Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Hillonearth]

1 hour ago, sparky88 said:

Putin screaming the safe word whilst he is invading another country is rather hilarious. 

Silly c**t. His army's still present in a decent swathe of another country, and as it's being won back it's becoming abundantly clear what's going on in the parts still occupied. He's made it an existential fight for Ukrainians.

How out of touch must he be that he thinks he's got the ability to shout "keysies" and the two armies will come out of the trenches at Bakhmut and have a game of Shakhtar Donetsk v Spartak Moscow...actually, more likely Yenesei Krasnoyarsk given who's actually doing the fighting for him?

[Silvio Tattiescone]

It's for domestic consumption. He can go on State TV and say "I offered a ceasefire but the heathen savages refused and continued to attack poor Russians during (Orthodox) Christmas". It portrays him as a generous, God-fearing leader and makes the Ukrainians look like the aggressors. 

[Dev]

Russia is successfully pushing away"Western" demand for Russian Oil and Gas without having immediate alternative markets in place. This suggests that it was believed Ukraine and the West would simply roll over and let Russia come in and take over. Worse he and those Russians who have any power are sticking to this mantra of "God given rights" to do what the f.ck they like without any risk being attached. It showed contempt for all save for themselves. They even make mince meat out of their own citizens.

They are making it look as though they cannot understand that they could possibly lose this little roll-over contest.  As long as the Russian people allow this "Leadership" and its' methods to continue there can only be one outcome which will stop this for the future - and for the future security of the West. Sadly that means more death and destruction but with that spreading out from Ukraine until Russia changes its' ways (no sign of that) or the West (Germany and USA) bottles it.

Meanwhile there are hints that Ukraine are preparing to cut through down to the Sea of Azov via Melitopol, with the Ruskies already headed out of town(s) with all of the goodies they can get their hands on. If Ukraine looks as though they will get to Melitopol then the Ruskies will filter back west to Crimea (if they have not already done so) and form a queue at their dodgy bridge back to Krasnodar. No doubt anything not already destroyed will be as soon as they can muster up sufficient organisation to do it - they are experts at destruction after all.

[ICTChris]

US confirm they are sending 50 Bradley IFV to Ukraine as well as around 300 other vehicles, 18 self propelled howitzers and 36 towed howitzers.

[Sergeant Wilson]

12 hours ago, ICTChris said:

US confirm they are sending 50 Bradley IFV to Ukraine as well as around 300 other vehicles, 18 self propelled howitzers and 36 towed howitzers.

Tank, tank, tank, not a tank, not a tank, tank, tank...

Edited January 7, 2023 by Sergeant Wilson

[Melanius Mullarkey]

12 hours ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

Banana?

I was wondering what happened to him.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

5 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

I was wondering what happened to him.

Apparently he went straight.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

33 minutes ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

Apparently he went straight.

Ooer, vlad.

[ICTChris]

Reports yesterday and overnight of a partial breakthrough by Wagner near Bakhmut - claims that they seized the city centre of Soledad, a town around 20km North of Bakmut. A Wagner fighter posted a video from the towns salt mine as proof.

This morning there are reports that Ukrainian Air Assault troops have retaken the area, a video has come out of Ukrainians back in control of the centre of Soledar by the mine.

It’s reminiscent of the fights for Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, where Ukraine fought, retreated and counter attacked before finally withdrawing to conserve forces. Subsequent events have shown that these battles severely attrited the Russian forces and despite them taking control of settlements the damage inflicted stopped any further offensive operations.

[Jacksgranda]

19 hours ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

Apparently he went straight.

[Karpaty Lviv]

On 04/01/2023 at 23:20, Leith Green said:

Really good documentary earlier on BBC2, guy called OIly Lambert spent a few weeks filming with some of the volunteer army on the front lines.

Well worth a watch, it will be on iPlayer - Ukraine: The Peoples Fight

Whenever I see people on Twitter say “aw why aren’t you on the front line” to Ukrainian men in the uk currently for whatever reason (mostly when Scotland played Ukraine twice) - it’s as if people (let’s be honest, your brexit wankers) think it’s just a case of dropping everything and overnight becoming an effective solider. And as if fat Barry from Wigan would drop everything and take arms if England was invaded.

I love Scotland and I’m a patriot of Scotland but putting me on a battlefield is fucking pointless. I’d be a hindrance to any experienced solider and couldn’t shoot in a straight line. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Karpaty Lviv

[Melanius Mullarkey]

42 minutes ago, Karpaty Lviv said:

I love Scotland and I’m a patriot of Scotland but putting me on a battlefield is fucking pointless. I’d be a hindrance to any experienced solider and couldn’t shoot in a straight line. 

We could put you down for shooting round corners.

[LongTimeLurker]

23 hours ago, ICTChris said:

...It’s reminiscent of the fights for Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, where Ukraine fought, retreated and counter attacked before finally withdrawing to conserve forces. Subsequent events have shown that these battles severely attrited the Russian forces and despite them taking control of settlements the damage inflicted stopped any further offensive operations...

Wagner appear to have given up on Bakhmut for now and switched their focus to slightly further north. Losing a town called Yakovlivka about a month ago made Soledar a lot more vulnerable to this latest attack apparently. Have to wonder if the Orthodox Christmas ceasefire was going to be used to lull the Ukrainians into a false sense of security and this attack was always going to happen regardless.

 

 

[Silvio Tattiescone]

 

[LongTimeLurker]

 

 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said:

 

Penny packets of equipment cause almost as much trouble as they provide help. There’s no maintenance base, no spare parts supply, no experience working on them, and no training in them. 10 Challengers sounds fine and good, but they’re near useless compared to perhaps shipping them 10 T-80’s bought from some third party…and likely more expensive overall to the donating party. If you aren’t going to ship at least 25+, probably closer to 50+, it’s near pointless.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

 

 

[LongTimeLurker]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

Penny packets of equipment cause almost as much trouble as they provide help. There’s no maintenance base, no spare parts supply, no experience working on them, and no training in them. 10 Challengers sounds fine and good, but they’re near useless compared to perhaps shipping them 10 T-80’s bought from some third party…and likely more expensive overall to the donating party. If you aren’t going to ship at least 25+, probably closer to 50+, it’s near pointless.

Think they are hoping that if the UK breaks the ice on supplying NATO standard main battle tanks a lot more German Leopard tanks would soon follow from various European countries.

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Think they are hoping that if the UK breaks the ice on supplying NATO standard main battle tanks a lot more German Leopard tanks would soon follow from various European countries.

Perhaps, but 10 Challengers and perhaps 15 Leopards would be an annoyance rather than an aid. Now, make that 50 of either or both, and we’re into interesting ground.

[welshbairn]

2 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Think they are hoping that if the UK breaks the ice on supplying NATO standard main battle tanks a lot more German Leopard tanks would soon follow from various European countries.

The Challenger 2 is supposed to have been getting updated to the same gun barrel and ammo as the Leopard, if that's the case for the ones we send that's one difficulty out of the way, assuming Germany plays along. They've been refusing even to allow other European countries to send their own Leopards.