Ukraine

[altacoup]

Ukraine has no navy and is beating up in the Russian navy with US drones and other goodies. I’m sure our war machine has even fancier stuff. Russian generals must be quickly realizing that they’ve just shown all the Nato armies that their army is basically worthless.

[TBS]

Dunno how much credence to give this article

https://www.cityam.com/kremlin-on-hi...d-ukraine-war/

Interesting, and one that I hope is true.

That said, I read at the time the FSB guys were sacked or arrested because they had fabricated a fictitious Russian partisan force inside Ukraine, and were pocketing the dough allocated by the Kremlin to arm/support these fake partisans

[dunfree]

Is US controlling those? It's not like anyone would know. It takes a complex network to do that.

Bayraktar are Turkish made with Canadian engines and collaborative software. They are a fraction of the cost of us drones,

[abraham]

Bayraktar are Turkish made with Canadian engines and collaborative software. They are a fraction of the cost of us drones,

Turns out the company making the switchblades is headed by an Afghan who was a kid when Russia invaded.

It's not his first encounter with the Russians. "I was born and raised in Afghanistan," Nawabi said. "I left Afghanistan right at the beginning of the occupation of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan back in the early 1980s, so in some respect, this is very emotional and personal for me as well."

At the age of 14, the oldest of four children, he learned what happens when the Russian army invades your country. "I've been there. I know exactly what it's like. Life changes in a matter of seconds, completely changes upside-down."

And he remembers how one weapon, the American-made Stinger missile, helped chase the Russians out of Afghanistan.

"I vividly remember the Stinger missile," he told Martin. "I saw what it did to the Russian helicopters. Probably have seen a half a dozen of them with my own naked eyes get shot from the sky while watching from the ground."

Now he wants to see Russian tanks destroyed by his Switchblade drones.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/switchb...-weapon-works/

[ötzi]

Ukraine has no navy and is beating up in the Russian navy with US drones and other goodies. I’m sure our war machine has even fancier stuff. Russian generals must be quickly realizing that they’ve just shown all the Nato armies that their army is basically worthless.

Shit never mind NATO, that video made Xi hard. All those resources sitting there. A 2-million-man army looking for something to do. And these guys are in the way? pfft.

[dunfree]

Shit never mind NATO, that video made Xi hard. All those resources sitting there. A 2-million-man army looking for something to do. And these guys are in the way? pfft.

he’s a 70 year old two pack a day smoker, hards a relative term. And why would he want cow when he can get the milk cheap?

[ötzi]

There's nobody there, there's no problems to inherit, there's just lots of trees and gas and other shit you can cut down or dig up or pump, I think he'd want it. Xi hopes Putin lobs a nuke at the West so he can find out if they actually work and if they don't, watch out.

But yeah "hard" was poetic license or something.

[TBS]

Seems Russians crave a sadist freak who ascends by the most Machiavellian means. No one but blood drenched mass murderers and antichrist wannabes seem to be good enough.

A little overbroad dontchathink?
Mikhail Gorbachev? Yeltsin?

"It would be a measureless disaster if Russian barbarism overlaid the culture and independence of the ancient States of Europe."

Russia lacks the resources to accomplish that
How does the author determine borders of “ancient States of Europe”? Do we go back to say, Holy Roman Empire?

[highangle]

A little overbroad dontchathink?
Mikhail Gorbachev? Yeltsin?

Stalin? Putin? Ivan the Terrible?...

Russia lacks the resources to accomplish that
How does the author determine borders of “ancient States of Europe”? Do we go back to say, Holy Roman Empire?

Russia lacked the resources to accomplish it 1945 too...It didn't make Churchill any less correct.


gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres quarum unam incolunt belgae aliam aquitani tertiam qui ipsorum lingua celtae nostra galli appellantur.

[billyk]

Is US controlling those? It's not like anyone would know. It takes a complex network to do that.

As others have mentioned, the TB2 drones are Turkish made with some components sourced from other countries. The impetus for development of the TB2 was the US blocking UAV technology going to Turkey, because we didn’t want them using it against the Kurds. So they developed their own (with the help of a Turkish guy who graduated from MIT).

The drone has a lot of onboard smarts that allow autonomous take off, landings and cruising, so it’s not like the operator has to continually control every move of the drone, which helps reduce the communication bandwidth required.

The communication is by direct radio (not satellite, as far as I can tell despite some media reports) with a range of up to 300 KM.

Here is more info straight from the source:
https://www.baykartech.com/en/uav/bayraktar-tb2/

[LongShortLong]

Projecting the Russian invasion
Jomini of the West
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...601302529.html

Bunch of graphs and diagrams to project that Russia will continue to make gains in the east, without fully encircling Ukraine forces, and culminating sometime this summer. I found the military planning diagrams interesting. Obviously the actual future will differ, but he thinks they'll be slugging it out "It will be a long Summer."

Telenko has a pretty speculative thread that foresees sufficient Black Sea denial to resume grain shipments from Odessa.

Hope the slugfest goes better than Jomini models, and Telenko is right. Too many dying. Ukrainian, also Russian. What a waste.

[rideit]

Ze submarine conversion campaign is going swimmingly, Comrades!

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1521026579555569670

[MultiVerse]

Close to 600 people died in the Russian airstrike on the Mariupol drama theater on March 16, evidence from an Associated Press investigation suggests. That’s around twice the city government’s estimate of 300 in the deadliest single known attack against civilians in the Ukraine war.

This is what the place looked like a few months before the Russia army showed up:

[m2711c]

benny would disagree.

[summit]

I don't miss that fucker. Why even mention him in the face of tragedy?

[riser4]

I keep thinking of the mob mentality.

Russia: hey Ukraine, nice country you got there, it'd be a shame for something to happen to it.

[MultiVerse]

Russia as a mafia state is a good analogy. When they started breaking into people homes, Russian soldiers couldn't believe Ukrainians were rich enough to afford things like Nutella. That's why many Russians are not afraid of sanctions because they don’t feel them. They already live like shit, making $200 per month. Insane looting proves it.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Russia as a mafia state is a good analogy. When they started breaking into people homes, Russian soldiers couldn't believe Ukrainians were rich enough to afford things like Nutella. That's why many Russians are not afraid of sanctions because they don’t feel them. They already live like shit, making $200 per month. Insane looting proves it.

Speaking of sanctions, a good overview of the situation (with lots of links if anyone really wants to dive in):

https://www.vox.com/23049187/russia-...-ukraine-ruble

[J. Barron DeJong]

From my (very limited) understanding of Azovstal, this is going to be messy, more so for the Russians.

[ötzi]

I kinda wonder if there's a tunnel the defenders can use to bail at the last minute after causing as much havoc with the invaders as they can. Place has to be riddled with tunnels. Wishful thinking, probably. But I can't see the point of dying to defend a defunct steel mill.

[dunfree]

There’s many tunnels, apparently one of the reasons it’s held out so long is they’d pop up randomly attack orca, then go back underground

[riser4]

Didn't the Germans famously run into something like that during WWII with ancient sewer tunnels in one of the Black Sea port cities like Odessa or Sevastopol?

[dunfree]

The Stalingrad tractor factory. A bit east, but building began in the same year.

[riser4]

The Stalingrad tractor factory. A bit east, but building began in the same year.

That one too. But one of the two cities I listed did also have famous battles in the sewers.

[Cocximus]

I kinda wonder if there's a tunnel the defenders can use to bail at the last minute after causing as much havoc with the invaders as they can. Place has to be riddled with tunnels. Wishful thinking, probably. But I can't see the point of dying to defend a defunct steel mill.

Considering how Russians will likely treat them, fighting to the last soldier might seem like a better option.

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