Kiev Is Burning

[Murph]

*gags* Ukraine must have sent Biden some bribe money.  

[crazyinsane105]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

Unquestioningly some flavor of F-16. NATO can easily avoid the mess that is the MBT and artillery situation; everyone has parts and planes of some block of F-16. Plus numerous weapons have been integrated so almost anyone can throw their ordnance into the ammunition pool. I'm not sure what particular variant is most plentiful from a donation standpoint though.

Any F-16 that isn't at least MLU (mid life upgrade) will be a complete waste. It should have the ability to utilize BVRs and PGMs, at the very least. Sending them over basic F-16 A/B would be suicide. 

[urbanoid]

1 minute ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Any F-16 that isn't at least MLU (mid life upgrade) will be a complete waste. It should have the ability to utilize BVRs and PGMs, at the very least. Sending them over basic F-16 A/B would be suicide. 

As and Bs were retired from even ANG 15 years ago, so...

[Der Zeitgeist]

It gets even better.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

8 minutes ago, Murph said:

*gags* Ukraine must have sent Biden some bribe money.  

If he had bribe money Murph, the useless twerp would be sending Abrams. Never blame corruption for which can be saddled fairly easily to being ineptitude.

[urbanoid]

37 minutes ago, bd1 said:

i have plenty of times quoted this guy, he is an anthropologist, worked in Yakutia , done field work in russia over 20 years, researched . indigenoeous peoples and industrialisation and de-industrialiastion effects on people . married to yakut, wrote a pretty good book ´My Yakutia´

knows such russia probably more than roman

https://news.err.ee/1608861587/aimar-ventsel-bucha-had-to-happen

Good article, as well as some others on the website. 

We just have to keep in mind they are all written by Nazis from a Nazi state.

 

 

[Der Zeitgeist]

3 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

If he had bribe money Murph, the useless twerp would be sending Abrams. 

Ummm, he is sending Abrams.

[urbanoid]

4 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

It gets even better.

 

At this rate we're going to run out of the bad guys. Except for Hungary.

 

[Murph]

11 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

If he had bribe money Murph, the useless twerp would be sending Abrams. Never blame corruption for which can be saddled fairly easily to being ineptitude.

I understand, but still......

[Stuart Galbraith]

10 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

Ummm, he is sending Abrams.

He's only leaning, I expect his replacement  hip is giving out.

[Der Zeitgeist]

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.

 

[glenn239]

26 minutes ago, Murph said:

*gags* Ukraine must have sent Biden some bribe money.  

No, he was cornered on the fact that if Germany is sending Leopards the US can't possibly not send M1's.

[Stuart Galbraith]

But I was told a company is functionally useless, a fig leaf.

 

[urbanoid]

2 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

He's only leaning, I expect his replacement  hip is giving out.

Nah, he will. I would be surprised if they weren't working on it for quite some time already.

[urbanoid]

2 minutes ago, glenn239 said:

No, he was cornered on the fact that if Germany is sending Leopards the US can't possibly not send M1's.

Or he was going to send them anyway, but it was important to have the Europeans on board and doing the same, especially Germany - for reasons both political and technical. 

[Markus Becker]

55 minutes ago, urbanoid said:

Now get ready to get bombed and invaded.

 

It would not be a loss. No kidding, usually capitals are a source of wealth, Berlin is a fiscal burdon. And that's just the city state. 

[Markus Becker]

40 minutes ago, Murph said:

*gags* Ukraine must have sent Biden some bribe money.  

Distraction from certain domestic events is more likely. 

[urbanoid]

Just now, Markus Becker said:

Distraction from certain domestic events is more likely. 

Neither of those, just a matter of continuation of a set policy.

[BansheeOne]

5 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.

Okay ... recalculating. Who else has A6? Poland obviously. Canada, Portugal, but only a few each. Greece is still an unlikely, but not impossible source.

This goes beyond "what can we spare", well into "what's most effective".

[urbanoid]

Just now, BansheeOne said:

Okay ... recalculating. Who else has A6? Poland obviously. Canada, Portugal, but only a few each. Greece is still an unlikely, but not impossible source.

This goes beyond "what can we spare", well into "what's most effective".

Poland has 2A4, 2A5 and 2PL, no A6. Finland has A6 (and A4s in storage).

[Yama]

On 1/23/2023 at 7:55 PM, Yama said:

Helmcam video from first combat encounter of two Finnish volunteers on Kharkiv front, September 27. English subtitles available:

As promised, here's summary from overall 'war journey' of the above cameraman:

-He began to post on anonymous Finnish forum ylilauta sometimes during summer (ylilauta is Finnish equivalent to 4chan). Although the forum is hardly known from rigorously verified information, he checks out, his early pictures show same guns what he used in the video above, and LT Ralf Sirén, perhaps most prominent Finnish volunteer who served in Ukraine, confirmed that they served in same unit. He is not any of the volunteers whose exploits I have covered previously.

Apply usual caveats about possible exaggeration, coloured opinions and so on.

-So he joined few weeks after Yavoriv base attack. At that time, Foreign Legion was in bit of chaos, so he was refused. Instead he joined in Georgian Legion. After indeterminate time, he was kicked out due to some careless talk. 

-He really has nothing good to say about Georgian Legion [but then he probably has slight grudge]. Basically he describes the outfit as a criminal gang. He was nearly killed by ND from one of the trainers. He tells how one of the head honchos of the Legion eventually had to flee Ukraine and settle to Britain, with several people swearing that they'll off him after the war.

-Goes to International Legion after that. He talks about same spat between Sirén and battalion CO Bogdan, which Lindybeige's friend (in earlier video linked) mentioned. 

-As for his motivation, he felt directionless and depressed in Finland. In his summer/autumn postings, he says he loves it in Ukraine and sounds very cheerful, unfazed by numerous anti-war/pro-Russian trolls which plague the board and try to bait him. Said that if he survives this war, he will probably go look for another, and this was apparently very common talk in the Legion.

-He was not part of the Finnish platoon which participated in battles of Kharkiv and Zaporižžia fronts in spring/summer. He was on some quiet sector and outside few shells landing in vicinity, did not really see action until September.

-I'm skipping the descriptions of hookers/drugs and various dumb or dangerous activities the guys do to pass time during the quiet period.

-As for drug use, he says it was a problem as lot of the guys would do them, and some would smoke pot in sentry duty and then pass out. However he later notes that eventually Ukrainians stomped down on the drug situation by threatening with heavy punishments, and it was greatly reduced.

-Usual talk about which nationalities are the best, I'm largely skipping it. He rates Americans among the best, though (however, he later changes this opinion a bit as we see), and Swedes the worst. That might be another slightly biased opinion  He singles out 3 Swedes he met, first two were posers and third one was long time drug user and Neonazi. 

-problem personalities were various psychos "who would have killed & raped My Lai without pause" and fantasized aloud about killing, and for some it didn't seem to matter if the killed were Russians. He steered clear of those cases. Also posers, and how they would claim to be trained to do X, and then couldn't do it of course.

-During all this idle time there was training, however it was pretty spotty and sporadic. Some American guy or somesuch would randomly show up, hold a lecture or drill of some subject, and leave, and then it was back to idling.

-Money quote guaranteed to make some people's day: about Russian and Ukrainian way of fighting: "They're both Russians, they fight the same" 

-talks about infamous chicken porridge, and mentions rumour that 'chicken' was actually pigeon. "Would explain why I didn't see any pigeons in town".

-enough of that, on to September and Kharkiv offensive. By that time he was on Sirén's platoon. Battle of Petropavlivka took four days.

-First day, as we saw already. He says he couldn't see anything from his sniper scope, so he left after his buddy was wounded and he was drawing plenty of return fire.  Because of the sniper rifle, he didn't carry plates or helmet that day and they were left in the Nissan.

-Day two, and this is pretty controversial, so I try to translate him as accurately as possible. I gather that Irish volunteer Rory Mason was his squad leader, and Sirén was platoon leader (probably called 'Alfa'?).

"Day two, everybody else heads out and Platoon Leader tells me to stay behind as my plates and helmet burnt. Before they leave, they come to tell me that me and my buddy did very well and saved the bunch from the BMP. Apparently it backed up when  my buddy opened up with the Kord. And then it came back and messed up our former position once we left. American squad thought that we were "got lit the fuck up" -dead as it raped that intersection with 30mm fire.

One guy was super cheerful and reminded me that you can always get new gear, but you can't buy a new life. Squad leader says "We'll see again" and off they go to continue mission. I spend my time depressed and smoking in a neighbourhood reminding me of environment of Metro 2033.

Late evening the gang is back and I ask the Nazi Medic [he really said that - I think that guy had Totenkopf style skull patch] how it went?

"[Rory Mason] is dead."  ....

"Okay, take your time and come here then to tell what happened."

The guys had been in firefight with some Spetsnaz who had barricaded themselves in a house. Squad leader spent about 30 minutes trying to negotiate with them and convince them to surrender. Finally a Russian comes out from the house, hands up, without his gun.

Immediately, leader of the American Squad shoots him in the head.

Russians realize they are holed up, and prepare to fight to the death. Squad leader tries to run for cover from the house. Russians shoot him to his side, between the plates.  Squad leader dies on the arms of the medic few minutes later as the fight goes on. Last words were "I'm dying..." and his pupils contracted and lips went white.

The medic asked the American immediately after the shot, why did he do that, and he just replied "Fuck that guy."

The guy who had been very cheerful in the morning tried to charge the house MOUT style, he was shot through the head and he had fist-sized hole in posterior of his skull. He didn't die, he could even follow simple commands. However the guys did not tie him properly on the ATV and he fell during evacuation. He is now attached to ventilator in the hospital. We were just in the same hospital with him; apparently his family is on his way to pull the plug. Some guys went to say their last goodbyes to him but I had no desire to see him anymore.

During the battle following happened:

Almost entire Yankee Squad got wounded in the firefight. One of them was missing half his jaw. We are not exactly going to miss these guys as they were pretty cocky,  and wouldn't perform menial tasks. They just shot up testosterone and flipped. Those who didn't get wounded, immediately terminated the contract as they didn't want to get killed because of us. 

Somebody fired a thermobaric warhead into the building from some weird RPG. 

Alfa guy fucked up throwing F1 grenade, it bounced back from the wall. He picked it up and threw it in the window 0.5 seconds before it went off. Previous day, he had been shot in the chest, straight at the plate [this can be heard mentioned on the previous video].

An American wounded to the neck ran away from the medic, twice.

Brazilian RPG-hero shot at least five rockets without ear protection, after the day he couldn't hear pretty much anything.

Last of the Russians was toughest, he wounded six of us before somebody managed to kill him.

These Russkies had tactical pouches, AK-12's and surprisingly neat clothes. Fattest guy was the officer. However they did not have proper tourniquets, or optics.

Platoon leader was messed up, he was overcome by the crisis and American Squad leader took the command of the situation. Platoon leaders hands were shaking all night, he is blaming himself from the FUBAR. 

I decided that the best way to show respect to the fallen friend is to go to work next day and try my best. Platoon leader went to instant leave, I took his helmet, and one American's vest for the next day."

And that was that, I'll detail his later escapades on another post, they're bit less dramatic though.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Yama
corrected mistakes

[Josh]

47 minutes ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Any F-16 that isn't at least MLU (mid life upgrade) will be a complete waste. It should have the ability to utilize BVRs and PGMs, at the very least. Sending them over basic F-16 A/B would be suicide. 

I don't think A/B are in service.

[BansheeOne]

1 minute ago, urbanoid said:

Poland has 2A4, 2A5 and 2PL, no A6. Finland has A6 (and A4s in storage).

Oh, okay. Harder to get the same number then as I worked out for the A5. At this point I'll just lean back and wait for the final mix of variants. The majority will probably be still A4, but the total may include both A5 (since Denmark has those only) and A6. Like one battalion of A5/6 and two of A4.

[Yama]

9 minutes ago, Josh said:

I don't think A/B are in service.

I think only A/B's on the market are Israeli ones, and they are effectively unsellable.

Some A/B's were on USAF service still last I checked couple of years ago, IIRC individuals even down to Block 15 or so.

[urbanoid]

1 minute ago, Yama said:

I think only A/B's on the market are Israeli ones, and they are effectively unsellable.

Some A/B's were on USAF service still last I checked couple of years ago, IIRC individuals even down to Block 15 or so.

2007:

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/572990/air-guard-retires-last-f-16a-in-service/

Surely they wouldn't be in USAF if even ANG retired them?