Russia on brink of ... NOPE! Russia INVADES Ukraine!

[Roger Wilco]

Large fires are becoming increasingly common throughout Russia.

 

[RnR_au]

New toys for the Ukrainians?

What can a 30kg payload destroy?

 

[RnR_au]

Too lazy to make a proper meme...

Putin says that Russian economy is now leading in Europe, having overtaken Germany.

https://nitter.net/wartranslated/status/1745367099264942199

 

[feralkid]

Too lazy to make a proper meme...

https://nitter.net/wartranslated/status/1745367099264942199

View attachment 91755

That works just fine.

This one's available for future use as well:

 

[Ajay]

One of the issues confronting European arms makers is that they lack the available workforce to dramatically expand quickly. Even Poland is running into this problem to some degree now. Ukraine however has a 43M population, a lot of labor slack, and very capable workers with pertinent technical experience. So really an ideal place to expand manufacturing war or no war.

This totally. Fertility rates are awful in most European countries except France (not sure what they are doing right). The workforce problem Ukraine faces right now is that many Men are fighting the war (or in logistics, etc.) and many men and women have fled the country as refugees (especially those with young children). Then there are those in the occupied territories. The Wilson Center has published this graph:

 

[cytg111]

Eh, I feel pretty confident that a Europe only NATO response would be more than sufficient (in a conventional conflict) to handle what's left of the scrap heap that is the Russian military.

The problem would be if it weren't limited to conventional. But, we all lose that one anyway.

Attrition? I dont know, I’ve seen reporting suggesting ru is ramping up production faster than us and ru is defn easier to the decision to throw bodies at the problem. Conventionally it could get ugly.
On the other hand how many bodies does he have left to throw at anything?

 

[Jaskalas]

On the other hand how many bodies does he have left to throw at anything?

143 million Russians...
So easily 5-10 million, no?

 

[K1052]

Attrition? I dont know, I’ve seen reporting suggesting ru is ramping up production faster than us and ru is defn easier to the decision to throw bodies at the problem. Conventionally it could get ugly.
On the other hand how many bodies does he have left to throw at anything?

The Russians are covering their shortages with supplies from Iran and North Korea. Also a lot of their artillery round "production" is them reconditioning older stocks that were not usable, just like with their armor.

 

[K1052]

143 million Russians...
So easily 5-10 million, no?

Not without giant effects on the Russian economy which is why Putin hasn't done this. Their labor shortage is badly inflationary and he has to balance against the need to keep domestic spending at an acceptable level.

 

[RnR_au]

Yeah someone estimated that Russia is roughly short by 2mil workers already.

There is a reason why some of the Russian government is looking at dragging pensioners back to the workforce. They know they have a labor shortage. They know that Iran and North Korea can only provide so much before their own stockpiles are gone. And they also know that Ukraine don't suffer the same labor storage and that factories in Europe, USA and other countries are gearing up to provide further support for Ukraine - free of charge.

Putin have limited options.

Ukraine will win simply by not losing in 2024.

 

[zinfamous]

Large fires are becoming increasingly common throughout Russia.
View attachment 91722

Now do 3000 fires!

wonder why the squirrel isn't complaining about all the "mysterious" fires in Russia, eh?

 

[K1052]

UK PM is in Kyiv with a sizable package for Ukraine support.

The most interesting bits to me quoted below. It's not a huge surprise that the UK will help Ukraine enhance their long range capabilities especially since they were the first country to give them cruise missiles.

4: importantly, the areas of focus for military assistance will be "long-range missiles, air defence, artillery ammunition and maritime security" as well as a major push on drones (next point)

5: "at least £200 million will be spent on a major push to rapidly procure and produce thousands of military drones for Ukraine, including surveillance, long-range strike and sea drones. The technology will give Ukraine cutting edge, battle-tested capabilities to defend their citizens and target the invading Russian forces on land and sea." and "this will be the largest delivery of drones to Ukraine from any nation. Most of the drones are expected to be manufactured in the UK, and the Ministry of Defence will work with international partners to significantly scale up the number of drones provided for Ukraine’s defence."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745740192680427585

 

[K1052]

Also recently Ecuador indicated it will transfer Russian and Ukrainian arms they have to the US (who is likely to send it onward to Ukraine). Most likely this is an exchange for similar excess US defense articles. More South American countries might do the same since sustainment of their aging Russian equipment is becoming impossible due to the war whereas this is largely not a problem with US made equipment.

 

[K1052]

Ukraine interested in the A-10, likely to supplement their worn Su-25 fleet. Obviously they can't loiter over the front line but certainly could be used in low level rocket attacks (including with APKWS) and also as bomb trucks for SDB and JDAM-ER.

Edit: they's also like the AH-1 Cobra. There are a hundred AH-1Ws sitting in the Arizona desert not doing anything we could give them.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745839021387874540

 

[Roger Wilco]

Russia’s T-90M just lost a 1v1 battle…to a Bradley.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745945349187854737

 

[K1052]

Lmao

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

If some news reports over the last month or so are legitimate, it looks like UKR has captured more than one intact.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Russia’s T-90M just lost a 1v1 battle…to a Bradley.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745945349187854737

So I'd never want to find out that the 90 is superior to the Bradley by losing one, but I honestly wouldn't have called that. That's... embarrassing? impressive? I'm not even sure what the right adjective is here. It's like an NFL team getting curb stomped by a HS basketball team or something.

 

[you2]

So I'd never want to find out that the 90 is superior to the Bradley by losing one, but I honestly wouldn't have called that. That's... embarrassing? impressive? I'm not even sure what the right adjective is here. It's like an NFL team getting curb stomped by a HS basketball team or something.

I wonder how much money is lost to Russia from future Weapon sales; after all if you had a choice of buying a 2nd hand out dated Bradley or a brand new T-90M for 10x the cost which would you pick ?

 

[Jaskalas]

Sounds like we need to attach the Bradly's main gun to drones.

 

[Roger Wilco]

So I'd never want to find out that the 90 is superior to the Bradley by losing one, but I honestly wouldn't have called that. That's... embarrassing? impressive? I'm not even sure what the right adjective is here. It's like an NFL team getting curb stomped by a HS basketball team or something.

I honestly don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these men received very “brief” training before being sent to the slaughter with an expensive Soviet Frankenstein machine.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Russia’s loss ratio in Avdiivka continues to be less than ideal.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I honestly don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these men received very “brief” training before being sent to the slaughter with an expensive Soviet Frankenstein machine.

Maybe, the 90's should have had experienced crew in them, but maybe those were the experienced ones. Either way, yeesh. Sounds like the Bradley needs to be our new Sherman. Get 50k of those fuckers on the ground and see what happens to eastern Ukraine.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Sounds like we need to attach the Bradly's main gun to drones.

Very nearly looks like they did.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745801196818809342

 

[trenchfoot]

Russia’s T-90M just lost a 1v1 battle…to a Bradley.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745945349187854737

Somebody in that tank forgot to load up on ammo before heading out and was too embarrassed to admit it. I mean, that right there is just as legit as any other reason for why a T-90 cannot beat a Bradley in a face to face duel given how low Putin has to go to put fresh meat out for the Ukrainian troops to dine on. Or maybe, just maybe the Russians are so short on ammo the tank crew was told to go out to the line and try to scare the Ukrainians into surrendering.