dan/california

Well if the pattern is consistent we should get a troll through here in the next week or so, shedding wolf's tears about the "inhumanity of this terrible war" and how we need to stop it now.  Of course the way to stop it is to cut off funding to Ukraine and force them to the negotiation table.  To which we will ask - just like last time - "What f@cking table?!"

This is so true. Russia was one of the guarantors of Ukraine's sovereignty. Look how well that held up. 
I don't get why people keep saying that Ukraine should just negotiate/make a deal with Russia. Any deal made will only last as long as Putin wants it to last.
Dave

I think patriots are higher on the list than ATACMS actually. It is glide bombs and cruise missiles seem to be what is hurting Ukraine the worst. If they could impsoe enough air denial to really reduce those it would take a lot of the pressure off. The calculus might be different if they got enough of the right kind of ATACMS to drop the Kerch bridge. But if they get enough missiles to do that it would reflect a major change in the Biden Administration's approach to this war. They would need enough not just to do that, but to REALLY press the other Russian supply links to the land bridge for it to really count.

your attempt to play the both-siderism game is pathetic and shows an incredible amount of ignorance, both in historic and in current events.  What Gingerich did was completely unprecedented.  What McConnell did was completely unprecedented.  And Trump is off the charts for breaking both norms and laws.  ANd where on the left are the insane ones that are wielding power?   Where's the dem Matt Gaetz?  MTGreene?  American democracy is on the brink and it is due to one side and one side only.  Guess what --  Biden won't attempt to throw the country into a civil war to unlawfully try to cling to power.  Trump's been doing that for last 4 years, including a full on mob-coup attempt that left people dead.  So just WTF are you even talking about?  Clearly you've been watching Hannity or some other bull**** monger and now you are parroting their bulls--t.
So stop watching Fox & newsmax.  It makes you look like a damn fool.
Oh, and please respond by telling me how it's the dems fault the GOP held up UKR aid for 3 months.  Dems aint the ones on Putin's payroll.  
 

The dose makes the poison.
Looking from the outside, there is absolutely zero equivalence between the two parties. None at all.
There are ... odd individuals in both, but at the party level only one is utterly dysfunctional.
Theres also this inconvenient reality:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_federal_politicians_convicted_of_crimes

Fundamentally this is a thread about the Russo-Ukraine war that is (unsurprisingly) pro-Ukrainian. So the U.S. political party that refused to bring aid to a vote is going to catch the most flak here. And like yea AOC might be destructive to some process but she isn't destructive to getting Ukraine the materials the country needs to fight the Russian invasion. The House vote tally was overwhelming for aid so why wasn't there a vote on the aid 6 months ago?

Like I don't want to talk about gun rights, or schools, or abortion, or any number of other U.S. hot button topics. But I've been sitting here for ~6 months watching as one particular party refused to allow Ukraine what it needs. And frankly I'm not an unbiased observer about this and its one of the reasons I stepped away from the thread for a while. Its hard to come in here to hear and see bad news about the war and then be non-partisan about the partisan politics that are getting Ukrainians killed. Like if you trawl this thread you will see video evidence on nearly every page of real soldiers and civilians who died needlessly for some partisan BS.

 
 

This.
+their PsyOps campaign targeting "illegitimacy" of Zelenskyi after 31st of May. GUR chief Budanov told today that "hard times await Ukraine in second half of May and June, but nothing apocaliptic will happen" - and he meant i.e. Russian attempt to rise "Maidan-3", especially if this is accompanied by front failures and further destruction of power generation.  
Russians wrote most of UKR tanks moved on rear lines further from Lancets. They episodically move to zero line - to support infantry if need and roll back. Though, you can see regularly UKR tank and light armor losses in Oryx team reports, so they still in use. Now is a time of infantry and drone war. Why too few videos of artillery usage? Lack of the shells. Serviceman of 43rd arty brigade (PzH2000 + Pions) wrote they have so few shells, that mostly maintain own vehicles, than fire. Also in conditions of shells lack almost all UKR artilelry battalions obtain FPV pilots speciality - this gives them opportunity to hit the enemy, though not on so big ranges, like with guns.  

Found this in the thread of the GOBLN:
Ukraine has developed a drone mine-detector called “Brave 1”. It can survey 3000 m2 on a 30 minute charge. The drone scans the surface and creates a map of metal containing objects using GPS tags. It grades the size of each detection and attaches photos or video of the ground.

Nervous video how UKR Bradley disembarks infantry squad and takes back two soldiers hiding in crater - remains of other squad, which was pushed from tree-plant by Russians. Despite Russians already control this tree-plant, crew of Bradley has driven close, supressing Russians to take wounded soldier. Also you can see a body of probably UKR soldier, who was killed during retreat, alas there wasn't time and opportunity to take him aboard
 

Let's cut people facing an existential threat for them and their families a little slack. My country has plenty of things to regret under far less serious circumstances.

As a lawyer you should know better that it's much more than just an 'attitude'. It's an entire legal framework underpinning the political ideology of liberal democracy.

Yes the west can sponsor whomever they like, the enemy of my enemy and all that, but there is much more going on here with the particular case of Ukraine because Ukraine has made it no secret that it aspires to joining the EU. As a matter of straightforward facts:-
Ukraine will never join the EU if it does not uphold EU law - indeed it has to adopt EU law in order to be a member. Membership means compliance with the ECHR and its rulings. The ECHR enforces the core principles laid out and agreed upon by the union of liberal democratic states. Some of those principles cover the protection of minority groups and protection of individual freedoms etc.. This is just the way it is. You cannot cherry-pick the core ideas of liberal democracy anymore than you can cherry-pick the legal framework and membership of the EU.          

well Congress may have woken up.  Seems they recently heard about all the appliance theft by Russian troops so now they are focused on eliminating that threat.
 
Don't worry Haiduk, we got your back!  😕

That attitude is a huge mistake - this is what keeps the ranks of the West's enemies are always full. If the only ones who are worthy of support are those who share the - rather unique-  views of the West on social issues such as homosexualism, religion, ethnic minorities etc. then it is no wonder that finding allies in places such as Africa and Asia is difficult. Kabul University tweets about graduation of the gender studies class a couple of months before the Taliban stormed Kabul come to mind. It is an unforced own goal on part of the West.
If the aim is to defend the post-Cold War order against an attempt to change borders by force of arms, then every victim of aggression deserves to be supported, regardless of his social policy. Think Kuwait 1990-1991.
 
 

I "hope" this thread stays titled how hot Ukraine's gonna get, in the near future. 
There are clear axises colliding in an expanding battlefront and nothing will surprise us anymore. Especially since we witnessed something us unimaginable as Russia storming a European capital. Everything is connected in a way or another. There is Russian presence in Syria, and there are Iranian drones in Kiev. 
But yes, for now makes sense to keep this thread clear off other conflicts. Like we wouldn't discuss WW2 North Africa and European theatre in the same thread. 

Steve, apologies. I wasn’t clear enough at the top to say the connection in my opinion is the impact on Ukraine’s hard-pressed airdefenses. Shortages are already an issue of course, and the heavy expenditures in both the Houti/USN engagements and now this much larger sequence represent a significant expenditure of missiles in the region. Patriot launchers and missiles are in short supply in Ukraine and I doubt this event will make expanding Ukraine’s supply any easier. I hope I am wrong, and this proves to be a case of (twisted?) honor restored and the situation simmers down a bit.

A good interview with a UAF Bradley commander. I don't think it was posted here, or I couldn't locate it.
Here he describes what makes a good crew function, somewhat CM related of veteran versus green crews:
 

Unjustified? Like the assassination of an Iranian general?

Interesting ... will they also add on some aid for Ukraine?
 

Lets not drag gender politics from twitter into this when so many more interesting things are happening.
I believe this will remain a missile/drone campaign to further reduce already low AD stocks in the west and divert attention, cause instability and uncertainty. 
Lets see how much AD the US suddenly has available if Israel asks for it.

Yeah, we gotta have cost-effective drone interceptors. Missile interception is gonna just be more expensive just by nature of the speeds and energies involved, unless we put a bunch of orbital nuke-powered platforms up, ie your jewish space lasers.

Mark Hertling CNN talking about the potential for a well-coordinated attack stretching the stocks of ABMs to take out the missile attack, then followed by the drone attack soon after, making that effort more difficult. His concern is whether other bad actors like Hamas and the Hutis and Hezbollah (?) also launching attacks timed to add to and try to overwhelm Israeli air defenses. USA naval assets are likely to augment those air defenses.
Realizing that this may be off topic, I am thinking that the need to restock ALL combatant nations is ramping up the free world’s scarce resource of all the various missiles necessary for air defenses. Ukraine of course already facing a daily drain on its stocks. 
 
edit - would seem highly likely that a ton of  money could be made investing in the several companies that produce the various components of these missiles.

I don't believe anymore in "innocent people". Neither in Russia, nor in Gaza, nor in Iran. Sorry.  

Israel hasn't a border with Iran. Well, maybe Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon. So, they mostly will be needed in long range weapon, which USA rejected to give to Ukraine. Guys. Wake up. West, stucking on "tolerance, multiculturalism, diversity, inclusive, 100500 genders, LGBT, BLM, coala saving and carbon trail" lost sense of reality in that time, when dictatorships were arming, using western technologies to contest post WWII world order. WW3 is coming. It will not be like WWII, It will begin like several distant regional conflicts tied with one goal - to weaken West. And then... If this probes are not stopped, the global clash will begin. So, Iran-Israeli conflict maybe it's not good for us in short perspective, but probable weaken of Iran it's a good for future. If some of "Evil Axis" will get bright blow at own teeth, than less probability that West will fight directly in huge global war in nearest 10-15 years