Things are heating up in the Donbass

[Mosinitis]

BBC reported Russian forces broke through newly built Ukrainian defense line near Ocheretino. Multiple towns came under Russian control in the last few days.
Ukraine withdrew all Abrams tanks from the frontline as they became easy targets for new generation of Russian drones.

 

[Mosinitis]

 

[holdover]

 

[livingston]

 

[holdover]

They work well against rioters and crowds too

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

NATO clunkers go on display in Moscow

They're not clunkers. NATO equipment is superior to Russias.

It just goes to show the level of hellscape modern conflict is with a near peer. This is what all the cheerleading dems need to be willing to send their own kids into. Just a pure hellscape of misery where the best equipment on earth ends up as trophy's

 

[Mosinitis]

They're not clunkers. NATO equipment is superior to Russias.

Yes and no. Russian tanks can operate on muddy roads and easier to repair.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Yes and no. Russian tanks can operate on muddy roads and easier to repair.

So can NATO tanks. To say otherwise is merely propaganda.

Russian tanks may be easier to repair, I genuinely have no idea.

 

[Mosinitis]

So can NATO tanks. To say otherwise is merely propaganda.

Russian tanks may be easier to repair, I genuinely have no idea.

Russian tanks have wider threads and weigh less, designed to operate on softer terrain.

 

[livingston]

LIVE News | Hungary's Orban EU Election Campaign Aims At 'Occupy Brussels' While Attacking West​

LIVE News, Hungary's Orban EU Election Campaign Aims At 'Occupy Brussels' While Attacking West. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban painted a grim picture of a Europe teetering on the edge of armed conflict in a speech opening his party's campaign for European Union elections. The long-serving leader goes into the June ballot facing significant challenges at home and abroad, including the recent resignations of key officials and a battered economy due partly to billions in EU funds withheld from Hungary over rule-of-law and corruption concerns.

 

[holdover]

Russian tanks have wider threads and weigh less, designed to operate on softer terrain.

I have to agree with you there, the T72, T80 are around 40 tons , M1 Abrams is around 70 tons , so it does have its advantages there. Another thing is the logistics of fuel consumption. Thats the worst part about the Abrams

 

[holdover]

Look at that soulless face. What was Blinkin thinkin ? Im so desperate Im making shit up . Black rock cant sell the soon to be Russian property , So blinky comes on and encourages that somebody please help buy up Black rocks loss, Oh irony, thy name is Blinkin.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

Look at that soulless face. What was Blinkin thinkin ? Im so desperate Im making shit up . Black rock cant sell the soon to be Russian property , So blinky comes on and encourages that somebody please help buy up Black rocks loss, Oh irony, thy name is Blinkin.

How do these shit weasels get to the positions they are in. Utterly disgusting.

There really is good and evil in the world and not all evil looks like a grotesque psychopath. Plenty of heinous evil deeds have been committed by spoken words and a pen.

There's no other explanation for a war that you more or less goaded into happening watching a country be destroyed, an entire generation of men being decimated and civilians struggling to survive and you are focused on investment firm profits return on investment.

I just don't have words for this level of money and power driven selfish depravity.

 

[Defilade]

 

[Defilade]

 

[holdover]

Watch the maps.

 

[holdover]

 

[holdover]

France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine. They have been deployed in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in Slavyansk. The French soldiers are drawn from France’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is one of the main elements of France’s Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère).

The initial group of French troops numbers around 100. This is just the first tranche of around 1,500 French Foreign Legion soldiers scheduled to arrive in Ukraine.
These troops are being posted directly in a hot combat area and are intended to help the Ukrainians resist Russian advances in Donbas. The first 100 are artillery and surveillance specialists.
For months French President Emanuel Macron has been threatening to send French troops to Ukraine. He has found little or no support from NATO countries outside of support from Poland and the Baltic States. Allegedly the US opposes sending NATO soldiers to Ukraine (other than as advisors).
One of the questions to immediately arise from France’s decision to send soldiers from its 3rd Infantry Regiment is whether this crosses the Russian red line on NATO involvement in Ukraine? Will the Russians see this as initiating a wider war beyond Ukraine’s borders?

​

France itself does not have many troops to put on Ukraine’s battlelines, should the French government want to do so. According to reports, today France cannot support an overseas deployment of a full division and won’t have this capability until 2027 at the earliest.​

The decision to send Foreign Legionnaires is, itself, a peculiar French compromise. France is not deploying its home army and, besides the small number of officers, the men sent are not French citizens.
France’s decision has two meanings, beyond the obvious one of potentially triggering a pan-European war.
First of all, it allows Macron to send troops to Ukraine and act like a tough guy without encountering much home opposition. That’s because no French army soldiers are being sent and there is no consequent conscription or other measures in the offing. This clearly reduces the potential fury of Macron’s political opponents.
French Foreign Legionnaires in the desert. Photo: Vanity Fair
The second reason is Macron’s anger at seeing French troops, almost all from the Legion, getting kicked out of Sahelian Africa and replaced by Russians. Control of Francophone Africa, and the riches it provides to French politicians, has been broken by the revolt and revolution in Africa and a decisive tilt to Russia – either directly or through PMC Wagner (the Wagner Group). now clearly under Vladimir Putin’s direct control.
This “humiliation” is felt in the Élysée Palace and particularly by Macron who, his opponents say, has lost France’s influence and harmed France’s overseas mining and business interests.
A particular blow is in Niger, an important supplier of uranium to France. France gets 70 percent of its electrical power from nuclear power generators. Global uranium supplies are tightening and prices rising. With Russia and Kazakhstan, along with Niger, on the top of the heap in terms of supplying uranium for nuclear reactors, France has a home economic security problem. The US decision to ban Russian uranium (but probably not realistically, in the next few years) the Russians could deal a serious blow to France and the United States by cutting off supplies.
French Troops Departing Niger
Given the risk of losing access to uranium, or at least enough of it to supply France’s reactors, Macron has to hope that his troop deployments to Ukraine won’t trigger a Russian embargo on sales to France.

It isn’t clear how the Legionnaires can help the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians know how to operate artillery, and they have sophisticated intelligence support, some of it generated by their own FPV drones and spies and some of it thanks to US and other NATO intelligence and surveillance assets supporting Ukraine.
Anyway, the Ukrainian issue is not about how to use artillery but where the ammunition is supposed to come from. Ukraine continues to complain it lacks adequate supplies for 155mm howitzers.
The decision to put the Legion soldiers in Slavyansk is extremely provocative and goes against statements from the French side, including Macron, to the effect that if France sent troops they would replace Ukrainian army units in western Ukraine who could, therefore, be moved eastward to fight the Russians. As Slavyansk is on the front line, this French image of a soft deployment is turning into a war with Russia directly.

​

France sends troops to Ukraine: Russian report - Asia Times

Editors' Note, May 6, 2024: A link originally indicating a source for this report has gone dead. A new link to the same source, a Sputnik page, is given

asiatimes.com

 

[tirwin1]

View attachment 234159

I honestly believe the opinion of this country held by the rest of the world is declining rapidly because of the obvious hypocrisy of our government. I'm wondering if the rest of the world would prefer we go back to an isolationist posture (just like many Americans).

 

[holdover]

I honestly believe the opinion of this country held by the rest of the world is declining rapidly because of the obvious hypocrisy of our government. I'm wondering if the rest of the world would prefer we go back to an isolationist posture (just like many Americans).

What are you? some kind of raciest?

 

[holdover]

I honestly believe the opinion of this country held by the rest of the world is declining rapidly because of the obvious hypocrisy of our government. I'm wondering if the rest of the world would prefer we go back to an isolationist posture (just like many Americans).

We invaded Iraq for WMD's , for national security half way around the world , then when Russia does it they are the devil .

 

[holdover]

Breaking news: French troops surrender

 

[holdover]

French troops deployed to Slavyansk which is not very far from Chasiv Yar . They better hope they dont need any any artillery shells

 

[Mosinitis]

French troops deployed to Slavyansk which is not very far from Chasiv Yar . They better hope they dont need any any artillery shells

Slavyansk and Kramatorsk are two cities of annexed Donbass which are still not under Russian control. Russians are expected to move on them in the near future.

NATO is using French Legion to test Russian reaction, while incrementally crossing the Biggest red line of this war. NATO will send more troops from a number of other countries without a doubt. Welcome to WWIII.

Would be interesting to see Russian reaction, I can't imagine they didn't plan for this.

 

[spat]

We invaded Iraq for WMD's , for national security half way around the world , then when Russia does it they are the devil .

We invaded Iraq because they threatened the world's oil supply and in particular, the petro dollar.

The 2000s era action was really just the second act of the 1990s endeavor.

Iraq had specifically invaded one of their peaceful neighbors, and the whole world ganged up to push them back (even of the US had to do 90% of the work).

Iraq literally did the same thing Russia did ( invade a weaker peaceful neighbor because they wanted their resources ). Putin is very lucky he didn't get the Hussain treatment.

What was Russia worried would happen if they left Ukraine alone ? Did they seriously think the Ukrainians were going to invade them ?

 

[holdover]

Slavyansk and Kramatorsk are two cities of annexed Donbass which are still not under Russian control. Russians are expected to move on them in the near future.

NATO is using French Legion to test Russian reaction, while incrementally crossing the Biggest red line of this war. NATO will send more troops from a number of other countries without a doubt. Welcome to WWIII.

Would be interesting to see Russian reaction, I can't imagine they didn't plan for this.

You kidding me? they are going to make a special project out of the French.They are going to hit them so fucking hard they wont get up . They dont know what they got themselves into . Once they Id the general locations they will target every structure withen 2 miles . they wont miss. They will embarrass the the French . They are going to do everything possible to ensure none of them are alive

 

[holdover]

What was Russia worried would happen if they left Ukraine alone ? Did they seriously think the Ukrainians were going to invade them ?

We've covered this ground before. they were concerned about NATO otherwise they would have invaded them the day after they allowed them to separate from the soviet union.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

You kidding me? they are going to make a special project out of the French.They are going to hit them so fucking hard they wont get up . They dont know what they got themselves into . Once they Id the general locations they will target every structure withen 2 miles . they wont miss. They will embarrass the the French . They are going to do everything possible to ensure none of them are alive

It's like the opening scene in we were soldiers with the NVA killing the foreign legion to the last man, kill them all or more will come.

 

[MothMan]

It's like the opening scene in we were soldiers with the NVA killing the foreign legion to the last man, kill them all or more will come.

Battle of Dien Bien Phu ‑ Background, Outcome & Fallout | HISTORY

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, fought from March 13 to May 7, 1954, was a decisive Vietnamese military victory that brought an end to French colonial rule in Vietnam.

www.history.com

 

[spat]

We've covered this ground before. they were concerned about NATO otherwise they would have invaded them the day after they allowed them to separate from the soviet union.

What specifically were they "concerned about NATO" doing ?

Ukraine joins NATO and the only difference that makes is the Russian window to annex Ukraine has ended.

I agree that is a major concern for Russia, but that doesn't mean their desire to annex Ukraine against their will justifies the invasion.

Or would NATO now be justified in invading Ukraine because they are concerned about Russia ?