What are the chances?

If I ever turn into a Russian oligarch, I'm getting an apartment on the first floor.

lb sand said:

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What are the chances?

If I ever turn into a Russian oligarch, I'm getting an apartment on the first floor.

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Don't worry, the Kremlin will make sure you have a top floor apartment somewhere. They'll eventually give you a tour of it...once.

Twitter has multiple reports that Ukraine launched quite a few storm shadow cruise missiles at the Kerch Bridge in an unsuccessful attack.

The amusing part, which some here may chuckle at as I did, is that he fell from a 17th floor balcony/window. His apartment/condo was on the 10th. Weird, right?

Rutte update, justifying 5% targets:

"Russia is reconstituting itself at a pace and a speed which is unparalleled in recent history," NATO Secretary General said, adding that "...they are now producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year."https://t.co/O1yc7EgBr5

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 6, 2025

Forgive the source but given the fact that it's a direct statement from China, I'm not sure it matters.

"Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union's top diplomat that Beijing can't accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China, an official briefed on the talks said, contradicting Beijing's public position of neutrality in the conflict."

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/europe/china-ukraine-eu-war-intl

Yeah... Ukraine's "dictator" doesn't seem to have this problem at all. Seems the Russians looted appliances when they should have been looting windows.

Interesting film clip of Ukrainian field fortifications. WWI redux.

DIGGING IN

agent-maroon said:

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Quote:

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He's now finding out that Putin is an ******* that that won't actually negotiate

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He was/is never going to negotiate. Unless "you will give me everything I want and like it" is negotiating. He's happy to keep feeding the meat into the grinder as long as he needs.

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He needs the war to continue or his economy will get crushed. it's almost all reliant on military spending at this point.

Makes you wonder how well those fortifications will work against a drone wave.

Naveronski said:

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Makes you wonder how well those fortifications will work against a drone wave.

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At this point in the war, I'd be astonished if they aren't specifically designed with drone defense in mind. They all appear to have overhead cover, for example.

Another Russian bureaucrat commits suicide hours after being fired. What a country.

⚡️BREAKING: Former Russian Transport Minister, Fired by Putin Today, Found Dead

The dismissal came amid chaos at Russian airports.

Roman Starovoit was found dead in the Moscow region. Preliminary reports say he died by suicide at his home in the Odintsovo district, according to… pic.twitter.com/BtbQmx4Mvo

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 7, 2025

benchmark said:

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Another Russian bureaucrat commits suicide hours after being fired. What a country.

⚡️BREAKING: Former Russian Transport Minister, Fired by Putin Today, Found Dead

The dismissal came amid chaos at Russian airports.

Roman Starovoit was found dead in the Moscow region. Preliminary reports say he died by suicide at his home in the Odintsovo district, according to… pic.twitter.com/BtbQmx4Mvo

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 7, 2025

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You would think the rest of them would wise up and get together to off Putin before they are next.

what did he have on Hillary.....

txags92 said:

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benchmark said:

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Another Russian bureaucrat commits suicide hours after being fired. What a country.

⚡️BREAKING: Former Russian Transport Minister, Fired by Putin Today, Found Dead

The dismissal came amid chaos at Russian airports.

Roman Starovoit was found dead in the Moscow region. Preliminary reports say he died by suicide at his home in the Odintsovo district, according to… pic.twitter.com/BtbQmx4Mvo

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 7, 2025

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You would think the rest of them would wise up and get together to off Putin before they are next.

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At some point that's one of the 2 possible ways out of this mess. If enough of the oligarchs and mid/high level people decide it's safer to try and kill him than wait to see if he kills them, they will try.

The other way out is he dies from Parkinson's or whatever he has.

Trump has apparently suspended the suspension of arms shipments. If you don't like it, no sweat, just wait a week or so.

CONSISTENT INCONSISTENCY

Some good news to brighten everybody's day.

A russian drone made with chinese parts hit the chinese consulate in Odessa
Love it.
I'll go first. When their drone hit their roof.They collectively said " Sum Ting Wong " Who is next up ???

This video is an interesting look into how Ukraine has used "gameification" to help motivate their drone teams. It's impressive, ethical and psychological ramifications aside.



Basically, once they implemented some of the same incentive--and even procurement structures-- as in video games, the performance of FPV drone teams skyrocketed.

Some questions as to US now flipping to supply defensive weapons Kiev, drone production surge, etc:

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz: “Diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine are exhausted” pic.twitter.com/jnKRUupvmZ

— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) July 9, 2025

Like China, Russia's economy is cratering. Their prime interest rate is currently 20%, which is killing their economy. IT IS SO BAD that Putin just announced they will be reducing their defense spending and that there are tough economic times ahead. This is after years of saying their economy is doing better than the West.

These are two great channels for Russian economics and what is really going on inside Russia.

Konstantin is a Russian economist who fled. He lived in the U.S. for 20 years has a great life story. Is very pro U.S.A but also loves his own country deeply.

Re: mobilization, remember it takes a lot more troops to be on offense than on defense.

Waffledynamics said:

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Re: mobilization, remember it takes a lot more troops to be on offense than on defense.

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Yep, 3 to 1 has been the historic norm. This is also why Ukraine has no benefit in launching a major campaign.

As the chart above also illustrates, Putin's disrespect for Trump is obvious.

"Moscow launched overnight what authorities in Kyiv said was the biggest drone attack of the war. The latest Russian strikes began only hours after U.S. President Donald Trump had pledged to restart weapons deliveries to Ukraine while leveling unusually fierce criticism at his Russian counterpart, saying that "we get a lot of bull**** thrown at us" by Vladimir Putin. "I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now," Trump added."

SITREP

Somehow, both of these guys thought at one point they could end this in just 3 days

SouthTex99 said:

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Whatever happened to the donated F-16s? I think it's been long enough now to get trained and punish from the air.

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Here you go: VIPERS

They have lost at least 3. 1 crashed, 1 recently went down in the huge aerial attack while defending Kiev, and not sure about third.

SouthTex99 said:

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Whatever happened to the donated F-16s? I think it's been long enough now to get trained and punish from the air.

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They're not the most modern variants and don't have the best EW pods or capabilities, so they're susceptible to modern air defenses. They can't just fly into contested airspace.

SouthTex99 said:

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Whatever happened to the donated F-16s? I think it's been long enough now to get trained and punish from the air.

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Theyre basically used the same way the Russians use theirs, lobbing glide bombs away from the front into Russian trench positions or bridges. IIRC Ukrainians have lost 3 F16s to date.

Pepe SiIvia said:

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SouthTex99 said:

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Whatever happened to the donated F-16s? I think it's been long enough now to get trained and punish from the air.

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Theyre basically used the same way the Russians use theirs, lobbing glide bombs away from the front into Russian trench positions or bridges. IIRC Ukrainians have lost 3 F16s to date.

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No, they use them to shoot down drones and launch certain NATO missiles that don't integrate well with their legacy Soviet aircraft.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Pepe SiIvia said:

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SouthTex99 said:

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Whatever happened to the donated F-16s? I think it's been long enough now to get trained and punish from the air.

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Theyre basically used the same way the Russians use theirs, lobbing glide bombs away from the front into Russian trench positions or bridges. IIRC Ukrainians have lost 3 F16s to date.

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No, they use them to shoot down drones and launch certain NATO missiles that don't integrate well with their legacy Soviet aircraft.

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Ukraine also uses their EW pods to help get their drones and missiles past the line of Russian air defense at the border.

I believe their F16s also launched 8 storm shadows at the Kerch bridge last week.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Pepe SiIvia said:

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SouthTex99 said:

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Whatever happened to the donated F-16s? I think it's been long enough now to get trained and punish from the air.

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Theyre basically used the same way the Russians use theirs, lobbing glide bombs away from the front into Russian trench positions or bridges. IIRC Ukrainians have lost 3 F16s to date.

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No, they use them to shoot down drones and launch certain NATO missiles that don't integrate well with their legacy Soviet aircraft.

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Seems like a bit of overkill to use a F-16 to shoot down drones. How fast do the drones fly. Would think they could use an aircraft with cheaper operating costs with decent radar.

What jet with "decent radar" did you have in mind?

AT-802 kinda seems like it would fit this role.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L3Harris_OA-1K_Skyraider_II

Certainly capable of shooting down shahed drones but no radar that I'm aware of, and useless against cruise missiles.

Doesn't make much sense to get a single use airframe imo since it has no use near the contested areas.