Putin/Russia calls up 160,000 conscripts

[Spur's Addiction]

Ukraine just hit a Russian airbase 1,700 km/1,056 mi from the border with Ukraine. This was a long range drone strike.
This is equivalent of a drone hitting Charleston IAP that was launched from Oklahoma City, OK.
This is total game changer if this technology gets proliferated and means any airbase is vulnerable to this kind of attack.
It may be the greatest threat to western airpower since its inception.

https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2050188493465223523

I remember about a year or so ago Ukraine did an attack way inside the border of Russia. The drones were in the back of big trucks. The trucks drove deep into Russia, stopping near an airbase, and then the drones were released from inside the trucks and swarmed to the airbase and took out a bunch of bombers and infrastructure.

Ukraine is definitely the leader in using drones in Military applications.

 

[JimG]

Warfare has/is certainly being changed. Meanwhile I keep hoping sane voices in Russia will bring this carnage to an end.

Russia being such a huge country, they are not capable of defending most of their airspace. Ukraine can pick at them at will.
The past 6 weeks have been unprecented in the amount of long range airstrikes coming from Ukraine. And Ukraine is aggressively developing more capability.
We don't know how this will end, but for sure Russia is getting a lot more than they bargained for.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Russia being such a huge country, they are not capable of defending most of their airspace. Ukraine can pick at them at will.
The past 6 weeks have been unprecented in the amount of long range airstrikes coming from Ukraine. And Ukraine is aggressively developing more capability.
We don't know how this will end, but for sure Russia is getting a lot more than they bargained for.

Short of a complete collapse on the part of Ukraine I'm beginning to wonder if Russia has lost the momentum to win this war.

 

[JimG]

Short of a complete collapse on the part of Ukraine I'm beginning to wonder if Russia has lost the momentum to win this war.

The original objective was to quickly overthrow the entire Ukrainian goverment and install a pro-RU regime (3 day SMO).
RU still retains control of about 1/10th of Ukr that they initially took in '22 and Ukr doesn't have the means to retake.

Those front lines are nightmares and certain death traps with mine fields & drone kill zones. Neither side has the ability to mount any noteworthy ground offensive.
And now with Ukr drones & missiles freely hitting targets inside RU, RU is certainly reeling with no end in sight.
Especially enjoyful is daily videos of Ukr taking out expensive RU air defense units which are hard to replace. This is classic western style SEAD/DEAD using drones instead of missiles launched from jets.

Of interest, it seems Putin is now hunkering down, fearful of an overthrow & fearful of Ukr drones hitting him.

You might take a look at this article:

Vladimir Putin fears an assassination attempt and a coup, tensions among security services are rising, an EU intelligence agency says

https://istories.media/en/stories/2026/05/04/vladimir-putin-fear/

 

[Blitzkrieg]

MSN

Casualties nearing 1% of the total Russian population.

 

[JimG]

MSN

Casualties nearing 1% of the total Russian population.

And what % of those are foreign nationals that were recruited promising good jobs in Russia?
I see where N Korea set up a memorial to their troops blasted in the war by Ukrainian drones.

 

[JimG]

Stunning post on X about the evolution of drone warfare and the integration of AI to process the vast amount of all of the particulars of war.
Ground warfare is being dramatically transformed right before our eyes.
And the Ukrainians are using drones & missiles the same way we use our airpower. This is a formidable poor man's airforce.

“Ukraine has already been able to integrate drones, sensors, and strike means into a common network faster than the US Army itself.

https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/2056651879917187499

 

[Blitzkrieg]

And what % of those are foreign nationals that were recruited promising good jobs in Russia?
I see where N Korea set up a memorial to their troops blasted in the war by Ukrainian drones.

And now there's this news. Amazing what Putin is doing to Russia.

MSN

 

[gamecock88]

And now there's this news. Amazing what Putin is doing to Russia.

MSN

Wow. That’s crazy stuff if half accurate. Many countries, for different reasons, are also shrinking in population. China, Japan, South Korea.

 

[JimG]

And now there's this news. Amazing what Putin is doing to Russia.

MSN

That's one of the reasons he is charged with war crimes: they kidnapped Ukrainian children and took them to Russia to "re-educate them".
They were hoping to replenish their young population with Ukrainian children.
That's a form of genocide.

Just think, 10-15 yrs ago, they could have taken their wealth and basically paid families to have kids.

 

[JimG]

Wow. That’s crazy stuff if half accurate. Many countries, for different reasons, are also shrinking in population. China, Japan, South Korea.

And one of the reasons China is not in a hurry to start a war. They really can't afford to lose the bodies.

 

[kingofnerf]

And one of the reasons China is not in a hurry to start a war. They really can't afford to lose the bodies.

China can't afford to lose access to our retail markets, either. Xi looked the more stable of the leaders in the meetings with Putin and Trump.

Putin and Trump both bent the knee to Xi. Is Xi the real blue suit and red tie guy? Probably.

The meetings served no useful purpose for us or Russia.

 

[JimG]

Another night - another Ukrainian drone attack of Russia.

Hard to believe this is happening.

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2057630780461846844

 

[Spur's Addiction]

Stunning post on X about the evolution of drone warfare and the integration of AI to process the vast amount of all of the particulars of war.
Ground warfare is being dramatically transformed right before our eyes.
And the Ukrainians are using drones & missiles the same way we use our airpower. This is a formidable poor man's airforce.

https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/2056651879917187499

I hope Taiwan is taking notes.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I hope Taiwan is taking notes.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I keep thinking about Germany not even being able to launch an attack across the English Channel of only 21 miles. The Chinese would have to cross about 200 miles of ocean to attack Taiwan.

China would first need to eliminate Taiwan's Air Force and even then their ships would be subject to drone, missile and submarine attack. In today's world you can't sneak up on another nation across 200 miles of empty ocean. The carnage would be enormous even if the Chinese pulled it off.

 

[gamecock88]

Will the US be able to adapt to this more mobile and lower cost approach or will the industrial war machine continue to force the burden on the American tax payer?

 

[Spur's Addiction]

Will the US be able to adapt to this more mobile and lower cost approach or will the industrial war machine continue to force the burden on the American tax payer?

Yeah - F-35 program estimated to cost taxpayers over $2 Trillion (with a T). Could this amount be better spent developing drone technologies?

 

[JimG]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I keep thinking about Germany not even being able to launch an attack across the English Channel of only 21 miles. The Chinese would have to cross about 200 miles of ocean to attack Taiwan.

China would first need to eliminate Taiwan's Air Force and even then their ships would be subject to drone, missile and submarine attack. In today's world you can't sneak up on another nation across 200 miles of empty ocean. The carnage would be enormous even if the Chinese pulled it off.

Yep. Even if the PRC was able to land some ground forces, how could they sustain them in the face of on going drone attacks?
No way the PRC can sustain logistics crossing the open sea.

Some Ukrainian units were invited to particapate in some exercises with NATO nations. Their drone teams clobbered our NATO forces (including US Army).
They were asked to tone it down. Until some kind of other paradigm shifts, I cannot see where any military can have a successful ground campaign with what we are seeing in Ukraine.

 

[JimG]

Will the US be able to adapt to this more mobile and lower cost approach or will the industrial war machine continue to force the burden on the American tax payer?

We are trying to buy the tech from the Ukrainians. It is mature and proven in battle.

The bigger question is what does this do to our overall war plans? Drones won't stop us from bombing, but they can stop any deployment of troops.
Things like tanks/armored vehicles could become obsolete.
We have a lot of thinking to do about ground warfare & the threat of drone warfare.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

We are trying to buy the tech from the Ukrainians. It is mature and proven in battle.

The bigger question is what does this do to our overall war plans? Drones won't stop us from bombing, but they can stop any deployment of troops.
Things like tanks/armored vehicles could become obsolete.
We have a lot of thinking to do about ground warfare & the threat of drone warfare.

That's been an on going problem in warfare for a couple of centuries. The military tends to train according to the last war and not the next war.