Russian Special Military Operation in the Ukraine - Mark IV: The Partitioning of Discussion

happy easter everyone https://iz.ru/1674696/2024-03-31/vk...ergetiki-i-gazodobyvaiushchei-otrasli-ukrainy

The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) launched a group strike on the energy infrastructure and gas production facilities of Ukraine. This was reported on March 31 by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The strike was carried out by high-precision long-range air-launched weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

"As a result of the strike, the work of defense industry enterprises for the manufacture and repair of weapons, military equipment and ammunition was disrupted," the ministry said.
 

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On a side note. Yen is being massively shorted as investors are betting on it devaluing. This has led to Bank of Japan to increase interest rates for the first time in 15+ years and to, to start interventions, like buying Yen on the market for its (massive) USD reserves. That, in turn, is not so good for US obligations and their interest rates..




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I feel like shorting a nations currency is a rather evil move.

Has Russia bombed all of Ukraine's power sources? Will they be making sure that power lines from the neighboring countries don't feed power in anyways?
 
Czech mystery shell saga continues:

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Several countries have already contributed to the Czech Republic's initiative to procure ammunition for Ukraine, but funds are still insufficient, said Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur as reported by ERR.

"If we're talking about a million rounds, that translates to around three billion euros. There are different calibers, cheaper ones to a lesser extent. It would be great if we could get it all done. Currently, it can be said that there is a larger shortfall in funding than in ammunition," said the Estonian official.

Efforts to find the missing funds are primarily focused within the countries of Northern and Central Europe. France, which has stated its readiness to make a greater contribution, needs to be discussed separately, he added.

Pevkur mentioned that it is difficult to predict when the ammunition might reach the front. Some of it may arrive within a few months while the rest might not be available until the end of the year.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas expressed some concern, noting that there are reports from Ukraine indicating that the ammunition is not reaching its destination.

"If we can still execute these plans and deliver them to Ukraine, and if Ukraine is able to strike back, then it will have an impact," she observed.
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Czech mystery shell saga continues:

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It’d be pretty hilarious if it turned out that the Czech had made the whole thing up and just used the cash for some highways or something.

Even better if they just started pretending that they have no idea what the Estonians and Fjeld-Niggers are talking about: “Shells? Money? So you’re saying our government just happened to find some shells laying around somewhere? That sounds like Russian disinformation, not gonna lie!”
 
Imagine russian road. Now imagine a russian road that hasn't been maintained for 2 winters. Now imagine a russian road that wasn't maintained for 2 winters that has ~20 ton vehicles running up and down on it all year around. This is the quality of most ukrainian highways right now. I doubt a duster can take off of that.

Theres two thing stopping them actually.
1) Lack of trained personnel to deploy the runway.
2) Drone and satellite surveillance. By the time you reached the point of deployment, your enemy already aimed their artillery on you.
Edit: three actually
3) russian air superiority
I can't attest to the state of Ukraine's highways, maybe they're to worn out, maybe not. I know they have roads, and other militaries seem to believe using highways as runways is a good idea. As to the marston matting, you really don't need "highly trained" personal to put down steel mats.

that huge big air intake just above the tarmac, doesnt that kinda require that your runway is clean-room-clean and nothing bigger than a sand corn can be swiwelled up and brought into the turbine?
And if you take off from a third-world-country highway like ukraine completely covered with golf-ball sized rocks and shit, this will be like last time concord took off.
Like I get ukies aren't the best people in the world, but I bet they can sweep a highway/road clean without much issue.

How are you going to refuel and rearm the F16 after it lands on random Ukrainian highway?
Here's a vid of the Norwegians doing it with F-35s in Finland. At the end of the video they say F-16s can land on roads.
Not that hard to do.

As to the Russian response I don't know or really care. The question was if it could be done or not. I think it can. Biden and Nuland and everyone else have made it clear that this is a war to the last Ukrainian. When your government doesn't care about losses, who cares that the enemy gets 9 out of 10 of your makeshift airfields before they can be used. Or the aircraft promptly get shot down after getting near the front lines. This is Germany circa 1945 for all intents and purposes, as over used as the analogue is. Nazis were still flying planes even up to the surrender. Did it make a difference no, did they do it, yes.
 
Here's a vid of the Norwegians doing it with F-35s in Finland. At the end of the video they say F-16s can land on roads.
F16's were designed with the ability to land on roads. In an emergency. The only way they're taking off again is in a perfectly curated test environment. Maybe once. Certainly not in wartime conditions. In order to be refueled, rearmed and whatever maintenance has to be done between flights is with all that support infrastructure being planned, pre-staged and ready. Then there's no point calling it a road, it's an easily-targeted airfield.
 
Here's a vid of the Norwegians doing it with F-35s in Finland. At the end of the video they say F-16s can land on roads.
The issue isn’t really whether it can land or take off from roads.

A 747 could land on a highway presuming its big enough. That doesn’t mean you can have an airport on an interstate because of all the other issues.

Planes, especially F16s or F35s need maintenance. Climate controlled hangars. Fuel. Weapons.

Theoretically you can maybe base it on a highway one time, but it won’t be long before the khinzals start flying and/or the lack of proper maintenance fucks it all up.

F16's were designed with the ability to land on roads. In an emergency. The only way they're taking off again is in a perfectly curated test environment. Maybe once. Certainly not in wartime conditions. In order to be refueled, rearmed and whatever maintenance has to be done between flights is with all that support infrastructure being planned, pre-staged and ready. Then there's no point calling it a road, it's an easily-targeted airfield.
Exactly. They can land on a highway once.

Then a big ass truck needs to show up and wheel it off to an airbase for maintenance, refueling, rearming and all that.

This isn’t 1945 where you can base some ME109s on a highway, and hide some fuel drums and MG ammo under an overpass.
 
Ukraine has unleashed their highly-trained lesbian killers. Be afraid, vatniks, be very afraid.

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New navy seal-style copypasta: "If I tell you the number of my confirmed kills, I'm putting a bounty on my head."

Also lol: "Please withhold my surname for the safety of my family ... in the article you're publishing that includes a well-lit, high-resolution front-facing photograph of my face!"
 
Ukraine has unleashed their highly-trained lesbian killers. Be afraid, vatniks, be very afraid.

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So are these journalists just bored, or do they think this'll change anything? The entire thing about snipers is they pick off a few targets then GTFO, or they die messily to artillery. They're a nightmare on the individual level, but a mild annoyance at the higher level of strategy.

And I don't even know what a "Top Machine-Gunner" is, a successful machine gunner just puts heads down for a while so the maneuver elements can do something about the enemy - Any kills are lucky at best, and if your MG is holding fire to try and guarantee a kill, they're not doing their job.

If you're gonna write a fluff piece about some soldiers, at least try and understand the effect and impact of what they're actually doing. Propping a military up with heroes and protagonists is a recipe for demoralization when it turns out bullets don't respect the LARP.
 
Ukraine has unleashed their highly-trained lesbian killers. Be afraid, vatniks, be very afraid.
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Look at the size of that whale.

*Certainly not in wartime conditions.*
*Maintenance, climate controlled hangars, fuel and weapons.*
Y'all are greatly over estimating the amount of care these aircraft need, and its not like the aircraft can't be flown back to Poland if they need serious work.
 
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