Netherlands sold all their Leopard 2's away 10 years ago, so it's unlikely they'll send any. Finland was never going to send more than a few tanks, if that. Also, the defense minister said today the Welt's story was not true at all. Most armies don't have spare tanks lying around in storage, so it's not surprising many countries are reluctant to send a significant number to Ukraine.
He's fairly knowledgable but his predictions are often very outlandish and I suspect purposely so to sell his books/for clicks. His views are overly pro-american, the future is always bright for the US but bleak for everyone else. He recently predicted that China would fail in 10 years and Russia in 20 or so due to their rapidly aging demographics, which is why he thinks Putin has pushed for this expansion now as the military age group will rapidly dwindle in the coming years.
He speaks very confidently and is often correct but hes one you need to take with a pinch of salt at times.
"...which dashed the myth I had of the Tiger being only bleedin brilliant"
I suspect that this opinion of the Tiger, under which I laboured myself a long time ago, comes (apart from the "Wehraboo" fraternity) from tactical wargaming, where the Tiger's frontal armour and 88mm gun (that's 88L for any ASL players 🙂) really do make it "bleedin brilliant". But in a tactical wargame you don't have to repair it, maintain it, refuel it, pay for it, manufacture it or transport it to the front.
Nooo.
Not the nukes again,this just triggers the usual suspects,let's not get involved in Ukraine he has nukes 😂
Sure Russians are taking bakhmut tonight,and every other night for the last 6 months ,
Better armchair maybe
At first glance your post looks like it belongs in the batshit crazy box. But seeing as putin has been threatening to use nuclear weapons for some time maybe it's an option worth considering.
Belarus is about to enter the war...
😁
Because most western countries do not have sufficient operable stocks of their own so that they may give much away to Ukraine.
The west has de-industrialised over the past 30 years and de-armed too*, and now they realised what a stupid idea it was to do that. Much easier to cut defence spending and increase welfare and other vote winners than to take defence forces seriously. It happened everywhere, none worse than Ireland. Even the UK army, RAF, Navy are now being exposed as massively under-strength and in need of serious investment. The Russo-Ukrainian conflict is setting off alarm bells all over Europe and in the Pentagon because of how low stocks are of key weapons and ammunition, particularly artillery shells.
*not totally de-armed/industrialised of course, but massively down from previous levels
Well, if it's on Joe Rogan it's definitely true. /s
The biggest issue is one part wishful thinking and one part opinions pieces where so called experts are saying one thing based not a lot of actual varifed information,
We all knew F16s weren't going to happen anytime soon ,we all knew that the UK doesn't have spare latest generation fighters to spare,the have 100 typhoons if they even had 25 to send in reality they would need to send double that for spares and some to be cannibalized for parts in a hurry,
It's the same with tanks , plenty of wishful thinking,ah sure they can just drive a few hundred lepoard tanks across Europe and into ukraine, never mind the actual real world logistics, training and spares that have to be prepared months in advance,and that's before ukraine builds secure infrastructure to keep said tanks , maintaince and spares part storage,
We knew for best part of the last year they wouldn't be sending long range weapons, but that doesn't stop people making excuses bases off media sources as to where and whats causing delays ,
It's a simple case of people need to calm down a little when it comes to stuff being put out,
For instance we know Denmark, Portugal and another country has said No they won't be sending Leopard 2s to ukraine Instead they are focusing on providing finance to prepare the 100 or so Leopard 1 tanks sitting in private storage somewhere,
If he says Russia might try to take Poland then he's not well informed, full stop. Other fools have posted this line, they tend to be the same people who keep saying Belarus is about to enter the war.
If they need a milatary jeep but they don't have a military jeep then a 10 year old Clio will do until they can get their hands on a military jeep. Ditto for a 15 year old Clio, or even a bike, each of which is still better than nothing for transporting soldiers. It's quite simple really.
This guy seems very well informed, whoever he is. He says that since May, the U.S now know where Putin is at any point in time. Is that true?
Although at the end here, he does imply that Russia might also try to take Poland! I think most posters here are agreed that Russia would not be able to take Poland after this, no matter what way it turns out, or how much they might like to.
Yeah the last I read was that most fake accounts used are being operated by massive numbers of people, but I still don't think those people have been tasked with targetting Boards.ie but hey, I could be wrong. If they are, that is a fightening extension of such a programme.
Did “Europe give the green light?”
and the other 2 aren’t promises??
And hook line and sinker, they all take the bait - again.
Absolutely! Being ethnically cleansed is much easier than fighting. In a manner of speaking. But hey at least the power lines will be thankful! ☺️
Did you draft this post eleven and a half months ago???
Or perhaps you can provide some evidence to justify this view.
Another one !!!. And he has absolutely nothing to say which has not already been parroted by his predecessors.
Sounds like its only a matter of time before Ukraine falls. it would be best if they just surrendered for the citizen and infrastructures sake.
As far as the UK supplying combat aircraft is concerned, it's likely they don't have them to spare. They have barely over 100 Typhoons, heavily engaged in air defence of the UK and the Baltics. They have about 30 F35s, but there is no way these would be put at risk of falling into the wrong hands. The Tornados have been scrapped or are not remotely airworthy, and this is even more so for the Jaguars. At least the Netherlands and others are in the process of replacing F16s with F35s so they may have spare airworthy F16s available.
I've been wondering about this myself. To be fair what I know about tanks has been gleaned from binge watching your vids and similar, which dashed the myth I had of the Tiger being only bleedin brilliant*... but surely commanders on both sides know this basic stuff? Even if you look at film of Soviet tankers in WW2 you nearly always see infantry in close support, same for the Germans, British and Americans. This goes double in anything like wooded or urban areas where all sorts of opposing nasties can lay hidden. I don't know if they were specifically trained to do this, but they certainly learned it on the ground through experience. One theatre you can see less of that was the North African campaign. I suppose wide open spaces of desert made the difference? IIRC in the Iraq war tanks with support vehicles like Bradleys ran ahead of the infantry.
*then again the "hero" kit tended to grow better with propaganda and over time. EG the Spitfire and P-51 were fantastic aircraft, but if had a choice of just one fighter from any side to go through WW2 with I'd pick Kurt Tank's FW-190 every day of the week.
Ah OK. Well what it has returned is true. Even after you leading in with a loaded question about all of Europe invading Russia, it still only referred to the German's invading. The returned info on Ukraine is also true as of 2021 which is as far as its data goes.
I was under the impression that the term "putinbot" was being used to desribe anyone supporting Putin and I assumed all those labelled as such here were mainly real Irish people, not actual bots. I'd be very surprised if this forum is being targetted by Russian AI. In the grand scheme of it all Boards.ie is one of millions of local forums across the globe, that'd be an impressive outreach by them but I think their capacity is probably being used elsewhere, where it might actually have a strategic impact.
The neural networks ChatGPT uses couldn't be used for this purpose either but i'd imagine their own language learning systems are fairly impressive too, definitely a growing threat. If they somehow incorporated ChatGPT into their puppet accounts, they'd be the least opinionated accounts going and not really fit for purpose.
Switzerland Refused to Confiscate Russian Assets
Wednesday, 15 February 2023
The Swiss government has refused to seize Russian assets because it allegedly violates the constitution and undermines the existing legal order.
The Federal Council of Switzerland notes, amid international discussions and several parliamentary inquiries, the Federal Council asked the administration to examine the legal situation regarding assets currently frozen in Switzerland as a result of sanctions against Russia. A working group led by the Federal Office of Justice concluded that the confiscation of private Russian assets would undermine the Federal Constitution and the prevailing legal order.
The game Switzerland seem to be playing here is classic. In the face of criticism and a lowering of international opinion, they loudly announce they are considering changing their ways; they have seized Orc assetts to the tune of €17 billion, a third of the total in the country; they are re-evauating their neutrality and will look to supporting Ukraine with armamaents transferred to Germany (those armaments stay in Germany, they don't go to Ukraine, Germany sends them different ones - no, seriously...) because it's values are European and in alignment with their own.
And then later on, much more quietly, after the hook has been set in people's minds that Switzerland are one of the good guys agian: sorry, constitution says nein...
Netherlands had planned or hoped to send the tanks they are renting from Germany (after they purchase them) to Ukraine. Germany refused the request.
I already corrected you that any country wishing to send F16's needs American approval.
It will be interesting though if Poland calls American's bluff and requests an export license for their ATACMS to Ukraine, if US stock is an issue.
And what are Ukraine's supporters doing?
Promise: January 7, 2023· - Finland is ready to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks if Europe gives it the green light, Antti Hakkianen, chairman of the defense committee in Finland, said..
Reality: Finland has not yet pledged tanks to Ukraine. Welt referenced a recent Wall Street Journal article from Feb. 9 in which a senior NATO official was quoted as saying Finalnd would likely not make such a commitment until it was granted NATO membership... The governments of the Netherlands and Denmark have announced that neither country will deliver Leopard-2 tanks, reports the German news source Welt.
Promise: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has formally requested British Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace look into which RAF combat jets could be supplied to the Ukraine Air Force, following an announcement that London will offer to train Ukrainian fighter pilots for the first time.(months earlier Liz Truss had urged that fighter jets be supplied to Ukraine by it's allies, Boris has said the same thing)
Reality: Defence secretary Ben Wallace has said it could be years before the UK gives any fighter jets to Ukraine. The cabinet minister suggested it was likely that president Volodymyr Zelensky may even have to wait until the war with Russia was over before British aircraft was supplied.
Promise: The Netherlands foreign minister suggested they might supply F-16s to Ukraine, then they said they hadn't received a request for them, now that they have received the request, it's...
Reality: Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said Ukraine has formally requested the F-16 from the Netherlands.
“We have to debate this with our partners and also the United States,” she said. “This is something that will take time, and it is best done behind closed doors.” Ukraine is “very aware” that a decision will take time, Ollongren said.
That's a big no then.
This seems to be happening across the board, little green shoots of a couple weeks ago are all now witherd, brown and dead, as if someone's been going around in the shadows, spraying them with roundup. Either they are all suddenly caving to Putin's threats or someone else is changing their minds.
Given what I said earlier about the seeming strangeness of the US advising Ukraine to give Putin Bakhmut, and even earlier how every modern system they are giving them all had to be manufactured from scratch to have it's capabilities neutered, and now what looks to me to be them putting pressure behind the scenes to limit how much other countries are helping, I'm getting a feeling the US doesn't want Ukraine to win, despite what it says.
97% of Orc army in Ukraine and they are supposed to prevail without Jets, long range missiles, drones or warships.
And before someone tries to correct me on my misunderstanding about the long range missiles, I think i understand perfectly well, and it's GLSDBs, 9 months from now after they have been manufactured.
And for a still steaming, freshly deposited pile of dung, you really can't do any better than this:
US not ready to supply Ukraine with ATACMS due to lack of stocks
Ukrainska Pravda Tue, February 14, 2023
The US does not have enough stocks of long-range missiles, and therefore the country is not ready to provide Ukraine with ATACMS systems.
What's the point here, that what it returned isn't true?
It also shows the difficulty Ukraine is having. One tank isn’t supposed to go around by its lonesome. We have quite a bit of footage over the past year of Russian tanks doing it, and then our saying “the idiots should have known better than to send a tank alone against infantry.” The technique isn’t any better just because the folks doing it are the god guys.
It worked for the Ukrainians in this case, but it’s still not a good way of doing business.
QFT.
If MudSpud has any passing practical knowledge of this conflict, never mind some objectivity, he’d know that Ukraine and European-based UA associations have been requesting donations of civilian vehicles since Feb-March 2022, to assist with internal and external refugee transport, besides military and paramilitary transport away from the FEBA.
I gifted them a Merc C220 CDI last March or April, last I’d heard from LUkraine (local UA assoc., reg’d as new owner) it was in/around Donetsk, still helping with refugee transporting. That was July, IIRC. Quicksilver W203, RHD (ex-UK), Lux yellow plates (if still on them), if you ever see it in a photo, giz a shout 😉
We’ve organised and sent bigger and better since, notably firetrucks and ambulances, as have many other EU (and non-EU: UK) countries. There’s a **** ton of ex-EU civvy vehicles the length and breadth of Ukraine by now. It’s a big place, and the attrition rate was quite severe, until UA got its anti-air generally sorted more recently.
..
Feb 24th 2022, when all the tankies and Putin apologists scratched their heads in unison for a moment, then quickly adjusted their narratives.
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