Generous.

This is coolbert:

Fur coats. Sheep carcass. Firewood. Frozen fish.

COMPENSATION FOR THE LOSS OF A HUSBAND KILLED THE UKRAINE CONFLICT?

"Widows of dead soldiers from Kremlin’s sham republics only get fur coats as compensation"

From  www.yahoo.com  The New Voice of Ukraine    February 7, 2023 

"Kremlin propagandists have posted on Telegram photos of widows of dead soldiers from the sham republics who were given fur coats as compensation for the loss of their husbands."

"Telegram users supposed that these 'generous gifts' were highly likely stolen somewhere in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian areas, as is the practice of Russian looters."

"However miserable this 'compensation' may seem, some people in Russia's remote districts are sometimes even less fortunate."

"In particular, frozen fish was handed out on Sakhalin in the Russian far east as a compensation for the eliminated mobilized soldiers."

"In Tuva in Southern Siberia, where the current Defense Minister of Russia, Sergey Shoigu, was born, sheep carcasses and even wood are given as compensation for relatives killed in the war in Ukraine."

Compensation as deemed dependent on your ethnicity? Widows of the "Great Russian" grouping faring the best? Generous as with question mark.

coolbert.

OFAB-100.

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Once again an occurrence of the Ukrainian Tu-141 intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance [ISR] drone weaponized in combat mode with explosive warhead!

Russian air defense beware! The chickens are coming home to roost.

"Soviet-era Stryzh recon drone, modernized by Ukraine, likely behind explosion near Kaluga, experts claim"

From https://www.yahoo.com the original story "The New Voice of Ukraine" | February 7, 2023. 

"Kaluga Oblast Governor Vladislav Lapsha said on Feb. 6 that an unknown drone crashed near the regional capital city. It was firstly reported that the drone exploded 50 meters above the ground, but lately it was discovered that it had hit the tops of trees and fell."

"Photos from the spot show the wreckage to be that of a Tu-141 Stryzh drone with an OFAB-100-120 small aerial bomb onboard, the outlet wrote."

OFAB-100-120 rate as among the dozen Russian weapons doing the most damage in the Syrian Civil war. OFAB when detonating sending a spew of many thousand of steel balls in all directions.

Kaluga located about 320 miles [200 km.] from Kharkov. Kaluga well within airspace and territory of the Russian Federation.

See all previous blog entries the Tu-141 operating in combat mode:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2022/12/tu-141-ii.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2022/12/tu-141.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2022/03/undetected.html

coolbert.

E.N.O.T.

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First there was Wagner. Then there was Patriot. Now one more Russian private military contractor [PMC]?

E.N.O.T. Corp. Raccoon!

E.N.O.T. Corp. . . . is a Russian private military company founded by Igor Mangushev.

"It has undertaken mercenary work in Ukraine, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh."

"E.N.O.T. is an acronym of Единые Hародные Oбщинные Tоварищества (English: United People's Communal Partnerships); also enot is Russian for racoon"

"The organization is sometimes known as the Yenot or Racoon PMC."

"E.N.O.T. was founded in 2011[3] by Russian nationalist and Svetlaya Rus founder Igor Mangushev to bring together various Donbas-based militias and give them a more official status and ability to process funds for fighter's salaries, pensions, and other social protections. E.N.O.T. has undertaken armed activities in Ukraine, Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh."

One PMC, two PMC, pretty soon you got a whole bunch of PMC!

See previous blog entry the topic Russian PMC Patriot:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2022/12/competitor.html

coolbert.

Returned.

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Courtesy once more the input from the Internet web site "Bayou Renaissance Man"

Verse and poetry, Rudyard Kipling, the military dimension.

"Saturday Snippet: The return of a changed soldier, and a solemn reminder"

 bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com | Peter Grant | February 4, 2023.

Following last week's Kipling poem, several readers asked whether he'd written any other verse from the point of view of a veteran remembering his service.  Well, yes, he did:  and it's a rather good poem, too.  Here's "The Return".  It's the second-last in a sixteen-poem cycle titled "Service Songs", published in Kipling's collection "The Five Nations" in 1919.  It's set at the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, and written from the perspective of a returning veteran who concludes England was worth his efforts.

(If you have difficulty understanding any of Kipling's terms, some of which he made up himself, the Kipling Society has some useful commentary on the poem.) - Peter Grant.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Peace is declared, an’ I return

  To ’Ackneystadt, but not the same;

Things ’ave transpired which made me learn

  The size and meanin’ of the game.

I did no more than others did,

  I don’t know where the change began.

I started as a average kid,

  I finished as a thinkin’ man.

[....]

If England was what England seems,

  An’ not the England of our dreams,

But only putty, brass, an’ paint,

  ’Ow quick we’d chuck ’er! But she ain’t!"

Devoted readers to the blog are encouraged to read the entire poem for yourself. Again as Peter Grant states, if you have any "difficulty understanding" refer to the Kipling Society web site.

Is Kipling even read or studied in institutions of higher learning any more? He would be considered to be too "colonial"?

coolbert.

Gaziantep.

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Great calamity Turkey. Earthquakes of powerful magnitude causing massive damage and death.

As for the military dimension to the disaster.

"Gaziantep Castle collapses after magnitude 7.7 quake hit Türkiye"

BY "DAILY SABAH"  ISTANBUL FEB 06, 2023 - EDITED BY BUSE KESKIN. All thanks to "Daily" including the video.

"Gaziantep Castle (Turkish: Gaziantep Kalesi) is a castle on top of a mound in the center of Gaziantep, Turkey. First used as an observation point during the Hittite Empire, it was expanded into a castle during the Roman Empire. The castle was severely damaged by the earthquakes in February 2023."

"The hilltop was first used as an observation point by the Hittite Empire. It was later expanded into a main castle by the Roman Empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It underwent further expansion and renovation under Emperor Justinian I between AD 527 and 565. The circumference of the round shaped castle is 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). The walls are built of stone and the castle has 12 bastions."

"The castle has been renovated numerous times. It saw changes made during the reign of the Ayyubids in the 12th and 13th centuries, as well as the Ottoman Empire, and played an important role during the War of Independence of the early 20th century."

"Video showing damage to the castle and the nearby Şirvani Mosque on the day of the 2023 earthquake"

"On 6 February 2023, the castle was severely damaged by two consecutive earthquakes. Some of the eastern and southern bastions collapsed, and iron railings and walls around the castle were seriously damaged."

Comments:

* Used since the time of the Hittites. That is around 1500 B.C.E.

* Architects and master builders of yore knowing full well the commonplace occurrence of earthquakes in the area were accustomed to waiting as long as two years after a foundation having been laid down before commencing construction of any sort of further massive structure.

coolbert.

FRANK01.

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Shoot-down Chinese bandit intruder balloon American airspace radio communications between pilots and ground control as copied in real time.

"Intercept audio: Listen to the jet that shot down the Chinese Spy Balloon (actual radio audio)"

Thanks to Airplane Ian  Feb 4, 2023 as found on You Tube:

"Composite clip including interception audio from the shoot-down of the suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Also includes video of the shoot-down and a time lapse of ADS-B flight tracking data from the region. The shooter is FRANK01, a F-22 based out of Langley AFB, and they are coordinated with HUNTRESS, callsign for NORAD's Eastern Air Defense Sector control."

Look at the inset far-left bottom of the video! Shows abundance of commercial air traffic vicinity Myrtle Beach at the time of the shoot-down!

And from comments from an acknowledged aviation authority the lack or non-use of non-secure communications:

"I am surprised that this was all done 'in the clear'. Combat planes have 'secure voice', a scrambled radio transmission and reception device that prohibits others from listening in . . . [first used] in the Vietnam War in mid-late 1972, with great success. It is undoubtedly far more efficient and useful now."

coolbert.

Foolish II.

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The Danes do it. The English do it too.

HEAVY guns as meaning 155 mm self-propelled howitzer.

Consider within context that emphasis on WORKING!

"Artillery regiments run out of... artillery: British Army is 'stripped of heavy guns after defense chiefs pledged to give 30 working AS90s to Ukraine'"

From www.dailymail.co.uk By BRITTANY CHAIN 1 February 2023 | 

* "The British Army reportedly has no heavy guns left after donation to Ukraine" * "There are concerns the decision could leave Britain in a vulnerable position" * "But the consensus is Ukraine needs the weapons more to stave off Russia"

"The British Army reportedly has no heavy guns left anywhere in the country after handing them all over to Ukraine to assist in the efforts against the Russian invasion."

"Defense chiefs have pledged all 30 working AS90s to Kyiv and are now urgently seeking K9 Thunders [South Korea] and Archer guns [Sweden] to replenish their stocks."

This is NOT to say the British now are sans artillery. They continue to have firing pieces of the 105 mm light gun type.

It can be suggested the AS90 was going to be replaced anyhow [the Danes said the same thing] but total conversion to artillery of the self-propelled heavy type was not to completed until 2029 at the earliest [or is it latest?].

coolbert.