Kraft

On the topic of western aid, the total number of ATGMs supplied to Ukraine by France has been declassified. The number of missiles remains classified, in an effort to maintain strategic ambiguity.

I thought this was the leading theory as to how the situation can and will be resolved in the end? How would they even pressure him if they cant go around his block?

You're saying the wait was for this logistic train: One would think, "urgent need for action" came within 22 months? Lets meet next year to discuss "simple answers" again, btw "its not possible" is the simple answer, it just magically throws away government responsibility. Trademark Scholz excuse too, for things that wound up happening mere weeks later. When it just so happened to become "possible". Dont confuse political will with military limitations, we are talking about the USA that can move entire Divisions around the globe in a matter of days. Im sure they can handle a repair shop.

Yes I corrected the text, similarly, comparison with Iraq or Saudis does the same.

Training for Leopard started in February 2023. They were in active combat, in June 2023. Had there been the will to send these tanks in 2022, they could have been ready by the time the Kherson/ offensive took place/had commenced. It started even later. This is analog to every other weapons system. The "not possible" is just a moral veil for "not in the interest".

Did I say direct involvement? No. My example involved the units that drove into minefields, or as you called it "recon in force". Now, I surely dont have the military education, but least I invoke the russia is hanging on by mere threads idea, this was mostly true during the first counter offensive, which literally saw police, swat and !sailors! in trenches, had they stopped an armored push the size of 5-7 brigades without minebelts, hedgehogs, bunker and tunnel networks, no FPV or Lancets, and closer to parity air power? Or would it had been a complete collapse? You tell me. Now say, that instead of 1970s scraps and rusting cold war stock, more units with the hundreds of available Bradleys and Abrams were involved, the outcome would be the same? But alas, here we are, 2 years later and Kerch bridge attacks upset Mr Putin is still the talking point by which aid is denied. Whatever it takes, though.

Vietnam war saw US soldiers die by soviet and chinese equiptment, how much was the US willing to accept before sending nukes to the soviet union for that? cumulative 1.395 trillion purely military aid, 1.765 trillion infrastructure by soviet union. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01495R000500050038-4.pdf Using inflation calculator, cumulative rate of inflation at 594.6%, thats equivalent to 9.690 trillion military aid in todays worth, killing GIs. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ but sure, sending 31 abrams and a one-use atacms delivery after 2 years is equivalent to cold war tension and escalation. Im not sure, did the soviet union also start by debating whether rockets would be too much to send??

How many tanks, planes, cruise missiles were lost prewar? Oh right, there were none. I specifically mentioned day 1, today would look a lot different had there been the forces that ended up driving into a 40km deep minebelt, which was only possible because of weak and undecisive aid, ready in year 1 when russia was throwing ship crews into trenches.

Chicken and Egg. This war would be over had any major western power fully commited on day 1, instead of discussing if sending 3 boots and a bandage more would upset putin. It will be over if the political games in US and Europe continue on and on, that kill service men and women every day.

It is the most opportune moment before the speaker is bypassed and billions in aid arrive.

Its about 1 km on foot over an empty field from Stepove to Berdychi, even without artillery that would barely work given FPV and a few MGs to hold them in place. Then another 1km before they can really touch defensive positions properly. They could do it at night, but Bradleys there have thermal so even more disadvantage. According to the marks there, they tried to cross on foot too and received drones.

Bradleys are my favorite IFV now, if only they could take on T-90s in CMBS

Making artillery production dependent on China, thats a very big brain move.

Source

They are on that road because they willingly decided to go and kill the defenders at the end of it. They could have started a mutiny, surrendered, gone to prison for resistance, but reality is they volunteered most likely for money and because they belive in it.

40 minutes and filled with details appears to me pretty genuine, especially considering russias "quality" in other faked content so far. - Taurus discussion starts at 5 minutes in - No one has a clue why Scholz is blocking Taurus - They hint at US soldiers being there and confirm UK troops on the ground overseeing the targeting. - They also confirm the UK troops would be willing to work with Taurus so German troops dont have be there. So thats another blatant lie from Scholz. - UA learned patriots within weeks and surprised the crews how good they are used - Stormshadow/-- mounts can be modified to fit Taurus relatively easy - hitting easy targets: few weeks - Hitting the bridge seems difficult, Stormshadow/-- got shot down quite often? Training will be 4-6 months - Stormshadow and Scalps are pretty much all used and UK/FR want Germany to deliver Taurus before sending more themselfs - Only single digits amount of Su-24 are left Next question, how the **** does russia get access to this?

Under the right conditions, Canada open to sending noncombat troops to Ukraine, Defence Minister Bill Blair says https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/under-the-right-conditions-canada-open-to-sending-noncombat-troops-to-ukraine-defence-minister-bill/article_eec6806c-d71d-11ee-91fb-ab92d0af803e.html

Data before january on positions is not accurate as tracking didnt start properly then.

Yes, those comments tend to come more from people not involved at all with the war who mostly base it on common stereotypes, while I feel most of the russia sucks crowd is following the war but for the most part just what ends up on twitter. I would argue current russian army in relation to ZSU is the best it has been since before the war. They have found strategies with which to overcome large defenses, poor troop quality and low morale. Those are btw higher than during the first year of the war, while those who volunteered to defend are now exhausted or dead and followed by people who are less eager. Furthermore, the western supplies have essentially dried up - majority of what is being pledged now is 2 - 3 years away from being delivered - what had been pledged is being missed, like the million artillery shells - all the resources are currently commited and getting pushed back [although current mass charges arent sustainable for rus but rather an opportunistic reaction to the current state of the defense]. There is ofc the occasional T-54 meme driving around but the commanders know that they are good enough to successfully fullfill current russian strategy, and since having showed up a year or more ago, still not in large quantities but rather the odd tank here and there in a long list of T-72s and T-90s, I doubt it is an indicator of desperation and rather someones little side project restoring these lol. As for who breaks first, I hope the weak politicians who are bowing down to putins nuke extortions, because they still react like scared little deer whenever putin lets a supposed nuke drive around the block and get replaced with men who know how to deal with that obvious behavior. This war can be won decidedly with putin backing himself into his little contained reich playing happy dictator in his golden palace, but instead they risk Nato troops ending up in situations like the picture I posted today. Of course and there are lines where putin will receive a bullet in the head by his own people but that line has been drawn up time and time again until everyone realized that it likely wont happen when all the people thinking it fell out of windows. This has to be evaluated within the context, so far russia has surpassed any imaginable amount of absolutely pointless suffering, anyone a year ago seeing hundreds of wagner convicts die painful deaths asked why are they still signing up for this? The question arises just the same now. I watched more than a hundred dead russians today, yet the question why they do it still has too many answers. russians were willing to spend more than an entire decade of afghanistan misery on a frontline city that in peacetime could be walked through in 2 hours and the reaction in russia is a few people on the street, singing, thinking woe is us. Imagine this amount of death and destruction on the Nato side, without overwhelming US airpower winning the war before it started. Because the amount of graves the west is willing to dig is the literal worth of article 5. If we take ww1 as a guideline, we are still short a million dead russians, famine and a civil war before the time is up.

Stepove, russian infantry supported tank

A few comments by Ben Hodges on the Macron/Scholz/lack of clearly defined strategy situation

It is my biggest gripe in this forum. Closely followed by the idea russia is hanging on by mere threads, collapsing any day now.

It became apparent to Tucker that he cannot redeem ruble checks for USD wonder why he would say that though, maybe he smelled the wind and noticed few people bought or cared about putins bs. Cant blame them, excited to be outraged at globohomos and all you get is a biased history lecture

Usually most are 'really' confirmed by locals with smartphones anyway. As for the claims, I have lost track, but several of the claimed planes have been confirmed with satelite crash sites, locals, fighterbomber wishing eternal flight, and lost transponders, but I have no Overview how many of the claimed that is and I suspect there will be 1-2 added in. Theres definitively an uptick in losses though, probably due to a risker employment of AA to pave the way for F-16 as others have stated.