10:24 – Johan No.1
The Lions
https://x.com/ukrainiansquad/status/1810315636980998465?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
I had a really sour post in the works but then came news of 20 F-16s from the USA within a few days so quite a lot was edited out in the joy rush.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvsi43pvn2f
And then Accentmannen confirms what we have discussed a lot, that it is Armageddon on the northern front.
https://youtu.be/mz43kxURnGo?si=y8lieuZS704BOkXZ
And that lowered my blood pressure after hearing Sullivan was very clear about why they are holding back Ukraine (you almost have to search hard for a worse misconception, Reagan is spinning in his grave) 😡
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvz5y4ytq2k
I think we see a tremendously higher level of UA warfare now in 2024 where they lay a carpet of death over rear functions and knock out huge amounts on the highways. Much of this probably does not even show up in the daily loss lists – all the mines they hear exploding in the forests at night for example as Accentmannen describes.
Someone said we always become pessimistic just before it turns, so let’s hope for that – the NATO meeting will give a clear indication of what the West has managed to agree on, very interesting. Last time in 2023 Zelensky was called ungrateful and told to keep quiet, so it probably won’t get worse than that, and Zelensky seems to be pushing for them to strike the airbases very hard.
Seems to be a company of Chinese SOF in Belarus?
https://x.com/friaukraina/status/1810597071998558619?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Japan and South Korea are starting to get seriously worried.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/09/japan-and-the-philippines-sign-landmark-defense-deal-to-counter-china-.html
Belarus has had many military exercises and the latest one is with “territorial” so it is the home guard training on the border to the Baltic states which should mean they are training everything else too.
https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-conducts-military-drills-near-ukraine-eu-border/a-68716108
Here were Belarus’s big exercises in 2023 and even then there were Wagner instructors.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/tensions-rise-as-belarus-begins-military-drills-near-poland-and-lithuania
Their “anti-terrorist defense exercise” this year is called “Falcon Assault” and practices river crossings 😐
https://www.reuters.com/world/china-belarus-start-joint-military-drills-near-polish-border-2024-07-09/
Russia is NOT the whole conflict, they are a stepwise escalation that takes us to the next step, and the next, I have read that in Pearson’s book.
Forcing NATO to choose between retaking, for example, Estonia or remaining passive is probably on Putin’s to-do list when the time is right.
According to Pearson’s book, I..el will be overrun. I don’t think their defense forces will adjust fast enough to the drone weapon and better missile weapons so that some of their advantage they have had until now is eroded. But if there is a country that has stood looking into the abyss and risen every fifteen years, it’s damn well I..el.
Iraq has started to get involved in the fight against I..el by the way, or rebel groups in the country that Ir,@.s government can do nothing about.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-allies-ira@-are-firing-i@@@l-what-if-they-draw-blood-2024-06-04/
(you have to remove the @)
What the West needs now is for Ukraine to break Putin’s back so the whole BRIICS sees it without it being misinterpreted – a broadside.
We haven’t really been able to position India yet but Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow with extra everything says a lot – when was he last in the USA or EU?
Or China’s visits to Serbia, Hungary and France – are those the EU’s biggest countries for Chinese exports?
BRIICS is by definition the other side now and has China, Russia and India on its side. They currently consist of 10 countries (right?) and about 40 more are on the list to join.
UAE, for example, has bought into many companies in the West and is now part of BRIICS.
https://www.dw.com/en/are-middle-east-investments-in-the-west-a-threat/a-66773511
My thought has always been that the West now must show itself to be a more attractive alternative and fish up strategic partners all over the world but that does not seem to be happening.
Asia is forming itself where Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia out of necessity work together and the USA has a commitment regarding Taiwan that we hope they never let go of.
Our eastern border must be strengthened and impenetrable, and then we must take a hard line against Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia – if they want to side with Russia, we can also encircle them, just like it has been done before?
It is unfortunate if the population in Belarus does not get their legally mandated freedom, and above all, it would make our border against the Russian threat much more manageable.
I also have another thought – I think individual countries should act more aggressively – if Poland wants to send Mig-29s and something more, they should do so. If France wants to send instructors, they should do it, if we want to send Gripens, we should do it. The US strategy of holding back is NOT the best for the EU in any way, and to me, it is very clear that China has just advanced its positions against the EU. I find Sullivan’s reasoning above directly frightening.
If Putin is already at war with the EU, carrying out sabotage, subversive activities, and otherwise trying to harm us to the maximum – can we not act or must we wait for the snail-paced USA to catch up?
– Station several brigades permanently in the Baltics this summer together with the Air Force and Air Defense.
– Send more materiel to Ukraine – all production goes to them.
– Poland slowly starts moving in and shooting down missiles over western Ukraine and keeps completely silent about it.
– Let Ukraine invade the northern oblasts because this one is almost the worst of all the yellow cards 😐
That would be a start at least?
Wild speculations – so why was Fico almost murdered or Lukashenko always sick as soon as he is near Putin?
Could it be that Putin does not like the proximity to China from these and tries to sabotage?
Could it be why Xi Jinping did not go to Russia but invited Putin to China, he does not trust surviving another visit to Russia?
I was pondering a bit about a country with a port and concluded that it might be Albania that China is tying to itself, but there are a couple of other candidates.
https://cepa.org/comprehensive-reports/chinese-influence-in-albania/
At the same time as all the unpleasantness spreads in the West, as we have discussed for a few days now, there is not much to report from the fronts. The hope is that it is the opsec cover that is interfering a bit 😀
We will probably get a full statement from the NATO meeting tomorrow, and we hope for some good news; 20 F-16s in a few days are welcome, and I am quite sure that Ukraine will soon be allowed to strike air bases beyond the 100 km line because that is an impossible position for the USA to maintain.
It is no secret that UA carries out front-line pre-emptive strikes at most fronts and that they actively target ammunition depots and fuel depots, which causes shortages at the fronts over a time window.
Here is reconnaissance against military bases and depots in Astrakhan, and also in nearby oblasts, they are targeting bases for buildup now, those units for the next RU offensive are being trained and equipped.
https://x.com/noelreports/status/1810617412275826999?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
We talked a lot about this, that if they were allowed to strike the 12 bases and all the air bases and depots inside Russian territory, they would quickly erase the maintenance and RU’s future offensive capacity, and this has now started, although on too small a scale because the USA is still troublesome.
We have also seen a shift in that defensive battles have become more dynamic.
Here you have a newly resourced brigade.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvy6xx5ly22
And you do remember that Sweden was supposed to send hundreds of PBV302s, so that gives one more brigade materiel.
Spain is sending tanks soon with a second batch in September, then a brigade will get tanks as a battalion resource.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvycjctkz2l
And now there are reports again about 155mm cluster ammunition (DPCIM?) so they have arrived from the USA again.
We have discussed BPR, KPR, VPR, and BPR2 earlier, i.e., “people’s republics” in the northern oblasts and that UA would copy RU’s demand for liberation of Luhansk and Donetsk. UA themselves have discussed this earlier too, so it’s not just a happy thread speculating.
Here you have the governor of Belgorod People’s Republic.
https://x.com/noelreports/status/1810752356524638325?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Here you have the KGB in the 60s and how they came up with radicalization. Imagine the enormous reach they have today with social media and how entire groups are completely impossible to reason with. The Twitter purchase fits in well.
https://x.com/ockersm/status/1810623853720203566?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Ivank Trump and Jarod Kushner are building a resort in Albania with Russian money and Kremlin contacts.
https://x.com/olganyc1211/status/1810526108376309911?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Could it be true that China intends to invest in Ukraine, I have no idea and it is a Twitter rumor.
The drones are true, that we know.
https://x.com/secretsqrl123/status/1810530408393535609?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
And now for some good news, we can remove 1000 T72s from the 3500 tanks remaining in the reserves because they have autoloaders that are probably rusted through.
That is why T62 and T55 are coming now, they have no autoloaders.
There should be 700 left in the reserves, curious if any of them were T72s 😀
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvzkd7nbv2w
Russia is definitely critically short of armor as someone in the thread usually writes, and Ukraine can get thousands more.
Provided that China does not resource Russia with offensive weapons, they are likely to face acute shortages of most things now.
Still a bit annoyed at the West and especially Sullivan, but it is getting better.
10:45 – Johan No.1
Now Erdogan has topped off his peace trip by visiting Erdogan.
Shouldn’t the Trojan horse start his journey as EU chairman with meetings with the members of the EU?
This should have far-reaching consequences for Orban who has made all kinds of statements and trips in the capacity of EU chairman that are in no way anchored in the EU.
If not, countries in the EU can behave however they want, I think.
He is currently conducting geopolitics in an elevated security situation that goes against what is best for the EU.
11:04 – Johan No.1
-Orban
11:09 – MatsExtrude
👍 Really hope the NATO meeting leads to increased deliveries and quickly. The Air Force seems to be on track at least.
11:44 – Johan No.1
Sullivan: “I let the Polish speak to its self-defense needs but we don’t want to see this war escalate.”
Can be interpreted in different ways, but I interpret it as Sullivan considering himself able to speak for Poland and that he allows them to handle their self-defense issues.
It is not a little cheeky AND completely new. In WW2 the USA did not enter the war but had no opinions on how the allies should fight. Here the USA steps in and stops the EU from acting, which is absolutely remarkable 😡
12:23 – Johan No.1
Keir Starmer confirms that Ukraine can use Storm Shadow without restrictions on Russian territory – wonderful 😀👍
https://x.com/gerashchenko_en/status/1810957758256075207?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
The French and Italians have said the same, so there we might have a few thousand missiles perhaps?
12:24 – Johan No.1
Could possibly be enough against the airbases.
10:22 – Johan No.1
The Lions
https://x.com/ukrainiansquad/status/1810315636980998465?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
I had a really sour post in the works but then came news of 20 F-16s from the USA within a few days, so quite a lot was edited out in the joy frenzy.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvsi43pvn2f
And then Accentmannen confirms what we have discussed a lot, that it is Armageddon on the northern front.
https://youtu.be/mz43kxURnGo?si=y8lieuZS704BOkXZ
And that lowered my blood pressure after hearing Sullivan being very clear about why they are holding back Ukraine (you almost have to look hard for a worse misconception, Reagan is spinning in his grave) 😡
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvz5y4ytq2k
I think we see an enormously higher level of UA warfare now in 2024 where they lay a carpet of death over rear functions and take out huge amounts on highways. Much of this probably also does not appear in the daily loss lists – all the mines they hear exploding in the forests at night, for example, as Accentmannen describes.
Someone said that we always become pessimistic just before it turns, so let’s hope for that – the NATO meeting will give a clear indication of what the West has managed to agree on, so very interesting. Last time it happened in 2023, Zelensky was called ungrateful and told to keep quiet, so it probably won’t get worse than that, and Zelensky seems to be pushing for them to be allowed to strike airbases very hard.
Seems to be a company of Chinese SOF in Belarus?
https://x.com/friaukraina/status/1810597071998558619?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Japan and South Korea are starting to get seriously worried.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/09/japan-and-the-philippines-sign-landmark-defense-deal-to-counter-china-.html
Belarus has had many military exercises and this latest one is with “territorial,” so it is the home guard training on the border with the Baltic states, which should mean they are training everything else as well.
https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-conducts-military-drills-near-ukraine-eu-border/a-68716108
Here were Belarus’s large exercises in 2023 and even then Wagner instructors were present.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/tensions-rise-as-belarus-begins-military-drills-near-poland-and-lithuania
Their “anti-terrorist defense exercise” this year is called “Falcon Assault” and practices river crossings 😐
https://www.reuters.com/world/china-belarus-start-joint-military-drills-near-polish-border-2024-07-09/
Russia is NOT the whole conflict, they are a stepwise escalation that takes us to the next step, and the next, I have read that in Pearson’s book.
Forcing NATO to choose between retaking, for example, Estonia or remaining passive is probably on Putin’s to-do list when the time is right.
If you go by Pearson’s book, I..el will be run over. I don’t think their defense forces will adjust quickly enough to the drone weapon and better missile weapons so that some of their advantage they have had until now is eroded. But if there is a country that has looked into the abyss and risen every fifteen years, it is damn well I..el.
Iraq has started to get involved in the fight against I..el by the way, or rebel groups in the country that the Iraqi government can do nothing about.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-allies-iraq-are-firing-israel-what-if-they-draw-blood-2024-06-04/
What the West needs now is for Ukraine to break Putin’s back so the whole BRIICS sees it without any misinterpretation – a broadside.
We haven’t really been able to position India yet but Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow with extra everything says quite a bit – when was he last in the USA or EU?
Or China’s visits to Serbia, Hungary, and France – are those the EU’s largest countries for Chinese exports?
BRIICS is by definition the other side now and has China, Russia, and India on its side. They currently consist of 10 countries (right?) and about 40 more are on the list to join.
UAE, for example, has bought into many companies in the West and is now part of BRIICS.
https://www.dw.com/en/are-middle-east-investments-in-the-west-a-threat/a-66773511
My thought has always been that the West now must prove to be a more attractive alternative and fish for strategic partners worldwide, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Asia is organizing itself where Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia out of necessity work together, and the USA has a commitment regarding Taiwan that we hope they never let go of.
Our eastern border must be reinforced and impenetrable, and then we must play hardball with Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia – if they want to be with Russia, we can also encircle them or however it has been done before?
It is unfortunate if the population in Belarus does not get its statutory freedom, and that would above all make our border against the Russian threat much more manageable.
I also have another thought – I think individual countries should act more aggressively – if Poland wants to send Mig-29s and something more, they should do it. If France wants to send instructors, they should do it, if we want to send Gripen, we should do it. The USA’s strategy of holding back is NOT best for the EU in any way, and to me it is very clear that China just moved forward its positions against the EU. I think Sullivan’s reasoning above was downright frightening.
If Putin is already at war with the EU, conducting sabotage, subversive activities, and otherwise trying to harm us maximally – can’t we act or do we have to wait for the snail USA to catch up?
– Station several brigades permanently in the Baltics this summer together with the land forces and air.
– Send more materiel to Ukraine – all production goes to them.
– Poland is slowly moving in and shooting down missiles over western Ukraine and keeps completely quiet about it.
– Let Ukraine invade the northern oblasts because this one is almost the worst of all the yellow cards 😐
That would be a start at least?
Wild speculations – so why was Fico almost murdered or Lukashenko always sick as soon as he is near Putin?
Could it be that Putin doesn’t like the proximity to China from these and tries to sabotage?
Could that be why Xi Jinping didn’t go to Russia but invited Putin to China, he doesn’t trust surviving another visit to Russia?
Sat and pondered a bit about the country with a port and concluded that it might be Albania that China ties to itself but there are a couple of other candidates.
https://cepa.org/comprehensive-reports/chinese-influence-in-albania/
Meanwhile, as all the bad things spread in the West as we have discussed for a few days now, there is not much to report from the fronts. The hope is that it is the opsec cover that is interfering a bit 😀
We will probably get a full statement from the NATO meeting tomorrow and we hope for some good news, 20 F-16s in a few days is welcome and I am quite sure Ukraine will soon be allowed to strike airbases beyond the 100km line because that is an impossible position for the USA to maintain.
It is no secret that UA conducts front-line pre-emptive strikes at most fronts and that they actively target ammunition depots and fuel depots which causes shortages at the fronts over a time window.
Here the focus is on military bases and depots in Astrakhan and also in nearby oblasts, they are now targeting the bases for buildup, the units for the next RU offensive are being trained and equipped.
https://x.com/noelreports/status/1810617412275826999?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
This is exactly what we talked a lot about, that if they could strike the 12 bases and all the airbases and depots inside Russian territory, they would quickly wipe out the maintenance and RU’s future offensive capability, and this has now begun, albeit on too small a scale because the USA is still troublesome.
We have also seen a shift where the defensive battles have become more dynamic.
Here you have a newly resourced brigade.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvy6xx5ly22
And you do remember that Sweden was supposed to send hundreds of PBV302, so that adds material to a brigade.
Spain is sending tanks soon with a second batch in September, then a brigade will get tanks as a battalion resource.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvycjctkz2l
And now there are reports again about 155mm cluster ammunition (DPCIM?) so they have arrived from the USA again.
We have discussed BPR, KPR, VPR and BPR2 before, meaning “people’s republics” in the northern Oblasts and that UA would copy RU’s demands for the liberation of Luhansk and Donetsk. UA themselves have discussed this earlier as well, so not just a happy thread speculating.
Here you have the governor of Belgorod People’s Republic.
https://x.com/noelreports/status/1810752356524638325?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Here you have the KGB in the 60s and how they came up with radicalization. Imagine the enormous reach they have today with social media and how entire groups are completely impossible to reason with. The Twitter purchase fits in well.
https://x.com/ockersm/status/1810623853720203566?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Ivank Trump and Jarod Kushner are building a resort in Albania with Russian money and Kremlin contacts.
https://x.com/olganyc1211/status/1810526108376309911?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
Could it be true that China is considering investing in Ukraine? I have no idea and it is a Twitter rumor.
The drones are confirmed, that we know.
https://x.com/secretsqrl123/status/1810530408393535609?s=46&t=Vah3JXV31B9lXwZOK5gF7w
And now for some good news, we can remove 1000 T72s from the 3500 tanks left in stockpiles because they have autoloaders that are likely rusted through.
That is why T62 and T55 are coming now, they have no autoloaders.
There should be 700 left in stockpiles, curious if any of those were T72 😀
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social/post/3kwvzkd7nbv2w
Russia is definitely short on armor, as someone in the thread usually writes, and Ukraine can get thousands more.
Provided China does not resource Russia with offensive weapons, they are presumably now running critically low on most things.
Still a bit annoyed with the West and especially Sullivan but it’s looking brighter.