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13 minutes ago, Bill said:

Look, it's really quite straightforward ... if the cap fits, put it on.

If the cap were to fit 'some on here' then he would be able to substantiate what he said. Maybe he can but so far all we have are some excuses.

 

The rules of the forum are clear on whether or not that is acceptable.

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10 minutes ago, ranger_syntax said:

If the cap were to fit 'some on here' then he would be able to substantiate what he said. Maybe he can but so far all we have are some excuses.

 

The rules of the forum are clear on whether or not that is acceptable.

Takes some ego to assume everything thing is about you does it not? 

 

Go whine to the admin like a cry baby if you want see if anyone gives a shit.

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25 minutes ago, forlanssister said:

Takes some ego to assume everything thing is about you does it not? 

 

...

Should I take you through the posts to demonstrate the absence of any reference to myself?

 

:)

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Meanwhile in the real world, of the almost unreal 'Shaman Battalion', 

why having balls of steel is necessary....

 

‘Shaman’ special forces take the fight across the border into Russia

Maxim Tucker, Kyiv

Sunday June 26 2022, 6.00pm, The Times

 

Sergeant “Handsome” and his brothers in arms in Ukraine’s 10th Special Forces Detachment routinely operate behind enemy lines and inside Russia itself

Sergeant “Handsome” and his brothers in arms in Ukraine’s 10th Special Forces Detachment routinely operate behind enemy lines and inside Russia itself

 

 

Rotor blades clattered in the night sky as the helicopters streaked low over the Russian border. On board, the men of the Shaman battalion, an elite Ukrainian special forces unit, prepared to disembark deep behind enemy lines.

Their mission, to destroy infrastructure vital to the Kremlin’s war effort, was one of several covert raids inside Russia, The Times has been told by two of the operators who took part and an intelligence officer; the first time Ukrainian special forces have acknowledged taking the fight into Russian territory.

The exact targets are classified but the teams’ forays across the border help to explain how Russian oil refineries, ammunition depots and communications networks have been mysteriously sabotaged.

Sergeants “Handsome” and “Twenty Two”, both aged 25, have been fighting President Putin’s forces since his hybrid invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Intelligent, articulate and in peak physical condition, they were selected for the special forces after years of combat in regular units.

“The most interesting missions are working behind enemy lines; planting explosives behind the front lines, beyond the border,” said Twenty Two, detailing a plan to sow confusion and dissent among the enemy that he asked The Times not to disclose in full.

Handsome added: “The Russians don’t know what happened, they often can’t believe we were there.”

 

Both are members of Shaman battalion, a nickname given to Ukraine’s 10th Special Forces Detachment for its almost otherworldly abilities. It is the assault and reconnaissance arm of Ukrainian military intelligence, and it accepts only those men who pass the most gruelling tests of endurance and survival skills. The unit specialises in diving, parachuting and mountaineering.

 

It has fought alongside British and American troops in Afghanistan and earned a reputation as the crème de la crème of Ukraine’s special forces. “We send them to take on the most difficult tasks because they’re the best and the bravest,” said a senior Ukrainian intelligence officer. “They are hugely important to the war effort.”

Although the unit was better prepared for February’s invasion than other branches of the country’s armed forces, it still came as a shock, Handsome said. “Every day we had been told the invasion would start tomorrow, and then it didn’t come,” he said. “When it finally started I didn’t believe it.”

The men were thrown into battle immediately against their counterparts in the Russian Spetsnaz at Antonov airport in Hostomel, where helicopter-borne paratroopers were attempting to secure an air-supply route to armoured columns advancing on the Ukrainian capital. “We took positions in the hangars and the barracks, engaging in a four-hour firefight until we needed to rotate with some national guard units,” Handsome said. He described the first hour of the battle as chaos, as the Ukrainian military scrambled to co-ordinate its defence, but their efforts at the airport prevented Russia gaining a vital foothold outside Kyiv.

They then deployed to the village of Moshchun to prevent the enemy crossing the Irpin river, which would have given Putin’s forces a clear run on Kyiv. Three teams cleared the village and dug in to a forest along the river bank, where they waited for the attack. They fell back into the village buildings under heavy shelling as a far larger force backed by two infantry fighting vehicles began crossing the river. Although heavily outnumbered “as always”, the teams waited until the Russian troops were deep in the centre of the village before ambushing them, engaging in close-quarters combat and striking from both flanks.

 

The special forces battalion have been described as the “the best and the bravest”

The special forces battalion have been described as the “the best and the bravest”

 

“We were shooting from 5-10 metres away,” said Twenty Two. “We’re always trying to keep tight, to grab the belt of the enemy, because at that point they can’t use their artillery. They have a lot more artillery than us, but their morale is very low, they can’t engage in one-on-one combat. It’s psychologically very difficult to stand in a firefight where you’re using frag grenades and underslung grenade launchers.”

After routing the Russian troops and destroying the two armoured vehicles with British-supplied Nlaw anti-tank missiles, Shaman battalion withdrew from the village to regroup. “By this time it was around 10pm and we had no batteries left for our night vision,” Handsome said. “We heard that another force of 50 men and another armoured vehicle were moving towards the river.”

 

Again the Ukrainian teams moved into the village and waited quietly in the dark, listening for the sound of Russian footsteps. “My friend heard an officer order his troops to move into a tactical line, then they came at us screaming and shouting,” said Handsome. “But they made a mistake and did the same thing, coming into the centre of the village. So we killed them all too.”

 

Shaman battalion was involved in every big engagement in the battle for Kyiv, and continued to harass the invasion force as it fled through the Chernobyl exclusion zone back across the Belarusian border.

Special forces have formed the backbone of Ukraine’s defences, often organising freshly mobilised troops who are highly motivated but undertrained and ill-equipped. The operators described having to instruct regular units on taking up the best defensive positions to cover an assault before moving in to lead an attack themselves. “Right now there aren’t enough resources to cover all the tasks we need. We have the people but we don’t have enough resources to give everyone the right weapons,” said Twenty Two. “This is a war of artillery and aviation, we need more of both.”

Inexperienced infantry needed to be bolstered by experienced operators in order to hold the line under fierce bombardment, he added. “Until we have resources, the special forces are coming and organising the war on a section of front line. We’re taking the communications, the medevacs, going in before the infantry and after the infantry, we’re co-ordinating every element in this area.”

Ukraine’s reliance on its special forces has taken a heavy toll on the units themselves, he said: half of their friends have been killed in recent weeks as the battle for the Donbas region grinds on, with Russia focusing its air power and superior artillery on a small segment of the front line. The unnamed intelligence officer agreed: Ukraine’s casualty rate, far lower than Russia’s in the first weeks of the war, is now approaching parity with the invading force, he said.

The operators are grateful for western weapons supplies, upgrading their AKMs to FN SCAR-L rifles, among other things, but said the intensity of operations was costing them more equipment than was arriving. They called for faster deliveries of military aid, particularly vehicles, Nlaws and heavy weapons.

The men gave an example of a high-tempo mission behind enemy lines where they had to abandon two vehicles with blown-out tyres because they had no time to change them. “People are using anything with wheels, even their own cars,” Twenty Two said. “I’m having to hold my night-vision goggles up to my eyes because the helmet attachment has broken off and I can’t find a replacement.”

He was hit by a frag grenade last Sunday while storming a Russian trench but has left the shrapnel inside his forearm, covered only by a large plaster, rather than pause operations. “We’re trying to creep up, use stealth to get close. It’s very difficult, you have a lot of equipment, you need a lot of ammo, it’s very heavy and when you’re trying to crawl, it’s very noisy.

“But we achieved surprise. The first guy that saw me, he lost himself, he didn’t expect us, he was afraid and I just shot him from maybe 7m away, underneath the [ballistic] plate carrier. You’re always shooting at the balls, there is not enough protection there. It’s 100 per cent to kill the enemy: you’re destroying his arteries and breaking his pelvis. He cannot escape, he cannot run, he cannot crawl, he cannot do anything. It’s impossible to give first aid to a man wounded in this area. You can’t use a tourniquet or bandage.”

He is unnervingly calm as he describes the best way to kill; the words of a young man who has come of age fighting the Russians and for whom violence has become normalised. “I went to war at 18, I didn’t see a different world, I didn’t see peace. From the start of my adult life, I’ve seen only this, so I don’t have any different picture of life,” Twenty Two said. “You can’t even imagine how many young people, 18 or 19, are signing up now to join the army. They might have one rifle and one magazine but they are going forward, just because it’s needed. It reminds me of us at that age and we realise the next generation is going to grow up with war too. That’s Russia’s fault.”

Before the invasion Twenty Two had begun planning to set up a chain of gyms. Handsome was expecting to go into Ukraine’s blossoming IT industry, build a house and start a family. Now they are focused solely on defending the motherland.

“Everybody has his own motivation. Somebody has a wife, somebody already doesn’t have a wife, some people have family in occupied Kherson, or under Russian artillery in Mykolaiv,” Twenty Two said. “My motivation is to fight to see something different, to see a civilian life. For the next generation to not have to fight a Russian war.”

It’s a profound statement from one so young. “I’m about to turn 26,” he said. “At least I hope so.”

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shaman-special-forces-take-the-fight-across-the-border-into-russia-0l6srllwk

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23 minutes ago, ranger_syntax said:

Check out this tweet.

 

 

The point he makes is so simple that it should cause great distress.

How long d'you suppose there have been Russian "boots on the ground" in Ukraine ... and every NATO country. Perhaps that's just not news, oral least convenient news.

 

The other interesting aspect of this is that anyone would quote the NYT as a source of anything reliable.

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