Ukraine

[Freyland]

Hello!

[Alefroth]

Hello everyone, I'm from Ukraine, I want to thank the United States and all their people for their military support. Also many thanks to the rest of the civilized world for not leaving us face to face in a war with the largest country in the world. I really hope that Ukraine will defeat Russia. Peace to all!

How did you hear about Octopus Overlords?

friends advised, that's why I became interested

I hope you are staying safe and I'm sure we'd love to hear any stories you might be willing to share.

[raydude]

Speaking of Russia building a competent military, I'd say they'll settle for one that's a bit more mechanized.

Russian manual reloading of missile artillery

Holy hell, can you imagine conscripts having to futz around with reloading each missile in a tube and attaching fuzes?

[Montag]

More reports of Ukraine hitting another Russian frigate - Admiral Makarov in the black sea. I will not give a link because it is still developing. Seems more and more to be legit as Russian air rescue stuff has been in the vicinity.

[LawBeefaroni]

More reports of Ukraine hitting another Russian frigate - Admiral Makarov in the black sea. I will not give a link because it is still developing. Seems more and more to be legit as Russian air rescue stuff has been in the vicinity.

US has been circling a Global Hawk over the area.

[LawBeefaroni]

[dbt1949]

Must be tough for Russian ships in the Black Sea. I'd say lack of air cover but it's probably pretty tough keeping track of all those drones.

[$iljanus]

Must be tough for Russian ships in the Black Sea. I'd say lack of air cover but it's probably pretty tough keeping track of all those drones.

I don’t know if that frigate was within range of Ukrainian anti-ship missiles but surface to surface missile batteries make operating off any hostile coastline pretty dicey.

Would be interesting as the story develops to see what was used. Drones? Anti ship missile from the coast? Or have we given the Ukrainians air launched anti ship missiles compatible with their MiGs?

[Holman]

It would be funny if this time it actually were just an incompetent conscript Russian Navy sinking their own ship.

[dbt1949]

Neptune anti ship missile.

[Daehawk]

From this video it really shows how Russian tanks blow off their turrets on detonation.

[vitogenaro]

Hello everyone, I'm from Ukraine, I want to thank the United States and all their people for their military support. Also many thanks to the rest of the civilized world for not leaving us face to face in a war with the largest country in the world. I really hope that Ukraine will defeat Russia. Peace to all!

How did you hear about Octopus Overlords?

friends advised, that's why I became interested

I hope you are staying safe and I'm sure we'd love to hear any stories you might be willing to share.

Thank you, I'm safe, although the fights are ~40-50 km from my city of Zaporizhzhia. I hope the Russian army will not come here.

[Kraken]

In the past couple of days I've read that the Russians aren't gaining any territory and Ukraine is recapturing some towns that the Russians withdrew from. I hope that's accurate.

[Daehawk]

Meet Patron. He is Ukrain's mine sniffing dog.

Ukraine’s mine-sniffing dog given medal after finding over 200 explosives

It worries me when little animals are put in such danger. I even worried about that big rat that did this.

[raydude]

In the past couple of days I've read that the Russians aren't gaining any territory and Ukraine is recapturing some towns that the Russians withdrew from. I hope that's accurate.

This isn't like WW2 where we didn't have an independent means of verifying or validating war claims. There are hundreds of people on the internet scouring publically available satellite images, geotagging posts from both sides, and even analyzing Google traffic data to try to validate and verify reports. It is also in Ukraine's best interests to be truthful in their reporting. They know that they need to present themselves as the opposite of Russia in order to gain the West's sympathy and support. They also know that each NATO country has its own intelligence agencies and that they share information with each other. Any unsupported claims by Ukraine will definitely be found out by one or more NATO countries, and once the lie comes out, there will be questions asked of Zelensky and his government.

Then there are the press briefings by the Pentagon and the UK Ministry of Defense. Those both are confirming what you've been reading.

[Daehawk]

WWII Soviet veteran says Russia 'has turned into the enemy'

Those poor guys. Slava Ukraini

[Defiant]

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, has presented a six-month phase-out period from Russian oil as part of broader measures looking to hurt President Vladimir Putin’s regime. Hungary and Slovakia — two EU nations with a high dependence on Russian energy — were given until the end of 2023 to abide by the new set of rules. However, this extended period was not enough and both nations are demanding more.

The impasse is preventing the EU from approving the broader package of sanctions.

link

[Isgrimnur]

Forbes

H.I. Sutton, an independent journalist focusing on naval warfare, has spotted more than a dozen of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s remaining warships, intact and underway.

They include Admiral Makarov, one of the fleet’s three frigates and arguably the top target for Ukraine’s drones and anti-ship missile batteries.

Sutton’s analysis of new commercial satellite imagery seems to confirm that last week’s rumors about a successful Ukrainian attack on Admiral Makarov were just that—rumors. The frigate survives.

But it’s worth noting where Sutton found Admiral Makarov on or before Monday: sailing near Sevastopol in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. In other words, close to home.

[xwraith]

A good briefing about the Donbas front — use subtitles for English.

[malchior]

That was definitely a good briefing. It answered one question I've had about the UA force size -- about even to deployed RU forces. It appears the major thing I took away is the Russians are desperately trying to break through and stop artillery from arriving. Once artillery arrives we might see the script flip with a possible counter-artillery campaign to stop advances and prep for a move out of the pocket. The UA forces would need to think Russian positions were weak but they'd have the advantage of knowing that they have fallback positions established. The Russian positions seem pretty tenuous while the Ukrainian side seems comfortably stable.

[malchior]

If true, WTAF

[Roman]

Belarus makes a move?

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ru ... 022-05-10/

[dbt1949]

Well, if Russia falls he's in trouble. He needs to be prepared I guess.

[xwraith]

An interesting twitter thread about UKR artillery and how it compares to the US

Spoiler:

[Holman]

If true, WTAF

I've read that a disproportionate number of Russian conscripts are from the eastern parts of the country where economy, education, and communication are much weaker than in the urbanized Europe-facing regions (where young people have become smart about avoiding conscription through scholarships and non-military forms of national service). Think *deep* Appalachia, but much moreso.

Moscow probably thinks it can hide those losses from citizens without regular access to outside news sources.

[xwraith]

[Daehawk]

Whats Kraken doing over there?

[Unagi]

Whats Kraken doing over there?

That looks nothing like him.
Aside from the grey beard, nothing alike.

[El Guapo]

Hey, has anyone read any decent books on the Russian oligarchs? Covering the likes of Roman Abramovich and his ilk through the Yeltsin and Putin years. I know the very broad strokes of that era, but I'd be interested in learning as much as I can about the details.

[malchior]

These first two are highly recommended by Simon Sebag Montefiore. He is a UK historian and notably the author of the well-regarded Stalin trilogy. He was one of the first western historians who got access to internal Soviet archives.

These two cover the 90s pretty well. I have only read the second and it's quite a read.

The last book I mention is a must read if you want to understand Putin's Russia. It informs you about how his control is a constant internal war of suppression and one that he may be presently losing. It's also pretty short so it's consumable in a couple of days.

Edit: FWIW it also is interesting because his central thesis - that everything was tactical and Putin is bad at strategy was sort of validated in the Ukraine invasion. It also gives you some context on Trump and why he is so dangerous. It isn't always about the individual man. Sometimes it is about the whole ecosystem that surrounds and morphs around them.

Once Upon a Time in Russia

Nothing is True, Everything is Possible

The best modern era (2003 & beyond) Putin centric book is:

All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin. The title is a nod to Montefiore's 'Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar' and a certain American book.

[El Guapo]

These first two are highly recommended by Simon Sebag Montefiore. He is a UK historian and notably the author of the well-regarded Stalin trilogy. He was one of the first western historians who got access to internal Soviet archives.

These two cover the 90s pretty well. I have only read the second and it's quite a read.

The last book I mention is a must read if you want to understand Putin's Russia. It informs you about how his control is a constant internal war of suppression and one that he may be presently losing. It's also pretty short so it's consumable in a couple of days.

Edit: FWIW it also is interesting because his central thesis - that everything was tactical and Putin is bad at strategy was sort of validated in the Ukraine invasion. It also gives you some context on Trump and why he is so dangerous. It isn't always about the individual man. Sometimes it is about the whole ecosystem that surrounds and morphs around them.

Once Upon a Time in Russia

Nothing is True, Everything is Possible

The best modern era (2003 & beyond) Putin centric book is:

All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin. The title is a nod to Montefiore's 'Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar' and a certain American book.

Thanks - these are perfect.

[Holman]

Nothing is True, Everything is Possible

Very interesting, very recent interview with the author, Peter Pomerantsev:

[Max Peck]

Apparently someone was in just the right place at just the right time to film an orc tank go jack-in-the-box.

[Blackhawk]

Always impressive, but I can never completely forget that there are Russian teenagers or young adults being cooked alive for a few seconds before the explosion.

[LawBeefaroni]

Always impressive, but I can never completely forget that there are Russian teenagers or young adults being cooked alive for a few seconds before the explosion.

If it's any consolation, its probably closer to a few milliseconds before their internals are liquefied by the concussive blast. And yes, it's difficult to celebrate such a thing.

[Blackhawk]

Always impressive, but I can never completely forget that there are Russian teenagers or young adults being cooked alive for a few seconds before the explosion.

If it's any consolation, its probably closer to a few milliseconds before their internals are liquefied by the concussive blast. And yes, it's difficult to celebrate such a thing.

It depends on how the ammo goes up, but yeah. If they're lucky, it blows quick. I've also seen tanks where the 'cook off' stage before the explosion was considerably longer - you can sit and watch flames shooting out of the vents (admittedly I'm much more familiar with historical tanks than with current Russian stock.)

[LawBeefaroni]

Always impressive, but I can never completely forget that there are Russian teenagers or young adults being cooked alive for a few seconds before the explosion.

If it's any consolation, its probably closer to a few milliseconds before their internals are liquefied by the concussive blast. And yes, it's difficult to celebrate such a thing.

It depends on how the ammo goes up, but yeah. If they're lucky, it blows quick. I've also seen tanks where the 'cook off' stage before the explosion was considerably longer - you can sit and watch flames shooting out of the vents (admittedly I'm much more familiar with historical tanks than with current Russian stock.)

The T-72s have a design flaw/feature where the turret sits atop an autoloader full of live ammo. The gun crew sits between the ammo and the turret. Any hit that detonates the ammo will pretty much cause an immediate chain reaction, liquefying the gun crew against the turret and then blowing it off.

NATO tanks like the Abrams store the ammo away from the crew with some additional armor plating. This may lead to the cook off stage you're talking about. The trade off is the gun crew has to manually grab the shells and load them. I'm sure they're good with that now, if they weren't before.

Russia preferred the speed and lower training requirements of the autoloader to crew survivability.

[LawBeefaroni]

Found a decent graphic:

[Daehawk]

Yep the Abrams explodes and vents upwards. The only time the blast doors are open inside the tank is when the loader is grabbing a shell. He uses a foot lever. They are auto closed.

[Holman]

Always impressive, but I can never completely forget that there are Russian teenagers or young adults being cooked alive for a few seconds before the explosion.

If it's any consolation, its probably closer to a few milliseconds before their internals are liquefied by the concussive blast. And yes, it's difficult to celebrate such a thing.

It depends on how the ammo goes up, but yeah. If they're lucky, it blows quick. I've also seen tanks where the 'cook off' stage before the explosion was considerably longer - you can sit and watch flames shooting out of the vents (admittedly I'm much more familiar with historical tanks than with current Russian stock.)

The T-72s have a design flaw/feature where the turret sits atop an autoloader full of live ammo. The gun crew sits between the ammo and the turret. Any hit that detonates the ammo will pretty much cause an immediate chain reaction, liquefying the gun crew against the turret and then blowing it off.

NATO tanks like the Abrams store the ammo away from the crew with some additional armor plating. This may lead to the cook off stage you're talking about. The trade off is the gun crew has to manually grab the shells and load them. I'm sure they're good with that now, if they weren't before.

Russia preferred the speed and lower training requirements of the autoloader to crew survivability.

I assume they've fixed it, but Cold-War-era autoloaders would sometimes load the gunner's arm.