strummer
3446
Yeah, he doesn’t seem like one of the deplorables.
vyshka
3447
Anyone know the story on UAE abstaining in the UN vote? Pretty cowardly of India as well.
Dejin
3449
Russia is one of their primary weapons suppliers and they’ve had multiple weapons development projects with them. I don’t follow India well enough to know if they have ongoing weapon projects with Russia, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
OTOH as I’ve seen pointed out by analysts, this doesn’t make India seem like a particularly reliable partner for the western-style democracies, and since India is looking toward the US/Japan/Australia for help rebalancing against China (which they’ve had border incursions from), this doesn’t seem like a great move for India.
Soma
3451
If Putin (I’ll strictly say it is Putin’s responsibility, not Russia in general) decides to use WMD, it will just make NATO intervention more likely. I doubt he will try that.
So far the Russian military only hit military targets in Ukraine, as far as I can see. Twitter is still fully on, so electricity and fibre and cell networks are still standing. Using WMD and hitting civilian infrastructure would be another level of escalation Putin may not want to try. Especially if the ground campaign is not going well, using WMD to bolster the campaign is likely to have the exact opposite effect.
RichVR
3452
Does anyone think that Russia will use thermobaric weapons in the Ukraine?
This one almost broke me. From Sumy, Ukraine. Almost too much. Slava ukraini!
Trigger warning for extremely heartwarming content.
vyshka
3454
On civilian targets, not sure, though they never really cared too much about minimizing civilian casualties. If not on civilian targets they will almost certainly use them on military if they haven’t already done so.
Soma
3455
Look, I won’t say it is pure stupid. The alternative is to accept that Putin, or any other country with nukes (I’m more thinking of North Korea) can invade its neighbour and say “if others intervene, I will use nukes on them”. And the rest of the world would be too afraid of nuclear strike to do anything. That is worse.
I’m all for TALKING about a no-fly zone to keep Putin on his toes and sweat a bit.
Dejin
3456
Every military analyst and every pilot I’ve seen discuss this says that a no-fly zone over Ukraine is a non-starter.
We create no-fly zones after we’ve beaten someone’s air defenses to a pulp. That’s how we’re able to keep our planes flying around the no-fly zone. Russian Air defenses from Russian soil can strike almost everywhere in Ukraine, so the only way to keep our pilots safe is to attack Russian Troops on Russian soil. As previously pointed out upthread, anti-air is one of the areas that Russia is actually quite good at.
Even if we didn’t have to do that, you’re suggesting that we create a zone where Russian’s aircraft can’t go. They will go there and then what are we going to do. Either they call our bluff and we look like idiots or we attack and start WW3.
So either you just bloviate about a no-fly zone and everyone knows your bloviating, or you actually declare one and then you either get your bluff called or we end up in a hot war with Russia.
As far as I can tell, as long as the conflict stays within Ukranian borders, there is zero chance of NATO involvement in any event.
Grifman
3460
Uh, no that’s not me. I’ve posted extensively in this thread so I’m not sure how you think I’m a Putin apologist. Not even close.
Sorry if someone already linked to this video of a Russian armored vehicle swerving and crushing a civilian car driven by an older guy, apparently just for fun:
but here’s a better angle:
:) just a call back to a previous exchange in this thread.
I don’t have the heart to tell @John_Many_Jars. One of you guys is gonna have to do it.
-Tom
Grifman
3464
Heh, this time you were too subtle for me :)
jpinard
3465
I say we take Kaliningrad or at least cut off access to it. Russia should have never been given that after WWII.
