[jato0072]

"If it is proven to be a deliberate attack on NATO critical infrastructure... it will be met with a united and determined response"

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says NATO is examining whether a gas pipeline from Finland to Estonia was sabotaged.

Link

Perhaps Russia is retaliating against the West blowing up Nordstream last year.

I wonder if Victoria Nuland will say "I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 Balticconnector is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea." Link

[EnergyUnlimited]

@jato,
Also have thought about it.
Very plausible.

[theluckycountry]

"If it is proven to be a deliberate attack on NATO critical infrastructure... it will be met with a united and determined response"

Critical? United and determined? Whatever, but according to the article below it's an irrelevant pipeline anyway. Perhaps the Russian blew it up as a tit for tat? All I see is Western Europe being more and more marginalized from Russian and east European energy. They really didn't think ahead did they, or did they? Peakoil, Powerdown? I still maintain that Western Elites won't lose out due to all this, only their populations, the little people, the useless eaters. "let them eat cake" but blame it on Putin.

The Balticconnector is part of a wider network that carries gas from Lithuania, through Latvia, Estonia and onto Finland. Since April, Finland has also been using the pipeline to send gas back to Estonia depending on demand, sourcing the fuel from a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Finnish side of the pipeline.

As a connecting pipeline, Balticconnector doesn’t import gas into Europe, nor does it carry very much. With a capacity of 2.6 billion cubic meters a year, it represents just a fraction of the total 415 billion cubic meters of gas supplied to the European Union and the United Kingdom last year — 0.63%, to be exact.

Finland and Estonia are not especially reliant on natural gas for their energy needs either, analysts tell CNN. Moreover, Finland can still source gas via its LNG terminal, and Estonia is still connected to the European gas grid via Lithuania.

So why does the pipeline’s shuttering matter?...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/su ... r-AA1i3n7W

[AgentR11]

Back on topic of the Russia/Ukraine situation, there appears to be a bit of line moving now occurring at Avdiivka which is just WNW of Donetsk; UAF have spent the past years periodically firing shells into the city center from this location, and apparently yesterday was the first day in ages that there was no shelling into the city. Russia appears to be successfully forming a cauldron out of the fortified ex-village, surrounding it from both the North and South. They are expending a significant amount of armor in doing so, whether it pays off in the end with capturing the fortification remains to be seen.

[AgentR11]

Minor note... I've noticed that the UA side press keeps referring to the missile corvettes as "missile carriers", and then just calling them "carriers". These are not aircraft carriers; they are small boats that have a naval gun, some cwis like stuff, and a compartment for firing a few (I think eight) cruise missiles. They are cheap, and fairly plentiful.

NOT aircraft carriers guys. Russia has one, for training, and its in maintenance/refit up North in the Arctic.

[theluckycountry]

Russia delivers eight multiple-launch strikes at Ukrainian military sites over week
Russian forces repelled 17 Ukrainian army attacks in the Donetsk area, killing and wounding more than 1,580 enemy troops

https://tass.com/politics/1690315

It's all pretty low level stuff now. The Russians it seems are playing a sort of waiting game, waiting for the West to grow tired and cut the ukraine loose or force it to surrender, which if they had any brains they would have done long ago. As time passes the ukrainian men get sucked up this funnel to be turned into ground meat, soon there will be no men left there. I guess there will be lots of room for middle eastern refugees, the West might force them to take a few hundred thousand as the price to join the EU? That won't sit well with the Nazi leadership though.

[Plantagenet]

Apparently the recent Ukrainian attacks using artillery, missiles, drones, brave little sea drones, and commandos on Russian positions on the Crimean Peninsula have persuaded the commanders of the Russian black sea fleet (those left alive after the Ukrianians blew up their headquarters) to flee their home base in Crimea and pull the fleet back to Russia.

I congratulate the Russian black sea fleet on their successful retreat.


Run away! Run away!

Cheers!

[AgentR11]

I think its mostly the UAVs (surface and subsurface too) that have got them moving out; seen satellite imagery showing them trying to put together complex netting at the entrance of Sevastopol; not sure whether the netting can be successful or not though. Greatly reduces the value of the harbor.

To a certain extent it makes more sense to do their corvette reloading closer to the missile manufacturing anyway, as much as I'm sure it chaps their behinds to not be running out of Crimea given its history. Better than having to ship the Kalibers to Sevastopol/Crimea. Just load em and shoot em from Novorossiysk in completely unchallenged territory.

Avdiivka progress continues very slowly, but they're apparently expending a serious amount of armor and drones in the process. Not sure whether they're getting real value for the resources, or whether they're stuck in an emotional decision trying to relieve the intermittent shelling of Donetsk.

[Plantagenet]

Russia just claimed they have finally repaired the Kursk bridge to Crimea after a Ukrainian drone attack in July. But UK intelligence says Russia is lying and the bridge is NOT fully repaired, even though its been three months since the attack.

ussia-claims-key-crimea-bridge-is-fully-repaired-but-actually-it-remains-limited-and-a-huge-security-burden-uk-intel-says

And there is little doubt that Ukraine can launch another drone attack again on the Kursk Bridge any time they want, since Ukrianian attacks have reduced Russia's air defense capabilities over Crimea.

So who is lying...the UK or the Russians? IMHO I think the Brits are right and Russia is lying.

IMHO we'll get a very big clue when Russia actually completes its repair job..... because Ukraine will destroy the bridge to Crimea again the next day.


How will we know when Russia finally completely repairs the bridge to Crimea? We'll know because Ukraine will blow it up again the very next day.

Cheers!

[theluckycountry]

US and British forces managed to drive out the ukrainian militaries fore-bearers from France, and then occupy it, all without the benefit of the Chunnel. Somehow I think that bridge is not as important as the western media are touting. The West is desperate for any titbit to make their case look winnable. But from the map it's all over rover.



What comes next for the allied support?

[jato0072]

So who is lying...

Everyone!

I can think of ten or more predictions that were totally wrong:

Examples; Russian is running out of ammunition. Ukraine is running out of soldiers.

This war will drag on for years. If ammunition, equipment or soldier counts are low, the war will simply lower in intensity and grind on.

[Plantagenet]

News Reports say Ukraine successfully hit Russian air defense systems in Crimea with new US-supplied atacms missiles today.


Ukraine is now using new US atacms missiles to hit Russian forces in Crimea

ukraine-crimea-atacms-wiped-out-Russian-air-defence-regiment1839082]

Ukraine has been systematically going after Russian targets on the occupied Crimea Peninsula for months now. First they successfully destroyed the Black Sea Fleet headquarters (with command officers inside it) and also destroyed two Russian ships and the main Russian Black Sea Fleet dry dock. The Russians have responded by pulling the Black Sea Fleet back to the Russian mainland.

The Ukrianians have also been degrading the Russian air defense systems for Crimea, with the latest strike on Russian air defense units happening just yesterday.

No doubt when the Russian air defense system for Crimea is totally destroyed, Ukraine will then shift to attacking, degrading and destroying the rest of the Russian army based in Crimea.

Cheers!

[theluckycountry]

Time Magazine
Zelensky in denial about Ukrainian army's failure on battlefield

"Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, Zelensky does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace," the author of the article wrote. "He deludes himself. We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that," Shuster quoted one of Zelensky’s closest aides as telling him.

https://time.com/6329188/ukraine-volody ... interview/

Of course Zelensky is not really in control there, I mean come on, a year before he was a standup comedian snorting cocaine! It is the military that controls policy much like the Japanese military did in WWII, which led to the destruction of so many cities when it was obvious they had already lost their war.

This is the greatest crime, why a region would sacrifice so many of it's people's in a fruitless fight when surrender is the logical honorable choice. Look at France, Italy, Norway, they all capitulated when it was obvious, even Poland, a nation of patriots gave up the fight when it was obvious they had lost.

Putin hardly cares about the war now, he's off doing the BRICS thing, strengthening ties with China and North Korea, Saudi Arabia and south America. His focus is on the destruction of the US hegemony and the US focus is on shared toilets that old men in dresses can enter to spy on teenage girls. Did anyone have the misfortune of watching the Matrix Resurrections? The two brothers that directed the original series came back to make the latest one, but now they have "come out" as women. It was a flop! And they blamed that on "Toxic Masculinity" America is the real threat to the world now, it must be stopped before this perversion spreads too far.

The sisters are both trans women. ... The Wachowskis
A nation that idolizes perverts.

[Plantagenet]

Ukraine inflicts greatest one-day loss on Russian air force since WWII.

ukraine-us-atacms-missiles-blow-up-26-russia-ka-52-attack-helicopters

Ukraine announced about a week ago that they had launched a missile attack on Russian airfields in occupied Ukriane and had destroyed about 9 helicopters.

However, independent news reports say Ukraine actually destroyed about 26 Russian attack helicopters, or about 11% of Russia's total helicopter fleet. Apparently 9 were completely destroyed, but the missile attack used cluster weapons which sent hundreds of separate little bomblets down onto the airfield, so that even the helicopters that weren't destroyed were so heavily damaged that they can't be flown anymore.

Russian's Black Sea Fleet fled back to Russia after Ukraine successfully sank multiple ships, including the flagship of the fleet. I wonder if the Russian airforce will now be forced to also pull their helicopters back to Russia, since their aircraft are clearly at risk if they are based too close to Ukraine.


Wow! Ukraine just destroyed 11% of Russia's attack helicopter fleet in one daring attack!

cheers!

[Newfie]

Plant,

The KA-52 was their “tank killer” and was pretty effective. It hurt their offensive badly. Russia had only about 3 dozen total, they had previously lost a bunch and a new group (about 9?) were brought in to blunt the spring offensive. Ukraine was killing them about 1 a week over the summer. And Russia shot down 2 on their own.

Ukraine likely wiped or seriously damage most remaining KA-52’s committed to the Ukraine conflict. So I think Russia has lost well over half of their KA-52, more like 75%. The ones not destroyed were likely out of-theater in repair status, and may or may not have serious issues themselves.

[Plantagenet]

Ukraine launches another attack on Russian Forces in occupied Crimea.

Ukriane launches large attack on Russian in Crimea.....again

Some reports say part of this attack was on the bridge to the Russian mainland.

I stated up above that we'd be able to tell when the Russians had completed their repairs on the bridge after the damage caused by last Ukrainian attack because the Ukrainians would attack it again.

Well......it looks like the Ukrainians just attacked the bridge again.


It looks like the Ukrainians have attacked the Kursk Bridge again, so the Russians must've finally completed their repairs of the damage caused by the last Ukrainain attack 3 months ago.

Cheers!

[careinke]

I was listening this morning to the New York Times Economic Podcast. You know, the paper that distributes government propaganda, think WMD's in Iraq among others.

Anyway one of the hosts was talking about an interview with one of the Nazi Ukrainian top Generals. He admitted the war is at a standstill, and neither side will be able to win with the present technology.

Problem being you cannot mass your forces for an assault without them being discovered and destroyed. Basically they are fighting a war today with the last wars tactics and equipment.

Plant is big on showing all the Nazi's "wins", but never gives the full picture. That's why I'm here to help balance things.

Frankly, if we do end up in a long protracted war so Brandon can save his presidency, at least we will have less Nazi's, less Russian criminals and a faster collapse of the Fiat currencies.


Peace

[EnergyUnlimited]

Meantime chief commander of Ukrainian forces, Mr Zaluzhny is now stating that war have stalled, Ukrainian counteroffensive have failed and adequate technology which would allow to defeat Russians in Ukraine does NOT exist.
He no longer expects any clear breakthrough and he is recognizing that war of attrition is favoring Russians in long term:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/ ... stalemate/

I read it as: "We are advised by our Western allies that not much more can be done to assist us and that we need to consider negotiated settlement which is taking into account some Russian objections"
Another issue is about Russians and their willingness to negotiate partial victory now or rather carrying on with attrition of Ukrainians to oblivion with complete strategic victory rather than any sort of compromise as a main objection.

[careinke]

Nice find EU,

Thanks,

Peace

[Plantagenet]

Nazi ..... Nazi's ..... Nazi's.....

I can't believe you actually support the Russians invading other countries and killing their peoples.

Consider this alternative viewpoint...

Aren't the Russians really the modern day Nazis?

After all, they are the ones ruled by a crazy dictator who is pushing a nutty Russo-nationalist ideology and invading and destroying other countries..


The Russians are ruled by a crazy dictator who is pushing a nutty Russo-nationalist ideology and invading and destroying other countries..

Cheers!