[RD] Russia invades Ukraine: Part II

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Looks like the T-90M doesn't fare much better on real battlefields.

Probably looks good on parades though.

Russian tanks look good in general. As long as they have their turrets on.

they fare better, the ones I have seen still had their turrets attached.

Lol, beat me to it!
 
Russian tanks look good in general. As long as they have their turrets on.



Lol, beat me to it!

That's alright they'll just recycle a T-72, give it a new paint job and whatchamacallit.

Then add some Letters and numbers afterwards and hype it up. New T94-BMS4 da comrade best tonk in wurld!!!
 
Wake up, Monday, open news, Russia bombs school in Luhansk which is used as shelter. Business as usual these days.

I hope Russia has a nice party celebrating the killing of civilians.
 
Or the EU rearms and back to the 19th century?
Well, in a way we already are back in the 19th c. The EU is rearming, but that's not the 19th c. aspect most prominent on display – it is that coalitions win wars. Trying to hack it alone as an aggressive militaristic power tends to not end well – be it Imperial France, Imperial Russia, Imperial Germany and now, again I guess, re-imperial Russia under Putin.

The great oddity is that Russia has managed to walk itself into this kind of situation. It's almost as if the grasp on actual history is somehow tenuous... gasp! You need a full coalition to pull this kind of crap successfully.
 
Putin just held his speech; we are none the wiser on what Putin does next with regards to the war in Ukraine. No mobilization announced; no declaration of war. No declaration of victory either, so my prediction turned out to be wrong.

Regarding NATO, Putin claims that NATO is assembling forces near Russia's borders with the possible intent to invade Russia; Russia will not accept this (interpret this as you want).

In conclusion the speech was 'softer' than most people expected, which might indicate that Putin is preparing the Russians for a Ukraine war that will not deliver the desired outcome for Russia. Is this Putin starting to climb down & de-escalate? I don't know. Sergei Shoigu was there, being paraded around in a car. No appearance from Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov so far.

Now the parade of troops and hardware is moving along.
 
Wake up, Monday, open news, Russia bombs school in Luhansk which is used as shelter. Business as usual these days.

I hope Russia has a nice party celebrating the killing of civilians.

Don't worry, Russians have been conditioned to believe that their case is just and sacred; no amount of slaughtered Ukrainians will shake their resolve to ... slaughter Ukrainians. Fascism has crystallized and is in good shape.

It's a rather long documentary, but it is a priceless insight into darker corners of Russian mindset

Some people can't watch the vid. Look it up in YT "Russia: A small town clings to its Soviet past"

Then add some Letters and numbers afterwards and hype it up. New T94-BMS4 da comrade best tonk in wurld!!!

No need to overcomplicate things, one letter will do. The first letter of the word "Zwastika" is sufficient today.

russians-want-war.jpg
 
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Putin just held his speech; we are none the wiser on what Putin does next with regards to the war in Ukraine. No mobilization announced; no declaration of war. No declaration of victory either, so my prediction turned out to be wrong.

Regarding NATO, Putin claims that NATO is assembling forces near Russia's borders with the possible intent to invade Russia; Russia will not accept this (interpret this as you want).

In conclusion the speech was 'softer' than most people expected, which might indicate that Putin is preparing the Russians for a Ukraine war that will not deliver the desired outcome for Russia. Is this Putin starting to climb down & de-escalate? I don't know. Sergei Shoigu was there, being paraded around in a car. No appearance from Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov so far.

Now the parade of troops and hardware is moving along.
So for now they will muddle on.

Otoh given the level of scrutiny, mobilization would have given away the game that the "police operation" is not going well, so would a declaration of war – unless on NATO (actually dangerous) – and Putin clearly isn't going to stop this by declaring "victory", and having the Russians go home (would be seen through, not least in Russia).

If that is what they do, probably they will pull out all stops to find new manpower for "policing" in Ukraine short of a general call-up (but no state of war/emergency means they can't quite force soldiers to fight in Ukraine as it is).

Still the most probably development in Ukraine then is that the Russian armed forces run out of offensive capability to the point where the Ukranians start pushing them back, probably slowly, as the Russians switch to hold taken ground – more WWI style artillery duels between trenches it seems.

Otoh if the focus on May 9 is a problem, then a Russian declaration of war and/or general mobilization may still occur anytime afterwards. In which case things get more difficult for Ukraine, and Russia can keep doing this for quite a lot longer. And if Russia starts actually pushing the Ukranians out of their own country consistently, the question arises if NATO, and the EU, will simply stand by and watch this happen – meaning increased danger for everyone.
 
And if Russia starts actually pushing the Ukranians out of their own country consistently

Been happening since 2014, got worse in 2022. Millions fled abroad as refugees, millions displaced within Ukraine (myself included).

In Kherson, where the invaders are introducing the Russian ruble into circulation, they also plan to populate the apartments of local residents who were forced to leave the city, with "temporary migrants."

An excerpt from the document from the occupation administration:

"It is ordered to provide lists of apartments, the owners of which left the city of Kherson, for the transfer of empty housing to temporary migrants who arrived from the zones of active hostilities"

Those who are unfamiliar with finer details of Ukraine-Russia history: the same style demographic warfare happened in Crimea in 1940s when the indigenous Tatars were deported to Siberia to be replaced by mainland Russians, or after 2014 when lots of "fresh" Russians migrated to the peninsula.
 
Putin just held his speech; we are none the wiser on what Putin does next with regards to the war in Ukraine. No mobilization announced; no declaration of war. No declaration of victory either, so my prediction turned out to be wrong.

Regarding NATO, Putin claims that NATO is assembling forces near Russia's borders with the possible intent to invade Russia; Russia will not accept this (interpret this as you want).

In conclusion the speech was 'softer' than most people expected, which might indicate that Putin is preparing the Russians for a Ukraine war that will not deliver the desired outcome for Russia. Is this Putin starting to climb down & de-escalate? I don't know. Sergei Shoigu was there, being paraded around in a car. No appearance from Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov so far.

Now the parade of troops and hardware is moving along.

Air display got canceled due to weather apparently.
 
Been happening since 2014, got worse in 2022. Millions fled abroad as refugees, millions displaced within Ukraine (myself included).
Well, obviously. I'm just reading the tea-leaves with the current May 9 2022 situation in Ukraine, as far as we know it, as the baseline.
 
Probably bad weather over Ukraine in the recent months where it has been raining Stingers and Starstreaks.
Maybe a Kremlin fear of a squall of something similar over Moscow even? If someone pulled that off, it would be all over the internet in a New York second. Very hard to explain away too.
 
You occasionally have good points other times you imply killing people or turning a blind eye.
Buddy, this thread is about a war. If you want to tsk tsk people for "implying people should die", there's a bunch of other posters you should maybe look at first. "kill the other side" is relatively baked-in. You're supporting it by supporting arming Ukraine.

I'm not saying anyone's stance is therefore right or wrong, but the whole "implying killing people" is a weird objection to make in this thread, of all threads.
 
Maybe a Kremlin fear of a squall of something similar over Moscow even? If someone pulled that off, it would be all over the internet in a New York second. Very hard to explain away too.

I suspect they don't trust their own airforce - and rightly so, it would be a very tempting target for any rogue pilot.
 
Well, Putin's speech was really restrained. No nazis, no declaration of war, no mobilization, no declaration of victory, no traitors, no nukes. I was actually surprised, I don't think there is an intent from his side to escalate. While he was putting flowers on Odessa's war memorial in the Kremlin, the Russian navy launched 4 cruise missiles at the city. Classy.
 
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He did say something in the lines of "Nazis of Ukraine supported by NATO" in the first minute. Didn't hear it myself, a second-hand account. Can't endure listening to him longer than a couple of words.
 
I suspect they don't trust their own airforce - and rightly so, it would be a very tempting target for any rogue pilot.
I'm thinking more if the Kremlin might be thinking about the risk of a smuggled in Stinger or two on a couple of Moscow rooftops? If they then low-fly that advertised huge Russian Doomsday-government-escape-plane as a target over Moscow...
 
He did say something in the lines of "Nazis of Ukraine supported by NATO" in the first minute. Didn't hear it myself, a second-hand account. Can't endure listening to him longer than a couple of words.
Can confirm – he clearly came out praising the Russian troops, promising them victory in "their" land, against specifically NATO-backed Nazis – but most of all Putin hammered home that this war was utterly, totally, unavoidably, completely necessary – Russia just HAD to got to war, and did so, so no one is allowed to blub about it, and everyone might have to fight it, one can surmise. He trotted out an impressive line of pure inventions in order to make this argument of course.

Which means this conflict – however the current fighting in Ukraine turns out – is for the long haul. And it is important that Russia loses it.
 
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I'm thinking more if the Kremlin might be thinking about the risk of a smuggled in Stinger or two on a couple of Moscow rooftops? If they then low-fly that advertised huge Russian Doomsday-government-escape-plane as a target over Moscow...

That seems hard to accomplish - but someone crashing his plane into the podium in Red Square, that's perfectly doable.
 
Buddy, this thread is about a war. If you want to tsk tsk people for "implying people should die", there's a bunch of other posters you should maybe look at first. "kill the other side" is relatively baked-in. You're supporting it by supporting arming Ukraine.

I'm not saying anyone's stance is therefore right or wrong, but the whole "implying killing people" is a weird objection to make in this thread, of all threads.
There's a clear aggressor, so the sides are not on equal footing re responsibility.
 
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