Ukraine

so far

What’s your first language?

Binary …

let me think…

He doesn’t care how many (of either nationality) he sends to the meat grinder.”

The same about/Blair / Obama /Bush etc and many other world leaders .

I’m not a fan of Bush or Blair, Obama was quite different from those two. However, Putin is an order of magnitude worse than any Western leader since the Vietnam war, and even then, he’s still worse (because he won’t quit peacefully like Johnson and Nixon did). The invasion of Iraq was a colossal blunder, but the West’s military strategy was not to just indiscriminately murder and torture civilians in the way that Russia’s strategy has been. Yes, a lot of civilians died, that will always happen when there’s warfare in urban areas, but that’s not the same thing at all as simply telling your soldiers to loot, murder, and rape on a massive scale as the central part of your strategy.

Your boy Putin is up there with Hitler and Stalin on the war crimes list, plus he’s losing this war badly. You’re on a hiding to nothing trying to pretend otherwise.

Binary …

😂

I think when it was obvious Ukraine was willing to fight the West had to decide to just stand by and watch or to support Ukraine with arms.

There had been some support prior to the start of the war (lots of trainers over there since 2014) but if you look back to just prior to it the general expert consensus was that the Russians would win the conventional war quickly although there would be a good chance of it ending up as a guerrilla war. In which case the NLAWs and other light weapons would still be very useful for the Ukrainians whereas something like a HIMAR would just be a donation to the Russians.
After the Russian decapitation strike failed and it became obvious the Russians were performing about as far below expectations as the Ukrainians were exceeding expectations it then became more viable to start providing the heavy weapons.

There was also strong resistance to provoking Russia, which is why NATO would never have accepted Ukraine and why they wouldn’t sell Ukraine long range missiles.

Ironically once Putin evaded the threat of provoking the bear was removed, now there’s talk of ever more powerful weapons being sent to Ukrainian AF

Putin loses NOthing. he is not the sort of man that worries .AS long as he lives , he will live well . He has way too much money and way many contacts and favours . The west allowed him to grow into a huge machine . His control over things is unreal. fuelled by fear or greed . Many take the greed side as its well rewarded . Even low grade “friends” of him in London etc receive roughly £200k cash a month to spend and all their rents paid for .These rents can be £15k a week . He is far cleverer than just about anyone else and very well trained . Ruthless and one of the best “gangster Type” leaders the world has ever seen . Unless someone kills him, we will be dealing with a very dangerous situation .And if someone does kill him….. They will not do it to restore the country etc , they will do it to be “Gangster number 1” .

He is far cleverer than just about anyone else and very well trained .

Yes he is a master strategist. A 4D chess player of the highest order.

His military campaign in Ukraine has been a work of genius.

I spotted “18D Chess Player” earlier, quite liked that one.

His military campaign in Ukraine has been a work of genius.

Might as well talk to your toaster.

Putin loses NOthing. he is not the sort of man that worries .AS long as he lives , he will live well . He has way too much money and way many contacts and favours . The west allowed him to grow into a huge machine . His control over things is unreal. fuelled by fear or greed . Many take the greed side as its well rewarded . Even low grade “friends” of him in London etc receive roughly £200k cash a month to spend and all their rents paid for .These rents can be £15k a week . He is far cleverer than just about anyone else and very well trained . Ruthless and one of the best “gangster Type” leaders the world has ever seen . Unless someone kills him, we will be dealing with a very dangerous situation .And if someone does kill him….. They will not do it to restore the country etc , they will do it to be “Gangster number 1” .

Pure comedy genius.

So how’s the Swinley riding going, BTW?

Thats the thing, When did I say I was going to Swinley Forests ?

So how’s the Swinley riding going, BTW?

I assume they will be doing it on Zwift 😉

Thats the thing, When did I say I was going to Swinley Forests ?

Swinley forest : Early mornings weekends?/

36DD chess morelike

This tbo thing is all very bizzare.  I wish it would FO as it’s derailing a useful thread.  Which I suppose is the intent.

What’s with the spaces before full stops thing? I’ve noticed you do that a lot. What’s your first language?

Russian obvs! Doubt there’s many native English speakers in St Petersburg. But let’s not educate (let alone feed) the troll. He’s trying his hardest, but he’s about as credible as a chocolate teapot. And as useful. Still, he probably has a minimum number of posts to fulfill on a daily basis, so we can expect some more nonsense in due course.

As for our resolve. Can’t speak for other European countries, but for all our faults, as a nation we’ve never liked megalomaniac jumped-up dictators. And we have a particular dislike for Nazis. And be under no illusions, Putin’s regime is a Nazi regime, viz: Destruction of free press, crushing of free judiciary, jailing of political opponents, demonisation of population groupings (internal and external) to create a unity if hate, slavish devotion to a fatherland type ideal etc etc.

We’ve shown before (and by we I mean the man and woman in the street) that we’ll put up with years of degradation and devastation of our living standards in order to fight for the greater good. And I’d like to think we’ll do it again. And furthermore we’ll do it in the knowledge that whatever hardships we face, they are nothing compared to what the Ukrainians are/will be facing and we’ll do it in the knowledge that facing down a murderous dictator like Putin is until in everyone’s (including the Russians’) best interests

Thats the thing, When did I say I was going to Swinley Forests ?

Swinley forest : Early mornings weekends?/

Try reading it then……. facts are facts , so you will see when i was thinking of going . So Nil point for trying to be clever !

Russian obvs! Doubt there’s many native English speakers in St Petersburg. But let’s not educate (let alone feed) the troll. He’s trying his hardest, but he’s about as credible as a chocolate teapot. And as useful. Still, he probably has a minimum number of posts to fulfill on a daily basis, so we can expect some more nonsense in due course.

You seem to be delusional .

This bot or troll is clogging up a useful thread.  I’ve reported one of his posts, it might help if others do the same so the bouncers can turf him out onto the pavement (wrong kind of 510s for Swinley).

“Bot or troll…… ” ! wow, the fact is a few people seem so insecure they think everyone is a Bot /troll if they get a brain wobble about posts etc . Then they try to quote and i kindly remind them they have made fools of themselves .Its helps to READ whats written .Swinley been the case . Facts are facts …!

too bloody old
Free Member
You seem to be delusional .

too bloody old
Free Member
Putin loses NOthing. he is not the sort of man that worries .

LOL. This was Putin when he got news that his army had just run away and left all their weapons behind for Ukraine.

a few people seem so insecure they think everyone is a Bot /troll

No, just you.  You’ve been asked several times, what’s your first language?

Its of no concern of yours

This tbo thing is all very bizzare.  I wish it would FO as it’s derailing a useful thread.  Which I suppose is the intent.

It’ll only get derailed if anyone responds to him! Honestly, just ignore completely and it’ll just be the odd random interjection that makes even less sense. I realise me even posting this is perpetuating the problem. 🙄

FFS, can we get the thread back on topic please?

No, just you. You’ve been asked several times, what’s your first language?

Please, just stop engaging it – that’s EXACTLY what it’s hoping to achieve

A question for the armchair warriors on here.

Should we (NATO) train UAF on NATO MBT’s and aircraft over the winter, ready for a spring offensive?

Or are the logistics and maintenance too much for them to learn in a few months?

From what happened in the Gulf Wars, surely a load of Challengers, Abrams and Leopards would tear up those T-72’s?

FFS, can we get the thread back on topic please?

Actually I was going to derail it a bit in a different direction. Sorry!

Can one of the resident Geopolitics experts ELI5 the background of Armenia / Azerbaijan? I know of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020, and that RU is an ally of Armenia, but what’s the wider context? Turkey are broadly pro-Azerbaijan? And Iran aren’t?

This tbo thing is all very bizzare.  I wish it would FO as it’s derailing a useful thread.  Which I suppose is the intent.

Which is also why NAFO exists, except instead of having to rely on bots and employees. You get volunteers, and theyre all unique.

Can one of the resident Geopolitics experts ELI5 the background of Armenia / Azerbaijan?

yes, I’d like to know the same. In a different thread please if it’s genuinely unrelated or likely to be distracting.

@Doris5000

Cant vouch for any of this but might be worth a look

If the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict heats up again – my favorite sources from the region are:@Caucasuswar for combat videos @khalfaguliyev for geolocations@aghavalyan for the lolz@cavidaga for translations of Azerbaijani sources @A_Melikishvili for regional analysis

— Thomas C. Theiner (@noclador) September 12, 2022

Edit, just followed one of those handles and found a report on a Ukrainian family identifying their murdered father as he was being exhumed. So you may want to give that a pass.

The analysis handle.

All good questions and warrant their own thread 🤷‍♂️

Should we (NATO) train UAF on NATO MBT’s and aircraft over the winter, ready for a spring offensive?

Or are the logistics and maintenance too much for them to learn in a few months?

My understanding is that the American gear is extremely maintenance intensive and the U.S. military rely on civilian contractors for most of it. That means that Ukraine would need to sort out contracts for maintenance. I think German armour would be much better for Ukraine’s needs, but I don’t know much about tanks and armoured vehicles, just that the turbine engine in the Abrams is expensive to run and maintain. HIMARS can handle the interdiction stuff much more cheaply than an F16 anyway, best to just stick with that.

Javelin’s etc seem to be making a good mess of the Russian’s tanks anyway.

Drones… Cheaper , safer . Who know what Drone technology is been used by Ukraine or other SF troop units etc there. But given state of art stuff or others using them on Ukraines behalf is a lot better than Tanks etc .

Once this is officially over I hope that Ukraine gets invited to be a part of NATO and as part of its economic recovery it becomes part of the EU.

When Putin gets ousted, what happens? Will whoever takes over go ‘we’re under new management, let’s renegotiate those sanctions’ and the world just treats them like they did before?

Is there an opportunity to give them a chance at democracy and better align their politics with the rest of the world?

Eg we’ll lift some sanctions if Russia agrees to open elections with EU/US/whoever representatives over seeing them?

Should we (NATO) train UAF on NATO MBT’s and aircraft over the winter, ready for a spring offensive?

I would also go with maintenance and supply being a problem. That said I wouldnt be surprised if some are being trained up on F-16s or similar less for a spring offensive but longer term.

Armchair Arms Dealer says Saab Gripen.

Lower maintenance, easier to disperse.

My thoughts are not my own.