Not even sure anyone's there to stop them from "storming" it.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/03/24/russia-braces-for-attack-by-50000-ukrainian-kamikaze-drones-seeks-shotguns/

Count the FPV kamikaze drones. @sternenko pic.twitter.com/dJ9G3fm83q

— Paul Jawin (@PaulJawin) February 4, 2023

ETA: This is how those small drones are used. Those are racing drones with high power and minimal electronics.

There are at least 7

I count 11 stacks, stacked 10 deep each, but I am not familiar with the drone design to know if they are quad copter drones or dual copter, such that each stack would be 20. So at least 110, maybe 220.

Speaking of drones….

#Russia: Main theory of cause of explosion at FSB Border Guard building in #Rostov on March 16 - FSB picked up #Ukraine's explosive suicide drone but mistook it for a recon drone. Drone detonated and 3 investigators killed as they tried to disassemble it in the building. pic.twitter.com/ILvTjei0gB

— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) March 29, 2023

Part 1 and 2 of some pretty insane footage

30+ Russians approaching and attacking a small Ukrainian trench.

But the Ukes have close artillery support, and later on their tanks come in to mop up/chase away the rest.

Can't believe the bravery of the Ukes in the trench repelling the attack.

[Sensetive]
Brutal video from K2 in the Verkhn'okam'yans'ke area shows danger close artillery, point blank impacts and intense fighting. pic.twitter.com/GeZI8t2uVr

— Def Mon (@DefMon3) March 24, 2023

Part 2
This part is also extremely intense.
Ukrainian armor arrives and hunt down the Russians. pic.twitter.com/jvAuqKIqRJ

— Def Mon (@DefMon3) March 26, 2023

Is this... real?

Russians are moving Katyusha rocket launchers on Zis-151 or Zil-157 trucks from 1940s or 1950s, headed by even older Zis-6 trucks from 1930s.

Source: https://t.co/NZOFr5MfDP#Russia #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/n1oF5l8jbj

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) March 26, 2023

Meanwhile

‼️Ukrainian military and American infantry fighting vehicles Bradley, armored personnel carriers M113 and HMMWV at a training ground in Germany

I am looking forward to seeing that in action against the Moscow boys#Russia #Ukraine #Germany pic.twitter.com/nvE2YqE46z

— @PStyleOne1 (@PStyle0ne1) March 24, 2023

What is the purpose of the large oval-shaped earth berm in the background of the clip?

Looks like larger unit training, at least company sized if not battalion. That means it it likely units will be deployed like that, at that scale, to me.

Today's SITREP.

"The "Ukrainians are doing a very effective area defense that has proven to be very costly to the Russians," Milley said. "For about the last 20, 21 days, the Russians have not made any progress whatsoever. So it's a slaughter-fest for the Russians. They're getting hammered in the vicinity of Bakhmut. The Ukrainians have fought very, very well. That's also true across the entire frontline trace from Kreminna all the way down to Kherson. The Ukrainians have fought a remarkable defensive fight and the Russians have not achieved their strategic objectives."

From Ukraine's POV, so take it with a grain of salt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/world/europe/ukraine-bakhmut-russia.html

Quote:

---

Ukrainians Directing Soldiers From a Hidden Hub See Bakhmut Going Their Way

Ukrainian commanders say they have exhausted Russia's relentless assaults on the eastern city, though soldiers say the cost in lives has been steep.
. . .
Hidden in the bowels of an unmarked building, set well back from the fighting, a command center directing operations in the city of Bakhmut was high-tech and humming. Soldiers monitored video screens with live feeds of destroyed buildings and a cratered battlefield.

Six weeks after coming to help defend Bakhmut, the men of the Adam Tactical Group, one of Ukraine's most effective battle units, were quietly confident they had turned the tide against Russian troops trying to encircle and capture it.

"The enemy exhausted all its reserves," the commander, Col. Yevhen Mezhevikin, 40, said on Tuesday, straddling a chair as artillery, air defense and intelligence-gathering teams worked around him.
. . .
Russia has lost extraordinary numbers of troops in the battle, and Ukraine large numbers too, and as casualties have mounted, so has the political symbolism of the city. Kremlin officials have described it as a necessary prize in the campaign to seize Ukraine's Donbas region. To Ukraine, it has become an important line to hold, both to whittle down Russia's forces and to deprive them of a victory.

But now, Colonel Mezhevikin said, the Russian assaults have slowed and the imminent threat of encirclement has been thwarted. "The density of assaults dropped by several times," he said. "Before, they could assault in all directions simultaneously and in groups of not less than 20, 30 or 40 people, but gradually it is dying down."
. . .
The commander's description aligned with those of Ukraine's most senior military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhnyi, and his commander of ground forces in the east, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky. Both have said in recent days that the situation of Bakhmut was stabilizing, even with heavy fighting for some Ukrainian units.
. . .
On the city's northern and southern flanks, where Russian troops had tried to encircle Bakhmut in a pincers movement, the Russians were coming up against Ukraine's most motivated units and no longer had momentum, he said.

"When they try to reinforce their units, to rotate, they are being destroyed at the very start," he added.

The center of Bakhmut, however, remained a hot spot where Russian troops were still attacking with significant force, the commander said: "All that's left for them is to try to advance through the city, because the buildings protect them from fire."

Accounts from Ukrainian soldiers fighting inside the city indicated that Russian troops had concentrated their efforts on advancing through the city center by using heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, demolishing resistance block by block. Some Ukrainian units have taken heavy losses and have had to be rotated out or reinforced by other units.
. . .
The Russians had meanwhile stalled, he said, concurring with the commander of the Adam Tactical Group.

"Now they stopped," Mr. Filimonov said. "We have a strong line. But we need a strong counterattack."

As some other commanders have noted, there are weaknesses and gaps in the Russian defenses. "The same way they can encircle us, they can also be encircled by us if we pierce their defense at any place," Mr. Filimonov said.

The Russians realize the danger themselves, he said, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military company, which is doing much of the fighting at Bakhmut, publicly warned of the danger in a video post as he called for more military support for his own forces.
. . .

---

The military operations of a major Ukrainian battle group defending the city of Bakhmut from an unnamed location in eastern Ukraine.Credit...Carlotta Gall/The New York Times


An aerial view of Bakhmut on Sunday. "This battle is a kind of shooting range with a parallel raining of artillery on us," one Ukrainian soldier wrote on the Telegram app.Credit...Libkos/Associated Press

CondensedFogAggie said:

---

Is this... real?

Russians are moving Katyusha rocket launchers on Zis-151 or Zil-157 trucks from 1940s or 1950s, headed by even older Zis-6 trucks from 1930s.

Source: https://t.co/NZOFr5MfDP#Russia #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/n1oF5l8jbj

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) March 26, 2023

---

Russia is doing great and the sanctions aren't impacting Russia's manufacturing at all!

/Putin Bros

CondensedFogAggie said:

---

Is this... real?

Russians are moving Katyusha rocket launchers on Zis-151 or Zil-157 trucks from 1940s or 1950s, headed by even older Zis-6 trucks from 1930s.

Source: https://t.co/NZOFr5MfDP#Russia #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/n1oF5l8jbj

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) March 26, 2023

---

I'm amazed they still work. Maybe they're doing better at maintenance and upkeep than we thought.

As been detailed before, but Turkey is expected to approve today or tomorrow Finland's accession to NATO.

Hungary and Turkey are still holding up Sweden's application.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/30/world/russia-ukraine-news?name=styln-russia-ukraine®ion=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=undefined

Quote:

---

BRUSSELS Turkey's Parliament was expected to ratify Finland's bid to join NATO on Thursday, removing the Nordic nation's last obstacle toward membership and sharply enlarging the alliance's border with Russia.

Once the Turkish Parliament votes, only paperwork remains an exchange of letters and the filing of Finland's accession documents, already complete, with the State Department in Washington. The United States serves as the depository of NATO under the alliance's founding treaty.
. . .
For Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after decades of military nonalignment would be a major shift in the balance of power in the region between the West and Russia, adding another alliance member on Russia's border as it fights its war in Ukraine.

It would also hand a significant diplomatic and strategic defeat to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, who made it clear before invading Ukraine last year that he intended to block NATO's eastward expansion.
. . .

---

txags92 said:

---

CondensedFogAggie said:

---

Is this... real?

Russians are moving Katyusha rocket launchers on Zis-151 or Zil-157 trucks from 1940s or 1950s, headed by even older Zis-6 trucks from 1930s.

Source: https://t.co/NZOFr5MfDP#Russia #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/n1oF5l8jbj

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) March 26, 2023

---

Russia is doing great and the sanctions aren't impacting Russia's manufacturing at all!

/Putin Bros

---

The more I see of this "special operations" the more confused I am with Russian equipment.

Are they so F'ed that this is all they can scrape together?

Are they scared to send new equipment that they expect to get chewed up and lose future arms deals?

Did they get smart and start sending **** they should have disposed of decades ago to soak up ammo and men?

Does this take up a lot of their capability to repair and modernize more current models in storage?

I'm drawn to strategy in business. I'd love to be a fly on the wall listening to intelligence briefings.

More drones?

These are DJI drones. I hope the Ukes have figured out custom firmware to b/c these consumer drones can broadcast unencrypted locations and other data.

This is what the Ukrainian drone army looks like

A month ago, the UNITED24 platform, monobank, Oleg Horokhovskyi and Igor Lachenkov announced a fundraiser for Mavic 3T drones for our Defense Forces. And already today, the Drone Army has transferred 300 powerful UAVs to the… pic.twitter.com/fRmqpZTCCB

— Malinda 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇵🇱🇨🇦🇮🇹🇦🇺🇬🇧🇬🇪🇩🇪🇸🇪 (@TreasChest) March 30, 2023

lb3 said:

---

More drones?

These are DJI drones. I hope the Ukes have figured out custom firmware to b/c these consumer drones can broadcast unencrypted locations and other data.

This is what the Ukrainian drone army looks like

A month ago, the UNITED24 platform, monobank, Oleg Horokhovskyi and Igor Lachenkov announced a fundraiser for Mavic 3T drones for our Defense Forces. And already today, the Drone Army has transferred 300 powerful UAVs to the… pic.twitter.com/fRmqpZTCCB

— Malinda 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇵🇱🇨🇦🇮🇹🇦🇺🇬🇧🇬🇪🇩🇪🇸🇪 (@TreasChest) March 30, 2023

---

DJI has reportedly been working very closely with the Ukes on developing and using their products, so I would not be at all suprised if these are using some proprietary or encrypted means of communication.

txags92 said:

---

lb3 said:

---

More drones?

These are DJI drones. I hope the Ukes have figured out custom firmware to b/c these consumer drones can broadcast unencrypted locations and other data.

This is what the Ukrainian drone army looks like

A month ago, the UNITED24 platform, monobank, Oleg Horokhovskyi and Igor Lachenkov announced a fundraiser for Mavic 3T drones for our Defense Forces. And already today, the Drone Army has transferred 300 powerful UAVs to the… pic.twitter.com/fRmqpZTCCB

— Malinda 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇵🇱🇨🇦🇮🇹🇦🇺🇬🇧🇬🇪🇩🇪🇸🇪 (@TreasChest) March 30, 2023

---

DJI has reportedly been working very closely with the Ukes on developing and using their products, so I would not be at all suprised if these are using some proprietary or encrypted means of communication.

---

That's good. Earlier in the war it was rumored that DJI (China) was providing help to friend Russia and it was hurting the Ukes.

Quote:

---

It would also hand a significant diplomatic and strategic defeat to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, who made it clear before invading Ukraine last year that he intended to block NATO's eastward expansion.

---

Interesting paradigms. If previously nonaligned Finland aspires to join NATO - it's freewill. However, if a former soviet state aspires to join NATO - it's evidence of American eastward expansionist meddling.

AgLA06 said:

---

txags92 said:

---

lb3 said:

---

More drones?

These are DJI drones. I hope the Ukes have figured out custom firmware to b/c these consumer drones can broadcast unencrypted locations and other data.

This is what the Ukrainian drone army looks like

A month ago, the UNITED24 platform, monobank, Oleg Horokhovskyi and Igor Lachenkov announced a fundraiser for Mavic 3T drones for our Defense Forces. And already today, the Drone Army has transferred 300 powerful UAVs to the… pic.twitter.com/fRmqpZTCCB

— Malinda 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇵🇱🇨🇦🇮🇹🇦🇺🇬🇧🇬🇪🇩🇪🇸🇪 (@TreasChest) March 30, 2023

---

DJI has reportedly been working very closely with the Ukes on developing and using their products, so I would not be at all suprised if these are using some proprietary or encrypted means of communication.

---

That's good. Earlier in the war it was rumored that DJI (China) was providing help to friend Russia and it was hurting the Ukes.

---

I suspect it may be the local distributors more so than the parent company that has been helping Ukraine adapt the drones for wartime purposes. DJI at one point early in the war had supposedly halted sales to both Russia and Ukraine, saying they didn't want their drones being used for war, but that may have just been posturing for the public eye. I suspect they recognize there is a lot more money to be made selling drones to the west than there is selling them to Russia, so have probably leaned towards not ticking off the west. They just reportedly stopped selling their drone detection system a few weeks ago, which may have been a deal with the west to prevent the Orcs from using it to attack Ukrainian operators.

China based company DJI stops producing drone detection system after being accused of helping Russia to target Ukraine (bnn.network)

Quote:

---

Russian Ministry of Defense claims Russian air defense shot down new Ukrainian Operational-Tactical Missile Hrim-2

---

https://liveuamap.com/en/2023/30-march-russian-ministry-of-defense-claims-russian-air-defense

Waffledynamics said:

---

Quote:

---

Russian Ministry of Defense claims Russian air defense shot down new Ukrainian Operational-Tactical Missile Hrim-2

---

https://liveuamap.com/en/2023/30-march-russian-ministry-of-defense-claims-russian-air-defense

---

50/50 they shot down another of their own assets?

Pentagon:

65 Ukrainian soldiers have completed training with Patriot air defence system in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/7XCyKT1jil

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 30, 2023

400K more working age men taken out of an economy that was already handicapped by a labor shortage even before the war started. Anyway, the word is out what happens to "volunteers", so good luck with that, Vlad.

More meat for the grinder. I never thought we'd see such wanton large scale disregard for one's countrymen in the course of an offensive land grab again.

https://newrepublic.com/article/171481/putin-russia-economy-going-broke-fast-why


The price of Russian oil fell from $92.20 a barrel a year ago to $49.50 this month. That's a 46 percent decline. Those figures come from the Kremlin Finance Ministry.

Finland to NATO a done deal.

Thanks, Vlad

74OA said:

---

Finland to NATO a done deal.

Thanks, Vlad

---

With this, Ukraine is a win for the UN.

Today's SITREP. Initial Patriot training complete.

Faustus said:

---

The military operations of a major Ukrainian battle group defending the city of Bakhmut from an unnamed location in eastern Ukraine.Credit...Carlotta Gall/The New York Times

---

Is that a zoom and discord webpage they have open?

Well whatever it takes to destroy the vatnik rapists murderers

A Late-Season Snow Storm has hit Eastern Ukraine and Western Russia today, a Storm of this Magnitude this late in the Season could potential cause a Halt in any sort of Offensive by either Side this weekend while also possibly causing Logistical Issues. pic.twitter.com/MfFtdQ9fhK

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 31, 2023

However, it is important to state that there has been No Visual Evidence yet that the Administrative Sector is under Russian Control which usually happens quite quick with the Wagner Group.

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 30, 2023

Russian/Wagner Forces are claiming to have made “Significant Advances” in the City of Bakhmut within the last 24 hours, they included the Capture of the remainder of the Northern Industrial Sector alongside the AZOM Metalworks and the Administrative Buildings in the South. pic.twitter.com/5pAGMJO8YM

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 30, 2023

The brave Ukrainian troops are helpless against this immortal enemy

The continuation of the battle between the Ukrainian military and the beaver appeared on the network

Unfortunately, after the enemy was pushed back from the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he struck with renewed vigor, completely taking control of the trench pic.twitter.com/2OZ0xz6DJc

— Cloooud |🇺🇦 (@GloOouD) March 29, 2023