re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Some interesting thoughts from Jack Watling at RUSI (a British think-tank, the Royal United Services Institute):

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The provision of Nato armour to support manoeuvres would also help resolve the supply limitations Ukraine’s partners are finding in the provision of artillery ammunition. Without armour, the Ukrainian armed forces are likely to be more reliant on artillery and therefore fire more ammunition to advance. Armour offers Ukrainian troops the prospect of making greater gains firing fewer shells.

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Yep. This was always the obvious answer to a shortage of 155mm shells: just give Ukraine other ways to kill Russians on the battlefield.

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After the cold war, frontline tank fleets declined significantly, while the cutbacks in bridging, breaching and transport and recovery vehicles have been even more severe. Most countries operate the bare minimum of these vehicles to meet their Nato commitments and even in these small fleets vehicle unavailability due to low maintenance is a problem because of underinvestment during the “war on terror”.

The upshot is that Ukraine’s international partners are approaching a hard fork in the road. For months, they have gifted equipment they have held in storage. Although these donations have been expressed in dollar terms, few of them have incurred heavy financial costs to donors. As donations begin to push into critical fleets and stockpiles, however, Ukraine’s partners face the need to invest in regenerating their capabilities as well as supporting Ukraine. In a challenging financial environment, they have tried to defer this decision. But if they want a Ukrainian victory, then they can defer it no longer. To defer investment is to offer Russia an opportunity to protract the war.

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France, Germany, and Italy are working together on a new tank that's supposed to enter service ... in 2035? It would seem to me that they might want to speed that process up a little bit.

From.everything that I have read or heard the holdup has been Scholz and a few of his officials.

Frick ihn

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I don’t think it has to do with including east Germans in the government. I think it has more to do with the fact that former Chancellor Schroder was a paid lobbyist for Russia. He is the one who started Germany on the path to becoming addicted to Russian gas. Even after he lost power, the bureaucrats he hired stayed in place and I’m sure that they got something under the table from Russia as well.

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That East German communist Merkel policy toward Russia played a big part. It was insane. She believed that trading with Russia and Putin would totally win them over to the west. Talk about naive, weak and stupid.

Reminds me of the Kissinger Policy on China. Total failure.

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British Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine officially confirmed:

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Challengers are good tanks. I prefer the Leo's though but still a good tank.

Besides every line of Abrams, I have tooled around on a M-84 (Yugoslav T-72s that Kuwait used), a Leopard, Challenger and a Merkava.

Another example of once again Europe being too weak to stop a war on their continent. The US has to bail their arse out again. It's time for some of these socialists in Europe to put up or shutup. They like their social welfare programs over there.

Schroeder has been nothing but a Russian agent for years. Bought and paid for. Reminds me of some of our politicians and China.

London was where the Russian oligarchs were located. That seemed to be their location/playground in Europe. Lots of Russian Oligarch money poured into there.

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I have been saying for months that Ukraine has time to defeat Russia, but in the long run time is not on its side. Ukraine has to defeat Russia before 2024. Ukraine can’t risk the war becoming an issue in the US Presidential election. Even more importantly Ukraine has its own presidential election on 3/31/24. Plus in another year Russia’s economy would have switched over to a war setting completely and Putin and his cronies would have stamped out any resistance to his war (if any should appear). That’s why I have been saying that the Biden administration and Germany and France have been half assing it when it comes to aid. Glad to see that “the experts” are coming around to what I have been saying for months.

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WeeWee, I completely disagree, for the reasons I outlined in the post you were responding to.

The current money allocated to Ukraine is going to result in substantial deliveries of new weapons systems. We can be sure, for example, that Ukraine is going to receive many more than the 50 Bradleys already promised. That's what the money is for that Congress allocated last month.

Our European allies are doing the same thing. The result is that Ukraine's military will be much stronge.r in 2024 than it is now.

Our own Presidential election cycle will have no effect on the war. No GOP candidate in the general election is going to campaign on a promise to cut all aid to Ukraine. Even if an "anti-war" candidate were nominated who promised to cut back on Ukraine aid, that might mean no new weapons systems for Ukraine, but it would not mean an end to the supply of parts and ammunition. Sen. McConnell is really the most anti-Russia politician in DC right now (much more so than Biden), and I guarantee you he's not going to allow a repeat of the Afghanistan disgrace.

The pictures and video coming in from Dnipro are horrifying. If the mass murder of civilians, including children, is not enough to open people’s eyes, then nothing is.

A girl waiting for rescue in the middle of the wreckage:



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If Russia were trying to do everything that it could to ensure that nations came to Ramstein this coming week with their maximum possible weapons donations, this would be that.

Sky News reporter says that the UK

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says it will also supply the Ukrainian armed forces with around 30 AS90s - large, self-propelled guns

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The AS-90 SPH is much more important to Ukraine than the dozen Challenger 2 tanks.