What an awfully written text. I checked the guy out: 300k followers.
That this kind of thing now passes for “reporting” or “journalism” says quite a lot. No wonder people are increasingly unable to inform themselves properly if they treat this sort of hysterical, breathless posting as serious informative media consumption.
The guy has a book too. Has to be a good read. Laughing.
It’s on people though, if they are unable to inform themselves properly, no? Beyond the basic understanding of the subject matter, one should be able to catch a simple clue, no? For instance, that guy says that these drones cost $2,100 each, while the Patriot missiles they are
replacing cost $3.9M each, and in exchange for these drones Ukraine is looking to get the Patriot missiles. All in short 3 consecutive sentences. You should read his post about the deal Zelensky made with Qatar! Or probably any other post, lol (I only read the two, somewhat).
In real life, the Qatari statement:
“The agreement includes collaboration in technological fields, development of joint investments and the exchange of expertise in countering missiles and unmanned aerial systems,” Qatar’s Defence Ministry said in a statement during Zelenskyy’s visit.
Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help Gulf nations.
www.aljazeera.com
On the subject of people unable to inform themselves, from the same article:
“Ukraine is offering a cheap way of countering Iranian drones. Ukraine has been doing that for the past three and a half years because Russia has been firing Shahed drones since September 2023 at least, and it’s been downing them nearly every day,” said Al Jazeera’s Dmitry Medvedenko, reporting from Doha.
“The Gulf has been using Patriot and THAAD missiles primarily so far to down Iranian missiles and drones. Each Patriot missile costs almost $4m, while Ukraine is offering its expertise in downing drones for about $2,000 each.”[…]
Kyiv has proposed swapping its interceptors for the vastly more expensive air-defence missiles that Gulf countries are using to down Iranian drones. Kyiv says it needs more of them to fend off near-daily Russian missile attacks.[…]
The Patriots are “a much better solution” for countering Russia’s ballistic missiles, he said.
This is the stuff an average+ (well, pretty much everyone, less a margin of error) person reads and most/all outlets report the same stuff, as we discussed previously. And it basically says what the expert in question said in his exciting manner of expression. Here is what Zelensky said on the deal:
Details of what exactly Ukraine has agreed in the Gulf are slim.
“We are talking about a 10-year cooperation. We have already signed a relevant agreement with Saudi Arabia, we have just signed a similar agreement with Qatar, also for 10 years, we will sign one with the Emirates,” Zelensky said.
On the table are co-production of drones – with factories both in Ukraine and in the Gulf – and expertise sharing, he said, without providing specific information.
It is unclear what Kyiv gets in return, or whether the deals are anything more than simple arms-for-cash.
Zelensky, who had originally been pushing for expensive air defence missiles in return, said the agreements were worth “billions, not millions” to Ukraine.
“Specifically billions for our exporters – everyone will earn, Ukraine will earn, we won’t lose out.”
Zelensky’s Gulf tour secures defence agreements, offering Ukraine’s drone tech to Middle East nations facing Iranian threats.
amp.scmp.com
Production lines, billions of dollars, we won’t lose out (which probably means they will or nothing happens (like with euro agreements singed last year and prior), but…). This is the problem, not some amplifying dude on social media (though he certainly is part of it too).
Consider the advanced math here. He is offering 30K drones per month, which should be more than enough for several months in the Gulf, provided the reported launches of Shades of about 2,000 (or 4,500 on the upper estimates) so far and the advertised capabilities of the super interceptors. Why would anyone build any production lines? It’s nonsense, clearly. Also, it’s the cost of about 21 missiles launched by a Patriot system (based on prices from the articles cited above), which is good for less than one average serious Russian mixed air raid. Anyway…
To note, according to the most reliable trackers, the Odessa attack involved 20+ Gerans, a number (unspecified, but I didn’t dig further or checked later reports) of which kept flying further to attack other places. There are at least 7 impacts visible in the video I cited in the previous post alone, without any visible intercepts (the trackers reported 7+ impacts when I checked). There was another video from… some other smaller place (I don’t remember and not exactly relevant as it is likely a daily/regular occurrence) that also got trashed with no intercepts, but a lot of rapid fire (my guess is everything that flew hit).
The Ukrainians have allegedly been in the Middle East for ten days now (Zelensky said so on March 18, 150 or 200 experts). Has there been any noticeable difference in what is happening? Well, not really, not according to the reports (seems to be worse?). Of course, it could be that they have saved dozens of Patriot and THAAD interceptors in the process though. Laughing.
For the “Ukraine is a democracy” crew, the latest v-dem report published recently:
The full report for those interested:
