War in Ukraine

Some leaders think that they can negotiate with someone bent on global domination and have peace as a result. Trump is one of those idiots, unfortunately. Trump brags about how fast he could stop the war. He doesn't mention how long it would be before Putin starts the next war. Apparently, America has to vote the idiot back in office to find out.

 

Thousands protest the arrest of a local rights activist in Bashkortostan, which is a Russian province south of Moscow and west of the Ural Mountains. The activist might have been protesting Moscow's right to send locals on a one-way trip to Ukraine.

Detentions made after fresh protests in Russia's Bashkortostan republic

 

And India just quit buying and ksa cut their price to china

 

On its face it seems promising but I’ve heard that Mike Johnson is not keen on it and Trump called him to tell Johnson to not agree to any border deal. The thought process is that the republicans don’t want to give Biden a win and want to keep the border an issue in the election.

 

Russia loses another Tor missile defense system to a drone attack. True to Russia's level of military ineptitude, the Tor system fired a missile at the slow-moving drone, but it missed.

Ukrainian forces take down Russian Tor system in daring drone operation — video

 

Impressive. 775+ mile range, struck an oil depot. homemade in Ukraine for under $350. if true, flew one over Putin forested palace

Ukraine says it flew a drone over Putin's woodland palace, evading its heavy defenses (msn.com)

Ukraine sent a drone flying over President Vladimir Putin's palace at Lake Valdai during an attack on a St. Petersburg oil depot, a military source claimed on Friday. On Thursday, Ukraine sent Ukrainian-produced drones 775 miles into Russian airspace to strike an oil depot near St. Petersburg, Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine's minister of strategic industries, said, according to The Kyiv Independent.

En route, one of the drones also flew over one of Putin's palaces, an unnamed special-services source told the Ukrainian news agency RBC.

Set next to Lake Valdai, halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, the vast woodland complex is considered one of Putin's favorite boltholes.

Investigative reporting by the independent Russian outlet Proekt last year — which Business Insider couldn't independently verify — said that it's home to Putin's rumored girlfriend, Alina Kabayeva, as well as the children they are said to have.

 

india has quit buying russian oil due to a dispute about which currency to use

saudis cut their price for oil to the far east to take back market share from Russia

all bad news for russian energy exports

 

Not sure what if anything this has to do with the Ukraine War, but India quickly disavowed any connection and others have reacted on Twitter like it might be something big

 

Add: reputational damage to US …

 

So did Boeing.

 

Another day, another balcony?

 

Maybe. Others have speculated someone close to Putin or a general that Ukraine put down

 

According to the Brits, Russia is ramping up its attacks on the frozen ground of Ukraine, but is losing tons of equipment and soldiers for small gains in real estate. Russia's vehicle losses increased 88%, tank losses increased 95%, and troop losses have increased by 15%. Russia allegedly continues to use "meat wave tactics", which probably indicates that actual troop losses are higher.

Once the frozen ground starts to thaw, it might be a good opportunity for Abrams tanks to be a bigger part of the battle, since they were designed for muddy conditions.

Russia is likely using Ukraine's freezing winter to ramp up its front-line assaults — but its losses are soaring, British intelligence says

 

Putin the master troll …

 

Do you think of yourself as more of a slave or a servant to the master? Asking for a friend.

 

Japan could not have continued the war without making it more than a regional war. Japan had little or no natural resources to support its military. Two of the countries it had to control were Malaysia (for rubber and oil production, a colony of the British) and the Dutch Indies (modern-day Indonesia, for oil, a colony of the Dutch). They survived on U.S. oil for a long time, but when FDR cut off that spigot, they had to look elsewhere. Remarkably, it was a comment from Teddy Roosevelt in 1905 that got Japan started on its imperial ambitions.

I tend to think that when Germany attacked westward and Britain got involved, and the war expanded into Africa for control over the shipping lanes (plus the expansion into the Atlantic with the U-boats), it became a world war. Every country in Europe was affected. Even the ones that were "neutral" were affected; they (Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, etc.) were selling products and raw materials to Germany, under the excuse that to not do so would invite Germany to invade them. It is my understanding that the war could have been won in 1940 if England and France had invaded the Ruhr Valley after Poland was invaded, but both countries were paralyzed and unprepared to act.

 

Russia buying ICBM's from N. Korea

North Korean Missiles Face Reality Check on Putin’s Battlefield (msn.com)

“Russia’s use of DPRK ballistic missiles in Ukraine also provides valuable technical and military insights to the DPRK,” the US State Department said in a joint statement this month that included about 50 countries, referring to North Korea by its formal name.

Wreckage thought to be from North Korean missiles was in the debris from strikes in Kharkiv in early January, when it wasn’t likely under Patriot protection. Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesperson for the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office, told reporters the missiles were different in key aspects from Russian models, and he believed they were from North Korea, the Associated Press reported. The transfer of such missiles from North Korea, with ranges of 400-800 kilometers (250-500 miles), increases the pool of weapons the Kremlin can draw upon to attack Ukraine as the war grinds on.
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Nevertheless, Russia has used heavy barrages of missiles to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses. In late December, Russia ramped up its bombardment campaign, firing hundreds of missiles at cities across Ukraine, killing dozens. The US determined Russia probably used North Korean missiles in that attack.

The influx from North Korea will likely draw down the stocks of missiles for Patriot batteries and other air defense systems in Ukraine, in a strategy of attrition that could increase the changes for successful strikes.