Maquisard manqué

There are Gurkhas and Gurkhas. The UK takes the best, then India. Pretty much anyone from Nepal or adjoining areas of India could call themselves Gurkha soldiers, but they might not be actual Gurkhas, let alone from Nepal - or even Gurkhali.

I’m sure there is a lot you could do to lead a dam to overtop or fail in other ways. Given time and intentional (or not) neglect it would happen by itself.

Yes and no. Where sufficient AD is deployed, it seems to work resoundingly well (if everything was indeed intercepted over Kiev), but other cities were also hit and there were fatalities, which suggests that either there isn’t the same coverage everywhere, or that it didn’t work as well in places other than Kiev. Can Ukraine/NATO afford to saturate Ukraine with AD to the level it has in Kiev? If not, I imagine the Russians will switch to a wider strategy of secondary or tertiary cities. Less effective in some ways (propaganda not as good), but still likely to cause damage and loss of life - which seems to be all the Russian state gets out of bed for. Even overmatched systems are still lethal and effective if used intelligently/ruthlessly.

But the US has the Strikers in stock and wants to get rid of them… perfect opportunity. Another maintenance headache for Ukraine though, unless the vehicle platform has any commonality with anything else given already.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63746304 I can’t imagine how hard it is to live under the bombs with the cold and winter starting. I hope the Eu and US resolve remains strong and support is provided for the civilian population as much as the Ukrainian army.

How did that (massive) flag make it through the occupation? Quick work if that was made since the Russians left. Or maybe the crisis actors brought it with them? (Sorry, couldn’t resist)

Apologies if this has already been posted but the BBC have a documentary series on Russia and the experience of “surviving the fall of Communism and Democracy”. There are no talking heads. It’s basically archive footage with minimal text narration. I’ve found it quite insightful but I also realise BBC access isn’t available for all… https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0d3kjmp/russia-19851999-traumazone-series-1-1-part-one-1985-to-1989

Bit of an awkward/clumsy time for the connection to drop though! Very much looks like “Cut!” was shouted by a producer. Seems the reporter was allowed to say the Russians were having a hard time of it, maybe on the quid pro quo of detailing Ukrainian strikes at civilian infrastructure in their own city. Question is, is it happening as she said or not? Probably - I can’t see why not. Despite being a bleeding heart liberal I’m not terribly surprised or shocked. I’d presume Ukraine took an informed judgement of who would be in that hospital - I.e not civvies, or not many of them.

Isn’t it actually a lot simpler and cruder? Whether someone has whiter skin? That’s your common-or-garden racist starting point. Each country’s own social & ethnic makeup then results in more elaborate definitions of the “ok” group, but it’s always such a flawed definition- e.g. US, UK etc. fundamentally it’s just about people looking different and then a rationale being made to fit.

It sounds like ultra Nationalist/right wing scare mongering about a “great replacement” that has been encouraged by state media and absorbed as fact by broader society. Blaming their state for allowing other ethnicities in - even though they depend on them. So it’s kind of backfiring on the Russian state to have pushed this nationalist & racist crap. There is a video on bbc (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63237327) of a Russian draft dodger in Istanbul who also talks about it as a current concern - for him more than h the war in Ukraine I think, despite it making him leave his newborn child and cycle to Georgia!

Pure terrorism.

Given MI6 is running the whole show, he ought to know!

Like? [edit: I agree but am not sure if a +1 or like quite captures how I feel. I’m not being snarky]

I’d largely agree with the US - Russia bits but the US - EU stuff is pretty off the wall. A peaceful and stronger EU is best for the US, they’re partners and share the burden (ideally!) of the current/US economic and political order (rules based system as some call it, but it’s not like others don’t have rules…).

Yes, agreed. But I guess that’s why blind faith in “the right thing” happening doesn’t seem wise or appropriate, however great Zelensky and his govt has been so far. Think the thread has already treated the discomfort of those having taken RU cash, which may remain touchy and I’m happy not to return to!

Well the point is about much more than elections. It’s the checks and balances that prevent too much power being exercised by anyone, but especially the crackpots, that are what this is really about. What’s so shocking (and unusual) about Brexit and Trump is how far both went/go despite the systems. What the ruling parties, with significant majorities, in Poland and Hungary have done is hollow out the checks and balances that protect minorities and preserve a measure of stability. Lots of the checks in a mature democracy are quite intangible - convention, rather than what’s inked in the constitution. Edit: War and ‘temporary measures’ are a more respectable justification for checks and balances to be eroded. A further reason for why some of the ideas about the peace are hair raising - what could happen without those protections?

Not sure the EU has managed to avoid Hungary or Poland’s slide away from democratic liberty. What would make Ukraine different? Tbh the fact Ukraine has currently such a long way to go to acceding to the EU is almost all about it’s systems of governance and their robustness (or lack of) to corrosion/corruption. So I’m not sure there’s a lot of blind faith in Ukraine… Zelensky and his govt have impressed, but what if the next lot are different? NATO membership is in some ways much simpler. Who are your troops going to fight and how reliable are they? How much do we need you? (Why yes please join us Turkey)

Surely it’s about the risk of the subs being hit in port? Huba got there first.

It’s quite predictable and invariably one dimensional. Almost like what an algorithm might generate. Content seems to tend to two classifications: Russians are subhuman evil things, or jokes about Russian incompetence.

Depends what you mean by “free”! As others have said, tomorrow you’d not get much difference from the last election. There’s been decades of propaganda and oppression undermining the freedom and fairness of debate in Russia politics. So what people think and know is so conditioned they couldn’t really vote otherwise.

Isn’t that the same logic for Russia’s treatment of reputedly (contested by Russia) humanitarian aid workers being killed in Ukraine? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62828238?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=62828238%26Captured Briton was possibly tortured%2C says Ukraine%262022-09-07T19%3A43%3A15.000Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:bbc:cps:curie:asset:51d13dee-a062-4326-91cb-8901d9f4f2b0&pinned_post_asset_id=62828238&pinned_post_type=share

Not thought/seen that comparison before… So what is the relative cost and logistics or maintenance tail requirement for precision indirect fire vs armour? Can armour be realistically defended against such weapons through inbuilt systems? Or would it require combined arms to resist precise indirect fire (as has been discussed here already)?

Well, given that a significant proportion of eastern Ukrainian people identified as Russian in the last few decades of census’s, and that there have been plenty of collaborators for the Russian invasion, it’s quite likely they are fleeing more than just the immediate fighting. As the people who identified more with Ukrainian than Russian Nationality fled the Russian occupation, those who maybe were happy to be Russian will now flee the Ukrainian reconquest.

They may not see much difference between being evicted or moving because they are afraid of reprisals. They’ll certainly think they had no choice but to leave. That can look like forced migration, arguably is, and will get stretched to genocide too. Another sad part of the human tragedy of this stupid war, and another reminder of why nationalism is so toxic to peace and prosperity.

Maybe they’re too busy (or wise) to fight one handed, with their phones held outside the tank?