Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Don't forget it'll take Iran more then 5 years to get anywhere near where they once were.

Built different

As I have mentioned previously, to some derision, the bridge is the key to routing the Orcs from the south, not just Crimea, now that the single other land supply route is under fire control.

Sure Ukraine may look like it's trying to isolate Crimea, but that isn't the core aim of what they are trying to achieve, it's a side effect, the main aim being to cut off Orc forces to the immediate north of Crimea, from resupply.

'An army marches on it's stomach' was an ode to the vital nature of logistics. Knock out the bridge and you curtail logistics for Orc forces in the south, routing them then takes far less effort and becomes very possible.

Mention of the Neptune is interesting. From what I can gather, its more accurate than the flamingo, but with a 250kg vs 1000kg warhead. If Ukraine cold improve the flamingo accuracy, it would be a far greater threat to the bridge.

AI meme (I assume). Sign translates (apparently) to "Vladimir's plan is coming together: We are seriously preparing for the full restoration of the Crimean Bridge!"

Russia has been doing this for years, it's all for propaganda. They send in a few guys to waive a flag, claim a town or whatever is captured and then whatever happens afterwards they don't care about.

It's an interesting question and one I've certainly wondered about, myself.

Ultimately, I think the answer is 'no', but that's provided the situation is responsibly managed. Probably the most likely scenario of something crazy happening like the deployment of any kind of nuke is if Putin feels the war is totally unwinnable and that this failure will lead to his political and personal demise. At this point, like that cornered rat story he's told before, he could decide to make the world burn. So, as much as it pains me to say it, he'd need to be given some kind of off-ramp to ensure this doesn't happen. At least in the short to medium term, he'd need to feel like his position as leader of Russia was still secure. He may get Prigozhin'd later, but until then, Putin continuing to lead a sorely weakened Russia would be better than the most serious nuclear escalation the world has seen since WW2.

Anyway, I've heard people say that this war is really about the resource-rich land in the Donbas. Well, as far as I can see, does Russia not effectively control the great majority of that territory. If they could sign a ceasefire which allows Russia to de facto hold that land in a frozen conflict type scenario, could Putin not take that back to his people as job done?

In exchange for the continued hope of securing the land on its western flank, Russia cedes a great chunk of its east…

Those earths better be mighty rare.

Have to feel a bit for Armenia - they have no proper allies anywhere, it seems like. Their ostensible allies in Russia and Iran have done f all for them in recent years as they saw their de facto exclave of Artsakh fall to Azerbaijan. Not that I think the EU will do a whole lot more in this situation, given Armenia's geographic detachment from Europe.

No. Putin needs to burn. Russia needs to experience defeat if it is to change. It has been so for hundreds of years, And if a tactical nuke goes off, well don't let a good crisis go to waste: it will be an excellent opportunity to evaluate who's a leader and who's a autocrat simp.

You just have to outlast the batteries.

It's gas (pun not intended) how Ukraine has gone from strength to strength, on the ground and diplomatically, since TACO took office and did his best to pull the rug from under them. The result has been the opposite. Hugely impressive and VZ deserves massive credit - his energy levels are astonishing, into the 5th year of Putin's war. He's galvanised a nation, put in place the right people (and made the right changes it seems) to oversee the military side of things (as opposed to Putin who appears to have taken a leaf/ chapter out of Adolf's play book) and pulled most of the civilised world behind his country.

If it wasn't for China and to a lesser (but no less forgivable) extent India, Russia would be back behind its own borders by now and we would probably be rid of Putin the war monger. His time will come.