Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 07:10
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PAGE 174 of 174

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 6:35 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

European fuckheads in the political class deserve to be shot for their sheer stupidity and corruption.

Comparing Russia’s Life Expectancy and GDP per capita with the EU indicates Russian leaders should be shot before EU leaders:

1) Overall Life Expectancy: As of 2023, EU life expectancy at birth was around 81.5 years, while Russia's life expectancy in 2021 was 70.06 years.

https://www.google.com/search?q=compare+life+expectancy+between+Russia
+and+EU

2) The EU's GDP per capita is significantly higher than Russia's, with FRED Blog stating Russia's GDP per capita being about two-thirds smaller than the EU's in 2020. While Russia's nominal GDP per capita for 2025 is projected at $14,260, and PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) GDP per capita is $49,380, the EU's nominal GDP per capita for 2025 is estimated at $44,387, and its PPP GDP per capita is projected at $64,545. The EU also has a substantially larger overall GDP than Russia.

https://www.google.com/search?q=compare+gdp+per+capita+between+Russia+
and+EU

3) Signym, since Russia is hiding recent data, the comparison with the EU has gotten worse:

No births, no deaths, no data
Russia is pulling demographic stats from public view. What’s the Kremlin trying to hide?
July 14, 2025

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/07/14/no-births-no-deaths-no-data

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025 3:58 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yep. Pre- 2000 leadership was really fucked up. But look at the progress Russia's made since then.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025 6:34 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine’s military death tolls underestimated, Russia recruits sufficient to cover its frontline losses

By Ben Aris in Berlin | July 22, 2025

https://www.intellinews.com/ukraine-s-military-death-tolls-underestima
ted-russia-recruits-sufficient-to-cover-its-frontline-losses-392172/

Ukraine’s official military casualty figures in the war with Russia may be vastly understated, according to a report published by the French newspaper Le Monde on Monday. Russia’s death toll is much higher, but official figures show the Kremlin’s voluntary recruitment drive is replenishing the ranks faster than its soldiers are being killed.

Death tolls in the four-year old war are state secrets on both sides of the conflict and analysts have been reduced to using proxies to estimate the true toll and official estimates from Defence Ministries are almost certainly massaged up or down. However, even these estimates are stark.

Since the start of the conflict over three years ago a total of 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 380,000 wounded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CBS News in February.

“The real death toll is likely much higher,” Le Monde reported based on Ukraine’s efforts to build military cemeteries. The state has two new national military memorial projects under construction in Kyiv and Lviv, as graveyards for fallen Ukrainian soldiers are nearing capacity. “Construction projects rising across Ukraine say more about the scale of the slaughter than statistics ever could,” Le Monde said, in comments widely shared in Russian media.

Ukraine’s manpower shortage

While the actual numbers remain cloaked in confusion, it is very clear that Ukraine is suffering from an acute manpower shortage, while Russia is not. No men aged 18 to 60 have been allowed to leave the country since February 2022 without special permission.

Russian President Vladimir Putin resorted to a partial mobilisation in September 2022 in the first year of the war, when the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) faced a temporary manpower shortage. The Kremlin has avoided a general mobilisation at all costs, aware that it could cause a major revolt. And the costs have been high; the Kremlin has been paying out an entire year’s salary or more as signed up fees for voluntary recruits, which takes up a third of the military budget by itself.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was forced to order a general mobilisation almost as soon as the war started. Now anger and resentment is rising at the aggressive press-ganging of military-age men into the army – a process known as ‘busification’. Ukraine’s social media is filled with videos of men being snatched from the street and bundled into minivans by recruitment officers, sometimes at gunpoint.

Those forced to fight are fleeing their positions in record numbers. Desertions from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is rampant. In the first six months of this year, Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office reported that it had opened 107,672 new criminal cases for desertion. Since 2022 some 230,804 such criminal cases have been instigated, suggesting that more soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army than there are fighting men in today’s British, French and German armies combined, The Spectator reports.

And there is no respite for the members of the AFU. While Russia has sufficient men to be able to rotate them in and out of combat, Ukrainian soldiers serve continuously and are exhausted. A draft law proposed last year releasing military personnel from service after 36 months was squashed by the government for fear exacerbating the labour shortage. Small protests are regularly held by the families of soldiers calling not for the release of their men, but simply to give them a break from the front line occasionally.

Another new law making it possible for men aged 18-26, that are not subject to conscription, to volunteer for military service managed to attract a total of 500 recruits.

Russia fewer deaths, faster recruitment

The numbers of reported Russian dead from the war are clearly higher, but they also don’t add up. Ukraine’s supporters report the Russian death toll practically every day, usually citing the official estimates released by Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, as part of its media campaign to denigrate the AFR and boost support for Ukraine. Currently the numbers coming from the “meat grinder” that is the battle for Donbas sees at least a 1,000 Russian soldiers die a day according to these estimates.

However, other sober estimate put the number far lower. A verified list of dead Russian soldiers maintained by Mediazona and the BBC already exceeds 115,000 -- about 5,000 names are added each month, or 161 deaths per day from the whole of Ukraine, not 1,000.

The actual number of deaths is widely estimated at roughly double the Mediazona estimates, or around 300 dead a day. Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), for example, puts Russian fatalities at 250,000, the Moscow Times reports. However, due to the incomplete access to information, the real number could be far higher.

Nevertheless, these estimates are still a third of what the Ukrainian Defence Ministry is reporting, and they are low enough to allow Russia to sustain its fight indefinitely as it can replace all the casualties with fresh recruits.

Typically, three times more soldiers on the offensive die than those on the defensive, However, what few numbers have come out on the daily death toll of the AFU are roughly on the same order as the estimate of Russian deaths – and with its smaller population even if fewer Ukrainians are dying than Russians, it can still lose the war by running out of men before Russia does.

While the AFU has the drone advantage, Russia maintains an overwhelming artillery, missile and heavy glide bombs advantage, powerful weapons that can completely destroy Ukraine’s defensive positions.

Much clearer is the information on Putin’s ability to replenish his manpower by recruiting fresh volunteers to fight for Russia.

“Some analysts — including myself — recently thought Putin would be unable to find enough conscripts to cover losses this year and that by late 2025, forcing him to choose between a forced draft and a ceasefire,” said Sergei Shelin in an opinion piece in the Moscow Times. “Unfortunately, the data paints a different picture.”

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed Russia suffered 32,000 irreversible losses in June alone (100 deaths a day), but official Russian figures suggested Russia added 190,000 volunteer and contract soldiers in the first five months of 2025, or 38,000 per month (1,225 per day). Russia is recruiting more soldiers a month than it is losing on the frontline, even if you believe Syrskyi’s probably inflated number. Monthly inflows exceed losses by roughly 10,000, according to Shelin.

Putin says about 700,000 Russians are currently fighting in Ukraine. His goal is to increase the number of active servicemen to 1.5mn largely through volunteers that draw heavily on Russia’s poorest regions, while the AFU is forced to resort to conscription of the dwindling pool of men left in the country. Russia’s population is at least four-times bigger than that of Ukraine’s, and that calculation is before you count out the roughly six million men that have already fled the country after the war started.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025 7:05 AM

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Russian authorities recently detained Bryansk Oblast Vice Governor Nikolai Simonenko and former Belgorod Oblast Vice Governor Rustem Zainullin, likely as part of the Kremlin’s continued efforts to scapegoat local officials for larger Russian border security failures following Ukraine's August 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion. Russian law enforcement officials told Kremlin newswire TASS on July 22 that Russian authorities detained Simonenko on abuse of power charges and searched Simonenko’s home and workplace as part of a larger criminal case investigating the embezzlement of funds allocated for the construction of defensive fortifications in Bryansk Oblast border areas.[19] Russian authorities similarly detained Zainullin for fraud on June 21 on suspicion of embezzling 32 million rubles (roughly $408,000) in funds allocated to constructing defensive fortifications in the Belgorod Oblast border area.[20] Russian authorities previously detained former Kursk Oblast Governor Alexei Smirnov on similar embezzlement charges in what ISW assessed to be a concerted Kremlin effort to use Kursk Oblast officials as scapegoats for Russia’s failure to repel the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast.[21] Russian President Vladimir Putin also notably dismissed Russian Minister of Transport and former Kursk Oblast Governor Roman Starovoit on July 7 just prior to Starovoit’s reported suicide.[22]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-july-22-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025 3:21 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Ukraine’s military death tolls underestimated, Russia recruits sufficient to cover its frontline losses

By Ben Aris in Berlin | July 22, 2025

https://www.intellinews.com/ukraine-s-military-death-tolls-underestima
ted-russia-recruits-sufficient-to-cover-its-frontline-losses-392172/

Since the start of the conflict over three years ago a total of 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed

I hope you see now why we shouldn't believe "reports" out of Kiev, and their slavish quotes in western "intelligence" agencies

Quote:
and another 380,000 wounded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CBS News in February.

“The real death toll is likely much higher,”

Yeah, no shit. Why aren't any western "news" agencies attempting to estimate Kiev's dead, like Mediazona is doing with Russia's?

Quote:

Russia fewer deaths, faster recruitment

The numbers of reported

By Kiev. Until about six month ago, our policy was to make "our" intelligence estimates to match Kiev's. Talk about delusion by policy!

Quote:
Russian dead from the war are clearly higher [than what?], but they also don’t add up. Ukraine’s supporters report the Russian death toll practically every day, usually citing the [Kiev's] official estimates released by Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, as part of its media campaign to denigrate the AFR and boost support for Ukraine. Currently the numbers coming from the “meat grinder” that is the battle for Donbas sees at least a 1,000 Russian soldiers die a day according to these estimates.

However, other sober estimate put the number far lower. A verified list of dead Russian soldiers maintained by Mediazona and the BBC already exceeds 115,000 -- about 5,000 names are added each month, or 161 deaths per day from the whole of Ukraine, not 1,000.

The actual number of deaths is widely estimated at roughly double the Mediazona estimates, or around 300 dead a day. Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), for example, puts Russian fatalities at 250,000, the Moscow Times

Moscow Times isn't even in Moscow

Quote:
reports. However, due to the incomplete access to information, the real number could be far higher.

Or lower.

According to Mediazona/ BBC, despite the fact that Russians are on the offensive, the LONG term trend of Russian deaths in going LOWER. That's despite the fact that Mediazona is now including probate proceedings.

There's always a lag so discount the last three months, but the trend is unmistakable.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

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Thursday, July 24, 2025 7:22 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Putin’s chief ideologue: Media reveals who is rewriting history for Kremlin leader

By Kateryna Shkarlat | Tue, July 22, 2025 - 23:00

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/putin-s-chief-ideologue-media-reveals-
who-1753212861.html

Former Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky is likely leading a Kremlin project aimed at promoting its version of history, according to the Skhemy investigative project.

In particular, sources of the Skhemy project claim that Medinsky knows how to craft the right phrasing for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Putin has his own ideas — for example, at the Bucharest summit in 2008, he already stated that the Ukrainian state does not exist. So these ideas were not new for Putin, but now Medinsky is helping to give them an ideological form," said a source close to Estonia’s security structures.

At the same time, investigators found that Medinsky, through the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), which he controls, is carrying out ideological initiatives in the occupied territories and supporting military units. Moreover, Medinsky is reportedly overseeing the imposition of Kremlin ideology on schoolchildren across the post-Soviet space and is involved in publishing history textbooks.

Medinsky and Crimea

In March 2014, just two weeks after the occupation of Crimea, then-Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky presented Putin with his ministry’s plans for the peninsula. Specifically, he proposed organizing theatrical performances based on Russian literary works, holding exhibitions dedicated to the Russian Empire, and supplying Crimean libraries with books from Russia. Since then, Medinsky regularly visited Crimea to oversee the implementation of these initiatives.

Six months later, he introduced a school textbook presenting the Russian interpretation of Crimea’s history. In the foreword written by Medinsky himself, it is emphasized that the involvement of the Russian Military Historical Society, which he heads, influenced the content of the publication — particularly the emphasis placed on military and political aspects. The text also claims that the "reunification of Crimea with Russia" allegedly enriches national historiography with "interesting and necessary works."

Occupied Crimea and Luhansk

In the temporarily occupied cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, the first branches of the Russian Military Historical Society began operating in 2022 — after the Kremlin announced their "accession" to the Russian Federation, a move that violates international law.

"Medinsky is uniquely valuable to Putin because he believes in what he says. Even 20 years ago, he sincerely believed that Russia was innocent and surrounded only by enemies — and he still believes that today. And Putin believes the same. In that sense, they’ve found each other," said a former Russian politician, speaking on condition of anonymity to Delfi, Estonian media outlet.

In December 2021, Putin established the Interdepartmental Commission on Historical Enlightenment and appointed Medinsky as its head. According to the presidential decree, the commission operates under the Russian president and coordinates government agencies, particularly on matters related to the "protection of historical truth and preservation of historical memory."

The commission has three main objectives:

• to unify the approach of state bodies to historical education;

• to analyze and counter the activities of foreign actors that harm Russia’s national historical interests;

• to propose counter-propaganda historical and cultural initiatives.

The Skhemy investigative project obtained the minutes of one of the commission’s meetings held in February 2025.

According to the document, under Medinsky’s leadership, the commission instructed Russia’s Ministry of Education to develop a "unified state textbook on regional history" for schools in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine. The textbook is to be titled The History of Novorossiya and Donbas, with completion planned by June 2025.

Earlier, we reported that the head of the Russian delegation in talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, attempted to justify why a ceasefire was unnecessary for negotiations — citing a fabricated quote falsely attributed to Napoleon. Russian 'historian' Medinsky quoted a fake Napoleon statement after Ukraine talks https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/russian-historian-medinsky-quoted-a-fa
ke-1747424590.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, July 24, 2025 8:03 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Long Process of European Unity

Leadership in Europe today goes beyond the big three Western European countries - France, Germany and the UK. Poland is now an important power that cannot be ignored.

By Minna Ålander | Jul 24, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-long-process-of-european-un
ity

Hi Everyone,

I gave an interview to the New York Times recently that would have been unremarkable otherwise, had they not so carefully omitted mentioning Poland – which I did talk about quite a bit. The article was about Germany, France and the UK coming together to figure out what to do about Trump and to prepare alternative solutions for Europe to be ready for the US to reduce its presence to a minimum. But discounting Poland from that equation simply misses the point of what has happened in Europe in the course of the past three years of Russia’s war in Ukraine: power becoming more diffusely, but in some ways also more fairly distributed. It is not enough anymore to get Western Europe together, Central and Eastern (and Northern) Europe have developed a much stronger voice of their own. In some ways, this is still part of the process of healing from the Cold War division in Europe, and the war in Ukraine has accelerated it.

Yours,
Minna

The Long Process of European Unity

The Cold War was not that long ago and its shadow has been long in Europe. It has been only 20 years since the EU (and NATO) integrated the Central and Eastern European countries in the early 2000’s. Within the EU, Germany and France were the dominant powers in the past decade after the UK’s decision to exit the EU, and Western European economic interests dominated over Eastern Europe’s security interests. The Nord Stream gas pipelines with Russia were perhaps the most obvious display of this dynamic. That the West knew better was the Zeitgeist when the East was being integrated into the (Western) European project. Not so anymore – that Western Europeans clearly got Russia wrong is indisputable. What was considered peripheral views and interests have become much more central now that Europe is beginning to imagine a new security order.

Not only has Central and Eastern Europe gained new recognition, but power has generally become distributed in a more diffuse way. Small states have stepped up to fill the vacuum that France and Germany’s initial inability to offer credible leadership caused, as I have described previously. Some small states have gone to exceptional lengths, like Denmark. The Nordic-Baltic 8 have developed a strong voice of their own. And among the larger states, Poland and Italy have entered centre stage in Europe: in an unexpected turn of events, Giorgia Meloni’s government has been more stable than the previous UK governments. Poland has taken its place next to Germany and France and the Weimar triangle has gained new prominence. The Weimar+ format can flexibly include other aforementioned partners, recently particularly the UK.

That is truly new: that while it is necessary and welcome that the three big Western European countries – France, Germany and the UK – work more closely together again, it is not sufficient alone. Poland has now become much more part and parcel of that inner circle. And both Europe’s south and north demand to be represented more directly, not just through Germany and France. European unification and overcoming the Cold War division is not growing through amalgamation into one entity but through a multiplicity of voices.

Among the ten countries that joined the EU in the 2004 “big bang enlargement”, Poland and Estonia rank among some of the most impressive success stories. Estonia has quadrupled both GDP per capita and average monthly salaries since joining the EU and Poland’s GDP per capita has increased by 40 percent, which is significantly higher than the 27 percentage average for the group of ten countries that joined at the same time (Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia). As a share of GDP per capita, Poland leads in NATO with the highest defence spending – higher than that of the US. Poland is also on course to become one of Europe’s largest military powers, aiming to motivate every male citizen to get a basic military training in order to build a large reserve that can sustain a prolonged defence effort. In addition, Poland is mining its border with Russia, including also other defensive structures and obstacles. Poland is taking no chances of being invaded again, as has been its fate many times over in the past. Poland’s economic and military power are recognized now in ways that were far from self-evident as recently as three years ago.

Power distribution in Europe is shifting - for the better. It is not necessarily easier or faster to deal with many more players, but on the other hand various groups of (smaller) countries can take and drive initiative in lieu of larger powers, if domestic political instability or lack of fiscal space restrict the latter’s ability to lead. When more countries are contributing, the EU is less likely to become paralyzed by Franco-German inability to build consensus. It is certainly not making it any easier to answer Kissinger’s famous question about whom to call if he wants to call Europe - the EU Commission, for example, is one actor among many. There will never be a single European leader; leadership only exists in plural. A more evenly and, perhaps even to an extent, fairly shared leadership is needed when the continent is taking charge of its security. Europe needs good ideas and bold initiatives, no matter from which geographical location or size of economy they come from.

P.S. In today’s good news: already by April, Europe had filled the gap left by no new US aid to Ukraine this year. The effort has mainly been led by the Nordics and the UK (and the EU institutions), with other Europeans allocating significantly less aid. Given that it has been the four small Nordic countries who have filled the support gap, it is yet more proof that one should never underestimate the small ones!

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, July 25, 2025 6:33 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Former Ukrainian army chief gives grim forecast on duration of war

By Kateryna Shkarlat | Thu, July 24, 2025 - 16:35

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/former-ukrainian-army-chief-gives-grim
-forecast-1753363352.html

If Ukraine does not take care of its future defense, the full-scale war could drag on until 2034 or even longer, according to Ukraine's ambassador to the UK and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in an interview with LB.ua.

According to Zaluzhnyi, since 2024, the full-scale war has entered an entirely new phase — one of "attrition." Today, the front line primarily serves to eliminate the enemy — "the more, the better" — while everything else is happening in the rear.

"If we try to pursue only a ceasefire without building up our defense for the future, then it (the full-scale war - ed.) will drag on for a long time. It started in 2014, and God willing, it might end by 2034," he added.

How long the war may last

In early July, experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) updated their forecast regarding the duration of the full-scale war in Ukraine. According to the baseline scenario, intense hostilities could come to an end by late 2025. https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/imf-updates-forecast-how-long-the-war-
in-1751348842.html

According to France’s Strategic National Review, the war in Ukraine could continue for up to five more years. https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/war-in-ukraine-could-last-for-years-wa
rns-1752587075.html

The issue of an unconditional ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine is actively being raised on the international stage. In particular, the Ukrainian delegation continues to insist on this during negotiations with the Russian side. The latter, however, has repeatedly rejected this proposal or attached conditions to it.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s interview with LB.ua

Exclusive interview with Valeriy Zaluzhny

191,510 views Premiered Jul 23, 2025

Valeriy Zaluzhny: "The frantic development of means of armed struggle, as well as the forms and methods of their application, will end in 3-5 years. Interview with the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and now the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom. We talk about:

• new technological war and drones;
• the role of Great Britain and the "coalition of the willing";
• the future of NATO;
• the demographic crisis and the economy of war;
• why the "war of February 24, 2022" is already over;
• how long will the war of "attrition" last;
• what Ukraine needs to win.

Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
01:30 The war of the future: technology, not soldiers
03:20 Why NATO is lagging behind reality of modern warfare
06:45 How to convince partners to invest in weapons for the future
08:00 The "Coalition of the Willing": how it works and where it stumbles
10:55 Is a peacekeeping contingent possible after the war
13:00 Will Britain be able to pay for American weapons
14:35 Is NATO losing its relevance as a power bloc
17:10 Technology war: how Russia and Ukraine are looking for a breakthrough
24:00 Demography and economics - key factors of future war
26:10 Ukraine and the technological revolution in war
27:00 Farewell

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, July 25, 2025 6:46 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukrainian soldiers cut off from Musk’s Starlink after blackout

Reconnaissance and combat work disrupted after 150-minute network failure

By James Warrington | 25 July 2025 8:57am BST

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/25/ukrainian-soldiers-cut
-off-from-musks-starlink-after-outage/

. . . Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink has been a continued source of tension given the erratic nature of Mr Musk’s behaviour.

In March, the Tesla billionaire boasted that Starlink was the “backbone of the Ukrainian army”, adding: “Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.”

The comments fuelled concerns about Mr Musk’s influence over the war, especially after Donald Trump halted military aid and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine following a disastrous meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.

Mr Musk’s post also triggered a row with Poland, which pays for roughly half the active Starlink terminals in Ukraine at a cost of approximately $50m a year.

Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s minister of foreign affairs, has said the country will look for alternative suppliers if Mr Musk proves to be unreliable.

OneWeb, the UK government-backed subsidiary of French satellite company Eutelsat, has said it is ready to “swiftly deploy” equipment in Ukraine if needed.

The Ukrainian army appeared to acknowledge its over-reliance on Starlink in the Telegram post, saying the outage showed there were “bottlenecks” and calling for the need to “diversify communication”.

Ukraine’s forces provided an update shortly before 1am stating that connectivity had been restored.

Michael Nicolls, Starlink’s head of engineering, wrote in a post on X: “Starlink has now mostly recovered from the network outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours.

The outage was because of the failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.

“We apologise for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to providing a highly reliable network, and will fully root cause this issue and ensure it does not occur again.”

Mr Musk added: “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, July 25, 2025 6:48 AM

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The US State Department approved two Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Ukraine totaling $322 million. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCSA) announced on July 23 that the US State Department approved an FMS to Ukraine for Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and maintenance and repair equipment valued at $150 million, and that the agency has notified Congress.[23] The US State Department also approved an FMS to Ukraine valued at $172 million for equipment and services related to the HAWK Phase III missile system, including MIM-23 HAWK missile spare parts, five-ton cargo trucks, HAWK system spare parts, refurbishment and system overhaul of HAWK air defense fire units, tool kits, test and support equipment, and US Government and contractor technical assistance.[24]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-july-24-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, July 25, 2025 2:23 PM

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Democracy Is Ukraine’s Most Powerful Weapon

Protesters seem to have beaten back Volodymyr Zelensky’s assault on anti-corruption agencies.

By Christian Caryl, the former Moscow bureau chief for Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.

July 24, 2025, 5:08 PM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/24/ukraine-zelensky-corruption-law-p
rotests-democracy/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s most ardent supporters sometimes depict him as a new Winston Churchill. It is not hard to understand why. Both men demonstrate innate understanding of the stagecraft and symbolism of modern politics. Churchill gave rousing speeches and insisted on heroic defiance to Nazi aggressors. Zelensky has channeled his people’s collective will to resist numerically superior Russian invaders, refusing to leave his office in the center of Kyiv for refuge overseas even as the Kremlin’s assassins prowled the city in the early days of the war.

Yet the comparison is illuminating for other reasons as well. Even at his most forceful, Churchill still made a point of sharing power. When he became prime minister in May 1940, he formed a unity coalition government that included representatives of all the major political parties. Clement Attlee, the head of the opposition Labour Party, ultimately became Churchill’s deputy, a position that gave him wide-ranging authority. It’s true that Britain didn’t hold any general elections from its last pre-war vote in 1935 until 1945, and of course little changed for the subject peoples of the British Empire, who came out of the war just as unfree as they entered it. Even so, Churchill never succumbed to the temptation to exercise autocratic power—even though his country was fighting one of the most vicious dictatorships in history.

Zelensky could learn a thing or two from the British wartime leader—as the events of this week have so vividly demonstrated. The Ukrainian president’s imperious decision on Monday to impose control on the country’s independent anti-corruption investigators has triggered the biggest public protests since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022—protests that have now spread from Kyiv and a few big cities to many other parts of the country.

The scale of that popular backlash reflects a widespread perception that Zelensky has become increasingly isolated from society at large, not least due to his propensity for rule through a small coterie of loyal advisors. Rather than power sharing, Churchill-style, some critics say, Zelensky has marginalized rivals and excluded critical voices.

“The source of power in Ukraine is the people of Ukraine,” Daria Kaleniuk, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Kyiv, told me in a phone interview. “This is what Zelensky forgot. He didn’t expect that there would be such an outcry in society in response to his act to demolish anti-corruption organizations.”

In response to the protests, Zelensky has now said that he plans to rescind the controversial law. That would be a welcome move. The institutions that he was targeting aren’t run-of-the-mill agencies; they are the product of more than a decade of dogged efforts to combat pervasive graft. Demonstrators who toppled pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych in the Maidan Revolution in 2014 opposed him in part because of his ostentatious malfeasance. Ukrainian activists, with broad backing from the United States and the European Union, worked for years to establish the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), both of which received extensive powers to investigate and prosecute officials. Zelensky’s law attempted to subordinate both agencies to the country’s chief prosecutor, abolishing their independence.

That would be bad enough in its own right. But an editorial in the Kyiv Independent, a leading Ukrainian newspaper, warned that Zelensky’s assault on the anti-corruption bodies was just part of a larger and more ominous trend: “The move isn’t an isolated incident, but part of a massive crackdown.”

The paper cited a series of police raids on NABU personnel and the ominous prosecution of a high-profile anti-corruption activist, Vitaliy Shabunin, who has a long and illustrious career as a watchdog. Zelensky has rejected such criticisms, claiming that he was merely attempting to cleanse the agencies of alleged Russian influence—although his critics have responded that the government has signally failed to provide any evidence for the claim.

During my visits to wartime Ukraine over the past two years, I’ve heard many concerns about the erosion of democratic institutions. I’ve heard reports about government pressure on leading newspapers. I’ve heard people express worries that the prosecution of a prominent Zelensky rival looks suspiciously like a political vendetta. And I’ve heard frequent criticisms of the overweening power of Zelensky’s hard-charging chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who has used his position as the president’s primary gatekeeper to concentrate immense power in his own office.

And yet Zelensky is far from being a dictator—as shown precisely by the thousands of demonstrators who have taken to the streets in recent days to protest his actions. Even so, the latest events have prompted some observers to warn that public discontent with the president threatens Ukraine’s national unity at a moment when Moscow continues to press home attacks on multiple fronts.

The Kremlin is using the protests “to undermine Ukraine’s legitimacy and discourage Western support,” as noted by a report from the Institute for the Study of War. (Never mind the absurdity of Russians sneering at demonstrations that would be brutally suppressed if anyone tried them at home.) Some observers contend that the turmoil merely gives additional fodder to the members of the U.S. Republican Party who are still trying to convince President Donald Trump and his loyalists that Ukraine is a permanent basket case. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene confirmed her status as the most unhinged MAGA member in Congress by claiming that the crowds on Ukrainian streets were actually assailing Zelensky because “he is a dictator and refuses to make a peace deal and end the war”—a breathtakingly cynical inversion of reality.

One sometimes hears the assumption that democracies can’t really successfully prosecute wars. It is inherently better, the argument goes, to have a single leader calling the shots, thus streamlining decision-making and eliminating the messy turmoil of competing voices. What Ukraine shows us, once again, is that the opposite is true. It is precisely the country’s strong culture of bottom-up activism and civic pride that has made it so hard to defeat. Ukraine and its democratic institutions have survived precisely because ordinary Ukrainians have been so quick to take to the streets and the battlefield to defend them. Perhaps the most poignant slogan from the demonstrations: “This is not the future my brother died for.” It has been striking, over the past few days, to hear front-line soldiers echoing and amplifying the protesters’ claims.

Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko made a similar point in a recent post on X. The Russians, he wrote, believe that the rallies “somehow bring Ukraine closer to collapse and defeat.” In fact, he continued, “it’s precisely the fact that Ukraine’s civil society takes to the streets, protests, and keeps kicking its own government in the ass even during wartime” that has been one of the main reasons the country has been able to continue “resisting Russia’s power for twelve years already, including three and a half years of full-scale war.”

Ponomarenko is right. It is this same grassroots energy that propelled ordinary civilians to battle the invaders in 2022, marshalled the efforts of millions of volunteers in support of the armed forces, and unleashed the ingenuity of countless inventors and designers. Kyiv’s forces have invented many impressive weapons during the conflict with Moscow. But it is the stubborn desire of millions of ordinary citizens to vote, protest, speak their minds, and determine their own fates that represents the most powerful resource in the Ukrainian arsenal.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, July 26, 2025 5:47 AM

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Russia continues to use child and youth labor to produce drones at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Republic of Tatarstan. Russian Ministry of Defense's (MoD) TV channel Zvezda published a 40-minute documentary showcasing the Russian Shahed (Geran) drone production plant in the Republic of Tatarstan.[8] The documentary stated that "boys and girls" from Alabuga Polytech College and ninth graders are actively involved in Shahed drone production at the SEZ. The Republic of Tatarstan government unsuccessfully attempted to change regional legislation to allow schoolchildren starting at age 14 to work at defense enterprises and amend the federal labor code to allow children 16 and over to work in hazardous and dangerous industries.[9] Georgia-based Russian RZVRT language YouTube channel and Protocol independent outlet reported in July 2023 that the Alabuga Polytech College recruited en masse students ages 15 through 17 to produce Shahed drones.[10] Russia’s use of child labor in weapons manufacturing likely helps partially offset Russia’s labor shortage.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-force-generation
-and-technological-adaptations-update-july-25-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, July 26, 2025 5:50 AM

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Zelensky sets 1,000-daily interceptor drones goal amid surging Russian attacks

By Tim Zadorozhnyy | July 25, 2025 7:49 pm

https://kyivindependent.com/zelensky-sets-goal-of-1-000-interceptors-p
er-day-amid-surging-russian-drone-attacks/

Interceptors are designed to detect, track, and neutralize other drones or aerial threats — a capability Ukraine sees as increasingly vital to defend cities from Russian barrages.

On July 10, Zelensky warned that Russia may begin launching up to 1,000 drones per day.

Germany's Maj. Gen. Christian Freuding said on July 19 that Moscow hopes to fire 2,000 drones each night.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, July 27, 2025 7:33 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia's civilian economy collapses as funeral services surge amid war crisis

Russia, Sat, July 26, 2025 - 19:37

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/russia-s-civilian-economy-collapses-as
-funeral-1753547732.html

The only segment showing growth in the civilian sector is the funeral services industry. Despite demographic decline and losses in the war against Ukraine, this sector grew by 16% in the first half of the year. Its volume reached nearly $425 million between January and April.

_______________

Russia's Funeral Industry Booms Amid Rising Deaths From Ukraine War

June 26, 2025 00:58 CET

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-funeral-industry-ukraine-war-toll/33454
677.html

As Moscow's invasion of Ukraine heads into its fourth summer, Russia’s funeral industry is experiencing a sharp and telling boom.

While official combat death statistics are hidden from public view, some Russians have taken to social media to highlight the skyrocketing cost of burial services in a funeral market that is growing fast.

According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, the funeral services market in Russia grew by 12.7 percent in the first four months of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year.

Nearly 200 new funeral-related businesses opened in that period with the fastest growth reported in Tatarstan, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg.

The surge comes amid public complaints about rising burial costs since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The price of grave digging, coffin construction, and headstones have all soared.

The cost of a coffin in April increased by 9 percent to roughly $100, and grave digging was up 15 percent to about $150, according to the Russian government statistical office, Rosstat.
'I Paid For Everything Myself''

Some grieving families of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine have complained that the state's promises of financial support are not being fulfilled.

"I paid for everything myself," one woman -- whose father died in combat near the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk -- said on social media.

"There was no burial service, no death benefits. No one came, not even a representative from the military commissariat or the brigade where he served."

Despite official claims that the state covers burial expenses, compensation is tightly capped.

A 2024 government decree limits reimbursement for burial services to about $650 in most regions and about $880 in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sevastopol.

Anything beyond these amounts must be paid by the family.

The Telegram channel Funeral Trust, which monitors the sector, estimates that the average cost of a funeral in Russia in 2024 was $750.

According to Western estimates, almost 1 million Russians have been killed or wounded fighting in Ukraine.

As the war continues to claim lives -- and as official data remains hidden -- the expansion of Russia’s funeral industry is one of the clearest indicators of the conflict's toll.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, July 27, 2025 7:38 AM

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Ukraine’s Western partners continue to provide critical air defense and military assistance to Ukraine. Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene announced on July 26 that Lithuania plans to allocate up to 30 million euros (roughly $35 million) to purchase Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine.[7] Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev stated on July 25 that Germany is preparing to send an additional IRIS-T air defense system to Ukraine. Germany is also prepared to work with Ukrainian manufacturers to produce additional air defense systems.[8] German defense company HENSOLDT announced on July 24 that it received an order worth over 340 million euros (roughly $399 million) to provide Ukraine with TRML-4D and SPEXER radar systems for air defense needs.[9] The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCSA) announced on July 24 that the US State Department approved a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of $150 million to Ukraine to enhance Ukrainian capabilities for maintenance, repair, and overhaul of the M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer.[10]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-july-26-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, July 27, 2025 7:57 AM

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The Fate of Graham-Blumenthal

If you set your mind back a few weeks ago, we were being told that the super-duper Russian sanctions bill sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal was definitely going to be voted on by the end of July. (500% tariff on countries buying Russian oil) We know this because Graham stated on June 29 that President Trump had told him that he would now allow the bill to have a vote, and Graham believed it would pass by the end of July. Other Republican Senators hinted in early July that there would be a vote by the end of the month and that the whole bill would be passed by early August.

I mean, the bill has 83 sponsors out of 100 senators, and supposedly overwhelming support in the House—how could it be blocked?

And yet here we are at the end of July, and the vote in the Senate has been completely shelved for now—and any vote in the House would be impossible until well into September as the House took a very early Summer recess so the Republicans could run away from the Epstein-Trump allegations.

How did this very threatening bill get shelved? Well, the reality is that it was a key element of Trump’s maneuvering a few weeks ago (the pivot to Ukraine which was not a pivot). By saying he was threatening Putin with sanctions in 50 days (early September), Trump did Putin a great favor by killing off Graham-Blumenthal for now. The Republicans, as always, are deferring to him and will not give the bill a vote that they were promising just a few weeks ago.

So, the next time someone talks about how Trump is now helping Ukraine, it might be pointed out that he is helping Russia more.

https://kyivindependent.com/its-time-to-move-your-bill-after-discussio
n-with-trump-senator-says-congress-will-soon-begin-to-vote-on-new-russian-sanctions/

https://www.aol.com/news/thune-hopes-pass-russia-sanctions-182903798.h
tml

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5416475-house-epstein-controversy-r
ecess/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, July 27, 2025 4:25 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

It seems that a lot of posts in the Ukraine thread aren't about Ukraine military situation at all.

So, for a quick update, Russian soldiers are fighting in the city of Pokrovsk. They've also created a real pocket south of the nearby, larger city of Konstantinovka.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

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Monday, July 28, 2025 7:19 AM

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Ukraine’s top general Zaluzhnyi warns war could last a decade without systemic Western support

By Ben Aris in Berlin July 27, 2025

https://www.intellinews.com/ukraine-s-top-general-zaluzhnyi-warns-war-
could-last-a-decade-without-systemic-western-support-393017/

Ukrainian former top general and current UK ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi has given another controversial interview and warned that the war against Russia could drag on for another decade unless Western allies fundamentally rethink their approach to military support and strategy.

Speaking to the editor-in-chief of LB.ua Sonya Koshkina, Zaluzhnyi said: “Western doctrine is stuck in Cold War thinking, building stockpiles, not agility. What’s needed is fast adaptation, algorithmic warfare, drone swarms, and real-time intelligence integration.”

Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military commander since July 2021 until he got fired, has repeatedly urged Nato members to move beyond military aid packages and toward closer operational coordination with Ukrainian forces.

“Ukraine is the only country actually fighting this type of modern war. And the West? Mostly watching,” Pinner wrote. “Zaluzhnyi says we don’t just need donations, we need joint development, joint production, and deep integration.”

“Without major changes, this war could last another decade.” He added, “That’s not pessimism. That’s what happens if Ukraine is left to bleed slowly without systemic change militarily, economically, and politically.”

The interview and its explicit criticism of the support given to Kyiv by its western allies is unlikely to go down well either at Nato’s HQ or with Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin). However, Zaluzhnyi is no stranger to controversy. While he was supreme head of Ukraine’s forces he stirred up a hornets nest in an interview in 2023 by saying the war with Russia had reached a stalemate, in widely quoted comments. Zelenskiy held a press conference to rebut the claim, however, Zaluzhnyi later validated after the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) summer offensive failed to widespread disappointment.

Zelenskiy later fired the well-liked general when he overtook Zelenskiy in the opinion polls in what was widely seen as a politically motivated decision.

Much loved by Ukraine’s fighting men, Zaluzhnyi was an adroit commander and responsible for much of Ukraine’s successes in the first two years of the war. His opinion still carries great weight in Ukraine among voters and comes at a time when the fighting on the battlefield is not going Kyiv’s way. Zaluzhnyi argues that the war is now entering a fourth phase.

“In 2023, the traditional war ended. I'm absolutely sure that Russia now faces a choice: to gather “meat” again in 2026 but take it from Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and other “cool” cities, or think of something else. Most likely, this option won't work. Why? Because someone in Ukraine will make billions of drones that will cost $5 each and it will absolutely not matter how many people Putin will send.”

Zaluzhnyi’s comments reflect mounting frustration in Kyiv over what it sees as insufficient and outdated Western military doctrine. As bne IntelliNews opined in a recent opinion piece, the war is close to being lost after the Trump administration cut its support and the EU is struggling to fill Washington’s shoes. US President Donald Trump promised to aid Ukraine by sending new badly needed Patriot air defence missiles, but it later transpired that Berlin will supply two batteries and these won’t arrive until next spring.

“Nato isn’t ready,” Zaluzhnyi said, criticising what he called “strategic infantilism” in some Western capitals — the belief that the conflict can be managed or contained with incremental measures. “That delusion is costing lives and prolonging the war,” Zaluzhnyi said.

Zaluzhnyi’s demands focus on practical collaboration rather than symbolic gestures. Zaluzhnyi calls for help in building what works, share what matters, and rewrite the doctrines that no longer reflect today’s battlefield.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, July 28, 2025 7:21 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It seems that a lot of posts in the Ukraine thread aren't about Ukraine military situation at all.

So, for a quick update, Russian soldiers are fighting in the city of Pokrovsk. They've also created a real pocket south of the nearby, larger city of Konstantinovka.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

Signym, you are a fucking idiot who concentration on the trivia of war. The 'Military Summary Channel' on youtube that you watch is the most worthless thing I have ever seen. It reminds me of how American news channels missed what was obviously happening in Vietnam: that each new daily "victory" for "America" was bringing Nixon one day closer to defeat. The North Vietnamese will not surrender. No matter how many bombs Nixon drops from B-52s on South Vietnam or North, North Vietnam will not quit because death would be better than giving the country to Nixon and his puppets born in Vietnam.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, July 28, 2025 7:25 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Hawk missiles are old but reliable. Ukraine wants all 40,000 America is sitting on

By David Axe | July 27, 2025

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/07/27/40000-hawk-missiles-ukraine/

The Ukrainian government will spend $172 million buying vehicles, parts, training, maintenance and other services for the Ukrainian air force’s US-made Hawk air-defense batteries.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the ability of Ukraine to provide for its own defense,” the State Department noted.

The Hawk is becoming one of the most important air-defense weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal. Not because it’s particularly new: the Homing All the Way Killer missile dates from the late 1950s, making it a full generation older than Ukraine’s best air-defenses, its US-made Patriots.

No, the Hawk best attributes are its simplicity, reliability and—most importantly—abundance. A new facility in the US state of Oklahoma has been refurbishing thousands of the Hawk system’s 5-m missiles.

The Hawk is a medium-range surface-to-air missile. Each missile, fired by a three-round launcher, ranges around 48 km. The missile homes in on energy from a ground-based radar reflecting from the airborne target. The Ukrainian air force cited “experts” claiming the Hawk is 85% accurate, which is consistent with much newer missiles.

As a bonus, newer versions of the Hawk could be compatible with another, more modern missile system that Ukraine also uses: the US-Norwegian National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS.

Norwegian firm Kongsberg—builder of the NASAMS—has developed a new digital command post for Hawk batteries that borrows its main components from NASAMS. That raises the possibility that the Ukrainian air force might, with some effort, be able to combine its NASAMS and Hawk batteries into a single force using the same radars and command posts.

Medium-range stalwart

The Hawk was NATO’s standard medium-range SAM for decades until the advent—in the 1980s—of the Patriot, which ranges three times as far and boasts a much more sophisticated seeker. Raytheon manufactured many thousands of Hawk missiles. Decades later, many of those missiles are still sitting around in various military warehouses all over the world.

Given the dire shortage of Patriot missiles—Lockheed Martin produces no more than 600 a year for all the dozens of countries that use them—those old Hawk missiles have become a priceless commodity. So far, Spain, The Netherlands and the United States, possibly with a little help from Taiwan, have donated enough radars and launchers for Ukraine to deploy maybe four batteries, each with multiple radars and launchers.

But a new US Army facility in Oklahoma, officially opened in February, is gathering up, reconditioning and possibly upgrading thousands of old missiles for those four batteries.

The Army had already inspected 2,751 missiles from US stockpiles by the time the new Theater Readiness Monitoring Facility opened, “a monumental achievement that underscores the scale of the operation,” according to the ground combat branch.

Hundreds more missiles were inbound from Ukraine’s foreign allies. “In addition to servicing missiles from the US, the new facility has also received 825 missiles and other equipment donations from six countries, further demonstrating the global importance of the Hawk system in air defense,” the Army stated.

It’s possible, even likely, that most of those missiles have made their way to Ukraine. The recent US sale of Hawk equipment to Ukraine is just the latest in a series of US-Ukrainian deals associated with the missile system.

Of all the many diverse American and European air-defense systems Ukraine uses to defend its cities, the Hawk batteries might have the most ammunition. How many more missiles the Oklahoma facility can find for Ukrainian batteries is unclear. But it’s worth noting Raytheon built 40,000 of the missiles—and only a few countries have ever used them in anger. Ukraine being the latest.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, July 28, 2025 7:41 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I was going to add that Pokrovsk was once an important logistical hub for Kiev. You can tell by looking at a map: It has six (or more, depending on how far out from city center you want to count) major roadways and several large rsil lines running thru it.

People once claimed that once Pokrovsk fell, the entire frontline in Donbas would collapse.

Well, Pokrovk's function as a logistical hub probably ended four months ago, and the frontline hasn't collapsed. Ukrainians are still fighting with the dogged tenacity of a people invaded. A victory in Pokrovsk won't come with a collapse of the front, it'll be measured in the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed and vehicles and weapons destroyed. And THAT effect is slow and cumulative.

Russians are fighting using their WWII playbook. Germans were equally motivated in their cause. They fought every step of the way, all the way back to Berlin. It wasn't until Berlin fell that the war ended.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

"Constant monitoring of behavior, emotion, and identity breeds conformity, judgment, and fear."

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Tuesday, July 29, 2025 6:58 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Facing Russia’s war on Ukraine, the EU couldn’t risk fighting a trade war with the U.S., analyst says

By Jason Ma | July 28, 2025 (Fortune)

The U.S.-EU trade deal has been blasted as too lopsided in favor of President Donald Trump, as it sets tariffs higher than Europe wanted and pledges hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent in America. But according to an analyst at the Brookings Institution, that ignores a crucial geopolitical angle: The EU needs U.S. weapons to help Ukraine fight Russia.

According to Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the deal isn’t a defeat if you look at it from a different point of view.

“Instead, it’s recognition of economic and geopolitical realities whereby the EU needs the U.S. more than the other way around,” he wrote in a Substack post. “At the end of the day, the EU needs U.S. weapons to keep Ukraine afloat into its struggle for survival against Russia. That just isn’t a setting where you escalate a trade conflict.”

Despite recent transatlantic tensions, there is greater urgency in Europe to rearm as the Russia threat looms over the entire continent, not just Ukraine.

In February, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service assessed the risk from Russia once its Ukraine war stops or freezes in place.

Russia could launch a local war against a bordering country within six months, a regional war in the Baltics within two years, and a large-scale attack on Europe within five years if the U.S. does not get involved, according to a translation of the report from Politico.

“Russia is likely to be more willing to use military force in a regional war against one or more European NATO countries if it perceives NATO as militarily weakened or politically divided,” the report said. “This is particularly true if Russia assesses that the U.S. (Trump) cannot or will not support the European NATO countries in a war with Russia.”

More at https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/facing-russia-s-war-on-ukraine
-the-eu-couldn-t-risk-fighting-a-trade-war-with-the-u-s-analyst-says/ar-AA1Js6sx

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, July 29, 2025 7:09 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I was going to add that Pokrovsk was once an important logistical hub for Kiev. You can tell by looking at a map: It has six (or more, depending on how far out from city center you want to count) major roadways and several large rsil lines running thru it.

People once claimed that once Pokrovsk fell, the entire frontline in Donbas would collapse.

Well, Pokrovk's function as a logistical hub probably ended four months ago, and the frontline hasn't collapsed. Ukrainians are still fighting with the dogged tenacity of a people invaded. A victory in Pokrovsk won't come with a collapse of the front, it'll be measured in the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed and vehicles and weapons destroyed. And THAT effect is slow and cumulative.

Russians are fighting using their WWII playbook. Germans were equally motivated in their cause. They fought every step of the way, all the way back to Berlin. It wasn't until Berlin fell that the war ended.

The story the Russians tell always omits the Americans and Brits slaughtering the German Army and destroying Germany's ammo factories. The West did far more damage to Germany's ability to fight than the Russians did. What did the Russians do? Kill civilians. Killed two million Germans after the war was over. That is the Russian way of war.

In WWII, Russia should have defeated Germany within months. Finland beat the shit out of Russia during WWII because the Russians fought idiotically, despite vastly outnumbering the Finns. Makes you wonder why the Russians are having trouble beating the Ukrainians. Then you realize that Ukrainians are the Finns, but not as competent.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, July 29, 2025 7:10 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

How Russia Fights ( Signym, this is why Russia struggles to win despite overwhelming numerical superiority )

By United States Army Europe and Africa, COL (Ret) Ted Donnelly, BG (Ret) Kevin Ryan, COL (Ret) Tom Butler, COL (Ret) Jeff Hartman, COL (Ret) Lee Gabel, Mary Ann Singlaub, MAJ (Ret) Sean Frerking

July 21, 2025

https://www.army.mil/article/286922/how_russia_fights

We were anxious to see how well our curriculum held up in a real Russian large-scale combat operation. In fact, it held up quite well. Many of our assumptions turned out to be correct. But there were some surprises, and some things we had overlooked.

In 2024, as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, GEN Cavoli encouraged us to go back through more than 2 years and several thousand pages of raw observations, analyze them, and produce a Compendium organized by U.S. Army Warfighting Functions.

Download the full publication here: How Russia Fights: A Compendium of Troika Observations on Russia's Special Military Operations [PDF - 11.6 MB]

https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2025/07/11/f2b1e75e/how-russia-fig
hts-a-compendium-of-troika-observations-on-russia-s-special-military-operations.pdf

“Despite the years of thought and oceans of ink which have been devoted to the elucidation of war, its secrets still remain shrouded in mystery…

“War is an art and as such is not susceptible to explanation by fixed formulae. Yet from the earliest time there has been an unending effort to subject its complex and emotional structure to dissection, to enunciate rules for its waging, to make tangible its intangibility.” – General George S. Patton, Jr (from page 11)

Corruption Undermines Everything (from page 21)

Corruption remains the lubricant that allows the Russian military to run, even during wartime. Every Russian military leader must engage in it to get things done— every leader. At best, officers tolerate it to find solutions to shortages and problems. At worst, they use it to enrich themselves.

In the first weeks of 2024, President Putin acted to reduce the level of corruption in the MOD, firing several senior officers and retiring others. The different punishments undoubtedly were a function of whether the officer could buy a retirement rather than suffer a prison sentence.

The purge began with Timur Ivanov, Russia’s then-Deputy Defense Minister, who was arrested in April 2024 after being accused of taking bribes “on a particularly large scale.” Then came GEN-LT Yuri Kuznetsov, head of the defense ministry’s personnel directorate. He was arrested after more than 100 million rubles (over $1 million), gold coins, and other valuables were seized from his residences.

GEN-MAJ Ivan Popov, former Commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, was arrested for fraud. During this same time, several senior generals were given the chance to retire. GEN Vadim Shamarin, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, was placed in custody by a military court on 22 May 2024. According to Russian agencies, he is accused of “accepting a particularly large bribe,” charges for which he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Corruption is so entrenched that the guilty and the public talk about it as if it were acceptable, as long as it is not too “extravagant.” For example, in the wake of PMC Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny, Rosgvardiya Director (and former Putin personal bodyguard) GEN Viktor Zolotov said in a televised interview that he gave his wife his “go-bag” of money, documents, and other items in case she needed to flee Moscow and, we presume, Russia. He added that his troops also gave their “stashes of money” to their wives, joking that his troops later regretted this. It is difficult to imagine a parallel situation in which a U.S. or Allied four-star commander responsible for the security of the government bragged that he had prepared his wife to flee the country.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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