Ukraine and the Russian invasion, Feb 2022 - tangentially related crap

[spitfire]

When you're so pro-Putin you get criticised by Putin for going too easy on Putin

Putin says he prefers Biden to Trump and mocks Tucker Carlson’s questions

Russian president says Biden is ‘more predictable’, in remarks likely to be attempt to make mischief in US election

www.theguardian.com

This is the guy people want to negotiate with? He can't even do a soft pedal TV interview in good faith!

 

[two sheds]

yes, not in Russia and not near a window and possibly not near any doorknobs

 

[The39thStep]

One of the floats in Cologne , Germany on Monday Feb 12th

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

And this...

 

[StoneRoad]

And this...

View attachment 412279

putler's facing the wrong way for the kirche's normal brown-nosing

 

[The39thStep]

Arestovych according to Yahoo News has left Ukraine . He went to New York at the beginning of the month and was spotted in Monaco two days ago.

• On 1 February, the anti-corruption journalism centre NGL.media reported that Arestovych had left Ukraine following a letter from the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine and was now in New York, USA.
• Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence denied that Arestovych left the country following a letter from the Intelligence Directorate.

 

[yield]

How the US broke Kosovo and what that means for Ukraine
February 15, 2024
Washington's track record suggests it's better at fighting wars than dealing with what follows.

For Ukraine, the task of fixing its shattered infrastructure will represent a daunting, generational challenge. For corporate America, it will be just another business opportunity. And if Kosovo is any guide, the Ukrainians should be careful what they wish for.

“It’s one of the biggest mysteries: How can a country like America that put significant resources and political capital into making sure Kosovo is a functional state just drop the ball?” asked a former Kosovar minister who has observed the U.S. in action in his country for decades. “Americans just forgot about Kosovo.”

The U.S.’s track record abroad in recent decades suggests it is better at fighting wars than dealing with what follows. One of the enduring memories of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, for example, is the close collaboration that existed between Washington elites, the country’s foreign policy establishment and American businesses like engineering giant Halliburton and Blackwater, a security company.

The failure of U.S. nation-building might not be too surprising in places like Iraq or Afghanistan, where the local populations were less than pleased to see American GIs come marching in. But Kosovo is another matter.

For one, the country is tiny, roughly one-third the size of Belgium, with a population of 1.8 million, well under that of the Brussels metropolitan area.

With a GDP of about $10 billion, Kosovo’s economy is less than one-quarter the size of Vermont’s, the smallest U.S. state in terms of economic activity. In other words, making a difference there would not require the U.S. to invest the trillions poured into Afghanistan and Iraq.

What’s more, the population loves the U.S., which it credits with driving out the hated Serbs during Kosovo’s war with its much larger neighbor in 1999. The country is full of monuments, avenues and squares dedicated to American officials who helped win its independence, from former President Bill Clinton to his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, to Clark, who was NATO’s supreme allied commander during the Kosovo War. At one point, the government seriously contemplated naming a lake after Donald Trump.

In Pristina, the capital, there’s both a street and monument dedicated to Bob Dole, the deceased U.S. senator and one-time Republican presidential nominee (largely forgotten in America) who championed Kosovo’s cause.

 

[yield]

Russia is using Starlink in occupied areas, Ukraine says

KYIV, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Russian forces in occupied Ukraine are using Starlink terminals produced by Elon Musk's SpaceX for satellite internet in what is beginning to look like their "systemic" application, Kyiv's main military intelligence agency said on Sunday.

The terminals were rushed in to help Ukraine after Russia's February 2022 invasion and have been vital to Kyiv's battlefield communications. Starlink says it does not do business of any kind with Russia's government or military.

"Cases of the Russian occupiers' use of the given devices have been registered. It is beginning to take on a systemic nature," the Ukrainian defence ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) quoted spokesman Andriy Yusov as saying.

In a statement, the agency said the terminals were being used by units like Russia's 83rd Air Assault Brigade, which is fighting near the embattled towns of Klishchiivka and Andriivka in the partially-occupied eastern region of Donetsk.

The remarks were Ukraine's first official statement about Russia's alleged use of Starlink.

 

[gosub]

How the US broke Kosovo and what that means for Ukraine
February 15, 2024
Washington's track record suggests it's better at fighting wars than dealing with what follows.

Know a former Amassdor for Kosovo. Became clear to her after the annexation of Crimea that Kosovo was fighting an uphill battle for recognition because of it...mood at UN changed

 

[ska invita]

Interesting thread: Russia is bypassing UK and presumably other countries sanctions by using shell companies in Kyrgyzstan and other satellite states

Thread by @EdConwaySky on Thread Reader App

@EdConwaySky: 🚨How British companies are bolstering Vladimir Putin’s war machine🚨 A depressing thread. But an important one. With some pretty shocking charts. Let’s begin with the “official” picture. It suggests UK ...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[Artaxerxes]

“My tanks to good to bring to the fight”

 

[Artaxerxes]

Please do not ask how the UK trains compare to this level of efficiency

 

[The39thStep]

Guess who's not coming to dinner

Ukraine’s first lady declines Biden’s State of the Union invite

Olena Zelenska’s office cited a scheduling conflict. But U.S. media reported there was another reason: An invite to Yulia Navalnaya.

www.politico.eu

 

[discokermit]

nuland has resigned. a sign of the failure of us strategy? https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-diplomat-nuland-strong-supporter-ukraine-step-down-2024-03-05/

this bit is hilarious,

"It's Toria's leadership on Ukraine that diplomats and students of foreign policy will study for years to come," Blinken said in the written statement, alluding to Nuland's backing of Ukraine, particularly since Russia's 2022 invasion.
"Her efforts have been indispensable to confronting (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, marshaling a global coalition to ensure his strategic failure," Blinken added.

i mean, it will be studied for years to come but not for how the strategic failure of putin was achieved.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

“My tanks to good to bring to the fight”

They're expensive and are pretty much single-use items when taken to Ukraine.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Please do not ask how the UK trains compare to this level of efficiency


View attachment 414912

And if you're sick in Ukraine and can't make it to the surgery a doctor will come and see you at home the same day.

I've got in laws in both Russia and Ukraine and neither can believe how shit it is trying to get basic medical care in this country.

 

[Chz]

They're expensive and are pretty much single-use items when taken to Ukraine.

I remain unconvinced any of them actually work as a whole yet. The bits of intel that they're happy to make public seem to indicate that the various bits and bobs work, but are individually unreliable, and when combined into a whole unit the Russians don't seem to have the tech to make it all work together. Could of course be pure western propaganda, but it's hard to not think that they might actually use them instead of 50 year old tanks if they did work.

 

[discokermit]

but it's hard to not think that they might actually use them instead of 50 year old tanks if they did work.

why would you if the tanks you put in are doing the job?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

why would you if the tanks you put in are doing are the job being destroyed in short order?

cfy

 

[Chz]

why would you if the tanks you put in are doing the job?

Because presumably your brand new tanks, if they work correctly, can just be sent over and do their job. Assuming you can keep a supply train for whatever they need going. T-62s sitting in a tank graveyard don't just get a quick wax and polish and top up the fuel tank and off they go. It's a lengthy, not-inexpensive process to activate a complex piece of machinery from reserve. Basically, if your new tanks work and you're not afraid they'll get destroyed in an instant, it should be less maintenance intensive to send those instead of reactivating things from storage.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Because presumably your brand new tanks, if they work correctly, can just be sent over and do their job. Assuming you can keep a supply train for whatever they need going. T-62s sitting in a tank graveyard don't just get a quick wax and polish and top up the fuel tank and off they go. It's a lengthy, not-inexpensive process to activate a complex piece of machinery from reserve. Basically, if your new tanks work and you're not afraid they'll get destroyed in an instant, it should be less maintenance intensive to send those instead of reactivating things from storage.

Not to mention that they will do the job better than half a dozen tanks of 1970s vintage or are supposed to. With the whole better armour, better weapons thing that is supposed to be why they were built

 

[discokermit]

you dont use a ferrari to drive down the shops. maybe hes saving the fancy tanks for if the yanks decide to send in troops after russia has beaten the euro armies.

 

[Chz]

Potential return of the V1 in the skies over Ukraine. Sort of.

Pulsejet Drone Flies, Could Have Big Impact On Cost Of Future Weapons

The pulsejet-powered Scitor-D reflects growing interest in low-cost, high-performance engines for decoys, one-way attack drones, and more.

www.twz.com

 

[The39thStep]

Potential return of the V1 in the skies over Ukraine. Sort of.

Pulsejet Drone Flies, Could Have Big Impact On Cost Of Future Weapons

The pulsejet-powered Scitor-D reflects growing interest in low-cost, high-performance engines for decoys, one-way attack drones, and more.

www.twz.com

Good to see that it can use sustainable ethanol-based biofuel (E85). Should help save the planet.

 

[yield]

This Prophetic Academic Now Foresees the West’s Defeat
NYTimes March 9, 2024 https://archive.is/TsI7P

In interviews over the past year, Mr. Todd has argued that Westerners focus too much on one surprise of the war: Ukraine’s ability to defy Russia’s far larger army. But there is a second surprise that has been underappreciated: Russia’s ability to defy the sanctions and seizures through which the United States sought to destroy the Russian economy. Even with its Western European allies in tow, the United States lacked the leverage to keep the world’s big, new economic actors in line. India took advantage of fire-sale prices for Russian energy. China provided Russia with sanctioned goods and electronic components.

And then the manufacturing base of the United States and its European allies proved inadequate to supply Ukraine with the matériel (particularly artillery) needed to stabilize, let alone win, the war. The United States no longer has the means to deliver on its foreign-policy promises.

People have been awaiting this moment for quite some time, not all of them as far from the corridors of power as Mr. Todd. Mr. Biden mentioned in his 2017 memoir that President Barack Obama used to warn him about “overpromising to the Ukrainian government.” Now we see why.

Mr. Todd contends that Americans’ heedless plunge into the global economy was a mistake. Parts of his case will be familiar from other authors: The United States produces fewer cars than it did in the 1980s; it produces less wheat. But parts of his case involve deeper, long-term cultural shifts perennially associated with prosperity. We used to call them decadence.

 

[tim]

Please do not ask how the UK trains compare to this level of efficiency


View attachment 414912

Please do not expect a company to be totally honest about it's level of efficiency. Do expect British trains on average to be faster than Ukrainian ones

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

.

 

[Chz]

One side effect of the war is that Russia used to be a very significant arms exporter, and now they're keeping everything they can manufacture (which is less than before - sanctions won't stop them outright, but it does slow them down) for themselves. This rearranges the arms export market somewhat.

 

[The39thStep]

One side effect of the war is that Russia used to be a very significant arms exporter, and now they're keeping everything they can manufacture (which is less than before - sanctions won't stop them outright, but it does slow them down) for themselves. This rearranges the arms export market somewhat.

Worth posting on the main thread imo. My theory is the more things of substance to discuss the less space for personalised attacks and repetitive spats .

 

[emanymton]

Worth posting on the main thread imo. My theory is the more things of substance to discuss the less space for personalised attacks and repetitive spats .

The one he did specifically on Russia is more relevant to the main thread I think. I'll post it there.