Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I appreciate that he's probably the best of a bad lot (I'm obviously not talking about the general Russian population here).

My assessment of the situation operates on a different level to yours, I already know that we would disagree over whether the description "detached" was a positive or negative attribute.

Unless the Ukrainian military can push Russian forces back to Moscow, which is, ahem, doubtful, I'd say the Russian propaganda machine would be able to spin some kind of win to its domestic audience. It's already been able to flatly deny war crimes and even the fact that Russia is waging war on its neighbour. The layperson of Russia seems pretty well under the thumb as far as the flow of info goes. This is not to say that there aren't Russians who know what's really going on, but I don't think there are enough of them who are also willing to speak out.

As far as nervous breakdowns go, my fear is that what Russia is preparing to do in Eastern Ukraine IS that nervous breakdown. Just slaughter every Ukrainian they can. Man, woman and child, in uniform or out. Sort of like what they had already been doing, but with much more ferocity, purposefulness and ruthlessness. No regard for human rights, the Geneva conventions or basic decency. Only blood lust. Cluster bombs, gas, shelling, roving squadrons of thuggish mercenaries. Every city in the region made a Mariupol if needs be.

Yes, but I still think Russia being forced out of large parts of the Donbass and Crimea ; Mariupol and Kherson being retaken etc would hugely problematic for the regime. Anything that results in Russia having even less territory in Ukraine than it had on February 24th would be nearly impossible for the propagandists to cover up.

If the propaganda machine couldn't cover it up, it could always claim that literal Nazis (given weapons by the West, otherwise Russia would have "totally beaten them by now") are trying to invade 'Russia' (i.e. territories spuriously claimed by Russia), and the N word (not that one) seems a potent catnip to Russians, causing a type of unreason to descend. Could be a good excuse for Putin to go with full mobilisation and ramp up the nationalistic fervour. I think Putin would try to start WW3 before he allows himself to be hounded out of office, so the nearer he feels he's getting to the former, the more reckless he'll get about the latter.

Wibbs, I'm no expert on tanks , and was basing my comment on the following :-

Dec 3, 2018 Steve MacGregor, Guest Author. German Field Marshall von Kleist described the Russian T-34 as ‘the best tank of World War Two .’. Panzer leader General Heinz Guderian claimed that the T-34 enjoyed ‘ vast superiority’ over contemporary German tanks in the early part of the war.

So at one time at any rate, it seems that they were more than a match for the Germans. Maybe they were easier to fix and repair than their German counterparts. But anyway, old an dated as they now are, I still would not like to be at the receiving end of one of their shells, even today.

I've been in a few APC's, and they were claustrophobic enough. I've seen plenty of tanks though, up close and personal, and when I met them any time travelling on the roads, I always yielded right -of- way, no question. I'm very road safety conscious and courteous driver, especially when the tanks were coming in the opposite direction... LOL., Yes I've seen some of The Chieftains videos, they are very good, and informative. He is an expert on the subject.

And as for the Farmers, their expertise on towing Tanks, APC's and other HGV type military hardware is improving with practice and they are now quite professional. That kind of towing is not as easy as they are making it look....😊😊😊

The first atomic bomb explosion was on July 16th 1945 in New Mexico.

Me pointing this out to you is almost (but but not quite) silly as your post

Oh I'd say they believe what their Ukrainian friends / Family are telling them.....but speaking openly about what's happening on the Ukraine side, and speaking openly on the Russian side, are two completely different things...especially when speaking in negative terms about what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Possible sentence of 15 years in a Russian prison. No thank's, Comrade, All Hail Vladimir Putin.

You say "tougher" but what you mean is "meaner". They're different things. I notice Americans usually confuse ignorance, cruelty and bad manners with toughness, too.

Fair play to him for visiting and for the military support given to Ukraine indeed.

Unfortunately the scuttlebutt seems to be that the anti-ship missiles are not going to be anything other than something to dissuade Russia from trying an amphibious landing at or near Odessa. Which is useful to be sure but this idea that Ukraine will be able to secure the Black Sea in any meaningful way is unfortunately not going to be possible.

And still no sign of modern tanks or infantry fighting vehicles, artillery systems, air defences, or airborne weapons platforms aside from low-power loitering munitions. I really hope they're at least training Ukrainians on some of these systems whilst unplugging their fingers from their collective asses to actually supply what Ukraine are asking for.

The Russians have been shelling a 4 tonne nitric acid container again. Thing is, the Ukrainians were calling them idiots because it was near their positions and they seemingly didn't check which way the wind was blowing first. Oops.

"Rescuers found bodies of tortured people in Voznesenska Church of Lukashivka village of Chernihiv region, where Russian army had HQ"

Not something you want to see going past your window:

I presume that's a cluster bomb.

I'm seeing a lot of comments and interesting discussion on various threads on social media this evening about an inherent arrogance and imperialist mindset in many / most Russian people - how they look down on most people in eastern Europe who don't speak Russian and how they regard all of the former Soviet republics as being inferior to Russia.

It would certainly explain a lot of what has been going on in recent weeks - how they went into Ukraine to 'put manners' on the people there and to teach them a lesson. But one wonders if there is a huge inferiority complex going on alongside their arrogance. By all accounts, the Ukrainians were better off, better educated, lived in nicer houses and were generally more sophisticated than our warmonger friends.

neither did I but its insightful and accurate