So we've had a pandemic. Now it looks like World War 3 is starting. How soon before the nukes start flying?
He's acting like a Bond villain. Taking whatever he wants and holding the world hostage with nuclear weapons.
The thing is he would be easily beaten in a conventional fight against NATO and the US. Nothing he has is any match for something like an F-22 or an M1 Abrams tank. The nukes are what's allowing him to get away with this. His military is very dated. And Russian tanks are terrible. They're as much of a danger to their crews as they are to the enemy.
Last few years have been wild. I have heard that Russia upgraded much of its military in the last few years. But probably still no match for US equipment. He is also doing this heading into spring. Winter isn’t on his side. Classic blunder indeed. I wonder how the protests will play out in Russia. He might have gone too far this time. Russians might be looking at BLM and the free dumb convoy and saying “hold my stolichnya”
Apparently 150 senior Russian officials signed a letter condemning Putin. Tomorrows headline. 150 senior Russian officials commit suicide.
150 Russians officials shoot themselves in the back of the head three times before jumping from tall buildings
So if they join NATO he will attack them. And if they don't join NATO he will attack them. What great choices.
That's what actual leadership looks like. Not fleeing. Not hiding in some bunker. But standing beside your men and fighting.
Well he made it through the night and held the city. They just have what, about 200K more Russians to kill? Ultra nightmare difficulty indeed.
Do we just get feel good stories in the media? All I hear is how the Russians are sucking at invading but they should (theoretically) be unmatched here? I remember the U.S. did have some initial difficulty in Iraq. The "one weekend" goalpost moved to 2-3 weeks but we did take control very quickly. I feel like the media is setting people up to lose their shit in a few weeks time. *What I mean is, it's going to be really sad because people are building parasocial connections with president of ukraine and others fighting on the ground via social network.
Russian equipment is junk. It's old Sovet era crap. They basically have no modern tanks. Their tanks are equivalent to what the US was using in the 1960s and 1970s during the Vietnam War. They don't have the money to put their M1 Abrams equivalent the T-14 Armata into production. Their in service tanks including the T72, 80, and 90 all have a serious design flaw. They have weak turret roof armor and an autoloader with live rounds in the turret. Modern shoulder fired anti-tank missiles like the Javelin are designed to exploit this. They will very consistently turn Russian tanks into fireballs in one shot. The Javelin flys up then comes down on the turret. It penetrates the roof armor and sets off the rounds in the autoloader. The turret pops off and the crew is burned alive. The T72 is so bad that it wasn't even a match for anything we had in the Gulf War 30 years ago. Abrams could destroy them with ease and took no losses. Even the Bradley, which is essentially a fancy armored personel carrier could destroy the T72 easily. And I don't mean Bradleys just took out a few. Bradleys actually destroyed more T72s than the Abrams in the Gulf War. Imagine having tanks that are so bad that they can be blown up easily by something that is essentially a fancy armored bus. And why am I going on about tanks? The Russian military is built around tanks because that's what worked for them in WW2. Problem is their tanks suck. They suck really bad and kill their crews. This is nothing like Iraq. This is why you don't invade when your country is broke and all of your equipment is outdated crap. All we have to do is keep giving the Ukranians modern shoulder fired weapons and the Russians will be toast.
Also keep in mind that the Russian military has never done well in any modern conflict. They lost in WW1 and made a separate peace with Germany. They lost the Russo Japanese War. They lost in Afghanistan in the 1980s. They lost their wars with Finland in the 30s and 40s. They only won in WW2 with lots of industrial help from the West and by sacrificing around 20 million people. They also spent the first year of the war retreating constantly. The Russian military is all bark and no bite. Always has been. How many smartphone and internet addicted young Russians are going to go die in Ukraine? You think they're going to sacrifice themselves? Lol. Putin is going to get himself overthrown. Which is another thing Russians have a long tradition of doing, especially during unpopular wars. An unpopular war and economic problems ended both the Tsars and the Soviet Union.
I can't emphasize enough how shitty their tanks are. They are death traps. Imagine getting sent into a country where everyone hates your guts and wants to kill you and this is the fuckin thing they put you in. There are other problems with them too: -They are so cramped the crews can rarely escape. -The ERA bricks rarely stop anything and often kill infantry standing next to the tank when they go off -The Russians have started welding cages to the tops of the tanks to try to stop Javelins. They don't seem to work and make the tanks even harder to escape. -The autoloader is notorious for taking off hands and arms (US tanks don't use autoloaders and put the rounds in a heavily shielded compartment)
Putin also didn’t attack some Muslim country no one cares about. He attacked a Westernized democracy in Europe where everyone has an internet connected smartphone and many of them speak English. Ukrainians are blonde-haired, blue-eyed white people who look like models and post on Instagram. You couldn't find better looking poster people for a cause. Have you seen what Zelensky's wife looks like? She's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Putin's got a PR disaster on his hands. The entire world now wants him dead and sees him as a Dollar Store Hitler. And If he kills Zelensky he will create a martyr. Putin thinks of himself as this super smart spymaster. He’s actually just an out of touch boomer stuck in a 20th century mindset. That old Soviet era shit doesn’t fly in today’s super connected world. He's as dumb as the MAGAs who think 1950s USA will come back if they vote for Trump. The Soviet Union is never coming back.