re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Any details on what knocked it out?

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a cursory search indicates the Russians claim a Piranha10 drone took it out..

ETA: Source Vid


who knows...

Carlson likely has seen the reaction to his “interview” and is trying to grab back some dignity. Putins propagandists did a number with him, any way you look at it, he looks like a fool.

Wasn’t a tanker like you I went the other end of the spectrum but I have a couple friends who were tank commanders, one unfortunately was KIA in Iraq. He unfortunately wasn’t in his tank or he would have more than likely survived but he just so happened to be in Humvee. Neither had much bad to say about the Abrams besides it could get hot as hell and it was a thirsty beast. Those blowout panels saved the entire crew’s lives which is the most important thing. I honestly would probably pull most of my armor and all of my vest armor to a rear echelon role right now. Until the tank has a reliable counter to the drone i’m not sure what major role it plays now. At the very least they should have the steel grate style of drone armor to detonate the warhead before it his the actual tank.

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300,000 or so dead Russian soldiers The Pentagon believes it’s 60k KIA, per The NY Times

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You are so full of shite. Is there anything that you don’t lie about? The US estimates, 315,000, the British 350,000 and even the damn BBC Russian new service which has to get its stories past Russian censors admit to 90,000. LINK

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The Russians broke up the USSR, Yelstin did it over Gorbachev’s opposition. The Russians were tired of living in a system that put them second. The Balts and Poles were eager to go as well of course, but opinions in the other republics varied.

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Yeltsin helped break up the USSR because he thought the party couldn’t continue to run the country. The Russian people were tired of being ruled by the communist party. However, they were not tired of being ruled. Go watch the Frontline documentaries Inside Goribochev’s USSR (1990) and
After Gorbochev’s USSR. The average Russian citizen is scared shitless at taking risks. They are fed up with the party’s incompetence but they offer no solutions. The government both before and after the breakup of the USSR was begging workers on collective farms to lease and later to buy land and farm on their own. The workers for the most part because they were scared of the risks of losing money. I complain about American farmers being welfare queens but I have to admit none of them would make it if they were scared of risk.

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Stability is the number one priority for Russians. The country is massive and because of its poor geography, weak central rule is very dangerous. The country risks breaking apart when central leadership slackens. And then you end up with problems, like Chechen warlords raiding Russia, foreign invasions, or just simple banditry in the provinces. Our ideas of freedom would be an anathema to them, because they have a much stronger family and national identity, so it would be seen as selfish, and because they would see it as destabilizing.

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European Russians value stability above all else because centuries of being told what to do makes them do instead of making decisions for themselves. European Russian's are scared of freedom because they are sheep. The entire world would be better off if Russia broke apart along ethnic lines. European Russians are also parasites that have no problem subjugating and stealing from their others instead of building up their own stuff. For example, from 1996/1997 to 2009/2010 the Russian plan was for Sevastapol to be a temporary home for the Black Sea Fleet. Their lease supposed to expire in 2017. The plan was for the Russians to build a new home base for the Black Sea Fleet at Novorossiysk. Novorossiysk has plenty of space to accommodate it and it could have been the major ice free port that Russia craves if it was willing or capable of actually building something on their own. The project would have required building some offshore port facilities like China did with its Yangshan Port as well docks, warehouses, military airfields, etc. and expanding the rail lines and highways to the city. It would have been a big project but a project that a nation with vision and courage could pull off. However, Yeltsin and then Putin’s oligarch pals stole the money for the project. In 2009/2010 Russia realized it faced the real prospect of not having a home for the BSF after 2017. Russia bribed the Yanakovich administration to extend the lease and then they illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 when their puppet got overthrown. Two of the major reasons for this conflict (Russia desire for an ice free port and the need for a base for the BSF) could have been avoided if the Russians could have just not stolen from themselves and followed their original plans. It would have been a massive project but the Soviet's pulled off massive projects like that. Of course, the Soviets also had leaders who were not ethnic Russians at the time of those projects like Stalin who was Georgian, Khrushchev who was Ukrainian, and Brazhnev who was Ukrainian.

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PeePee doesn't know the difference between a causality and KIA.

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Casualties usually includes KIA, WIA, MIA, and POWs. Have you seen the Russian medicine. They have no organized system of removing wounded or triaging them. They locate field hospitals in places where it is easy to conceal them from the Russian troops instead of being easily accessed in a hurry. When I was in Ukraine in 2022 I spoke to Russian POWs. None of them were taught first aid. Only 2 of the POWs I spoke with knew how tight a tourniquet needed to be to keep someone from bleeding out. With military medicine like that wounded soldiers quickly become dead soldiers.

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The Pentagon puts the Russian death toll at about 60,000, with the wounded three or four times that, totaling roughly 300,000 casualties, said a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity.

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LINK

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The Pentagon puts the Russian death toll at about 60,000, with the wounded three or four times that, totaling roughly 300,000 casualties, said a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity.

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Are they counting the WIA who died as a result of their wounds as KIAs, or are they just counting those that were dead before they could be evacuated? With the shitty Russian medical situation a lot of WIAs die. The Pentagon likes to dissect everything they are probably only counting those dead on the field. IMO it doesn’t matter if the soldier died in the field or the hospital because they are still dead.

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Just for clarity, Macron isn't talking about French troops openly engaging Russian forces.

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French expeditionary forces even in support is something that should scare Putin.

LINK

House Republican prepares "discharge petition" on Ukraine aid

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A pro-Ukraine House Republican is preparing an effort to go around House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to get aid to Ukraine passed.

Why it matters: It's a rare break with House GOP leadership, which has resisted holding a Ukraine aid vote due to strong opposition from the right.

"We have to get something done," said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, who is leading the push.

"It's existential, it's time sensitive. Whether that's our product or somebody else's, we've just got to get the money out the door to them," he said.

What's happening: Fitzpatrick told reporters he is preparing what is known as a discharge petition, which can force a House vote if it gets 218 signatures.

Such a petition would therefore require support from a handful of Republicans, assuming it gets signatures from most House Democrats.

The maneuver also requires a certain amount of time – 30 days in which the House is in session – before it can be forced to the floor.

What he's saying: Fitzpatrick said the petition will be ready for signatures by early March and signaled he expects it to garner some Republican signatures.

Asked about the depth of Republican support, he told reporters, "more than you think ... a lot of people who know it's the right thing to do."

One House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Axios they will sign on "if [there's] no other progress."

But Fitzpatrick also stressed that the discharge petition mainly serves to "apply a pressure point to get something done soon."

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As I keep telling people, the aid is eventually going to get passed.