Really important question below: why would you even design a T-72 so that the crew literally has to sit on top of hundreds of kilos of highly explosive ammunition and propellant? /1
@clmazin answered this by analogy in his brilliant script for #Chernobyl. In the (fictional) courtroom scene in the final episode, Soviet nuclear scientist Valeriy Legasov explains why Chernobyl was effectively rigged to explode: /2
"It's cheaper". That's the answer to the T-72's design flaws. It's much smaller and lighter than the US M1A1 Abrams or similar British and German tanks. But it costs a fraction of their price, at the cost of crew safety. /3
I think we often forget how much poorer Russia (and the USSR before it) is than the West. Millions of Russians still live in abject poverty, without clean water, indoor sanitation or paved roads - much as their great-grandparents did 100 years ago./4
Russia and the USSR have sought to compete with the West by making cheaper and less safe weapons because they didn't have the means to compete on quality. Unfortunately for thousands of Russian soldiers, that philosophy is now costing them their lives. /end
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1/ Crimea is falling into a critical situation, says Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, while in the war as a whole, Russia is "very close to the line beyond which lies military defeat". He lambasts the Kremlin for "lethargy" and living in fantasy on the "Planet of the Pink Ponies". ⬇️
2/ Writing to a friend from his jail, Girkin comments on Ukraine's drone offensive:
"– The situation in Crimea. It is grave now, but promises to become critical in just a few weeks if the enemy continues its strategic air offensive against it at an increasing pace.
3/ "Naturally, this is not just a coincidence - the enemy has far-reaching strategic plans in this direction and is preparing to implement them, increasingly disrupting Crimea's communications with Northern Taurida [i.e. the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions]…
1/ Much worse is to come in Moscow, warns Russian warblogger 'Intelligence Diary'. An AI analysis shows that the city is full of strategic targets that Ukraine may try to hit as its drone offensive increases in scale and scope. ⬇️
"Drones have struck the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya for the third time since May. The question isn't whether the attacks will continue, but what will happen next."
3/ "Moscow and the surrounding region are the country's largest industrial region. High-tech production facilities are concentrated here, protected by air defences—things Russia can't afford to lose: energy, rocket science, and the defence industry.
1/ Ukraine's massive drone strike against Moscow – with a reported 555 drones and missiles fired, and 180 claimed to have been shot down over Moscow – has prompted anger, defiance, and resignation from Russian warbloggers. "Tehran is safer", one says. ⬇️
2/ In a since-deleted comment, 'Fighterbomber' writes:
"The strikes on Moscow are alarming and concerning, primarily because, over the past four years, an air defence system has been built around Moscow that is unrivaled anywhere in the world."
3/ "I don't think there's even one comparable in quality and effectiveness.
And it's letting through strikes. It's letting through strikes even on the same target.
1/ Everything's fine, there's nothing to worry about, says Russian political scientist Sergey Markov. Only minor damage has been inflicted by today's Ukrainian strike against Moscow and the most powerful air defence system in the world has been effective. ⬇️
2/ In a masterpiece of minimisation, Markov writes:
"Moscow Mayor Sobyanin stated that Moscow suffered another attempted air strike today, with 180 Ukrainian Armed Forces drones shot down as they approached Moscow."
3/ "Several drones reached the oil refinery in Kapotnya, a district of Moscow. The Sadovod complex also sustained minor damage."
Sadovod is a huge market, apparently the largest in Europe, located essentially in Moscow, just outside the Moscow Ring Road, not far from Kapotnya.
1/ Prominent Russian warblogger Maxim Kalashnikov has been arrested on suspicion of assisting Ukraine's drone strikes against the Moscow Oil Refinery. Other warbloggers are gloating. ⬇️
2/ 'Alex Parker Returns' is gleeful:
"The dick has played his violin too much. Political blogger and publicist, and dare I say it, war correspondent, Maxim Kalashnikov, was summoned to the police for publishing the aftermath of a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow."
3/ "Investigators believe he worked as a spotter for the crests and recorded the results of the incoming attacks, along with the locations of air defence systems. Those responsible for this morning's massive strike have been found."