The stratotanker allows for in-air refuelling of jets so I would imagine it is refuelling the jets in the Romainian airspace
Interesting development.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development bank based in China, has put all activities related to Russia and Belarus on hold, the AIIB said in the statement. The projects are currently "under review."
China controls 26% of the voting power of the AIIB, according to the bank's website. Russia has 6%. China spearheaded the founding of the AIIB to rival the U.S.-based World Bank in 2016.
My God you must have got your history degree in a lucky bag.
V is for the Marines.
I think X is for the Chechens. Although I did see a triangle for Chechens too
If even battalion strength of say US marines went into Ukraine against the Russian forces, they would hurt them very very badly. If the same force of Gurkhas went in. Carnage. A couple of hundred German KSK special forces would cause havoc. Hell, if you got a time machine and brought a thousand 1940's WW2 American GI's, or Brits, or Germans back and sent them across the border I'd be willing to bet the Russian losses would start to look very very bad.
While Russia has often fielded very advanced military kit(even more impressive because they were essentially a closed and poor nation) their armies have never been much cop one on one. They have always relied on the bravery/enforced or otherwise of their men and materiel human wave tactics(much like the Chinese). WW2 a good example. Years ago I read something along the lines that for every dead German soldier, something like twenty Russian soldiers died. In the skies above Russia the German pilots had a turkey shoot, some racking up unreal tallies. Like over two hundred, a couple over three. The highest scoring aces in WW2 were all German in Russian skies. A fair number ended up with what we'd call PTSD today because it was such a seemingly pointless slaughter even for them. The one non German ace with over 100 victories? A Finn fighting the Russians.
Now much has changed in tactics and technology, but as fighting forces go, on any sort of equal footing in numbers the Russians would be so far down the list of effectiveness compared to others. If they didn't have nuclear weapons they'd be in the tupenny hapenny place.
Already done my time in, my eldest is in now, he knows the score.
Stop smoking so much weed. Your brain cells are running low.
Anonymous posted images of a leaked document on Twitter.
Lukashenko gave a tv presentation on the eve of Belarus joining the invasion.
C4: it seems many are sick of Russian oligarchs and the conspicuous consumption.
Laughable, they didn't mind them when they thought they could nab a few quid for themselves.
Those money-hungry cretinous **** will likely find at least partially in their favour. Any group affiliated in any way with the CAS deserves what it gets.
Very close , but that's irrelevant they aren't Russians , I don't think that the Russian leadership understood that people would queue up to die for Ukraine. In some profound sense Putin didn't think it was a real country.
Many of the people queuing up to die for Ukraine were brought up speaking Russian by the way.
Doesn't want a military empire on his doorstep, so he moves his doorstep right up to the same military empire. 🙄
It's nothing more than a lame excuse for an asset grab to make Putin and his close associates even richer than they are already.
How much of Putin's billions does the ordinary Russian get a share of? It's always the same the rich send the poor to kill and die so the rich can get richer and stroke their already inflated egos.
"We should develop our own nuclear deterrent" against London? Ahh jaysus. 🤣
At a risk of derailing the thread with hypotheticals, I'd have said NATO even sans US (in a conventional war) would smash the Russians. They don't have the numbers to throw in the grinder like they used to. Maybe even just the Brits and French.
I'm wondering what the Ukrainians can/should do with the POWS they're capturing. They're likely an inconvenience for now but that's only going to get worse. Their mercy could well end up costing them again later.
You should consider talking to someone about this.
... just want me for my body.
Ooh, it's been a long time since that was the case for me, so it might not all be bad then! 😜
The following is not intended to scaremonger but it’s just to make a point that Putin , on balance, might NOT push the red button because of the avulaunch dhe would receive in return.
If , for argument sake, the Russians are the first to press the nuclear button, the retaliation could be 10 fold - unless Russia releases all of its nukes at the same time. My logic is that as soon as America , France etc have confirmed that Russia has struck first they will not know how many nukes the Russians have fired and aimed to where. And would the Russians press the red button every two minutes. So America, France , etc , in order to maximise its ‘fire power’ would unleash sufficient fire power to blow Russia out of the water. I haven’t come up with how one would ‘manage the nukes in the Russian submarines.
Hold them in the very west at the Polish border until their mothers come to collect them.
I,d say many smaller countries with **** larger neighbours are looking at a nuclear deterrent. Would not be surprised if Taiwan and Japan gain the capability in the next year. A nuclear deterrent for sweden and finland would be a very left field alternative to joining nato.
No major power has seriously armed Israel's neigbours since Israel threatened Moscow in 1973 with a one way sortie of its airforce, when soviet armies were massing ready to support the arab countries. Food for thought
Oh, it happened all right Elton....there were 2 towers bombed, and a third planned, but the residents were on high alert because of the previous bombings, and caught the bombers in the act, and the police were called and caught the bombers.....But then, surprise, surprise...the "Bombers" turned out to be members of the FSB, who claimed that they were "testing" the security of the building. And Yeltsin got Putin mega TV coverage on the bombings, where he promised to solve the problem. He was the Yeltsin replacement candidate all right. But they picked the wrong guy....
A not particularly coded warning to foreign fighters
Threadbanned
you learned a new word at school today. Off to bed now…..
And yet, the money mightn't just be for the Ukraine. Could end up with Russian soldiers. Always going to happen.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/03/roman-abramovich-funds-for-war-victims-not-only-to-ukrainians
The best thing they could do with them is like Josip said send them to the Polish border to go home to their families. Many might not, afraid of the reception in mother Russia faced with truths they don't want to hear, but as a PR coup even if they stayed in Poland and phoned home would be significant.
About the worse thing the Ukrainians can do is treat them badly, and lord knows I could understand why, but Ukraine has won the hearts and minds war by an overwhelming distance and have massive goodwill from the rest of the world because of it. Killing or mistreating POW's could swing that in a big way. Ukrainians are 'clean' now and to keep support going they need to stay that way. Earlier today I saw a pro Russian mayor of some town in the Donbas region was kidnapped in the night by paramilitaries and found the next morning shot to death after a kangaroo court labled him a traitor. Again understandable, but they need to keep a lid on that stuff in general. People can be fickle and support can dry up all too easily, or at least blunted.
Welp, that's Russian airlines, private jets and rocket launches kaput, Lloyd's of London have ceased underwriting all insurance connected to those.
They can launch rockets without insurance but commercial or private flights will not be possible without insurance
If Putin used a nuclear weapon, I suspect he would be assassinated in short order. It would lead to the oligarchs who hold his money, and their own, facing complete ruin and probable assassination themselves. See how he stresses in his broadcast tonight that they are 'peacefully' de-nazifying Ukraine, the deception is important to him. It shows he is vulnerable.
So they are admitting it is a war by mentioning Prisoner of War status.
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