Poland already operates 48 F16 C/D, so probably won't have much difficulty assimilating a couple of dozen more to replace the MiG29s, while they wait for the F-35s they have already ordered.

Russian Missile strikes on Kyiv & Lviv

There are very few details - and those unconfirmed - out there about who is paying for what. Where do you have this information ?

Has this not aged weirdly?


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d1917059c2.png


But then, neither Shoigu was a soldier.

Russia claiming that the strikes took out the factories that built the missiles that didn't hit their cruiser.

It's not that strange, that things go gradually.

Remember the old adage, dumping a frog in boiling water, makes it jumping out, vs the slow heat-up and the frog happily indulges in a warm bath ?

And despite Ukraine asking for Migs, there does not seem to have been a big need for aircraft. Much more for SAMs, Manpads, ATGM, ATGW, Artillery, drones and the like. As long as operational BUK systems are in the area, keep out of that area with your aircraft. Use drones to do the dirty work.

On top of that, getting a heavily partisan divided congress approving your money requests, as a president you need to take care, the congress wants more than you "intend" to do. From then on, the congress won't complain, when you start spending billions. It just takes time.

Regarding the nuclear threats: Moving the Russian nukes to the Finnish boarder sounds impressive, though, given these things do have sufficient range to reach all of Europe, even when fired from Moscow, bordering does not bring much advantage. Of course, unless you have doubts about the technical quality of these things and want to avoid them nuking your own territory. In the end, from the maintenance state of both Russian army and navy, we see that not much is done to keep things shiny, let alone functional. Nukes need to be overhauled every 10 years (costly), to operate reliable. Radiation destroys pretty well everything, as well that due to natural decay of especially Plutonium, you have the risk of ending up below the critical mass/density and the nuke won't explode when triggered.

Precision strike on a factory claimed. Same thing on theatres, hospitals and apartment blocks denied.

One of the problems Russia now faces is they have destroyed, raped and killed large parts of the Donbas they recognised as independent and in the south they have alienated large parts of the Russian speaking populace that are now seeing the cost of their freedom. and they do not want the Russian occupiers full stop. You get the feeling they now want to remain part of Ukraine.

FSB have arrested the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

1941 purge all over again…

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1f106e307c.png

Twitter

Poland’s guy looks right proper for the job. If not that, he could pass (sans the facial hair) for a pissed off Sergeant Major.

Pains me to say but the Russian advance around Izyium looks far better organized and threatening than anything they have done to date.

From an article here.

dead-pan, Please can you share your source(s) 👍

Sure. While he got replaced in 2018, the larger context is U.v.d.Leyen got boo(s)ted from her position of MoD GER https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen to become the apex EU official. Some scary details in the Wiki article.

Wonder if they could arrest the someone who really is to blame, and put an end to this evil.

Interesting read on what artillery Ukraine needs and why.

https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/wh...aine-need-now/

also, the long war.

https://warontherocks.com/2022/04/su...he-long-war-2/

..

While bad, it does strike me as retaliatory and counter productive, having shifted their focus to the East, lobbing missiles to the North are not doing anything militarily to bolster the offensive in the East. It’s almost as if Putin has spat his dummy out over the sinking and is illogically shooting at Kyiv to get his own back.