Kiev Is Burning

[mkenny]

4 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Lech Walesa was just a Shipbuilder, 

Not so-he was an informer as well. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Well of course they Russians WOULD say that. They're still butthurt about it.

[Roman Alymov]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Well of course they Russians WOULD say that. They're still butthurt about it.

Let me direct you to my old post on that

 

[Roman Alymov]

10 hours ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

Ronald Reagan was a Western film actor. Furthermore, Selensky studied Selenski law. So this is an argument without a foundation.

It is actually remarkable how you and Stuart are both pretending not to see " personally begging from the stage for "Putin please take ne out of here, even as reparationm for <Ukraine> debts" (in front of Putin himself)" part, while clatching at "standup comedian" part. 

      And no, Zelensky is not even close to Ronald Reagan  who, in between being film actor and becoming President of USA, served as officer in US Army during WWII (not in combat duties, but still far different from Zelensky, who have dodged repeated mobilization notices), was trade union leader in very complex postwar years (Zelensky newer had any elected positions prior to becoming President), and was Governer of State that is bigger then some countries (Zelensky newer was in charge of something significant prior to becoming President). By the way i'm not sure you understand Zelensky acted as President of Ukraine in comedy series where he was elected from the job of high school history teacher in RUSSIAN school in Kiev (and entier series were in RUSSIAN).

10 hours ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

There are presidents who had to work as a "Carpenter of category 4" and as a taxi driver. Incidentally, the carpenter is regularly the subject of mockery in the Russian readers' crevices.

No idea why you think i care who was Putin before he was selected as Yeltsin to take care of saving "The Family" from Russian people anger. May be you have not notices, but i am not a big fan of Putin.

[Roman Alymov]

FiberFPVs vs. M113 with anti-drone "barn" and its unlucky crew. Note fiberFPVs are now cheap enough to be used against single infantryman. Kursk region. https://t.me/infomil_live/14997

P.S. Concrete roadside "box" surviving dismounts were trying to take cover in is Soviet-time busstop.

[Stuart Galbraith]

12 hours ago, Roman Alymov said:

Let me direct you to my old post on that

 

Still the man that brought down the Eastern Bloc whether you like it or not. If he ever was an Informer, which I doubt, I submit he was a far from optimum one...

[Roman Alymov]

2 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Still the man that brought down the Eastern Bloc whether you like it or not. If he ever was an Informer, which I doubt, I submit he was a far from optimum one...

The man who "brought down the Eastern Bloc" was Lenin, since it were basic mistakes of what is known as "Lenin's ethnic policy" that set the roots of future collapse (since Lenin personally and his teammates were newer interested in Russia - they were playing for global revolutin that was predicted to have its centre in most industrially developed countries of that time, not Russia).

       All this "freedom fighters" were just larvaes eating allready dead flesh.

[Stuart Galbraith]

No, the man that brought down the Eastern Bloc was Walesa.

You can draw a straight line from Solidarity, to the 1989 election, to the Solidarity victory, to the rest of Eastern Europe becoming unzipped. Although hilariously, one can also point to Stalin having a role. if he hadnt forcibly incorporated Poland over Western objections, you wouldnt have had such troublesome shipbuilders to contain. My heart bleeds, really it does.

[Roman Alymov]

2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

No, the man that brought down the Eastern Bloc was Walesa.

You can draw a straight line from Solidarity, to the 1989 election, to the Solidarity victory, to the rest of Eastern Europe becoming unzipped. 

I was born in 1975, and my childhood memories of years around 1980 (when Solidarity was founded) are the memories of country on the way to decay. Of course back then i was not able to understand it is decay, but now looking back on it from my life experience it  clearly was one: empty shelves in shops (next to every high-demand commodity was to be "looked for" by gowing from one shop to another, often without any result), broken windows not fixed, vending machimes not working (and sometimes vandalised), lines of men in front of liquer shops, and so on.... Was it all done by Lech Walesa?

[Roman Alymov]

Reportedly first registered loss of TOS-2 MLRS https://t.me/milinfolive/142060

Obviously the launcher burned out without detonation, so quite likely it was empty (without missiles), probably on the way back from fire mission.

[Roman Alymov]

FiberFPVs vs. armor and trucks (including Leopard 2), Sumy region https://t.me/milinfolive/142064

[Roman Alymov]

FPVs vs. T-64 speedong on highway, and SUV with lots of EW antennas, Kursk region https://t.me/epoddubny/22475

[Roman Alymov]

Comilation of FPV strikes videos from RusMarines, Kursk region https://t.me/infomil_live/15016

[Roman Alymov]

I wonder why it is "Soviet-style tactics" - pro-Ukrainians are just not willing to risk their lifes for NATO-provided weapons as they know they will get more, for free  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/16/nato-ukraine-soviet-battlefield-tactics-squandered-weapons/

  Quite natural behaviour for humans.

“The Russian army probably has more Javelins than the British Army now,” a British source said, adding that although he and his colleagues supported Ukraine’s fight against Russia, the effort to support Kyiv “was built around lies”.
The UK has donated more than 10,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, “thousands” of Javelins among them. James Cartlidge, the former defence procurement minister, said in April last year that UK Javelin stocks would not be replenished until “2027 and 2028”.

 

Edited February 16 by Roman Alymov

[Roman Alymov]

On 2/6/2025 at 10:42 PM, Roman Alymov said:

Reportedly the first case of German PzH2000 SPG destroyed by fiberFPV drone (not Lancet of guided shell), Donetsk region https://t.me/infomil_live/14755

Not clear why this SPG was positioned just 8 km from contact line....

P.S.

"It seems that one of the reasons has become clear why the enemy sometimes places their German long-range 155-mm self-propelled guns PzH 2000 close to the front line, where they become easy prey even for FPV drones (1 (https://t.me/milinfolive/141439 ), 2 (https://t.me/milinfolive/141906 )).

In the ammunition of these self-propelled guns, theoretically capable of firing at a distance of more than 50 km, simple outdated 155-mm M107 shells were also seen, which even from a 52-caliber barrel can fly only a distance of no more than 18 km."   https://t.me/milinfolive/142068

[JWB]

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1891116172176711795

Russian armored vehicles flying Soviet flags assaulted Ukrainian positions around Nikolskoye, Kursk Oblast this morning. 

The column drove into a minefield and was swarmed by Ukrainian drones, taking heavy losses.

[JWB]

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1891060468493537452

The Russians once again abandoned their North Korean allies. North Korean units and Russian Navy infantry staged a retreat from Nikolsky in the Kursk region, with 50-100 fighters leaving their positions. Z-channels blame the Russian 155th Brigade for mysteriously failing to provide support.

[JWB]

[Roman Alymov]

8 minutes ago, JWB said:

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1891116172176711795

Russian armored vehicles flying Soviet flags assaulted Ukrainian positions around Nikolskoye, Kursk Oblast this morning. 

The column drove into a minefield and was swarmed by Ukrainian drones, taking heavy losses.

This video is now discissed on pro-Rus channels, one of takes:

"With the current dominance of drones over the battlefield, even a relatively well-prepared attack with mine sweeps and electronic warfare systems has every chance of failing simply because several FPV drones will fly at once at different frequencies into each piece of armor, breaking through the interference.

These images from the enemy show an example of such an attack on the armor of the 155th Marine Brigade in the Kursk region. Several T-80BV and BTR-82A tanks attacked the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the village of Nikolskoye in the Kursk region. And even with all the anti-drone covers, jammers and mine ckearing sweepers, there is no way to break through wide open fields under constant drone raids. 

Some of the vehicles were hit and the troops were forced to dismount, retreating back. The surviving part of the column went a little further, but in the end they also failed to go much deeper and the vehicles were lost.

Without a systematic solution to the problem of drones in the sky and solid minefields on the ground, such attacks, in most cases, will end either unsuccessfully or with heavy losses, as they end for the Ukrainian Armed Forces during their recent counterattacks near Sunja. 

In this case, we can say that the Marines were lucky, we have seen even worse consequences of attacks by columns." https://t.me/milinfolive/142084

[Roman Alymov]

8 minutes ago, JWB said:

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1891060468493537452

The Russians once again abandoned their North Korean allies. North Korean units and Russian Navy infantry staged a retreat from Nikolsky in the Kursk region, with 50-100 fighters leaving their positions. Z-channels blame the Russian 155th Brigade for mysteriously failing to provide support.

Not so long ago Western media were telling us NKoreans are no more on the frontline....

 

[JWB]

1 minute ago, Roman Alymov said:

Not so long ago Western media were telling us NKoreans are no more on the frontline....

Didn't occur to you they were rotated out then rotated back in?

[Roman Alymov]

5 minutes ago, JWB said:

Didn't occur to you they were rotated out then rotated back in?

In 10 days, after claimed losses of at least 1/3 of initial strength? Of course i am of high opinion of NKoreans, but as for me more plausable explanation is that one of the reports was false (or both).

[Roman Alymov]

Lancets vs. two NASAMS launchers, Kursk area https://t.me/vysokygovorit/18850

[Stuart Galbraith]

1 hour ago, JWB said:

Didn't occur to you they were rotated out then rotated back in?

They clone them in vats.

[Roman Alymov]

Another "Putin's narative" story becoming MSM topic

https://thehill.com/opinion/5146149-zelensky-war-ego/

The mad king of Kyiv: Why Zelensky can’t afford to end the war
by John Mac Ghlionn, opinion contributor - 02/15/25 3:00 PM ET

Not long ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was a comedian in Ukraine. He made his living playing a fictional president on television. Then, by a twist of fate, he became the real thing. And before he had time to adjust to the role, history threw him onto the world’s stage, catapulting him from a middling entertainer into an international symbol of resistance.

Overnight, the media transformed him into the embodiment of courage, the Churchill of Kyiv, the man who refused to flee, the warrior standing against tyranny. But what if this narrative is entirely false? What if Zelensky, rather than being the hero in this story, is actually the man who won’t allow the war to end — not for the good of his people, but because peace would mean his own downfall?

A good leader prioritizes the survival of his nation. He knows when to fight, and more importantly, he knows when to negotiate. Zelensky, however, has made it clear that his power depends on war, and war alone.

It is no coincidence that as Ukraine’s battlefield prospects worsen, as soldiers defect, as forced conscription spirals into something resembling kidnapping, Zelensky has once again extended martial law. No elections. No peace talks. No escape. Because if the war ends, so does his presidency. And this, more than anything, explains why the war must go on.

The mainstream media — particularly in the West — does not allow for nuance. The world must be simple: Putin is the villain, Zelensky is the hero. That is the framework. That is the script. Anything outside of this binary is “pro-Russian propaganda.” Yet reality is not a comic book; it’s not a Marvel movie. Zelensky is not some saintly soldier defending democracy. In fact, Ukraine barely resembles a democracy at all.

Since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Zelensky had banned several opposition parties, banned certain media outlets and postponed elections with the justification that wartime voting is “impossible.” Impossible for whom? For the soldiers in the trenches, or for the civilians now living under indefinite martial law?

Ukraine is in a desperate position. The country’s losses are catastrophic. Manpower is running thin, which is why Zelensky has resorted to hunting men down in the streets. There are countless reports of Ukrainian men being dragged from cafes and nightclubs and thrown into vans like criminals.

Martial law means there is no way out. You cannot leave the country. You cannot refuse. This is not the mark of a confident government. This is the behavior of a desperate regime trying to hold itself together by force.

And yet the war must continue. It is the only thing keeping Zelensky in power. If he were to call elections, he would likely lose. Support for him is falling. The longer this drags on, the more obvious it becomes that Ukraine cannot win — not in any meaningful sense. This is not 2022. The optimism of those early months, when the world believed Ukraine might push Russia back, is gone. Even the U.S., Ukraine’s biggest backer, is slowly dialing down support, with Washington insiders admitting that a total Ukrainian victory is no longer the goal.

The Zelensky saga is not new. History is filled with leaders who refused to let go, clinging to power even as their nations crumbled around them. There was Napoleon Bonaparte, who, after leading France to disaster in Russia, could have accepted the inevitable. Instead, he chose more war, dragging his exhausted nation into further bloodshed before his final exile.

More recently, Saddam Hussein held onto his dictatorship long after Iraq had been battered by sanctions and strife, ruling over a devastated country rather than relinquishing control. Muammar Gaddafi could have sought asylum and spared Libya from a bloody collapse, but his ego demanded he fight to the bitter end, ultimately leaving him to be dragged down the street and executed. Robert Mugabe plundered Zimbabwe while his people starved, stretching his rule for decades until even his own party could no longer tolerate the wreckage.

Zelensky joins a long line of leaders who prioritize their own well-being over the well-being of their nations. This represents a pathological form of selfishness, where self-preservation comes at any cost, even if it means thousands more women and children will die. And they will. Ukraine is being fed into a meat grinder. Yet, perversely, the illusion must be maintained.

And the media, ever compliant, helps sell the fiction — the indomitable Zelensky, the unbreakable Ukraine, the noble fight for democracy. It is a clean, simple story, easy to digest, and easy to justify. Another weapons shipment. Another aid package. Another extension of a catastrophic conflict that should have ended long ago.

But objective reality does not care for emotionally charged narratives. It is cold. It is brutal. And the hard truth is this: Ukraine is losing, and Zelensky is making sure it keeps losing.

A rational leader would see the writing on the wall, confront the inevitable, and make the painful but necessary choice to negotiate — to salvage what remains rather than reduce the nation to nothing but ashes. But Zelensky has chosen a different path, one so often walked by men drunk on power and blind to consequence. And for that, Ukraine will bleed — until there is no blood left to spill..