Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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Permission
Asking for permission sounded probably like this: "Don't throw your shit on Kiev in the next 24h, if you don't want apocalypse in return. Thanks."
The fact they're parroting they didnt start the war always does my head in.
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials
Prigozhin is starting to sound desperate.
Saab, the makers claim it has terrain avoidance and show it making long sweeping movements around hillsides. Maybe that's a degree of hype but they seem to claim quite a long glide time / range with the added wings
To avoid getting detected by ground based radars it would need to cruise at very low alititudes, in a flat country like Ukraine probably as low as 90 - 150 feet or just over the tree tops. I don't think it would be able to glide at those altitudes for any major distance without any propulsion.
My guess is that the best way to avoid interceptions for a weapon like this is to have it glide to the target mid course at the highest altitude possible and then let it dive at the target to gain as high speed as possible in the terminal phase, this also gives the added benefit of a higher kinetic force upon impact. Very similar to a normal ballistic trajectory but with an added gliding phase mid course. Since it is guided it will probably have pre programed evasive maneuvers to for added protection.
This sounded fake to me, especially because it implies that "Democracy" and "Fascist dictatorship" are the same on this subject. They are not. They are definitely not the same.
Anyway, I am still not sure if this is fake or not. Certainly, he did not say anything like this "at the Nuremberg trials" so, this part is definitely incorrect.
https://www.reuters.com/article/fac...-them-appears-to-be-inauthentic-idUSL1N2LM23W
“The intended link between COVID-19 measures and any ‘Nazi ways’ of ‘scaring’ and ‘enslaving’ people is complete nonsense,” Paulmichl said. “The quote is fake and - in my opinion - it is very likely that whoever invented it did this on purpose.”
Peter Fritzsche, a professor of history and Germanic languages and literatures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (here), also told Reuters via email that Goering did not say this at Nuremberg, and described the posts’ implicit links to the novel coronavirus as “tendentious and silly.”
Good to see Canada taking the lead on this part. Shove it, Vlad!
Xi Jinping will do it, unfortunately. The guy is like WIlhelm II while his predecessors were kinda like Bismarck. People with enough familiarity with German history in the 19th century up to 1914 will recognize the pattern, especially the part where Wilhelm II did everything hisway and without heeding the words from all of those who had been there and done that before him.
China Reportedly Negotiating with Russia To Supply Kamikaze Drones
The U.S. and Germany have warned China not to deliver weapons to Russia. According to information obtained by DER SPIEGEL, however, Beijing and Moscow are said to be negotiating the purchase of 100 strike drones, which could be delivered as soon as April.
https://www.spiegel.de/internationa..._ecid=soci_upd_KsBF0AFjflf0DZCxpPYDCQgO1dEMph
The U.S. and Germany have warned China not to deliver weapons to Russia. According to information obtained by DER SPIEGEL, however, Beijing and Moscow are said to be negotiating the purchase of 100 strike drones, which could be delivered as soon as April.
https://www.spiegel.de/internationa..._ecid=soci_upd_KsBF0AFjflf0DZCxpPYDCQgO1dEMph
I’m old enough to remember when we couldn’t criticize or wish ill on the Russian soldiers on here…
The exact quote from Nuremberg Diary, pp 255-256
"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering
shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk
his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to
come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common
people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor
in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is under-
stood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who de-
termine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag
the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dic-
tatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy
the people have some say in the matter through their elected
representatives, and in the United States only Congress can
declare war."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the
people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country."
What is the benefit to China in helping Russia out here. Surely they recognize that Russia has alienated basically the entire world, an entire world that China happens to do a lot of business with. Are the pros of helping Russia out here really worth the potential negatives to their relationships with everyone else?
It is yet more evidence against the neo Liberal thesis trade trumps all other interests.
Why are South Africa doing military exercises with Russia when they export ten times more to the EU than to Russia?
China likewise will exports 10 times more to the EU than they do to Russia.
There is a lot of people in charge who remember a certain world order and feel allegiance to that.
Russia primary sells gas and oil and shitty military equipment.
China sells everything to the rest of the world.
So they have a great deal to lose through sanctions.
In my view, China is playing politics as usual trying to be all things to all men.
And they want to keep Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council onboard in the event they decide to invade Taiwan.
Lets not kid ourselves here, Xi is cut from the same cloth as Putin, the difference is that hes not as bold/reckless and China's value as a trading partner far outweighs Russia . The rest of the world is as dependent on China as they are on it and Xi knows the kind of diplomatic/economic sanctions Russia are facing are very unlikely to hit them. China have been commiting atrocities for years without facing any sort of consequences .
I still remember the morning a year ago when I got the news about the attack and sick feeling I got in my stomach. I remember all the things what were happening during Croatian Homeland war and just thought - those poor people in Ukraine, what will they endure now... A year on and the war is alive and kicking, so are people who bought all the Russian lies and are acting as if Ukrainians are somehow at fault for Russians destroying and pillaging their country.
I also believe that China will start to supply the russian army in the near future. They need Russia as a counter weight against Nato and the west. Without them, they would stand alone. Western sanctions are still more tolerable than Putin's fall I assume. And those sanctions won't be too serious, because both sides depend way more on each other than Europe depended on Russia. You can always find other energy suppliers, but you can't find a second china market.
Also it's a good opportunity to test your own equipment. There is only so much you can do in training, but the real war will show results and I bet china is eager to test their own military strength regarding Taiwan.
I think they will start the supply with small deliveries like some drones and watch, how the west reacts. From there they will decide other steps.
Don’t think Russia has alienated the entire world. Beyond the Western and ex-Soviet states it doesn’t seem like the rest of the world is bothered much about what’s happening in Ukraine.
Would this even be allowed? Could scare Polish residents in the area.
I can understand that.
But China is coming from an entirely different position to that of Russia.
Russia is coming from a position of ruling the former Soviet Union with its Warsaw Pact allies. That has gone and Putin is determined to rebuild at least part of that. And he is using the threat from NATO and what he calls the Nazis in Ukraine.
Aside from Taiwan, China is less expansionist. And it has been investigating very heavily to make it far less dependent on Russia for military equipment. It does not have NATO right on its doorstep.
So I think that China position is more about posturing. It needs to show its support for its primary ally of course.
But it has significantly more to lose by openly supplying Russia with military equipment. If it really wanted to, why wait for a year to do that.
This is really grim
Destroyed Russian tank in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin
Sweden will send about 10 Stridsvagn122 tanks to Ukraine, it's basically a Leopard 2A5 with upgraded protection. They also announced that Hawk and Iris-T air defense systems will be sent.
I also think a part of it is simply not allowing the US and European NATO partners a win, which would give the overall alliance a boost in confidence when it comes to their ability and therefore willingness to support smaller nations against larger invaders, and would send a similar message to observers and leaders in the rest of the world.
If we think in terms of hypotheticals for a second, imagine that Ukraine were to secure victory in terms of restoring it's entire territory by end of 2024 (I know that it's probably optimistic). Unclear what happens in Russia politically, but the outcomes are probably more risky for China than status quo. Possibly boosts Biden's re-election chances vs a potentially isolationist GOP candidate (possibly DT), although I won't kid myself that would always depend more on situation in the US economy. But mostly everyone else watching in East and South Asia, Africa, and everywhere else China wants to have influence would likely conclude (at least until something else happens) that the US is the country that you don't want to challenge/whose side you want to be on. Both Russia and China were in one sense enjoying the years since 2003 when the relative power of the US was (rightly) being questioned, China would probably like that to continue.
The first 4 Leopards are in Ukraine!
In my opinion, China has the upperhand, Is true that lots of dependencies exists between the west and China, but the west are democracies with a complacent middle class that is trying to get by with its commodities, leisure and personal growth expectations. While China is an non democractic autocracy that 40 years ago had 3/4 of the population under extreme poverty. So the population can endure more and the government can control more. So in a war of economic attrition, China would win. Also, China's government grip, being stronger than the west is not as strong as before, for the same reason, because its citizens are demanding better standards as they are starting to create a big middle class. We saw it with their protests 1 or 2 months back about COVIC restrictions, so a conflict with the west that would justify a dip in their economy in the name of patriotism, to tighten the grip more and open the possibility to start talking to invade Taiwan, might make Xi the possibility to meddle with Russia-Ukraine war. As well, as someone point out here, test weapons in real war for a possible conflict in Taiwan
I think that China could meddle with the conflict because the west has more to lose than China, that is already being sanctioned technologically speaking, and there is already a cold war going on and the west is already diversifying supply chain to other asian countries. China will never have as much leverage than now.
I think that China could meddle with the conflict because the west has more to lose than China, that is already being sanctioned technologically speaking, and there is already a cold war going on and the west is already diversifying supply chain to other asian countries. China will never have as much leverage than now.
CNN: more sanctions.