Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

[UnderOpenSky]

The F-16A (MLU) under discussion doesn't have the HARM targeting computer. Only the USAF CJ/DJ Vipers have that capability.

Next year maybe?

 

[kebabking]

The F-16A (MLU) under discussion doesn't have the HARM targeting computer. Only the USAF CJ/DJ Vipers have that capability.

True, but MiG-29's don't have it either.

It's not perfect, but let's not pretend that stuff can't be bodged, especially if there's going to be a 2/3/4 month gap between now and the airframes flying over the Ukrainian border.

 

[DownwardDog]

Next year maybe?

Dunno. The US does seem slightly less daft than the European countries when it comes to sending their defence hardware east to be destroyed.

 

[Idris2002]

Same, was ages ago I read the book on the battle but seem to remember it was the fact that it was surrounded by hills that allowed the Vietnamese to destroy, in turn, both French and American defenders, more a comment on the tactical rather situation than the role of the army involved.

I'm deep into armchair general territory now so will STFU.

IIRC the French thought the hills were too steep and well, "hilly" for artillery to be installed at the summit.

Giap's people were also aware of this problem, and their solution was to dismantle their artillery pieces, carry them up to the summits piece by piece, and then reassemble them once they'd got to the top.

 

[turing test]

Yeah, they loaded the disassembled artillery on old Puegeots and pushed them up the mountains.

How the Bicycle Won the Vietnam War - CampfireCycling.com

 

[existentialist]

So, now, Russia has an additional task - an armed insurrection near Belgorod. The "Freedom of Russia" Legion has destroyed a border post, and appears to be using tanks to take Russian territory.

Whatever is behind this, Russia is now going to have to dedicate scarce resources to countering that attack - and, for sure, it cannot do nothing about it.

 

[strung out]

So, now, Russia has an additional task - an armed insurrection near Belgorod. The "Freedom of Russia" Legion has destroyed a border post, and appears to be using tanks to take Russian territory.

Whatever is behind this, Russia is now going to have to dedicate scarce resources to countering that attack - and, for sure, it cannot do nothing about it.

They're led by a Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian state Duma. The only one who voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 (and also the only one not to vote for the anti-gay legislation before that).

 

[kebabking]

To add to existentialist's post above - this thread is from a Brit living in Kyiv. Well worth reading the thread - I think he's correct on this.

 

[TopCat]

Yes there was - "it's the Russian way" not "it's the way of the Russian state".
It might have been, probably was, inadvertent. But maybe on what is supposed to be a left bulletin board a little care should be taken not to equate people with their states.

It isn’t a left bulletin board.

 

[The39thStep]

They're led by a Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian state Duma. The only one who voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 (and also the only one not to vote for the anti-gay legislation before that).

They work with , and have carried out operations with , the Russian Volunteer Force who to be frank don’t boast the same liberal credentials .

 

[Yossarian]

Russian TV went into a full frenzy of celebration as it reported Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. There were comparisons to the Red Army liberating Berlin in 1945, congratulations relayed from President Vladimir Putin and announcers emphasizing the victory by using the city’s nearly century-old Soviet name of Artyomovsk.

Russia TV celebrates as it reports the capture of Bakhmut, comparing it to Berlin in 1945

They certainly seem happy about losing 20,000 men to allegedly capture a pile of rubble

 

[existentialist]

Russian TV went into a full frenzy of celebration as it reported Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. There were comparisons to the Red Army liberating Berlin in 1945, congratulations relayed from President Vladimir Putin and announcers emphasizing the victory by using the city’s nearly century-old Soviet name of Artyomovsk.

Russia TV celebrates as it reports the capture of Bakhmut, comparing it to Berlin in 1945

They certainly seem happy about losing 20,000 men to allegedly capture a pile of rubble

20,000?

 

[The39thStep]

Russian TV went into a full frenzy of celebration as it reported Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. There were comparisons to the Red Army liberating Berlin in 1945, congratulations relayed from President Vladimir Putin and announcers emphasizing the victory by using the city’s nearly century-old Soviet name of Artyomovsk.

Russia TV celebrates as it reports the capture of Bakhmut, comparing it to Berlin in 1945

They certainly seem happy about losing 20,000 men to allegedly capture a pile of rubble

Barmy isn’t it ?

 

[Yossarian]

20,000?

US estimated 20,000 killed and 80,000 wounded earlier this month, half of them from Wagner, "citing newly declassified intelligence"

20,000 Russians killed trying to take small Ukrainian city of Bakhmut - US

Another 80,000 have reportedly been wounded - more than lived in Bakhmut before the war.

www.rnz.co.nz

 

[kebabking]

Senior NATO watch officer on being told that the Russians have invaded Russia...

 

[T & P]

Russian TV went into a full frenzy of celebration as it reported Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. There were comparisons to the Red Army liberating Berlin in 1945, congratulations relayed from President Vladimir Putin and announcers emphasizing the victory by using the city’s nearly century-old Soviet name of Artyomovsk.

Russia TV celebrates as it reports the capture of Bakhmut, comparing it to Berlin in 1945

They certainly seem happy about losing 20,000 men to allegedly capture a pile of rubble

Given that Putin doesn’t give the first fuck about using his own patriotic, law-abiding citizens as cannon fodder in the first place, the cynic in me suspects he sees removing tens of thousands of prisoners from the Russian penal system and turning them into mincemeat in a foreign land, never to be a burden again to Mother Russia, as a brilliant move as well as an economic masterstroke.

 

[The39thStep]

Given that Putin doesn’t give the first fuck about using his own patriotic, law-abiding citizens as cannon fodder in the first place, the cynic in me suspects he sees removing tens of thousands of prisoners from the Russian penal system and turning them into mincemeat in a foreign land, never to be a burden again to Mother Russia, as a brilliant move as well as an economic masterstroke.

It’s a strange world . Must be the most successful PMC on the planet . They’ll claim that they took on and beat the NATO backed AFU . Won’t be short of work .

 

[T & P]

It’s a strange world . Must be the most successful PMC on the planet . They’ll claim that they took on and beat the NATO backed AFU . Won’t be short of work .

Sadly I fear you’re quite correct. I suspect there’s no shortage of email quote requests in their inbox.

 

[keybored]

I don't know how anyone can be left thinking Ukraine is winning after yet another oblast appears to be under partial Russian control.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I don't know how anyone can be left thinking Ukraine is winning after yet another oblast appears to be under partial Russian control.

I must have missed something, what oblast has Russia taken recently in Ukraine?

 

[LDC]

I don't know how anyone can be left thinking Ukraine is winning after yet another oblast appears to be under partial Russian control.

It's not a football game ffs, mostly a touch more complex and dynamic than one side winning and the other losing.

 

[FabricLiveBaby!]

I must have missed something, what oblast has Russia taken recently in Ukraine?

Russia invaded Russia today.

Belgorod innit.

 

[Raheem]

I must have missed something, what oblast has Russia taken recently in Ukraine?

Not the only way an oblast can end up under partial Russian control.

 

[FabricLiveBaby!]

In other news Lenin's mauseluem was closed today because he started spinning uncontrollably and was putting off the admirers.

He has been repurposed as a fan in the toilets.

 

[The39thStep]

It's not a football game ffs, mostly a touch more complex and dynamic than one side winning and the other losing.

It is exactly that for some on here though .

 

[cupid_stunt]

I am interested in hearing what keybored meant by their post

Or if it's a just fly-by post that we all expect from to see from the likes of TC.

 

[Pickman's model]

It's not a football game ffs, mostly a touch more complex and dynamic than one side winning and the other losing.

Yeh. Football is played over a 'season', it is many matches not just one. Why do people who attack the football analogy just think about it in terms of 90 minutes and nothing more, not the training, not the tactics, not the moral aspect which is so similar to that in war? Not to mention that you've forgotten people can draw in football too.

 

[maomao]

I am interested in hearing what keybored meant by their post

Or if it's a just fly-by post that we all expect from to see from the likes of TC.

It was a joke about what happened in Belgorod oblast today.

 

[The39thStep]

In other news Lenin's mauseluem was closed today because he started spinning uncontrollably and was putting off the admirers.

He has been repurposed as a fan in the toilets.

Fun fact ,Kerensky who the Bolsheviks overthrew is buried in Wimbledon .He actually died in the States but couldn't get buried by the Russian Church there as they blamed him for overthrowing the Czar and held him responsible for the events that led to the Russian Revolution .His father allegedly taught Lenin.

 

[DownwardDog]

I am interested in hearing what keybored meant by their post

Or if it's a just fly-by post that we all expect from to see from the likes of TC.

Well, Ukraine have lost 20% of their territory, ~6m people have left the country and their GDP is down 30%.

That's not winning.