Russia Invades Ukraine. Volume 4

It’s pretty incredible how efficeint their sourcing of components is. That said I am guessing they don’t need the Hong Kong shell companies that the article describes…I am sure Xi is very happy to supply North Korea whatever they need. China don ‘t want Russia to lose in Korea but also don’t want to be seen to be supplying arms to Russia…how about they help North Korea manufacture arms and send them to Russia ?

The only “good news” is that the reason the US has sent long range ATACMS to Ukraine is because these North Korean missiles have been supplied to Ukraine, That was the “red line” the US apparently communicated to Russia….”you take missiles from North Korea and we will supply Ukraine with long range missiles”…Putin called their bluff and for once they followed through on the threat.

The concern is that this will be over (one way or another) BEFORE Russia hits this mythical "number of deaths" which will suddenly, almost magically, change everything about how Russia has been fighting for the past 100+ years.

There is no magic number, there is no mythical "Oh but as soon as St Petersburg?Moscow starts seeing death they'll stop" - Russia is doing what Russia always does and wanting to pretend that there is some line in the sand on casualty numbers just doesn't recognise the reality of the situation, and to be blunt comes across in the same vein as "once they get Javlin/NLAW - once they get HIMARS - once they get StormShadow - Once they get Challenger 2/Abrams - once they get ATACMS - once they get F-16's" etc etc as being wishful hoping for a single thing that will suddenly win the war, rather than something based on reality where this will only be won/lost based on Putin and what he wants, absolutely nothing else will change that.

So the sanctions basically don’t work. North Korea can get whatever it needs which then sells to Russia. Russia sells all its goods to most of the world’s countries via various means, albeit at reduced market rate as other countries squeeze a better deal. Russian oligarchs still have all their wealth and property in safe countries such as, err uk.

We should be more proactive in giving Ukraine what it needs and stop trying to mildly appease / not escalate.

I read this earlier, Cold War stuff in the modern era.

Surely they have the bloody intelligence in the US to know North Korea is buying microchips. Why they are buying from the US is interesting, surely Taiwan is an easier smuggle.

And how exactly does that help if they drop the bridge ?

The new railway line runs along the land bridge.

The piece of land that connects Crimea to the rest of Ukraine is going to present issues for both sides if/when it becomes contested. There’s a lot of water/marshland there with only a few bridges/roads that run across it. It will make it very difficult for Ukraine to attack but if your aim is to cut Crimea off it also makes it relatively easy for them to make those few transport links very difficult to use. I think they’ve have already taken out one of the bridges out with a Stormshadow which I am sure has been repaired by now.

?

...and I fear the first few hundred thousand were press ganged Ukranians.

North Korean involvement:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68933778

+1

I have seen some of their videos on telegram before but I have now subscribed to their YouTube channel.

Intense and depressing at the same time, I suspect that video represents most of the frontline for Ukraine.