Russian special military operation in Ukraine #52

Indian government denies exporting any weapons, munition to Ukraine. Artillery shells previously exported to countries like Slovenia, US, other NATO states were transferred to Ukraine by them.

Arrow wrote:Kinzhal in the terminal phase does not fly 10M, but probably at a speed below 5M.

Its gonna slow as it hits denser atmosphere for sure, so from 25K m it will slow from M7 down to about M3. But the rapidly changing speed makes it even harder to intercept.

So India denies supplying 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine... they supplied it to a European country who handed them over to the nazis.

Patriot has a range of 40-60km against ballistic missiles, a kinzhal flying at Mach 7 would only give them 17-25 seconds,

Which version Patriot are we talking about? The steep trajectory of Ballistic missiles means more often than not the effective intercept range is probably half that.

Kinzhal and Iskander are not ballistic missiles.

You are aware of the fact that the Kinzhal missile is diving onto the target from a height of 20+km and is therefore accelerating?

And it is not just falling... the control surfaces are inside the rocket exhaust so the rocket motor is burning all the way to impact...

Quite wrong here Hole. I thought you were smarter than this No Basic physics.

You are confusing a few things. Terminal velocity is the speed a falling object achieves... so a human being is not going to fall at supersonic speeds except when falling above the thick lower atmosphere where the thin are does not slow you down... when you reach the thicker air as you descend you slow down more but that is based on your shape which is not low drag like a missile, and your density which is not particularly heavy.

A Kinzhal missile is aerodynamic and will be coming down point forward and with its rocket motor running.

Quite frankly, I suspect that Khinzhal has an effective plasma screen due to its extreme speed, and the plasma is effective as absorbing incident EM radiation (ie radar waves), similar to a re-entering space capsule returning to earth. Plenty of reports that Ukies (and their NATO leash holders) are unable to track the missiles once launched from the MiG-31Ks and this is entirely consistent with such a screen.

Most of their radars are set up to track aircraft, so depending on the scan rates if you imagine someone plotting the location of a radar return every 4-5 seconds... if you detect a target 500km away on your first scan, and then 4 seconds later you scan that airspace again and that target is no longer there but there is another target that is 12km closer to you at 488km, and then 4 seconds after that that contact is not there but a contact at 476km range is there. Keep in mind that this missile is flying towards you so we are not talking about an aircraft sized target, but something the size of a manhole cover...

It is not like what you see in computer games where the screen is nice and blank and there is a clear dot moving on the screen... there will be large numbers of dots and shapes that appear and disappear with every sweep... A turn of a few degrees in any direction will shift the next appearance by quite a significant distance and where it is between those four second sweeps is anyones guess.

The best air defence in the west has been on US Navy ships and includes AWACS and fighters as well as SAMs and guns and also jammers and decoys and radar and IR systems too, So the Soviets and Russians have been building up attack missiles capable of penetrating such airspace for 60+ years.

Further proof that Russia is not some weak enemy of drunks that get by on ancient western weapon flawed copies.

IMHO these examples lends more credence that Khinzhal has plasma stealth and it severely degrades the performance of (already shitty) Western AD complexes.

I am not sure about plasma stealth, but it is certainly too fast to be intercepted, but it is not just fast... it detects incoming threats and actively employs strategies to evade interception by releasing jammers and flares and manouvering to avoid interceptors.

I was talking about free fall and air friction impact.

Which does not apply when talking about Kinzhal or Iskander.

Even if it is powered it will loose speed. If it can achieve mach 10 where there is no air then it can't accelerate above mach 10 in the air.

Engine thrust plus gravity means losing speed is not a certainty. The altitudes it operates there is air, and the faster you move the higher the drag in air so eventually the thrust and the drag will equalise and the missile will stop accelerating and maintain a speed... for the Kinzhal that is about mach 10, for Iskander (which uses the same rocket motor but is launched from the ground) that would be about mach 6-7.

It isn't the speed that makes it safe... S-400 can intercept targets moving at 4.8km/s, it is the ability to change flightpath unpredictably... think of it in terms of a comet... one second it is going to hit in the ocean and then next they work out it is going to hit a city 30km away if they work out the new target 5 seconds from impact then there wont be time to redirect any interceptors already launched to intercept the target and those interceptors can't cover 30km in 5 seconds either...

It can still run its engine but that will be to limit the speed dicrease and not to accelerate.

How do you know that? At the speed it is travelling when we talk about manouvering we don't mean looping and dogfighting with incoming SAMs... a ten degree turn at 3km/s will shift the flight path dozens of kms... it will likely take 2 seconds for the intercepting side to work out there has been a change in flightpath, and by the time they work out the new interception point and signal the interceptor missiles to turn and get to this new position in the air the incoming threat might already have turned back and turned a different direction, meaning those interceptor missiles are now going the wrong way and will have to turn again... but the enormous speed of the incoming threat means very little time to change intercept points and for your interceptor missiles to get there.

Remember the missiles you are firing don't have the ability to hover so if they get there early they can't wait for the target, and if they get there late they can't turn and chase it down.

These missiles are very aerodynamic and are designed to fly through the air efficiently so their terminal velocity is going to be rather faster than you appear to think, and with the combination of rocket thrust and gravity accelerating it downwards it is not going to slow down that much... why do you think spacecraft need parachutes?

Why do meteorites create enormous holes in the ground?

Achieving mach 10 in dense air is not easy and burns a lot of fuel.

That is very true and if these missiles flew at sea level all the way to their targets they would not be flying at anything more than maybe mach 3 or mach 4, but when diving on a target you get a gravity assist and rocket thrust assist so you are not going to lose a lot of speed in the 6 or 7 seconds of flight through the thicker parts of the atmosphere in a steep dive.

Manouevring can be done without any engine when entering the atmosphere.

The Kinzhal and Iskander have fixed external fins that are rather small for low drag, and both manouver through the use of vanes in the rocket exhaust flow to act as thrust vectoring so no matter what speed they are moving at their control surfaces wont stall.

The missile is quite small. I doubt it has enough fuel for having propulsion all the way.

These missiles are about 4 tons and while it is a very aerodynamic shape if it does not have propulsion all the way then it wont be able to dive on the target and hit it.

More likely it is using a system that turns it off and on when needed.

Solid rocket fuel powered weapons are well known for their ability to throttle thrust up and down and also shut down and start up again.... NOT.

In the very last 10km I suspect it speed dicrease a lot. Mach 5 would be still very good.

Even if that were true a mach 5 manouvering target is a difficult target too.

The Ukrainians and Americans have said they can't intercept Kh-22Ms let alone Kh-32s or Zircons or Iskanders or Kinzhals, and while they talk about shooting down Kalibrs and Kh-101s and Gerans it seems the targets keep getting hit so I would even question that...

But then again air defence is hard and needs a lot of resources and systems all working together and the Ukraine has not had that for quite some time.

Russian air defences are astounding in comparison, but still needs work and improvement regarding some smaller drones.

An ICBM warhead free falls from about 100km and hits the earth (impact speed) at about 7km/s

And it does so because it is a pointy aerodynamic shape and the 6-7 seconds of actually thick air of the atmosphere is not enough to slow it down very much.

Things like Comets appear to actually explode above the ground like the Tunguska incident... the forces on objects not designed to reach the ground are enormous and are destabilising, but obviously Russian missiles are designed to reach targets on the ground.

The ICBM warhead reaches 7 km/s before entering the atmosphere. It slows down in the atmosphere and is smaller near the ground.

Not much smaller.

A dive is characterized by high speed and usually by a strongly increasing airspeed in the course of the dive.

Some of the first "supersonic" people were in aircraft diving in WWII in aircraft that could not get to supersonic speeds in horizontal flight due to engine power and drag, but in a dive they could go rather faster, though their aircraft might disassemble itself on its way down...

The dense atmosphere is 0-10km in altitude. It doesn't have time to slow down too much. It goes through those 10km in matter of few seconds.

At mach 10 Kinzhal takes just few second more to go through the atmosphere and impact the target.

Kinzhal will be flying at 30-50km altitude so in a dive it will have more time to accelerate through the thin air than to decelerate in the thicker lower air.

They admit themselves they can't shoot them down.

In addition, Kinzhal must slow down so that the active radar can clearly see the target. At a speed of 10M in the atmosphere, the plasma can disrupt the radar signal.

If it had an active radar seeker then the easiest way to defeat it would be to jam that radar. Optical and inertial/Glonass guidance gives better accuracy and more immunity to interference... if the plasma blinded its radar then no ground based or missile mounted radar should be able to detect it either...

The thing about Kinzhal just like the Kh-22/-32 is that they dive down onto their target
from above the radar (so to say). The radar can detect them far away at a large height (maybe)
but when the missile is closer your usual radar can´t track it anymore.

The whole idea of using speed is that you have to fly high to fly fast so they accepted from the outset that the enemy will detect their attack from an enormous range, so the purpose of the high speed is to make interception more difficult. The west went for stealth instead.

Nobody uses or plans to use Mach 3 bombers because such a speed makes the design and operation of such an aircraft expensive and it does not make you safe from enemy air defences at that speed. Flying 4 times faster in something that can manouver (which just means does not have a predictable flightpath) makes it viable again but to get a strategic aircraft up to such speeds would be very very expensive so at the moment it is cheaper to use missiles that fast... scramjets are more efficient than rockets.

Kinzhal is not powered by a terminal stage rocket engine. Same with Iskander. This is even visible in the photos from the Iskander impact. Only Cirkon can has propulsion throughout the entire flight segment.

Kinzhal and Iskander use control surfaces inside the rocket exhaust to manouver... when the rocket motor shuts down it cannot manouver at all.

After nearly 2 years it's finally okay to admit this in public now, so why even provoke the fight in the first place

It was the myth that the Russian Army is weak and its economy is fragile and relies on western countries buying its energy and raw materials, while HATO armies are strong and powerful and with HATO money and ammo and weapons the Ukrainian army with training since 2014 will walk all over Russias big but flawed military.

If they knew then what they know down this war would not have happened and Russia would have gotten a bit more respect.

Russia is rather better off without the west no though... most of the western tentacles stealing money and resources and energy from Russia have been cut, and Russia is not making more profits selling these things to the rest of the world at a more honest price.

Why does the engine have to run all the time?

Because its ability to manouver requires engine exhaust to be deflected by the control surfaces inside the rocket exhaust.

A better question to ask is WTF would a 500km range missile weight 3.8 tons.... do they not know how to make rockets properly?

It is a solid rocket motor... please share with the group how you shut it down and then start it up again later if you need it?

Although I believe that Iskander/Kinzhal flies powerless in its terminal phase.

You can believe anything you like, but please explain how it actually hits its targets if there is no exhaust for the thrust vectoring system to steer it?

The west is having a meltdown that India will jointly manufacture weapons with Russia. Piers Morgan devoted an entire show to this topic.

That quote it hilarious... it seems a democracy cannot trade with Russia... except the US continues to buy Russian Uranium fuel and Europe continues to buy Russian oil and gas, so it is more do as I say but not what I do... to India.

a possible penetration aid, which fits into six canisters at the base of the warhead. Preliminary evidence suggests that some of the decoys emit thermal signatures, while others are equipped with jammers to counter active seekers. The decoys may also present an enhanced radar signature to spoof ground-based radar.

So your search radar sweeps around once every 6 to 7 seconds... when it releases a radar decoy you get multiple radar returns fanning out from the flight path... which is which?

While likely to have a range of roughly 500 km if carrying a 700 kg warhead, the missile’s range can be doubled depending on the size of the warhead used and its trajectory – a point tacitly admitted in 2007 by the then-commander of the Artillery and Missile Forces of the Russian Army, Colonel General Vladimir Zaritsky. The terminal descent onto a target is conducted vertically, giving little opportunity for successful interception.

Range could probably be massively extended if it just climbed and flew a ballistic path, but it would become a very easy target to shoot down which would make it ineffective.

mtlb suicide drones? Could this be why T-55s and T-62s are being sent to theater? How hard would it be to turn them into drones?

My understanding is that the upgraded T-55 and T-62 vehicles are basically used as relatively short range artillery in the direct and slightly indirect firing role.

There have been one or two reports of old tanks being used already.

Would work better with vehicles not given upgrades though.

Its gonna slow as it hits denser atmosphere for sure, so from 25K m it will slow from M7 down to about M3.

In a dive with its rocket motor running?

Manouvers to evade interception don't need to be 90 degree turns that really would bleed speed... a simple 10 degree turn would not reduce speed very much at all but will shift the intercept point by a significant distance in an instant... something already launched interceptors might not be able to change their trajectory quickly enough to compensate for.

Russkie continues to push the lever.

What seems to be the first reported use of the Korean KN23 Iskander analog.

Debris found in Charkov.





Missile is 900 km range, which would add Russian army some longer hands.
US claims at least two have been used lately.

Kirby already cried a river at a press conference about how unfair it is that evil Russkie can buy weapons around the world, while the west can't and all hangs on US supplies
This thing is turning into grotesque if you are asking me.
They seriously can say that Russia is so much isolated, and that they can purchase weapon from its allies in the same sentence

Solid rocket fuel powered weapons are well known for their ability to throttle thrust up and down and also shut down and start up again.... NOT.

You can just put two or three solid block of fuel and burn them when you want. 1 for start, 2nd to boost the range and 3rd when for the last 20km.

Оленегорский горняк is back for active duty after 5 months in dry dock.

You can just put two or three solid block of fuel and burn them when you want. 1 for start, 2nd to boost the range and 3rd when for the last 20km.

Which is the exact opposite of what you said before that they are just falling with no rocket power at all...

The current model of the R-77 is supposed to use a three stage rocket motor... the first being a high energy fuel to accelerate and climb to altitude so it can cruise further and faster, with a second stage cruise burning motor that basically just overcomes drag and maintains flight speed for several minutes and then when it gets close to its target it turns on its radar and lights up its third stage so it is powered during the terminal attack.

1.5 ton Russian cruise missiles fly 3,500mk to their targets and this is a 3.8 ton solid rocket powered missile...

I never said that. I said I doubt it is powered all the way.

A cruise missile is a mini plane, the wings makes it fly. A ballistic missile goes against gravity at a speed of few mach, nothing comparable.

It is an utterly pointless discussion.
Enough to watch multiple released films with Iskander strikes to see that it is very high speed we talk about.
Much faster than aerobalistic Ch-22/32 that makes about Mach3+ at arrival.
The results are quite similar to the ones presented as "kinzhal" last time, that's why I was doubtful about that.
There are some films revealed from the Charkov direction when Iskanders were used to kill MLRS used for terror attack at Belgorod. Check them about, you will see what I am talking about. Quite same effects.
As we know that KN23 is being used, argument for strike distance became irrelevant - they can easily reach Kiev and Dniepropetrovsk with them.

Walther von Oldenburg wrote:Reportedly Ukrainian MLRS systems the were used on Belgorod were tracked and destroyed in the Kharkov region

Yeah right, that must be the reason why Ukraine is continuing to use Belgorod as its punching bag - not.

Russian leadership and military establishment can not do a damn thing to really protect Belgorod. Ukraine is using apart of vilkha also Tochka missiles. For vilkha Ukraine is mass producing them and has also extended range missile that can keep them well inside of its own territory. For Tochka missiles there are rumors that Ukraine is producing them also, they had last year 90 and all of them were used. So missile program in Ukraine is going up.

And what is in store for Russia this year?

Well Ukraine is upgrading and extending Neptune missile, it will get much longer range and bigger warhead. It is strategical weapon so there are no real reliable information - how many they are able to produce? I guess they are stocking them.

UAV - Ukraine is starting to produce hardened UAVs resistant to jamming. It is the last front on UAV field that Russia had serious advantage. For 2 months Ukraine is testing 6 different FPV drones against jamming. The reason why Avdivka is still standing and is well supplied is Ukrainian ability to suppress and resist Russian jamming and EW weapons in that area.

For long range UAVs now Ukraine has quite a large production of various models. They are primitive and non jamming resistant. Losses to jamming were 50% last summer. They want to change that now. So Ukrainian UAV program is going now more up on quality level and sophistication.
What is still not delivered is more heavy strike long range drone with load of 25-75kg. Once such models show up it will be not nice on Russian side since those loads would be much more effective for example against military industry plants and infrastructure objects.
Ukrainian drone program is one of the largest on planet and monthly production is already in thousands.

Navy drones - Ukraine showed latest 5th generation of such weapons. The largest one has now load of 800kg and even small rocket launchers. They are now built with hardened materials against bullets and anti radar coating. And they are able to operate more on open sea - so area of free operation for Black Sea Fleet will shrink further.

What about some basics like howitzer? One year ago there was panic in Ukraine and lack of artillery vis a vis Russia strength.  Today situation is far from that. Ukraine is now producing very modern howitzer with 6 pc per month. It is not enough to replace all western mixture of models but for the time being is doing fine to complement those guns. For longer planning Ukraine is setting up production for 155 mm shells, it will take 2-3 years. In meantime it will rely on donations and its own purchasing contracts that have with various western suppliers. And on front lines gone are times when Russians had 20:1 advantage in power and numbers.

In general there are issues with Western equipment, some of them have lack of spare parts for example German tanks so even if they got many of them only half is useful. For the time being this is not big issue but it is clear that future will be to complement as much as possible with own production and new models.

So Ukraine is preparing for very long war and it is doing that in systematic way. New and improved weapons it is bringing are allowing it to punch more hard and if needed more deep into Russian teritory.

Russia increased missile attacks past few days on much higher level compared to last winter- nevertheless Ukraine is able to retaliate like in Belgorod and on top to target military installations on Crimea. From military point of view - that is not good sign for Russian strategy.

And for big picture still more than 80% of Ukrainian territory is firmly held...

The result has been decided, it is only a matter of how long before the west accepts defeat and unplugs the patient from the machine keeping them alive.

This terrorist attack against civilians killed two dozen people and injured 100 more, in comparison Russian attacks on Ukrainian military targets have been devastating and has been taking out ukrainian soldiers which Kiev is struggling to replace.

All this time you have been saying Russia needs to end this, but Russia does not need to end this, what they need to do is finish this in a way that creates a solution rather than a temporary fix that the west can open up again in a few years time.

The Russians have withstood the mighty counter offensive of the Ukraine with heavy losses to Ukraine, they have not revealed what they intend to do, whether it is keep the meat grinder grinding or to change tactics and attack on different fronts.

They have been building up fuel and ammo and weapons and drones and aircraft and missiles for a new offensive and have not actually used the troops it mobilised yet... they have barely begun to fight.

When they do decide to attack it will likely be in multiple points along the line so that Kiev struggles to support all parts of the line at once and in quite a few places they will have to fall back, which will make those falling back horribly vulnerable to artillery and air strike and drone attack...

There is a real chance of a withdrawal becoming a rout and a collapse of the military...

Who knows what is in store for Russia but turning away from the west is the best thing that could have happened to them and BRICS is only just getting started.

Garry, there is now a fair amount of good stuff on the Iskander here that will be lost and hard to reference as the thread evolves.

Is there a case for moving it to the Iskander thread?

General Winter has instructed his elves to supply camouflage

GarryB wrote:
Who knows what is in store for Russia but turning away from the west is the best thing that could have happened to them and BRICS is only just getting started.

An overall problem with the west is the fact, that people are so much brainwashed that it takes a real challenge to put them into proper perspective.
After two years of lies, people are starting to get sober, but a lot of damage has been done.
I have watched an interview with major Arkadiusz Kups a while ago. The guy is interesting because he is an author of Combat 56, which is a genuine Polish special forces hand to hand fighting system. He was an active duty special forces officer for years.
I couldn't find the version with subtitles for you, so linking it is pointless, there are a few Poles here only, and they can find it easily.
Long story short is the body language of the whole interview.
Just by watching it, you get an impression that the more bullshit questions are asked, the more he struggles to remain serious face.
It gets clear that he can't say what he wants, as is perfectly aware of the fact that this dose of truth will kill him as a talking head. Nobody would stand it.
Now imagine. We have a crystal clear situation, with several hundred thousand confirmed by the obituaries killer Uko soldiers, provided to us by BBC sponsored Mediazona. I stopped following it when the number hit 330k because it was getting more and more sad observations.
From the very beginning, the narrative buildup was schizophrenic.
On the one hand, they have tried to build an impression of the huge Russian army invading the tiny and democratic Ukraine.
The numbers given pointed at huge disparity in the number of equipment, systems, soldiers etc.
On the other hand, those numbers were used to prove that Russians are incompetent imbeciles, who can relay on human waves tactic only, and are being decimated by superior trained and Wunderwaffles equipped brave Ukrainian defenders.
So we have been told, that Russians have a giant advantage in numbers. In artillery, planes, tanks and armor - but are still heavily losing the war.
They were giving insane numbers of ammunition being disposed by Russkie, to prove how incompetent and inaccurate those are.
Didn't work out.
What we get as feedback, are cemeteries full of dead Ukrowehrmacht, with sad flags waving up to the horizon.
Sad pictures of whole villages in pain after next delivery of coffins.
Telegram full of crying wifes, children and mothers seeking their relatives, with n help.
A daily dose of men being kidnapped from the streets, dragged into civilian cars and taken into meatgrinder.
Having that crystal clear, the whole western propaganda campaign is still refusing to accept the fact, and act accordingly.
Simply stop lying, and finally make people to understand the scale of this tragedy.
This is so fukin Orwellian, that any normal human lacks the words ...

GEROMAN -- time will tell - --
@GeromanAT
The Western MIC dilemma - since it was clear that the business model of USA is never ending wars - greedy Western defense industry adapted and kept the rules of Capitalism - so wars made a lot of profit - problem is that NATO idiots now fight a real high ammo war - and can't keep up.
Karma is a bitch.

Mats Nilsson
@mazzenilsson
Greed will destroy NATO: Rheinmetall is asking for over $600 for a Gepaed 35mm round, which is the same price the Russians are paying for a 152mm artillery round. But it doesn't stop there. Rheinmetall also sold 600,000 30mm rounds to be used in the PUMA IFV for $1,000 each.

Patricia Marins
@pati_marins64
The Russians pay half the amount for a 152mm shell compared to what the Germans pay for a 30mm ammo.

A while back, I wrote a post about Rheinmetall selling their Caracal 4x4 to the German government for over $600,000. Recently, I've been looking into the variations in ammunition costs among Western companies.

Rheinmetall is asking for over $600 for a Gepaed 35mm round, which is the same price the Russians are paying for a 152mm artillery round. But it doesn't stop there. Rheinmetall also sold 600,000 30mm rounds to be used in the PUMA IFV for $1,000 each.

In all three of these overpriced sales, the client was the German government. To put it in perspective, the US ordered and paid $108 for each round back in 2017. Obviously, costs vary depending on the type of ammo, but $1,000 for a single 30mm round? This puts a burden on the German taxpayers.

There's a concern that Europe wouldn't be able to sustain a war with these prices. They could bankrupt any country before troops are even prepared for combat. The focus here is not on the quality, but rather the sustainable cost during a real war.
A single medium Cal cannon can fire 5,000 rounds in less than one minute. How can pay that bill?

@exus1pl@101010.pl
@exus1pl
Comparing dumb HE 152 shell to programmable 30mm isn't exactly fair, they not only differ in construction but also serve two totally diffenret purposes.

Dissidentklubben
@Dissidentklubb1
Russian defense industry is own by the state. Maybe this case can even show how non profit industry is more agile than private owned. The US military industrial complex loves big high tech projects that bring big bucks for the owners, no matter how the weapons are performing.

ALAMO wrote:
Having that crystal clear, the whole western propaganda campaign is still refusing to accept the fact, and act accordingly.
Simply stop lying, and finally make people to understand the scale of this tragedy.
This is so fukin Orwellian, that any normal human lacks the words ...

This needs a Gold, Like button.

More on this. They now have a less boring name than a Hwasong-11g, the Kimskander

Slavyangrad
@SlavyangradSLG
Ukrainian sources appear to have confirmed the use of North Korean ballistic missiles in a recent attack on Kharkov. The benefits of this to North Korea's missile program are huge. Kharkov serves as a testing ground for effectiveness.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/83060

It seems that the Ukrainians (probably told to do so by NATO) have concentrated their main military production/R&D sites in Kiev under the misunderstanding that concentrating their AD there as well will mean they are defended. Well the strikes this week have blown that strategy to bits.

This should have put the fear of God into those NATO strategists , those capable of seeing reality that is, who must be starting to wonder wtf they can do to stop Russia.

Take this example, the factory, its manufacturing systems and plant, computers, admin and R&D along with a shift of labour all gone. Must be many more examples.

Dr.Snekotron
@snekotron
Ukrainian telegram confirming what was hit by the "intercepted" kinzhals - the Artem plant of the Luch Design Bureau, specializing in drone & missile control systems

It is said that the death toll is 50 - an entire shift. Only survivors were those late to work

South Korea has it's own Iskander type missile, being built with heavy assistance of Russia.
This is an unprecedented situation, frankly speaking.
Russia is a country that sustained close ties with both Koreas, and assisted both with military matters.
Which can be considered as a case study of Russia willingness and flexibility for international cooperation issues.
South Korea gained much more - not only localized S-350, but they have their best AShHM beind nothing else rather than localized Oniks.
North Korea made a giant jump in missile technology because of Yuzhnoye.
Ukrainians, openly speaking. They have provided not only complete studies for SLBM missiles, but Ch-55 and Oka as well.

And regarding to this what John linked up there, the Russian strategy to attack in bright daylight is called to be done by purpose to hit the labor at the locations.
It is not much surprise to me, Russkie were deliberately targeting specified human resources since the very beginning. Only to mention obliterating exhibition and faries made for drone technology - they hit it hard just in the middle of the day because a big accumulation of drone specialists at one place.

One can be sorry for the workers, but since they were producing military equipment they are a legitimate target in time of war.

Even that woman in the message admitted that there they were producing equipment used to "destroy" russians.

The safest for those Ukrainians would have been to leave the country across the areas controlled by Russia in the north before Russia retired from there in April 2022. They could have asked for refugee status in Bielorussia or Russia.

Note: this is the same about Russia "abandoning" the residents of the City of Kherson last year. Russia offered to each of them the possibility to go to the safer russian controlled areas. Most of the residents did not want and many of them were later sent in the meatgrinder when the Ukrainian army conscripted them.

North Korea is an enemy of south Korea, Japan and the US and South Korea is the enemy of Japan and the China.

Russia has all the reasons to arm both of them to occupy the others since the US and Japan are enemies and China is growing to fast to know what it will want in 10 or 20 years. China is not an enemy but is not an ally too.

Same it is good to have China with hundreds of ships because it will take all the attention of the US navy.

Win-win situation for them.

No warning munitions falling from the sky.

Good comments in its thread https://twitter.com/J_JHelin/status/1743046201899962578

Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation (as of January 5, 2024)

In the period from December 30, 2023 to January 5 of this year, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out 41 group and one massive strikes with precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles on decision-making centers, facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, military airfield infrastructure, arsenals and fuel bases.

In addition, strikes were carried out at the locations of units of the armed forces of Ukraine, formations of nationalists and foreign mercenaries. All assigned objects are hit.

Over the past week, units of the "Western" group of troops repelled 18 attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kupyansk direction.

Air strikes and artillery fire defeated the enemy's manpower and equipment in the areas of the settlements of Ivanovka, Berestovoye, Vishnevoye, Kupyansk, Peschanoe, Petropavlovsk, Sinkovka, Terny, Timkovka of the Kharkiv region, Novoselovskoye and Stelmakhovka of the Luhansk People's Republic.

The enemy's losses amounted to over 485 military personnel, six tanks, including one Leopard-2, 11 armored combat vehicles, 24 vehicles, seven Czech-made MLRS Alder and Vampire launchers, as well as eight field artillery guns. In addition, three ammunition and fuel depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed.

In the Krasnolimansk direction, units of the Center group of forces, in cooperation with operational and tactical, army aviation and artillery, repelled four enemy attacks. Clusters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Chervonaya Dibrova of the Luhansk People's Republic, Torskoye, Grigorovka of the Donetsk People's Republic and Serebryansk forestry.

The enemy's losses amounted to over 690 soldiers killed and wounded, two tanks, 11 armored combat vehicles, 24 vehicles, as well as five field artillery guns.

In the Donetsk direction, units of the "Southern" group of troops, supported by aviation and artillery fire, repelled nine enemy attacks. Over the past period, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this area amounted to over 1990 servicemen killed and wounded, four tanks, 17 armored combat vehicles, including two Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 64 vehicles and 26 field artillery guns.

In the South Donetsk direction, units of the Vostok group of forces repelled five enemy attacks. Air strikes and artillery fire inflicted fire damage on units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Vodiane, Makarovka, Paraskovievka, Staromayorskoye, Ugledar, Urozhodnoye of the Donetsk People's Republic and Priyutnoye of the Zaporozhye region.

The enemy's losses in this direction amounted to over 950 military personnel, 12 armored combat vehicles, 27 vehicles and 17 field artillery guns.

In the Zaporozhye direction, units of Russian troops repelled an enemy attack north of the settlement of Novoprokopovka in the Zaporozhye region.

In addition, fire damage was inflicted on the personnel and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Verbovoye, Orekhov, Kamenskoye, Lukyanovskoye, Novodanilovka and Rabodino in the Zaporozhye region. The enemy's losses amounted to up to 350 soldiers, a tank, 15 armored combat vehicles, 18 vehicles, as well as eight field artillery guns.

In the Kherson direction, units of the Dnepr group of forces, in cooperation with artillery, defeated enemy manpower on the right bank of the Dnieper in the areas of the settlements of Tyaginka, Ivanovka, Sadovoye and Tokarevka of the Kherson region. As a result of the actions of the Russian troops, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost up to 225 servicemen killed and wounded in this direction. In addition, a tank, two armored combat vehicles, 28 vehicles, 14 boats, a Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile launcher, 11 field artillery guns, an electronic warfare station and an ammunition depot were destroyed.

During the week, 13 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered, including eight people in the Kupyansk direction.

Over the past period, missile forces and artillery, operational and tactical aviation and strike unmanned aerial vehicles of the groups of troops have destroyed: three launchers of the HIMARS and Alder multiple launch rocket systems, a launcher of the S-200 anti-aircraft missile system, a radar of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, a radar station for detecting and tracking low-altitude targets ST-68, as well as two US-made counter-battery warfare radars.

Aviation and air defense means shot down during the week: the Su-27 aircraft and the Mi-8 helicopter of the air forces of Ukraine.

In addition, eight Storm Shadow cruise missiles, 14 Tochka-U tactical missiles, three S-200 anti-aircraft missiles converted for firing at ground targets, 107 HIMARS, Alder and Vampire multiple rocket launchers, three HARM anti-radar missiles and 253 unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed.

In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 565 aircraft, 264 helicopters, 10459 unmanned aerial vehicles, 447 anti-aircraft missile systems, 14483 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1200 multiple rocket launchers, 7639 field artillery and mortars, as well as 17100 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed.

https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12494576@egNews

That's an estimated manpower loss of around 3700 in a week.

Ukrainian sources appear to have confirmed the use of North Korean ballistic missiles

Which makes me doubt the whole story.
One pic of debris. Made somewhere. No chain of evicence whatsoever.
Only Ukros as "witnesses".
But: This is confirmed proof!!!!!!!!!


Now any video of a Iskander hitting something turns into "NK missile".