The Swiss are blocking transfers of Swiss-made 35mm ammunition; not the Gepards themselves.
So the question is whether there are sufficient stocks of non-Swiss NATO 35mm ammunition available to Ukraine or not. There is for example a company from Norway who seemingly manufacture such ammo:
Well I'm glad you think so, but my understanding is that they do have concerns about their relationship with the EU and how much that continues to seriously deteriorate due to the Swiss annoying proclivity for wanting their cake and eating it too, which the EU has been very patient with but has had a gutful of now.
PS: What sort of dividend do Swiss watch companies pay out? With some experince of Swiss financial institutions, I'd be pleasantly surprised to find a Swiss company that would actually part with funds rather than maintain their usual attitude that you owe them a living and be grateful if they let you fork out to maintain their accustomed living standards and high opinion of their self-worth.
If anything he was probably knocked out before it rolled over him. The tree knocked him clean out when it flipped up.
Ouch!
The Ukrainian view: 'They do not need to fight, just give the pigs weapons.'
If you are of a sensitive disposition, don't watch.
The company have already said they have the Gepards ready to roll and they were waiting on being allowed to send them to Ukraine
Educate a simpleton. If Ukraine have gear there now that can fire accurate missiles and things a good distance, including into Russia itself, how come they aren't dismantling the troops surrounding Mariupol and other similar congregations knocking around the country?
Russia will go broke… if putin fuccks with peoples (everybody’s) money they will hang him. You can only make so many enemies.
strong words from poland about european energy and food security:
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has called Russia’s halt of gas deliveries “a direct attack” on Poland.
Speaking in Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, Morawiecki said Russia has pushed the boundaries of its “gas imperialism” and accused Moscow of attacking the European economy through inflationary measures.
He sought to reassure lawmakers that Poland has enough gas in storage, adding:
Russia not only carried out a brutal, murderous attack on Ukraine... but Russia also attacked all of Europe’s energy security and food security.
It is a direct attack on Poland... We’ll deal with this blackmail, this pistol to the head in such a way that it doesn’t affect Poles.
Poland will not need Russian gas.
Ha ha. One of the things about the Swiss is they don’t give a shît about what other countries think. They just go about enjoying their high standard of living, low tax etc. In contrast to countries like Ireland and NZ where the population is always worrying about the impression they make on outsiders. To a Swiss person you can go blue in the face making the remarks you make, they’ll just shrug and go back to minding their own business.
NB: Swiss watch business is booming post-Covid. You should buy some shares.
loved this
Doubtful, as I believe they were scheduled to receive training on the French and US weapons, which is taking place at the moment. Should't be much longer, though.
"The SBU neutralized the enemy agency, which collected intelligence on the defensive boundaries of the Ukrainian troops and the deployment of aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
🔹 In Zhytomyr region:
military counterintelligence of the SBU exposed the official of the defense facility at the collection of secret information about Ukrainian warplanes and the infrastructure of the air force.
🔹 In Dnipropetrovsk region:
detained an enemy agent, whom the FSB instructed to join the ranks of the theroboron of the Dnieper. Another Russian agent was detained in Kryvyi Rih.
🔹 In Mykolaiv oblast: the
head of one of the territorial communities was exposed, who gave the occupiers information about the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
🔹 In Chernihiv region:
SBU officers detained a local resident who voluntarily cooperated with the aggressor during the temporary occupation.
🔹 In Khmelnitsky:
exposed a local resident who gave the "curators" coordinates of military and strategic objects.
🔹 In Cherkasy region:
THE SBU detained a truck with military components that were transported to Russia."
What a job they are doing; off the battlefield as well as on it.
Stuff mysteriously blowing up inexplicably, is exactly what I would expect to be the sort of outcome if the UK were using it's Taranis AI facilitated stealth drone. While I'd say the chance of the UK actually using it seem small, one of the very reasons for it's development and existence is to engage in deniable military action in a high threat theatre. This is historically and situationaly, a perfect match for it's raison d'etre.
There is no point developing such a thing and not using it when a matching situation arises. If I possessed such a system, I'd have taken this perfect opportunity to field test it by using it for recon in Ukraine. If it had remained undetected and performed to, spec, I'd up the ante and try it out in Russian airspace. If it still remained undetected, I'd simulate a complete offensive mission profile on a valid potential target, as that necessitates opening weapons bay doors briefly, potentially increasing the chance of detection.
If it still remained undetected after several weeks of such testing, I might consider actual offensive use to carry almost no risk while potentially being critically useful in terms of my absolute position of considering a Russian victory as intolerable.
This again. Looks like Bulgaria/Poland was a warning shot. Well, if it's real, then countries are going to have to haul ass to switch.
I would imagine if Ukraine has direct involvement in those explosions within the Russian border it will have been via drone attack.
Considering there has been a war in effect in Eastern Ukraine since 2014 it's entirely logical to assume that Kyiv will have earmarked strategic sites in advance of further Russia moves. If there is any intelligence assets on the ground within Russia I'd imagine it's more in a spotting and observation role that can be hard to detect.
Obviously Putin isn't personally subjected to the same diet, environmental conditions, health system, occupational safety protocols, road safety framework, et. etc. that result in his subjects' lower life expectancy.
The answer is none because the Swiss are blocking them completely
I've even wondered if it could be the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia.
Truth is we just don't know.
Just with regards to the point of "downplaying" the level of Russian screw-ups, I think that's actually a healthy counterpoint to some of the pro-Ukraine triumphalism (for lack of a better term) that I've been seeing more and more over the next week. Granted, it currently doesn't look too good for Russia, but that doesn't mean that the Russian Army should be taken lightly. If they do manage to hit their stride, they could still swing this war. Overconfidence has lost more battles than an overabundance of caution.
Maybe that's the plan now. Slow consistent gains? Their supply chains and logistics have been **** so far. Maybe they intend to spend a year or two slowly slogging their way across.
That would all depend on how they project their losses going forward.
BTW, Someone mentioned that Ukrainians have more reserves. "Technically" Russia has 1 million active personal and 2 million reservists. I've put quotes around technically because it's not known how good those forces would be and also how the Russian people would react to the reserves being called up.
they could of easily gone to the safety of europe but decided to stay back and play a role in fighting for their country, fair play to them
30,000 women serving I believe. Ukrainian Women Play Crucial Roles in the War Against Russia | Time
A quickie on Transnitria from the Guardian:
Fears that the tiny former Soviet republic of Moldova could be sucked into the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine are mounting after several explosions in the breakaway Moscow-backed region of Transnistria.
The mysterious blasts, which targeted the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit, happened days after a senior Russian commander claimed Russian speakers in Moldova were being oppressed – the same argument used by Russia to justify its invasion of Ukraine.
Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, said gaining control over southern Ukraine would help Russia link up with Transnistria, which lies just across the border from the Black Sea port of Odesa.
The predominantly Russian-speaking region wedged between the Dniester River and the Ukraine border seceded from Moldova after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1992, the separatists fought a war with Moldova’s pro-western government, which ended in hundreds of deaths and the intervention of the Russian army on the rebels’ side.
In a 2006 referendum that was not recognised by the international community, 97.1% of voters backed joining Russia, dealing a blow to Moldova’s hopes of following Romania and other ex-communist eastern European states into the EU.
Transnistria is controlled by pro-Russian separatists and permanently hosts 1,500 Russian troops as well as a large arms depot.
Transnistria still uses the Cyrillic alphabet and has its own currency (the Transnistrian ruble), security forces and passport, although most of its estimated 465,000 residents have dual or triple Moldovan, Russian or Ukrainian nationality.
The majority of the population is Russian-speaking, while the rest of Moldova is dominated by Romanian speakers.
The House of Soviets, the seat of the city council in Tiraspol, Transnistria, Moldova. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
Moscow props up Transnistria’s economy, supplying free gas and keeping troops stationed there, in effect creating a Russian satellite on the borders of the EU.
Transnistria is also awash with Soviet symbols.
Its flag is emblazoned with a hammer and sickle, a huge statue of Lenin looms over the centre of its main city, Tiraspol, and a bust of the Bolshevik leader sits outside the town hall, or House of Soviets.
Yes: they basically picked the least valuable of the "heavy weapons" Ukraine asked for and agreed to send those. And to be clear they're not giving them to Ukraine they're simply not blocking the company which currently owns them from selling them to Ukraine.
I've seen several posts from people claiming to be from the Bundeswehr saying how difficult the Gepards are to operate and that the training is going to be a complete nightmare.
We also have no idea how many are available immediately versus how long it will take to make most or all of them operational.
I was just wondering, is there any evidence of the heavy artillery that's being delivered to the Ukrainian troops being deployed yet?
If Russia is struggling this badly to make inroads this close to their own border then the situation is only going to get worse every km they push forth. Add in the factor of the now agreed additional weapons from NATO and any gains they may get will be short lived and costly.
On another note it appears to me that Scholz pulled a fast one with his latest weapons announcement. Much fanfare about the Gephard anti aircraft units only for them to be pulled on a technicality by Switzerland. Call me cynical but this looks like a pre planned play with a bit of hand wringing thrown in. Sorry guys, we tried but our hands are tied.
Yup; that's the big question.
We also don't really know how many troops Ukraine is currently mobilising and training versus their attrition rates. In theory Ukraine can mobilise many more troops than Russia can right now; but we have zero visibility into that.
It's also likely that Ukrainian losses in this phase of the war are much closer to Russian losses; which is very different to the first few weeks when Ukraine was able to inflict huge losses on the Russians while taking limited losses themselves.
This is the most comprehensive analysis of the whole situation I've read to date. Long, but well worth it
A snippet:
"In the early hours of 24 February, Ukrainian air-defence radar began to experience severe jamming across all frequency bands.6 Radar further inside Ukraine meanwhile began to be harassed by E95M Target UAVs simulating Russian aircraft.7 When the air defences lit up to engage, they came under attack. ‘We thought we were going to be denied the entire electromagnetic spectrum around Kyiv’, noted a Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) specialist.8 The initial wave of cruise and ballistic missile strikes and electronic attacks caused enough disruption for an airborne raid to penetrate the Ukrainian defences north of the capital and land at Hostomel airfield, where Russian paratroopers hoped to establish an airhead to rapidly move forces into Kyiv."
...
"The VDV – Russia’s airborne forces – spearheaded the invasion. In December, specialist units of the VDV had wargamed out their role in the repression of Ukrainian civil society alongside the 9th Directorate of the Fifth Service of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).9 The VDV assault units received the plan three days before the invasion and started excitedly talking in anticipation of their daring operation. VDV commanders started discussing their primary objective at Hostomel in clear. When they landed, therefore, they were met with Ukrainian artillery and a coordinated counterattack, quickly being driven from the airport. Meanwhile, to the north, Ukrainian units fought a delaying action with considerable success. The Russian motor rifle and Rosgvardia troops had received their orders less than 24 hours before the invasion. As a consequence, they did not fight a methodical campaign of breakthrough and exploitation by successive echelons as their doctrine dictated, nor were they supported by sufficient artillery as is considered essential. Instead, they were pushed forwards along two main resupply routes (MSRs) towards distant objectives without reconnaissance or screening to their flanks.10 The Rosgvardia, intended to provide rear-area security,11 sometimes ended up advancing ahead of combat units.12 The speed of some armoured units allowed them to drive into Kyiv’s suburbs only 48 hours into the war, but, as they were miles ahead of the main body of Russian ground forces, all this achieved was their isolation and destruction.13 With little opportunity to prepare, psychologically or practically, many Russian units broke when they met serious resistance. "
They really need to switch to air fryers.
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