2022-2024 Russo-Ukrainian War

[Ironduke]

Yep, I see it. The ship outlined in red has definitely sunk below the water, just the superstructure sticking up.

[Monash]

Yep and as I said while it's hard to tell (the cloud in the 'before' photo doesn't help) the ship moored to the same pier as the Novocherkassk loos like its profile has changed slightly - possibly indicative of battle damage.

[Albany Rifles]

Was the mine in international waters? Any reason why Romania or Bulgaria couldn't sweep mines in international waters?

No idea I.D.

[Albany Rifles]

Staying on this topic for a mo, Also look at the bottom center of the harbor in the before and after photos. It definitely looks like another, smaller naval vessel was sunk with possible damage to a third vessel - the one moored alongside the red colored barge to right of this second, sunken ship. (Albeit this last claim looks much harder to confirm.) It would be interesting to how many of the vessels tied up in port before the Novocherkassk went up stay there.

Considering the LST was crammed with suicide drones that is a lot of fuel for secondary explosions. If you watch the video there are quite a number of flaming tails coming off the big fire ball. I am sure those didn't do anyone much good when they landed. Heck, the overpressure alone would really screw somethings up!

[Monash]

Considering the LST was crammed with suicide drones that is a lot of fuel for secondary explosions. If you watch the video there are quite a number of flaming tails coming off the big fire ball. I am sure those didn't do anyone much good when they landed. Heck, the overpressure alone would really screw somethings up!

Well taking the blast damage to the buildings on the pier into account you have to assume some degree of shrapnel damage (especially to bridge windows and instrumentation) but I reckon a lot of deck equipment and related cabling would also be effected.

[Albany Rifles]

Well taking the blast damage to the buildings on the pier into account you have to assume some degree of shrapnel damage (especially to bridge windows and instrumentation) but I reckon a lot of deck equipment and related cabling would also be effected.

Yeah...a lot of secondary damage.

The technical naval term is "shit got fucked up."

[Ironduke]

Considering the LST was crammed with suicide drones that is a lot of fuel for secondary explosions. If you watch the video there are quite a number of flaming tails coming off the big fire ball. I am sure those didn't do anyone much good when they landed. Heck, the overpressure alone would really screw somethings up!

Haven't seen any confirmation or evidence on what exactly it was loaded with, but obviously it was heavily loaded with some sort of munition that caused those explosions/secondaries. Ukrainian claims minutes after the strike was that it was carrying Shaheeds, but it may have just been 152mm artillery ammunition for all we know. May have been cruise missiles, perhaps Shaheeds, or a combination of all three and more.

I'd be interested to see if there's any OSINT on where it was before Feodosia, might give some leads to get an idea of what its cargo may have been. A previous call at Taganrog near Rostov may indicate it was carrying munitions of Russian and perhaps NK manufacture, and a call at Novorossiysk may indicate a cargo of Iranian munitions trucked overland from Caspian ports.

[Albany Rifles]

Haven't seen any confirmation or evidence on what exactly it was loaded with, but obviously it was heavily loaded with some sort of munition that caused those explosions/secondaries. Ukrainian claims minutes after the strike was that it was carrying Shaheeds, but it may have just been 152mm artillery ammunition for all we know. May have been cruise missiles, perhaps Shaheeds, or a combination of all three and more.

I'd be interested to see if there's any OSINT on where it was before Feodosia, might give some leads to get an idea of what its cargo may have been. A previous call at Taganrog near Rostov may indicate it was carrying munitions of Russian and perhaps NK manufacture, and a call at Novorossiysk may indicate a cargo of Iranian munitions trucked overland from Caspian ports.

Agreed. And 152mm...actually any HE shell and rocket/missile..would react and result in secondaries in the very same way. Artillery shells would actually cause greater shrapnel damage

[Albany Rifles]

This is not a short term solution but it is looking to provide something enduring down the road. When people ask why can't Biden just use his Presidential drawdown authority to send more Patriots, well, there are no more spares to be sent. See 2nd article.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/e...-billion-deal/

European nations team up to buy Patriot missiles in $5.5 billion deal

By Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo
Jan 3, 12:37 PM
A Patriot rocket launcher of the Romanian military fires a missile during a drill near the Black Sea on Nov. 15, 2023. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images)MILAN — A coalition of European states have jointly ordered up to 1,000 Patriot air defense missiles amid a renewed wave of Russian airstrikes against major Ukrainian cities.

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is supporting the purchase, which involves Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Romania. The agency awarded a $5.5 billion production and delivery contract for the weapons to COMLOG, a joint venture between MBDA Germany and the American company RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies).

Under the agreement, if all options are exercised, the four nations will procure a joint quantity of up to 1,000 Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missiles. No delivery timeline was made available.

“The contract strengthens industrial and military capabilities in Europe. The order volume will enable MBDA to set up a production facility for Patriot missiles in Germany as well as major subcomponent production,” Thomas Gottschild, managing director at MBDA Germany, said in a Jan. 3 news release.

Gottschild noted the COMLOG facility is the only one of its kind for Patriot missiles outside the United States, but a NATO statement said COMLOG will expand the production capacity of tactical Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missiles, or GEM-T, in Europe.

The German-American joint venture has operated for more than three decades, providing logistics support for Patriot Advanced Capability-2 missiles. Its main customer is the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, which acts on behalf of other European Patriot users and the U.S. Army.

GEM-T is one of the variants offered to international customers. It provides the ability to destroy tactical ballistic missiles and enemy aircraft in complement to the PAC-3 version, according to RTX.

In December, the Romanian Defence Ministry reportedly submitted a request to Parliament to buy 200 PAC-2 GEM-T missiles for its own Patriot launchers. It remains unclear if this purchase is related to the combined multibillion order.

These order comes amid an intensification of aerial attacks carried out by Russian forces against two of Ukraine’s largest cities since the new year.

On Jan. 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow launched 500 missiles and drone strikes against the embattled country over five days.

This escalation has been a major source of concern, with the BBC reporting that Ukraine had not seen strikes of this magnitude since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

[Albany Rifles]

2nd article which ties into the one above.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/h...s-out-of-money

By —

Lolita Baldor, Associated Press


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Share
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterHow the U.S. keeps funding Ukraine’s military when it says it’s out of money

World Dec 15, 2023 11:03 AM ESTWASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has been increasingly pressuring Congress to pass stalled legislation to support Ukraine’s war against Russia, saying that funding has run out.

On Tuesday, however, President Joe Biden touted a new military aid package worth $200 million for Ukraine.

WATCH NOW: Putin vows to press on with Ukraine invasion despite heavy Russian losses

Money is dwindling. But the announcement of more weapons being sent to Kyiv just underscores the complexity of the funding. So has the money run out? Or are there still a few billion dollars floating around?

It’s complicated.

STORE CREDIT …

In a Nov. 4 letter to Congress, White House budget director Shalanda Young said flatly: “We are out of money to support Ukraine in this fight. This isn’t a next year problem. The time to help a democratic Ukraine fight against Russian aggression is right now.”

Since then, the U.S. has announced three more aid packages totaling $475 million. That may seem contradictory, but it’s due to the complex programs used to send aid to Ukraine.

There are two pots of money for weapons and security assistance set up specifically for the war. One is the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, under which the U.S. provides weapons already in its stockpile. The other is the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds long-term weapons contracts.

Money for USAI has all been spent. That pot is empty.

And money for the PDA also appeared to be gone. But then the Pentagon determined that it had overstated the value of the weapons it had already sent Ukraine, overcharging the Ukraine weapons account by $6.2 billion. That effectively left Ukraine with a store credit that is slowly being whittled down. It now stands at around $4.4 billion.

PDA packages continued to be announced every few weeks. But in recognition of the dwindling money, the latest packages have been smaller — about $200 million or less, compared with previous ones that often totaled $400 million to $500 million.

… BUT EMPTY SHELVES

In theory, the Pentagon would have enough equipment to offer these smaller packages for months. But there’s a caveat: While the credit exists, there may not be enough stock on the Pentagon shelves. So some weapons may be unavailable.
Congressional funding to buy weapons to replace the ones the U.S. sends to Ukraine is now down to about $1 billion.

That dwindling money means the military services are worried they won’t be able to buy all the weapons they need to ensure the U.S. military is ready to defend the American homeland.

For example, the 155 mm rounds commonly used by Howitzers are one of the most requested artillery munitions by Kyiv. The demand has been so high that the Army has pressed the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania, where the shell casings for the rounds are made, to increase production in order to meet war demands and have enough on hand for American military needs.

On Thursday, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters the U.S. could provide the full $4.4 billion in weapons, but with only a quarter of that amount available for replenishment, it’s a tough choice. “We have to start to make decisions about our own readiness,” he said.

THE POLITICAL WRANGLING

The U.S. has already sent Ukraine $111 billion in weapons, equipment, humanitarian assistance and other aid since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion more than 21 months ago. But the latest package is stalled.

Support for Ukraine funding has been waning as some lawmakers see the war taking funding from domestic needs. But the broader problem is a political battle over the southern U.S. border.

President Joe Biden is urging Congress to pass a $110 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs. It includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, with about half to replenish Pentagon stocks. It also includes about $14 billion for Israel as it fights Hamas and $14 billion for U.S. border security. Other funds would go for security needs in the Asia-Pacific.

Prospects for compromise remain in doubt, even as Zelenskyy warned in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington on Monday that, “If there’s anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill, it’s just Putin and his sick clique.”

THE JOBS ARGUMENT

Harkening back to the “all politics is local” idea, the Pentagon and the White House have rolled out maps and statistics to show members of Congress how their own districts and states are reaping benefits from the Ukraine funding.

Charts detail $10 billion in industry contracts for weapons ranging from air defense systems and missiles to a wide array of drones, ammunition and other equipment. And they break out an additional nearly $16.8 billion in contracts to replenish Pentagon stocks.

The maps show contracts benefitting industries and companies in more than 35 different states. And U.S. officials are hoping the local jobs argument will help build support for the funding.

HOW BIG IS THE NEED?

Winter has set in, so the fighting in Ukraine has leveled off a bit. And along stretches of the battlefront, fighting is somewhat stalemated.

But Ukrainian forces have been taking ground back in some key locations, and Zelenskyy and other leaders have said they want to keep pushing forward. Ukraine does not want to give the Russians weeks or months this winter to reset and further solidify their fighting positions — as they did last winter.

During his visit to Washington this week, Zelenskyy said his forces are making progress, and the White House pointed to newly declassified intelligence that shows Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses on Russia in recent fighting around the eastern city of Avdiivka — including 13,000 casualties and over 220 combat vehicles lost. The Ukrainian holdout in the country’s partly occupied east has been the center of some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.
Putin on Thursday, however, said his troops are making gains.

“Almost all along the line of contact our armed forces, let’s put it modestly, are improving their positions, almost all are in an active stage of action and there is an improvement in the position of our troops all along,” he said.
___
Associated Press writer Tara Copp contributed to this report.

[Ironduke]

Reports that Ukraine has taken down a Russian A-50 (Il-76) AWACS over the Sea of Azov near Berdyansk, as well as an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=75504b043adf

Ukrainian air-defenses reportedly shot down two of the Russian air force’s rarest and most valuable command aircraft on Sunday: a Beriev A-50 radar early-warning plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post.

Ukrainian media has cited government officials confirming the purported shoot-downs, but there’s little hard evidence of the incidents.

Ukraine’s RBC Radio posted what it claimed was an audio recording of the Il-22’s crew radioing an S-O-S to controllers apparently in Anapa, on the Russian side of the Sea of Azov’s southern coast. “Urgently requesting ambulance and fire crew,” the crew radioed.

It seems, at the very least, that the Il-22 suffered damage. According to Kyiv Independent, the four-engine, propeller-driven Il-22—which carries up to 10 people and helps to relay radio signals and coordinate front-line operations—was struck along the Sea of Azov coast Sunday night.

[TopHatter]

Reports that Ukraine has taken down a Russian A-50 (Il-76) AWACS over the Sea of Azov near Berdyansk, as well as an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=75504b043adf


https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=75504b043adf

Friggin SWEET.

[tbm3fan]

Friggin SWEET.

Just read this elsewhere and rushed over here to see if up and of course Ironduke is on the ball as usual. Fantastic!

[Monash]

Out of curiosity how many serviceable A-50s do the Russians have left?

[TopHatter]

Out of curiosity how many serviceable A-50s do the Russians have left?

Just read on The Warzone that Russia had 10 to begin with, but not all were "serviceable".

This has gotta hurt BAD.