"I say that Poland and Czechoslovakia aren't worth going to war over. Besides, Hitler wouldn't dare go further than that!"
It's not really a surprise but the various analyses of the defensive structures Russia have put in place highlight that it won't be a simple task for Ukraine to retake much of their territory (BBC article on it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65615184). Presumably it will also become progressively more difficult the closer to the (real) Russian border that Ukraine get.
It feels like for political reasons Ukraine need to make some strong progress in at least one area. The main and probably only hope for Russia is that it becomes a drawn out war of attrition and that the allies of Ukraine gradually reduce or drop their support.
Slightly off topic but the latest story regarding the somewhat short-sighted policy of pardoning prisoners after six months of front-line service. I thought this was just the preserve of Wagner but it seems like this 'person' was pardoned after serving in the regular Russian army. He effectively served around one year of a 16 year sentence.
I've read that only lightly injured Russian soldiers survive. The seriously wounded are left to die.
Its not on a par with Waterford, no-where near it. It is(was) the 58th largest town in Ukraine. The 58th largest town in Ireland is Portarlington.
So 100k casualties (dead, wounded, captured, missing) to take an irrelevant town that may very well become encircled by UAF in the next few weeks. I suspect the word given to the English language by the Greeks "Pyrrhic" now needs to be replaced by "Bakhmut".
The self styled 2nd best army in the world has bleed its manpower and armoured force dry to capture a destroyed Portarlington.
Not sure who this guy is but he seems to have specific information about f-16's
If we go with the "56th largest city in Ukraine", then they've taken (or may take soon) a town on par with Tuam.
World's 2nd best military indeed.
Scholz on the F16 pilot training at the G7 ,
Suggests it's a long term protect training pilots
I meant that Waterford is a comparable size in sq. km. It's a town that you could probably walk from one side to the other in 90 minutes.
Unless you're Russian then it takes 4 month's 💀
or a wishful thinking.
There was a similar post saying the Dutch government has torn up a contract to sell a batch of aircraft to draken international for aggressor squadrons duties, attributed to reuters news , only problem was they never said it or published it ,but it seems random tweets are being taken as gospel
Any port in a storm eh @Gatling
Headlines from Russian-backed media give the impression that Germany is not going to participate in the provisioning of F-16 for Ukrainians, only to dig in a tiny bit its well known the Germany has no F-16s to give in the first place.
I think it is safe to say that Ukrainians will be flying F-16s over Ukraine sometime in 2024, possibly Q1/Q2 2024
Ukraine have decided to raid Russia itself.
I am not sure if this is a good idea.
Putin's legacy.
Yes I accept that Padre, however in terms comparable importance Waterford is probably equivalent to Mariupol, a port, and top 10 population. Bakcmut is a Portarlington or Tuam, an small provincial town on a largely unimportant railway spur.
"He just wants to unite the German speaking people".
Couldn't believe it when I heard that argument used for the Ukraine. It is literally a copy paste of the Nazi arguments for conquering territories right before WWII.
@markodaly Headlines from Russian-backed media
Fake news .
Reuters is one of the top unbiased news companies in the world and has been for years,
Not ‘Ukraine’, but a collection of Russian separatist units, using a collection of hardware ‘available everywhere’, including (reportedly) from local mines.
The potential fly in the ointment, is that Russia allegedly stores tactical nukes (200/204mm shells) in that area, near Grayvoron (“Golovchyno, (Belgorod-22) "Object 1150", military unit 25624”).
If true, and the stuff is still there now, and the relevants area gets taken over, the potential for false flags’ scale and complexity (by any side, accepting for a moment that UA may *or may not* (or may not keep) control of those Russian separatist units) goes exponential.
Now I’m as pro-UA as they come, and ever the optimist, besides regularly scoffing at those double-siding matters over Russia’s nuclear option. So, I’m keeping that optimism up…
…but with a little more worry than usual (rest assured: not enough so, to give the double-sliders and assorted other tankies/apologists the time of day)
Naturally, the other option, that this attack on Belgorod is already a Russian false flag, after which they could just turn around and use the stuff (either excusing under “lost control of it” or preemptively under “it was an attack on critical infrastructure” works just as well for them), has just as much legs.
Logic suggests once decision has been made, it will happen as soon as possible.
Russia is going close to "all in" here, seems there's been no backing down from their objectives despite clear failure. So Ukraine are going to need an airforce, preferably a much better one than they have right now.
It is a fairly urgent, one might say critical need given their situation (a much larger neighbour doing its damnedest to destroy them, throwing almost the kitchen sink...everything bar WMD).
It is unlikely Ukraine will be getting new deliveries of Sukhois or Migs from the factories anyway!
Or...the seperatists take the Belgorod-22 silo, and potentially reveal the poor condition of it.
It would only be one example, but I still have deep rooted suspicions that the Russian Atomic Weapons system has rotted into an useless warren of rusted components long ago. If we can get at least one of their sites exposed, and it's shown to be in a useless state, it might indicate the state of the weapons program as a whole. A Russia without working Nuclear weapons might guarentee the end of the Russian Federation as we know it.
Well, you’d think that the Russians emptied it some time ago anyway, either on the run up to launching the ‘special operation’, or at some stage since last summer (-ish). But then, as we have seen so many times since Feb’22, Russians do Russian, sooo…
The coincidence of subject-matter and location is just an itch. Let’s hope it stays that and no more/no worse (and at best, that it goes on as you just suggested).
I get what your saying and for most part I agree,but unfortunately this is going to take time to happen,as much as I'd love to happen overnight it's a long process with no training until next spring, even if you take the 30 or so mig29 pilots and the few Su30 pilots and send them off or the UK or American for training for 9 months if you cut the corners,not buying the idea it's Will only take 4 months,that leaves Ukraine minus there airforce,this is why's the UK is looking at building a future airforce with young nato trained and equipped pilots, not people who have spent 20 or in lot of cases their whole flying career flying Soviet Aircraft and Soviet tactics and doctrine,and this is before you get to the ground crews and specialist maintenaners trained and equipped with everything they need to keep these new aircraft they have never laid hands on including spares and aircraft to cannibalise .
There is no rapid process anywhere here.
With the current tactics of the Ukrainan airforce the mig 29 is actually better suited for how they are fighting,the mig 29 is superior in low altitudes and speeds,
I'd still like to see Nato stepping up and putting a No Fly Zone over ukraine and it's coast
Biggest difference between Putin and Hitler at this stage is that Putin's army is relatively incompetent.
While it'd be great to see Putin embarrassed like that. One useless nuclear weapon silo is not the same thing as the entire Russian Atomic Weapons system being an empty threat. Even if they only had one functioning nuke out of the claimed inventory of 5,977 (fantasy land imho), it's still a huge threat as we know the amount of lives that can be lost to a single nuclear strike...
If Russia only had one functioning nuke, firing it would only make their situation exponentially worse.
yeah, about 120 mil ruZZians lost.
If they manage to lunch a single ICBM the situation ends terribly for all of us ,
It won't just be Russians dead were at all risk,
A slightly unusual move from lushashenko if true
Unusual reports coming out of Belgorod. Partisans, infighting, not sure what is going on, all sorts of rumours on the twit machine.
The invasion of Russia
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