Sorry Branko, the Patriots probably did not know they were hypersonic when they took them down. You must send an email to the Pentagon and write a poem telling them they cannot take them down.
The combat abilities of the Patriot are greatly exaggerated. Patriot's only accomplishments in the US Army were two friendly fire incidents in Iraq in 2003, when Patriot shot down one British and one American aircraft. Later, Israel shot down a couple more planes from the Patriot in Syria, and this is where all the combat achievements of the Patriot in the entire history of its existence actually end. The United States has never had good mobile air defense systems, because for the United States this is not a priority.
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If you are referring to Peskov's recent statement, then I think it is mainly aimed at preparing the Russian society for the speedy completion of the special operation in Ukraine. And yes, in the issue of demilitarization, Russia has achieved very significant success, and not only in the demilitarization of Ukraine, but of the whole of Europe. Stoltenberg said today that NATO arsenals are empty because of military aid to Ukraine.
US tends to actually do the opposite: typically the declared capabilities of most of their equipment are lower than they actually are. Also there is a great echo chamber for anything that may make the US army look too expensive, prone to mistakes and mismanagement of money. All of those have some truth, but mostly are similar to the "abilities" of the RF, Japan and even Germany.
Practice is the criterion of truth. And from the point of view of real practical success, the Patriot air defense system is the weakest in its class. Ukrainians need to understand this so that there are no unnecessary disappointments from inflated expectations regarding the level of protection of Kyiv from air threats.
Stoltenberg wants the world to become militarised and that happens when the budget reaches more than 2%. That is his goal, and that is the why of his words.
It's good that you understand what Stoltenberg wants and what NATO wants.
It is possible that RF wants to "close" the operation, that does not mean it will finish. As the saying goes, you know how a war starts, but you do not know when and how it ends.
I don't think that Russia wants to "close" the operation, and even if it does, it cannot be done unilaterally. In such cases, one has to take into account the opinions of all interested parties, and Ukraine and the collective West that supports it apparently continue to want the conflict to continue and "consistently go up the escalation ladder."
There are rumors that Mihailo Podoliak is next.
Don't want to disappoint you, but Budanov is alive, he is doing fine and sending some greetings:
https://t.me/joker_ukr/8386Podolyak is next? Maybe, but this joke was fun first two times, now it's getting boring.
Have I joked about Podolyak before?

Rumors about Budanov's injury were not groundless. At the end of May, Russia launched a missile attack on the GUR building and on the same day Budanov disappeared from the media space, although before that he had willingly given interviews on a wide variety of topics almost daily. Then one of Budanov's subordinates, refuting the rumors about his injury, for some reason mentioned his "good appetite", as they usually say about the sick or wounded. After his appearance on the air after three weeks of absence, Budanov looks a little strange.
When will you z-tards realize that one person, be it Zelensky, Zalunzhny, Budanov, heck even all three of them don't matter that match in the grand scheme of things. Had any of them (or all three) died, another person would take their place and Ukrainians would have one more reason to fight.
But hey, if it makes it easier for you to sleep at night hugging Putin-shaped pillow and whispering "deep fake deep fake deep fake" - have at it.
I think nothing threatens Zelensky's health and life from Russia. Former Israeli Prime Minister Bennet at a meeting in Sochi asked Putin not to kill Zelensky, and he gave him his word. After that, Zelensky stopped hiding in the bunker and even occasionally appears in the immediate vicinity of the front line. Apparently Putin's word is the best talisman.
As for the rest of the media people in Ukraine, there was no agreement. I think that all people known for their public calls to kill Russians, such as Podolyak, Budanov, Danilov, Yermak and many others, are on the short list for targeted denazification and they have no one to blame for this except their long tongue.
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I have said that Stoltenberg wants the world to become militarised, not that NATO wants it. Certainly the allies
Look, armies tend to self-justify themselves. If the RF army is sucking 11% of the RF budget, they are going to be constantly looking for the next war and the government always has the easy option of sending the army to whatever estate, republic or people are showing signs of cutting ties with Moscow. It is very expensive to maintain what it is effective an Empire under those conditions.
Of course all the merchants of death in the world will be looking to start a conflict. Stoltenberg is one of them and invading Crimea was quite useful for this guy and the other hawks.
When will Russia understand that wars in Europe are about block of European countries fighting in which the winner is always a third party called the US? It is not a good idea to place a bet on Europe ignoring an invasion and the US not using the opportunity to bleed everyone out - even if you think of the plan carefully an unbiased, it is just plainly a bad plan to start with.
Anyway, under the "shhh" policy, there is a 4 sometimes 3 days of lagging information, but there seems to be quite a few problems resupplying the RF frontlines due to the untold and un-filmed pressure (meaning destruction) of logistic networks, ports, railways, depots, fuel facilities... in Berdyansk, Melitopol, even in RF territory by RF soldiers smoking in the wrong place.
My guess is that Ukraine understands that trying to ram directly into the RF defences in the occupied territories is a suicide, but the plan of degrading the response capabilities could (and I am just saying could) cause an unexpected, quite surprising, collapse of sections of the RF front.
Also, it seems that Ukraine may take advantage of the now semi-dry land in the Kherson region.