Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[magnkarl]

10 minutes ago, trekka said:

I think you mean Lukashenko.  Likely? Why would Ukraine invade another state?  They are defending themselves in the name of democracy and want peace. 

Because Lukashenko declared war on Ukraine and has committed his troops. He doesn’t have nukes to deter an invasion when he was the aggressor because he thought his pal would win.

[magnkarl]

Russia reportedly have breached part of the lines north of Kharkiv. Ukrainians retreating to the city centre to commence urban warfare. 
 

(France 24)

[DeepDish]

Luka will probably fall from inside. No invation needed there.

[CVByrne]

1 minute ago, avfc1982am said:

Russia are becoming more and more isolated by the hour. Every hour Ukrainians hold out pressures Russia more and more and the rest of the world to aid them however possible. Russia will take a long long time to recover from this as a nation. 

Russia will resort to bombardment from the air, so missile defence systems need to be sent to them to keep the fight up

[NoelVilla]

19 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

So what, do they want to attack a NATO country right now? 

Do I need to answer that? It is all just piling on with negatives for Putin now which is good.

[sidcow]

22 minutes ago, PussEKatt said:

I just wish the west would be more positive instead of all this pussyfotting around .

When you were in the playground and there was that massive kid twice the size of everyone else, who was also a bit psycho, did you pussyfoot around him or just go up to him and whack him on the nose everytime you pissed him off? 

[HanoiVillan]

31 minutes ago, sidcow said:

It does feel like every day that goes by without a massive Russian victory, pictures of troops and tanks in front of City Civic buildings raising the flag seems like another day of failure for Putin. 

The key thing is the cost, both financial and human. Russia doesn't have an infinitely large economy, and all these gas-guzzling trucks carrying heavy machinery across a continent mean fuel that isn't in a petrol station. Apparently 'we' (NATO members) were spending roughly $10bn/month on the Afghan war by the end, and that was with one main base, 3k troops, and most of the action coming from relatively inexpensive drone strikes. The kind of land war Russia is engaging in here is an expensive undertaking, and they will have to start burning through their reserves if this keeps going and going. On top of that, it really isn't clear that the Russian public are very keen on this war, so if a lot of young men start coming home in body bags public opinion is going to start presenting problems.

[magnkarl]

3 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

The key thing is the cost, both financial and human. Russia doesn't have an infinitely large economy, and all these gas-guzzling trucks carrying heavy machinery across a continent mean fuel that isn't in a petrol station. Apparently 'we' (NATO members) were spending roughly $10bn/month on the Afghan war by the end, and that was with one main base, 3k troops, and most of the action coming from relatively inexpensive drone strikes. The kind of land war Russia is engaging in here is an expensive undertaking, and they will have to start burning through their reserves if this keeps going and going. On top of that, it really isn't clear that the Russian public are very keen on this war, so if a lot of young men start coming home in body bags public opinion is going to start presenting problems.

There won’t be any body bags. Putin has mobile crematoria as he realised what body bags did at the end of the Afghanistan war.

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

There won’t be any body bags. Putin has mobile crematoria as he realised what body bags did at the end of the Afghanistan war.

I'm speaking metaphorically, but yes.

[CVByrne]

There might be a major assault tonight from Russia on Kyiv

[LondonLax]

1 minute ago, CVByrne said:

There might be a major assault tonight from Russia on Kyiv

Well I’d be surprised if there wasn’t. Russia have committed about one third of the forces they positioned for this war apparently. I presume they will go again in much bigger numbers. 

[avfc1982am]

19 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Russia will resort to bombardment from the air, so missile defence systems need to be sent to them to keep the fight up

I think Putin is in a precarious position tbh. The whole point of sending in ground troops without extensive aerial bombardment is to minimise mass casualties. If he goes against that he increases the risk of more civilian casualties and what will be seen as avoidable atrocities. Under these circumstances the Ukrainians have hope to hold out, drag this into the trenches and increase international pressure the longer they stand. It was obvious from the get go by sending in SF and Paras that he is trying to minimise infrastructure and civilian casualties and is going for the quick win. What he probably didn't anticipate was the fight back from the populace. Whatever the outcome Putins days are numbered because no-one in the west will ever trust him again. He's seriously set Russia back decades with this. And for what....an increased buffer zone for a conflict he could never win anyway.    

[CVByrne]

2 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I think Putin is in a precarious position tbh. The whole point of sending in ground troops without extensive aerial bombardment is to minimise mass casualties. If he goes against that he increases the risk of more civilian casualties and what will be seen as avoidable atrocities. Under these circumstances the Ukrainians have hope to hold out, drag this into the trenches and increase international pressure the longer they stand. It was obvious from the get go by sending in SF and Paras that he is trying to minimise infrastructure and civilian casualties and is going for the quick win. What he probably didn't anticipate was the fight back from the populace. Whatever the outcome Putins days are numbered because no-one in the west will ever trust him again. He's seriously set Russia back decades with this. And for what....an increased buffer zone for a conflict he could never win anyway.    

Ukraine needs to hold the cities for as long as they can. Forcing the Russians to take the cities street by street. The longer the hold out the better their chances are that unrest in Russia and the sanctions can get a ceasefire in place

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Seems like they work too.

 

Maybe it is old footage but what it does show is how effective a bunch of people throwing Petrol Bombs around can be even on armoured vehicles. 

[tonyh29]

45 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Russia are becoming more and more isolated by the hour. Every hour Ukrainians hold out pressures Russia more and more and the rest of the world to aid them however possible. Russia will take a long long time to recover from this as a nation. 

They should be excluded from everything until Putin is in a box or on trail for War Crimes 

[magnkarl]

Twitter is full of footage of how effective especially the UK made javelins are against Russian tanks. 

It’s weird considering how this model was made as a surface to air missile.
 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by magnkarl

[fightoffyour]

Quote

‼ Someone hacked into Russian state TV channels. They feature Ukrainian music and national symbols.

 Internet users suspect that this may be another action of the hacker group #Anonymous , which declared a cyber war to Russia in connection with the attack on #Ukrainę
  @unian

 

[bickster]

 

[sidcow]

6 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

Twitter is full of footage of how effective especially the UK made javelins are against Russian tanks. 

 

 

It looks like the Javelin tank missile is American. Uk had a ground to air missile called Javelin which is now obsolete 

[hippo]

20 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Maybe it is old footage but what it does show is how effective a bunch of people throwing Petrol Bombs around can be even on armoured vehicles. 

Those tanks were built by Citroen though !