Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Larry]

1 hour ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Should solve that morale problem

 

So if you want to desert, better do it now, before they arrive.  

[TheGreatBuzz]

56 minutes ago, RansomthePasserby said:

It makes sense, without NCOs a military is basically just a mob of college aged kids

 

College aged kids and their parents (senior officers).

[China]

They should take all these super yachts and use them to house Ukranian refugees.

 

So It Appears That $700 Million Superyacht Does Belong To Putin

 

Russian oligarchs have been having their yachts seized around the world, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine presses on. One yacht though was able to elude both being impounded and authorities finding out its owner. Until now. Fortune reports that a pair of Russian investigative groups may have confirmed that this mysterious yacht belongs to Vladimir Putin.

 

The yacht, called Scheherazade, appeared in the Italian port town of Marina di Carrara. As soon as it docked, it was shrouded in mystery. From the crew erecting a metal barrier on the pier to keep onlookers from seeing it, to a panel over the name on the bow to keep people from identifying it, no one knew who it belonged to. That’s until an investigative group led by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (who was also just sentenced to another nine years in prison on top of the two and a half he’s already serving) did some digging.

 

The group went the way of finding out who pays the small fries to get to the bigger fish. In this instance, the small fries were the crew of the yacht. The group was able to obtain the entire crew list for the Scheherazade.

 

It listed everyone from the captain to workers at the port. The list was made in December of 2020 and complied at the same port in Italy that the Scheherazade is docked at. The captain, one Guy Pearce, was recently interviewed by the New York Times. 

 

Aside from Pearce, who is English, every single person working on the yacht is Russian. That isn’t the only thing they have in common. Using the information from the crew list which had everything from the crew’s birthdates to their visa numbers, the group was able to piece together that over half of the 23 people listed as working on the ship are not only Russian but also members of the FSO or the Federal Protective Service. This service is pretty much Putin’s personal security, or as the group described “the agency that protects Putin and organizes his life.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Busch1724]

As a side note (the yacht story reminded me of this for some reason), what will the eastern board beaches do for summer workers this summer? The Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey beaches have stores like Sunsations who almost exclusively use Russian workers who are on work visas for the summer. They make more money working minimum wage here in the US from May until September than they do in Russia. 

[China]

5 hours ago, DogofWar1 said:

 

 

Apparently that was the Orsk, and it has been sunk:

 

Ukraine strikes another brutal blow to Putin's war plans as Russian warship destroyed

 

A Russian navy amphibious assault vessel – The Large Landing Ship Orsk 148 – has been pictured on fire and sinking off the Black Sea coast near the Berdyansk sea trading port.

 

It’s likely that the Orsk was carrying Russian reinforcements on their way to Mariupol, which is seen by both sides as an important strategic battleground for control of the Black Sea.

 

Russia had announced on Monday that the Orsk was resupplying forces at Berdyansk – raising the prospect of a new and even more savage assault on Mariupol.

 

Video of the ship unloading armoured personnel carriers was broadcast by Zvezda, a television station run by Moscow’s defence ministry.

 

But a tweet from the Ukrainian navy showed an image of the vessel on fire and sinking and captioned it “Orcs are liquidated on 'Orsk' - karma”.

 

The Orsk was an “Alligator” class vessel with a crew of 55, capable of landing up to 425 troops and, 20 tanks or 40 smaller armoured vehicles.

 

It's not known how many would have been aboard the Orsk when it was destroyed.

 

Orsk was launched and commissioned as part of the Soviet Navy in 1968, serving a total of 11 campaigns in Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Mediterranean. It most recently saw action in 2018, carrying men and materiel to support Russian operations in Syria.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Ukrainian Army Has More Tanks Now Than When The War Began—Because It Keeps Capturing Them From Russia

 

kraine has lost at least 74 tanks—destroyed or captured—since Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23.

 

But Ukraine has captured at least 117 Russian tanks, according to open-source-intelligence analysts who scrutinize photos and videos on social media.

 

In other words, the Ukrainian army might actually have more tanks now than a month ago—all without building a single brand-new tank or pulling some older vehicle out of storage.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[DCSaints_fan]

24 minutes ago, China said:

The Ukrainian Army Has More Tanks Now Than When The War Began—Because It Keeps Capturing Them From Russia

 

kraine has lost at least 74 tanks—destroyed or captured—since Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23.

 

But Ukraine has captured at least 117 Russian tanks, according to open-source-intelligence analysts who scrutinize photos and videos on social media.

 

In other words, the Ukrainian army might actually have more tanks now than a month ago—all without building a single brand-new tank or pulling some older vehicle out of storage.

 

Click on the link for the full article

I wonder what a top four list of countries that have supplied arms to Ukranian army during the conflict would look like, maybe something like

1) US

2) UK

3) Germany

4) Russia
 

[FrFan]

2 hours ago, The Sisko said:

I have to wonder how many of the Russian generals and high level officers we've heard about getting popped recently were his work.

I don't know either, what i know is that the ukrainian snipers are very good. I guess they've been tipped by US intel and probably some FSB whistleblower.

[EmirOfShmo]

1 hour ago, Busch1724 said:

As a side note (the yacht story reminded me of this for some reason), what will the eastern board beaches do for summer workers this summer? The Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey beaches have stores like Sunsations who almost exclusively use Russian workers who are on work visas for the summer. They make more money working minimum wage here in the US from May until September than they do in Russia. 

 

Pretty sure you can add Virginia Beach & the Outer Banks to that list. It was problematic during the prior 2 summers due to the pandemic.

[FrFan]

 

[gbear]

So I saw the article in the post about the severed pigs head and it made me think about all the times we have done pigs roasts here.  I wonder if they ever think about the fact they are giving the best meat on the entire pig to somebody in an effort to offend them?  I get it that he is Jewish and might not eat pork, but from a value of the gift standpoint, the pigs head (cheeks in particular), has the most tender meat on the beast.  It's like giving filet mignon to somebody as an insult.

 

Now back to the regular scheduled program, where we read more and more news leading me to realize how little I understand the actions taken by Russia and Putin's supporters.

[FrFan]

 

[China]

Rand Paul throws fresh wrench in Senate's push for quick Russia trade sanctions

 

The Senate is struggling to quickly pass popular bipartisan legislation to suspend normal trade relations with Russia, likely further stalling a top priority of President Joe Biden as he conducts NATO meetings in Europe.

 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is preventing the chamber from approving the bill before senators leave Washington for the weekend over his opposition to language in the measure regarding sanctions for global human-rights abusers.

 

The White House has urged Congress to act quickly on the legislation, which the House passed last week by a vote of 424-8, in order to further isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine.

“I always live by the theory that nothing in the Senate is easy,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) lamented to reporters on Thursday. “This is an area where the American people strongly believe … that Vladimir Putin has forfeited with his inhuman conduct the right to normal trade relations.”

 

Congress has yet to send Biden standalone Ukraine-related legislation since Russia’s assault began last month; a package of $14 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine was signed into law as part of a broader funding bill. Senators had hoped to pass the trade sanctions bill this week while Biden is in Brussels for meetings with allies in the trans-Atlantic alliance that center on Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

 

Paul, who generally opposes sanctions as a means of punishing a foreign nation, is demanding that the House-passed measure be amended to restrict what he sees as an overly broad authorization for executive-branch sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act — a 2016 law intended to crack down on human-rights abuses.

 

The Kentucky senator’s objections, if they’re not resolved, could force Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to burn a week of valuable floor time on the legislation, which most Republicans support in its current form. An agreement to speed up consideration of the bill requires consent from all 100 senators.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited March 24, 2022 by China

[Cooked Crack]

 

Fly eagles fly?

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Cooked Crack

[DogofWar1]

Philadelphia and Poland, two "P" places that just can't help themselves when it comes to confronting the Russians.

[Wildbunny]

27 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

I would have understood Denver doing it.

 

But Philadelphia?

 

Not even close.

[Busch1724]

35 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

Well mall santas equipped with batteries. However if the mall santas have the accuracy of McNabb, the no fly zone is useless. 

[FootballZombie]

-Russian Economy cut in half since beginning of invasion

-Was the worlds 11th biggest economy, will now fall outside top 20

-Inflation is expected to continue for Russia

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-meet-nato-european-leaders-074514058.html

 

Ouch

[DCSaints_fan]

18 hours ago, visionary said:

 

Syrians join Russian ranks in Ukraine as Putin calls in Assad’s debt | Russia | The Guardian

 

If these are of any consequence, I hope we find a way to head it off.  Negotiating with Assad (covertly ) might be doable, we convince him to send only token support and make some excuse like Lukashenko has been doing.  If we can't do that, I would be in favor of funding the opposition to overthrow him, or even going as far as shooting/sinking the troop transports if possible, through spec ops or otherwise. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by DCSaints_fan

[TradeTheBeal!]

I thought the super-scary ultimate Syrian fighting force was coming down like 3 weeks ago?

 

Anyhooo, I hope they like their truck breaking down in the middle of nowhere and being stuck, starving in 40 degree rain for two weeks!

[The Sisko]

34 minutes ago, DCSaints_fan said:

If these are of any consequence, I hope we find a way to head it off.  Negotiating with Assad (covertly ) might be doable, we convince him to send only token support and make some excuse like Lukashenko has been doing.  If we can't do that, I would be in favor of funding the opposition to overthrow him, or even going as far as shooting/sinking the troop transports if possible, through spec ops or otherwise. 

I was thinking the same thing. It sure would be a good time for the opposition to start doing their thing again. However, they were so brutalized by the Russians, I don't know that they'd be able to do much at this point, even with Assad's forces being shorthanded.

[visionary]

I'd be more worried about the Iranian-backed militias, since those guys did the toughest fighting in syria and may have US weapons and vehicles from Iraq still.  (no idea what transport would be like though)

Edited March 24, 2022 by visionary

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

[DogofWar1]

 

Hmm.

 

Putin will want some sort of victory by May 9 to sell to people.  It's not looking like Kiev or the coastline (Odesa) will be possible.  Land bridge from DPR -> Crimea, maybe?  But even in the south Ukraine is starting counter attacks in the Kherson region, so dunno if that will hold.