War in Ukraine

Well, a country with the population of Texas has stymied Russia for years and is now pushing into their country so I am guessing a full NATO retaliation would be limited only by the speed of the slowest vehicles.

That being said, if it ever came to that I believe Russia would do something insanely stupid unless putin fell out a window before.

 

WOW, if Ukraine could actually capture Kursk !!!! That is a city of almost 1/2 million!!!!!!!!!
Talk about a barganing chip!

 

Wow, what a rousing success pootie pie's two week adventure into Ukraine has been. They were welcomed to the streets of Kyiv with roses and vodka and a great time was had by all as a puppet regime was installed, effectively pushing mother Russia's western frontier to the edge of Poland and Romania...no wait! DOH

 

Hello Navy 93 -
It is trully remarkable isn't it? A campaign projected to last a month with the capture of Kiev has turned into (currently) a 2-1/2 year DISASTER for Putin.

While I understand Putin / Gov't cares little about killing and maiming their own citizens / young men, the bill is adding up. Statistics are all over the place, but the British numbers seem resonable (they look at new cemetaries and graves) Killed and Wounded appear to have approached 500,000 +. KIA approching or exceeding 100,000. Current rate of attrition is 1,000 + a day.

While the economic figures actually show Russian GDP increasing at 3.6% thats fools gold, that growth has nothiing to do with the common citizen, it's wartime expansion, I'm sure the Military Industrial Complex is enjoying it, but your average Ivan, can't be enjoying it much.

Russian "stocks" of tanks and armored vehicles from WW2 and the Cold War / Warsaw Pact are being depleted. (Hey Navy, I have an idea, when this is over we should get some GC guys together and get in the "Scrap" metal business - looks like there is a rich harvest of that in Ukraine!)

Chem is probably a better source but much like the US they can't turn modern battle tanks and vehicles around like the old days of the T34. My understanding is much of the advanced electronics and so forth for those vehicles were dependent on Western countries supply chain, so that must be a tremendous problem for them, and not just with armored vehicles.

While it must be acknowledged that Russia is making slow and painful progress on the Western front, it's a slow, high attrition slugfest.
Regrettably they are close to cutting some key Ukraininan supply routes. If you watched the "Task and Purpose" Podcast by Kappy, he details this.

I don't blame Ukraine for taking a gamble on the border, while Putin stinks, that slow, slog, war of attrittion benefits Russia.

Pesonally I wish NATO (France is suggesting this) provides active logistical participation in the West of Ukraine to help the cause.

 

There are a few more options Russia have with an incursion onto their recognized sovereign territory. For example, there is a treaty with other CIS countries to intervene in such a scenario. Russia have yet to formally declare war on Ukraine. I think Russia is baiting Ukraine into expending their thin resources in Kursk, so that they can inflict more damage in the Donbas. Imagine an Odesa offensive, with Ukraine focusing most of their assets in the Donbas and Kursk regions. Not saying that will happen, but Russia gets Odesa and the Black Sea is sealed off. Not good. Facts are facts. Ukraine doesn't have the manpower Russia has and so anything which stretches Ukraine's already vulnerable front line is going to create more exposure for Ukraine.

The lack of a formal declaration of war by Russia over the Kursk incursion, lack of call up, lack of initiating treaty obligations, etc etc all point to the idea the Kremlin is doing the opposite of panicking. Perhaps it's false bravado. Perhaps they know what they're doing. Time shall tell..

 

How do you say "high tailing it out of there" in Russian?

 

But Ukraine also has to walk that fine line of not causing such fear in Russia that the public unites and mobilizes to stop the threat.

 

I bet I know what they WON'T DO -

Blow every structure down to the foundation, kidnap the children and take sexual frustration out on the population akin to what the Ski's have done!

 

I think it will continue to expand, but how far is Zelenski willing to go?

 

Rouble plunges after Ukraine takes Russian territory (msn.com)

The rouble weakened to its lowest level since late May after Kyiv launched its biggest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war in 2022.

The rouble was 1.9pc weaker on the day at 90.30 to the dollar, according to LSEG data, having lost 6pc over five consecutive sessions since the start of the attack.

 

Lol! Very scary Russia getting invaded by Ukraine?!?!?

That's no bueno for Russia.

Very impressive for Ukraine, but that's beyond humiliating for Russia and Putin.

....dayummm.....

 

Whoever thought to invade Russia is rocking a full sack for sure. This is perhaps the first time in history where invading Russia might just to prove to be a good idea.

The only way conceivable to get Russia to back off of the sliver of Ukrainian land they occupy, is by offering a sliver of Russia they lost.

It. Might. Just. Work.

@$^#&n brilliant!

 

I tend to agree although the Ukrainian territory that Russia is occupying is a little more than a "sliver" (see map below). Even if Ukrainian forces withdraw from Russia their invasion has been successful since Russia appears to be withdrawing forces from Ukraine to counter the invasion and apparently the Ukrainians are continuing to occupy more Russian territory. By the way I still stand by my prediction that the ultimate outcome of Putin's invasion will be determined by the results of the US presidential election. If Trump wins so does Putin.

 

How would Russia launch an offensive against Odessa and would it be by ground, sea, or air?

 

Xi first told the banks to honor the sanctions and even small banks quit dealing with Russia and now he has his hackers going after Russian gubmnt facilities... am I reading too much into this? It feels liek Xi has targeted Russia to speed up the end of the war or ??? I don't see any way possible that this happens without Xi approval.

Chinese Hackers Hit Russia in Cyberattack (msn.com)

Dozens of systems used by government bodies and IT companies in Russia have reportedly become the targets of Chinese hackers.

Moscow-based cybersecurity provider Kaspersky Lab, revealed that the backdoor malware used to gain access to the systems was "GrewApacha," a Trojan used since at least 2021 by the Chinese cyber-espionage group known as APT31 (Advanced Peristent Threat 31).

APT31 is believed to have ties to China's civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS). Earlier this year, the United States Justice department indicted several Chinese nationals and one company for allegedly carrying out APT31 operations.

"During these attacks, attackers infected devices using phishing emails with attachments containing malicious shortcut files," read an August 8 report by Kaspersky Lab-managed website SecureList. Kaspersky has dubbed the Russia-centered hacking campaign "EastWind."

 

Great question considering that Ukraine has effectively neutralized Russia's Black Sea fleet and has significantly limited air operations over Ukraine effectively ruling out the possibility of either an amphibious operation or an air assault. Since Russia doesn't currently occupy any territory remotely close to Odessa it would also seem that a ground operation would be out of the question.

 

Belarus about to f around and find out?? I don't think that the citizens of Belarus are ready to die for Putin and this could cause a major upheavel there...if I were Ukraine, I would try and find a way to inflict some damage on Belarus troops in Russia even if long range drones required as long as they are accompanied by russian troops or equipment

Lukashenko sends Belarusian military to Russia to prepare for combat use (msn.com)

Belarus sends its missile and artillery specialists to Russia to practice combat use.

"The calculations of the missile and artillery units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus are going to the training ground of the Russian Federation to practice combat use," the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It is noted that during the field exercise, the units will conduct a control exercise on the management of missile strikes with live launches from missile systems and multiple-launch rocket systems in service with the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus.

 

I won't pretend to know, but I know Russia surely wants it. Playing silly games like taking deeply forested areas of Russian territory in the Kursk region seems to run counter to the over Ukrainian mission.

 

hopefully they take enough washing machines, autos etc to make up for what Russia took from Ukraine, that is if Russia has anything worth taking

 

Please do tell, where are these “deeply forested areas” that Ukraine is taking.