WarpedLichen posted:

So is it normal to have a guy in high command have two prison stints? I guess it's stuff early in his career but it just seems so weird to have a a culture that glamorizes criminals.

quote:

Elon Musk blocks Ukraine from using Starlink in Crimea over concern that Putin could use nuclear weapons

Tesseraction posted:

I went to look up Dragon's Teeth and it seems they were primarily used by Germany in WW2?

Pretty ironic for the denazifiers to be using a fortification method favoured by the losing side in WW2. A side that lost to Russia in that war, albeit I don't think they thought to put up dragon's teeth on the eastern front as they were more concerned with invading outwards and didn't have the time when the Soviets pushed back.

Inferior Third Season posted:

The bridge is a major means of transporting Russian military assets to occupied Ukrainian territories. It is absolutely a military target.

If a few people started taking cruises on aircraft carriers, they wouldn't suddenly become "civilian ships".

Nenonen posted:

Actually,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Nesterov

quote:

The town of Zhovkva (currently in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine), located near the battle, was renamed Nesterov in his honor in 1951.

MikusR posted:

Alchenar posted:

It's entirely possible that Starlink and Musk are being upfront about their costs and problems. Donations and at-cost provision is great, but a private company shouldn't really be expected to be bankrolling a foreign war to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and it's reasonable for them to ask for their costs to be covered. It's also reasonable for them to pitch for commercial funding rather than at-cost funding as an opening bid.

Starlink was a good pr donation but it was done in March and there was probably an assumption of how long the war would go on for and how much the donation would cost the company that has subsequently changed.

Alchenar posted:

I know you want it to wind down, but as we close off Elon-chat it's worth noting Ukraine's gov also sending clear 'don't yell at Elon' signals:

https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1580945804193587200

Rinkles posted:

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1581019916395810816

BERLIN, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Sweden has rejected plans to set up a formal joint investigation team with Denmark and Germany to look into the recent ruptures of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, a Swedish prosecutor investigating the leaks, said.

Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor involved in Sweden's criminal investigation into the Nord Stream leaks in the Swedish economic zone, said Sweden was already co-operating with Denmark and Germany on the matter.

He said Sweden had rejected the proposal for a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from judicial co-operation agency Eurojust because a such a joint investigation would include legal agreements under which Sweden would have to share information from its own investigation that it deemed confidential.

"This is because there is information in our investigation that is subject to confidentiality directly linked to national security," Ljungqvist told Reuters.

He made his comment after a report in German weekly Der Spiegel on Friday that Sweden had rejected plans for a joint investigation with Denmark and Germany, citing German security sources.

A Swedish Security Services spokesperson said the security police were co-operating closely with other authorities, also internationally, as part of the Swedish criminal investigation.

German TV programme Tagesschau on German public broadcaster ARD said that Denmark, too, had turned down setting up a joint investigation team.

Germany's federal police have completed their part in investigating an alleged act of sabotage on the Nord Stream pipelines and handed over their findings, said a German interior ministry spokesperson on Friday.

Asked about reports that Sweden would not investigate together with Germany and Denmark, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told Reuters: "No, as I understand it that is not true. We are working together with Germany and Denmark in this issue."

Eurojust says on its website a Joint Investigation Team is used in international cooperation in criminal matters, comprising legal agreement between authorities of two or more states for the purpose of carrying out criminal investigations.

spankmeister posted:

Weird flex by Sweden imo.

Charlz Guybon posted:

Joining NATO means having to participate in these kinds of things, doesn't it?

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Every so often I just think about how relatively lucky we are that Trump lost. In other contexts too but right now specifically in this context.

Antigravitas posted:

Can you link that DW article or video? I'd like to have a look at it.

quote:

Residents of the sleepy town of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland awoke to the sound of heavy military hardware roaring through the streets on Saturday. The Swedish Army’s Stridsfordon 90 infantry fighting vehicles had arrived overnight to secure the tranquil coastal town and its port.

The Swedish military said the effort “should be seen” as part of Sweden adapting its strategy “to the tense situation between Russia and Ukraine,” which has been grabbing media headlines for several months. The US and its NATO allies have claimed that Russian troops are set to invade neighboring Ukraine as early as January or February. Moscow has dismissed the statements as “fake news.”

Deltasquid posted:

Who is this Josh and should we give any attention to his opinions?

What date are his figures from? It’s kind of a moot point to cite post-2014 numbers. It’d be like citing 2022 West Bank numbers to ignore all the demographic shifts happening due to colonial policies.

And, all things considered, “yes because it’s legally Ukrainian regardless of who lives there”. Or does he think Mexico could invade California on the pretext that the Latino population is the largest in the state

Saladman posted:

There was never any real doubt that Hungary would have to approve them eventually, right? If Hungary threatened to leave, my main response would be "lol," like if my four year old threatened to leave the house and go off into the world on their own.

Turkey seems like a much bigger stumbling block though, since NATO needs Turkey about as much as Turkey needs NATO, and trading Sweden+Finland for Turkey would not be a no-brainer, unlike trading them for Hungary.

Ynglaur posted:

I am not an air defense expert, but my understanding is that most ground-to-air systems are intended to protect point targets: airfields, headquarters, supply depots, etc. Cities like Kyiv are big, and Ukraine is a target-rich environment for long-range guided munitions seeking civilian targets.

Youth Decay posted:

Could always go back to the idea of using birds-of-prey to hunt the drones down. May need to put helmets and bulletproof vests on them though.

WarpedLichen posted:

Most things in weapons are designed to mechanically jam in failure conditions rather than just fall off. Usually there's some special jettison mode if you really wanted to get rid of something which can involve squibs going off to break those mechanical linkages.

But then again, it's the Russians so who knows.

Shes Not Impressed posted:

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1583160413642014738?s=20&t=SiqzXpEhcrHaVPE8WogV_Q

D-Pad posted:

Everybody saying different things about the dragons teeth and how the tanks can or cannot handle them easily makes me think of the disagreements about tanks on the War Thunder forums leading to classified specifications getting leaked no less than 3 (and maybe 4?) separate times.

cinci zoo sniper posted:

This is a ё appreciation zone.

Edit:

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/arzemes/ministrs-ungarija-lidz-decembrim-ratifices-zviedrijas-un-somijas-iestasanas-nato-protokolus.a479234/

Our media reported yesterday that Orban’s head of administration has confirmed that Hungary is going to ratify NATO enlargement by Sweden and Finland. Hungarian procedural formalities are expected to conclude before Christmas.

Rappaport posted:

The Finnish-Turkish argument (such as it is) seems to begin and end with our judicial system being independent, i.e. the president or the parliament can't just willy-nilly go around saying extradition verdicts should all favour mister Erdogan because he has a tummy-ache. Of course Turkey has been less, erm, persistent with us than they have been with Sweden, but surely even Ulf can manage a little vinegar in the defense of mamma Svärje.

distortion park posted:

Seems clear that this is the future of at the very least small scale warfare.
https://twitter.com/SamBendett/status/1584516672425451523?t=TMQa4iwpn6IOktoDKwHqtw&s=19

Rigel posted:

Yeah, drones are going to be a lot more important in conflicts going forward, but I think some people might be over-learning lessons from this war. If you aren't in a situation where AA is ridiculously oppressive to the point where air superiority is impossible, you'd probably be relying on modern aircraft and helicopters a lot more.

OAquinas posted:

Funny thing about mutual defensive pacts--they can exist outside NATO.
But yeah, that'd be an upwards climb. Russia could try again of course, but Ukraine NOW is blunting their entire military. Just imagine how it'd handle them in 5 years with full investment in western weapons and armor...though again, that's tempered by the insane debt and rebuilding costs they'll have to do.

It's a shitshow.

Eric Cantonese posted:

Yup. Cori Bush, AOC, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley are among the signatories.

The wording's not quite "make Ukraine surrender," but it's definitely showing that we're getting closer to a western breaking point, which is exactly what Putin is counting on.

FMguru posted:

It's pretty safe, provided you don't dig around in the radioactive dirt and kick a bunch of radioactive dirt and dust into the air and breathe it for several weeks straight. Which is exactly what they did.

Dick Ripple posted:

While I understand Russia blaming every failure of theirs on NATO and its members instead of Ukraine, but how likely or able are some of these Sea/Air unmanned vehicles actually being operated by someone outside of Ukraine? We know it can be done from half way around they world with US and its Predator operators and at this point since Ukraine has been supplied with so much Western equipment there will not be any smoking gun for Russia to take pictures of and say so and so is directly responsible. Is Russia or anyone else for that matter able to figure out from where drones are being operated from?

Charlz Guybon posted:

Why is it called Winter Wheat if it is harvested in the summer?