Russian Lies

The picture came from a news article published in the AAAS’s journal “Science”,  specifically the 9 December 2022 issue,  designated volume 678 issue 6624,  on page 1036.  The news article was titled “Hero City”,  and was about Kharkiv,  Ukraine,  being a former science center wanting to recover.  I literally photographed the page in the journal magazine. 

The picture shows what appears to be a bombardment missile that was apparently a dud,  embedded in the pavement near the Neutron Source Facility,  at the Kharkiv Institute of Science and Technology.  The missile would appear to be a tube-launched device with fold-out wrap-around fins. There would appear to be six of these fins,  each hinged three places to flip out,  all flipping-out in the same direction. 

The flip-out hinge line is canted with respect to the body axis,  as can be so very clearly seen with the fin more-or-less pointing toward the viewer,  in the center of the visible fin pattern.  All the fins cant the same way,  creating lift forces that sum up,  directed tangential to the missile body surface. 

Thus,  this is a spin-stabilized weapon,  which means in turn that it is otherwise unguided!  That kind of thing is not “targeted” at all,  it is a random area-destruction weapon,  typically launched en masse as an indiscriminate bombardment means.  I spent 20 years in aerospace defense engineering work,  so I really do know what I am talking about here.

“Unguided” makes a lie out of Russian claims they are carefully targeting their strikes in Ukraine! 

They also swore they were not going to invade,  right up to the day before they invaded.  And a bunch of other lies revealed publicly. 

The real takeaway here is that you cannot believe anything the Russians say:  not then,  not now,  and not in the future.  And that includes any possible “peace negotiations”. 

It seems apparent to me that the louder the Russian saber-rattling,  the closer they actually are to losing that war!  So,  why should Ukraine negotiate,  when they are actually winning?  Because of catastrophic damage to their infrastructure?  All that means is that our help is not yet enough. 

But,  the Russians also claimed they will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine (despite their longstanding doctrine that they would do so in an attempt to avoid defeat on the battlefield). So be prepared for when (not “if”,  “when”) they do “go nuclear”!  The closer they get to defeat,  the more likely it becomes that they will use tactical nuclear weapons on Ukrainian cities!

If Russia loses,  Putin’s regime falls,  and he and all his cronies know it!  A Russia without Putin could be a friend.  Which is the best possible argument for doing everything we can to ensure Ukrainian victory.

References (which I wrote earlier on this topic):

#1. “How To Stop the Ukraine War”,  posted 27 November 2022

#2. “Nuclear War Warning”,  posted 12 September 2022