Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[magnkarl]

10 hours ago, bickster said:

Scholz can’t help himself. He really is a prize word removed. At this stage Ukraine aren’t going to be talking to Putin unless every Russian soldier leaves the whole of Ukraine including Crimea and Donbas. They've got absolutely no reason to trust Putin in any talks.

The mere fact he’s talked to Putin is bad enough, that makes Putin think he’s still in the game, it gives him options it gives him propaganda opportunities and he also gets an insight into how Western leaders are possibly thinking.

And all so Scholtz can try and revive his own flagging fortunes because he’s right royally stuffed up himself. The time for talks was months ago, Ukraine has the upper hand now

Yep, don't get me started on Scholz and the centre left parties in Germany and their complicit actions towards Putin. In their hunger to try to show the West that Russia is good they've sold their soul to a dictator, all in an effort to outcompete other European industry with cheap blood-tainted gas.

Schröder still has his membership for crying out loud. The man is a walking propaganda poster for Putin and proven on the take by Moscow. The Bundestag has taken his ex-chancellor privileges away but Scholz' party can't help themselves..

The whole Marder saga is also damning. Rheinmetal have esentially done up 24 Marder to be delivered to Ukraine but it's being held back by the MOD because of "license issues". The Rheinmetal CEO is fuming and has started refurbishing more Marders.

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

 

[Genie]

1 minute ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

 

I said it before, how many times have we heard from powerful people that they should have dealt with Hitler much sooner?

And here we are, waiting for Putin to drop a nuke.

[It's Your Round]

1 hour ago, LondonLax said:

 

 

“We are very careful about those who serve for sexual articles (charges), but we understand mistakes can be made”.

So we really don’t care whether you’ve raped your way through a nursery school, as long as it was a mistake. 
 

I wonder how much training these cons get before they’re dropped off at the front line? 

 

[It's Your Round]

8 minutes ago, Genie said:

I said it before, how many times have we heard from powerful people that they should have dealt with Hitler much sooner?

And here we are, waiting for Putin to drop a nuke.

I keep thinking why don’t we just take Putin out? I’m sure our intelligence will know where he is and would be capable of getting him. 

[Straggler]

1 hour ago, It's Your Round said:

“We are very careful about those who serve for sexual articles (charges), but we understand mistakes can be made”.

So we really don’t care whether you’ve raped your way through a nursery school, as long as it was a mistake. 
 

I wonder how much training these cons get before they’re dropped off at the front line? 

 

For the work they will be doing in Ukraine they are already overqualified.

[magnkarl]

1 hour ago, It's Your Round said:

“We are very careful about those who serve for sexual articles (charges), but we understand mistakes can be made”.

So we really don’t care whether you’ve raped your way through a nursery school, as long as it was a mistake. 
 

I wonder how much training these cons get before they’re dropped off at the front line? 

 

The thing is these guys will be sent to Bakhmut where PMC Wagner is mainly fighting. They're human-wave attacking against three layer deep fortifications with M777's plowing them down like the criminals they are. There hasn't been movement in Wagner's sector since early July.

Ukraine's losses on this front are minimal at best.

[Delphinho123]

Question. What, or who, is Wagner. 

[bickster]

6 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Question. What, or who, is Wagner. 

Private Military Contractor company. Mercenaries if you like. But essentially Putin's private army. Wagner are essentially part of the Russian Military Machine but outside the normal command structure

[CVByrne]

Surely a full mobilisation for Russia which gives them another 2 million men would just worsen their logistic problems. If they don't have enough ammunition for the men already fighting there. Surely they don't have enough weaponry bar maybe guns to arm that many people. What about feeding them and then mobilisation as we enter winter!

I don't see what Russia does next. 

[bickster]

1 minute ago, CVByrne said:

Surely a full mobilisation for Russia which gives them another 2 million men would just worsen their logistic problems. If they don't have enough ammunition for the men already fighting there. Surely they don't have enough weaponry bar maybe guns to arm that many people. What about feeding them and then mobilisation as we enter winter!

I don't see what Russia does next. 

Russia is never going to fully mobilise at this stage. They can only do it with a vote in the Duma, which is why Putin never has and now dissent is growing and more people know the truth, it will never happen.

[blandy]

13 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Flying in circles around a heavily populated area with a faulty plane instead of using the  huge expanse of sea and sparsely populated Welsh borders minutes away?  

whatever, I’m not sure that it’s flight path had anything to do with Russia , but there are different categories of “faults”. Safety critical - presenting a potential risk to life, Mission critical - meaning the intended mission cannot be completed, but no risk to people. The conditions under which aircraft are permitted to dump fuel will be regulated, either by law, by military code or by ATC on the day. The B52 flying over Cheltenham and the Gloucestershire farmland, in a non emergency situation, wouldn’t ideally dump tens of thousands of pounds (weight) of fuel over that terrain because it has a faulty transponder (say).  It could climb to altitude and away from other air traffic, as coordinated by ATC if there was a need to dump fuel. The USAF emptying avgas over the residents of England (in this case) doesn’t do their soft support and reputation any good at all, does it?

We don’t know why the plane was loitering, but the using up of fuel, rather than dumping it does make sense to me as a possible reason.

In terms of Russia and the Ukraine war  there will be loads of NATO aircraft just outside that airspace monitoring signals, air traffic, ground movements and so on, but B-52s won’t be doing that stuff.

[sidcow]

37 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Question. What, or who, is Wagner. 

Can't believe I got there first

[bickster]

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Can't believe I got there first

Can't believe you went with that

 

[bannedfromHandV]

 

47 minutes ago, bickster said:

Private Military Contractor company. Mercenaries if you like. But essentially Putin's private army. Wagner are essentially part of the Russian Military Machine but outside the normal command structure

And ironically, given that the ‘Special Military Operation’, is allegedly to eradicate a Nazi government in Ukraine - the Wagner group has Nazi origins and indeed are called the Wagner group because that was Hitler’s favourite composer (I believe).

Edited September 15, 2022 by bannedfromHandV

[mjmooney]

21 minutes ago, bickster said:

Can't believe you went with that

 

 

[Wainy316]

23 minutes ago, bickster said:

Can't believe you went with that

 

It's probably a sad reflection of our society but @sidcow's one would be much more recognisable in general.

[bickster]

6 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

It's probably a sad reflection of our society but @sidcow's one would be much more recognisable in general.

Nah, surely most people have seem this

 

[villa89]

14 hours ago, Genie said:

Link

He’s a stubborn bugger

He can afford to be, he has no opposition. The only hope is someone assassinates him which could prove to be difficult as, apparently, he is so paranoid he lives in a bunker and checks all his food for poison. 

[CVByrne]

On 14/09/2022 at 10:11, Xann said:

This has been up before. Finnish intelligence briefing on Russia.

This is brilliant. The best explanation of the Russian mentality I've seen. Great historic references, fascinating watch.

 

This is great. The "Tactical Truth" is very fascinating. Where people know you need to just lie so you have an answer. Nobody believes it but you understand why the situation requires it.