A lot of news out of Ukraine in the last week+ besides the bomber strikes and the Kerch Strait Bridge attack.
The Su-35 was shot down over Kursk Oblast, indicating Ukrainian planes are now more comfortable operating near the front line than previously.
A lot has been made of a fourth generation fighter taking down a fifth generation fighter, but America’s kit has pretty much always been better than Soviet/Russian kit, and the Su-35 is more of a “4.5 Generation” fighter anyway, and suffers from a lack of stealth and high maintenance costs.
Caveat: Reporting from Ukraine has lots of detailed information about how particular battles in the war unfold, almost none of which can be independently verified.
Looks like it blew up real good…
Information is sketchy, and a location hasn’t been released or pinpointed yet. But using grain cars to launch drones to attacks targets on the same train is going to have Russian counterintelligence crawling out of their skins yet again. They already had units stopping shipping trucks after Operation Spiderweb, and now they have to do the same for train cars? That’s going to have Russians slowing down their own logistics all over the country hunting secret drone nests.
Russia has lost 996,150 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on June 8.
The number includes 1,120 casualties that Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 10,911 tanks, 22,748 armored fighting vehicles, 51,225 vehicles and fuel tanks, 28,892 artillery systems, 1,410 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,183 air defense systems, 414 airplanes, 337 helicopters, 39,651 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
Such estimates should always be treated with grains of salt.
That’s the news I found worth rounding up. Feel free to share anything you think I missed in the comments.
Tags: aircraft, drones, F-16, Foreign Policy, France, Kharkiv, Kursk Oblast, Military, Reporting from Ukraine, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Su-35, Suchomimus, trains, Ukraine, video, Zaporizhia
None of the Russian feeds I read confirm any of these stories. They do note the Su-35 claim, but do not give it any credence. The Russians have shot down four F-16s since August, but SAMs were likely responsible. Less than credible reports indicate the latest F-16 kill was due to an R-37 AAM, but no one in authority is talking.
The Russians have not been using many fighters in the close proximity of Ukraine, rather tasking them with drone hunting deeper within Russia. The MiG-31s and Su-34s have been the aircraft of choice used on the perimeter of Ukraine, to launch heavy FAB gravity bombs with UMPK guided glide conversion kits.
The Vovchansk front has been quiet since September. Russian Lieutenant-General Apti Alaudinov has stated that Russian forces will no longer engage in urban warfare to avoid the large losses that “are inevitable in street battles.” So Russian forces could well have run into Légion étrangère troops during a flanking operation.
The Russians seem to be pushing into Ukraine all along the eastern borders of Ukraine, but not to any great depth. They seem to be creating a no man’s land which will separate opposing forces after some kind of peace agreement.
The Ukrainians and Russians have been engaged in a railway war for the last month. Most of the Russian strikes over 06/07 June were directed at Ukrainian rail yards, which are now a mess.
A more important note: The Iranians claim, and have provided some indirect evidence, that they downed an Israeli F-35i yesterday on the Syrian-Israeli border. For some reason, the Israelis broke off their 25/26 October F-35i attack on Iran. Several sources indicate that Israeli pilots in October believed that they were “locked on” by Iranian engagement RADAR beyond the range of the ROCKS ALBM missiles which Israel uses to suppress enemy RADARs.
This could be very bad news, if true.
These reports don’t need a grain of salt but a whole saltshaker dumped on them. A report I read said that there were one million Russian casualties with 250,000 dead. Are you sure you haven’t confused dead with casualties?
If there are that many dead in a country of 145 million, where are all the grieving parents, wives and sweethearts? Where are the funerals and gravesites? Putin is a dictator, but he can’t hide that many deaths.
You need to be more skeptical. I think Russia is winning the war but Ukraine has better propaganda.
“These reports don’t need a grain of salt but a whole saltshaker dumped on them. A report I read said that there were one million Russian casualties with 250,000 dead. Are you sure you haven’t confused dead with casualties?”
The Russians and Ukrainians conduct a monthly exchange of fallen soldiers. Since Bakhmut, the numbers run 700 to 1,200 Ukrainian dead for 20 – 50 Russian dead, every month. The Ukrainians limit the number of their own fallen soldiers they will accept monthly to around 1,000. Probably to damp political unrest on the home front. The Russians have always accepted their dead in their entirity.
The Russians have over 6,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers on ice which Ukraine agreed to accept under Article 23 of the recent Istanbul meeting memorandum. They have now refused to accept the first delivery of 1,212 bodies.
The latest Istanbul meeting memorandum also called for the exchange of 1,200 POWs from each side. Russia submitted a list of 642 Russian soldiers which they know to be the last in Ukrainian captivity. The Russians offered the Ukrainians any 1,200 Ukrainians (of the approximately 10,000 POWs they hold) they would choose for those 642 Russians. The Ukrainians also welched on this deal.
The Russians further offered to repatriate all the wounded Ukrainian POWs they hold, without requiring any exchange. Numbers were not specified. The Ukrainians rejected this, despite the prospect of those wounded getting superior medical care in NATO country hospitals.
“None of the Russian feeds I read confirm any of these stories.”
The Russian press pool reporting these losses all simultaneously fell from a hi-rise apartment. It seems the directions to locate an elevator were somehow placed above an open windows, and one-by-one, the reporters stepped through it, like obedient mobiks.
For now, you will be unable to trust the video evidence of your own lying eyes until The Party officially denies what you have seen.
“I read said that there were one million Russian casualties with 250,000 dead. Are you sure you haven’t confused dead with casualties?”
Desertions, MIAs, KIAs, and wounded/disabled are all included in the casualty listings.
BTW, have you checked the Chinese-made computer chip in your Russian-to-English translator lately? The syntax is slightly out of adjustment.
“The Russians and Ukrainians conduct a monthly exchange of fallen soldiers. Since Bakhmut, the numbers run 700 to 1,200 Ukrainian dead for 20 – 50 Russian dead.”
Ukrainians have been using the dead bodies of mobiks as cheap fertilize for their sunflower fields. Russia plays along with this deception so as to avoid payment of survivor benefits to war widows.
The Ladas that were promised to them have all been sent to the front lines and are being used as troop transportation. The poor widows’ grief is undoubtedly lessened by knowing that their brave and loyal husbands killed 2-300 Ukro-Nazis apiece with their bare hands before surrendering their noble lives for the lasting Glory of Holy Mother Russia.
“They [FSB] already had units stopping shipping trucks after Operation Spiderweb, and now they have to do the same for train cars? That’s going to have Russians slowing down their own logistics all over the country hunting secret drone nests.”
Wagner mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, once leveled accusations against unnamed officials for denying his fighters sufficient ammunition to take Bakhmut. This resulted in his leading an insurrectionary force into Russia, which met with nearly no resistance.
Now imagine Army leadership being slow-walked by the necessity of examining all trucks and trains for drone nests–the tension between Army requirements for rapid resupply and the slow and methodical search for teeny, tiny drones.
This is Prighozhin x10, except the Army is far less competent than Wagner.
I expect this will result in a quasi-truce, where the pace of advance will slow to a stop and Putin will declare it to be evidence of his peaceful intentions toward Ukraine.
“Russia plays along with this deception so as to avoid payment of survivor benefits to war widows.”
Ukrainian dissidents claim the reason that Ukraine will not accept more than 1,000 soldiers’ bodies per month, or the 6,000 surplus the Russians are attempting to return, is the $ 367,000.00 payout Ukrainian law grants to the survivors of each dead soldier.
I can help you with the math. 6,000 Ukrainian corpses will cost UA just over $ 2.2 billion, a substantial amount of graft which OD Napoleon and his clique will have to forego.
Malthus.
Why did you incorrectly quote what I wrote. I wrote “A report I read said there were one million Russian casualties with 250,000 dead.” My sentence is correct. But you chose to misquote it and then criticize it. You must be a liberal Democrat.
“You must be a liberal Democrat.”
Clever retort! You must be Shawn Hannity.
“”I can help you with the math. 6,000 Ukrainian corpses will cost UA just over $ 2.2 billion, a substantial amount of graft which OD Napoleon and his clique will have to forego.”
Thanks for the math lesson. It was worth at least 2-3 kopeks but I will pay you five. Your check is in the mail. Oh, wait! Does mail still get delivered to your shabby hovel or did Putin seize the delivery mules and send them to the front lines as troop transportation?
If Putin can demonstrate he possesses $2.2 billion in Ukranian corpses, why doesn’t he just give their bodues to the International Red Cross forr the war widows to retrieve? This would surely put Zelenskii in an embarrassing position and result in bankruptcy for the Ukrainian regime.
Perhaps Putin can’t do maths. Why don’t you offer him your inestimable calculating skills? He may reward you with an increase in your beet rations.
“Clever retort! You must be Shawn Hannity.”
You need spelling lessons, in addition to basic arithmetic lessons.
P.S. – Putin cannot claim the $ 2.2 billion, only the survivors can. Putin reclaims all Russian soldiers’ bodies ASAP and pays survivor’s benefits immediately. Note this difference between Putin and OD Napoleon.
Malthus,
Why haven’t you apologized for misquoting me?