In Related News.

Against the news of Patriot being annihilated this should not also be forgotten. 

Several Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were recently supplied to Ukraine by Britain, have been shot down by Russian air defenses over the past 24 hours, its Defense Ministry has said. “Seven Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, three HARM anti-radar missiles and seven HIMARS multiple rocket launcher shells were intercepted,” the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, announced during a briefing on Tuesday. He didn’t say where the intercepts had taken place. According to Konashenkov, 22 Ukrainian drones were also destroyed over Russia’s newly incorporated territories: the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions.

This is how REAL air defense works. So, as was explained earlier, first two Storm Shadows which haven't been intercepted have been launched at civilian targets in Lugansk. Naturally, those targets haven't been defended by AD systems. US provides 24/7 intel to VSU, including electronic "map" which accounts for radar "picture" of Russian AD systems. In other words, the US provides intel on gaps in radar field. But even here they are primarily reduced to what amounts to attacks on civilian targets. As I already stated on many occasions, I will repeat again--the SMO will be, if not already, studied in all leading military academies as an example of how to fight modern war. 

Now, here is my friend and REAL war correspondent Marat Khairulin (in Russian) explains why Gerasimov is an outstanding military leader and also explains how Mr. Prigozhin "fought". 

Marat also comments on "voenkurvas". This is a very militarily literate SitRep by a professional.

Here We Go Again...

... even in this blog "specialists" in operations demand actions ranging from annihilation of Kiev to removing Russia's political top. I also want to reiterate here--I don't read and do not use ANY TG channels, especially by such "experts" as Boris Rozhin (aka Colonel Cassad) and his ilk, but only use confirmed information from Russia's MoD or people in the US who are military and intel professionals with the connections and access to reliable data. Here is what we know and was confirmed: one Mi-8 and one SU-34 have been lost (in Russian), very likely, but not 100%, due to use of the manpads by the VSU diversionary group near the border of Bryansk Oblast with 404. Read my lips--this activity WILL continue, because it is the only real track on which NATO can gain some PR success and deliver some pin-pricks. It is primarily the job for FSB. Yes, it is tragic to lose the crews and aircraft, but that happens once in a while--it is SMO, people die. I wonder where those media ass-holes (Zatulin, Starikov and other "strategists") who advocated for letting Ukrainians into Russia freely are now. Effectively, they advocated for importing sabotage networks of GUR and SBU. 

But by far more interesting is this:

МОСКВА, 13 мая - РИА Новости. Минобороны России сообщило, что накануне боевыми самолетами воздушных сил Украины был нанесен удар поставленными Великобританией ракетами Storm Shadow по Луганску.Пострадали мирные жители, в том числе 6 детей. Наносивший ракетный удар по Луганску самолет Су-24 и прикрывавший его истребитель Миг-29 воздушных сил Украины сбиты.

Translation: MOSCOW, May 13 - RIA Novosti. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that on the eve of combat aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force, a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile attacked Luhansk. Civilians, including 6 children, were injured. The Su-24 plane, which launched a missile attack on Luhansk, and the MiG-29 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force, which covered it, were shot down.

 

So, we know now that they did integrate Storm Shadows with SU-24s. OK, that opens the path down the slippery slope for some UK assets being targeted--how and when, I don't know. As I am on record constantly--it is all primarily PR and trying to "accelerate" this, now proverbial "counter-offensive". The level of BS in media is off the scale, including an openly Russian misinformation sewer such as Kommersnat, are risible. Here is NYT:

OUTSIDE CHASIV YAR, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army is advancing in attacks near the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian commanders said Friday, in fighting that has shifted the front line only slightly but is exposing fissures, confusion and alarm among Russia’s forces in the war. Russia’s pro-war bloggers were quick to claim that Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive had begun, but Ukrainian officials downplayed the advances and described them in more local terms. Ukrainian soldiers broke through Russian lines south of Bakhmut on Wednesday, they said, and then exploited that breach, assaulting Russian forces near the city and threatening Russian flanks to the north and south.

And who those Russian "pro-war bloggers" might be? Well, I repeat--a bunch of media shysters like Cassad, Interslava and other creeps whose delirium is actively used, including histrionics by Prigozhin, for creating a caricature. Or get a load of this:

Details emerge of Army Special Forces’ battle with Russian mercenaries.

I mean, I read a lot of purely military BS in my life--Tom Clancy's writing being an Exhibit A of this--and it is only natural for professional military environment sometimes to exaggerate, but reducing oneself to outright wet fantasies against the background of the NATO's strategic defeat--boy, how desperate one has to become to provide some spirit-lifting BS. Read my lips again: Wagner is a light infantry specifically honed for urban combat, which they do extremely well, and ARE NOT combined arms formation. In the open, they are no match for any combined arms formation of the US Army. Wow, the US Army "defeated" what amounts to a unit of light infantry. Lets add this to its glorious "victories" of this army in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan et all. Plus, the US Army never fought anything like SMO, not even close and it is not designed for it, because it never fought near peer enemy in its modern history. Pathetic. Here is your Saturday primer. 

Told Ya.

Not that this is any news, but still...

МОСКВА, 11 мая — РИА Новости. Американский зенитный ракетный комплекс Patriot не мог сбить российскую ракету "Кинжал" из-за своих технических характеристик, заявил высокопоставленный источник в Минобороны. "Дело в том, что скорость полета ракеты "Кинжал" превышает предельные боевые режимы поставленных Западом киевскому режиму зенитных ракетных комплексов, включая и Patriot", — объяснил собеседник агентства. Кроме того, как напомнил источник, на конечном участке полета "Кинжал" совершает противоракетный маневр и практически вертикальный заход на цель, что исключает возможность его перехвата зенитными ракетными комплексами. Он назвал заявления о сбитой гиперзвуковой ракете вбросом и подчеркнул, что это — "попытка выдать желаемое за действительное".  Ранее руководитель пресс-службы Пентагона Патрик Райдер на брифинге заявил, что Украина якобы сбила российскую ракету "Кинжал" с помощью переданного ей комплекса ПРО Patriot.

Translation: MOSCOW, May 11 - RIA Novosti. The American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system could not have shot down the Russian Kinzhal missile due to its technical characteristics, a senior source in the Ministry of Defense said. "The fact is that the flight speed of the Kinzhal missile exceeds the maximum combat modes of anti-aircraft missile systems supplied by the West to the Kyiv regime, including the Patriot," the agency's interlocutor explained. In addition, as the source recalled, in the final phase of the flight, the Kinzhal performs an anti-missile maneuver and an almost vertical approach to the target, which excludes the possibility of it being intercepted by anti-aircraft missile systems. He called the statements about the downed hypersonic missile a hoax and stressed that it was "an attempt to wishful thinking." Earlier, the head of the press service of the Pentagon, Patrick Ryder, said at a briefing that Ukraine allegedly shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile with the help of the Patriot missile defense system transferred to it.

 

You see, Physics is not taught to Western media personalities and the graduates of political "science" departments, and SMO exposed a complete inability of "influencer" class both in the West and in Russia to get anything right technologically, not to speak of operationally and strategically. Different war, people, different capabilities, different level of expertise is required, unlike it was in XIX century where one could relatively easily explain to dames at aristocratic soirees the nature of the linear tactics and the meaning of smooth bore guns. Which brings us to this:

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed that his government is supplying long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. CNN previously reported that several Storm Shadow weapons have already been delivered. Wallace informed parliament about the arms transfer on Thursday, claiming it was a “calibrated and proportionate response” by London to the situation in Ukraine. He described the missile as a “long-range conventional-only precision strike capability,” but declined to provide details about the latest addition to Kiev’s arsenal of Western-provided hardware. “The use of Storm Shadow will allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory,” the secretary predicted. He downplayed the significance of providing the new capability to Kiev, stating that the missiles were “not even in the same league” as those available to Russia.

Ben Wallace, being a big honcho of toy armed forces of a backwater country, obviously, slept at all lectures on operations in Sandhurst thinking that attack on Sevastopol and Black Sea Fleet will "allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces"(c). But then again, the desperation with which UK tries to grasp for the last remaining straw of its long gone greatness is amusing. As T.S. Elliot once quipped: 

“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” 

America is important, for many wrong reasons, but she still is, for now anyways. London--is not, no matter how it tries. And tries it does not even understanding that 10 Downing Street will not like the response. Many people still cannot understand that the side which has escalation dominance automatically has more options and UK (and NATO) is not this side. Well, I guess Sevastopol has to get ready--not the first time it will face perfidious Albion, Sevastopol faced down much more serious enemies. In related news, the CEP of Kinzhal or 3M14 is measured in centimeters and the whole territory of UK is well within the range. But then again, they don't teach Physics to British ruling class.