Please use this thread to continue discussing the war in Ukraine.
All mod instructions from the previous thread remain in force here
Original thread:
I'm not a military hardware expert by any means but I dont think the A10 would be a good idea in this conflict.
Mainly because its not a "fast jet" as it were when compared to lets say the F16s the Ukrainian AF are now operating.
I think a low flying, relatively slow moving A10, strafing the Russian frontline would be an easy target for Russian Manpads or other anti air assets they may have.
Just my take on it but I'm sure someone on here with more knowledge can confirm my assumptions ?
The West/USA have no interest in ending this war anytime soon, the longer it goes on the better (the wealthier certain players get)…
Give Ukraine too little and they lose - bad
Give Ukraine too much and they win - bad
Give them just enough to not win or lose but simply survive for as long as possible - good.
All those billions upon billions being spent are going somewhere (mainly defence contractors), and shareholders are getting richer while Ukranians are dying every day… thats just business.
Same thing happen's in most conflicts the Americans get involved in… I personally have colleagues who are millionaires because they spent years and years in Iraq re-building all the infrastructure (power generation - usually one of the 1st things to be targeted) that was destroyed by the Americans in 2003. The same will happen in Ukraine if the war eventually ends… (the rebuilding of Ukraine will be phase 2 of the get rich because of this war scheme). I'm already seeing/hearing internal murmurs of starting the rebuilding process.
There is no evidence of a grand masterplan, the Donbass situation is grim and it remains to be seen whether the Kursk move is going to pay off long term. But it's been like this for so much of the war: the Ukrainians have a few weeks where a breakthrough seems imminent, then it slows and suddenly the Russians are pounding them again and making gains, then that slows too and a stalemate sets in for a while, then a bit of movement again...in the meantime more and people die and the overall situation doesn't change much. The third winter is just around the corner and I suspect we will be in much the same position next year barring a major surprise (or a Trump victory). This is not pessimism, it's realism. Both sides have enough not to lose, neither side has enough to win.
Arguably all is fair in love and war etc, but Ukraine is too reliant on Western assistance and cooperation that I think they realise they need to err much further on the side of caution in order to avoid the risk of alienating allies that are currently rowing in behind their war effort. It's a delicate balancing act, and in an ideal world Ukraine would just go for the jugular at every opportunity and look to cause as much carnage to Russian targets as possible, but with spin and the rise of right-leaning populism in Europe/ the US, it's hard to know what the fallout of that would be. The last thing we need are more unsympathetic governments being formed in the EU.
I don't understand why they broadcast these things - if we're reading about it so are the Russians. I'm not saying Russia is relying on social media for their intelligence gathering, but why make it so easy for them?
We're only reading about them because the Russians have known about them for a long time already…
I wouldn't be surprised that Russia are just trying to gain as much in Ukraine in the donbass region before the cold weather comes in and dig in then and then I wouldn't be surprised if they rotate a lot of their troops out and redeploy them to the kursk region and try and deal with Ukraine there and try and have that sorted out come the spring time.
The lack of equipment and ammo is just one part of the problem. The other half is the critical manpower issue. You read stuff like this all the time from the people who are doing the actual fighting in Donbass.
It was clear a year ago that Ukraine needed to mobilize, but Zelensky constantly delayed the matter. In the meantime, the Russians were recruiting 30k troops a month to fight in Ukraine.
The failure of Zelensky to plan last year is the reason for the situation in Pokrovsk today.
There are some who say the A10 was never good for any conflict.
You're probably right that they could do more of this but err on the side of caution. Still, they would have every right
Yes, both sides are really struggling with manpower too, it's a big factor.
The value of the land in Donbass which is mineral rich far exceeds the value of Russian losses ATM. It's probably why Putin is prepared to take such loses for each mile over there.
Lazer Pig is absolutely brilliant
That's what confuses me. There are reports like what you shared but there's also reports of Ukraine having plenty of reserves and not committing them to help the Donbass. Who knows if it's true but if it is Ukraine are choosing to lose territory here. I'm sure there are some tactical reasons why but if Pokrovsk is lost and easier then Bakhmut it's a big win for Putin and he'll feel the whole Donbass can be taken in a few years.
Up above kupyansk the Russians have taken a village that was fought over for months. That leaves 1 more village before the town can be attacked. I'm sure another target for Putin.
Why would they do this?
https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1829449556305564100
Russia is actively constructing defensive positions in the Kursk region, specifically around the village of Komyakin, about 9 km from the Kursk nuclear power plant. Trenches are being built directly around a cemetery.
You have to replace the X in your link with twitter. Can't believe board's didn't update this yet. No maintenance anymore?
To answer your question Putin is forming volunteer units and pulling mercenaries back from abroad along with conscripts to half the Kursk incursion. Against some of Ukrainians best attacker's they're probably aware of a worst case scenario where they've to defend more rear positions.
Would also make it easier to defend against Ukraine SOF or recon units going behind the lines.
On the F16.
"Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk addressed the recent F-16 crash, stating that the causes will be thoroughly investigated and that no information is being withheld. He noted that both Ukrainian leadership and U.S. partners have been promptly informed and involved in the investigation. Oleshchuk criticized Ukrainian Parliament member Maryana Bezuhla for suggesting the F-16 might have been downed by friendly fire, accusing her of undermining both the Ukrainian Air Force and U.S. weapons manufacturers."
The Russians apparently lost a lot of jets to friendly fire including the AWACS so I guess it's one possible reason for the F16.
Preparing for the zombie apocalypse?
Can’t sell any resources if payments to Russian banks can’t go through
The fear of secondary US sanctions is leading Chinese, UAE, Turkish, Stans etc banks to stop dealing with Russia
And yet again European banks continue to operate in Russia and EU politicians continue to block transfer of seized Russian assets that can win this war and EU companies continue to sell equipment even tho they know it’s destined for Russia
The Russians probably know at this point.
6th tank gone
It makes it so hard to buy into this whole Green agenda and global warming when one knows of thousands of artillery rounds being fired by RuZZia/Ukraine every day and billions of gallons of oil/diesel/kerosene going up in smoke.
The oil would get burned anyway.
The destruction off all that oil should make you buy in more to non fossil fuel green technology.
Roastov On Drone
The Economist does excellent, fact based reporting on the war, here an interesting one on how Russia is relatively easily getting around EU sanctions (basically, by getting their pals like Kazakhstan to import the goods then export them to Russia), first few minutes of this podcast explains it clearly and why sanctions are never going to do the job sufficiently:
Some good news in the South amongst the bad news.
Yes but there are tens of thousands of Russians no longer on the planet to drive global warming. It works in different ways.
Plus I presume the burning off in a controlled manner, at this point in the evolution of industry and the internal combustion engine, would filter out a lot more harmful by products than just setting a match to it?
Whenever I hear people ranting about the Green 'agenda' Saddam's pal Comical Ali springs to mind.
The sneering contempt towards any kind of concern towards the environment is depressing, always recalls right wing populists and bitter old men: Trump, Bolsonaro, Farage, Putin, etc
A sign of Russian manpower shortage? These thugs are presumably among the very worst?
Perhaps is people are worried about the environment (more than the people being genocided) perhaps contact your EU representative
There are 300 billion ways of helping this war end faster that are sitting in Brussels of seized Ryssian state assets that EU doesn’t want to send to Ukrainians even if bulk of this will probably endup being spent in Europe
German arms companies are supplying 30-40% of bombs being dropped on Gaza, they could be getting paid with Russian money to get it dropped on Russia instead, talk about a win win win all around
Look at all those needless CO2 emissions
