The Russia-Ukraine War has begun

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Tirellia]

Ukraine war: Russia moves to take direct control of Wagner Group - BBC News

This should be good.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

US is sending depleted-uranium ammo to Ukraine: WSJ

I just hope sincerely that the rest of the world pitches in together when this is all over so Ukrane can repair their damaged infrastructure and clean up the poison this war has left behind.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

US is sending depleted-uranium ammo to Ukraine: WSJ

I just hope sincerely that the rest of the world pitches in together when this is all over so Ukrane can repair their damaged infrastructure and clean up the poison this war has left behind.

Actually, one of the reasons I started to learn Ukrainian [besides the whole reading my eastern slavic family members' trees since they were in cyrillic] is because while the spouse and I can't really go and help during the war, we figure we might be able to go over and help in rebuilding.

-----------------

And it has occured to me that one reason that Nato isn't doing direct intervention is that.... if Nato did and Ukraine 'won', then Putin wouldn't be deposed and would just build to do this again, while if Ukraine wins, then the chances of a regime change in Russia is better and thus the chances of this happening again soon is lower.

But then that could just be my analysis of effect, and not have occured to western leaders. But I've a hard time believing that.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The reasons why NATO does not intervene directly are:

a) NATO is a defense treaty organization
b) Ukraine is not a member of it
c) despite all the shit loads of own propaganda and one sided reports we are bombarded with every day, NATO's decision makers don't want to provoke Russia too much due to the nuclear weapons arsenal at its disposal.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany and chief bully Andryj Melnyk is asking for more Leopard 2 tanks. Not the first time this ended in a clash with Elon Musk. The previous one was when Musk gave unwanted peace advise, Melnyk rejected that in his trademark STFU style and then Musk wanted to get either paid for Starlink or he will shut it down.

 

[Free]

"Small numbers of tanks are easily destroyed by anti-tank weapons & landmines. Best to have either none or a lot."

Then I guess "a lot" should be the answer.

And when did Musk become an expert on tank warfare? After playing a few hours of World of Tanks online?

 

[Veritable Quandry]

There is a major counteroffensive under way. Ukraine will have losses. But they appear to be regaining territory. That's what the tanks are for, not to be museum pieces. If they lose tanks and land then there is a problem.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

The reasons why NATO does not intervene directly are:

a) NATO is a defense treaty organization
b) Ukraine is not a member of it
c) despite all the shit loads of own propaganda and one sided reports we are bombarded with every day, NATO's decision makers don't want to provoke Russia too much due to the nuclear weapons arsenal at its disposal.

Yes, but Poland is - and guess what, there was that whole bombing that hit them instead of Ukraine. Also, if those nukes work, I'll be Musk. Because seriously, nothing else about their military has really worked, and if they had nukes, they would most likely have used them by now because someone is losing face daily.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Yes, but Poland is - and guess what, there was that whole bombing that hit them instead of Ukraine. Also, if those nukes work, I'll be Musk. Because seriously, nothing else about their military has really worked, and if they had nukes, they would most likely have used them by now because someone is losing face daily.

The problem is, it only takes one, and it doesn't even have to work better than, "Eh ... not too bad", which is pretty much the whole Russian relationship with mediocrity in a nutshell.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

And when did Musk become an expert on tank warfare? After playing a few hours of World of Tanks online?

His handle "BigDickBillionaire".

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

The problem is, it only takes one, and it doesn't even have to work better than, "Eh ... not too bad", which is pretty much the whole Russian relationship with mediocrity in a nutshell.

Sure, but.... the biggest issue with the Russian military is the kleptocracy - and pretty sure uranium is valuable enough to have been stripped and sold a long time ago.

 

[Soen Eber]

Then I guess "a lot" should be the answer.

And when did Musk become an expert on tank warfare? After playing a few hours of World of Tanks online?

He stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.

More seriously, the Dunning-Kruger effect has been demonstrated to affect people with a lot of knowledge as well if you follow the link(s).

 

[Casey Pelous]

Sure, but.... the biggest issue with the Russian military is the kleptocracy - and pretty sure uranium is valuable enough to have been stripped and sold a long time ago.

Good lord. Of course, you're right. Once again, I have seriously underestimated the Russian capacity for unrelenting ----- what is the word I'm looking for? Shittiness? Assholery?

I even rode on a plane from Moscow with one of our nuclear inspectors. He was hitting the vodka pretty hard and clearly was not accustomed to it. After explaining that he had been inspecting nuclear sites, he rather blearily told me, "These idiots --- some of their stuff is locked up with rusty $8 padlocks. Christ." Then he ordered another vodka ....

How could I have thought there was any possibility at ALL that it wasn't long ago stolen and sold, probably to Iran?

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Yes, but Poland is - and guess what, there was that whole bombing that hit them instead of Ukraine. Also, if those nukes work, I'll be Musk. Because seriously, nothing else about their military has really worked, and if they had nukes, they would most likely have used them by now because someone is losing face daily.

Well the problem with nukes is that you've got not the luxury of being wrong. In case you're wrong about it, well - then you've made some bad decisions on base of ideas instead of facts. Russia has enough nuclear power plants running right now, also some fast breeders. The sane assumption military wise is that their nukes are operational.

Furthermore Russian nukes were repeatedly inspected by Americans under the framework of the New Start Treaty. I am pretty sure if some nukes were not operational due to bad maintenance, that these inspectors would have found that out. It's also IMHO a sane assumption that the nukes which are based on the Russian submarines indeed will work in case.

 

[Sid]

I would not like to see gambled about Putin's moral attitudes towards life in general on this planet.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I'm just saying that, all things considered, if they still had working nukes, they would probably used them by now, because Putin's.... not exactly sane.