Free Republic

Roughly two months on from the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east of the country, it appears that the long-awaited main thrust of that operation may now be happening. That, at least, is the conclusion of two unnamed Pentagon officials, speaking to The New York Times today.Those officials said that the main thrust was focusing in an area in the southeast of Ukraine and involved “thousands of reinforcements.” Notably, it seems that a significant quantity of these reinforcements were trained in Western countries and therefore represent more capable troops, held back for just this eventuality.While details...

mid growing concerns about a potential new large-scale Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory, at least one Russian T-80 tank has apparently been sighted in occupied Crimea with a bizarre-looking ad hoc armor fit. Armor of this type has been increasingly appearing on Russian tanks as of late and appears to be primarily intended to defend them against attacks by loitering munitions and other armed unmanned aircraft. The solution, which is part of a wider trend of improved defenses for Russian tanks, may well have been inspired by the destruction wrought by drone-launched munitions during last year’s conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, although...

The Ukrainian Army continues to refine its anti-armor tactics using its American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles. Recent trials pitted the weapon against a static target equipped with improvised protection similar to the type that’s been appearing on the turrets of some Russian tanks of late, including those noted close to Ukraine’s border areas. That is a topic that you can read about in our previous article here. The new Javelin test comes as fears about a new Russian military intervention on Ukrainian territory grow and as Kyiv continues to battle Russian-supported forces in the eastern Donbas region, including using Javelin missiles.

U.S. Africa Command says that at least two MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets, possibly piloted by shadowy Russian mercenaries, have crashed in Libya. Jared Szuba, the Pentagon correspondent for AI-Monitor, Tweeted out that one of the jets was apparently lost on June 28, while the other went down on September 7, 2020. This information had come in a statement from Rear Admiral Heidi Berg, U.S. Africa Command's (AFRICOM) director of intelligence. Another tweet indicates that Berg believes that "Russian fighter aircraft," presumably MiG-29s too, but potentially also Su-24 Fencer strike aircraft, have conducted airstrikes in Libya. AI-Monitor's Szuba follows that up...