dr Cassandra Nojdh skrev: ↑fredag 09 juni 2023 22:42
En artikel i The WarZone beskriver ovanstående:
Russia Has Destroyed Its First Ukrainian Bradley Fighting Vehicles
Zaporizhzhia Oblast är hårt fortifierad och minerad och man får räkna med att ryssarna har samlat mycket eldkraft i form av artilleri i fasta positioner. När Kherson befriades i slutet av 2022 kunde Ukraina undvika direkt konfrontation genom att tvinga fram en rysk reträtt, i och med att man skar av de ryska försörjningslinjerna över Dnepr.
The Ukrainian Army Lost Bradley Fighting Vehicles And A Leopard 2 Tank Trying And Failing To Breach Russian Defenses In Southern Ukraine
Forbes skrev:The Ukrainian army’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade and 47th Assault Brigade massed their Leopard tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles for a powerful assault on Russian positions two miles south of Mala Tokmachka in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast on or before Thursday morning.
A dense minefield lay between the Ukrainians and their objective. And the Ukrainians knew it. They deployed at least one IMR-2 engineering vehicle and a Leopard 2R breaching vehicle in the hope of plowing away the mines and clearing a path for at least a company of 47th Brigade M-2A2 Bradleys and some attached Leopard 2A6s from the 33rd Brigade.
The engineers failed—either because the minefield was too dense or Russian helicopters or artillery interrupted their efforts to clear the mines. In short order, the IMR-2, a rare Leopard 2A6 and as many as nine Bradleys piled up, out in the open. Exposed, under fire and taking damage, the surviving crews and passengers bailed out—and took their dead and wounded with them.
Forbes beskriver ovanstående händelse på ett mer detaljerat sätt, inklusive den roll som ingenjörstrupper spelar.
British-made tanks are about to sweep Putin’s conscripts aside
The Telegraph skrev:As a former tank commander, I can say one thing for certain: Putin’s demoralised conscripts are utterly unprepared for the shock action now hitting their lines. Ukrainian armoured formations are beginning to meet Russian forces in battle, and they are going to pulverise Russia’s defensive lines. I am confident for one simple reason: Ukraine will follow the Western ideology of manoeuvre warfare in a combined arms context, while the Russians will follow Soviet doctrine, relying on attrition and numbers. The Russians will find that the armour of Western tanks is far more resilient than flesh and bone, they will die in great numbers, and they will lose.
[...]
There will certainly be no rescue from the air. The Russian air force should be a massive operational threat, but it seems that its pilots have opted to hide in the confines of the officers’ mess rather than face the excellent Ukrainian air defences. Sometimes, cowardice is the most sensible option.
[...]
Much like Adolf Hitler at the end of his war, Putin appears to be holed up in his bunker, being fed lies, making the wrong decisions while the sharks circle. What’s unfolding in Ukraine now could go down in history as one of the great tank actions, alongside Cambrai, Kursk and the Arras counterattack. It will certainly go down as the end of Moscow’s illegal invasion – and perhaps the beginning of the end of Putin.
Här är en befälhavares djärva förutsägelse om utfallet av Ukrainas motoffensiv. Kan de ukrainska ingenjörstrupperna leva upp till hans förväntningar?
Done flying. How war with Ukraine outed Aeroflot's GRU spies and where they are now
The Insider skrev:Prior to the war with Ukraine, Aeroflot served as the primary “front” for Russian foreign intelligence operations. A significant portion of the airline's foreign offices were led by individuals with backgrounds in the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) and SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service). However, following the implementation of the flight ban on Russian aviation, these officers were compelled to return to Moscow, while their extensive network of agents remained in their respective positions. Notably, Aeroflot not only provided a convenient cover for working abroad but also served as a means for conducting espionage on foreign entities. The Insider provides an account of how Aeroflot's “representatives” engaged in spying activities across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, detailing the nature of the information they acquired and shedding light on their current endeavors.
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During the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, the law “On Foreign Intelligence” was enacted, which mandated state-owned companies to provide assistance to the SVR, GRU, and FSB (Federal Security Service). In 2001, under Putin's leadership, Lev Koshlyakov, a former KGB-SVR general, was appointed as the deputy general director of Aeroflot. Koshlyakov subsequently brought in his former colleagues from the Yasenevo intelligence base. According to sources, conflicts arose between the “undercover” officers of the SVR and GRU, leading to a series of mutual entrapments and confrontations. However, after Putin intervened, the two intelligence services reached a reconciliation and divided the majority of positions within Aeroflot's foreign offices between themselves.
Ännu en intressant artikel från The Insider, denna gång om en oavsiktlig fördel med det stängda luftrummet. Aeroflot var tydligen en front för spioner.
Can China Compensate Russia’s Losses on the European Gas Market?
Carnegie Politika skrev:Of course, that’s a lot less than the $135–155 netback from sales to Germany, but $73 isn’t bad either, and it could increase to $100 if Gazprom manages to keep the capital expenditure of building a new onshore pipeline from exceeding that of building Nord Stream across the seabed, which sounds entirely feasible.
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The fundamental difference between now and the 1960s–1980s, when the Soviet Union successfully monetized the vast gas reserves of Yamal by building a pipeline to Czechoslovakia, then Austria, and then West Germany, recouping construction costs several times over, is that back then the prospects for the development of the European gas market seemed unlimited. There was no hint that demand for gas would ever start to decline, and indeed, the Russian-European gas trade exceeded all Soviet-era calculations.
Now, however, the gas trade between Russia and China is likely to end by about 2060 or even earlier as a result of the global energy transition. Any hopes of developing this cooperation further (by increasing supply volumes, extending contracts, and so on) amounts to a risky bet that the transition to renewable energy will not happen as planned. In all likelihood, within a few decades, Power of Siberia 2 will become obsolete.
Under kalla kriget var den europeiska gasmarknaden omättlig. Nu har den kinesiska gasmarknaden ett bäst före-datum. Dessutom vill Kina ha ett lägre pris.