this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Image is the famous photograph Raising a Flag Over the Reichstag, taken during the Battle of Berlin.
On Friday is May 9th, which is the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, which Russia, among other places, celebrates as the day when the Soviets defeated the Nazis. Naturally, one of the current hotspots of fascism in the world today, Ukraine, is essentially threatening that they might strike Russia or even Moscow itself during that timeframe. Any such strike would almost certainly be symbolic and not aimed at anything too important, as I doubt even Zelensky and his American handlers would actually want to kill a world leader, not least somebody like Xi Jinping. But I would not be surprised if they tried something nonetheless, if only to disrupt the event in some way and not actually kill anybody.
And, as we're on this topic, @[email protected] has reminded me that Tuesday is the anniversary of the Nazis burning the Institut für Sexualwissenschaf in 1933, an early institute advocating for the rights of LGBT people, and which also provided early forms of gender-affirming surgeries, as well as hormone therapies. We are currently seeing a crackdown on LGBT rights throughout swathes of the imperial core (as well as countries in the periphery, to the extent that those rights existed there already), and this Nazi-inspired movement will be similarly defeated in the future.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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The payload/warhead and cruising speed of the S8000 are all similar to the jet powered Shahed 238/Geran-3, a jet engined version of the Shahed 136/Geran-2. The key advantage of this new missile is low observability/stealth, and an air launch capability. The 238/Geran-3 has seen increased use this year, after the first battlefield tests last year. If this new S8000 missile sees widespread adoption, it would suggest that the cost benefit analysis of the 238/Geran-3 doesn't work out, if you're going to spend the money and effort on a jet powered cruise missile in this class, might as well go a little bit further and make it stealthy and give it air launch capabilitiy as well. The advantage of the Geran-3 is range, double that of the S8000, but in a Ukrainian context it doesn't make much sense, a Geran/Shahed target is not reaching Lviv often, jet powered or not.
Ultimately it's about delivering this payload, the 90-120kg warheads, effectively. Shahed 136/Geran-2 is all about quantity and low cost over quality, a bunch of cheap propeller driven drones to overwhelm missile (SAM) and gun (AA) based air defences, as it's highly vulnerable to both. Shahed 238/Geran-3 can evade AA gun defences from ground based systems and attack helicopters more effectively thanks to its jet propulsion, but it is still quite vulnerable to SAMs and missiles launched from fighter aircraft. While Ukraine is facing a shortage of specialised SAM systems like Patriot and S-300P/V, it still has plenty of various SAM systems to counter the Shahed/Geran threat, jet powered or not, and these systems are increasing in number. So Shahed 238/Geran-3 doesn't help there. So the Geran-3 might sit in a no man's land in the the quantity-quality-cost triangle. Which would explain S8000. A stealthy missile with an air launch from various unconventional platforms like attack helicopters and UAVs, designed to penetrate the air defence net more effectively, going for quality.
If S8000 works as advertised and if production numbers are high enough and costs reasonable (big if on all three) Ukraine would need specialist SAM systems to intercept designed to engage low radar cross section targets at low altitude, like one of their rare S-300V air defence systems. However, S8000 is not comparable to Kh-59/69, which are considerably faster, likely stealthier, have a 1000lb/450kg class warhead, and have terrain following guidance systems. But Russia don't have enough of these to fire in large volleys. The idea is that they can make enough S8000s then.
The launch platform is one of the interesting ones. Geraniums being ground launched limits their utility to static targets - they're usually detected early and take over an hour to reach their target since they're launched quite far from the front lines.
Being air launched from attack helicopters and drones can bring them to battlefield targets with much lower latency if necessary. That or they're just supplementing the geraniums in numbers and launch platforms.