I suspect Biden didn't want to make that announcement right when they are trying to agree to fund the government and finalise the National Defense Authorization Act which only passed the house by one vote thanks to GOP fvckery
Poland has stopped supplying Ukraine with weapons over a grain dispute https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66873495
This was covered by Obrien - it seems the Poles are saying they need to get paid/compensated as they gave way more than their fair share of stuff
He's saying they gave away what they can store out of their existing inventory but they're not going to send the new stuff they're buying because they have two borders to protect.
So Obrien covered a very anorak but important topic - artillery ammo It seems Russia used as much as 11m shells in 2022 and 7m so far this year. They claim to have ramped up their production from 1m to 2m per year - highly unlikely. But even assuming it is 1.5m that is way less than what they have been using to date. Like 4-7x less. Ukraine is currently using around 8K fires per day in their offensive which works out at 3m per year. Also not sustainable from production. tldr; the massed artillery fires that Russia has relied on simply won't be possible once their stockpile is burnt - which is likely already upon us - hence begging to the norks. Sometime in the coming months Ukraine will also run low on shells - then both sides will have to live inside production limits
The aggression is likely to ground to a halt in a couple of months anyway. That will give both sides some time to restock.
yeah but production levels are nowhere near 'restock' level Russia is making enough for about 4K shells per day so to save up 250k for a one month offensive would take 2 months of not firing at all. And 8k per day for Russia is far less than what we saw to date - they have relied on massive superiority in fires. Basically the style of warfare will change, and accurate arty will be much more important
This whole grain/weapons rambling from Poland is just political home election rethorics. Changes nothing in reality.
Good news on this front. Zelenskyi vetoed the amendments in the original bill and then wielding the power of popular outrage went on a campaign telling the parliamentarians how they fraked up. A new bill with all the transparency put back in was reintroduced and it passed overwhelmingly on the 20th.
Russia has banned exporting refined oil products like gasoline and diesel. It might be to save these for military purposes as moving through mud is more energy intensive than moving over hard ground. However, Russia's internal market for these items is all screwed up and it may just be to force gasoline and diesel producers to sell to Russian citizens at a loss.
I don't know what this means, but I think is a good thing. Pentagon exempts Ukraine operations from potential government shutdown https://t.co/6FzBsBCWAB— POLITICO (@politico) September 21, 2023
Like many places, Estonia started taking down old Soviet monuments after the invasion. They recently removed a mass burial site at Narva of Red Army troops from 1918. Except they found the site had no actual bodies. https://www.nelli.ee/monumental-soviet-mass-grave-in-estonia-contained-no-human-remains And before clicking on the link, know that this Estonian news site has a rather... continental view of pin up girls.
So I was premature when I posted this the other day. Ukraine hit the airfield south of Yevpatoriya hard last night.
I would have expected it to be exempt anyway. Certain types of Pentagon activities (including mine, thank goodness) are considered spent funds when the money moves from its original Pentagon funding account to another Pentagon account associated with the activity.
Sorry, I'm still not getting it. I see one pic of one location where there are three parked aircraft, plus a second pic of a different location where there are two parked aircraft. What am I supposed to infer from the five planes?