Yeah, no, that isn't a ballistic missile, it is not a Tochka-U, unless it was a dud, and if it had speed brakes and a fanjet tied to it. It was a cruise missile, and there is... one type of those that exists. Repurposed.
The tank breach is quite stunning in that video, you can see the deformation and the release of a fuel spray, it was it's very own FAE (thermobaric) explosion. That wasn't a big warhead, it was a goldilocks size, just right for the job size. The rupture at the base of the tank can be seen after the small strike explosion, the rest of it is the secondary going off, impressively too.
Expect GPS and COSPAS to start to get messed up now by our friends in the Krimmin (a palace for Kriminals). That means we all get messed up, so carry a map in the car, and a compass in the plane.
What exactly Frogfoots can do beating up the neighborhood is lost upon me. They certainly scare the birdlife there, hope that gets reciprocated, the birds didn't do anything to them... A show of force there, well, I guess it makes the natives happy to be startled by the lads thundering overhead at mil power in a ground attack aircraft. I don't get it, but then I'm not big on Russian logic at present.
The SU-34's seem to have a bad time of it. What they are trying to do is lost upon me too. I must be slow. Beetling along at 15K over a SAM threat area in an aluminum overcast is a strategy that I don't get. It is great for the Ukrainian morale, watching the dance-like pirouette probably brings back memories of the Bolshoi in happier times, but the tactical advantage is hidden. It is a good way of removing aircraft from the inventory and getting promotions in the squadron if they can get the old guys to go fly. It seems an expensive way to plonk holes in the ground, that then need to be cleaned up, sold for scrap etc. If it is part of a SEAD hunter-killer team, sparky, you need to go and take up bus driving, Is safer, no?
That is another confirmed roadkill of a locomotive, and for mods, that is an aviation thingy, the locomotive got airborne. it flew about as far as Orville's first effort, but it did fly. Sort of. That is 3-NIL on trains, but the Russians still lead on train stations.
There is a better than even chance that Count Vlad and his sidekick the butcher of Aleppo, have fewer effective troops in the field than the defenders, and a fair chance that they have no better than parity with the defenders in MBTs. The defenders have somewhere about 10,000 ATWs, not counting RPG-7s, of which there is enough that every second or third defender seems to have one available. BTR's/BMPs don't need NLAWS/Javelins or St-P's, they can have bad days with just an RPG or two. Each BTR/BMP has between 10-12 crew/dismounts on it, and a single RPG pretty much messes up the retirement plans of anyone inside. The defenders need as much firepower as they can get, as the attack can be done on a concentrated front, and that may result in a temporary breakthrough.
The amazing thing about the current conflict is, the term "Salient"; it used to indicate a push through an opposing force for the attacker, or a retreat condition. Today, with drone spotting, it means that the salient can be attacked from every side and harassed continuously. The ground rules have changed, the defenders here know that, the Russian soldiers are feeling it , and Count Vlad has no concept of what to do about it.
In September of 1812, Napoleon was faced with a decision as to whether to await word of surrender from St Petersburg, or to withdraw from the inhospitable conditions of Moscow before winter. He waited too long, and his "Le Grande Armee" was shattered piecemeal on the withdrawal. Napoleon wished his withdrawal was as orderly as the rout of Hitler's force after Kursk, in Jul-Aug'43. Count Vlad could be taking a place in the record books replacing both of those stellar tacticians as the most disastrous single decision in history.
There is a peace with honor option that Vlad can take, and that is to acknowledge the problem and undertake a supervised withdrawal after a ceasefire, to East of the Sea fo Azov, and have the contested areas, of Crimea and Donbas undertake a referendum for determination, without coercion from either side, determining if the areas should be self-determining or not, or part of Ukraine. If they go for self-determination, they could be overseen for neutrality by a multinational force, with the proviso that Ukraine gets an article 5 like support for any further unprovoked attack from Russia. NATO's article 5 does not demand collective defense where a NATO member elects to become belligerent.
That would be one of a slew of options available if a cease-fire and settlement was to be entered into. Russia currently has well over 1 trillion in losses from the war to date, and whether they want to reduce that at all is dependent on what they do in the next 10 days. In all cases, war crimes are war crimes, and they need to be heard and then appropriate sanctions made with the consent of those that were the victims of such behavior. Vlad gets an option to negotiate a way out that doesn't send him to Siberia, but St Helena would be a good place to be, metaphorically. Vlad can remain in Russia, and be tried in absentia, and that would be the end of it, Russia has to cope with what they did, and the blueprint for that was well established by Nelson Mandela. That is a gentle way to rid the world of tyrrany, it doesn't do well in the light, like other blood-sucking vampires.
Why bring up "a "piece" with honor..." suggestion on any forum? cuz the maths suggests we are heading towards a global nightmare in the last months of this year, and the actions of Vlad the impaler have exacerbated what was otherwise going to be a tight situation for a couple of billion people that didn't vote for him, much like the citizens of Russia. We are circling the drain in 6 months, from now, and getting the food supply sorted out takes getting the energy, phosphates, nitrogen, and transportation parts of the global system going again. Doing anything less than getting this tiff sorted out now is a biblical-level disaster that will touch everyone for the rest of the century. This is just maths, check the figures, and decide what sort of world we need to be in for the next 50 years.
Just sayin'. E&OE