Any kind of "peace" or "truce" according to Russian terms would not bring peace, but just encourage Russia. Iran, China etc. in their expansions (hence causing more wars). The only good solution is a decisive and fast support of Ukraine and Russian withdrawal.
Exactly. The US have so far spend app. 5% of their annual defence spending for UA support and Ukraine managed to wreck app. 50 - 70% of Russias professional army and severly depleted the huge Cold War arms stockpiles. What we now see are mostly "meat" attacks with poorly trained mobbiks and old equipment. So the Return on Investment IMHO is very good. As a bonus the Western countries also get lots of information about the efficiency of Iranian drones as well as their air defence. Before Ukrainian War the Gepard AA was seen as obsolete and on the brink of being scrapped. Now they proved extremely efficient in shooting down drones at comparable low cost and everybody would be happy to have more.
There are 2 positive things about the Western support for 2024.
1. It will continue and will remain on at least the same (insufficient) level, but no less.
2. At least some countries, e.g. France and Czechia, have changed their method of support and now provide cash (loans) to be spent at their domestic military industry.
Point 2 is particularly important because for the first time, the ZSU will be able to decide what to buy and it will be current production, not cold war left overs. Also, there should be more ammunition available this year. Not much to be happy about, but better this than nothing. Happy New Year.
That's unless the MAGA Republicans continue blocking the help to Ukraine with various pretenses and lies... Then Ukraine material support will be greatly reduced compared to even the (inadequate) 2023...
Nah, it will be fine. Support for Ukraine is bipartisan. This is standard domestic bickering. Even if, there is still 300B of Russian frozen assets that can be confiscated. I am far more afraid of Jake Sullivan's "advising". He is capable of single handedly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Sullivan is capable of screwing up the unscrewable.
Tom, what do you think about the statement made by Ignat regarding the interception rate (or lack thereof) of Kh-22s? Kremlin-aligned propaganda outlets and assorted twitter grifters are spinning it real hard. It's a claim that's a little difficult to believe, with how old, big, and slow that missile is.
it's FOUR times faster than most cruise missiles (which are slower then 1 Mach), and just 2 times slower then theoretical hyperspeed of Iskander-M. And to intercept any highspeed target you need SAM systems capable to intercept it. These are Patriots (3 for all Ukraine) and SAMP-T (only one as I know). Taking into account the size of Ukraine you could easily target most of the territory with Kh-22 without any chance of being intercepted.
Doesn't the naval version of the Kalibr accelerate to Mach 3 on approach? Plenty of those have been shot down (we even have several videos), to say nothing of many claimed shootdowns of Kh-22s. I personally believe that UAF AA going 0/300 on Kh-22 interceptions is a gross exaggeration to source more modern AA systems from the west, like the aforementioned Patriot and SAMP-T (which is completely fair, by the way).
Kalibr is flying low and launched from high distances, so PSU do have time to calculate its approximate trajectory and intercept it, and AA radars can detect it far away from its final target. Kh-22 is airbased cruise/aeroballistic missile and can fly at heights of 40-50 kilometres parallel to surface. And as i know, there is no AA systems in the world at all that technically able to see targets on such heights. Most of them usually can detect targets at ± 20-25kms height. Even Patriot can intercept Kh22 only in theory, because its missiles is short ranged and you need to know where is final Kh22 target exactly is or to know from exactly where Kh22 was launched to calculate its trajectory. Even with ballistic missiles like Kingal it's easier, because ballistic trajectory is easily predictable.
Yes, the problem with Onyx is that they sea-skim while also being supersonic, which makes them very hard to detect. I don't believe that Kh-22 is capable of such low-altitude flight. It comes in at more of a shallow dive, IIRC. Should be possible to detect and maybe intercept with a capable SAM system.
Supersonic cruise missiles can be harder to hit because they move quite fast and not in a ballistic arc like the Khinzal. Also this is an issue with Soviet SAM systems being unable to intercept them. Patriot wouldnt have same issues. But the Russians likely are using the Kh-22/32 on other parts of Ukraine and not Kyiv.
Nobody of my personal acquaintance wants Ukrainian government to negotiate with Putler. Such attacks on the civil targets only strengthen the anti-Russian feelings. I hope the West would be frightened by such attacks so much as to supply Ukraine with everything it needs to overcome Russia.
Air war never brings a victory. Bombing of London or Southampton, Berlin or Bremen, Kyiv or Moscow in WW2 didn't broke resistance for one sight and bring victory to another. Also, the Vietnam war is a good example. Every victory in a war achive on a ground.
From what I remember, Hiroshima wasn't the breaking point for the Japanese militarists, but the quick succession of Nagasaki (and the threat of more atomic attacks to follow soon), plus the Soviet declaration of war and the massive attack that destroyed the Kwantung Army quickly helped bring the end of the war.
Re 59-62 claims: it looks like some sources reported total of 62 cruise missiles, while others made distinction between 59 X-101 and 3 Kalibres. Then figures were mixed up while information was spread
Hello Mr Cooper, I follow your post for quite some time now but I'm getting surprised you're now presenting the Ukrainian claims as facts. Without any kind of skepticism or evidence.
I am referring to the number of missiles shot down.
Also no words on the targets, even when Ukrainian deputies and geoconfirmed footage confirms impact on drone and armament factories.
Why you are so skeptical? PS ZSU says ruzzians fired at least 70 Kh-101/55 while claiming 59 as intercepted. So 11+ left are quite enough to hit M-Tac factory/warehouse and other places you mentioned.
"Why you are so skeptical ?" Sorry but the real question should be "why people aren't skeptical enough".
We are in a war, dominated by information warfare and propaganda on all side, so excuse me not to trust by default when an official statement by one side is brought up without any evidence.
Basis of skepticism : "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence".
So when I'm reading an analysis, which are usually of great quality with Mr Cooper (especially in his books, I can only but recommend them), I expect just a bit more than "Ukrainian MOD said this, so it is true by default"
We're almost two years into this (phase of the) war, so we have a lot of history of claims versus evidence. The Ukrainian claims have stood up reasonably well, many can't be proven as true, but also it's rare to find proof of false claims. The Russian claims have been utter rubbish, and proven as rubbish
So let's pretend we caught ukrainian officials on lying about how many russian missiles were shot down. What the point in this exactly? What benefits from it? Just to point finger on them and say "Ha! Liars!"?
Firstly, I call claims what they are, claims. If anybody is misunderstanding 'claims' for 'facts'... sorry, can't really help.
Secondly, regarding targets: not only me, but an entire 'group' of people is trying - for days already - to find out what are the Russians targeting, and what have they hit. With official Kyiv being zip-lip on this issue (indeed - and for understandable reasons - systematically curbing the release of any kind of related information), this is not easy.
If you're around my blog for long enough, you should know that I'm going to say more about this, as soon as I can.
Problem 2: Moscow has always been part of the thing backers call "The West" - just another imperialist empire exploiting colonies.
Hence the unwillingness to back Ukraine to victory. The "West" *needs* Putin acting like this to feel important and special. It's all part of the Cold War 2 con, an attempt to push everyone into a box controlled by Transatlantic elitists who think they're going to beat China despite having no realistic plan for victory.
The West is a scam. A social pyramid scheme. Real democracies around the world unite! Ukraine can lead us all to a better world.
My goodness, did it ever stop some propagandist to create an almighty evil force.
Think of Goebbls who declared that Judaism is behind the capitalists and the bolscheviks.
Or Trump, who sees a conspiracy between republicans and Democrats that stopped his 2nd presidency
Or Netanyahu, who sees an Arabic mufti as the reason for the holocaust against Jews, ignoring that in the same death camps other groups of people (roma and sinti, socialists, etc.) got killed en masse as well
Or Hugo Chavez, who saw behind everything not working the US even it was his governments incompetence plus really stupid ideas.
God, I hate my government sometimes. I think of all that stuff we have sitting in depots rusting away. Stuff built to FIGHT THE RUSSIANS! This is what we made it for. And there it sits. Or goes to Morocco. Or gets scrapped out at the Taxpayers dime. Cripes, what a bunch of idiots. Thanks for sharing this and calling out the idiots.
It’s the same across the pond Mike. How much kit has been scrapped, dumped, given away that would materially change the battlefield for the Ukrainians.
What was that all about sending to Morocco of all places ??
The Brads to Morocco is a mystery. I think it was to pull them out of the RU sphere of the weapons market. I have heard that they did this so the Moroccans would send their old RU stuff to Ukraine (they did send T72s last year), but that's a poor damn trade IMHO.
IMHO it was no poor trade if you consider the time factor. In 2023 Ukraine urgently needed tanks to bolster their summer offensive and didn't have enough staff trained on Bradley. But they did have plenty of people trained on T72 and all supplies and spare parts available. Introducing a completely new tank model is always a challenge for an army even during peace time. In war it's even harder to get people trained and sufficient supplies for completely new vehicles. You can see it with the Leopard tanks. Europeans finally managed to send >100 to Ukraine. But UA only has few of them active, since the majority is always travelling back and forth from Poland for maintenance and repair.
Agreed, the already existing Bradleys in Ukraine are proving quite a worthy platform. If Ukraine had five hundred of these (and the personnel to man these), it would be much more formidable (I think).
Things are changing by the day in the front. I am reading about new Russian drones starting to receive autonomous operation, and that may be a really big factor.
It's the phosphates. Phosphates are necessary for production of fertilizers. Fertilizers are crucial for production of food.
Morocco is one of biggest exporters of phosphates. It's such an important source of them, that the West is happy to watch the other way while Morocco occuppied Western Sahara, then exiled most of its population, and keeps the territory under military occupation ever since - all because Western Sahara is one of Moroccan sources of phosphates, too (in addition to mines inside Morocco).
This issue is so important, that both the official Washington and Brüssel are ignoring decades-old US involvement in Algerian oil/gas-sector - and remains staunchly supportive of Morocco even when this get caught while spying on several top politicians in the EU, massively violating human rights, misusing immigrants to exercise pressure upon the EU etc., etc., etc.
I’m wondering if/when the Ukrainians start flying their F-16s whether we will see an increase in AWACs flying along the Polish border to assist them.
In an earlier piece I think from Don, it is true that they need the synergy of ELiNT systems etc but I do wonder if the radar range is downplayed and they will be more than a match for their foes..
AWACS over Poland was especially important during the first month of the war. Now its too far from the front, only AWACS orbits over S-E Romania can provide useful warning or targeting data. Word on the street is that Australian Wedgetail deployed here had an especially non indirect role in the recent shootdowns of Su-34s.
I am wondering how long it will take before Ukraine will stage an attack on infrastructure of Moscow (assuming they have the means). If we, the West will keep pulling our support, then Ukraine may eventually have to resort to hard attacks on the civilian infrastructure.
Wdym? Ukraine striking russia military infrastructure, including military infrastructure near moscow like all the time since russian full scale invasion started. If you were confused with west "prohibiting" Ukraine from striking russia terrirories, this "prohibition" was made only for western weapons. Ukraine can do whatever it wants with domestic weapons and strike whatever military target in russia. Literally no-one in the world can "prohibit" Ukraine from doing this, as long as Ukraine hitting military targers.
Striking civilian infrastructure is just wasting of time and ammo.
This was another big bunch of various missiles. Most shot down, some got through. The results seems meagre compared to the effort, at least in direct casualities as well as damage to the infrastructure. Were there any major black outs or damage to production. I cannot see this stopping the Ukrainian in fighting. But I understand that there are lots of resorces used in defending cities. Of course necessary, but it seems to me that thw major result for Russia in firing these missiles actually is to keep Ukrainian air defense away from the front. But can Russia really sustain this rate of fire?
From what I can understand, North Korea and Iran are supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, so it's not only Russia production that needs to be exhausted, but also other countries...
In my opinion, sending a large amount of ATACMS (the 300 km editions) and lifting off restrictions is probably the only way to hit hard the Russian military machine... (and lots of artillery and ammunition etc).
It's quite irritating to see the typical political bickering in USA Congress/Senate blocking the western support for Ukraine (and let's not forget that Hungary is to assume the presidency of the EU soon...)
DUDE!!!!!! You have not been this sarcastic....this caustic in quite awhile. Such fresh ideas and nuisances and waffles as to astound the mind.....if we had one. Be well my friend :o)
Thank you so very much.
Any kind of "peace" or "truce" according to Russian terms would not bring peace, but just encourage Russia. Iran, China etc. in their expansions (hence causing more wars). The only good solution is a decisive and fast support of Ukraine and Russian withdrawal.
Exactly. The US have so far spend app. 5% of their annual defence spending for UA support and Ukraine managed to wreck app. 50 - 70% of Russias professional army and severly depleted the huge Cold War arms stockpiles. What we now see are mostly "meat" attacks with poorly trained mobbiks and old equipment. So the Return on Investment IMHO is very good. As a bonus the Western countries also get lots of information about the efficiency of Iranian drones as well as their air defence. Before Ukrainian War the Gepard AA was seen as obsolete and on the brink of being scrapped. Now they proved extremely efficient in shooting down drones at comparable low cost and everybody would be happy to have more.
There are 2 positive things about the Western support for 2024.
1. It will continue and will remain on at least the same (insufficient) level, but no less.
2. At least some countries, e.g. France and Czechia, have changed their method of support and now provide cash (loans) to be spent at their domestic military industry.
Point 2 is particularly important because for the first time, the ZSU will be able to decide what to buy and it will be current production, not cold war left overs. Also, there should be more ammunition available this year. Not much to be happy about, but better this than nothing. Happy New Year.
That's unless the MAGA Republicans continue blocking the help to Ukraine with various pretenses and lies... Then Ukraine material support will be greatly reduced compared to even the (inadequate) 2023...
Nah, it will be fine. Support for Ukraine is bipartisan. This is standard domestic bickering. Even if, there is still 300B of Russian frozen assets that can be confiscated. I am far more afraid of Jake Sullivan's "advising". He is capable of single handedly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Sullivan is capable of screwing up the unscrewable.
Tom, what do you think about the statement made by Ignat regarding the interception rate (or lack thereof) of Kh-22s? Kremlin-aligned propaganda outlets and assorted twitter grifters are spinning it real hard. It's a claim that's a little difficult to believe, with how old, big, and slow that missile is.
Why did you decide that Mach 3.5 is slow?
It's faster than most cruise missiles, but it's much slower than ballistic missiles (~Mach 6).
it's FOUR times faster than most cruise missiles (which are slower then 1 Mach), and just 2 times slower then theoretical hyperspeed of Iskander-M. And to intercept any highspeed target you need SAM systems capable to intercept it. These are Patriots (3 for all Ukraine) and SAMP-T (only one as I know). Taking into account the size of Ukraine you could easily target most of the territory with Kh-22 without any chance of being intercepted.
Doesn't the naval version of the Kalibr accelerate to Mach 3 on approach? Plenty of those have been shot down (we even have several videos), to say nothing of many claimed shootdowns of Kh-22s. I personally believe that UAF AA going 0/300 on Kh-22 interceptions is a gross exaggeration to source more modern AA systems from the west, like the aforementioned Patriot and SAMP-T (which is completely fair, by the way).
Kalibr is flying low and launched from high distances, so PSU do have time to calculate its approximate trajectory and intercept it, and AA radars can detect it far away from its final target. Kh-22 is airbased cruise/aeroballistic missile and can fly at heights of 40-50 kilometres parallel to surface. And as i know, there is no AA systems in the world at all that technically able to see targets on such heights. Most of them usually can detect targets at ± 20-25kms height. Even Patriot can intercept Kh22 only in theory, because its missiles is short ranged and you need to know where is final Kh22 target exactly is or to know from exactly where Kh22 was launched to calculate its trajectory. Even with ballistic missiles like Kingal it's easier, because ballistic trajectory is easily predictable.
Ìt is slower than Iskander M or Kinzhak that nevertheless are often claimed as shot down.
Same goes for the Onyx missile when they were shot against Odessa, as far I know, not one shot down.
Yes, the problem with Onyx is that they sea-skim while also being supersonic, which makes them very hard to detect. I don't believe that Kh-22 is capable of such low-altitude flight. It comes in at more of a shallow dive, IIRC. Should be possible to detect and maybe intercept with a capable SAM system.
Supersonic cruise missiles can be harder to hit because they move quite fast and not in a ballistic arc like the Khinzal. Also this is an issue with Soviet SAM systems being unable to intercept them. Patriot wouldnt have same issues. But the Russians likely are using the Kh-22/32 on other parts of Ukraine and not Kyiv.
Nobody of my personal acquaintance wants Ukrainian government to negotiate with Putler. Such attacks on the civil targets only strengthen the anti-Russian feelings. I hope the West would be frightened by such attacks so much as to supply Ukraine with everything it needs to overcome Russia.
Air war never brings a victory. Bombing of London or Southampton, Berlin or Bremen, Kyiv or Moscow in WW2 didn't broke resistance for one sight and bring victory to another. Also, the Vietnam war is a good example. Every victory in a war achive on a ground.
Hiroshima?
Good question.
From what I remember, Hiroshima wasn't the breaking point for the Japanese militarists, but the quick succession of Nagasaki (and the threat of more atomic attacks to follow soon), plus the Soviet declaration of war and the massive attack that destroyed the Kwantung Army quickly helped bring the end of the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_War
And ever more for generations Ukraine will not deal with Russia. This will last generations
Re 59-62 claims: it looks like some sources reported total of 62 cruise missiles, while others made distinction between 59 X-101 and 3 Kalibres. Then figures were mixed up while information was spread
Hello Mr Cooper, I follow your post for quite some time now but I'm getting surprised you're now presenting the Ukrainian claims as facts. Without any kind of skepticism or evidence.
I am referring to the number of missiles shot down.
Also no words on the targets, even when Ukrainian deputies and geoconfirmed footage confirms impact on drone and armament factories.
Here's an example from an official:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0yGvATaQfvTrrgpVerZWHqFp8VTeYw8h89BZPjTRkYn5FSLfRLWLnTp1GmsH9Uz9el&id=100000419949795
Why you are so skeptical? PS ZSU says ruzzians fired at least 70 Kh-101/55 while claiming 59 as intercepted. So 11+ left are quite enough to hit M-Tac factory/warehouse and other places you mentioned.
"Why you are so skeptical ?" Sorry but the real question should be "why people aren't skeptical enough".
We are in a war, dominated by information warfare and propaganda on all side, so excuse me not to trust by default when an official statement by one side is brought up without any evidence.
Basis of skepticism : "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence".
So when I'm reading an analysis, which are usually of great quality with Mr Cooper (especially in his books, I can only but recommend them), I expect just a bit more than "Ukrainian MOD said this, so it is true by default"
I hope it clarifies my comment
We're almost two years into this (phase of the) war, so we have a lot of history of claims versus evidence. The Ukrainian claims have stood up reasonably well, many can't be proven as true, but also it's rare to find proof of false claims. The Russian claims have been utter rubbish, and proven as rubbish
So let's pretend we caught ukrainian officials on lying about how many russian missiles were shot down. What the point in this exactly? What benefits from it? Just to point finger on them and say "Ha! Liars!"?
Firstly, I call claims what they are, claims. If anybody is misunderstanding 'claims' for 'facts'... sorry, can't really help.
Secondly, regarding targets: not only me, but an entire 'group' of people is trying - for days already - to find out what are the Russians targeting, and what have they hit. With official Kyiv being zip-lip on this issue (indeed - and for understandable reasons - systematically curbing the release of any kind of related information), this is not easy.
If you're around my blog for long enough, you should know that I'm going to say more about this, as soon as I can.
It feels like the world is getting ready to explode. To many people to comfortable to care
Are you sure that was a Kinzhal ? The missile falling into water ?
Quite sure, yes.
Problem 1: there is no "West"
Problem 2: Moscow has always been part of the thing backers call "The West" - just another imperialist empire exploiting colonies.
Hence the unwillingness to back Ukraine to victory. The "West" *needs* Putin acting like this to feel important and special. It's all part of the Cold War 2 con, an attempt to push everyone into a box controlled by Transatlantic elitists who think they're going to beat China despite having no realistic plan for victory.
The West is a scam. A social pyramid scheme. Real democracies around the world unite! Ukraine can lead us all to a better world.
My goodness, did it ever stop some propagandist to create an almighty evil force.
Think of Goebbls who declared that Judaism is behind the capitalists and the bolscheviks.
Or Trump, who sees a conspiracy between republicans and Democrats that stopped his 2nd presidency
Or Netanyahu, who sees an Arabic mufti as the reason for the holocaust against Jews, ignoring that in the same death camps other groups of people (roma and sinti, socialists, etc.) got killed en masse as well
Or Hugo Chavez, who saw behind everything not working the US even it was his governments incompetence plus really stupid ideas.
God, I hate my government sometimes. I think of all that stuff we have sitting in depots rusting away. Stuff built to FIGHT THE RUSSIANS! This is what we made it for. And there it sits. Or goes to Morocco. Or gets scrapped out at the Taxpayers dime. Cripes, what a bunch of idiots. Thanks for sharing this and calling out the idiots.
It’s the same across the pond Mike. How much kit has been scrapped, dumped, given away that would materially change the battlefield for the Ukrainians.
What was that all about sending to Morocco of all places ??
I share your despair
The Brads to Morocco is a mystery. I think it was to pull them out of the RU sphere of the weapons market. I have heard that they did this so the Moroccans would send their old RU stuff to Ukraine (they did send T72s last year), but that's a poor damn trade IMHO.
IMHO it was no poor trade if you consider the time factor. In 2023 Ukraine urgently needed tanks to bolster their summer offensive and didn't have enough staff trained on Bradley. But they did have plenty of people trained on T72 and all supplies and spare parts available. Introducing a completely new tank model is always a challenge for an army even during peace time. In war it's even harder to get people trained and sufficient supplies for completely new vehicles. You can see it with the Leopard tanks. Europeans finally managed to send >100 to Ukraine. But UA only has few of them active, since the majority is always travelling back and forth from Poland for maintenance and repair.
Good point, but damn 500 Brads would be nice now.
Agreed, the already existing Bradleys in Ukraine are proving quite a worthy platform. If Ukraine had five hundred of these (and the personnel to man these), it would be much more formidable (I think).
Things are changing by the day in the front. I am reading about new Russian drones starting to receive autonomous operation, and that may be a really big factor.
It's the phosphates. Phosphates are necessary for production of fertilizers. Fertilizers are crucial for production of food.
Morocco is one of biggest exporters of phosphates. It's such an important source of them, that the West is happy to watch the other way while Morocco occuppied Western Sahara, then exiled most of its population, and keeps the territory under military occupation ever since - all because Western Sahara is one of Moroccan sources of phosphates, too (in addition to mines inside Morocco).
This issue is so important, that both the official Washington and Brüssel are ignoring decades-old US involvement in Algerian oil/gas-sector - and remains staunchly supportive of Morocco even when this get caught while spying on several top politicians in the EU, massively violating human rights, misusing immigrants to exercise pressure upon the EU etc., etc., etc.
That 1k148 was only worth $250 million 😂😂😂 Putrid must be having a total meltdown like Hitler did in his last days in his bunker
Tom - a fair assessment.
I’m wondering if/when the Ukrainians start flying their F-16s whether we will see an increase in AWACs flying along the Polish border to assist them.
In an earlier piece I think from Don, it is true that they need the synergy of ELiNT systems etc but I do wonder if the radar range is downplayed and they will be more than a match for their foes..
AWACS over Poland was especially important during the first month of the war. Now its too far from the front, only AWACS orbits over S-E Romania can provide useful warning or targeting data. Word on the street is that Australian Wedgetail deployed here had an especially non indirect role in the recent shootdowns of Su-34s.
I am wondering how long it will take before Ukraine will stage an attack on infrastructure of Moscow (assuming they have the means). If we, the West will keep pulling our support, then Ukraine may eventually have to resort to hard attacks on the civilian infrastructure.
Attacking Russian infrastructure, other than military logistical targets such as bridges, is a slow route to victory.
Better to focus on targets that will accumulate to a collapse of the front line in 2024.
Wdym? Ukraine striking russia military infrastructure, including military infrastructure near moscow like all the time since russian full scale invasion started. If you were confused with west "prohibiting" Ukraine from striking russia terrirories, this "prohibition" was made only for western weapons. Ukraine can do whatever it wants with domestic weapons and strike whatever military target in russia. Literally no-one in the world can "prohibit" Ukraine from doing this, as long as Ukraine hitting military targers.
Striking civilian infrastructure is just wasting of time and ammo.
This was another big bunch of various missiles. Most shot down, some got through. The results seems meagre compared to the effort, at least in direct casualities as well as damage to the infrastructure. Were there any major black outs or damage to production. I cannot see this stopping the Ukrainian in fighting. But I understand that there are lots of resorces used in defending cities. Of course necessary, but it seems to me that thw major result for Russia in firing these missiles actually is to keep Ukrainian air defense away from the front. But can Russia really sustain this rate of fire?
From what I can understand, North Korea and Iran are supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, so it's not only Russia production that needs to be exhausted, but also other countries...
In my opinion, sending a large amount of ATACMS (the 300 km editions) and lifting off restrictions is probably the only way to hit hard the Russian military machine... (and lots of artillery and ammunition etc).
It's quite irritating to see the typical political bickering in USA Congress/Senate blocking the western support for Ukraine (and let's not forget that Hungary is to assume the presidency of the EU soon...)
DUDE!!!!!! You have not been this sarcastic....this caustic in quite awhile. Such fresh ideas and nuisances and waffles as to astound the mind.....if we had one. Be well my friend :o)