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Shashank Joshi Profile
Shashank Joshi

@shashj

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Defence editor at @TheEconomist , Visiting fellow at @warstudies King's College London.

London
Joined November 2008
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
16 days
. @olliecarroll & I write on Ukraine post-supplemental. Tense few weeks ahead, but pressure abates if Ukr gets to late 2024. “Russian defence industrial capacity maxes out in 2025” says a Western official. Ukr offensive options still seem distant, though.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
3 years
Biden, last month: "The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy of the United States from Afghanistan."
@LizSly
Liz Sly
3 years
US helicopters seen this morning at US embassy Kabul. It seems the evacuation is underway. Photo by @AP
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
1 year
These aren’t the marines you’re looking for.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
“We believed this was a work event”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
There are signals, and then there are signals. Finland's president, on a short-notice trip to Washington, meets the CIA director.
@niinisto
Sauli Niinistö
2 years
An insightful breakfast meeting with @CIA Director William Burns, who has a remarkable experience in diplomacy and negotiations with Russia.
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Shashank Joshi
3 years
That's the Rose Garden Total Hardware, in Virginia
@realDonaldTrump
Donald J. Trump
3 years
Will be having a press conference from the Rose Garden in 15 minutes.
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
All this hand-wringing at Austin's comment that US wants to see a weakened Russia. Russia has spent the last decade seeking to weaken the US & Europe. It has spent the last two months seeking to erase the Ukrainian state. Weakening Russia has costs, but it is in NATO's interest.
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
Sweden & Finland will be big assets to NATO. Highly integrated with each other, highly inter-operable with NATO & in the latter case the largest artillery force in Europe, among other strengths. Their membership will also make it easier to defend NATO's northern flank & Baltics.
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Shashank Joshi
2 months
Ouch. ‘…“We know Germany is pretty penetrated by Russian intelligence so it just demonstrates they are neither secure nor reliable,” Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, said….’
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Heads of MI5 and FBI gave their first ever joint speech at Thames House in London this afternoon to audience of business & academic leaders, on danger of Chinese espionage. MI5's Ken McCallum warned of "coordinated campaign on a grand scale" & "strategic contest across decades".
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Striking satellite imagery taken on Monday of the Mariupol Drama Theatre—hit by an air strike today. 1,200 civilians were sheltering in it. The image shows that the word “children” is written in Russian in large white letters in front of & behind the theatre. (📸: @Maxar )
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
11 months
It will never stop being funny that a war launched to capture Kyiv in a few days has resulted in an attempted insurrection by the presidential caterer.
@KevinRothrock
Kevin Rothrock
11 months
From the source: claims that the FSB and National Guard are setting up checkpoints at the highway in Rostov.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
“in some cases, Russian troops have deliberately punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said. The Pentagon official declined to say how the military made these assessments”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
“The Royal Navy is ending its century-old tradition of having Chinese servants on warships amid fears that they could be forced to spy for Beijing. Hundreds of Chinese laundrymen have worked on Britain’s warships since the 1930”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
3 years
"Only a small minority of you will be kidnapped by police!" is an interesting new slogan for Chinese tourism.
@hollyanndoan
Holly Doan
3 years
“China is not a police state.” Ambassador says Canadians should visit People’s Republic, promising “vast majority” shouldn’t worry about being kidnapped by police. “It’s quite safe.” @ChinaEmbOttawa @oneillyatescbc @MemorialU @MichaelChongMP #cdnpoli
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
4 months
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@jeremycorbyn
Jeremy Corbyn
4 months
Why is there always money to bomb people, but never any money to feed, house or care for people?
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
I asked #dalle2 () for an ornate Mughal painting of an Apache helicopter. Some stunning results:
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Very hard to tell what happened: we only have corpses with hands bound and gunshot wounds to the head, eyewitness accounts of non-combatants being executed, and electronic intercepts of Russian soldiers discussing the targeting of civilians to go on. It's a real mystery, John.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
I've been asked, repeatedly, and by serious people, why the media circulated "disinformation" around Hamas beheading babies. It was not disinformation. There was first-hand evidence from the start. You just didn't want to see it.
@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
To every October 7th truther who has, for two weeks, denied the first-hand testimony that was already available and published, here is the head of Israel's national forensic medical centre. "Many bodies, including those of babies, are without heads."
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
3 months
Trump could withdraw from Nato, publicly burn the North Atlantic Charter & personally shoot the secretary general and you’d still have people out in force arguing it’s campaign rhetoric, an elaborate negotiation gambit, that critics are pearl-clutching alarmists, etc.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
I had been pessimistic, but it seems we may be headed towards good news for Finland and Sweden on NATO this week.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
11 months
Our cover this week.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
If true, another violation of Geneva Conventions: “Sometimes they use this tactic - first, they raise a white flag above their equipment, then come closer to our positions. When we come up and kind of take them as prisoners of war, they start to open fire”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Jaw-dropping. Borrell says EU military package may include "supplying fighter jets" for Ukraine's air force, EU has spoken w/ Ukrainian foreign minister "about the type of jets the Ukrainian military needs" & there are "member states...able to supply them"
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Western official: "Even when the Russians take a village or town the Ukrainians frequently counter attack immediately. So Russians have no time to bed down or control the situation. And they're immediately on the back foot again."
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
6 months
Israel is not engaged in the "deliberate mass killing of civilians". I will repeat that as many times as needed despite the obtuse trolling to the contrary. Criticise & condemn the war all you like, but there is no evidence Israel's war is aimed at murdering civilians.
@martinshawx
Martin Shaw
6 months
@shashj An apology for the deliberate mass killing of civilians.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Ukraine's night-time drone ops. “We look specifically for the most valuable truck in the convoy and then we hit it precisely and we can do it really well with very low collateral damage — even in the villages...You can get much closer at night.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
The fact that the US Air Force is now making bespoke drones for Ukraine and boasting about it publicly is not a great sign for Russia’s longer-term prospects in this war.
@beverstine
Brian Everstine
2 years
DOD: "Phoenix Ghost" drones were rapidly developed by USAF in response to Ukrainian requirements. They have 'similar capabilities' to the Switchblades. >121 going to Ukraine. Will require 'minimal training' Whoa.
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
“We believe that this is the only thing that can stop the Russian forces from perpetrating more atrocities,” said one senior Czech defence official, adding that the [T-72] tank deliveries so far had been gifts rather than sales.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
My piece on Finland’s rapid moves towards a NATO bid. Gov’t update on security policy due Apr 14th. Things could move fast after that. “I'm pretty confident we will be filing the membership agreement…in a few weeks’ time” as MP @elinavaltonen told me.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
10 months
Striking photo which shows where the power lies in European security.
@RishiSunak
Rishi Sunak
10 months
NATO is where Ukraine belongs.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
The evidence this morning, though NOT conclusive by any means, points more towards a failed rocket launch than an Israeli air strike. Last night’s rush to judgment, including by major regional powers, was premature, cynical and irresponsible. More evidence still needed.
@Justin_Br0nk
Justin Bronk
7 months
No crater or obvious shrapnel pattern consistent with standard IAF JDAM/Mk80 series bombs visible in this image. Still not conclusive, but IF this is the extent of the damage then I’d say an airstrike looks less likely than a rocket failure causing an explosion and fuel fire.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
1 year
Top work. “an eight-month visual investigation by The New York Times concluded that the perpetrators of the [Bucha] massacre along Yablunska Street were Russian paratroopers from the 234th Air Assault Regiment led by Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
11 months
A sad moment. “On Wednesday, the Washington-based magazine [National Geographic] that has surveyed science and the natural world for 135 years … “aid off all of its last remaining staff writers.” Had 12 million subscribers at peak in 1980s.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Ukrainian units around Kyiv say that the SAS has been training them in Ukraine in the last two weeks on the use of NLAWs. “British special forces had come to instruct a battalion in Obolon, on the outskirts of Kyiv.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
CIA Director: “Putin’s bet right now is that he is going to be tougher than the Ukrainians, the Europeans, the Americans…I believe, and my colleagues at C.I.A. believe, that Putin is as wrong about that bet as he was profoundly wrong in his assumptions”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
4 months
Taiwan has vocally backed Ukraine, Japanese leaders keep turning up in Kyiv & South Korea underwrote last year’s offensive with shells. Sure seems like US’ Asian allies don’t see Ukraine as a grave distraction from Indo-Pac.
@KareemRifai
Kareem Rifai 🌐
4 months
Japan's newly appointed Foreign Minister, Yoko Kamikawa, just made a surprise visit to Ukraine. She pledged $37 million to support a Ukrainian anti-drone system. She said Japan will "keep supporting Ukraine so that peace can be restored."
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
New season of Le Bureau looks excellent.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
6 months
🧵This week The Economist spoke to Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, on the state of the war. It’s a fascinating & important interview. “Just like in the first world war we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
It’s really something to watch a CEO have a meltdown in real time *in his own product*.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Life comes at you fast
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
My piece on mass expulsion of over 400 Russian diplomats from Europe in recent days. It means that roughly half of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in legal rezidenturas (stations) in Europe are being kicked out. A big blow to SVR, GRU & FSB.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
6 months
"This is a text-book case of genocide." How any sane person could write this, let alone a UN official, is incredible. It's possible to believe that Israel's war is wrong, or excessively destructive, or imprudent without resorting to the idea that its aim is to wipe out civilians.
@vali_nasr
Vali Nasr
6 months
Last paragraph best tells how international law & international rules based order are coming apart, w support of the very world powers that tout its values & claim to be defending it. The American-backed world order will not be able to easily reverse this blow to its…
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
11 months
The Zoom call from hell.
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@NOELreports
NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
11 months
It looks like Putin and Shoigu want to centralize the PMC's under their command. All voluntary fighters who are fighting for Russia have to sign a contract with the Russian Federation as of 1 July 2023. This also applies to Wagner, led by Prigozhin. Shoigu pulls the strings.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Many odd & offensive claims in this Pankaj Mishra piece, but my favourite is the reference to Rishi Sunak’s “showy Hinduism”. Trying to imagine any Guardian columnist using the phrase “showy Muslim” or “showy Jew”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
A DoD source tells me: "I can say with certainty this is happening."
@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
“in some cases, Russian troops have deliberately punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said. The Pentagon official declined to say how the military made these assessments”
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Shashank Joshi
11 months
Ukraine’s offensive is going so badly that [checks notes] Russia might be forced to use nuclear weapons. Sometimes you wish the propaganda had a tad more finesse.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Remarkable turnaround. On March 8th Swedish PM said NATO bid "would further destabilise the security of this particular region of Europe". Now: "The Social Democrats' party leadership has decided. Magdalena Andersson's goal is for Sweden to join NATO in June this year."
@SvD
Svenska Dagbladet
2 years
Statsminister Magdalena Anderssons mål är att Sverige går med i Nato i juni i år – partiledningen har bestämt sig, uppger S-källor för SvD.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
10 months
“Russian regions will soon have the authority to establish their own private military companies and arm them.” Feudal historians:
@kirlant
Kirill Shamiev
10 months
Russian regions will soon have the authority to establish their own private military companies and arm them, according to the proposed amendments being rushed through the State Duma. 1/5
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
If you're wondering why an army of truculent cartoon dogs has been haranguing Russian diplomats on Twitter, wonder no further: I wrote a piece on the phenomenon of #NAFO : shitposting, satire & information warfare rolled into one. Enjoy, fellas.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
6 months
Blinken lays out red lines: "no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Not now, not after the war. No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism...No reoccupation of Gaza...No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory"
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
“Without allowing details of their preparations to leak out…they [Ukrainians] seem to have constructed a number of specialized combat brigades with lighter, faster wheeled vehicles. This has allowed them a crucial mobility advantage over their enemy.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
Congratulations on your life choices if you think the real issue at stake is arguing with strangers on the internet about the precise means by which babies were murdered.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
A point of no return. Largest forcible annexation of European territory since WW2. Commits him to defend it in perpetuity & capture the parts of it he doesn't occupy (lots). Prevents him giving it back to Ukraine as part of a settlement. And increases risk of escalation.
@ChristopherJM
Christopher Miller
2 years
The Kremlin says Putin will sign decrees tomorrow at 3pm local time to “annex” the four regions of partially-occupied southeastern Ukraine where sham “referendums” were held at gun point. Putin will also deliver a speech. via state propaganda agency RIA.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
4 months
Honestly, you’d think we were on the cusp of invading Iraq. We’re likely talking targeted & limited attacks on Houthi missile facilities. Good or bad, effective or futile, it’s not major escalation & it’s not going to lead to a major war.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
UK announces it's sending more than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns and 36 L119 105mm artillery guns to Ukraine ("will soon arrive"). Counter-battery radar systems and more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition for Soviet-era artillery "will also follow".
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
3 months
"Two days before Alexei Navalny was pronounced dead...several officers from the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, are said to have paid a visit — and proceeded to disconnect and dismantle some of the security cameras and listening devices there."
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
They've lost the tape, haven't they?
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
5 months
The current challenge is to be realistic about Russian capacity in Ukraine without being fatalistic about Ukraine's prospects. This short 24-page paper by Estonia's defence ministry is a welcome effort at setting out a potential strategy. Some highlights:
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Western official on the Moskva incident: "I can't definitively tell you exactly what has happened. But I am not aware previously of a fire on board a capital warship, which would lead to the ammunition magazine exploding...The claim by Ukrainian forces is credible"
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
To every October 7th truther who has, for two weeks, denied the first-hand testimony that was already available and published, here is the head of Israel's national forensic medical centre. "Many bodies, including those of babies, are without heads."
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
This is the head of the Bundeswehr, but I’m now wondering if he reads the news.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
1 year
'Poland is considering a request from Ukraine to donate its German-made Leopard main battle tanks, a senior Polish diplomat said. “They are for real considering giving anything just to help Ukraine,” said a Czech official closely involved...'
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
HIMARS works. “Since a recent HIMARS strike on an enemy ammunition depot in Izyum, located southeast of…Kharkiv, Russian shelling has been “10 times less” than before, said Bohdan Dmytruk, a battalion commander in Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
11 days
“Brest is a rainy industrial port…that is home to the French navy and its submarine nuclear deterrent. It has also witnessed a remarkable number of weddings in recent years between female Chinese students and the seamen who work at its naval bases”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Big news. “The Biden admin will work with allies to transfer Soviet-made tanks to bolster Ukrainian defenses in the country’s eastern Donbas region, a U.S. official said on Friday…It marks the first time in the war that the US has helped transfer tanks.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
My piece on changing Russian war aims. "Grabbing chunks of Ukraine (or Georgia before that, and Moldova before that) and using them as leverage could be done at a tolerable economic and military price to Russia in 2014. Doing so now is a different matter"
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
@CGMeifangZhang I did not have “Chinese diplomat roots for Imperial Japan” on my bingo list for this year, but good for you for being so open-minded I guess.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
4 months
What an absolute moral cesspit the Republican Party has got itself into with Ukraine. Treating the survival of a country as a political weapon and bargaining chip. For shame.
@burgessev
Burgess Everett
4 months
News: Senate Republicans discussed idea today of conditioning aid for Ukraine on U.S. hitting certain border security metrics after supplemental/immigration policy bill passes. Conservatives pushing for it but negotiators have rejected it, arguing it would cost the bill R votes
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Shashank Joshi
1 year
There is something wild about the fact that Russia has mobilised 300,000 men since Sep, conducted 700+ air & drone strikes since Oct & hurled itself at Donbas since Jan, with as many as 20,000 killed in action ... and actually managed a net *loss* of territory in April (👇).
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@general_ben
Ben Hodges
1 year
Nine years of war, with every advantage, Russia controls 15% of Ukraine. They still don't have air superiority. They can't stop any trains/convoys coming into Ukraine. I see no reason for any Russian optimism. Crimea is the decisive terrain. Liberate it and this War will be over.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
A week into the war, these are the sort of questions that experts are now beginning to ask.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
“A [Ukrainian] military-intelligence officer says that forward units are now within sniper range (a kilometre or so) of Kherson’s outer suburbs. “The next week or two will be even more interesting,” he promises.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Good BBC investigation into mercenary recruitment. “The serving mercenary said many veterans of the…Wagner organisation were contacted on a private Telegram group a few weeks before the start of the war. They were invited to a "picnic in Ukraine".”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
If you start a war, you don’t get to choose how it ends: “After initially planning for supporting an insurgency, Western govts now see realistic prospect of Ukrainian success tht pushes Russia farther out of [Ukraine] & deters Moscow from future landgrabs”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
"Fifty-five Chinese sailors are feared dead after their nuclear submarine apparently got caught in a trap intended to ensnare British sub-surface vessels in the Yellow Sea...According to a secret UK report the seamen died following a catastrophic failure of the oxygen systems"
@philewing
Phil Ewing
7 months
Good heavens -- horrible if accurate 👇
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Good piece by @mattsteinglass . "The scale of Soviet & Chinese supplies of heavy weaponry to the North Vietnamese dwarfs anything imaginable in Ukraine...Soviet trainers often pressed the buttons on anti-aircraft missile[s] that shot down American fighters"
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
1 year
What’s brewing could be worst mass leak since Snowden 10 years ago. “leaked docs appear to go well beyond highly classified material on Ukraine… increasing trove also includes sensitive briefing slides on China, Indo-Pacific, the Middle East & terrorism.”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Pure, pointless revenge. It won’t make Ukraine give up, and it won’t make its backers give up. All it does it strengthen the case for additional air and missile defence.
@MattiMaasikas
Matti Maasikas
2 years
Kyiv city centre right now.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
“Ukraine received a fresh shipment of Turkish-made Bakar Bayraktar TB2 armed drones earlier this week according to a Facebook post from Ukraine’s defense minister. “New [drones] have already arrived in Ukraine and are on combat duty” said Oleksiy Reznikov”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
1 year
RUSI has a new report out today on lessons from the first phase of the Ukraine war The authors include a Ukrainian lieutenant-general & @Jack_Watling . The paper is full of rich data & implications for other armed forces. I wrote up some highlights here:
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
On HIMARS. “We needed to per­suade them…,” said Mr. Reznikov. “In the Izyum case, we were pre­cise [in tar­get­ing] a Russ­ian com­mand cen­ter for aer­ial op­er­a­tions. It was re­ally pre­cise. Our part­ners saw it and said, ‘You passed the test.’”
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Head-spinning sentence. "Until the eve of the invasion, Russia was committed to implementing the Minsk II agreement, which would have kept the Donbas as part of Ukraine" Russia was planning the invasion for five months prior. So no, it was not "committed".
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
UK Chief of Defence Intelligence: “Russian operations have changed. Russia is now pursuing a Strategy of Attrition. This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower. This will result in increased civilian casualties [&] destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure"
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Clever chart on the artillery contest in Ukraine, by @Volodymyr_D_
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
9 months
“systematic erosion of Russian artillery has been a turning point: for the first time in the war, Ukrainian howitzers can deliver sustained fire … It also means that Moscow…has less artillery power to kill the infantry that emerge from” minefields
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
2 years
Did Scholz ask Zelensky if he wants this? Serious question, because a ceasefire without Russian withdrawal looks like it would, at this time, favour Russia and I have a hard time believing it's what Ukraine wants.
@Bundeskanzler
Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz
2 years
Three points from my long phone call with #Putin today: There must be a ceasefire in #Ukraine as quickly as possible. The claim that Nazis are in power there is false. And I also reminded him about Russia’s responsibility for the global food situation.
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@shashj
Shashank Joshi
7 months
Unusual to see a call for ethnic cleansing in a mainstream magazine. Yet here it is in the Spectator. "Maybe they will finally put an end to this insoluble nightmare, raze Hamas to the ground, or clear all the Palestinians from that benighted strip."
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
Jaw-dropping, even by the debased standards of Russia’s foreign ministry. Every post-colonial state should take note of the ideas that Russia is propounding here.
@mfa_russia
MFA Russia 🇷🇺
2 years
💬 President Vladimir Putin: There is no in-between, no intermediate state: either a country is #sovereign , or it is a #colony , no matter what the colonies are called. And a colony has no historical prospects. If a country is not able to make sovereign decisions - it's a colony.
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
One of the Kremlin’s negotiating demands. “Russia…wants Ukraine to reduce its army to 50,000, a fifth of its current size. After a month of bloody sacrifice, few in Ukraine are anywhere near ready to agree to such a cut”
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
Another incredibly detailed report by @Jack_Watling and Nick Reynolds drawing on extensive interviews with Western and Ukrainian officials. Zaluzhnyi advisor: "anti-tank missiles slowed the Russians down, but what killed them was our artillery." Intel=key.
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
‘The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, is losing his job after failing to predict Russia's war…Seven months after he took on the role, one report said he was blamed for "inadequate briefings" and a "lack of mastery of subjects".’
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Shashank Joshi
1 year
Superb long read from the NYT. ‘“This isn’t war,” Mikhail said, struggling to speak through heavy, liquid breaths. “It’s the destruction of the Russian people by their own commanders.”’
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Shashank Joshi
1 month
Robert Gates on visiting Russia as CIA director: "One of my most vivid memories, they have this wonderful guest house at KGB headquarters where they have their dinners...We sit down and I ate the worst piece of beef I’ve ever had in my entire life"
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
US microchips “were found inside a recovered example of the 9S932-1, a radar-equipped air defense command post vehicle … a Pantsir air defense system, a Ka-52 “Alligator” attack helicopter, and a Kh-101 (AS-23A Kodiak) cruise missile.”
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Shashank Joshi
2 years
The speech was a feint.
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Shashank Joshi
1 year
UK government: “UK defence and security officials believe a window has opened up where Russia is on the backfoot due to resupply issues and plummeting morale. The Prime Minister is therefore encouraging allies to deploy their planned support for 2023 as soon as possible”
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Shashank Joshi
8 months
I don’t think Russia really wants to get into a tank-loss competition.
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@RussianEmbassy
Russian Embassy, UK
8 months
Wasted.
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Shashank Joshi
11 months
Bizarre to see people draw sweeping conclusion from a few images. They suggest poor tactics. But could also indicate bad luck. One US armour officer said to me: if his battalion had to breach complex obstacles, mines, he’d expect 25%-plus casualties—“if everything went right”.
@BO3673
Phil
11 months
Some people are drawing some very big conclusions from a few videos and photos of less than one company group of damaged / destroyed AFVs… as predicted. Ukraine should just throw in the towel now right.
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Shashank Joshi
1 year
Extremely enjoyable morning spent over the Baltic sea in a Swedish Gripen D fighter jet. Skimmed the sea, went supersonic and got to take the controls for rolls & loops. Most importantly, resisted the urge to lean forward and flick the "peace/war" toggle to find out what happens.
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Shashank Joshi
1 year
Love this story. “Brezhnev turned pale, began perspiring and trembled visibly. He repeatedly asked Grechko: ‘is this definitely an exercise?’…”
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