Ukraine v Russia II

That's not even remotely true. The US has been trying for decades to get Europe to stop being so insular and to take an active role on the global stage. A lot of the issues that are happening in around the world are 100% because Europe just abandoned the problems they created while they colonized the world.

 

Another mountain of salt time, but, allegedly, one of the Wagner's prisoner "recruits" completed his 6 months, got his pardon, and, while on leave, went on a crime spree, during which he killed a woman.

Wagner Scandal

Ivan Rossomakhin, a Wagner fighter and convicted murderer has sent shockwaves through Russian society.

Whilst on leave from the front, he returned to his home town of Novy Burets and began what locals called 'a reign of terror and murder'.

More below⬇️#Russia pic.twitter.com/Q6KqXhr40E

— WhereisRussiaToday (@WhereisRussia) March 30, 2023

 

There were some NATO-plus-friends infantry exercises a few months back, Cold Response 2022 IIRC. The US sent a contingent of Marines - full-time soldiers from a crack unit with several years of training and (probably) some combat experience. The Finnish contingent was made up of conscripts who'd been selected for reserve officer or NCO training and had just finished their 11 months of training.

The two units were pitted against each other during the exercise. The Finns won handily.

Then there's this one:

Finland wins huge NATO exercise featuring 8,000 attacks on 5,500 systems
https://thestack.technology/finland-wins-nato-cyber-exercise-locked-shields/​

 

This is largely misinformation. As with the previously bandied about claim that the UK Marines were able to defeat a much larger contingent of US Marines, the Finns and US marines were part of much larger opposition forces where the goal wasn't to "win" or "lose", but to learn how to work together as NATO and friends. In the case you are probably referencing, the Finns were paired with Swedes and the Marines were paired with Norwegian infantry that acted as a screening force. So.. No. a group of Finnish conscripts did not defeat a crack unit of US Marines in one-on-one combat.

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_194434.htm

 

On which of those matters do you think Europe follows the US's wishes, rather than acting on their interests?

The fact that liberal democracies with highly developed economies agree on a lot of military, foreign policy, trade and energy matters is not a sign that some of them are satellites of the others. That's a Russian propaganda point, frankly. Liberal democracies tend to agree with each other a lot because they share many values, and have a lot in common.

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but all I see there is a bunch of tanks rolling through a field unsupported. No infantry screen, no apparent scouts, not even drones. That goes against decades of armored combat doctrine. And you'd think that after a year of that, even the Russians would change their tactics.

 

Turkey has dropped its objections to Finland joining NATO.

This invasion is an all timer in terms of strategic blunders.

 

Jitty Slitter mentioned the key - artillery. Just having troops with the tanks wouldn't matter because they can't shoot anyone far away, and sending troops ahead is slow and just makes them vulnerable to mortars and direct fire.

For every attack, you need to be shelling every place the enemy is or, if you don't have good intelligence, could conceivably be until the moment your troops are there. It won't kill most of the defenders, because contact detonated shells pretty much have to land in a trench to actually hurt anyone in a trench, but it forces those people to stay down. If the enemy is ducking instead of shooting, you can advance.

That is how Russia was successful in their second waves of attacks around places like Sievierodonetsk and Popasna. They were shelling like crazy. They can't do that any more. That's what shell hunger does.

 

The video had some pretty good edits. Not all of those were javelin hits even tho they showed people shooting javelins. The BMP that got hit at 1:09 appears to have been a directional AT mine like the German DM22, while the last tank that was moving around at the end ran over a mine as it was trying to get away, even tho they showed a guy firing a javelin before it hit the mine.

 

It looks like the directional mine was in the tree line to me. That’s actually one of the reasons I think it was a DM22-type weapon vs a person with an ATGM.

Quick video on the DM22

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw that BMP one weeks ago.

 

Yeah, I've noticed a LOT of social media posts of Ukrainians training with Western heavy equipment recently. Someone's trying to scare someone, I think.

 

An indirect result of the war is the grain market in Europe is totally screwed up. Before, Ukraine would ship out their grain to the wide world from their ports. Now shipping is limited, and for a long time non-existent. So lots of the grain went west into Europe by train. But Europe can't ship it all out because their ports are limited, especially in nearby Romania, and they already had their own grain growers. So now there is a glut, and prices have crashed. Farmers, especially in the east, are pissed.

 

Can't speak for other countries, but here in Denmark the harvest has been vastly better in 2022 than in 2021. The harvest of grain was up by 1 million ton from 8.8 million ton to 9.8 million ton, so the Danish farmers were earning vastly more than usual, also when you deduct the higher transport cost and much higher cost of fertilizer for the next harvest. (Denmark produces around 3 times as much food as the Danes can possibly consume.)

Denmark have also had an increasing government budget surplus the past two years in a row. It went from a small $613 million budget deficit in 2020 (obviously because of the covid-19 crisis) to a surprising $8.4 billion surplus in 2021 and a now recently revealed, and just as surprising $18.4 billion surplus in 2022, which is around $7.5 billion more than estimated in August 2022. Denmark's gross domestic product (GDP) also went up by 1.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, primarily driven by strong industrial performance. Based on all the final figures, Statistics Denmark have revealed that in 2022 the full year GDP growth was 3.6%

Btw. the worlds largest container shipping company Maersk have made their largest profit ever.

 

Hookers and blow for every Dane!

 

Not to bag on Denmark, but Danish wheat production is about a third of Ukrainian pre-war production, and about 1% of the world's total. That extra 1 million tones of production isn't making a real difference in the wheat production disruption this war is creating.

 

It's not wheat but grain. Wheat is not that popular around here, people for the most part like rye bread.

 

Day 401 of my 3 day war. Finland has joined NATO, adding 1300km/900miles of Russia's border with the alliance.

I remain a master strategist.

— Darth Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) March 31, 2023