Damn those Russian cigarette smoking rabbits and their burrowing.

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And Russian tin worms are playing havoc in the Leningrad region.

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Report from the ISW detailing all the bewildering number of command changes just in Summer '22. It is therefore historical, but thought it might be of interest. The second catalogues changes during/after last autumn's Ukrainian counter-attack. The linked article gives a detailed commentary.
https://understandingwar.org/sites/d...les/Slide4.jpg



The start of Ukrainian counteroffensives in August and September of 2022 led to w

https://understandingwar.org/backgro...-april-30-2023

https://understandingwar.org/sites/d...les/Slide5.jpg

Gerasimov and his affiliates likely attempted to convince Putin that they co

Ukrainian civilian BDR, sellotape over bullet holes, I hope they were all ok

Timelapse of the battle for Bakhmut.

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Sorry, Nutty, but President Joe Biden doesn't answer to you.
US support to Ukraine via arms, intel, logistics, training, et al will be whatever the various minds in DC decide is the best course forward. You don't get a vote.
(1) American aid is pretty darned substantial to date, (2) so far the bipartisan support for that stance remains good, (3) and the US has more than Ukraine to worry about.
Reaching a consensus on the above is very much the child of politics (which is more of a JB topic, as is your whinge).

On the practical side as it pertains to military personnel: trying to contain the war (since prevention utterly failed :mad:) and keep it from spreading, as well as trying to gage the effects and risks of escalation without letting Agony Aunts - like yourself - influence the decision is what is needed to avoid 1914 all over again.(Well, that's one line of thinking at Foggy Bottom, there are others). The time to stop this war was during the prevention stage: lots of blame to go around there in a lot of capitals.

Another practical consideration: the US gets to benefit from some field testing and validation of various weapons systems (and some TTP), without having to throw in a lot of boots on the ground.
That appeals to a variety of Americans whether you like it or not.

For Video Mixdown: you may be right about turning points. (I have a weird analogy going on in my head, where Mariupol looks to be St Vith to Bakhmut's Bastogne, but that's probably a reach)

Sorry LW, I meant to put NATO not the US, there are more than one nuclear power in that organisation.

By the west / NATO failing to provide the weapons needed, longer range missiles, fighters etc containment may well fail and then you are left with the problem and costs involved with bolstering the defence of some of NATOs smaller and threatened members.
If the west had provided the weaponry as and when asked for, then the depth of Russian incursion would never have happened, something we still haven’t learnt from. As for pre invasion I was one of those saying NATO / UN ha! should have gone in as peacekeepers at the invitation of Ukraine to the disputed border.

Another drone attack on Sevastopol.

List of the U.K., new purchases planned for Ukraine including long range missiles.

​​​​​​​https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/05/...aine/?swcfpc=1

Worried?

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Update on the derailed Russian train, they’re going to need another loco.

Sincerely hope that any ruZZian 'diplomat' who turns up at FCDO banging on about red lines is told to foxtrot oscar.

You will get no disagreement from me. The failure to "speak with one voice" is what IMO enabled the decision (by Vlad Vader) that the risks were less (his assessment that the dysfunctional antics of various pols would leave the field clear to do that .. and it's his own damned fault that the logistics and momentum didn't result in the Blitzkrieg he was hoping to emulate.
But the snag there is that the Russian veto would have rendered that viable idea (hell, viable since 2014) moot.

As to military and aviation matters, I will note that while the US has offered up a variety of kit - to include Over 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems - the State Department remains a bundle of mostly useless *****, and they have been since about the time I was loitering off of the coast of Lebanon on a destroyer in the early 1980's.

The hit yesterday on Pavlohrad, full view, that’s one hell of a bang :sad:

For the Gunny's out there, that looks more like a FAE type explosion than a munitions dump going off, reminiscent of the fertiliser in Beirut, or coal dust. Doesn't look like munition store IMHO.

Lots of bang though... Glaziers will be busy as will the hospitals for the shard injuries.

Not an expert here, but 'that looks thermobaric', I thought too.

Interesting overhead view of Ukrainians clearing trench lines using troops on the ground and grenade dropping drones, no translation.

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One report on Twitter says below, how accurate that is however bearing in mind Ukraine would want to put a good PR out about it.


READ more on it

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ity-detonating



..

For what it's worth, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was the home of Pivdenmash (formerly Yuzhmash) which is a space/rocket design bureau and factory and IIRC it's the home of the Ukrainian part of the UK small launch rocket company Skyrora. Anyhow it's obviously consistent with the explanation that old rockets and fuel might be somewhere there. If it's a cover up it is convenient for Ukraine that it should have happened there.

The Russians must be getting desperate if they are now being forced to blow up things they were probably quietly hoping to 'inherit' wholesale.