Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 1017 of 1104
Day after day, Russian warplanes pummel Ukrainian positions with as many as a hundred KAB glide bombs. The 40-km-range, satellite-guided bombs, some as heavy as three tons, are among the most devastating weapons in Russia's 51-month war on Ukraine—and a crucial factor in Russia's plans for a renewed push in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.
Russia rains thousands of glide bombs on Ukrainian troops every month. Ukraine gets a few dozen American- and French-made ones. A homemade bomb is Ukraine's only realistic way to start closing that gap.
There's a destructive disparity as Ukrainian drones lightly tap Russian supply lines while Russian glide bombs heavily smash Ukrainian supply lines. A steady supply of Ukrainian-made glide bombs could help close the middle-strike gap.
Ukraine is now preparing to bomb back with its own homemade glide bombs.
More at https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/05/19/ukrainian-kab/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Is Ukraine about to repeat Hitler´s mistake with the London Blitz?
Is Ukraine about to adopt Russia´s playbook – bringing the war home by striking civilian infrastructure? The author argues that this would be a strategic mistake.
By Hans Petter Midttun | May 19, 2026
https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/05/19/is-ukraine-about-to-repeat-hitl
ers-mistake-with-the-london-blitz/
In 2026 so far, Russia has launched 30,587 long-range strike drones — an increase of 172% over the same period last year. Ukraine downs about 90% of them. The remaining 10%, multiplied by an escalating launch rate, still translates into rising civilian casualties and accelerating destruction of energy, water, heating, hospitals, and schools.
The outlook is grim. Russia's ability to produce and launch long-range strike drones continues to grow, on top of an escalating campaign of missile strikes and guided glide bombs. In 2026 so far, missile strikes are up 190% over last year, according to Ukrainian Air Force daily reporting. Guided glide bomb strikes are up 173% — and their range is increasing too. Targeting predominantly civilian infrastructure, Russia's strike campaign amounts to war crimes — and it is escalating.
Kyiv now faces two questions: how long can it restrain itself from responding in kind? How will its western allies react if it does?
In August 1940, the Luftwaffe was about to win the Battle of Britain. RAF bases, radar stations, and aircraft factories were taking daily punishment. Nazi Germany was within reach of the air superiority it needed for an invasion.
Then a German bombing raid accidentally hit London. Britain retaliated with a symbolic raid on Berlin. Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring — furious — ordered the Luftwaffe to abandon the RAF and bomb British cities instead. The Blitz began.
That decision relieved the pressure on Britain's air defense network. The RAF used the reprieve to repair airfields, restore radar, regroup fighter squadrons. Historians widely view Hitler's pivot as the moment Germany lost any realistic chance of invading Britain.
That lesson is becoming relevant again.
On 10 May, Zelenskyy said Ukraine would now respond in kind to Russia's actions. "If the Russians decide to return to full-scale warfare, our 'sanctions' [meaning missile and drone strikes] for this will be immediate and tangible," he said.
On 14 May, a red line was crossed. At a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Zelenskyy instructed Ukraine's defense forces and special services to identify possible formats for response to the continuous Russian strikes. "I instructed the defence forces of Ukraine and the special services to propose possible formats for our response to this Russian attack."
The phrasing signals a possible shift in strategy. Hypothetically, it could mean adopting Russia's playbook — bringing the war home to Russia by striking civilian infrastructure: residential heating, water plants, civilian railways, civilian airports.
I understand the impulse. I share it. I am still going to argue against it.
Ukraine's deep-strike campaign — against Russian oil refineries, military airfields, ammunition depots, and drone factories — is the most effective instrument Kyiv has against the Kremlin's war economy. Strike capacity is finite. Diverting it to hit Russian apartment buildings and heating plants would force Ukraine to scale back the strikes that are bleeding Russian gas and oil revenue — the same strikes that are constraining the Kremlin's ability to fund its war.
The second cost compounds the first. If Ukraine begins copying Russia's war crimes, the international support that underwrites its resilience will erode — and with it, the flow of weapons, ammunition, and defense industrial backing that lets Ukraine absorb the strikes in the first place. The moral argument is also a strategic one. Both end in the same place: l
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The two largest remaining Donbas cities are Slaviansk and Kramatorsk. They merge into each other on a north-south axis. This urban agglomeration is now enclosed in a semicircle, the Russian army within single-digit miles from the urban perimeter.
Meanwhile, the third, smaller city to their south, Konstantiovka, is about 50% taken.
It looks as if Russia is aiming at Kiev from the north. Having superior numbers, the Russian MOD can afford to switch their activity on or off anywhere along the entire front.
*****
It looks as if the EU sees defeat on the horizon, cranking up their drone production and having Ukraine send them deep into Russia. If the Baltic states panic enough, they'll openly allow Ukraine to use their airspace. If EU nations openly expand the war beyond the Ukrainian border, Russia has promised to strike EU decision -making centers.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Funny comrade, funny.
T
RUSSIAN DEPUTIES DEMAND PUTIN TO END WAR Vlog 1414: War in Ukraine
Russians Admitted a Total Disaster on Frontlines. Ukraine has an Advantage
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Russia prepares the ground for Baltic aggression as its spy agency threatens Latvian “decision-making centers”
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed on 18 May that Ukrainian forces are preparing to launch drone strikes against Russia directly from Latvian territory, stating that Ukrainian drone operators have "already deployed to Latvian military bases."
The SVR went further, heavily implying that Russia intends to strike the claimed Ukrainian drone launch points — specifically identified as Latvian military bases — as well as "Latvian decision-making centers," in response to any strikes it attributes to Ukrainian forces operating from Latvian soil.
Latvian authorities have repeatedly denied Russian accusations that Latvia allowed Ukraine to use their airspace or territory to launch strikes against Russia.
Much more at https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/05/20/isw-russia-prepares-the-ground-
for-baltic-aggression-as-its-spy-agency-threatens-latvian-decision-making-centers/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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A sitting member of Russia’s State Duma said the country’s economy will crash if the Russo–Ukrainian war continues for much longer, in comments published on May 19.
Renat Suleymanov (CPRF) told regional news site Continent Sibir that “it is perfectly obvious that the economy cannot survive a prolonged continuation of the SMO [Special Military operation, Kremlin’s preferred term for the invasion of Ukraine].”
“Officially, 40% of the federal budget is defense and security,” he said.
“What development, investment or capital spending can you talk about? Tanks and shells have no consumer value: the economy produces them, but they cannot be consumed by the population.”
Suleymanov said defense spending supports jobs and wages in defense industries and acts as a driver of employment, but it also fuels inflation and forces cuts in social and investment programs.
He said an end to the war is “simply necessary,” noting it has already lasted longer than the Soviet participation in WWII. He also warned that merely trimming military spending would not solve the problem.
“Adopting a budget that reduces military expenditures is not the hardest part,” said Suleymanov.
“What will happen to the people employed in defense? To those now under arms? One million people will return to civilian life. Where are the jobs, decent pay, social adaptation?”
Independent outlet Agentstvo.Novosti noted it was likely the first such statement by a State Duma member, and that it comes amid a noticeable shift in political rhetoric ahead of autumn parliamentary elections.
https://english.nv.ua/russian-war/russian-economy-can-t-sustain-war-fo
r-much-longer-50609319.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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War Spending Pushes Russia’s Classified Budget Outlays to Post-Soviet High, Study Finds
The Moscow Times | May 20, 2026
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/05/20/war-spending-pushes-russias-
classified-budget-outlays-to-post-soviet-high-study-finds-a92798
Russia’s rapidly expanding war spending is driving a sharp rise in secret federal budget expenditures, with nearly one-third of all state spending now hidden from public view, according to estimates by the Gaidar Institute.
The share of classified spending in Russia’s federal budget rose to 28.6% in 2025 from 24.9% in 2024 and nearly doubled from 15.1% in 2021, the last full year before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, the institute said in a budget review.
Russia has not published detailed federal budget expenditure data since 2022, forcing analysts to reconstruct spending patterns using partial information from multiple sources.
The Gaidar Institute cautioned that its calculations were based on “fragmentary information available from different sources” because budget expenditure data has not been fully disclosed since the start of the war.
Based on the institute’s estimates, classified spending reached 12.3 trillion rubles ($172.2 billion) out of total federal expenditures of 42.9 trillion rubles ($600.6 billion) in 2025.
Open spending amounted to 30.6 trillion rubles ($428.4 billion), roughly 1 trillion rubles ($14 billion) less than the amount listed in draft legislation on the implementation of the 2025 budget. Official documents disclosed spending of only 31.6 trillion rubles ($442.4 billion), with the remainder omitted because it was designated secret or top secret.
Russia had already surpassed its prewar record for classified expenditures in 2023, when secret spending reached 22.6% of the budget.
Before that, the highest share had been 21.7% in 2016, when the government moved to repay loans to defense companies backed by state guarantees ahead of schedule.
The institute said spending under the “national defense” category remained the main driver behind the increase in secret expenditures in 2025, accounting for more than one-third of all federal spending.
It also said some expenditures had been shifted from the open to the classified portion of the budget, particularly social policy spending.
Open social policy expenditures fell to 6.5 trillion rubles ($91 billion) from 8.4 trillion rubles ($117.6 billion), a decline of 26.6% in inflation-adjusted terms.
Combined with what the institute described as “optimization” of spending on healthcare, education, the economy and inter-budget transfers, this left open spending largely unchanged in nominal terms at 30.6 trillion rubles ($428.4 billion) in 2025 versus 30.2 trillion rubles ($422.8 billion) in 2024.
Adjusted for inflation, however, that amounted to a reduction of 3.8%, or 0.4 percentage points of gross domestic product.
Among the 13 categories of open expenditures, excluding debt servicing, inflation-adjusted spending fell in eight sectors, including defense.
Spending on the economy and inter-budget transfers dropped 8%, while the largest increases were recorded in “general state issues” at 42%, housing and utilities at 24%, and healthcare at 7%.
The Gaidar Institute warned that budget pressures were becoming increasingly difficult to sustain and called for tighter spending discipline.
“Risks of chronic budget imbalances from year to year are clearly increasing,” it said, adding that expenditures should be brought into line with Russia’s revenue-generating capacity.
Read this article in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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10,166 posts.
80% are crap.
No wonder fff.net is choking!
SECOND, how can your bot be so unerringly wrong?
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:I am wondering. Signym, what do you think is happening in Ukraine to Russia? Winning? On a path to Russia's prosperity and peace?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
10,166 posts.
80% are crap.
No wonder fff.net is choking!
SECOND, how can your bot be so unerringly wrong?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
I think Russians are wasting their lives. Kind of like 6ixStringJoker wasting his life.
In the not-too-distant future, Russia is gonna be sorrowful for electing Putin as the leader. Meanwhile, Ukraine resists because surrender is death. What hardships it faces are preferable to becoming Russian property again. And Eastern Europe knows Russia, after decades of temporarily being Russian property, which is why some of the EU continues to support Ukraine. Obviously, the cheese-eating surrender monkeys of the EU would prefer to drink wine and forget Russia's violent past, where it killed tens of millions for no better reason than the dead were in the way of the glorious plans made by leaders such as Stalin and Putin.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/russia-population/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Russians Fear Ukraine ‘Slaughterbot’ Drones Are Head-Hunting Them
By David Hambling | May 19, 2026, 11:41am EDT
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2026/05/19/slaughterbots-no
w-ukraines-head-hunting-drones-terrify-russians/
Russian military bloggers are warning of a new type of Ukrainian FPV drone with thermal imaging and AI, which detects the target’s face and fires a high-velocity projectile at them. A video shows a Russian soldier cut down with what look like a precise headshot from one such drone. A further video confirms the kill. https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2056316815832170717
It is impossible to validate the claim, but this looks like a plausible evolutionary step. Ukraine aims to produce some 7 million FPVs this year. With AI guidance and suitable warheads they could inflict unprecedented casualties on Russian foot soldiers.
Kill Mechanism: Explosively Formed Projectile
FPVs are typically armed with armor-piercing shaped charges, typically repurposed RPG warheads, or fragmentation warheads. Both of these detonate on impact; the warhead in the video looks like something different. It is detonated around 20 meters from the targets, with a projectile leaving a trail of smoke from the point of the explosion to the impact point.
This is characteristic of an Explosively Formed Projectile or EFP. In a typical shaped charge, the blast from a hollow cone of explosive lines with metal converts the metal liner into a high-speed armor-piercing jet. In an EFP, a heavier metal liner is converted into an aerodynamic slug.
EPPs are less efficient at punching holes in armor, but have a greater range, while a typical shaped charge needs to be set off within a meter of the target. EPFs have ranges of tens or even hundreds of meters.
One of the most commonly seen EFP in the current conflict is the BONUS 155mm artillery round used by Ukraine, made by Bofors of Sweden and Nexter of France and supplied to Ukraine. The round ejects two submunitions above the target area which scan for targets and, if they locate one, aim and detonate, firing an EFP at it. A video from July 2022 shows a BONUS round destroying a Russian tank. Some small anti-tank mines also fire EFPs.
Drones with EFP warheads are an obvious countermeasure to netting, wire cages and other forms of protection, including “turtle tanks” as the drone can attack from some distance and the slug will go right through such protection. However, this type of warhead needs to be aimed and detonated at the right moment, which requires a higher level of operator skill.
Using EFP as an antipersonnel round is more challenging. Ukraine has previously used FPVs with Claymore-type warheads spraying shrapnel forward over a wide arc. These are not widely seen, possibly because of the skill needed to use them properly. As well as being detonated at the right distance, an EFP needs to be aimed even more exactly, or it is useless. That’s a tall order, unless the operator has some AI assistance.
AI Headhunting
Back in the innocent days of 2018, YouTuber Michael Reeves made a funny video about his efforts to create a swarm of quadcopters to home in on a target’s face. Facial detection software ensures that cameras focus on the right point in an image. Reeves had the idea of combining face detection software with a simple autopilot to make a bargain-basement autonomous attack drone that sought out and crashed into heads. After a few false starts, he succeeded, and his video racked up millions of views.
Fast forward to 2026 and similar quadcopters are everywhere in Ukraine. Many now have AI capability, thanks to companies like Auterion and The Fourth Law, who produced add-on modules that will convert any small drone into a smart munition with terminal guidance to lock on to a target and pursue it. So far, these autonomy systems have been used to improve the hit rate against vehicles, by allowing them to operate even under intense jamming which breaks the link with the operator. Some makers claim that AI-enabled FPVs have a
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:I am wondering. Signym, what do you think is happening in Ukraine to Russia? Winning? On a path to Russia's prosperity and peace?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
10,166 posts.
80% are crap.
No wonder fff.net is choking!
SECOND, how can your bot be so unerringly wrong?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
I think Russians are wasting their lives. Kind of like 6ixStringJoker wasting his life.
In the not-too-distant future, Russia is gonna be sorrowful for electing Putin as the leader. Meanwhile, Ukraine resists because surrender is death. What hardships it faces are preferable to becoming Russian property again. And Eastern Europe knows Russia, after decades of temporarily being Russian property, which is why some of the EU continues to support Ukraine. Obviously, the cheese-eating surrender monkeys of the EU would prefer to drink wine and forget Russia's violent past, where it killed tens of millions for no better reason than the dead were in the way of the glorious plans made by leaders such as Stalin and Putin.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/russia-population/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Another point is that by reading comrade signyms’ posts, it becomes obvious she wants Putin, i.e. Russia, to win. Why, Ukraine is not a part of Russia so why does she always post Putins’ propaganda?
T
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