No doubt Gepards are great in this role. But there aren't enough. And while I'm just guessing, it might be Gepards aren't mobile enough. Shaheds will take different paths to their targets and being able to pack everything in a few civilian SUVs can get you to the assumed path of a Shahed faster than a tracked vehicle.
I think we now have an answer to that - the Russians changed tactics and the drones fly much higher than before. Any gun .50 cal or smaller is now worthless and that made up the bulk of defenses before. Add to that more drones and more decoys. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/54598
Unfortunately events of the world have sent oil prices much higher. This is going to help Russia whose financial situation was getting desperate.
Not long ago Ukraine agreed to a US deal where neither side attacked the other's energy infrastructure. But Russia has violated that agreement many times in the recent upsurge in drone attacks. Now it looks like Ukraine is retaliating. Agents have hit a power substation in Kaliningrad that powered the local defense industry. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/54550
Speaking of pro-Russia fascists and paid ops, Tulsi Gabbard put out a pro-Russia video trying to convince Americans to prevent Nuclear Holocaust by not provoking Russia, abandon Ukraine, and tell NATO to f-off. Is it subtext? Yes, but unlike our DEI poster I'm educated to read subtext.
One set of news that I may have missed. Ukraine no longer holds land inside Russia proper? Russia was able to push them out of Kurks?
Yes, they physically are out of Kursk, but there are some grey zones and Ukraine has been pummeling some command centres inside Kursk using French Hammers.
Did Russia's Ambassador to the UK accidentally verify Ukraine's estimates for their casualty figures for this year? In an interview with CNN, the Ambassador said Russia was recruiting 50k-60k new soldiers a month and that they had about 600k soldiers in Ukraine. That number is 100k less than what Putin said was in Ukraine in June 2024. Assuming that any of those numbers are true (Hint: They aren't) and considering Russia is not honoring the end of deployment contracts, the only way Russia could have 100k less soldiers in Ukraine than they did back in 2024 is if they were losing more than 50k-60k soldiers a month. https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-93/
*patpatpat* My level of caring is extremely low. The only thing worse than Russians is Grammar Nazis. Especially when the grammar they are being Nazis over is pedantic and only matters to other Grammar Nazis.
I would think the presence of real Nazis is worse. Let's get rid of those here in the US and then we can bicker over the inbred cousin version.
Russia is continuing to sell bonds at a steady pace, but the rate they are selling is important. The vertical lines are different estimates for how much interest Russia is paying on existing bonds. The black line is the cumulative value of the new bonds Russia is selling. So far the new bonds are only serving to pay back the interest on the old bonds. Russia has already built up an almost 5 trillion deficit and it's probably going to double that by year's end when it has to be paid. Russia is probably going to use the same trick as the last few years (print money, give it to the banks, and have them buy a lump of bonds) but this year's effort is going to be many times the size of previous year's.
Moscow Times - Nabiullina announced the exhaustion of the last resources of the Russian economy They aren't going to get anywhere. Putin has already chosen war over everything.
The president of Sberbank said that investment projects in private industry has pretty much stopped. The only business loaning the bank is doing is refinancing old loans. https://www-moscowtimes-ru.translat...l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Which is not to imply that current bond selling isn't financed this way. For the last few months the Russian government has been conducting REPO auctions every time they need to sell bonds.
Not true. Even today, Ukraine is holding two pieces of land in Kursk area with combined size of about 16 square kilometers. One - to the west of Sudzha and one - to the West of Tyotkino.
As you may or may not know, Major Robert Brovdi - known as "Madyar", leader of a drone unit famed for his very frequent and entertaining social media posts of his unit's actions - was made head of all Ukrainian drone operations at the beginning of June. His priorities are unifying tactics and operations. Recently there was a post on Russian Telegram complaining about how Ukraine is now spending a great deal of effort into finding and taking out Russian drone operators. Sounds like he's doing some good in his new job.
Another large Russian train carrying fuel was hit by Ukrainian forces north of Melitopol. It is said 11 tanker cars are burning, which is a fraction of the tanks being pulled in this train but hopefully they can keep hitting it.