Think of it this way. My neighbour had a house and all the bills/expenses that go with it. Then the house burnt down. Now he has no house biills/expenses so his money in his account goes up. Is he better or worse off?
Likewise, being my neighbour I decided to help him and give him things he needed to fight the fire, and some shelter afterwards. We had no treaty between us to do that. Was I right or wrong to help?
Very sobering view from an Ukrainian soldier, I do hope he is wrong...
Its a little bit more involved than balancing the books Francie..bottom line for Ukraine is survival, so how do you put a price on that? In its own right, Ukraine is quite wealthy in minerals gas etc. So anything that is borrowed now will be paid back when Russia is kicked out. And make no mistake about it Francie, they will be kicked out, its only a matter of time. And on the security issue...if Putin's 3 day plan had worked, where do you think Putin would attack next? Take your pick from any of the Baltic states, Finland, Sweden. Poland ( NATO notwithstanding) and far fetched as it may seem, re-annexing east Germany? Oh, and I forgot, that little matter of Alaska, which as they claim was stolen from them, and as they have already stated, they want it back. Ukraine is fighting a battle against Putin on behalf of all of Europe, and if anything at the price the EU is paying, its at bargain basement prices.
It's slowly sinking in that this will be a war that goes on for years. Putin or his cronies care not a jot about how they are viewed by the west or a few posters on boards.ie Much like the mafia they will do what is best for them even if it means hundreds of thousands or even a million dead Russians.
The real battle Ukraine face is apathy towards their plight from the western leaders. On the ground the general population only care about how it effects their own bottom line and bank balance and this will translate to their leaders eventually and support will melt away for Ukraine.
Well this stranger has sent Ukraine €1,000 to help buy bullets to kill your friends with. Hope you don't mind.
You're conflating what I said.
All I have stated is that Russia are self-funding this war, their economy seems to be coping. Ukraine on the other hand are totally dependent on massive monthly injections of Western money to sustain their war effort, their economy has collapsed and swathes of the country are ruined. Your argument that Russia would invoke Article 5 by invading a NATO member is a strawman.
@Francie Barrett "While they absolutely have the right to defend themselves, they have no right to expect anyone else to pay for it, as the US/EU are currently doing."
There are a lot of ethical arguments that would contest that statement. But, never mind...
Doing swimmingly. Could not introduce an new bank note cos the atms won't take it. Western designed planes will start falling out the sky as they can't repair them. Knock off chinese replica parts for BMW's wont fly for long the list goes on.
President Zelenskyi dismissed the heads of Security Service of Ukraine regional departments in Kyiv, Lviv, and Ternopil regions
This is a joke, dismissing people when he should be bringing his people together
As long as Russia commits medieval atrocities this war will stay in the news. If they are not commiting Medieval atrocities then they are at nothing going nowhere cause they have nothing else up their sleeve beyond a full mobilisation. If that happens the war will be top of the news agenda again.
Well, the US \ UK \ France gave a political commitment of 'security assurances' as part of the Budapest agreement. It is not a legally binding treaty committing them to military action however it does create expectation of support to Ukraine from those signatories.
Corruption? Incompetence?
A flight of F-16's, ED11 and ED12 are currently on CAP in support of the KC-135 ( to the left of the picture) just north of Constanta.
Also visible is a US Navy EP-3 orion, also on patrol.
The F-16's are normally purely in support of the Air-refuelling operations. There are other aircraft in the vicinity taking on fuel, but these would have their transponders off.
The one thing that seems to stand out is the sheer advantage Russia have with artillery, it seems to be the one thing which has enabled them to advance the way they have so far.
HIMARS are starting to make a massive difference, but its not enough they are still crying out for more to counteract the Russin artillery.
I think now is the time for the west to back them up with far more weaponry before Russia regroups, especially with the likes of Iran backing them up with drones ect.
All the flight activities mentioned in my post above, are also the subject of many discussions and Threads on various Russian Telegram posts. Here is one interesting thread, which I've translated into English, that gives you a perspective from the Russian side. ( They haven't figured out what ED11 and ED12 is) In my opinion blocking access to FR24 by Russia, may not be such a bad idea. Here is the thread:
START OF TRANSLATION:
"TGStat
flag
kp
Crimean Platform
Crimean Platform. Crimea is ours!
Channel's geo and languageRussia, Russian
CategoryPolitics
Posts filter
KP
15 Aug, 12:37
A wave of renaming
The day before yesterday, at the opening of the bust of Battalion commander Neustroev, the head of Sevastopol promised that the city would definitely name streets in honor of the heroes of the special military operation.
"Now we are collecting such initiatives, collecting all proposals from the public of the city. We already have guys - Heroes of Russia, soldiers awarded with Orders of Courage," Mikhail Razvozhaev said.
Earlier, a similar initiative appeared in Simferopol. We found three and a half options for renaming streets. In Sevastopol, it will be more difficult to choose who to name the streets after. Almost certainly, a street named after Captain of the 1st rank Andrei Paliy, who died in the SVO, will appear in the city. But then we will have to choose from about fifty names of heroes. There are sailors of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, and Marines of the 810th brigade. Almost all the victims were awarded the "Orders of Courage". Therefore, the commission will have to work hard to choose the most worthy.
@crimeanplatform
15 Aug, 12:00
The air situation near the Crimea
Today, the American Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk drone, which runs in the Sevastopol area, returned to the Black Sea. He probably noticed the Tu-154M aircraft of the Russian Guard flying out of the peninsula before us, which turned on the transponder already over the Black Sea when it moved away from the Crimea.
A French light reconnaissance aircraft Beech King Air 350ER, as well as a US Navy Lockheed EP-3E Aries II Orion aircraft and two "axes" without identification information are monitoring the Black Sea basin from Romanian airspace.
15 Aug, 10:44
The Cultural War
In the city of Shchelkino in the Crimea, a Ukrainian nationalist song and a clip with vivid anti-Russian illustrations were staged in the Crab karaoke bar. Everything was there: Ukrainian Cossacks and military of different historical eras, Russian military in the form of orcs, Ukrainian flags, trident, javelin, the Azov regiment and further down the list.
It is characteristic that only one bar visitor was indignant and promised to complain to Aksenov. Otherwise, the song in the bar could be played today.
Since ordinary citizens did not express proper patriotism, the security forces had to fight on the cultural front. They forced to record the apologies of the customer who ordered the song, the hostess of the bar, who was not aware of what was happening at all, as well as the DJ who put the song on. Well, since we have the freest country, the violator was given only 10 days of administrative arrest "with confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense."
Crimea No. 1
14 Aug, 20:51
The government of the frontline city of Sevastopol has extended the yellow level of terrorist danger until August 29.
Razvozzhaev called Sevastopol "a frontline city with all the ensuing consequences." I would like to know why the front has reached Sevastopol after five months of a military special operation, which is going well and according to plan. And why, instead of a salute on Navy Day, we collect glasses near the Fleet Headquarters after...
14 Aug, 14:06
Echo of the Careless Smoking War
The Ministry of Emergency Situations is preparing to eliminate the consequences of a small explosion of several aircraft shells at the Saki airfield, from which the military airbase surprisingly did not suffer, but it blew everything around a kilometer along its perimeter (there are such miracles).
In this regard, between the villages of Naumovka and Vetrovka in the Saki district of Crimea, the Ministry of Emergency Situations announced a daily badabum starting from August 15.
To undermine everything that did not explode during the detonation of a couple of air munitions 💣 will be from 16:00 to 19:00. It is not specified how many days the mine clearance will last.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia assures that there is no threat to the life and health of the population. In order not to bomb the experts of the Russian language, we corrected the errors on the ad.
14 Aug, 11:47
Prev
Next
Refueling in the air
We caught a rare moment when a Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker flying gas station refuels an aircraft without identification information in the sky over Romania.
Right now, both sides are flying neck and neck, repeating all the maneuvers. They merge on the radar, so we took them bigger (screen 2).
At the same time, a Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint strategic reconnaissance aircraft is observing the Black Sea from Romanian airspace.
13 Aug, 12:30
Two flying axes
A traditional overview of NATO's intelligence activity in the Black Sea.
Today we are being watched by the French light reconnaissance aircraft Beech King Air 350ER and the Lockheed EP-3E Aries II Orion aircraft of the US Navy.
There are also two planes circling there without identification information. At the same time, they set the call signs AXE12 and AXE11 (topor12 and topor11).
All this intelligence variety flies in the airspace of Romania in the area of the island of Snake."
END OF TRANSLATION
NOTE: The original thread is in Russian. I translated it into English online.
An excellent post.
2 years ago Russia would not touch chairman Un with a barge poll. Now out off desperate nature Russia is playing the besty role. That will please Korea the North to no end. Tells its own story about how far down the drain Russia has gone.
Wait till he gets the 100k crack troops. He can send wave after wave after wave of unarmed men hoping the Ukrainians have a maximum kill counter and shut down. 🤣
It wasn't at all inevitable/certain that Russia would fail so badly IMO.
"Article 5" is just an (aging) promise in documents that has not yet been challenged. It is not some magical shield.
It all depends on assumptions that Russia might have been very willing to test in the near to mid term (e.g. depending on the political developments in the US) in an alternative world where:
Russian Oil is at a massive discount. At this stage they are likely barely breaking even on oil given crude is below 90
coal ban now in effect, oil mostly done as for gas Russia self sanctioned
graph here for context
Nice one Sergei -
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11112131/Ukraine-blows-Wagner-HQ-Donbas.html
Ireland been on Russian list since start, why do we still issue visas to Russians
one street sign they were not shooting at. 😀
Ukrainian military shot down Russian Ka-52 helicopter this morning, 3rd helicopter in 2 days
There are a lot of people wondering if Yevgeny Prigozhin (head of Wagner) was caught in that strike. He was photographed at that base in the days before the missile strike and there have been no recent confirmations of him anywhere else.
If these guys have not earned a helping hand from the west I don't know what to say.
Here's something on that Over 100 Wagner mercenaries could have been eliminated in Popasna – Haidai (ukrinform.net)
Could probably move Francies Russia an ‘advanced industrial nation’ post to YLYL11.
Sad but true, agree with all that. Two countries in a bitter war, neither able to defeat the other militarily in a definitive way, and no end in sight. Ukraine are one percent innocent victims but unfortunately righteousness alone doesn't win wars.
The best of the war ending is still a coup within Russia against Putin, but hard to see where it'll come from.
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