Sanctions against Russia

[willedoo]

There was talk of it this morning on Xcrement, based on comments on some Russian Telegraph channels, but no evidence had surfaced. Good to see that it actually happened.

 

There was also some hope that the bridge was attacked as traffic had been halted. That might be high hopes as they close the bridge to traffic every time there's missile or drone strikes in the area. They often release camouflage smoke on the bridge when that happens. The bridge is a tricky one to knock out permanently. They really need to get the supporting pylons. The upper metal structure is easily replaceable by segments.

[willedoo]

They are saying the aircraft tally is now 15 in two weeks.

[nomadpete]

9 hours ago, willedoo said:

They are saying the aircraft tally is now 15 in two weeks.

Smart to focus on moving the action away from the ground front as much as possible. It is their only hope.

[willedoo]

Some possible outcomes aren't too good for Ukraine.

 

The U.S. presidential election is in November which will be upon us before we know it. What could happen if Trump wins? The orange clown said he will stop the war in two days which is a delusion. The only way he will stop the war is by coming up with a peace deal. That would involve at a minimum giving putin what he holds at that point in time. If that happened, putin would use the peace to rebuild his military. putin knows Trump can only do one more term, so he could use the cease fire/peace deal and Trump's term to rebuild and regroup. Then once Trump's gone, have another go from a stronger position.

 

A peace deal that involves ceding territory to Russia is unacceptable to Ukraine. In that case, Trump could halt all U.S. aid to Ukraine to try to force them to the negotiating table. If the Europeans and Britain continued their support, the war would drag on with Russia gradually gaining more ground. To prevent that, Trump would have to try to stop the non U.S. support for Ukraine. If most support stopped, Ukraine would have to either surrender or accept a Trump peace deal.

 

A lot of things could happen in the interim. putin could die which would alter things to some degree. Trump could die or get locked up (unlikely), or he could lose to Biden in November. If Biden wins, things will continue as they are. The Democrats are running out of time for an election plan B, so they are taking a big risk with Biden. If it turns out that 30% of Republicans voted against Trump in the primaries, the question remains - how many of them will vote for Trump in November as the lessor of two evils rather than vote Democrat. Maybe it would be better for Biden if that 30% didn't vote at all in November.

[spenaroo]

or Trump is elected,

and the world tells the USA to F**K off.  they wont deal with another mad-man
they lose what credibility they have left - and start pulling support for USA programs.
Trumps posturing unites NATO, and increases spending of individual nations... but though alienating the USA to remove their influence.

Trump is outraged and tries to fix it through "winning" another war.

"i am the best war time president - no one does war like I do - we are going to stop sending aid and end the war through superior might"

Edited March 6 by spenaroo

[facthunter]

 He's mentally unbalanced and any thinking person knows it. He's also a vain and vengeful Bully.Nev

[willedoo]

Where Russian warships disappear:

 

[willedoo]

And the man himself:

 

[Marty_d]

I hazard a guess that high ranking Russians aren't allowed facial expressions. 

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Marty_d said:

I hazard a guess that high ranking Russians aren't allowed facial expressions. 

Well, that is true. Budanov is Ukrainian and too young to have served in the Soviet military, so I don't know where he got it from. He specialises in psyops so maybe he's trying to out-unsmile the Russians to unnerve them. The Russians think they have the market sewn up on non-smiling, so Budanov probably spins them out.

[willedoo]

A bit like a staring competition. He who blinks first, loses.

[Litespeed]

I think he is taking the piss out of the Ruskies.

 

Remember the president is a former actor and comedian.

 

The jokes on Putana.

[facthunter]

Putrid would be a good option. Nobody has FAILED like this er Person. Destruction and death he espouses. Not very endearing qualities. Nev

[willedoo]

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has been appointed by President Zelenskyy to be the next Ukrainian ambassador in the UK.

[willedoo]

The Ukrainians posted a lot of photos of female troops for International Women's Day yesterday. Some were positive stories of women currently serving and some like this photo were in memory of those who sacrificed their lives. In this photo taken at the Azovstal steel plant, only one of the five women survived the defence of Mariupol.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

An interesting news feed., the West (at least Europe) may slowly be waking up: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-poland-wont-rule-out-nato-force-in-ukraine/live-68479837?mobileApp=true

[willedoo]

19 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

An interesting news feed., the West (at least Europe) may slowly be waking up: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-poland-wont-rule-out-nato-force-in-ukraine/live-68479837?mobileApp=true

I came across this meme regarding Macron's speculation about French troops in Ukraine.

 

[willedoo]

I wonder what Ukraine will do with their two corvettes in Turkey. The contract for Turkey to build them was finalised in September 2021. The first corvette "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" was launched in Turkey in October 2022, and the keel of "Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky" was laid in August 2023. President Zelensky visited the shipyard during his trip to Turkey. Maybe the war will be over by the time they are both fitted out and active. It would be a shame to build them and then see putler destroy them.

 

 

[willedoo]

It would be interesting if even half the rumours associated with this war were true. No news or confirmation on this latest one. A commercial ship that was grounded when the dam burst was allegedly being used as a Russian command post and was hit by an aerial bomb. The talk is that the general commanding the Russian airborne forces was killed in the strike. Most of these stories originate on Russian Telegram channels. Other speculation is that the well known Russian blogger, "13th", was also on board. He apparently has 200,000+ followers on Telegram.

 

Edited March 12 by willedoo

[willedoo]

If true, every bit helps, but putler will just keep finding another idiot to fill the role.

[onetrack]

The Russians are taking a leaf out of the Nazis playbook and converting free-fall bombs into glide bombs - almost like V1 or V2 bombs, except they don't have rocket motors.

They aerial launch them from a long way back, and they do enormous damage to the Ukrainian assets and buildings, with their 1.5 tonne of explosives.

The only disadvantage to the Russians is they're limited to fixed-position assets. Even so, they have done a lot of damage to the Ukrainians, and no doubt seriously upped the level of Ukrainian casualties.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/10/europe/russian-guided-bomb-ukraine-frontline-intl/index.html

[facthunter]

Trump has stated He will cut all aid to Ukraine the day he gets in power but there's no highlighting of it in the Media.  Nev

[nomadpete]

1 minute ago, facthunter said:

Trump has stated He will cut all aid to Ukraine the day he gets in power but there's no highlighting of it in the Media.  Nev

So the Kremlin has a very substantial motive to push interferance in the upcoming election.

[facthunter]

It brings into question what is the value of any existing deal with the USA if Trumpler gets in?  Nev

[nomadpete]

36 minutes ago, facthunter said:

It brings into question what is the value of any existing deal with the USA if Trumpler gets in?  Nev

Never fear. Trumpy and Pootin are best mates.