Ukraine Invasion: Part 26

[MagicFox]

Here we are, on top of our rock

. It isn’t modernized Soviet tanks or Russia’s dated air force that most concern the United States and NATO; it’s Russia’s submarines, integrated air and missile systems, electronic warfare, antisatellite systems and diverse nuclear arsenal. These capabilities, which have gone almost completely untouched during the war, remain available to the Kremlin.

Reasonable comment though I think you can justifiably raise questions over their Electronic Warfare capability, at least at the tactical/battlefield level, since it appears the Ukrainians are still to operate drones with relative freedom.

I feel so sad when I look at my children and think about the children in Ukraine. The world is a different place now. Lviv has staged another art display, the last one had empty prams lined up in a square with one for each child killed in the first weeks of war. This one has several school buses, with 243 stuffed toys on the seats, one for each child killed in the last 100 days of war.

Reasonable comment though I think you can justifiably raise questions over their Electronic Warfare capability,

I have seen a few reports of electronic jamming bringing down drones but luckily not many so it seems the Russians aren't that good at it.

The US and UK are considering developing a different form of GPS though since the Russians have been jamming it quite effectively in a number of places, along the East European countries iirc.

I was struck my this sentence in a FT article
“The west is starting to feel UKraine fatigue” by Edward Luce.
www.ft.com/content/80faf9af-d11f-476f-8fc7-88d2c28e3620

The UK, meanwhile, is causing irritation in Washington over its habit of boasting about things it has not delivered

This sounds very Boris like:!that he has spoken up powerfully in the defence of Ukraine but not necessarily followed through. The article did not go into details.
I wonder if military people on here know in what ways we have not delivered?

I saw the whole article for free by putting the title into a browser. I could copy and paste the whole piece, but am not sure that is allowed for a paper with a paywall.

Yeah they're very effective at jamming GPS here so developing a different form sounds wise.

GPS jamming has been an issue for a while as I think we discussed some time back, depending on the application it might either be a game stopper or a minor inconvenience leading to some degradation in navigation accuracy...

As far as UK/US developing alternative systems, there are already several alternative Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in use, such as the Russians own GLONASS (which some GPS receivers are already able to utilise if signals from GPS satellites are not useable) and then there's the European system Galileo, not sure if the Russians have tried jamming that one yet..

Interesting interview from Meduza: "The story of Pyotr Mylnikov, the first Russian convicted of sharing 'fake news' about the war"

meduza.io/en/feature/2022/06/03/if-you-get-cockroaches-in-your-house-you-should-poison-them

@MagicFox · Today 11:28
Interesting interview from Meduza: "The story of Pyotr Mylnikov, the first Russian convicted of sharing 'fake news' about the war"

meduza.io/en/feature/2022/06/03/if-you-get-cockroaches-in-your-house-you-should-poison-them

Thank you, it really is interesting to hear directly from people involved that we would never normally hear about.

Often even incidental things (not the war directly) someone says are memorable. For example, he mentioned how a visit to Shanghai revealed how backwards Russia is in its infrastructure.

Oddly enough, just the other day, seeing scenes of a large city in China coming out of lockdown, I thought it looked very impressive…. when did they do all that?

Last couple decades. My companion travels out there regularly and he says the changes in the last 10 years have been like a magician waved a wand. There has been and is a price, but they have achieved complete transformations in a ery short time

Just shows what you can achieve if you use resources wisely rather than just lining your pockets, like Russian government does.

Although China has its own problems with corruption, fundamentally it feels like it is more run by technocrats, rather than kleptocrats. Its Belt & Road initiative is quite impressive (which I am sure are not without its own problems). To my untrained eye, but China appears to have achieved a lot of major infrastructure developments within and outside China

Yes, a LOT outside! And growing, alongside a related dependence on China

David Rothkopf: "The US has shown leadership and great diplomatic skill during the first 100 days of the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, if we get the next, more difficult phase of the war wrong, that may not matter. My thoughts on what we have to do next."

www.thedailybeast.com/how-biden-can-help-ukraine-win-the-long-war

Thread on the whole Turkey blocking Finland and Sweden to NATO situation
twitter.com/jmkorhonen/status/1532643396774412291

And while I'm at it, new thread: Ukraine Invasion: Part 27 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4561808-ukraine-invasion-part-27

Good (and frustrating) thread @Natsku

Quite frustrating. Starting to worry a bit now that things will get delayed long enough to be risky

Oh I don't doubt there are issues, but when you look at Russia's smaller regional towns, you can't help but wonder what the hell has gone so wrong!