The War in Ukraine

[MrWhyt]

Remember Russia offering folks citizenship to escape the oppression of whatever woke/LGBTQ/DEI stuff they didn’t like. Here’s what seems to have happened to one American who took USSR 2.0 up on the offer.

Anti-Woke Dad Who Fled With Family to Russia Sent to War Zone

An American father who moved to Russia to avoid LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” for his kids is being sent to the front line in Ukraine, despite being assured he would serve in a non-combat role. Derek Huffman, 46, feels he is being “thrown to the wolves” after being told that his job in the military...

www.yahoo.com

 

[The Bread Guy]

2 for 2 now with Texans getting duped by Russia. If his wife has any sense she needs to take the kids and get out before they reach 18, because they're next.

Welcome to find out.

Depends -- if they've become citizens, too, they'll ALWAYS be USSR 2.0 citizens. Oh well, at least they're getting a more wholesome education, right?

 

[Halifax Tar]

Remember Russia offering folks citizenship to escape the oppression of whatever woke/LGBTQ/DEI stuff they didn’t like. Here’s what seems to have happened to one American who took USSR 2.0 up on the offer.

Anti-Woke Dad Who Fled With Family to Russia Sent to War Zone

An American father who moved to Russia to avoid LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” for his kids is being sent to the front line in Ukraine, despite being assured he would serve in a non-combat role. Derek Huffman, 46, feels he is being “thrown to the wolves” after being told that his job in the military...

www.yahoo.com

This is the families YouTube channel

Huffman Time

Join our American family of 5, along with our husky, as we embark on exciting adventures in & around Istra, Russia! We will share our adventures as we settle into our new home in the American Village. We will provide insights from our experiences, challenges, & explore the ins & outs of our...

youtube.com

 

[The Bread Guy]

This is the families YouTube channel

Huffman Time

Join our American family of 5, along with our husky, as we embark on exciting adventures in & around Istra, Russia! We will share our adventures as we settle into our new home in the American Village. We will provide insights from our experiences, challenges, & explore the ins & outs of our...

youtube.com

Thx for that - if I got it right, sounds like one of the “perks” of serving in the army is his wife getting the chance to get a job. Notice they’re also looking for donations to help them live their life. Sounds like the bonuses they promised are more of a one-time payment - at least folks chipped in for buddy’s body armour & boots, right?

AND he may have gotten a visa and language waiver by joining the army

Putin speeds up a citizenship path for foreigners who enlist in the Russian military

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that speeds up a path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country’s military amid the 22-month-old war in Ukraine.

apnews.com

Hope they find what they’re looking for from their “Shared Values” visa experience.

LATE ADD: Found this story on a Canadian family who also made the trek ....

To Russia, with love? Why some in West are heading east to start over.

Some Westerners see Russia as a place to build a better, more conservative life. Moscow, facing a demographic crisis, is willing to let them try.

www.csmonitor.com

The Russian dream? Our writer profiles a new kind of North American expat.

How does a Saskatchewan farmer dreaming of a better life end up in rural Russia? In this episode, the Monitor’s Fred Weir, a Canadian journalist with 40 years in Russia, talks about how he found and profiled a new kind of invited Western expat: one who has warmed to some aspects of Vladimir...

www.csmonitor.com

Also archived here.

The author of the piece, Fred Weir, is a long-time resident of USSR 1.0 and 2.0 ...

Fred Weir - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Born into a family of Canadian Communists

Fred Weir was a third-generation red diaper baby from Toronto and a long-time member of the party. His uncle, trained at the Lenin School in Moscow in the 1920s as an agent of the Communist In

coldwarconversations.com

... having written a lot of pro-Russian stuff in his time (all the way back to the Cold War days), including this classic from 2022 about a month before the war that dare not speak its name (in Russia, anyway) began ...

How likely is it that Russia will go to war with Ukraine?

Despite the widespread media expectations of a blitzkrieg-like invasion, an all-out Russian assault on Ukraine is less likely than one might think.

rabble.ca

... so caveat lector.

Here's another take on the Canadian family's ... adventure (usual Daily Mail caveats, I guess) ....

Conservative family regrets moving to RUSSIA to escape 'LGBT ideology'

The Feenstra's, a right-wing Canadian family were left stranded and penniless in Russia after they moved to escape 'LGBT ideology' only to have their bank accounts frozen.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[HavokFour]

Possibly the target that may have sparked the recent talk about transferring long range weaponry to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1946885716169867624

 

[Skysix]

Possibly the target that may have sparked the recent talk about transferring long range weaponry to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1946885716169867624

Maybe that is why the administration is so intent on becoming Russia's best bitch. Far cheaper in budget terms to prevent a 2000 drone strike on DC that way than to try to defend against it with a few several generation outdated antidrone systems and some overpriced missiles that might take out 20% of them.

We are so far on the left end of the (exponential) drone and drone defense development/production curves that they are next to indistinguishable from Asystole. Which seems an appropriate analogy with the level/quality of life support the DOD is being given.

 

[HavokFour]

How much does an interceptor for the Patriot system cost these days, $3-5M? That's a decent amount but considering the source of this news I'd wait and see what really plays out.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1947011730183163975

 

[KevinB]

How much does an interceptor for the Patriot system cost these days, $3-5M? That's a decent amount but considering the source of this news I'd wait and see what really plays out.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1947011730183163975

They are conflating the Patriot buy with missiles.

Germany is buying 2 Patriot batteries for Ukraine, and missiles.
It’s part of the 5B 3 Battery MultiNation deal for Ukraine that was made public a week ago.
- which kicked the Swiss Patriot buy back a year ago

Each Bty is 1B (ish), so really it’s about 2B worth of interceptors, I believe it’s around 600

 

[PrairieFella]

Roshel getting some social media love thanks to surviving a direct FPV hit on video.

I think its becoming increasingly clear in a lot of the reporting that these new build senators are a lot more than just a 550 conversion. Lessons learned are probably improving the vehicle by the month. Lots of media showing them taking some serious hits and keeping the guys inside alive. PMVs are becoming more important by the day, soft skins in theatre no longer seem to do the trick, even as an admin vehicle. I found it interesting to hear him say Ukrainian troops find them reliable offroad and they use them all the way up to the line of contact. Thats certainly a lot further up than I thought they would be used as light APCs but I suppose necessity is a factor there.

I think as an 85-90% solution we should buy a ton of these tout suite as a GWagon replacement. Waiting to 2030 for IOC is unacceptable.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I think as an 85-90% solution we should buy a ton of these tout suite as a GWagon replacement. Waiting to 2030 for IOC is unacceptable DND policy.

There, FTFY

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I seen this stuff used in docks, but not floating bridges, seems like a very neat idea and use of existing tech for different purposes

Ukraine’s rapid frontline bridge deployment transforms mobility

Rapid frontline bridge deployment lets Ukrainian troops cross rivers in just 15 minutes under combat conditions.

euromaidanpress.com

 

[Skysix]

I seen this stuff used in docks, but not floating bridges, seems like a very neat idea and use of existing tech for different purposes

Ukraine’s rapid frontline bridge deployment transforms mobility

Rapid frontline bridge deployment lets Ukrainian troops cross rivers in just 15 minutes under combat conditions.

euromaidanpress.com

Wonder what the weight class is with and without wooden decking and how many sections wide

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Wonder what the weight class is with and without wooden decking and how many sections wide

Give you an idea

 

[Colin Parkinson]

A bit more on drones and their impact

Don's Weekly, 21 July 2025: Part 4 (Equipment & Magyar)

by Donald Hill

xxtomcooperxx.substack.com

 

[KevinB]

Wonder what the weight class is with and without wooden decking and how many sections wide

Composite decking is lighter and more durable.
I’ve seen an Abrams run across a section of floating dock/decking that way and it worked.

 

[brihard]

Composite decking is lighter and more durable.
I’ve seen an Abrams run across a section of floating dock/decking that way and it worked.

Composite decking like the stuff we can buy at Home Depot?

 

[KevinB]

Composite decking like the stuff we can buy at Home Depot?

Yeah basically from what I saw.
It was a tad thicker - but appeared to be the same stuff my main floor patio has, but had holes molded into it to be bolted (clipped?) on.

They had sections on PLS HEMTT’s seemed to be the super LW version of a Bailey type bridge that didn’t need as many folks to install it. I would expect the engineers to have a small remote/tethered m UGV to deploy it if under fire.

 

[Kirkhill]

I think its becoming increasingly clear in a lot of the reporting that these new build senators are a lot more than just a 550 conversion. Lessons learned are probably improving the vehicle by the month. Lots of media showing them taking some serious hits and keeping the guys inside alive. PMVs are becoming more important by the day, soft skins in theatre no longer seem to do the trick, even as an admin vehicle. I found it interesting to hear him say Ukrainian troops find them reliable offroad and they use them all the way up to the line of contact. Thats certainly a lot further up than I thought they would be used as light APCs but I suppose necessity is a factor there.

I think as an 85-90% solution we should buy a ton of these tout suite as a GWagon replacement. Waiting to 2030 for IOC is unacceptable.

2 years ago we were watching the Ukrainians crashing the Russian lines in HMMWVs. The only thing keeping them safe was they were bouncing 20 feet in the air.

These Senators have to be a bit better than that.

Are the Senators really a G-Wagen replacement? Or are they more like the RG-31/Bushmaster? A better TAPV?

 

[HavokFour]

Ukraine has created their own version of Russia's ZALA Lancet, and appears to have made significant improvements (from the first video, that most definitely looks like machine vision assistance).

https://twitter.com/x/status/1947377401559933276

Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

@ChrisO_wiki: 1/ Ukraine has copied Russia's Lancet loitering munition – but, Russian warbloggers say with dismay, the new Ukrainian Bulava munition is a significant improvement on the Russian original. 2/ The 'Yasi...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[lenaitch]

Composite decking is lighter and more durable.
I’ve seen an Abrams run across a section of floating dock/decking that way and it worked.

Having built one, composite decking (consumer grade) is about 30% heavier than wood.

As for load bearing, here is Trex specs:

A. Structural Performance:
a. Deck: Uniform Load – 100lbf/sq.ft.
b. Tread of Stairs: Concentrated Load: 750 lbf/sq.ft., and 1/8” max. deflection with a concentrated load of 300 lbf on area of 4 sq. in.

Other than for the deck surface, there is no spec for composite structural framing, but I suppose the military can do what it likes. I suspect it is special mil spec stuff that was supplied by the highest bidder after years of study, including what colour.