The RBI remains the biggest foreign bank still present in the Russian Federation.
CALTROPS!!!!!!! Way to go Ukraine!!!!! Wooooo-Hoooooo!!!!!!! Old-school rocks.........
Thanks for the report Don, any idea what the status of the Czech artillary shell is?
300,000 shells were bought back on March 7. They found a total of 1.5 million shells and 20 nations have funded or pledged to fund the initiative. " At the moment, we can say that there is more of a shortage of money than shells."
Estonia found another million shells than need to be funded.
The shells also need to be inspected to determine if they are in working condition.
Most reporting said they'd be arriving in June. There was one government spokesman that said...back in March?...that the first shells would be arriving in "weeks". And this article says: "According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, our country expects that the first batch of ammunition will be provided to our defenders already in April."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/lack-of-funds-for-ukraine-shell-purchase-initiated-by-czech-republic-estonia-claims/ar-BB1kNrYy
Thanks for that bit of information Don
Let's hope that the "shell hunger" will stop soon for Ukraine...
It will get better. But keep in mind that Ukraine has NEVER had enough shells. They should be firing 20k shells a day, not 2k.