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Russian soldiers sent Olga Novikova, founder/director of Mariupol film festival video with her captured son demanding to pay 5000 Euro ransom for his life. If not they promised to send video of his execution. links in comments. pic.twitter.com/VBtauH45IZ
Two charming little actresses, Elizabeth and Sonya, of the city theatre of Mariupol. They both performed the role of Lucy in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".
Interesting comment about the need for the Russian military to modernise. They have the £££ but do they have the political will? Their tried and trusted centralised control and accountability will remain that way in my view. That way there are always culprits. It’s a method that has rarely let them down too, especially combined with Syria style reducing a country to rubble.
The kit of course will be upgraded and imports from their mates will continue. While Putin can continue raise hundreds of of thousands of conscripts, I suspect he will just continue to throw numbers at it and tell lies to his domestic audience. The bloke is that nutty.
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 17:05 - Dec 20 with 6912 views
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 16:58 - Dec 20 by Churchman
Thanks for posting.
Interesting comment about the need for the Russian military to modernise. They have the £££ but do they have the political will? Their tried and trusted centralised control and accountability will remain that way in my view. That way there are always culprits. It’s a method that has rarely let them down too, especially combined with Syria style reducing a country to rubble.
The kit of course will be upgraded and imports from their mates will continue. While Putin can continue raise hundreds of of thousands of conscripts, I suspect he will just continue to throw numbers at it and tell lies to his domestic audience. The bloke is that nutty.
Do they have the cash though?
Russia have a GDP of 1.48Tn USD. As a comparison the UK has a GDP of 2.67Tn USD.
As an even more telling comparison, the USD military budget is ~780Bn USD or more than half of Russia's total GDP.
They can certainly modernise but they can't modernise and keep an armed forces of the current size and certainly nothing like the US or China. In fact, in 2022 the Russian military budget was smaller than that of the UK (although larger in % of GDP terms).
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 17:05 - Dec 20 by StokieBlue
Do they have the cash though?
Russia have a GDP of 1.48Tn USD. As a comparison the UK has a GDP of 2.67Tn USD.
As an even more telling comparison, the USD military budget is ~780Bn USD or more than half of Russia's total GDP.
They can certainly modernise but they can't modernise and keep an armed forces of the current size and certainly nothing like the US or China. In fact, in 2022 the Russian military budget was smaller than that of the UK (although larger in % of GDP terms).
Their domestic economy might have taken a battering through sanctions but the oil and gas money has rolled in. Long term? Depends on how quickly it’s best mates India, China Iran and co pick up the slack from turning Europe’s taps off.
Russia has really good manufacturing capability. They can build tanks and aircraft no problem. The issue is the tech kit that goes in them. Whether they can buy for example optics from France through a third party, I don’t know, but overall this aspect is Russia Achilles heel, if the Ukrainians continue to be supplied by the US.
Losing 1000s of men is no problem to Putin. They don’t matter. Cannon fodder is easily found and easily made to disappear. The problem is whether they can achieve anything with it.
Your last paragraph is very telling. Russia can never be the world player Putin demands - unless it swallows its neighbours which of course is the aim. That’s why it’s important to protect Ukraine, Poland, Baltics, Finland.
Where Putin has got it so badly wrong is that Russia is now a very junior partner to China and getting smaller by the month.
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 18:56 - Dec 20 with 6852 views
Goodnight #Ukraine. I'll leave with 🇷🇺 saying Shoigu inspected advanced positions in the "special military operation" - this giving the impression he flew over frontline in 🇺🇦. So I looked, and he's nowhere near frontline, the 🤡 simply flew over occupied #Crimea. (1st pic video) https://t.co/JH9d6JbrEupic.twitter.com/ZD5B70RtbM
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 17:05 - Dec 20 by StokieBlue
Do they have the cash though?
Russia have a GDP of 1.48Tn USD. As a comparison the UK has a GDP of 2.67Tn USD.
As an even more telling comparison, the USD military budget is ~780Bn USD or more than half of Russia's total GDP.
They can certainly modernise but they can't modernise and keep an armed forces of the current size and certainly nothing like the US or China. In fact, in 2022 the Russian military budget was smaller than that of the UK (although larger in % of GDP terms).
The size of their economy is irrelevant to an extent. Unfortunately I suspect Putin and his lackeys have been planning this war for some time and priced in a certain level of sanctions. They have a low debt to GDP ration of around 27pc (UK is >100pc I believe). On top of which they’ve built up huge amount of reserves with their oil and gas sales (around USD 171bn) presumably to counter loss of access to external financing.
Their pockets aren’t as deep however as a united West l, so we need to keep up the supplies to Ukraine coming, and not lose nerve in these uncertain economic times.
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 20:05 - Dec 20 with 6785 views
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 19:16 - Dec 20 by SuperKieranMcKenna
The size of their economy is irrelevant to an extent. Unfortunately I suspect Putin and his lackeys have been planning this war for some time and priced in a certain level of sanctions. They have a low debt to GDP ration of around 27pc (UK is >100pc I believe). On top of which they’ve built up huge amount of reserves with their oil and gas sales (around USD 171bn) presumably to counter loss of access to external financing.
Their pockets aren’t as deep however as a united West l, so we need to keep up the supplies to Ukraine coming, and not lose nerve in these uncertain economic times.
The size of the economy is relevant.
They have a low debt ratio because they have repeatedly defaulted on their debt and you'd be mad to buy it. With regards to the reserves, they are fairly large but it's debatable if they can get hold of all of them and when put into context that entire reserve is less than one quarter of what the US spends every year on it's military. Russia would only be able to use it as a one-off.
The original point was about the modernisation of their military going forward, not supplies for their current folly in Ukraine and that was the context of my post.
You are totally correct that the West needs to keep up the supplies. Today was day 300 of the war, about 293 more days than I think Russia were expecting so the West needs to hold it's nerve and keep the supplies coming.
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 19:16 - Dec 20 by SuperKieranMcKenna
The size of their economy is irrelevant to an extent. Unfortunately I suspect Putin and his lackeys have been planning this war for some time and priced in a certain level of sanctions. They have a low debt to GDP ration of around 27pc (UK is >100pc I believe). On top of which they’ve built up huge amount of reserves with their oil and gas sales (around USD 171bn) presumably to counter loss of access to external financing.
Their pockets aren’t as deep however as a united West l, so we need to keep up the supplies to Ukraine coming, and not lose nerve in these uncertain economic times.
While Russia has a lot of reserves, they only have a fraction left of what they started with. As soon as the war began, the West froze the vast majority of their overseas holdings, something in the region of $300bn. It's unclear whether they factored losing access to most of their reserves into their economic plan for the war. Especially a drawn out war of attrition.
It's also worth pointing out most of this money wouldn't need to go to guns and tanks. Nor even the soldiers pay. It will be used to prop up the economy. This sort of activity is more expensive than equipping an army for war. This against a backdrop of their industry shrinking, their oil and gas are being sold off for discounted prices to the only countries willing to buy it and the lack of Western equipment which will slowly degrade their ability to produce anything.
You are right though, Russia's pockets aren't as deep as the West. In addition their industry is much smaller and the majority of their weaponry is inferior*. If the West holds it's nerve, the Russian's cannot win a protracted war. The GDP of NATO is in the region of $45 Trillion Dollars. Russia's is less than $2 Trillion. They wouldn't even break the NATO top 5, they are between Spain and Italy.
*Russia has some very advanced systems, but they are either few and far between on the battlefield or in many cases just fancy protoypes that have yet to reach the frontlines. Great examples being the T14 Armata which has been paraded at the Kremlin for nearly a decade and is still not produced in any meaningful numbers or ready for combat and the SU-57 which is Russia's answer to the F35 is likely to still be in single digits usable aircraft.
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 10:55 - Dec 21 with 6475 views
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 00:25 - Dec 21 by Kievthegreat
While Russia has a lot of reserves, they only have a fraction left of what they started with. As soon as the war began, the West froze the vast majority of their overseas holdings, something in the region of $300bn. It's unclear whether they factored losing access to most of their reserves into their economic plan for the war. Especially a drawn out war of attrition.
It's also worth pointing out most of this money wouldn't need to go to guns and tanks. Nor even the soldiers pay. It will be used to prop up the economy. This sort of activity is more expensive than equipping an army for war. This against a backdrop of their industry shrinking, their oil and gas are being sold off for discounted prices to the only countries willing to buy it and the lack of Western equipment which will slowly degrade their ability to produce anything.
You are right though, Russia's pockets aren't as deep as the West. In addition their industry is much smaller and the majority of their weaponry is inferior*. If the West holds it's nerve, the Russian's cannot win a protracted war. The GDP of NATO is in the region of $45 Trillion Dollars. Russia's is less than $2 Trillion. They wouldn't even break the NATO top 5, they are between Spain and Italy.
*Russia has some very advanced systems, but they are either few and far between on the battlefield or in many cases just fancy protoypes that have yet to reach the frontlines. Great examples being the T14 Armata which has been paraded at the Kremlin for nearly a decade and is still not produced in any meaningful numbers or ready for combat and the SU-57 which is Russia's answer to the F35 is likely to still be in single digits usable aircraft.
Just some context around the SU-57, as you say there aren't many of them but it's also not a very good attempt at a stealthy fighter.
It has a radar cross section (RCS) ~1000 times greater than the F35 meaning that NATO radar would detect it from approximately 6 times further away than it would the F35.
It's not a true stealth fighter, it's an improved 4th generation fighter.
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 12:49 - Dec 16 by StokieBlue
Whilst those things are true it doesn't need to be hugely mobile to protect the main infrastructure with a given range of up to 160 miles. It'll be enough to stop drones and cruise missiles knocking out power stations for instance at the currently levels.
Hundreds of ballistic missiles would be a problem though if that is true as it would require a greater number of Patriots. Main thing would to get the infrastructure through the winter months I would think.
Iran are going to end up alienating themselves even more taking this path (especially when coupled with their reactions to the protests) at a time when they had a chance to come back into the fold by moving away from Russia and possibly selling their oil to the West.
Germany has no principled objection to following the US in providing Ukraine with Patriot air defence systems, but it does not currently have any available to send, the government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, said.
Germany has agreed to deploy three Patriot missile systems in eastern Poland to help secure its Nato ally’s airspace, Reuters reported.
“These are the three available Patriot systems,” Hebestreit said. “So it’s not that there is a concrete step Germany is unwilling to take, but there are no systems available.”
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 17:32 - Dec 21 with 6317 views
Germany has no principled objection to following the US in providing Ukraine with Patriot air defence systems, but it does not currently have any available to send, the government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, said.
Germany has agreed to deploy three Patriot missile systems in eastern Poland to help secure its Nato ally’s airspace, Reuters reported.
“These are the three available Patriot systems,” Hebestreit said. “So it’s not that there is a concrete step Germany is unwilling to take, but there are no systems available.”
Right on cue.......
- President Zelenskiy is expected to travel to Washington to address Congress, his first trip outside Ukraine since Russia's invasion
- Biden will unveil $2 billion in assistance and announce moves to deliver Patriot missiles to Ukraine
Expect many well deserved standing ovations when #Zelensky speaks tonight to Congress. He would not be making this trip if support in US wasn’t decreasing while Russians take out energy sources and bombard cities. This is a sales pitch to congress and public. Stick w/ Ukraine
Expect many well deserved standing ovations when #Zelensky speaks tonight to Congress. He would not be making this trip if support in US wasn’t decreasing while Russians take out energy sources and bombard cities. This is a sales pitch to congress and public. Stick w/ Ukraine
Expect many well deserved standing ovations when #Zelensky speaks tonight to Congress. He would not be making this trip if support in US wasn’t decreasing while Russians take out energy sources and bombard cities. This is a sales pitch to congress and public. Stick w/ Ukraine
And that bipartisan support, adds to the growing pressure on Putin. After 10 months of his full-scale invasion of #Ukraine, Russia's little dictator hoped for apathy & division. What he saw, was focused unity & love for Zelensky & the Ukrainian people. https://t.co/linRKj2n6c
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 08:52 - Dec 9 by ChorleyBoy
In fact it's notable how few other nationalities are among the flags in the graveyard. There's just one, an Azerbaijan flag (with a white crescent and star in the middle). The pink flag (in front of the Azerbaijan flag) looks like a Ukrainian Armed Forces flag (there are no pink national flags). The red and black flag is the Ukrainian Insurgent Army flag (UPA).
In fact there are very few foreigners living in these more troubled parts of Ukraine, most having got out of the country in the last 10 years, some even earlier. Foreigners currently fighting on the Ukrainian side are/were mostly mercenaries.
[Post edited 9 Dec 2022 8:59]
Shout out to my battle buddy @TucSmash . An American veteran fighting with me in the 131 Separate Reconnaissance Battalion. 🇺🇦🇺🇸 The bond between the USA and Ukraine is more than friendship, it's brotherhood! Volunteers like Tuc are the living embodiment of that bond of blood. 🙠pic.twitter.com/TIKEelr4PK
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 22:39 - Dec 20 by StokieBlue
The size of the economy is relevant.
They have a low debt ratio because they have repeatedly defaulted on their debt and you'd be mad to buy it. With regards to the reserves, they are fairly large but it's debatable if they can get hold of all of them and when put into context that entire reserve is less than one quarter of what the US spends every year on it's military. Russia would only be able to use it as a one-off.
The original point was about the modernisation of their military going forward, not supplies for their current folly in Ukraine and that was the context of my post.
You are totally correct that the West needs to keep up the supplies. Today was day 300 of the war, about 293 more days than I think Russia were expecting so the West needs to hold it's nerve and keep the supplies coming.
SB
“You are totally correct that the West needs to keep up the supplies.”
Just to add to this point, and hopefully not too off topic, but there’s a real concern in my industry that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is not an unlikely scenario. This adds further reason for the West to keep their resolve on Ukraine and back them fully, for as long as it takes. The Chinese are watching closely I’m sure…
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 09:21 - Dec 23 with 5914 views
The peace seeking Russians regard the provision of a defensive system as not being conductive to a settlemen ( while getting arms from North Korea is! )
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 09:58 - Dec 23 with 5858 views
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 09:06 - Dec 23 by SuperKieranMcKenna
“You are totally correct that the West needs to keep up the supplies.”
Just to add to this point, and hopefully not too off topic, but there’s a real concern in my industry that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is not an unlikely scenario. This adds further reason for the West to keep their resolve on Ukraine and back them fully, for as long as it takes. The Chinese are watching closely I’m sure…
China obviously has designs on Taiwan, it's the completion of the communist takeover that started 70 years ago.
However, it would be a significant undertaking for them and would result in quite a few military losses.
Hard to know what Xi is thinking, does he think it might make him more popular after the Covid protests or does he think that military losses would make him even less popular even if they would of course "win" in the end.
SB
Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 10:00 - Dec 23 with 5855 views
The peace seeking Russians regard the provision of a defensive system as not being conductive to a settlemen ( while getting arms from North Korea is! )
He's playing to the crowd.
They don't even have advanced missiles anymore, they are using simple ballistic missiles from Iran. I'd love to know how he plans on intercepting a missile designed to intercept other missiles.
The Patriots are fairly old but have been frequently upgraded, they aren't rubbish.
SB
Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 10:28 - Dec 23 with 5826 views
The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 10:00 - Dec 23 by StokieBlue
He's playing to the crowd.
They don't even have advanced missiles anymore, they are using simple ballistic missiles from Iran. I'd love to know how he plans on intercepting a missile designed to intercept other missiles.
The Patriots are fairly old but have been frequently upgraded, they aren't rubbish.
SB
Agreed. What he and his useful idiots have to say is usually a long way from reality and is designed to satisfy his domestic audience. .
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The 'special military operation' continues to reach new lows. on 19:51 - Dec 23 with 5697 views
🇺🇦🎄The seven-year-old son of a captured Azovstal defender wrote to the Christmas angel saying his only wish this year is for his dad to be freed. In a letter seen by @theipaper, he also asked for the war to end so "we will be happy again"https://t.co/Yzb3bWluj9
🇺🇦🎄The seven-year-old son of a captured Azovstal defender wrote to the Christmas angel saying his only wish this year is for his dad to be freed. In a letter seen by @theipaper, he also asked for the war to end so "we will be happy again"https://t.co/Yzb3bWluj9
The Russian state broadcaster thinks western citizens are unaware of the horrors of war (as inflicted by Russia)? They must think there is similar state-control of the media to their own. Surely, the Russian authorities are aware of what is in the western media. Is this therefore more for domestic consumption to make their own people think the West is deluded about the horror of it?
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