Russia/Ukraine Megathread V6

[Cole train]

If that polish peacekeepers thing is true then better get those bottlecaps

 

[Videer]

Very nice daisy chained mines/IEDs used to kick off this ambush.

But, but he has already been killed atleast few times. It is not possible!

 

[Rational Poster]

Not yet, or completely imo

It all depends on this week, three factors being
-Belarus
-Successful russian hacks
-Chinese support

Well some Belarussian railway workers took it upon themselves to sabotage railways over the weekend so Russia can't bring as many supplies in.

I'm not sure how helpful they would be.

 

[bad mojo]

The guy is clearly a deranged sociopath. He takes far too much enjoyment in killing people. This is going to make @and 68 others like this very unhappy.

Somebody should warn him not to get taken alive, in any case. Based on the mentality of people fighting there (I guess I know a bit about it) snipers are in for special treatment if captured.

 

[Dexter]

`Putin: a decision was made to transfer payments for gas supplies to Europe into rubles as soon as possible`

 

[bad mojo]

`Putin: a decision was made to transfer payments for gas supplies to Europe into rubles as soon as possible`

This is something I was expecting, a big move and a dangerous one. Things really look like it's going to get worse and someone else may get involved in it. You know what happens when someone ditches the $.

 

[Anewt]

This is something I was expecting, a big move and a dangerous one. Things really look like it's going to get worse and someone else may get involved in it. You know what happens when someone ditches the $.

`Putin: a decision was made to transfer payments for gas supplies to Europe into rubles as soon as possible`

Well... I guess we'll find out what happens next if they go that route

 

[bad mojo]

Well... I guess we'll find out what happens next if they go that route

I've just finished setting up my garden, man. Nuclear winter would mess up my plans for this year.

 

[Yotsuya]

100% true. If you look at Russian history so many of Russia's great thinkers, artists, poets, writers, political figures have been victims of repression in one way or another.

Looking at literature alone:

• Pushkin, the most famous and beloved poet, arguably the founder of modern Russian literature was a friend of revolutionaries and was exiled by the tsar.
• Lermontov, the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism, was exiled twice.
• Pasternak, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, an event that enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which forced him to decline the prize. He and his family would be harassed until his death.
• Solzhenitsyn, awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union (USSR), in particular the Gulag, where he was imprisoned for 8 years.
  
• Bunin, the first Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, had to emigrate to save his life.
• Brodsky, another Nobel Prize laureate, ran afoul of Soviet authorities and was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972.

This is the horror of being born in Russia - it bares amazing fruit sometimes but overall it never fully dragged its way out of the dark ages, with continuously reoccurring tyrannical governments, oppressive internal policing and a general political apathy of the population.

I think most intelligent people in the west are Russophiles in some degree because of your culture and the war will not change that on long run.

Nabokov is my all-time favourite writer. I really relate to his outsiderism and distrust towards ideologies. A lot of that probably rises from his emigrant past and how he had to flee because of the revolution. His vivid nostalgia for St. Petersburg is simply mind blowing and makes me understand better how much is in stake for people who choose to leave the country.

 

[Source]

`Putin: a decision was made to transfer payments for gas supplies to Europe into rubles as soon as possible`

Does that mean Putin is going to convert all of his 200 billon plus he has stolen into rubles as well?

 

[Yotsuya]

It was not “apartment bombing”, it was the full-scale invasion by Chechen and other Islamist radicals into the Dagestan republic of Russian Federation which caused the counter-offensive.

"Yeah, we did kill 300 of our citizens to kickstart the war, but the Chechens had it coming."

 

[Dexter]

Don't know how good of a book this is, but you can read some of it for free on Google. Seems to cover most of it.

https://books.google.fi/books?id=zb...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Thanks, always interesting to look into the opposite side POVs. Was digging into Vietnam war from US perspective recently, now it’s time to era-change.

 

[SakurabasEar]

Well some Belarussian railway workers took it upon themselves to sabotage railways over the weekend so Russia can't bring as many supplies in.

I'm not sure how helpful they would be.

They could still bring in around 150k soldiers, 50k of which are already at the boarders. It would only take around 4 hrs

Obviously, belarus is russian leech with piss poor gdp, and thier army is a reflection of that but the shock of troops would still make a difference if directed straight at kyiv

 

[Dexter]

Does that mean Putin is going to convert all of his 200 billon plus he has stolen into rubles as well?

You can always ask him by yourself: http://letters.kremlin.ru/letters/send. They accept letters in English, too, so no problems here.

 

[TheGreatA]

Thanks, always interesting to look into the opposite side POVs. Was digging into Vietnam war from US perspective recently, now it’s time to era-change.

The thing is a lot of Finn historians are pretty critical of the Continuation War and regard it as somewhat shameful. It has been buried, to an extent, compared to the glory of the Winter War, which felt morally just and didn't have the baggage of tagging alongside with Nazis.

From a purely military historian's perspective though, that cares nothing for the politics or morality involved, I would imagine that it's the period that is most interesting, because the scale and the stakes of the battles were on a whole another level. This was mass-scale war with both sides at their full potential, not the raggedy battle between a resource-starved Finland and a woefully unprepared Red Army in 1939-1940.

From what I recall, some vets stated that the Winter War was like a picnic by comparison. In many ways it was just Finns having fun skiing around in the forests and shooting down a bunch of guys who were already freezing to death, begging for it to be over. This is where their capacity for combat was truly tested. A lot of those same troops and generals that fought in the Continuation War, I believe, were later used to crush the Japanese Army in record time. Making peace with Finland allowed the Soviets to settle business in the East, and also focus fully on making it to Berlin before the Americans.

 

[Rational Poster]

They could still bring in around 150k soldiers, 50k of which are already at the boarders. It would only take around 4 hrs

Obviously, belarus is russian leech with piss poor gdp, and thier army is a reflection of that but the shock of troops would still make a difference if directed straight at kyiv

I don't think it's that easy. They're already having supply troubles with the troops they have around Kyiv.

150k soldiers is another 150k troops to supply. More is not always better in a real war.

That would also mean those troops aren't protecting Belarussian supply lines which they've been forced to deploy special forces to protect the most critical railways now.

 

[cottagecheesefan]

Well... I guess we'll find out what happens next if they go that route

India already said they will have their own Rupee-Ruble currency exchange. China also wants to have their exchange with Russia along with talks with other countries about a potential petroyuan.

 

[luckyshot]

Lets take a look at how things are going, oh, everything is proceeding as planned.

When you don't really have a plan going it, then everything is always proceeding as planned.

 

[SakurabasEar]

I don't think it's that easy. They're already having supply troubles with the troops they have around Kyiv.

150k soldiers is another 150k troops to supply. More is not always better in a real war.

That would also mean those troops aren't protecting Belarussian supply lines secure, which they've been forced to deploy special forces to protect the most critical railways now.

150k is the number given with those factors included, they have a total 500k active and reserve combined. The belarus boarder is right around 250 miles away from kyiv, so supples can be opened down the waterway the dneiper river, the upper part is apprantly russian controlled. However they would be wise to navigate around chernobyl supply wise.


Anyways, Im not saying its easy, but its do-able. A desperate putin could make this call

 

[Dexter]

The thing is a lot of Finn historians are pretty critical of the Continuation War and regard it as somewhat shameful. It has been buried, to an extent, compared to the glory of the Winter War, which felt morally just and didn't have the baggage of tagging alongside with Nazis.

From a purely military historian's perspective though, that cares nothing for the politics or morality involved, I would imagine that it's the period that is most interesting, because the scale and the stakes of the battles were on a whole another level. This was mass-scale war with both sides at their full potential, not the raggedy battle between a resource-starved Finland and a woefully unprepared Red Army in 1939-1940.

From what I recall, some vets stated that the Winter War was like a picnic by comparison. In many ways it was just Finns having fun skiing around in the forests and shooting down a bunch of guys who were already freezing to death, begging for it to be over. This is where their capacity for combat was truly tested. A lot of those same troops and generals that fought in the Continuation War, I believe, were later used to crush the Japanese Army in record time. Making peace with Finland allowed the Soviets to settle business in the East, and also focus fully on making it to Berlin before the Americans.

Reminds me the situation with the Winter War events in our own historiography - always a very thin ice to tread .