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brickstser69
slay55
mulbot
Excellent,looks like the Ukrainians are having a significant "impact" on oil production.
Loathe as I am to link anything now from Herr Musk,Something is burning!
You don't have to take my word for it. The Economist is media that is extremely pro-NATO and extremely hostile to Putin and even it is running stories titled "Amid talk of a ceasefire, Ukraine’s front line is crumbling". Forbes, another pro-NATO media outlet, is running stories which describes two NATO trained and NATO equipped brigades simply collapsing through mass desertion and casualties within the space of a few weeks of each other.
Your argument is with western mainstream media.
On the subject of oil exports, there's a frenzy on the Russia side of social media tonight over (yet another) massive drone invasion by Ukraine.
Further to my speculations earlier today, I reckon this'll be Ukraine trying to destroy more parts of the oil and gas storage and distribution network, probably with the terminal (or pumps governing) Novorossiysk coming under sustained attack in the near future, i.e. a determined effort by Ukraine to halt all oil and gas exports through Russia's European ports.
It's pretty clear at this stage that Russia's air defence is getting creakier and creakier by the day - it might not be long now before we see Ukrainian jets starting to reclaim their place in the skies above occupied Ukraine.
Drones away!
Ahhhh … we're back to the old "Ukraine is losing the war" argument. Despite the fact that Ukraine is the first country to invade Russia since WW2, and Russia (Second Greatest Army In The World) is unable to take it back, even with the help of their most generous Iranian, Chinese and North Korean allies.
And as of today, Ukraine has cut off all Russian oil exports through its primary Baltic terminal, Ust-Luga.
And Russia holds less Ukrainian territory than it did two and a half years ago.
How about telling us how you define losing, so we can understand why Ukraine shouldn't hope for anything from negotiations other than a pat on the head from Grandpa Putin.
I always saw the Mad Max films as being prophetic.
Look at the absolute fcukin' state of this yoke.
Second best army in the world according to some of the "experts" on here 😂
Hardly surprising that the orcs have about as little respect for each other as they do for the Ukrainians. Scum of the earth, Ukraine can never give up until every one of these degenerates are removed from their territory.
That isn't my logic. But you do demonstrate what I mean by an idealogical incapability to negotiate - your presentation of the conflict by its own logic rules out any possible negotiations, almost by design. It is this simple Good vs Evil tale that completely delegitimises the idea of negotiations. How can you negotiate with evil, right?
Dropping the idealogical blinkers, Ukraine is in locked into a war it is losing and despite the propaganda, there is no "one weird trick" that flips the tables. All the wunderwaffen have been deployed, and failed. NATO is not going to fight Russia for Ukraine - if they wanted to, they could have by now. We're beginning to see entire Ukrainian brigades like the 155th and 157th collapse.
Negotiations are in the interests of Ukraine. Fighting on to the last Ukrainian is not.
And so it goes…
The first time I ever heard this statement regarding roses was off a Russian.
Or force them into extreme poverty, so they they need loans at usurious interest rates, which in turn force them to sign military contract's.
Mod warning:
Post deleted and poster warned.
A reminder to everyone that accusing others of being shills/paid is not allowed.
Well, if we apply your logic, the US and European nations should just mount up and smash through Russian lines all the way to Moscow, dismantle the current Putin sham of a regime and then decide what resources it feels like grabbing for themselves.
That's what Russia has done here. And you seem hell bent on interpreting everything in as pro-Russian a slant as possible, so presumably you'd have no issue with "The West" adopting similar strong arm tactics and wringing their hands that the Russians won't negotiate peace.
It's just so farcical.
Ukraine was an independent, democratic nation. It was perfectly entitled to chose whatever path it wanted in terms of which economic blocs it wanted to align with. It posed no military threat to Russia. Both Russia and Ukraine were enjoying perfectly good economic prosperity up to 2022. The invasion was 100% the brainchild of one man. Everything else is just a sideshow… nations are always going to get pissed off when some country starts to cosy up to a nation it sees as competition. It happens all the time around the globe. It does NOT justify a military invasion that must have cost the lives of at least half a million people at this stage. All while Putin and his oligarch elites are tucked up safe in their lavish compounds with the comfort of their billions in off shore cash.
Your posts speak to none of that, but go off on imagined tangents about pro-NATO news outlets and perceived intransigence of the Ukrainian leadership.
They hiring for the meatgrinder in Dublin now
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dublin/s/R824fFLn2f
There seems to be this common perception that tanks today need to become the equivalent of early Bolos, capable of taking on and surviving against any threat on its own. The reality, though, is that a tank is already plenty heavy enough just focusing on capabilities which only a tank can do, though that doesn't mean to say that it can't be done anyway. Active protection systems can be used to defend against drones, it's been done in testing.
More likely, however, is the use of systems on support vehicles providing a bubble of coverage. This isn't a new concept, the US has been paying attention to drone warfare for a while. I recorded this robotic anti-UAS platform three years ago, for example. Basically tell the AI "Tag along with me, shoot drones". Not in production, but an example of the thinking.
The current counter-drone system the US is fielding is M-LIDS, also a separate platform, as is Sgt Stout. Directed Energy Weapons (Microwaves, lasers) are also in the fielding stage. And that's before the US's significant electronic warfare capability, which hasn't been given to Ukraine. These, of course, also help non-tank units like light infantry.
Basically, a tank doesn't need to be equipped with its own counter-drone system. If it has a system for another purpose which can be used as a secondary counter-UAS role such as an RWS or APS, then great. If not, it should have friends which do.
And in a textbook demonstration of peddling Russian propaganda, omits that Russian has demonstrated time and time again it is completely incapable of honouring any negotiated agreements. We don't have to look any further than the NATO Russia Founding Act and Budapest Agreement for proof of that.
Imagine being Ukrainian and reading the sh1te hat Sand comes out with. How insulting must it feel that your country isn't considered a side in a war when it has been invaded by a numerically superior neighbour and managed to hold them off for almost 3 (or almost 11) years?
Dismissing the existence of Ukraine in any aspect of this is 100% Kremlin propaganda
”As for the EU (and the UK) - they are completely incapable of negotiation.”
why would EU or UK negotiate? @Sand
Will North Korea and Chinese puppet masters be also be present at the theoretical negotiations which Putin does not want to hold
And it's not "Biden's war". It's not the "war in Ukraine".
It is the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, a war crime, conducted with war crimes and atrocities.
3 hours….
If NATO were in this war, it would actually have ended in 3 days.
the two sides (Russia and NATO)
Jesus..
Ok repeat after me. NATO are not in this war. You hear that, right? Now try a few more times to get it into that skull of yours.
NATO are not in this war.
How does that feel?
Sure. Like any poster if I see an interesting post or contribution then I followup on it. Depends on if I have time or not.
Seeing as you raise it, I'm referring to news and analysis of the conflict from places like Forbes, Kyiv Independent and the Economist. This is mainstream, extremely pro-NATO media. Trying to say an outlet like Forbes is "Moscow-originated propaganda" is objectively incorrect. Its NATO and Ukrainian sources talking about the course of the conflict itself. You mightn't like what they're reporting, but that's something different.
As for the Ukrainian leadership being ideologically incapable of negotiations, that's an opinion I hold based on the evidence, not least of which is the legislation the leadership introduced to ban negotiations with Russia to appease their idealogical base. Was Zelensky at one time separate from the idealogical class? Sure. But now he is completely indistinguishable from those idealogical groups. It's not particular to Zelensky either. Often Zaluzhnyi is touted as a potential rival to Zelensky (hence his removal), but he is and always has been a true believer in the idealogy so he's not able to negotiate either.
As for the EU (and the UK) - they are completely incapable of negotiation. Their entire policy for the last 3-4 years has been no negotiations. They nearly lost their minds when Orban just went and spoke to both Zelensky and Putin to at least try understand what both sides wanted from negotiations. So again, the EU is ideologically incapable of negotiations.
I've said earlier that if Trump was smart, he would a) walk away from Biden's war, or b) to whatever extent he does negotiate, talk directly to Russia and cut Ukraine and the EU out of the talks - they would only enter them with the aim of sabotaging the talks. All that said, I don't think a negotiated peace will happen - the two sides (Russia and NATO) are simply too far apart. And its apparent by now Trump has no real idea what to do so they may never even happen.
Australia has given Ukraine an anti-drone weapon system called Slinger. it's not very heavy and I can easily see a variant of the tech being incorporated on tanks.
In fact deployment on tanks is specifically mentioned here:
Mind you, it's possible it proved to be a dud, as not a word of it's performance has come out since mention of units having been shipped to Ukraine were made in 2023.
Speaking of distractions, it feels like Ukraine are taking advantage of the new White House administration being distracted (getting MAGA loons into every high office) to ignore any fears of "escalation" that were frequently expressed by the previous incumbents. They've really been hammering Russia's oil/gas industry these last couple of weeks, and not a peep out of "the West". Two major refineries now completely off line for an undetermined period, and is it two or three pumping stations no longer feeding the European network since last night?
Previously, I was of the view that Ukraine might put on a bit of a show to emphasise for Trump how they were "winners" rather than "losers"; now I think they've moved past that, don't really give two fkks what Trump thinks and are just enjoying the breathing space that his election has granted them to lay into the Russians in any way they want.
I dunno our gritty friend of Russia is an example of just how insane the Russian reality distortion and propaganda field is
It be like someone in a geography thread continually insisting the world is flat
It be funny if it didn’t distract attention from Russian criminal bullshit and the war they started for the most stupid of reasons which is leading to so much pointless death
if you get it, you get it
Putin and co found a way to recruit
Throw innocent people in jail on sham charges and then give them a “choice” of going to the special operation
From BBC correspondent in Moscow
