How could gaining Ukrane make Russia any better? The costs are enormous. War is very expansive. Sanctions are huge. Infrastructure is largely shelled and requires massive investments to rebuild. Population is hostile and dreams of breaking away from Russia and joining West. Ukraine's natural resources are not all that great, if they were, the country would be in better shape to begin with. Other neighbours are rushing to join NATO. All Russia could get is some land. Russia is already the largest country in the world AND in Europe (European part of Russia is larger than any European country, including Ukrane). It would be a net negative for Russia.
Russian thermobaric "vacuum bombs" launcher seen by CNN team in Ukraine
From CNN's Fred Pleitgen, Ivana Kottasová and Tim Lister
A Russian thermobaric multiple rockets launcher has been spotted by CNN team south of Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border early Saturday afternoon.
The TOS-1 or TOS-1A Multiple Rocket Launcher seen by CNN is capable of launching rockets with thermobaric warheads.
There is no evidence that thermobaric weapons have been used in the conflict in Ukraine.
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Germany, there is always something with Germany that rubs me the wrong way. They LOVE the perception of being the good guys, the proper people, the rule followers and being "clean" or pure.
Time and time again throughout history they have proven that deep down they love the dirt and have some real ethical problems. They roll in the **** and love it sometimes with the worst.
This goes to everything from World Wars to the VW Diesel scandal to the European debt crisis and now this. Like get on board with the rest of the world with this. An old article explaining certain things related to the history and their role in the Euro debt crisis.
I really hope Ukraine get's the much needed support and quickly from everywhere. Putin is not the type of leader who will just sit back and take a loss, he will start to get very aggressive either by bombing significant portions of Ukraine with massive war heads, causing untold death and destruction or he will start with even more of an air campaign. NATO and the world better have a backup plan if he starts picking off hundreds of thousands of civilians. Putin said, and we need to believe him now, that Ukraine doesn't belong as a country, as people. Ukraine is HIS's and he doesn't recognize their existence.
But that video is pretty clear evidence that his support from his oligarchs is slipping.
Lots of talk about appeasing Putin because he has the nuclear threat, and will use it. But he can't - while he may be crazy enough, his supporters, his powerbase, the oligarchs, will not allow it. These are some of the richest people in the world, and they keep him in power because they benefit from it. But if he goes off the deep end, they will take him out.
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I was talking with a friend last night who’s a military history prof, and he thinks if the Ukrainians dig in and deny the Russians a decisive victory, the Russians will “do a Grozny” on Kiev. That is, use their artillery (the strongest arm of the Russian military) to siege and flatten the place.
One of the reasons being put forward for Russia’s slower than expected progress is that while their normal doctrine is overwhelming bombardment from distance to flatten resistance before engagement they haven’t been doing that in Ukraine, perhaps out of caution for civilian casualties. If they return to normal doctrine that would be devastating enough, but to turn it into the civilian population would be slaughter.
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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Really hope they don't start with this...
I just read about thermobaric weapons and... That's horrible.
One of the reasons being put forward for Russia’s slower than expected progress is that while their normal doctrine is overwhelming bombardment from distance to flatten resistance before engagement they haven’t been doing that in Ukraine, perhaps out of caution for civilian casualties. If they return to normal doctrine that would be devastating enough, but to turn it into the civilian population would be slaughter.
I don’t think they want a destroyed beyond repair Ukraine.
How could gaining Ukrane make Russia any better? The costs are enormous. War is very expansive. Sanctions are huge. Infrastructure is largely shelled and requires massive investments to rebuild. Population is hostile and dreams of breaking away from Russia and joining West. Ukraine's natural resources are not all that great, if they were, the country would be in better shape to begin with. Other neighbours are rushing to join NATO. All Russia could get is some land. Russia is already the largest country in the world AND in Europe (European part of Russia is larger than any European country, including Ukrane). It would be a net negative for Russia.
Putin doesn't want Ukraine.
Putin wants to restore Russia - ALL of Russia - back to what it once was. That includes Ukraine. For him, it is about Russian glory, restoring Russian land, and repatriating Russian people, back into his Russia.
Germany, there is always something with Germany that rubs me the wrong way. They LOVE the perception of being the good guys, the proper people, the rule followers and being "clean" or pure.
Time and time again throughout history they have proven that deep down they love the dirt and have some real ethical problems. They roll in the **** and love it sometimes with the worst.
This goes to everything from World Wars to the VW Diesel scandal to the European debt crisis and now this. Like get on board with the rest of the world with this. An old article explaining certain things related to the history and their role in the Euro debt crisis.
I really hope Ukraine get's the much needed support and quickly from everywhere. Putin is not the type of leader who will just sit back and take a loss, he will start to get very aggressive either by bombing significant portions of Ukraine with massive war heads, causing untold death and destruction or he will start with even more of an air campaign. NATO and the world better have a backup plan if he starts picking off hundreds of thousands of civilians. Putin said, and we need to believe him now, that Ukraine doesn't belong as a country, as people. Ukraine is HIS's and he doesn't recognize their existence.
One of the reasons being put forward for Russia’s slower than expected progress is that while their normal doctrine is overwhelming bombardment from distance to flatten resistance before engagement they haven’t been doing that in Ukraine, perhaps out of caution for civilian casualties. If they return to normal doctrine that would be devastating enough, but to turn it into the civilian population would be slaughter.
Again, Putin considers Ukraine to be part of Russia.
Bombing the #### out of Ukrainian citizens is equivalent to bombing Russians. And let's be clear - he is not above that. But it is not going to be Plan A. He will do it out of desperation, but Plan A will be to 'liberate' Ukraine.
Well I don't want to get into a long thread, but one of the issues facing Germany is that they have been hesitant to do sanctions against Russia because of their dependence on their energy. I get it but than they are also trying to pretend that their **** doesn't stink and they are some magical environmentally friendly and alternative energy based country at the same time.
There is significant pushback from Germany from including Russia into the SWIFT banking system sanctions, probably because of significant financial ties that would probably cost dirty German banks billions, have their energy sources disrupted and more.
If you look throughout history, the article I quoted from over 10 years ago is very valid. It's even proven more so over the last 10 years. Germany is obsessed with process, rules, being in line and appearing to be better than others when in reality they roll in the **** with the rest of them.
I will say this, I have a lot of friends in Germany and pretty much all of them are disappointed and/or embarrassed by their government's reluctance to help in a meaningful way and throw Russia out of SWIFT.
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I thought I read that the Ukraine ranks quite high on several key natural resources (uranium was one).
Maybe I'm misremembering.
This article provides a bit of an overview. They do have some metals, but their export figures are nothing compared to Russian total export nor effect from sanctions
Nope, not good enough. Care and control? Take his ownership interest.
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I will say this, I have a lot of friends in Germany and pretty much all of them are disappointed and/or embarrassed by their government's reluctance to help in a meaningful way and throw Russia out of SWIFT.
There has to be significant risk exposure to German banks from doing so is my guess. A lot of countries don't want to sanction Russians because of their spending and investment power in those countries but Germany doesn't come off as a country where Russians vacations in large numbers or significant real estate holdings are.
Russians love Cyprus, Italy, UK, Greece, Spain's of the world for that stuff.
Part of the issue now is that it's coming to light that all of these business dealings with Putin, gas pipelines, oligarchs etc is in essence financing this war against a European country.
