Ukraine

Uncategorized

US Weapons Being Sent To Ukraine

March 17, 2022 by 2 Comments

After the President of Ukraine spoke to Congress, President Joe Biden announced another $800 million in weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine. There was one thing in the list that kind of struck me as interesting. See if you can find it.

The new $800 million assistance package includes:

800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems;

2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems;

100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems;

100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, and 400 shotguns;

Over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds;

25,000 sets of body armor; and

25,000 helmets.

Since I don’t think the Ukrainian Army nor its Territorial Army are yet ready to engage in trench warfare, I’m wondering a bit about those 400 shotguns.

Given it is Biden, I surely hope he doesn’t expect the Ukrainians to take his advice on “self-defense” with a shotgun from his Vice-Presidential days.

Uncategorized

Repurposing Russian Armaments

March 16, 2022 by 2 Comments

Necessity is the mother of invention and it appears the Ukrainians are doing a good job of it. They have captured a number of abandoned or semi-destroyed Russian Army tanks and armored personnel carriers. Who has not seen the videos of Ukrainian farmers towing away Russian tanks with their John Deere tractors?

Most of these vehicles are armed, in part, with the Russian PK-T machine gun. That is the tank or coaxial version of their standard PK machine gun. France 24, the French public TV network, has a story on how Ukrainian auto mechanics are re-engineering and repurposing these tank machine guns into infantry weapons. They have added a stock and bipod as well as converted the firing mechanism. You can it in the video below.

Repurposing tank machine guns for infantry use is nothing new. As Ian McCollum relates in the next video, the Finns did it extensively with captured Soviet weapons in the Winter War.

H/T Stephen Gutowski on Twitter

Uncategorized

Grassroot Psyops Against Russia (Updated)

February 27, 2022 by 14 Comments

Many people have seen or heard of the video of the little Ukrainian woman accosting a Russian soldier to give him sunflower seeds. She tells him to put the seeds in his pocket so they will sprout in Ukrainian soil as he lies dead.

Today I saw this post on Instapundit from someone who goes by Flight Er Doc.

Amazon has many varieties of sunflower seeds. There are Mammoth ones like these, assortments of various colors of sunflowers, and Dwarf Sunspots sunflowers.

Making sunlight liquid – a brief history of sunflowers

If you would rather go with something more traditional from wars of the past, you can get Red Flanders Poppies.

If you don’t want to send actual seeds, might I suggest a greeting card with sunflowers on it. The one below with a painting by Claude Monet might be nice. It would also allow you to send a personalized message to Vladimir Putin.

You are only limited by your imagination. The Russians and the Soviets before them have been fucking with us for years. It is time to return the favor.

As an aside, if you do order from Amazon with the links above, I do earn a small commission which goes to supporting this blog.

UPDATE: The sunflower seeds have been delivered. Too bad we can’t put them in Putin’s pocket.

According to one of the comments, Amazon does put your name on the return envelope or box. Might be time to get out the old Geiger counter. I doubt I’ll be getting a night time visit from the FSB. If I do, I can rest easy knowing North Carolina has the castle doctrine.

Uncategorized

Ukrainian Women Are Warriors

February 25, 2022 by 2 Comments

Ukrainian women are tough and are ready to stand up to the Russian invaders.

Yesterday, the news was running with story of an older Ukrainian woman giving sunflower seeds to a Russian soldier. As the story goes, she told him to take the seeds and put them in his pocket so that flowers would grow after he died on Ukrainian soil.

That is one brave woman.

So, too, is Kira Rudik who is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. She tweeted out a picture of herself with her Krinkov (short-barreled AK) that she is ready, willing, and able to use.

If anyone is still unsure why the right to keep and bear arms is important, they need only look at Ukraine. Their parliament changed their gun control laws on Wednesday to allow citizens to carry firearms outside the home for the purpose of self-defense. I guess a little late is better than not at all.

Uncategorized

Kudos To Ronnie Barrett And His Company

December 17, 2014 by 2 Comments

I came across this little tidbit today courtesy of Hershel at The Captain’s Journal.

Barrett Firearms has signed a contract to export rifles to the Ukrainian state-run defense company Ukroboronprom.

From SputnikNews:

KIEV, December 12 (Sputnik) – The Ukrainian state-run defense concern Ukroboronprom said Friday its subsidiary Ukrinmash had signed a deal on small arms delivery with US Barrett Firearms.

“The representatives of company Ukrinmash – the leading exporter of the Ukroboronprom state concern – signed a contract with Barrett Firearms. Weapons will be delivered for the needs of Ukraine’s Security Service and National Guard,” Ukroboronprom said on its website.

Earlier, Ukrinmash has struck deals with another US company ATN, manufacturer of night vision optics and thermal imaging, and Thales Group, a French space, defense and security firm.

Barrett Firearms specializes in designing and manufacturing large-caliber rifles for the US military, law enforcement agencies, and civilian sport shooters in the United States and more than 73 other countries.

I’m glad to see Barrett, ATN, and the Thales Group are helping Ukraine stand up to Russian hegemony. I wish the US government had as much backbone as Ronnie Barrett.

Uncategorized

Like Your Relatively Inexpensive Wolf Or Silver Bear Or Tula Ammo?

March 2, 2014 by 2 Comments



David Codrea has an interesting column up this morning in the National Gun Rights Examiner. Given that it is fairly obvious by now that Putin has sent Russian troops into Crimea which is part of Ukraine, what sort of response will the Obama Administration come up with short of sending troops?

How about doing something to screw US gun owners that would also hit the Russians in the pocket book? In other words, a win-win in their minds.

“I had a fellow tell me this morning that he was completely unconcerned about the Ukraine situation, believing that Obama would take the ‘Chamberlain way out’ of confrontation,” Mike Vanderboegh related this morning on his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog.

“No he won’t,” Vanderboegh replied, “he’ll take the Clinton way out — do nothing about the larger issue but he’ll cut off our access to Russian ammunition just like Clinton cut off our access to inexpensive Chinese ammo in the 90s, to ‘punish them for human rights violations.’”

With foreign imports growing to accommodate the already stretched supply of ammunition that has domestic manufacturers running operations around the clock, such a move would not only send an easy and immediate signal that would meet with “progressive” political and media approval, it would also continue with a long-established tactic of the “gun control” movement: punishing peaceable gun owners for something they are not responsible for.

Sure you can get 7.62×39 ammo from other countries including the US. However, checking the prices at LuckyGunner.com and elsewhere, US made ammo will cost you 3-5 times as much while most non-Russian, non-US made 7.62×39 will still cost 2-3 times as much. The only exception is the Romanian made, Century International imported “Red Army” brand of ammo.

I’m not trying to start a run on ammo but think we need to be aware and consider what the Obama Administration might do in the Ukranian situation. I think David and Mike are on to something here.