TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@social.cleverlibre.org

Goodnight to all who resist.

War in Ukraine says goodnight
https://t.me/warinukraineua/1786

Who will win the war in Ukraine???
https://t.me/visegrad24official/2473

The Swiss vote to classify Hamas a terrorist organization
https://t.me/visegrad24official/2459

Shari law
https://t.me/visegrad24official/2464

Kyiv under attack

https://t.me/liveukraine_media/16321

Germany delivers. Another Patriot.
https://t.me/liveukraine_media/16322

Russia is actually a prison of nations wanting to be free.
https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/16667

Australia will expand the Ukrainian military training program in 2024

Australia's role will be expanded to include a junior commander training program focusing on areas such as the basics of combat skills, including urban and trench warfare, combat first aid, explosive ordnance awareness and marksmanship, the Australian Department of Defense said in a statement.

Since January this year, Australian soldiers have helped train more than 1,200 recruits as part of a UK-led and UK-based multinational training mission to support Ukraine's national defense following the Russian invasion.

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán just single-handedly blocked a massive European Union aid package to Ukraine. All EU nations were in favor, they were all supporting it. But Mr. Orbán has been called by his master in Moscow and when asked to jump, doesn’t ever ask “why?” but only: “How high?”

It’s a double-cross of epic proportions, and a shameless one at that… Orbán has long been at odds with Brussels. Billions of euros in EU funds to Hungary were previously frozen due to Orbán’s inability and apparent unwillingness to abide by EU guidelines and fight corruption in his government. Just yesterday, as a token of good will, the EU did unfreeze these funds.

 An olive branch, a sign of good will, and Orbán accepted it gladly. The next day, he killed the aid package for Ukraine anyway. Why? Because the man wants to have his cake and eat it too.

It’s a two-pronged approach by Moscow — make its proxies in America go after US aid for Ukraine, and make its European proxies (of whom Orbán is the most notorious) go after EU aid as well. Russia appears to be getting rather desperate for time, and is cashing in all favors at once. For Orbán, this is a political and economic act of kamikaze that may well be his undoing.

// @GalaxyCurse

Canada will send helicopters to Latvia to deter Russia

Starting in the summer of 2024, Canada will transfer 4 Griffon helicopters to the Enhanced Forward Combat Group in Latvia. And from the fall of 2025, the country will also "periodically deploy Chinook transport helicopters", announced the Ministry of Defense of Canada during the visit of the head of the department to Latvia.

"Canada is deploying tactical aviation in Europe for the first time on a permanent basis after the end of operations in Bosnia and Kosovo in the late 1990s and early 2000s," the agency noted.

Russia has lost 87% of the total number of ground troops and two-thirds of the tanks it had gathered before the invasion of Ukraine — CNN.

This data was obtained from a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress.

Thus, according to intelligence estimates, out of the 360,000 troops who invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia lost 315,000 on the battlefield.

Out of 3,500 tanks, 2,200 were lost. Also, 4,400 of the 13,600 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers were destroyed, which is 32% of the losses.

As of late November, Russia had lost over a quarter of its pre-invasion stockpiles of ground forces equipment, CNN reports.

“Still, despite heavy losses of men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to push forward ... A highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive stagnated through the fall, and US officials believe that Kyiv is unlikely to make any major gains over the coming months," —  the material states.

South Korea and Japan scrambled jets.

https://www.newsweek.com/china-russia-nuclear-bomber-patrols-japan-south-korea-scramble-jets-1852704

James Comer likes the dark. Instead of a public hearing where we, the public who are paying his salary can see, he wants a closed door.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/lets-investigate-the-shit-out-of?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

What awaits the USA and Europe in case of loss and complete occupation of Ukraine - ISW

The article highlights how helping Ukraine to defeat Russia is lower in cost compared to allowing Russia to win, in terms of military and economical factors:

- the cost of the consequences (refugee crisis)

- the military spending needed for defending and deterrence of the NATO borders from Russian bases and air defense systems located on the border with Poland.

- the lost benefits from a strong western-oriented Ukrainian economy.

(and this does not even discuss the cost in human suffering)

CONTINUES (1/3)

CONTINUED (2/3)

The United States has a much higher stake in Russia's war on Ukraine than most people think.

A Russian conquest of all of Ukraine is by no means impossible if the United States cuts off all military assistance and Europe follows suit.

Such an outcome would bring a battered but triumphant Russian army right up to NATO’s border from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean.

The Ukrainian military with Western support has destroyed nearly 90% of the Russian army that invaded in February 2022 according to US intelligence sources, but the Russians have replaced those manpower losses and are ramping up their industrial base to make good their material losses at a rate much faster than their pre-war capacity had permitted.

A victorious Russian army at the end of this war will be combat experienced and considerably larger than the pre-2022 Russian land forces. The Russian economy will gradually recover as sanctions inevitably erode and Moscow develops ways to circumvent or mitigate those that remain.

Over time it will replace its equipment and rebuild its coherence, drawing on a wealth of hard-won experience fighting mechanized warfare. It will bring with it advanced air defense systems that only American stealth aircraft—badly needed to deter and confront China—can reliably penetrate.

Russia can pose a major conventional military threat to NATO for the first time since the 1990s in a timeframe set to a considerable extent by how much the Kremlin invests in its military. Since Moscow has already committed to an ambitious post-war military expansion program the US cannot be confident that the timeframe will be very long.

The overall military potential of the United States and its NATO allies is so much greater than that of Russia that there is no reason to doubt the West’s ability to defeat any conceivable Russian military even assuming that Russia fully absorbs Ukraine and Belarus.

But as Americans consider the costs of continuing to help Ukraine fight the Russians in the coming years, they deserve a careful consideration of the costs of allowing Russia to win.

Those costs are much higher than most people imagine.

To deter and defend against a renewed Russian threat following a full Russian victory in Ukraine the United States will have to deploy to Eastern Europe a sizable portion of its ground forces.

The United States will have to station in Europe a large number of stealth aircraft. Building and maintaining those aircraft is intrinsically expensive, but challenges in manufacturing them rapidly will likely force the United States to make a terrible choice between keeping enough in Asia to defend Taiwan and its other Asian allies and deterring or defeating a Russian attack on a NATO ally.

The entire undertaking will cost a fortune, and the cost will last as long as the Russian threat continues—potentially indefinitely.

Almost any other outcome of the Ukraine war is preferable to this one. Helping Ukraine keep the lines where they are through continuous Western military support is far more advantageous and cheaper for the United States than allowing Ukraine to lose.

"Freezing” the conflict is worse than continuing to help Ukraine fight—that would simply give Russia time and space to prepare for a renewed war to conquer Ukraine and confront NATO.

Helping Ukraine regain control of all or most of its territory would be much more advantageous, as it would drive Russian forces even further to the east. Best of all, supporting Ukraine to its victory and then helping it rebuild would put the largest and most combat-effective friendly military on the European continent at the forefront of the defense of NATO—whether Ukraine does or does not ultimately join the alliance.

In all these scenarios Americans should keep in mind that Ukraine is not Afghanistan. Afghanistan in 2001 was one of the poorest countries in the world with no industry to speak of and a poorly-educated population.

Ukraine is highly industrialized with a modern, urban, and highly educated population.

CONTINUED (3/3)

Restored to its 1991 borders Ukraine’s economy is large enough to support its own military.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recently committed his country to establishing its own military industry including by establishing joint ventures with Western firms to benefit Ukraine and its partners.

A victorious Ukraine would not be a permanent ward of the West. It can instead be truly independent and contribute greatly to NATO’s security and the West’s economy.

❗️In the administration of the President of the United States, they call on Congress not to delay the approval of aid to Ukraine - John Kirby.

"Almost 20 months after the start of the brutal and barbaric invasion, Putin said today that his aggression in Ukraine will not end and that peace will only come when, quote, 'our goals are achieved'... But I really hope that those Republicans in the House of Representatives , who have held critical aid to Ukraine hostage for months, heard Putin's message loud and clear," Kirby said

He noted that while the members of the House of Representatives go home this week for the Christmas holidays, the Ukrainian people will continue to experience shelling of peaceful cities, which Russia targets on critical infrastructure.

"They need our help. And they need it now, not after the Christmas eggnog,” Kirby emphasized.

"Putin directly challenges the international order, he challenges the Charter, he challenges democracy directly," the White House spokesman stressed.

The Russian army will begin to teach survival in assaults after record losses in Ukraine

A new system of physical training is being introduced in the army, taking into account the experience of the war in Ukraine. Now the soldiers will be trained for high-intensity combat operations in the field, with weapons and in full equipment, several sources in the military department told Izvestia. According to them, a draft updated manual on physical training (NFP) has already been developed and will be approved by the Ministry of Defense by the end of the year.

So, for example, in the new document the running load has increased - now a typical exercise will be a 5 km run in full equipment. It also includes a new set of strength exercises to develop tactical endurance, sources say. Before the introduction of new standards, the Ministry of Defense interviewed military doctors and participants in the war in Ukraine, what the soldiers lacked on the front line and during assaults, says Associate Professor of the Russian University of Economics. Plekhanov Colonel Alexander Perendzhiev.

The next revision of the approach will take place against the backdrop of major losses in the war against Ukraine. According to American intelligence data, since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has lost 315 thousand military personnel killed and wounded, or 87% of the personnel that the Russian Ministry of Defense had.

Watch the video of a Russian mech assault.

https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/16631