Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

Russia has recruited as many as 15,000 Nepalis to fight its war. Many returned traumatized. Some never came back

“I didn’t join the Russian military for pleasure. I didn’t have any job opportunities in Nepal. But in hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision. We didn’t realize we would be sent to the frontlines that quickly and how horrible the situation would be,” Khadka said.

“It’s the Nepalis and other foreign fighters that are actually fighting in the front of war zones. The Russians position themselves a few hundred meters back as support,” said Suman Tamang, who returned from Russia last week.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/10/asia/nepal-fighters-russia-ukraine-families-intl-cmd/index.html
 
Trump is opposed to any aid to Ukraine, and also said Russia is free to do what they want against NATO-nations.

Consider the foreign aid bill dead then, Mike Johnson will never take it up for a vote, since he is taking orders directly from that traitor.

Europe must get ready to take care of themselves, US won't be there much longer to handle it.
 
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Russia has recruited as many as 15,000 Nepalis to fight its war. Many returned traumatized. Some never came back


https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/10/asia/nepal-fighters-russia-ukraine-families-intl-cmd/index.html

In all honesty what they expect? A country will always protect its own. Mercenarys dont ever receive any love and its sole purpose is put them to fight. Russian soldiers will be needed for fighting longer time and after the war to return to the russian economy
 
Polish president Tusk wrote a tweet calling out Republicans. Graham responds.

 


Bill is dead already, as expected.
 
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Bill is dead already, as expected.

They only need to find a few republicans in the house that have balls and decency for a discharge motion bypassing the speaker, although it would delay the vote for another month or so.
 
They only need to find a few republicans in the house that have balls and decency for a discharge motion bypassing the speaker, although it would delay the vote for another month or so.

I'd never heard of a discharge motion, went and read the wikipedia article on it, it seems pretty unlikely.

Realistically, how long can Ukraine keep firing shells and supplying their troops without this money? Does there come a point when it falls apart or can Europen nations supply enough to keep them in the game?
 
I'd never heard of a discharge motion, went and read the wikipedia article on it, it seems pretty unlikely.

Realistically, how long can Ukraine keep firing shells and supplying their troops without this money? Does there come a point when it falls apart or can Europen nations supply enough to keep them in the game?

Republican majority in the house is very slim, if all Democrats agree to vote on this you only need 2-3 Republicans to join in.
 

Republican majority in the house is very slim, if all Democrats agree to vote on this you only need 2-3 Republicans to join in.


I guess the Democrats can find ways to get the 3 Republicans, who made Johnson look like an ass just a week ago, on board once more.
 
I guess the Democrats can find ways to get the 3 Republicans, who made Johnson look like an ass just a week ago, on board once more.
The bill officially passed the senate vote just minutes ago, one hurdle is at least out of the way. Fingers crossed several house republicans can stand up to Trump / Johnson similarly to senate republicans.
 
The EU really really really needs to step up efforts to combat Russian disinformation. Putin is essentially undermining the entire continent with impunity.

Even stepping up arms production and increasing the aid to Ukraine - and both are necessary of course - are not enough without doing something about Russia's soft power.
 
The EU really really really needs to step up efforts to combat Russian disinformation. Putin is essentially undermining the entire continent with impunity.

Even stepping up arms production and increasing the aid to Ukraine - and both are necessary of course - are not enough without doing something about Russia's soft power.
Agree wholeheartedly. We need to step up our game asap. But I can’t shake off the feeling that the people in charge still underestimate the issue.
 
The bill officially passed the senate vote just minutes ago, one hurdle is at least out of the way. Fingers crossed several house republicans can stand up to Trump / Johnson similarly to senate republicans.

You can't necessarily rely on the left of the Democratic party to get behind such a petition either. You'd think at least one (Ilhan Omar) would be against it, probably Tlaib too and maybe a couple more.
 
You can't necessarily rely on the left of the Democratic party to get behind such a petition either. You'd think at least one (Ilhan Omar) would be against it, probably Tlaib too and maybe a couple more.
Thankfully, there are 20 odd Ukraine leaning republicans who are set to retire after this term, thus shouldn’t give a damn about Trump and primaries. Hopefully, they’re willing to do the right thing. Ukrainian lobbyists should be working overtime trying to come up with best retirement plans for these guys behind the closed doors. Play putin at his game at this point.
 
Propagandists forgot they already done this one?

I guess someone never told him that the Soviets backed North Vietnam with some of the most advanced hardware at the time for at least 10 years as it allowed the commies to damage American prestige and US military forces. I'm sure the Soviet military-industrial complex made their own share of money back then. So why would the US not be allowed to do the same here?

Notice that I don't count the Soviet-Afghan War as the kind of US support to the Afghan resistance was not the same in type and quantity of hardware.
 
The EU really really really needs to step up efforts to combat Russian disinformation. Putin is essentially undermining the entire continent with impunity.

Even stepping up arms production and increasing the aid to Ukraine - and both are necessary of course - are not enough without doing something about Russia's soft power.

Serious question, as someone who views this as a major problem, how exactly do you go about combatting it?
 
Serious question, as someone who views this as a major problem, how exactly do you go about combatting it?
I've got no idea myself. I guess you could have an EU twitter account that fact-checks disinfo for the public as a start.
 
The bill officially passed the senate vote just minutes ago, one hurdle is at least out of the way. Fingers crossed several house republicans can stand up to Trump / Johnson similarly to senate republicans.
I think the chances of discharge petition have just gone up after tonight’s crushing win at NY03 for democratic candidate. Sends a clear signal to many moderate GOPs that they’ll be unelectable come November if they continue to fall in line with MAGA extremists.
 
Another Black sea landing ship bites the dust:



Drone warfare is nothing short of revolutionary and paradigm shifting. How do naval ships combat hordes of cheap (relatively) drones? From a US perspective, if something were to go down on the straights of Taiwan, how do you protect the American fleet from 1000s of drones launched from the Chinese mainland?

There must be some serious thinking going on in military tech circles about how to negate this deadly threat.
 
Drone warfare is nothing short of revolutionary and paradigm shifting. How do naval ships combat hordes of cheap (relatively) drones? From a US perspective, if something were to go down on the straights of Taiwan, how do you protect the American fleet from 1000s of drones launched from the Chinese mainland?

There must be some serious thinking going on in military tech circles about how to negate this deadly threat.
CIWS like Phalanx should easily deal with them.
 
CIWS like Phalanx should easily deal with them.
Pardon my ignorance but soviet/russian warships have such installations mounted on them too, it doesn’t seem to be working for them though? These are like naval anti aircraft guns, you can actually see on most videos they’re firing recklessly but unable to take them out.
 
Pardon my ignorance but soviet/russian warships have such installations mounted on them too, it doesn’t seem to be working for them though? These are like naval anti aircraft guns, you can actually see on most videos they’re firing recklessly but unable to take them out.
Believe me I am surprised about that as well. Considering that we see short range anti-aircraft guns from western production (like the Gepard) perform very well against Russian drone and even cruise missile attacks on land, we know that drones with similar flight profiles can be easily destroyed. By such systems. However it appears that the Russians have real trouble doing that themselves on a convincing level, but that is more a question about what is wrong with Russian guns and less about the possibility to use guns as drone defence in general
 
Believe me I am surprised about that as well. Considering that we see short range anti-aircraft guns from western production (like the Gepard) perform very well against Russian drone and even cruise missile attacks on land, we know that drones with similar flight profiles can be easily destroyed. By such systems. However it appears that the Russians have real trouble doing that themselves on a convincing level, but that is more a question about what is wrong with Russian guns and less about the possibility to use guns as drone defence in general
I think these drones will eventually evolve to being underwater drones making it even more challenging to down them.
 
Pardon my ignorance but soviet/russian warships have such installations mounted on them too, it doesn’t seem to be working for them though? These are like naval anti aircraft guns, you can actually see on most videos they’re firing recklessly but unable to take them out.

Do they though? There's this giant question mark around any Russian equipment. Like S-400 were previously compared to Patriot, they've proven lacklustre whereas Patriot has outperformed expectations. I don't think a Russian system failure can be used as a fair comparison to other 'similar' systems.
 
I think these drones will eventually evolve to being underwater drones making it even more challenging to down them.
I agree that underwater operations are a bit of a different story... Considering that I personally know someone who was part of a submarine crew who successfully attacked a US aircraft carrier during an exercise I would not claim that defending against such threats is as simple as against aerial or surface-level sea drones.
 
Actually saw a naval warfare expert tweet on this very subject (sea drones destroying Russian ships).

Her conclusion was basically...there isn't really anything to learn for Western navies because there's just no way a Western navy would be so incompetent in protecting their ships (layered defense).

You do with that information what you want.
 
Do they though? There's this giant question mark around any Russian equipment. Like S-400 were previously compared to Patriot, they've proven lacklustre whereas Patriot has outperformed expectations. I don't think a Russian system failure can be used as a fair comparison to other 'similar' systems.
Look at the aim of that gun, no wonder they can’t hit them for shit. :lol: Also, very funny propaganda video overall when you keep in mind that it was destroyed by small surface drone.
 
Actually saw a naval warfare expert tweet on this very subject (sea drones destroying Russian ships).

Her conclusion was basically...there isn't really anything to learn for Western navies because there's just no way a Western navy would be so incompetent in protecting their ships (layered defense).

You do with that information what you want.

To be fair, it is easy to claim you don't have to do anything to counter a threat if you've never really faced it.

One of the common ways to overcome a layered defence, is saturation. Sure, a CIWS could probably shoot down 4-5 drones, arriving simultaneously, in time. Could it should down 100 drones fast enough though, before one gets through or before the CIWS overheats and malfunctions? Can its radar recognise and pick up, smaller and slow-flying loitering munitions? What happens if a drone gets through and hits the CIWS, is the ship now unprotected to drone attacks?

I doubt these scenarios have been adequately tested, it probably wasn't even possible to conduct such tests 10 years ago.
 
The Russian army was never really effective. They won due to sheer numbers. No other nation could afford/accept such of equipment and humans.