CommieGIR posted:

They should just fly them to the closest border airport and tow them across the border.

GD_American posted:

Is NATO really going to do the stupidly transparent "we'll park them at an airport with the keys in the ignition" charade

golden bubble posted:

https://twitter.com/NAZK_gov/status/1501960273313345536
https://twitter.com/NAZK_gov/status/1501960422966108165
https://twitter.com/NAZK_gov/status/1501960588595015686


Cardboard "ERA" and Cardboard "bulletproof" plate inserts. That's some corruption.

quote:

Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation

Sergei SHOIGU

THANK YOU LETTER


The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (hereinafter referred to as the Agency) supports all representatives of foreign states who contribute to the development of Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies, as well as help in strengthening democratic institutions in Ukraine.

In this regard, the Agency expresses its sincere gratitude to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, for his invaluable contribution to the fact that Russian means and support resources for the attack on Ukraine were stolen even before they were accumulated on the border of the two states.

Participating in the methodical, systematic, and long-term work on the theft of the budgetary funds of the Russian Federation, which were allocated for the development of military potential, Sergei Shoigu, together with other officials of the defense sector, contributed to the acceleration of the liquidation of the occupiers on the lands of the sovereign state of Ukraine.

The persistence of officials from the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces of the Russian Federation to embezzle funds from Russian taxpayers that should have gone to the needs of the army makes it much easier to defend democratic Ukraine.

Thanks to this, Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions, which work to ensure transparency in the use of public funds, counteract corruption, fraud, and economic crime, will be able to resume their activities as soon as possible instead of wasting time on destroying the occupiers on their land, as well as scrap metal brought to the territory of our state.

The military and Ukrainian intelligence team document numerous examples of this undoubtedly important activity.

In particular, the protection of Russian tanks T-72 and T-80 made from cardboard egg trays. Without a doubt, these means of protecting military equipment deserve to become a separate assessment factor in the PowerIndex when forming the Global Firepower rating of the strongest armies in the world.

The Agency also expresses its deep gratitude to Mr. Shoigu for the use of ZIL-130 cars to transport personnel, which has no analogs in the world. While such cars are obviously comfortable to the Russian soldiers as they feel light dizziness during the Ukrainian March frosts, the speed of movement of this vehicle, as well as its bright aquamarine color, allow the local territorial defense forces to effectively undergo training in the operation of modern weapons against light targets.

Special thanks also go to those that provide the Russian army with military food packages, the expiration date of which is due to 2015. Due to the lack of food, the Russian occupation troops abandon military equipment and surrender to the local residents of Ukrainian villages in order to eat.

We also admired your bulletproof vests made of cardboard instead of the armored plates that were worn by the crew members of the captured Russian Barnaul-T armored car.

Bulletproof vests were so strong that they were damaged by conventional small arms. In this regard, we express special gratitude, because now the armored car serves in the ranks of the Ukrainian defense forces and helps to resist the aggressor.

We also want to draw your attention to the fact that our army found a bulletin named “On the procedure for detecting corruption and other violations when identifying a conflict of interest in military units” in place of the armored plates.

Impressed by such a thorough and detailed methodological support for the military personnel of the occupying forces, the Agency’s experts prepared a number of recommendations for further inclusion in the relevant bulletins.
Thus, according to the generally accepted definition, a conflict of interest is the presence of private interest in the area in which a person performs his/her official or representative powers, which may affect the objectivity or impartiality of his/her decision-making.

We see the risk that, despite the presence of mobile crematoria brought to the territory of Ukraine by the command of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the private interest of a Russian soldier to save his life instead of following the orders of his commander is still extremely high. In this regard, we propose to reduce the likelihood of a conflict of interest by supplementing the bulletins with the following step-by-step instructions:
“In case of crossing the border with Ukraine, a Russian serviceman is obliged to:
– get to the nearest settlement;
– move away from the equipment at a safe distance and drop the weapon;
– ask for forgiveness for crossing the border without passport control;
– wait for the Ukrainian military, who will allow him to call his mother;
– wait for his return home”.

We look forward to fruitful cooperation in taking into account our recommendations.

Attached to the letter of thanks, we send photos illustrating the above achievements. We are sending the letter now, while there is still foreign computer equipment in Russia that allows you to view the relevant photographs.

Head of the Agency
Oleksandr NOVIKOV

Cythereal posted:

Tomn posted:

When the order to move came from Putin,
For the worst planned war there’d ever been,

Goddamn them all!
I was told
They’d cheer us in Kyiv like heroes bold,
We’d fire no guns, shed no tears,
Now I’m a broken man for a Moscow dream,
The last of the VDV combat teams!

Nuclear Tourist posted:

There's no way China says yes to this... right?

https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1503102558331625473?s=19

Wasabi the J posted:

Too bad bich Ukraine saw this post and is gonna hang a fukken Bluetooth speaker behind it and blast this loud as poo poo at random


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk3IbKsNVpw

A.o.D. posted:

https://twitter.com/ckoettl/status/1504182123531485187

damnit. drat them.

Marshal Prolapse posted:

Clancyposting increases

https://twitter.com/Montalbano_ben/status/1504213666522009601?s=20&t=7x2ZosDWwZSnxrkwBI3o7g

psydude posted:

ISW is declaring the Russian offensive a failure and says they can either dig in and regroup, or be forced to rule over a smoldering pile of rubble if they have the endurance for a war of attrition.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-19

Mr. Nice! posted:

Their sources, though, are primarily the Ukraine Ministry of Defense, which is a biased source.

I think they're right, though, that Russia hasn't been able to achieve their initial goals and that if Russia does eventually win the war of attrition (they likely will unless they stop themselves) they'll rule over a pile a rubble.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Yeah.... sounds like a tac-nuke to me. I hope not.

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-tv-just-declared-war-on-arnold-schwarzenegger

Arnie struck a bunch of nerves.

quote:

Schwarzenegger, who killed three million Russians in his films,

quote:

Russia's special military operation does not aim to destroy the Ukrainian people. It is aimed at the neo-Nazi Skynet

CommieGIR posted:

This video is particularly haunting, NY Times video going over the radio intercepts.

Tomn posted:

I take it that nationalizing your railways a month into an offensive war against a smaller neighbor is probably not a good sign?

Soul Dentist posted:

Can there be a pallet thread

Jasper Tin Neck posted:

Koesj posted:

All 18 of them which, although manned by NL personnel, are part of a German tank battalion inside a Dutch mech brigade inside a German Panzerdivision? Oh and the tanks are not owned but leased? I can see how that gets put on a map with the gently caress off color for “no tanks, not explaining this.”

madeintaipei posted:

Even better, no one will own up to knowing where that lonely T-55 came from.

Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa and is fairly far inland on top of that. While possessing quite a few airports for such a small place, there is only one train station in the country.

Obviously, it came from SA.

Bored As gently caress posted:

I'm more worried about Stingers being used against civilian airliners than ATGMs to be honest.

vuk83 posted:

That was an incredible piece of airmanship, and not in anyway replicable on a consistent basis.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Baghdad_DHL_attempted_shootdown_incident

Eason the Fifth posted:

This AP pic looks like the kind of painting that would go on to define the refugee experience. Just a hell of a shot in how simple it is.

Flikken posted:

Only control they b had was engine throttle iirc

Voyager I posted:

If it's a thousand dudes being sent into a shitshow that has already consumed a significant fraction of the initial 190k of the invasion force, that seems like a reasonably likely outcome.

Tangentially related: I do historical fencing and am in the process of getting into historical armored combat as a part of it. A lot of the equipment for armored combat gets made in Russia or Ukraine, and I had an order from a Ukrainian smith get stuck in limbo at the start of the invasion. I figured if I was lucky it would spend the conflict in their storage shed and get shipped out when Ukraine was accessible to international transport, and if I was unlucky their storage shed would get hit by a bomb and that'd be that for me. It entered the postal service in Kyiv today, which is just blowing my mind. I cannot imagine what kind of dedication someone has to have to be doing this kind of business in the middle of an active warzone.

(And just to be clear - I am absolutely not complaining that my supplier being invaded caused me moderate personal inconvenience. I am marveling at the perseverance of the Ukrainian people.)

Pine Cone Jones posted:

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1508563718065504261?t=2nE5ZN42ptAlXzePkaU1ow&s=09

Not the best source, but still, if true I hope they all die horribly

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Unless he uses radiation warfare as an excuse to drop the bomb, which was my concern.

Wasabi the J posted:

I was writing about how the NYT will often post intentionally misleading or outright fabrications in support of fascist, pro war, or anti-immigration goals and Iraq came up.

Natty Ninefingers posted:

There is, actually.

In fact there are four but one is obscure.

Mustang posted:

Operating tanks isn't that complicated, as far as the crews are concerned. I'd imagine keeping them maintained is the more difficult part.

McGavin posted:

At least the Russians didn't consume the blood of the people they massacred.

Saukkis posted:

The latest report from ISW claims north-west of Kyiv has been cleared of Russians and all have returned to Belarus. Frankly I find it hard to believe that simply because of logistical ineptitude, it doesn't feel possible for Russians to have withdrawn this quickly and I haven't seen reports of mass surrenders either.

quote:

The continued existence of an independent Ukrainian state with its capital in Kyiv is no longer in question at this time, although much fighting remains and the war could still turn Russia’s way.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Destroying 250 nazis? What the gently caress? Is that just in this campaign or over the course of his career, because if that dude has murdered 250 he needs a drone strike yesterday.

A.o.D. posted:

Everyone gets a seat at the table, but Russia stands to lose a lot of prestige and diplomatic influence permanently if they lose their security council veto. It's a great threat, in my estimation. It carries no existential military peril, but it does make Russia a less attractive partner to nations like Eritrea, Syria, and North Korea if Russia can no longer protect their interests with a veto.

Nystral posted:

India can’t do poo poo. They’re not a permanent member of the SC and thus do not have a veto.

China on the other hand would almost certainly use their veto to block anyone even hinting at removing Russia who is their closest ally amongst the permanent members of the SC. A SC where it’s the US, UK, and France against China is the stuff of nightmares for their diplomatic service.

And honestly any creditable hope of a Russo-China split wrt the SC is a pipe dream.

Grand Fromage posted:

China would absolutely lose their poo poo since the same article that names the USSR also says the Republic of China, not the PRC.

Stultus Maximus posted:

What do you think Pakistan would do if India got a seat?

M_Gargantua posted:

ChaseSP posted:

Dismissing your opponents abilities is infamously a part of what dictatorships do and get the poo poo kicked out of them for it. The most hilarious example was the Italian Campaign in WW1.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Having had a think about it....

It seems to me like the only option for Putin now is escalation, enormously so (possibly nuclear?). This is a serious, serious black eye. He backs down, and he's toast.

I really hope I'm wrong, but my gut says a lot more people, mostly civvies, are gonna die now.

bennyfactor posted:

Slava-class cruisers have the naval S-300F system aboard, which is why the Moskva and the Varyag were on regular deployments to the eastern Med over the past few years: used as air cover for the Russian airbase in Syria. The Russians may have other land-based S-300/S-400 systems in Crimea or near Southeastern Ukraine but this still puts a dent in the Russian SEAD capability.