Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

@Field east "So which is it?"

Ultimately the collapse of Russia no matter what they do. War with anyone else will just expediate the process.

Other reports say it was a planted explosive. Either way one less monster.

Stalin and Putin seem very similar to me; two thugs without any real ideology.

Putin plays to the nationalists people who pine for the great days of the Russian empire (whenever the fcuk that was) but its really about control and money.

Lenin on the other hand was all about the ideology. Statue below is in the USA of all places

LOL. I wonder if old Vlad got into the Christmas spirit as much as the folks in Seattle certainly do in December.

Edit: Its actually for sale according to Wikipedia

Since 1995, the statue has been held in trust waiting for a buyer, standing on temporary display for the last 30 years on a prominent street corner in Fremont. It has become a local landmark, frequently being either decorated or vandalized.

The statue has sparked political controversy, including criticism for being communist chic and not taking the historic meaning of Leninism and communism seriously (or taking it too seriously), or by comparing the purported acceptance of such a charged political symbol to the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials.

Much of the debate ignores the statue's private ownership and installation on private property, with the public and government having virtually no say in the matter.

Berlin is expected to provide Ukraine with the technical components needed to build and maintain its own long-range weaponry, including missiles and cruise missiles, with a range of up to 2,500 km.

Germany plans to invest €5 billion in the initiative, including funding for new ammunition and military aid.

Decoded, this means Ukraine will be equipped so they can manufacture Taurus cruise missiles.

For those who don't follow these things and regularly state Europe is not stepping up.

Ah yes, but China's move is still very bad. Ukraine probably doesn't make all the bits, like batteries and small motors.

Not necessarily true at all. The observation, reconnaissance and intel gathering drones are way more sophisticated than the ordnance droppers.

DJI enterprise drones can have RTK high precision GPS allowing the position of the drone to be known to just a few cm. Combined with a 36x optical and digital zoom and laser range finders, and you have a drone that can be a couple km from troops or vehicles of interest - unseen and unheard - given the drones position being known, the laser rangefinder lets the operator know the exact coordinates of anything in the cameras crosshairs, so with dialled in artillery and mortars they can often hit targets with the first round. There are tales of Ukrainian artillery hitting rapidly moving vehicles given location, heading and speed estimates from these targeting drones.

All this can also be done in absolute darkness as these drones also have thermal cameras and now even light amplification for imaging from available starlight.

These sorts of drones cost €6K and up, usually more than double that.

Just as the Orcs seem to have no problem getting around sanctions, I think Ukraine will also be able to as well. There's also Autel making such drones, but they are Chinese as well so they may soon be told to stop supplying Ukraine also.

I have every confidence Ukraine can add these techs to drones of their own manufacture eventually, but if any of the vitals are only made in China, they could have problems.

Is there a change there (?). I suppose if they are restricting the sales to Europe as well to try and further choke Ukraine that's a new development, but not unexpected unfortunately.

I think as the US pulls back from support of Ukraine over time and throws bones to Putin, I fear we may see more and bolder activity from China (and others) in support of Russia. I mean, why not? We know the US under current admin. doesn't care, and they may even welcome it.

They (DJI) have not been selling to Ukraine or Russia afair.

Of course that's in reality only a restriction on Ukraine, as Russia can get almost any sort of Chinese drones (and parts) it wants in vast quantities for the war (once they can pay) by dealing direct with their "unlimited friends" in the Chinese govt. - certainly any commercial-level drones & components.

They just have to fit their own bomb for now, if they want to use it directly as a weapon!

Not true. If Ukraine could they'd buy a lot off China. The added bonus being drones to Ukraine equals less drones to Russia. Russia seems to be getting more drones minimised lately and China the evil bastard's play a huge roll in this.

Europe needs to be ready for the inevitable conflict with russia, but why do you think the response to russia taking a swing at Europe will involve a nuclear response?

With a nuclear response, there is no "ctrl+z". That mushroom cloud means any diplomatic playbook gets tossed out. Conventional armies can move around and gives diplomatic wiggle room, a nuke does not.

Fingers crossed I’m never proven wrong, but I just cannot imagine any scenario where the eventual conflict between russia and Europe will involve any nuclear deployments.

Trump's envoy to Ukraine recognises one of Russia's root causes as a security concern. To his credit Trump did express this as a main reason for the conflict before he was elected. Tragic that this was constantly rejected over the last 30 years, could of saved a lot of lives.

your interpretation of that bit of the interview and you also cherry picked from a much longer interview