Three Russian soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Engels airfield in Russia’s Saratov Oblast early Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Engels airfield is about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border and was targeted by a similar attack earlier this month. In the latest attack, Russian officials said that a Ukrainian drone was shot down while it was approaching the airfield.
“As a result of the fall of the wreckage of the drone, three Russian technical servicemen who were at the airfield were fatally injured,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
It’s not clear what type of drone was shot down on Monday. In the attacks Ukraine launched earlier this month, Russia said modified Russian Tu-141 drones were used. NATO military sources told Asia Times that the Tu-141s used US satellite GPS data to hit their targets despite Biden administration claims that the US didn’t “encourage nor enable” the attacks.
The Times recently reported that the Pentagon now tacitly backs Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, risking a major escalation with Moscow. The report said that the US was no longer concerned that Ukrainian attacks inside Russia could lead to a major escalation based only on the fact that Moscow hasn’t yet responded with nuclear weapons or attacks on NATO countries.
Has the Pentagon got manure for brains?….Russia isn’t stupid. They have to know that we’re supporting Ukraine… This could possibly escalate into a major war…
Probably ‘the Pentagon’ knows that the Russians are not stupid and do not have the slightest interest in a direct conventional conflict with the West – at least not one started by them – so thy need the US to strike first – which is not done by the Ukrainians sending old Soviet build droned to strike deep in Russia.
Probably right. Also probable: Russia will respond asymmetrically and the fight will be even more destructive of Ukraine.
And we will get away with them not hitting US military bases in Poland, Romania, and possibly even Germany.
Until we don’t.
Yup. That’s the risk in playing up-the-ante with an opponent on its own doorstep, where it has unquestionable escalatory dominance.
I would think Ramstein AB is a priority target for Russia.
Nixon responded asymmetrically. Putin will likely do the same. The results will be the same. The Russians will eventually have to leave Ukraine. And they will probably have to ease Putin out of office to do so. I agree that asymmetric wars are tragic for the weaker country. But it is the Ukrainian people’s decision whether to fight or surrender.
Decisions about whether Ukraine is able to continue fighting are made in Washington and Brussels.
You still don’t get it and Putin doesn’t either. As with the mujahdeen, Washington is backing a side that has popular support against a foreign invader. As with the mujahideen, Washington ultimately cannot dictate strategy or tactics or the terms of negotiation. On a cost benefit basis Russia has already lost the war. Russia’s ability to inflict pain on Ukraine undermining Russia strategic position in the world order. Eventually the Russians will have to leave. It will probably take new leadership to bring that about.
But Russia will take the USA/NATO down with them, that is what nuclear weapons are for. Putin said it some time ago, he said,” there will be no world without Russia.”
I thought that is what he meant when he said it.
It sticks in my mind.
Renate, If Putin meant what you think he meant, then he is batshit crazy. We can’t live in a world dictated by a lunatic with 6,000 nukes who threatens first strike when he does not get his way. Russia needs a leadership that can recognize that Putin made a colossal mistake when he invaded Ukraine.
We need a real regime change, we have nothing but lunatics and a senile president, they are the batshit crazy ones. Americans live thousands of miles away from the continent, so what business do they have in Ukraine?
Just because Biden is batshit crazy doesn’t mean that Putin isn’t. They are both dangerous megalomaniacs. Most times the US President is the more dangerous imperialist. At the moment Putin is more dangerous because he=got himself into a war that Russia can’t win and he is dropping hints that he may go to a nuclear first strike if Ukraine does not surrender.
Is it not equal to what the US is doing?
If the USA would be attacked with nuclear weapons like they did in Japan, what would the US response be? The USA annihilates other nations all the time with conventional weapons, so a threat to annihilate the USA is a natural response to US insanity against Russia. What is nuclear deterrence all about if not annihilation? Biden and his neocon cabal is bat sh*t crazy, they escalate, where will it end? the US gets away with total destruction of others and Putin says, but not this time with us. Russia reacted against NATO military exercises in Ukraine which were meant to attack Russia, Angela Merkel just told us that, Minsk was a cover to gain time to get ready to invade Russia. Angela Merkel is not known to be a liar and no one has disputed what she said. The USA is the enemy of Europe, they sabotaged the pipelined and weaponized LNG, NOT Russia.
Biden should listen, Putin will hit back and he has the wherewithal to do it. The Biden people should stop their insanity, he should fire the neocon cabal. But he too wants more war.
Putin is very clear, Russia will not use nuclear weapons first, but it will strike back. The US has not made such a commitment, they reserve the first strike right, including the use of nuclear weapons against non nuclear nations. The US has ended nuclear agreements, refused to renew ending agreements, Bush ended the ABM contracts and they put the world back to square one it is called MAD.
Don’t blame Putin, he did not do it.
Renate, read the Russian nuclear doctrine. Both the US and Russia reserve the right to a nuclear first strike. China is the only nuclear power that has an absolute no first strike policy. China’s policy is that China will never use nuclear weapons unless China is attacked with nuclear weapons. China backs up that policy by storing its warheads separately from its missiles and bombers. India has a limited no first use policy where India reserves the right to a first strike if attacked with biological or chemical weapons. No other nuclear power has a no first strike policy. During the cold war the main threat of a first strike was from NATO because of the Warsaw Pact’s conventional supremacy in Europe. All the war games and models of a conventional war in Europe ended with the Warsaw Pact overwhelming NATO and NATO having to choose between defeat and a first strike. The war in Ukraine has shown that Russia is no longer a conventional threat to NATO. Biden may be evil, but he has no incentive to launch a first strike against Russia. Even if Ukraine was completely defeated, the US would have no reason to go to war with Russia. But with Russia facing defeat in Ukraine, the main danger of nuclear war comes from a stressed out Putin unable to face defeat in a war on which he has staked his legacy.
Russia would use it if it is the last chance of existence. That is when they would end the enemies existence to. ” I do to you as you do to me,” that is a very old saying. The USA will use nuclear power if they lose in a conventional war as I recall going back to the Bush neocons. That would explain why they ended all nuclear agreements. Since we are back to square one, no nation can give up the first strike policy. Deterrence only works if others believe you will use the nuclear power if it helps to win. Now the fact that neocons believe a nuclear war is winnable, a no first strike is just BS, Israel is totally without any restriction, it does not admit it has nuclear weapons while it knows, the whole world knows they have them and they will use them when it pleases them. MAD SAYS IT ALL.
“The USA will use nuclear power if they lose in a conventional war as I recall going back to the Bush neocons.”
The USA just lost a war last year. Where’s that nuke?
What could have been gained? In Afghanistan they had to get their own troops out first, they did not inform their allies, they only told them to use commercial flights out. The country was already rubble and poor after 20 years of war, and there were sanctions to use to revenge the humiliation and clean the nations bank accounts. They are not done yet to punish the Afghan people. The neocons like to kick people when they are down.
China and India are leading the way by pledging no first use of nuclear weapons. The West and Russia have a lot to learn from them. For several years China and India have been fighting a war for over disputed territory in the Himalayas with the People’s Liberation Army and the Indian Rangers throwing rocks and snowballs at each other. The Indians recently accused China of escalating the conflict by using metal rods with spikes on the end.
They are old societies and border conflicts have been common all through history, compared to them the US has hardly a history worth mentioning, 300 years when they count thousands of years. They had high cultured societies thousands of years ago and we think we can look down on them. In Europe there are roads and bridges going back to the Roman Empire. They had no computers to do the math but they still stand while our bridges collapse barely a few years old.
“Even if Ukraine was completely defeated, the US would have no reason to go to war with Russia. But with Russia facing defeat in Ukraine, the main danger of nuclear war comes from a stressed out Putin unable to face defeat in a war on which he has staked his legacy.”
Read what you posted and tell me WHY in the WORLD is the USA involved in Ukraine, Why is Biden pushing to get NATO militarily involved, beyond funding and arming the Ukrainians????
You posted “Even if Ukraine was completely defeated, the US would have no reason to go to war with Russia. ” Ukraine already is defeated, that is why Biden is moving heaven and earth to get NATO boots on the ground.
Ukraine without NATO supply is like a turtle on its back. They already lost the best part of their military and they have no reserves to make up for it. You fool yourself when you talk about Putin and defeat.
Why is the USA going to war against Russia now, you know as well as I do, Ukraine is a USA proxy, it is cannon fodder, it was used to provoke, NATO is just a convenient cover. There is no more cannon fodder, unless they get Poles to replace the Ukraine losses. One more thing, Russia was no threat to any NATO member and is not now. The USA was always a threat to Russia, and why, let me tell you Russia has natural resources the US energy giants want, oil is why. Yeltsin privatized and that was great, but Putin stopped that and reduced the corruption he did not privatize the nations resources. The West was robbing Russia blind, Putin saved the Russian nation.
Sorry, but your argument lacks logic.
The Ukrainian people have no say so, they are cannonfodder and disposable and so is Ukraine and Europe as far as NATO is concerned.
This is definitely intentional as it is part of a pattern.
I think the US lives that could be lost due to this stupid behavior is a risk that they are willing to take.
I think NATO is the joker in the deck. It is cracking, the people demonstrate against NATO. In Poland the people are not on board with their government. Polish soldiers have volunteered to fight in Ukraine because Ukraine has not enough men left, they put teens in uniform, the Baltic states are small and poor states. France, Germany, and Italy, and Turkey
may say no. No telling how the people will react. The press is controlled and manipulates public opinion. But that too has limits.
NATO is not cracking down on people demonstrating – NATO does not control the domestic affairs of its members – so perhaps NATO is not the joker you think, as you appear not to understand what NATO is.
In Poland the support for the Ukrainians is massive so a very significant majority behind the governments strong support for Ukraine.
https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/topics/latest-news/2022/december/support-for-ukraine-is-declining-slightly
No poles have volunteered to fight in Ukraine for many different reasons few if any have heard that Ukraine does not have men enough left as this simply is not true – Ukraine has a population similar to that of France at the start WWI – France lost more men on average every day for 4 years of that war, than Ukraine has lost on average every day during this war, and that is if we accept the Russian MOD figures for Ukrainian losses.
Richer per capita than e.g. Russia and having supported Ukraine at a much larger share of GDP than other countries – and still the populations are driving additional support through private campaigns.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/
What would they say no to? There is still significant majority support for delivering weapons in France and no majority against in Germany – perhaps more importantly there is support for energy independence (of Russia) in Germany and across EU.
And how does Turkey fit into this – there is no debate about NATO actions against Russia so even them saying no if they were to do so, does not have any effect.
The press is controlled all through EU and Turkey? Any supporting evidence for this assertion?
NATO has molasses for brains…”Moscow hasn’t Yet responded…” Yet can be a long time or a short time….
“The report said that the US was no longer concerned that Ukrainian attacks inside Russia could lead to a major escalation based only on the fact that Moscow hasn’t yet responded with nuclear weapons or attacks on NATO countries.”
So, what is the game plan? Since Russia took the bait and invaded Ukraine is the US/NATO going to put out bait until Russia responds with nukes? What other reason will stop them from putting out more bait?
The US government is not happy about these drone attacks. The truth is that Russia is fighting a Ukrainian national resistance. TheUS/NATO are backing the Ukrainians but the US/NATO does not control the Ukrainian resistance any more than the USSR controlled the North Vietnamese or the Vietcong. The Ukrainians are pissed off and will fight until Russia leaves. Ironically, Russia is in a worse strategic situation than if Putin had not invaded and instead confined his protests to futile diplomatic protests.
The consequences of wars are almost always worse for all parties than the consequences of provocations.
Over 8 years 14,000 civilians and combatants on both sides were killed in the Donbas insurgency. In Putin’s idiotic war hundreds of thousands have died, millions have been turned into refugees and the war has no end in sight. It has been a strategic disaster for Russia and a human catastrophe for Ukraine,. Putin’s war strengthened NATO, brought Ukraine closer to the West and involved Russia in a “forever war.” Putin’s war is insane and Russia needs a leadership that can recognize Putin’s mistake and have the courage to withdraw from Ukraine.
🙄
The generals and the strongmen always underestimate the power of the people to resist foreign invaders.
a ukraine drone managed to fly 300 miles into russia before it was shot down ?
Maybe, or maybe Ukraine-US-UK-NATO has operatives in Russia.
If drones are repeatedly evading Russian air defenses for 300 miles and hitting Engels (Engels!), I imagine there are some very tense meetings and discussions taking place in Russia.