It's a Putin fever dream.
Never gonna happen.
FORTE12 Global Hawk flying back and forth along the Moldovan border at FL57.
Keeping an eye on that reassembled Odesa invasion fleet no doubt.

That's Gotland. But they'd need an invasion army to do it as Swedes have already strengthened their garrison there. Russians probably do not have enough sufficiently trained airborne troops to do it, especially considering the VDV performance in the past few weeks in Ukraine.

I watched it yesterday and in the hindsight of their misery in Ukraine I started to laugh. They've been talking about miraculous electronic warfare which will blind all western radars in the area, they will sneak to Gotland by swift landing operation and declare no flight zone with 400km radius around Gotland, the weak West (remember that this TV discussion went on in December) will give in and let them take whatever territory they want. Done deal, empire restored.

I know that Russia had invested lot of energy into propaganda side of hybrid war but I wouldn't dream that they will became the major victim as a collateral damage of their own delusions. They banged the drum of marketing with "successful military reform", invincible Armata tank, hypersonic missiles and new precision weapons etc. and apparently believed this nonsense. They talked about inept and corrupt leadership of Ukraine which is hated by own nation and especially Russians living there will welcome the liberating armies of RF.

Blitzkrieg didn't materialise and there was no plan B. So they went to the usual doctrine, means flattening cities to piles of rubble with heavy artillery, especially when conscripts are not very keen to fight.

If they planned anything like taking over Baltic states as a part of this push, now they should know this is far above their manpower and logistics capabilities.

Germany chooses F-35
 

Various agencies reporting that Germany is now negotiating to purchase F-35s.

Just three years ago Berlin said the type had been rejected from consideration ...

I was literally just giving consideration as to how the Russians behave when their offensive becomes bogged down, utterly barbaric and immoral is probably the most accurate phrase. I was reminded of how they disguised anti-personnel bombs as childrens toys in Afghanistan, well guess what….

Bombs Disguised as Toys Found in Mariupol

Yes I know, it could be Ukrainian PsyOps - in fact I honestly hope it is.

The strike on the base housing foreign fighters just by the Polish border was a rare military and propaganda success for Russia, and showed a measure of intelligence gathering and execution. That said is does beggar belief somewhat that these personnel were housed, apparently en masse, in a base previously used to train the Ukrainians with western weapons, the BBC having reported there some time back.

Hopefully lessons have been learnt and ar5es kicked to ensure this was a one-off.

Jumping from a helo flying at what, 5 or 6 thousand feet, in broad daylight and apparently in full sight of opposing ground forces? I bet most of them were dead before they hit the ground.

Have a British friend here in Sydney who used to work for the UK Foreign Office.
Of all countries he dealt with - he despised the Russian diplomats the most.
"They lie, lie some more, and just when you think they've finished lying, they'll lie again," he said once.
Described them as absolute brutes underneath it all.

That describes politicians and diplomats the world over I think. It's just that the Russians are willing to tell the MOST outrageous porkies whilst, probably, not expecting anyone to believe tham.

Why dropping under such unfavourable circumstances ? Why wasn't the helo shot down as it would presumably have been flying straight and level for a short period at least, over troops who one would have expected to have manpads;?

If there are 2000 stingers in Ukraine (depending on the sources that should be in the ball park) and there are 200000 troops, it means one stinger per 100 soldiers. They've already consumed some hundreds of Stingers so the ratio is lower. In essence that says one stinger for a company size group. Most probably the Stingers aren't spread out very evenly.
Not everybody ther carries a Stinger or equivalent manpad with them, so not every AC gets shot at.

This.
I spilled my coffee over this 'News'.
Can't get ahold of Ukraine with their 100 Fighter Aircraft and 200.000 troops and now wants to take on NATO/Sweden/Finland with 4000 Fighter Aircraft and 3Mio troops.

Not sure it will buff out.

"Su 25 survives MANPAD hit"

Twitter

...... possibly accompanied by an associated Eng Chip Caution light............

And the Pilot’s Seat may need reupholstering!

Russia is apparently using the nuclear power station as a base for their equipment, makes sense because the Ukrainians will not attack it for fear of the results.

Not seen these shoot downs before but cannot see any verification.




,,

I wonder if the damaged Su25 was this one purported to be hit by a manpad but continues to drop its ordnance. The damage on that one being towed reminds me of the Jag in the Gulf War.

Looks like a flight simulation to me. Possibly DCS. And very easy to be taken in by this stuff now, beware!

That top one looks like more DCS fakery. The aircraft hit explodes in almost exactly the same way every time.