Defense seems to be doing all right-
Explosions were reported in Krasna Yaruga of Belgorod region
They'll be 700000 people on the ship to give a hand.
Then the man that rows it better be a very big man,,,and for sure, that's not going to be Putin!!!☺️
Christ, Forest, just when I thought that you had dredged up the last of the sludge from the absolute bottom of the barrel, you go and prove me wrong by posting something even more ludicrous than before!
Russia may have landmass, nukes and raw materials/natural resources but they haven't the wherewithal to do anything with it other than murder all around them and drink themselves into oblivion. There is no coming back from that and no one will want to be their friend for anything other than coming around to play with their stuff and/or bring it back home for buttons.
What if its a really,really, REALLY big oar?
The Chinese will do what they always do, get what they can at as cheap a price as they can from Russia. There is no love lost between those two. Russia had little enough to do with them before all this. It was mostly talk. Note where the vast majority of their pipelines went. West, not East and since the 1980's. That was where the cash was for them and they needed Western tech to build and maintain most of it.
Emerging powerhouses? Forgetting their internal issues for a moment; China is almost entirely dependent on the Western markets. The EU alone absolutely dwarfs their market with Russia. The US, EU and China play their little games with each other, but they're like a couple that bickers in public, but beind closed doors they're riding each other into the mattress. Russia's the guy looking through their keyhole pulling the skeleton out of himself. India has always played both since the days of the Cold War, but like the Chinese they're not stupid. They'll play both sides when it suits, but only up to a point. Western companies are throwing huge wedges of cash at India and have been for a while. Always follow the money. BRICS? Russia might come second in that name, but they don't come second in reality. China and India will run that show by soft power or hard.
Oh and where does the Indian diaspora(and the Chinese for that matter) look to move to if they go overseas? It isn't Mother Russia. People are leaving Russia, not wanting to go there. So for all these "social and political problems" putin goes on about(mostly the Gays, it's all about the Gays with him), where do the vast majority of legal educated economic migrants(never mind refugees and asylum seekers) want to go to? These "emerging powehouses"? Nope. Russia? Hell no. The West. That's where they want to go and there's a reason for that.
Very early on in this Russian mess one thing they did floored me, and IMHO was one of their biggest mistakes of all. They confiscated the Boeing/Airbus fleet in Russia. Barely made the headlines at the time and is largely forgotten since, but for me that kneejerk response showed how truly stupid they can be. Overnight they were cut off from Western financing, leasing and insurance and the international aviation industries and authorities(their internal aviation industry has fallen off a cliff). And what did their "friends" China and India do and what it shows what they will do in the future over similar when it comes to it? They also banned those aircraft from their airspace. Always follow the money. When the Swiss back away from you, that's one hell of an indicator.
And yep Russia has huge natural resources and a small pretty well educated population compared to landmass. They should be living like Norwegians, or better, but they're not. Why? Because of insane levels of corruption and theft by their tiny elite and a culture that supports that tacitly or actively. This idiotic wasteful war that is killing their own people as well as Ukrainians shows that all too well. When a tiny not so long ago dirt poor damp(still damp) island off the coast of Europe like Ireland has bigger exports than Russia that speaks volumes about just how buggered that nation is or has become. Turning that around anytime soon would be like trying to turn a supertanker with a single oar.
You seem to be confusing two distinctly different things here... "the west" and "the international community".
They're not one and the same - even though many in this part of the world very often do conflate the two.
Russia certainly has burned it's bridges with the west. But the same cannot be said for the wider international community. And Putin has never been completely happy with the western influence on his nation, so I would doubt very much that he really cares what the west does. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Putin is actually very pleased with the removal of western influence from Russia. He has commented on many occasions about the social and political problems etc that the west is facing. Perhaps he is happy to sidestep these issues over the next few decades.
The other emerging powerhouses in the wider international community, seem happy enough to work with Russia. I'm sure they will benefit greatly from Russia's near bottomless pit of natural resources. They do after all, own roughly 10% of the world's entire landmass - and the rich array of resources that naturally brings. The shoe could very well end up being on the other foot in the coming decades, with the west looking rather foolish for having cut themselves off from those resources. This is where nations like China and India have been far more shrewd in their dealings with Russia.
The Chinese in particular, seem to recognise how important Russia will be as a nation going forward. The western objective to weaken and marginalise Russia, is very unlikely to work - as they simply have too many important resources to be ignored. Russia are not really anything remotely similar to North Korea in terms of their importance to the world. And as someone who has worked in the field of ecology and related industries within Russia for many years, this is not some small little irrelevant enclave of the world that can simply be excluded and ignored - it's not going to happen.
Parts of crashed missile or drone were found in the field in Rudnya district of Volgograd region of Russia
Explosions in Henichesk last night were audible in 20kms from the town
The countries that broke away from Russia and managed to join the EU did very well. Some were dirt poor and couldn’t fully escape the black hole that is Russia. Surely you didn’t expect the EU to invite the likes of the Stans into their community.
History wise (on a timescale of decades) Russia is in its death throes.
You’re trying to admire something that’s not really there.
You might want to start editing the wikipedia article that you linked to then, because its telling a different story, the one that actually happened where Russia had a disasterous war but still came out of the peace negotiations without conceding much. Care to explain why the Japanese public rioted when they found out what the terms of the treaty were?
Here's a timeline video of Russias borders: pay attention to the end of world war 1 to the end of world war 2 and try tell me they that they lost their empire after ww1. Russia collapsed completely in 1991 and still held onto the vast majority of their territory and managed to keep most of their fromer soviet states in their orbit. Actually remarkable, and it was done with the help of the west.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lHLwP6RUug
Also add that most territories east of Moscow, or specifically north-east, are very sparsely populated.
You’re not likely to see much change there. The more populated areas south of it have mostly become independent, or attempted to by force like Chechnia.
The laughing stock of a “country” Belarus has some neck complaining about a defence missile falling on their side of the border. No issue with Russian missiles flying next to/possibly inside their border. Allowing Russia attack Ukraine through their country?
Even the Kremlin are “worried” about the incident. Bizzaro world stuff.
The biggest surprise to me here is that Ukraine still has embassy staff in Belarus.
Jesus, where to even start with all of that.
”Good terms?” The Russians lost their major foothold in China, most of Salakin island, pretty much most of their pacific fleet. Nicolas egged on the war regardless of how bad it was going hoping that they’d eventually win out (sound familiar?) and succeeded in emboldening Japan’s imperial ambitions. Finally, it started the disintegration for the Russian royalty that was finished off by WWI. (Which was a disaster for them too). I’d hate to see what “Bad Terms” look like if these were “Good”.
What’s more, the Russian Federation is a mere shadow of what the Russian Empire / USSR used to be. It used to contain Finland, Alaska, and pretty much everything on the Asian steppes. All of which are now independent or part of other countries. The modern Russian state is trying it’s best to grip onto what is left of that legacy by use of force, or by keeping despots in office.
Time has not been kind on Russia, and unless they can turn themselves around soon, they are in for worse times to come.
The war where Russia had its arse kicked in multiple naval engagements but came out of the peace negotiations with good terms because the Japanese ran out of steam? Yeah great example of Russia losing better than the winner. Read your own link on the Japanese publics reaction to the outcome of that war
Then there's the lad who thinks the Russian lost their empire after WW1, consult of some maps of Russian territory from 1919 to 1990. Even now, the Russians still hold all off their empire thats east of Moscow.
Needs to be dismantled and walloping them on a battlefield in Ukraine wont finish the job. There'll always be leaders in the west who will want to compromise and keep Russia together, like Macron
The West isn’t just the US and Ireland. I’m guessing you know this, but you wouldn’t think it from your post.
No, there won’t be a specific levy/tax for the Ukraine war in Ireland or ANY country… that’s preposterous.
The WEST is indeed very supportive of Ukraine and anti Russia. This support covers weapon supplies and imposing sanctions to their own detriment… India on the other hand is soaking up cheap Russian oil.
The US are spending piddling amounts of money (relatively speaking) defeating Russia… they won’t complain about depleting Russian military ability at such a low cost by proxy.
Smart move-
Might it be a case of Ru winning some battles but ends up losing the war. For example , some on here are saying that the Ru people have never protested against Ru leaders, eg Putin, in sufficient numbers to topple a leader. Just because it has not happened in the past does not mean that it will not happen in the future. Ru are now much more informed than in the past , especially because of ICT. This is the first time that such a very high number of body bags are coming back since the First World War and it is impossible for Putin to ruffle these figures down to an acceptable level. Remember the Kursk submarine mothers. And remember the recent uprising in Iran initiated/lead by women. All of this knowledge is there and all it needs is a spark of a ‘certain voltage’ to get it going.
there is always a FIRST TIME
Ah a new fresh account claiming to be an expert have arrived,i guess peace is the only option for you,right
Who is this west you speak of? Does it include Ireland? Are the people of Ireland prepared to pay a levy or tax to fund this? Or do you mean the US +\- countries like France and the UK but Ireland will provide support via boards comments? I fully support Ukraine but it’s basically the US funding this. These kind of comments are a bit pie in the sky unless there’s finance behind it. And government finance needs a funding source. Such as tax or levies.
scoop !
Not the first time either 😉
Do you read the thread much?
Biden admin is discussing sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine. "Bradleys would provide a major increase in ground combat capability because it is, in effect, a light tank," one analyst says
Some of the lucky ones......🙂
It seems Russian air defence in Crimea shot down 3-4 of the missiles that were launched from the Black Sea today. They also shot down one of their own fighter jets.
Interview with an Ukrainian artillery crew who are using an ex-Estonian howitzer.
Of course, but does the international condemnation matter much to the bunker rat? At the moment, russians still harbour illusions that they are not in a deep hole -- after all, the fighting takes places in Ukraine, it's the Ukrainian citizens forced to spend the winter without heat or power, and it's Ukrainian children that were kidnapped in thousands. Putin can still preset the war as a win. He should not be allowed to do this.
The West should start building massive armaments facilities and give Ukraine everything is asks, tanks, ammo, planes and rockets. The longer the war drags, the more Ukraine as a society becomes damaged. I really don't want Ukraine to become Syria. The West must do everything to help Ukraine win as fast and as comprehensively as possible. If it means that Ukraine establishes a 500km no-fly zone around its borders, then that is what needs to be done.
There's lads on here saying Russia is winning and that peace talks are happening....
But they are looking for a little attention like you or just plain fools
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