This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...
- Thread starter Nole Lou
- Start date
Wonder if these concessions will anger Putin's critics and cause them to finally act. (Hey I can dream!)
Putin will suck his dick for weapons. He’d toss that salad for a million artillery shells.
How Japan can provide weapons without providing weapons,
More speculation on Putin's health.
Images of Putin gripping his chair and squirming next to President Xi in Moscow have again fuelled speculation about his health. He was filmed limping during a visit to Crimea a few days ago and during a February meeting with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko his leg was shaking uncontrollably. Since Putin invaded Ukraine last year, rumours of his physical well-being have been rife, with a range of theories from cancer to Parkinson’s.
news.yahoo.com
Images of Putin gripping his chair and squirming next to President Xi in Moscow have again fuelled speculation about his health. He was filmed limping during a visit to Crimea a few days ago and during a February meeting with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko his leg was shaking uncontrollably. Since Putin invaded Ukraine last year, rumours of his physical well-being have been rife, with a range of theories from cancer to Parkinson’s.
Vladimir Putin’s health may be disintegrating and it should terrify us all
Images of Putin gripping his chair and squirming next to President Xi in Moscow have again fuelled speculation about his health. He was filmed limping during a visit to Crimea a few days ago and during a February meeting with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko his leg was shaking...
Didn’t Ukraine get some sort of security guarantee when they gave up their nukes? If so, why the hell would they fall for that promise again? Putin’s word or promise would mean absolutely nothing and they know it.
Personal goal/estimate...hit 200,000 dead orcs by May 15th.
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-imf-loan-package-russia-war-a88adb2e9778337d8655eeb268826ff8
The IMF is working on a large loan program for Ukraine, unusual for a country at war. Critically it does show confidence in reforms underway, and Western confidence.
The IMF is working on a large loan program for Ukraine, unusual for a country at war. Critically it does show confidence in reforms underway, and Western confidence.
Because this time Putin’s army has been whipped, and Ukraine will exit this war with large amounts of western armaments to protect themselves with.
There is poetic justice in the idea of a country under attack using its adversary's weapons against it.
No wonder Western observers have been thrilled by reports of Ukraine capturing hundreds of Russian tanks and turning them against the invaders. No doubt Western governments were happy, too: The more weapons Ukraine gets itself, the fewer that Western countries will have to give Kyiv from their own stocks.
According to Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA, the gear that Ukraine is repurposing includes tanks captured from Russia's elite 1st Guards Tank Army and sent back into battle at Bakhmut, the site of Ukraine and Russia's deadliest fighting.
While detailing a recent trip to Bakhmut during a March 13 event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment, Kofman described going past "a reinforcing tank platoon coming in from the Ukrainian side which was entirely made up of Russian T-80s that they had captured from 1st Guards Tank Army at Izyum."
"They were very easily identifiable," Kofman added. "You can see an entire unit composed of nothing but captured Russian tanks."
That the tanks were trophies from a 1st Guards Tank Army defeat must be particularly galling to Moscow. The unit earned fame as a Red Army formation from World War II. It was deactivated in 1998 but reactivated with great fanfare in 2014 as an elite, well-equipped force that became the Russian army's prime ground maneuver unit.
Deployed to Ukraine, 1st Guard Tank Army took heavy losses in several battles around Kyiv and Kharkiv and had to be withdrawn for refitting.
Russian troops in Ukraine have been quite generous with their equipment, leaving an array of hardware, some of it undamaged, for Ukrainians to capture.
Living off captured hardware may work for insurgents, but it doesn't work for armies that need advanced weapons for protracted operations, and Ukraine now faces the question of how long these vehicles will be in good enough condition to fight.
While Ukrainian mechanics have worked wonders to restore captured Russian equipment — aided by the fact that most of Ukraine's pre-war arsenal was based on Soviet-era designs — the fact is sustained operations with Russian tanks requires a stream of parts from Russian factories.
"They don't have the parts that keep a lot of these running," Kofman said. "So on paper you may capture a lot of vehicles, but you don't have the engines, you don't have the transmissions, you don't have the parts to keep them going."
While Ukraine needs tanks and will get use out of them, Kofman emphasized that ammunition and other spare parts are higher priorities: "First and foremost, it's artillery ammunition and replacement of artillery barrels. Alongside air-defense ammunition — that's missiles and what have you, and air-defense systems."
Interestingly, Kofman believes Ukraine doesn't need tanks as much as it needs armored vehicles to carry infantry into battle.
"Ukraine has very large brigades of mechanized infantry, but to be mechanized, they actually need to be riding on something. Otherwise Ukraine has a lot of manpower, not a lot of mobility," Kofman said at the Carnegie event.
www.businessinsider.com
No wonder Western observers have been thrilled by reports of Ukraine capturing hundreds of Russian tanks and turning them against the invaders. No doubt Western governments were happy, too: The more weapons Ukraine gets itself, the fewer that Western countries will have to give Kyiv from their own stocks.
According to Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA, the gear that Ukraine is repurposing includes tanks captured from Russia's elite 1st Guards Tank Army and sent back into battle at Bakhmut, the site of Ukraine and Russia's deadliest fighting.
While detailing a recent trip to Bakhmut during a March 13 event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment, Kofman described going past "a reinforcing tank platoon coming in from the Ukrainian side which was entirely made up of Russian T-80s that they had captured from 1st Guards Tank Army at Izyum."
"They were very easily identifiable," Kofman added. "You can see an entire unit composed of nothing but captured Russian tanks."
That the tanks were trophies from a 1st Guards Tank Army defeat must be particularly galling to Moscow. The unit earned fame as a Red Army formation from World War II. It was deactivated in 1998 but reactivated with great fanfare in 2014 as an elite, well-equipped force that became the Russian army's prime ground maneuver unit.
Deployed to Ukraine, 1st Guard Tank Army took heavy losses in several battles around Kyiv and Kharkiv and had to be withdrawn for refitting.
Russian troops in Ukraine have been quite generous with their equipment, leaving an array of hardware, some of it undamaged, for Ukrainians to capture.
Living off captured hardware may work for insurgents, but it doesn't work for armies that need advanced weapons for protracted operations, and Ukraine now faces the question of how long these vehicles will be in good enough condition to fight.
While Ukrainian mechanics have worked wonders to restore captured Russian equipment — aided by the fact that most of Ukraine's pre-war arsenal was based on Soviet-era designs — the fact is sustained operations with Russian tanks requires a stream of parts from Russian factories.
"They don't have the parts that keep a lot of these running," Kofman said. "So on paper you may capture a lot of vehicles, but you don't have the engines, you don't have the transmissions, you don't have the parts to keep them going."
While Ukraine needs tanks and will get use out of them, Kofman emphasized that ammunition and other spare parts are higher priorities: "First and foremost, it's artillery ammunition and replacement of artillery barrels. Alongside air-defense ammunition — that's missiles and what have you, and air-defense systems."
Interestingly, Kofman believes Ukraine doesn't need tanks as much as it needs armored vehicles to carry infantry into battle.
"Ukraine has very large brigades of mechanized infantry, but to be mechanized, they actually need to be riding on something. Otherwise Ukraine has a lot of manpower, not a lot of mobility," Kofman said at the Carnegie event.
Ukrainians are riding tanks captured from an elite Russian unit into battle in Bakhmut, but their new gear may not last long
Ukrainian mechanics have worked wonders with captured equipment, but long-term use of Russian tanks requires parts from Russian factories.
www.businessinsider.com
Looks like stuff made it through despite the caption
"TWO RUSSIAN NAVY WOMEN DESTROYED MARITIME DRONES IN CRIMEA The destruction of one of the marine drones in Sevastopol Bay this morning. The women who destroyed were presented with a state award."
"TWO RUSSIAN NAVY WOMEN DESTROYED MARITIME DRONES IN CRIMEA The destruction of one of the marine drones in Sevastopol Bay this morning. The women who destroyed were presented with a state award."
Can you imagine the morale issues for troops being assigned to those rolling s***wagons? Assuming they can make them run at all? Those tanks are as old as the ones sitting in town squares across the US. There is an old tank in Lone Tree that was built about the same time.
Imagine if you had told their builders that what they were building would get blown up in 2023 in Ukraine with their great grandkids inside
Slovakia offered US helicopters for giving jets to Ukraine
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — The United States has offered Slovakia 12 new military helicopters as compensation for the MiG-29 fighter jets the European country is giving to Ukraine , Slovakia's defense minister said Wednesday.
apnews.com
As part of the deal to turn over their MiG 29s to Ukraine, Slovakia will get a dozen US made attack choppers.
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Hell, the one that sits out in the elements and is frequently flooded on Credit Island in Davenport looks more battle ready than those relics!
Hell, the one that sits out in the elements and is frequently flooded on Credit Island in Davenport looks more battle ready than those relics!
M103, 120mm cannon. The last heavy tank used by the US military.
One of my favorite vehicles in War Thunder.
FWIW-if it is major in anyway it could at least be a feint.
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Spoiler Alert-they will not need those mattresses.
This makes me laugh, every single time.
