Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Your story reminds me of my brother's experience when he worked in Ukraine. They have a similar practice regarding traffic laws. He had to regularly travel between Kiev and a site near the border with Belarus and fell foul of quite a few of them.

A vehicle must carry a first-aid kit complete with instructions and there is a list of items that it must contain. The instructions need to be in Russian, Ukrainian and the native languages of the occupants of the vehicle. There is also a list of items that it should contain in particular circumstances - if the vehicle is driven by a foreigner then the first aid kit must contain a foil wrapped condom, because foreigners carry STIs. There was also a rule regarding the expiration date on the wrapper. The vehicle must carry a minimum quantity of vodka (0.5L) per occupant and no more than 2L per occupant. There was a minimum proof level of the vodka. The reason given was that it would help keep the individuals warm in the event that the vehicle broke down.

Every time they got fined he made a note of the reason and as best he could ensured they wouldn't get caught with the same issue. Some of them were impossible to comply with - the tire thread dimension rules changed depending on the weather conditions and the road surface. Given the state of the roads that they traveled there was no guarantee of being in compliance for the entire journey without changing the tires. There was a rule about how quickly a tire change needed to be - because you could freeze to death in the winter, obviously health and safety is a major concern. No matter what the circumstances were there was something in the rule book that was open to interpretation on the part of the police officer.

The company he worked for gave them a crazy allowance for paying the fines but he got pissed off with the carry on after a few months and refused to pay any more. As a result he spent quite a few nights in jail and his boss had to bail him out. When his boss refused to pay a fine for him he spent a week in jail and they kindly allowed him to have his meals delivered from the hotel. When he was released and returned to the hotel he had to pay a fine for leaving his room unoccupied. Afterwards the company came to a financial understanding with a local mafia boss and after that there were no further traffic stops.

He loved the city and contemplated settling there but the police corruption in particular put him off. He carried notarized and laminated copies of his passport and visa so that he wouldn't be caught out by their 'papers' scam. Typically a group of police would stop a foreigner on the street and demand to see their identification papers. While the papers were being examined the individual would be engaged in conversation by a second officer and the officer with the papers would disappear. Another officer would then demand to see the papers and failure to produce them resulted in an immediate fine, failure to pay meant a trip to jail. After the fine was paid their papers would be returned.

Ha, that's true. In Syria, especially in Aleppo, you had to make sure you kept a few Syrian Pounds in your pocket. The locals call it "feeding the chickens".

On another note, there was a post a while back where an OP was amazed at the seemingly obsolete machinery uses by the Russians. Its in stark contrast to NATO. This was especially evident to me when moving from Jordan into Syria back in 2012/13. Jordan is very Westernised and I, with a special interest in such things, kept a close eye on gear and equipment. In Jordan, Humvees everywhere, American style uniforms, F-16's doing CAP'S along the river.

In Syria, from the moment we set foot across the border ( where the feeding the chickens analogy began with having to pay £100 in order to get our passports back), it was like 1980's Russia. Extraordinary. Even the old Air defence systems around the country. One guy in Aleppo reminded me that most Western gear is high-maintenance and digital. Easy to break down. A small stone sitting on a runway would be a disaster for a Western aircraft, not so a Mig-29. It can shut off its forward intakes and take air from the top. Russia likes analog. After an EMP pulse, which side do you think will have the most gear in working condition?

It was diverted to northern Poland from the Minsk area. It may have been escorted by NATO all the way down to Bratislava. Its due to fly back to Moscow at 2.10pm today. Worth keeping an eye on it.

A 40 mile convoy may sound scary and it is, but the reality is it won't be all combat troops. There ll (normally) be a mix of unit types and some will be supply or whatever, although that doesn't appear to be a strong point of Russian logistics right now. The number to be concerned about is the size of the fighting element.

Those saying it's an easy target for petrol bombs are missing the picture. Petrol bombs may be easy to deploy in built up areas not so much in the open where you need to get up close and personal with the target. You would have to assume the Russians are slowly learning the Ukrainian tactics.

Same with the idea the Ukrainian air force can rock up and drop sh1t on it. Unless they have local air superiority then this is a big ask. The convoy should have organic air defence elements and it's a basic tenet that top cover be provided.

Could easily have been a decision to husband air assets and deal with the ground forces once they are in a built up area where the defenders have the advantage.

In some ways this is how the Iraqi army tried to stop the American forces in 03 and it worked to a point.

Short summary of the military situation in Ukraine 👇🧵

Russia has moved around 75% of its forces it had previously deployed along the U. borders into 🇺🇦 (per US DoD). Appears that only a fraction of these have been engaged in combat yet.🇷🇺 forces are massing for assault on Kyiv.

🇷🇺 forces are in the process of regrouping, getting re-supplied, a. adapting to 🇺🇦 attacks. While 🇷🇺 are still committing tactical blunders, there are signs emerging that 🇷🇺 have abandoned their "mad dashes" to occupy key territory without support and coordinate better.

Expect to see more 🇷🇺combined arms maneuver/combat in coming days; heavier reliance on ground-based fires/more use of airpower. As others have pointed out, we will likely see BTGs fighting as whole units. Alas, this means we are entering a much deadlier phase of the conflict.

Put it this way - Russia have already shown a willingness to go to war over the paranoid pretext of something a country might do, i.e. to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. On that form, they wouldn't need Poland to allow Ukraine to base aircraft there in order to have reason to declare war with Poland - they'd have already done so on the basis of Poland, and other countries, supplying Ukraine with weapons.

My thoughts are that it will take direct intervention by an EU/NATO country for Russia to declare war, there. The last thing Russia would be wanting to do at the moment is open up a second front considering the meal they're making of the present one.

Besides, Belarus are offering support to Russia, allowing their country to be used as a base for the invasion of Ukraine, but I don't think they're necessarily at war with Ukraine. At the very least, I have seen no involvement from Lukashenko other than his offering to host peace talks in Minsk.

so Putin is basically doing as he pleases while the EU and NATO stand by and watch. I think everyone understands the severity of the outcome should anyone intervene however do we just standby and let him do what he wants, where will he stop? Serious question but could he not just be killed? I don’t think any of his party would continue on this war without him.

They are kicking up **** because it is women and children only on the trains, and if any men are on the trains it is family. They seem to think it's the Titanic and they were in first class.

Russian missile missed it's target of Kharkiv government buildings. A few more civilians hit