Here we go again-Ukraine once again

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Volunteer’s I think may have a stronger desire and will to fight because they ‘want’ to be there. Of course that may change once faced with the realities of war. Like Mike Tyson said: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

Most of them do it for money because they are from the poorest regions of Russia and yes when they are abandoned on the front with inferiors material and support they change their mind quick.

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by mapuc

My opinion: Haven't we been hearing this a lot the last couple of month ?



https://news.yahoo.com/russian-dicta...sTLUjtUOxUiLAj

Markus

And always the threat is empty and Russia is the loser

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I jst red that the Ukraine got delivered - apparently by the UK - M270 MLRS systems, but again with range limitations in their ammunition to 80km.

Guarding Russian ammunition depots peaks in the least desirable job category.

[mapuc]

This would be a game changer.

Well it would take about a year before they can use them fully

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/the-u-s-co...and-f-16-jets/

The Press release:
https://kinzinger.house.gov/news/doc...umentID=402979

I know the White House have set a red line they wouldn't cross-It looks like they are pushing this red line in front of them.

Markus

[mapuc]

This was expected

Russia’s special services have stepped up their activities in Eastern Europe in an attempt to identify and track the routes by which weapons are supplied to Ukraine.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/07/16/7358458/

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Briton Paul Urey, who was captured by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, has died in detention, reports say.

The 45-year-old's family, who was contacted by the UK Foreign Office about the reports, told the BBC they had "begged" him not to go abroad.

The UK's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Russia must bear full responsibility for his death.

The UK is seeking urgent clarification from Ukraine and Russia about the reports.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it had summoned the Russian ambassador, Andrey Kelin, to express its "deep concern".

Mr Urey, from Warrington, Cheshire, was detained at a checkpoint near the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia in April and accused of being a mercenary.

He was held captive in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) along with another man, Dylan Healy, while reportedly trying to rescue a woman and her family trapped by the fighting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62178505

[Dargo]

Russian Volunteer Units and Battalions
The Russian Federation has launched a large-scale drive to form volunteer battalions in the 85 “federal subjects” (or regions) that comprise the federation. Recruiting for some volunteer battalions began in June but has intensified in July, with new volunteer units being reported daily. The battalions apparently will consist of roughly 400 men, each aged between 18 and 60. They will belong to various branches of service including motorized rifle, tank, and naval infantry, but also signals and logistics. Recruits are not required to have prior military service and will undergo only 30 days of training before deployment to Ukraine.

This recruitment effort will likely be expensive if it comes close to meeting its targets... https://www.understandingwar.org/bac...and-battalions

The "Salaries generally start at roughly $3,000 per month per soldier or..." I saw they upped that to $4,000

[Skybird]

Neither money nor eocnomy count in Putin's caculation. The inn er-Russian battle against oppsoition to the war has been won by his police force and fake justice.

He does not need to care for such things. Only for having enough bodies to throw at the front, that is his only concern, pretty much like the Sovjets did in the great battles against the Wehrmacht, and who was not shot during assault by the Germans, got shot by their own Sowjet officers. Time is working for Putin, the more time passes and the colder thw itne rgewts, the more mood in Europe and political stability and solidarity will crumble. He only needs to secure a constant of flow of Russioan bodies to the front. Its like driving an old locomotive, you only need to care for having enough water in the kettle and enough coals to throw into the fire, thats all. Of both Russia has plenty, come rain or come shine.


This works because many Russians living in urban areas and big cities miss the real taste of war, do not realise whats going on, because it is not their sons and fathers so much falling in Ukraine, but poor, socially disadvantaged poor lads from abandoned countrysides and ethnic minority groups, as well as crminals and mercs. Thats why I think it is absolutely necessary to enable the Ukraine to pay out the change in the currency Russia has choosen: the Ukraine must get the weapons to strike at Russian metropoles. Not necessarily civilian appartment buildings like the Russian terrorists prefer as targets to terorrise the population intentionally, but state and military buildings and institutions and garrieon inside big metropoles, powerplants, waterplants, bridges, communications, HQs, ministries, and so forth. Russians by majority must get a realistic taste of what is going in their name. They must be chase dout of bed by sirens in the night and near explosions. They must see in daylight the funerals in their neighbourhood.



Dangerous game. But such is the nature of war. Either you play it by its rules or you sit down and shoot a bullet right through yoor own head, it would not make a difference for the outcome. You play or you dont. Send them HIMARS, send therm MLRS - in the end the ukraine is currently loosing this war over the long distance. Putin plays the long-brertah card now. This cannot be allowed, a decision must be enforced much earlier by critically messing up situation inside Russia. Russia is much strionger than the Ukraine, has much more material and personnel reserves. If it is allowed to strangle Ukraine over time, Russia will win.



I would even consider to give them equivalents to the nuclear weapons they once had and then accepted to give up for prevcious US and UK "security guarantees". What these guarantees were worth we know since 2014: nothing. Not to enable them to start a nuclear escalation, but to keep Russia thinking twice before starting nuclear steps itself.

[Jimbuna]

Ukraine moves closer to getting F-15 and F-16 fighter jets as Washington approves training programme https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...out&li=BBoPWjQ

[mapuc]

Translated from a Norwegian article.

Foreign fighters talk about failing motivation
Foreign fighters who have traveled to Ukraine to fight against Russian forces are shocked by the brutality of the war, and many have returned home.

- "They fought in Afghanistan or in Iraq, but say they were not prepared for what met them here," said Polak, one of the foreign fighters fighting with the Ukrainian army.

He estimates that there are hundreds like him in the country, but says that many of them are becoming increasingly disillusioned.

- After the first encounter, they sometimes say that they were not prepared for this, and that they want to go home, he says.

Between 10 and 30 percent of those who enlist in the service of Ukraine, therefore pack their bags and return home after a short time. These are also said to have received weapons training, says a spokesman for the Foreign Legion, Damien Magrou

This generate a question.
Are these mercenary well trained soldiers from where they came or are they nothing than fortune hunters seeking an adventure ?

Some of them have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. This tells me that war has become more and more brutal and todays soldiers aren't trained for this.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

The High Representative for Foreign Policy and Common Security of the European Union, Josep Borrell, has assured this Saturday that international sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine are "taking effect" and has called for "strategic patience" on the resulting energy crisis because "it is the price to pay to defend democracy".

"Sanctions require strategic patience because it can take a long time for them to have the desired effect," Borrell explained in his personal blog in a text in which he recalled that, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Brussels has adopted six packages of sanctions against Moscow, targeting nearly 1200 people and almost 100 entities in Russia.

Borrell defended that sanctions, including restrictions on the purchase of Russian oil, "remain an important instrument of political action".

The EU's top diplomat acknowledged that "Russia can sell its oil to other markets but this benefit is limited by the fact that Russia is forced to offer large discounts for each barrel", before indicating that this restriction "frees Europe from its energy dependence on Russia", an issue long on the table in Brussels.

"Reducing our structural energy dependence on Russia matters a lot because this dependence has been an obstacle to developing a strong European policy in the face of Moscow's aggressive actions," he expanded on this, in what he described as a European process of "detoxification" from Russian energy.

"By breaking its energy dependence, in line with its climate ambition, the EU is learning that interdependence is not always a neutral and win-win instrument," he said.

Borrell has defended the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia, which is now trying to replace imports with domestic products; a relatively successful policy in the agricultural sector but "much more difficult to achieve" in high-tech products.

"Sanctions on semiconductor imports, for example, have a direct impact on Russian companies producing consumer electronics, computers, aircraft, automobiles or military equipment," Borrell gave as an example.

The diplomat warned that the war "will be long" and the "test" hard, but "allowing Russia to prevail would mean allowing the destruction of democracies and the very basis of the world order based on international rules."

To the countries most vulnerable to the crisis, such as those in Africa, Borrell extended the EU's hand. "We stand ready to help with any difficulties they may encounter in relation to our sanctions, while urging them not to be misled by the lies and misinformation of the Russian authorities on this issue," he said.

"Since we do not want to go to war with Russia, economic sanctions and Ukraine's support are at the heart of this response. And our sanctions are beginning to take effect and will do so even more in the coming months," he concluded.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...out&li=BBoPWjQ

[Skybird]

It means that Westerners now re-learn (once again) the real nature of war, and that they can throw their super-clever assumptions about designed clinically sterile and super-intellectual warfare into the bin.



Every illusion is like a soap bubble. It bursts.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Anvart]

I watched a couple, three speeches of the last persons and saw with what appetite they are swallow various kinds of fakes of the rotten through Ukro-Nazi regime and of the others russophobic lie.
One of the speakers very accurately indicated his location.