Well the Iraq invasion without a UN mandate (unlike Afghanistan) did give Putin the feeling he could invade as it suited.
I just find it bizarre that there's these tankies who think that the people of Afghanistan want another invasion, just like the Russian bots liberating Ukraine.
I think they have passed the first line of defense and are now on the second line of trenches at Robotyne. Slow progress but progress none the less. There also seems to progress around Bakhmut as well.
So go start a thread about Afghanistan then, or resurrect one of the more recent ones.
Have you any opinions about what's going on in Ukraine without trying to draw parallels to some other war/region ?
I was responding to another poster who was pivoting off the defense of Ukraine to assert that the Afghanis want the US to reinvade.
I thought it bizarre and I'd chime with you in saying it's its own thread called "Anyone for another twenty years in Afghanistan?"/
What I find most bizarre is how their view of the Taliban as not being of Afghanistan perfectly chimes with Putin's assertion that Ukrainian resistance isn't Ukrainian.
I'll leave it there.
So yagan, have you checked out any of my comments in the previous post? Or do you now accept that I lived and worked in Afghanistan? Or do you still have doubts? Personally, I experienced the changes, before and after and they were phenomenal, and that's the only way to describe them. Now you can believe me or not, but I was not the only one to have worked there, and anyone who has been there, are of the same opinion. Now please explain to me how you came the conclusion that these 20 years were a waste ( as you describe it}
Yes, Putin's 'forever war' is a fantasy.
yagan, every post you make about Afghanistan shows how much you do not know about it, But I'm done trying to educate you. The Afghanistan you speak about and claims you make about the Taliban, just proves my point. Thats me finished with you, back to Ukraine / Russian thread now, enough time wasted.
Wouldnt it be soooo much nicer if they could fly a few B52s laden with munitions and simply carpet bomb the whole of the defensive lines a few times and itd be Check mate for the Ukrainians.....Game Over
Rumours that Ukrainians are to be trained on the B52, should only take a few weeks.
Joking aside, how low do these have to fly to be accurate?
As far as I'm aware they can fly up to 50,000 feet but usually drop their ordinance from between 32 & 37,000 feet.
During the Gulf War they often flew in groups of three B-52s, dropping their loads from high altitude, they could strike with total surprise in any weather, day or night and when they used what they call "Iron bombs" they would literally shake the earth and light the sky up for miles around.
The psychological impact on the Iraqi soldiers supposedly worked wonders whereby even before the ground war began, Iraqi soldiers surrendered en masse, this is exactly what is needed in Ukraine......If only...........
Wonder what happened to Russia's kamikaze tanks that were in the news a short while back.
Was that just a once off?
Reminds me of the attack on France a few centuries ago when the English stuffed a boat full of gunpowder and sailed it into one of the French ports .
I think the force of that failed explosion (failed because it detonated too far out from shore ,I think) would have been quite colossal.
The long game. Just needs steady support both at civilian level and militarily.
No sign of the 'west' backing away on either for the foreseeable.
The one that was recorded by a drone was an abject failure so they probably didn't bother wasting any more tanks and explosives in creating any more. Even for a T-55 it seemed like a colossal waste.
I don't really believe this argument (1st line of post). A leader like Putin and a regime like current one in Russia will do what they think they can get away with and what their relative strength allows for. They are completely amoral, think it has been shown clearly by invasion of Ukraine that [for them] ends justify almost all means.
It is vital that a democratic country like the US lives up to and by its claimed standards (it didn't as regards deciding to invade Iraq) but I suppose I am cynical and believe effect of powerful countries (US) providing a good example just won't work to influence some bad actors (Putin's Russia being on of those).
Yes, Zelensky said as much. He said they won't risk more Ukranian lives being lost just to satisfy demands for speedier progress in some western capitals. He said unlike Russia we have regard for our soldiers lives, we care about every solider we lose. The brigades they have held back are for when they do breach Russian defensive lines. I think with the rate Russia are losing their attack helicopters that is going to come soon enough.
(https://archive.fo/ARrgm)
They are probably being stored in the same place where the T-14 Armata tanks are being kept.
As the Ukrainian pressure is ratcheted up will we see mass surrenders soon?
Would have to be soon. Or the other brigades been held back will have to be rotated to take over for the brigades fighting on the front line. I'm sure they have suffered a lot of dead and injured so I cannot see them staying on the front lines attacking for another month before the brigades taking all these casualties are rotated for the fresh brigades. The issue I would see then is there is not the full fresh brigades then. So when is the right time? I know when people say when the Ukrainians breech the Russian lines and they will launch all these brigades towards the breech. Only thing is how long would it take these brigades to get to this breech? Could take days for the Ukrainians to get all their forces to that point to concentrate them all. That's why I would of thought a concentrated punch from the Ukrainians to attack 1 point with all their forces.
"Look see. I killed your brothers. Ha. Ha. Ha."
Hotel security seemingly threw out the Russian after this.
Ukrainians seemingly in around Bahkmut and close enough to Donetsk city.
He was lucky he only got kicked out of the hotel.
Russia has a brutal history and culture… it’s not surprising that a lot of them are like this….
Great idea
Fake but fun..
But a 34-year-old battalion commander within the 37th Marine Brigade, who uses the call sign Spartanets, said the tanks' "thin armour" means they can be used as fire support, but not in front-line assaults.
"Unfortunately, there was one case when the crew died in the vehicle," the major told AFP on Friday.
"There was artillery shelling and a shell exploded near the vehicle, the fragments pierced the armour and the ammunition set detonated."
The crew of four inside were all killed, he said.
😐️
This is awful, no way Saakashvili deserves this.
If anyone cares, you can register your protest to the Georgian ambassador in Ireland.
https://ireland.mfa.gov.ge/en/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-zurabashvili-586b2251/?originalSubdomain=ge
That's a fake ending to a video originally going around a year ago. That said, they genuinely were using artillery shells as pin drivers.
And today in 'news of the obvious', it is discovered that armored cars designed for cavalry operations cannot be used in place of main battle tanks.
There was some false expectation in the lay world going around when the AMX-10RCs were originally announced in the media as "French tanks", but even the Ukrainians figured out they have their limitations: Note how they were given to a Marine unit, where the lightness has some merit.
interesting opposing view .
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