Reports that Russia had moved 8000 troops towards the pocket above Avdiivka who are now taking heavy losses. And there's another 40,000 further back in reserve which Russia may be prepared to use.
Looks like they're willing to take Bakhmut level losses to take this town. Wouldn't it be magnificent if it never materialises and Russia take massive losses for no gains.
Essentially yes
"We no longer have to pretend to be good"
Who knew?
So has the war in Ukraine then become a proxy war between North and South Korea?
It seems South Korea is now supplying a the largest amount of artillery to Ukraine, nothing in the article is new we've known for a good while the EU and the states wouldn't make the commitment of 1 million shells for this year, next year the promise is 3 million shells .
According to this article they need 500,000 shells per month which i hope is a typo ,at this rate it's going to be the 2030s before production catches up
Can't remember if it was shared here or read it elsewhere but I'm increasingly agreeing with the thinning Putin wants and needs this war to indefinitely continue: cos the economy is in such a shambles the moment the guns stop firing people will release their lot has plummeted thanks to this conflict. Just asks the further question if the charnel house of Ukraine can be kept going longer than the economy can survive Zimbabwe level of collapse
IIRC they already simply kept the leased airliners they should have lost due to sanctions, so I'd say things were already pretty dire as those modern jets might only keep flying for a time before parts and maintenance was needed - but with no option for access.
Are things going to get tought for Russian aviation, including civil aviation?
I just see the Russian economy adapting and muddling through, its better to view the war on the assumption that russia is a strong opponent and judge Ukraine's chances based on what is in their domain, weapons available and men. I guess one of the worst assumptions to make in global politics is to assume people around the world think like your average yank or European taxpayer. Afghanistan has thought all the powers and they dont think like westerners and that their concerns are not in the same order, Russians dont either by all accounts
According to Gorbachev the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 marked the beginning of the end of the USSR, but what buried it was the war in Afghanistan, which as you mentioned was helped along by the space and arms race instigated by the US. Todays Russia is surviving, but that's about it. The Country was on the brink of collapse about 2 mths ago because the oil was all being sold abroad, ( higher prices for the Oligarchs ) leaving the home market starved, ( literally, no fuel available to collect harvests ) It got so bad that Putin had to sign a special decree banning all external oil sales, and now in 2-3 week's, they plan on lifting some ( but not all) parts of the ban to start the cash pipeline up again, even if it will be limited. That shows just how desperate Putin ( and Russia in general is ) Not so much a grey economy, more a desperate one. But even when the ban is lifted, shipping is the most expensive for of delivery plus, the buyers will demand ( and get) the lowest possible price. Russia is not in a good place any way you look at it. In any other civilized society, such government could not exist. But that's the whole problem with Russia, its a mafia dictatorship.
The Russians have natural resources to sell, but critically they had a European market to sell to and delivery infrastructure geared specifically to go that way. Much of Europe is now restricted or closed entirely to them, leaving them to sell to other nations who know that they can get away with paying the Russians bottom-dollar for their wares, with the additional pain / cost of not having optimal delivery methods.
They have to resort to the grey market for parts, but there again the suppliers know that Moscow can’t go around shopping for better deals. They can fleece the Russians and offer them sub-par / crap equipment for their trouble. That’s not a great situation to find yourself in when your army are up against high-standard NATO kit operated by an opponent who has essentially all of Western Europe to its back supplying it.
my history of Afghanastan is rusty , it was certainly their Vietnam but whether it materially caused the demise of the Soviet Union, I would say there were bigger factors at play like Reagan forcing Russia into an arms race they couldnt afford and just the overall creakiness of the system at a time when the west was technically moving ahead
As for Russia now, in the most general terms they have oil, gas and minerals to sell and a pirate ship of bordering countries that want to sell stuff to them. Russian now is an ad hoc country economically so not as stilted as a communist country. The US have so many countries under sanctions now, that a parallel grey global economy has developed.
Just one simple question, all that Russia need's to maintain it's war footing in most but not all cases, can be bought by Russia, but buying something means paying for it, and that means having cash, plenty of cash, in this case even more than plenty, astronomical amounts in fact. And for all of everything else that Putin has, especially manpower ( for now) his cash reserves are rapidly running out. And that's the one ingredient he really needs. While the Russians were defeated militarily in Afghanistan, another reason they pulled out was because the war was driving them to bankruptcy. Talk about history repeating itself.
That black powder factory in Louisiana not only was repaired but is in the constituency of the current republican speaker of house and due for more money for expansion which puts him in a bind as it’s tied to the 61 billion Ukraine aid bill sitting on his desk
The US DOD unlike the EU has and does maintain critical arms industries in US
first shipment was this august from that factory
In meantime Russians are having to beg North Korea for aid and are buying back equipment they sold to states who realised buying Russian equipment was a mistake
US sent hundreds of thousands of shells from their Israeli stockpile earlier this year
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-quietly-shipping-ammo-to-ukraine-from-massive-stockpile-in-israel-report/
and they have north of 5 million cluster shells which are about 10x more useful in turning Russians into mush than a standard shell and US wants to get rid off all cluster munitions
Posts like yours are projections of the deficiencies and fears Russians have, and is quite telling
notice how Ukrainians are not saying anything about shells lately, their focus is on long range missiles and aviation and air defences and anti em/drone capabilities
“Cheek watch”
As I don't speak Russian I can't distinguish accents but I wonder do Russian's notice the difference in the voices of all the Putin's?
The article is about the future and you post something about the past, not a logical response
What a load of horses**t.
Even with Ukraine's alleged struggle to get ammunition they still succeed at demolishing putin's war machine:
Bloomberg article on Artillery shortages not going away, western Europe has really dropped the ball on the manufacturing chain
the Tweeter's post, the bloomberg article is behind a paywall
The NATO was negligent in the face of such a complex task. I have been writing about this for months, discussing the unrealistic numbers from Rheinmetall and its CEO. The problem with ammunition in the western region is more serious than just one million shells for Ukraine. It relies on the loss of production capacity, as well as the supply chain. Arm industries from countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland have been saving the western face by supplying a few hundred thousand shells to Ukraine. To get an idea of the severity of the situation, the Louisiana factory was the sole producer of black powder in the US, but it exploded in 2021 and has yet to be repaired to restart production. Recently, the US had to ask Japan for TNT due to a lack of chemical compounds needed to manufacture sufficient TNT. And I am referring to the US, because the situation in Europe is even worse. The chemical chain required for manufacturing explosives is not under Western control. For example, ammonium nitrate is mainly produced in Russia, while the Australian government recently had to import hexamine from Iran. Other compounds like aluminum powder and others rely on various countries, but none of them are within Western hands. The NATO wasn't able to organize the supply chain to support Ukraine, and we must face this truth. This entire situation shows that the threats against China may just be empty threats, considering that Western forces do not have enough ammunition to sustain a few weeks of war. In the next weeks, the situation may worsen, especially as Israel is shifting its focus and Chinese and Russian forces are securing contracts with a number of countries, some in central Asian and Africa to ensure chemical supplies. The overall picture is not optimistic, but it is clear that Western countries need to reestablish ties and apply more diplomacy to secure supplies.
⬆️ Putin with the cheeks and Putin without the cheeks. Less than 24 hours with both footage and pics.
There's two or more versions of Putin. One has the puffed out cheeks and the other doesn't.
There'll be one pictured one day and the other the next day.
I was going to say botox injections but yeah steroids is more like it.
I have a phone, went to the bottom. Never worked again, lol.
An update lol
This catchey donkey, easy does it approach by the UAF seems to be yielding results. Fascinating really.
Good lord the complete lack of self awareness with them. reminds me of this absolute banger 😂😂😂
Good to see. The EU needs to use it's trading power to put pressure countries trading with Russia.
All other countries have inferior potassium.
EU putting pressure on other countries to help contain the Russian virus
Turkey might be next
Sea drone attack
Which Putin is that? Getting hard to kept track of the Putin jamboree
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
