Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Russia state TV suggesting genocide as a punishment.

Negotiation...

Would be like the Jewish people of mainland Europe trying to negotiate with Eichmann.

Outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg in the republics, ethnic Russians are not popular either, quite the opposite in fact. Don't be an ethnic Russian going against a local non-Russian in the local courts. For sure the balance will be weighed in the locals favour.

saw yesterday NATO announcing Ukraine will get membership and instead of 2 steps its now 1 step,now id imagine its going to be a big long step but i think its a mega-huge fcuk you to putin..which in anyones books is a good thing

So much for the 'forever war'.

I was pretty shocked to learn about the state of new spares for the Challenger tanks, basically none available. This could be the reason they are being used so lightly.

Chronic underinvestment for 20 years across Europe in armies is catching up.

If Russia hadn't been so corrupt and it's army so mismanaged this crisis would be very serious for Europe, either way the same head in the sand approach would be taken.

Most of the armies in Europe will be significantly degraded in 5 years compared to now and most of the hardware given to Ukraine will not be replaced and the capacity to make it will be further diminished.

Just look at Sweden they literally kept on modernising all of their programs , land,sea and air,on limited budgets while the majority of Europe cut their defense budgets over the last few decades since the collapse of the Soviet union, yes the eu grew and prosperity grew across the block but that doesn't mean the threats went away,now Nato stores are running low with everything been sent to Ukraine which is all well and good but at some point decisions will need to be taken rebuild and re-equip Nato members forces or keep sending everything to Ukraine and Hope nothing else kicks off like Taiwan or Serbia and Kosovo and hope they don't get caught with there pants down

I once knew a girl who was an ethnic Russian who had grown up in Uzbekistan. From my understanding she lived in an area where most were Russians and as a result she didn't speak a word of Uzbek. I remember, I asked her about the Uzbeks and I'll never forget her reaction: "Pfft...they're barely humans". On a separate occasion, I also recall her saying "black people smell".

At the time I thought that it must just be her but now I have come to realise that those feelings are a lot more widespread in Russians in general.

At the end of the day the biggest indictment of the cancer within Russia and the one that none of their boot lickers can answer for is how they treat people in the occupied territories. This is also the reason why the Ukrainians will fight until the end to stop more of their people falling into the clutches of the Russians.

Indefinite detention, forced migration, torture, summary executions, forced labour. Grim stuff:

But at the same time they built a new war ship , despite being broke, despite not having steel ,men or anything else.

And then they wonder why they are disliked so much in the republics. In the crowd I worked with, there was one ethnic Russian. A real nice guy, and I mean that in the best possible way. But when ever there was any kind of celebrations going on Birthdays etc, and drink was involved ( which was often,} I had to be there to keep the peace. And if I had to leave early, then he'd leave too. And this was going on for several years. He was never accepted fully. He was always treated as an outsider.

CNN reporting that Ukraine has received some cluster munitions from the US already.

“We just got them, we haven't used them yet, but they can radically change [the battlefield],” Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the Tavria Joint Forces Operation, said in an interview Thursday with CNN's Alex Marquardt

Most likely. Long-lead items for warships are often ordered years in advance, especially things like propulsion systems, turbines, drive shafts and so on. Electronics such as radar & sonar system, communications, and whatever passes for a combat & information management system will also likely have a significant lead time. Strangely enough, the hull plating will probably be one of the last things to enter production, especially since the days of sixteen inches of thickness of face-hardened steel armor plating are long gone. Most warships these days will have splinter protection, or at most, protection against 20mm or 40mm fire, and if that can't be acquired, building the hull to commercial standards will probably suffice as well.

For those who are interested, naval history YouTuber Drachinifel has a whole bunch of videos on this topic, and whilst his channel mostly focuses on ships built before 1950-1953 in order to avoid politics and running into too many "that's classified" barriers, many of the principles he describes for the logistical side still hold up today. This video here should touch on a lot of the points I mentioned:

Payment for military shipyard workers and other jobs like that would be a priority, even if the rest of the country is "broke".

Steel for artillery barrels is very different to steel for ship hulls.

Workers in a military shipyard would be reserved occupation and not liable to the mobilisations.

I know you're trying to bring an unbiased point of view to mitigate some of the more gung-ho posters, but this reads like you've automatically gainsaid the previous post without really thinking it through.