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SWIFT isn’t the only system; granted it’s the biggest but I think expectations should be tempered.
Indeed that was part of the argument about cutting them out. As it is if they are on SWIFT then interested parties can snoop in allegedly but if they switch to another system then that removes some quite handy "features".
Which option gives the best long term outcome is way beyond me and I suspect even those who have a good idea of the short/medium term impacts.
Anyone wondering why the petrol bombs being made by Ukrainian civilians are also partially filled with polystyrene?
It adds as a spacer so less fuel is needed to fill them but I don't see any positives in that, so does it have a nasty interaction with the petrol upon impact perhaps?
I've managed to melt styrene with solvents over the years and it goes very sticky, could it form a very cheap but not so cheerful "napalm" analogue?
Makes it tacky like a wax....
Like a diy napalm
I see, nasty stuff to get hit with.
Yes, adds stickiness. Washing up liquid does similar apparently
Russian banks removed from SWIFT. this is significant as the banks will have no money within days. IMO, The people will turn on Putin. Will the oligarchs stand for this, or will they fund a coup?
I think he’ll be out within 2 weeks.
I was wondering this. It would be ironic if he was poisoned.
Russia bought an f-ton of foreign currency to hedge against a run on the rouble, Reuters
Looks like Kyiv is being hit hard tonight.
Putin bs gs. There's proof.
Day one, it looked like China had Putin's back and if things went swiftly then we thought we'd be starting a Taiwan thread.
Day two and China sits on the fence a bit.
Day three, Erdogan starts sticking the boot in and Kazakhstan turns down request for troops.
All Putin needs now is a bit of trouble in the Caucasus (not a euphemism) or unrest in the Stans.
So who are Putin's friends just now?
Lukashenko
Assad
Kadyrov
I can't thinmnof anyone else who has expressed any support.
.
China are being very non-committal, I suspect waiting to see how it plays out before choosing a side. India likewise. Not heard anything from Iran. I'm surprised at Kazakhstan, their government probably owes its survival to Putin.
I'm very worried my comment earlier about a domino effect is coming true. Putin is facing a massive squeeze from all fronts that limits his options. He'll never surrender so the question is what will he do when he's cornered?
The whole thing has me bricking it.
I was going to type exactly the same andrewh, only I was going to add that Kim Jong Un has yet to tweet out his disapproval!
Right now I can't see what a 'victory' for Putin would look like. A swift victory and regime change may have emboldened China but I reckon the Chinese now see Putin as Kim Jong Un 2.0, China is still run by the CCP, whereas Russia's destiny is now in the hands of an irrational nutter.
Watched this film again for the umpteenth time, let’s hope we have end such as this
Anyone found a good way of explaining the current situation to kids?
My 11yo daughter is asking a lot of questions at the moment.Anyone found a good way of explaining the current situation to kids?
My 11yo daughter is asking a lot of questions at the moment.
We just talk to them about it. We’ve even had a family discussion about what we would do if we faced a similar situation in our country.
I'm as worried as you jumper but on the whole I think this is reminding some what democracy is all about. A generation has grown up viewing despotic nations in a very different light that which they were seen before the 90's, even though those countries are essentially the same now as they ever were.
I genuinely think that younger people see Russian and Chinese youth in Nike's and doing a dance on tik-tok and think they are 'free like us'.
And people wonder why kids expect everything on a plate? Look at the examples we've put forward for them. Half the properties they can't afford to buy are owned by crooks, the football club they love is owned by crooks, the government that governs them is owned by crooks and for half of western Europe, the gas they burn is bought off of crooks.
We live in a society that gifts and enables crooks. We have litteraly told a generation that working hard, following the rules and paying taxes is for chumps. We are telling them the system has failed so best cheat your way out. Or win the lottery...
SWIFT isn’t the only system; granted it’s the biggest but I think expectations should be tempered.
It may as well be. I’m currently working on a project that uses SWIFT. No other payments transport mechanism comes close. To make payments any other way needs two parties willing to use that other route. That’s time consuming and expensive. The volume of messages that are routed via Swift are in the millions a day, you Can’t manually handle those volumes
How effective are anti-tank missiles? I know tanks don’t move very fast compared to planes but they do have flares and chaff and probably ECM don’t they?
The main thing about portable anti-tank weapons is that they're meant for shorter ranges and line of sight, limiting time in flight and time to counter.
The RPG-types aren't going to be troubled by counter-measures, but they're not really effective against a heavy tank.
Move on a generation and you've got wire-guided missiles that are "flown" by the operator. More effective against heavier armour, but only one-shot until the target is hit and the operator is waiting to get one in return. These can have a range of 2+ miles.
Move on again and you have IR-imaging, potentially open to counter-measures, but fire and forget and the the operator can move and reload. Better versions combine UV with IR because flares look different under UV compared to an engine
Our latest is the Next Generation Light Anti-Armour Weapon (NLAW) with Predicted Line of Sight (PLOS). The operator tracks the target for a couple of seconds, the weapon predicts the target track and then fire and forget as above.
The reason that modern anti-tank weapons have such "fat barrels" is the increased warhead size. RPGs achieved that by hanging the warhead out of the front.
I will add that I've no experience of any of these, only WOMBATs, so there's plenty of room for corrections to be issued 🙂
I really hope this turns out to be true.
Edit: looks like the link isn't going to work, you'll have to type the dirty word in yourself 🙂
There’s hope for Bond yet then
(Sorry, gallows humour)
Elon Musk has tweeted that starlink services are active in Ukraine with more terminals en route. Will the Russians be blocked from it or could it be used by their forces?
Cant we FEDex our Javelin anti aircraft batteries out there?
Eventually the Russian airforce will overpower the Ukraininans , by attrition alone.
Yes its old tech from the 80's, with upgrades but we have a few and they are being replalced by StarStreak anyway.
No need to worry about IFF if your planes are on fire or being repaired. If it flies, shoot it down.
Think they are mobile enough to enable fire and move to new location to stop anti radar HARM or drone targeted missile retaliation
@stretch… Starlink needs a dedicated Starlink receiver. Reception is location specific, so if your device is in a new cell area, “resident” devices have traffic priority and you get the dregs (or even potentially SFA if it’s a popular cell). It also depends on a subscription.
Tobias Ellwood banging the drum for a NATO no fly zone regardless of how Putin might react to us shooting his plane down.
I'm not convinced that's wise. He's coming across as very hawkish.
I think the only way we'd get a no fly zone would be with open dialogue and back to putins stance as its a peace keeping mission.
As soon as a nato jet goes near there it'll be just another nudge to a direction no one wants
Reading more than a few tweets from intelligence and related posters suggesting that the RF are looking to fall back on older tactics of huge use of MLRS, large scale tank units, and infantry to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses. Coupled with offering talks in Belarus...
Come and talk, otherwise...
As soon as a nato jet goes near there it’ll be just another nudge to a direction no one wants
The chair of the Defence Select Committee doesn't seem to get that....
Anyone know if the NATO AWACS sorties being flown over Romania and Poland will be close enough to provide early warning for the Ukranians against air raids? I’m guessing they’re getting satellite intelligence of Russian troop movements too?
Tobes isn't showing much military nous; his is one of a number of hawkish voices who should know better.
huge use of MLRS
Can the experts here please expand the acronyms for the benefit of the rest of us?
Multiple Launch Rocket System. Basically those trucks which throw out loads of missiles at the same time.
It's interesting watching the news today, it seems like Putin is having to wage a substantial propaganda war at home; banning use of the words "invasion" or "war" by media, focusing on "special operations" in the SE of Ukraine...
With protests, a lack of aligned international (Chinese) support, etc, could this actually be the start of Putin's undoing? He's becoming a liability for his oligarch buddies.
He’s becoming a liability for his oligarch buddies.
I think the level of mistrust among them is probably his saving grace. If you saw his security council meeting, it could be well believed that if someone assassinated him they would all collectively be relieved. But they would never trust anyone who suggested they be part of a plot, and would probably grass on any such conversation just in case.
I was googling Von Staufenburg to make a point that sometimes people will try to remove a leader they consider a liability even at great personal risk.
Turns out there were quite a few, including a couple of suicide bomb attempts
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassination_attempts_on_Adolf_Hitler
… although the daughter of the Press Secretary briefly posted an anti-war comment on Insta. I wonder how that went down.
After watching the latest news update on Ukraine, I can't see them holding out much longer in Kiev and the other eastern cities. NATO needs to act now by creating a no fly zone over Ukraine and police it with jets. It's so upsetting watching the Russians advance into Ukraine whilst the whole world watches, the whole time sitting on their hands.
NATO needs to act now by creating a no fly zone over Ukraine and police it with jets. It’s so upsetting watching the Russians advance into Ukraine whilst the whole world watches, the whole time sitting on their hands.
The reasons for not setting up a no-fly zone have been discussed several times now. It would be a massive escalation
If reports are to be believed, a column of Chechen special forces got obliterated, losing 56 tanks and a top general.
Was I alone in hoping that these murderous thugs would be on the receiving end of some extra special attention?
MLRS multiple launch rocket system.
Also sometimes referred to as GSRS - grid square removal system.
If reports are to be believed, a column of Chechen special forces got obliterated, losing 56 tanks and a top general.
I just came here to post that.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/meaww.com/amp/magomed-tushaev-top-chechen-general-reportedly-killed-ukrainian-forces
Link. No idea how reliable that site is though
It’s so upsetting watching the Russians advance into Ukraine whilst the whole world watches, the whole time sitting on their hands.
How many more people do you want to die? This is the calculation being made.
So much propaganda around at moment it’s hard to say but really hope it is true. It’s very rare I wish harm on anyone but those ****ers are just another league.
By contrast I could feel a little more sympathy for the ordinary Russian soldier, but I will reserve that until we see how long Ukraine can hang on.
Also just spotted Chelsea’s 24 word statement on war - pretty shameful.
So who are Putin’s friends just now?
Lukashenko
Assad
Kadyrov
I can’t thinmnof anyone else who has expressed any support.
Can we add Trump to that list?
Much as I dislike it active NATO involvement would I think play into Putin’s hands. We should do absolutely everything we can short of that though.
NATO really just have to stand by the sidelines until the Russians do something that contravenes law, then they can use that as a reason for using peacekeeping options.
All the talk of what weapons the Russians will use are only valid if the Ukrainians were daft enough to face the Russians in an open environment, they're not that daft, and a defending force, MLRS, etc are all pretty redundant in urban environments, and if used, could lead to NATO getting that foot in the door.