When judging the effect of the recently delivered HIMARS are having on the battlefield remember this; both the Ukrainians and the relatively few Russians that can speak freely are saying the same thing - they're devastating and the Russian military simply has no counter for them.
They're also saying that relatively sophisticated Russian air defence systems like the S300 and the S400 that "should" be able to intercept HIMARS rockets (on paper) cannot.
And they're saying that the Russians have suffered significant losses in move men and materiel. And don't underestimate the effect on morale of previously safe areas now being incredibly dangerous, subject to an unstoppable HIMARS attack at any time.
This is what the Ukrainians have achieved with between 4-6 systems.
They're getting a minimum of 6 more HIMARS and 9 M270 MLRS systems (which has twice the firepower of each HIMARS system) over the next month. That's a huge amount of firepower.
And let's think about the strategic picture...
This kind of incredibly accurate, virtually unstoppable long range firepower makes a Russian strategy of "digging in and annexing" occupied territory virtually impossible. It fundamentally changes the strategic calculation.
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Very loud explosions in Kyiv. Not just defence - in the distance I could see at least two clear impacts. People in the street below running to take shelter in the subway.
A loud whistling sound as a cruise missile flies overhead, followed by another loud explosion. Ukrainian surface to air missiles flying into the sky.
Another series of very loud explosions, slightly further away. Car alarms sounding. Smoke is rising in the distance as dawn breaks in the city.
I’m in Orikhiv Raion, speaking to the commander of a Ukrainian military unit currently deployed in Robotyne. As he described, the situation there is very tough for the Ukrainian defenders…
“The Russians are advancing around 250 to 500 metres per day. They’re hitting us with everything; artillery, FPV drones, aviation (glide bombs) and helicopters”. His unit - like every other unit we spoke to - mentioned the lack of Ukrainian artillery support due to supply issues.
“The Russians are pushing from all directions. They use ATVs to advance quickly, copying our tactics from the counteroffensive. They’re fighting much smarter and they have the advantage in numbers and firepower”.
Big story: The British government names the Russian FSB unit behind "hundreds" of hack and leak attacks targeting high profile British public figures. therecord.media/uk-names-fsb-u…
This is also long awaited official confirmation that Jeremy Corbyn did use documents stolen by the FSB during the 2019 general election.
At the time, he called such claims "nonsense" and "conspiracy theories", whilst refusing to reveal who had provided them to his campaign.
This was Corbyn's response to The Guardian when challenged on the (now proven) claims that Russian hackers had been responsible for their hacking and leaking.
"The plane that crashed in the Tver region belongs to Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to BAZA and journalist Ksenia Sobchak. There were 7 people on board the Embraer business jet, they died."
Important caveat; just because the aircraft belonged to Prigozhin doesn't mean he was necessarily aboard the plane and is among the dead. He may very well be, though.
Now TASS is claiming that Prigozhin was indeed aboard the private jet that crashed in the Tver region of Russia.
Note; this is still not definitive confirmation Prigozhin is dead. I would still want to wait for visual proof before saying for sure.
Last night the Ukrainians successfully struck the Kerch Bridge - which connects the occupied Crimean Peninsula with Russia - for the second time.
Severe damage was caused to the structure which is now closed.
Footage of part of the damaged Kerch Bridge taken from a passing train.
The adjacent railway bridge seems to be still operational, but the road bridge is currently closed in both directions.
The Kremlin claims the damaged roadway will be fixed in a month and blames the Ukrainian government and, predictably, claims British and American involvement.