(02-27-2022 09:35 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 09:26 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 09:13 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 08:32 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 08:25 PM)Todor Wrote:  That’s not true. Vladimir Putin used his alien technology that beams dead bodies into space to send him to another planet. And only 5 of John Travoltas puppies survived. At least that’s what “reports are” saying. The reports no one posts a link to.

Hook, line, and sinker on naive, gullible people who don’t even know where Ukraine is, but are all playing Lazy Boy generals in their fantasy lives.

But Biden….

Putin is caught in a quagmire, and he has hundreds of supply trucks about 40 miles away that will feed his troops. But he aint going to get them there without going scorched earth. So, in order not to lose the support of China, he will fake negotiate, then start blowing up and bombing everything to get those supplies in there. I mean, after you bomb a kindergarten and an apartment complex, its kind of hard to go full scorched earth without making some gesture of a settlement or risking the only real support you have.

Of course, a request to proclaim Putin a war criminal is making its way to the Hague as we speak. That will complicate his life further.

But it is what it is. Putin is going to take a lot of casualties getting in there, and in order for it not to go on for days and days, he's going to have to go scorched earth.

After watching the financial meltdown in Russia Monday, watch China slowly allow more and more daylight to show between China and Putin.

BP is dumping their 20% stake in russian oil company Rosnef.

Some are saying the ruble may get slaughtered tomorrow.

EDIT: Already happening. Ruble down 30%.

TOKYO — The ruble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the dollar on Monday, while the euro sank after Western nations announced fresh sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system.

As it should. I know Todor is as predicted trying to convince us all that Ukrainian deserves the invasion he said was never going to happen, but the world needs to punish Putin as hard as they can financially. I feel bad for the average Russian citizen who has no control over what their leaders are doing, but of it causes enough unrest at home Putin will stop his expansion dreams.

He's just trying to follow the Russian propaganda narrative---which instantly lost all credibility once the invasion began. I would note----while every single corner of Ukraine has been struck by Russian attacks, not a single Russian city has been touched---which should put the final nail in the coffin for any claim that Ukraine was ever some sort of threat to Russia. Its obviously simply another lie from Putin propaganda factory.

(02-27-2022 09:38 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 09:35 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 09:26 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 09:13 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-27-2022 08:32 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Putin is caught in a quagmire, and he has hundreds of supply trucks about 40 miles away that will feed his troops. But he aint going to get them there without going scorched earth. So, in order not to lose the support of China, he will fake negotiate, then start blowing up and bombing everything to get those supplies in there. I mean, after you bomb a kindergarten and an apartment complex, its kind of hard to go full scorched earth without making some gesture of a settlement or risking the only real support you have.

Of course, a request to proclaim Putin a war criminal is making its way to the Hague as we speak. That will complicate his life further.

But it is what it is. Putin is going to take a lot of casualties getting in there, and in order for it not to go on for days and days, he's going to have to go scorched earth.

After watching the financial meltdown in Russia Monday, watch China slowly allow more and more daylight to show between China and Putin.

BP is dumping their 20% stake in russian oil company Rosnef.

Some are saying the ruble may get slaughtered tomorrow.

EDIT: Already happening. Ruble down 30%.

TOKYO — The ruble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the dollar on Monday, while the euro sank after Western nations announced fresh sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system.

As it should. I know Todor is as predicted trying to convince us all that Ukrainian deserves the invasion he said was never going to happen, but the world needs to punish Putin as hard as they can financially. I feel bad for the average Russian citizen who has no control over what their leaders are doing, but of it causes enough unrest at home Putin will stop his expansion dreams.

He's just trying to follow the Russian propaganda narrative---which instantly lost all credibility once the invasion began. I would note----while every single corner of Ukraine has been struck by Russian attacks, not a single Russian city has been touched---which should put the final nail in the coffin for any claim that Ukraine was ever some sort of threat to Russia. Its obviously simply another lie from Putin propaganda factory.

And its only day 4.

(02-26-2022 05:13 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Javelins are bad mo fos. The ILNLAWS are the Toyota to the Lexus but they are dang good as well. Thank you Raytheon for both.

Catching up.

So, what are the chances I can send them some my INLAWS?!?



Asking for a, ummm, person of interest…

TIA

(02-28-2022 12:11 AM)JMUDunk Wrote:  

(02-26-2022 05:13 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Javelins are bad mo fos. The ILNLAWS are the Toyota to the Lexus but they are dang good as well. Thank you Raytheon for both.

Catching up.

So, what are the chances I can send them some my INLAWS?!?



Asking for a, ummm, person of interest…

TIA

If your in laws live with Zelensky, I’d say it’s about a 99% chance.

1. Ruble crashed
2. Russia had to raise interest rates to 20% to stabilize
3. Russians cant use apple/google/etc pay anymore
4. A run on the banks had started late last week, so they had to install new procedures to keep that from happening
5. Russia doesnt have access to the USD to stabilize their own currency
6. In order to stabilize industries, they normally would utilize USD, but without access they may have to print money which will lead to immediate hyperinflation.
7. With the Ruble so low, the Russian people will pay a lot more for the imports they are reliant upon.

This is why a quagmire that lasts only 2 weeks will kill Russia. Things will quickly start to fall apart if they cant close this out. (And even then, things may still fall apart, but its worse when you are trying to complete an offensive so you dont get humiliated.)

This is why he is going to go scorched earth on the offensive. Time is not on Putins side.

If they send fighters, then they are sending fighter pilots too.

Volunteers.

(02-28-2022 09:43 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  If they send fighters, then they are sending fighter pilots too.

Volunteers.

One step closer to WWIII.

(02-28-2022 09:37 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  1. Ruble crashed
2. Russia had to raise interest rates to 20% to stabilize
3. Russians cant use apple/google/etc pay anymore
4. A run on the banks had started late last week, so they had to install new procedures to keep that from happening
5. Russia doesnt have access to the USD to stabilize their own currency
6. In order to stabilize industries, they normally would utilize USD, but without access they may have to print money which will lead to immediate hyperinflation.
7. With the Ruble so low, the Russian people will pay a lot more for the imports they are reliant upon.

This is why a quagmire that lasts only 2 weeks will kill Russia. Things will quickly start to fall apart if they cant close this out. (And even then, things may still fall apart, but its worse when you are trying to complete an offensive so you dont get humiliated.)

This is why he is going to go scorched earth on the offensive. Time is not on Putins side.

Make a loon with nukes desperate. Solid strategy.

(02-28-2022 09:43 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  If they send fighters, then they are sending fighter pilots too.

Volunteers.

Looks like multiple countries are setting up volunteer legions (a la the French Foreign Legion of the past) which are growing in numbers. Many of the Nordic countries seem to be jumping headfirst into this because they know they're probably next.

Wow. Even the Swiss have picked a side -

"Switzerland to Freeze Russian Assets
February 28, 2022 at 10:29 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside a deeply rooted tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine,” the New York Times reports."

https://politicalwire.com/2022/02/28/swi...an-assets/

(02-28-2022 10:32 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  Wow. Even the Swiss have picked a side -

"Switzerland to Freeze Russian Assets
February 28, 2022 at 10:29 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside a deeply rooted tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine,” the New York Times reports."

https://politicalwire.com/2022/02/28/swi...an-assets/

You know things are rough when Switzerland and Sweden, two countries that remained neutral during WW2, are picking sides.

(02-28-2022 09:43 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  If they send fighters, then they are sending fighter pilots too.

Volunteers.

Again—where would they operate from? I don’t see the Ukrainians as being able to hold any airport long enough or keep it safe enough to effectively sortie out of it. You’d probably need a Patriot battery and enough troops to hold an area around the airbase—-preferably a ring of defense would be large enough to keep enemy artillery out of range. The F35B can take off vercally— so it theoretically could operate from anywhere (no air strip needed), but the West is not going to let its most sophisticated fighter get into a situation where it could be captured and reverse engineered by Russia and China. That means you’re back to needing a safe air strip to operate from. The best option then would be fighters from ex-Warsaw Pact nations as some still operate old Mig-29s like Ukraine uses. Ukraine could use its own pilots.

(02-28-2022 10:32 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  Wow. Even the Swiss have picked a side -

"Switzerland to Freeze Russian Assets
February 28, 2022 at 10:29 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside a deeply rooted tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine,” the New York Times reports."

https://politicalwire.com/2022/02/28/swi...an-assets/

Putin has accomplished so much:

• United Europe and most of the world against Russia
• Got notoriously neutral Switzerland to intervene and freeze assets
• Nudged previously "neutral" Sweden and Finland to seriously consider joining Nato
• Prompted Germany to rearm themselves, committing $100+ billion towards defense plus a pledge of 2% of their GDP going forward
• Stalled, and likely killed Nord Stream 2
• Tanked his own economy
• Isolated his country to pariah state status
• Ruined any prospects for Russian athletes to compete internationally, possibly for years to come
  

He may end up seizing control of Kyiv, but I'm not seeing how the positives outweigh the negatives in the long run.

(02-28-2022 10:50 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  

(02-28-2022 10:32 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  Wow. Even the Swiss have picked a side -

"Switzerland to Freeze Russian Assets
February 28, 2022 at 10:29 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside a deeply rooted tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine,” the New York Times reports."

https://politicalwire.com/2022/02/28/swi...an-assets/

Putin has accomplished so much:

• United Europe and most of the world against Russia
• Got notoriously neutral Switzerland to intervene and freeze assets
• Nudged previously "neutral" Sweden and Finland to seriously consider joining Nato
• Prompted German to rearm themselves, committing $100+ billion towards defense plus a pledge of 2% of their GDP going forward
• Tanked his own economy
• Isolated his country to pariah state status
• Ruined any prospects for Russian athletes to compete internationally, possibly for years to come
  

He may end up seizing control of Kyiv, but I'm not seeing how the positives outweigh the negatives in the long run.

The man will not be able to exist in a public setting for the rest of his life IMO.

I didnt read the whole thread... but I find it hard to believe, that the country with the second biggest army is having trouble with a country thats using decommissioned airplanes to fight this war. I believe there is something more at play that we are not seeing and Putin is using his "Art of War"

(02-28-2022 10:54 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  I didnt read the whole thread... but I find it hard to believe, that the country with the second biggest army is having trouble with a country thats using decommissioned airplanes to fight this war. I believe there is something more at play that we are not seeing and Putin is using his "Art of War"

Like everyone else I have no real idea what's happening on the ground in Ukraine, but it certainly seems that either the Russians are intentionally dragging this out or the Javelin is the most awesome anti-vehicle weapons system of all time.

Clearly Putin doesn't want to fully commit all his forces or maybe even the best of his forces to achieve his objectives here, but an army is only good as it's training, equipment, supply chain, leadership and morale.

I suspect that at least with the forces the Russians are using here, at least one if not multiple of these five variables seems to be lacking.

(02-28-2022 11:05 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(02-28-2022 10:54 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  I didnt read the whole thread... but I find it hard to believe, that the country with the second biggest army is having trouble with a country thats using decommissioned airplanes to fight this war. I believe there is something more at play that we are not seeing and Putin is using his "Art of War"

Like everyone else I have no real idea what's happening on the ground in Ukraine, but it certainly seems that either the Russians are intentionally dragging this out or the Javelin is the most awesome anti-vehicle weapons system of all time.

Clearly Putin doesn't want to fully commit all his forces or maybe even the best of his forces to achieve his objectives here, but an army is only good as it's training, equipment, supply chain, leadership and morale.

I suspect that at least with the forces the Russians are using here, at least one if not multiple of these five variables seems to be lacking.

The most surprising thing to me is the relatively light use of air power by Russia. I can only assume that the Russians believe the risk of losing aircraft is still too high--otherwise the lack of air power use seems odd.

(02-28-2022 10:54 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  I didnt read the whole thread... but I find it hard to believe, that the country with the second biggest army is having trouble with a country thats using decommissioned airplanes to fight this war. I believe there is something more at play that we are not seeing and Putin is using his "Art of War"

I saw an article within the past week which mentioned that Russian military assets have been greatly overreported.

What we're seeing now is that the Russian military has a very poor grasp on the strategy of logistics and that several of their manufacturing facilities are not able to resupply assets.

Kind of makes you wonder a couple of things:

1. Given that communist countries engage heavily in propaganda, could it be possible that China isn't as -- uh -- endowed as they have led the West to believe?
2. How bad is U.S. and Western intelligence to be duped like that?

(02-28-2022 11:27 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-28-2022 11:05 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(02-28-2022 10:54 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  I didnt read the whole thread... but I find it hard to believe, that the country with the second biggest army is having trouble with a country thats using decommissioned airplanes to fight this war. I believe there is something more at play that we are not seeing and Putin is using his "Art of War"

Like everyone else I have no real idea what's happening on the ground in Ukraine, but it certainly seems that either the Russians are intentionally dragging this out or the Javelin is the most awesome anti-vehicle weapons system of all time.

Clearly Putin doesn't want to fully commit all his forces or maybe even the best of his forces to achieve his objectives here, but an army is only good as it's training, equipment, supply chain, leadership and morale.

I suspect that at least with the forces the Russians are using here, at least one if not multiple of these five variables seems to be lacking.

The most surprising thing to me is the relatively light use of air power by Russia. I can only assume that the Russians believe the risk of losing aircraft is still too high--otherwise the lack of air power use seems odd.

Was it here or somewhere else? An article was saying that Russia has a different military philosophy. They don't go in with "shock and awe." Instead they use tanks, artillery and massed land forces. They don't seem to have the same amount of smart bombs, so they would just have to level everything.

(02-28-2022 11:27 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-28-2022 11:05 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(02-28-2022 10:54 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  I didnt read the whole thread... but I find it hard to believe, that the country with the second biggest army is having trouble with a country thats using decommissioned airplanes to fight this war. I believe there is something more at play that we are not seeing and Putin is using his "Art of War"

Like everyone else I have no real idea what's happening on the ground in Ukraine, but it certainly seems that either the Russians are intentionally dragging this out or the Javelin is the most awesome anti-vehicle weapons system of all time.

Clearly Putin doesn't want to fully commit all his forces or maybe even the best of his forces to achieve his objectives here, but an army is only good as it's training, equipment, supply chain, leadership and morale.

I suspect that at least with the forces the Russians are using here, at least one if not multiple of these five variables seems to be lacking.

The most surprising thing to me is the relatively light use of air power by Russia. I can only assume that the Russians believe the risk of losing aircraft is still too high--otherwise the lack of air power use seems odd.

Of all vehicular weapons systems aircraft are the most expensive to develop, deploy, maintain, arm and control (pilot). A lot of the Russian Airforce equipment (which technical is still "active") is more like a spread out version of our Mohave Boneyard but with significantly more damp damage. Putin isn't going to risk his relatively small force of technologically advanced equipment in an environment where there's not 101% Russian air control.

He'll send the old junk and the reserve pilots, and it at least seems to be showing.