As I’ve said before, no historical evidence indicates targeting a civilian population does anything but unify the targeted civilians against their attackers. Practically, this kind of operation will inevitably result in Ukraine targeting the Russian power grid and other targets inside of Russia //

Anton Gerashchenko
@Gerashchenko_en
·
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Engels airbase in Russia was attacked by a drone again last night.

It's a second attack on this airfield in a month. Airfield is located about 700km from 🇺🇦 border.

This means 🇷🇺 air defense systems are not that good - no radars picked up the drone and it wasn't shot down. //

For obvious reasons, the Russians aren’t talking about damage to aircraft and facilities. I think there is one metric we can rely upon. The Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian power grid have been, for the most part, happening on Monday nights. This attack on Engels was on Sunday, and the next Russian missile attack took place Thursday. The same pattern followed the last strike on Engels airbase. //

Since then, real and imagined experts have had vigorous discussions. This is way outside my area of expertise, but I will make three observations. First, they are effective. Second, the Ukrainians are building or modifying them one at a time. Third, Russian air traffic control really stinks. //

Russia is acquiring suicide drones from Iran, and there have been reports, covered in these updates, that Iran is transferring short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. So the question of how Iran is getting paid has now been answered.

Viktor Kovalenko
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Dec 25, 2022
@MrKovalenko
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Soon Russia will transfer a squadron of 24 newest fighter jets Su-35 to Iran as payment for thousands of loitering munitions, drones used to attack #Ukraine, reports Israeli 12 TV channel quoting sources in western intelligence. https://news.israelinfo.co.il/107863

Yngvar
@UXMarksTheSpot
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What the hell have russians been buying? Cost of a Su-35 is around $43m (Google tells me). 24 of them are worth $1 Billion. A Shahed-136 drone costs $20K. From what I've read, the biggest number of drones purchased was quoted as about 1500 which is $30m. What's the discrepancy??
6:23 PM · Dec 25, 2022

The Iranians received these aircraft before frontline Russian Air Force units did. That, in my opinion, tells you what you need to know about how short Russia is in cash and how much they need Iran’s weapons. //

Outside of the long-occupied areas of Luhansk and Donetsk, the areas are riddled with informers and special operations elements. Ukraine not only has a formidable electronic warfare capability, it has access to resources from all of NATO to track cell phone locations. As attrition reduces institutional knowledge, expect to see more reports of headquarters targeted by rockets and artillery.