bickster Posted January 18 Moderator Share Posted January 18 6 hours ago, magnkarl said: Hmm. Also the EU parliament voted on taking away Hungary's veto and voting rights yesterday, although this action is more posturing than anything else it sends a real signal to Orban, and guess what? Later the same day Orban said he's willing to let the 50bn euros for Ukraine that he's held up go through. The new government in Slovakia has now joined Hungary in vetoing the aid, but the EU parliament will likely do the same to them. It's so weird to me that two countries who are 100% dependant on the EU market plays with fire like this. Fascist. Small steps, but hopefully meaningful ones. I read the other day that Slovakia didn’t vote against it despite the nutball in charge campaigning in the election and stated they wouldn’t support money or arms to Ukraine. It was postulated that the reason the campaigned on one thing and did the exact opposite when in power was because the private backers of the PM were primarily interested in arms sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Medvedev’s latest comments are truly attrocious. His comeupance will be sweeter than Putin’s I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted January 18 Moderator Share Posted January 18 3 hours ago, Panto_Villan said: Haha, yeah. Looks bloody impressive, right? That’s actually a relatively small gun by tank standards though, it’s “just” a 25mm autocannon whereas a proper tank cannon is 105mm or 125mm or so. Thats why it fires so fast and why the tank wasn’t penetrated and the crew killed (even if it was knocked out and then abandoned). It’s not a tank in the strictest sense of the word. It’s an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, lightly armoured and not really designed for what it did there, it’s designed to attack softer targets than a MBT and lay down smoke for cover etc. Had that T90M spotted the Bradley, it should have taken it out with ease but… Russia … training … conscript morale … and all those arguments come into play. Armoured vehicles are only as good as their crew and support mechanisms. Just over 100 T90s (of many variants) have been visually confirmed by Oryx to have been lost in the war so far. The T14 Armarta aside, it is Russias most modern MBT. A few are also now in Ukrainian hands having been abandoned / Captured / repaired (13 I think, mostly A but some M) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 46 minutes ago, ender4 said: Do Ukraine collect up these abandoned tanks, repair them and put them back into service for themselves? I think it depends where the tank is laying. If it’s in a safe place to do so they might collect it but if it’s in contested territory they usually use a drone to drop a grenade into the hatch making sure the tank is no longer recoverable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 12 minutes ago, bickster said: It’s not a tank in the strictest sense of the word. It’s an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, lightly armoured and not really designed for what it did there, it’s designed to attack softer targets than a MBT and lay down smoke for cover etc. Had that T90M spotted the Bradley, it should have taken it out with ease but… Russia … training … conscript morale … and all those arguments come into play. Armoured vehicles are only as good as their crew and support mechanisms. Waver 100 T90s (of many variants) have been visually confirmed by Oryx to have been lost in the war so far. The T14 Armarta aside, it is Russias most modern MBT. A few are also now in Ukrainian hands having been abandoned / Captured / repaired (13 I think, mostly A but some M) Indeed. I did actually start writing out the whole “actually, it’s an IFV” post myself but I decided it would be too boring and pedantic even for me (Hence why I didn’t say the Bradley was a tank, just that it has a small gun compared to a proper tank.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) Quote ....the cause of the fire was faulty wiring. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/russia-ap-associated-press-b2478172.html Edited January 19 by Mandy Lifeboats Added details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Regarding my post above. If you don't know the full story >> This is a massive warehouse that was raided by Russian Police and Army. Many of the poorly paid migrant workers were taken away to serve in Ukraine. Then the factory developed a wiring fault and burnt to the ground. Oooops. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 The mysterious fires continue. This one was probably caused by not keeping fireworks in an old biscuit tin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 On 18/01/2024 at 16:30, Panto_Villan said: Indeed. I did actually start writing out the whole “actually, it’s an IFV” post myself but I decided it would be too boring and pedantic even for me (Hence why I didn’t say the Bradley was a tank, just that it has a small gun compared to a proper tank.) These are the two guys in the Bradley 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnkarl Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) Poland, Germany and Belgium have leaned in and given new military aid packages. The purse strings look like they're loosening. I also don't see how America is going to not give more aid when half of all the republican states have massive defense industries. It's bonkers of Trump to shut that down if he wins. Edited January 23 by magnkarl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 2 hours ago, magnkarl said: Poland, Germany and Belgium have leaned in and given new military aid packages. The purse strings look like they're loosening. I also don't see how America is going to not give more aid when half of all the republican states have massive defense industries. It's bonkers of Trump to shut that down if he wins. It may have to wait until after the election, giving billions away to Ukraine isn't going to get Sleepy Joe any votes. Probably win more votes giving more "aid" to Israel, or at least get more political "donations". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Another Russia plane down. Russia claims it contained Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukraine claims it contained Russian soldiers and supplies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 29 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: Another Russia plane down. Russia claims it contained Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukraine claims it contained Russian soldiers and supplies. Mistakes happen of course, but I’m more inclined to believe the Ukrainian side of the story. If they knew of the plane then they probably had a good idea what was on it before shooting at it. More embarrassment for Russia who haven’t learned their lesson yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted January 24 VT Supporter Share Posted January 24 Yeah, it's totally normal to transport prisoners of war in an expensive, valuable aircraft isn't it? You wouldn't just bundle them into an old truck or make them walk. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) In other news...... Air defences are being set up around St Petersburg. I wonder where these came from? It's a big country to defend with finite air defences. Putin recently passed a law that cancels any land purchases or land treaties made between Russia and "unfriendly" countries. This means Russia now considers Alaska to be part of Russia. There was a very humerous press briefing at the Whitehouse. Fast forward to 2.10 in the briefing. Edited January 24 by Mandy Lifeboats Added details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 23/01/2024 at 09:47, villa89 said: It may have to wait until after the election, giving billions away to Ukraine isn't going to get Sleepy Joe any votes. Probably win more votes giving more "aid" to Israel, or at least get more political "donations". What? The only reason aid to Ukraine has stopped is because the Republicans control the House and their speaker is a tea party lunatic who won’t bring a bill to the floor. Everyone except Trump and the MAGA Republicans support aid more to Ukraine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 25 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said: What? The only reason aid to Ukraine has stopped is because the Republicans control the House and their speaker is a tea party lunatic who won’t bring a bill to the floor. Everyone except Trump and the MAGA Republicans support aid more to Ukraine. Looks like Trump is on his way back in to the White House. Four more years of orange faced fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnkarl Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) 22 minutes ago, villa89 said: Looks like Trump is on his way back in to the White House. Four more years of orange faced fun. The issue for Trump is still that a lot of the rust belt and republican safe states in which he has such support rely pretty heavily on defense industry. Florida, Virginia, Arizona, Texas, Rural Alabama etc. Lobbing old kit at Ukraine and using Ukraine aid to produce new kit for the American army and NATO allies is a perfect way to keep jobs in these states. Even Trump's very basic fraudulent understanding of economics understands this. It's not like Israel wants or needs Bradleys or 80-90's Abrams, they've got their own better versions. Ukraine is likely the only country who will accept this older kit as almost all other NATO countries have other options (CV90, leopard2, challenger2, stryker, boxer etc) Edited January 24 by magnkarl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted January 24 Moderator Share Posted January 24 When we talk about aid to Ukraine - is this in the form of 'gifts' or loans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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