ETA:
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What do you mean a tractor? That’s very obviously a tank. (/s)
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Not to take away from your point but the M1A1 engine and transmission (“the pack”) can be replaced in the field by unit maintenance using an M88 which is a standard piece of maintenance kit in an armor unit.
Australia have been shopping around their F/A-18s for some time. They are the “classic” hornet, older than the Super hornets. They are the same as what the USMC flies (they are drawing down too) and almost the same as what Finland flies. The RAAF would be offloading the equipment as well as all associated spares and support equipment
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Ah, interesting. I was basing my comments on a few different interviews I read where people said things like:
Other replacements require pulling things (like Full Up Power Packs [engine and transmission], sights, etc.) to a logistics center/depot with new one being sent forward. It’s a 500-mile supply line from Poland to the Donbas."
and I see that I misread it. The pack can be removed and replaced in the field, and the old pack then has to be sent to a depot to be fixed. I took it to mean the tank had to go to the depot for the replacement.
Thanks for the correction!
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My suspicion is that the bam bursting is, well, typical Russian incompetence. Even if it wasn’t planned, the way they indiscriminately shelled everything meant for a long time everyone with half a brain expected it to fail.
But really, I suspect whoever the Russians had in charge there was a demoralized, incompetent reserve officer. And this idiot panicked. Saw troop movements, thought this was the moment, opened the floodgates to swamp the tanks… and lost control. Fucked it all up.
The fact that they held back so much water suggests they had a “wash away the bridges” plan all along, but wanted to keep enough water for Crimea. Now they’ve fucked over the peninsula, as it has now lost its main source of drinking water. And the flooding might have made the defense even harder now.
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So, based on everything we have seen by the end of this day, I guess here’s my humble theory regarding the Kakhovka Dam destruction:
- Russia, as an occupying power, in violation of international law and despite multiple Ukrainian pleas, completely failed to ensure the security and proper maintenance of this key facility of very special importance.
- Russia, despite Ukrainian and international efforts, absolutely failed to impose a demilitarized zone surrounding this key facility, and, similarly to facilities like the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, it absolutely failed to abstain from deploying military forces in the facility’s vicinity.
- And, in the first place, by default, as an aggressor waging a destructive war of conquest and openly defying the law of war, it is directly and solely responsible for the whole of the ongoing massive loss of life and the destruction taking place in Ukraine.
So it’s more than obvious that regardless of the destruction’s very immediate cause (be it Russian bombs planted or deadly Russian negligence), all 100% of the blame is on nothing but Russia.
I guess no one is taking seriously a dumb conspiracy theory saying that the dam could be destroyed by Ukraine – for the sake of… causing a major technological disaster, with over 80 cities and towns flooded and the whole region affected, in a territory it pursues to liberate from the foreign aggressor to no substantial military effect?
With or without the major flooding, Ukraine is not even close to seriously expecting a successful and decisive landing operation in the Dnipro east bank, due to very obvious challenges and complexities.
So, given the fact that the sudden disaster also seriously affected Russia’s military presence in the region – I guess the most probable answer is that Russians fucked things up. Yes, AGAIN. As they often do.
They absolutely failed to ensure the dam’s proper operation, especially given its poor condition, and, knowingly committed gross violations, very possibly due to the fear of a possible limited Ukrainian assault from across the Dnipro.
Fucking around and finding out, Vol. 45633. Knowing what Russia and its system is, the insane stupidity, IMHO, feels like a very likely answer. The result is what we’re seeing now live. An insane tragedy for Ukraine that we will have to deal with for decades to come.
However, the dildo of consequence is coming soon, too.
Again.
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So… these kind of things that don’t appear in international news (maybe it will in the future). I was glancing the local newspaper yesterday (there are some places that still offer it when you go get your coffee), on second page big article about where spain is getting gas from… and oh boy.
Article is in spanish and you need to enable reader mode (but you miss the graphics that say how much gas we buy) or pay subscription to read it. But here’s the gist of it. The reason we got the gas prices down after last summer hike has been because… we started reimporting russian gas in liquid form.
Spain has the biggest regasification capacity of europe, with six plants (soon seven, as one is in the process of being refitted).
We exported 56GWh worth of liquated gas from russia last year (mainly during the last quarter, when spain limited gas prices), which is not much compared to the 542GWh we imported from mozambique, but represents about a 30% increase in buying capacity.
Local companies state that they are only importing the miniimum acording to some contracts they signed prior to the war, and they cannot revoke the contracts without paying onerous penalties (these contracts are very long term, one finishes in 2041).
And BTW, this LNG is not for spanish use only, France got about 20% of its energy from us, as well as other EU countries.
And the article mentions spanish Repsol and Naturgy are not the only ones doing that, France’s Total Energy said that as long as EU doesn’t give a firm reason (as in: sanctions or penalties), they cannot apply the “cause majeure” clauses that would allow them to unilaterally revoke the contract without penalties.
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A repost of a article that focuses on the EU:
Some are clearly not helping.
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According to various radio reports the area that is being flooded around Kherson is also widely mined. Does anyone know what water does to mines? Will it be enough to set them off? Presumably they will also shift in the flow too.
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One issue seems to be that the location of the mines will have shifted because of the water flow and erosion. So whoever planted them will not have a good fix on the locations any more.
The main danger with respect to mines is however very clear: there is no certainty as to where the mines are now because landmines and buried explosives, shift like stones in rushing water, and tend to move downstream following gravity. Some of the antipersonnel mines used in Mozambique were made of plastic and float in water. According to Gerhard Zank, the Mozambique representative of the Halo Trust, a British demining agency: “In the past, mines have been washed downstream in heavy rains, but we never had flooding on this massive scale before. We just don’t know what the effect will be.”
From: Landmines in Mozambique: After the Floods (HRW Briefing Paper, March 2000)
Other sources indicate that mines can be triggered because of the movement of water and the ground.
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The pursuit of objectivity does not mean treating every event as a coin flip, a fifty-fifty chance between two different public statements. Objectivity demands thinking about all the objects – physical objects, physical placement of people – that must be in the story, as well as all of the settings – contemporary and historical – that a reader would need in order to come away from the story with greater understanding.
Yevgeny Prigozhin is angling to be the saviour of Belgorod Oblast.
Inside the city [Shebekino], locals have grown so desperate that many are beginning to call for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Putin-connected warlord, to take over its defence.
“Shebekino is destroyed. It feels like Moscow has forgotten that Shebekino is Russia. We would like for Prigozhin to come and help us,” Evgeny, a local who had also shared a post saying #Prigozhinhelpus, told the Guardian.
Prigozhin himself had raised his hand to enter the city, continuing a longstanding feud with the Russian army over the distribution of ammunition and general prosecution of the war. “If the ministry of defence does not stop what is happening in the Belgorod region … where Russian territory is in fact being captured, then obviously we will arrive,” he said in an audio message published by his press service.
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According to radio reports, artillery and sniper fire is being directed at Ukrainian flood rescue teams.
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