Ukraine vs Russia III

🇳🇱🇺🇦✈️ The Dutch F-16’s are finally getting delivered to Ukraine!!

After a long wait, Ukraine finally gets more F-16 jets delivered as it remains determined to bolster it's air capabilities. pic.twitter.com/TkaWoZCZHN

— WarNewsNow (@WarNewsNow55) September 28, 2024

 

Moving the thread jack to it's own thread may help.It is a bit cluttered here.

 

I cannot fathom a thread where his bigotry should he accepted.

 

Another Russian ammo depot just went up.

Ukrainian attack drones reportedly struck the Russian GRAU arsenal at Kotluban overnight.

Per local sources and FIRMS, fires are burning in the vicinity of the massive Russian ammunition storage facility in Volgograd Oblast. pic.twitter.com/SH4MR683z6

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 29, 2024

 

Well, the F16s are out of the Dutch airforce toolbox and made a farewell tour over the country and are on their way to Ukrain

 

Didn't we already see some really old (65-70 years old) artillery in the fight? Unless I dreamed it, didn't we see D-30 122mm howitzers and D-20 152mm howitzers brought to the front?

 

Unfortunately, it seems the drones struck the "vicinity" of the Kotluban depot and not the depot itself. Satellite photos show no damage to the depot itself.

 

In the thread they said the D-30/D-20 were seen with Wagner and DPR/LPR forces before they were absorbed into the Russian military. Aside from that, we have seen them moving inside Russia on trains, it just isn't clear if they've made it to the front.

 

Yeah, if you watch lots of those drone videos you've seen them get attacked plenty. From Oryx's web site there has been evidence of 42 D-20s and 112 D-30s destroyed so far (to compare there has been public evidence of 121 destroyed Mista-B towed artillery systems and 51 of the most modern Giatsint-B towed systems).

The Mista-B and Giatsint-B have been used since the initial mobile phase of the invasion was over (as there were no towed systems in the Russian military at the time the invasion started). The D-20s and D-30s showed up later. But those have to be closer to the front because of their more limited range so they suffer more from drone attacks relative to how many are in use..

 

The proposed figures for Russia's 2025 budget have been released. Here are some interesting points:

- Agricultural development funding has been cut by almost half (420 billion rubles to 267 billion). Farms are going to seriously suffer.

- They expect recycling fee revenue to double from 1 trillion to 2 trillion. "Recycling fees" are their term for the tariffs placed on imported durable goods, such as cars and appliances, especially from China. It's an open question if doubling taxes means people buy at the same rate. If they don't, goodby expected income.

- Taxes on gasoline, soda, cigarettes, and alcohol are going up. Since the time of the tsars the Russian government depends on the vodka drinker.

- The expenses for Putin and staff are going up by 25%. That sounds extravagant, but remember this is a time of high inflation. That's actually a small increase in real money. If a branch is getting a 15%-20% increase in funding, that's basically standing still. And that's if inflation doesn't spike higher in the next year, and it might.

- They plan even larger OFZ bond sales to fund an even bigger deficit. Don't know how that will work when they can't even cover this year's and they are already running out of customers.

- They are being cagey about military spending. They don't want the people to know it's going up. It's going up.

 

If you are wondering about how Russian farmers are coping, they are trying some unorthodox methods. For example, slavery. A couple farms have already been busted for doing this. The scam is they find a guy in the city down on his luck (like just mustered-out soldiers) and they say hey, want some quick cash? We have a truck full of turnips around the corner we need unloaded. But the only thing they find around the corner is a van and some armed guys saying get in. They end up in a farm and are forced to do work and not get any pay, which are generally regarded as the two worst things about being a slave.

 

The story isn't over. Russia just sent two companies of troops and multiple vehicles to retake it. They are mostly dead now. They will try again.

The reason this is important is because it's such a strongly built building. Everything else in the city is now rubble. An observer on top of this structure sees everything and can call artillery on anything moving.