Russia and Ukraine

[Angrboda]

It's like the Blitzkrieg of London all over again.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Not really, russian forces aren't exactly pulling off a shock and awe campaign.  If anything, their early gains were faster and more unrepresentative of their actual abilities in mere reality.  I'd be willing to bet that more than one premature congratulatory bottle of champaign was poured out in moscow in 2014, then 2016 - and now in 2022.

-if the dipshits had an aircraft carrier worth mentioning, we'd all be on the lookout for banners at this point.

No not shock and awe but this is the first time they're going for something quite this big and their performance shows that they have bitten off more than they can handle.

[Pat Mustard]

He's a chronic liar 
His term has been nothing but sleaze and national embarrassment
He's surrounded himself with idiots and sociopaths 
He's essentially economically ruined Britain through Brexit 
His incompetence during the pandemic killed thousands 
His cruel policies on refugees have cost lives  
His idiocy on international affairs has ruined the delicate balance of Europe 
His idiotic trade policies have guaranteed the death of UK farming and fishing 
His rapid Anglocentricism has alienated Northern Irland and Scotland and threatened the continuation of the union 
He's essentially ended the right to protest

Not going to lie, the vast majority of the list I don't disagree with. That said, given that the Brexit process went through two PMs before Boris (even if The Pigfucker only oversaw the referendum) and that it was such a fundamentally bad idea that I don't think anybody could have pulled it off, I'm not sure how much of the blame belongs to him.

Also, as crap as BoJo's pandemic policies are, I'm inclined to cut him a bit of slack. Not saying he didn't shit the bed quite a bit on the pandemic. But at least he gave a shit about trying to slow the spread of the virus. If you've lived under a regime where the leader is outright hostile towards any efforts to slow the pandemic, from the lockdowns to masking, and talks so much shit during briefings on the pandemic that they have to cut his mic, you at least start to appreciate the difference between trying and failing and outright trying to fail like Trump did (and this doesn't even get into the cult of personality that's developed around Trump and multiplied the problem, which I don't think has become much of a thing for BoJo). Granted, it took Boris getting COVID to understand that the pandemic is a big deal, but when it happened to Trump, it didn't change jack shit. And I'm sure that if someone from Brazil reads this post, they'll probably one-up me by pointing out how Bolsonaro is an even bigger jackass than Trump in this regard.

Actually BoJo the Clown didn't give a shit about curbing the pandemic. His on record policy was (and I quote) "Let the bodies pile up". He refused to convene COBRA meetings for months and then refused to attend any when he had to convene them. England was always last into protective measures and first out. It's vaccination and test and trace programmes have been an absolute shambles and the government's procurement programme has been used to allow his mates steal billions off the state.

---

Am I the only one wondering why Putin didn't do this while Trump was in office?

Frankly he half arsed the job during the 2014 invasion of the Crimea. The Ukrainian army then was weak enough to topple on the slightest push.

Problem is, his twin 2014 invasions ( the Donbas "insurgency" was a Russian invasion in all but name) gave Ukraine all the impetus it needed to arm up properly and build a proper army. While this programme wasn't finalised by February, it was built up enough to fuck over a Russian army built to showcase it's goodies at arms shows for foreign buyers and nothing else.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Germany has just announced that it is going to more than double its annual military spending. This will give it the world’s third largest defense budget (behind only the US and China). Other NATO members seem genuinely pleased at the news.

How’s that alliance-fracturing plan working out for ya, Vlad?

Boru

[Deesse23]

Germany has just announced that it is going to more than double its annual military spending. This will give it the world’s third largest defense budget (behind only the US and China). Other NATO members seem genuinely pleased at the news.

How’s that alliance-fracturing plan working out for ya, Vlad?

Boru

Sorry, but after building up that brand new Bundeswehr.....we gonna  have to invade something.  If you have a tool, you gotta use it, and whats good for Vlad surely is good for Olaf too.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Given the number of tanks Ukraine have lost during the war vs the number of Russian tanks they’ve captured, Ukraine now has more tanks than they started with.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Russia has lost more combat troops in 32 days in Ukraine than the US has lost in 46 years of sending troops overseas to 'protect American interests'. And not just a little more - 20% more.

How is this war anything but an unmitigated disaster for Russia?

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

Russia has lost more combat troops in 32 days in Ukraine than the US has lost in 46 years of sending troops overseas to 'protect American interests'. And not just a little more - 20% more.

How is this war anything but an unmitigated disaster for Russia?

Boru

Depends on who you listen to, the people who presented, or Rebroadcasted, in-game footage from Xbox to show how one Ukrainian jet shot down several dozen Russian ones?

Russians themselves say they suffered roughly 2% casualty,   If we use the casualty rate on dead/wounded per 1000 troops engaged per day of intense combat as a measure, and use historic campaigns involving sustained high intensity combat against entrenched defenders, such as the Normandy campaign as benchmark,  we might expect the Russians have suffered 2-3 times casualties then they admitted, but 1/5 the casualties Ukrainians or the west claimed the Russians suffered. 

The territory they have taken and the Ukrainians have acknowledged they’ve nearly as large as  Great Britain, and larger than the territory the Wehrmacht took from France before the French surrender, and they did it with 1/15 the troops the Germans used to take that territory, and 1/4 the troops the Germans used to just occupy that territory.    If we use either Russian figures or estimates based on expected casualty rates in modern land combat between comparable forces, then the Russians suffered fewer casualties per square miles taken than the US did in either Iraq war.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Russia has lost more combat troops in 32 days in Ukraine than the US has lost in 46 years of sending troops overseas to 'protect American interests'. And not just a little more - 20% more.

How is this war anything but an unmitigated disaster for Russia?

Boru

Depends on who you listen to, the people who presented, or Rebroadcasted, in-game footage from Xbox to show how one Ukrainian jet shot down several dozen Russian ones?

Russians themselves say they suffered roughly 2% casualty,   Which means they suffered much fewer casualty per square mile taken than the US did in either iraq wars.   

Keep in mind the territory they have taken and the Ukrainians have acknowledged they’ve taken is larger than all of Great Britain, as large as New Zealand, and larger than the territory the Wehrmacht took from France before the French surrender, and they did it with 1/15 the troops the Germans used to take that territory, and 1/4 the troops the Germans used to just occupy that territory. 

If we use the casualty rate on dead/wounded per 1000 troops engaged in each day of intense combat as a measure, and use historic campaigns involving sustained high intensity combat against entrenched defenders, such as the Normandy campaign as benchmark,  we might expect the Russians have suffered 2-3 times casualties then they admitted, but 1/5 the casualties Ukrainians or the west claimed the Russians suffered.

I don’t take either the Russian or Ukrainian claims as valid. The Russia-reported numbers are obviously too low, the Ukraine-reported numbers are clearly inflated. The likely number - from third party sources - of Russian combat deaths is around 10k, which is more than US combat deaths since Vietnam.

Not sure where you’re getting your geography figures. Russian forces currently occupy about 7% of Ukraine, an area vastly smaller than either the UK or NZ (for them to have taken an area ‘as large as New Zealand’, they’d have to occupy ~50% of the country).

Boru

[karmaify]

The war between them is a story as old as mankind.  Yet another example of one group trying to take what another group has.  Discounting Russia itself, the Ukraine is the largest European country.  I don't know if this list is including Russia itself, but here is what the Ukraine has and what Russia apparently wants.

  In industrial metals, Ukraine ranks:
  
  1st in Europe in recoverable uranium ore.
  2nd in Europe in titanium ore.
  2nd in the world in manganese ore.
  2nd in the world in iron ore.
  2nd in the world in mercury ore
  3rd in Europe in shale gas.
  4th in the world in the total value of natural resources.
  7th in the world in coal.  
  

  In agriculture Ukraine ranks:

  1st in Europe in arable land.
  3rd in the world in the area of black soil.
  1st in the world in the export of sunflower and sunflower oil.
  2nd in the world in barley production.
  3rd in the world in corn production.  Etc. etc. etc.

  In industry Ukraine ranks:

  1st in Europe in ammonia production.
  3rd in Europe in nuclear power plants.
  3rd in Europe in railway network length.
  3rd in the world in the exportation of iron.
  4th in the world largest natural gas pipeline system.
  4th in the world in exporting nuclear power plant turbines.
  4th in the world in manufacturing rocket launchers.  Etc. etc. etc.

  So as you can see, the Ukraine has much that Russia would like to have access to.  What I think pissed Putin off the most was when the Ukrainians kicked out their pro-Russian president and decided to tie themselves economically with the West.