panzermartin

I swear if I ever read again that the Red army was equally evil with the SS and the Wehrmacht that made my father starve as a kid and his friends getting killed while painting slogans on walls, I'm going to delete my account here. There was nothing evil with the T 34s rolling down the streets of Berlin in 1945....Their crew could have been Ukrainian, Polish, Czech... Too bad I once had fun making mods for CMBB. Some had crosses, some had red stars, noone was actually offended.
It's still a WW2 monument, not a stazi agent bust. 

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. 
 

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. 
 

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. 
 

No. That is a disgrace.
I've been to that war memorial - back when it was in East Berlin, and since reunification. I've also lived by a German war cemetery on the Siegfried Line, seen countless British war cemeteries, visited Verdun and seen war memorials from all sides from literally dozens of wars on several continents.
Do not ****ing disrespect war memorials.

Surely it's a long process. LongLeftFlank brightly described it here. Mix of bribing elites, soft power, sabotage, new proxy wars. It will work someday. NATO was slowly, but persistently moving to the East, incorporating more and more economics, like steamroller. Some politicians tried to stop it and were overthrown with ease. Russia is bigger than other countries, but as LongLeftFlank said, it weakens. At some point new intervention, like in 1918, is possible. Not open invasion, but some sort of proxy war, using bribed local elites, during political crisis. Nothing impossible.
This is quite possible while Russia has this type of economic system. If it won't be changed, country will fall. It's ironic that you don't like Putin, but to throw off Russia from the table you need him to stay. You are a bit too optimistic (№7,8 - really?), but long term trend is correct. 
Yugoslavia broke the previous generation. They were really pro-western, like Ukrainians now days. Bombing of Belgrad was like cold shower. "Are we the next?" Obvious parallels, Kosowo and Chechnya.

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. 

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. 

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. 

That were Lybians (Popasna). Locals from Zaporizhzhia oblast told they have seen some arabs too, but probably Syrians. They were well equipped, didn't use the violence to civils, but all time was asking them to eat somethng and often was stealing chickens.

About drone usage, there was interesting interview of Aerorozvidka volunteer UAV unit commader. There is no need to give all text here in Ukrainan, so main things:
- Ukrainan units have huge advantage in tactical drones of close and average zone. He says in some moments about half-dozen of DJI or AUTEL drones can fly over battelfield. Russians have small drones like Granat and Zala, but only in special units like recons, when UKR units sometime have commercial drones even on the level of mech.platoon (but most usual of course are recons, AT-teams, HQs, mortars etc). In avarage class we are using Leleka-100, Furia and PD-1, they all have about 50-100 km of range and 1,5-2 hours of endurance.
- But the main problem - Russia has huge advantage in operative level drones. This is about Orlan-10. It can fly 16 hours and sneak up to 600 km in autonomous mode (120 km in guiding mode). It can carry various equipment - optic, thermal, ELINT, SIGINT, EW. New modification, which was adopted since 2017 alraedy has 5500 m of ceiling instead 5000 m, its control lines became more stable for EW, so UKR forces have minimal chances to shot down or to hijack new version of Orlan-10 if the weather is clear and Orlan flies over 5000 m. Even our newest EW systems often can't do nothing. Our commander said Orlans is hovering like a bees over battlefield and monitoring situation on battlefierld almost all 24 hours. This caused many problems on open terrain, because Russian HQs get information and transmit it to artillery
- TB2 Bayraktars became to use mostly for recon missions and don't approach to frontline too close. Since the war became more positional, Russians deployed many AD assets like TOR and Pantsyr, which dangerous for TB2. Today's operation near Zmiinyi island became possible only after destroying of Moskva cruiser (huge floating SAM platform) and destroying of AD assets on the island. But on the other hand TB2 already several times used for strikes against facilities on Russian territory. 2 or 3 TB2 were shot down. 
- Other problem the same both of UKR and RUS - low integration level of drones to weapon systems and information systems of battle control, especially for close zone drones. For example, only Furia can make targeting and automatic fire adjustment. Other drones can maintain only visual adjustment and if you need to know coordinates with better accuracy than "on eye" from the screen, you should return drone back, take a memory card and visually match the image with a map.     

Dolphins used to protect the Sevastopol base
According to the Washington Post, citing the US Naval Institute, a think tank close to the US Navy, satellite photos suggest the Russian Navy is using dolphins to protect its ships anchored in Sevastopol. The images provided by Maxar Technologies show two enclosures that were set up in February, explains the daily.
According to H.I. Sutton, a naval forces analyst, "these dolphins could be used to counter Ukrainian divers who would try to enter the port to sabotage Russian warships", the port of Sevastopol being beyond the range of Ukrainian missiles.
In 2019, a fearless beluga wearing a harness surfaced in Norway. Local fishermen claimed the animal came from the Russian naval base in Murmansk.
The US Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to protect its naval installations in San Diego, recalls the Washington Post.
 
 

Source was from inside Gazprom. Multiple EU countries have denied this and referred to united response and line in this matter.

From FT today 11:00 am:
Some of Europe’s largest energy companies are preparing to use a new payment system for Russian gas demanded by the Kremlin, which critics say will undercut EU sanctions, threaten the bloc’s unity and deliver billions in cash to Russia’s economy.
Gas distributors in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are planning to open rouble accounts at Gazprombank in Switzerland in order to satisfy a Russian requirement for payments in its own currency, according to people with knowledge of the preparations.
The groups include two of the single largest importers of Russian gas: Düsseldorf-based Uniper and Vienna-based OMV.

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. 

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. 

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. 

The employment of the UR-77 in urban combat appears to be becoming common, seen here in Rubizhne:
Everything you ever wanted to know about the UR-77, with footage from its novel use in Syria:
Reminds me of the 'Stuka-zu-Fuss', seen here in the Warsaw Uprising:

In the broadest terms, from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine-clearing_line_charge) :
"the basic design is for many explosive charges connected on a line to be projected onto the minefield. The charges explode, detonating any buried mines, thus clearing a path for infantry to cross. The system may either be human-portable or vehicle-mounted. The systems do not guarantee clearance of all types of mines."

UR-77 mineclearing vehicle usage in Mariupol
 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

My pension scheme wouldn't have been possible without the iron ore trade with China. Sad but true it is a little bit more than a $1300 iPhone. 

While I think it's good that political pressure is kept on Germany to 'stay with the herd' ;-), I think people are too harsh on Germany. While this Scholz figure isn't my favorite politician (not that I have many about which I'm even positive lol), he barely had time in office when the invasion started. 
Although parts of their arms industry has continued to flourish, from my experience many German people still have an open wound regarding the 'war' and as such they are vehemently opposed to any German participation in any war efforts. 
Probably it will take time for Germany to take leadership in these affairs. However plenty of German weapons have find their way to Ukraine. Also; it seems we're sending some of our (bought from Germany) PzH-2000 to Ukraine and Germany has offered to train Ukrainian crews and will provide ammo. 
I think Germany has a good number of PzH-2000 in storage, maybe funds can be organized so various NATO nations can 'buy' these and forward m to Ukraine.