Oorlog in Oekraïne én in Rusland #1012 driejarige SMO

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 19:54 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

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Waarom krijgen malloten als deze geen ban? Of is dit het niveau nu hier?

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 10:23 schreef Starhopper het volgende:
Lees je mee Rob de Wijk

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If Ukraine’s Invasion Of Russia’s Kursk Oblast Was A Diversion, It Has Failed

Russian troops continue to march on Pokrovsk.

Russian troops advanced into the village of Novohrodivka in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday. That puts them within five miles of Pokrovsk, a main objective of Russia’s nearly yearlong eastern offensive.

The Ukrainian military doesn’t have many extra troops to deploy to the Pokrovsk front. Many of the spare brigades it had a month ago are now participating in Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

Ukrainian leaders are finally beginning to grasp the urgency of the balance of forces on the Pokrovsk axis. “The situation is extremely difficult,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky conceded on Wednesday.

The coming battle for Pokrovsk, a city with a pre-war population of 60,000—many of whom have now fled—is actually an extension of the battle for Avdiivka that ended in a Ukrainian retreat in February. Avdiivka, 24 miles east of Pokrovsk, was a fortress that protected the settlements, railroads and roads to the west.

When the Ukrainian garrison in Avdiivka ran out of ammunition in mid-February and fled—the direct result of a long blockade of U.S. aid to Ukraine by Russia-friendly Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress—it left the logistical infrastructure to the west exposed to Russian assaults.

Yes, those assaults have been extremely costly to the Russians. But the Kremlin has been willing to trade thousands of lives and hundreds of armored vehicles for a shot at Pokrovsk—and for good reason.

Pokrovsk is situated “at a crucial crossroads of multiple railroad lines,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained. “It has become a key delivery and railroad distribution hub, facilitating the supply of Ukrainian forces across a broad frontline, from Vuhledar to the north of Donetsk and beyond.”

In taking Pokrovsk, Russia could weaken Ukrainian defenses all along the eastern front line—a critical precondition for a wider Russian advance that could result in the full occupation of Donetsk Oblast.

When the Ukrainian command, headed by Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, opted to invade Kursk with a strong force of thousands of troops drawn from eight or more brigades, it surprised some observers. Why weren’t those troops reinforcing Pokrovsk, instead?

One generous reading of Ukrainian strategy in Kursk is that the invasion was meant to draw Russian regiments away from the east, relieving the pressure on Pokrovsk. In that sense, the invasion of Kursk may have been a diversion.

If so, it failed. “The offensive in the Kursk region not only failed to prompt the redeployment of some Russian forces from Donetsk, but also exacerbated the shortage of [Ukrainian] personnel in the region,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team concluded.

Instead of rushing its best troops into Kursk to blunt the Ukrainian advance, the Kremlin scraped together a motley counter-invasion force, including many young and poorly trained conscripts. These reinforcements have slowed but not halted the Ukrainian invasion. More importantly for Russian strategy, they’ve allowed the Kremlin to keep its eastern forces intact.

The result, three weeks into Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk, is that the Russian offensive in the east is not only continuing—it’s gaining momentum. “Although we anticipated that the town of Novohrodivka would be captured in the coming days,” CIT noted, “the pace of the Russian forces’ advance has exceeded our expectations, not only failing to slow down as it approached the town but even accelerating.”

The six or so Ukrainian brigades defending Pokrovsk are outnumbered around two-to-one. Without help, they might have no choice but to surrender Pokrovsk—and soon. “If the Ukrainian command does not take measures to stabilize the situation, Russian forces could be on the outskirts of Pokrovsk within a few weeks, as opposed to months as we previously believed,” CIT warned.

“The Ukrainian leadership has several options to stabilize the line, including deploying newly formed brigades, repositioning forces from the Kursk and Kharkiv areas or pulling battalions from more stable fronts,” Frontelligence Insight explained. “Whether the Ukrainian command will take these steps remains to be seen.”

The optimistic outcome for the Ukrainians is that the general staff in Kyiv finds forces to bolster the line outside Pokrovsk—and that these forces bleed the Russian brigades and regiments until they simply can’t sustain their advance.

It’s not an impossible task. The Russians are losing hundreds of people and dozens of vehicles every day in the east. “Enemy losses on the Pokrovsk direction have remained at a record high for the fifth week,” according to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies.

But no one knows for sure when such high losses will become too high for the Russian military. In a fit of optimism late last year, the Estonian defense ministry predicted that Ukraine could turn the tide of the war in 2024 by killing or maiming 100,000 Russians in 12 months.

In fact, Ukraine probably killed or maimed 100,000 Russians in just the first six months of the year—and yet Russia keeps attacking, and keeps advancing toward Pokrovsk.

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Exclusive: Top Ukrainian pilot killed when US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed

Kyiv, Ukraine CNN

A top Ukrainian pilot was killed when a US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed on Monday, just weeks after the long-awaited planes arrived in the country, a Ukrainian military source told CNN.

The Ukrainian Defense Forces do not believe pilot error was behind the incident, the source added.

Pilot Oleksiy Mes, known as “Moonfish,” was killed in the crash while “repelling the biggest ever aerial attack” by Russia against Ukraine, said the source, adding that the pilot was buried on Thursday.

The crash is being investigated and international experts will be invited to participate in the probe, the source added.

The death of the pilot is a major blow for Ukraine. The first F-16s only arrived in the country earlier this month and Moonfish was one of the few pilots trained to fly them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that the Ukrainian Air Force used the F-16 to destroy missiles and drones launched by Russia on Monday, the first time any Ukrainian official confirmed the jets were being used in combat.

Kyiv waited a long time to get hold of the F-16s, and Zelensky has been asking its Western allies for the fighter jets since the start of the full-scale invasion.

But as with other equipment, Western countries hesitated before finally agreeing to provide F-16s. The Netherlands and Denmark pledged to provide them early summer in 2023, but it took another few weeks for the United States to green-light the transfer.

When they arrived earlier this summer, Zelensky said he and his government held “hundreds of meetings and negotiations” to secure the jets.

A group of Ukrainian pilots started their F-16 training in the US in the fall. While it can take years to get fully trained up to fly the planes, Moonfish and others had to do it in six months.

Ukraine is hoping the F-16 will give it a much-needed boost. The jets are multi-role: they can provide air cover for troops, attack ground targets, take on enemy planes and intercept missiles. With the right armament, F-16s could deter Russian fighter-bombers from approaching the battlefield.

Still, the jets are no silver bullet. Ukraine can use them to deny Russia control over the skies, but experts say their capabilities are inferior to the most modern Russian combat aircraft that would likely prevail in an air battle with the F-16.

Moonfish: Top pilot who lobbied hard for F-16

Moonfish and another pilot Andriy Pilshchikov, known by the call sign “Juice,” became the faces of Ukraine’s campaign to get the F-16s.

It was an uphill battle, but Juice and Moonfish pulled through it together. They were young and enthusiastic, spoke good English and were willing to fight to get the US jets into Ukrainian skies.

Flying the F-16 was their dream and when Juice died in a plane crash during a combat mission last August, Moonfish made it his goal to fulfill it.

Of the two, Moonfish was the quiet one: an aviation geek not keen on publicity. But when Juice died, Moonfish had to take his place. In a rare interview with CNN, he admitted that if Juice were alive, he’d be giving interviews.

A man of few words, passionate about his job, he had his emotions under control. A straight talker who knew everything about F-16s.

“Andriy was the ‘ideas man’ and the main driving force behind it all,” Moonfish said. “And I feel responsible to him for ensuring these planes arrive.”

Speaking to CNN while in training, he said it was necessary for him and other Ukrainian pilots to undergo a truncated version of the training. “We would have had a lot of time to study the jet completely in peacetime, but we do not have the time,” he said.

In a statement issued later on Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force said Moonfish destroyed three cruise missiles and one attack drone on Monday, before he was killed the crash. The air force said he was posthumously awarded the rank of colonel.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 17:59 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Geen berichten uit Oekraïne zelf over een gecrashte F16.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:17 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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CNN

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 18:54 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Vraag me wel af hoe competent ze echt zijn na die relatief snelle trainingen.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:33 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Een dagje in de sim en klaar toch?

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:36 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Is dat zo dan?

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:33 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Een dagje in de sim en klaar toch?

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:33 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Een dagje in de sim en klaar toch?

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:22 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

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Als dat emotioneel is dan ben je wel de grootste dramaqueen aanwezig hier, even kijkend naar je posts rond het Gaza conflict.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:37 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Nee tuurlijk niet.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:37 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Nee tuurlijk niet.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:39 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Wat is makkelijker? Een half-mechanisch Russisch toestel of een F-16 met fly by wire en de hele reutemeteut?

Zijn brevet had hij al.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:45 schreef Nebelwerfer het volgende:

Niveau van die vliegers zal niet de westerse maatstaven hebben. Ik vraag me wel af of, eventuele fouten, westerse vliegers niet ook zou overkomen zodra de oorlog zoals in Oekraïne gevochten moet worden.

Van loop van tijd zullen er meer f16’s bij moeten komen.

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“My standard missions are all pretty similar but sometimes it’s very complicated because sometimes our GCIs [ground control interception units] are vectoring us closer to the front line, and you have very powerful signals of electronic warfare and of enemy surface-to-air missiles, enemy radars. You need to try to find aerial targets and maneuver so as not to be shot by ground air defenses.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:46 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Dunno, ik ben geen vliegert. De geupgrade MiG-29's zijn iig ook fly-by-wire. En volgens mij was die Moonfish een MiG-29 vlieger.

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:58 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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Wel een nette score voor een amateur op zijn eerste dag.

Toch? Of niet soms?

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 20:52 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Het hele optreden is daar ook anders, die lui zijn over het algemeen allemaal opgevoed met Ground Control Interception, dit itt westerse luchtmachten.
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