"Battleground ukraine" Topic

I like podcasts and I've recently been listening to the goal hanger battleground podcasts about Ukraine. Free to me on Amazon prime. link

Very 8nterestinb analysis and I recommend it. Covers some other subjects as well such as Falkland islands.

FWIW It clearly appears Ukraine is winning the war. As some have been saying for a while. Russia is gaining no ground and taking huge losses. And their only real offensive ops is shooting missiles at town in Ukraine. Plus Ukraine is hitting targets deep within Russia.

Putin has convinced some in Russia this is all part of a NATO plan to destroy Russia.

And they get little real information … only what Putin tells them.

Ukraine does seem to be doing fairly well.
One of those episodes sees the presenters speculating on how long Putin will last before he is ousted. They speculate one possible outcome might see Putin replaced and whoever follows likely backing out the whole war as soon as practical.

I think Putin is in firm control of Russia. Too many people have "accidently" fallen out of windows for anyone to challenge him now.

Andy +1

I think Putin is in firm control of Russia.

Yes he is dictator trying to be like Stalin 2.0 … The question remains … How long can Russia keep taking the huge losses that occur almost daily? In Ukraine and on their own soil from Ukraine's drones, etc.

Well, there is only two ways he goes down really.

First, a cabal of insiders or generals move against him in a coup and take him out. Putin has made it very clear anyone challenges him they die. So, probably not going to happen.

Second, the people rise up in mass protest to such a point that certain leaders take the risk and overthrow him. Will wait and see if this one occurs.

Ukrainian F-16 Shot Down Russian Fighter for the First Time

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Armand

There is explanation of their thinking in the podcast. It's his own team are most likely to oust him.
The fact they're not-winning is becoming very obvious to the Russian population what with fuel shortages and things blowing up.

He's upped his bodyguards iirc to 300.
I wonder if the more bodyguards he has the more likely one of them could be bribed to turn on him.

EU Naval Mission will now intercept Russian Shadow tankers in the Indian Ocean…

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Armand

The War in Ukraine Has Dramatically Changed Special Forces Operations

"
Select Language
The War in Ukraine Has Dramatically Changed Special Forces Operations
.By David Kirichenko
The War in Ukraine Has Dramatically Changed Special Forces OperationsМіністерство оборони України

Throughout the Russia–Ukraine war, special operations forces (SOF, or SSO in Ukrainian) have conducted many raids and missions to probe enemy defensive positions. Examples include Ukraine's use of SOF probing operations in Bryansk and Kursk in 2023 and 2024 before launching its incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August 2024.

At the same time, the drone war in Ukraine was rapidly accelerating. By 2025, Kyiv had established a drone wall, with virtually every part of the front monitored by uncrewed aircraft. Conducting manoeuvre warfare became increasingly difficult, and snipers and special forces operators also faced greater risks.

Select Language
The War in Ukraine Has Dramatically Changed Special Forces Operations
.By David Kirichenko
The War in Ukraine Has Dramatically Changed Special Forces OperationsМіністерство оборони України

Throughout the Russia–Ukraine war, special operations forces (SOF, or SSO in Ukrainian) have conducted many raids and missions to probe enemy defensive positions. Examples include Ukraine's use of SOF probing operations in Bryansk and Kursk in 2023 and 2024 before launching its incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August 2024.

At the same time, the drone war in Ukraine was rapidly accelerating. By 2025, Kyiv had established a drone wall, with virtually every part of the front monitored by uncrewed aircraft. Conducting manoeuvre warfare became increasingly difficult, and snipers and special forces operators also faced greater risks.

‘Xen', a former U.S. special forces operator who has worked with a Ukrainian special forces regiment, told me that in 2020, he had worked with a U.S. SOF unit training Ukrainian special forces and that the instruction had been largely one-directional. Drone warfare had not changed battlefield doctrine, and the Ukrainian trainees were learning extensively from the Americans.

By the time the full-scale invasion started, drone usage throughout 2022 was limited, but quickly growing, especially for situational awareness. ‘Heavy casualties early in the war also erased a significant amount of institutional knowledge,' said Xen. ‘Some lessons we had taught simply didn't persist.'…"

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Armand

Andy O'Neill, Russia is advancing. The situation on the front lines for Ukraine is worsening daily. Recently, the Ukrainians practically lost the city of Kostyantynivka.
Shelling deep into Russia is of no consequence – Russia's retaliatory strikes inflict far greater damage on the enemy. Now Ukraine's entire fuel network is being destroyed, and all maritime trade is being stopped, which is a completely natural response to Ukraine's actions. Russia is finally taking off its "white gloves."

You're being lied to about some critical discontent among Russians. We'll only become angrier and tougher. We don't want Russia to be turned into a second Yugoslavia, so we will fight to the end.

Did I hear this right … Ukraine intercepts one of Iran's tankers bringing oil to Russia ?

Russia has more than enough oil)))
The Iranian bulk carrier "Ana" was attacked while en route from the Russian port of Astrakhan to Iran.
Doesn't look much like a tanker?

It is strange, but it appears the Ukrainians have attacked two Iranian vessels. There are reports that the Iranian ship *Parsian* was attacked yesterday in the Black Sea, not far from the Romanian coast…
It seems Zelensky wants to goad Iran into entering the war on Russia's side. Why? It's simple – he needs direct participation of the West in this war. Has the "green clown" decided to play with the lives of the inhabitants of the "West" or is this a secret plan to drag the United States into war? Are you ready for nuclear war? She's getting closer…

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*Parsian*:

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The Iranians promised to respond with missiles…

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"He needs direct participation of the West in this War…"

We're sick of reading you saying that Russia has been fighting the entire West since day one… now it turns out that never happened?… that Zelensky only wants to involve them now?… so much falsehood and lies are starting to confuse your mind…

On the other hand, if you're referring to open participation with troops on the ground… not even the most idiotic mind could consider that feasible… keep dreaming…

Armand

Chalk One Up for Ukraine

"In one significant way, Ukraine has already won. Some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations—the United States included—are now turning to Ukraine for military assistance. Ukraine has built a defense sector at an astonishing speed and emerged as a global player in military innovation. "Ukraine needs NATO, but NATO needs Ukraine as much as the other way around," remarked President Alexander Stubb of Finland, which joined NATO in 2023.

Beyond its implications for the war, this is a stunning achievement that will serve Ukraine well long after the guns fall silent. In President Donald Trump's parlance, Ukraine now has a powerful "card" to play, a card it dealt itself.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for foreign military aid from the West and exhorted his countrymen to build makeshift weapons for the resistance. For a time, Kyiv was grateful for pledges of American support, Bayraktar drones from Turkey, and whatever cheap weapons emerged from Ukrainian garages and warehouses.

Four and a half years later, American aid is drying up, Ukraine has replaced Bayraktar drones with more effective weapons of its own, and the country's weapon designers have moved well beyond their low-tech garages. Ukraine's defense technology sector is now a $7 USD billion industry, with many global customers and a projected annual production capacity estimated at $55 USD billion…"

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Armand

Tango, war can be waged in different ways – for example, by paying for it and providing weapons))) It's a shame you don't understand that)))

Assembling a drone or a missile from parts produced in China and the West – is that a great achievement? Ridiculous)))
Ukraine without Western help is an absolute zero.

I've already said that Russia has taken off its "white gloves" and will now wage war in earnest… Russia has declared a naval blockade of Ukraine. Any vessels heading to Ukrainian ports will be destroyed. Yesterday, a Turkish dry cargo ship anchored in Odessa was sunk.
A magnificent sight… I hope any pirate vessels attempting to hijack ships carrying Russian cargo in international waters will soon be attacked.

t.me/dmitrydegtyarev1/18293

The strike was carried out by an Onyx anti-ship missile.
Poor Turks. Their ships are being sunk by both Russians and Ukrainians.

A Year Ago Putin Had The Momentum. Now Russia Is Importing Fuel And Ukraine Is Taking Ground.

"Last August, Vladimir Putin arrived on American soil expecting a favorable deal. Russia held the momentum, the February White House meeting with Zelenskyy was still fresh, and administration officials spoke as though Ukraine would eventually have to settle. A year on, the picture has inverted. Ukraine's own missiles and drones have reached Russian refineries and logistics far behind the front, Moscow has extended its gasoline export ban and turned to imports, and Washington has moved toward joint drone production and Patriot interceptor licensing. Whether that amounts to a permanent shift is still an open question.

Today, the war's momentum has not only shifted in Ukraine's favor, but U.S.-Ukrainian relations are also deepening rapidly.

Trump and Zelenskyy have worked through their differences. If a picture is worth a thousand words, last month's photo of the presidents posing together with wide grins at the NATO Summit in Ankara says it all…"

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Armand

Dawn Over the Donbas: Ukraine's Aeromedical Air Bridge

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Armand

A Game of Drones

"How production rates, not exchange ratios, decide the drone war — with original modelling on interceptor economics, magazine depletion, and why cheap interceptors kill the decoy. From Sentinel Geopolitical Intelligence.

On the first of June last year, in five Russian regions across five time zones, the roofs of several parked lorries slid open.

What came out cost about five hundred dollars each.

There is a caterpillar in Europe that smells like an ant. Not vaguely — precisely, down to the wax on its skin, close enough that a foraging worker who finds it lying on the ground picks it up and carries it home. Past the sentries. Into the nursery. There the ants feed it, and it eats their young…"

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Armand