Russia-Ukraine War

[Sovereign01]

It's called the Jack-in-the-box effect, for obvious reasons That must have been a T-72, the Russian T-72s are extremely vulnerable due to storage of the ammunition in a ring along the inside of the turret right next to the crew.

[Warenwolf]

Geopolitical fallout in Europe due to Ukrainian war continues:

Finland closer to NATO membership with Prime Minister and the President of the Republic giving out joint statement - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSieyAFXIAM ... name=large

[JSDD]

found a very good documentation of the prelude to the current conflict ... (by pbs frontline)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urg1NTA ... 7COfficial

[Chips]

found a very good documentation of the prelude to the current conflict ... (by pbs frontline)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urg1NTA ... 7COfficial

"This footage shows Igor and his fellow separatists storming the Kharkiv Government building... Igor says he was joined by busloads of Russians who had come across the border earlier that day. But it turns out they were doing it for more than political belief, Igor boasted they were being paid to fight... 'We were recruited as pro Russian fighters, paid $40 an hour to beat up the Kiev fascists' " (14mins)

Says all you need to know. The entire thing is chilling.

[JSDD]

found a very good documentation of the prelude to the current conflict ... (by pbs frontline)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urg1NTA ... 7COfficial

"This footage shows Igor and his fellow separatists storming the Kharkiv Government building... Igor says he was joined by busloads of Russians who had come across the border earlier that day. But it turns out they were doing it for more than political belief, Igor boasted they were being paid to fight... 'We were recruited as pro Russian fighters, paid $40 an hour to beat up the Kiev fascists' " (14mins)

Says all you need to know. The entire thing is chilling.

only if you willing, and able to fight that fight, you'd accept that 40$ an hour ... that says you all, too
nobody extorted those people to fight, they did it voluntarily (and earned a bit by the way)

another documentation telling whats up with russia and putler ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AkAZIk ... BSNewsHour

[Tamina]

A Russian conscript earns about 30$ a month, and the families compensation for a fallen soldier is 100$, is what I am reading online. So the 40$ fall pretty much in line with the usual payment.

[mr.WHO]

A Russian conscript earns about 30$ a month, and the families compensation for a fallen soldier is 100$, is what I am reading online. So the 40$ fall pretty much in line with the usual payment.

Oh sh*t for families to realize life is worth of modestly fancy dinner in the West.
Even in Russia 100$ is probably nothing much either.

[felter]

I do feel sorry for those families of those dead Russians, they did not ask for any of this, and they deserve to get their dead children back, and it is sick that the Russian government/Military is refusing to accept them.

I don't know what I feel. A lot of those families do not feel sorry, they put on a Z ribbon and celebrate the victory day. They celebrate the "victories" of the Russian army, and the murders they commit.

For everyone else I do feel sorry

I'm not going to go there, to judge someone that I don't know, as I know not all Russians support what's going on and not all of them want what is going on. All I know is they have lost someone due to something outside their control, and they can't get them back. I have been in the position where I had loved ones and friends fighting in a war, I have lived with the thought that I would maybe not be able to see them alive ever again, so I can only imagine how bad it would be to think that if anything had happened that I would not get their body back to bury is pretty horrendous. Nope, those people in Russia are not the ones who are doing the war crimes even if they support the war or not they deserve to get the bodies of their loved ones returned to them, it's the humane thing to do.

Talking about war crimes, the main news story on the BBC show the Russians shooting a 65-year-old civilian security guard in the back. There is little doubt that it is a war crime, as they have it all recorded, they even have the face of the Russian who did it.

[mr.WHO]

SoonTM - a very bad days for russian tankers, NLAW was only an apetizer:
https://twitter.com/wolski_jaros/status ... 2647746563

They should get bigger cope cage

[fiksal]

I do feel sorry for those families of those dead Russians, they did not ask for any of this, and they deserve to get their dead children back, and it is sick that the Russian government/Military is refusing to accept them.

I don't know what I feel. A lot of those families do not feel sorry, they put on a Z ribbon and celebrate the victory day. They celebrate the "victories" of the Russian army, and the murders they commit.

For everyone else I do feel sorry

I'm not going to go there, to judge someone that I don't know, as I know not all Russians support what's going on and not all of them want what is going on. All I know is they have lost someone due to something outside their control, and they can't get them back. I have been in the position where I had loved ones and friends fighting in a war, I have lived with the thought that I would maybe not be able to see them alive ever again, so I can only imagine how bad it would be to think that if anything had happened that I would not get their body back to bury is pretty horrendous. Nope, those people in Russia are not the ones who are doing the war crimes even if they support the war or not they deserve to get the bodies of their loved ones returned to them, it's the humane thing to do.

I agree that they should get the bodies back and be properly buried.

We can leave other topics behind.

A Russian conscript earns about 30$ a month, and the families compensation for a fallen soldier is 100$, is what I am reading online. So the 40$ fall pretty much in line with the usual payment.

Oh sh*t for families to realize life is worth of modestly fancy dinner in the West.
Even in Russia 100$ is probably nothing much either.

I cant validate those numbers, but indeed, $100 is nothing serious, even with the shot up exchange rate.

[felter]

There's an update on that picture I showed last night of around 8 vehicles destroyed, I said it was only a small part of it, turns out it involves around 50 Russian vehicles destroyed, and the estimate is 1,000 Russian soldiers killed in that single attack, in other words the Ukrainians destroyed an entire Russian Battalion. Those troops were on their way to help bolster the lines that are collapsing around Kharkiv, this is another major hit to Russia.

Ben Hodges being interviewed about it.

[mr.WHO]

Looks like Russia is abandoning Kharkiv front, just like with Kiyv front before.
Additionally, it now scale down it's encirlement plans yet agian.

Looks like this war will be ending one front a time - 3 more to go.

Whoever lead Ukrainian campaing is damn calm and methodical, taking time knowing it work in Ukraine favor.
I hope that Summer offensive is not just a PR move, but will be a damn epic ass whooping.

Edit: One thing bizzare me - where are Russian reserves? They should be able to brin something after 2 months, even without general mobilization. Where are they? at Finland?

[Olterin]

Edit: One thing bizzare me - where are Russian reserves? They should be able to brin something after 2 months, even without general mobilization. Where are they? at Finland?

They are ... in reserve. As absurd as it sounds, Russia considers itself to be "at peace", i.e. no martial law or anything, technically. Which means that reservists stay in reserve. When people talk about mobilization, they generally mean "mobilizing the reserves" - mass conscript callups are something else entirely. As far as I've heard, anyone who's been in the Russian army in the past 5 years is part of the reserve - given the conscript/contract nature of the army, most of them will have been conscripts.

[mr.WHO]

They are ... in reserve. As absurd as it sounds, Russia considers itself to be "at peace", i.e. no martial law or anything, technically. Which means that reservists stay in reserve. When people talk about mobilization, they generally mean "mobilizing the reserves" - mass conscript callups are something else entirely. As far as I've heard, anyone who's been in the Russian army in the past 5 years is part of the reserve - given the conscript/contract nature of the army, most of them will have been conscripts.

Still it's odd, I don't ask about general mobilization when you could assemble a million or two troops, but country the size of Russia, having ongoing 150k troops operation, should be able to muster additional 50-100k more by now (and still call it "special operation").

I read some rumors that Russian reservist pool core is around 55+ years old and that COVID made significant dent in it.

[Warenwolf]

Erdogan regarding Finland's and Sweden's potential membership in NATO:

https://www.reuters.com/world/erdogan-s ... 022-05-13/

My take on it - he wants to hold the two country's application process as hostage in order to get concessions from EU or USA. After all he did ruin Turkeys economy in record time.

[euclid]

This left me speechless. Poor lad, not even his Mum believes him.

Cheers Euclid

[notaterran]

[...] Ukrainians destroyed an entire Russian Battalion.

[chew-ie]

This left me speechless. Poor lad, not even his Mum believes him.

Cheers Euclid

Same - I don't get it how things like that can happen in our times.

[Tamina]

It is weird and scary how easily we humans can be manipulated..

[Sovereign01]

[...] Ukrainians destroyed an entire Russian Battalion.

Apparently, they did it using USA-supplied howitzers