Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[NotHardUp1]

I fully expect Putin to ramp up damage right now prior to the signing of the Ukraine aid bill, and maybe even timing some outrage to coincide with siging of the bill by the president.

 

[rareboy]

The most important thing is the signal to the Kremlin that the US remains a committed partner with other NATO countries in fighting back.

The Kremlin has relied on the weakening of resolve to pushn ahead, reckoning that the rest of the world will just have to suck it up and go back to business as usual.

The Bills also send a message to China. And that is also a good thing.

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

It seems like only a short time ago that the figure stood at 400K.

 

[rareboy]

Apparently the US vote has surpised, confused and angered the Kremlin. Peskov and Medvedev were sputtering yesterday.

And Blinken is on his way to China to discuss China's support of rrrZZZja's war of aggression.

 

[rareboy]

UA apparently hit the submarine retreival ship Kommuna in Sevastopol last night. There is film of a fire on board, but the governor of occupied Crimea says it was caused by 'falling debris' from the missile that was shot down.

 

[rareboy]

The German building materials manufacturer Knauf has completely stopped working in Russia 'against the background of current events'.

The reasons are not specified, but the company was recently involved in a scandal when it was reported that the company was providing supplies to reconstruct occupied Mariupol.

 

[TX-Beau]

UA apparently hit the submarine retreival ship Kommuna in Sevastopol last night. There is film of a fire on board, but the governor of occupied Crimea says it was caused by 'falling debris' from the missile that was shot down.

I guess they got a handle on all that smoking.

 

[rareboy]

UA apparently hit the submarine retreival ship Kommuna in Sevastopol last night. There is film of a fire on board, but the governor of occupied Crimea says it was caused by 'falling debris' from the missile that was shot down.

Obviously the fires were able to be extinguished because there has been no further confirmation of extensive damage to the ship.

 

[rareboy]

Unlike in Voronezh where an Electro-mechanical factory producing war materiel has gone up in flames. At least 3000 SM burning.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1782301589320987009

 

[TX-Beau]

Unlike in Voronezh where an Electro-mechanical factory producing war materiel has gone up in flames. At least 3000 SM burning.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1782301589320987009

Ahhh, there's where the smokers went.

 

[TX-Beau]

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries possessing Patriot air defense systems gave no clear signal on Monday whether they might be willing to supply them to Ukraine, which is desperately seeking at least seven of the missile batteries to help fend off Russian air attacks...

MSN

www.msn.com

I don't know why giving Ukraine purely defensive capabilities is so very difficult, especially in places where Putin has not bought obstruction and delay.

I still think that we should be arming Ukraine to crush the invasion and the devil take the hindmost.

 

[rareboy]

The west has failed Ukraine at every stage with this request.

There is no military threat against European nations or North America, but the foot dragging to provide defensive systems is always couched in terms of countries being afraid to reduce their own defensive capabilities.

After 2 years, there has been ample time to produce more to backstop...but the defense companies aren't doing it for free and Europe is playing catch-up in budgeting for increased defense spending as a % of GDP.

As long as there was this tacit deal between Europe and rrrZZZia over the last 15 years that the Kremlin wouldn't attack NATO countries (at least from without), they all could let the re-arming slide. Now they have to balance a very real fear that Putin intends to re-take Europe to cement his legacy of the greatest Tsar of all rrrsshas.

 

[TX-Beau]

It astonishes me that people in this country fail to understand that Congress allocates money for Ukraine that American companies then get paid to support Ukraine. It's basically helping ourselves, being the biggest war profiteers in the world. We sell weapons to some sketchy people in the name of profit - the exact same profit we get from helping Ukraine, but we dither to help Ukraine why? It's frikkin' obvious at this point that Russia isn't going to be able to compete, probably even with Poland, let alone all of the rest of us.

Then, those same people who oppose arms for Ukraine also ignore the policy of using arms sales to bind countries to us. It's only to our benefit to outfit Ukraine with modern American weapons and support systems. Not only does that create a dependency, but it increases the total reliance on American logistical and military support all over the globe.

It's just foolish to think that arming Ukraine hurts us in any way - arming Ukraine benefits us massively.

 

[rareboy]

I see that the US senate invoked Cloture 80 to 19 without amendments.

The bill will certainly pass now.

 

[rareboy]

It astonishes me that people in this country fail to understand that Congress allocates money for Ukraine that American companies then get paid to support Ukraine. It's basically helping ourselves, being the biggest war profiteers in the world. We sell weapons to some sketchy people in the name of profit - the exact same profit we get from helping Ukraine, but we dither to help Ukraine why? It's frikkin' obvious at this point that Russia isn't going to be able to compete, probably even with Poland, let alone all of the rest of us.

Then, those same people who oppose arms for Ukraine also ignore the policy of using arms sales to bind countries to us. It's only to our benefit to outfit Ukraine with modern American weapons and support systems. Not only does that create a dependency, but it increases the total reliance on American logistical and military support all over the globe.

It's just foolish to think that arming Ukraine hurts us in any way - arming Ukraine benefits us massively.

The US turning its back on many African countries has meant that rrrZZZia and China are now their leaders. Think of all the lost trade and market opportunities.

Turning its back on Europe will be deadly for the US.

 

[rareboy]

Meanwhile:

15 of 16 Shaheds shot down today.

 

[TX-Beau]

I see that the US senate invoked Cloture 80 to 19 without amendments.

The bill will certainly pass now.

Not enough, but at least something.

 

[TX-Beau]

The US turning its back on many African countries has meant that rrrZZZia and China are now their leaders. Think of all the lost trade and market opportunities.

Turning its back on Europe will be deadly for the US.

I suspect that Russia will emerge from this as the loser globally. In terms of soft power, no one is going to want shoddy, ineffective Russian hardware anymore. They can't even provide support for their own Soviet-era equipment. Their newer equipment is either trash or fiction. It's pretty pitiful when one is cannibalizing refrigerators for chips to put in cruise missiles.

I do agree that China is going to become the major supplier of second-rate military hardware. Still, the real competition for state-of-the-art equipment will be exclusively among NATO countries.

That has got to leave a sour taste in Vladimir's mouth.

 

[Norri]

The US turning its back on many African countries has meant that rrrZZZia and China are now their leaders. Think of all the lost trade and market opportunities.

Turning its back on Europe will be deadly for the US.

They are also turning their backs on us. One thing the Chinese and the Russians have over us is that they don’t preach to those they want to do business with while we Americans do. Telling other countries that they should be moving towards democracy or anything involving gender equality or how they deal with their gay community is bad diplomacy. No one likes to be told what to do and no one likes overbearing Americans.