Putin is failing in Ukraine but succeeding at oppressing Russia:
https://www.economist.com/europe/20...n-ukraine-but-succeeding-at-oppressing-russia
https://www.economist.com/europe/20...n-ukraine-but-succeeding-at-oppressing-russia
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
In it's coverage of the event, Russian state-owned media "RIA Novosti" muted the sound, as crowd chanting "fascists, fascists!" to the Russian delegation
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Some of them look so old that they actually might have fought the guys they're imitating now with that Z on their arms.
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Thought their Doomsday plane was going to make an appearance overhead.
Hilarious that they couldn’t fly any air assets. Some great power.
Hilarious that they couldn’t fly any air assets. Some great power.
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The hardware that Russia shows at it's parades and the one you see them using in Ukraine seem from different era's almost. Almost as if the former was just for show, never to be used.
He’s from Scotland, according to his response to me in the geopolitics thread
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They are. The T-72 that makes up the bulk of their tank force is a 50 year old tank design. The T-14 Armata that they roll through Red Square is from the past decade… but they only have 20 of them.
Putin didn't look particularly ill in his walkabout today. His right arm looked a bit knacked, but he still used it, so maybe nothing more than the sort of arthritis and stuff one has at his age. Pity, it would be handy if the old fecker did have something serious, as some have suggested.
Unless they pumped him with drugs?
Tbf, a lot of US equipment has their original designs dating back similar number of decades (think M-1 Abrams, F-15, AH-64 Apache). It's just that there's been more iterations to upgrade sensors, weaponry and other elements that can be upgraded without major changes to the core design.
Only the first swallows – the human rights activist suggested which regions would be the first to break away from Russia:
https://newsreadonline.com/only-the...would-be-the-first-to-break-away-from-russia/
https://newsreadonline.com/only-the...would-be-the-first-to-break-away-from-russia/
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He got the exact footage Putin wanted though. They wanted to be attacked.Love ithis face in this picture is epic:
Ukraine are already conducting military attacks inside of Russia's borders. I don't think it makes a huge difference to Putin, if some halfwit diplomat gets a little paint on him.
Is it accurate to assume the more russia keeps failing in ukraine, the likelier it is for them to use nukes? Or do we think that's actually out of the question?
is there any signs that this might end soon?
No it's not likelier. It actually won't help them much on the battlefield unless they use a lot of them. It will also put them in total isolation internationally and that would be the least of their problems since the likehood of nato stepping in increases dramatically.
All of this assumes some sort of rationality left in Putin and the few he seeks advice from. I think they'd prefer having total control over Russia and spinning some excuse as always than being turned to glass or blown to pieces.
None that I can see.
Given the amount of NATO weapons flooding into Ukraine, its likely to continue until Putin finds a way to slither out of it without looking like a loser.
Not really, best we can hope for is a sudden collapse of the Russian offensive if losses really do go past a line of what is sustainable coupled with supply shortages and troop disobedience. With all the new gear Ukraine will be employing in the coming weeks maybe there is a slight chance of something along these lines? Still very wishful thinking at this point though.
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Russian losses are already beyond sustainable. And maybe even more crucial, the only stuff they have as replacements is Soviet scrap out of long term storage.
Ukrainian material losses are replaced by modern Western technology which will make the battles even harder for the Russians.
Ukraine will win the conventional war, there is very little Russia can do against that.
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US Def Dept really putting their thesauruses to good use.
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At least, you can feel for some reason that upgrades cover more or less all equipment used by US forces or any top tier Western army. What you see at home can and will likely be deployed abroad if necessary; it is what it is. The discrepancy between what is used on the field operations and what is displayed in Moscow is really stark though.
Speaking of the scaling down of the parade compared to previous pre-COVID years, this Newsweek article might explain why. Russia is spending $900 million daily in this war.
Looks like they are doing battle in that Windows XP screensaver picture.
Which is mindboggling when you think about it, and suggests it is unsustainable given their limited savings.
Very true, but the original M1 Abrams is a 3rd Generation MBT, while the T-72 is a 2nd Generation MBT.
The T-14 is a 4th generation MBT, but they'll never be able to make enough of them to matter. They've only got about 350-500 active (depending on how many they've pulled out of reserve) 3rd Generation T-90s... the US Army has 400 M1 Abrams SEPv3's, which are our 4th Generation tanks.
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