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Russian losses per 21/12/24 reported by the Ukrainian general staff
+1860 men
+10 tanks
+18 APVs
+32 artillery pieces
+85 UAVs
+4 cruise missiles
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Ukraines Air Force reported on a shahed drone attack overnight. Out of 113 launched, 57 were shot down and 56 were suppressed by electronic warfare.
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Any ideas about what flattened that?
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I would guess it was due to explosives.
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Seriously!
It looked nothing more than a nasty termite attack to me.
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Termites in central Victoria must be more dangerous than we realised
Interesting article about a Russian who over 20 years ago predicted what Putin would do, and how they dealt with him.
Shoigun, who readers of this thread well know, was involved in the cover-up way back then.
edit: problems with paywall so here is the article:
General Alexander Lebed, veteran of Chechen War, said in 1999, “KGB will seize power over Russia under liberal slogans. But then they will quickly turn them into imperialistic ones. And there will be no more elections. They will hold onto the power absolutely — and for that they will even start a world war.“
Lebed died on April 28, 2002, at the age of 53, in Mi-8 helicopter crash in Krasnoyarsk region. To this day, pilots of the helicopter, who survived, believe it was a purposeful liquidation.
On April 28, 2002, early in the morning, the news spread around the country: “General Lebed was killed!”
People intuitively knew: such a politician as Alexander Lebed — the governor, or, as he was also called, “governor-general” of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, could not simply die.
His death could only be caused by his enemies – hidden or open.
But the very next day, the Minister for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, announced a different version of what happened: Lebed’s helicopter crashed due to poor visibility, catching on a power line.
What did actually happen?
On the morning of April 28, Governor Alexander Lebed flew in a Mi-8 helicopter to the Oiskoe Lake region for the “presentation” of a new ski slope.
There were 19 more people on board: officials, security guards and journalists.
At 10:15 in the morning, not far from the Buibinskiy pass, at the distance of 1,800 meters to the landing site, his helicopter crashed, starting to fall apart in the air.
The governor suffered the blow of the heavy propeller rotor. He died from injuries in a hospital in Abakan. 7 more people died in the crash. Lebed’s bodyguard died from injuries at the hospital.
Unexpectedly, shortly after the crash, flight engineer Pavel Evseevsky died. He suffered a sudden stroke. We now know that this often happens with people who are “inconvenient” for the Kremlin.
The commission, which was appointed to investigate, blamed the pilot and copilot: the pilot was sentenced to 4 years in prison; the copilot got a 3-year suspended sentence.
Both pilots said the reason of the crash wasn’t the power lines: the helicopter started falling at the height way above the power lines.
Was it an act of sabotage and premeditated murder?
At least some members of the investigative government commission thought so. But they were told to “drop it”.
Lebed was a popular politician.
In 1996 Russian presidential elections, Lebed came 3rd with over 14% of the votes — against the incumbent Yeltsin and communist Zuyganov.
Lebed was tipped to be the next Russian president after Yeltsin. It was believed that he could win presidential elections in 2000.
Lebed and Yeltsin.
But 6 months before Yeltsin’s shocking departure, Lebed was literally “squeezed out” from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, where he easily won the elections and became the governor of the region.
It happened at exactly the same time as Putin was appointed as the prime-minister.
Lebed and Putin.
Lebed didn’t hide his plan to participate in 2004 presidential elections. His rating in Krasnoyarsk region was very high: he did a lot of good things for the people. Although the oligarchs who owned giant industrial plants and mines there, didn’t like him much.
The convicted Mi-8 crew commander Takhir Akhmerov said that the helicopter was transferred from one company to another on the eve of the flight. So, a new crew was preparing the copter for the flight.
According to Bespalov, the ataman of the Kyzyl Cossack army, who was one of the first responders at the crash site, a certain man filmed the catastrophe on a video camera. He disappeared as soon as the ataman called out to him.
Oleg Zakharov, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, later claimed that he met former GRU officers at the general’s grave, who told him that, in their opinion, several grams of explosives could have been fixed on the helicopter blades, which at the right time were activated.
The death of the governor-general was just one of many suspicious deaths at the time. There were other people who didn’t live long after statements warning about Putin.
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Airstrike. Vid shows building takes one direct impact abeam and almost exact middle. Conjecture is a 900kg JDAM. Initial debris plume suggests initial deep ground/basement/bunker penetration.
BLU-109
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So, sine’s termites can be ruled out then.
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I guess it was tougher getting a scooter way up to that floor.
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Ключевая ставка Путина | Чудеса российской экономики (Eng subs) - Max Katz
Putin’s Key Bet | Wonders of the Russian Economy
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And yet… and yet they are favoured to hang on to all their territorial gains since 2014.
Despite all efforts against that.
And if Trump bows to his Putin-master it may be worse than that
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