War in Ukraine, technical and military aspects only

[Roman Alymov]

FPVs vs. logistics compilation https://t.me/dva_majors/83274

[Roman Alymov]

Tank actions, Krasny Liman direction https://t.me/dva_majors/83205

[Markus Becker]

17 hours ago, Damian said:

If we would agree to get these Strykers, these would be used to rearm some of ours battalions/brigades. At the moment, Poland do not plan to donate anymore equipment to Ukraine, we donated enough.

Convert from what current vehicles and why not use the Rosomak? Because free is free I presume.

 

PS: A reaction to your statement from another forum

"What he said is true for existing equipment, but that's not what's talked about here.
Adopting Strykers long term would ruffle a lot of feathers due to effectively cutting into future Rosomak orders and near future replacement Serwal program.
Introducing a new type of a vehicle very similar to a domestically produced one just for an intermediate term use, not sure it is worth the extra spending that comes with that.
Seen some people suggest that, but it would be a questionable expense for 2 brigades worth aka ~400 vehicles or less, depending on which specialist variant vehicles US decides to keep.
Using reluctance to fish for PURL or other EU based funding for the necessary repairs and modifications for the vehicles is another possible option."

Edited November 15, 2025 by Markus Becker

[glenn239]

16 hours ago, Damian said:

 At the moment, Poland do not plan to donate anymore equipment to Ukraine, we donated enough.

So Poland sees Ukraine as a lost cause now?

[seahawk]

Every sane person does. 

[Damian]

Poland donated most MBT's compared to other nations. We also donated a lot of IFV's and other equipment, not to mention ammunition, logistics support, and also humanitarian support for refugees.

We have our own priorities now, like modernization of the Polish Armed Forces.

Besides I believe that for several years now, Rheinmetall for example, promised to build huge armament factories in Ukraine, they have their chance to shine, we done our part.

[Josh]

What Glenn is fishing for is a change in Poland’s political stance, not a practical listing of Polish priorities. I think Poland still contributes ammunition and such but has largely donated all the vehicles it has to donate. I think that is probably true of most all of Europe by now.

[Markus Becker]

17 minutes ago, Josh said:

What Glenn is fishing for is a change in Poland’s political stance, not a practical listing of Polish priorities. I think Poland still contributes ammunition and such but has largely donated all the vehicles it has to donate. I think that is probably true of most all of Europe by now.

Fat chance of that ever happening. Russia is one of the few things Polish politics agrees on across party lines. 

[TrustMe]

You have to wonder how Poland can afford this massive military build up. It reminds me of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970's, and we all know what happened to him.

[Josh]

8 minutes ago, TrustMe said:

You have to wonder how Poland can afford this massive military build up. It reminds me of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970's, and we all know what happened to him.

There is popular support for the buildup AFAIK. No one wants to rely solely on NATO or give up any territory that gets turned into Bucha 2.0

[Damian]

24 minutes ago, TrustMe said:

You have to wonder how Poland can afford this massive military build up. It reminds me of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970's, and we all know what happened to him.

Perhaps we can, because contrary to stupid stereotypes, Poland is not a poor country anymore. Heck when I was in western Europe, I get realization, that standard of life is not that different, and honestly, considering internal problems many western european countries have, I would be insane to want to move from Poland to the west.

And this is view shared by many young Poles. I rather live in my country, and contribute to it's further development.

Does it mean, there are no challenges? There is plenty, we will probably need to sacrifice some comfort of life, but majority of citizens are ready for this, in the name of completeing modernization of our armed forces.

And as @Josh said, we remember all too well WWII, there is strong sentiment not to repeat it, so modernizing armed forces and building fortifications, have a strong support. Recently General Staff started to even talk about restarting conscription, which is a good thing.

And some political circles support this, with the idea that we should be preapred for defense, just like Israel is, this also includes building up, our own defense industry, yes it happens not as fast as we would all wish it should, but it happens.

[Markus Becker]

33 minutes ago, Damian said:

Perhaps we can, because contrary to stupid stereotypes, Poland is not a poor country anymore.

 

That and unlike much of western Europe Poland never underfunded it's military in the first place. They were on the top end of NATO even before the war? 

Who else had ~250 reasonably up to date MBT in reserve? 

[Markus Becker]

RUMINT:

Deliveries of artillery ammo from "Best Korea" to Russia have dropped by half. They are said to be out of the reserve stock that they were willing to part with.

[sunday]

1 hour ago, Damian said:

Perhaps we can, because contrary to stupid stereotypes, Poland is not a poor country anymore.

Indeed. Poland has caught up with Europe in the last 20 years.

[Josh]

8 hours ago, Markus Becker said:

RUMINT:

Deliveries of artillery ammo from "Best Korea" to Russia have dropped by half. They are said to be out of the reserve stock that they were willing to part with.

Seems unlikely, but by the same token I always assumed Bestest Korea was only parting with its trash. I would not exclude the possibility they ran out of oldest/lowest quality rounds to sell to Russia.

But likely we will never know for the rest of our lives either way.

[Roman Alymov]

12 hours ago, sunday said:

Indeed. Poland has caught up with Europe in the last 20 years.

As well as most of RF did.

[sunday]

4 hours ago, Roman Alymov said:

As well as most of RF did.

It is likely, but I do not have first-hand information about that.

If only had I gone with Simon to meet you some years ago...

[glenn239]

21 hours ago, Josh said:

What Glenn is fishing for is a change in Poland’s political stance, not a practical listing of Polish priorities. I think Poland still contributes ammunition and such but has largely donated all the vehicles it has to donate. I think that is probably true of most all of Europe by now.

Actually, what I'm curious about is the concept of an ally in the defense of deep principles that also views its obligation as transactional.  It would be kind of like a nun having a reputation for giving really good head.

Edited November 16, 2025 by glenn239

[Markus Becker]

9 hours ago, Josh said:

Seems unlikely, but by the same token I always assumed Bestest Korea was only parting with its trash. I would not exclude the possibility they ran out of oldest/lowest quality rounds to sell to Russia.

But likely we will never know for the rest of our lives either way.

I think it reasonable to assume their initial deliveries could not be sustained. 

It's the deal of a lifetime for NK: a ton of cash and advanced tech and weapons for run of the mill arty ammo? 

Why would a poor and sanctioned country not sell everything including a part of the piggy bank aka war emergency reserve? 

 

That's been delivered and now they are down to supply from ongoing production. 

[urbanoid]

23 minutes ago, glenn239 said:

Actually, what I'm curious about is the concept of an ally in the defense of deep principles that also views its obligation as transactional.  It would be kind of like a nun having a reputation for giving really good head.

The 'deep principle' is that the Russian Empire/USSR 2.0 hybrid shouldn't be restored, so pro-Ukrainian stance is a default one for us, whatever Ukraine is or would or could be. It doesn't matter whether they're corrupt or perform human sacrifice the Aztec way, that's not the point. It doesn't even particularly matter if they like us or not, or us them. 

We have mostly run out of the equipment we can donate, we gave Ukraine ~40% of land forces equipment (as of 2022) and we did it quickly, when it made a difference. Probably even as of 2025 Poland has donated more MBTs to Ukraine than the rest of the world combined, we did that when much of the West has been wondering whether giving them tanks would be an 'escalation', which sounded ridiculously silly then and moreso today. Poland was and remains the main hub through which Western help gets into Ukraine. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that without us they would have lost the war long ago. 

I'd say you are safe to assume that our MIC still largely works for Ukrainian needs, whether it comes to producing ammunition or repairing their damaged equipment. Or that the Ukrainians themselves or certain Western countries/companies have established their own workshops here to service Ukrainian equipment. 

As of now our priority is not only restoring the capability we lost by donating stuff to them, we're expanding way beyond what we had before that, quantity and quality-wise. 

 

[urbanoid]

21 hours ago, Josh said:

What Glenn is fishing for is a change in Poland’s political stance, not a practical listing of Polish priorities. I think Poland still contributes ammunition and such but has largely donated all the vehicles it has to donate. I think that is probably true of most all of Europe by now.

Too bad for Glenn, that fish ain't biting. 

20 hours ago, Josh said:

There is popular support for the buildup AFAIK. No one wants to rely solely on NATO or give up any territory that gets turned into Bucha 2.0

There's little point in having a balanced budget that results in your ass getting handed to you. 

[seahawk]

Russia in 2020: How dare you not take us seriously!

Russia in 2025: How dare you take what we say seriously! 

[JWB]

22 hours ago, TrustMe said:

You have to wonder how Poland can afford this massive military build up. It reminds me of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970's, and we all know what happened to him.

Poland is the 21st wealthiest nation.

https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/

Why would that remind you of Iran and the Shah?

[X-Files]

M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle Appears In Russia With Locally Made 30mm Cannon

[bojan]

Victim of "museum restoration":

"Vehicle should have gun"

"We don't have original gun"

"Put something that looks like gun, even piece of pipe will do or find any gun that fits"

"Yes".