Putin Invades the Ukraine

[Chicks]

‘Well over’ 100,000 Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine, U.S. says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...jured-ukraine/

https://youtu.be/hZJRJpbGkG4

[Chicks]

Ukrainian forces enter Kherson as Russia completes retreat from key southern city
Moscow’s defense ministry said early Friday that its troops and equipment had been withdrawn from the western bank of the Dnieper River — finalizing a humiliating pullout .
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/r...ance-rcna56717

Perhaps some here will finally learn not to believe Fucker Carlson's lies.

[donquixote99]

More reporting on recapture of Kherson: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...m-kherson-city

[finnbow]

The US has intelligence that Russia may have delayed announcing its withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson in part to avoid giving the Biden administration a political win ahead of the midterm elections, according to four people familiar with the intelligence.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/polit...ion/index.html

[Pio1980]

White elephant war trophy.
Impounded in San Diego, sanctioned Russian billionaire’s $325 million Amadea yacht has accumulated $120,000 in docking charges alone. That is just the tip of the iceberg, as a megayacht requires a lot of care, and the upkeep cost alone will run north of $10m a year.
https://luxurylaunches.com/transport...ep-charges.php

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by Chicks

Ukrainian forces enter Kherson as Russia completes retreat from key southern city
Moscow’s defense ministry said early Friday that its troops and equipment had been withdrawn from the western bank of the Dnieper River — finalizing a humiliating pullout .
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/r...ance-rcna56717

Perhaps some here will finally learn not to believe Fucker Carlson's lies.

That's always a possibility but...

[finnbow]

From numerous perspectives, when viewed from a bang-per-buck perspective, US and Western support for Ukraine is an incredibly cost-effective investment. 

Altogether, the Biden administration received Congressional approval for $40bn in aid for Ukraine for 2022 and has requested an additional $37.7bn for 2022. More than half of this aid has been earmarked for defense. 

These sums pale into insignificance when set against a total US defense budget of $715bn for 2022. The assistance represents 5.6% of total US defense spending. But Russia is a primary adversary of the US, a top tier rival not too far behind China, its number one strategic challenger. In cold, geopolitical terms, this war provides a prime opportunity for the US to erode and degrade Russia’s conventional defense capability, with no boots on the ground and little risk to US lives.

The Ukrainian armed forces have already killed or wounded upwards of 100,000 Russian troops, half its original fighting force; there have been almost 8,000 confirmed losses of armored vehicles including thousands of tanks, thousands of APCs, artillery pieces, hundreds of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and numerous naval vessels. US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment.

https://cepa.org/article/its-costing...defeat-russia/

[Dondilion]

What a simplistic article. Russia threat to the US was never in terms of its conventional weapons.

A major facet of conventional weaponry is its huge market to national and foreign buyers. Recently Russia has been making inroads and nations has been threaten not to buy Russian weaponry.

US weapons industry view Ukraine as a chance to show case its weapons. Does it really care about Ukrainians? Milley indirectly questioned this. He said the Russians have lost 100,000 and the Ukrainians about the same.

Significant reasons for growing alarm re Ukraine is escalation leading to nuclear Armageddon, lack of oversight on the funds, a repeat of history where a war becomes its own growth engine (Afghan 20 years!), and a gnawing feeling that the Secretary of Defense is wearing two hats.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

What a simplistic article. Russia threat to the US was never in terms of its conventional weapons.

A major facet of conventional weaponry is its huge market to national and foreign buyers. Recently Russia has been making inroads and nations has been threaten not to buy Russian weaponry.

US weapons industry view Ukraine as a chance to show case its weapons. Does it really care about Ukrainians? Milley indirectly questioned this. He said the Russians have lost 100,000 and the Ukrainians about the same.

Significant reasons for growing alarm re Ukraine is escalation leading to nuclear Armageddon, lack of oversight on the funds, a repeat of history where a war becomes its own growth engine (Afghan 20 years!), and a gnawing feeling that the Secretary of Defense is wearing two hats.

But the threat to allies was very much in terms of conventional weapons. I'm not inclined to view with 'alarm' the rapacity of the weapons sellers at this minute, let alone gnawing feelings. The Armageddon threat is alarming, I grant you, and I'd love it if a new detente someday let it be reduced. But the real threat in Europe was always Russian conventional forces operating with impunity under Russia's nuclear umbrella. The gutting of the conventional forces is a huge strategic victory, well worth a note from a think-tank.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

What a simplistic article. Russia threat to the US was never in terms of its conventional weapons.

As someone who lived and worked for 3 years in the Fulda Gap (and 5 more years elsewhere in Germany) building infrastructure support for both conventional and nuclear weapons, I call bullshit on this. Due to the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, conventional weapons have always been the primary threat from Russia/USSR to our European allies and American forces in Europe.

Nuclear weapons can provide a shield for aggression and that aggression is with conventional weapons as we are seeing now in Ukraine.