Here's that footage I was talking from that overnight raid that destroyed 9 Russian helicopters:


Like I said, that place was like hell on Earth.

Russians worry about counterattack near Kherson

QuoteRussian sources expressed pronounced concern about ongoing Ukrainian activity on the east bank of Kherson Oblast and framed these activities as part of a potential larger Ukrainian operation. The majority of Russian claims about developments on the east bank are largely single-sourced to one prominent Russian milblogger who has recently heavily focused his reporting on this section of the front.[6] Russian sources characterized the reported assaults as a Ukrainian effort to expand a "bridgehead" on the east bank and the initial stages of a larger offensive operation across the Dnipro River.[7] Russian President Vladimir Putin similarly described Ukrainian activity in Kherson Oblast as the "next counteroffensive" and continued his typical rhetorical line by painting all Ukrainian offensive operations as a failure.[8] The prominent Russian milblogger who is the basis for many of these claims has expressed concern about a Ukrainian offensive across the Dnipro River on and off throughout 2023 and escalated his warnings in late September 2023. The milblogger reacted to the reported assault on the night of October 17 to 18 by accusing the Russian MoD of not taking the threat of a Ukrainian crossing seriously.[9]

Heh.  But seriously, considering that this is not sourced from anyone in the Russian military but just a single milblogger (and bizarrely, Putin himself) this doesn't seem like it has a huge amount of credibility.  But who knows, maybe the Ukrainians will surprise us.

And just the whole fact that this is a thing just goes to show how jumpy and terrified Russian forces are anywhere near the frontline, but especially in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions because they know they're on the menu.

Russian tourists in North Korea.  🤔  LOL, well it's worth a shot!

I just read that Russia lost more than 1,300 troops in a single day!

Hot damn, that's a new record.  That's pretty much a whole week's worth of tanks in a single day.  And it looks like Russia might hit the 300k kia mark before Halloween (lots of ghost costumes this year) when my earlier prediction was Christmas.  I guess it'll be a real quiet Christmas this year in some parts of Russia.

Apparently, shortly after Dictator Putin played it cool, downplaying horrendous losses near Adiviika and bizarrely said that they were on "active defense" like they weren't attacking anyone, the Russians tried to assault again with entirely predictable results.  Didn't see that coming.

So now some Russian channels are panicking about skyhigh losses, complaining that losses are similar to Bakhmut and that this will leave them open to advances by the Ukrainians.

Another says that Putin's tactics are bad (I hope his family lives on the first floor) and that they should halt assaults, prioritize Ukrainian air defense (too late, those missiles already hit shopping malls and hospitals), gain air superiority, and then go on the offense.  Not a bad idea at all.  Too bad the Ukrainians already have that idea with the F-16s.  If he wants to participate in such an operation, he could always switch sides.  I imagine that it'd be far less painful that way.

Quote from: Unbeliever on October 20, 2023, 11:18:27 AMI just read that Russia lost more than 1,300 troops in a single day!

Yes!  Astounding!

Translated Russian telegram: 



(Putin visited the military HQ in Rostov, Russia recently)

'The Assault Failed, Everyone Was Killed' – Russian Soldier Reveals Horrific Losses

QuoteIn the intercepted call published by Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR), the man describes losing 100 men "in a few days."

"The assault failed. Everything is in the s**t, everyone was killed," he says.

The soldier's location is not disclosed but Russia has been suffering extremely heavy losses in its so far failed attempts to take the town of Avdiivka.

QuoteHe then goes on to complain that the Russian military command hasn't delivered food or water to its troops in weeks.

"We haven't had food delivered to us for three weeks. We haven't had food delivered to us for three weeks," he says.

"Today is already the seventh day since we have been brought water."

"That sucks, LOL"

Earlier, I said that the ATACMS strike on October 17th destroyed 9 aircraft.  It was actually 9 at Berdyansk and 5 at Luhansk - and those are just the definite, catastrophic kills.  Well, we have satellite photos now and that's probably an undercount.

That ATACMS strike used cluster munitions - so little bomblets fell all over the place.  Depending on how you define destroyed, it's more like 20-21.  I just saw a picture of a Ka-52 cockpit that looks like swiss cheese.  It might - and I stress - might be able to fly, but good luck making it home in one piece.

Yeah, it sure must suck to be a Russian soldier.

Quote from: Unbeliever on October 20, 2023, 09:45:12 PMYeah, it sure must suck to be a Russian soldier.

Not for that guy who turned in a tank ($10k usd, comfortable place to live, good chance at Ukrainian citizenship).
And the guy who turned in a helicopter ($500,000 usd, a comfortable home for his whole family, and I assume a similar shot at Ukrainian citizenship.  They hit the lotto!

Come and take it: Russian looters in occupied territory burn in their loot-filled car

Partisans once again making life difficult for the invaders.

Russian telegram:

Quote"To say that our artillery suffers greatly from enemy FPV (First Person View) and drone bombers is almost an understatement. If our army still needs artillery, the problem needs to be solved systematically, massively, and quickly.

No illusions here:

The enemy has qualified unmanned aerial vehicle squadrons. Not idiots from the 404, but skilled warriors. They fly limitlessly and almost unpunished above us at depths of up to 30 km.

They constantly monitor the juiciest targets. As soon as the guys go on a mission, a couple of FPVs fly towards them, and 2-3 'baba yagas' (huge Ukrainian made drones) wait in ambush.

One anti-drone squadron fights against all of this, if the division has a very progressive commander. But all the equipment the guys have is what they managed to gather from volunteers or buy themselves.

You can see the results in Ukrainian channels. There is always video confirmation of our artillery being hit, and they always upload it online.

Something urgent needs to be done!"

This is a rather telling admission.

First, the Ukrainians spot and track Russian equipment very early on.

Second, the Ukrainians generally ambush the Russians, not the other way around.

Third, these are devastating strikes that the Russians do not have the ability to counter (the reason given is poor provisioning) causing terrible losses.

Finally, artillery losses are especially keenly-felt.  They state that if army still needs artillery, something should be done quickly.  I'm assuming that's an exaggeration, but not much of one.  Russia has consistently lost 20-30 (or more) artillery every day for a long time now.

Israeli politician blasts Putin live on Russian state media: "Russia it will 'pay the price' for supporting Hamas"


And on that note, I will point out that Hamas's official website is hosted on a Moscow server, almost certainly with Putin's approval, given the sensitive nature of the conflict.

Also, Putin did not call Netanyahu to express sympathies for the massacre of civilians, looting, and theft of children (tactics that seem oddly familiar...) and refused to label Hamas a terrorist organization, unlike the West.

One final note: Israel is working on a lot of innovative and interesting military technologies and if some of them were to accidentally find their way to Ukraine, well it'd be a little bit of poetic justice.