Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar

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OspreyO said:
The West (with the exception of the US) has been slowly reducing its armed forces across Europe for decades. The US has other commitments elsewhere.
Its Russians actions that reversed this, no one else. Putin has basically reversed all that and caused most of Europe to rapidly re-arm, and pushed countries into NATO.
Its Putin's threats that have caused limited support for Ukraine, and dragged this out.
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USA 1960 9% GDP spent defense …. 2021 about 4%.
My maths isn’t great… but which what are you saying?

UK defense spending us budgeted at 1.9% gdp according to the chancellor. The fella who gives the money out… rather than the pr guys.
So not a massive ‘reversal’?
 
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NickK said:
I suspect that the US will not place the Raptors or any current generation tech too close to the Russian frontline if they could help it.
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MQ9 Reapers are far from new fresh tech and will be nothing new or interesting to Russia, granted it would be a large propaganda talking point if they were to successfully down one, though the real world impact would be very low.
 
Washout said:
Ultimately voters influence them, at least in Europe. And I’m still inclined to see it my way than think there’s some shadowy cabal whispering in the ears of all the countries sending weapons, and it’s a decent list, to prolong this for the benefit of arms manufacturers.
No doubt they are making hay but when haven’t they? Economies are taking a beating and you don’t stay in power for long going down that road.

No, I think they are just walking the tightrope of giving enough aid for Ukraine to win this without direct confrontation with a nuclear power.
Change of leadership in Russia would be a great outcome, assuming they end the war, and there isn’t a complete collapse which would also be a disaster.
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Ultimately voters are ill-informed and partisan. Ultimately, for the most part they care about their own pockets and the moment enough of them get a sniff of there being a choice, spending cash on Ukraine, the war and funding it will become unpopular, especially if the UK carries on in the death spiral it's in.

We will be told that there's no choice but to carry on and it's in our interest. And to be fair it most probably is, regardless of the morality.
 
inogen said:
Ultimately voters are ill-informed and partisan. Ultimately, for the most part they care about their own pockets and the moment enough of them get a sniff of there being a choice, spending cash on Ukraine, the war and funding it will become unpopular, especially if the UK carries on in the death spiral it's in.

We will be told that there's no choice but to carry on and it's in our interest. And to be fair it most probably is, regardless of the morality.
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Unfortunately to the average person on the street this is money going to fund war and that is how they see it - which seems to lead to a certain percentage going down the crazy route coming out with things like "there is zero footage of actual war in Ukraine" and swallowing the Russian propaganda wholesale. Far too many side with appeasement despite history showing time and time again it does not work when you are dealing with a bully/tyrant and if anything weakness tends to embolden them.
 
Washout said:
I keep hearing how the west want to prolong this but I’m not sure they do.
I think they’d like to see it resolved asap but with a Ukrainian win, Russia not completely collapsing and not becoming directly involved. Last of which requires the slow ramp up of help to tip the scales for Ukraine and not a complete collapse or Russia lashing out and the west dragged in directly.
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It doesn't the West would like a swift ukrainian victory and it be over it doesn't want to keep haemorrhaging armourments and money and its hitting the economy, theres also the shadow of a resurgent Republican party in the US who will almost certainly want to put a stop to the spending and even Biden had enough of Afghanistan. Audiences in the west are fickle too its already out of the main headlines in the news and when people lose interest so do politicians.
 
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Blackjack Davy said:
and even Biden had enough of Afghanistan
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Afghan makes much more sense if you look at it in the perspective of foreseeing future conflicts, or possibly a little more conspiratorially seeding the grounds for future instability in the region. But personally I see it more as freeing up resources and focus for looming menaces from Russia and especially China. Leading up to the drawdown there were worrying movements with regard to Russia and Ukraine the US might not have known exactly what was going on at that point but they almost certainly understood there was the potential there for something which might require the US to be heavily prepared in Europe.
 
Grim5 said:
And based on the translation he doesn't just say they've lost 50%, he clarifies and says that as of today there are not many soldiers in the VDV who were there on February 24

So effectively nearly the entire original Russian VDV units have been wiped out
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Actually I think that clarification is not about VDV losses but the restructuring which went on after the withdrawal from the north, before the reconstituted units were utilised in the south and east. Not much is left of the original airborne forces structure.

They took around 70% losses of the airborne forces sent into Ukraine in the early weeks of the war which is around 40-50% of their total standing size.
 
Turn said:
www.politico.eu

Orbán is telling Ukraine to quit

Just as Western allies give Ukraine tanks, Hungary is going in the opposite direction, arguing Russia will prevail.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
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I have to wonder, if Putin had a free hand, how things would have gone for Orban - I'm pretty sure Russian strategy would have been to sweep through Ukraine, Romania, Hungary on the one hand and the Baltics on the other - as can be seen in their approach generally in Ukraine on a smaller scale.

Like many who romanticise/support Russia and/or what it stands for, they find things very different if/when they end up consumed by it.
 
hillbilly2 said:
How does such a "Pro Kremlin" country become part of NATO?
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My guess would be that they joined nato when they were not pro Kremlin and then elected a right wing nut job afterwards.

Edit: yes, Hungary joined in 1999 and at the time it was run by a liberal government. Orbán was in the conservative right wing opposition at the time

This is a risk in every democracy; we have to work so damn hard to maintain our ideals - democracies are fragile and those who would destroy it seek every opportunity to exploit it
 
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It's not compulsory for NATO states to be in total, or indeed any agreement with one another on policy. When the EU is discussed it's supporters constantly claim how it's wrong to call it an intransigent monolith, as member states can veto decisions. Here we see democracy in action as a democratically elected government in Hungary dares to disagree with some other NATO members and calls for Ukraine to capitulate.

Some folk need to realise democracy doesn't always give the results some wish for.... Oban is quite within his rights to have a different view on how the situation in Ukraine could best be resolved, and to articulate them.
 
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Orban is just a more successful Johnson. Both populists with shady pasts, but Orban managed to keep his job.

Look at them now, Orban in the news being a contrarian and Johnson with his horrific playground story (lie) of Putin saying he would “beat him up”.

Both use UKR for their own purposes and that’s all there is to it. Fortunately one is now irrelevant and the other is just a minor player.
 
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Former vice president of Russia says Russia's military failures are because of 20 years of ineptitude at the top of the leadership, he goes on to say it's because those running the show like Vlad and Sergei have no military experience.

The guy should stay away from windows

 
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