Happy New Year From The Orcs

[ichkeria]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64135079

At least one impact in the embassy area not previously targeted.

But Ukrainian air attacks also on Crimea.

Looks like one Russian missile impacted in the Volgograd region. Rather spectacularly

[nicebloke1]

All the very best to you,and thanks for all the heads up.

[anneasquith]

Thanks for keeping us up to date. Please God ,2023 is better than 2022 for Ukraine .

[ichkeria]

It does look like these attacks are aimed largely at civilians,
One woman was killed when a hotel was hit in the Pechersk area of Kyiv, and the Palace "Ukraina" had its windows blown out: this is a large arts centre near the Olympic stadium, which normally would be full of kids of New Years Eve.
Luckily on this occasion it wasn't

[anneasquith]

Ich, will this war ever end ?

[ichkeria]

It will: as I said before, Russia is doing its terrorist thing because basically it can't fight militarily.
And at the moment Ukraine cannot advance due to the weather and lack of the right weaponry.
But both those situations will change ...

[anneasquith]

Surely Ukraine could get weaponry from its allies ?

[The Builder]

I'm trying to get my head around NATO's attitude on this.
Last September, Ukraine applied for membership.
The US currently provides more military and humanitarian aid than everyone else put together.
Yet Biden and NATO say "not right now" to Ukraine's application since they fear nuclear escalation.

I'm beginning to wonder about the efficacy of NATO at all, and if this is just a classic historical ploy of war by proxy between east and west.

On the other hand... as long as we keep up the aid, Russia must surely run out of missiles eventually. Should we just run with that?

[ichkeria]

From allies? Yes: longer range missiles, tanks and drones from the US coming. The Leopard tanks from Germany would really help but no sign as yet.
According to the foreign minister.
Rumour also has it though that Ukraine is developing its own long range missiles and drones.
And the Patriot air defence system should help defend the slies against any ballistic missiles the russians might get from eg Iran to replace their dwindling stocks. The current air defences aren't good at taking out ballistic as opposed to cruise missiles and rockets.
But increasingly Ukraine is getting more successful at taking out the enemy drones.
All these attacks are launched against civilian not military targets and while that does impact on the military to an extent, fundamentally it's a waste of resources by the russians.

[The Builder]

Thanks for that Ich.

[ichkeria]

Nato?

Stoltenberg could hardly be clearer: Nato is in this for the long haul. Having said that, it really should not take all that long. Delivery of the right weapons systems, in combination with Ukraine's superior training, moirale, tactics and motivation, should delivery victory sooner rather later - in theory. It is not just Nato, or the US or the EU or the UK. There is an alliance of 40 plus other nations who collaborate to provide assistance.

[jourdain2]

Yet again, thanks for all the info. you provide, Ich..

[ichkeria]

Explosions in several Russian cities tonight: Kursk, Rostov, Omsk etc

Omsk??!!