Plus travel back in time on this thread, to say 15 jan 2022, have a look at the comments back then. Anyone claiming that Russia would actually invade, was pooh poohed out of it. Invade? No way!! It just normal military maneuver's, Putin showing off his military might.etc. etc.
Hindsight is 2020.
You wouldnt find many people in early 2022 who would have predicted the largest war in Europe since WW2.
They thought Putin was a rational thinker.
Given Putin's previous invading / annexing history you can be damn sure that the US / UK etc military had factored in Putin invading Ukraine in their advance planning. For sure, to them it came as no great surprise. Even back in 2014 ( the time the invasion really started} Angela Merkel said that the only reason she did a deal with Putin was to buy time for Ukraine. And indeed, you can be sure that the same US UK etc. war gamed every possible scenario, even up to the unthinkable, WWW3 and the use of Nuclear weapons. I have a funny feeling that the drip feeding of weapons by the US ( especially) is all part of the US grand plan. Maybe the rest of the world, the west in particular, wanted to believe that a war in Europe at that scale was impossible, and could never happen again. And Putin proved them all wrong. But the Baltic states knew what to expect from Putin
Maybe not, but you would find many people who believed the Americans were lying about the invasion. And when Russia did invade, most logical people would go "wow, I got that wrong" - but those people just moved on to blaming the west for prolonging the war.
I never taught the modern Russian army was great. I could never understand the theory that just because they had nearly 14k battle tanks and loads of dumb artillery that they would roll through the Sally gap in Wicklow if the wanted to.
I always knew the US and the west in general had better tanks, planes and artillery. I did not know enough as to what would happen but I knew enough as an ordinary Joe Soap that a combined Europe had no fear of Russia.
Where the probility was our dependence on Russian oil, gas and other resources. Military technology wise Russia was decades behind the West. The only issue was making sure the N word did not happen.
Last winter the Russians struck hard at Ukrainian power systems with missiles. This winter the foot seems to be on the other foot. If recent attack on Crimea is true where a senior group of Russian Naval staff were wiped out, Russia is under serious pressure
Putin humouring himself with history over real minute reality.
Man once compared himself to Catherine the great.
If what has been reported about that strike is true ,I would pretty much be half expecting Putin's head to roll.
I would have thought that would be too much to accept ,both in the fact that it was even possible and also in the damage caused to the heart of the military establishment and the visible loss of life and capability.
If I was in Ukraine I would be very afraid of retaliation but I think they may be immune to fear at this stage after what Russia has already done to them.
More like Russia's turn to quake?
That is an easy theme for Russia to trot out-that the West is fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.
Easy to get across and it is true that no NATO countries have soldiers fighting directly.
But what choice do we have now that Ukraine has showed its mettle (it has no choice but to fight or to flee)
Russia has no business in Ukraine and can go home at the time of its choosing.
They cynically thought they could just take what was not theirs and are now hoist on their own petard when their cards folded.
Sic transit hybris.
When you add in the attack on the shipyard in Crimea as well, it is probably a matter of time before the bridge goes as well.
Not only that the Nagorno-Karabakh show that Russia can no longer control own internal borders. It is only a matter of time before Georgia probably strikes for its independence, Moldova will not longer allow interference in Tranisnista.
That is not its internal borders,is it?Neither Azerbaijan or Armenia are part of Russia.
I thought Armenia looked to Russia for security guarantees and Azerbaijan to Turkey (but I am not very clear about the set up )
A country or state does not have to be within Russian borders for Putin to exercise at least some measure of control over it. Look at what happened in Ukraine,,,an independent state since 1991, but when Putin's puppet was ejected, he invaded.
Yes and no. If you have to pull the engine apart, it's a little tricky, though the Ukrainians are already familiar with turbine engines from the T-80. However, as there is only one moving part in the M1's engine, breakdowns are pretty rare and usually related to other components in the tank which are also present on other tanks. The turbine also has better cold weather performance than diesels (and better torque). There is a reason why the Americans chose it over the diesels back when the thing was less economical with fuel. It still drinks a bit more than the diesel but it's nowhere near as thirsty as it used to be.
Armenia got screwed because Azerbaijan knew Russia couldn't do **** all to stop them. Are there any other Russian allies along their border who are now vulnerable? Big wake up call for Kazakhstan etc.
This guy sounds a bit nerdy but he is quite good and direct, Ukraine needs a lot more air defence.
Russians cleverly avoided to deliver a blow despite its head been supposedly chopped
That's a lot of effort just to hit a grain silo and a hotel.
Russia have a (totally pro Armenian) peacekeeping force in the area. Things are so bad for Russia right now that they are turning a blind eye to some of them being killed without retaliation.
Pretty good explanation of the whole situation here.
A lot of people knew what was comming, Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum have been warning of Russia starting a major war for years, check out the below interview with Alexey Arestovich from 2019.
All the signs have been there for years, you and many others would have known too had you all listened to people who really know their stuff. Putin's "essay" from July 2021, made his ambitions regarding Ukraine and Belarus blindingly obvious. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181
Hindsight is foresight for gobshites, as a wise man once said.
What seems blindingly obvious now wasn't always so, even Zelensky didn't want to see the signs back then:
"Hindsight is foresight for gobshites" says he completly ignoring the fact I was talking about people who predicted a major war BEFORE it happened. lol
Warmongering Russophobes was one of the comments, long before slavi ukrani became a fashion accessory, even bringing Moldova and Belarus back into Russia was on the table back then ... high insight doesn't come into it when it was plain to see 2014 was just the beginning
It's amazing they've done so well considering Ukraine were caught so off guard. Such a shame they were though I'd imagine they'd have a lot less territory to regain if they were ready. Imagine if they'd mined all the entry points.
Unfortunately, any action like that would have triggered an earlier invasion. putin did get the timing as right as he could, I don't think he (or anyone) was prepared for the dismal failure of the russian army, it's amazing that 18 months on, it's Ukraine with regaining ground and russia trying to deeply entrench itself while Abrams tanks start rolling out (and remembering that this year with Winter, russia have lost their artillery superiority, which means more random civilian attacks rather than strategic).
It will be very interesting to compare this winter to last. Russia will of course be stockpiling new missiles for another winter campaign but surely numerically the strikes will be far lower then last plus Ukraine now has better air defence. I hope the artillery advantage keeps trending towards Ukraine.
clare daly, idiot politician, doubles down on idiotic statements.
Factcheck: MEP Clare Daly ‘mistakenly’ cited wrong fatality figures for Russian invasion of Ukraine (thejournal.ie)
Will be interesting if a new re-reg or contrarian comes online to regurgitate this.
The earlier Ukrainian defence also had to prioritise key places like Kyiv. If Kyiv and the government fell Putin would have his puppets in.
Looks like a change of tactics with Russia now going after logics and Ukrainian supplies crossing borders,...
Dangerous game to play. One mistake...
It's going to more than a single mistake or several before it becomes something,but then again it could have the opposite effect people are expecting NATO countries will do absolutely everything they can't to stop themselves getting dragged into open conflict with Russia or anyone else
I think that for the sake of this conflict not escalating into something much bigger, the NATO countries which surround Ukraine are probably pretty willing to differentiate between a mistake and a genuine act of aggression from Russia. If a couple of Russian missiles land in Polish fields, it would likely amount to a stern warning and renewed Polish support for Ukraine's fight. Obviously, there would be limits to how far this can stretch - a Russian missile ploughing into a NATO country's population centre would be a matter that probably couldn't be squared and would demand retaliation or else fundamentally undermine the whole principle of the NATO alliance.
As worst, Russia would seek to operate in the grey zone where targeted attacks on NATO soil are played off as accidents. However, I very much doubt they would try any strategy of the sort. They can barely handle a NATO backed Ukraine, never mind actual NATO.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
