Neither is justifiable. One is understandable.
I've posted nothing but pro-Ukrainian stuff on this thread, but that article about the leaked plan for NATO to collapse comes from The Sun and was published a week ago (Feb 23rd). It isn't reported on independently anywhere else that I can find, except another almost identical article from The Mirror published on the same day (which relies on The Sun article as a source).
Personally, I'd need a better source before even beginning to contemplate its authenticity.
There used to be an embargo on western calculators going to USSR as they were being re-purposed in missile guidance systems...
Chips are very rarely made specifically for a single purpose, as the have far higher ROI being multipurpose... I remember Furbi chipsets and PS4 chipsets being studied and tested by DARPA in military application when they appeared on the market
According to Putin's ex-wife Lyudmila Putina (and another witness), Putin smuggled a washing machine from East Germany back to Russia when they returned home in 1991. Maybe he has a fetish? 😋
Some russian comments,nothing less than you'd expect now.
Horrible people.
I'm afraid that is one of the more common misconceptions about the laws of war. Even today, the US Manual for Courts Martial explicitly states that a default defense of obedience to orders is valid.
Folks are taking the post WW2 "crimes against humanity" trials of the German senior military leadership, who were in a position to both understand and affect the larger scheme of things, and attempting to place that burden upon low-level troops who have neither the knowledge nor authority to do anything about it.
That's exactly what we do, for several reasons.
1) It's good training. Most of the US military is, oddly enough, in the US. If they have to get from A to B for deployment in a crisis/war, learning how to do it 'under pressure' is not a recipe for success, there is no substitute for 'train as you fight, fight as you train.' The US defense budget is big enough that we can spend a lot of dollars to make sure we know what we're doing. It's not just the Army, it's the railroads, harbors, riverbarge operators, European highway administrators, the whole shebang. As you can imagine, it's not a simple operation.
2) Units do not have identical equipment. If a brigade with one type of tank (say an A2v2) replaces a unit with another type of tank (eg A2v3), then they will have to relearn a few things when they get there.
3) Ownership/Responsibility. It shouldn't happen, but it does. Put simply, folks will take less care of pooled equipment which isn't 'theirs'. You're familiar with the term 'drive it like you rented it?'. Units are not going to spend their maintenance budgets (yes, they're allocated down) on vehicles which aren't going to help their readiness indicators next year. Maintenance might be deferred at the end of the year as folks are smelling the barn and realise that it's the next unit's problem. And so on. You bring your own equipment, you are already well-motivated to make sure it works before you put it onto the ship, and you're well motivated to keep it in good condition at the end of your tour because you're bringing it back home with you.
4) Upgrades of pre-positioned stock. It doesn't happen every rotation (and may not be happening now if the pre-positioned stock is still in use, it was pulled out last year and I don't know if it's been replaced by another set), but sometimes a unit will be instructed to leave its new equipment in storage depots in Europe and instead bring back the equipment which was pre-positioned. That way the pre-positioned stocks get returned to the US for rebuilds/improvements (or disposal, if the equipment is no longer in service).
Good for digging the enemy out of a defensive position, no doubt.
(I'll get my coat...)
Not sure what they could make use of from a washing machine. Maybe if they are short of some bits of cable they could use that, but the chips themselves will be pretty useless. Possibly some generic timer chip or memory chips, but they are not going to be identifiable as coming from a washing machine if they are using them as replacements in missiles.
Maybe there is some power control circuit that is similar to a missile system.
It would be like claiming that you can make a chicken out of a cake, because cakes contain eggs and chickens come from eggs.
The facts on the ground are that the Ukrainians have found chips from western white goods in Russian military hardware. There are also suspicious increases in sales figures of white goods to states allied with Russia.
The Sun itself is saying that the source of information was "Wind of Change" --> Vladimir Osechkin. That was a very active source early on in the war. Igor Sushko's twitter account used translate them and create tweet threads. I remember it subsequently came out that "Wind of Change" represented a collective of bureaucrats working in various intelligence agencies as opposed to a single person and many of them ended up fleeing Russia.
There was always a question mark over the veracity of some of those leaks of information. Some of them seemed more plausible than other ones. Also I'm not sure how many of them are still left in Russia at this stage.
Trump is a moron.
Stating the obvious I know..
Feck off. I don't see you at the mensa meetings
At ZNPP, the Russian occupiers designate equipment that can be stolen from the station in the event of a retreat The special attention of the invaders, according to energy workers, was attracted by the Training Center for Repair and Management Personnel of NNEGC Energoatom, created on the basis of the Zaporizhzhia NPP training center. This is a unique facility where nuclear scientists from many countries of the world on full-scale models of equipment and equipment receive rare practical skills necessary for their operation and repair at nuclear power plants.
Significant funds in the creation of the Center at one time invested not only Energoatom (UAH 500 million), but also the European Union (almost 13 million euros). Inspecting the STC building, the Rashists, who came to ZNPP as "specialists in the nuclear industry", compiled lists of equipment that "must be dismantled" (read – stolen) from the nuclear power plant in case of retreat.
Thieving filth. They are like a plague of backwards medieval nekulturny locusts.
You can fix the Ukraine war in a day?
Bigly.
Person, woman, man, camera. All this intellectual stuff is easy peasy
The facts on the ground are that the Ukrainians have found chips from western white goods in Russian military hardware.
Chips which are used in western white goods are also used in Russian military hardware, almost certainly true of practically all military hardware.
Parts which used to be part of a washing machine being stripped out and put into military hardware, less so. Just doesn't seem worth the effort to smuggle a washing machine for an off the shelf controller worth a few pence when they could stick 50 of the chips in their coat pocket and smuggle across a border after sending a friend in the West to their local Maplins, which unfortunately no longer exists. :(
When you want in-depth non-sensationalist journalism the Sun is definitely my go-to newspaper. As a bonus you get celeb news and football transfer rumours thrown in for free.
I checked Alibaba for the first chip on the list and got a hit. Thousands of units of stock available.
If you think the Russians are spending several hundred dollars on washing machines only to strip them for a 50 cent chip, then I have a certain bridge near Kherson city I can sell you.
That'd mean training up grunts to take them out without damaging them. They might never have ever even seen a washing machine before.
Better to give an expendable Gopnik orders to drag the white goods out and fling it onto a truck.
Antiques being cobbled together for the battlefield!
Yeah there definitely still shipping to Russia through the express version. Could easily aquire chips they did, unless some chips or only found in certain variants
"Elite" tank brigade does a mutiny. Pity more don't refuse to take orders.
Inspired by.....
Oddly it makes sense to degree, several other militaries have tried something similar,
I beg to differ Francie. The local laundrette here was owned by a few Russian ladies who closed it down to send the washing machines and dryers back to Russia.
The Russian tank drivers are delighted....well they are delighted for 15 minutes but then they have to keep getting out of the tank to put more money into the slots to keep it moving.
Interesting video by UK's The Tank Museum that covers more ground than just the tanks question.
Watching highlights of the Tirreno - Adriatico cycling race in Italy… looking though the leaderboard and notice two cyclists, with a plain white flag instead of a flag of a nation. This peaks my curiosity and on googling both names I find them to be Russians.
why is it they are permitted to compete ?
why is it thought appropriate that their names can be associated with a plain white flag of incognito convenience … one is riding for a German team but, incognito Russian.
more searching shows that he is a particularly cowardly and evasive fellow…. When asked his opinion…” the situation in Ukraine is difficult but I’m trying not to think about it “ really ? Thousands upon thousands of Ukranian people killed, Russia on record threatening wider Europe… difficult and you won’t think about it… but he’ll ride along and compete and enjoy the peace, freedoms, paydays of Western Europe ( he’ll think about that alright)without having the stones to criticise what would threaten that. Hypocrisy.
An apalling number of Ukrainian medics getting killed. The orcs are probably deliberately targeting them which is a war crime.
More howling from the orcs about their dire situation.
Their lines have barely moved in a week now. Ukrainian forces are coming and now they are sh!tting themselves because they are overextended and out of ammo
Regarding my earlier post (http://t.me/NeoficialniyBeZsonoV/22977) about today's video, on which an allegedly Ukrainian prisoner was shot. I managed to find a person with 84% similarity, which is a lot. I have all his data. This man from the Samara region was mobilized in October 2022 in one of the units that are now on the front line. I will know for sure tomorrow about my fate. If my version is confirmed and I know for sure that his relatives are aware, then I will publish the data and photos here.
Quite unbelievably, a Russian propaganda channel is trying to claim that the executed prisoner was actually Russian.
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