Russian stuff blowing up: Ukrainian blitz pounds Belgorod
Belgorod Bavovna. That could be a good band name.
The Russian city and its energy infrastructure were targeted by Ukrainian drones/missiles, plunging much of the city into darkness.
Boom, boom. Out go the lights.
Not much left of that one.
Clearing operations continue in Kupiansk.
2/ He reported that the Russians are attempting to reinforce their blocked soldiers in the city by throwing troops into breakthroughs from the north, but all such attempts are unsuccessful.
A stripped down truck loaded with Russians heads for the front line on yet another idiotic assault. After what looked to be a cluster munition strike, none appeared to have survived.
Russia used Starlink to enable Shahed drones to target Ukrainian helicopters.
Throwing a grenade at a drone is a bad idea.
Russian drone operators are targeted in the town of Tetkino, which is just over the border in the Kursk region.
A Russian blogger whines that the evil Ukrainians try to kill Russians while the noble Russians are only interested in destroying equipment. What a crock of shit.
Yuriy Podolyaka says that according to reports from Ukrainian UAV operators, in the summer they carried out 15k+ strikes on manpower per month, in the autumn 20k+, and in December they did 30k+. Podolyaka says that a “strike” is not equal to “destruction” —it could be a wound, or there could be 10 “strikes” on a single soldier, and so on. However, it is still horrifying.
Ukrainian drone operators are engaged in “free hunting,” and “manpower” is their priority. That is, they are simply killing people. It is an end in itself. Not an offensive, not a defense, not tactical objectives. Just killing people. For this, they are credited with “e-points” and paid bonuses.
I know our operators. Our guys prefer to burn equipment and weaponry. They don’t like hunting living people.
A nuclear warhead could not have done more damage to Chasiv Yar.
A war crime on video.
Another 1,020 Russians who chose poorly. Plus 2 tanks and 847 drones.
In the last month another 182 dead Russian officers have been confirmed.
NOTE: These two posts are from Twitter. They have Bluesky accounts but haven’t posted these there. For some of these accounts Bluesky seems to be an afterthought.
A Russian father who lost his son in the war is angry — not because the war is wrong, but because the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent.
The evolution of anti-drone warfare continues.
The important factors in drone development now are the ability to make a lot of them at a low cost and make them easy to assemble and fly.
The right-wing billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has killed the deal that would have sent light aircraft to Ukraine. Fuck him.
Zelenskyy doesn’t hold back in his assessment of Lukashenko, whose dog has more rights than Belarus citizens.
Well, there’s something you don’t see every day.
Happy Birthday
This is an interesting story about how the war and the lack of electricity has changed Ukrainian society.
One of the more unexpected consequences of Russian shelling is that Ukrainians are reassessing the role of pets within their families. Amid the cold, blackouts, and failing heating systems, animals have become not only companions but also sources of literal and emotional warmth.
Ukrainian folk survival wisdom advises pulling a cat under the blanket: the warmth, people say, multiplies instantly.
Some Kyiv residents even pitch tents over their beds, and almost immediately, a cat leaps inside to “heat” the newly created room.
Oleksandr, a Kyiv resident, lives with his wife and three British Shorthair cats, Tisha, Luna, and Siri, a few kilometers away from one of the stations that Russian forces regularly target with imprecise ballistic missiles.
“They sleep next to us all the time,” he says. “It warms you not only physically. They’re warm, soft, especially when they climb onto you, but emotionally as well.”
……..
With the power outages, Ukrainians have started reading more.
“There’s more time, the internet isn’t always available, and there’s a need to distract yourself. But the brain can’t handle heavy information like in deep literature,” says Kyiv resident Tetiana.
By “deep literature,” she means classics that explore questions about the world and the future. In Ukraine, she adds, “the future is a complicated question for us.”
“My friends are reading more, too, but lighter literature. One of my friends, for example, reads a lot of poetry. They read books that support them emotionally,” Tetiana continues.
During dark nights, people also try to turn inward.
“Many people are now turning to psychological literature, trying to understand themselves. You start forgiving people whom you thought were impossible to forgive before the war,” she says.
Don’t always need electricity to generate some heat.
