Kraft

The intricacies of the russian Orlan-10 drone...
 
 

Many in Ukraine call Russia as Mordor, but.. no. What a f....g Mordor? Putin too ugly and paltry to be compared with evil lord %) Putin's Russia is Numenor of Ar-Pharason times ) Cult of Melkor (like a temple of War in Russia), cultivating of hate to West and it Lords, opression of Faithfuls and offering them as sacrifice to Melkor, Great Armament, Great Invasion to Valinor and... if you read Silmarillion, you should know  If not, you should read it after LoTR 
PS. Before 7 years in medieval re-enactment I about 6 years was a Tolkien-fan, participated in LARPs etc, was an archer  

Hi all
I've been following this awesome thread since the beginning. Thanks to you I was able to "reassure" my family/friends that this war will not last long and Russia will lose. It was hard to convince all of them, because here in Italy, there is the "might" of Russian army and all news speak in favour of Russia anyway. I was wondering one thing however, does anyone knows what happened to the russian army in Transnistria? Today I read (on italian news paper) that a 12km long convoy was leaving that region, to "strike" Ukraine. Is there any good info about it?
Grazie

Some facts:
UK left the EU not NATO. EU has 27 members. NATO has 30 members. The EU has no say on what weapons member states' supply Ukraine.  
  Last fact:
     5. Increased bureaucracy for UK, that has created "friction" with moving goods around EU, is a direct consequence of Brexit agreement with EU. Friction would not exist without occurrence of Brexit.

Another great video, I think it is very telling that even if we limit our measuring stick and only take Russias publicly statet objectives -- they are losing just as much.

The russian federation invaded another country, vast numbers of human beings are now dead, maimed, traumatised and/or refugees.  This wouldn't have happened to any of them if the russian federation had not invaded.
Q.E.D.

...And on page 10, @Armorgunner was first to throw down and assert the UA can win this!
Door prizes, anyone?

So for those keeping score, wayyyyy back on page 9 of this epic thread @db_zero was the first to suggest that Russia might have bitten off more than it could chew, edging out @The_Captby 4 posts.
Although the point then was occupation, not conquest.

Torture chambers.  Mass rape.  Genocide.  Threatening their neighbors.  More and more I have to admit this old sailor from the cold war is coming around to the fact that maybe we need to call Ivan's bluff and enter this.  I know it means world war and further the threat of Nuclear war.  I lived through that era and spent 5 years on an aircraft carrier preparing for it and am well versed that there are no winners in that.  But at some point the red line has to get crossed and the world has to say no more.  When the Soviet Union fell I had honestly hoped in the modern world we had seen all the evil that humans could preperatrate on one another, but the reports coming out of "occupied" Ukraine the last couple days have brought me to tears and filled me with so much anger I can hardly control myself.  If I was younger Id already be there doing something carrying the wounded and help the civilians (as I was no soldier) but god damn how much more can we see before we raise our fists?
There has to be more we can do.

Here is a lengthy but comprehensive review.  Haven't listened to all of it, but nothing unreasonable in the opening bits:
 

Chech Republic made a statement they alredy two weeks have been supplying heavy combat vehicles to Ukraine - tanks, IFVs, howitzers, anti-aircraft means, ammunition. This can be T-72M1, BVP-1/2 (Chech-produсed BMP-1/2) and probably SP-howitzers "Dana" and Strela-10 SAMs - all what Chech Republic can give from own storages.

One Russian strike in eastern Ukraine in late March knocked out an entire Ukrainian S-300 battery
This is mistake of author. He saw that video was issued on 30th of March, but this battery (or even battalion) was wiped out in first day of the war east from Kharkiv. They even didn't have a time to deploy. 
Also he writes about 125 miles range zone for missiles, but we have Soviet-era S-300PS/PT with old missiles for 47 and 75 km only. Slovakian S-300PMU (slightly apgraded S-300PT for export has 75 km-range missiles)

You can´t make this up, can you?
 
 

I'd love for this topic to be about the war and not a coffee house academic discussion about the differences between the political Left and Right. 

The way it is going hard to avoid WW3.
 

There's literally no difference between the two ideologies. Like zero. While germans were doing genocide of jews - russians did genocides of ukrainians, belarusians, moldavans, crimean tatars, chechens and ingushs.
The only "difference" was that an excuse to murder people was "not aryan enough" for one and "not russian enough" for the other - but the outcome was exactly the same.
USSR and Nazi Germany were so alike - they started whole WW2 together as allies.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think anyone is trivializing the holocaust.  I think what we are hearing is a relative comparison of the impact on the Ukrainian people regarding German versus Russian fascism.  Now given what we are hearing from some Russian nationalist forces one could say those folks attitudes towards Ukraine mirror the Nazis views and final solution for Jews.  (stated goal to exterminate etc) but I don't believe anyone is trivializing. Unless we are saying that one can never do a comparison to the Nazis when someone is talking about exterminating your own people.
My point was the Russians are clearly exhibiting extreme fascist behavior so can we move on?

I think the question is not when russia will run out of working tanks but rather when it will run out of skilled and willing crewmen to put in their tanks without calling for mobilization.
I have not been trained on a tank so I do not know how long that process is, but I can imagine it being more than a month for fresh conscripts.
They may be able to fill the gaps for the big parade coming up though

I think the question is not when russia will run out of working tanks but rather when it will run out of skilled and willing crewmen to put in their tanks without calling for mobilization.
I have not been trained on a tank so I do not know how long that process is, but I can imagine it being more than a month for fresh conscripts.
They may be able to fill the gaps for the big parade coming up though