Yskonyn

I was expecting Chickens

you have to suppress the chickens before renewing the assault.

The Russians really don't like chickens, do they... First the close combat assault with the sticks, but apparently that was beaten back, so they now have to call in artillery against the feathery fiends.

LOL the good old I was just asking questions defence. Asking odd / bad / misguided / misleading questions can still be part of or help the enemy propaganda. Any facility that has some danger surrounding it would be a concern during war. Take nuclear power plants same thing. We should be concerned that the Russian army fights for or takes control of anything that could be dangerous. Obviously. But to say it is concerning does not indicate some nefarious activity is going on there. That's a supposition that has no basis and therefore should be dismissed. If someone comes up with some actual evidence of nefarious activity sure ask way but to conclude that dumb questions are being dismissed means nefarious things is incorrect.

Every single country has biolabs researching pathogens, unless it's an absolute backwater ****hole with zero medical research budget.
Because to produce meds you need that stuff you are targeting with meds to test meds against.
Saying that "omg a country has biolabs with dangerous viruses" is a great argument only for absolutely uneducated people who have zero clue about how medicine works. E.g. not very intelligent conspiracy consumers.

The sound on backgroud is a Russian commanders talk about this shelled unit  (intercepted by SIGINT):
-  Nitro, I'm Udar (eng. "Strike")
- Allo
- Nitro, I'm Udar, I listen you
- Udar, I'm Nitro. I almost lost 6th regiment
- What?
- 6th regiment! I can't report for now! I'm rallying them. Too much of losses... We awaited... The head of column was ambushed. The commander of regiment get lost. For the rest - I'm still figuring it out...
- Now, when will rally of all, when understand situation, you have to report me. 
- There was artillery hit! Tanks! UAV! As I see Bayraktar is flying! I'm figuring out with a losses
PS. Location is almost the same place that Shiled of Kyiv campaign, but some SW %)

I'm also a Cold War kid, and I must admit that this feels different. The whole MAD doctrine is based on both actors being rational.
Two questions: How crazy is Putin really? Could he launch if he wanted to?

Everyone said war with Russia was inevitable during the Cold War too. I spent 10 years as an Army officer during the 70s-80s. We pretty much expected that we'd never grow old.
Yet I just turned 65 and retired. War with Russia never happened, despite numerous proxy wars and some (many?) close calls.
This is in no way to minimize Ukraine's plight at the moment, but I think the inevitability and doom predictions are not a new thing. 
I'm not in any way an expert, (give me a target list and I can blow it up, but grand strategy, international relations is above my pay grade) but I believe the aid being provided coupled with the sanctions Russia is coming under will do the job, without increasing the possibility of US/NATO forces coming into direct conflict with Russian forces. That's the thing that during the Cold War, both sides went to lengths to avoid. 
Dave

I am hoping that this is something that comes out of this war.  Corruption happens when finances are not transparent and banking regulations are weak.  EU membership for Ukraine has not been held up by any fear of Russia, but by corruption in Ukraine.  The unity Ukrainians have found and the willingness to sacrifice for their nation needs to be harnessed post conflict.  It should become a national effort and a national security concern to resolve this regardless of EU membership or not.  And this goes not only for Ukraine but for all.  Deutsche Bank has a long history of managing Russian funny money that has to stop.  There are states in the US becoming versions of the Cayman Islands.  That has to stop.  London and US real estate as havens for oligarch money - has to stop.  Want to make it difficult for authoritarian leaders - stop the cash flow that enables them or at a minimum make it visible.  This is supposedly the information age.

I find it difficult to criticize EU dependence on Russian oil when the US does the same with the Saudis and basically fell flat after they murdered Jamal Khashoggi.  Face it.  We are all hostages to the petro states.  The US just happened to pick ones incapable of invading Europe.

I think mistakes were made, to say the least.  In reality this is going to likely go down as a massive Russian strategic failure, possibly nation breaking but we would be remiss not to look in that mirror and recognize that it is also a western failure writ large.  We collectively run the planet (casting nervous glance at China) and as such this mess that took 20+ years to happen has to come home to roost on our decision making.
As to the NATO argument, I guess what sticks is that every former eastern bloc nation who has joined NATO did so of their own free will and for very good reasons.  What happened is akin to watching a man with three wives he abused for years beating the one who stayed behind and blaming the other two who left.  Yes, technically he might have just spread the abuse more equitably but how on earth does that equation get right?!  The US was using the same strategy that won the Cold War, enticement and Russian response with a strategy of bombing or threats of bombing, followed by more bombing cannot compete, and that is not on us.  
I think we in the West do need to take a long hard look at how we basically went past "letting it happen" to "enabling because we like cheap gas and were to busy with our own crap".  I am Canadian and frankly the lines we fed ourselves for over 30 years of a utopian liberal humanistic new world order, and kept smoking right up until Feb 24th meant we lost sight of just how nasty the world was really getting and failed to do anything about it.
I hope that some lines are re-drawn as a result of this and we try and realize that things like freedom and democracy come at costs that every generation must pay, not just the ones in the movies. 

Nope, you are wrong. NATO will defend all it's members, including the Baltic states. If Ukraine would have been a NATO member, NATO would have gone to war. Period. The fact that NATO isn't 'ready' is no matter in that respect. NATO will and can fight AND WIN if necessary. Although I emotionally understand you and would like to see military action from NATO, I rationally know that it's the right decision not to intervene military.
I also resent your remark about 'the little indirect help NATO provides'. NATO is doing all it can, except going to war. It's sending impressive arms deliveries and does everything to weaken the Russian war economy. Even if NATO was fully prepared for an offensive ground war, it would be extremly dangerous to do so and risk a nuclear escalation.
Apart from that NATO/EU is doing all it can to help the millions Ukrainians who are fleeing their country. And the West is risking it's economy in order to discourage and punish Putin for his aggression.
Again, I understand your emotions, but a little gratitude towards your only friends is in order.

Finally was able to catch up in this thread.
First and foremost I would like to wish every forum member affected by the war all the strength, courage and hope in this awful time! Especially to our Ukranian friends! Slava Ukraine! 
Thanks everyone for contributing. It has been a total surreal experience to be able to see news popping up in this thread often well before mainstream media picked up on it.
Also thanks to this great community to keep sharing the extensive knowledge that’s been on display here while also keeping the discussion on topic, free from slander, attacks on each other and trolling (at least it never escalated). It goes to show how excellent and mature this community is.
I have little military knowledge to inject into the conversation, but I wanted to add the above to show my respect.
Let’s hope the war will end sooner rather than later and we can all go back to playing games instead.

A very inspiring leader. Such men can make all the difference. 

Give John Kettler some respect.
He is a CM legend - you loudmouths don't own this forum and you haven't earned the right to slag off at him.

Hey all, there's so many posts that it's easy for someone to miss something.  So there's some duplication.  But multiple posts duplicating complaints about multiple posts then me saying let's not worry about posts about multiple posts takes up more space than simply ignoring multiple posts and posts about posts about complaining about multiple posts. 

That touched my heart. Watch till the end.
 
 

There are different camera angles in the footage I provided and all. This would be way too much work to edit. And there is another video of the same meeting and exact same moment with a higher resolution where it looks perfectly normal. This is most definitely video compression artefacts. And why would you not simply green screen him with the microphone already present on the footage before editing it? Makes zero sense sorry.
Also have you ever considered the fact that the super long table he used during the talks with Macron could have been some sort of psychological trick? It is a common trick to destabilize your interlocutor. Having him sit on a slightly smaller chair etc. He did just that with Merkel who is known to dislike dogs by having one in order to make her uncomfortable.

I don't think Putin is ready to quit just yet personally. The land bridge to Donbas could be a way to save face and cut his losses but Mariupol is bound to fall sooner or later and then that would probably free up a lot of troops and the Russians could resume their advance towards the north. I don't see them achieving anything in the Kyiv meat grinder anytime soon unless the forces coming for the north east can reach the Kyiv suburbs.
There is one thing that makes a bit cautious though and that's why I try to remain measured : this war is covered in such a way that it is akin to a boxing match where you only get to see one half of the ring and one single boxer. You see one boxer taking a lot of punches but even though he is clearly fumbling a lot you are not really seeing how many of his own punches are landing.
Clearly the Russians are getting mauled but it is bound to take its toll on the Ukrainian side too in the long run and who knows how far Putin is ready to go.
 

Guys, youre all smoking somrthing super funky.
NATO getting involved is not going to happen.
It's fundamentally a defensive alliance. 
"Imposing a no-fly zone" is not the correct description of that action, instead it's - "attacking Russian air & AA forces" without provocation or military cause.
RUS needs to attack first.
If NATO attacks first  then that just makes Putin's narrative come true and he'll just go YOU SEE!? YOU SEE!? and boom he wins the narrative, will never EVER be kicked off and solidifies the victimhood/grievance bull**** as self evident fact.
Let it go, you're wasting post count, my friends.
 
 

They could try but passenger airliners are not really tooled up to move gas.  They could move troops and other classes of supplies.  However, civilian airliners are not setup to fly in warzones, they don't have defensive systems or an ability maneuver like military aircraft can (e.g. approaches tend to be much longer and the MANPAD bubble has to expand to meet it).  To use civilian aircraft they would need to look at a SEAD corridor but you a now taking 100km long security/control operations type stuff.
Honestly, it would be easier to start a pipeline than use an air corridor in my opinion.

Finally was able to catch up in this thread.
First and foremost I would like to wish every forum member affected by the war all the strength, courage and hope in this awful time! Especially to our Ukranian friends! Slava Ukraine! 
Thanks everyone for contributing. It has been a total surreal experience to be able to see news popping up in this thread often well before mainstream media picked up on it.
Also thanks to this great community to keep sharing the extensive knowledge that’s been on display here while also keeping the discussion on topic, free from slander, attacks on each other and trolling (at least it never escalated). It goes to show how excellent and mature this community is.
I have little military knowledge to inject into the conversation, but I wanted to add the above to show my respect.
Let’s hope the war will end sooner rather than later and we can all go back to playing games instead.

Finally was able to catch up in this thread.
First and foremost I would like to wish every forum member affected by the war all the strength, courage and hope in this awful time! Especially to our Ukranian friends! Slava Ukraine! 
Thanks everyone for contributing. It has been a total surreal experience to be able to see news popping up in this thread often well before mainstream media picked up on it.
Also thanks to this great community to keep sharing the extensive knowledge that’s been on display here while also keeping the discussion on topic, free from slander, attacks on each other and trolling (at least it never escalated). It goes to show how excellent and mature this community is.
I have little military knowledge to inject into the conversation, but I wanted to add the above to show my respect.
Let’s hope the war will end sooner rather than later and we can all go back to playing games instead.

Finally was able to catch up in this thread.
First and foremost I would like to wish every forum member affected by the war all the strength, courage and hope in this awful time! Especially to our Ukranian friends! Slava Ukraine! 
Thanks everyone for contributing. It has been a total surreal experience to be able to see news popping up in this thread often well before mainstream media picked up on it.
Also thanks to this great community to keep sharing the extensive knowledge that’s been on display here while also keeping the discussion on topic, free from slander, attacks on each other and trolling (at least it never escalated). It goes to show how excellent and mature this community is.
I have little military knowledge to inject into the conversation, but I wanted to add the above to show my respect.
Let’s hope the war will end sooner rather than later and we can all go back to playing games instead.

Finally was able to catch up in this thread.
First and foremost I would like to wish every forum member affected by the war all the strength, courage and hope in this awful time! Especially to our Ukranian friends! Slava Ukraine! 
Thanks everyone for contributing. It has been a total surreal experience to be able to see news popping up in this thread often well before mainstream media picked up on it.
Also thanks to this great community to keep sharing the extensive knowledge that’s been on display here while also keeping the discussion on topic, free from slander, attacks on each other and trolling (at least it never escalated). It goes to show how excellent and mature this community is.
I have little military knowledge to inject into the conversation, but I wanted to add the above to show my respect.
Let’s hope the war will end sooner rather than later and we can all go back to playing games instead.