Russia fell apart when they put a liberal communist in power.
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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
- Start date
And it got put back together by Putin; and now we see the results of that.
Artful Dodger
"Neko no me"
Ukraine now has an opportunity to rebuild 30% of the electrical generation infrastrure with renewables.
Let's hope the 'opportunity' doesn't get any bigger before Winter.
Speaking of rail, the following brief article from a couple weeks ago is interesting. Especially the final sentence that long-term, Ukraine will be converting its rail to standard (4' 8.5") gauge instead of the 5' gauge used in Russia. Right now there are delays shipping by rail between Poland and Ukraine due to break-of-gauge.
nos.nl
Met militaire precisie wordt het cruciale spoor in Oekraïne hersteld
Vier dagen na de bevrijding reed er alweer een trein naar Balaklia. Het spoor speelt een belangrijke rol in Oekraïne voor evacuatie, handel, hulp, diplomatie én het front.
nos.nl
Geopolitics/illegal occupation being the barrier for the foreseeable future, but the Azov Sea would be a wonderful place for wind generation in peaceful times.
It's a very shallow sea - the average depth is 7 meters, maximum is 14 meters, and as has been recently noted re: bridge building challenges there -winds are significant. Winds speed averages peak in winter at 13.3 mph. This would be a great compliment to solar PV during and heat pumps.
Azov Climate, Weather By Month, Average Temperature (Russia) - Weather Spark
In the mean time distributed solar/batteries will help as a practical matter.
Bet TSLA
Active Member
navguy12
Active Member
…and dealing with the effects of the Chernobyl disaster only hastened the falling apart.
George HW Bush did and put together a proposed package to help out Russia and the former republics after the fall of the USSR. Congress refused to fund it.
There are those here who claim Russia never had free and fair elections, but they did give it a try in the 90s. When Putin came to power he started a program to routinely cook the books in elections to get the results he wanted. There was local corruption in the 90s, but no organized effort to fake the vote.
Speaking of rail, the following brief article from a couple weeks ago is interesting. Especially the final sentence that long-term, Ukraine will be converting its rail to standard (4' 8.5") gauge instead of the 5' gauge used in Russia. Right now there are delays shipping by rail between Poland and Ukraine due to break-of-gauge.
Met militaire precisie wordt het cruciale spoor in Oekraïne hersteld
Vier dagen na de bevrijding reed er alweer een trein naar Balaklia. Het spoor speelt een belangrijke rol in Oekraïne voor evacuatie, handel, hulp, diplomatie én het front.
I've been expecting that. It would be a major step in Ukraine shifting from Russia focused to European focused. This war has shown that having Russian gauge rail is a drawback in a war with Russia because it allows the Russians to supply their troops in the country they are trying to occupy. Change the rail gauge and Russia is out of luck trying to supply an army.
Germany fires cybersecurity chief after reports of possible Russia ties
"Germany's interior ministry fired the country's cybersecurity chief on Tuesday and launched an investigation into his conduct after media allegations that he may have come into contact with Russian security circles through a consultancy he co-founded."
It is relatively easy to change the gauge of the tracks. The hard part is the expense of replacing/refitting all the locomotives and rolling stock. I'd guess it will be done in a piecemeal fashion, so will take years to complete - if ever.
I am concerned about a more dramatic point in this conflict. Russia just had an election where I assume mostly pro Russia residents voted. And who would voluntarily evacuate toward Russia. Wouldn't it be easy to announce an evacuation which would clear out the Russian sympathizers and then get most of the troops out.
Then an attack on the city to be blamed on Ukraine with for example chemical weapons or even simple artillery would be a horrible result.
I hope I'm wrong and Russians simply leave.
X Fan
Active Member
“George HW Bush did and put together a proposed package to help out Russia and the former republics after the fall of the USSR. Congress refused to fund it.”
Democratic House and Senate in an era where Democratic Party was typically against any US foreign intervention.
BitJam
Active Member
Russia has already made similar claims. They don't fool anyone. Sure, Russia may commit more war crimes but it won't be because they have a flimsy excuse to blame it on Ukraine.
glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
I totally understand but this might be a setup for something short of a tactical nuke with the same result, near total destruction of a city falsely blamed on Ukraine.
No one believes it but what do we do.
I ask the strategists on here if there is an alternative for Ukraine to perhaps cut the land bridge instead.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Was disappointed only such a small wartime increase. Hopefully rocket production is increased much faster, but have not seen any numbers on that.
BitJam
Active Member
This is silly. Russia might use a nuke but they wouldn't blame it on Ukraine. No one on Earth would believe Ukraine magically procured a nuke and used it on their own city after the Russians evacuated.
Using a nuke is a high level strategic decision. Battlefield tactics won't affect such a decision. The use of a nuke will get NATO involved in the war with catastrophic consequences for Russia.
As for your question, what Ukraine is doing now is the most efficient way to cut the land bridge. They've been planning and preparing this for months. A head-on assault towards Mariupol would be strategic suicide. Even if they did that and succeeded, the exact same situation would play out in Mariupol. Russians would evacuate and you would see it as a excuse for them to nuke Mariupol.
Evacuating troops and collaborators from cities before they are taken back is not uncommon in warfare. Russia had no other choice. If Russia hadn't evacuated then all the collaborators (and many suspected collaborators) would be killed/murdered. If Russia wanted to give Ukraine a black eye then they should have not evacuated the collaborators and let the world see what happens to them.
