It's pretty well known that the German armed forces have been allowed to rot away for quite some time. Which isn't to excuse the Germans for not doing more; but they do have large amounts of equipment which isn't operational. There's a reason they announced such a huge increase in spending as a result of Russia's invasion.
The frustrating part about Germany's response has been that they're not allowing German industry to complete deals with Ukraine to supply IFVs and tanks; which is a separate issue and is not really going to help Ukraine in the very short term anyway.
France is a slightly different story; I'm not even sure what they've supplied to Ukraine or in what amounts. For some reason they've decided not to say what has been sent even though virtually every other country has been very open about it. Possibly they're doing it to avoid criticism, or Macron wants plausible deniability when talking to Putin; who knows.
It would take months to even get those contracts sorted. Never mind the infrastructure to deliver. Theres no pipeline to india or china. 9.5 billion per month is a hit he can't take for any period of time.
China will do what further advances their own strategic interests.
Surely coming into the summer there is enough reserves and LNG availability to turn this off for weeks if not months. Hes getting on average €360 million per day for gas alone. One month would see him out 9.5billion per month. The entire Russian economy would tank and possibly a mass food shortage. He'll quickly find that Ukraine wasn't worth the hassle. But it won't happen.
Serbia is now a member of NATO's PFP program. These missiles were ordered in 2019, it seems that current events have led to a decision that "OK, we need these missiles now", much as Poland has asked for an acceleration of its M1 deliveries to this year. It's an interesting development overall, but not particularly relevant to the current fighting.
It looks like the chances of someone taking out Putin are very slim and my hope of that at the start of the war have really diminished .Hope I am wrong but I am not optimistic at the moment .
The French and Germans want this to go away so they don't have to worry about their cheap gas. Unfortunately its been shown up that having these two as the leading lights in europe is only a step away from disaster. The Germans waffle about arms being damaged or needing repair but you can be damn sure that if Germany was attacked tomorrow they'd pull stuff out from all angles. The most industrialised country in europe that spends its every waking moment telling us the brilliance of German engineering, how its superior to all others and they can't even fix up a few tanks or RPG's. Its not believable. The only explanation is the most obvious and that is that not upsetting Russia and the continuation of Russian gas to flow is the more important than Ukrainian lives.
In fairness surrendering comes as second nature to the cheese eating surrender monkeys.
In fact I believe they surrendered to Putin the day he invaded Ukraine just in case.
An incomprehensible amount of suffering could have been avoided for the price of a bullet or a vial of poison.
Is it 40 million the pre-war population was? - let an online list be compiled of those unaffected by this - let maths do the rest.
As they both seem to be mentioned a few times in this thread?
Wallace and Daly have been prominent on both Irish and international media in recent weeks in their opposition to the EU providing military support to Ukraine.
The two Irish MEPs were among just 13 who opposed a European Parliament motion which condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of March.
Both Wallace and Daly have argued that a peaceful solution to the conflict should be prioritised and they have opposed sanctions against Russia.
And to any posters still trying to explain away the war with 2 sides argument.
“Anyone who indulges in talking about ‘both sides’ is failing the basic moral challenge of calling out clear evil,”
Quote Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Link.
Theres no doubt the Americans have been providing excellent satellite and drone reconesence but unfortunately Ukraine hasn't had the weaponry to make the most of it. The ideal scenario is that drones or satellites pick up high density Russian troop movement or bases even well behind the front line. The GPS co-ordinates are reported back to a mobile long range missile. They fire on the position from relative safety and move on so their own position isn't compromised. If you had multiple units doing this all day everyday for a week along with drones who could carry out more surgical immediate strikes the effects on the Rapists would be immense. Imminent death from the sky 24/7 a real possibility.
I mean... it's also entirely possible that other nations step in and sign deals with Russia for future gas and oil supplies at significant discounts.
So now you have India/China getting vastly cheaper gas and oil and rare earth metals and everything else Russia is exporting; whilst Europe spirals into recession without the gas and oil to power its largest industries and without the ability to move manufacturing away from China.
And meanwhile Russia is able to continue in Ukraine whilst a weakened Europe is less able and less willing to support its defence; and perhaps even more crucially becomes less able and willing to support its refugees.
This war has been particularly dividing of the world nations into --
Nations of despicable savages
Nations of hideous standbyers
Nations of craw thumpers
Nations who provide real help
Nations who stand (unfortunately Ukraine is doing all the standing)
I'm surprised this hasn't clicked with Germany and the rest yet. They seem to think that if the gas and oil pipeline is switched off, it can 'never' be switched back on again. But as you say, such a move would almost certainly leave Putin in huge trouble and in imminent risk of being toppled from within.
If you want to bankrupt Putin just turn off the taps for gas and oil for a month. Once that's done, he's done as is the industry as their production capacity will drop significantly having to shut off wells because storage is full. Putin knows if that happens its all over for Russia. They have nothing else. The problem is you have the likes of the Germans and French who don't care who dies as long as their industry isn't affected.
Anyone in a western country looking to prolong this for self interest is no better than the rapists in the Russian army. Purveyors of human misery with zero moral compass.
The French are confused as to why Ukraine hasn't already surrendered yet, their contribution to military aid has been non-existent. I don't think Ukraine can't count on any further support from them.
Listening to a Russia expert on radio last night and he said the only possible way the Russia - Ukraine situation can end is Putin's removal or death. Any scenario where he remains in power means years of ongoing military conflict in the region, sanctions, large scale Cold War, international instability etc.
Probably meant Manchuria and the islands they lost to China.
I’d imagine American military technology is so advanced now that so much can be done remotely effectively. I suspect a loot is being done already we don’t see. I doubt the Ukrainians on their own could have so well to date
The way the Swiss guaranteed their "neutrality" or rather freedom was by doing deals with the likes of the Nazis.
I put neutrality in quotes because they weren't really that neutral when they were facilitating the German war machine with critical supplies.
And that is not even mentioning buying gold from the German Reichsbank, facilitating the Nazis hiding their loot, blocking refugees entry, not backing Jewish citizens in German occupied countries, allowing train transports to go between Italy and Germany, allowing Swiss company subsidaries to use over 10,000 slave labourers.
The Swiss have a habit of playing both sides in their version of neutrality, and invariably make a lot of money out of it.
After all right now where is it again that Putin's family are hiding out, where does a huge chunk of his loot go through ?
I’m sick of these types taking the piss out of our liberal democracy and laughing at us. Likes of this shite should be treasonous (it is) with immediate deportation clauses attached.
Well it does sound like a Russian planet - full of hot air
I'd rather use my last bullet on myself than be taken by those animals. They'll be tortured then executed.
Obnoxious tramps wherever they go really
‘I’m stupid’, says Russian karting champ teenager after apparent Nazi salute on podium
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/im-stupid-says-russian-karting-champ-teenager-after-apparent-nazi-salute-on-podium-41544271.html
What exactly needs to be 'corrected' as regards Siberia? It's already part of Russia.
No NATO country needs to put boots on the ground and those that are would be in insignificant numbers, mainly an advisory and maintenance role well away from the front line. They don't even need to be there officially.
If 50 installations of SAM and long range laser guided missiles were deployed along with 20 or so high end drones, this war would be over in a fortnight. The French have very capable equipment, as do the British and Americans. You can forget about the Germans. They'd just a bunch of self interested dickheads who will protect their own interests regardless of the cost to others. Sweden, Finland, Poland all have very capable weapons right on the border at this very moment.
You can be sure that China are clandestinely backing Russia to the hilt as well. I should hope that Maxxar have their eyes on the Russia/China border crossings.
Of course we all know how worried you are for the Russians 🙄
You can't defeat a country without killing people.
FFS I didn't know there were so many devout followers of Christ around here with the love of turning the other cheek.
As I keep saying you can't defeat an enemy if you aren't willing to kill the enemy.
And don't give me this shyte that the enemy is Putin.
Ukrainians have to consider every Russian to be their enemy, just like British, French, indeed Russians themselves had to consider every German to be their enemy in WW2.
There is a fooking reason Putin has done this and it is precisely because he sees the West as weak because the way a huge chunk of people are not willing to countenance hard actions.
Its highly likely that he will turn to widespread chemical weapons now in order to have some sort of semblance of victory by May 9th. Just like the nazis symbolism and displays of power are extremely important to Putin (and ego maniacs in general, remember when trump wanted his military parade).
This psycho he brought in to finish the job obviously has no problem with poisoning women and children by the thousands then sitting down to lunch. Hes there for one reason and one reason only and that's to ensure May 9th is associated with a win not a loss.
I went looking a little bit anyway and found this. Not related to Ukraine but concerning a Russian ally.
Media and military experts said Sunday that six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes landed at Belgrade's civilian airport early Saturday, reportedly carrying HQ-22 surface-to-air missile systems for the Serbian military.
The Chinese cargo planes with military markings were pictured at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport. Serbia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.
The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of China’s growing global reach.
“The Y-20s’ appearance raised eyebrows because they flew en masse as opposed to a series of single-aircraft flights,” wrote The Warzone online magazine. “The Y-20′s presence in Europe in any numbers is also still a fairly new development.”
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