allied_assault
Well-known member
'Died whilst taking a walk' - hmm.
The end?
- Thread starter borolad259
- Start date
Budanov and co still unsure on this one. A lookeelikee certainly showed up at the Swiss embassy in Turkey ... the Swiss are saying nowt. Keeping schtumm.
red_harrington
Well-known member
Because he was a very, very brave man.
He knew he was going back to face imprisonment and probable death.
But he also knew that he had to be in Russia for his cause to have any chance at all of success.
afcb_acklam
Well-known member
this is the documentary that putin didnt like much
swordtrombonefish
Well-known member
Avdiivka: Ukraine troops leave embattled eastern town
Russia's defence ministry says it has taken "full control" of the town, which had been besieged for months.
www.bbc.co.uk
Defender 4x4
Well-known member
It would appear Putin can now do what he likes without the fear of retribution. He kills his critics anywhere in the world. We kills civilians in Ukraine in situations that are clearly war crimes. What can the world do to stop it ? None of us want WW3 so Putin just keeps doing what he does. It is beyond depressing.
Russians firing ordnance at 5 to 1 more than Ukraine.
It's not the bravery of the Ukrainians that caused this latest setback, it's the lack of support from the West.
Imagine for a second being in their shoes, being abandoned by the very people that failed you in the first place.
So much for the imminent demise of the Russian army.
It's not the bravery of the Ukrainians that caused this latest setback, it's the lack of support from the West.
Imagine for a second being in their shoes, being abandoned by the very people that failed you in the first place.
So much for the imminent demise of the Russian army.
Avdiivka: Ukraine troops leave embattled eastern town
Russia's defence ministry says it has taken "full control" of the town, which had been besieged for months.www.bbc.co.uk
Like Bahkmut it has come at tremendous cost ... I quote from last night (btw, Tank Girl is safely resting after the battle)
"As our side is counting and counting... (the Russian dead in the fields and the heavy mech)
We just intercepted Surovikin's report.
Over the last 96 hours he is reporting 5200 Cargo 200 (KIA) and 12 000 Cargo 300 (WIA).
That is a casualty rate near to 100 percent.
He also reported a gear loss of 80 percent.
This means that there is a huge gaping hole right now in the Russian lines
These are normally the moments where you can roll up an enormous section and potentially even win a war.
Note the forces are still there..."
Largely due to the prevarication and blocking in the US Senate, they will instead be maintaining defence rather than pushing home the advantage.
Courageous (***ed off) babushka.
How does Russia sort itself out? It is bombarded by state propaganda. The short time I have spent in Russia, I was left with a feeling that Russians have a similar attitude to yanks in that they do not need anybody. They have all the resources they need. Just like the US, I dont think Russians are influenced very much by foreigners.
We all know that any form of opposition to Putin will be executed by the time they are posing even the slightest threat to him. So, how will things change? He has been building a mafia state since the fall of the soviet union. Even when he dies, that mafia system will remain and be all the wealthier for it. Won't it just be another tyrant? Have they ever had democracy?
We all know that any form of opposition to Putin will be executed by the time they are posing even the slightest threat to him. So, how will things change? He has been building a mafia state since the fall of the soviet union. Even when he dies, that mafia system will remain and be all the wealthier for it. Won't it just be another tyrant? Have they ever had democracy?
It was ever thus and they just accept it for what it is.
Even during Glasnost was there ever really a desire for democracy?
They get fed. They keep warm. They get Vodka. What more do 'peasants' want?
The mafia runs Russia and Putin is the Don. Right through society including all of the judiciary.
Those with influence protect it with a deathly grip.
afcb_acklam
Well-known member
its gone eerily quiet on updates from the front recently - from all news sources. feels like theres lots going on in moscow currently politically, with the election, navalny etc. konstantins video last night was interesting, talking about which path russia may take after the inevitable election result..... even more military based - or trying to restore the countrys industry, economics etc.
I saw some reports of the Ukraine soldiers who surrendered but were then executed by the Russians.
There seemed to be a lot of blame put onto the Ukrainian command for refusing for so long to allow a retreat. The lads were talking to family as the Russians came in. Next thing the family knew was seeing their dead bodies in pictures released on Russian social media.
Put yourself in their shoes. If it was your son or father, brother. Senseless waste of young lives.
There seemed to be a lot of blame put onto the Ukrainian command for refusing for so long to allow a retreat. The lads were talking to family as the Russians came in. Next thing the family knew was seeing their dead bodies in pictures released on Russian social media.
Put yourself in their shoes. If it was your son or father, brother. Senseless waste of young lives.
My apologies for not posting on here so much. This is largely due to the sensitivity of most of the content I'm getting ... plus, he is on active service again for a short period.
I'll try to get back to regular posts, even if I have to edit a lot out.
Main change this week .... Ukraine starting to assert air dominance (which was missing during the planned Avdivka withdrawal). And yes, there are F16s .... between them, the Rafales and the Gripens, they are making life a little tricky/short for Russian SU34/35 pilots now .... including over Russian air space.
I don't know about the executions of prisoners in Avdivka. What I do know is that only a handful of men were left behind. UAF command spoke directly with Russian command.and Surovkin (yes, him) gave his word that they would be picked up and treated as POWs. I will ask what happened.
Russian losses were colossal .... and this is as reported by them. Hence the lack of celebratory stuff on Russian channels.
There's probably a lot more to tell ...
I will try to answer any questions (that I do have the answers for).
I'll try to get back to regular posts, even if I have to edit a lot out.
Main change this week .... Ukraine starting to assert air dominance (which was missing during the planned Avdivka withdrawal). And yes, there are F16s .... between them, the Rafales and the Gripens, they are making life a little tricky/short for Russian SU34/35 pilots now .... including over Russian air space.
I don't know about the executions of prisoners in Avdivka. What I do know is that only a handful of men were left behind. UAF command spoke directly with Russian command.and Surovkin (yes, him) gave his word that they would be picked up and treated as POWs. I will ask what happened.
Russian losses were colossal .... and this is as reported by them. Hence the lack of celebratory stuff on Russian channels.
There's probably a lot more to tell ...
I will try to answer any questions (that I do have the answers for).
There's this, from a couple of days ago .... which some of you might be interested in, especially with the Teesside connection.
So, the Czechs obtained a large number of 155mm shells from China ... (the supply to Ukraine of which has just been financed by Sweden).
Anyway ... rabbit hole alert
"What I have not written about is how on Earth China ended up having NATO spec 155mm, the reason being that I had not a single clue.
So, as I returned to my command post I got talking to the living walking encyclopeadia of obscure militaria that is A*****, I got the answer.
And oh boy, is it a travel down into shadier sides of weapons manufacturing and the biggest Canadian artillery whore of the last century.
There is no person more infamous in artillery circuits than Gerald Bull, his life story is filled with obscure science fiction superweapons, shady gun deals to whoever paid him, and assassinations.
At the same time he is known as the last great artillery genius, partly for good reasons, and partially on stolen merrit.
After world war 2 he was obsessed with the idea of using ultralarge guns to fire satelites into orbit, and to date nobody has come closer than he did while eating DARPA money.
In the end they shut him down due to him being both a gigantic d*ck, and because he tended to sell his inventions under the table to whomever gave him money.
Freshly fired he moved to Switzerland together with every other d*ckhead in the known Universe, and started an artillery sales and consultancy company.
Then he secured the rights to produce and sell the Swedish Basebleed 155mm Grenade by quite frankly bamboozling the at the time overly naive Swedish Defence Agency.
Obviously he promised to not sell any shells to unsavoury countries, after all he was a Canadian in Switzerland, and a boy scout, why would he sell the shells to let us say Iraq.
But, obviously he did exactly that.
He also got hold of a state of art 155mm howitzer from Austria, and got world wide sales rights for that, because why would a Canadian Boy Scout from Switzerland sell that to unsavoury types?
You catch my drift...
I obviously know quite a bit about what he did, where he did it, and to whom.
But, I did not know the part about China.
At the time India had received Swedish Bofors howitzers that used the Swedish 155mm basebleed shell, and as China came to have one of their many artillery duels with India, they got absolutely ripped to pieces by the Indians who easily outranged them by almost 2 times, and had far better accuracy.
The Chinese didn't like that, took a hard look at their Soviet style 152mm artillery, and made Sad China Noises.
Then they looked at what India had festooned their mountain tops with, and decided that they wanted what the Indians had.
First they asked Sweden, and Sweden said hell no.
Then, after a while they heard that Iraq had the same capacity, and asked how on Earth Saddam had it, and got pointed towards non other than Gerald Bull.
He sold them 5 austrian howitzer's, and 100K basebleed shells for trialling.
The chinese tested them, and lo and behold, at every single parameter the austrian howitzer's and swedish shells belted anything Soviet by a wide margin.
Obviously China decided at that time to switch to 155mm longterm, replacing 10 000 Soviet artillery pieces would take decades, but China is patient.
So, they went and asked if the could buy the design drawings and technical manuals for both parts, and got it.
Off they went and started to learn how to make it themselves, something that turned out to be both time consuming, and required quite a bit of materials research.
Slowly they started to issue the guns, noting that they took far longer to produce, same with the shells.
Not needing the range on other sectors all of the Chinese PL-01 and PL-05 (self-propelled version) went to the border of India, something that it took India a decade to tell anyone else.
For some reason China did not push production and replacement of their 152mm even at this stage, probably due to having more 152mm than they actually needed already, but they stopped producing new artillery systems with 152mm, instead they kept up 152mm shell production, and decided to wait until they wore out.
And, to top that off, China does not even want the 152mm, they have more or less phased them out for the Soviet 122mm that have the same reach, but is much easier to transport, and that if they need big stuff better to go with 155mm instead.
Gerald Bull on his part got the contract of his dreams from Saddam, to build a proper ballistic intercontinental satelite launching gun that obviously could lob mahoosive shells on everyone else.
It was then he ran into problems, UK customs impounded parts for the gun, and the story was blown wide open.
He did though try to fulfill the contract, and continued to develop the reentry nosecone for his supergun.
At that point Mossad said sod it and assassinated him in his underwear.
This means that since the 80s China has been producing and stockpilling fully NATO compliant artillery shells of the better type. And Pavel somehow knew that they have millions of them stockpilled in case India decided to come on a tourist trip to China.
It is quite likely that by now China has the worlds second largest stockpile of 155mm shells after India.
With this knowledge I suspect that China will be able to sell a package like this indefinitely every 3 months.
That would make for one hell of a difference for Ukraine.
It would also give Europe time to build up some stockpiles of our own from our own production so that we are ready for when Russia attacks.
And we somehow need to increase that stockpile as well as sending shells to Ukraine, from now on we need to produce for two frontlines at the same time."
.
So, the Czechs obtained a large number of 155mm shells from China ... (the supply to Ukraine of which has just been financed by Sweden).
Anyway ... rabbit hole alert
"What I have not written about is how on Earth China ended up having NATO spec 155mm, the reason being that I had not a single clue.
So, as I returned to my command post I got talking to the living walking encyclopeadia of obscure militaria that is A*****, I got the answer.
And oh boy, is it a travel down into shadier sides of weapons manufacturing and the biggest Canadian artillery whore of the last century.
There is no person more infamous in artillery circuits than Gerald Bull, his life story is filled with obscure science fiction superweapons, shady gun deals to whoever paid him, and assassinations.
At the same time he is known as the last great artillery genius, partly for good reasons, and partially on stolen merrit.
After world war 2 he was obsessed with the idea of using ultralarge guns to fire satelites into orbit, and to date nobody has come closer than he did while eating DARPA money.
In the end they shut him down due to him being both a gigantic d*ck, and because he tended to sell his inventions under the table to whomever gave him money.
Freshly fired he moved to Switzerland together with every other d*ckhead in the known Universe, and started an artillery sales and consultancy company.
Then he secured the rights to produce and sell the Swedish Basebleed 155mm Grenade by quite frankly bamboozling the at the time overly naive Swedish Defence Agency.
Obviously he promised to not sell any shells to unsavoury countries, after all he was a Canadian in Switzerland, and a boy scout, why would he sell the shells to let us say Iraq.
But, obviously he did exactly that.
He also got hold of a state of art 155mm howitzer from Austria, and got world wide sales rights for that, because why would a Canadian Boy Scout from Switzerland sell that to unsavoury types?
You catch my drift...
I obviously know quite a bit about what he did, where he did it, and to whom.
But, I did not know the part about China.
At the time India had received Swedish Bofors howitzers that used the Swedish 155mm basebleed shell, and as China came to have one of their many artillery duels with India, they got absolutely ripped to pieces by the Indians who easily outranged them by almost 2 times, and had far better accuracy.
The Chinese didn't like that, took a hard look at their Soviet style 152mm artillery, and made Sad China Noises.
Then they looked at what India had festooned their mountain tops with, and decided that they wanted what the Indians had.
First they asked Sweden, and Sweden said hell no.
Then, after a while they heard that Iraq had the same capacity, and asked how on Earth Saddam had it, and got pointed towards non other than Gerald Bull.
He sold them 5 austrian howitzer's, and 100K basebleed shells for trialling.
The chinese tested them, and lo and behold, at every single parameter the austrian howitzer's and swedish shells belted anything Soviet by a wide margin.
Obviously China decided at that time to switch to 155mm longterm, replacing 10 000 Soviet artillery pieces would take decades, but China is patient.
So, they went and asked if the could buy the design drawings and technical manuals for both parts, and got it.
Off they went and started to learn how to make it themselves, something that turned out to be both time consuming, and required quite a bit of materials research.
Slowly they started to issue the guns, noting that they took far longer to produce, same with the shells.
Not needing the range on other sectors all of the Chinese PL-01 and PL-05 (self-propelled version) went to the border of India, something that it took India a decade to tell anyone else.
For some reason China did not push production and replacement of their 152mm even at this stage, probably due to having more 152mm than they actually needed already, but they stopped producing new artillery systems with 152mm, instead they kept up 152mm shell production, and decided to wait until they wore out.
And, to top that off, China does not even want the 152mm, they have more or less phased them out for the Soviet 122mm that have the same reach, but is much easier to transport, and that if they need big stuff better to go with 155mm instead.
Gerald Bull on his part got the contract of his dreams from Saddam, to build a proper ballistic intercontinental satelite launching gun that obviously could lob mahoosive shells on everyone else.
It was then he ran into problems, UK customs impounded parts for the gun, and the story was blown wide open.
He did though try to fulfill the contract, and continued to develop the reentry nosecone for his supergun.
At that point Mossad said sod it and assassinated him in his underwear.
This means that since the 80s China has been producing and stockpilling fully NATO compliant artillery shells of the better type. And Pavel somehow knew that they have millions of them stockpilled in case India decided to come on a tourist trip to China.
It is quite likely that by now China has the worlds second largest stockpile of 155mm shells after India.
With this knowledge I suspect that China will be able to sell a package like this indefinitely every 3 months.
That would make for one hell of a difference for Ukraine.
It would also give Europe time to build up some stockpiles of our own from our own production so that we are ready for when Russia attacks.
And we somehow need to increase that stockpile as well as sending shells to Ukraine, from now on we need to produce for two frontlines at the same time."
.
Norman_Conquest
Well-known member
Did anyone watch Ukraine's War. The Other Side - Filmmaker Sean Langan's groundbreaking documentary offering a rare and human perspective on life on the Russian frontline.
It was very interesting and worth a watch.
It was very interesting and worth a watch.
TeessideCleveland
Well-known member
Will give that a watch
The invaders do seem to have held off the counteroffensive in the main - and nudged forward a bit recently
Putin doesn't care how many lives are lost to do that
Norman_Conquest
Well-known member
I was surprised at the number of Ukraine's fighting on the Russian side and the outlook of some of the local people he interviewed. Langan puts his life on the line visiting frontline troops.Will give that a watch
The invaders do seem to have held off the counteroffensive in the main - and nudged forward a bit recently
Putin doesn't care how many lives are lost to do that
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Well he’s still seemingly very much in charge 18 months and 245 pages later.