Putin's Witches
https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Putin's-Witches-55347.html — neomac
A friend who worked with them extensively told me it could be really quickly, two weeks of drills or even a bit less if they are working with experienced teams. That jives with DoD messaging of "about a week." — Count Timothy von Icarus
Yes, it's not the data I'm referring to, it's the interpretation. The data needs careful and expert interpretation. One can't simply look at some intelligence reports, even of the highest confidence, and say "well, I reckon that means..."
That's literally what OSINT is meant to do, to put analysis in clear language for the public. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Point being, Russia might soon be at a significant firepower disadvantage, so it's unclear why they are continuing with the ineffective attacks and sending conscripts to their deaths. They seem to be making it more likely they lose land they've held since 2014. — Count Timothy von Icarus
With great fanfare Russia few years ago re-created the formation of the 1st Tank Army, which now has seen actually operation with other Combined Arms Armies of the Russia Army. The idea was that the brigade hasn't gotten enough of firepower. Hence larger formations. It's interesting to see just what lessons Russia does learn from this. Especially now when it is focusing on the Donbas and understands that Ukrainians will fight, because the earlier multi-pronged attack and the attempt to seize Kyiv was clearly made thinking that the Ukrainians wouldn't defend and fight.I think the days of the armored division are done though. After this, many nations are probably going to switch to something like the Armored Brigade Combat Team, realizing that tanks need to move with interceptor assets, recon assets, and indirect fire assistance. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Which luckily both NATO and the EU have understood to do.I could be wrong but if Putin plans to attack any country that helps Ukraine, then it is a given that we have to help Ukraine any way we can. — dclements
Indeed. Except without the marxist-leninist ideology. That they don't have.IMHO it is all just naked aggression and Russian (Putin and those that support him) merely want to turn modern Russia back into the old USSR again however they can. — dclements
Large counterattacks might indeed carry with them huge risks the Ukrainians don't want to make at least now. — ssu
East European countries have improved their situation after joining the EU. And after a war you literally have rebuild nearly everything in the society. The Baltic States are a prime example of what ex-Soviet countries can do.Like all those other countries existing under crushing debt and corrupt governments. I hope you're right but this is very unlikely in my view. — Benkei
East European countries have improved their situation after joining the EU. And after a war you literally have rebuild nearly everything in the society. The Baltic States are a prime example of what ex-Soviet countries can do. — ssu
East European countries have improved their situation after joining the EU. — ssu
Actually, many had the same levels as now. Do notice that for example the Baltic States have had quite different economic policies than the older EU members, for example when it came to the financial crisis. Estonia opted for the most harshest austerity measures during the financial crisis, had a deep but quick economic recession and saw a very rapid recovery and now still has very low debt-to-GDP ratios (public or all together).What were the debt-to-GDP ratios for eastern european countries when they joined? — Benkei
Greece is different. But one should note that it was the Greek leaders that opted eagerly to follow the advice of Wall Street bankers to create the problems at the first place. And this just underlines that every country actually has it's set of problems and possibilities. There's of course similarities, but you cannot bunch the states together.Also, how's Greece doing? How many public goods have they sold since the last crisis? — Benkei
Of course not. It must be said again and again and again that NATO is evil evil evil. Of COURSE! — Olivier5
Russia will be a pariah state in the eyes of many people forever — but at least for a decade to come, Until Putin goes, there'll be no sense of cleansing and starting over
We believe that we can win. We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.
“The danger is serious, it is real, you can’t underestimate it,” Lavrov told the Interfax news agency. — Manuel
In particular, if Ukraine is able to continue to successfully blowup Russian industry and flagships (assuming all that was Ukraine), the only feasible retaliation available to Russia in the current situation maybe tactical nuclear weapons, and at some point retaliation is politically necessary and not just a good idea from a military perspective. — boethius
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that peace talks with Ukraine would continue, while warning there was a “real” danger of a World War III.
If the Russians use tactical nuclear weapons during this conflict then the precedence is set and they can simply do so in any other regional conflict for easy victory ... and even easier intimidation. — boethius
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