Yes, it's extremely strange to have warehouses full of Abrams that were esentially mothballed by the USMC, yet to waste precious time building new and less capable tanks for Ukraine. Laws can be changed, if there were legal impediments to exporting these tanks.
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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
- Start date
Several headlines from Russia's main propaganda mouthpieces such as RT are reporting "Ukrainian" attacks against Belgorod "civilians" today using "banned" weapons. This is Kremlin designed for both external and internal consumption.
This pattern likely means Russia is pre-planning additional cover for expanding attacks on Ukrainian civilians in the next couple of days.
This pattern likely means Russia is pre-planning additional cover for expanding attacks on Ukrainian civilians in the next couple of days.
I am extremely skeptical that Ukraine intentionally targeted civilians. And the MSM should know better than to take Russia at their word.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
In case you've been under a rock, the US legislature isn't quite on the same page in terms of supporting Ukraine. They can't even pass a funding bill that should be a no brainer, good luck getting them to change export restrictions just for Ukraine.
There is no need to give Ukraine AWACS. NATO AWACS are feeding Ukraine all the information they need and the NATO aircraft have the advantage that they are off limits to the Russians. If Ukraine had them, Russia would be targeting them.
US law is very strict about exporting any kind of radioactive material outside the US, including depleted uranium. Technically the law could be changed, but it would require an act of Congress.
In the US right now laws can't be changed. The US Congress only passed 27 bills into law in 2023. The worst rate in the history of the country. Three of those bills were must pass bills just to keep the government running or preventing a government default on its debts and they passed in the House by small margins. One authorized a new coin be minted to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps. Two were for naming veterans clinics. A number of others only affected very small populations of people such as benefits for people born in South Korea who served in the Vietnam War. A bill to change the duck stamp act which is a program where people buy stamps for hunting migratory birds. Basically little of any substance.
The House did hold over 700 votes, but only those 27 bills managed to make it to the president's desk.
Congress passed 365 bills into law in 2021 and 2022 which is in the ballpark of normal.
Technically Congress could change the export laws for depleted uranium armor, but I wouldn't expect anything on this anytime soon. For now everything has to happen within the existing laws.
Depleted Uranium is only slightly more radioactive than many granites. It is still the heavy metal Uranium though, and as such has the same sorts of toxicity concerns that the other heavy metals have.
The fact that the US has exported DU armor piercing rounds for the Abrams to Ukraine would seem to indicate that the DU itself is not the primary concern.
There is common sense and then there is the law. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don't.
There is a separate section of the US Code that allows sale of depleted uranium ammunition to several countries.
22 U.S. Code § 2378a - Depleted uranium ammunition
I don't think this video has been posted, well worth watching:-
The war will end faster if either side gets to a point where the economic damage down by the war becomes impossible to live with.
IMO Putin has Plan A - do a deal the freeze the current boarders, end economic sanctions and rebuild for round 2. Putin doesn't have a Plan B, I am far from convinced that Russia can last much longer than another year. IMO Russia being able the sustain the war for 5 years is a total fantasy..
Very few in the west understand how weak vulnerable and prone to a sudden collapse Russia is. Luckily I think the Ukrainians understand, and they know while it might be tough for a while, if they hang in long enough, one day Russia will collapse, or there will be a change of leadership.
Russian public support for the war is still strong, but the full economic effect of sanctions, and the financial and human cost of the war haven't yet fully played out and been well understood.
Ukrainians don't really have an option for them losing is not an option, the current boarders are not an option.
My advice to Ukraine would be, don't worry too much about taking territory, just keep destroying Russian assets, but they do have an urgent need to liberate their people, which I understand and respect.
I hope I am not posting in this thread this time next year...
The war will end faster if either side gets to a point where the economic damage down by the war becomes impossible to live with.
IMO Putin has Plan A - do a deal the freeze the current boarders, end economic sanctions and rebuild for round 2. Putin doesn't have a Plan B, I am far from convinced that Russia can last much longer than another year. IMO Russia being able the sustain the war for 5 years is a total fantasy..
Very few in the west understand how weak vulnerable and prone to a sudden collapse Russia is. Luckily I think the Ukrainians understand, and they know while it might be tough for a while, if they hang in long enough, one day Russia will collapse, or there will be a change of leadership.
Russian public support for the war is still strong, but the full economic effect of sanctions, and the financial and human cost of the war haven't yet fully played out and been well understood.
Ukrainians don't really have an option for them losing is not an option, the current boarders are not an option.
My advice to Ukraine would be, don't worry too much about taking territory, just keep destroying Russian assets, but they do have an urgent need to liberate their people, which I understand and respect.
I hope I am not posting in this thread this time next year...
Very pleasing to hear how effectively Ukraine has been utilizing the M-2 Bradley to defend Avdiivka as well as other towns.
www.forbes.com
Killing Russians By The Truckload Around Avdiivka, Ukraine’s M-2 Fighting Vehicles Are Showing How Russia Loses—And Ukraine Wins
Russia is counting on staying in the war for the long term. That’s its whole plan for victory. A plan a few battalions of Ukrainian vehicles have exposed as a farce.
www.forbes.com
Mod: It shouldn't be necessary to remind all readers that US politics is off-topic anywhere in this sub-forum. Any recurrence will earn a temporary ban, so I don't have to waste my long weekend cleaning up. --ggr
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Things in 'the land of the Russian Dictator' is hopefully not as 'stable' as the Dictator desperately wants to project...
Allegedly:
Russia: Sudden cancellation of New Year's celebrations announced over the loud speaker in St. Petersburg with less than an hour to go. Nevsky Prospekt closed.
twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1741562564864282962
Russia: With minutes to go to New Year, Putin's enforcers are checking everyone's passports in downtown St. Petersburg and are taking away everyone without proper identification.
twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1741564489349345579
Allegedly:
Russia: Sudden cancellation of New Year's celebrations announced over the loud speaker in St. Petersburg with less than an hour to go. Nevsky Prospekt closed.
twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1741562564864282962
Russia: With minutes to go to New Year, Putin's enforcers are checking everyone's passports in downtown St. Petersburg and are taking away everyone without proper identification.
twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1741564489349345579
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Allegedly some serf on serf action...
To close off the year 2023, Russians assaulted their own positions on the frontline. Russian tank attacked a Russian trench, followed by Russian infantry storming the trench. In the assault, Russians killed and wounded their own soldiers near Dibrova, Donetsk region in Ukraine.
twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1741526220150567292
To close off the year 2023, Russians assaulted their own positions on the frontline. Russian tank attacked a Russian trench, followed by Russian infantry storming the trench. In the assault, Russians killed and wounded their own soldiers near Dibrova, Donetsk region in Ukraine.
twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1741526220150567292
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Allegedly:
India!!!
India is now delivering 155mm ammo to Ukraine
twitter.com/noclador/status/1741558341552247249?t=Btwb8oF2envVuSlZk35b0A&s=19
India!!!
India is now delivering 155mm ammo to Ukraine
twitter.com/noclador/status/1741558341552247249?t=Btwb8oF2envVuSlZk35b0A&s=19
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
So here are journalists who write all that anti-Ukrainian
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Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) [...], also known as MGIMO University) is an institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs [My underline] [...
Moderator Redacted Material.
Welcome to TMC and, especially, the Investor Sector. You likely know TMC is not a democracy; one reasonably accurate term might be a benevolent multi-headed dictatorship.
Be that - or whatever else - as it may, one ever-present rule is that garbage talk / potty language / four-letter AngloSaxonisms - vocabulary your grandmother would not use to her parents, in other words - NEVER is permitted here. That my 4…5…now 6-year old son reads just about everything that I do is as good a reason as any of the several I have.
I’ve not often had to enforce that in this thread - it is disgusting enough that in the 21st century such a thread is necessary that no scatological talk need be piled atop it, but no matter.
This also encompasses others’ writings being cited in a post. ZERO tolerance.
Find another way to write what you want to share on this thread.
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) [...], also known as MGIMO University) is an institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs [My underline] [...
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Very pleasing to hear how effectively Ukraine has been utilizing the M-2 Bradley to defend Avdiivka as well as other towns.
Killing Russians By The Truckload Around Avdiivka, Ukraine’s M-2 Fighting Vehicles Are Showing How Russia Loses—And Ukraine Wins
Russia is counting on staying in the war for the long term. That’s its whole plan for victory. A plan a few battalions of Ukrainian vehicles have exposed as a farce.
The Bradley is a very effective vehicle. Rather than go on about how Ukraine needs gobs of modern, western tanks, people should be lobbying for Ukraine to get more vehicles like the Bradley. The 25mm auto cannon can take out everything in the Russian inventory except the tanks and is a great anti-infantry weapon. There are rounds for that gun that are also effective against fortifications. To deal with heavy armor they have 2 TOW missile launchers.
I wonder if they got some kind of intelligence (possibly fake) that there was going to be an attack on the celebration?
Allegedly:
India!!!
India is now delivering 155mm ammo to Ukraine
twitter.com/noclador/status/1741558341552247249?t=Btwb8oF2envVuSlZk35b0A&s=19
Interesting, but how many shells are they providing? They might just be providing a few for PR purposes, or might be providing a fair number.
Just looked up India's artillery capabilities
List of equipment of the Indian Army - Wikipedia
It looks like their gun artillery is heavily leaning towards towed guns rather than SP. They have a mix of ex-Soviet 130mm, 155mm, and a large number of home built 105mm guns. It looks like they have been on a program to upgrade a number of 130mm to 155mm.
They have enough 155mm guns they probably have a fair number of shells in stock.
As Perun pointed out a week ago, India is on India's side in world affairs and they have been since independence. They are big enough they can play both sides to whatever benefit they can gain. They are making a lot of money buying Russian oil at a discount, refining it, and selling it on at full price.
And that sort of thing was intended when the sanctions were put in place on Russian oil. At the moment the world doesn't have spare oil capacity to make up for Russia dropping out of the world oil market, so it's in the interests of the entire world for Russian oil to continue to make it to market, but the price is structured in such a way the Russians are not making much money from the deal. The middle men (in this case India) are making the biggest profits.
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
and yet it is incredibly on point when it comes to getting Ukraine the assistance it needs to fight on. It is a shame we can not be trusted with sharp objects. (and yes, I understand why it is off limits)
DanCar
Active Member
AWACS not being hundreds of miles away are able to see what is happening on the ground, detect friend and foe, and guide ground forces. There are also rumors about ground penetrating radar. Shouldn't be very difficult with such radar to map out mine fields.
AWACS are too valuable to put them close to the action. They are airborne command posts. You don't put your command post too close to the front or it becomes a target.
Ground penetrating radar exists, but I very strongly doubt that AWACS has anything that could be used tactically. AWACS are strategic assets. I doubt it has ground penetrating radar at all. That is not its mission. The AWACS is intended to monitor air activity and surface naval activity. It is not designed to monitor what's going on the ground.
E-3 Sentry (AWACS)
