War with Russia

[Pinno718]

Ukraine war headlines.

• Russia Launches massive attack on Kyiv immediately After Trump–Putin Call
• Russia’s Auto Market continues to collapse, with June truck sales down -66%
• Despite -48% drop in price, Russia’s coal exports collapse -50% Leaving Ports Flooded
• Leaked Agreement on Zangezur Corridor Signals Russia’s Waning Grip on South Caucasus
  A tentative agreement reported between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye on the long‑debated Zangezur Corridor marks a watershed moment in the South Caucasus—crystallizing a shift in regional power dynamics as Russia grapples with a faltering economy, its war in Ukraine, and diminishing influence.
  
  Though officials in Yerevan, Baku, and Ankara have yet to confirm details, multiple sources—including Turkiye Today—describe a consensus that a direct rail and road passage will now connect Azerbaijan’s mainland to its exclave Nakhchivan via Armenia’s Syunik region, without Russian control over the route. The corridor promises to link Central Asia and China to Turkey and Europe, bypassing Moscow’s traditional transport monopoly.
  
  This development comes against a backdrop of Russia’s deepening strategic retreat. Once the essential security broker in the region, Moscow has seen its influence siphoned away since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
• Hungary turns against Viktor Orban
• Ukrainians hit another oil tanker as well as a munitions warehouse, military airfield and a drone jamming facility
• Ukrainian women are training as drone operators

 

[Pinno718]

Russian troops fleeing...

(as well as up to 500,000 young, eligible Russians who fled Russia to avoid conscription)

Iditri Lesom, a Russian who ran an organisation in Moscow fled Russia and went to Tblisi. He formed an organisation made up of 8 full time staff and over 200 volunteers who assist soldiers in deserting.

Russian bailiffs act as recruitment agents, offering army contracts and lucrative sign up fees which in turn relinquished their debt. They are all told that they will be doing administrative jobs but actually end up as frontline fodder, lacking the proper military training required to fight effectively, such is the urgency to push these troops through to active service.

An estimated 50,000 have deserted.

 

[Pinno718]

More news: Russia's 155th division wiped out according to intercepted voice calls and major pipeline to Vladivostok severely damaged. The pipeline serves military outposts on the Pacific rim.
Ukrainians hit Russian port. One vessel shown burning out at sea.

 

[briantrumpet]

More news: Russia's 155th division wiped out according to intercepted voice calls and major pipeline to Vladivostok severely damaged. The pipeline serves military outposts on the Pacific rim.
Ukrainians hit Russian port. One vessel shown burning out at sea.

Keep up the optimistic good work, Pinno, even if at the moment I'm more in a Blakers frame of mind re Ukraine while Trump is vacillating, torn between his puppy love for Putin and seeing the killing going on in Ukraine the minute he gets off the phone with his BFF.

 

[Pblakeney]

Keep up the optimistic good work, Pinno, even if at the moment I'm more in a Blakers frame of mind re Ukraine while Trump is vacillating, torn between his puppy love for Putin and seeing the killing going on in Ukraine the minute he gets off the phone with his BFF.

View attachment 8958

Even I am bolstered by Pinno's optimistic posts.
I am clinging onto the ROTW cutting itself from the teat of the US and them becoming irrelevant. It's kinda what they want anyway.

 

[Pinno718]

Russian airfield hit overnight in Vronunes Oblist, 300 km inside Russia. No verified reports of any (doesn't mean there wasn't) damage to planes but huge fire erupted:

 

[Pinno718]

More... Russians pulling out Antonov 2 planes out of the sheds. These aircraft are unreliable and were banned from flying in the Ukraine a long time ago against backdrop of unreliability. Russians are struggling to source new parts for planes, let alone old parts for old planes

 

[briantrumpet]

It's the annoying thing about Trump - it seems like it wouldn't take too much to stick it to Vlad with some well-aimed heavy strikes in Crimea (Kerch Bridge?) and elsewhere, and to put them right back on the defensive.

 

[Psamathe]

It's the annoying thing about Trump - it seems like it wouldn't take too much to stick it to Vlad with some well-aimed heavy strikes in Crimea (Kerch Bridge?) and elsewhere, and to put them right back on the defensive.

Or, according to some knowledgeable commentators, severe sanctions.

Ian

 

[briantrumpet]

Or, according to some knowledgeable commentators, severe sanctions.

Ian

Thems too.

 

[Pinno718]

It's the annoying thing about Trump - it seems like it wouldn't take too much to stick it to Vlad with some well-aimed heavy strikes in Crimea (Kerch Bridge?) and elsewhere, and to put them right back on the defensive.

Trump keeps flip-flopping. He's currently slightly pro-Ukraine. A Ukrainian commentator noted the NYT pushing Trumps ego buttons in the hope to push him into maintaining/increasing military support:
Egging the 'incompetent fool' who said that 'Putin had changed' but the reality being that Trump's slow cognitive processing ability has finally come to the conclusion that Putin has played him and that perhaps Donny, he (Putin) has always been like that after all, he is ex KGB.

[Russian insider]
The Russian banks (according to conservative estimates) has 3.8bn in bad debt. The 3.8bn is confirmed by Russian press but that might only be about a half. Income tax has been increased to 25%. Income tax collection is 11bn Rubles down with 25bn Rubles in uncollected tax.
OPEC countries are increasing oil production and although Russia still exports oil and gas, global oil prices are low @ $66.5 per barrel. So Russia is receiving less money for what they are selling.
In the manufacturing and construction industry, there are billions in unpaid wages as there is no money for contracts. Russian 'eural's (their term for oil prices) spiked to over 70 eurals per barell but then quicky sank back to the current price after the Iranian conflict subsided.
Uptron, an avionics manufacturer, has gone bust with net losses of 148m Rubles. Nothing outstanding about a company going bust but this company was the only company in Russia making semi-conductors to run military aircraft including the flagship MIG2. The military mandates companies to produce these parts but at a low cost which has ultimately lead to the companies demise. The contractor cannot refuse a military contract as there is no authority above the Russian MOD. Companies are not allowed to disobey the MOD in this Russian war economy.
Between April and June 17th this year, Russia printed 2tr Rubles in an effort to maintain money supply. We will watch as inflation is set to sky rocket. as prices rise and the Ruble drops against other currencies.