You are right in that the US spends an outrageous amount. The UK outspent Russia last year 65bn to 61bn. China by contrast spent 139bn. The US? 783bn. How much of that goes to things like DARPA I have no idea.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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You are right in that the US spends an outrageous amount. The UK outspent Russia last year 65bn to 61bn. China by contrast spent 139bn. The US? 783bn. How much of that goes to things like DARPA I have no idea.
We already are. Covid alone ensures depression. Now this...
If russia switch off the gas europe will tremble. They might not collapse like the russian but the economic aftermath is carastrophical, inflation, homes cant afford gas, cannibalism between the richer state and the poor for gas (that or communism like rationing which wont work in capitalist countries), china, brexit, and covid can still evolve anytime soon.
Oh yeah we're pretty much depressed
The cold war is on already. The moment the butcher started bombings, denied Ukranians their national identity and sovereignity and started to play his nukes card, we were back to the cold war.
I hope Total are leaving as well. Russia's reserves will soon be shared with CNPC.
Appalling. That's 2 mothers and their respective young kids, FFS.
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Looks like for FY22, $112 bn was dedicated to R&D.
Russia and China have the benefit of their contractors all being state owned so there are fewer expenses (i.e., no shareholders).
State of the Union: Biden just announced that as of tonight he's shutting off all US airspace to Russian flights
Mitch looks like he's going to break down crying. I wonder what's wrong.
What kind of psycho wants to be a cop in russia? Seems half the time their arresting their own citizens just for saying things the government doesn't like. Taking little kids to jail because the said no to war. I'd quit my job on the spot.
Probably wanted to use that idea for hitting Biden by accusing him of not doing enough.
Did he really expect to be welcomed?
I imagine they also factored in the potential for this level of fighting pretty early on, surely.
You'd expect they factored in all the sanctions too.
I'm guessing this is close to their worst case scenario though? Without anyone else joining in the fighting.
Apparently he thought it would be much easier than it has been.
Look at what his disinformation campaigns have done. Its helped remove the UK from Europe via Brexit. It helped Trump become president which allowed 4 years of access to US secrets. Its helped far right governments come into power all over the world. It's helped break apart the west with antivax/anti-semitism/anti-media rhetoric that's splitting the populations up. All without firing a single shot. He probably got overly confident in what his network was able to accomplish, they had probably been working on Ukrainian social media for years trying to make them more pro-Russian, but it didn't work. And the rest of the world tolerated him in the past but he simply passed a line he shouldn't have.
So much for Putin being a student of history then. At the end of the day, he knew feck all just like Dick Cheney before him.
That's insane. But the women shouldn't took their kids there for their own good, Russian government are ruthless on these.
It makes sense if they are working on old assumptions.
A tv anchor I was listening to yesterday talked about old elections results. The “Party of regions”, the pro-Russian party that ruled Ukraine up to the 2014 revolution used to get good results in Kharkiv.
In the 2012 legislative elections this party polled 30 % nationwide, but in Kharkiv they had 50%+ in almost all districts. People over there might still have some positive sentiments toward the Russian people.
But Putin and his regime are terribly mistaken in imagining that this applies to them. Or that people, no matter how upset they might be with a flawed democratic regime, would welcome the occupation of a totalitarian regime.
I'm not fond of Boris, and I look forward to his departure. But this is a strange post, the UK's support of Ukraine has been excellent, no word of a lie, I had a Ukrainian on discord personally thanking me (which I found a little surprising!) Britain was among the first to send not only equipment, but before the invasion a number of troops intented to assist the Ukrainians with familiarising themselves with our equipment.
Let's hope so, Vlad. Let's hope so.
Also depends on whether there was anything of military value near the embassy, because the Russians could say it was an honest mistake. Anyway like you said, it's barely worth a riposte especially when embassies of other countries tend to get bombed sometimes.
Absolutely bang on.
He’s debased and degraded Western democracy for years and should have never even been tolerated this far.
So that 40 mile long armada heading to Kiev is stalled. Running out of gas and food. As it stands the frustration is growing amongst Russian soldiers and probably their generals in the field. Its about 17 miles outside Kiev I believe. What do you do if you're the Ukrainians?
- Bombing the line of vehicles while stranded and killing Russians may piss them off and galvanize their resolve. It may also look bad on an international level but I'm not certain (this is war and running out of fuel should be a fatal mistake)
- Bombing the rear supply line so further food/fuel can't arrive might make the situation more desperate, but you also don't want 'forward' as the only option left for the soldiers who otherwise want to leave
- With the extra few days its bought Kiev, can they get adequate reinforcements in? Can they line the roads ahead with mines? Any forward movement by the fleet will mean Kiev is that much closer to being attacked
- How much of the issue is self sabotage? Wouldn't take much more than adding sugar to fuel (even if it occurred in Russia or Belarus) to make most of those vehicles stall
Curious to hear how this should be approached by the defense. That column was sent in to destroy Kiev, but now other opportunities have arrived, or its just delaying the inevitable
- Bombing the line of vehicles while stranded and killing Russians may piss them off and galvanize their resolve. It may also look bad on an international level but I'm not certain (this is war and running out of fuel should be a fatal mistake)
- Bombing the rear supply line so further food/fuel can't arrive might make the situation more desperate, but you also don't want 'forward' as the only option left for the soldiers who otherwise want to leave
- With the extra few days its bought Kiev, can they get adequate reinforcements in? Can they line the roads ahead with mines? Any forward movement by the fleet will mean Kiev is that much closer to being attacked
- How much of the issue is self sabotage? Wouldn't take much more than adding sugar to fuel (even if it occurred in Russia or Belarus) to make most of those vehicles stall
Curious to hear how this should be approached by the defense. That column was sent in to destroy Kiev, but now other opportunities have arrived, or its just delaying the inevitable
You're so naive to think they're out of fuel on day 1 of their march?
Come on... they may be obsolete but i take twitter updates with some pinch of salt
There's clearly something wrong with the 40 mile convoy of vehicles. The broader issue is that the Russians have underperformed massively on logistics, which is hampering their ability to make overall progress.
I feel sorry for that boy. Surely is poor people who see in the army a way out and send them to die so young. Before the start of this invasion I always had the idea that Russia was one step ahead. Getting involved in American elections, cyber warfare, and a network with tentacles in many countries around them. Of course, I thought that their armed forces were extremely fearsome ( I also watched a recruitment video where everything seems very glorious and imposing), not only because of their artillery but well-prepared infantry, a high command with a clear strategic idea and effective analysts, but after weeks planning the invasion, they are surprised at its toughness, they are sent without gasoline, communicating with amateur radios, with expired food and with officers who execute you if you are injured or leaving your body to rot in a forest
I see your point mate. However, there are thousands people with that surname. Imagine, how unlucky they are. A butcher who occupies lands, commits war crimes, imprisons or assassinates whoever publicly disagrees with his atrocities, does not see Ukraine as a state or Ukranians as a nation and calls for their "denazification" is as close to Hitler as it gets. Thus, Putler.
even if they did run out of fuel it wouldn't take that long to sort it
pretty sure they have petrol stations in Ukraine
pretty sure they have petrol stations in Ukraine
They’ve also run out of or are running out of food, begs the question what was this convoy full of if not fuel and food as well as munitions.
do you not think the stations might already have been looted by the first lot as it takes a lot of fuel to keep tanks and trucks going.
If you want a good, rather up to date (2016), very long form read on how the Russian military attempts to operate…
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/por...17-07-the-russian-way-of-war-grau-bartles.pdf
A key quote from it about the Russian battalion tactical group that relates to some of the issues we’re seeing in Ukraine…
“Although BTGs have a common training program, there are still problems… logistical and maintenance issues… one reform that has not been successful was the abolition of some logistics and maintenance units in favor of private contractors. Russia is currently trying to rebuild some of its organic logistics and maintenance units, but the process is slow going. BTGs are not immune to the logistics problems that still plague the Russian military and BTG commanders still complain about them.”
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/por...17-07-the-russian-way-of-war-grau-bartles.pdf
A key quote from it about the Russian battalion tactical group that relates to some of the issues we’re seeing in Ukraine…
“Although BTGs have a common training program, there are still problems… logistical and maintenance issues… one reform that has not been successful was the abolition of some logistics and maintenance units in favor of private contractors. Russia is currently trying to rebuild some of its organic logistics and maintenance units, but the process is slow going. BTGs are not immune to the logistics problems that still plague the Russian military and BTG commanders still complain about them.”
They should have gone green. Electric powered APCs and tanks.
The Indian stance in short is one of keeping our chances at defending territory expansion by China and Pakistan intact. We get a lot of our arms and ammunition from Russia, and 30% of our Oil. As a net oil importing country, we can't afford to lose access to that. Increasing oil prices is anyway one of the key reasons the current government may not come to power in the next election (at least that's the hope for a lot of us).
The decision looks bizarre but the US and the West have always take a pro- Pakistan stance, and even interfered in effectively an internal reorganization of Kashmir and Ladakh at the UN level. So this Government knows that if anything escalates with Pakistan, we will have no support from the West and we'll need Russia. If things escalate with China - we can fully expect the West to sympathise and provide aid given the China-US tensions.
The government's position is understandable, but does not make it less despicable. This is an actual invasion which we have failed to condemn.
No idea if this is true or not, could well be bollocks
I just don't believe the story at all, to be honest
there is so much nonsense being posted, and this just isn't believable
although it is quite plausible that petrol stations have run out of petrol, so yeah maybe
After watching what is happening to ukraine, it is hard believe there will be any help from west apart from thoughts and prayers in case of an invasion. So, I understand the position from our government. But, our govt should provide non-military aid to people in ukraine.
I was watching an interview from Radio-Canada with a former KGB agent exiled in France named Sergei Jirnov, who knows Putin personally. Addressing on reports from the Pentagon of Russian soldiers sabotaging their own equipment and even defecting, Jirnov says that's good news if anything. Russia still uses a large portion of conscripts and contractors in their forces, and that means they are more likely to stop fighting when they realize what they get into according to him. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of Russian soldiers sabotaged key elements from that convoy to make it stop.
Stingy bastard