I suspect the economist is there to start finding out where the money is gone? Its no secret that everyone slices a piece off the top, but at Shoigu's level he should have the most possible visibility to understand this. You put a square peg in a square hole, if you just wanted someone to put in better tactics, you'd get a military expert. If you put in a financial expert, you have to assume he's finally hit the point where the corruption is too expensive to ignore and he needs to start rooting it out. I'm guessing he'll be there for a few months at best, have a report of where the funds have been skimmed from, and then someone to actively stamp out all this will be put in place instead. But then I didn't think he'd invade in the first place, so I'm obviously not in sync with the man
A better analogy would be if Russia was the largest cabbage farmer but was unable to grow much else and spent their whole time talking about how much cabbage they were producing and how jealous the rest of the world was and that the Wests inability to supply as much cabbage shows their inability to grow food. And when the West points out that it has a cornucopia of other foodstuffs and cabbage, while essential roughage, really isnt the only thing you should eat all day every day, Russia ignores this because it goes against the cabbage obsession they have bet their house on. Its more like that
Russia = cabbages.
Nicely summarised.
Kite flying I wonder or are European nations sensing great danger and things need to change
They're emptying the tank every week but the catch is they refill it the week after.
Let's say for example (made up numbers) they produce 30 New tanks in a month. They'll all be sent to the front and destroyed. Let's say they refurbish 300 T64/72/80 tanks a month they're all sent to the front and destroyed.
Every month the stock pile of tanks to refurbish gets smaller. They'll be prioritising those in better condition which take less work. Some will be sent for upgrades and a new paint job.
Could be 2 years but eventually they'll be down to T64/55 plus whatever new tanks they can produce. Same logic goes for artillery and IFV/APC's.
They already can't meet the monthly needs hence why you see golf buggies and dirt bikes but they'll still have a certain amount of these weapons for a few years yet.
I think that the up to date figure is 4,500,000 +++++ per year !!!!!!!
4,500,000 cabbages per year from the Eastern field alone 😂
I would love to know what outlandish reports Shoigu sent to Putin for years about state of Russian equipment and military, and how the hell he stayed alive this long
Not necessarily. I would speculate Ukraine's military collapsing (in part) and larger Russian gains being made after all that has happened since 2022 may now be unacceptable to a number of them in NATO bordering Russia (regardless what Biden + US thinks and what the US are willing to accept as an outcome, vs the risks of intervening more strongly/getting deeper involved).
When push comes to shove, if Ukraine doesn't have enough soldiers, they may start sending people to help behind the lines (hence these kinds of comments and kite flying).
The Estonian army has, what, 4000-5000 active personnel. So if they sent troops, it would only be a token force at best. Sending troops would only make sense if everyone else did the same, but there are no signs of that kind of thing happening.
This has been known for some time the Ukrainians are out of men, they have been taking very high losses in the past 24 hours. That's why quite a quite a few retired generals from NATO countries came out in recent months and said their armies are not ready. Behind the scenes all sides realise a sudden collapse of Ukrainian lines is likely. The Russians have geared up for a protracted war, there is no alternative to victory for the Putin regime, they are all in, the inheritors of the KGB security state are now firmly in charge in Russia (Stalin reign v2.0). They will push and secure the Donbass region before the American elections in November. NATO governments must either commit or reach an accommodation with the Russians, as some Americans are fond of saying, go big or go home. With all the elections in play , their hands are somewhat tied, substantial parts of Ukrainian lines may not hold that long. The Kharkov offensive and the replacement of Shoigu as Defense Minister
A make-over is all the more timely now that the Defense budget has ballooned out to over $118 billion, representing more than a third of the total state budget. What is needed at the top is an effective business manager and all indications are that this is precisely what Belousov will be. <snip>Whether the Russians will actually take Kharkov is unclear, though might be said to be unlikely. Instead, the Russians may very well now stage a big offensive to take Chasiv Yar, the contested city west of Avdeevka that is the gateway to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. That would assure the conquest of the entire Donetsk region. No amount of of artillery shells or HIMARS or ATACMS now being delivered by the US will change the situation: the Ukrainians are short of men. Period. source
A make-over is all the more timely now that the Defense budget has ballooned out to over $118 billion, representing more than a third of the total state budget. What is needed at the top is an effective business manager and all indications are that this is precisely what Belousov will be. <snip>
Whether the Russians will actually take Kharkov is unclear, though might be said to be unlikely. Instead, the Russians may very well now stage a big offensive to take Chasiv Yar, the contested city west of Avdeevka that is the gateway to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. That would assure the conquest of the entire Donetsk region. No amount of of artillery shells or HIMARS or ATACMS now being delivered by the US will change the situation: the Ukrainians are short of men. Period. source
Why would NATO governments “reach accommodation with Russia” if they are not fighting Russia in first place?
Or you gonna tell us how 450,000 Russians died gloriously in a war with NATO who suffered zero casualties
Scutter. The russians are the ones who are dying in droves.
the whole septic diseased empire will eventually collapse from the inside again like it always has in cycles but this time the Chinese are waiting to carve up what they want.
Every time the russians are getting slaughtered the vatniks come out with the projectile Kremlin scutter and lies it's pathetic.
If (that's a big if) Estonia sent a few hundred soldiers to western Ukraine it would cross another red line and would make it more likely other European countries would do the same. We've seen it with tanks, planes, artillery, long range missiles etc... it just takes one country to do it and the rest follow.
European countries wouldn't even shoot down Russian cruise missiles and drones that entered their airspace, I find it highly unlikely they would put boots on the ground in Ukraine all of a sudden.
None of us know the true rate of casualties, most of us want to believe that Russia is suffering huge losses and maybe they are but I would be a lot more worried about Ukraine now that Putin is slowing getting the upper hand it seems .I really hope that is not the case but I feel the odds of Putin being pushed back and out are longer than I thought a year ago .It's going to take a massive fight back from Ukraine to stop him at this stage.
This was from March
So gold which they can’t sell too fast without cratering the markets with their main access gone to main gold markets
And Chinese Yuan only spendable in China
No wonder instead of tanks and personnel carriers we see dismounted Russians and Russians on Chinese golf carts and old T64s with cope cages
Well I presume you won't address it as the matters raised are one and the same thing. Ukraine has a manpower problem. It's up to them to sort this out with the assistance of EU and other states where said Ukrainian manpower may be residing. They are starting to make noises about this and I'd expect this to develop further,
Might explain an all out attempt to push Ukraine back before more help arrives.
At this stage all families in both Russia and Ukraine know of someone from their relatives or area who has been killed or injured in the war. The war has become costly in personal terms for all people involved. Russia has organized it's economy around supplying the war machine, wars exhaust the nations treasury quickly, they cannot do this forever. Without men the Ukrainians have no way to dislodge the Russians who are intent on seizing the Donbass region and at this stage look like they will succeed by end of the year. Once they have that territory they will be in a position to dictate the terms of any future treaty in their favour. "War is the continuation of politics by other means". European governments now make the next move, it may be reactionary to steady the collapse of lines, it may be piecemeal to prolong the war until the new political configuration takes place, or it may be conciliatory where there is no political capital to be gained. I suspect that NATO armies will see active combat and it will be end of 2027 before we see a resolution. I don't know what the outcome of this war will be in terms of territory lost or gained, when it will end, and neither do you. Active combat will eventually end, the parties will sign a treaty.
Both sides are suffering horrific losses though it is reasonable to presume that Russia as the attacking force is suffering more, to given the nature of being on the offensive.
A collapse in the Ukrainian lines is possible, their soldiers are exhausted and many have minimal experience.
Going on about cabbages and orcs is childish stuff. Those millions of cabbages are devastating Ukrainian positions, those ancient Soviet bombs with gliders are devastating Ukrainian positions. So what if Russia is willing to burn through a million men to get a sizeable chunk of Ukraine.
It can still work.
There isn't much good European States panicking now, 2 years ago was the time to go all in.
They will have to take it seriously eventually.
Some serious gruesome stuff of Ukrainian losses in the last 48hrs or so on Telegram channels unfortunately. NATO needs to get off the fence or this is only going to go one way.
Ukraine is not in NATO and NATO is not at war with Russia
So why would “NATO countries negotiate with Russia”? And if they were at war the only negotiation taking place is what execution method Putin and his cronies would prefer (The Gaddafi or Saddam options)
You have swallowed Putin’s nonsense hook line and sinker
Be serious. Denying that this is a proxy war between NATO and Russia makes you look ridiculous.
So you're saying NATO started this conflict?
You meant a proxy war between NATO and North Korea right? When can we expect Kim at the peace conference
Unless the Americans remove the prohibition on using its missiles to actively engage Russian military in Russia , the Red army will just use its planes to launch glide bombs from within Russian airspace and just level Kharkiv, it might take months but the bombs are there, in some cases for 60 years, they have no shortage.
It has become a proxy war between the West and Russia and its allies, Iran, China, North Korea etc.
Same as the shi7show in the middle east is pushing against the same world order.
@Danzy "They will have to take it seriously eventually."
There are millions of clusters rusting away in the U.S., Scholtz won't release the Taurus, it goes on and on. It is appalling. The west really needs to shake the flies off its face and wake up. The west has done a lot but a lot is not enough. They need to get real once and for all.
Putin is been compared to Hitler since he has borrowed policies and practices from the Third Reich.
Some people don't want to accept that and still pretend this is all not true and they will sometime wake up from this nightmare.
All that aside. Can someone tell me what language are the replies to this Youtube clip in.
Wunderwaffe don't win wars, the Ukrainians are running out of men.
Summary of today
F16 in the air within a month. Let's see how this goes.
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