Ukraine Watch...

[PS_RalphW]

I was watching channel 4 news. The reporter in Ukraine said that what he reports is strongly censored to avoid giving information out useful to the Russians. He said there had been a (missile?) strike on a very high profile target 48 hours previously which hasn't been mentioned anywhere in western media because of the censorship.

It is understandable but we are not getting the full tactical picture. When the Russians showed images of their transport ship being unloaded in a Ukrainian port, it was destroyed by a missile within 24 hours

[Vortex2]

>> When the Russians showed images of their transport ship being unloaded in a Ukrainian port, it was destroyed by a missile within 24 hours

NATO is probably providng stacks of satellite imagery and other remote sensor data to Ukraine possibly in real-time.

This is how Sri Lanka wiped out the Tamil Tigers : drones provided by China helped Sri Lanka to track every Tamil Tiger soldier so they could be rounded up and killed or taken prisioner.

[PS_RalphW]

I think NATO does not admit to providing Ukraine with such intelligence. The BBC makes a big deal of private satellite companies providing up to date images to help with targeting. All part of plausible deniability. If NATO admitted it, Russia could claim they are under direct attack by NATO.

[Stumuz2]

I was watching channel 4 news. The reporter in Ukraine said that what he reports is strongly censored to avoid giving information out useful to the Russians. He said there had been a (missile?) strike on a very high profile target 48 hours previously which hasn't been mentioned anywhere in western media because of the censorship.

Happens in every war Ralph.

There was an incident in the first Gulf war, that was so effectively destructive of the allies capabilities, by such a low grade, simple action, that even today, over 30 years later, it is still subject of the official secrets act both sides of the pond.

[Vortex2]

There was an incident in the first Gulf war, that was so effectively destructive of the allies capabilities, by such a low grade, simple action, that even today, over 30 years later, it is still subject of the official secrets act both sides of the pond.
Top

Easy to imagine.

Over the years working in the defence, security, nuclear and other fields I have heard of several interesting 'incidents' which never hit the newspapers.

In my first nuclear job, a weird bloke came to my desk and gave me a thick folder covering every known nuclear incident or accident.
This was to teach me that nuclear accidents can easily happen.
They collected the folder at the end of the day.
It contained hundreds of nuclear accident/incident reports .. some rather interesting.

[PS_RalphW]

It is hard not to assume that the execution of civilians as a parting shot when retreating from the area around Kyiv is not just retribution from battle scarred soldiers, but a calculated part of the terror campaign designed to demoralise those still holding out in other parts of the country. Those bodies were there to be found, no attempt to cover tracks.

[mr brightside]

What would you do if your jack booted neighbour burst into your home armed to the teeth, destroying everything as he came, called you a Nazi, and tried to tell you how to live your life, Vortex?

If you swap jack booted neighbour for gunslinging distant cousin you finish up with the US invasion of Afghanistan. It's not the Russians that are wankers, we're all wankers.

Well, everyone apart from me and Paul Whitehouse

[Default0ptions]

One thing that seems a certain takeaway from this conflict is that anti tank weapons are now good enough to mean that the whole idea of tanks, or the armoured column as an effective military strategy, is well past its use by date.

[clv101]

Agreed, tanks are looking pretty obsolete. Iraq showed their vulnerability to air superiority and Ukraine their vulnerability to relatively cheap/simple infantry weapons and drones.

Which scenarios are tanks still good for?

[Catweazle]

Which scenarios are tanks still good for?

Maybe good for defence, reversing a tank into a building gives it some protection from modern missiles but allows it to cover approach roads. Think mobile pillbox.

[mr brightside]

Germany can't print roubles because roubles are the currency of Russia.

Russia is asking for payment in roubles because that forces its customers to get hold of roubles. People from outside buying roubles supports the rouble as a currency. They are in fact doing what the US has been doing since 1971 - in most cases, if people want to buy oil and gas on the international market, they need to buy it in US dollars. This gives the US a massive economic advantage, because everybody needs dollars. Thus the system (which is dying, and Putin wants to help kill off) is known as the Petrodollar: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/petrodollars.asp

Why not gold? Because gold can't be electronically traded, and because Russia prefers to make a point by creating a Petrorouble system.

So why did we bother to sanction them in the first place? Haven't we just opened up another front that will hurt us as much as it will hurt them?

[UndercoverElephant]

So why did we bother to sanction them in the first place? Haven't we just opened up another front that will hurt us as much as it will hurt them?

It is entirely possible that the sanctions will have major unintended consequences.

[Stumuz2]

As evidence of war crimes mount.

EU imports of energy have hit all time highs this morning.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1 ... PB3fcpAAAA

Values and solidarity.

[clv101]

As evidence of war crimes mount.

EU imports of energy have hit all time highs this morning.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1 ... PB3fcpAAAA

Values and solidarity.

This should come as no surprise to any of us. We *know* the buck stops with energy, nothing is more important, certainly not morals or values etc.

[BritDownUnder]

Yes you have just gotta love a country that closes down its own coal power stations, won't build nuclear power stations, then consumes and exports its own oil and gas reserves at a time when world energy prices are at record lows, then builds lots of gas power stations to run down the last of its domestic gas reserves and then has to import gas from not very friendly fascist and religious dictatorships.

How about that for forward thinking? There should be an IgNobel category for public policy makers like this.