Russia invades Ukraine. Volume 2

[BikeBikeBIke]

isaldiri said:

Or ...is he (just as in theory we are for Ukraine) merely supplying more advanced weaponry to a friendly country to help themselves defend against aggressive military incursions by a more powerful neighbour.....?

Missiles were crewed by Russian Soldiers.

[BikeBikeBIke]

QuickQuack said:

I wonder how viable it would be to use a similar tactic; move grain to down to ports in Bulgaria and/or Romania via railways and lorries, then use their ports. It would be difficult and dangerous, but not even attempting feels like it would lead to even bigger difficulties and dangers.

Non starter. The trains are already maxed out and the cost of rail is many time higher

[CrutyRammers]

BikeBikeBIke said:

isaldiri said:

Or ...is he (just as in theory we are for Ukraine) merely supplying more advanced weaponry to a friendly country to help themselves defend against aggressive military incursions by a more powerful neighbour.....?

Missiles were crewed by Russian Soldiers.

And very specifically, only allowed to be operated by Russians, according to the article.
So no. This is the Russian army operating inside Syria.

[CrutyRammers]

Germany and Italy going ahead with rouble payments for gas, according to Reuters. Nice one guys.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

CrutyRammers said:

BikeBikeBIke said:

isaldiri said:

Or ...is he (just as in theory we are for Ukraine) merely supplying more advanced weaponry to a friendly country to help themselves defend against aggressive military incursions by a more powerful neighbour.....?

Missiles were crewed by Russian Soldiers.

And very specifically, only allowed to be operated by Russians, according to the article.
So no. This is the Russian army operating inside Syria.

It's worrying because they'll want to retaliate. And usually do.

I was watching an interview with one of the bravo three zero guys on YouTube and he recounting the pressure on them to succeed as Israel had a battalion of Paras on standby to drop into bagdad if they couldn't stop the scud attacks. Thus escalating the war significantly.

[BikeBikeBIke]

CrutyRammers said:

Germany and Italy going ahead with rouble payments for gas, according to Reuters. Nice one guys.

Have they got to pay the false Russian exchange rate for Roubles or the real one? If they're paying the real one that could be some insanely cheap gas. (Something tells me there's a reason they can't pay the 'real' price - maybe due to lack of a legal market for Roubles?)

[pquinn]

CrutyRammers said:

Germany and Italy going ahead with rouble payments for gas, according to Reuters. Nice one guys.

And no doubt paying at the utterly artificial exchange rate.

[BikeBikeBIke]

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

It's worrying because they'll want to retaliate. And usually do.

I was watching an interview with one of the bravo three zero guys on YouTube and he recounting the pressure on them to succeed as Israel had a battalion of Paras on standby to drop into bagdad if they couldn't stop the scud attacks. Thus escalating the war significantly.

If Israel want to respond and start a shooting war against Russia in Syria I'm all in favour.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

BikeBikeBIke said:

If Israel want to respond and start a shooting war against Russia in Syria I'm all in favour.

Gets us closer to Russia's existential threat though...whatever that means in reality.

Personally I'd rather Israel just sent several container ships of weapons over as a grand FU.

[EddieSteadyGo]

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

BikeBikeBIke said:

If Israel want to respond and start a shooting war against Russia in Syria I'm all in favour.

Gets us closer to Russia's existential threat though...whatever that means in reality.

Personally I'd rather Israel just sent several container ships of weapons over as a grand FU.

Except we know Israel does quite well from its relationship with Russia, helping them to bypass some of the sanctions etc. And as per the call Putin felt he needed to make to Naftali Bennett (to apologise for Lavrov's insulting remark about Hitler being Jewish), it seems Putin would quite like to maintain its fairly cordial relationship with Israel too.

So I see Israel taking a position which aims to maintain workable relationships with both sides, rather like Turkey. Which makes the stuff in Syria just a diplomatic bump in the road.

[vonuber]

Is this the end of the tank - good chat from the tank museum:



Well worth a visit if you haven't been, especially if you get to see this up and running:

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

EddieSteadyGo said:

Except we know Israel does quite well from its relationship with Russia, helping them to bypass some of the sanctions etc. And as per the call Putin felt he needed to make to Naftali Bennett (to apologise for Lavrov's insulting remark about Hitler being Jewish), it seems Putin would quite like to maintain its fairly cordial relationship with Israel too.

So I see Israel taking a position which aims to maintain workable relationships with both sides, rather like Turkey. Which makes the stuff in Syria just a diplomatic bump in the road.

True... Given the risible C&C within the Russian military perhaps the s300 crew are now on a 1 way holiday to Israel courtesy of direct order by Putin.

[FiF]

vonuber said:

Is this the end of the tank - good chat from the tank museum:



Well worth a visit if you haven't been, especially if you get to see this up and running:

LoLing at the chap cranking the engine being told "Faster".

[EddieSteadyGo]

Re those Putin health rumours and the need for him to have an operation... this source is suggesting Putin's appearances since May 17th have been previously recorded meetings, and the only person now allowed to meet Putin is Nikolai Patrushev, who is the person named previously a couple of weeks ago as the person Putin would leave in charge if he did need to cede temporary control of the Presidency.

https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/152782907...

[mondeoman]

EddieSteadyGo said:

Re those Putin health rumours and the need for him to have an operation... this source is suggesting Putin's appearances since May 17th have been previously recorded meetings, and the only person now allowed to meet Putin is Nikolai Patrushev, who is the person named previously a couple of weeks ago as the person Putin would leave in charge if he did need to cede temporary control of the Presidency.

https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/152782907...

Interesting thread below that one from retired US Lieutenant General, Mark Hertling

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1527651784...

TLDR
We ought take a long, hard look at ourselves - in this area, and in others - & remind ourselves what right looks like.

"Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, & never be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won."

[vonuber]

FiF said:

LoLing at the chap cranking the engine being told "Faster".

I just love the noise of the thing.

[anonymous-user]

BikeBikeBIke said:

Missiles were crewed by Russian Soldiers.

Must be a tough gig doing that!

[Tartan Pixie]

BikeBikeBIke said:

pquinn said:

Not sure it's a great advert for your military to take that long to capture a small isolated city, and then only by bombing it flat. First order thinkers.

Has the rest of the war deteriorated into a slow grind? Any progress either way? All seems a bit quiet news wise.

According to Speak the Truth's channel, 7 miles progress for Russia in places recently.

AFAIC quite bad news for Ukraine but strategically changes nothing.

According to the War In Ukraine channel whoever's in charge in Popasna is using a large amount of light infantry, there's VDV (airborne), Wagner mercenaries and 40th naval battalion supported by at least one BTG. So it's infantry finding the weak spots and tanks backing them up rather than BTG's trying to brute force their way down main roads.

(BTG = Battalion Tactical Group = Standard Russian formation consisting of armoured and mechanised infantry brigades.)

A notable thing on the map is that the advances aren't following major routes, but instead are flanking round to weak spots and forcing the Ukrainians to retreat:



I assume most folk already know the channels we're talking about but here's the links anyway.

War in Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2QApi8G2TKc8NZm...
Speak the Truth: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpeakTheTruth1

[anonymous-user]

FiF said:

vonuber said:

Is this the end of the tank - good chat from the tank museum:



Well worth a visit if you haven't been, especially if you get to see this up and running:

LoLing at the chap cranking the engine being told "Faster".

That is amusing.

My grandpa was involved in the battle where Tiger 131 was damaged, absolutely brutal action at the end of the North Africa campaign. He received his MC there, his good friend a posthumous VC. It's tragic another generation are going through similar events again.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

The UK has been in some form of war for 30 years.

The UK defence industry must love it.