Russia Invades Ukraine

[Mikey1874]

Russia got a successful initial response from the West.

 

While previous loose talk might be understandable when you don't actually expect the thing to happen, Biden previously threatened "devastating consequences" if Navalny died in prison.

 

When asked about last night he said that had already happened for Russia in Ukraine suggesting nothing will happen. And Russia currently winning in US with Musk giving Russia Starlink and the military funding for Ukraine stopped.

[Mikey1874]

Although maybe not as well known, the new armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, appointed last week has been widely criticised. One thing was fighting on in Bakhmut too long killing a lot of Ukrainian defenders.

 

Well Ukraine has withdrawn from Avdiivka. Whether Ukraine can continue to hold the lines all over we'll see. 

[Sawdust Caesar]

15 hours ago, Class of 75 said:

Hopefully, the Russian people now have the courage to stand up against this gangster. 

A few more like this woman. Although, to be fair, when you are in the winter years of life you have less to lose, but still, well done her.

 

 

Edited February 17 by Sawdust Caesar

[Class of 75]

5 minutes ago, Sawdust Caesar said:

A few more like this woman. Although, to be fair, when you are in the winter years of life you have less to lose, but still, well done her.

 

 

Yep very brave, hopefully more like her take the initiative.

[JFK-1]

6 minutes ago, Sawdust Caesar said:

A few more like this woman. Although, to be fair, when you are in the winter years of life you have less to lose, but still, well done her.

 

 

 

Admirable but distressing to watch, I fear what's going to become of her. We might I suppose hope the murder of Navalny might create a mass movement they can't keep down. It could be a slaughter but that's revolution.

[Mikey1874]

This is a proper protest. Nothing like this in Russia. Mostly quiet grief. 

 

 

[Mikey1874]

Might be interesting 

 

Reports from Russian held areas

 

 

[Cade]

Ukrainian withdrawal from Avdiivka complete.

Fell back to pre-planned positions along pre-planned routes.

Heavy fog both helped and hindered the operation, with Russian troops being in the north end of the town it became very difficult to avoid them on the way out.

Several wounded Ukrainian troopers were unfortunately left behind and captured.

In their rush to take the town and kill the evacuating Ukrainians, the Russians got a little bit too bold with their ground attack aircraft and got 3 SU-34s shot down as well as one SU-35.

Another $200million in irreplaceable machinery gone down in flames.

 

Estonia and Finland have doubled their ammunition output, Germany is building entire new arms factories and Denmark is donating ALL of its own artillery and artillery ammunition to Ukraine and will produce more new replacement kit for themselves over the next few months.

 

One of the reasons that Avdiivka was abandoned was due to a lack of artillery ammunition to launch a counter attack or flanking assault on the Russians.

Didn't even have enough ammo left to mount a full frontal assault as in Bakhmut.

 

Until last week there had been 8,000 defending troops, this week it was down to 3,000 or so after the main bulk was evacuated once the Russians reached the main supply road.

Facing them were 50,000 Russians.

 

 

[Dirty Deeds]

Recent events in Ukraine are most depressing, hopefully Europe and the UK gets it's finger out and supplies the ammo that the US won't.

 

I've a dreadful feeling that there's worse around the corner, Russia has the arms and the human resource which they are literally quite happy to throw at it as there are no opposing voices at home.

[Australis]

Wonder what Alex Salmond thinks of it all with his Russian TV programme.

 

Wipe out and kill any political opposition leader at will.

 

He must be a threat to our national security.

 

How can he justify working for them.

 

[Gundermann]

That Steven Seagal in there?  😄

 

[Cade]

1 hour ago, Dirty Deeds said:

Recent events in Ukraine are most depressing, hopefully Europe and the UK gets it's finger out and supplies the ammo that the US won't.

 

I've a dreadful feeling that there's worse around the corner, Russia has the arms and the human resource which they are literally quite happy to throw at it as there are no opposing voices at home.

 

Czechs reckon they've sourced 800,000 artillery shells from overseas but don't have the money to buy them on their own.

[Malinga the Swinga]

43 minutes ago, Australis said:

Wonder what Alex Salmond thinks of it all with his Russian TV programme.

 

Wipe out and kill any political opposition leader at will.

 

He must be a threat to our national security.

 

How can he justify working for them.

 

Answer is simple, £'s. 

[Cade]

Even more Russian bombers falling out of the sky.

That's 6 or 7 of them shot down in the last few days.

They're taking horrendous losses on the battlefield just so Putin can run his wee pretendy election campaign on an "I'm winning the war" ticket.

[Mikey1874]

Making a statement 

 

 

[Cade]

Found in an underground car park with 5 bullets in him.

 

No "falling out a window" stuff here.

[Mysterion]

On 16/02/2024 at 17:50, Class of 75 said:

Hopefully, the Russian people now have the courage to stand up against this gangster. 

 

Some stand up and they are arrested/detained quickly. 

I know i'm wrong to assume, but it looks like Russia has always had a problem with people who are either apathetic towards politics or are rightfully scared and will not rage against the machine. 

[Cade]

Serfdom was only abolished in Russia in 1866.

The attitudes from that time still linger.

[Cade]

It's getting difficult to keep track of how many planes that Russia has lost in the recent days.

Over the last month or so it's up to 10.

That's half of their annual production of SU-34s.

 

Meanwhile, on the ground, combat footage has proven that the Russians have resorted to using ancient post-war T-55 and T-62 tanks in frontline combat operations.

It had been the case that they had been using them as artillery pieces due to regular artillery having run out of replacement gun barrels, but now they've being actively used on the front line.

Needless to say, it's going so well for the crews of those ancient relics.

 

 

[Mysterion]

1 hour ago, Cade said:

It's getting difficult to keep track of how many planes that Russia has lost in the recent days.

Over the last month or so it's up to 10.

That's half of their annual production of SU-34s.

 

Meanwhile, on the ground, combat footage has proven that the Russians have resorted to using ancient post-war T-55 and T-62 tanks in frontline combat operations.

It had been the case that they had been using them as artillery pieces due to regular artillery having run out of replacement gun barrels, but now they've being actively used on the front line.

Needless to say, it's going so well for the crews of those ancient relics.

 

 

At this stage Ukraine are quite literally grinding things out, conceding land feels negative but if they are taking out planes/tanks/armoured vehicles and reducing the Russian capability to mostly man power then it will hopefully see a positive change later in the year.

[ehcaley]

3 hours ago, Cade said:

Serfdom was only abolished in Russia in 1866.

The attitudes from that time still linger.

Not so long after here in Scotland

[Dirty Deeds]

1 hour ago, Mysterion said:

At this stage Ukraine are quite literally grinding things out, conceding land feels negative but if they are taking out planes/tanks/armoured vehicles and reducing the Russian capability to mostly man power then it will hopefully see a positive change later in the year.

I hate to be negative but I see very little good news anywhere.

 - Navalny's murder is as much a message to potential Russian political opponents as it was an opportunity to get rid of one pre-election

- A Russian pilot deflector assassinated in Spain, a message to those on their way to the front

- The Russian economy is producing new tanks and shells as quickly as they lose them, no mean feet.

- The war economy is making low-skilled workers rich in well paid factories churning out new equipment

- Post Russian election, expect mass mobilisation of the Russian population but don't expect much opposition to it on the home front

- More meat waves of attack taking Ukraine land inch by inch. The losses mean nothing to Putin and he has more human resource than Ukraine

- Continued naval gazing across Europe while USA stops it support for Ukraine.

 

Russia will continue to lose men and equipment in huge numbers but they've got the numbers to lose, there's no opposition and it gains them ground.

 

It's thoroughly depressing.

[Cade]

14 minutes ago, Dirty Deeds said:

I hate to be negative but I see very little good news anywhere.

 - Navalny's murder is as much a message to potential Russian political opponents as it was an opportunity to get rid of one pre-election

- A Russian pilot deflector assassinated in Spain, a message to those on their way to the front

- The Russian economy is producing new tanks and shells as quickly as they lose them, no mean feet.

- The war economy is making low-skilled workers rich in well paid factories churning out new equipment

- Post Russian election, expect mass mobilisation of the Russian population but don't expect much opposition to it on the home front

- More meat waves of attack taking Ukraine land inch by inch. The losses mean nothing to Putin and he has more human resource than Ukraine

- Continued naval gazing across Europe while USA stops it support for Ukraine.

 

Russia will continue to lose men and equipment in huge numbers but they've got the numbers to lose, there's no opposition and it gains them ground.

 

It's thoroughly depressing.

It really isn't.

They're fielding ancient relics from deep storage.

And having to buy back ancient ammo they sold to the North Koreans in the 1970s.

 

[AlimOzturk]

21 minutes ago, Cade said:

It really isn't.

They're fielding ancient relics from deep storage.

And having to buy back ancient ammo they sold to the North Koreans in the 1970s.

 

And they are still able to throw human life at it like never before without any challenges or resilience. This won’t change whilst this regime is in charge. 
 

We need Putin to die and for their to be some sort of uprising to change anything. We just have to hope the Ukrainians can hold out until then. 
 

We need the west to keep support up. 

[Dirty Deeds]

23 minutes ago, Cade said:

It really isn't.

They're fielding ancient relics from deep storage.

And having to buy back ancient ammo they sold to the North Koreans in the 1970s.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/rate-of-russian-military-production-worries-european-war-planners

 

Those relics still fire shells. Ukraine doesn't have that luxury.

[Cade]

4 minutes ago, AlimOzturk said:

And they are still able to throw human life at it like never before without any challenges or resilience. This won’t change whilst this regime is in charge. 
 

We need Putin to die and for their to be some sort of uprising to change anything. We just have to hope the Ukrainians can hold out until then. 
 

We need the west to keep support up. 

 

Denmark may be the waterbreak.

Many Western nations are rapidly ramping up ammunition production but won't donate their current stocks until the new stuff is made.

Denmark has said that's stupid as we're not under attack so we don't need our stockpiles, Ukraine does.

So they're giving all of their artillery and all of their ammo straight to Ukraine and will replace it with newly made gear ASAP.

I'm not saying everyone should donate everything, but we should all be digging deeper and replacing it from the increased production levels.

Even Germany are coming round after a year or so of being sluggish.

 

 

[Dirty Deeds]

4 minutes ago, Cade said:

 

Denmark may be the waterbreak.

Many Western nations are rapidly ramping up ammunition production but won't donate their current stocks until the new stuff is made.

Denmark has said that's stupid as we're not under attack so we don't need our stockpiles, Ukraine does.

So they're giving all of their artillery and all of their ammo straight to Ukraine and will replace it with newly made gear ASAP.

I'm not saying everyone should donate everything, but we should all be digging deeper and replacing it from the increased production levels.

Even Germany are coming round after a year or so of being sluggish.

 

 

Agreed, magnificent effort from Denmark. 

[Cade]

It's been a very busy few days in Ukraine.

 

Keen to capitalise on the occupation of Avdiivka (after a battle lasting since 2014) the Russians are getting sloppy.

With election propaganda at the front of their minds, commanders on the ground are making error after error and losing serious amounts of equipment and many, many men.

 

Up in the north sector, 4 T-90M tanks were destroyed, which is by far the largest number of them taken out in a single engagement so far. The T-90M is the most modern tank the Russians have and before the war it was being touted as a war-winning, unkillable super weapon. Reality has rather tarnished that reputation.

 

They also tried to push towards Vuhledar in the south again, with exactly the same results as all the other times they've attacked in that direction.

They run into minefields then artillery, drone drops and ATGMs.

A bit further west they're also pushing hard to re-take Robotyne which was liberated in the Ukrainian summer offensive.

 

On the east bank of the river in Kherson region, Russia's top general claimed to have totally eliminated the Ukrainian beachhead but, as usual, this was a lie.

Putin himself corrected the general(!)

A few Russian solders crept into the outskirts of the contested Krinky village, planted big Russian flags then legged it back to their own lines. This was being used as propaganda.

Ukrainian troopers on the ground there then released their own footage proving that the town is still very much contested.

A Russian general was sent in to capitalise on the propaganda "victory", so the commanders on the ground lined their men up in preparation for inspection.

Unfortunately for them, the only thing inspecting them was a Ukrainian surveillance drone, which placed a call with the local HIMARS crew which resulted in predictably grisly video footage. Several dozen dead Russians in one fell swoop.

 

Yet another SU-34 bomber was shot down, and another Colonel was killed in action too.

 

So the Russians are in a manic phase, blindly feeding men and machines into headlong suicidal rushes all along the line of contact so their commanders can tell Putin that they're winning, hoping to get promotions in an election year.

 

Ukraine's President and Poland's leader are planning to meet on the border between the two countries to combat the absolute nonsense going on down there.

A few disgruntled Polish farmers had blockaded the border in protest at cheap Ukrainian produce making its way into the Polish market, harming their business.

This is a legitimate concern and is due to widespread Polish corruption since the Ukrainian produce is only supposed to be getting moved over the border then directly onwards to Polish ports for exporting to Africa and other far flung places.

But, of course, the protests have been hijacked by pro-Russian far-right bams who have been flying Soviet flags and are now blocking military convoys heading TO Ukraine.

[Mikey1874]

In a strange though perhaps encouraging sort of thing, 2 year anniversary events across Europe are being organised as defiant celebrations.

 

 

[Cade]

Seems that Ukraine has shot down another Russian A-50 command and control plane over the Azov Sea.
Worth a cool $300 million each.

According to a leak in January, Russia only had two of them left airworthy.

And then there was one...........

 

 

Edited February 24 by Cade

[Cade]

Seems that yet another SU-34 has also been lost.

That's an awful lot of Russian planes shot down in the last two weeks.

 

Chances of F-16s being in the air over Ukraine.....??

[Sawdust Caesar]

There is some chatter that the plane was downed by friendly fire, faf if true.

 

How lame are this lot?

 

 

[Cade]

Russia has claimed "friendly fire" by their World Beating Mighty Russian Bear Air Defence Systems for almost every single plane they've lost over the last two years.

 

They're full of it.

[Dirty Deeds]

Some very good news...

 

"In five days, Ukrainian forces—likely Patriot crews firing 90-mile-range PAC-2 missiles—have shot down seven Sukhoi glide-bombers: five twin-seat Su-34s and two single-seat Su-35s"

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/21/seven-sukhois-in-five-days-ukraines-patriot-missile-crews-are-shooting-down-russian-jets-faster-than-ever/?sh=6f495c5f4d31

[Sawdust Caesar]

Telling it like it is.

 

[Mikey1874]

 

[Cade]

Another day, another Su-34 ground attack jet shot down.......

[Maple Leaf]

On 23/02/2024 at 19:16, Cade said:

Seems that Ukraine has shot down another Russian A-50 command and control plane over the Azov Sea.
Worth a cool $300 million each.

According to a leak in January, Russia only had two of them left airworthy.

And then there was one...........

 

 

With a crew of up to 15 highly-trained personnel.

[Dirty Deeds]

Will Ukraine run out of missiles before Russia runs out of planes?

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/27/10-shot-down-jets-in-10-days-russias-aerial-surge-in-ukraine-is-getting-more-of-its-pilots-killed/

[Cade]

Russia seems to have abandoned any kind of tactical nous or planning anything.

It's just suicidal banzai charges of men, machines, aircraft and ships straight into the teeth of the Ukrainian defences.

Eventually the Ukrainians run out of ammo and have to pull back.

 

Putin doesn't care how many Russians he gets killed with tactics like that.

As long as they're still moving forwards he can claim to be winning the war.

 

A front line Russian military blogger recently revealed that taking Avdiivka cost the Russians 13,000 men.

When you take into account the duration of the fight, that's more losses per day than they took attacking Bahkmut with forcibly conscripted prisoner squads.

The blogger was strongly criticised by the Russian command and "took his own life" a couple of days later. Presumably shot himself 5 times in the back of the head whilst swallowing some novichok and falling out of a window.

 

 

[RustyRightPeg]

21 minutes ago, Cade said:

Russia seems to have abandoned any kind of tactical nous or planning anything.

It's just suicidal banzai charges of men, machines, aircraft and ships straight into the teeth of the Ukrainian defences.

Eventually the Ukrainians run out of ammo and have to pull back.

 

Putin doesn't care how many Russians he gets killed with tactics like that.

As long as they're still moving forwards he can claim to be winning the war.

 

A front line Russian military blogger recently revealed that taking Avdiivka cost the Russians 13,000 men.

When you take into account the duration of the fight, that's more losses per day than they took attacking Bahkmut with forcibly conscripted prisoner squads.

The blogger was strongly criticised by the Russian command and "took his own life" a couple of days later. Presumably shot himself 5 times in the back of the head whilst swallowing some novichok and falling out of a window.

 

 

 

It's bat sh*t stuff. It really is. 

 

The tide will turn eventually, as more families realize their husbands and sons aren't coming home. 

[Mikey1874]

56 minutes ago, Cade said:

Russia seems to have abandoned any kind of tactical nous or planning anything.

It's just suicidal banzai charges of men, machines, aircraft and ships straight into the teeth of the Ukrainian defences.

Eventually the Ukrainians run out of ammo and have to pull back.

 

Putin doesn't care how many Russians he gets killed with tactics like that.

As long as they're still moving forwards he can claim to be winning the war.

 

A front line Russian military blogger recently revealed that taking Avdiivka cost the Russians 13,000 men.

When you take into account the duration of the fight, that's more losses per day than they took attacking Bahkmut with forcibly conscripted prisoner squads.

The blogger was strongly criticised by the Russian command and "took his own life" a couple of days later. Presumably shot himself 5 times in the back of the head whilst swallowing some novichok and falling out of a window.

 

Their strategy has been the same for nearly 2 years. Take the whole of Donetsk and Luhansk. Even if the US stop supplying weapons on current progress even with the best of Iranian and North Korean weapons that will take years. 

[scott herbertson]

 

 

The March elections are looming - hence the Russian orders to achieve teritorial success, presumabley at any cost.

[Cade]

47 minutes ago, scott herbertson said:

 

 

The March elections are looming - hence the Russian orders to achieve teritorial success, presumabley at any cost.

 

Correct.

But he'd win the election no matter what anyways, so it's all very stupid.

[Mikey1874]

I wonder if Ukraine might have launched a major event like properly  destroying the Kerch bridge at Crimèa for the 2 year anniversary. But probably waiting for the election. 

[redjambo]

Another three SU-34s reportedly shot down today.

[Victorian]

Putin annual address.

 

"Got nukes bud u".

 

Ok,  cheers.

[Hagar the Horrible]

He would be taken out by his own people before he press the button.  

 

I think at some point like operation Valkyrie he will be taken out by his own people, and if he doesn't should he just die naturally, I think Russia will split up further, a US nightmare, but a safer place never the less.  He will have a state funeral but the power vacuum  would have his closest allies taken out, and after lots of in-fighting that state funeral will be an embarrassment as people will feel safer to protest. 

 

Him using the WAR word is a change for him rather than Special Needs Operation, but once again he fears western involvement by either Boots or Planes, hence the threats of Nukes, but creating a no fly zone would be enough, for his troops to get out of dodge 

[Cade]

That's now 13 Russian planes downed in the last 12 days.

 

It's getting hard to keep track.

[Norm]

36 minutes ago, Cade said:

That's now 13 Russian planes downed in the last 12 days.

 

It's getting hard to keep track.

Not for the Ukrainian Air Defence folk it seems.