Depends what you mean by grifting… They are spending the donations getting military equipment for their units, but Ripley set-up a company that he is using to move to transport that equipment from Poland to Ukraine and they are paying the company for the transportation. Ripley is also under investigation because they are buying the equipment in the US and then smuggling the equipment out of the US and to Poland. Vazquez’s issue is that he lied about his military history. He claimed ge was a combat veteran that was a Sergeant when he left the military. However, he was actually a mechanic that was dishonorably discharged as PFC. Vazquez is also a massive jerk and has, repeatedly, threatened to fight/kill people that have questioned his credentials in the past.
but has he been larping? it seems like his combat footage may be made up and he isn’t in any military unit? e.g. recently he claimed to be deploying to Bakhmut with his crew but seeing it emerged he has no contract with any Ukrainian military outfit, none of this stuff can be true? I don't know if it was real back in the Kiev days when it was the wild west - maybe he did fight, but it doesn't seem like he can have been fighting in recent months
Smh my head https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/napoleon-exiled-to-elba At this point I have no idea if you guys are on the joke or literally have no idea what I meant I mean I expected that. That you also pay for the logistics of getting things there. Things don't reach Ukraine from USA for example via teleportation. You need money for logistics What I am missing here?
Did you read the article? Vasquez in particular is suspected of working a large scale grift. A number of people who are really with the Ukraine military or who deliver donated equipment to the front lines have been calling him out. I never followed the guy closely but it does seem his story can't possibly be true, once you realise he has no contract with the Ukrainian military and is not part of the legion or any other group. You can't just go out to Bakhmut and start fighting russians without being part of a Ukrainian military force
I did. I also read what the other people accused him of. The Ripley fellas spent money on logistics and they exported stuff without permission from the US govermemnt. Which I fail to see how it didn't help Ukraine As for Vasquez fully agree but my point was regarding Ripley.
One of the issues is there is no control at all over what these people fund raise versus what gets donated.
I literally had no idea of what you meant ... Had you talked about the Island of Saint Helena, things would have been clearer to me.
But Elba was prior to Saint Helena ..... learn your history people .... !!!! Ukraine thought they helped enough to not intervene They intervened in other cases which were much much worse. Nothing will happen to the Ripley fellas but I think the donations will dry up
Yes, but Napoleon escaped from Elba ! Btw, there's no need to exile Macron in a distant island this time : he is now prisonner in his own Elysée Palace... by his own fault. The Brits have nothing to do with it this time.
According to Oryx, the fascists have now lost almost 2000 tanks, not including other types of AFV That is nearly 5 old measure panzer divisions! I can't compute how many that is. It's about 2/3rds of the amount Germany started Barbarossa with. Regardless of how many they are getting out of storage it's clear they are finished as a regional force until they can ramp up some kind of real production capability that could see them with 1000+ new T-90s But of course even if they can ramp up, they currently still lose tanks faster than they make them In other words, this is bleeding the Russia army out, and as things stand it will be all they can do to hang on in Ukraine this year with all their resources, let alone be a threat to anyone else. This is why I really hope Europe can scale Leo production etc so we can stand independent of the US
Despite the efforts of the tankies to bring about a global realignment by force of tweets it is pretty clear Xi treated Putin like the low level punk he is https://samf.substack.com/p/still-bakhmut
Oh dear oh dear As Tom Nichols notes, its not hidden that the MAGAe like Trump, Tucker. MTG are pro Putin. Tonight Trump in Waco:“I get along well with Putin,” Trump said, adding that the Russian president discussed Ukraine regularly. “He wanted to get a piece,” Trump said. “Now it looks like he’ll probably end up getting the whole thing.”https://t.co/ExfTyEomXH— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) March 26, 2023
Just came to my mind: we were promised the real Russian Army. Any day now I will assume it is the one shooting from T-55 and Kathysuka
Just 25c per American per day buys you the destruction of the entire russian army US military support for Ukraine is a bargain for the American taxpayer! pic.twitter.com/7g66Cfg92Q— Luke Coffey (@LukeDCoffey) March 25, 2023
Article about Xi's objectives behind the support for Pootin: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/con...deepening-alliance-means-for-the-world-order/
Another article, more analythic about Xi's choices: https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/24/xi-putin-china-russia-summit-ukraine-world/
I think the EU should put a war tax on imports from China in response to the collaboration of Xi with Pootin's war.
If the end result of this is a Europe that can actually defend itself w/o hiding under Aunt Samatha’s skirt this would be a good thing. Sure would like having the nice things Europe has (health care, public transportation, high speed rail) that we don’t hear. Perhaps we can afford it in the future.
I wouldn’t say he was larping… It does sound like he was in Ukraine and, at the very least, near the front.. I don’t know if he was fighting tho, but enough has come out to indicate there was a good chance he was. Based on what I’ve seen on Twitter in response to this is that Ripley’s Heroes were operating as a PMC in Ukraine and while they weren’t contracted with the Ukrainian military, they were operating adjacent to the Ukrainian military.
While I would agree it costs money to transports weapons and equipment, it is still weapons smuggling to buy weapons in the US and then ship them outside of the country..