All the things that never were, lies in the russian media
(german captions but english spoken text)

Russian TV Show 'Fake News' Deconstructs Kremlin's Disinformation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvC66iTtEc4

^ Why am I not surprised?

President Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended the head of Ukraine's spy agency (SBU) and the prosecutor general, citing many cases of treason in the two powerful organisations.

He said more than 60 former employees were now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied areas.

A total of 651 collaboration and treason cases had been opened against law enforcement officials, he added.

The officials, Ivan Bakanov and Iryna Venediktova, have not commented.

In a video address late on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said: "Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state... pose very serious questions to the relevant heads [of the two organisations]."

"Each of these questions will receive a proper answer," the Ukrainian president added.

In a later appearance on Ukrainian TV, Andriy Smirnov, one of Mr Zelensky's top advisers, clarified that the officials have not been fired, as initially suggested, but merely removed pending an investigation.

"In order to prevent the potential influence of these two officials on criminal proceedings, which are being investigated in relation to SBU employees who are suspected of cooperation with the aggressor country, and the same applies to the prosecutor's office, the president made appropriate decisions," Mr Smirnov said.

The removal of SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Mr Zelensky, follows the high-profile arrest of a former SBU regional head in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. Oleh Kulinych is suspected of treason.

"Everyone who together with him was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable," Mr Zelensky said. "It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of co-operation with the Russian special services."

Senior intelligence officials based in Kherson have also been charged and Mr Zelensky suggested that further action would be taken against other SBU officers.

It has long been assumed Ukraine had a problem with Russian infiltration of its security services and in his speech Mr Zelensky sought to lay out the impact of repeated security breaches.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62202078

You forget to say about the journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, she is free now after she said Putin is a killer...........!, curious no !?

Maybe too famous to be vanished just so?
She was reportedly "detained and led to a white van" before some interrogation, no one knew anything until now. I guess she got a stern warning at least. She should be careful, no one is famous enough not to be pursued.

Putin is a killer and she is lucky to be famous enough not to be disappeared into the Gulag.


Regarding Joiner, I support the effort to get her out of that horrible excuse for a country but I wonder about other not so famous Americans also held by the Putin regime like Paul Whelan for example.


https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/polit...ent/index.html

Total combat losses of Russian Federation since beginning of war - about 38,450 people, 220 planes, 188 helicopters, 1,687 tanks and 3,886 armored vehicles.

News Censor.NET War in Ukraine

The Russian invaders, who invaded the territory of Ukraine, continue to suffer losses. As of the morning of July 18, the loss of enemy personnel is approximately 38,450.

This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to the press center of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As noted, the total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 18.07 are approximately:

personnel - about 38,450 (+150) people were eliminated,

tanks - 1687 (+3) units,

armored combat vehicles - 3886 (+7) units,

artillery systems - 849 (+3) units,

multiple launch rocket system - 248 (+0) units,

air defense equipment - 113 (+3) units,

aircraft - 220 (+0) units,

helicopters - 188 (+0) units,

UAV of operational-tactical level - 690 (+2),

cruise missiles - 166 (+0),

ships/boats - 15 (+0) units,

automotive equipment and tank trucks - 2753 (+7) units,

special equipment - 70 (+2).

Russian forces are moving the train offload points out of HIMARS range conclusion is the transport times have doubled, so they need twice the amount of trucks to be able to keep up the rate of delivery.

Shoigu issued command to all fieldf commanders to absolutely prioritize the destruction of Ukrainian long range artillery and missiles.


Moral of the story: Russians do not like HIMARS and 777 and MLRS.



Conclusion: send Ukraine more. Much more. Make russians dream of them every night.


Can production of these be activated again?

curious what will come out of this meeting

There is a bit of frustration regarding the russian "Kilo" subs, indicriminately shooting Kalibr missiles into ukrainian cities.
https://www.navyrecognition.com/inde...submarine.html
If we cannot track and destroy these things without having ships in the vicinity, this is basically a declaration of bankruptcy.
I know that they are silent and theoretically able to stay up to 260 hours submerged and 45 days overall patrol time, however their submerged operational radius should not be that big.

Could we detect them snorkeling?
How about a net of passive/active stay-in-place sonobuoys dropped by helicopters.
Self-activating loitering torpedos tuned on their noise signature.
Why are they not attacked when being rearmed in Sevastopol?
There is some growing fury about this, and not only in our "club".

Like Kertch bridge: range. They cannot reach the place currently. Might become possible if they manage to retake their southern coast. In a straight line, Odessa is 300+ km from Sevastopol. The Harpoons they got from Denmark and that get launched from 4x launchers on trucks cannot cover that distance, most versions of the AGM-84 are in the range of 150-220km range. I dont think Denmark got the most recent ones either.

Sonobuys from helicopter needs platforms in the vicinity that can make use of their pings and data. NATO helcioters dping that would mean that NATO enters the war. If the Ukrianioans learn to conduct such ASW operations, they would expose their helicopters to Russian air defence fire.

The only way for NATO would be to run a hunter killer sub in the region, sink the Kilos (if possible, that is...) and then officially denying that one has a sub in the region. Russia does such denial tactics all the time, but it would not buy them if they are being used against it, of course. So again there would be a high risk that a formal war between NATO and Russia becomes the consequence. The Turks would be ropyally pissed, since the straights are closed for military traffic of EVERY nationality currently, not just Russians. At least that is how I understood the treaty to work. We should not worry for that treaty maybe, but the Turks will. If only to stage another of their drama stunts again that brag with how indispensable they think they are.


Our treaties with Russia in general I do not care for anymore. They have all become obsolete, as far as I'm concerned.



Whether I would take the risk of a UK or US (nobody else would will to even just consider that) sub operation in the Black Sea or not, does not matter. We all know that no government politician in the West would take that risk, and that is what forms the official policy.

Here is a list of what type of Harpoon Denmark have and the year they got them

Ships version (RGM-84A): 1977
Air version (AGM-84A): 1979
Sub version (UGM-84A): 1981
SLAM (AGM-84E): 1990
SLAM-ER (AGM-84H): 2000
SLAM-ER ATA (AGM-84K): 2002

Markus

I take it the Kilos have manpads, but then helicopters have flares and decoys. Ukraine has helicopters, i do not know about any ASW systems though. Probably not easy to equip and lacking training.
No chance for a nuclear sub to get past Istanbul, also a ('n even modern US) nuclear sub is noisier than a Kilo. You would need a modern 'conventional' submarine, and i see no way to get such to the Black sea.
Radar, sonar buoys and properly equipped Helicopters could do it, maybe with Snake island as a base.
Or reactivate the 30th flotilla. Getting subs to the black sea overland has been done before :03:

Seriously, Kilos have been introduced in the 1990ies. 30 years and no idea to find them?
Armed drones with radar?

I am worried about LR SAMs and Russian interceptors.


If you can fill the sky with them 24/7 to not miss the Kilos snorkeling, while covering a significant part of the Black sea. Some hundreds should do, I assume. ;)


---------


Easier it would be if the ukraine gets ASMs of sufficient range. Indeed they have threatened today that they would attack the fleet in Sevastopol and strike targets all on Crimean territory once they have gotten such missiles. Tells me this: they want such weapons, but do not yet have them.