Russian Foreign Policy

Leo said:
Why on earth would they see us as any kind of threat? To think that NATO would need any of our infrastructure makes no sense, there is literally nothing to be gained militarily from parking all your kit on an unprotected island only to have to move it on again. Why would Ireland be a better landing spot that any number of better protected mainland Europe and have direct rail and road access all the way to Moscow.
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my original reply got deleted ,basically you deny your enemy any advantage . just because you don't see its value your enemy might. example azov steel factory
Leo said:
First of all, Russia don't have such a weapon, and second, why would they go to all that bother when they could just press a button in a far off control room? They'd be relying on something substantial coming into contact with a mine for detonation. Besides that, trying to roll a mine off the back of a tanker is a sure fire recipe for disaster.
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i had seen a debrief about it many years ago after fall of iron curtain .not talking about a hertz horned contact mine more influence type (acoustic/magnetic/pressure)
sorry tanker may have been wrong choice, any ship various sizes can be fitted with concealed mine rails as i said roll it off the back or side all types can/are fitted with time delay for activation or programed for a specific ship type
going back to original thread now
 
johnwilliams said:
my original reply got deleted ,basically you deny your enemy any advantage . just because you don't see its value your enemy might. example azov steel factory
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Sorry, what advantage do you think Ireland offers as a means of delivering military hardware to the continent??? The only thing NATO would achieve by defending Ireland would be to dilute their defence of far more strategically important locations.
johnwilliams said:
sorry tanker may have been wrong choice, any ship various sizes can be fitted with concealed mine rails as i said roll it off the back or side all types can/are fitted with time delay for activation or programed for a specific ship type
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Yes, tankers make very poor mine layers, so it was odd that you suggested that the ship that was delivering oil would be a viable choice.
 
This is how the Russians behave folks.

Eight Russian soldiers and mercenaries were charged on Tuesday with the murder of the mayor of a small Kyiv suburb and her family, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said.

The mayor, Olha Sukhenko, was found in a shallow grave in her village, Motyzhyn, about 30 miles west of Kyiv, on April 2, after Russians withdrew from their positions around the capital. Her husband and son were buried with her.

The prosecutor general, Irina Venediktova, said five of the accused men were soldiers in the Russian Army and three were part of the private military group Wagner, which is run by a businessman close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The soldiers included two lieutenants and three sergeants from one unit, the 37th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade.

“They kidnapped Olga Sukhenko, her husband and son from the home of the village of Motizhyn,” Ms. Venediktova wrote on Facebook, publishing the names and photographs of all eight men.

She said that, in March, the men detained Ms. Sukhenko and her family members and took them to a house they were using as a base. There, she said, the Russian fighters “tortured them, trying to beat out information” about the Ukrainian Army and defense forces. The prosecutor said the Russians killed Ms. Sukhenko’s son in front of her.

“They first shot her son in the leg and then killed him with a shot in the head,” she wrote. “The whole family died from multiple gunshot wounds.”

www.nytimes.com

Russian Invasion of Ukraine: What Happened on Day 91 of the War in Ukraine (Published 2022)

Ukrainian officials say Russia is likely to resort to siege tactics as it tries to encircle and capture Sievierodonetsk and other cities in the Donbas region.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
Interesting tweet from Gary Kasparov on the spin he sees coming from the Kremlin... expect versions of it to be pushed by its mouthpieces

"Putin knows the weapons will get there, in less than a month, so he is desperate to push the story of a stalemate, to get a ceasefire he won't honor. Under that cover he will consolidate territory, continue annexation, and liquidate any resistance. He's done it before."
 
Firefly said:
This is how the Russians behave folks.

Eight Russian soldiers and mercenaries were charged on Tuesday with the murder of the mayor of a small Kyiv suburb and her family, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said.

The mayor, Olha Sukhenko, was found in a shallow grave in her village, Motyzhyn, about 30 miles west of Kyiv, on April 2, after Russians withdrew from their positions around the capital. Her husband and son were buried with her.

The prosecutor general, Irina Venediktova, said five of the accused men were soldiers in the Russian Army and three were part of the private military group Wagner, which is run by a businessman close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The soldiers included two lieutenants and three sergeants from one unit, the 37th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade.

“They kidnapped Olga Sukhenko, her husband and son from the home of the village of Motizhyn,” Ms. Venediktova wrote on Facebook, publishing the names and photographs of all eight men.

She said that, in March, the men detained Ms. Sukhenko and her family members and took them to a house they were using as a base. There, she said, the Russian fighters “tortured them, trying to beat out information” about the Ukrainian Army and defense forces. The prosecutor said the Russians killed Ms. Sukhenko’s son in front of her.

“They first shot her son in the leg and then killed him with a shot in the head,” she wrote. “The whole family died from multiple gunshot wounds.”

www.nytimes.com

Russian Invasion of Ukraine: What Happened on Day 91 of the War in Ukraine (Published 2022)

Ukrainian officials say Russia is likely to resort to siege tactics as it tries to encircle and capture Sievierodonetsk and other cities in the Donbas region.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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That 37th Rifle Brigade will soon be sent on a suicide mission by their Generals so that they're not alive to be chased after for justice when this is over. The Wagner scumbags too. I read that's what happened to those Russians who left all the dead civilians behind them in Bucha.
 
Firefly said:
This is how the Russians behave folks.

Eight Russian soldiers and mercenaries were charged on Tuesday with the murder of the mayor of a small Kyiv suburb and her family, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said.

The mayor, Olha Sukhenko, was found in a shallow grave in her village, Motyzhyn, about 30 miles west of Kyiv, on April 2, after Russians withdrew from their positions around the capital. Her husband and son were buried with her.

The prosecutor general, Irina Venediktova, said five of the accused men were soldiers in the Russian Army and three were part of the private military group Wagner, which is run by a businessman close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The soldiers included two lieutenants and three sergeants from one unit, the 37th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade.

“They kidnapped Olga Sukhenko, her husband and son from the home of the village of Motizhyn,” Ms. Venediktova wrote on Facebook, publishing the names and photographs of all eight men.

She said that, in March, the men detained Ms. Sukhenko and her family members and took them to a house they were using as a base. There, she said, the Russian fighters “tortured them, trying to beat out information” about the Ukrainian Army and defense forces. The prosecutor said the Russians killed Ms. Sukhenko’s son in front of her.

“They first shot her son in the leg and then killed him with a shot in the head,” she wrote. “The whole family died from multiple gunshot wounds.”

www.nytimes.com

Russian Invasion of Ukraine: What Happened on Day 91 of the War in Ukraine (Published 2022)

Ukrainian officials say Russia is likely to resort to siege tactics as it tries to encircle and capture Sievierodonetsk and other cities in the Donbas region.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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It is kind of unfortunate that the "heroes of Mariupol" who held out longest in the Steel Works are the Neo-Nazi (or possibly just Nazi) Azov Battalion, who have a history of racist and homophobic attacks and murders. It does strengthen Putin's domestic propaganda that he's de-nazifying Ukraine.

Russia's own large neo-Nazi groups are, of course, ignored by Putin.
 
I read a depressing article this morning in the independent about how some Ukrainian soldiers are now deserting due to the huge pressure they are under in severedonetsk, they don't have enough men or weapons to hold off this sustained Russian attack.

I think we have to remember that when we in the West are procrastinating about what and how many weapons we should send to Ukraine, they are the ones UN in the firing line and that procrastination is resulting in more and more young Ukrainian soldiers getting killed and maimed in eastern Ukraine.
Those young men are the ones that are taking the full force of this Russian aggression and indirectly protecting the rest of the continent
 
joe sod said:
I read a depressing article this morning in the independent about how some Ukrainian soldiers are now deserting due to the huge pressure they are under in severedonetsk, they don't have enough men or weapons to hold off this sustained Russian attack.

I think we have to remember that when we in the West are procrastinating about what and how many weapons we should send to Ukraine, they are the ones UN in the firing line and that procrastination is resulting in more and more young Ukrainian soldiers getting killed and maimed in eastern Ukraine.
Those young men are the ones that are taking the full force of this Russian aggression and indirectly protecting the rest of the continent
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We won't even give them money for weapons. We're offering them tea and sympathy, thoughts and prayers.
 
Some sobering comments from the UK’s Gen. Sir Patrick Saunders, Chief of General Staff in his speech today at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)…

“I believe we are living through a period in history as profound as the one that our forebears did over 80 years ago. Now, as then, our choices will have a disproportionate effect on our future.

This is our 1937 moment. We are not at war - but we must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion. So surely it is beholden on each of us to ensure that we never find ourselves asking that futile question – should we have done more?”
 
Reports that Russian forces are evacuating much fought over Snake Island as Ukrainian forces can hit it now with Western supplied longer ranged artillery.
 
Sophrosyne said:
Some sobering comments from the UK’s Gen. Sir Patrick Saunders, Chief of General Staff in his speech today at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)…

“I believe we are living through a period in history as profound as the one that our forebears did over 80 years ago. Now, as then, our choices will have a disproportionate effect on our future.

This is our 1937 moment. We are not at war - but we must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion. So surely it is beholden on each of us to ensure that we never find ourselves asking that futile question – should we have done more?”
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We will do what we did in 1937; nothing.
The difference is that then we were a poor country which had recently won our freedom from the UK. Now we have no excuse.
 
"Russia said on Thursday it had summoned the British ambassador to voice a strong protest against "offensive" British statements"

"In polite society, it is customary to apologise for such statements."

www.reuters.com

Russia hauls in ambassador over 'offensive' UK comments on nuclear weapons

Russia said on Thursday it had summoned the British ambassador to voice a strong protest against "offensive" British statements, including about alleged Russian threats to use nuclear weapons.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

Meanwhile, Russia bombs an apartment building in Odessa killing at least 18 people. Is THIS the action of a polite society?

www.theguardian.com

Russian missile strikes on Odesa residential area kill at least 18, says Ukraine

Armed forces urge residents to seek shelter after twin attacks on southern port city, say Ukrainian officials
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
A number of things we have learned from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing war.

Russian conventional military strength is not all that it was thought to be, obviously. However that may mask some other important issues.

  • Invading is hard.
  • Small anti-tank, anti-aircraft, anti-ship weapons have made many large high value assets like Aircraft Carriers less relevant.
  • Russia has been completely unable to enforce any type of air superiority. They might as well not have an airforce.
  • China, which was never impulsive, will be even slower to actually use its forces. Military build up yes, war no.
 
I would say that a lot of people including Putin were surprised at the resistance the Ukraine army have shown. Credit to their army.
 
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