I don't think driving from Finland to Russia is as simple as it might have been in years past. Border guards on the Finnish side may reserve the right to question you about why you're driving to Russia and even conduct a search if they think there's anything fishy going on, and may then have further questions if/when they find a big suitcase full of microprocessors.
There's also the other problem of getting quality stuff. Sure, you could have some random guy bringing you L70762 microcontrollers in a shopping bag once a month, but you're going to feel a bit foolish when you realise that it was actually just a rectangular block of plastic with some metal pins glued to the sides.
Maybe they left in a hurry or, cleverly, left it open so they'd not be sent out again.
I am always amused when people say there should be peace talks. Putin does not want peace, he wants Ukraine. You can't have one side talking peace while the other is trying to kill them.
Would that not be exactly the point of leaving the hatch open?
Would you volunteer yourself Francie to go recover your units tank in no man's land?
Isn't this on the same line from the beginning of the war of Russian troops sabotaging equipment and "confused" then when machine not work.
It is known that they specifically target medics as reported on Sky News by one of them.
And Ukrainians are more skilled at shooting down these drones and missiles.
It's OK, the Chinese have their eyes on their territory & assets
They literally are running out of their cruise missiles. Their stocks are down to the point at which they just fire off whatever they can produce each month in smaller barrages and the rest of the time it's Iranian Shahed drones. Notice how the attacks on the electrical infrastructure are way down in recent times despite the fact that they never managed to destroy it all.
You see this time and time again.
I know it's a warzone and all that, but when abandoning a broken down tank, surely you'd have the cop on to close the hatch after you leave. At least that way you'd have some chance at recovering the vehicle and repairing it.
The US has confirmed JDAM(extended range) bombs are in Ukraine but in strictly limited numbers enough for a few strikes.
Why would they be jealous of the west? Don't they live in the bestest nation on the planet?
That's because they could still look down on Afghanistan as savages \ barbarians and the land not worth fighting for.
They resent the West and Ukraine for showing them up as the backward barbarians and savages, the pervasive corruption, the falling behind in living standards and achievements, the collapse in prestige as their much vaunted military is shown up daily ... the humiliations of the retreat from Kyiv, the sinking of their flagship. Their leader hides away in bunkers giving insane rants while Zelenskyy is lauded globally, shows true leadership and makes speeches that ring through history.
Maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place
Meh.
They don’t add any value whatsoever to the world anyway only misery and threats of nuking us all so nothing changes.
I just saw documentary on sky news and plenty of people in areas around where soldiers are coming from resent the west. There's a jealousy and resentment of the west that wasn't there with Afghanistan. Soldiers caught in Afghanistan were, tortured etc, brutality was off the scale.
Will they? It didn't work out that way with Russia in Afghanistan.
As russia gets poorer and loses more men, the general population will just hate the west more.
Maybe. I'm not at all sure anyone has the faintest as to their export income because of the fleet of ghost ships they use to sanction wash stuff at sea. There's a good investigative journalism piece on this in relation to them stealing grain, showing satellite images of vessles all tied alongside each other at sea, transferring grain from on to another so as to avoide the sanctions taint of having a bulk grain vessel viisiting Sevastapol on the log.
The same is happening with oil. I almost posted it yesterday; now it's stolen Iron ore. I honestly don't believe the sanctions are being monitored or enforced by the US, EU and others with interdiction capabiities because they don't want to interdict ships and cargoes and ruffle feathers. I can't recall ships being stopped, or impounded. If some journalists in an office in NY can find evidence, probably without getting out of their chairs, let alone boarding a plane, then... yeah...
In the last week I saw something saying their oil and gas revenues were only down by 50%, but I doubt that's informed by monitoring ghost ships bumping into each other at sea for extended periods.
Are wagner operating anywhere else than Bakmut?
Seems that the salt mines are the motivation for Wagner.
Putin probably gave Wagner bosses ownership of the mines provided they can take and hold the area indefinitely.
Mines and Wagner are a common theme especially so in Africa.
Last country I heard in the exports/economy comparrison theme was Chile. They are burning gold and apparently can last another 2 years.
Another day of over a thousand Orcs eliminated - 1,060.
Sounds a bit like, "oh shìt we're losing, time to switch sides".
https://kyivindependent.com/national/inside-a-russian-militant-army-the-story-of-a-ukrainian-forced-to-fight-against-his-homeland
The range is given as 2,500m, not 8,200m
Range
2.5 km effective range
1.7 km anti-aircraft ceiling
Muzzle velocity
900 m/s
Barrel life
12.000 rounds
https://www.weaponsystems.net/system/474-25mm%202M-3
Can you imagine how angry (and worse, a lot worse) western citizens are going to get if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine by Zelensky, and this war spreads into the west? If that happens, then you ain't seen nothin' yet in terms of expenditure, and even worse, when the body bags start arriving home.
Similar,but take your average ifv and add naval guns and then kill targets- other vehicles or men or fortifications 9000 yards away,
And according to you, what would be the terms of these peace talks??
So a kind of tall awkward thing meets Kraken kind of situation then..
Money invested to help the Ukrainians defend their land and destroy the military forces of the biggest terrorist state in the world sounds like money well spent to me so I've no idea why you are suggesting citizens should be getting angry in the west. The GDP of the USA was 23.32trillion dollars in 2021 compared to the 1.8trillion dollars for russia that year and the 17trillion dollars of the EU. Russia has taken on two economies each about ten times its size and a few significant others and had to turn to the likes of North Korea and Iran for help. Before the war russia in spite of having the largest land area of any country in the world only produced about 3% of world economic output and after the most recent war it has started with its neighbours it is likely to be in an even worse economic state. I think it really should be the tax payers in russia that are getting angry with their incompetent dictator putin although I suppose fear of being arrested and sent to die on the front lines in Ukraine helps sentiment like that be kept fairly quiet there.
Or they could just order a few thousand of them from their favourite online shop and get them delivered for a few roubles, and still have change to buy a washing machine.
You don't go to the trouble of smuggling in a whole car, when all you require is the screw holding the steering wheel in place and is an item which can be bought in bulk for pennies.
It's designed to fight or suppress from behind hardcover vs rambling across Fields going toe to toe with other armoured vehicles ,
Have a look at the WW2 praying mantis vehicle.
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