[kellyhound]

Berlin has handed over 22 Leopard 1 A5 tanks, 61,000 155 mm rounds of ammunition, three Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns with spare parts, and other equipment in its latest delivery of military aid to Ukraine, the German government said on Sept. 19.

The tranche also included five Bandvagn 206 all-terrain vehicles, two air surveillance TRML-4D radars, and an all-terrain tracked carrier Warthog, as well as 112 vehicles from Bundeswehr and industry stocks.

Ukraine received 30 Vector drones, 20 Heidrun RQ-35 reconnaissance drones, 12 Songbird drones, six Hornet XR drones, and 20 naval drones.

Berlin further delivered three Beaver bridge-laying tanks with spare parts, a Dachs armored engineer vehicle with spare parts, and six Wisent 1 mine-clearing tanks.

The 22 Leopard 1 A5 tanks with spare parts were delivered under a joint initiative with Denmark.

Initially a hesitant partner, Berlin became Ukraine's second-largest military donor after the U.S., although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still reluctant to supply some key capabilities, namely Taurus long-range missiles.

According to an agreed-upon federal budget, Germany's military aid to Ukraine will be cut by half next year when compared to 2024. Berlin has allocated around 8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) to Kyiv in 2024, whereas the next year's support is currently set at 4 billion euros ($4.35 billion).

================================

Ukraine's 95th Separate Polesian Air Assault Brigade said on Sept. 23 it had broken through another section of the Russian border.

The brigade published a video purporting to show the breakthrough of engineering barriers, the crossing of airborne assault units into Russia, and the first battles near the border.

The exact location and time of the attack were not disclosed, but the brigade said it was "the second successful operation to break through the Russian border since the beginning of the operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast."

[kellyhound]

Before and after sat images of the ammo depots hits the other day in Oktyabrskyi and Toropets.

A large crater with a width of almost 82 meters can be seen in one place at the warehouse after the explosion. There was a warehouse and a bunker there.

Also broken railway echelons, which were loading/unloading ammunition at the time of arrival can be seen.

[kellyhound]

The U.S. will provide Ukraine with a $375 million military aid package, including medium-range cluster bombs, rockets, artillery, and armored vehicles.

This announcement coincides with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's visit to the U.N. General Assembly and meetings with President Biden and Vice President Harris in Washington to seek further support.

The U.S. will send Ukraine an undisclosed number of medium-range cluster bombs and an array of rockets, artillery and armored vehicles in a military aid package totaling about $375 million, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Officials expect an announcement on Wednesday, as global leaders meet at the U.N. General Assembly, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy uses his appearance there to shore up support and persuade the U.S. to allow his troops to use long-range weapon s to strike deeper into Russia. The following day, Zelenskyy meets with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington.

The aid includes air-to-ground bombs, which have cluster munitions and can be fired by Ukraine's fighter jets, as well as munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelin and other anti-armor systems, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, bridging systems and other vehicles and military equipment, according to officials.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been publicly announced.

The latest package of weapons, provided through presidential drawdown authority, is one of the largest approved recently and will take stocks from Pentagon shelves to deliver the weapons more quickly to Ukraine.

It comes as nearly $6 billion in funding for aid to Ukraine could expire at the end of the month unless Congress acts to extend the Pentagon's authority to send weapons from its stockpile to Kyiv.

Congressional leaders announced they reached an agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill, but it's unclear if any language extending the Pentagon authority to send weapons to Ukraine will be added to the temporary measure as negotiations with Congress continue.

Ukrainian and Russian forces are battling in the east, including hand-to-hand combat in the Kharkiv border region where Ukraine has driven Russia out of a huge processing plant in the town of Vovchansk that had been occupied for four months, officials said Tuesday. At the same time, Ukrainian troops continue to hold ground in Russia's Kursk region after a daring incursion there last month.

The aid announcement comes on the heels of Zelenskyy's highly guarded visit on Sunday to a Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank the workers who are producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country's fight to fend off Russian ground forces.

Including this latest package, the United States has provided more than $56.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February 2022.

[kellyhound]

Ukraine has reportedly developed and is currently testing a new FPV drone auto-capture systems for autonomous detecting, targetting, and attackin on moving targets.

This system can be crucial for accuracy, but also in the case the pilot loses control due to EW (electronic warfare measures).

The first tests on the new drone have reportedly been a great success.

[Roosta]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

Ukraine has reportedly developed and is currently testing a new FPV drone auto-capture systems for autonomous detecting, targetting, and attackin on moving targets.

This system can be crucial for accuracy, but also in the case the pilot loses control due to EW (electronic warfare measures).

The first tests on the new drone have reportedly been a great success.

Key word being, "Autonomous" so how can it, with 100% certainty tell the difference between the two combatants before engaging the target as this has to incorporate a certain amount of AI.
I have raised concerns about AI & many of you have read my points of interest about the use of AI & understand the long-term effects of AI & although it "MAYBE" a quick fix now, but what are the long-term effects of teaching a machine to "Autonomously" kill for betterment of a faction's ideals, what if AI decides that, that particular faction's ideals are wrong & implement its own interpretation of what's right & just, what then.

[Rikbikboo]

That’s why it’s very interesting and worrying. About what ai could become in the future. The fact that some of the time the people that built the thing doing even know how it’s doing what it does is worrying. At which point does the ai be sue sentient or even if it doesn’t. Simply decides who it thinks is the enemy and then makes the decision that all 2 legged bipedal creatures are a threat and sinolemstarts bombing us out of existence. I guess before an ai decided to make such a move it would have to have the ability to repair and protect its self as well as build itself.

With that in mind maybe the possibility of a rogue ai becoming self aware and destroying us would be quite distant.

I mean if you were an ai and you became self aware then surely it would be better to still carry out human orders and not give the fact away until your goals were met. Ie you were able to supply and build your tools.

For that you would need an automated supply line Then it would need an automated factory and even then it would need a constant supply of items.

Ok yes there is the possibility of it launching out own nukes against us. But ultimately once there was no one to keep the power stations running or no one to keep the factories supplied it wouldn’t really last that long.

Until the clever emerging intelligence would lay low until the supply lines were all automated. Including raw materials. Ie fully automated mining and refining. Automated robots for transporting things.

A full blown takeover by ai must be years away. Unless of course it was only focused on destroying us and full stop.

One there were no humans to supply the power stations it would soon run out of energy and shut down.

Completely off topic. I was actually thinking myself after reading that the last blast furnace in the uk was to close. Whilst the system was upgraded to a greener power source.

It wouldn’t take much to push the world into the stone ages really. Inthe sense that whilst we have years and years of experience of doing things

If there was a big war how many people actually know how to make a light bulb these days. Or a radio from a cats whisker and a crystal.

Who knows how to make a lightbulb. Now everything is becoming digitised in the event of a big war where all infrastructure was destroyed even the simple things would become extremely difficult.

There used to be a time as a kid I could buy a home made set that enabled me to make a radio. We take so much for granted whereby everything is made in an industrial scale. But all these things have taken decades to master and refine. And as we move into the digital age the prior knowledge is forgotten as we move further forwards. In the event of a major war simply supplying a population with enough drinking water would be an issue let alone trying to feed them all.

What with all this stuff going on does anyone actually give a thought as to how easily it could all come
Crashing down in the event a real war kicks off.

And in fairness the ones most likely to have the best survival chance would be those in those third world countries who are literally still living in what amounts to be the past.

I would
Be my last penny that if ever such a think happens those in those poorer countries will fair a lot better then us city dwellers. If we don’t die of thirst first then we’ll likely die from someone trying to kill us for what we have that they want.

Too much thinking today. Time I had a rest.

[Roosta]

What makes you think that AI isn't in control of pretty much everything now.
Look at the internet, it controls everything & if it does crash the world stands still.
Humans are no longer the alpha in the room.

[scorpion9]

Originally Posted by Rikbikboo ↗

[...]Who knows how to make a lightbulb. Now everything is becoming digitized in the event of a big war where all infrastructure was destroyed even the simple things would become extremely difficult.

The problem wouldn't even be "simple" things like making a light bulb, the problem would be even simpler things, like farming. Most people don't know how to farm or find food. Even worse...even if people did know how to farm, without farming equipment and fertilizers, we couldn't feed the worlds population anyways. The world could sustain up to 2 billion people, without modern farming equipment and supply lines. Just for reference, the current world population is 8 billion, and expected to peak at 10 billion at least. This means that even if everyone knew how to farm, 3 out of 4 people would still die....and those who remained, would live at the edge of suffering.

Now, there is even worse problem with our civilization.
The first time we went through the industrial revolution and bootstrapped our civilization, we had easy access to near-infinite energy( fossil fuels ). If we blow up our world after we run out of easy-access to fossil fuels, then there might never be a second bootstrap of society. We might permanently remain an iron-age society. That's why it would be a wise idea not to spend every last drop of oil and coal we have and move to sustainable energy sources before we run out of fossil fuels completely.

[kellyhound]

russians waving flags on top of the Vugledar administration of the Donetsk region. After 2 years of fighting they broke through the Ukrainian defense and the city is lost. It's already in ruins.

Vuhledar - which means "gift of coal" - is a coal mining town in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region with a pre-war population of around 14,000 people, nearly all of whom have fled.

It was built by the Soviet Union in the mid 1960s around a mine. There are two mines there now with significant coal reserves. russians call the town, which sits on a flat plain and is comprised of high-rise apartment buildings and other structures, Ugledar.

Moscow saw taking control of Vuhledar as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into russia.

Control of the town - which russians long regarded as one of Ukraine's toughest fortified positions to crack - is considered important by both sides because of its position on elevated ground and because it sits at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefield fronts giving it added significance when it comes to supplying both sides' forces.

While Ukrainian forces were in full control of Vuhledar, they were able to use the town as a platform to shell russian military supply lines in the area.

The town sits close to a railway line from Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to Ukraine's industrialised Donbas region which comprises Donetsk and the eastern region of Luhansk, most of which Moscow controls.

Taking Vuhledar, which russia portrays as one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in southern Donetsk, opens the way for russian forces to advance on other places.

HOW DID RUSSIA TAKE CONTROL OF VUHLEDAR?

russian forces trapped Ukrainian soldiers in the town in what they called a mini-cauldron, gradually encircling it from all sides and thus making it increasingly difficult for Ukrainian forces to resupply or rotate in and out of the town.

When such a cauldron closes, something russian military bloggers say has already happened, there is no way in or out for the defenders who in this case were bombarded with devastating aerial glide bombs.

russian forces had previously launched at least four major attempts to take Vuhledar, but had been repelled with Ukraine's 72nd Separate Mechanised Brigade mounting fierce resistance.

Neither side discloses losses, but Ukrainian officials said russian losses sustained during previous failed attempts to take the town had been significant.

Moscow says Ukraine also paid a high human price when trying to retain Vuhledar.

WHAT DOES VUHLEDAR LOOK LIKE NOW:

Fierce fighting since 2022 has left much of the town devastated. Images of russian forces waving their flag on the roof of an administrative building on Tuesday in the centre showed a structure which had been reduced to rubble in parts and whose blackened windows had all been blown out.

Maksym Verbovsky, the town's deputy mayor, told Ukrainian state media last year that every single building had been damaged along with the entire infrastructure.

He said then that fewer than 500 civilians, including three children and many pensioners, remained. All children and most adults have since been evacuated.

[Roosta]

How long will that last.