panzermartin

There are no Stalin monuments in Berlin. Just Soviet army ones. While not a cemetery It's sort of a memorial for the dead. We have soviet monuments for the fallen here as well. They were vandalized with Ukrainian symbols and graffiti.

Guys you are being very short sighted sorry, cruising along with the shallow cancel culture. Here we have german paratroopers cemetery in Crete, German soldiers cemetery in Attica, Turkish monuments, venetian, franks monuments, all the freaking occupiers that walked this earth. And we respect all that no matter what, you vandals.

Yes this is s**t sorry.

Because I found this a bit strange: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule

I understand. Also the initial aftermath of the collapse of Soviet Union and the unrestrcited opening to the West didnt really help I guess. One thing I haven't clear up about that period. Did Putin really asked to join NATO back then, and got turned down? Or is it an urban myth.

I think we could give a break to DMS living on the other side of the hill . Why should an average Russian trust the West when the last time the "most advanced European nation" crossed their western borders they were sent to concentration camps, died in gas chambers, and executed en mass as untermenschen. They were actually treated like orcs back then too, ridiculed for their standard of living, their tech, their ways of fighting etc. When they reached the priviliedged germans in their hometowns they were enraged by what they saw, the wealth and the comforts they couldn't even imagine. Why on earth would these people that had everything came to their motherland to loot and kill peasants. I firmly believe the current situation is partly linked to the WW2 aftermath. They also spent the "happy" post war years with nuclear weapons pointed at them behind an iron curtain with their adversary already having used them on population twice. They have a very different narrative of the World and it will take ages to overcome.

What happened to those happy to go to war Syrians from one month ago ? Never heard from them again.

Thanks, great insight on the war of the drones over Ukraine.

On the M113, I have only be transferred inside a cramped BMP 1 but I would probably feel the same safe in an open top SdkfZ from 1939

FT claims companies In Germany, Austria, Italy and Hungary have decided to go ahead an pay russian gas in rubles. It's behind pay wall and not sure how accurate this is.

Yes probably in Ukraine they didn't expect the full scale of reactions... But in the long run, If they weren't preparing for a NATO clash at some point, I wonder why they had been developing more and more advanced ICBMs. I don't remember a country getting into a World War by mistake. They must have thought all the possible outcomes when they invaded Ukraine even if their first phase was miscalculated and botched. Imagine the generals informing Putin that they can't hit more targets in Ukraine because they have run out of microchips and they should call it a draw. Maybe we are overestimating this, and they do have surplus of this stuff but even isolated Iran with far less resources is building an arsenal of advanced missiles and other systems. But then again, they might be serious about the nuclear thing and that was always the only backup plan in case of an initial shock invasion didn't work and they had to go to prolonged warfare.

It's crazy though that Russia who was always preparing for war against NATO (or not?) didn't take into account that it can't manufacture its own advanced systems in case of a prolonged war and total embargo. Waging a national war in a multinational universe.

Well, I won't disagree on that.

Very harsh words from official chinese lips, I think I haven't heard before. "Stop holding the candle to the devil" ?. Wow. Maybe this clears up some things on where China stands in the event of a World wide clash.

Also probably not a good time to say something like this, but I really dig the Soviet made hardware primarily of cold war period as much as I dig German WW2 designs. There is some distinct character and aesthetics from the early mig jets to the elegant Su 27 and probably the T-72 is my favorite post WW2 tank design. The weirdness in some of these soviet designs make them stand out to the rather boring boxy clean cut looking NATO etc. (Yes, sorry for not contributing serious content again, please move on:) )

Great input , basically looks like a long lasso rope with explosives. I would be very uncomfortable as crew with a chain of TNT "sausages" catapulting above my head. One of the strangest vehicles I've seen.

I haven't seen a thing like this. Quite bizarre to see in action. Not sure how this works clearing mines.

Although Macron is another neo liberal bankers puppet, his win against Le Pen is a relief. As a french writer said , between the slap and the punch we have to chose the slap. The situation in EU the next day would be dire otherwise. But as war goes one, the crisis deepens, the pressure on welfare and on middle class increases, right wingers won't go away and will keep rallying the disappointed. I hope Marcon will keep that in mind.

And oh, BTW if China proves to be a worse monster than Russia (we are all seeing what's happening in Shanghai), Germanys energy sins with Russia, might seem tiny compared with the investment and dependence of West in chinese industry. It will be funny to see all those people blaming Germany through their 1300 USD Chinese made iPhone.

Re: the Z mobilization. I think it might happen sooner or later. If Ukraine gets more and more arms, capable of hitting Russia or even Crimea, forces RuAf out etc, and there is a direct threat to the russian population with a (real) possibility of retaliatory ethnic cleansing in occupied territories we might see a dramatic Putin one day on TV addressing the nation. "Russia is under threat again like in WW2" "Our people are being killed by NATO weaponry" "Our only choice to stand up" etc. The possibilities of unrest are slim at the event of such "nation threatening" situation, with the state becoming more and more punishing and authoritarian. if we so far had no signs of significant part of population being against the initial invasion of 24Feb, I don't see how this will change under the barrel of a gun. When was the last time Russians rallied against a war (or anything for that matter ). But probably this won't happen before more dramatic events unfold, possibly escalation between China and AUKUS, the Solomon Islands was another step in that direction . We are unfortunately in a WW3 path and I would be surprised if there are no under the hood Russo-Chinese contacts...(But then I hope I'm being pessimistic again)

Is it possible that they are tunnels in Azovstal leading out of the encirclement, or they could dig them somehow, at some point it is possible the russian forces will get bored watching over them. 1500-2000 people are not a small force. And a lot russian forces will be sent towards donbas or Kherson in the meantime. If they are very low on critical supplies though it's difficult to avoid surrendering.

I guess night fights are not so dark as I thought. Edit: Flares would be a nice addition to CM On a second thought this doesn't look like Donbas. Looks like footage from Iraq war or something else

I see a pattern of Russians attacking at night or is it my idea. This probably to reduce the effect of drones and AT infantry assets perhaps. Also their air force less prone to shoulder launched AA missiles.

I used that word because Machor used it to describe the Turkish invasion. It's still an invasion by Russia.

Indeed the news are not confirmed, although they are still circulating in major news sites. I won't be surprised if this happens in future though given the increasingly russian influx. And we shouldn't trust russian words right? Honestly, about the NATO bases in Turkey , whatever I have read indicates a nearly idle situation and I haven't heard any major operation from Incirlik, contrasted to the past years which was very active. A lot has changed since. The Syria campaign, the coup against Erdogan with many in Turkey blaming some degree US involvement. The epicenter of US operations has shifted towards Greece with the new Alexandroupoli base and existing Suda Bay base. https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_us-military-base-turkey-has-uncertain-future/6180061.html On the 1974 while you are correct, it was practically a pretext like what caused Russia to intervene in Donbas, though people here would prefer the word invasion. That doesn't change though the impression that Turkey has the attitude to act on its own against international law and its own alliances and getting away with it. Whatever measures the West took they simply weren't enough to punish Turkey for killing and displacing thousands of people and occupying 40% of the island for half a century now. It's an ongoing disgrace if you ask me. Ps. I want to add that I'd love one day all this hostility would belong to the past. We are very close as people. I have turkish friends that have fled the country because of Erdogan. Like in case of Russia there are mainly poor, rural areas that are mainly feeding support to the regime.