Ukraine: Russia has launched 'full-scale invasion'

[johnny108]

Russians do not fight house-to-house urban battles. If they can’t take a city quickly, they pull back and shell it to rubble with rockets and artillery.
At least, that’s how they’ve handled the problem for the last 120 years+.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Obviously they are going to ask for far more than they expect to them to agree to but as has been said they cannot take over the Ukraine and run it so at some point they are going to have to come to a compromise.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Russians do not fight house-to-house urban battles. If they can’t take a city quickly, they pull back and shell it to rubble with rockets and artillery.
At least, that’s how they’ve handled the problem for the last 120 years+.

If they are going to run the country the last thing the want to do is reduce it to rubble.

 

[Brianbrewed]

I

If they are going to run the country the last thing the want to do is reduce it to rubble.

They have done this to Grozny.
They are currently doing this in several Ukrainian cities.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Maybe they want to scare the Ukrainian army into giving up they have the means to level every town and cities but they haven't.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Seems there is a delay in transferring planes to the Ukraine. After listening to some bloke on 5 live earlier who I agreed with, we should probably concentrate on giving them thousands of surface to air missiles. Airplanes, runways, hangers etc can be targeted where as some bloke with a stinger on his shoulder is a far less easy target. Some anti ship missiles would probably be useful too.

 

[Eskimo John]

Sky Australia are reporting a leaked FSB memo that seems to say that Russia has entered a war it cannot win. The premise being that having not been welcomed by the Ukrainian people the conflict that has arisen as a result has made the objective of a united Russia and Ukraine impossible to achieve. That the events happening will be impossible to hide long-term from the Russian people and that Russia its self will suffer for years to come as a result.

I don't know how true this is but Sky AU say that it has been verified as a genuine document through FSB contacts.

I don't suppose the author will be around for long to confirm his or her opinion.

https://www.skynews.com.au/world-ne...ailure/video/d175f9fe7733563676e9619cff8eff24

 

[Big_Eight]

They have discussed this and the view is the Russians would know the planes were not theirs and this would be seen as a step too far by Nato also their pilots are not trained to fly modern planes.

The plan was to give Poland modern F-16's and then Poland give Ukraine their old Mig-29's (which Ukrainian pilots are familiar with).

[ unfurl="true"]https://www.politico.eu/article/us-...-supply-ukraine-with-fighter-jets-via-poland/[/URL]

However, this seems unlikely in the short term.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...r-jets-ukraine-hits-logistical-snag-rcna19083
However, with the growing humanitarian crisis and the Russian tactics of deliberately targeting civilians & civilian infrastructure, God knows where this is going.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-cities-despite-cynical-offer-of-safe-passage

What Brianbrewed said

 

[Big_Eight]

Seems there is a delay in transferring planes to the Ukraine. After listening to some bloke on 5 live earlier who I agreed with, we should probably concentrate on giving them thousands of surface to air missiles. Airplanes, runways, hangers etc can be targeted where as some bloke with a stinger on his shoulder is a far less easy target. Some anti ship missiles would probably be useful too.

I saw they received around 20k stinger missiles just a day or so ago so that's good.

Edit: Not sure if they were all stingers but we're a mix of anti air and anti tank missiles. That number also might be the total so far.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The UK will increase "lethal and non-lethal aid" to Ukraine amid Russia's continued military assault, the defence secretary has said.
Ben Wallace said he would set out more details of what the UK and others could do in a statement to MPs on Wednesday.
It will cover equipment for those fighting against Russia and also aid for those affected by the invasion.
But he rejected calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying it would not halt Russian artillery or missiles.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of preventing safe civilian evacuations as Russian forces continue shelling cities.
Asked if the UK would support Poland if it chose to supply jets to Ukraine, Mr Wallace told BBC Breakfast there was still an ongoing "debate" about whether Poland would do this as it could face Russian "retaliation".
But the defence secretary said that while Britain could not supply jets directly to Ukraine, it would support Poland in whatever choice it made.
The UK has already pledged a total of £400m in support for Ukraine, as well as providing defensive military equipment and imposing sanctions against Russian banks, companies and individuals.

As Russia's assault on Ukraine enters its 13th day, Mr Wallace said its forces were "getting more desperate" and "doubling down on brutality".
Ukraine has begun evacuating civilians from the town of Irpin, near the capital Kyiv, and the northern city of Sumy after Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to set up humanitarian corridors.
But on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were shelling an evacuation route out of the besieged southern city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian cities have continued to suffer heavy bombardment from Russian forces, causing several civilian evacuation plans to collapse.
Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Putin was a "spent force in the world" and seemed to have "no limit to the humanitarian grief and murder he can inflict on a country".
Asked how the war could end, Mr Wallace said one scenario could be if the Russian army becomes "so stuck and defeated" it "turns in on itself and the generals get blamed and then it grinds to a halt".
He said a second possibility could occur if Russia imposed "its total will" by trying to break the people of Ukraine, because he believed Mr Putin wouldn't "break the people of Ukraine".
He added: "The cost to Putin is not just in the invasion, it's going to be in the decades of occupation, which I don't think he will be able to sustain."
Amid criticism of the UK's visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees, Mr Wallace said the UK could and would do more and ensure the processing of visas was accelerated.
It comes as international diplomatic efforts continue, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosting the leaders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in London on Tuesday for talks on the UK's support for security in central Europe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60658340

 

[DavidDetroit]

Hoping the self-destructing dictator, Vlad, continues on his path to self destruction--evil turning on itself.
I'm also hoping for as little destruction toward the innocents as possible while he does it.
#insanepeopledothemselvesin

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[foxy]

I wonder when some observers say, 'The wheels are falling off Russia's war machine' Do they mean literally.

 

[DavidDetroit]

The UK has already pledged a total of £400m in support for Ukraine,

That's great and all but what it made me think of is that you can win even more than that in a lottery drawing here. I really hope the US is pitching in--HARD. I say that because I don't read the news and don't know.

 

[Brianbrewed]

Looks like the idea of supplying the Ukrainians with old Polish MiG29s is moving forward.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...29-jets-us-ukraine?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

[DavidDetroit]

Looks like the idea of supplying the Ukrainians with old Polish MiG29s is moving forward.

I had the idea of supplying the Ukrainians with many Americans garbed/posing as Ukrainians (couple dozen key phrases learnt plus a proper accent).
Obviously, I'm not for war but I'm more not for villains.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Ceasefire in an hour let's see how long this one lasts.

 

[johnny108]

Maybe they want to scare the Ukrainian army into giving up they have the means to level every town and cities but they haven't.

They have the means to flatten the cities, but not the ways: the Russian logistics system has completely failed.

 

[Eskimo John]

From the Institute for the Study of War website:

Campaign Assessment, March 8
Mar 8, 2022 - Press ISW

Russian forces continued concentrating in the eastern, northwestern, and western outskirts of Kyiv for an assault on the capital in the coming 24-96 hours. The reported appearance of forces belonging to Chechen leader Ramazan Kadyrov, Russia’s Rosgvardia internal security formations, and the Liga (former Wagner) Private Military Company in the western outskirts of Kyiv may indicate that the Russian military is struggling to assemble sufficient conventional combat power to launch its assault on the capital. Russian forces near Kyiv made limited gains and prepared for limited drives to continue their attempted encirclement to the west.

It looks like the Russian logistics issues might be bigger that thought if they are shipping in Chechens. Or alternatively may be they expect the conflict to go wider and don't want to move forces that are in place to balance NATO deployments elswhere.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I heard this earlier not the smartest move lets hope they find him before he gets to Poland.


A British soldier has gone absent without leave and may be trying to head to Ukraine, an Army source has confirmed to the BBC.

It follows a report in the Sun of a 19-year-old from the Coldstream Guards who left his Windsor barracks and bought a ticket to Poland at the weekend.

The Ministry of Defence did not confirm the report.

A spokesperson said all service personnel are banned from travelling to Ukraine until further notice.

"This applies whether the service person is on leave or not," they added. "Personnel travelling to Ukraine will face disciplinary and administrative consequences."

Senior UK military officers have been worried that some British troops - regulars or reservists - might try to join the battle in Ukraine.

Hundreds of former British soldiers, who have completed their time in the armed services, have said they want to go to Ukraine to fight or help with medical or humanitarian efforts. Many have told the BBC they are getting mixed messages from the government about whether they should go.

The head of the British armed forces said at the weekend that Britons should not head to Ukraine to fight - and should instead help in sensible ways they can from the UK.

Adm Sir Tony Radakin said the "sound of gunfire" was not "something you want to rush to".

And last week the Chief of Defence People, Lt Gen James Swift, sent out a message to the chain of command stressing that UK military personnel were "not authorised" to travel there.

He said that if there was any suspicion that troops were trying to make their way to Ukraine then it should be reported immediately to the service police.

The message warned that if serving British military personnel went to fight in Ukraine then they were putting not only their lives in danger but they also risked giving "the mistaken perception" to Russia that Britain had sent in troops to engage in hostilities.

Previously, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had said in a TV interview that she backed individuals from the UK who might want to go to Ukraine to help the fight. Her comments came after Ukraine called on foreign nationals to come over and help.

But the government later clarified its position. The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ukraine, and the MoD says travelling to help in the fighting may be against the law and could lead to prosecution. The Ukrainian people can be supported in many ways, including through charitable donations, it stresses.

And on Wednesday, the government's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "You cannot go and fight if you're in the British Army, you cannot just get up and go and fight.
"Of course that's inappropriate behaviour and you would expect the Army to have some very, very strict rules in place, as they do."

The UK has repeatedly said it would not be sending British troops to fight in Ukraine, and the West has been clear that it would not engage in direct military confrontation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60675671