KYHorn

If it helps with perspective, it was above $9 in April!

Maybe it's the Mossad pager operation in my head, but these North Korean and Iranian stocks keep getting blown up. Makes me wonder if Ukraine is receiving intel from some allies. Or, maybe it's Russians giving it all up

Who would be willing to die for a little money? "North Korea is likely to deploy members of its regular armed forces to Ukraine in support of Russia, South Korea's defense chief said Tuesday, in the latest sign of deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow... 'As Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty akin to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is highly likely,' Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun told lawmakers during a parliamentary audit session."

NEW The Washington Post is out with new reporting on how the Mossad got those pagers into the hands of Hezbollah. Hezbollah operatives were enticed by the bulky, rugged pagers that were pitched to them because they felt they could survive battlefield conditions. They were waterproof and had an oversized battery that could operate for MONTHS without charging. The pagers also allowed encrypted messages to be sent but there was a catch. In order for the encrypted message to be read, the user had to press two buttons at the same time. That’s how the Mossad insured that most Hezbollah members had the pagers in their hands when they exploded. The pagers contained such a tiny amount of the explosive PETN that even if Hezbollah broke open the pagers, they wouldn’t be able to detect its presence. So where did the idea come from? The Mossad already got walkie talkies in the hands of Hezbollah back in 2015. The walkie talkies contained an extra large battery and also gave the ability of Mossad to eavesdrop on ALL Hezbollah communications, which it did for nine years. Gift Link: bit.ly/3NgJDNu Edit to add: the 2015 ones also contained explosives and those are what Israelis set off the the day after the first round.

Biden finally let Ukraine take the gloves off!

Lots of different claims going around. These seem to be the most reliable. Interesting development with the downed in a friendly fire incident Russian aircraft this morning on the Donetsk front. With more videos of the wreckage and the moment of the crash now available, the consensus is that it was a Russian Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B stealth heavy unmanned combat aerial vehicle and not just a Su-25. Some Russian reports claim they actually shot down their own Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B UAV - presumably because they lost control of it & didn't want it to crash in #Ukraine held territory. It's a giant unmanned stealth recon drone, with a wing span of 65ft - so easy to mistake as a fighter jet (2nd pic not related).

Thanks

Can we pin this @immamac

I can't speak for him, but I'm sure he's willing to not slam his dick against Chinese ships.

IRAN IS MEDIATING DISCUSSIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE HOUTHI TO EQUIP THE GROUP WITH ADVANCED ANTI-SHIP MISSILES. 🇷🇺 🇮🇷 Russia is in discussions with the Houthis, via Iran, to transfer long-range Onyx anti-ship missiles for use against Western ships. The Houthis have already been targeting military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if the West continues to allow Ukraine to strike Russia, Moscow could supply long-range weapons to forces willing to retaliate against Western nations. Source: Reuters, The Times of Israel Comparison of the land control between Ukraine and Russia. Left picture is October 2023, right October 2024. Situation in 2023 by numbers Ukrainian Control (Oct, 2023): 490,400 square kilometers (189,350 square miles) Russian Control (Oct, 2023): 111,100 square kilometers (42,900 sqm) Situation in 2024 by numbers Ukrainian Control (Oct, 2024): 488,700 square kilometers (188,700 square miles) Additionally 1,100 sqkm (420 sqm) Russian territory held by Ukraine Russian Control (Oct, 2024): 112,700 square kilometers (43,400 sqm) Overall: During the last 12 months Russia achieved a net surplus in additional land by around 600 square kilometers (240 square miles), which is roughly 0.1% of Ukraine's total size.

Crossover strikes! Syria TV: Israel bombed Russia's Hmeimim airbase an hour after the arrival of an Iranian plane belonging to "Qeshm" Airlines. The Israeli strike did not target the runways or towers at Hmeimim Airbase and Latakia's civilian airport. The bombing targeted other military sites in Latakia province simultaneously with hitting the warehouse inside Hmeimim Airbase. The Israeli bombardment began at 3:55 AM and ended at 4:41 AM, involving thirty missiles launched from naval ships. A Russian air patrol hovered over Latakia after the Israeli strike ended.

I think we have some idea of its success

Detailed analysis of how it occurred. It's also worth mentioning the extreme losses Russia has suffered over the last year in trying to capture Vuhledar Russia has attacked Vuhledar several times over the past two years, but this current attack began on September 25th, 2023, when Russia launched its full-scale attack on Novomykhailivka. Ukraine fended off the attack for nearly 7 months but ultimately lost the town on April 21st, almost entirely due to airstrikes that annihilated it. During the assault on Novomykhailivka, which Russia saw as one of its primary objectives last winter, Ukraine destroyed well over 300 Russian vehicles during the primary assault and probably another 300 during secondary and tertiary assaults. Next came the battle for Kostyantynivka, which lasted several more months before Russia managed to break into the middle of the village. Ukraine ultimately decided to withdraw from its defense of the western part of the town on August 27th, and this withdrawal, I believe, was the beginning of the end for Vuhledar. It started a chain reaction. During the battle for Kostyantynivka, Russia began to push toward Vodiane. They made it near the highway by the time Ukraine retreated from Kostyantynivka, but almost a week before Ukraine left Kostyantynivka, Russia managed to capture the trench line defending the highway. These events were so close in time that they were not a coincidence. I think either Ukraine decided to withdraw from the highway because of Kostyantynivka or they decided to withdraw from Kostyantynivka because of the highway. I don't know which. Regardless, also running concurrently with the primary assaults on Kostyantynivka, Russia began a massive air campaign on Prechystivka. I tried to raise alarm bells on this several times; it was highly concerning and reminded me of their behavior in Novomykhailivka. After many months of near-continuous airstrikes, Russia launched a large and pretty sudden assault on the town beginning on August 26th, capturing it on September 3rd, ultimately collapsing the western flank of Vuhledar and pushing across the Kashlahach River in multiple places with large numbers of troops in each instance. Losing Kostyantynivka and the highway near Vodiane made defending Vuhledar extremely questionable; losing these river crossings made it practically impossible. The fact that all three occurred within 17 days, after many months of preparation and planning, shows how coordinated the attack on Vuhledar was. Then came the capture of Vodiane itself (around September 8th,9th,10th) and, quickly after that, the capture or partial capture of both mines (September 9th and 15th) near Vuhledar, thus completing a near encirclement that ended any prospect for the defense of the city. And, of course, Russia captured Vuhledar on October 1st. This well-planned, multiphase attack on Vuhledar lasted roughly 1 year + 1 week. During this time, Russia implemented new (for them) ideas for breaking through Ukrainian defenses, iterated on those ideas, and learned from its mistakes. I expect them to follow this same basic format going forward, with further iterations designed to reduce their casualties and losses. Russia cannot survive more Novomykhailivkas, but they can do Prechystivkas forever. And that is a real problem. Lessons for Ukraine: ATGMs are extremely vital for defense. You need ATGMs and positions to fire them from. In order to fire, you need to be above the ground, you often see them inside houses, on roofs, etc. But these positions are easy targets for guided missiles and guided bombs. Maybe Ukraine should be building more defensive structures like the anthill: large earth structures. You saw similar defensive positions north of Novomykhailivka, and those positions, even with air support, could not be captured by Russia. Russia had to outflank them and force Ukraine to abandon them. Constructing large earth structures, lined with concrete, could resist Russian airpower, enable you to take advantage of ATGMs, and offer strong points capable of withstanding determined Russian assaults. Road construction is vital. You need to get supplies to the front, especially to well defended areas that are under attack. The anthill, for example, was not lost due to its destruction or being overwhelming with Russian power. It was lost because the road supplying it was destroyed, and the casualties from resupply and troop rotation became so high people refused to do it anymore. I believe Ukraine has the knowledge and resources to build defenses that are capable of standing up to Russian airpower, and they have done so in the past. But they need to begin doing it again. The defensive line that was build in 2014, 2015, 2016 is gone. They have to make a new one, of similar or greater quality. Learning from the mistakes made with the first, and iterating on the successes. Also, all of Ukraine's most successful defensive positions were not along tree lines. They were in the middle of a field, using manmade positions in the middle, not natural defensive barriers. You need bunkers that are deep enough to survive airstrikes, strong enough to resist collapse, and large enough to safely keep enough men to defend the position. You need to build up off the ground, not merely dig trenches, but to get up so you can see the enemy approaching. And then, in that higher position, dig trenches and bunkers. On anthill, for example, they first dug down to build a bunker, they piled earth above the bunker to be meters tall, and then dug trenches into that earth. So you had trenches several meters above ground on top of a bunker. This sort of earthen defensive structure, lined with concrete, has proven to be very effective. Much more effective than simple trench systems.

A video has been posted online that allegedly shows the explosion of a powerful bomb in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region. Some Russian military experts write that this is the first use of the ODAB-9000 vacuum bomb, which is called the “Kuzkin's father” and “father of all bombs” and is considered the most powerful non-nuclear munition in the world - the equivalent of 44,000 kg of TNT. However, others claim that it is a thermobaric bomb, ODAB-1500, which was dropped after a failed “meat assault” by the Russians.

I found this to be helpful

Speaking of war crimes The Russian military executed 16 (!!!) surrendered Ukrainian soldiers at sight. This is the worst incident of POW execution known so far in this war. It happened near Pokrovsk. Look at what the Russians did - they lined the surrendered Ukrainians up, shot them all down, and then finished off those dying on the ground. When some sneaky character says 'Ukrainians just need to surrender," -- this is the answer regarding what will happen if Ukraine "just surrenders" to Russia, which is absolutely out of its damn mind and sick with absolute sadism.

Yeah, it'sreal.

Homeless? Live in Asheville?

He's been dying for some payback and he won't let us down.

Today Russian forces launched a major attack on the Kharkiv front, in the town of Vovchansk: From the Russian side 17 MT-LB, 3 tanks and more than 100 infantry were involved in the assault operations in the Vovchan direction. 16 MT-LBs were destroyed, 1 tank was knocked out, which was able to retreat together with survivors. As said by Ukrainian soldier: “The boys confidently met Russian armor in the Vovchansk front, as I said, the units were ready for this, so they worked confidently. In addition to the destroyed iron, there are a lot of corpses lying around them, since almost all the boxes were with infantry.” After the Russian missile attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, one of the Russian pilots of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division contacted the DIU chatbot, - The Telegraph The pilot was shocked by another attack on civilians, so he handed over documents from the personal files of senior officers of the division and valuable sealed materials to the Ukrainian side.

Lives in NM now

And another one There are unconfirmed reports that Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of Bashar al-Assad, may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike. If true, it would mean one of the worst psychopaths in the region is dead. Maher is responsible for commanding the Syrian Army’s 4th Division, which is charged with protecting the Syrian government/presidency from external and internal threats. He is responsible for the massacre of civilians, individual extrajudicial killings, the gassing of Syrians, money laundering, mass displacement, torture and abuse in detention centers, and the ruinous Captagon trade in Syria and the region, which has not only led to deaths but also helps fund the Assad regime. Even President Erdogan, who called Maher a psychopath, will celebrate this news if true. If true, it will also send a huge message to Bashar al-Assad, who has already been barely vocal about the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, to mind his own business.