This latest speculation of attacks on countries outwith Ukr by state sponsored orc saboteurs etc is very interesting. Should it come to pass and the perps were caught (as is probable) and a definite link could be proven to the Putrid regime then, surely, that would be the ‘act of war’ that would be required to trigger a response. The BIG question - what form would such a response take? No doubt, in UK, the MI’s and the like are monitoring a LOT of characters!

One thing I can almost guarantee is that any "response" would be a pathetically weak one! Me, a cynic?!

You are talking about the world of espionage and counter-espionage. Undoubtedly a secret war is already in progress, with the fact that such attacks have not materialised a sign of success. It's understandable to want dramatic public announcements, but there is almost certainly more to gain from keeping intelligence activities quiet rather than making a song and dance about them.

Very nice VM but in the past an inquiry along those lines would bring about a tap on the nose, a wink and a veiled reply about keeping enemies close so they could be watched. Except that in so many cases they were not.

Putain's annual May Day ego-fest will be held in Moss-cow on thursday (apparently with the French Ambassador, to his country's eternal shame, in attendance.)
Would this event be a valid or appropriate 'statement' target for UKR drones or would that be too provocative?
Presumably the vehicles in the parade would not be carrying weapons - ie stonking great solid fuel rockets in the case of the big TELs - or are the Ruzzians actually daft enough...?

*shrugs*
We hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade; a bomb on the French ambassador seems within the allowed collateral damage criteria.


only after they hold multiple meetings debating it until they water it down to the point it is as weak as piss.

What a load of cr@p.
There is a difference between attacking Ukraine which has until relatively recently a government of Russian shills, with Soviet tactics, Soviet equipment and Soviet Doctrine.
And say attacking Greece on the flank or Poland in the centre.
Greece with its 28 Apaches and 170 F16s or Poland with its 50 F16s and MQ-9 Reapers. They only have to hold out for 48 hours before the rest of NATOs air assets arrive on scene in numbers. And that is with a completely surprise attack without any European armies building up in the area. Not to mention Greece's 380 Leopard tanks or Poland's 250 fighting a defensive battle that is part of their design criteria.
Europe isn't woefully unprepared, it has enough to smash Russia within a couple of weeks, it doesn't have the spare equipment to give to a third party country like Ukraine that doesn't have the training or the tactics to take this equipment into battle - yet.
What Europe is doing is revising its forces for the next 5-50 years and plugging the gap left by countries that aren't prepared to take the threats seriously like Ireland and Austria.

“In military terms, the SCALP is a real game changer.”

“Operation Chrysalis : how France is organising the supply of SCALP missiles to Ukraine.”

@RFI reveals the 🇲🇫 method for supplying the 🇺🇦 armed forces with SCALP cruise missiles without touching its own strategic stocks.…

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...589855623.html
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Various news outlets are now poo pooing that rumour

https://apnews.com/article/fact-chec...d-994039088319

Good read regarding how many armored fighting vehicles Russia has left in storage.
note that these figures exclude the ones in service, just the stored goods are counted.
Main take: even the "endless" soviet era stocks will run out eventually.

We nred to keep those RPG's flowing steadily to Ukraine.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2540140.html


"Moscow has switched to using overland routes in annexed eastern Ukraine to supply its front lines after repeated attacks by Ukraine on the Kerch Bridge, which links mainland Russia to Crimea.

Analysis of satellite images shows that the bridge, which Russia built after annexing Crimea in 2014, has almost no traffic and may therefore no longer represent an effective military target for Ukraine’s ammunition-strapped troops, according to analysts at Molfar, Ukraine’s biggest private intelligence agency.

Images taken by satellite specialists Maxar – which have been analysed by Molfar and shared with The Independent – show that almost no military freight trains have plied the bridge’s rail line in over three months.

In that period just a single Russian freight train carrying around 55 fuel cars was seen crossing the bridge on 29 February.

There was no movement involving Russian military assets on the bridge in March or April, according to Molfar. The agency, based in Dnipro, used a combination of Maxar’s images, railcar counts and cargo identification for its analysis."

If true, good news and bad news. Good that it is out-of-action, but bad that the Russkis can still keep up such heavy pressure without it: I believe though, that these attcks are principally in the East where re-supply would always be coming directly across the nearby land-border. If, as is often suggested, re-taking Crimea is the prime objective of Ukraine, then this would be made considerably easier without the quick re-supply over the bridge.

Kerch bridge should be destroyed because if ZSU would be able to knock down bridges on the land route it could be reactivated as a reserve option. Destroying this bridge would be also a huge moral boost for Ukraine.

For size, the R-73 Archer is 9’7” long, so the USV seems to be about 20ft/6mlong.In the Black Sea, Russian forces spotted a Ukrainian USV armed with a twin rail launcher for R-73 all-aspect IR homing air-to-air missiles.

Based on the footage, some Ukrainian USVs now possess a nascent SAM capability, likely able to target low and slow Russian helicopters.

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Indeed, however this other report (below ) claims that the reason the bridge is no longer used is that it has been dasmaged in Ukrainian attacks, adding that there used to be passage of 42-46 munitions trains per day and now there are only 4-5 passenger and ordinary freight trains daily.

https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland..._72885571.html

“U.S. soldier detained in Russia and accused of stealing.

The soldier, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, had been stationed in South Korea and traveled to Russia on his own to visit a woman.”

I would hazard a guess he had zero interest in, or appreciation for anything happening in the world and misunderstood how mail order brides work?

I somehow doubt SSGT Black is the brightest light on the tree.
When you allow the little head to assume command and control from the big head bad things happen.
DSB is a dangerous condition.

I do hope that the Russians recognize him as the harmless, misguided soul he is and release him.

He is likely all of those things. Sadly, he is also a propaganda pawn and bargaining chip, now. Russia will exploit him all they can

They might not be using it, but it is there and available for use if their primary route is destroyed.

As Keypilot says they will exploit the idiot for all they can milk it for. In the 1960 i had brief contact with US Senior NCO s. My opinion of them was that they lacked the initiative or capabillity of a British Junior NCO. At the time I was an Infantry Senior NCO. I had hoped thigs had changed. But perhaps we should not judge them all by the actions of one.