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PostPosted: 08 Mar 2022, 17:58 
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There are so many news stories emanating from the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, stories which may not reach the southern shores of Africa. Here's one:-

The Irish, in their own inimitable kind of way, are showing 'the finger sign' to the Russians.

Russian embassy condemns ‘senseless and barbaric’ attack after lorry crashes into gate in Dublin, Republic of Ireland (Independent newspaper)

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ru ... uxbndlbing

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The slogan on the truck says 'Simply the best' :smt023 :smt021 :drinkers: :-D

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PostPosted: 09 Mar 2022, 13:37 
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'General Winter' -

- a cold snap is about to set in over the Ukraine battlefield with temperatures plummeting to -10C. Yes, the same 'General Winter' that so decimated Napoleon's army and Hitler's Wehrmacht.
That 50km long convoy of armour, food supplies, fuel and other logistics on the outskirts of Ukraine's capitol Kyiv, that very same convoy that has been moving only sporadically at a snail's pace since late February, will face a potential catastrophe in Russian soldier's lives. In order for crews to stay warm the armour needs to run their engines, fuel shortages and logistical failures will impact on this. A tank without heating is nothing but a "40 ton freezer" in winter conditions such as this.

Pictures and article here:-
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -snap.html

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PostPosted: 10 Mar 2022, 10:09 
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The UK Secretary of State for Defence updated the British Parliament yesterday (Wednesday 9 March) on defensive military aid supplied to the Ukraine:-
Quote:
Britain was the first European country to supply lethal aid. I was pleased that not long after a military aid donor conference I held on 25 February, many more countries decided to do the same.
I can update the House [Parliament] that, as of today, we have delivered 3,615 NLAW [Next generation Light Anti-tank Weapon] and continue to deliver more. We will shortly be starting the delivery of a small consignment of anti-tank Javelin missiles as well. I want to assure the House that everything we do is bound by the decision to supply defensive systems and is calibrated not to escalate to a strategic level.

To date, the international community has donated more than 900 man-portable air defence missiles [notably Stinger] and thousands of anti-tank guided weapons of varying types, as well as various small arms.

However, the capability needs strengthening, so in response to Ukrainian requests the Government have taken the decision to explore the donation of Starstreak high-velocity, man-portable anti-air missiles. We believe that this system will remain within the definition of defensive weapons, but will allow the Ukrainian forces to better defend their skies. We shall also be increasing supplies of rations, medical equipment, and other non-lethal military aid.”

The success with which these weapons have been used by the Ukraine Armed Forces is self-evident.

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PostPosted: 10 Mar 2022, 17:22 
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Sorry for the German,

Helicopter shotdown



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PostPosted: 11 Mar 2022, 12:05 
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PostPosted: 15 Mar 2022, 09:56 
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Reports and pictures are appearing in various media outlets showing the destruction of Russian main battle tanks from the effects of modern British and American NLAW (Next generation Light Anti-tank Weapon) as supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The British Ministry of Defence has thus far donated upwards of 3,600 units.

Both the British (NLAW) and American (Javelin) have the ability to 'top attack' whereby the missile penetrates the top of the turret where the armour is thin. The short article below shows the primitive measures the Russians are using to negate death raining down on their tank crews.

https://defence-blog.com/improved-armor ... jmmTEccoPc

- News here in the UK reports that the Russians have asked the Chinese for drones. A rather basic commodity in western military doctrine :roll:
- The Russian Air Force is also still using 'dumb' (unguided) bombs, hence the random destruction of apartment blocks in cities and towns. I've seen pictures of Ukrainian troops removing detonators from unexploded ordnance.

The Russian military is clearly incapable of modern land warfare, forget precision strike. Showcasing on Moscow's Red Square, up and down past the podium, all fancy dress and goose-stepping ... when it comes to fighting, real fighting, clueless!

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Ukraine. Respect!

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PostPosted: 15 Mar 2022, 23:24 
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I get the distinct impression that Russia is sending a clear message to NATO countries by taking out a training facility filled with foreign mercenaries and (probably) NATO instructors.

https://www.defenseworld.net/news/31567/Russian_Missile_Attack_on_Ukrainian_Military_Academy_Kills_180__Foreign_Mercenaries_#.YjEDMHpUKUl


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PostPosted: 15 Mar 2022, 23:36 
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Modern Sturmovik? This SU-25 managed to return to base after catching a missile up its arse. As tough as it's opposite number, the A-10.

https://www.defenseworld.net/news/31575/Russian_Pilot_Lands_Su_25_Jet_Safely_after_Being_Hit_by_Ukrainian_Missile#.YjEEKnpUKUk

I've got some video of it as well including an interview with the pilot, but not at a place easy to link to directly , but for those who use telegram it's here
https://t.me/intelslava/22302?single

P.S. Its dramatic how different the news is from Russian sources than from western. Fake news, all of it, but I have to say western sources appear the most fake, and totally delusional. Remembering how western media reported on South Africa 40 years ago that is no surprise.


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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 07:41 
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Deltawingman wrote:

P.S. Its dramatic how different the news is from Russian sources than from western. Fake news, all of it, but I have to say western sources appear the most fake, and totally delusional.

- Are you saying that the images, the video footage, the interviews with Ukrainians in front of their gutted buildings are fake?
- Are you saying that the 3 million people who have fled their destroyed homes, arriving at various neighbouring countries' borders, are fake?

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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 12:33 
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Tally-ho wrote:
Deltawingman wrote:

P.S. Its dramatic how different the news is from Russian sources than from western. Fake news, all of it, but I have to say western sources appear the most fake, and totally delusional.

- Are you saying that the images, the video footage, the interviews with Ukrainians in front of their gutted buildings are fake?
- Are you saying that the 3 million people who have fled their destroyed homes, arriving at various neighbouring countries' borders, are fake?


Oh no! Displaced people and damaged buildings are real and that is always a tragedy! What is fake is the context and of course in any war there is always fake news usually involving children and hospitals. That is always a certainty but almost always fake and staged or as happened recently in Ukraine, pictures from a gas explosion 5 years ago.

The bigger tragedy is the belief in the west that this is simply unprovoked aggression. This war has, in reality been going on for 8 years, and political machinations before that with lots of meddling by the US govt. The Maidan coup of 2014 was a US sponsored event. Look up the behind the scenes involvement of Victoria Nuland from the US or Chrystia Freeland from Canada. When you look at the ancestral background of Nuland, Freeland and Anthony Blinken its obvious that they have historical axes to grind and have been using their positions to meddle where the US really doesn't have a justifiable interest.

About 30 years ago I started to agree with a friend of mine's opinion that the worlds biggest sponsor of international terror is the US govt. History proves that. Iraq! Afghanistan! Serbia! etc. Silly pretexts like Weapons of mass destruction, that were never found. I distrust anything that comes from a US govt or US media source as probably fake. What I do believe, since Victoria Nuland has now effectively admitted as much, is that there is dangerous biological weapons research with US govt involvement going on in Ukraine. That starts to make the Wuhan lab story for the origin of Covid so much more plausible and the suspicion that Fauci was involved in guidance and funding probable.


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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 13:24 
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@ Deltawingman
Thank you for clearing up the ‘question marks’ which I raised with you.

Yes, I fully grasp the various versions and interpretations of the 2014 Maidan Square events. In the same vein the 2014 annexation of the Crimea and Donbas by Russian forces also has unacceptable issues.

Meanwhile, the Russians are struggling, to the point of looking pathetic, in their so-called ‘special operation’ inside the Ukraine. As I said before, this war is a far cry from the fancy dress goose-stepping parades on Red Square. And to follow the shooting war, there will be the (western) economic isolation and pariah status of the Russian Federation, with effects lasting for many years, probably decades.

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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 15:40 
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Yes, I fully grasp the various versions and interpretations of the 2014 Maidan Square events. In the same vein the 2014 annexation of the Crimea and Donbas by Russian forces also has unacceptable issues.


Here we get into matters of principle and one principle I can get behind is the right of people to determine their own future. I do support Taiwan to remain independant of China (it won't last much longer I fear) , the right of Kosovo to be independant of Serbia and I do support the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future. Keeping consistency with that principle the people of Crimea and the Donbass are ethnic Russians who do not want to be subject to Ukrainians, and resistence has hardened since the oppression meeted out to them by the post colour revolution and Maidan coup events. At this stage the only peaceful future is a partition of Ukraine into ethnically stable parts . The Ukraine that remains will be only the Ukrainian majority oblasts. The rest will be partitioned off either into Russia or independant areas like the Donbass republics.


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Meanwhile, the Russians are struggling, to the point of looking pathetic, in their so-called ‘special operation’ inside the Ukraine. As I said before, this war is a far cry from the fancy dress goose-stepping parades on Red Square. And to follow the shooting war, there will be the (western) economic isolation and pariah status of the Russian Federation, with effects lasting for many years, probably decades.


You may be a victim of fake news, or I may be wrong. Do not compare the Russian way of war with the American "Shock and Awe" tactics. The American tactics are designed to minimise own forces casualties but gives little regard to minimising the impact on the civilian population. Where has that got them in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam? Quagmire and a hostile local population with eventual and certain failure.

On the other hand look at how the Russians performed in Syria supporting Assad. See that as the template. So good in fact that Syrians are falling over themselves to offer to help Russia. The Russians went in soft, and offer plenty of opportunity for civilians to evacuate in humanitarian corridors. Humanitarian corridors also offer the individual soldiers of Ukraine to desert and slip away. This is the observation of the military analyst Scott Ritter and Doug McGregor. That is part of the process. The Russians follow the Clausewitzian doctrine of war is politics by other means. Notice that the whole time there are negotiations going on simultaneously. The operation has already succeeded in getting the negotiations started. For 8 long years the Ukrainian govt hasn't even implemented the Minsk agreement but now they are being forced to negotiate. Whenever the negotiations stall you will see the heat turned up by the Russians. If the Russians were doing so badly you would not see the negotiations continue.

YOu have to judge a military operation by its objectives. We don't have clarity of the objectives, but I have presented an alternative view by which to judge its success or failure.


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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 16:03 
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I have to add that aside from any evaluation of the military performance, the diplomatic performance of the US and NATO governments (with the possible exception of Hungary) are amateurish in the extreme. They have successfully isolated the West from the rest of the world. Notice how India and the entire middle east is tilting to the Russian side. China is there already and it's China's diplomatic backing that gave Russia the manoeuvre room to perform operation Z. The Russian preparing the diplomatic road ahead of military action (as the last resort) is very reminiscent of Otto von Bismarck's. Clausewitzian diplomacy!

In the meantime we are seeing the end of the Petro-dollar financial system and eventual collapse of the US dollar. India will buy Russian oil in Roubles backed by the Renminbi. The Saudi's won't answer Biden's phone calls and looking to sell their own oil to China for Renminbi. In the meantime the western politicians are having temper tantrums throwing everything they have short of direct military action and seeing it fail. Now we can all only hope that they keep at least that last card off the table or we will be in the 3rd world war and the west can only lose that because 2/3 of the worlds population will be against them.


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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 16:39 
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The Whole world is going mad.


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Translation: So if Putin gets Ukraine back, Germany can get Königsberg back, Austria south Tirol. Where is it going to end.

Look at the fuel prices. Its mad. But this is still nothing compared to the innocent people dying.

Saw some refugee children, reminds me when I saw at Putin the old Tegal airport just as the wall came down... strange person.

He can stop it.....


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PostPosted: 16 Mar 2022, 17:02 
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Pepster wrote:
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Translation: So if Putin gets Ukraine back, Germany can get Königsberg back, Austria south Tirol.

Genau so! :smt023

And may I nominate Marina Ovsyannikova, a senior producer on Russian TV Channel 1 for "Hero of the Russian Federation" :D for her daredevil act of defiance on Russian television. The poster reads:-
Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.

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Sometimes small acts of bravery and defiance have the most profound effects. The truth will out!

Slava Ukraini!

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