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Kiev Is Burning


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14 hours ago, sunday said:

I'm not putting a whole lot of stock in what some Republican politician says about Biden.  I don't like him much myself and would have preferred Trump had won, and he's certainly no FDR or JFK, but Biden so far hasn't done much wrong since the invasion.

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3 hours ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Yeah, that's not how aircraft swaps work. The Ukrainians have never once piloted an F-16, nor have they maintained one, hence giving them an F-16 will be useless.

As for Mig-29 compatibility with AWACs, any idea if they have been upgraded with Link 16? That's also not something you can just throw on an aircraft if it isn't there in the first place.

Finally, the variants of the Mig-29 in possession of NATO countries varies widely, and Ukrainian pilots can't just sit in one and learn all the nooks and crannies in a few minutes. Typically pilots have to go through specialized training when going from one variant to another. Probably one contributing factor why the aircraft were withheld from being given to Ukraine. 

I think the idea is to give Poland etc. F-16s to replace MiG-29s.

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7 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Ok, so why walk away from a perfectly useable tank in a war zone then? Did you ever see Americans throw kit away like this, except in bug out fever in the Bulge or Korea? And they aren't retreating, they are advancing.

And it's not just this tank. There are dozens of AFVs abandoned the same way. BMP3s, T80s. Some in singleton, others in platoons. The Ukrainians are even putting up Tiktok videos for the populace, to exploit this unexpected bounty from Vladmart.

It's not an assumption. Want to know what Russian morale is like? 

 

 

This "screen" is well-known fake,  actually it was intercepted by pro-Russian hackers on pro-Ukrainian chats before it was released 

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4 hours ago, 17thfabn said:

The US uses about 20 million barrels a day. So less than 1/2 weeks use.

Nope -

More than two months of Russian imports into USA.

https://www.afpm.org/newsroom/blog/oil-and-petroleum-imports-russia-explained

- Edited the time period, oil trade is notorius for volatility

Edited by John T
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Quote

As for Mig-29 compatibility with AWACs, any idea if they have been upgraded with Link 16? That's also not something you can just throw on an aircraft if it isn't there in the first place.


No. MiG-29s used by Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria were kept in service with very limited upgrades (communications and navigation system). They are not capable of firing missiles like R-77 or AIM-120 (active air to air).

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13 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

 

Regarding Slovakian MiGs, that pure wishful thinking.. we have 12 of them, yes, but only 4 are flying.. rest of them were used for spare parts mostly and would be of no use..  besides, our "clever" government signed a treaty with Russia some time ago, so actual Russian technicians were "maintaining" them...  besides, our current ministry of defense said that Slovakia's MiGs wont be sent to Ukraine.

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Quick couple of questions about the insanity of this invasion:

The Russians moved troops into Belarus and to the Ukrainian border how long ago? That gave them weeks to plan every aspect of their attack. To train troops on how to move in groups, how to respond to ambushes, to find targets for artillery and the air force... And all that planning amounted to, "let's just drive in and see what happens"?

Btw, same goes for providing justification for the war, working out media messaging at home and abroad, getting people on side, having diplomatic strategies worked out and in place on time.

It's just all such a sh!tshow that it beggars belief.

 

Edited by ink
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Just an additional aside. What's up with encircling Kiev? It's the 21st century - who does that?

Civilians will suffer. The world will see that. Ukrainians will hate Russians forever. Forever. And they will always have to live next door to one another so they will always be reminded of it.

(goes for Kharkov too)

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12 minutes ago, ink said:

Quick couple of questions about the insanity of this invasion:

The Russians moved troops into Belarus and to the Ukrainian border how long ago? That gave them weeks to plan every aspect of their attack. To train troops on how to move in groups, how to respond to ambushes, to find targets for artillery and the air force... And all that planning amounted to, "let's just drive in and see what happens"?

Btw, same goes for providing justification for the war, working out media messaging at home and abroad, getting people on side, having diplomatic strategies worked out and in place on time.

It's just all such a sh!tshow that it beggars belief.

 

 

plus, if they think Ukrainians will just submit when they completely occupy them, they are badly mistaken... there will be insurgency, and i dont think it will be limited only in occupied areas... keeping control of 40milion country... that will be quite costly, especially when huge majority of people hate the invaders.  So yeah, maybe Putin still  has some financial reserves left, but they are hardly enough for next few years of dwindling Russian economy plus cost of keeping occupation force in Ukraine...

 

 

and on top of that, every single NATO country will now increase military spending, will build up new units, new capabilities, new weapons... Germany already plans to drop the proposed F/A-18F deal and instead buy F35 as nuclear deterrent force, and will heavily invest in its military...  Europe is united like never before...

Edited by jaro
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4 minutes ago, ink said:

Quick couple of questions about the insanity of this invasion:

The Russians moved troops into Belarus and to the Ukrainian border how long ago? That gave them weeks to plan every aspect of their attack. To train troops on how to move in groups, how to respond to ambushes, to find targets for artillery and the air force... And all that planning amounted to, "let's just drive in and see what happens"?

Btw, same goes for providing justification for the war, working out media messaging at home and abroad, getting people on side, having diplomatic strategies worked out and in place on time.

It's just all such a sh!tshow that it beggars belief.

 

As for "weeks to plan every aspect" - as we see,  Russian troops were on the outskirts of Kiev on Day2, key strategic gains also achieved very quickly - and it looks like the strategy of moving firvard as fast as possible did worked. Looks like organised resistance of Ukr Army only acting as army, not separate units, only exist in Donbass now. All other territory is isolated pockets of resistance with armed civilians shooting each other and local officials urging civilians to prepare Molotov coctails.... Giving troops extra training? I’m afraid making that will also disclose the plans of operation, and making it would cost more lives than few drivers lost their way….

   Re media messaging - you are absolutely right, media campaign is total loss (amateur journalists of Novorossia are making much better job then high-paid professionals on TV in Moscow. Reason for that is simple: as i have said many times, "media people" here in Russia are mostly pro-Western liberals, and even when they are ordered to make something "patriotic"- they deliver subquality product, willingly or unvillingly. We need to fly Graham Phillips back from UK to replace them :)

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47 minutes ago, WRW said:

How good an idea is this?

Please disregard, its a fake. Galina Tretyakova (or Tretyakova Galina) doesnt even seem to have an twitter account. Call it Russian agitprop.

Sorry about that, Id just woken up.

Edited by Stuart Galbraith
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12 minutes ago, jaro said:

Kharkov, post hit - building stands, lots of dead civilians who were driving by..

 

 

See above - there was Azov nazis mobilisation meeting planned there. But the meeting was planned to 10AM, and ste strike was earlier  -probably to minimise the number of casualties and limit it to Azov leadership.

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