Russia - threadbanned users in OP

It's very predictably having the opposite effect. Moldova to experience some far right activist burning a Koran or similar any day now.

@.Donegal. 3 of the I hate Germany brigade on here aren’t even Irish. Some of them see Poland as the new leader of Europe after this lol.

The poles are on the way to being the most powerful military in Europe after America,

Why couldn't they be a leader going forward politically in the eu ,

Not as if Germany have handled the last 12 months or decade even with any real leadership, we've gotten plenty of excuses and appeasement.

But no leadership

There is no need to provoke Russia by attacking them. All that is needed is to give Ukraine what it needs.

US Republicans continue to baffle me. Clearly, it's the G.O.P. specifically, as here party-enclave outsider, Brian Kilmeade, famous Republican Voter, sits utterly baffled that Senators like JD Vance would continue to argue that Ukraine is a lost cause or a quagmire or should just cede its territory to an manyfold unlawful invasion.

As a deflection these Republicans keep pointing the fingers at China. Which is a completely different case and circumstances. The short version is they are mad that China is decently good at playing Capitalist on the global stage, including buying up real estate and such in the US in our Free Market Economy tm -- TLDR years of trying to have things both ways comes home to roost, they sold out their state/fellow citizens out to the best bidders and that was increasingly China and they cried foul. The GOP/CPAC etc. though are entirely sympatico however with Russia and fundamentalists in Hungary etc. so I guess it's no wonder they just see Ukrainian children as Nazis in training and we should just leave country to fallow.

Actually I was defending Germanys right to move carefully and not be called cowards by those tucked away nice and warm in safe distant places.

It is an escalation, are there are considerations to be made about how average Russians (including those who haven't had the wool pulled over their eyes) will react. For those with a brain the goal is not to defeat Russia, that is long and messy, full of death and misery. The smart goal (for any good European leader at least) is to defeat Putin, in the eyes of Russians, or at least force him up some kind of face saving off ramp. So propaganda is an important consideration. And Germany has the right to consider its moves carefully, given whats on the table.

Even Peter 'America is always right' Zeihan said something to that effect. So give it a rest.

Ukraine's air defences are now so frustrating the Orcs, they are resorting to using the hypersonic Kinzhal missiles to punch through to hit vital targets, like substations in cities in the latest barrage.

@.Donegal. Poles are well behind militarily. They spend roughly a 20-25% on defence compared to uk/France. Regardless I’m not talking about military might.

They just bought 300+ Abrams tanks, HiMars, 180 K2 Black panter tanks, with another 820 K2 PL tanks to built under license in Poland,to along with their 550 tanks already in service,

Apache gunships,F16's and F35 strike fighters and more self propelled heavy artillery and they are still spending more

little germany

Very interesting interview here with a Ukrainian operator of FPV "suicide/kamikaze" drones (have to be translated to English)

I would like to clarify the details of the application tactics, if possible. Do you usually work in the mode of free hunting or are you preparing for specific tasks in the specified area of ​​the front? Have you been used as a defensive or offensive reinforcement?

Until now, I had to work only in the defensive direction. Therefore, yes, we are preparing for specific tasks in a certain area of ​​the front. It is worth noting that the efficiency of this type of drone is extraordinary. I will explain why: having information about a possible attack of orcs, we can defeat their potential even before the start of their offensive actions.

Were there such cases? Could you describe in detail some of the highlights?

We will not talk about a specific area for obvious reasons.

There was a case when a column of Russians was marching with BMP and several tanks. They entered the ATGM damage zone. At the same time, our drones were also used. Result: the column is broken by both means of defeat. The surviving infantry retreated and were horrified by the use of combat "birds" against them. What have we achieved? Firstly, the ATGM firing position was not detected. Secondly, the Russians are very afraid of our drones.

Russians have also repeatedly given a high assessment of the effectiveness of using FPV drones. 

"I have been to one place now, where I was shown really scary videos, imagine, in one unit, our unit, which tried to storm a military district (Ukrainian, - ed.) they simply ran out of infantry fighting vehicles because they were all "put down" here with these drones, a huge amount of infantry "ended".

Evacuation vehicles "run out" because these drones literally fly into the front window. Then a group came to evacuate them. They hunt even individual soldiers," - Russian correspondent and blogger Vladlen Tatarskyi.

Razed to the ground,sobering viewing.

It's been proven that a garden snail advances faster than the Russian army and that's no word of a lie.

UK journalist John Sweeney (an expert on Russia) said he was very suspicious the moment he saw the 'Putin' photograph and wondered if that was a body double posing with the students.