Apparently, Ukrainian drones pushed through and started a chain reaction.

Explosions reportedly continued for hours, and authorities evacuated nearby settlements. Initial reports indicate that the site, previously protected by one of Russia’s densest air defense networks, suffered catastrophic damage.

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    32 minutes ago

    Initial reports indicate that the site, previously protected by one of Russia’s densest air defense networks, suffered catastrophic damage.

    Good chance Ukraine could hit the Kremlin if they wanted to. They have drones with the 500 mile range to pull it off, and Russian air defense has become a joke. The only thing that’s been stopping them was US worries about actions like that causing escalation. Ukraine has had less and less reason to care what the US thinks of late.

  • gaael@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    I hace no idea how serious a blow this is. Can anyone provide any sense of magnitude for these 264 000 tons of munitions? Like how big a chunk of total ammunition stockpile woukd this be? How big is it compared to current manufacturing rate?

    • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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      It’s not that easy to calculate as “munitions” can be anything from artillery shells to ballistic missiles.

      If we assume it’s mostly/all artillery shells, it’s roughly one month of production. Russia currently produces 250.000 units of artillery shells per month if everything goes right. Russia uses roughly 10.000 of them per day, so it would be almost one months worth of combat.

      If the stockpile contained more of glide bombs and ballistic missiles, the damage is even worse because they are significantly more expensive to produce.

        • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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          12 hours ago

          True, for some reason, I thought of units instead of tons lmao.

          The damage is significantly worse then, probably months worth of production, maybe even a year. A standard shell weighs like what, 45kg?

          • philpo@feddit.org
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            53 minutes ago

            Don’t forget that artillery shells need charges to work. And these weight more than the actual shell.

          • Elrecoal19@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            264.000.000kg/(45kg/unit) = around 5.866.666 units? Just wanted to have the number so others see the impact.

            • Sonor@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              5.866.666 That is ~587 days worth of munitions if 10k a day is a good info mentioned above. bonkers

    • judasferret@aussie.zone
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      12 hours ago

      Chatgpt thoughts… With some spot checking on the math seems right… Here’s the context of 250,000 tonnes of munitions from the Russian side:

      Russia fires 10,000 to 60,000 artillery shells per day, depending on the front.

      A typical 152mm shell weighs around 40–43 kg.

      That means Russia can burn through 1,800+ tonnes per day in peak operations.

      Russian production in 2023 was estimated at 2 million+ shells per year.

      Russia also draws from Soviet-era stockpiles and imports from North Korea and Iran.

      Russian doctrine favors volume over precision. Their artillery-centric strategy relies on overwhelming force rather than accuracy.

      250,000 tonnes equates to roughly 6 million shells.

      For Russia, that’s only about 3–5 months of usage at current intensity.

          • kmaismith@lemm.ee
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            4 hours ago

            In an attempt to be more moderate: i think it is impolite to regurgitate the words of an LLM in a forum where we are expecting the dialogue to be between humans.

            • Gadg8eer@lemm.ee
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              That’s fair, just realize some of us are tired of online pessimism to such a degree that an AI - telling me there are in fact potential solutions and to keep trying - is actually good for our mental health. I only use Perplexity for research and musings that I sometimes post here to be discussed, not to completely replace human interaction on the Fediverse.

            • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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              2 hours ago

              Why do I trust a LLM more than humans? Because the LLM answers me instantly what I want to know. The human changes the subject and then after 10 interactions, they just ghost you.

  • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Is there a particular reason I only ever see ukraine positive war stuff? And when I see negative ukraine war stuff it’s coming out of trumps mouth?

    No, I don’t follow it religiously.

    • Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Because Russia doesn’t go after strategic targets. Only civilians and because (at least in Europe) the vast majority of people fucking hate Russia. Especially countries that share a border with them or used to be part of the soviet union. Nobody hates Russia more than Russians who have managed to get out though. I had a russian colleague who basically gave up on seeing his family until after the war was over and he has no intention of ever living there after.

    • Furbag@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Negative stuff does come out from time to time, especially when Russia makes big advances, but the underdog effect means that Ukraine typically gets more attention and media coverage for their successful military operations. Russia has had scant few successes over the past few years so they are spreading propaganda that make them look as if they are winning which is getting picked up and parroted by Trump and other neo-fascists in the West.

    • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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      3 hours ago

      I see negative stuff often, it’s just that there’s more positive lately. Also, the negative is neglected on purpose, because saying Ukraine is losing, would become a self-fulfilling future.

    • xiii@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Russia had no significant gains over the last years with half a million casualties (KIA, MIA, lost limbs, war prisoners), the logistics is crumbling — they use donkeys, the economy and demographic are in the toilet but Russia is extremely good at spreading propaganda. So much so that the US admin is parroting it and putting pressure on Ukraine.

      • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Don’t you hate on donkeys! They are an excellent mean of transportation on tough terrain. I don’t know in what context russia uses them, but the US do so too :D

        • TheLunatic@lemm.ee
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          3 hours ago

          Well that’s the thing, Donkeys are good for rough terrain like the mountains of Afghanistan NOT the flat open plains of ukraine, In ukraine they are just sitting unarmoured ducks.

          • Gadg8eer@lemm.ee
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            3 hours ago

            Eh, I’ll take it if we’re talking about actual donkeys and not the Republican party of the US. Did you that, in lieu of a dog, a donkey is a perfect way to protect livestock?

            I’m serious, a predator should think twice; A donkey can grab a cougar’s tail and literally beat it to death by using the wildcat as a living flail. Very protective.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Just to add, Ukrainians information is remarkably reliant and verifiable, the russian information is kremlin lies, so from the start the russian part is just not very interesing at all.

      Also obviously they both talk about good things for them, classic war propaganda.

      Add in that Ukraine is the (incredible) underdog and here we are.

      • TheLunatic@lemm.ee
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        3 hours ago

        This is an important point that people like to ignore, Whilst both sides exaggerate ukraine tells you there are 30 cows in a field when you can only see 28, Russia tells you there is an elephant and three dragons in the same field then tells you you’re falling for ukraines propaganda when you tell them you can only see cows.

    • TheLunatic@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      Russia’s apparent war plan involves lots of slow attritional fighting, which isn’t flashy and rarely results in a “Win”. Not to mention we kind of do see the russian equivalent of this attack (Bombing hospitals, shopping malls and power infrastructure) reported on, it’s just not considered a win to kill civilians in the west.

      A view I agree with not only on the basis of valuing peace, life and the safety of noncombatants but also on the basis of it not being an effective way to win a war, e.g Korean war, Vietnam war, or the near leveling of London and large swaths of europe in Ww2. Strategic bombing of civilian assets just makes the people being bombed more likely to fight back and willing to endure higher casualties on the front lines.

      Fun tidbit, this depot explosion was initially claimed to be “Negligence and mishandling of munitions” by the kremlin, which along with “Smoking accident” is basically shorthand for “Was hit by a drone but we don’t want to let our people know that we aren’t able to keep the war away from them”.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        4 hours ago

        Like the sinking of the Moskva, they choose a story that makes them look incompetent rather than giving the enemy a win. If you have to make this choice, you might be losing.

    • vivendi@programming.dev
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      16 hours ago

      Basically? Wartime propaganda

      Ukraine has been doing individual, small wins like this and they obviously toot their horn when it happens

      But on a large scale, Ukraine has been slowly losing ground

        • vivendi@programming.dev
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          5 hours ago

          Stalemate means Ukraine is fucked because a war of attrition potentially without US support doesn’t look good for them at all

          Like, it’s amazing they managed to hold shit together for all this time and all, but damn they’re looking pretty fucked ngl

          • TanteRegenbogen@feddit.org
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            2 hours ago

            The US didn’t even contribute 30% of munitions so far. European countries are able to pick up the slack. Just look at how much Germany has donated so far.

          • TheLunatic@lemm.ee
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            Eh I don’t think they are fucked. I feel like the perception that A. They REQUIRE US support to win (Which the US should be providing them ffs, you made them give up their nukes) and B. Russia is able to keep fighting long enough to win this way, are both false and largely influenced by a coordinated kremlin effort to portray russian victory as inevitable in order to strangle support for Ukraine.

            For context, the Ukrainian people are fighting a defensive war and inflicting far higher casualties then they take for every metre of ground they lose and still have a hell of alot of ground to lose, whilst russia is not only at the disadvantage of being the aggressor (Which makes it harder to motivate your forces to fight),being a regime heavily dependent on the perception of their superiority (Making any attack like this a major blow to their “We are easily winning” internal narrative) and have burnt through almost their entire Cold War era stockpiles of materiel (This one is easy to check as a they were kind enough to store it outside in easy view of commercial satellites).

            Tldr: Yes Ukraine is losing ground but they are losing it at a price russia can’t afford to pay so russia is desperate for the EU and US to stop supporting ukraine before the russian public wake up.

    • turnip@lemm.ee
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      16 hours ago

      I’d assume because we are allied with Ukraine, and you’d see the opposite in Russia.

    • LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de
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      12 hours ago

      Mostly since the oligarchs in the western camp wants you to see their propaganda. It would be the other way around if you relocated. But if you really want you can find better sources.

        • LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 hours ago

          Nah , you got internet. Do some work to keep yourself informed. I think it’s funny that this is the line here and at the same time negotiating deal is better for Russia than they suggested themselves multiple times. It’s in the mainstream now so you shouldn’t have any issues finding it. But I’m sure your copium can make the coup regime in ukraine winners here as well lol

            • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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              4 hours ago

              Sources are for shitlibs. Hexbearites like Lovesausage are above such trivial matters like facts and reality.

          • pancakes@sh.itjust.works
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            11 hours ago

            It’s always the shadiest, most conspiratorial people that refuse to provide sources and say “jUsT gOoGLe iT”.

            Provide sources or you simply will not be taken seriously, and overall look like an embarrassment.

            • LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de
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              10 hours ago

              Nah not really it’s mostly sad conspiracy people that follow propaganda and take it for facts. Do some work you can do it.

              I’m happy to discuss the fact that the start of the leaked negotiatings are better than what Russia’s demands was before.

              If you don’t believe sure , you will just need to wait until it’s undeniable. But as said I’m sure even if Ukraine was flattened and a nuclear wasteland it would be a win for you somehow.

              • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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                9 hours ago

                It is not up to us to provide sources to your claim.

                Just admit you don’t have any sources and all of it was bullshit.

              • Triasha@lemmy.world
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                6 hours ago

                This is evidence that the white house is riddled with Russian plants/propaganda not that the reality on the front is worse for Ukraine than we thought.

                We always knew it was bad. It has never been good for Ukraine. If it ever gets good for Ukraine you will see Russians retreating. Nobody knows where that point is, but they are almost certainly closer today than they were a year ago.

    • gamer@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      “According to preliminary information, there are no casualties,” the ministry said in a statement posted to Telegram. “The cause of the fire is a violation of safety requirements when working with explosive materials.”

      The article also says Ukraine hasn’t taken credit for the explosion, and that Russia has had accidents like this in the past.

      Fuck Russia and all that, but now I’m thinking OP is full of shit.

        • gamer@lemm.ee
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          3 hours ago

          Neither the article in the OP nor the Business Insider article claim that it was an attack by Ukraine. The BI article says that Ukraine hasn’t commented on the explosion:

          The Ukrainian military has not commented publicly on the explosive incident at the Russian facility. It frequently carries out long-range missile and drone attacks against Russia’s energy and military facilities, including ammunition depots.

          I’m not saying they didn’t do it, or that the accident explanation isn’t propaganda, just pointing out that OP mayhaps is pulling this out of their ass:

          Apparently, Ukrainian drones pushed through and started a chain reaction.

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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    18 hours ago

    If Russia truly has fucked its entire workforce into conscription, they may have to pull forces off the frontlines in order to manufacture replacements for lost equipment and munitions.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      they’ve torn through a tremendous amount of the soviet reserve hardware they had.

      but also have lost over a hundred thousand people, which is gonna hurt any workforce.

      woohoo keep going Ukraine!

      • Sonor@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        wasn’t it like 1 million? i know it differs on how you count it, and the wounded and all, but 100k, while a lot, is one tenth of the reported numbers since the beginning.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          it’s very hard to tell, I’m probably out of date on my numbers as well.

          but teeeeeechnically, it’s over a hundred thou so… “rightish?” :D

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    I hope the shrapnel flew everywhere. Kudos to Ukrainian drone pilots. Fuck the Muscovites and their foreign supporters.

  • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    Can we have links to more reputable, known news sites please? Never heard of that one. Here’s the BBC.

    Russia’s military blamed the blast on ammunition which had detonated after the storage building caught fire due to a “violation of safety requirements”.

    Huh, I suppose maybe a drone-sized violation?

    • A Wild Mimic appears!@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 hours ago

      Alexander Avdeyev also threatened journalists and residents with fines if they shared unofficial information about the blast.

      ah yes, i always threaten journalists when there’s nothing to report

    • PurpleSkull@lemm.ee
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      22 hours ago

      Have seen euromaidanpress articles before, I think they’re legit if not a bit sensationalist and obviously very pro-Ukraine.

      And of course Russia blames a smoooooking incident. There’s this one Russian guy who just smokes everywhere he shouldn’t. Munition storages, aviation bases, flagship Moskva…

      • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Sensationalism is the kind of red flags I run away from… Obviously the BBC have their own political slant, but I’m aware of it and can correct for that. Same when I read an article from something like Fox “News”.

        But if you give me some unknown site of which I don’t know the background and more importantly, who’s funding it, then it’s useless to me and I’ll just add it to the bunch of misinformation machines I run into everyday.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        Why am I now picturing a chain smoking Forrest Gump? “Life is like a pack of cigarettes, you never know what’s gonna blow up.”

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      21 hours ago

      The safety violation will be that the ammunition wasn’t stored in the proper storage bunkers and was therefore vulnerable to an attack setting off the whole lot.

      …and then an attack did just that.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          22 hours ago

          I think it’s more that the British Press in general is pretty political, heavy on the spin and hence one of the least trusted in Europe by the locals themselves.

          When it comes to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine - which is very politically and geostrategically significant for the UK government - the level and direction of the bias of the BBC is no different from the Euromaidan Press hence for those who think the latter is not a “serious source”, the former is also not a “serious source”.

          Mind you, on different subjects which are not related to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine (such as the Israeli Genocide in Gaza) I fully expect the Euromaidan Press is often less biased (on this specific example, significantly so) than the BBC.

          Just because the BBC is posh doesn’t mean they’re honest (in fact from my own experience living in the UK, posh more often than not means fake. manipulative and dishonest)

        • SharkWeek@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          15 hours ago

          Hi, I’m a left wing rather than right wing idiot. The BBC has proved itself an unreliable source plenty of times. They’re beholden to political influence (see today’s story about one of their staff not being allowed to talk about heat pumps because it’s a “political issue”)

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            8 hours ago

            And what sort of bias do they have? Their directors and senior journalists are time-servers and toadies put in place by the Conservatives during their 14 years in power. Starmer has not cleaned up that mess. Gilligan: Tory. Kuenssberg: Tory and Boris Johnson admirer. There are few centre-left voices and none at all speaking from a more leftist point of view.

      • parody@lemmings.world
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        15 hours ago

        Thx for the superior one

        Those media bias folks hate all sources so whichever you link to someone else is gonna hate on (for good reason perhaps!)—but 2 is better than 1 :)