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24 hrs agoLiked by Wes O'Donnell

Your closing comment mirrrors Phillips O’Brien’s central point on how the Allies beat Germany in WWII: destroying the enemy’s instruments of war before they reach the frontline has a much greater effect than destroying them in battle.

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How can a huge ammo dump that has munitions stored in dozens of separate buildings simultaneously blow up without many secondary explosives? One would think that the buildings would explode one at a time with at least a small delay between explosions.

It does not seem possible unless there was one huge detonation that then blew up all the other buildings.

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author

I agree with you Michael. This whole thing is totally bizarre. My instincts tell me that at least some of the munitions weren’t stored inside their bunkers; perhaps left out for quick access or transport?

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Maybe they were are all piled up in the Free Smoking Zone!

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There were something like 20 explosions over the course of a day or so. Many registering at around 2.5 on the richter scale

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You missed the additional smoking incidents. The other Toropets/Tver area depot and one at Tikhoretsk in Krasnodar were also hit a couple of days ago. In both of those and the original Toropets one the Ukrainians seem to have hit when a train of munitions was being loaded/unloaded which suggests they were either very lucky or they knew the trains were there

This X thread has some good before/after images - https://xcancel.com/georgewbarros/status/1838280146433847597#m

(note he mistakes Toropets and Tikhoretsk in a couple of places. It's obvious because the layout is totally different and he corrects himself in a reply)

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author

Great info, Francis. Thank you

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BTW it is not clear whether Tikhoretsk airfield was hit at the same time or whether secondaries from the depot sent flaming debris to the airfield and caused tertiaries but there were exciting fires visible there too on the NASA FIRMS thing

https://xcancel.com/Tendar/status/1837468347513942193#m

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Shall we expect a report from the Russian Ministry of Defense that "they have successfully carried out an experimental weapons test"?

Putin made an enormous mistake by starting this war.

I mourn for all the suffering it has caused, but the pressure on the strategic reserves of Russian equipment, ammunition, and personnel are reaching levels that are more difficult for them to maintain.

What benefit has there been to the Russian citizens in all this?

The blame lies at the top, and even the Russian people are aware of that truth, whether or not they say much about it yet.

When the broken sword of the Russian Federation falls from its grasp, and Ukraine yet stands strong, what then?

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