“Russia’s Crimean red line has been erased,” argues a columnist for the US magazine Foreign Polic (Russia's Crimean Red Line Has Been Erased by Ukraine)y.
In the face of ongoing drone attacks, long-range missile attacks, sabotage operations and destruction of military facilities across Crimea, Russians hardly treat the Ukrainian peninsula as some kind of sacred ground.
Instead of rushing to defend Crimea, Russians have begun leaving the region en masse. Instead of seeing Russians lining up to help the Kremlin defend the peninsula, Moscow continues to discuss the possibility of a second, much wider, f___ed mobilisation. And rather than leading to any nuclear conflagration, Russians’ restrained response to the ongoing bombardment of Crimea has shattered Putin’s claims that the peninsula is some kind of special, sacred land.
As McGill University professor Maria Popova said recently on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Crimea is nothing special, let alone a red line.”
Indeed, though few have noticed it, Ukraine’s continued shelling and strikes on the peninsula have illustrated one clear lesson: the idea that Crimea is some sort of holy land that Russians will defend - an idea that too many in the West had previously swallowed - is dead.
And with that death came a host of new opportunities for Kiev and Western partners, who suddenly realised that Crimea was hardly the holy land Putin once claimed it to be.
And with this Crimean “red line” gone, and the idea that Crimea is some sort of holy land for Russians destroyed, Western governments have no reason not to do everything in their power to support Ukrainian efforts to reclaim every inch of territory, including Crimea.
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“FROM THE ANALYST”
GLSDB PREPARES FOR SHIPMENT
The long awaited HIMARS & MLRS launched Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb is being readied for shipment to Ukraine, according to co-developer SAAB’s CEO.
The project is an amalgamation of older rocket motors and small bombs that would otherwise have been scrapped.
The rocket motors are refuelled with solid propellant and safety checked, the bombs are checked for explosive and electro-mechanical viability. The two are then married to a glide kit with wings and guidance system, tubed up then shipped for firing in a standard compatible launcher.
The cost savings using existing parts and kit cut the cost and time of development dramatically and the ongoing lessons of dealing with advance Russian EW have apparently been incorporated, following the hard lessons learned with the JDAM and its loss of accuracy. That loss was a combination of Russian signal spoofing - where they create a fake stronger GPS signal to draw it away and jamming to stop re-acquiring the real signal.
The bomb itself is the GBU-39/B weighing 110Kg.
The range of the system is around 150km (93.21 miles) - which extends the capability of the launcher vehicles dramatically.
The glide bombs can potentially be shot down, but it’s unlikely Russia has anything like the coverage necessary to defend from them, certainly no more than Ukraine has against the FAB-500 aerial glide bombs the Russians are using in large numbers.
This weapon, which can be produced in large numbers from mostly existing kit, has the potential to make the life of Russian logisticians and artillerymen a complete nightmare, as if it is t already.
The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with missiles for Patriot air defence systems
Russian involvement! I think we already knew.
Putin: an Israeli ground operation will lead to unacceptable civilian losses.
