Super fascinating stuff on the drone operations. Saw this last night, just in case anyone hasn't seen. Really hammers the point about how difficult it is to move heavy tanks around--especially in the rain. The narrator has a sarcastic sense of humor just like you ;) https://youtu.be/xruxD0GILUI?si=Wye6KvE4XiFFUdbs
On X are posted disgusting videos with even more disgusting comments that show massive drone attacks on disabled (unarmed) and defenseless soldiers. The behaviour of the drone operators of the supposedly here mentioned unit is a clear and well documented war-crime (murder). Please recheck whom you are giving your support. A Ukrainian murderer should get the same support than any other murder - none.
What's disgusting is when one nation invades another nation, destroys villages, towns and cities, maims people for life and kills both soldiers and civilians, children included. And if they occupy Ukrainian territory then people are arrested, tortured and killed.
Those disabled, unarmed and defenseless soldiers that you care so much about not only made those attacks possible, they'll do so again when they are abled, armed and offensive once again.
Any Russian that participates in this war is a threat and a target. If they surrender they'll be taken into captivity. There have been many instances when Russians surrendered to drones. (There's also been many instances when Russians fire on their troops that are surrendering).
I'm quite comfortable with supporting the destruction of the Russian invaders.
I am not questioning the many well documented Russian warcrimes. Our government is supporting Ukraine, with our tax money. I do not need any explanations. Attacking a disabled (heavily injured) soldier that does not pose a threat is a (war) crime. That it is plain stupid from a economic view and absolutely unhonorable from a traditional military view are additional factors. To cut it short, it is not helping in winning a war in any way. We may find out soon about this.
You speak of honor when Ukraine is trying to survive.
Honor is about how we agree to behave. Russia does not limit its behaviors with words, treaties and other agreements. Those are only tools to convince its enemies to limit their own power. When Russia believes it can gain some kind of advantage with its power, it acts regardless of words, customs or agreements.
A disabled, heavily injured Russian soldier may be a limited threat in that state, but injuries heal and the soldiers are the sent back into combat, sometime before they are even healed. The Russian soldier is an instrument of Russian power and that power must be eliminated.
In 1943, Allied airmen sank eight Japaneses transports carrying troops. The survivors drifted in the sea, unable to defend themselves, and allied planes strafed them. While 3,000 died, 3,900 were rescued and went on to fight and kill allied soldiers.
If a Russian soldier is captured, then that power is eliminated. If a Russian soldier is killed, that power is eliminated and helps win the war. It's stupid not to kill the soldier. It's stupid to allow him another chance to kill Ukrainian men, women and children.
You say you don't need any explanations but the facts are simple: Either you don't understand or you value restrictions on Ukrainian behaviors more than the lives of Ukrainian citizens.
I fully support agreements on how to behave. When a nation refuses to abide by those agreements, I fully support removing their capacity to harm others.
I am sorry Don, it do understand your point, but this point is invalid in a perspective of history and law. First we are what we live up to. If we all would murder, we would have gone nowhere in evolution. All other intelligent species I know of, try to regulate the pyramid of power withouth killing the weaker opponent. The weaker opponent does stop his resistance and lines up behind the stronger. Or he migrates some other place. Ukrainians did neither stop resisting nor lined up, but 50% of them migrated already, more than a million to Russia. Cruelty and murder will not help Ukrainians to win this war. It rather endangers their existence on the trritory they live on now. Ukrainians do not own weapons of mass destruction, so the attacker is superior in deadly force from the first moment. That the attacker is limiting the use of the weapons he has, is nothing, Ukrainians can bet on. The US was using its nuclear weapons without warning on Japanese civilians, killing hundredthousands because it did not have to fear backlash. I would not bet on the "racial" band between Russia and Ukraine (voiced by Russia) to much. If Russia will find itself on the loosing end or cornered, it will bite nuclear. As you are convinced that Russia refuses to abide to agreements, you are playing "Russian Roulette" with the Ukrainians. That is not fair. Ghandi and others have developed strategies to get or keep your independence withouth violence, killing or murder. As we think that we are intelligent beeings, we should always look for the non-violent solution. Evolution can only work with us, as long we are alive.
It's not murder. It's combat. Failure to kill the enemy will endanger Ukraine.
Russia is not using nuclear weapons, in whatever state of repair they're in, because of the risk of consequences from NATO, who has already warned Russia. The words from NATO don't concern Russia. The possible use of power from NATO concerns Russia.
Russia does not respect words or fairness, only power. They respond to power. Period. Ghandi would be killed by Putin. He's killed a lot of people that just use words.
There were words spoken after the Russian invasion of Georgia. There were words spoke after the Russian invasion of 2014. There have been plenty of words since 2022. The only words Russia values are the ones that give them something at the expense of Ukraine.
There is no "Russian Roulette". There is only power. You wish to limit Ukraine's power, much like the US and UK did with long-ranged weapons, when they could have done so much damage to Russian power earlier on. That limitation cost Ukrainian lives in the form of still-functioning aircraft and other means. You care much more about limiting Ukraine's power than you do about Ukrainian lives.
Fortunately, you don't have any say in how the Ukrainians are protecting their house. I don't, either. But I do support Ukrainians that kill any Russian that is a threat to them.
Dear Don, there can be no senseful debate, if we do not agree, that any sound person disagrees with murder. Murder has nothing to do with self defence. Our (civilized) concept of war is, that soldiers fight soldiers. The army that is weaker will surrender (at the beginning or at the end). The country that lost, will have to pay. With money or oil. That easy. Civilians are not part of the (crazy) game, soldiers that can´t fight neither. Every other concept of war, as demonizing people at a whole, advocating killing of groups of ethnicity or believe, leads to totalitarian murder. It may produce millions of dead but never a better life. It took hundred of years to establish those so called rules of war. Part of them is, that third parties stay to the side or become combattants. For that reason it is maybe not very senseful for Germany, to provide Ukraine with weapons of limited use, that clearly can be only operated by Ukraine with target designation and programming by the (delivering) third party. If any country wants to become combattant, no problem. The US is strong and has thousands of battle ready tanks in storage. Why don´t they step forward? On the other hand, Ukraine has thousands of tanks in storage to. Why are they not battle ready? Was there not enough time since 2014? Or was there corruption as not seen in any other european country? I do not know, but I do know that murder does not improve anyones situation. And I would never bet on a nuclear weapon not being used. I hope for an end of that war, the sooner, the better. For all of us, but most for Ukraine.
I do not think it unreasonable to ask in response what ways you think Ukraine should defend itself? Please can you answer.
Secondly, war crimes have a legal definition. I would be open to a well reasoned argument that Ukraine is, technically, committing war crimes with its drone operations, and how prevalent this is, and also relative to Russian actions.
If you are using war crimes in a looser sense, what I would say is that yes, these videos are disgusting. But what would result if they are not done is worse. War always forces people to choose between different evils.
Ukrainian people have every right to defend themself, if they do it with weapons using a state military force, they should obey to the international rules, that took 100 of years to develope, in Europe. Not Ukraine is committing war crimes, it is the individual soldier and/or his commander, that are commiting those crimes. And then the superior command, if they do not stop those crimes and/or bring those criminals to court as soon as they take notice of them. We are never forced to choose between different evils, but it is always much easier to choose evil. Drone operations are by now way illegal or a war crime. To the contrary, they enable a less dirty war, as they focus directly on the arms or soldiers of the enemy and document the use of deadly force more detailed than any other weapons system. They could make wars more transparent and help avoiding war crimes. But they can not prevent murder if there is a murderer at the controls.
Hello, I used the wrong term about choosing between evils because it relates to a specific English saying about deciding between two bad options, not morally evil as such. Old-fashioned uses of the world evil can include "bad" / "undesirable". So I ought to have said war always forces people to decide between bad options (for example, between fighting and occupation).
Reading your other posts. Yes, this whole affair raises the issue of cycles of violence and whether we will just end up perpetuating the same behaviour long-term. As a Christian and a supporter of Ukraine (including lethal aid), this has bothered me no small amount, especially since Jesus preached against violent resistance to the Romans (of course in a different context). Supporting Ukraine is, honestly, a gut reaction for me ("it's the right thing to do!!"). But yes, we have to think these things through as well. The writings of Bonhoeffer have helped me, who as you are aware sought to "murder" Hitler.
Cliff, thank you for clarifying. I can understand your view as I have Ukrainian friends from my childhood to now. The point why we all have to strongly demand from friends and allies, that the conventions against war crimes are respected at any times and circumstances, and that we should not allow for any moment any triumph on a wrongdoing that kills or injures the "right" person (the "enemy") is, that we humans have been through all of that in our history again and again. And humans experienced this in much more dire situations in the past, as no food for all, nowhere to flee, no possibility to surrender, as there were wars and times with unvergiving opponents, often led by wrong religious believes or horrible ideologies. It was and is a enourmous achievement, that mankind managed to "fence" war more and more in the last 700 years. This is our only chance to limit crazyness and avoid destruction of our species, as humans seem not willing to abstain from building big and powerful states with huge military spending and weapons that can destroy every single of us. It is strange enough, that today, with more options for everyone involved than ever, humans are not able to disarm and solve their "balancing of interests" by other means than deadly force. And as our political "class" seems to degrade constantly more and more, the outlook bleakens. If we keep feeding the so called animal within ourselfes, we will most likely go extinct very soon. There was a example for surviving humanity those days, a gopro filmed horrible fight between an Ukrainian and an (asian) Russian, who managed to stab his enemy. The fight was extremly brutal and bloody, but at the end the Russian, did not kill his "enemy" but moved away from him, respecting his "enemies" last wish to end his life by himself. This absurd tragedy shows not only, that we can always behave different, no matter how aggrevated and full of adrenalin in a deadly fight we are. That those two men had to fight and try to kill each other, for no reason and no good, is the even bigger tragedy.
Please get yourself informed. A disabled, injured soldier is no legal target by the international conventions. That civilians can not be attacked legally should be known by everybody, as only the US invented the conveniant term of "collateral damage" to mask such crimes (sometimes).
I have not been reading the international conventions word by word. Sorry about that. But i doubt they have taken into consideration the situation with the drones that are taking place in this war.
Based on your answer i was going to agree with you, but i see you are a quarrelling troll, so i did not.
If you are not able to inform yourself properly before you voice opinions that are not in accordance with the Geneva Convention and the rules of war, it seems strange that you would mind any Russian war crime done by a maybe illiterate guy that was most of his life in a jail in Siberia. Way beyond double-standards. Enjoy them, you seem to live in a free country.
Wounded or not, the mass of Russians is fighting until they are killed.
At the same time, summary executions by the Russian troops of disarmed Ukrainian troops are disgusting too. As are intentional Russian attacks on civilians, hospitals, etc, in Ukraine.
...'but still': meanwhile, the Russians are doing this every single day, capturing that on the video and then bragging with such acts - whether on the X or on Telegram.
...and the biggest oligarchs in the West are supporting that.
Dear Tom, already that should lead to questions about the reason. While the Second World War the Soviet/ Russians surrendered in millions. Why do they prefer to die now, instead of surrender? That Russian troops are comitting serious war crimes is obvious, but we are financing Ukraine, a young state with a questionable history if we look at legal performance. That the Russians are (partially) showing their Tataric or "eastern" face in a disgusting way in the moment, should not be any excuse to Ukrainian human rights violations, as the population of Ukraine has payed and will pay a heavy price for that, anyway. I know that you are very frustrated from the beginning with the two-faced-support of the western "oligarchs", also in Israel. But did you ever take in to consideration, that politics at the end always have to follow power, as power can not be questioned away? As the power of nuclear weapons is more or less absolute, it is easy to see, where things will go, if absolute destruction can be avoided. There never was a option, neither in Berlin 1953, in Budapest 1956 or in Prague 1968. 1989 showed, that there is a other way, but this needs compromise, trust and deescalation. Leopold Kohr, a widely unknown son of Austria has described in a logic way, how humans can leave those repeating cycles of misery before we will get totally destroyed by our selves.
The Russians came to our family homes already in the past several times. They "liberated" us from Napoleon and the French (my Saxonian anchestors were fighting with Napoleon till Borodino and all the way back to Leipzig), the Russians did no harm. In 1941-1945 my anchestors went again east, till Moscow and to the kaucasian mountains. Hitting the Soviets hard and loosing again. The only family member getting killed was communist. He welcomed the Soviets 1945 with a white and a red flag, speaking fluently Russian, beeing a professor of agriculture, that did not get killed by the Nazis, but send to the east on a agricultural estate while the war. He had dreamed all the years of their arrival. They shot him on the spot. All the family members who fought the Soviets, one of them beeing awarded the "Ritterkreuz", smashing two Soviet divisions in winter warfare, lived and died well in their high eighties. I never heard a negative word against Russians (as people) from them, but they all disliked communists. Things are a little more complex than black and white, sorry.
Thanks Don. Only can only hope that more and more units within the Ukrainian military adopt the procedures and leadership style of the Magyar Birds. Or we could pressure the political leadership to enact these changes, I guess.
We can hope. Again, since his unit has the luxury to reject 80% of applicants, plus has a strong funding stream, his entire operation would be incredibly hard to replicate. But certainly his procedures can be replicated at the company and battalion levels. Other strong, well-funded units, such as the 3rd Assault Brigade, also have well-developed drone capabilities, to include the interception of enemy drones.
Damn, THAT is impressive. Too bad they can't clone that mentality throughout the whole Military. The general staff needs to take some notes on this. I'm kind of reminded about the US Civil War and the various Volunteer units that formed. Some were complete ass, but some really did some innovative stuff (the Union Sharpshooters, Wilder's Mounted Infantry BDE which introduced the Spencer Repeating Rifle to the world, etc.), and some of the ideas caught on with the regulars.
Thanks Don and Tom. This war and your coverage has opened my eyes to just how much an effort and a feat waging war is. Eisenhower's cross of iron speech echoes in my head. I hope that this war makes further ones less likely.
Specifically what I was thinking about was the follow-on from either thumping Russia or letting them off easy; many times one hears the argument that if Russia is let off, other autocracies will become more belligerent. I am a little skeptical of that; as I think even in Russia's best outcome they will suffer a strategic setback.
But that's the point. If the West made a full effort to ramp up and decisively produce enough war equipment to supply Ukraine while fully enforcing every aspect of the sanctions (a difficult task in itself) and providing consequences to anyone aiding Russia, that might be indicative of the world reaction in other regions. Taiwan comes to mind.
If the West did nothing and Russia eventually overwhelmed Ukraine that would be another thing to consider, and maybe an invasion of Taiwan would be successful.
But with Georgia and 2014, the West was fairly passive with soft sanctions and their response to 2022 was somewhere in between those two extremes listed above. Now China has to consider whether an invasion is worth the cost. This is a rich and aggressive China that is creating islands just offshore from the Philippines and is ramming the fishing boats of that nation, Vietnam and anyone else and is building villages in territory it claims but belongs to India, Bhutan and other nations. So now China has to think whether further aggression is worth the economic fallout.
If Russia is defeated, it will have an impact on the rest of the world.
I dont know what to think about the highly selective formations like Magyar's birds.
I understand the wish to preserve the effectives one and avoid the scenario of a sudden large influx of "problematic" recruits ruining the formations' culture.
But I fear such strict selection process merely dumps the "not best" recruits to other formations. Leading to the creation of a 2 tiers army with a few "elite" formations and reduces the overall quality of troops.
As seen throughout history, this as more often than not impact negatively armed forces which went this way since the best formations can never be engaged everywhere at the same time while the vast majority of troops are cannibalized to create the limited elite corps.
I do find highly concerning this phenomenon of fighters going AWOL postulating to the few prestigious formations. This and a few others things concerning the way AFU organizes and sustain itself just dont seem right to me.
Ofc this is not a criticism against the battalions/regiments/brigades leaders doing so. Although I do find crazy that such small formations are running their own recruitment campaign like some civil corporate companies. Rather it is a criticism toward the AFU higher ups and Zelensky administration for causing such a situation.
I have always considered that, contrary to Russia recent past opponents and especially Syrian rebels, Ukraine has the advantage of a central state and a institutional army enabling for centralized and coordinate effort. And here the state allowing, causing and to some degree even encouraging the fragmentation of its armed forces into autonomous militias like formations.
There's advantages and disadvantages to selective formations. His units are providing capabilities that few can match in terms of operations and innovations. The unit's logistical algorithms and procedures are available to all. The unit is constantly training drone teams for other units. They are manufacturing mines for other units. And they are on the cutting edge of what is capable with inexpensive drones, and that's compared to the rest of the world.
In this case, the 414th has more than justified its existence. It is not only relatively inexpensive, it's partially self-funded.
Over 100,000 soldiers have gone AWOL since 2022. Ukraine can't afford to lose that many personnel. They just passed a law that gives you a pass if you only went AWOL once. If they're willing to serve, they should be allowed to serve.There aren't a lot of soldiers that went AWOL just to join the 414th, but many left to avoid the unit they were in.
The fact that there isn't national standard for recruiting, training and organization is, as you say, a failure at the very highest levels and detracts from Ukraine's potential military power.
Overall it is more effective for capable people to be recruited into efficient and well run organizations rather than be used as cannon fodder by incompetent generals. The problem isn’t the “elite” units but the bottom tier ones that no one wants to join or stay in.
I have read a reliable rep[ort that the number of glide bombs is reduced. Thought to be because of supply problems. Glide bombs have not gone away, but Russia apparently has few available than they did during the summer.
Remarkable how the Ukrainians are iterating
I posted this before from Stefan Korshak and it seems appropriate to post again here
Ukraine is crowd-sourcing drone production parts.
It is called the Druk Army, and people worldwide print drone parts on their home 3D printers and mail them to Ukraine.
https://drukarmy.org.ua/en
Great idea. Will post this elsewhere.
Good idea, will share
Fascinating insights. Thanks Don.
Super fascinating stuff on the drone operations. Saw this last night, just in case anyone hasn't seen. Really hammers the point about how difficult it is to move heavy tanks around--especially in the rain. The narrator has a sarcastic sense of humor just like you ;) https://youtu.be/xruxD0GILUI?si=Wye6KvE4XiFFUdbs
That was good. The tension on the chains and cables are high enough that if snapped they'll cut a body in two.
That's why there was only so much of it I could watch :)
Very nice breakdown of such a succesfull unit , thanks Don for your work
On X are posted disgusting videos with even more disgusting comments that show massive drone attacks on disabled (unarmed) and defenseless soldiers. The behaviour of the drone operators of the supposedly here mentioned unit is a clear and well documented war-crime (murder). Please recheck whom you are giving your support. A Ukrainian murderer should get the same support than any other murder - none.
War is Hell
True, but no reason for murder.
What's disgusting is when one nation invades another nation, destroys villages, towns and cities, maims people for life and kills both soldiers and civilians, children included. And if they occupy Ukrainian territory then people are arrested, tortured and killed.
Those disabled, unarmed and defenseless soldiers that you care so much about not only made those attacks possible, they'll do so again when they are abled, armed and offensive once again.
Any Russian that participates in this war is a threat and a target. If they surrender they'll be taken into captivity. There have been many instances when Russians surrendered to drones. (There's also been many instances when Russians fire on their troops that are surrendering).
I'm quite comfortable with supporting the destruction of the Russian invaders.
I am not questioning the many well documented Russian warcrimes. Our government is supporting Ukraine, with our tax money. I do not need any explanations. Attacking a disabled (heavily injured) soldier that does not pose a threat is a (war) crime. That it is plain stupid from a economic view and absolutely unhonorable from a traditional military view are additional factors. To cut it short, it is not helping in winning a war in any way. We may find out soon about this.
You speak of honor when Ukraine is trying to survive.
Honor is about how we agree to behave. Russia does not limit its behaviors with words, treaties and other agreements. Those are only tools to convince its enemies to limit their own power. When Russia believes it can gain some kind of advantage with its power, it acts regardless of words, customs or agreements.
A disabled, heavily injured Russian soldier may be a limited threat in that state, but injuries heal and the soldiers are the sent back into combat, sometime before they are even healed. The Russian soldier is an instrument of Russian power and that power must be eliminated.
In 1943, Allied airmen sank eight Japaneses transports carrying troops. The survivors drifted in the sea, unable to defend themselves, and allied planes strafed them. While 3,000 died, 3,900 were rescued and went on to fight and kill allied soldiers.
If a Russian soldier is captured, then that power is eliminated. If a Russian soldier is killed, that power is eliminated and helps win the war. It's stupid not to kill the soldier. It's stupid to allow him another chance to kill Ukrainian men, women and children.
You say you don't need any explanations but the facts are simple: Either you don't understand or you value restrictions on Ukrainian behaviors more than the lives of Ukrainian citizens.
I fully support agreements on how to behave. When a nation refuses to abide by those agreements, I fully support removing their capacity to harm others.
I am sorry Don, it do understand your point, but this point is invalid in a perspective of history and law. First we are what we live up to. If we all would murder, we would have gone nowhere in evolution. All other intelligent species I know of, try to regulate the pyramid of power withouth killing the weaker opponent. The weaker opponent does stop his resistance and lines up behind the stronger. Or he migrates some other place. Ukrainians did neither stop resisting nor lined up, but 50% of them migrated already, more than a million to Russia. Cruelty and murder will not help Ukrainians to win this war. It rather endangers their existence on the trritory they live on now. Ukrainians do not own weapons of mass destruction, so the attacker is superior in deadly force from the first moment. That the attacker is limiting the use of the weapons he has, is nothing, Ukrainians can bet on. The US was using its nuclear weapons without warning on Japanese civilians, killing hundredthousands because it did not have to fear backlash. I would not bet on the "racial" band between Russia and Ukraine (voiced by Russia) to much. If Russia will find itself on the loosing end or cornered, it will bite nuclear. As you are convinced that Russia refuses to abide to agreements, you are playing "Russian Roulette" with the Ukrainians. That is not fair. Ghandi and others have developed strategies to get or keep your independence withouth violence, killing or murder. As we think that we are intelligent beeings, we should always look for the non-violent solution. Evolution can only work with us, as long we are alive.
It's not murder. It's combat. Failure to kill the enemy will endanger Ukraine.
Russia is not using nuclear weapons, in whatever state of repair they're in, because of the risk of consequences from NATO, who has already warned Russia. The words from NATO don't concern Russia. The possible use of power from NATO concerns Russia.
Russia does not respect words or fairness, only power. They respond to power. Period. Ghandi would be killed by Putin. He's killed a lot of people that just use words.
There were words spoken after the Russian invasion of Georgia. There were words spoke after the Russian invasion of 2014. There have been plenty of words since 2022. The only words Russia values are the ones that give them something at the expense of Ukraine.
There is no "Russian Roulette". There is only power. You wish to limit Ukraine's power, much like the US and UK did with long-ranged weapons, when they could have done so much damage to Russian power earlier on. That limitation cost Ukrainian lives in the form of still-functioning aircraft and other means. You care much more about limiting Ukraine's power than you do about Ukrainian lives.
Fortunately, you don't have any say in how the Ukrainians are protecting their house. I don't, either. But I do support Ukrainians that kill any Russian that is a threat to them.
Dear Don, there can be no senseful debate, if we do not agree, that any sound person disagrees with murder. Murder has nothing to do with self defence. Our (civilized) concept of war is, that soldiers fight soldiers. The army that is weaker will surrender (at the beginning or at the end). The country that lost, will have to pay. With money or oil. That easy. Civilians are not part of the (crazy) game, soldiers that can´t fight neither. Every other concept of war, as demonizing people at a whole, advocating killing of groups of ethnicity or believe, leads to totalitarian murder. It may produce millions of dead but never a better life. It took hundred of years to establish those so called rules of war. Part of them is, that third parties stay to the side or become combattants. For that reason it is maybe not very senseful for Germany, to provide Ukraine with weapons of limited use, that clearly can be only operated by Ukraine with target designation and programming by the (delivering) third party. If any country wants to become combattant, no problem. The US is strong and has thousands of battle ready tanks in storage. Why don´t they step forward? On the other hand, Ukraine has thousands of tanks in storage to. Why are they not battle ready? Was there not enough time since 2014? Or was there corruption as not seen in any other european country? I do not know, but I do know that murder does not improve anyones situation. And I would never bet on a nuclear weapon not being used. I hope for an end of that war, the sooner, the better. For all of us, but most for Ukraine.
I do not think it unreasonable to ask in response what ways you think Ukraine should defend itself? Please can you answer.
Secondly, war crimes have a legal definition. I would be open to a well reasoned argument that Ukraine is, technically, committing war crimes with its drone operations, and how prevalent this is, and also relative to Russian actions.
If you are using war crimes in a looser sense, what I would say is that yes, these videos are disgusting. But what would result if they are not done is worse. War always forces people to choose between different evils.
Ukrainian people have every right to defend themself, if they do it with weapons using a state military force, they should obey to the international rules, that took 100 of years to develope, in Europe. Not Ukraine is committing war crimes, it is the individual soldier and/or his commander, that are commiting those crimes. And then the superior command, if they do not stop those crimes and/or bring those criminals to court as soon as they take notice of them. We are never forced to choose between different evils, but it is always much easier to choose evil. Drone operations are by now way illegal or a war crime. To the contrary, they enable a less dirty war, as they focus directly on the arms or soldiers of the enemy and document the use of deadly force more detailed than any other weapons system. They could make wars more transparent and help avoiding war crimes. But they can not prevent murder if there is a murderer at the controls.
Hello, I used the wrong term about choosing between evils because it relates to a specific English saying about deciding between two bad options, not morally evil as such. Old-fashioned uses of the world evil can include "bad" / "undesirable". So I ought to have said war always forces people to decide between bad options (for example, between fighting and occupation).
Reading your other posts. Yes, this whole affair raises the issue of cycles of violence and whether we will just end up perpetuating the same behaviour long-term. As a Christian and a supporter of Ukraine (including lethal aid), this has bothered me no small amount, especially since Jesus preached against violent resistance to the Romans (of course in a different context). Supporting Ukraine is, honestly, a gut reaction for me ("it's the right thing to do!!"). But yes, we have to think these things through as well. The writings of Bonhoeffer have helped me, who as you are aware sought to "murder" Hitler.
Not all (and I think relatively few) who terminate injured and helpless Russian soldiers do so with a murderous intent. For example, hear Francis Farrell's mention of a drone pilot he talked to (latter half of the episode): https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast/hunting-russian-soldiers-with-ukraines-ace-drone-unit/id1612424182?i=1000682564605
Cliff, thank you for clarifying. I can understand your view as I have Ukrainian friends from my childhood to now. The point why we all have to strongly demand from friends and allies, that the conventions against war crimes are respected at any times and circumstances, and that we should not allow for any moment any triumph on a wrongdoing that kills or injures the "right" person (the "enemy") is, that we humans have been through all of that in our history again and again. And humans experienced this in much more dire situations in the past, as no food for all, nowhere to flee, no possibility to surrender, as there were wars and times with unvergiving opponents, often led by wrong religious believes or horrible ideologies. It was and is a enourmous achievement, that mankind managed to "fence" war more and more in the last 700 years. This is our only chance to limit crazyness and avoid destruction of our species, as humans seem not willing to abstain from building big and powerful states with huge military spending and weapons that can destroy every single of us. It is strange enough, that today, with more options for everyone involved than ever, humans are not able to disarm and solve their "balancing of interests" by other means than deadly force. And as our political "class" seems to degrade constantly more and more, the outlook bleakens. If we keep feeding the so called animal within ourselfes, we will most likely go extinct very soon. There was a example for surviving humanity those days, a gopro filmed horrible fight between an Ukrainian and an (asian) Russian, who managed to stab his enemy. The fight was extremly brutal and bloody, but at the end the Russian, did not kill his "enemy" but moved away from him, respecting his "enemies" last wish to end his life by himself. This absurd tragedy shows not only, that we can always behave different, no matter how aggrevated and full of adrenalin in a deadly fight we are. That those two men had to fight and try to kill each other, for no reason and no good, is the even bigger tragedy.
If you are attacking soldiers in uniform, it might be disgusting, but it is war.
If you are attacking civillians like the russians do in Kherson, that is a war crime.
Please get yourself informed. A disabled, injured soldier is no legal target by the international conventions. That civilians can not be attacked legally should be known by everybody, as only the US invented the conveniant term of "collateral damage" to mask such crimes (sometimes).
I have not been reading the international conventions word by word. Sorry about that. But i doubt they have taken into consideration the situation with the drones that are taking place in this war.
Based on your answer i was going to agree with you, but i see you are a quarrelling troll, so i did not.
If you are not able to inform yourself properly before you voice opinions that are not in accordance with the Geneva Convention and the rules of war, it seems strange that you would mind any Russian war crime done by a maybe illiterate guy that was most of his life in a jail in Siberia. Way beyond double-standards. Enjoy them, you seem to live in a free country.
Wounded or not, the mass of Russians is fighting until they are killed.
At the same time, summary executions by the Russian troops of disarmed Ukrainian troops are disgusting too. As are intentional Russian attacks on civilians, hospitals, etc, in Ukraine.
...'but still': meanwhile, the Russians are doing this every single day, capturing that on the video and then bragging with such acts - whether on the X or on Telegram.
...and the biggest oligarchs in the West are supporting that.
Dear Tom, already that should lead to questions about the reason. While the Second World War the Soviet/ Russians surrendered in millions. Why do they prefer to die now, instead of surrender? That Russian troops are comitting serious war crimes is obvious, but we are financing Ukraine, a young state with a questionable history if we look at legal performance. That the Russians are (partially) showing their Tataric or "eastern" face in a disgusting way in the moment, should not be any excuse to Ukrainian human rights violations, as the population of Ukraine has payed and will pay a heavy price for that, anyway. I know that you are very frustrated from the beginning with the two-faced-support of the western "oligarchs", also in Israel. But did you ever take in to consideration, that politics at the end always have to follow power, as power can not be questioned away? As the power of nuclear weapons is more or less absolute, it is easy to see, where things will go, if absolute destruction can be avoided. There never was a option, neither in Berlin 1953, in Budapest 1956 or in Prague 1968. 1989 showed, that there is a other way, but this needs compromise, trust and deescalation. Leopold Kohr, a widely unknown son of Austria has described in a logic way, how humans can leave those repeating cycles of misery before we will get totally destroyed by our selves.
When the Russians come to kill your family and destroy your home, you will immediately change your attitude.
The Russians came to our family homes already in the past several times. They "liberated" us from Napoleon and the French (my Saxonian anchestors were fighting with Napoleon till Borodino and all the way back to Leipzig), the Russians did no harm. In 1941-1945 my anchestors went again east, till Moscow and to the kaucasian mountains. Hitting the Soviets hard and loosing again. The only family member getting killed was communist. He welcomed the Soviets 1945 with a white and a red flag, speaking fluently Russian, beeing a professor of agriculture, that did not get killed by the Nazis, but send to the east on a agricultural estate while the war. He had dreamed all the years of their arrival. They shot him on the spot. All the family members who fought the Soviets, one of them beeing awarded the "Ritterkreuz", smashing two Soviet divisions in winter warfare, lived and died well in their high eighties. I never heard a negative word against Russians (as people) from them, but they all disliked communists. Things are a little more complex than black and white, sorry.
Thanks Don. Only can only hope that more and more units within the Ukrainian military adopt the procedures and leadership style of the Magyar Birds. Or we could pressure the political leadership to enact these changes, I guess.
We can hope. Again, since his unit has the luxury to reject 80% of applicants, plus has a strong funding stream, his entire operation would be incredibly hard to replicate. But certainly his procedures can be replicated at the company and battalion levels. Other strong, well-funded units, such as the 3rd Assault Brigade, also have well-developed drone capabilities, to include the interception of enemy drones.
Damn, THAT is impressive. Too bad they can't clone that mentality throughout the whole Military. The general staff needs to take some notes on this. I'm kind of reminded about the US Civil War and the various Volunteer units that formed. Some were complete ass, but some really did some innovative stuff (the Union Sharpshooters, Wilder's Mounted Infantry BDE which introduced the Spencer Repeating Rifle to the world, etc.), and some of the ideas caught on with the regulars.
You find enough people.
Thank you
Jagga Jagga
Thanks Don and Tom. This war and your coverage has opened my eyes to just how much an effort and a feat waging war is. Eisenhower's cross of iron speech echoes in my head. I hope that this war makes further ones less likely.
It is a nice thought, at least.
Specifically what I was thinking about was the follow-on from either thumping Russia or letting them off easy; many times one hears the argument that if Russia is let off, other autocracies will become more belligerent. I am a little skeptical of that; as I think even in Russia's best outcome they will suffer a strategic setback.
But that's the point. If the West made a full effort to ramp up and decisively produce enough war equipment to supply Ukraine while fully enforcing every aspect of the sanctions (a difficult task in itself) and providing consequences to anyone aiding Russia, that might be indicative of the world reaction in other regions. Taiwan comes to mind.
If the West did nothing and Russia eventually overwhelmed Ukraine that would be another thing to consider, and maybe an invasion of Taiwan would be successful.
But with Georgia and 2014, the West was fairly passive with soft sanctions and their response to 2022 was somewhere in between those two extremes listed above. Now China has to consider whether an invasion is worth the cost. This is a rich and aggressive China that is creating islands just offshore from the Philippines and is ramming the fishing boats of that nation, Vietnam and anyone else and is building villages in territory it claims but belongs to India, Bhutan and other nations. So now China has to think whether further aggression is worth the economic fallout.
If Russia is defeated, it will have an impact on the rest of the world.
I dont know what to think about the highly selective formations like Magyar's birds.
I understand the wish to preserve the effectives one and avoid the scenario of a sudden large influx of "problematic" recruits ruining the formations' culture.
But I fear such strict selection process merely dumps the "not best" recruits to other formations. Leading to the creation of a 2 tiers army with a few "elite" formations and reduces the overall quality of troops.
As seen throughout history, this as more often than not impact negatively armed forces which went this way since the best formations can never be engaged everywhere at the same time while the vast majority of troops are cannibalized to create the limited elite corps.
I do find highly concerning this phenomenon of fighters going AWOL postulating to the few prestigious formations. This and a few others things concerning the way AFU organizes and sustain itself just dont seem right to me.
Ofc this is not a criticism against the battalions/regiments/brigades leaders doing so. Although I do find crazy that such small formations are running their own recruitment campaign like some civil corporate companies. Rather it is a criticism toward the AFU higher ups and Zelensky administration for causing such a situation.
I have always considered that, contrary to Russia recent past opponents and especially Syrian rebels, Ukraine has the advantage of a central state and a institutional army enabling for centralized and coordinate effort. And here the state allowing, causing and to some degree even encouraging the fragmentation of its armed forces into autonomous militias like formations.
There's advantages and disadvantages to selective formations. His units are providing capabilities that few can match in terms of operations and innovations. The unit's logistical algorithms and procedures are available to all. The unit is constantly training drone teams for other units. They are manufacturing mines for other units. And they are on the cutting edge of what is capable with inexpensive drones, and that's compared to the rest of the world.
In this case, the 414th has more than justified its existence. It is not only relatively inexpensive, it's partially self-funded.
Over 100,000 soldiers have gone AWOL since 2022. Ukraine can't afford to lose that many personnel. They just passed a law that gives you a pass if you only went AWOL once. If they're willing to serve, they should be allowed to serve.There aren't a lot of soldiers that went AWOL just to join the 414th, but many left to avoid the unit they were in.
The fact that there isn't national standard for recruiting, training and organization is, as you say, a failure at the very highest levels and detracts from Ukraine's potential military power.
Overall it is more effective for capable people to be recruited into efficient and well run organizations rather than be used as cannon fodder by incompetent generals. The problem isn’t the “elite” units but the bottom tier ones that no one wants to join or stay in.
Maybe it is just the lack of reports about it, but is the number of russian glide bombs redused?
It also seems to be a rise in Ukrainian air operations, but that might be my hopefull mind playing with me...
I have read a reliable rep[ort that the number of glide bombs is reduced. Thought to be because of supply problems. Glide bombs have not gone away, but Russia apparently has few available than they did during the summer.
Yes, I posted a report on that on 9 December. Here was my source:
https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1864624905372733538
Tom mentioned it in one of his reports, too.
Thanks Don for everything, especially for the background on Magyar's Birds in this one.
Excellent article, very interesting to see how this unit formed and operates. A good read!