On the basis that every single thing the Kremlin says is a lie, this makes Johnson a fully paid up member of the KGB
And what did a Senate Republican investigation conclude about that particular internet rumour mill nugget?
I'm inclined to agree. Witness the observations of this entirely random Irishman. (Preview not working, but it's entitled "Be careful drawing conclusions from the Ukraine videos" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9pVEP0AzZ4
That said, they are a lot closer to mopping up the Russian nazis than most people thought they would be capable of, and I wouldn't write them off.
I would remind you of the fate of RFA Sir Galahad, another landing ship. One wonders if this Russian one was still laden.
Russian Navy aircraft from Cherepovets Airport towards Crimea?
He only had one order ‘Get Brexit done’
Yep that's entirely possible; but in that case I would expect to see extra BTGs brought into Ukraine instead.
I mean I'm just some idiot on the internet but I don't see how they can take any further objectives as things stand; they would have to abandon some fronts and focus on as little as a single axis of attack to try and build some kind of momentum. Or bring in significant numbers of conscripts from Donbass or elsewhere and throw caution to the wind with their aircraft.
All going according to plan, yea right.
If normal is having your country blown to bits, infrastructure wiped out, innocent people killed....then yea I guess life is normal in Ukraine.
<cough> Transnistria <cough>
Soviet tanks were built to take small Central Asian guys not like American tanks to take big guys.
Think of it like building a F1 cockpit to take a normal F1 driver and not a fat lard ar** Nigel Mansell after returning from his year or so in the US. 😉
Soviet equipment was often rudimentary with emphasis on simplicity, reliablility, functionality, ease of maintenance.
The desires, concerns or even safety of those using the kit was often secondary. Manpower was cheap.
Remember how much of this kit dates back to Soviet era.
Then add in fact Russia has been so corrupt for most of it's post Soviet days that equipment was left fall into disrepair, new equipment was often built or ordered with major proviso that someone connected somewhere got a nice cut of the proceeds.
While understanding it's a dirty and thankless task, I'll volunteer for that job.
Fair play to the UK for the financial and military aid. Hopefully their anti-air missiles will make a difference too.
I suspect much of his personal motivation is trying to remain relevant in European and World affairs in a post-Brexit world; but still, fair play.
And I'm pretty sure the general consensus is that Johnson was an unwitting or de facto Russian asset; since clearly Brexit was a way to weaken the EU and UK (a large and founding NATO nation) in one fell swoop. I don't think anyone believed he was actually taking orders from Putin or anything.
The Russian forces in the north won't be redeployed to the south. They'll need them up there to hold onto the ground they've taken. Logistically it would take a long time to move them and all the equipment the long way around to the south.
And if they were to withdraw form the north, that would free up some Ukrainian forces to focus on the south. The Ukrainians can go the direct route and require less supporting equipment, since their most effective weapons are Javelins and mother NLAWs.
True but the Dniper river is an excellent natural fortification; and there are two other rivers in the North which could offer a similar sort of natural barrier. I could see them aiming for something like the below potentially; I think they would have wanted Kharkiv but that's probably a bridge too far at this point.
This also means they retain control over the nuclear power plant and the Donbass area.
And as for a heavily militarised border I suspect Russia knows exactly what everyone else knows: nobody is going to be invading Russia. It just isn't going to happen. Insurgency is a different thing I suppose but since Russia couldn't give two **** about their citizens anyway it's all the one to them whether people die. In fact it might be precisely what they're hoping for: another enemy of Russia to keep people compliant.
Russian invasion fleet commander says thank you for the heads up and brings forward the date for Z-Day Odessa.
At a guess, I'd say you haven't seen the roll of honour in the first post.
We've yet to see what happens if ukraine throws numbers into fighting the Russians , they have maintained a defensive stance , but at some stage they will have to take the fight to the Russians in numbers , especially if they can push the Russians further away from Kiev ,
We see the Russians entrenching but if they can surround the Russians and cut off all supply lines which seems to be the current plan they still need to push out from the west and try get to Mariupol and relieve it
The Russian military comms are bad to put it mildly, often they are on open channels, so a lot of their chatter is being intercepted. Of course it can't all be verified, but it does paint a picture which is also represented by drone and satellite images, as well as objective Ukrainian reports (not the propaganda)
The New York Times released a good investigation video yesterday of Russian radio intercepts from the battlefield. They have radio comms of Russian tanks in the middle of battle running out of fuel and screaming to get topped up then another of a Russian soldier who sounds on the verge of tears shouting down the radio for air support as his unit is getting pounded but the air support he desperately needs doesnt arrive.
The Russian radio systems are so rudimentary that people around the world are listening in and some people are jamming the signals with recordings of a man whistling so the soldiers in the middle of battle cannot hear each other. At one point a Ukrainian comes on to the Russian radio and is outright trolling the Russian soldiers and telling them to go home.
There is no paywall, 9 minutes long and a good watch
Putin wont negotiate peace from a losing position or even one that could be interpreted as one. I think the chance for escalation is really high and the more Russia struggle the more desperate they will get.
Another possible outcome is that reportedly experienced by British tankers in the Western Desert: crews attacked by German "88's" (link if needed) baling out after the 88's first shot that missed, because they knew the second one wouldn't.
To put this whole embassies being sacrosanct and keeping lines of communication open for diplomacy nonsense in perspective: Poland, which borders Russia and for which vastly more is at stake, has turfed out 45 spies/agent provocateurs, has frozen the Russian embassy's bank accounts and is reportedly considering throwing the ambassador out.
No excuses as to why Ireland shoud allow Russia to maintain and operate one of it's most important Europpean spy and espionage facilities holds any water for me. The Irish state should not be enabling and assisting Russia in it's heinous and barbarously prosecuted war in Ukraine. It is de facto assisting with the commission of war crimes. Russia's Dublin embassy is an intelligence/espionage hub disguised as an embassy and would be actively working against Ukraine's interests in this war.
It's also possible that was an IED or anti-tank mine; they've become more prevalent lately and are often very destructive.
To your point about the design though: I've seen a guy who claimed to be a tank engineer (as in someone who built/repaired tanks) saying that a lot of the steel which seemed to be used in the Russian tanks was of terrible quality, and the welds too appeared in most cases to be of poor quality.
Indeed.
My money is on Mariupol falling, its citizens mostly forced into the Donbass and/or Russia, and Russian forces from Kyiv and Kherson moving to secure more of the Donbass or possibly Kharkiv.
It's obvious Russia can't fight for all its prizes at once but if it focuses on one or two I suspect it will at the very least make more headway than it has until this point.
And then at some point there'll be a deal done with some amount of Ukraine ceded to Russia, or made into "republics" which are just Russia by another name.
I would very much love to see Ukraine kick them the **** out of the entire country but I just don't see how the Kremlin allows that to happen; even if it means throwing tens of thousands of conscripts into the meat grinder.
Russia went with easy and cheap to build military vehicles which can be mass produced and easy to maintain in the field much like WW2 doctrine for Western military vehicles,
They were designed and built to drive across the fulda gap unopposed because Nato would run away ,the same vehicles and designed were used in the 50's to afghanistan to the Chechen wars with the exact same outcome mobile coffins ,
The most resent design is the Terminator IFV (infantry fighting vehicle) claimed to be near unstoppable , because it can fire several rockets and comes with twin 30 mm canons when everyone uses one 30mm + canons ,it's neither perfect or unstoppable ,the same with their new armata super tank ,a few were tested on photo ops in Syria and one was already destroyed , despite spending hundreds of millions on less than ten tanks that aren't even in production,
It's all great on paper but in the real world it actually has to work and be produced to be decent
Excellent video. I've watched it a number of times. It's quite telling when he says he saw four armed enemy soldiers in total during his first four months in country, yet his battalion during the same period was experiencing 75 mine and sniper encounters per month.
I was at the Farnborough air show some years ago and got a close-up look at an Su-25 Frogfoot, and was shocked at the rough finish compared to western aircraft. For example fuselage panels not meeting properly and even with edges not parallel to each other i.e. a wider gap at one end that the other.
It still managed to look tough, though.
The instant death would be favoured by tankers over the alternative ways to go like suffocating/burned alive/melting. I doubt it was a design consideration, but sometimes you've got to look at the upside.
The new UKraine.
I suppose Boris did compare Brexit with the situation in Ukraine, perhaps some common ground to base the amalgamation talks on.
Always remember watching this video about the experience of an American soldier in Vietnam.
Given the scale of destruction being inflicted on the Russian troops in such a short time, I can only imagine their experience is similar. Most of their troops are conscripts on $75 a month, are they really prepared to deal with a determined enemy armed with deadly weapons who are going to fight like hell to protect their country?
We've been told the Russians have barely moved in weeks. My guess is that they are terrified to get into vehicles and advance into enemy held territory where there's a good chance their vehicle will be destroyed by a few Ukrainian lads hiding with anti-tank weapons. It's going to take a huge effort to rally these demoralized troops again and get them on the offensive. Putin is surely going to need help here. Either the Chinese to back them with more weapons, Belarus to join the fight, or else Putin needs to draft more conscripts and dig in for a war that could last another year.
Either way, it's a mess for Putin. I still think the likely scenario here is a negotiated peace deal.
@Bayonet don't post in this thread again
There have been so many mod notes warning not to bring Trump into the discussion in this thread as it's completely off topic
He's talking out of both sides of his mouth. Assisting the defence but giving the oligarchs plenty of time to move their loot to safety and evade sanction. Still, it is good if he's helping, because the weapons will have an effect sooner than the sanctions will.
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