Needs a wash. Give em a slap.
Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar
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Will be interesting to see how Ukraine responds or even if it is capable should Russia start hitting Kyiv with missiles from the sea.
If they fire Kalibr missiles from submarines then not much Zelensky can do.
Does Ukraine even have a navy ?
Putin has almost reached his goals, he could just launch some missiles at Kyiv for the fun of it now, just to torment Zelensky and the West.
If they fire Kalibr missiles from submarines then not much Zelensky can do.
Does Ukraine even have a navy ?
Putin has almost reached his goals, he could just launch some missiles at Kyiv for the fun of it now, just to torment Zelensky and the West.
Soldato
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Yes they have a rubber dinghy to take you away to the loony asylum.
Caporegime
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Putins never really expressed a concrete goal has he? Just denazification/demilitarization.
Kyiv is a big city - they've usually intercepted between 30 and 70% of the missiles fired at it IIRC, including Kalibrs.
He has talked several things - his initial statement in the wake of hostilities kicking off was about securing the borders of the Donbas, but has made references many times to historical events and Peter the Great in the context of wider territory "returning" to Russia and a few times talked about wiping Ukraine as an identity off the map.
EDIT: Ultimately I think he is testing NATO/West's resolve to see how far he can push it - he has broken through inhibitions/hang ups which might have previously held back more direct confrontation with the West and set himself down a path there isn't really a way to come back from so only lack of means will really stop him now.
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I don't buy into the Putin wants the whole of Ukraine and those who think he wants the whole of Europe...they really have lost the plot.
He has taken most of what he wants and now he must also hold it, Ukraine will fight back and try and reclaim so he must reserve troops/munitions/hardware.
Also defending against Ukraine isn't enough, he also has to be wary incase NATO puts boots on the ground as they may strike him if they feel he has expended too much.
Oh it could be shutter island for me
With what ?
I've not read anything about Ukraine having the ability to stop Kalibr cruise missiles.
Putin shows every sign of megalomania - he would seek to take the whole of Europe if it was realistic, he might not actively be working towards that goal with the realities of his resources but he almost certainly does covet expanding his power and influence. The only thing I find confusing about this is that Putin has previously shown himself to be disciplined and capable at global politics and a shrewd operator - little of which is on display here - which begs whether we aren't seeing the bigger picture here or some other factor like time constraints are forcing his hand (which is why a lot of people postulate he might be seriously/terminally ill).
(Also possible the West's display of ineptitude and weakness when it came to events in Afghanistan recently overly swayed his perspective).
The initial thrust at Kyiv was not a feint or distraction - it doesn't match the force composition built up overall or the tactics and forces used even allowing that Russia has made a lot of opening mistakes and not always done the smartest thing there is no way they'd make that much of a mistake. They could have put Kyiv under immense pressure drawing forces away elsewhere with barely losing a man if that was their intention - and still applying that pressure now with even a basic level of tactics if that was their intention.
Putin's recent instructions have been to push on after an operational "pause" and expand operations beyond the Donbas - the forces being built up and equipment being pulled out of deep storage and staged in the western military district and reactivation/taking over of facilities in Belarus tends to suggest continued offensive operations rather than settling for securing and defending the Donbas.
They don't seem to take anything exceptional to stop - Ukraine managed to intercept around 30-40% of them in recent attacks.
(The bigger issue is Ukraine doesn't seem to have enough air-defence systems - especially to cover both urban areas and front lines).
Well, the obvious one is that Putin was put-out when put-in was
But his puppets (Lukashenko), and neighbours with what we though similar world outlook and possible allies (e.g. Kazakhstan) haven't been that reliable lately. In the case of Belarus that was either a lucky thing for Ukraine, or maybe - as Lukashenko probably calculates - Belarus actually joining the war might been the end of that regime; so the self-proclaimed tactical genius, Putin, would not only have cause Finland and Sweden to join NATO but also caused the end of his only true ally.
Hard to say what the conclusion is: someone who was always calculating and callous (and you don't get much more callous than getting into power by blowing up apartment blocks in your own country), seems to have lost his mind. None of this really makes sense whether we think of Putin as a cold strategist, a mafia don, or just a strongman; maybe he's simply going senile!
What goals ?
Pretty sure his goal was the capture/ killing of zelensky and his government and the total capture of the whole of Ukraine going on his very own words, oh and the total eradication of everything and anything Ukrainian...
Not going so well is it? Unless you call killing more civilians and a 4year old girl a goal, in which case he's bloody well acing it the little wannabe Hitler.
I think it fairly clear that the opening actions of this war was an attempt to install a puppet leadership in Kyiv - the opening events in the north were clearly intended to try and replicate 2014 with rapid light forces spearheaded by strikes, sabotage and assassination squads while trying to raise pro-Russian collaborators in the expectation that Ukraine would then largely put down their arms and fold. This is further backed up by the deliveries of crowd control equipment, ceremonial dress and decorations, etc. which continued on schedule into Ukraine despite the outcome not going as expected :s along with military police and other forces coming in behind the airborne forces more intended for occupation roles rather than frontline duties.
Much of the rest of the forces (those coming in from the east, etc.) were built up optimised (as illustrated by the choices of artillery types out of what was available, etc.) around the notion most of the combat would be surrounding and pummelling into submission isolated hold outs groups and cities, etc. - one of the reasons they did poorly initially.
Much of the rest of the forces (those coming in from the east, etc.) were built up optimised (as illustrated by the choices of artillery types out of what was available, etc.) around the notion most of the combat would be surrounding and pummelling into submission isolated hold outs groups and cities, etc. - one of the reasons they did poorly initially.
Dear god Rroff. What madness is this? LOGIC and REALITY. In General Discussion ?
I'm fairly sure near the start even I said something along the lines of taking out Zelensky to install a puppet regime but that clearly failed so I was talking current goals.
Soldato
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Still able to shoot down some of the missiles Russia launches, what strikes me is apparent waste of these missiles by Russian on what appears to have zero strategic value where the only purpose is just to terrorise people in the cities under attack, it certainly does feel like these attacks are born out of frustration at not being able to target anything of military significance
A lot of Russian tactics lately have been to try and drive out civilians ahead of them - having lots of civilians on the move ties up Ukraine's armed forces, means Russia has less concerns (as far as they ever do) about civilian collateral when they do push and they don't have the man power to spare to police large amounts of civilians in occupied territory.
They don't seem to have much interest in subjugating Ukrainian people - don't seem to care what happens to them - they just want the territory.
Most of their navy was stolen by Russia either during the fall of the USSR or with the annexation of Crimea, they also had to scuttle some ships earlier in the year after Russia captured the ports they were at. They have some patrol boats left but that's mostly it.
Random note of interest: the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and it's Chinese counterpart Liaoning were designed/built in Ukraine. The Liaoning was a partially completed carrier called the Varyag that Ukraine sold off after the fall of the USSR. The Kuznetsov, was originally named the Riga but then changed to the Leonid Brezhnev because Moscow didn't want it named after a Latvian city anymore as Latvia were getting fed up of Russian influence, but then changed to the Tbilisi because Moscow didn't want it named after a Ukrainian (former Soviet premier) anymore as Ukraine were getting fed up of Russian influence, then changed to it's current name because Moscow didn't want it named after a Georgian city anymore as Georgia were getting fed up of Russian influence.
But yeah, the Russians straight up stole it during the breakup of the USSR, the Russian captain pretty much disembarked all the non-Russian sailors and set off for Russia (against orders as it was a Ukrainian navy vessel at this point). But as if the ships story wasn't comical already here's the kicker, because Ukraine had designed/built all of the USSR's carriers Russia had zero ports capable of homing the ship and zero docks capable of repairing it. In fact they only built a dock capable of repairing it in the last couple of years after their attempt to do so using a floating hovercraft dock ended in chaos. But this is the reason it's always losing power and bellows black smoke everywhere it goes, it's powerplant has reached almost 200% of it's service life. This is because while a western carrier at port will power down and receive it's electrical power/etc from the port the Russians didn't have any ports capable of doing so which meant they had to run the ships boilers almost 24/7.
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