Latest news with #DvaMayora
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Russians react to Ukraine's unprecedented drone attack - as Kremlin's silence speaks volumes
Ukraine's drone attack on Russia's long-range bombers was unprecedented, not that you'd know it from reading the Russian papers. Nor from watching the news bulletins here. Monday's front pages were dominated by photos of the wreckage of a road bridge collapsing on to a passenger train in the Bryansk region, after it was blown up late on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the flagship talk show on state TV here on Monday morning didn't even mention the attack. Instead, there was just a breathless build-up to the latest round of peace talks in Istanbul. The lack of visual coverage of the drone attack is partly because of the sensitivities around publishing images of Russian military infrastructure. But I think it's also because the Kremlin wants to play down the assault, which was a hugely embarrassing breach of defences. So where the attack is mentioned in the papers, it's done in a way to reinforce Moscow's narrative - that is the aggressor out to derail the peace process. The Izvestia newspaper, for example, describes it as a terrorist attack, and says it "calls into question Kyiv's readiness for de-escalation". There's no reference to the scale of the damage, and there's certainly no sense of alarm. It's a similar vibe on the streets of Moscow, where we meet Irina. She believes the reports of the attack are "exaggerated". "These planes are very old and hardly anyone needs them," she says. Another passer-by, called Vladimir, says he trusts his namesake Mr Putin to respond when the time is right. "This must be done systematically, confidently, and without any kind of nervous breakdowns, or any shows of soul," he says. There is plenty of soul on show on social media, though, where Russia's influential military bloggers are calling for a rapid retaliation. One popular channel, called Dva Mayora or "Two Majors", even said it was "a reason to launch nuclear strikes on Ukraine". Others are directing their anger at Russia's military command, accusing the leadership of complacency for storing the planes out in the open. Read more: It all served to overshadow the latest round of peace talks in Istanbul, where the only concrete outcome was another prisoner exchange and the return of 6,000 dead soldiers from each side. And if anything, the outlook for peace now is even more bleak than it was before the talks began. That's because Russia has now presented its blueprint for a settlement, and it seemingly offers no sign of compromise at all. According to Russian media reports, the document is a list of Moscow's maximalist demands, including neutrality for Ukraine, limits to its army, surrender of territory and the lifting of sanctions. Only then, Russia says, would it agree to end the war. The Kremlin itself still hasn't commented on the drone attack - a silence that speaks volumes. Can you imagine Downing Street doing the same if something similar happened in the UK? There will undoubtedly be repercussions at some point, both externally and internally. So, despite the talk being of peace at the talks in Turkey, the mood is still very much one of war.
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Forbes
Russia Is Making Explosive Drones Out Of Toy Hoverboards
A Russian hoverboard drone explodes. Via WarTranslated It suddenly makes sense why Russian troops in Ukraine were observed with a substantial number of toy hoverboards. A video montage that circulated online on Friday depicts the explosive ground robots—a pair of the two-wheeled hoverboards attached to an anti-tank mine—blowing up purported Ukrainian fortifications presumably somewhere along the 700-mile front line of Russia's 39-month wider war on Ukraine. Last summer, the Dva Mayora volunteer organization in Russia developed the hoverboard unmanned ground vehicles and began distributing copies to Russian units. Half a year later in February, Russians were seen loading a bunch of the $100 hoverboards into a truck somewhere at or near the front. It's possible they'd received them as donations from supporters back home—or stolen them from Ukrainian homes in the occupied zone. Regardless, it should be apparent now that most of the hoverboards along the front line aren't for riding—they're for making one-way explosive drones. Flying robots already dominate the battleground in Ukraine. The hundreds of thousands of tiny first-person-view drones Russian and Ukrainian forces deploy every month account for the majority of battlefield casualties—70 percent, according to The New York Times. By comparison, ground robots are less ubiquitous, and for obvious reasons. It's easier for a remote-controlled vehicle to fly unobstructed through the air than it is to crawl over rough terrain. Thanks to their internal gyroscopes, hoverboards are extremely stable compared to traditional wheeled vehicles. A hoverboard UGV can speed across the front-line terrain faster than other ground robots. And the low cost of the toys mean the mine-laden 'bots are expendable. No need for a regiment to save them for only the most valuable targets. That the Russians appear to be using their hoverboards to build exploding robots doesn't mean they won't eventually ride them into battle. It's worth noting the growing prevalence of surplus civilian electric scooters in the inventories of Russian regiments. After losing 17,000 armored vehicles and other heavy equipment in Ukraine, the Kremlin is growing truly desperate for battlefield transportation—and has sent troops on assaults on e-scooters, Lada compact cars, aging GAZ-69 trucks and at least one bus. If and when toy hoverboards become more valuable as assault vehicles than drone components, they too might join the war-scooters and compact cars. At least as an assault vehicle, a hoverboard stands some chance of surviving a battle. As an explosive drone, a hoverboard heads out exactly once.
