No! We Are Not Talking About The Film
Which I have seen, but many decades ago. There was something about a magic mirror and stop-motion animation? Art!
They're calling it a 'Pendragon' but I don't see any evidence of a Parker Platinum fountain model. I believe there was also a remake, which died the death at the box office and tanked the director's career afterwards. Art!
Ah yes, the director in question was Bryan Singer and it starred Nicholas Hoult, not Ben Cross, because the film above is one of the Asylum mockbusters and I cannot be bothered to correct what is, after all, merely an intro to the Intro.
For Lo! we are going to be looking rather closer than other pundits have at the sonorous-sounding 'OPERATION VIVALDI', the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive in the direction of Lyman. If you're not a fan of granular current military analysis you might want to sit this one out. Art!
This is one of the better maps I've seen of what's going on in The Lyman Direction, as people keep calling it. You see, back in May 2022, the orcs managed to occupy Lyman. They had to abandon it five months later during the Kozaky counteroffensive, and have been trying to get it back into their sweaty mitts ever since. Over the past 4 years they had created a salient north of Lyman, which they hoped to lever into a pincer that would have come at the city from the rear. This has come with enormous expenditure of blood and treasure as they grimly ground forwards, heedless of loss.
"Where is this Jack you -
SILENCE! NO CAVILLING! I WILL GET TO MY POINT IN GOOD TIME!
A couple of months ago the Ukrainians began Operation Vivaldi, which their commander, exhibiting Slavic satirical sense, forecast would take place in 4 parts - after the composer's 'Four Seasons' meisterwerk. Seriously, check it out, it's a fantastic piece of eighteenth-century baroque composition.
ANYWAY we abruptly change tracks to mention 'Preston Stewart', the South Canadian ex-101 Airborne officer, whom on his Youtube channel was interviewing another interesting character: Art!
Before you is Sergeant John 'Jackie' Roberts, South Canadian army veteran whom moved to Ukraine to combat the orcs - today's title 'Giants' - five years ago, and who has a long history of working both front and rear lines. Now you know where our title comes from. John agreed to an interview with Prez, and what follows is their discussion.
OPSEC: 'Operational Security' or keeping what needs to be kept secret, secret. The Kozaky found out the hard way in 2023 that informing the South Canadians of what they were going to do was a splendid way of having Jake Sullivan, the Biden presidency Sec Def, immediately leak all that info to the Kremlin in search of an Off Path, a De-escalation or Let's Not Humiliate Putinpot Route. Or so the conspiranoid loonwaffles would have us believe. Art!
Excuse me if my bitter political hatreds come to the fore <mashes voodoo doll of Sullivan with a hammer>. Art!
Third Army Corps in Ukrainian
Jack pointed out that one consequence of the Global West providing aid to Ukraine is that the latter required information about what was going on, or had been going on, or was going to be carried out, to further obtain more support. Which, if you're not sure, is the opposite of Operational Security. Oooh-er Matron!
Salty Jack also lambasted the GW for not believing the current rate of loss of orcs versus Kozaky in his area: 20 to 1. We shall come back to that.
ANYWAY AGAIN Prez asked Jack about why an Ukrainian attack in the Lyman region as of now and when? Art!
Well, there are 2 reasons. One is that 50,000 Ukrainians live in the 'Fortress Belt' and Prez Zed does not want to see any of these people being sent elsewhere into Ukraine as internal refugees. The other is that Bunker Dwarf Excuse Me Putinpot maintains that he is going to occupy this region and the Fortress Belt is stopping him from managing this. Art!
One practical example Jack cited was the defence of Izyum, a major road and rail logistics hub, which you can see on the map above. The Kozaky liberated it from orc control, which means the orcs are desperate to get their vile greedy sweaty talons back on it again. Tough. Jack explained that the Ukrainians are centering their defence on Borova. Art!
Keeping the maggot-folk of Mordorvia at distance at Borova means they cannot mass fires against Izyum, or over 45 kilometres away in barrier terms. The terrain around Borova is not ideal for defence, but it is a lot better than having Grads and tube artillery killing people in Izyum.
Prez then mentioned the orcs use of Ruffian drones to carry out long-range strikes inside Ukraine, much as the 'Human Murder Safari*' <long redacted description> orcs do so in Kherson. Art!
Jack's rather clinical response was to describe 'Cost Per Shot', meaning how much it costs to carry out a particular drone mission, since these having gradually increasing costs with elevated mission profile.
CAUTION RATHER DARK FOLLOWS
CAUTION RATHER DARK FOLLOWS
To kill a Ukrainian civilian walking their dog in Kherson - which has absolutely happened but which I will not illustrate since apparently Conrad has scruples - you would need a drone with a 75 kilometre optic spool. This costs a lot and has to be balanced against the payoff: Do you want to see a dog-walker being <redacted, redacted and once again redacted> or practical military effects?
We will assume common humanity and move on.
Don't worry, Jack, we will be back. I bet you can hardly wait.
Bring On The Gentle Shoes
Or the not-so-gentle ones. King Piggy, whom seems to be rotting apart as he stands before us, is once again the subject of medical speculation as he falls apart in public. Art!
LEGS! LEGS! LEGS!
Bear in mind that Cankles Von Yamteats also wears elevators in his shoes, and is just an hideous person, and you'll have an understanding of where he stands today. I have more horrid photographs to bring in of His Sepia Awfulencess: Art!
The sepia skin! The neck vajayjay! The hideous smirk! The eye-bags!
He looks about 102, or twenty years on from where we are today. Is Droopy trying to smirk whilst stroking out? 100 to 1 says he doesn't make it to 2027.
From The Hideous To The Sublime
We've not had anything related to RAF Duxford for a couple of days but you don't get off that easy. Art!
Trucks. The ugly, unglamourous side of warfare, yet so, so essential to running a modern army. Conrad is pretty sure these chaps graced the London IWM and got moved to Duxford as part of the Large Object Move, as there is more than enough space at Duxford to put them on display, rather than having to rotate them as exhibits. Art!
This is a Bedford 15 CWT truck, or a ton and a half truck in proper speech, and 'TAF' stands for 'Tactical Air Force' unless I miss my guess. This unit would have been based in Europe, either in This Sceptred Isle, Italy or France, given the camouflage scheme.
Read The Room, Dimya
Art!
' - to bits' if you want the rest of the headline. If even a yellow rag like the 'Daily Star' (imagine 'The Sun' but with more boobs) is lambasting you, then you really are in trouble. One notices that The War now consumes 40% of the Mordorvian budget and that, post-election, taxes on everything have jumped, as have food prices. Conrad confidently predicts the orcs will whine, grumble and do nothing.
Finally -
I need this to get to Count. Thank you, that is all.
* Believe me, this is the one of the most awful things you will read about today
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