Russia/Ukraine conflict

[TheTalkingMule]

You should probably gain some knowledge before commenting with certainty. Most of our military drones are small surveillance drones and can't carry any weapons.

Knowing the world is plenty. The only reason we say we have 700ish drones is so people don't come to the obvious conclusion the F-35 program was a complete waste of a trillion dollars.

The other side of that same coin is that if we can spend money on something militarily effective, we will. Since weaponized drones are far far cheaper and more effective, we'll buy closer to all of them than a few of them.

"Wouldn't want Russia getting their hands on these, would you Senator?"
[hands over invoice that's quickly stamped]

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

European plan to donate fighter jets to Ukraine collapses​

.../ Slovakia’s small fleet of MiG-29s are the country’s only fighter jets, and they are being serviced by Russian workers under contract, making their transfer a tough sell in Bratislava.

The Slovakian government is also engaged in talks with Poland to provide protection of Slovak airspace, and until that deal is reached, they need their MiG-29s. /...

Source: European plan to donate fighter jets to Ukraine collapses

What's the problem?

Why can't the US, France or the UK protect the Slovakian airspace and also provide the Air Power necessary if the countries with the MIGs give them to Ukraine?

 

[JRP3]

Knowing the world is plenty.

Sure if you want to make up numbers out of thin air.

 

[SmokyPeat]

Anyway, this is just a historic clarification, and completely irrelevant to what is happening today - invading another country is never justified, killing civilians is never justified, Putin is a war criminal.

I completely agree with that sentiment with one caveat: in the very rare instances where someone as evil as a Hitler or Pol Pot comes to power, invasion can be justified.

 

[Artful Dodger]

"China's Foreign Minister says that Beijing is ready to help end the war in Ukraine through diplocacy"

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Sure if you want to make up numbers out of thin air.

If you want to believe our military has only dipped it's pinky toe in the new dominant offensive technology......I guess that's your business. Just seems a tad unlikely to me.

 

[AZRI11]

Gazprom shares collapse by 97% in London, market cap falls to just $250mn​

Gazprom shares collapse by 97% in London, market cap falls to just $250mn

The market capitalisation of Russia’s national gas giant Gazprom saw an unprecedented collapse on March 2 to a mere $250mn at the London Stock ...

www.intellinews.com

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Retired Gen. Petreus suggested that Angela Merkel should get involved in his latest (?) appearance on CNN.

Why isn't she already? Or has she been involved from day one?

Why not bring in Clinton, Bush and Obama as well.

Heck – If Trump can end this, then I'll of course take that as well.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Get them all together in a TASK FORCE. Why not?

 

[TheTalkingMule]

"China's Foreign Minister says that Beijing is ready to help end the war in Ukraine through diplocacy"

That is a humongous deal. Having China even mildly push for peace is a great sign. Macros reacting. Treasuries move higher.

 

[bkp_duke]

Gazprom shares collapse by 97% in London, market cap falls to just $250mn​

Gazprom shares collapse by 97% in London, market cap falls to just $250mn

The market capitalisation of Russia’s national gas giant Gazprom saw an unprecedented collapse on March 2 to a mere $250mn at the London Stock ...

www.intellinews.com

Hot damn, that just warms my heart.

 

[CLK350]

Lots of food for thoughts here. More historical viewpoints to consider - that was in 2015

Note: I am not endorsing one view over another, I want to learn the facts as well as I can before forming an opinion - and there is a paucity of discussion from these point of views - maybe we should be lucky these videos haven't been censored/ banned from YouTube /s

From the U of Chicago this time

UnCommon Core: The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis

John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors. A key assumption is that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary responsibility.

Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer

Update from Mearsheimer in today's New Yorker - (see also this piece on Ukraine's mis step

BTW I prefer to know all relevant facts and opinions, those contradicting my prior beliefs I find more useful as they are potentially an opportunity to learn something new, the opposite of the echo chamber effect which is the current 'brainwashing" happening all over the world, now especially in the US. As Elon said in that vein, if you're not making mistakes, you're not growing/ improving ; D

 

[nwdiver]

Plugshare disabled my account for posting this on Russian sites. Anyone want to take over?

 

[afadeev]

puck futin - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[nwdiver]

View attachment 775814

puck futin - Google Search

www.google.com

It's a game of whack-a-mole. People post. They delete... We need more people posting.

 

[madodel]

Update from Mearsheimer in today's New Yorker - (see also this piece on Ukraine's mis step

BTW I prefer to know all relevant facts and opinions, those contradicting my prior beliefs I find more useful as they are potentially an opportunity to learn something new, the opposite of the echo chamber effect which is the current 'brainwashing" happening all over the world, now especially in the US. As Elon said in that vein, if you're not making mistakes, you're not growing/ improving ; D

View attachment 775791

What are his views on the Jewish Space Laser?

 

[stopcrazypp]

What's the problem?

Why can't the US, France or the UK protect the Slovakian airspace and also provide the Air Power necessary if the countries with the MIGs give them to Ukraine?

With the current state of affairs, what country would want to put their country's air defense solely in the hands of another nation?
The Drive already did an earlier analysis that the numbers for fighter jet donations mentioned were not realistic, as it'll leave a couple countries without their major air defense.
Reports That Ukraine Is About To Get 70 Donated Fighter Jets Don't Add Up

 

[jabloomf1230]

Many democracies now have racist nationalist movements. Considering that Zelensky got 70% of the vote and now has a 91% approval rating, I wouldn't say the nationalist/racist movement there is as serious a problem as some other democracies. A number of NATO and EU countries have worse problems right now.

I think that Putin's use of the terms "neo-nazis" and "Nazis" is just a veiled reference to Germany. He's just symbolically reminding Russians that Germany did invade Russia during WW2 and that it could happen again. In the West, people are assuming that Putin means that Ukrainians are Nazis and therefore also antisemitic, when in fact, the level of antisemitism is probably the same in both Ukraine and Russia.

 

[nwdiver]

I think that Putin's use of the terms "neo-nazis" and "Nazis" is just a veiled reference to Germany. He's just symbolically reminding Russians that Germany did invade Russia during WW2 and that it could happen again. In the West, people are assuming that Putin means that Ukrainians are Nazis and therefore also antisemitic, when in fact, the level of antisemitism is probably the same in both Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine does have a far-right problem.... but what country doesn't?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Yes, probably the US military does not favour drones due to financial/historic reasons. Drones are the future, manned planes will become obsolete.

I think most of the Ukrainian drones are Turkish. These drones proved themselves in the last Azerbajani-Armenian war, where they decided the victor (azerbajan). They also saved Ethiopia recently from getting overwhelmed by the insurgency.

From what I understand, it is in fact Israel and Turkey who are the leaders in droned warfare.

The other point I don't see pointed out is training is a major issue. That's why donating advanced weapons to Ukraine is not a straightforward thing. Ukraine has been using Turkish drones since 2019. Same deal with fighter jet donations, the only viable ones are soviet era jets that Ukraine is already using. The conditions simply don't allow for sufficient training to use new advanced weapons effectively (not to mention coordination).

Donating weapons like the Javelin and Stingers is far more effective given little to no training is required to use them. The only missing major component is anti-air against faster targets like fighter jets. That may require giving Ukraine SAM systems like the Patriot, but that's a major move that the US and others have not moved to yet while Russia still have not controlled the Ukrainian airspace completely.