ChatterBank6 mins ago
A Big Ukraianian "Gotcha"
https:/
There are only ten of these A-50s in the possession of the Russian aerospace forces. And they are very expensive. They are manned (as this one was) by 15 highly trained personnel and providde target support for fighter aircraft.
On the minus side, Russia carried out 250 airstrikes on Avdiivka in Donetsk in the first two weeks of 2024. That is a LOT of bombs.
While Russia continues to launch offensives along the front line, especially on the north east, they have suffered eye-watering amounts of casualties for precious little gain. Can they sustain this?
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by ichkeria. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Neither side can win by force: that much must be obvious. But only Ukraine can win by use of non-force, if that makes sense. That is why the Russians have to keep going. And Ukraine has to keep fighting because obviously otherwise Russia would win. Russia certainly has a gigantic capacity to sacrifice human life and an enormous appetite for destruction.
So therefore, I hear you cry: what if Ukraine a) runs out of people first b) stops getting any support. The former possibility is the more likely, actually: there is no way the support will dry up, despite the pantomime in Congress and the nefarious actions of the Hungarian government. But Ukraine is nonetheless losing far fewer people, including proportionately, than Russia. On the other hand, while no one bar the international volunteers come in to help Ukraine, russia tries desperately to recruit people from abroad, as well as migrant labour: see that massive fire at the weekend in St Petersburg in the Wildberries (Russian Amazon) warehouse? https:/
It's claimed it was started by migrant workers there protesting at conscription. Russia's infrastructure is collapsing because of lack of cheap maintenance labour, hence the spate of power cuts and explosions in heating stations across the country.
Neither side can win by force: that much must be obvious. But only Ukraine can win by use of non-force, if that makes sense.
oh, not really seen that before. This means ( surely ) stalemate and that means .... politcal solution which the Ukrainians are not keen on
There are issues - ( a lorra lorra Russian speakers, and some Ukrainians cheerfully putting their children on trains to have free holidays in Russa - around 1m of them!)
"oh, not really seen that before. This means ( surely ) stalemate and that means .... politcal solution which the Ukrainians are not keen on"
What I meant by "non-force" is as in not the brute force Russia applies: that Ukraine can get its territory back by forcing Russian to withdraw: or Russia withdraws anyway. That is how it has worked so far. Not saying that will happen, but Russia can't win like that. They failed in Kyiv firstly because their special forces sent en masse were betrayed and slaughtered: and their blitzkrieg tactics couldn't work in that terrain, unlike elsewhere. In the NE they were tricked, and in Kherson their supply routes were cut off so they had to withdraw.
"There are issues - ( a lorra lorra Russian speakers, and some Ukrainians cheerfully putting their children on trains to have free holidays in Russa - around 1m of them!)"#
The is no political solution for the simple reasdon that no one trusts Putin any more. There was a political solution before in 2014/5 but it never worked, and a similar one now, even if it were tried, would end the same way.
As for "Russian speakers" that is a non-distinction. Everyone speaks Russian in Ukraine. Certainly everyone in the war zone and in most places beyond. Not sure when was the last time anyone put anyone on a train to Russia from Ukraine btw, cheerfully or otherwise. There have't been trains between free Ukraine and Russia for years. Have I misunderstood?
There are lots of explanations from Russian sources for yesterday's loss of the two planes. One is that it was a team of 22 (unusally specific) SAS operatives using manpads (max range 7km!), as retaliation for the deaths of some of their personnel whose funerals took place in London at the weekend. (???)
Related Questions
Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.