Ruskies must not be flying helicopters close to Ukraine anymore. That....or they are out of functional use.
This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...
- Thread starter Nole Lou
- Start date
They have really stepped up the glide bombs which from what I read, unfortunately, have had devastating effects, and is what is permitting advances.
That is the interesting thing about war. Both sides adapt and adopt new methods. Some lessons are learned sooner than others.
Need to shoot down jets from further away. Hopefully the f16s change the calculus.
I'm hoping that these are fully modified F-16's. If so, they will be lethal. Sure, it is no F-35, but it will more than enough to get the job done if they are the updated versions.
Love the blonde middle aged, heavier gal. She has a score to settle with the bastards…
Kudos to them all. A Uke version of Rosie the Riveter.
Slava Ukraini!
Send them the "new" AIM-174B. The Navy has basically taken an SM-6 and strapped it to a jet. Range estimate up to 200+ miles away.
F-16’s get shipped that way o only if they’re needing depot level repair or are just not air worthy. Severe structural damage…
Maintenance training facilities use these as “training” aircraft. Might be why Ukraine is getting it that way.
F-16s now operational over Ukraine
Russian airbase obliterated
Russian Submarine sunk
…very good news this weekend
Russian airbase obliterated
Russian Submarine sunk
…very good news this weekend
They’ve been modified but are older versions.
What Kind of F-16 Ukraine Gets From the Netherlands and Denmark: Condition and Modernization | Defense Express
Answers to when the F-16s were produced, what modernizations they have undergone, and what factors determine their combat capabilities and service life
en.defence-ua.com
Hearing the f16 engine ripping the sky apart always makes me feel like a kid at an airshow.
It’s going to make the Russians in occupied territory feel tingly in a whole different way when they hear.
Shit is about to get more real for Russia.
They’ve been modified but are older versions.
What Kind of F-16 Ukraine Gets From the Netherlands and Denmark: Condition and Modernization | Defense Express
Answers to when the F-16s were produced, what modernizations they have undergone, and what factors determine their combat capabilities and service life
They will get the job done. As long as it has taken for the deployment, I'm confident they have capable pilots to fly them.
Sheeya Orcs.
Send them the "new" AIM-174B. The Navy has basically taken an SM-6 and strapped it to a jet. Range estimate up to 200+ miles away.
It always seemed nuts to me they retired the F-14/Phoenix combo without a replacement for the Hornets to carry.
As if Ukraine’s brave defense against what is considered the second best army in world was not enough to impress you about this small country, they also are now 17th in Olympic Medal currently. Amazing they fielded a team let alone are doing good. Look at some of the countries they are ahead of…
This is an interesting development for drone defense.
With 20mm shells you can start doing some stuff with proximity fuses.
I can’t help but think we’re going to see an explosion of laser based point defense very soon (at least for fixed sites where you can tap power).
Navy can’t reload fast enough to deal with potential future drone swarms using existing means.
With 20mm shells you can start doing some stuff with proximity fuses.
I can’t help but think we’re going to see an explosion of laser based point defense very soon (at least for fixed sites where you can tap power).
Navy can’t reload fast enough to deal with potential future drone swarms using existing means.
The international rating agency S&P Global lowered the long-term and short-term credit ratings of Ukraine in foreign currency to the level of "selective default" - from CC/C to SD/SD - due to the missed payment of Eurobonds on August 1 against the background of debt restructuring.
"We understand that the government has decided to suspend bond payments pending restructuring. To that end, the government has not made a coupon payment on its 2026 Eurobonds on August 1, 2024, when payment was due, and we do not expect payments during the bonds' contractual grace period of 10 business days," S&P said in a statement on its website.
As a result, as noted, the rating of the 2026 sovereign Eurobond issue was also downgraded to D (default) from CC, while the CC rating for the rest of Ukraine's senior unsecured currency bond issues was confirmed.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a new law which defers public debt payments until October if necessary, Reuters has confirmed. The bill was signed by Zelensky and returned to parliament on Wednesday.
The government now has the authority to postpone payments on external public debt until restructuring negotiations are seen through, which could then see a moratorium held that would formally mark a sovereign default.
"It is necessary to introduce, for the period of transactions to change the terms of borrowing, temporary measures related to the servicing and repayment of debt obligations and a moratorium on satisfaction of creditors' claims," the bill released by the president's office said.
The clock is ticking on debt restructure as a payment freeze agreed upon two years ago will soon expire (on Aug.1), and as Reuters notes: "Earlier this month, Ukraine announced a preliminary deal with a committee of its main bondholders to restructure its near $20 billion worth of international debt."
Bondholders must still approve the deal, which is likely, given the plan has the support of foreign governments.
Exactly one week ago, Fitch Ratings downgraded the country's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating from the "CC" level to the lower "C" level.
"The reported agreement with external commercial creditors constitutes a distressed debt exchange (DDE) under its sovereign rating criteria," Fitch said.
Reuters further reviews that the proposal would see "a 37% nominal haircut on Ukraine's outstanding international bonds, saving Kyiv $11.4 billion in payments over the next three years - the duration of the country's program with the International Monetary Fund, according to government statements."
It was in February 2022 that Ukraine reached a hasty agreement with its creditors to freeze payments of some 23$ billion till August 2024 amid the backdrop of the Russian invasion. Since then Kiev has been almost completely reliant on foreign aid.
This was all long ago predicted, including by EU parliamentarians, given that the longer the war drags on the closer the war-ravaged country is to defaulting...
"We understand that the government has decided to suspend bond payments pending restructuring. To that end, the government has not made a coupon payment on its 2026 Eurobonds on August 1, 2024, when payment was due, and we do not expect payments during the bonds' contractual grace period of 10 business days," S&P said in a statement on its website.
As a result, as noted, the rating of the 2026 sovereign Eurobond issue was also downgraded to D (default) from CC, while the CC rating for the rest of Ukraine's senior unsecured currency bond issues was confirmed.
-----
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a new law which defers public debt payments until October if necessary, Reuters has confirmed. The bill was signed by Zelensky and returned to parliament on Wednesday.
The government now has the authority to postpone payments on external public debt until restructuring negotiations are seen through, which could then see a moratorium held that would formally mark a sovereign default.
"It is necessary to introduce, for the period of transactions to change the terms of borrowing, temporary measures related to the servicing and repayment of debt obligations and a moratorium on satisfaction of creditors' claims," the bill released by the president's office said.
The clock is ticking on debt restructure as a payment freeze agreed upon two years ago will soon expire (on Aug.1), and as Reuters notes: "Earlier this month, Ukraine announced a preliminary deal with a committee of its main bondholders to restructure its near $20 billion worth of international debt."
Bondholders must still approve the deal, which is likely, given the plan has the support of foreign governments.
Exactly one week ago, Fitch Ratings downgraded the country's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating from the "CC" level to the lower "C" level.
"The reported agreement with external commercial creditors constitutes a distressed debt exchange (DDE) under its sovereign rating criteria," Fitch said.
Reuters further reviews that the proposal would see "a 37% nominal haircut on Ukraine's outstanding international bonds, saving Kyiv $11.4 billion in payments over the next three years - the duration of the country's program with the International Monetary Fund, according to government statements."
It was in February 2022 that Ukraine reached a hasty agreement with its creditors to freeze payments of some 23$ billion till August 2024 amid the backdrop of the Russian invasion. Since then Kiev has been almost completely reliant on foreign aid.
This was all long ago predicted, including by EU parliamentarians, given that the longer the war drags on the closer the war-ravaged country is to defaulting...
War Shatters Dating Scene for Women in Ukraine
While the pursuit of love might seem secondary to dealing with the horrors and privations of the war, many Ukrainians say they need romantic relationships to help them cope.For the past two and a half years, Kateryna Bairachna has wanted to meet someone special. But war always gets in the way.
Ms. Bairachna met a soldier, but then he was sent to the front. She traded text messages with another man, but those fizzled out because he was in no mood to meet, fearing he might soon be drafted. On the dating app Bumble, Ms. Bairachna liked the looks of a hipster. But when she scrolled through his photographs, she noticed his amputated leg.
“I looked at his profile for 15 minutes and felt so sorry for him,” Ms. Bairachna, 35, a marketing director for a clothing brand in Kyiv, said in an interview. She wondered if she could handle a relationship with a maimed war veteran. Then she swiped left, removing him from potential matches. “I feel I’m not ready for that.”
Russia’s full-scale invasion has upended nearly every facet of daily life in Ukraine. Two-thirds of Ukrainians have lost a relative or friend to the conflict. Hourslong blackouts are now routine across the country, and entire cities have been obliterated by Russian strikes.
It has also wreaked havoc on the dating scene. While the pursuit of love might seem secondary to dealing with missile attacks, power outages and food shortages, many Ukrainians say they need romantic relationships to help them cope with the trauma of living in a nation at war.
For women, the problem is particularly acute. Tens of thousands of men have died. Many more are on the front lines, some have fled the country and others are reluctant to leave their homes, fearful of being stopped in the street by draft officers. In cities like Kyiv, the capital, the presence of men has noticeably dwindled. In some villages, conscription has hollowed out the male population.
“This leaves a small percentage of men who are ready for and want relationships,” said Margarita Stelmashova, a Ukrainian psychotherapist and sexologist.
The war has also made forming long-term relationships more challenging. Many soldiers experience psychological stress that strains their intimate connections, sexologists say. And several women said in interviews that they worried about dating servicemen who might have war trauma, and who could one day be killed.
Last year, Ukraine had its lowest number of births and its second lowest number of marriages in the past 10 years, according to government data.
Faced with the turmoil of the war, some women are now resorting to measures they had not contemplated before, like using dating apps or going on speed dates.
“War is a deal breaker,” said Svitlana Kryvokucho, 36, an IT worker, who on a recent Sunday afternoon was participating for the first time in a speed-dating event in a trendy cafe in central Kyiv. “It’s a love crisis.”
In the cafe, women sat at tables marked with numbered signs while men rotated for five-minute talks. Each conversation began with people exchanging forms detailing their interests. Smiles crept across faces and laughter filled the room as bonds were forged.
At a table farther back, Alisa Samusieva, 38, the organizer of the event, called TetAteT, struck a somber note. Only 26 men had turned up, she said, compared with the usual minimum of 30. That had forced her to hold only one speed-dating session, instead of the usual two.
“They’re afraid,” Ms. Samusieva said of the men, attributing their absence to a mobilization law the Ukrainian government enforced in May to fill the ranks of the army. “They don’t want to go out. They just want to sit at home and hide.”
Ms. Samusieva said she was considering organizing online sessions to circumvent the issue, “like during Covid.”
On dating apps, men’s profiles offer a window into the radical changes brought about by the conflict. More men are pictured wearing military uniforms or with prosthetic limbs. Foreigners employed by humanitarian organizations and international institutions appear regularly. So do foreign fighters who have joined Ukraine’s war against Russia.
The strain of the war on Ukrainian men is evident on dating apps, Ms. Bairachna said, observing that many “look very depressed” and “tired.” She and other women said their mood was gloomy, with few willing to commit to relationships.
Olena Aktysenko, 24, a marketing producer from Kyiv seeking a long-term relationship, said her exchanges on the dating app Tinder often hit a wall. “I ask, ‘What are we doing? What is happening?’” she said. “They respond, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or in two years’ time. There’s a war in the country.’”
Ms. Aktysenko said about one in five men she encountered on Tinder were soldiers, but she has not chatted with any of them. “They’re brave, they’re heroes,” she said. “But given the situation, starting a relationship feels too risky.”
Several Ukrainian women who have traveled abroad since the war broke out said it was much easier to date foreigners who did not face the threat of war. Ms. Bairachna, who often travels outside Ukraine, said she had been struck by the dual reality. “Why do our men have to suffer so much when women can just go abroad and have a martini in Milan?” she asked.
Love certainly has not vanished from Ukraine. Romances still blossom, and weddings are still being celebrated.
At Forsage, a popular club in Kyiv, the dance floor pulsed with young people grooving to R&B and pop music. Maryna Pylcha, 22, said there was hardly a night when she was not approached by a man at the club, adding, however, that she was “very selective in this matter.”
But Ms. Pylcha recalled how a military man she once dated had ended their relationship after he was injured. “He said, ‘You can find someone better than me in Kyiv,’” she recalled. “It was very painful.”
The war has also heightened ideological divides, crushing potential relationships that might have blossomed before the conflict. Some women now refuse to date draft dodgers, saying that they are unpatriotic.
It is also common to see women on dating apps stating their refusal to date Russian speakers, reflecting a broader movement among Ukrainians since the war began to stop speaking Russian, a common language in the country, and switch entirely to Ukrainian.
At the speed-dating event in Kyiv, Yulia Kovtun, 27, stayed silent for five minutes after the man who had just sat down at her table told her he would speak only Russian.
“I’m looking for someone who shares my values” and “firmly supports the language issue,” she said, noting that both her grandparents had taken part in Ukraine’s pro-independence nationalist movements in the 1940s.
The atmosphere was more relaxed at the table of Serhii Chuikov, 38, a soldier who lost his left leg in the war and now wears a sleek black prosthesis. He and the woman across from him said they were glad to have found a place to meet people and briefly forget the harsh realities of war.
Mr. Chuikov said the event was a “breath of fresh air” compared with the situation in the army, where he and his fellow soldiers struggled to form or cultivate romantic relationships.
“It’s great problem,” he said, his voice trailing off.
The speed-dating event seemed to solve the problem. There, most of Mr. Chuikov’s encounters involved laughter, smiles and intense gazes. In the end, more than a dozen women wanted to meet him again, and he was interested in nine. He had four mutual matches.
“I don’t need to come a second time because there are already so many nice girls today,” Mr. Chuikov said with a grin. “It’s more than enough.”
I posted something similar awhile back. Ukraine is doing all they can to get spouses and SOs near the frontlines for intimate time at reserve areas, and letting patriotic pros visit these areas, too.
Long Battle for a Ruined City Takes a Desperate Turn
Ukrainian troops are engaged in a harsh struggle for Toretsk, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine that has been under relentless assault by Russian forces.As the Ukrainian soldiers raced through the ruins of the destroyed city under the spying eye of Russian drones, the skeletal remains of blasted-out buildings cast eerie shadows in the light of a full moon.
Burned-out cars littered the road next to craters from artillery strikes in this city, Toretsk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, that is now on the front line of the war with Russia.
The hot July night smelled of violence — smoke and dust from destroyed buildings mixed with the sulfurous scent of explosives. The only signs of life were the soldiers of the 32nd Mechanized Brigade, who were trying against the odds to hold their positions in an abandoned pharmacy under withering Russian bombardment.
The brigade allowed us to accompany them recently to view the destruction of Toretsk up close and the challenges Ukrainian forces face as they battle to keep control of the city. The only restrictions were that we not provide specific locations or other operational details that could compromise security.
“The most important task for Ukrainians is to survive,” said Maj. Artem Osadchiy, 28, the commander of a drone battalion with the 32nd. “For the Russians, it is to wipe out this Ukrainian city.”
In that, the Russians are succeeding.
Recent gains by Russian forces have expanded an arc of destruction across eastern Ukraine that began at the outbreak of the full-scale war in February 2022 and has intensified in recent months.
The loss of long-held Ukrainian defensive positions outside Toretsk and inside New York, a smaller town a few miles to the south, underscored the growing strains of unrelenting Russian attacks and devastating aerial bombardments are placing on Ukrainian forces.
While Kyiv has stepped up efforts to mobilize soldiers to replace tens of thousands killed or wounded in battle, Moscow continues to exploit the lack of Ukrainian reserves and the time it takes to train new soldiers and deploy them to the front.
Despite the Russian advances along the front, military analysts and U.S. officials have said a major breakthrough remains unlikely, citing Russia’s inability so far to turn small territorial gains into a larger advance that could broadly unhinge Ukrainian defenses.
It is also unclear how long Russia can maintain its tempo of offensive operations given its staggering losses in troops and equipment. More than 70,000 Russian soldiers were killed or injured in May and June, according to a report by a British military intelligence agency — a figure that could not be independently verified. The agency estimated Russia continued to lose 1,000 soldiers a day in July and said the high rate of casualties would continue through August as it maintains offensive operations.
But if Russian forces manage to seize the longtime defensive bastions in the Toretsk area, they would be poised to press on toward Kostiantynivka, a logistical linchpin for Ukrainian forces in the east, from yet another direction of attack.
For months, the Russians have been bombarding Chasiv Yar, a city to the north of Kostiantynivka, with the same goal in mind, Ukrainian commanders and military analysts say. The Russians are also pressing to cut off the main highway running south from Kostiantynivka to the city of Pokrovsk, advancing several miles in that direction in recent weeks and unbalancing Ukrainian defenses.
Even if the pace of Russia’s gains suggests that it is unlikely to soon capture the remaining cities of the Donetsk region, an advance of just a few more miles would expose those cities to even more fearsome daily bombardments. Hundreds of thousands of civilians could be forced to flee, complicating the logistics of the Ukrainian defense in the east.
That makes the defense of Toretsk, like Chasiv Yar, vitally important, Ukrainian commanders and military analysts say.
The rest is located here...
The Toretsk agglomeration — a group of mining towns and villages scattered along rolling hills and punctuated by mountains made of coal mining waste — was hard hit in the opening weeks of the war, but the defense never buckled.
For the past year, the oldest brigade in the Ukrainian Army — the 24th, which was created in 1992 — has stood guard along the oldest part of the front.
“The trenches were deep, the dugouts were well organized, the control posts were good and everything was working,” Petro Liakhovych, 38, a senior sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, said in an interview.
“We understood the enemy and understood their movements and how to react,” he said.
But in May, the 24th was told they were being moved to Chasiv Yar, a need deemed more urgent as the Russians advanced to the doorstep of the destroyed town. They would be replaced by the 41st Mechanized Brigade, which had been defending Chasiv Yar when the Russians managed to advance into its outskirts.
Such rotations of units can be extremely dangerous moments. It takes time for units to become familiar with their new terrain and, soldiers said, even when successfully executed, they are moments of acute vulnerability.
The rotation was carried out over several weeks and by early June, the 41st had moved from Chasiv Yar to take command of the Toretsk area. The 24th brigade was now in Chasiv Yar.
Two days after the rotation was complete, soldiers said, the Russians attacked.
Sergeant Liakhovych said, “It was a big mistake that we were taken from there.”
Almost immediately, it was clear that the 41st was unprepared to defend Toretsk since it did not know the terrain, soldiers from multiple battalions said in interviews and public statements. The commander of the brigade has also been criticized for issuing unclear orders and not reacting quickly to the changing threat environment.
Yevhen Strokan, a senior lieutenant and commander of a combat drone platoon in the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion, whose soldiers were placed under the command of the 41st brigade, said in an interview that “there were losses in the battalion due to the senseless orders of the senior commander” of the 41st brigade.
The 41st brigade did not respond to requests for interviews but released a statement saying it was “outraged by this incomprehensible and strange campaign to discredit the command of our unit and our fighters.”
Roman Kuliak, the deputy commander of the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion, whose soldiers were placed under the command of the 41st brigade, said that both the 41st’s commander and the General Staff, which handles overall war strategy, were responsible for the fact that positions that had held for years fell in a matter of days.
“It’s already a war axiom — senior commanders overwhelmingly cannot or refuse to objectively assess the capabilities of their subordinate personnel,” he wrote on social media.
Georgiy Tuka, a former minister responsible for the territories occupied by Russia and internally displaced people and a former member of the 206th, said too few Ukrainian soldiers were sent into the Toretsk area and that light infantry units were given attack orders by the 41st that exceeded their capabilities, leading to grievous losses.
The 41st no longer has command in the Toretsk area. Ukraine has dispatched some of its best brigades to try and stabilize the situation, but they are stretched thin. And the fierce fighting, soldiers said, could complicate any hope Kyiv has of seizing the initiative and going back on the offensive.
The General Staff, in response to written questions, declined to discuss operational details but said the military leadership “always takes into account a reasonable initiative and suggestions of field commanders.”
At the same time, the General Staff said, commanders who “do not manage units and, as a result, lose subordinate personnel, equipment and territories must bear responsibility for it after establishing the degree of their guilt.”
The soldiers now fighting in the area from different brigades said they would leave the assessment of what went wrong to others and focus on holding back the attacking Russians.
“For one month there has been no pause in the fighting,” said Bohdan, the deputy commander of an assault regiment with the National Police Brigade, Liut. He would only be identified by his first name in accordance with military protocol.
Bohdan said he was hopeful that the Russians’ combat power might soon be spent but, until then, there was nothing to do but hold on.
“While Toretsk is being defended, other settlements can live their more or less normal lives,” he said.
For the past year, the oldest brigade in the Ukrainian Army — the 24th, which was created in 1992 — has stood guard along the oldest part of the front.
“The trenches were deep, the dugouts were well organized, the control posts were good and everything was working,” Petro Liakhovych, 38, a senior sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, said in an interview.
“We understood the enemy and understood their movements and how to react,” he said.
But in May, the 24th was told they were being moved to Chasiv Yar, a need deemed more urgent as the Russians advanced to the doorstep of the destroyed town. They would be replaced by the 41st Mechanized Brigade, which had been defending Chasiv Yar when the Russians managed to advance into its outskirts.
Such rotations of units can be extremely dangerous moments. It takes time for units to become familiar with their new terrain and, soldiers said, even when successfully executed, they are moments of acute vulnerability.
The rotation was carried out over several weeks and by early June, the 41st had moved from Chasiv Yar to take command of the Toretsk area. The 24th brigade was now in Chasiv Yar.
Two days after the rotation was complete, soldiers said, the Russians attacked.
Sergeant Liakhovych said, “It was a big mistake that we were taken from there.”
Almost immediately, it was clear that the 41st was unprepared to defend Toretsk since it did not know the terrain, soldiers from multiple battalions said in interviews and public statements. The commander of the brigade has also been criticized for issuing unclear orders and not reacting quickly to the changing threat environment.
Yevhen Strokan, a senior lieutenant and commander of a combat drone platoon in the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion, whose soldiers were placed under the command of the 41st brigade, said in an interview that “there were losses in the battalion due to the senseless orders of the senior commander” of the 41st brigade.
The 41st brigade did not respond to requests for interviews but released a statement saying it was “outraged by this incomprehensible and strange campaign to discredit the command of our unit and our fighters.”
Roman Kuliak, the deputy commander of the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion, whose soldiers were placed under the command of the 41st brigade, said that both the 41st’s commander and the General Staff, which handles overall war strategy, were responsible for the fact that positions that had held for years fell in a matter of days.
“It’s already a war axiom — senior commanders overwhelmingly cannot or refuse to objectively assess the capabilities of their subordinate personnel,” he wrote on social media.
Georgiy Tuka, a former minister responsible for the territories occupied by Russia and internally displaced people and a former member of the 206th, said too few Ukrainian soldiers were sent into the Toretsk area and that light infantry units were given attack orders by the 41st that exceeded their capabilities, leading to grievous losses.
The 41st no longer has command in the Toretsk area. Ukraine has dispatched some of its best brigades to try and stabilize the situation, but they are stretched thin. And the fierce fighting, soldiers said, could complicate any hope Kyiv has of seizing the initiative and going back on the offensive.
The General Staff, in response to written questions, declined to discuss operational details but said the military leadership “always takes into account a reasonable initiative and suggestions of field commanders.”
At the same time, the General Staff said, commanders who “do not manage units and, as a result, lose subordinate personnel, equipment and territories must bear responsibility for it after establishing the degree of their guilt.”
The soldiers now fighting in the area from different brigades said they would leave the assessment of what went wrong to others and focus on holding back the attacking Russians.
“For one month there has been no pause in the fighting,” said Bohdan, the deputy commander of an assault regiment with the National Police Brigade, Liut. He would only be identified by his first name in accordance with military protocol.
Bohdan said he was hopeful that the Russians’ combat power might soon be spent but, until then, there was nothing to do but hold on.
“While Toretsk is being defended, other settlements can live their more or less normal lives,” he said.
