Russia: Decides to add additional armour to its equipment.

(Ukraine)  One of the things that we can take away from Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, is how badly its armoured forces have suffered at the hands of the defenders using Anti-tank missiles, mines, artillery and even drones,   Well it appears that Moscow has put its best scientists on the job and they have come up with a armour upgrade which can be carried out in the field on its Mstra 152mm self propelled gun , but saying that I'm not sure what happens when they undertake a fire mission:

Russia: Putin replaces cancelled May day parade with static display

(Moscow) For the second year running the Russian dictator for life Putin has had to cancel the customary Red Square May day parade due to the threat of Kyiv spoiling the day instead he has ordered his minions to set up a static display of captured Ukrainian vehicles and armour in a pale imitation of the huge display of destroyed and captured Russian weaponry that can be found in Kyiv:

 Leopard 2 A6

BTR4

Bushmaster

Mamba

Cougar

T64BV

Right to left: Humvee, Humvee, Pinzgauer, Saxon, ?, Mamba, Kirpi

Russia: Pictures emerge of downed Ukrainian suicide drone

(Russia) This past year we have been regaled to numerous stories of military targets deep inside Russia getting hit, presumably by Ukrainian drones, the thing  that many found baffling was the distances involved , resulting in much speculation as well as rumour and rife such as the strike on Soltsy 2 airbase over 400 miles from the Ukraine, but only 40 from Estonia. A strike on a factory in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan (700 miles from the Ukraine border)  where Russia is making copies of the Iranian Shahed 136 suicide drone on the 2nd of April revealed a small light aircraft crashing into the factory. 

Sources say, it was not a regular drone , rather a low speed modified Ukrainian Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) that was used to hit Alabuga in Tatarstan region of Russia. pic.twitter.com/gP92To2401

— FL360aero (@fl360aero) April 2, 2024

Well things have become a lot clearer when pictures of another such aircraft surfaced which had crashed landed somewhere inside Russia revealing that the Ukrainians have jury rigged a small light aircraft (Ukrainian produced Sky Ranger Nynja,) for remote control and simply added a small bomb underneath. (OFAB-100-120)

The interesting about the UAV in question is how simple it is, I mean everybody else in the world have designed and built bespoke UAVs which no doubt aren't that cheap, yet here, a small aircraft fitted out with 3D printed parts and a small bomb underneath does exactly the same job for less than half the price.

Russia: Ukraine strikes Russia overnight with suicide drones

(Krasnodar Krai)  Overnight on the 26th and into the morning of the 27th April 2023, Ukraine carried out a number of UAV strikes in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia , which is situated to the east of the Crimea on the otherside side of the Kerch bridge.

So far it is been reported that a oil refinery and the military airfield at kushchyovskaya were struck. The interesting thing about the airfield strike is that it was where the Russians relocated their aircraft based in the Crimea , after their security could no longer be guaranteed there after numerous Ukrainian strikes. (Like the one 10 days ago on the 17th of April) in fact google maps shows over 50 aircraft based at the airfield. 

But that is only half the story. In recent months Russia has regained the momentum in its invasion of the Ukraine and one of the means it has done so is by fitting small wings onto dumb bombs adding the Russian version of GPS (Glonass) and hey presto a cheap guided weapon, which unlike the US version (JDAMS) due to its size doesnt require a direct hit to damage the target area (usually dug in troops) and the Russians have used such to devastating effect 

Well post strike video from the airfield shows the Ukrainians also destroyed a warehouse containing the glide kits for the Russians FAB bombs. 

Ukrainian strikes on Krasnodar Krai partially affected Russian aerial bombardment storage — at the airbase in the town of Kushchyovskaya, Krasnodar Krai, a UMPK warehouse was destroyed.

— The UMPK is a wing kit/guidance module installed on general-purpose “dumb” bombs and… pic.twitter.com/P0yIPFPhLU

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 27, 2024