So there's over 20k Russians dead. I know we are all wary of the numbers but as posted before, they seem like it is a quite feasable number and not far off.
Then you have the wounded. General estimates from previous modern wars is about 1:5 death to wounded ratio.
Even if the Russian death number is actually 10k, then if you were to take that plus around 40-50k, that is a quarter of the "Special Operation" troops out of action.
Most of the votes against this motion came from the neofascist AfD and the far left "Die Linke" party. Strange bedfellows, given the amount of vitriol they regularly fire at each other, but not surprising. Both also have their power bases in Eastern Germany. Looks like some people are even more desperate for their former Comrades than Scholz is!
As the saying goes- If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.
Or in this case, those who want to continue to do dirty deals with Russia shouldn't expect others to keep them company.
The will only take people with military experience
I don't have the answer - except maybe caution - like picking a fight with a guy with a gun , I'd be careful - do you have the answer ?
Fire in Moscow https://twitter.com/UKRWarSitRep/status/1519580688361611264?s=20&t=O3BbIibruWvY4o6Ugc8WMA
Many people did not think they were actually going to invade and that it was posturing - and not all of them were as stupid as you suggest, know all (after the event)
Talking about Russian thievery. Saw this 😅
Germany’s Bundestag lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a petition on support for Ukraine, backing the delivery of weapons including heavy arms to the country to help it fend off Russian attacks.
“Alongside the broad economic isolation and decoupling of Russia from international markets, the most important and effective means to stop the Russian invasion is to intensify and speed up the delivery of effective weapons and complex systems including heavy arms,” the petition read.
Reuters reports the petition was backed by the three parties in the ruling coalition as well as the opposition conservatives, passing with 586 votes in favour, 100 against with seven abstentions.
As long as the gas keeps flowing, there seems to be little impetus to do anything regardless of the inhuman horrors being perpetrated by the Russians in Ukraine. See the loophole organised between Scholz and Putin so that the Germans "depositing roubles" in Gazprombank and having them converted to rubles, provides a handy loophole that apparently doesn't break EU sanctions regarding acceding to Russian demands to pay in rubles.
I think the Ukrainian Embassy will assist you in signing up to volunteer your services over there if you want to.
A kind of Soviet Union if you will
FFS stop believing the English myth that Napoleon was some little guy with a chip on his shoulder over his height.
He was 5' 5" or 5' 6" where the typical height of a French man in 19th century was between 5'2" and 5' 6".
Oh and in the French measurement system 5' 6" was 5' 2". (think of how European shoe sizes different to UK/Ireland - same idea)
The reason he looks small in pictures was because his personal guard were always overly tall for the time.
You can't compare the technology of modern armoured vehicles or aircraft with that of those of WW2 era, especially those at the the start of the war.
Hell one of the most successful and fastest aircraft of WW2 (before the German jet), the Mosquito was part built by furniture makes, carpenters in little workshops throughout Britain.
Tanks were very simple back in WW2 in comparison to those of today, weapons control systems, optics, communications systems, engines were less complicated and could be built in half the time of those today.
"We are far better off and of more use doing what we are doing"
Eh, what exactly are we doing??
Taking in some war refugees. Sending a few helmets and first aid kits. Saying we support (for the moment) Ukraine entering the EU sometime in the future. Sitting on the UN Security Council, a council and organisation that has been shown up to be absolutely useless in stopping this illegal invasion & war.
Net result - minimalist.
Tank season in the Steppe usually runs from May all the way through to the end of October. The weather is no longer an ally of Ukraine.
Ukraine has captured quite a few tanks, but careful not to get carried away. Russia has vastly more artillery and just because it doesn't have air superiority doesn't mean it's not using it's powerful air-force. Ukraine in the East is still in a precarious position, they are having big supply issues of their own, also supply issues down the South, some of their men still don't have helmets or body armor. Good weather suits Russia right now and clear skies suits it's air-force.
Again I'm pretty sure the mechanism being used is that payments are being made in dollars and euros as per existing contracts; but there is additional processing on the bank's side which results in those funds being converted to rubles. In other words neither the contracts nor sanctions are technically being breached.
Here's a decent article from a think-tank which does a lot of work on energy and gas supplies:
Vlad won’t want his thieves paradise turned into a nuclear wasteland. His motivations are more venal and avaricious than than the ideologically driven Soviet Union. Unless NATO are at the gates of Moscow he won’t press the red button. I’d be more fearful of oppressed Russian people somehow precipitating a nuclear conflict in desperation . They are the ones who really have nothing to lose.
I can't imagine a more marked man
More occupation measures from the "liberators"
The weather is not helping the Ukrainians, no rain forecast for the next 10 days at least
Post war strategy; denuke and we'll buy your gas.
If the FT are right then looks like I guessed wrong about the companies potentially paying in roubles, Hungary aside, the companies are allegedly Slovakian, Austrian and a German company. It's all a little bizarre as it contradicts their government stance - unless they are opening these accounts for technical/contingency reasons.
The EU head and the Germans have said they will not pay in roubles, I have no idea how a company makes a unilateral decision to breach that (and possibly breach sanctions). I suspect we aren't getting the full picture here.
The current state of play looks like this war will drag on for a long time, leaving more and more people dead and displaced. There is a lot being asked whether the west will continue to be able to supply Ukraine over a long term conflict, and the what the cost would be in weapons and economic terms.
The west could end this war in a week if it really wanted to. Crush the russian army where it sits, and leave no doubt as to where Russia's place in the world really is.
Because one would take away from the other, why sacrafice funding that could be used to help refugees to send a meager few weapons?
Govt can fund it like it does everythine else by borrowing.
There is already talk that the Finance Minister is considering using the €3bn remaining in a Covid contingency fund housing refugess.
Why cant we borrow another billion and fund weapons? You could get a few bang bangs for that!
Simple.
Yep it's very hard to know for sure whether Ukraine are genuinely being forced from areas or if they're just engaging in delaying actions. Which doesn't change the fact that Russia are making some territorial gains.
Also the area south of Izyum is a problem for Ukraine because Russia is very close to taking key rail lines which are reportedly used to supply Ukrainian troops to the east and south of Izyum; so it's much less likely Ukraine are just letting Russia advance in that direction.
We also don't know what Ukraine's longer term strategy might be: for example whether they want to force Russia to have to assault every single large suburban/urban area or if they're going to intentionally shift the front lines on their own terms.
Because one would take away from the other, why sacrafice funding that could be used to help refugees to send a meager few weapons? I mean the rest of the world is pumping in the weapons and money as is?
Our role and most effective role is humanitarian, could we help out with military aid? Probably to some extent should we focus on that over other help? No.
I don't think any military aid we could muster would be significant enough to "defeat the invaders"
Newly erected in St. Petersburg, made from the first letters of company logos who have left Russia.
Translates to 'We will replace.'
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wc.vanillicon.com/v2/c635d680d76ce16e490d61f21d7a1353.svg)
