Jimmy_D

That awkward moment when you've been arming people against their will, sending them against an enemy that allows them to surrender, generally creating conditions that make rebellion more likely, and 90% of your military is tied up in a special military operation. Belgorod in Russia, near the border with Ukraine, being attacked by anti-Putin Russian separatist forces today according to reports.

Unusual throw in technique there, almost looks like a cricketer’s bowling action

Some goal that!

West Ham look way off the pace so far

Biggest risk to them is probably that Leeds have a half-decent chance of taking six points off of West Ham that will be concentrating on the cup now, and Spurs that have been really inconsistent away from home. That would take it out of their hands. Everton’s injuries mean that a result against Bournemouth is by no means guaranteed either. Whatever happens it’s going to the last day.

Damn. If we’d managed to get Gakpo over the line, or even if one of our backup options had fired a bit more, would have been hilarious to see Leeds, Leicester and Everton all getting relegated.

Annoying that Everton got the equaliser, especially as it seems like the final whistle should have long gone when they got it, but dropping two points does mean that their fate isn’t in their own hands at the moment, with their position threatened by two different teams. Admittedly in a relegation battle having the points on the board is more valuable, but they’re certainly not in a comfortable position.

Can’t think of any CL semifinals I can remember more one-sided than that was. City a ridiculous team this season.

I’d be amazed if that doesn’t end up being the case at this point. Looks like it’ll only be a win against massive odds that prevents the treble.

Looks like the final will between two teams that we beat the last time we faced them in cup competitions

I’m guessing they had figured out the location of a Patriot system and wanted the PR victory of one being destroyed to be sending that much all at once. They got the opposite of that. I’d imagine there are some pretty nervous people that claimed those ‘impossible to intercept’ capabilities in Russia for the Kinzhal when it was developed.

As far as I can tell, the sea launched version is the non-export version that France developed and it also has a range in excess of 500km. That range would make it restricted from being exported, so it’s unlikely to be that version, especially as Ukraine don’t have a way to sea launch at the moment anyway, so there’s no benefit to sending a retro-restricted version of that missile. The restriction is non-binding, so the extremely small possibility that France have ignored that and are sending the 500km+ range versions will be giving Russia a headache, but it looks likely France are essentially sending identical missiles to the ones the UK have sent.

Seems it actually was Storm Shadow, assuming these pictures are accurate. Also looks like Russian air defence operators are seeing shadows everywhere, reports of two Russian helicopters and two Russian jets hit by friendly fire so far today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Shadow#Operators We’re certainly not deciding targets for all of those. Planning precise missions won’t be any more complicated than planning GPS coordinates to route the missile around known high concentrations of AA defences.

We’re literally sending the export version of the missile. You think we’d be controlling every missile we ever sell?

Just how complicated do you think targeting these things is? There’s absolutely no benefit to either us or to Ukraine for us to be deciding where these things are targeted, or for us not to be providing the capability to target them.

Wait, you think the UK are going to be picking targets themselves here?

There’s no doubt the UK will be providing technical assistance for them, they announced they already had, to get them working with Soviet jets, but it’ll still be Ukraine’s command chain that’s directing any use for them.

It’ll depend on exactly how many we’ve sent, we had an initial stockpile of about 900 - 1000, and have expended about 90 - 100 over the years. If we’ve sent only very low numbers, at least initially, then any decisions on use will have to go right to the top, whereas if we’ve sent more then decisions can be taken lower down the chain, but even then it won’t be too far down that it goes. Ukraine will already have a list of priorities depending on what they’re planning to do. I’d imagine that among their initial targets will be S300 and S400 control vehicles to suppress Russian anti-air, so that the planes carrying these can get closer to the front line and hit further back. Before that though, Russia will have to react to knowing Ukraine has these. That’ll alone will be an advantage for Ukraine. It’ll likely also open up the political possibility for other countries to supply similar range missiles, perhaps without being announced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65558070 That's significant. Storm Shadow is a highly capable missile. Range of at least 300km, roughly equivalent payload to 5 HIMARS, and with stealth capabilities that make it extremely difficult to intercept. They have several different guidance systems that make them extremely accurate, and almost immune to EW jamming. That puts into range Kerch Bridge, Sevastapol port, forward air bases, rail hubs, and every large ammo dump that Russia had pulled back beyond HIMARS range. They'll be forced to either stretch their already failing logistics out to unfeasible distances, or risk losing any big target in range. Being launched from a jet makes that even more difficult to calculate. Any further cruise missile launches from the Black Sea against civilians will also be extremely risky for Russia.

Reports that small scale combined arms counterattacks around Bakhmut in the last 24 hours have liberated kilometres of territory that Russia had spent months capturing, and forced an entire Russian brigade to be disbanded. Early indications, it seems Russia were spending far more resources than they could sustain in an attempt to dislodge Ukraine before 9th May, and are now tapped out, at least for the moment. Considering the amount diverted from other areas of the front by Russia to Bakhmut, and Ukraine were still able to do this, it seems to bode well for the counterattack. I’m not sure we’ll see a huge breakthrough suddenly overnight, although I’m sure Ukraine would do so if the opportunity presents itself, but my gut feeling is that they’ll just use the intelligence at their disposal, knowing that Russia don’t have the resources to fully defend the whole front, and just keep hitting where they’re weak until Russia have no choice but to withdraw further and further back.

Seems that tank was taken from a museum, and originally manufactured in Ukraine. Flyby section also completely cancelled. Considering Russia’s usual habit of trying to appear as strong as possible in propaganda, seems unlikely they’d be willing to let people in Russia be able to see front and centre a position of weakness like that unless they had no choice.

AMN had controlled the ball, looked more of a foul by the Forest player lunging in to me.

They’ve said it’s a less severe problem than ‘Global Health Emergency,’ but it’s not like it’s suddenly gone away completely. It’s still causing around 3500 deaths a day worldwide. There will likely always need to be some measures against what can still be a deadly disease for some, similar to measures taken against severe flu or MRSA or any number of other diseases that are carried out every day in hospitals.

Unless it’s a feint, or a negotiating tactic to get more ammunition delivered, looks like they’re intending to leave it in the hands of the Russian Army, albeit that’d likely be more or less the same as giving up on taking it. I guess Ukraine finally managed to tip the scales on it costing Wagner too much to take Bakhmut, especially with Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive likely putting a short time limit on that being viable. Ammunation shortages aren’t just limited to Wagner, Russia have been holding back ammunition everywhere, likely to stockpile it for that counteroffensive. Or they’ve been trying to, they’ve been nice targets for HIMARS at least. On top of that, Ukraine have been absolutely hammering Russian artillerly, fuel, and logistics the last few days. Looks like Ukraine are doing this similar to Kherson, where Russia know it’s coming and their morale will already be shaky when the fighting starts, albeit not focused on one city this time, adding the unknown factor for Russian troops whether it’s them that will end up facing it.