- If Russia use chemical weapons in Ukraine we have to take action.
(From BBC article-Which I can't find anymore)

Edit
Found it

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60708350
End edit

Markus

It seems Biden is clear, we don't get involved unless NATO is attacked. So what if Georgia is next? Nah, but what about Finland and Sweden? If NATO says we would, then it's not about NATO, it's we pick and choose what non NATO nations to defend...and we choose not to use force for Ukraine. It seems plausible they're some dynamic minds in NATO that are happy to let Russia wreck itself...even if it kills a million Ukrainians.

If it's true that he want to recreate Soviet with its vasal states then Sweden goes free..Don't know about Finland and the part called Karelen which, if I remember correctly, once was a part of Soviet.

Next should be Moldova-Read it somewhere.

Markus

Fake Paris Bombing by Russian made by Ukrainian !:D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x57G0JdfQAU

The man that gives the Russians nightmares.


https://www.nzz.ch/international/ukr...hni-ld.1673371


https://img.nzz.ch/2022/03/09/f65672...y=75&auto=webp

The Ukrainian army also owes its success to its commander-in-chief

Valery Salushni has been leading the Ukrainian armed forces for only eight months. He represents an unequivocal departure from the military's Soviet legacy - contributing to Ukraine's defensive struggle, which has been successful so far.

If the Russian army leadership thought it had an easy ride in Ukraine, it should have listened to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. They were ready to receive the enemy, Valery Saluzhni said a month ago: "Not with flowers, but with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles." And if Russia does attack? "Welcome to hell," Saluzhni said tersely.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Salushni was not exaggerating. The Russian advance is proceeding more slowly and with greater losses than many experts had assumed. The Russian superiority in the air as well as the numerical inferiority of the Ukrainian ground forces were considered good preconditions for a quick Russian victory.

At 48, Saluzhni is relatively young for a commander-in-chief. President Volodimir Selensky appointed the father of two as Ukraine's top officer only last July. But Salushni's age is also his advantage: He is the first Ukrainian commander-in-chief who was no longer trained in the Soviet Union. He is emblematic of the sweeping reform of Ukraine's military since 2014.

When Valery Salushni finished school in 1989 in the small town of Novohrad-Volinsky west of Kiev, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. During this time of upheaval, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who was also a member of the military. He attended the prestigious military academy in Odessa and graduated with honors from the ground forces officer training program in 1997.

During Salushni's time at the military academy, the young Ukrainian army was still heavily Russian. Until 2014, many senior positions in the Ukrainian security apparatus were held by Russians who had spent their entire careers in the Soviet Union, says Hans Petter Midttun, who was the Norwegian military attaché in Kiev between 2014 and 2018. Their loyalty to Ukraine, as well as their willingness to change, was accordingly limited.

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the impact of the Soviet legacy on the fighting capacity of the Ukrainian army became apparent. The command structure was highly centralized along Soviet lines: With no orders coming from Kiev, Ukrainian ground forces surrendered without a fight, and others even defected to the Russians.

From 2014, Salushni served almost without interruption in the embattled Donetsk region. When he was promoted to major general in 2017, he was in no hurry to be removed from the eastern Ukrainian front, Radio Free Europe reports. Saluzhni, he said, is someone who fights not only on paper but also in the field. A Ukrainian officer stated this to the radio station.

Since the annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian military has undergone major changes. The U.S. has spent over $3 billion on equipment and training for the armed forces. In addition, cooperation with NATO has intensified. In total, NATO officers trained 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers; the Soviet mindset became less important.

Salushni was one of the main advocates of Ukraine joining NATO and contributed to the military's interoperability with NATO forces. As head of combat training, he pushed the use of Western weapons systems and frequently conducted joint exercises with British and American forces.

Before the invasion, Ukraine had 170,000 servicemen and women and 100,000 reservists and veterans. As a result of the war in eastern Ukraine, many units are battle-hardened. The mentality of the troops has completely changed since 2014. These are the most important factors in the current success of Ukraine's defensive struggle, says former military attaché Midttun.

However, for the renewal to reach the top of the army, it still needed Salushni's appointment. His predecessor, Ruslan Khomchak, had still been trained in the Soviet Union, and former Defense Minister Andri Taran was known for maintaining a Soviet-influenced style. Contrary to NATO requirements, Taran was not a civilian but a former lieutenant general, and he also tried to influence operational concerns of the military.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that Khomchak and Taran quarreled publicly. President Selensky also installed a new defense minister in November, Olexi Resnikov, with whom Salushni worked well.

The change was overdue, because the Russian troop buildup on the border had already begun. "Up until that point, Ukraine had a completely dysfunctional command structure," says Sarah Whitmore, a lecturer in political science at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.

Ukrainian military reform began long before Salushni was appointed commander in chief last summer. But he is pushing the changes more vigorously than his predecessors. The general is also battle-hardened himself and understands the problems faced by officers and soldiers who have been at war for eight years.

Operationally, Salushni is also hammering out his own stakes. One of his first acts in office was to grant officers in the field more autonomy so that a situation like the one in Crimea in 2014 would not be repeated. He ordered that soldiers on the front lines could return fire without consulting the top leadership.

President Selensky is the de jure supreme commander, but has no prior military experience himself. In order to conduct the war, he depends on Salushni. In him, Selenski has made an excellent personnel decision, Whitmore says: "I don't want to imagine what the war would look like now if Ukraine still had last July's team at the top of the military."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

You may not like it-I have to put it into words

Just seen the news here at 18. In this news at 18 they had a reporter near the Ukrainian-Polish border.

The camera man was filming the Ukrainian refugees-I have never known that the skin colour of the Ukrainian match the colour of people from Middle East and North Africa.

And I who thought they had a pale colour.

Markus

:huh:
What part of an integrated World do you live in?

Report to Congress on Ukrainian Armed Forces

January 27, 2022 11:55 AM

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...sive=1&title=1

Command and control has been a central reform focus. Ukraine now requires the defense minister to be a civilian, a key NATO requirement. Some observers see continued threats to civilian control of the military, as former general Andriy Taran replaced Andriy Zagorodnyuk, the first civilian and pro-reform defense minister, in 2020.

The military also has shifted toward a command system more in line with NATO standards. Currently, the military reports to the commander in chief of the armed forces. Under the commander in chief, reforms split responsibilities between the chief of the general staff, responsible for strategic and force planning, and the commander of the joint forces staff, responsible for operations. The shift toward NATO-style command and control is an ongoing process, as many officers appear to remain influenced by their Soviet and post-Soviet military training despite an increase in NATO training and educational opportunities.

ARMY

In 2014, Ukraine’s defense minister said the country had 6,000 combat-ready troops. Today, Ukraine’s army numbers around 145,000-150,000 troops and has significantly improved its capabilities, personnel, and readiness. The army is the largest component of Ukraine’s military and includes mechanized, armored, missile and artillery, army aviation, and air defense units. The army continues to implement reforms in line with NATO standards but remains heavily influenced by its Soviet legacy. Ongoing reform priorities include modernizing equipment, training, and improving personnel management. Most equipment are heavily upgraded versions of legacy systems in need of modernization. The army also continues to improve training at both the individual and unit levels, which was a significant weakness in 2014. NATO and U.S. support are crucial to training efforts, although most training is limited to the battalion level.. Ukraine operates a mix of conscript and professional soldiers on contracts. By law, conscripts cannot serve on the frontlines but have the opportunity to sign short or long- term contracts upon the expiration of their terms of service. Ukraine has sought to create a professional noncommissioned officer (NCO) corps, based on NATO standards. Low salaries, lack of educational opportunities, and a shortage of housing arguably contribute to a high turnover rate and limit the retention of professional soldiers and NCOs. …

This may seen flippant, considering the enormity of what is happening, but I think the abiding image I'll have of this tragedy will be a Russian AFV (an MT-LB in this case) being towed away by a tractor owned by a Ukrainian farmer....

https://englishtribuneimages.blob.co...1706191875.jpg

Mike.

https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/...54688238362626

Markus

Just heard there are thousands of russians stranded in Thailand, no money and no Aeroflot to go home.

I wonder what happens when they *do* come home to mother Russia. They saw it all on tv and in the free media, talked to other foreigners and so on.
Will they all be imprisoned, or shot, or only warned not to speak out?

I also wonder what a determined russian Putin-critic would be able to do with a Havoc, and from what range.

https://nypost.com/wp-content/upload...y=90&strip=all We've had this conversation....

Mi-28 is armed, amongst others, with AT-9 Spiral ATGM: maximum range around 6 km.

Whether the warhead can defeat Putin's frontal lobe armour remains to be seen. Its a petrified concrete structure discovered by archeologists who found it together with fossils and artifacts that were radiocarbon dated back to the Sovjetocene, so it seems to be pretty tough. Probably a good reactor shield for a future solar probe that examines the solar corona at close distance.

Following is a part from a Danish article

The hardest task yet
If Russia succeeds in gaining control of the Ukrainian capital, the fourth phase of the Russian script - also called the containment phase - begins.

According to Steen Kjærgaard(military Analyst), this phase is about maintaining control of the country. But it will not be easy for Putin, he estimates.

- There will be guerrilla warfare, partisan warfare and resistance movements. Russia will be attacked from all axes and become wildly paranoid, says Sten Kjærgaard, stressing that if Russia gets this far in their strategic playbook, it will be their most difficult task so far in the war

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Another thing-Doesn't Ukraine have similar to our MLRS missiles ?

Markus

Could you please clarify your Quote:And I who thought they had a pale colour.