Please use this thread to continue discussing the war in Ukraine.
All mod instructions from the previous thread remain in force here
Original thread:
Can't be a coincidence the last oil train ferry that was working to Crimea gets sunk at the same time that massive facility in Rostov is hit. I wonder does the oil for the crimean crossing come from Rostov.
It's been a few costly days for Russia with the air field being struck in Volgograd. Hopefully the bad news continues and Ukraine can take the 600km squared south of the river in Kursk.
you jumping in is helping? He admitted later that he meant the war crime of Chemic weapons. He denied considering when a few weary people wondered if he meant nukes. Hardly shocking.
Now, you going to keep this up?
I heard recently that the construction of that overland rail link wasn't anywhere near as advanced as was thought. Apparently more detailed satellite imagery showed nothing more than a bit of preparatory groundwork along most of its length, but very little usable rail.
This makes no sense. Quell surprise.
The russian neo nazi group "Rusich" put out a call on social media for a captured Ukrainian to perform a ritualistic sacrifice with. Bear in mind Putin's Kremlin has groups extinguished in Russia at the click of fingers, put in jail or killed. Rusich has been on the go for years in Russia. Have their own youth squads going around the cities on fighting sprees with other groups. The group commented after the task was closed.
So you’re saying that this rail project has been… de-railed? 🙃
Please humour me, I’ve had a bad day…
I like your train of thought!
Hopefully people wont get there signals crossed on this platform. Think he's just letting off some Steam.
Saw some reports that their rail is in bits. Cant get western parts, esp bearings. More and more videos coming up with derailed cars. Some info below:
Hope its not another "putin has 3 months to live" story
That's loco. Motion to adjourn…
Can we get back on track!
Unfortunately I don't believe anything that Igor Sushko tweets out. He has form for spreading unsubstantiated stories.
Speaking of liars, I see RFK Jr has ended his no-hoper Presidential campaign and is endorsing Trump. During his speech to declare all this he repeated some nonsense conspiracy theory that Biden and Boris Johnson forced Zelensky to rip up a peace agreement with the Russians.
They put up a pretense but in the end all these conspiracy theorists, grifters and charlatans sing from the same hymn sheet.
Actually im the same. Sometimes hes full of poop. But more people are posting about problems with bearings, derailments etc maybe this time hes not wrong
Amazing the amount of gullible idiots who believe him going by the tweets.
What a world we live in. Talk about fake news.
Yet another one of these bozos stealing a living.
Artificial intelligence showing how russia was able to make their own copy of a Ukrainian blogger for Chinese audiences.
Only reason I suspect this was shown on a Russian news site is part of the narrative to believe nothing. So even the real news is not believed anymore.
Mothers of Kursk conscripts that are missing cannot go public with their pleas as they get scam calls probably from Kremlin operatives looking for money and calls from government for discrediting the army. The kremlin say that 13 soldiers were killed in Kursk.
Either another OP to freak the Russians out (working out brilliantly) or something more
It does sound like another of those stories or "Russia will run out of ammo in 6-8 weeks", a hot rumour since May 2022.
Still, one of these rumours by the law of averages is sure to be true, why not this one? Would be good if so.
Would be fantastic if true, but I suspect rather than the rail system being on the brink of collapse, it’s more likely on the brink of serious curtailment. The Soviets left the Russians a very dense network of rail lines, and if they can’t maintain them anymore, I kind of expect them to pull a “Beeching Report” and pull a load of low traffic lines to cannibalise the parts and equipment on them. I imagine them doing their damnedest to keep a couple of critical trunklines going while sacrificing the rest.
The problem with that however is that if the Russians are reduced to a handful of operating lines, Ukraine will have a much easier time crippling their logistics. One or two junctions destroyed, and a whole arm of the Russian network might get cut off in this situation.
A Taurus here and there would rightly screw them up.
Fun time in Voronezh
Happy Independence Day
US sanctions hundreds of firms accused of supplying Russia's war machine | AP News
Oooooh. I wanna see it
The slow degradation does indeed seem to be the more accurate scenario.
From last year:
the number of delayed or suspended trains due to a lack of train personnel amounted to around 3,700 in 2023. Market players identified this problem as ‘extremely significant’, even if the number pales in comparison to the number of trains affected by maintenance issues. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, approximately half a million men were taken out of the economy for military duty, a number that could increase soon.[…]Most of the problems faced by RZD are concentrated in the Far East region of the country. Over 2 million tonnes of goods were not transported in that area due to a lack of spare parts and a shortage of highly qualified staff in servicing companies in 2023. […]The locomotive deficit is aggravated by the reorientation of Russia’s exports to the East following Western sanctions. Exporting eastward requires goods to travel much larger distances, requiring more rolling stock to maintain freight volumes.
the number of delayed or suspended trains due to a lack of train personnel amounted to around 3,700 in 2023. Market players identified this problem as ‘extremely significant’, even if the number pales in comparison to the number of trains affected by maintenance issues. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, approximately half a million men were taken out of the economy for military duty, a number that could increase soon.
[…]
Most of the problems faced by RZD are concentrated in the Far East region of the country. Over 2 million tonnes of goods were not transported in that area due to a lack of spare parts and a shortage of highly qualified staff in servicing companies in 2023. […]
The locomotive deficit is aggravated by the reorientation of Russia’s exports to the East following Western sanctions. Exporting eastward requires goods to travel much larger distances, requiring more rolling stock to maintain freight volumes.
That was then, this is now:
Russian Railways (RZD) says it can no longer accept freight trains coming in from Belarus in the direction of the Smolensk and Kursk regions.RZD notified its Belarusian counterparts about the infrastructure overload, according to BelZhD. Russian Railways put the measure in place on 12 August with no end date mentioned, which likely means Moscow itself does not [know] when it can resolve the issues.[…]BelZhD says that Russia used a significant part of the Moscow Railway locomotive fleet to move its military to Kursk, as soldiers are even taken from the country’s most remote regions. However, there are now many abandoned trains waiting to be taken elsewhere. A shortage of locomotives and drivers hampers RZD’s ability to do so.
Russian Railways (RZD) says it can no longer accept freight trains coming in from Belarus in the direction of the Smolensk and Kursk regions.RZD notified its Belarusian counterparts about the infrastructure overload, according to BelZhD. Russian Railways put the measure in place on 12 August with no end date mentioned, which likely means Moscow itself does not [know] when it can resolve the issues.
BelZhD says that Russia used a significant part of the Moscow Railway locomotive fleet to move its military to Kursk, as soldiers are even taken from the country’s most remote regions. However, there are now many abandoned trains waiting to be taken elsewhere. A shortage of locomotives and drivers hampers RZD’s ability to do so.
In other words, you can't have your cake and eat it! Rounding up trained engineers and locomotive drivers and shipping them off for sacrifice in Donetsk and Luhansk means there's no-one available to keep your trains running efficiently. Extend that to airlines and other national infrastructure and it's that inefficiency that will eventually cripple the economy; sanctions (and fear of sanctions) are preventing market forces from resolving the problem in traditional ways (c.f. Mongolia's decision to say "no" to the new oil pipeline to China).
Maybe not, but the fact remains that any talk of not taking a particular course of action, in the vain hope that it will not trigger a particular form of retaliation by Putin is wishful thinking. Putin's declared plan is the complete destruction of Ukraine, it's people and culture. To destroy everything, and the very fact that it ever existed. But the tide has started to turn in this war. For the first time, Ukraine is forcing Putin into corners where he has to make decisions, where the outcome will not be good for him. Even his propaganda machine is now in deep trouble….hard to spin Putins mantra that only he can defend Russia and Russians, when Ukraine has taken a nice chunk of Russia itself and attacked Moscow. Putin is now on an increasingly sticky wicket, and if Muscovites and other Russian Cities thought that last winter was a bad one…wait until they see what next winter will bring!
Yup , and that line has some large viaducts along it's route , viaducts within atacms range.. so ... If it's still operational, its because Ukraine wants it still operational
Apparently the weapons depo that exploded was attacked by newly unveiled cheap rocket drone
most of the Soviet and the Russian turbine tech came from Ukrainian engineers
“Russia big” works against Putin as he now has to chose between defending Moscow, Donbass or leaving the rest of the country vulnerable, they must be regretting using all that s300 ammo in ground attack mode
I'm imagining that , with an airburst cluster munition full of little land mines , flying up the runway ,at the start of the next drone attack , or scattering a thick line of those horrible incendiary munitions over a long line of su-34s before they have time to flee.
Maybe that's an option, but it's still massively restrictive when you consider that even when the Kerch bridge was undamaged, and capable of full use, it was barely meeting demand. They had to reroute lots of stuff. So not only will half loads not do the trick, but they will also no doubt attract renewed attention from Ukrainians. Restrictions of all shapes and sizes are definitely taking their toll on Russian capabilities.
