War in Ukraine

I wish you would post something I can just read. These YouTube videos are so obnoxious and because they don’t use links harder to verify. In the past few months these have all ended up being wrong. Just a heads up.

 

What are you talking about ? He provides references for assertion. And they’re typically US government or US think tanks.

 

Absolutely true. And as the fringes get more extreme, it becomes progressively more important for the middle to embrace itself instead. Lunatics on both extremes tried to keep us quiet and ignorant while Europe burned last time, too. It took the Nazis (actual Nazis for our resident Russian agents) invading the Soviet Union to wake up the Left and the Japanese bringing the fight directly to us to wake up the Right. Every day that passes is one closer to Russia figuring out how to fight a war again.

 

If we get supplies to the Poland-Ukraine border, I'm sure they will make their way to the front lines. The Ukrainians are very resourceful. Their tractors will probably operate in the snow if we give them some synthetic motor oil (something we gave Russia in WWII to help them defeat actual Nazis).

We could also drop supplies from aircraft in the western areas of Ukraine, assuming that it is out of range of Russian missiles.

 

Apparently Ukraine is getting better at setting up defensive layers to take out drones and claim to be taking out 85% of the drones being sent now.

Up to 85% of Russia's killer drones reportedly shot down by Ukraine; at 8-month mark, Zelenskyy calls Russia a 'beggar': Live updates (msn.com)

Ukraine's military is getting better at shooting down Iranian-made Russian drones – up to 85% of them are now being taken out, the British Defense Ministry reported, citing official sources.
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"Ukrainian efforts to defeat the Shahed-136 UAVs are increasingly successful," the ministry said Monday. "These UAVs are slow, noisy and fly at low altitudes" making them relatively easy targets, the ministry added.

The head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, on Monday put the shoot-down rate for the estimated 330 Shahed drones that Russia had released through Saturday at about 70%.

Budanov said Russia's military had ordered about 1,700 various types of drones, and a second batch of about 300 Shaheds is being rolled out.

 

Corrupt > > Homicidal.

You can work with a country to improve its integrity and root out corruption, withholding financial aid or providing economic incentives for them to reduce corruption. In fact, if Ukraine wins this war, there is a good chance they will be willing to listen to us and change their ways. They will need money and resources to rebuild their cities and infrastructure, so we will have some leverage with them. It also seems like Zelensky is a very good leader, and would be fairly effective at preventing a return to corrupt government. Ukraine's rich and powerful are fighting an existential war for their homeland (and many are spending their fortunes to support the military effort), so this experience might change their attitudes toward corruption. It's much harder to work with a barbaric country that likes to kill lots of people and steal land. We have over 75 years experience dealing with the USSR and Russia since WWII, with only a few years of cooperation during that time frame.

Also, Ukraine's corruption is internal to their country. It does not have that much effect on other countries. Russia's homicidal land grabs do affect other countries.

And we are not looking to give Ukraine the keys to the G8, or have them make decisions for us. We aren't getting married to Ukraine (we know they are not Prince Charming). We are just looking for a way to let them survive as a country and defeat the Russians. It doesn't cost us any more than money, weapons and ammunition. The main negative risk, besides the remote chance for nuclear war, is that our weapons get in the hands of our enemy and improve their designs. If Ukraine had no chance of winning, I might consider that risk to not be worth it. Ukraine has a very good chance of winning, however, so I see the risk as acceptable for the weapons we are sending them.

 

Good luck with all the maybes. Glad you are not in command.

 

now Iran is acting like they didn't know Russia was using their drones to attack Ukraine..perhaps the pressure on Iran will s top them from sending any more

Iran will not remain indifferent if proven Russia using its drones in Ukraine - official (msn.com)

Iran will not remain indifferent if it is proven that its drones are being used by Russia in the Ukraine war, the Iranian foreign minister said on Monday, amid allegations the Islamic Republic has supplied drones to Moscow to attack Ukraine.

"If it is proven to us that Iranian drones are being used in the Ukraine war against people, we should not remain indifferent," state media cited Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying.

Britain, France and Germany on Friday called for a United Nations probe of accusations Russia has used Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine, allegedly violating a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Citing diplomats and officials, Reuters reported last week that in addition to more drones, Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles.

 

These should help with guided missiles. The low and slow drones seem better disposed of via gunfire. Tracking them and projecting a path for those guns to sit and wait has been the challenge

 

I wish he was in command. He doesn’t seem to be confused about who the enemy is or what our end state desired is. That’s at least the first step to sound strategy.

 

No maybe to it. Moving supplies across country (even in winter) will be one of the easiest things that Ukraine does during this war. Piece of cake, compared to defeating Russia on the battlefield (which they are also doing).

Good luck with giving up at the first sign of adversity. Glad you aren't in command, either.

 

We can't move supplies across the country or fly them in. We can drop off at the best spot to get them where they need to be, and hope for the best. If we sent a US plane to drop supplies and it is shot down, then it is game on. You are counting on Russia not stealing the supplies, Poland not keeping them for the refugees, and Russia just not destroying them. If I were to guess, and I was lucky about 1/3 would make to the soldiers.

 

he provides 3 useless links and a nice article discussing what Russia could possibly do to turn the tide. The article also admits what you have blindly argued against for months, which is that Russia has sustained huge losses in its so far ineffectual attack on ukraine and if they keep making mistakes will lose. The stuff I post is generally much better cited through multiple links and even geotags.

 

Well, we can. We just don’t. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I would solve that problem by having NATO take over the supply chain. That would mitigate the risk of supplies not making it to the end user, free up more Ukrainians for combat service, and give Russia pause about striking deep targets for fear of hitting NATO troops. What we can’t do is say, Meh, this is too hard, just let Russia win.

 

Total BS that they “didn’t know.” But good to exposure backing them down

 

Ukraine update: Russia isn't pulling out of Kherson—at least not yet
Interesting updates on Kherson area and also in the north at Bakhmut and Svatove.

If Russia has a brilliant counterattack in store - anytime would be good now.

Although - I think smartly, they may try to dig in with sheer manpower - even if it is poorly trained manpower, and try to hold the current battle lines for as long as possible - because it sure as shit looks like the republicans will bow and kiss the putin ring if/and probably when they win the house. And if the weapons stop flowing, there is only so much Ukraine can do because they can't manufacture their own.
The top House Intelligence Republican is bearish on new Ukraine funding in December, saying the House GOP might put up a fight.

 

We are NATO, and it would be seen as an act of aggression which I am fine with, but you have to have the will to do it and we don't.