#dneiper

[theworldatwar]

A German Ju 87D of III./St.G17. Staffel is about to take off from the Dnieper border region - Eastern Front, Summer 1942. Note the wheel casings have been removed to avoid the plane flipping over on poor surfaces during landing / take off

[geekysteven]

"Yeah, we gay, keep walking"

[Image description Photo of a statue of two men standing and holding hands while looking defiant. One of them is holding a rifle in his left hand and is holding the second man's hand, the second man also has a hand on the first man's shoulder.]

[strangesibyl]

18,000 years ago there were people building a life out of mammoth bones in the Dneiper Valley

The world has changed so much since then.

Like the land itself- something we think of as unchanging in our short lives- has changed. There are seas younger than these cultures.

I will never know a mammoth

But those people 18,000 years ago were literally exactly the same as me. Same needs for sleep, warmth, food. They had families and made art.

If I think about it too hard I get filled with such specific emptiness that turns into a spinning sort of panic.

[templeofthehorn]

Ancient Shiva Linga in Ireland

In County Meath, Ireland, on the Hill of Tara sits a mysterious stone known as the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny). According to The Annals of the Four Masters, an ancient document written by Franciscan Monks between 1632-1636 AD, this stone was brought to Ireland by the Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernaturally gifted people. Some speculate it was they who brought the power to make bronze to Ireland. They were the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland.

The Tuatha Dé Danann, meaning the children of the goddess Danu, are said to have ruled Ireland from 1897 B.C. to 1700 B.C. having arrived from the coast on ships. The Christian monks viewed the stone as a pagan stone idol symbolic of fertility. This stone was so important that it was used for the coronation of all Irish Kings up until 500 AD.

The goddess Danu in European tradition was a river goddess. We find her namesake in rivers such as the Danube, Don, Dneiper, & Dniestr rivers. In some Irish texts her father is said to be Dagda (the good god), a father figure in Irish tradition.

The Vedic tradition also has a goddess Danu, the daughter of Daksha, wife of Kasyapa Muni, who was a goddess of the rivers. The word Danu in Sanskrit means ‘flowing water’. As the daughter of Daksha, her sister Sati would have been married to Lord Shiva. Finally, Tara, meaning ‘star’ in Sanskrit, is another name for the wife of Lord Shiva. To practitioners of Vedic tradition the Lia Fáil matches very closely to the Shiva Linga.

Eventually the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated in battle. According to legend, they were allowed to stay in Ireland only under the ground as the ‘Aes sidhe’ – people of the fairy mounds.

In recent years the sacred stone has been subject to desecration. In June 2012 a vandal struck the stone 11 times. You can watch a newscast on this act of vandalism:

Again, in May 2014 vandals poured red and green paint over its surface. These actions are most unfortunate. We would encourage those in Ireland to protect and visit this ancient stone – a link to Ireland’s Vedic past.

From:

Bhaktivedanta Ashram

[doorsblacksea]

DOORS’ Scientists respond to the Kakhovka Dam collapse

Image: Odessa Port on the Black Sea, receives water from the Dnieper river delta.

The blowing up of the Nova Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine on June 6 has resulted in a devastating flood, impacting numerous communities. DOORS’ Scientists, using the monitoring tools at our disposal have already begun to analyse the impacts on the Black Sea. Many thanks to Prof. Andrew Tyler from USTIR and Prof. Nikolai Berlinsky of OSENU for contributing to this article.

The Black Sea is one of Europe’s most challenged ecosystems. Large rivers such as the Danube, Dniester and Dnieper provide a direct connection between society’s activities and the marine environment. Population and land use intensification, deforestation, overfishing and an ever increasingly complex cocktail of pollutants have directly impacted the Black Sea ecosystem. Nutrients from the land drove intense blooms of algae in the western shelf that ultimately led to oxygen depletion at depth. This oxygen depletion has a significant effect on the biodiversity of marine life, especially filter feeders such as molluscs that would normally consume the algae. These periods of oxygen depletion result in more nutrients being released into the water column thereby perpetuating the intensity of algal blooms. Following the collapse of communism in the 1990s, the flux of pollutants dramatically declined from Danube, Dniester and Dnieper and the Black Sea. Since then, the ecosystem has been in a fragile state of recovery and threatened further by climate change, marine litter and microplastics.

Image: Many of our Ukranian friends and colleagues joined us in Trabzon for our General Assembly, June 2023. © DOORS Black Sea

The blowing up of the Kakhovskaia hydroelectric power station and dam resulted in the flooding of an area in excess of 600 km2 as shown from satellite imagery. This liberated pollutants and detritus that would otherwise have been protected from entering the Dneiper River. Professor Yurii Tuchkovenko from Odessa State Environmental University (OSENU) highlights that fuel, lubricants, chemicals (including pesticides), wastewater, heavy metal compounds, and the remains of dead animals were washed into the Black Sea. Furthermore, given the ongoing war, there is a risk that mines and munitions will also have been flushed into the coastal environment.

Image: Kakhovka Dam Flood - Situation as of 09/06/2023 3:36pm (UTC) Imagery from Sentinel-1. Produced by Dr Cristian Silva Perez © Scotland’s international Environment Centre, University of Stirling

It is estimated that the immediate area impacted in the Black Sea was around 620 km2 on 6th June, 1250 km2 on the 9th June and 1710 km2 on the 10th June. The salinity of this part of the Black Sea is 3 times lower than expected, while suspended matter has increased 15-fold, and oil pollution is 6 times expected levels. The beaches have also been filled with waste and other debris.

Image: Kerson Flooding, Imagery from Sentinel-1. Produced by Dr Cristian Silva Perez © Scotland’s international Environment Centre, University of Stirling

According to the information from the Odessa Regional Center for Control and Prevention of Diseases of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, cholera-like viruses and a positive astrovirus RNA was found in the seawater samples taken on June 14, 2023. Based on the information of the Sovereign Ecological Inspectorate of the Pvdenno-Zakhidny District (Mykolaiv and Odeska Oblasts), the translocation of suspended rivers was recorded 5 times. In seawater samples taken on “Lanzheron” beach, an excess of suspended solids has increased 5-fold and the salinity is lower than the norm by 2.9 times. Citizens of Odessa have been advised not to visit the beaches or swim in the Black Sea.

Image: Citizens of Odessa have been advised not to visit the beaches or swim in the Black Sea © OSENU.

In the hours after the collapse, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said “a global ecological disaster” was playing out. On 8 June Zelenskiy himself said that 50,000 hectares of forest had been flooded, and that 20,000 animals and 10,000 birds were “under threat of imminent death”.

Such an event presents a shock to the environment and extensive monitoring is required to not only assess the full extent of the damage, but importantly, to begin determining solutions to mitigate these impacts on an already fragile ecosystem.

[liberty1776]

Has even a thousandth of the American treasure that has been spent on the war in Ukraine – stoking it, generating it, and extending it – knowing the end result and planning on that end result – been worth it to you and your constituents, so far?  Do you perversely enjoy destruction and murder and waste of war from afar, in an undeclared and unconstitutional war you goaded, facilitated, waged and funded (with our money, and our children’s and grandchildren’s liberty)?  Were you born missing a spine, a brain and a moral compass, or did they just atrophy from lack of use?  With all due respect, and a hangman’s noose at the ready,

[kushblazer666]

dneiper???? like the beck song??

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Herodotus and the Scythians (II)

Here is the second part of the same paper of Karen S. Rubinson on Herodotus and the Scythians. Tomorrow I will add some thoughts of mine on this topic. 

”Nomadic Scythians

The first passage we will consider is from Book IV, chapter 46: “Having neither cities nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wher­ever they go: accustomed, moreover, one and all of them, to shoot from horseback: and living not by husbandry but on their cattle, their waggons the only houses that they possess, how can they fail of being unconquerable, and unassailable even?” Models of covered wagons have been found in the Black Sea region. Also, many objects designed for portable living have been found at Pazyryk, including wooden vessels and leather flasks, in addition to the more fragile ceramic containers, and small tables with legs that are easily removable for convenient transport.

Representations of Scythians shooting bows from horseback are illustrated on objects from Scythian tombs.

Archaeological evidence for their depen­dence on livestock and horses includes many representations of Scythians with livestock, including a necklace found recently by the Russians in a rich burial in the Ukraine.

However, traces of settlements have been found in recent years in the lower Dneiper region, and it has been suggested that these people were nomadic only in the summer, returning to the same winter quarters in suc­cessive years. Similar hypotheses have been put forth about those living in the Altai. But is it likely that their economic base was their flocks, and that the grain traded to the Greeks was grown by local agrarian people whom the Scythians controlled by actual or threatened force of arms? So Herodotus was generally correct in this statement, but probably exag­gerated the non-sedentary nature of their lifestyle.

General view of Scythian silver axe head with iron blade. 6th-5th century B.C. Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Purchase, 1965. H. Dunscombe Colt Gift.

Detail view of Scythian silver axe head with iron blade. 6th-5th century B.C. Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Purchase, 1965. H. Dunscombe Colt Gift.”

Arms and Armor

As a further test of Herodotus’ accuracy, we will examine the statement of Book I, chapter 215: “In their dress and mode of living the Massagetae resemble the Scythians. They fight both on horseback and on foot, neither method is strange to them: they use bows and lances, but their favourite weapon is the battle-axe. Their arms are all either of gold or bronze. For their spearpoints, and arrowheads, and for their battle-axes, they make use of bronze; for head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold. So too with the caparison of their horses, they give them breastplates of bronze, but employ gold about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates. They use neither iron nor silver, having none in their country; but they have bronze and gold in abundance.”

“In their dress and mode of living the Massagetae resemble the Scythians.” Hero­dotus himself considers in this statement the strong similarity of two nomadic groups which were widely separated geographically, just as we have. He places the Massagetae (Book I, chapter 204) on a “vast plain” to the east of the Caspian Sea. The Scythians lived in the region just north of the Black Sea (Book IV, chapters 17-20, 48-57).

“They fight both on horseback and on foot, neither method is strange to them.” The evidence to support this statement includes the decoration on a Greek-made gold comb from a 4th century Scythian tomb on the Dneiper which shows a group of three Scyth­ians in combat. One is mounted on horseback, and the other two are on foot, one apparently because his horse was slain, but the other is represented without a mount.

“They use bows and lances, but their favourite weapon is the battle-axe.” In this same scene on the comb we see the mounted figure fighting with a lance, and bows and arrows suspended at the left sides of the mounted and bareheaded figures. (The special case which held both the Scythian compound bow and the arrows is called a gorytus.)

Lances and bows can also be seen held by figures on a gold vessel from the Kul-Oba tomb on the Kerch peninsula. An elaborately decorated, gold-covered, iron battle-axe has been found in a Scythian tomb in the Cau­casus, and the Scythians are represented on metalwork using battle-axes. Another form of Scythian battle-axe, in this instance made of iron and silver, is shown here.

“Their arms are all either of gold or bronze. For their spearpoints, and arrowheads, and for their battle-axes, they make use of bronze.” In the above paragraph are enumer­ated many gold-covered weapons. Scythians also used daggers and short swords with gold-covered sheaths and handles. Bronze spear-points, arrowheads, and battle-axes have been found in abundance.

Other arms included shields; a shield from Pazyryk made of parallel staves bound together with leather closely resembles the shields held by the figures on the Solokha comb. This fact supports our original assump­tion that we could use Herodotus’ descrip­tions of specific nomadic groups to give us an overall view of the Eurasian nomadic way of life in the middle of the first millennium B.C.

“For head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold.” Scythian helmets of both bronze and gold exist. Part of a wide gold belt decorated with Scythian motifs, found in Iran, is illus­trated here. The nomads wore gold elsewhere on their persons, especially in the form of small gold plaques, such as those applied to a shirt found in the Caucasus.

“So too with the caparison of their horses, they give them breastplates of bronze, but employ gold about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates.” Horse trappings have been found in the Pontic region and the Altai, many of which were of bronze, occasionally gilded. Gold cheek-pieces and frontlets have also been excavated, as well as horn and bone bridle fittings. In the Altai, wooden bridle pieces covered with gold leaf were excavated.

“They use neither iron nor silver, having none in their country; but they have bronze and gold in abundance.” It is indeed true that gold was plentiful in the Altai, and copper is found in the Caucasus. We can also see, how­ever, from the axe illustrated above, that the Scythians used iron and silver as well as bronze and gold, although they were appar­ently less common. With the exception of the statement about the use of silver and iron, however, Herodotus recorded information which was accurate as far as it went; how­ever, additional materials of fabrication were used in all the categories Herodotus listed. In this passage, Herodotus seems to generalize from reports and/or observations which were not entirely representative of actual practices.

Gold plaque, part of the Ziwiye Treasure, North-western Iran, probably 7th century B.C. Considered to be one of th earliest examples of Scythian art. University Museum Collection Museum Object Number(s): 53-31-2A / 53-31-2B / 53-31-2C

Gold ornaments from Maikop depicting griffins, stags with small heads between their horns, plaques, some of which show horned lion griffins, and studs. th century B.C. University Museum collection. The silver cloth to which the ornaments have been sewed is modern.

Burial Practices

In Book IV, chapter 71, Herodotus de­scribes the burial customs of the Royal Scythians: “The tombs of their kings are in the land of the Gerrhi, who dwell at the point where the Borysthenes is first navigable. Here, when the king dies, they dig a grave, which is square in shape, and of great size. When it is ready, they take the king’s corpse, and having opened the belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill the cavity with a preparation of chopped cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed, and anise-seed, after which they sew up the opening, enclose the body in wax, and placing it on a waggon, carry it about through all the different tribes … the body of the dead king is laid in a grave prepared for it, stretched upon a mat­tress; spears are fixed in the ground on either side of the corpse, and beams stretched across above it to form a roof, which is covered with a thatching of twigs. In the open space around the body of the king they bury one of his concu­bines, first killing her by strangling, and also his cup-bearer, his cook, his groom, his lackey, his messenger, some of his horses, firstlings of all his other posses­sions, and some golden cups; for they use neither silver or bronze. After this they set to work, and raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them vying with each other and seeking to make it as tall as possible.”

In this description all details can be sub­stantiated except Herodotus’ insistence on the exclusive use of gold vessels. The river Borys­thenes is the Dneiper, and there are many rich burials grouped together in the region around Nikopol. Many of the burial pits are square, although some are round, and they are very large. Embalmed corpses were excavated at Pazyryk, including the woman from Tomb 5, where the stitches closing the body are clearly visible. Wagons have been preserved in tombs in Pazyryk and fragmentary remains come from tombs in the Black Sea area. In the section of the Pazyryk tomb on page 17, the wooden lining of the grave pit is visible.

In another tomb in the Kuban River basin were found the skeletons of 360 horses, and the burial was not completely excavated. The mound which was put up over the tombs can be illustrated here by the Pazyryk burial.

In discussing a burial ritual, Herodotus says (Book IV, chapters 73 and 75): “To wash, they make a booth by fix­ing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one another, and stretching around them woolen felts, which they arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones and then add some hemp-seed … immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.”

Here, his information about purpose is a bit garbled, since he obviously has bathing confused with an intoxication ritual. However, he is accurate about the effect of burning hemp and the associated paraphernalia; one of the Pazyryk tombs contained a set of poles, a bronze container filled with stones and hemp seeds, and a cloth covering.

Eastern Peoples

Censer lodged in the ice of barrow 2. From Rudenko, Frozen Tombs, Pl.42

Herodotus becomes vaguer, but remains useful, as he tries to describe the people far to the east of the Black Sea. In Book IV, chapter 23, we find the following description: (There are) “people who dwell at the foot of lofty mountains, who are said to be all—both men and women—bald from their birth, to have flat noses and very long chins…. Each of them dwells under a tree, and they cover the tree in winter with a cloth of thick white felt. They are called Agrippaeans.”

Clearly these “bald” people were Mongoloids, who would have looked relatively hair­less to the Greeks. The felt covering the tree would have been their tents, such as were copied in the interior of Pazyryk burial cham­bers, which were lined with felt hangings. Some of the people buried at Pazyryk were Mongoloid; perhaps this passage refers to a people who lived in the Altai Mountains.

Copper censer on feet, from barrow 2 at Pazyryk. Part of the apparatus used for smoking hashish. From Rudenko, Frozen Tombs, Pl. 62A.

Conclusions

In this brief paper it is not practical to present the comparative archaeological mate­rial for each chapter of Herodotus’ descrip­tion of the nomads. The examples given are typical. In summary, we can see that Hero­dotus gives relatively accurate descriptions of the way of life of the nomads who were in fairly close contact with the Greeks, as, for example, in his description of the burial process. But he is considerably more vague about details of tribes far away, where the evidence he had was hearsay and passed through many hands, as in his discussion of the Agrippaeans. He does, however, have a tendency to exaggerate, or to generalize from specific or unique observations. Nevertheless, from a comparison with currently available archaeological evidence, it is clear that Hero­dotus as an ethnographer was more often right than wrong.

We can of course evaluate directly only those of his descriptions which record arti­facts which can be recovered by archaeol­ogists. He gives other kinds of ethno-linguistic information such as religious rituals and names of gods, methods of warfare, social structures, trade routes, and language groups. Although it is impossible to verify, it is prob­ably safe to assume that Herodotus is as accurate in recording these intangible cultural phenomena as he is in recording artifacts, and that the information he offers is reasonably accurate in many details. We must of course be exceedingly careful in the use of such ethno-linguistic information, since it remains unsupported. However, the fact that Hero­dotus provides us with information which can not be recovered by archaeological means, in addition to concrete details like those discussed above, makes his writings especially useful. Certainly, the work of Herodotus remains invaluable today.”

Source: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/herodotus-and-the-scythians/

Karen S. Rubinson is an art historian and archaeologist specializing in the steppe and Central Asia in the first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE and the South Caucasus in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages.  One focus of her work is how objects of artistic production, both aesthetically and technologically, can help understand cultural contact and exchange; another is gender questions in the Eurasian Iron Age.  Dr. Rubinson has organized international workshops to bring scholars together to share data on topics as diverse as lost wax/lost textile technology in Eurasia, the ceramics of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the South Caucasus (Rubinson and Sagona 2008), and, at ISAW, GIS in the South Caucasus (published workshop report) and, together with ISAW Professor Lorenzo D’Alfonso, Borders in Pre-Classical Anatolia and the South Caucasus.

Recent edited volumes include, in press, Borders in Archaeology: Changing Landscapes in Anatolia and the South Caucasus ca 3500–500 BCE, with Lorenzo D’Alfonso (Peeters Press) and, 2018, How Objects Tell Stories: Essays in Honor of Emma C. Bunker, with Katheryn M. Linduff   Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology I.  Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers and The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World; series editors ISAW Research Associates Annette Juliano and Judith Lerner.

Dr. Rubinson co-curated the 2012 ISAW exhibit Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan, together with ISAW Associate Professor Sören Stark.

Recently, Dr. Rubinson was honored to be included as a “trowelblazer,” who are described on the home page as “women archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists who have been doing awesome work for far longer, and in far greater numbers, than most people realise” [It’s a Britain based site!].  She was nominated by the Steppe Sisters, a networking group of women who do archaeological work in Asia.

Source: https://isaw.nyu.edu/people/affiliates/research-associates/karen-rubinson (site if the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of the New York University)

[1oldbear]

Ukraine is cutting off all the supply lines to Crimea. Soon the Russian forces in Crimea will begin to starve. They are already so ill-equipped that they cannot dislodge the Ukrainian marines from their bridgehead on the Dneiper. Ukraine now has free use of the Black Sea shipping lanes to export their grain while Russia no longer can.

Ukraine’s daring attack on a major Russian warship in occupied Crimea in the small hours of Dec. 26 was one more episode in Kyiv’s strategy to deny Russia control over the Black Sea. With most of its ships driven out of its home port in Sevastopol, the Russian Black Sea Fleet can no longer find safe haven anywhere along the Crimean Peninsula. All ports there are now vulnerable to attack.

The Institute for the Study of War tells the story with data, showing that Sevastopol saw a steady decline in the number of Russian naval vessels in port between June and December 2023; by contrast, Novorossiysk on the Russian mainland farther east showed a steady gain. While Russia has been going all-out to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure, its risky move to deploy ships and submarines armed with Kalibr missiles in the Black Sea is exposing them to potential Ukrainian attack. It is a tacit acknowledgment that Russia can no longer depend on Crimean ports and launch sites.

Ukraine’s success has been due to domestically produced missiles and drones, sometimes launched using Zodiac boats or jet skis. But its most potent attacks have come from the air, where Ukraine has used its Soviet-era fighter aircraft to launch both domestically produced and NATO-supplied missiles. These attacks have taken place with the protection of Ukraine’s advanced air defenses—including newly supplied foreign ones—which are regularly shooting down the majority of Russian missiles and drones destined for Ukrainian targets.

Ukraine thus has made significant strides denying Russia control of both the sea and airspace over and around its territory, thereby preventing the Russian Navy and Air Force from operating with impunity. But is that enough for Kyiv to win? To many Western observers, victory doesn’t seem possible in the face of wave after wave of Russian troops grinding down Ukrainian defenders. Ukraine’s strategy to deny Russia free use of its sea and airspace may be working, but as things stand, it cannot defeat the Russian army on the ground, nor can it defend against every missile striking civilian targets.

Indeed, the current conventional wisdom in large parts of the West is that Ukraine is losing the ground war, leaving no pathway to victory for the country as Russia pounds Ukrainian civilians into submission. Kyiv might as well call for a cease-fire and sue for peace.

The trouble with this scenario is that it spells defeat not only for Ukraine, but also for the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia. It would embolden both Russia and China to pursue their political, economic, and security objectives undeterred—including the seizure of new territory in Eastern Europe and Taiwan.

But is the conventional wisdom right—or does Ukraine’s clever success at sea and in the air suggest that a different outcome is possible? Perhaps the Russian army can be defeated by making use of Ukraine’s willingness to fight in new ways. If you asked a U.S. military professional, the key to dislodging the Russians is to subject them to relentless and accurate air attacks that are well synchronized with the maneuver of combined arms forces on the ground. While the Ukrainians are admirably using the weapons at hand to strike Russian forces both strategically, as in Crimea, and operationally, as in hitting command and logistics targets, success at the tactical level has remained elusive. To achieve a tactical breakthrough on the ground front that leads to operational and strategic success, they will need to be more effective from the air.

For power from the air to be decisive in 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces must create temporary windows of localized air superiority in which to mass firepower and maneuver forces. Given the Ukrainians’ success in denying their airspace to Russia at points of their choosing, such windows are possible using the assets they already have at hand. More and better weapons tailored to this scenario would make them more successful across the entire front with Russia.

Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, acknowledges that to break out of the current positional stalemate—which favors Russia—and return to maneuver warfare, where Ukraine has an advantage, Ukrainian forces need air superiority, the ability to breach mine obstacles, better counter-battery capability, and more assets for electronic warfare. Specifically, he argues for three key components. First, armed UAVs that use real-time reconnaissance to coordinate attacks with artillery (which could include properly armed Turkish-built TB2s, MQ-1C Gray Eagles, MQ-9 Reapers, or bespoke cheap and light UAVs capable of employing the necessary weapons). Second, armed UAVs to suppress enemy air defenses, as well as medium-range surface-to-air missile simulators to deter Russian pilots. And third, unmanned vehicles to breach and clear mines.

Although the technologies are new, this combination of capabilities recalls the method U.S. and allied NATO forces practiced during the Cold War in West Germany to confront numerically superior Warsaw Pact ground forces protected by layered air defenses. The Joint Air Attack Team (JAAT) was developed to synchronize attack helicopters, artillery, and close air support by fighter planes to ensure a constant barrage of the enemy in case of a ground force attack. Pooling NATO assets in this way was designed to give the alliance’s forces the mass, maneuverability, and flexibility needed to overcome superior numbers, avoid a war of attrition, and escape the type of bloody slugfest that characterizes the current stalemate in Ukraine.

In Ukraine’s case, a modernized JAAT would encompass, among many things, armed UAVs carrying Maverick and Hellfire missiles, loitering munitions, precision-guided artillery shells, and extended-range standoff missiles fired by aircraft. These systems would be coordinated in an electromagnetic environment shaped by Ukrainian operators to dominate the local airspace, saturate the battlefield with munitions, and clear mines to open the way for a ground assault. This updated JAAT—let’s call it electronic, or eJAAT—would create a bubble of localized air superiority that would advance as the combined arms force advances under the bubble’s protection.

Given Russia’s willingness to endure significant casualty rates, the eJAAT could be even more effective on defense: Massing firepower against advancing troops through an eJAAT might result in a stunning rout of the attackers, opening opportunities for Ukraine to strategically exploit the sudden change of fortunes.

Zaluzhny has made it publicly clear that “the decisive factor will be not a single new invention, but will come from combining all the technical solutions that already exist.” Like all good commanders, Zaluzhny is painfully aware that the 2023 campaign didn’t work as well as he had intended. Even so, and to their advantage, the Ukrainians have clearly demonstrated their innovative talents, willingness to exploit Western methods, and total commitment to victory. U.S. and European assistance to work with them on how to better manage operational complexity and combine technology, information, and tactics in more dynamic ways, coupled with security assistance tailored to the eJAAT approach, would return movement to the now-static battlefield and give Ukraine a fighting chance.

If Ukraine can achieve the momentum in the ground war that evaded it during its failed summer offensive, Kyiv will have a real pathway to victory. That pathway will run through Ukraine’s demonstrated prowess at sea and in the air, joined to an embrace of a sophisticated combination of techniques on the ground. It will be a pathway to victory not only for Ukraine, but also for the United States and its allies.

[thestarik]

[theworldatwar]

Heavy rain turned the hard ground to thick mud which in turn slowed the German advance - Dneiper, Ukraine 1943

[earthstory]

Abstract Art

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet captured this photo of the floodplain of the Dneiper River north of Kiev from the viewing station in the International Space Station in early February with the waters partially covered by snow and ice. The main, largest channel hosts the river that in normal years migrates back and forth by eroding away at its channels, forming a path that becomes gradually more sinuous. Eventually, the channel becomes so sinuous that it breaks through the channel walls and finds a shorter, path, abandoning the arcing meander it formed off to the side. Several of these abandoned, sinuous meanders can be spotted in this photograph – when they are still filled with water they become stagnant and form lakes called “oxbow lakes” (another of my favorite terms).

Interestingly, there’s a pattern of linear streaks from the upper left to the lower right in this image that seems defined only by the white of the snow. I can’t tell if that is an artifact of the motion of the Space Station or of a strong wind direction moving the snow and ice around.

-JBB

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/QVpSfp

Oxbow lakes and meanders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qKS_Nk7UmY http://www.mbgnet.net/fresh/lakes/oxbow.htm

[ogniemimieczem]

do you guys know how many Ketling-related Scottish music playlists are going to happen once I get to book three

I play Celtic harp

Celtic folk music was my first and truest jam

it’s gonna be unreal

[talonabraxas]

PASHUPATI (Master of Animals) Found in Mohenjo-daro (2500 BCE) from the Harappan culture (8,000BCE) (Image 2) CERNUNNOS (Horned God) Found in Denmark, on the Gundestrup cauldron (200BC - Originating in Greece) (Image 3) 🐍 Its well noted that the names of rivers like the Don, Dneiper, Dneister, Donets and Danube to the north of the Black Sea are largely cognate with the Sanskrit, Danu. Many ancient European peoples, particularly the Celts, regarded themselves as children of Danu, with Danu meaning Mother Goddess, who was also, like Sarasvati in the Rig Veda, a river Goddess. The Celts called themselves “Tuatha De Danaan” as did the mythical pagan rulers of Ireland around 2000BC. The word Danu could reflect such a movement of peoples from West or Central Asia, including migrants originally from regions of greater India and Iran. At the end of the Ice Age, as Europe became warmer, it became a suitable land for agriculture. Ancient European river names like the Danube and various rivers called Don in Russia, Scotland, North England and France reflect this. Danu is probably, in some respects, a synonym of Maya, from the sons of Diti, a wife of Kashyapa, who is sometimes equated with Danu and also known as Sumaya, having a divine (Su) power (Maya). Like the root Ma, the root Da means “to divide” or “to measure”. Maya is the power of the Danavas but also their illusion. Maya itself is the serpent power. With Rudra (Shiva) as their father and Prishni (Shakti) as their mother, they reflect all the Gods of later Hinduism. Perhaps these Sudanavas (Danu) guided many peoples including the Celts and other Europeans. It could also be argued that the Sudanavas were the Maruts, Druids and other Rishi classes who carried the ancient knowledge of magic from northern India, across to Europe via the middle east in a wave of tribal migrations. 🌿The legend of Pashupati can be found in reference to Shiva, as his proto-type. In the Skanda Purana it tells how Shiva used to love a great forest called the 'Sleshmantaka Forest’, where he meditated in the form of a deer. 🌿Cernunnos presided over pristine nature and was skilled in bringing wild beasts into peaceful communion. Ventral Is Golden

[vasiliquemort]

Someone from the Meiker community here, trying to use your Dneiper Gothic game without being insensitive to you and other Ukrainians. I’m not very knowledgeable on folklore from your country - where can I find out more and read some of the stories? If not in English, then can you point me to a translation service that works well for the language? Thanks!

Greetings! And thank you so much for your view, and time, and company, and shared tones of art, and everything else, too!<з

So! The point is - I don't think there is any way to be interested and find someone's culture and ways beautifull could be insensitive in any way. The way how my culture is shared and admired in some ways across the world had deep impact on me and my self-identification, and lots of inner tones, paths, creations and retentions all along, and I don't see the right way to shut this down because of polemics of "inaproppriate" perceptions.

Art is love, and the love is creational, uniting, it's light and simple, something that goes with you along always and everywhere, and there is no correct way to feel love - maybe to express it, but to embrace love is natural and relieving alltogether. Ukrainian culture is to be shared, I feel delight when know that someone amused, find joy in my creations, and it's my personal charge - to express this correctly, but your delights are just made to be just and trusting.

Truth be told - long time ago I made some compilation of literature that I find expressive and personal, all of them - ukrainian authors of prose and poems, and I finded and shared it again for that specific moment of unity. I hope you shall find it in my recent posts - or you can seek at my place by tag "ask" and "ukrainian culture". With translations I cannot say that I can be of real use, and that's saddens me deeply - as there is some educational sites and books to buy, limited and strange for my sight, but I believe that there is a way, through machine translations is terrible in a bad way of word.

But! To find a language that is uniting, simple and expressive on shapes of various and bright is a task that is simple and delightful - as where is beauty and poetism, there is also music, and this is the way that I can share and express<ззз

It was a work both voracious and delightful, and I spend time that I loved deeply - but I made a brief and simple compilation of authors of music, as music is a language that is always international;зз There is no links, but shapeful and simple directions - and some revealed tones and my personal love for each of the points. I hope it can be shared, that this can be inspirational and actual and delightful for some of my beloveds and mutuals and simply everyone that can find their interest there.

So there I was gone - three columns that are touches different tones of my love and soul, something that I adore and admire deeply, and have desire to share - for a time that is long and fullfilling, too<з

Jamala - 1944

The first tones of shade and mist - a song that, I believe, is knowed and shared, as it was a winner of 2016 year on Eurovision, but this interpretation, and new gloom and sharpness and movement was admired recently - shaped in a new, current way of our year. It's a song of Jamala, named 1944 - year of tatar's deportation from Krimea - a song of young and unshaped happiness, of unshared legacy, of century of the damnations. You shall find it easily, by the lady and the creation's name - official video that was maded five years ago is a tone of dark and gloomy unity, of a soft and unraveled will, of a misty seas and ashen air - tones of our home, our love and rue.

"I did not enjoy my youth I was not able to live in this place" - 1944

Khristyna Soloviy - Pod Oblachkom; Trimay Mene; Hto, yak ne ty?; Gore Dolom; Stezhechka; Holodno

My love and delight, Khrystyna Soloviy, is a western-ukrainian singer with tones that are both ethnical and lyrical in the most beautifull ways. Her tone are light and romantical, melodical, sensual and bird-like, as it goes so well with her delightful name (as Soloviy is a Nightinghale). Some of her songs are of Lemky's dialect and traditional culture - which is an beautifull remind and share of our beloved, gracious Mother, some of them are "Pod Oblachkom" (a folk song of a bewitched young man, his rue and obsession with his bride - accompaned with uncertain and dark, ravishing nature of his heart) and "Gore Dolom", lemky's folk song of lonely, leaved home, and a family that goes far away - the reminder of another tragedy, of a deported kin of western highlanders. One of it's earlier versions was sung together with the next author - Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, who was direct mentor and inspirationalist of Khrystyna, and his song, "Holodno", was also covered by her as an soundrack. "Stezhechka" was also a soundtrack, which is a sung poem of Ivan Franko, author that I pointed in previous compilation. "Hto, yak ne ty?" and "Trimay Mene" are songs of younger, but no less beautifull nature - of a love that is delightful and maddening, that is ravenous as khyzhak and sweet as a dove.

"Is that love was given by god? Was it whispered by a devil himself?" - Pod Oblachkom

"Don't you feel it - my fright, as I am in your palm?.. ..Give to me your torment, give it away with your hands - And heal, heal yourself with my lips" - Trimay Mene

"There is that path - where she walked, The one that took all the joy from my heart.. ..After her steps I posessed ran - Kissed them with my tears, drank from her feet. Alike to a drowned man - that holds his last straw My eyes grasped her sight, for a moment mere" - Stezhechka

Okean Elsy - "Misto Vesny" (together with Odyn v Kanoe); Sonce; Obiymy; Misto Mariyi; Bez Boyu; and lot's, lot's of others as I adore them endlessly>////<

Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, leader of group "Ocean Elzy" was a meaning and inspirationalist for a full generation of nowadays Ukrainian music. His voice, his poetism and visions, the delight and love to create in melodical and bird-like ukrainian had impact over perception of language, of unique music of our country, it's velvet-like, gorgeous expression, and his art itself raised and formed nowadays groups and musicians with their unique nature.

"Bez Boyu" and "Obiymy" was earlier works, more striking, rough but sensual, while "Misto Vesny" was the song that was written in a duet with "Odyn v Kanoe" right before invasion in 2022. It was the song in which they professed their love to their hometown, glorious and ancient city of Lviv, with gorgeous, simple and poetical tones in the video. The stone guardians of the city of Lions, the Cavyarnya's with delicate filizhanka's of coffee (ukrainian noblemans was also one of the earlier promoters of turkish kahve into Europe, and Lviv have personal, unique culture of that delight), the delicate architecture builded on invisible river (as Lviv vas also builded over river named Poltva, fully covering it with it's shape) - all of that is one tone of personal, nowaday's culture of western Ukraine.

After invasion there was "Misto Nadiyi", sacred to city of Mariupol and it's unbending warriors, a hymn of prideful sun. Not so long ago Okean Elsy also sang their old song, "Obiymy", standing at the ruins of Palac Prazy, in my dear homeland - Kharkiv.

"Why can't we forget about our downpours? Maybe for a heroes we were too delicate The walls and lions won't allow us to Scatter the ashes in which those dreams are still burn Those dreams in which I am once again Walking with you, at our dear Lviv, There is a smell of a spring, of the sun that is burning down Of the water, too, from river that has long been gone" - Misto Vesny

"Who are you? As you took my life and didn't return Who are you? You drank my blood and fall asleep inebriate Your eyes are calling, desiring me, they lead me to yourself, Who are you? And whoever you are - I shall not give up without a fight" - Bez Boyu

"None of warships gunpower Can ever destroy my dream As my heart shall never give away my faith And shall stand for the end of the days Glorious city of Mary As long as over prideful Azov sun shall rize" - Misto Mariyi

There is another place that I'd endlessly reccomend for everyone that has desire to hear ukrainian music and see the most melodical creators of our people - the ukrainian "Golos" (Voice), that beside creation of artistic and poetical nature was also platform of recreation of national craft over the years. It has a very delicate and loving touch to the ukrainian language and folk details, of high and proudful image of nowadays creators - most of the most beautiful and astonishing singers, like Khrystyna Soloviy or Odyn v Kanoe, came out of that project.

The most personal and beautifull for me are duet and trio of Alexander Klimenko - "Tvoi Grihy" and "Dumy moyi, dumy moyi" - the first was work of Tina Karol, judge of the show and current ambassador of Ukraine, interpreted and sung together with her, the second - poem of Taras Shevchenko.

The true folk elements can be found, for example, in "Zasvit Vstaly Kozachenky", old traditional warrior's song that was sung by Cossack Siromaha, and, of course, "Plyne Kacha" sung by Inna Ishenko.

Oh - and my personal favorite that I listened without ends currently, "Ptashechka" by Vivienne Mort, which doesn't really touches any of this columns but, just gorgeous o////o

"The wind, that goes by your hand Is a sin, that you did not yet forgive So turn to me, as I embrace pain Of your eyes, so deeply lonely, of your lone depth eyes.

Now I am embraced, dissolved by your eyes You - are my madness, my love and delight at the same time." - Tvoi Grihy

"Oh, don't scowl over me, mother of mine Don't scowl when there happens a woeful time As I am mysef never knew how I shall die..

..How can I not be miserable? How can I not be? You, my son, once was beared under my heart, You laid over it" - Plyne Kacha

"No one heard my song. Nobody heard. My soul was full - of love, unknown for you And it was soul, not me, that was revealed. And only sky had heard the song, my One. I never had that ache before - it hadn't sing that way, for no one else. My One… I am by myself all day Asked for will all day, for freedom from you, or freedom of being yours

And you can't know how much I love you. You go to your bed and I will stay in mine, breathless until morning comes, Until that morning and until that dawn I am myself, Without you I am all by myself, myself, myself, myselfmyselfmyself Myself I am a moonless star" - Ptashechka

[fapangel]

Russo-Ukraine War 72 hour sitrep/update

Google docs

Sitrep, Maneuver/LOC:

Ukranians are not only holding in the north but have actively flanked the Russian thrust from Belarus towards Kiev and now credibly threaten Russian LOC back to their base of supply in Belarus.

Thrust from the north-east continues to progress but only against heavy resistance and while this thrust has a highway back to Russia, resistance in Sumy is still confirmed to be active, which threatens it. Furthermore, Konotop continues to be held by Ukranians, and a crucial rail junction runs through there.

The aforementioned convoy the Ukranians claimed to have trashed as it tried to skirt Chernihiv is confirmed, and not only that, an entire damned train carrying 52 Russian tanks tried to thunder-run the town and was destroyed for its trouble. Nothing better underlines how Russian ability to advance is integral to their control of key transport crossroads (and thus, cities) than this does.

I have literally lost count of how many ambushed and destroyed Russian convoys I have seen just today. I don’t know if they’re all from the last 12~24 hours or if some date back to the opening hours. Russian losses are becoming truly significant. This rate of attrition is hard to fathom as sustainable.

Russians have bypassed Maritipol in the south and are moving rapidly through the coastal area because the Ukrainians are lightly defending it; most likely ceding this ground to use the Dneiper River as their Main Line of Resistance. There appears to be staunch Ukranian resistance at a city north-northeast of Martipol called Tokmak, because it controls a crucial crossroads. Whether or not this smaller town, surrounded by ideal tank country and fairly close to Russian LOC can long last is questionable, but controlling it will significantly slow any Russian attempts to move past it as their supply lines struggle along side roads and cross-country. This should buy the Ukrainians time to destroy bridges, roads, rail etc. behind them and reinforce whatever new line they have chosen, anchored with the Eastern Donetsk front blocking forces as their eastern flank and the Dneiper river as their western one. More detailed analysis on this to come ASAP.

Russians continue to bite the barricades of Kiev and that’s working out about as well as you’d expect.

Sitrep, Logistical/Intelligence:

Russian logistics appear to be a complete clusterfuck. I have literally lost track of how many different videos I’ve seen of fuel-exhausted Russian vehicles so far. I wanted to detail this yesterday but ran out of time: the many people saying Russia must be “holding back” because ½ its troops aren’t deployed in-country yet don’t understand that road and rail can only move a finite amount of materiel a finite distance in a finite time; and with troops already in contact the Russians will have to choose either between sending in more reinforcements or more supplies for the troops already there. That vehicles are now running out of fuel seems to indicate that Russia chose the latter; gambling that, while Ukraine may have been unexpectedly resilient at first, one more good, violently hard push would crack the shell and end things quickly. This gamble failed last night when Ukraine not only held, but pushed back in crucial areas (such as the Kherson bridgehead,) and now they’re paying the price for that gamble.

Due to the troops > fuel choice my gut instinct is that the units that were first in contact came in with their own “organic” supply – carrying supplies on their own combat vehicles (in bustle racks on tanks/IFVs and in the form of their own modest contingent of dedicated supply transports) and my friends have told me that OSINT evidence bears this out; knocked-out Russian tanks surrounded by an impressive amount of MRE packs and ammo spam cans strewn about when they brewed up. Given that we are readily approaching the 72 hour mark, this means the Russian troops first in contact are likely hours de combat simply from supply exhaustion, (as the increasing number of abandoned vehicles indicate,) so Russian attacks can be expected to falter the further they get from their own territory.

The huge number of successfully ambushed Russian columns indicates that if American intelligence/ISTAR support has not been providing tactical level intel from the get-go, it is now. This most likely means RQ-180 stealth drones, equipped with Ground Moving Target Indicator technology, are operating in Ukranian airspace. The intelligence being provided to Ukraine can now be assumed to extend to tactical target localization and cuing up to and including counter-battery targeting.

Elon goddamned Musk has moved Starlink satellite terminals to Ukraine; providing them with an infrastructure-independent communications option. Combined with their own homegrown cyber capacity and extremely probable US support, this opens up a whole new option for communications, with security being provided by end-to-end encrypted third party software. This is a massive boon to the robustness of Ukrainian C4 capability and should not be under-estimated.

Western aid continues to pour in over the Polish border and donated weapons and equipment are adding up very fast. I count 600+ more stinger missiles and a staggering 1200 Panzerfaust-3 anti-tank rockets as promised to Ukrainian forces. OSINT has already spotted RPGs with Bulgarian factory markings on them on the front lines, indicating how OSINT is only capturing a small fraction of the real aid pouring into the country.

Mention has been made by some of deliberate and skilled Ukrainian propaganda operations being conducted. Although the people alleging this are known to me for a history of hostility towards Ukraine and sympathy for Russian propaganda claims, there’s reason to believe their analysis has some merit, esp. combined with other indicators like strict Ukrainian OPSEC (which may be benefiting from US cyber support, as well.) Given that both morale and international opinion has already been proven to be crucial in just the first 72 hours, this aspect of Ukrainian operational skill sets should not be dismissed; especially as they are currently dominating Russia in that regard.

For various reasons, Ukrainian supply lines from the Polish border to central-central Eastern Ukraine should be considered fairly secure and not at serious risk of deep interdiction by Russian strike assets; as indicated by apparent Russian refusal to attempt such ops, curiously limited deep attacks against infrastructure with aviation strike assets and the persistent credible threat of Ukrainian air defense (see following.)

Sitrep: Strategic + OOB/Materiel

Ukraine is now proven to have substantial surviving surface-to-air missile and aviation assets, both of which the Russians have failed to conclusively put out of action or even seriously attrit. Big update on this to come later. For now, the consequences of this are:

Russia does not have air superiority and cannot operate without, risk even above the MANPAD envelope, in most of the country. A persistent short-medium range SAM threat from tactical maneuver (SA-8, SA-9, SA-13, SA-15s) and short/medium-range high mobility SAMs (SA-6, SA-11) is demonstrated to exist and may be assumed to be higher the further west, and the closer to the center of the country (distant from both Belarus and the coast) Russian assets go due to terrain concealment and increasing distance from Russian airborne and ground based standoff jamming support. The refusal (or inability) of Russia to commit serious, sustained attacks on Ukrainian airbases (preferring instead to attempt repeated small cruise missile attacks likely aimed at taking out assets on the ground) make Ukrainian claims of surviving and still operable S-300 systems more credible than I first believed. These will likely be held back in the Western part of the country, esp. further west than the Black Sea Coast, as that means Moldova + Romanian airspace (closed to Russia and of course the Russian fleet) channels enemy approach lanes and effectively increases strategic depth. The ever-rougher terrain – plus the obvious reluctance of Russian forces to conduct offensive operations too close to the Polish border – also increase survivability of these theater assets in this area, and allow them, in turn, to utilize the strategic depth and terrain features to make Western Ukranian airspace a hostile environment for Russia. Given their evident failures to properly provide CAP and/or SEAD protection to tactical air operations in eastern Ukraine, the ability of the Russian air forces to brave the persistent air threats further west are highly questionable.

My previous assessment of Ukranian tactical/maneuver SHORAD systems is likely erroneous given the demonstrated existence of them in OSINT footage and the demonstrated presenceof surviving batteries by the surprisingly high volume of demonstrated intercepts taking place above (or what should be above) the MANPAD envelope. The answer to “how much of Ukraine’s legacy small road-mobile SAM force was actually refurbished to operational status before hostilities commenced” is now, at least, guaranteed to be “more than just the half-dozen Tor systems that were known.”

Prevalence of Ukranian air assets is murky. Both fixed and rotary wing operations, and both anti-air and anti-ground sorties are being generated, but how many and to what effect is hard to say. There is firm reason to believe (up to and including US DoD confirmation) that Ukraine has, between last night and this, downed four IL-76 transports. There are also claims that the Vasylkiv interceptor airbase, the same one targeted by the all-out effort paradrop last night, is actually still active as a MiG-29 base, and that a MiG from said base actually shot down one of the incoming IL-76s. I found this hard to believe given the high likelihood of that base being reduced by the initial Russian missile blitz and the obvious wisdom of dispersing assets and ops personnel from more exposed bases to more distant, protected ones further in the rear, but not minutes ago a missile attack was conducted on the base that resulted in a truly huge explosion and OSINT images seem to indicate it was, indeed, an attack on the base’s underground fuel bunkers. That 1. this had not already been conducted in the opening blitz and 2. the Russians decided to do it now makes it more likely that Ukrainian claims of successful A2A engagements are actually true. It should always be borne in mind that there is great propaganda and deceptive strategic value in claiming surface-to-air kills as actually air-to-air kills, esp. if the enemy is actually fooled (which might be the case here,) but taken all together with other staggering displays of Russian operational incompetence taken into account it is clear that nothing is impossible at this point.

More detailed AD explanation to follow.