Russia - threadbanned users in OP

More sense and reality from Timothy Snyder.

 "Ukrainian territorial advances this summer have been sufficient to trigger a barrage of calls for a cease-fire from Kremlin-friendly voices. Given the way or media seems to work, these calls (rather than the events on the ground) sometimes seem to be the news. Pro-Kremlin op-eds smuggle in the assumption that Ukraine is not advancing, when in fact it is. The Kremlin allies make their case in terms of Ukrainian suffering, but never cite Ukrainians, nor the polling data that shows overwhelming support for the war."

 "I don’t know any Ukrainians at this point who have not lost a friend or a family member in this war. My friends now tend to have a certain dark circle around the eyes and a tendency to look into the middle distance. And yet the level of determination is very, very high."

I'd wager they're trying harder with their renovation efforts of the older Soviet armor now, compared to before they realised that their "3-Day-War" would balloon into a 3-year+ fiasco that would eat away at possibly more than half of their entire mechanised arsenal. Now they know that half-arsing it won't cut it when their tanks are starting to meet NATO gear, I would expect that they're trying harder.

But have they the reasorces or even the energy left to try harder? Possibly not.

Yes! Exactly my point a few posts above, but much more succinctly put.

Would it be an option in future to "accidentally" redirect a flight Elon was on towards Kiev and then let him be a guest to Ukrainian hospitality? In repayment all of his attempts to piss on their efforts to counter the actual war and escalated conflict that Elon's Russian buddies have already waged upon Ukraine?

Elon is such a hateful clown. Not only do very few take him at all seriously, but now he can look forward to the active hatred of the entirity of Ukraine, aswell as from anyone gives a damn about the Ukrainians...which is nearly everyone.

Good account to follow on twitter.

By switching off the satellite link he's broken his contract with the US military who paid for that service. This is a huge deal and I think it will be his downfall. He has no right to interfere in another countries hostilities. US government should take away his citizenship, strip all his assets and deport him. Maybe a few months in Guantanamo bay would help him think about the assistance he gave to a terrorist state.

There might be more care given to production/ refurbishment of equipment in more recent times. This would be balanced with a need for increased urgency and ,as you mentioned, the impact of sanctions. Some of David Axe's articles at Forbes are quite decent as regards the equipment side of the conflict. For example on the subject of T80 tanks. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/02/09/now-russia-is-adding-inferior-optics-to-its-t-80-tanks-too/?sh=460fdb02e95a

There was an update to that story that the service was not available in that area and they did not activate it for the operation.

The update also says it was not turned off or deactivated as it was not operational.

Not sure if serious but it's worrying if you think this way.

i wouldnt be any kind of an expert but id guess that while they may be trying to take a bit more care when theyre building these things the russian mafia havnt gone all suddenly patriotic or anything,they would still be looking for their bite cause the rouble pile has to be re-built so of course the quality of anything thats made will suffer.

For all the starlink talk, here's a link showing the location of the satellites

You'll notice a couple of "trains" of them heading into their orbit after they were launched earlier this year.

(stolen from here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084288/#Comment_121084288)

Wouldn't want to think what's happening to this fella at the moment. Respect.

So it wasn't protective paint after all, they really are putting tires on their aircraft

Can someone explain what the tyres are meant to achieve precisely?