Russia - threadbanned users in OP

That's hilarious 😂

I've been wondering roughly what percentage of Russian artillery has been taken out so have tried to get a rough ball park figure.

Using this as a starting point:

(I'm assuming that that number includes MLRSs since no separate figure was given for those)

The Oryx database gives a minimum eliminated figure, since that tracks all visible neutralisations. Their numbers are:

• Towed Artillery - 250
• Self-propelled Artillery - 441
• MLRS - 230

For a grand total of 921

At the other end of the estimation spectrum we have the Ukrainian MoD's figures:

• Artillery - 4,330
• MLRS - 658

For a grand total of 4,988

That's quite the difference. Safe to say that the true number lies somewhere in between. The MoD's numbers seem overly optimistic purely because if true it would mean that the Russian's would have run out of artillery pieces. Clearly that hasn't happened and what's more there doesn't seem to be any rumblings that that's going to happen any time soon.

Ruble Euro parity.

Nothing shows the gap in age between the Millennials running Ukraine and the gerontocracy running Russia than their respective media campaigns.

Russian MoD messaging always takes itself so seriously. There's never any fun or humour in it. It's all about conveying "Russia Strong". It's often just looped footage of Russian soldiers in suspiciously clean uniforms on maneuvers or even just this guy reeling off a bunch of made up figures each night

In contrast, Ukrainian MoD messaging:

Yes, and so true.

So Turkey are returning the commanders of the defense of Mariupol to Ukraine which it includes Azoz commanders. They are also seem to be supporting ascension to NATO as well. This is a big slap in the face of Russia.

Has erdogan decided that Putin is a busted flush and sees where the wind is blowing? So is trying to show his support now and get ahead.

Poland knows it cannot totally rely on Article 5 to guarantee its safety from Russian attack. I get the unshakeable feeling that if a Russian attack were ever to happen on Poland (most likely not imminently because Russia are so militarily depleted just with Ukraine) that you'd have this whole tedious conversation of "...do we want to risk nuclear war over Poland?". If that conversation in any way did happen, it would be a complete green light for the USA's rivals to start moving on territory they wanted to control.

Maybe so but during the NATO bombing of Serbia over Kosovo, NIS Airport was targeted and several drifted over and fell in the City itself, 3 klms away. 2nd bombing was more than 7 KLms away from the airport, also in the City 14 deaths, 28 injured plus one more death in 2000 from an unexploded Cluster bomb. After the war stopped, hundreds of unexploded Cluster bombs were found in the Serbian countryside. I've seen a few of them ( at least their parachutes } but always kept far away from them, much more so than unexploded shells or rockets half buried in the ground. I was specifically warned about their unpredictability, and how lethal they were.

The way to look at that is, considering the fact that in any war zone anywhere in the world, the land is so badly contaminated with all manner of unexploded ordinance, singling out cluster bombs for special attention is a bit superfluous.

There are several assumptions to that idea Danzy... the main one being that the soldier behind the 6 foot of concrete is in good shape and fighting fit, well supplied with arms, food clothing etc. Another one is the 6 ft concrete walls..you would not want to equate 6ft of Russian standard ( especially Military standard) with its European equivalent, and definitely not after its been through a winter in that part of the world....while they will remain an obstacle, they are not as formidable as they may seem at first sight. The mines of course will always be a problem. But fighting as Ukraine is fighting now destroying the Russian soldiers fitness to fight, is a very good plan.

Nazis in Ukraine should never have been a talking point for Russia, anyway. Not only would such people pose no threat whatsoever to Russian territory, but Russia had a powerful mercenary group called Wagner that was operating at Putin's pleasure. Basic concept, here, but if a country cannot or will not deal with its own Nazis, what cause has it got to be complaining about anyone else's?

However, the Nazi thing was only ever really for domestic consumption, anyway. For the generation who remember the Great Patriotic War and have a general fetish for the hardship endured during it. Everyone else can see it as even more of a sham argument than WMDs in 2003.

Could you point out where the shells will come from?

Germany, Britain, France, et al still seem to be trying to get the paperwork through to get production ramped up. None of whom have capacity to give anything anytime soon.

The US has released cluster munitions, only because Biden has acknowledged that stocks are running low on their side. South Korean shells are back-filling the stocks that the US are releasing to Ukraine. Even the US are under strain with regard to supply

In the meantime, I will make a gruesome, but likely very correct prediction. Whatever number of Russian shell production that people have in mind (I hear capacity of 1M shells a year), I bet they will beat it.

I said at the end of 2022, everyone was sitting their laurels, patting themselves on the back for the imminent collapse of the Russian army.

Here we are in 2023, everyone is doing the exact same thing, patting themselves on the back for the imminent collapse of the Russian army.

No one seems to give a sh1t that the pledged deliveries (tanks and shells) have been completely missed.