A 21st Century War - The Drescher Drop - Issue #24
The war in Ukraine shows how conflicts are fought in the 21st Century – and why Russia is losing.
The footage of the Ukrainian ambush on a large Russian armored column went viral late last week. Captured in brilliant 4K by a drone hovering over the action, the ambush kicks off with a Javelin anti-tank missile streaking out of a copse of trees, exploding THROUGH a Russian tank, and smashing into the other side of the road.
It highlighted the absolute havoc of the war in Ukraine. But it also showed how war has changed in the 21st Century and underscored the reasons why Russia is losing in Ukraine.
From drones to social media to Bitcoin to Anonymous hackers, war has entered the 21st Century.
Let’s take a look.
Footage of an ambush on the Russian Army convoy by Ukrainian Forces
#UkraineWar #Ucrania #UkraineRussianWar #RussiaUkraineConflict #Ukraine #breaking #Russia https://t.co/2ulBbTrvj9
Drone Precision
Drone strikes are nothing new. The Bush and Obama administrations used them extensively in their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.
But their full potential is being realized in Ukraine.
Drones are not only launching guided missiles at stationary targets. Now they’re linked to satellites which are linked to ground-based artillery batteries and can direct heavy artillery fire onto targets with terrifying precision.
#Ukraine: We present some exclusive recent footage from the eyes of the Bayraktar TB2 drone in the hands of the Ukrainian military.
A 9K317 Buk-M2 TELAR, part of the infamous convoy, completely destroyed. https://t.co/PUiWkeOPwm
The Propaganda War
Drones aren’t only useful in direct military action. They’ve also proven invaluable in winning the information war taking place around the globe and cementing the world’s support behind Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is from the Baby Boomer generation. Born in 1952 and raised with Soviet-era broadcast propaganda, it’s the only worldview he knows.
Across the border in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky grew up in the 80s and 90s and took to social media in his 20s. He was an actor and comedian before becoming a politician and understands social media better than most other world leaders.
The contrasts are stark. Putin has concentrated all his efforts on shutting down social media, and the internet at large, and forcing his people to rely on state-run media for information.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has become a viral social media star, Ukrainian soldiers and the foreign volunteers who have flocked to their cause have become international celebrities, and 8K drone footage of Ukrainians defeating Russian tanks and shooting down Russian aircraft are viral around the world.
Another pitch perfect video fm Zelensky, calling on Ukrainians to stay motivated. You get impression he spends most of his time crafting these messages, leaving work of war to generals. Mark of a good leader, no doubt. Clear Poroshenko would have been micromanaging to last detail https://t.co/HLfxpFrDva
❌🇺🇦⚡️❌Footage shows Ukrainian forces using C4 explosives about 1 kg each on DJI drones.
This tactic is very effective and cheap.
The drone could fly undetected, about 5 to 10 km and magnetically attache the C4 to any armored vehicle and then remotely detonated
#Ukraine #Russia https://t.co/QW9eKwWlC7
Putin's management style is the exact opposite of Zelensky's.
Things look bad for the average Russian. They are quickly being cut off from the rest of the world by both western sanctions and their own government.
That hasn’t stopped the majority of Russians from supporting Putin, particularly among the older Baby Boomer generation, who gather most of their information from broadcast media.
What’s interesting is that support for the war is overwhelming, even among the younger generations.
We can only guess as to how Russian opinions will change as Putin clamps down harder on the internet and access to information for ordinary Russians.
Ukrainians, meanwhile, are winning the war both on the battlefield and in the hearts and minds of the world.
The use of social media is also documenting war crimes committed by Putin’s army against Ukrainian civilians. While Russia, dependent on outdated television broadcasts from the previous century, fails to get its message out, Ukrainian citizens on TikTok and Instagram are capturing every moment on the ground.
The world is horrified by what it is seeing.
This footage is incredible.
The seemingly indiscriminate and careless destruction of non-military targets is absurd.
It somehow seems like #Russia is now treating #Ukraine with “if I can’t have it, no one can” logic.
#UkraineRussiaWar https://t.co/M5xXBrfSlI
New Money For A New War
Back in the dark days of World War Two, the public in almost every belligerent country was asked to donate. Donate money, donate pots and pans, donate silk stockings!
That’s happening again. This time, however, regular people are financing Ukraine’s war effort through individual donations via Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Crypto plays a major part in the financing of the war. This is the first time that crypto finance has been a part of a major war effort, and the results are telling.
Ukraine has raised more than $50 million USD in Bitcoin donations since the war began on February 24. They’ve used that money to buy armored vests and helmets for their soldiers, medical supplies for their field hospitals, and fuel for their vehicles.
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
BTC - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH and USDT (ERC-20) - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
Hackers Unite
Finally, the mysterious hacker group Anonymous has played havoc on Russia. They’ve shut down gas pumps and made cash registers print receipts that read “Stop Putin” and even taken over a television broadcast with anti-war messages.
It turns out that the Russian government’s internet security is sub-par, and probably a decade behind most Western governments.
JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine.
#OpRussia #OpKremlin #FckPutin #StandWithUkriane https://t.co/vBq8pQnjPc
oops ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #Anonymous We do not forgive ! we do not forget ! @squad3o3 #Ukraine https://t.co/GbGD62suox
Anonymous is a completely decentralized international hacker group. They’ve been around since 2003. Nobody knows who they are, although it’s estimated that there are several thousand people involved from all around the world.
They are the definition of keyboard warriors. They’ve exposed pedophiles and corrupt government officials, stopped corporations from polluting, and even shut down the Tunisian government.
Now they’ve turned their collective sights onto Russia.
This Is War
This is what war looks like in the 21st Century. It’s more than sending in tanks and controlling the message on broadcast television.
Drones, social media, cryptocurrency, digital hackers…they are all weapons in the modern toolbox of war. Putin doesn’t seem to understand this, and he is losing the war in Ukraine.
Russian casualties surpassed 10,000 in only two weeks of war, while Ukrainian casualties hover around 1,300. A single death is awful for everyone, but those numbers show something. Putin’s lack of understanding of the modern world is killing his own people.
It also highlights the problems with concentrating power into the hands of one person. The western nations which make up NATO have thousands of experts across different fields to guide and direct their militaries. Committees make decisions. Advisors, experts in their own areas, guide them. Defense contractors invent new weapons and push the edge of military technology forward.
Not so in Russia. Putin decides almost everything, and those he appoints as advisors are merely yes-men. This is why Russia has not kept up with war in the 21st Century.
This is war today. Zelensky understands this. NATO understands this. Putin does not. So Putin will lose, eventually. How many Russians and Ukrainians (and Belorussians) will this “Boomer” take down with him?
These little angels from #Ukraine say Hi and thank you ❤ https://t.co/6CVTfynYYc
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