Ukraine Watch...

[mr brightside]

This article tells how Russia is boosting it's army by drafting migrants from Central Asian Republics and offering citizenship.

Well, if they can put a bit of ale away they'll fit right in. There's some appalling reports of atrocities carried out on Ukranian women starting to surface, it'll be interesting to see the international response to it all.

[UndercoverElephant]

This article tells how Russia is boosting it's army by drafting migrants from Central Asian Republics and offering citizenship.

Well, if they can put a bit of ale away they'll fit right in. There's some appalling reports of atrocities carried out on Ukranian women starting to surface, it'll be interesting to see the international response to it all.

The stories tend to go along the lines of "Wife was raped, husband was killed." In that scenario, I'd rather be the wife.

The international response won't change because of this.

[BritDownUnder]

Russia has supposedly used a lot of their minorities, about 40 million people of the 140 million in the Russian Federation are not Russian, in their army. Their minorities also have higher birth rates than ethnic Russians, so there may be a higher proportion of military age than the above numbers suggest.

Putin is supposed to have said Russia does not need minorities but the minorities need Russia.

[PS_RalphW]

The city of Mariupol is looking likely to fall completely to the Russians, 2 weeks after I previously predicted it. Units are reporting running out of ammunition as well as food and water.

We will never know exactly how many thousands will have been killed. Many will also be killed after surrendering.

The local military firing range has been very busy the last few weeks, including automatic fire. Today as I was passing the local barracks a convoy of 5 army trucks and an APC pulled out in front of me and headed toward the motorway network.

[PS_RalphW]

Russia claims 1000 soldiers surrender at Mariapol, Ukraine claim to have severely damaged the Black Sea fleet flagship, Russia says it was an ammunition explosion after a fire.

Direct evidence from reporters is getting harder to find.

Saw another convoy of Apcs today, heading towards the east coast, possibly Felixstowe.

[BritDownUnder]

I see that Sweden and Finland are mulling joining NATO and their leaders are currently meeting. Finland may be a liability having such a long border with Russia which will have to be patrolled but Sweden will be a great addition to the alliance. Finland joining may force Russia to move more forces that that region diluting their efforts in the Ukraine.

Good news about the Moskva. I would be interested to see how the ship defences were distracted. Some reports say a drone diverted the air defences away from the missiles. If the attack is true it may mean the Russian Navy has to stand off the coast a bit further.
I would like to see formations of drones, possibly solar assisted, buzzing all Russian ships from now on especially when they are transiting the English Channel, maybe even dropping buckets of sh1t on them.

[kenneal - lagger]

Whether the Moskva was hit by a missile or had an accidental explosion it doesn't show the Russian Navy in very good light: either their missile defences are not very good or the crew's performance is not a lot better than the Russian army.

[PS_RalphW]

I don't think may people will believe the Russian line of a fire on board. Also Russian claims of zero fatalities are not credible. This has the chance of being the biggest single Russian naval loss of life since WW2

Edit

Unlikely to be worse than this one, which is technically a naval incident, albeit on land

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severomorsk_Disaster

[kenneal - lagger]

I would think that the Russian military has had more "accidents" than the rest of NATO put together. Any credibility that Russia might have had has now disappeared but countries will still want to join NATO so that they have help to chuck the Russians back over the border if are stupid enough to invade.

I suppose that the "no casualties" line is for the benefit of their own population because no one else will believe their stories about anything any more.

[clv101]

If the Moskva is at the bottom of the Black Sea, with most of the crew lost, this is a disaster for Russia. Russia hasn't built a ship this big since Soviet days. The longer this goes on for the more woeful the Russian military and by association the rest of Russia looks. Everything form equipment, personnel, strategy etc is just a mess...

[adam2]

Latest reports state that the ship is still afloat, but badly damaged and abandoned by the crew. I suspect that these reports are accurate as can be verified by satellite images.

May yet sink, hopefully.

Edited to add that AFAIK, the above was accurate when posted, but the ship has now sunk.

[clv101]

Russia now admit that it sunk, apparently while being towed to port...

Surely Putin can't accept such a loss without some serious retaliation. This is a huge asset to lose.

[Default0ptions]

Looks like it’s sunk.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/pen ... y-damaged

Seems like tanks are now no match for modern anti tank weapons; and warships’ days are over too. Though the warship’s use by date was hinted at as early as the Falklands and the Exocet.

Asymmetrical warfare where the fighters can blend in and hide amongst a civilian population seems to work in a war of attrition scenario against a conventionally ‘superior’ force - though it’s very hard on the civilian ‘cover’. See the histories of wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Fighting your opponent into a long haul quagmire by backing a proxy asymmetrical movement in a third country seems to be a useful option but - there seems to be no useful offensive technology that can bring things to a win / lose conclusion that doesn’t risk escalation to nuclear exchanges.

And if tanks and naval vessels are as vulnerable as they seem to be; what will a ‘battlefield’ of the future look like?

Drones and/or semi-autonomous ground fighting machines? There’s a huge range and resupply problem there.

It almost seems at the moment that we have come full circle with the technology of war and will be back to simple men and arms on the ground, or end of the world with nukes.

Again for emphasis: tribesmen in Afghanistan with little more than Kalashnikovs and patience saw off both the USA and the USSR

[Default0ptions]

Russia now admit that it sunk, apparently while being towed to port...

Surely Putin can't accept such a loss without some serious retaliation. This is a huge asset to lose.

We had six warships sunk by Argentina in the Falklands war.

https://historylists.org/other/list-o ... s-war.html

Shit happens.

[Vortex2]

The Moskva was a tired heap of junk.

That said, it was 25 miles out to sea.

I would very much doubt that the Ukrainians knew where the Moskva was ... it's likley that NATO provided targetting information for the Ukrainian anti-ship Neptune cruise missiles.

This is becoming - or always was - a NATO-v-Russia conflict.

TBH nobody asked me if I would support active NATO involvement against Russia.

It's all very well waving Ukrainian flags ... but pushing, pushing, pushing Putin could well lead to doom.