Russia - threadbanned users in OP

To be fair Wibbs, I think zelensky asking for weapons instead of mentioning refugees, is because one is an after effect of the other. If they had been given the weapons they need, there might not be as many refugees.

It be like thanking a crowd of people for calling an ambulance, after they all stood by and watched while you got the **** beaten out of you by some scumbag.

This guy knows his stuff I've been watching his videos since the start of the war. Ex military specialist in logistics

Kyiv & Lviv hit by attacks over night

As numerous economists have pointed out, the economic effects of Russian gas being stopped are not that deep..

Not fun but nothing that won't be over in 6 months.

It's out of sheer cold calculation and support for Putin that Berlin has not ended it.

Something of interest for those put off this thread by the usual tit-for-tat immaturity that's prevailing here of late.

With a lot of focus on the situation at Mariupol of late, I came across two sites barely 100km over the border into Russia:

As you can see, Mariupol into the left and the area in question, Tagonrog, is to the right. ( For those monitoring ADS-B or FR24, keep an eye on this area going forward). As mentioned, it's relatively close to the border:

Moving closer, there are two airports in the region. The top one is a base for a Russian AF transport wing, with masses of AN-124 ( the type is a regular visitors to Shannon), and IL-76, which were used to drop paratroopers into Ukraine, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully. The bottom airport is of real interest. Its the main manufacturing and converting plant for Russias only Awacs variant, the Beriev A-50 and A-100, plus they also make the exotic Beriev Amphibious jet.

Looking at the Apron of the latter, you can clearly see the Radar discs on the Beriev AWACs aircraft. These are essentially IL-76 aircraft, converted at this site. There are also, most importantly, TU-95 Bear maritime and Bomber aircraft situated here.

Here is a picture of what the type looks like.

What a wonderful target for Ukranian special forces...

If India, China, or whoever, import Russian oil and gas at a hefty discount, and oil/gas prices are at a premium in the West, then there will be arbitrage opportunities which will tend to even things out (e.g. Indian traders selling to Europe). It might not be all that easy to police the exact original source of the oil or gas.

It's not that simple. Russia doesn't have the infrastructure to simply switch oil and gas supplies to customers in the east. Interesting article from Forbes on the subject here:

For oil this is their summary:

"There’s little room for immediate expansion, given constraints in both pipeline capacity and marine terminals. In fact, sending oil by tanker could prove difficult, as traders and shippers shy away from Russian oil. If anything, Russian oil exports to China might even decline over the next year."

For gas:

"Adding everything up, Gazprom could probably supply an additional 28 billion cubic meters of gas to China by 2025—only a fraction of the 155 billion cubic meters Russia supplied to Europe in 2021."

In short, Russia is at least as dependent on the European market as Europe is on Russia.

If someone is causing you a problem eg throwing his rubbish over the boundary fence and onto your property you can report him to the relevant authorities to get it stopped. That’s the recommended procedure in some countries. You could try returning the rubbish, have a chat with the dumper, beat the dumper up/ teach him a lesson when he trespasses onto your property, etc, but all these could end up you having taken the law into your own hands.

SO why is Ukraine doing nothing about missiles, etc, being launched from outside Ukraine. Would the ‘Law of war’ - whatever that is- entitle UK to retaliate and attack their launch pads. Ukraine could officially declare that such pads are as from today ligitimate targets and name them. Such a statement will at least force RU and Belaruse to increase protection and therefor there would be less resources available for the frontline

Yeah the poor petrodollar will be crushed I'm sure by an economy(Russia) smaller than the state of Texas and about 1/15th the us economy.

Get back in the bread queue Comrade

Strangely compelling viewing……