Ukraine Conflict - "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

[xzar_monty]

27 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Don't think anyone disputed that Russia could have hit Nordstream, just that it would have been completely moronic and counterproductive for them to have done so.

I am not making a comment on who hit Nordstream. However, I am very firmly of the opinion that it was completely moronic and counterproductive for them to attack Ukraine. I also believe that an awful lot of experts share this view, including Russian experts.

[Mamoulian War]

Russians started offensive against Avdiivka stronghold. And it did not went very well. Here is a summary of their losses during this offensive:

And the only available video, which does not break the community rules of the boards:

 

 

[Zoraptor]

2 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

I am not making a comment on who hit Nordstream. However, I am very firmly of the opinion that it was completely moronic and counterproductive for them to attack Ukraine. I also believe that an awful lot of experts share this view, including Russian experts.

Yeah, but they didn't think it would be moronic at the time, that's the difference. Basically the difference between dying when you set your house on fire because you're short on cash and want the house insurance money vs setting yourself on fire to get your life insurance money because you're short on cash. One is obviously stupid in all circumstances the other was only stupid when something went wrong, from the arsonist's perspective.

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I assume you agree Russia is behind the attack on the Finnish pipe, so why would Russia attack the Finnish pipe? What do they achieve by doing this from your perspective

I don't necessarily agree they did it, just that they'd be the obvious candidate in this case.

They don't really need to achieve anything except annoying their enemies and giving them a chilly- or expensive- winter.

[xzar_monty]

I believe the Russians might well destroy the Nordstream pipe simply to annoy their perceived enemies. Just to be spiteful. Now, whether they did it or not, I don't know, and I don't know enough to have a proper opinion.

Btw, I think it would great to know which percentage of Russian commanders and important people in the Kremlin thought right from the start that the war was moronic. We won't know, of course, but we do know that it was only one man's opinion that actually counted.

Edited October 11, 2023 by xzar_monty

[Zoraptor]

They could achieve the same ends by just turning it off though, if they wanted to be annoying. Indeed, if they wanted to just mess around in general they could have blown up the Ukrainian transit system instead and cut Ukraine off from the transit fees, killing two birds with one stone. As it is they'd have landed themselves with a big bill for repairs when turning a valve would have worked and would still be (and are) paying their enemy for gas transit.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Zoraptor

[xzar_monty]

I agree that there are an awful lot of things that the Russians could do that are potentially much more effective and cost-effective. But I think their penchant for symbolism might take the upper hand here, if it was them who did it.

[Mamoulian War]

@xzar_monty regarding the pipeline and data cable between Estonia and Finland, Stoltenberg made a statement today.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/10/11/7423592/

Do you think, something might happen, or the Finish government might choose the similar approach like Romania and Poland, and use a wording, which will try to deescalate the situation, so the NATO would not need to be involved? 

[xzar_monty]

I really don't know. Historically, Finland has been extremely cautious towards Russia, so unless this policy has now changed, that's perhaps going to be the most likely scenario.

It is also within the realm of possibility that the pipeline and data cable have been damaged by the anchor of a Russian vessel which chose to remain stationary (relatively speaking) in turbulent waters. We shall see.

[Malcador]

Hopefully the investigation moves quicker than the NS one.

[Mamoulian War]

Just wow, the Russian offensive near Avdiyivka is such “massive success”, that in Donetsk, they ran out of body bags  

 

 

[HoonDing]

Sorry, Ukraina, pls return all western toys you haven't broken yet

There's a more important war going on

No more time to wait for the counter-counter-counter offensive

[Malcador]

17 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

Sorry, Ukraina, pls return all western toys you haven't broken yet

There's a more important war going on

No more time to wait for the counter-counter-counter offensive

Not sure Israel needs ATACMS to deal with Gaza.  Yet.

[Lexx]

Do we need to send any support to isreal in the first place? Doesn't feel like they would need it to level an entire town.

[Zoraptor]

At the risk of taking a HoonDing post seriously, they aren't going to be wanting superannuated F16s or prehistoric M113s or Leo1s back at all, let alone for Israel. Best thing for them is to catch a lancet or kornet since it spares the scrapping costs. OTOH, Israel has supposedly burned through a year of war in Afghanistan's worth of munitions (specifically air launched munitions) inside a week. You'd suspect them and 255mm ammo will be in even shorter supply.

Gaza Strip is 2.2 million people, that's Mosul or a Lepo sized so definitely not a town, and it took the US a year and Syria 4 years to 'level' them.

[Lexx]

I thought they were talking about Gaza the town, and not Gaza the whole area.

[Zoraptor]

Gaza City is still 600k which would be a city most places. Roughly Homs sized, if we're talking places that have been bombed fairly recently.

[Malcador]

Ukraine used ATACMS to hit an airfield apparently.

 

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, Malcador said:

Ukraine used ATACMS to hit an airfield apparently.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67135163

More information about this successful attack 

 

[Mamoulian War]

Looks like Israel has enough of Lavrov being lovey-dovey with HAMAS leaders

 

[InsaneCommander]

US broadly eases Venezuela oil sanctions after election deal

I wonder how long this will last.

Guyana ‘on guard’ amid increased Venezuelan military presence at border

[Gorth]

6 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

Looks like Israel has enough of Lavrov being lovey-dovey with HAMAS leaders

 

I don't know how many Jews still live in Russia (assuming they haven't all migrated to Israel yet), but I expect their lives just got more complicated by an order of magnitude. Like open hunting season being announced?

[BruceVC]

5 minutes ago, Gorth said:

I don't know how many Jews still live in Russia (assuming they haven't all migrated to Israel yet), but I expect their lives just got more complicated by an order of magnitude. Like open hunting season being announced?

Nothing unusual for Jews in Russia then, the Russian pogroms were the worst in the world 

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/pogroms

[Mamoulian War]

Probably, they moved to Israel for the very same reason already (including “chief rabbi”, who was threathened because he was not willing to publicly support the war). As Russia is the country with the biggest number of neonazis in population in the World

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

Looks like Israel has enough of Lavrov being lovey-dovey with HAMAS leaders

 

Its good Israel is getting openly behind Ukraine, Im not sure what difference it will really make considering the countries that currently support Ukraine?

[Malcador]

Clever approach to market Ukraine aid as an indirect stimulus for the US economy, heh. 

Rest of the speech was eh. I was puzzled at people praising it, but remembered a lot are just Slava Ukraini types, hah.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/us/politics/transcript-biden-speech-israel-ukraine.html

Edited October 20, 2023 by Malcador