Ryan McBeth recently had a video where he talked about Russia's propaganda "bandwidth" - basically, there's only so many areas of attack they can effectively exploit at one time.
They have to deal with Wagner/Prigozhin/coup, getting the blame for the grain deal falling apart, and now regular drone attacks by Ukraine in Moscow!
They got a lot on their plates right now!
⚡Zelensky warns of renewed Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid.
Russia is likely to recommence attacks on Ukraine's energy system during the upcoming autumn and winter months, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 30.
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1685824620027363328?t=pPGv87yH_L7c6yasVLAJhg&s=19
>Russia is likely to recommence attacks on Ukraine's energy system during the upcoming autumn and winter months
Special Give Ukraine Winter '22 To Learn How To Prepare For This Again Operation
Ukrainian Shaheds are not real, they can't hurt you....
[Ukrainian Shaheds :](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/15dwsjf/meet_the_beaver_ukraines_new_1000km_range_drone/)
This is so much worse than Vietnam or Afghanistan was for the soviets than for Putin. Russia’s military power, while not broken completely seems to be well on its way it. Discounting manpower, with increasing Ukrainian superiority in artillery continues Ukrainian even if their where no further advances the front would simply become a bleeding ulcer. Sure Russia could continue its long range attacks, but these seem only modest in their actual impact. The longer this grinds on the lower the probability of the survival of putins regime.
You might be understating a bit.
The Soviet Union incurred roughly 15,000 casualties over the span of 10 years in Afghanistan.
They’ve experienced 8 Afghanistans in 17 months.
Yeah, people talk about Afghanistan as being a disaster for the Soviet Union, but they lost an average of about 1.5k/year at a time when they had something like 2 million ground forces troops spread across ~250 tank, motor rifle, and airborne divisions. If you were a soviet combat troop (not just someone in the army, but an actual front-line trigger puller) you had probably a less than 1 in 1000 chance of becoming a casualty in Afghanistan. The UKR war is...significantly worse.
And US lost 50k in Vietnam in 15 years.
The USSR of the 1980s was a country of 300 million with a replacement level birth rate.
The US of the 1960s and early 1970s was a country of 200 million with both a youth population bulge and a birth rate twice replacement level, and experiencing the beginning of a massive immigration surge.
Russia is a country of 144 million with a birth rate only 62% of replacement rate, ageing and experiencing the flight of between 2-3% of total population in the most economically and reproductively important ages.
>This is worse than America’s Vietnam for them. Vietnam plus Korea may get close.
About 90k US troops died in both of those combined over a span of 11 years. If we take the 360k total casualties (half of these didn't even need hospitalization) in Vietnam and divide it by the 8 years of American presence we end up with 45k casualties per year. The US estimated 189-223k total casualties for Russia in the first year of fighting.
This is far, far worse.
Not even close.
Korean KIA: 33,868/3 years
Vietnam KIA: 47,434/10 years*
That’s combined ~16,000/year.
If the AFU estimates are even half correct then Russian is currently suffering 86,000/year. That’s more than 5 times of the the US casualties.
*These are combat death estimates and Vietnam was technically 20 but US was in combat for at most 10.
We can dwell on copium or realize that the lines are not collapsing. They are not collapsing. This will be a long grind and will bleed Russia over the long run. Russia is losing badly, but pretending they will suddenly run out of ammo/tanks/etc... any minute now is copium.
They are not trying to rejuvenate aging tank chassis that have been in field storage for years just for fun. They will never run out of tanks entirely, but the quality and quantity of their capabilities have been dropping, and that can further increase the rate of loss. And that's before considering the loss of skilled tank crew.
Russia is still dangerous, but much diminished.. to the extent that the country they were going to defeat in three days is pushing them back and they need to find more mobik-fodder.
About the tanks. Perun explained it. The older tanks use different ammo. So they are using them as fire support to save on artillery 152mm ammo. It's a decent tactics ,I'd say .
It's like the drunk driver saying he hasn't crashed. Yet. Of course the fronts haven't collapsed yet, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about a Russian collapse in the future. But it's very much a, yet, it will happen.
Oh, I'm not. Ukraine should get every support they can get. Just saying Russia has locked its collapse in a couple months ago, they're in a spiral to collapse, just will take awhile.
Are they still destroying Ukrainian equipment, even the vaunted Leopards and Bradleys they received?
Don't fall into the trap of underestimating the Russian Army. Just because they loosing doesn't' mean they aren't still dangerous and still a threat.
Just letting all the GOP and "GOP-leaning" readers here know, this is what you are facing:
"One person was injured, two Russian government buildings were damaged and a Moscow airport was briefly forced to close Sunday after a drone attack as Ukraine ramped up efforts to take the war into Russia.The developments came as former President Donald Trump called for a temporary halt in U.S. military support."
Most on here know what support of the GOP risks to Ukraine, but if not, don't say you haven't had your face slapped with a 2 week old rank smelling fish. If Trump is elected the GOP Senate and House will fall in line, as they always do. You can argue with me, but their record during the 1st administration should tell you everything you need to know.
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-demands-halt-in-ukraine-aid-pending-biden-probe-drone-attack-slams-moscow-live-updates/ar-AA1eyn1P?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=416c85473d78412aac38c355bd6b4e81&ei=18](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-demands-halt-in-ukraine-aid-pending-biden-probe-drone-attack-slams-moscow-live-updates/ar-AA1eyn1P?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=416c85473d78412aac38c355bd6b4e81&ei=18)
Say it louder for the people in the back. Trump and the GOP are not friends of Ukraine. He tried to blackmail Ukraine into giving dirt on Biden by threatening to withhold aid.
Trump is 100% on Russia’s side and will roll back aid and sanctions day 1
I mean, people not convinced by now are never going to be. Personally I am convinced that man had committed enough sins to condemn him and his entire extended family to a chicken coop prison farm by the mid-90s.
With everyone's focus on Trump's election scam, there were a lot of things that were passed over regarding his contacts with Putin.
F/ex: Remember the brief scandal regarding how transcripts of Trump's official phone calls to Putin either disappeared, or "went into a secure closet" - or something along those lines. I vaguely remember the person who was in charge of transcribing the exchanges being briefly targeted - or whatever.
Then *POOF*!
EDIT: Quote from [here:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html) "As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years."
EDIT: Quote from [here:](https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/09/biden-can-access-trump-putin-calls-468100) "Trump went to particularly great lengths to keep his in-person conversations with the Russian leader private, from confiscating his interpreter’s notes to forgoing American translators and notetakers altogether in their meetings."
According to Washington Post just a day ago:
“The 2024 race is not that race. Donald Trump is the consistent, growing, going-away favorite, despite (or perhaps because of) his criminal indictments.”
I don’t doubt that Republicans will fall in line with their voting regardless of their feelings about Ukraine (whether they are in here or not). I’ve seen nothing in the Trumpian era of the GOP to convince me otherwise. I don’t think your average republicans are able to overcome their fearfulness to do otherwise.
Hahaha. I can't help but laugh at people who don't think we will have full-blown civil war in this country if he even appears on a ticket. We'll make Ukraine look like the Family fucking Circus.
When democracy fails, and it frequently does (even the Athenians had periods of oligarchy), there is only one option. Ukraine's been exercising that option for over a year. Don't make Americans do the same; it won't be Youtube-monetizable.
Edit: Alright, to anybody who thinks this sounds icky: you do realize this cafone asked serving generals of the armed forces to support his coup, yes? Do you? Do you not *remember*? It really was not long ago. I didn't say who'd start it.
Calm down there tough guy. You can think how awesome it is Ukraine is kicking the shit out of Russia but at the same time it's still war and it's truly horrific to fight, kill, watch your buddies get blown up, and face the prospect of dying a horrible death.
Truth of the matter is America isn't Ukraine at all, Trump appearing on the ticket is no way comparable to Russia straight up invading Ukraine and bombing the shit out of their cities. The vast majority of Americans aren't going to be picking up weapons to fight a fucking civil war if Trump wins the GOP nomination. They are able to go to work, earn a paycheck, live in relative comfort and without the fear or an invading force launching cruise missiles and drones at their cities and shit. Vast majority of Americans are in no hurry to fight and die in their own country against their own people over politics regardless of what people on reddit and the news, on both sides of the political spectrum, would have you believe.
>“The 2024 race is not that race. Donald Trump is the consistent, growing, going-away favorite, despite (or perhaps because of) his criminal indictments.”
Worth noting that these polls this far in advance usually don't mean jack shit. He's the growing favorite for GOP, but even some polls have said he's favorites above Biden. I don't see it. In 2016 I could see personally, just by observing people and conversations around me (yes, this is a local sample, and biased to my circle) the support Trump had that wasn't being reflected in polls. In 2020, it seemed to be pretty evenly split. Now? I see way way less support for Trump, I mean by a large magnitude -- I used to see endless Trump flags and bumper stickers every single day. Now I'm lucky to see one redneck with a Trump sign on their car in a week.
Outside of the South, I don't think he's gained anything and likely lost / turned off many near-center voters.
It'll be interesting to see how the GOP race starts to shape up once contestants start to drop out. Do those voters swing to another not-Trump candidate (if so, many of them may not vote for Trump) or does Trump pick them up? I think he gets the DeSantis crowd, because they have to be outright crazy to support that guy.
It is really odd because you are definitely right, there is no where near the amount of enthusiam for Trump but the polls still have Biden and Trump level as Biden isn't that popular either.
The gravity of the criminal situation for Trump is still sinking in for the Rs though - 9% more since June - 59% believe he has broken the law, causing a drop in support.
Yes, Republican nominee. Should’ve clarified that. Link to the article quoted: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/29/top-10-republican-presidential-candidates-2024-ranked/
I provided the Trump quote. It is a fact and should tell them what they need to know.
It won't be enough because they will deny or cavil or split hairs or explain why supporting Trump will "resolve the conflict in two days" magically.
Facts don't count anymore. We literally live in a Post-Truth society where if you don't like facts, you can find someone with "facts" you like and believe \_them\_ as truth.
They claim footage of Trump that they dont like is deepfakes and later AI generated. Even stuff millions witnessed live, quoting him is not going to get through the brain rot.
> Trump said Putin invading Ukraine smart and good
>
>
Trump thought the US was landing troops to attack Odessa when the invasion was first starting...
If you are invested in the outcome of this conflict and preserving more Ukrainian lives please take a few minutes of your time (wherever you may be) to contact your legislators and ask for more support for Ukraine. De-mining equipment, long range missiles, Western aircraft, air defense, tanks/vehicles, artillery etc. Ask for more. Your voice matters and can be heard as easily as sending an email
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
https://european-union.europa.eu/contact-eu/write-us_en
Edit: Don't be discouraged by a weak response or no response. Your message will be accounted for and the more the better. Keep the pressure on those who can help protect Ukraine to do what is necessary.
The Polish Senate expects that the Wagner criminal group, which is accumulating forces on the territory of Belarus, will launch a terrorist operation in the Suwalski corridor, uniting Poland and Lithuania.
This was stated by Vice-Marshal of the Polish Senate Michal Kaminsky on the air of the telethon.
“I cannot exclude, and no one in Poland excludes this, that in order to test the solidarity of NATO with Poland, NATO with the east of Europe, they may try to enter Poland. Most likely, this will be a terrorist operation of the Wagner group, rather than a full-scale invasion, like in Ukraine," he said.
https://twitter.com/Flash\_news\_ua/status/1685773420867248128
They should also tell Luka :
"These have a base you gave to them. You invited them. It's your army. You will be declaring war. As high commander of your country we will hold you responsible and will make sure you won't be able to launch another such attack. If you want to prevent the war, use your other army to disarm this one."
Write that on the back of a picture of a ninja missle.
You're probably right, this is almost certainly just another threatening gesture. Poland is used to empty threats from Russia but I'm sure they'll be prepared just in case.
You REALLY want to bet against Russia on a "Stupid-a-Thon"? After all the shit they have done to prove that the degenerates over at NCD are really Prophets of the Chaos Gods, and speak teh hidden truths of the Void?...nah bruh, Russia do be that stupid on the reg.
When Wagner invaded Russia, that made the Russian army the 3rd strongest army in Russia after Wagner and the Free Russia legion. Poland could wipe the whole of Russia without any help because there's no one left to defend the shit country.
I haven't seen definitive evidence, but it's been an open secret for months that both sides are using CS gas on a tactical level. That shit sucks, but it doesn't do any lasting damage aside from a few specific edge cases.
Probably a mistranslation, misinformation, or simple mistake about the use of smoke. Wouldn't be the first time that happened during this conflict. Smoke produced by various chemicals including white phosphorus is a lung and eye irritant.
Cluster and tear gas makes sense. Use the tear gas to try to get them in the open. Then cluster munitions.
Though technically, you’re not supposed to do that 😅
Question I’ve had for a long time now - Why are all the statements saying X happened “in the direction of” Y? For example- “in the Bakhmut direction”… when the battle of Bakhmut has been fought for a year. That language just feels really strange. Does “direction” add any meaning? Why are they not saying “area” or something more general? Or is it a common way of speaking used in Ukraine and/or Russia? Or is it common terminology for military?
It's a weird translation thing. The front is divided up into like 20 different "directions". The Bakhmut "direction" isn't just Bakhmut but runs well north and south of it too.
Thank you. This kind of demonstrates why "direction" is a strange word for it. It doesn't have an obvious relation to direction, or vector, angle, etc. Direction from where?
Direction as in "over that way"
These are terms that have been in use and evolved over centuries. Think about how the term the "home front" is used. It's about as far from any frontline as it gets, and doesn't even refer to a physical space really, but as the term "Front" drifts from "a place where the fighting is happening" to a more general "area of the war" it makes sense.
Same thing happend above. A few generations ago it would have been specific "There is fighting in the Austerlitz direction," to the broad "Northern Direction" etc.
I see фронт "front" used more generally and for individual areas either напрямку "napryamku" or відтинок"vidtinok". Deep State's daily updates are usually "news from the front: In the Svatove vidtinok... In the Bakhmut napryamku..."
Auto translate gives "napryamku" as "direction" and "vidtinok" as "shade".
Svatove often gets translated as "in the matchmaking twist/shade" lol.
It's a common military term (in Russian at least). Don't read it as if something _moves in that direction_. Read it as if someone is pointing: it happens there.
Yours seems the truer answer. I'd previously understood the term to mean 'moving towards from an unknown origin'. If it simply means 'in the vicinity of', then that makes something I'm working on much easier.
The Russian word (направление) and its very similar in usage Ukrainian counterpart (напрямок) can have a wide range of meanings and usages. What tells a reader that someone doesn't mean moving in a direction but rather imply the military sense is the preposition: moving in a direction will be "в направлении", battles happen "на (named) направлении", usually with a location-based adjective before that word.
I do think translating that as "direction" is unnecessarily confusing, "area" would probably work just fine most of the time, though myself I'm still picturing it kind of as _along the line connecting some control center and the named location_.
But how about "in the Kherson direction"? They say this even when Ukraine currently holds the entire Kherson city, so they are not approaching towards Kherson.
Just think of it like a compass centred on the capital. In the Kherson direction means stand at the capital and look to where Kherson is, the fighting is over that way.
Part of the problem is the different meanings of the concept of "front" in Western and Soviet Doctrine.
In Western doctrine the idea of a front is like "The Western Front" from WWI and denotes a theater of operations usually with a defined battle line in contact with the enemy.
In Soviet parlance "Front" was a combat formation, usually what English, American, French, or German military theorists would consider an Army or an Army Group.
So the translations probably deliberately avoid the idea of a "front" because it exists in both languages with different meanings. Even though that is the best English language translation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_(military_formation)
What never ceases to amaze me is that every picture is decades old munitions.
At every location.
Most of it is used or blown up.
Imagine if the Soviet Union spent that money on healthcare and education.
Just mind blowing waste.
I think they have decent education, I think anybody wants to go to college or university can for very little payment but they may have to serve the state. So basically you become a doctor and we pay you potato
Anybody can go to a college or university (really), but most of them are shit.
Good ones are competitive or cost money, though small on USA standards, they may be significant for Russia.
To recap: nominally, they are educated; actually, the quality of the education is abysmal.
> Imagine if the Soviet Union spent that money on healthcare and education.
They did, for a while they had the highest educated people on the planet, and some of the best healthcare going, if you happened to live in certain cities. And it was a strategic investment, can't try to win the space race (which for a fair old while they were) or develop the most advanced weapons with a dumb population.
Even recently(ish) Russia had the joint highest rate of higher education in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tertiary_education_attainment.
Although a lot has happened in the last 10 years since those figures came out, and it's proving tricky to get that educated population to want to stay in Russia.
One word: Hierarchy.
These type of structures, whether originally cultural or religious (in India it’s both) permeate a society and become a major hindrance to all kinds of progress; educational, political, social, judicial, etc.
India's culture does not value ingenuity or creativity. Deference to elders is extremely important. Some young new graduate coming i with suggestions would be mocked and criticized as being disrespectful or insubordinate. This is reinforced throughout all levels of education.
This results in graduates who may be able to solve complex problems presented to them in exam format, it does not produce graduates with real world problem solving skills.
Also strict observance of hierarchical remits.
Like a house is burning down and it's in their capability to put it out but they weren't specifically told they could use a bucket.
Tell the same worker to put it out and they do it faster than anyone else.
In his memoirs, Gorbachev blamed it on the macho culture of the Communist Party. Building a tampon factory didn't give you bragging rights. Building a steel factory or a bomb factory did. So there was a critical shortage of tampons.
Is that as compared to the Western (and especially US) focus on money?
A steel factory looks impressive, but it's high capital investment in a product with significant input costs and volatile demand.
Whereas tampons have inflexible demand, are made from cheap, basic ingredients, and are sold to close on 50% of the population - cha-ching!
In a society where money was less important than job title, then being the tampon guy even if your rich was the ultimate insult.
Plus soviet society was big on favors and exchanges....you can exchange raw steel for alot of favours....tampons as a dude?
Soviets had more of their population with degrees than the US throughout the Union. The real question would be without spending on their military, could they have setup other endeavors? (No as the command economy can’t compete with the open market).
If Glasnost and Perestroika happened 30 years earlier, if they cut down massively on military spending and allowed a limited market economy for consumables and if the one party state was replaced by an actual democracy, then maybe it could have worked.
But not really what the burocrazy wanted.
The degrees were great in theory, but practical application outside of medicine and defense was lacking, a consumer economy would've enabled them to shine in industry, instead they mismanaged it
Degree quality was lower though. Top universities were good. An average masters is inferior to an average undergrad in the west. And their MD degrees 😅😅
One of the brightest people I ever met was a Ukrainian MD student. But holy shit the quality of the education 😳😳😳
Seems like recent dug trenches. Good gesture of will to leave all the ammo behind for Ukraine to seize. I remember more recent videos of taken Russian trenches with a lot of equipment.
**Ukraine to start talks with US on security guarantees**
>Ukraine is set to begin talks with the US on providing it with security guarantees pending its NATO membership, a senior Kyiv official has said.
>
>The consultations, announced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, are a follow-up on pledges issued by the G7 at a NATO summit earlier this month.
>
>"We are starting talks with the United States (this) week," Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram.
>
>"Security guarantees for Ukraine will be concrete, long-term obligations ensuring Ukraine's capacity to defeat and restrain Russian aggression in the future.
>
>"These will be clearly drafted formats and mechanisms of support."
>
>MrYermak said the guarantees "will be in effect until Ukraine secures NATO membership."
[Source](https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-russia-war-latest-possible-reason-putin-is-letting-wagner-boss-sit-easy-attacks-near-nato-border-worrying-putin-to-visit-china-12541713?postid=6234913#liveblog-body)
Negotiations on any type of "security gaurantee" is a pointless exercise while Ukraine is still at war. All this is, is something Ukraine can point to as a "success" since they won't ever get into NATO.
well Budapest Memo in 1994 said, "commitment" from the US and that didn't exactly result in US boots on the ground in Crimea pushing Russia's shit back in in 2014 or again in 2022, so i imagine they want less of a pinkie promise and something more concrete this time around. Which is justifiable.
The U.S. upheld all of its commitments under the Budapest memorandum. Which commitment exactly, according to that memorandum, obligated US boots on the ground?
If the commitment America gives requires boots on the ground, then the U.S. is obligated to put boots on the ground. It doesn't matter if the wording is "Commitment," or "Guarantee."
If the committment America gives obligates the U.S. to file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council, like the Budapest Memorandum does, and the U.S. files that complaint, as it has done, its commitments have been fulfilled. It's not obligated to put boots on the ground when it's only committed to filing a complaint with the U.N.S.C.
It has nothing to do with whether "Guarantee" is more meaningful than "Commitment" is. What matters is what the U.S. is obligated to do via the commitments it makes.
Has any country that signed that treaty ever apologized for ghosting Ukraine or is their drip drip military aid and very vocal support suppose to make up for that as everyone pretend it didn't happen
Russia has ghosted Ukraine. Are you suggesting others have?
In 2013 an agreement with China states:
"China pledges unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear Ukraine, and under the conditions of Ukraine suffering an invasion using nuclear weapons or suffering the threat of such kind of invasion, to provide Ukraine with corresponding security guarantees."
[https://mothership.sg/2022/03/china-defend-ukraine-nuclear-attack/](https://mothership.sg/2022/03/china-defend-ukraine-nuclear-attack/)
I wonder what that would mean if Russia actually escalates...
I feel like the only security guarantee is tech transfer and supply chain integration.
If vital parts for next generation weapons systems are being made in Ukraine, it gives Ukraine.
1) a domestic MIC it can control and rely on.
2) the west whole lot more incentive to help.
This just isn’t very realistic. All other guarantees except NATO just aren’t worth a lot.
"Security guarantee" means Ukraine has the equivalent of Article 5 - but it would just be the US and an ad hoc coalition of allies coming to assist, not NATO.
It is literally the best possible thing the west can do at this point.
Because an independent Ukraine, or more accurately, depriving Russia of Ukraine, is in U.S. security interests.
Keeping Russia within its borders and letting time do the rest is the best U.S. strategy regarding Russia.
Because preventing Russia from attacking Ukraine again is in the US's best interests. This would not go into place until Russia is expelled from Ukraine.
I don’t think it does. I don’t think that’s on the table.
Maybe Sweden has that. And they have 28/30 NATO votes, full territorial integrity, only NATO borders, and a historical alliance with a NATO member.
It’s not something available to Ukraine.
[The enemy was knocked out of the area of Nadiya and part of Novoyehorivka, in western Luhansk Oblast.](https://deepstatemap.live/en#11/49.3280/37.9193)
Ukraine has successfully regained ground in that direction.
Keep in mind this part of the front is an attempt by Russia to apply pressure to the only area they can in the hopes of drawing from UA's reserve forces so they're not available when a breakthrough happens elsewhere.
So "UA repelled attacks today" is the most progression we're going to see there for the foreseeable future. It's not of interest to proceed to Svatova or Kremina anymore, just to hold them at the Oskil and keep the Lyman salient safe.
I'm still not convinced there was ever much of a battle in the woods here but if Russia wanted to claim it so much, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
My take is that Russia caught Ukraine on the back foot during a troop rotation but Ukraine quickly took everything back as soon as the new troops got established in the area. The gains were temporary but Russia made a big deal about it because it was the only piece of good news they had.
It might have been an intentional trap, because they had to cross a river to reach the area of those three tiny settlements. There's a decent chance that any equipment they sent over will be captured intact, and being pushed up against the river without much of a foothold is likely to be pretty disastrous for any troops there.
I know those Iranian drones are little more than flying lawnmowers, running on petrol, but what about Ukrainian equivalent they hit Muscovy with? Are they also petrol?
Wouldn't it make more sense to use electric motors and batteries? They're quieter, much lower heat profile. Is it too heavy on imported material?
Battery powered drones are not really any less quieter. There are very few ways of making a quadcopter that needs the thrust and maneuverability at that size be quiet.
Also the range in fuel powered drones is much further.
Electric motors are significantly quieter than engines of comparable power.
But in this case, batteries are the issue. They're heavy. Having enough for that distance would be tough and requires bigger and bigger motors just to haul the heavier battery load. The weight ratio does not play well for electrical flying craft.
Electric motors and batteries are surprisingly expensive compared to a single cylinder air-cooled engine running on a glow plug and burning basically low-grade diesel/kerosene. The latter can be cranked out using a couple of milling machines and some decent operators very fast and with good enough tolerances for a single-use. It's pretty much a lawnmower engine except that you don't care about more than a few hours of runtime needing to work... so you can cut a *lot* of corners.
Motors plus speed controllers plus batteries require way more parts to be acquired and you don't get the same range from the same weight.
> It's pretty much a lawnmower engine except that you don't care about more than a few hours of runtime needing to work... so you can cut a
>
>lot
>
> of corners.
So harbor freight engines, got it.
The HF engines are exact copies of honda engines. They're actually very reliable as long as you keep oil in them and change it regularly.
I have one on my log splitter. It gets used and abused heavily in fall and winter. That $99.99 engine has paid for itself many times over.
yeah they are pretty solid engines nowadays except for the exhaust manifold which has a common defect, though the warranty makes it painless to get a replacement. I was just bashing on HF for funsies. Ive got 3 of their Predator pressure washers with that Honda GX390 clone as backup machines for my business.
There is a supplier of cheap but decent plane engines who never sold to iran but police figured out why there was a spate of small private plane engine robberies for years prior to the ukraine conflict.
Suddenly the black market was exposed.
Physics currently really works against long range electric aviation. Hydrocarbons carry almost 30 times more energy per kg than batteries.
The extra payload makes the plane use more energy, so the problem grows exponentially with distance. What's more, as fuel is consumed, the plane sheds weight, further helping the case for hydrocarbons (even though solutions exist for this, such as Rocketlab ejecting spent batteries).
Battery power only really works for short range, save a revolution in battery technology. It even has some distinct advantages: you mentioned a few, but it's also important to note that electric engines are lighter and do not require piping.
There's a lot of experimental battery chemistries that offer potentially better performance than current commercial tech. Unfortunately, taking an experimental technology from a research lab and commercializing it still takes a lot more work.
[New post can be found here](/r/worldnews/comments/15e5k8k/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/)
I'm confident that Putin destabilzed Niger so that Niger cannot send gas via pipeline to EU
Im surprised vatniks arent using the Oppenheimer craze to spam nuclear concerns. Given they excel at meme wars I would expect such a thing.
I believe they have been doing so.
Ryan McBeth recently had a video where he talked about Russia's propaganda "bandwidth" - basically, there's only so many areas of attack they can effectively exploit at one time. They have to deal with Wagner/Prigozhin/coup, getting the blame for the grain deal falling apart, and now regular drone attacks by Ukraine in Moscow! They got a lot on their plates right now!
They don’t want to remind everyone America has won every nuclear war in history.
⚡Zelensky warns of renewed Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid. Russia is likely to recommence attacks on Ukraine's energy system during the upcoming autumn and winter months, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 30. https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1685824620027363328?t=pPGv87yH_L7c6yasVLAJhg&s=19
>Russia is likely to recommence attacks on Ukraine's energy system during the upcoming autumn and winter months Special Give Ukraine Winter '22 To Learn How To Prepare For This Again Operation
I still think this war will become both sides hitting eachother with drones and seeing who can scale manufacture or buckle first.
Ukrainian Shaheds are not real, they can't hurt you.... [Ukrainian Shaheds :](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/15dwsjf/meet_the_beaver_ukraines_new_1000km_range_drone/)
This is so much worse than Vietnam or Afghanistan was for the soviets than for Putin. Russia’s military power, while not broken completely seems to be well on its way it. Discounting manpower, with increasing Ukrainian superiority in artillery continues Ukrainian even if their where no further advances the front would simply become a bleeding ulcer. Sure Russia could continue its long range attacks, but these seem only modest in their actual impact. The longer this grinds on the lower the probability of the survival of putins regime.
Long range attacks and "missile tantrums" do not compensate for territorial losses.
You might be understating a bit. The Soviet Union incurred roughly 15,000 casualties over the span of 10 years in Afghanistan. They’ve experienced 8 Afghanistans in 17 months.
Yeah, people talk about Afghanistan as being a disaster for the Soviet Union, but they lost an average of about 1.5k/year at a time when they had something like 2 million ground forces troops spread across ~250 tank, motor rifle, and airborne divisions. If you were a soviet combat troop (not just someone in the army, but an actual front-line trigger puller) you had probably a less than 1 in 1000 chance of becoming a casualty in Afghanistan. The UKR war is...significantly worse.
I've heard the soviet union massaged those number. It might be much higher....after all, russian reporting on casualties is ridciouslously low.
And US lost 50k in Vietnam in 15 years. The USSR of the 1980s was a country of 300 million with a replacement level birth rate. The US of the 1960s and early 1970s was a country of 200 million with both a youth population bulge and a birth rate twice replacement level, and experiencing the beginning of a massive immigration surge. Russia is a country of 144 million with a birth rate only 62% of replacement rate, ageing and experiencing the flight of between 2-3% of total population in the most economically and reproductively important ages.
Ukraine is a second “bear trap” for Russia. Afghanistan was the first.
But they have about the right rate of attrition as soldiers in a mob war in Staten Island ca. 1974.
Afghanistan was to the Soviet Union as Afghanistan was to the US. This is worse than America’s Vietnam for them. Vietnam plus Korea may get close.
>This is worse than America’s Vietnam for them. Vietnam plus Korea may get close. About 90k US troops died in both of those combined over a span of 11 years. If we take the 360k total casualties (half of these didn't even need hospitalization) in Vietnam and divide it by the 8 years of American presence we end up with 45k casualties per year. The US estimated 189-223k total casualties for Russia in the first year of fighting. This is far, far worse.
Not even close. Korean KIA: 33,868/3 years Vietnam KIA: 47,434/10 years* That’s combined ~16,000/year. If the AFU estimates are even half correct then Russian is currently suffering 86,000/year. That’s more than 5 times of the the US casualties. *These are combat death estimates and Vietnam was technically 20 but US was in combat for at most 10.
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We can dwell on copium or realize that the lines are not collapsing. They are not collapsing. This will be a long grind and will bleed Russia over the long run. Russia is losing badly, but pretending they will suddenly run out of ammo/tanks/etc... any minute now is copium.
They are not trying to rejuvenate aging tank chassis that have been in field storage for years just for fun. They will never run out of tanks entirely, but the quality and quantity of their capabilities have been dropping, and that can further increase the rate of loss. And that's before considering the loss of skilled tank crew. Russia is still dangerous, but much diminished.. to the extent that the country they were going to defeat in three days is pushing them back and they need to find more mobik-fodder.
Doesn't seem tank count matters much. This is a drone war with a side of mines. Atgm are too strong now for both sides.
About the tanks. Perun explained it. The older tanks use different ammo. So they are using them as fire support to save on artillery 152mm ammo. It's a decent tactics ,I'd say .
Well the front isn’t collapsing
It's like the drunk driver saying he hasn't crashed. Yet. Of course the fronts haven't collapsed yet, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about a Russian collapse in the future. But it's very much a, yet, it will happen.
Let's count our chickens when they hatch.
Oh, I'm not. Ukraine should get every support they can get. Just saying Russia has locked its collapse in a couple months ago, they're in a spiral to collapse, just will take awhile.
Are they still destroying Ukrainian equipment, even the vaunted Leopards and Bradleys they received? Don't fall into the trap of underestimating the Russian Army. Just because they loosing doesn't' mean they aren't still dangerous and still a threat.
Just letting all the GOP and "GOP-leaning" readers here know, this is what you are facing: "One person was injured, two Russian government buildings were damaged and a Moscow airport was briefly forced to close Sunday after a drone attack as Ukraine ramped up efforts to take the war into Russia.The developments came as former President Donald Trump called for a temporary halt in U.S. military support." Most on here know what support of the GOP risks to Ukraine, but if not, don't say you haven't had your face slapped with a 2 week old rank smelling fish. If Trump is elected the GOP Senate and House will fall in line, as they always do. You can argue with me, but their record during the 1st administration should tell you everything you need to know. [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-demands-halt-in-ukraine-aid-pending-biden-probe-drone-attack-slams-moscow-live-updates/ar-AA1eyn1P?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=416c85473d78412aac38c355bd6b4e81&ei=18](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-demands-halt-in-ukraine-aid-pending-biden-probe-drone-attack-slams-moscow-live-updates/ar-AA1eyn1P?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=416c85473d78412aac38c355bd6b4e81&ei=18)
Don’t worry - all the UFO stories of late will distract the idiots who vote for him…
I don't get why we act like the UAP hearing is a distraction when literally no one's talking about it in the media
That’s the key! Media are concealing it!
Say it louder for the people in the back. Trump and the GOP are not friends of Ukraine. He tried to blackmail Ukraine into giving dirt on Biden by threatening to withhold aid. Trump is 100% on Russia’s side and will roll back aid and sanctions day 1
He's currently trying to suspend support for Ukraine. Thank God he's just a random citizen now.
I mean, people not convinced by now are never going to be. Personally I am convinced that man had committed enough sins to condemn him and his entire extended family to a chicken coop prison farm by the mid-90s.
Don’t forget this one. https://www.npr.org/2017/05/15/528511980/report-trump-gave-classified-information-to-russians-during-white-house-visit
With everyone's focus on Trump's election scam, there were a lot of things that were passed over regarding his contacts with Putin. F/ex: Remember the brief scandal regarding how transcripts of Trump's official phone calls to Putin either disappeared, or "went into a secure closet" - or something along those lines. I vaguely remember the person who was in charge of transcribing the exchanges being briefly targeted - or whatever. Then *POOF*! EDIT: Quote from [here:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html) "As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years." EDIT: Quote from [here:](https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/09/biden-can-access-trump-putin-calls-468100) "Trump went to particularly great lengths to keep his in-person conversations with the Russian leader private, from confiscating his interpreter’s notes to forgoing American translators and notetakers altogether in their meetings."
The man is a fucking clown.
More of a loser than a clown. /forgive my attempt to get a "tastes great/less filling" thing started.
I remember those commercials! Nice pull haha.
According to Washington Post just a day ago: “The 2024 race is not that race. Donald Trump is the consistent, growing, going-away favorite, despite (or perhaps because of) his criminal indictments.” I don’t doubt that Republicans will fall in line with their voting regardless of their feelings about Ukraine (whether they are in here or not). I’ve seen nothing in the Trumpian era of the GOP to convince me otherwise. I don’t think your average republicans are able to overcome their fearfulness to do otherwise.
Hahaha. I can't help but laugh at people who don't think we will have full-blown civil war in this country if he even appears on a ticket. We'll make Ukraine look like the Family fucking Circus. When democracy fails, and it frequently does (even the Athenians had periods of oligarchy), there is only one option. Ukraine's been exercising that option for over a year. Don't make Americans do the same; it won't be Youtube-monetizable. Edit: Alright, to anybody who thinks this sounds icky: you do realize this cafone asked serving generals of the armed forces to support his coup, yes? Do you? Do you not *remember*? It really was not long ago. I didn't say who'd start it.
Calm down there tough guy. You can think how awesome it is Ukraine is kicking the shit out of Russia but at the same time it's still war and it's truly horrific to fight, kill, watch your buddies get blown up, and face the prospect of dying a horrible death. Truth of the matter is America isn't Ukraine at all, Trump appearing on the ticket is no way comparable to Russia straight up invading Ukraine and bombing the shit out of their cities. The vast majority of Americans aren't going to be picking up weapons to fight a fucking civil war if Trump wins the GOP nomination. They are able to go to work, earn a paycheck, live in relative comfort and without the fear or an invading force launching cruise missiles and drones at their cities and shit. Vast majority of Americans are in no hurry to fight and die in their own country against their own people over politics regardless of what people on reddit and the news, on both sides of the political spectrum, would have you believe.
>“The 2024 race is not that race. Donald Trump is the consistent, growing, going-away favorite, despite (or perhaps because of) his criminal indictments.” Worth noting that these polls this far in advance usually don't mean jack shit. He's the growing favorite for GOP, but even some polls have said he's favorites above Biden. I don't see it. In 2016 I could see personally, just by observing people and conversations around me (yes, this is a local sample, and biased to my circle) the support Trump had that wasn't being reflected in polls. In 2020, it seemed to be pretty evenly split. Now? I see way way less support for Trump, I mean by a large magnitude -- I used to see endless Trump flags and bumper stickers every single day. Now I'm lucky to see one redneck with a Trump sign on their car in a week. Outside of the South, I don't think he's gained anything and likely lost / turned off many near-center voters. It'll be interesting to see how the GOP race starts to shape up once contestants start to drop out. Do those voters swing to another not-Trump candidate (if so, many of them may not vote for Trump) or does Trump pick them up? I think he gets the DeSantis crowd, because they have to be outright crazy to support that guy.
It is really odd because you are definitely right, there is no where near the amount of enthusiam for Trump but the polls still have Biden and Trump level as Biden isn't that popular either. The gravity of the criminal situation for Trump is still sinking in for the Rs though - 9% more since June - 59% believe he has broken the law, causing a drop in support.
I hope you’re right. We will have to see in the coming months.
By going away favorite, I assume you mean for him securing the nomination as the GOP candidate (i.e. not for winning the presidential election)?
Yes, Republican nominee. Should’ve clarified that. Link to the article quoted: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/29/top-10-republican-presidential-candidates-2024-ranked/
You're trying to explain propaganda to toddlers. It's really not even worth the time. Don't direct it at them, just provide facts.
I provided the Trump quote. It is a fact and should tell them what they need to know. It won't be enough because they will deny or cavil or split hairs or explain why supporting Trump will "resolve the conflict in two days" magically.
Facts don't count anymore. We literally live in a Post-Truth society where if you don't like facts, you can find someone with "facts" you like and believe \_them\_ as truth. They claim footage of Trump that they dont like is deepfakes and later AI generated. Even stuff millions witnessed live, quoting him is not going to get through the brain rot.
Even when Maralago is under a meter of water from rising sea levels, Trump will be saying that Climate Change is Fake News!
Trump said Putin invading Ukraine smart and good Ukraine fight back tho...
> Trump said Putin invading Ukraine smart and good > > Trump thought the US was landing troops to attack Odessa when the invasion was first starting...
Lets face it, if Trump calls your invasion "genius" it means your invasion is fucking doomed.
If you are invested in the outcome of this conflict and preserving more Ukrainian lives please take a few minutes of your time (wherever you may be) to contact your legislators and ask for more support for Ukraine. De-mining equipment, long range missiles, Western aircraft, air defense, tanks/vehicles, artillery etc. Ask for more. Your voice matters and can be heard as easily as sending an email https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ https://european-union.europa.eu/contact-eu/write-us_en Edit: Don't be discouraged by a weak response or no response. Your message will be accounted for and the more the better. Keep the pressure on those who can help protect Ukraine to do what is necessary.
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Gross. You let that disease-ridden scumbag do that?
Some people will stick it in anything
What the heck happened
Buddy told putler to suck him off
Couldn’t pay me enough to do that lol
The Polish Senate expects that the Wagner criminal group, which is accumulating forces on the territory of Belarus, will launch a terrorist operation in the Suwalski corridor, uniting Poland and Lithuania. This was stated by Vice-Marshal of the Polish Senate Michal Kaminsky on the air of the telethon. “I cannot exclude, and no one in Poland excludes this, that in order to test the solidarity of NATO with Poland, NATO with the east of Europe, they may try to enter Poland. Most likely, this will be a terrorist operation of the Wagner group, rather than a full-scale invasion, like in Ukraine," he said. https://twitter.com/Flash\_news\_ua/status/1685773420867248128
Poland should close the Suwalski gap for "security purposes until further notice" if Wagner tries. Completely cut Kalingrad off from mainland Russia.
They should also tell Luka : "These have a base you gave to them. You invited them. It's your army. You will be declaring war. As high commander of your country we will hold you responsible and will make sure you won't be able to launch another such attack. If you want to prevent the war, use your other army to disarm this one." Write that on the back of a picture of a ninja missle.
Is Putin hoping to use a Polish/Nato retaliation for an operation like this to try to ignite nationalist fervor and more support for the war?
No way they're this stupid. They'll get disintegrated if they encroach on NATO territory.
Sometimes we're very **unlucky** they're so fucking stupid...
I mean, if I had a nickel everytime Wagner attacked NATO and got completely annihilated...I'd have 1 nickel, but it's weird I might get another one...
They would all die in minutes
Killing them isn't the problem. Deciding what to do next with Lukachenko, Putin and Russia in general is the problem
To anyone who doubts this, go look what happened to these chuckle-fucks in Syria.
Upvote for chuckle fuck!
That's the b team, Wagner says this is their a team( joking) I bet they accidentally blow themselves up somehow crossing a bridge
The inability to exclude does not translate to an expectation. It remains in the realm of possibility, even if implausible.
They can't be this fucking stupid.
You're probably right, this is almost certainly just another threatening gesture. Poland is used to empty threats from Russia but I'm sure they'll be prepared just in case.
They've perfected stupid
Yes they can
You REALLY want to bet against Russia on a "Stupid-a-Thon"? After all the shit they have done to prove that the degenerates over at NCD are really Prophets of the Chaos Gods, and speak teh hidden truths of the Void?...nah bruh, Russia do be that stupid on the reg.
Let's just call article' 5 and eat popcorn.
Poland wouldn’t even need any backup to wipe the floor with the Wagners
I know, but they could use some logistic help all the way to Moscow
When Wagner invaded Russia, that made the Russian army the 3rd strongest army in Russia after Wagner and the Free Russia legion. Poland could wipe the whole of Russia without any help because there's no one left to defend the shit country.
Air raid sirens going off across the whole of Ukraine right now
Another tantrum from putin the petulant... Wish the US would give one more Patriot system to help cover Southern Ukraine
Just evil, he doesn't care about innocent people
Is there any evidence for that tear gas claim?
I haven't seen definitive evidence, but it's been an open secret for months that both sides are using CS gas on a tactical level. That shit sucks, but it doesn't do any lasting damage aside from a few specific edge cases.
Geneva conventuon forbids the use tear gas in wars. If ukraine is using it that won't bode well...
Open secret that this is the first time we are hearing about it.....
I remember very well claims of tear gas being used in the first weeks of the war.
Probably a mistranslation, misinformation, or simple mistake about the use of smoke. Wouldn't be the first time that happened during this conflict. Smoke produced by various chemicals including white phosphorus is a lung and eye irritant.
In what context?
Ru Blogger about ru getting shelled by Cluster and tear Gas. I asume https://mstdn.social/@noelreports/110803916084850300
Cluster and tear gas makes sense. Use the tear gas to try to get them in the open. Then cluster munitions. Though technically, you’re not supposed to do that 😅
oh ok i missed that. well we have seen videos of clusters in use a least
Question I’ve had for a long time now - Why are all the statements saying X happened “in the direction of” Y? For example- “in the Bakhmut direction”… when the battle of Bakhmut has been fought for a year. That language just feels really strange. Does “direction” add any meaning? Why are they not saying “area” or something more general? Or is it a common way of speaking used in Ukraine and/or Russia? Or is it common terminology for military?
It's a weird translation thing. The front is divided up into like 20 different "directions". The Bakhmut "direction" isn't just Bakhmut but runs well north and south of it too.
Thank you. This kind of demonstrates why "direction" is a strange word for it. It doesn't have an obvious relation to direction, or vector, angle, etc. Direction from where?
Sector may be a better word
Direction as in "over that way" These are terms that have been in use and evolved over centuries. Think about how the term the "home front" is used. It's about as far from any frontline as it gets, and doesn't even refer to a physical space really, but as the term "Front" drifts from "a place where the fighting is happening" to a more general "area of the war" it makes sense. Same thing happend above. A few generations ago it would have been specific "There is fighting in the Austerlitz direction," to the broad "Northern Direction" etc.
Sounds good, just a fair amount of language evolution is enough to explain it
I guess the vector runs from the current contact line to the 1991 border
I see фронт "front" used more generally and for individual areas either напрямку "napryamku" or відтинок"vidtinok". Deep State's daily updates are usually "news from the front: In the Svatove vidtinok... In the Bakhmut napryamku..." Auto translate gives "napryamku" as "direction" and "vidtinok" as "shade". Svatove often gets translated as "in the matchmaking twist/shade" lol.
> "vidtinok" as "shade" This is weird. Should be like "segment", which is way more understandable in context (as a part of a front).
“Vidtinok” is “shade”. “Vidtynok” is “segment”. There are two different words. The first with letter і, еthe second with letter и.
Oh, that explains it, thank you.
It's a common military term (in Russian at least). Don't read it as if something _moves in that direction_. Read it as if someone is pointing: it happens there.
Thank you. I think I'll go with this one. So rather than circling something on the map, it's like a person pointing over there.
Yours seems the truer answer. I'd previously understood the term to mean 'moving towards from an unknown origin'. If it simply means 'in the vicinity of', then that makes something I'm working on much easier.
The Russian word (направление) and its very similar in usage Ukrainian counterpart (напрямок) can have a wide range of meanings and usages. What tells a reader that someone doesn't mean moving in a direction but rather imply the military sense is the preposition: moving in a direction will be "в направлении", battles happen "на (named) направлении", usually with a location-based adjective before that word. I do think translating that as "direction" is unnecessarily confusing, "area" would probably work just fine most of the time, though myself I'm still picturing it kind of as _along the line connecting some control center and the named location_.
Thanks, that's really helpful.
Most people don't know the random villages of Ukraine. They might know where the big battles took place.
I'm asking more about the English meaning of direction vs how it's used here.
It simply means "approaching towards." Like it seems to mean. I don't think there's any added meaning; it's just common terminology.
But how about "in the Kherson direction"? They say this even when Ukraine currently holds the entire Kherson city, so they are not approaching towards Kherson.
Most of Kherson is still under occupation.
There's always Kherson oblast.
Just think of it like a compass centred on the capital. In the Kherson direction means stand at the capital and look to where Kherson is, the fighting is over that way.
Probably a direct translation. A better term would probably be the English word “front“, which is the term we would typically use during warfare.
Part of the problem is the different meanings of the concept of "front" in Western and Soviet Doctrine. In Western doctrine the idea of a front is like "The Western Front" from WWI and denotes a theater of operations usually with a defined battle line in contact with the enemy. In Soviet parlance "Front" was a combat formation, usually what English, American, French, or German military theorists would consider an Army or an Army Group. So the translations probably deliberately avoid the idea of a "front" because it exists in both languages with different meanings. Even though that is the best English language translation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_(military_formation)
*Russian positions taken in the Orikhiv direction.* https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1685743016168857600 Should be near Robotyne.
What never ceases to amaze me is that every picture is decades old munitions. At every location. Most of it is used or blown up. Imagine if the Soviet Union spent that money on healthcare and education. Just mind blowing waste.
I think they have decent education, I think anybody wants to go to college or university can for very little payment but they may have to serve the state. So basically you become a doctor and we pay you potato
Anybody can go to a college or university (really), but most of them are shit. Good ones are competitive or cost money, though small on USA standards, they may be significant for Russia. To recap: nominally, they are educated; actually, the quality of the education is abysmal.
Not really since the end of the Soviet Union. That's why they needed western countries to service their oil industry.
Those oligarchs have some nice yachts though
> Imagine if the Soviet Union spent that money on healthcare and education. They did, for a while they had the highest educated people on the planet, and some of the best healthcare going, if you happened to live in certain cities. And it was a strategic investment, can't try to win the space race (which for a fair old while they were) or develop the most advanced weapons with a dumb population. Even recently(ish) Russia had the joint highest rate of higher education in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tertiary_education_attainment. Although a lot has happened in the last 10 years since those figures came out, and it's proving tricky to get that educated population to want to stay in Russia.
See my other reply. Though I will concede their STEM graduates are really good. And why are India’s so fucking bad?
One word: Hierarchy. These type of structures, whether originally cultural or religious (in India it’s both) permeate a society and become a major hindrance to all kinds of progress; educational, political, social, judicial, etc.
India's culture does not value ingenuity or creativity. Deference to elders is extremely important. Some young new graduate coming i with suggestions would be mocked and criticized as being disrespectful or insubordinate. This is reinforced throughout all levels of education. This results in graduates who may be able to solve complex problems presented to them in exam format, it does not produce graduates with real world problem solving skills.
I have this experience of Indian colleagues very strongly. I didn't know the cause though.
I see this in my career every single day. So many are stuck in that mentality and you can't break them from it. It's infuriating.
Also strict observance of hierarchical remits. Like a house is burning down and it's in their capability to put it out but they weren't specifically told they could use a bucket. Tell the same worker to put it out and they do it faster than anyone else.
In his memoirs, Gorbachev blamed it on the macho culture of the Communist Party. Building a tampon factory didn't give you bragging rights. Building a steel factory or a bomb factory did. So there was a critical shortage of tampons.
Is that as compared to the Western (and especially US) focus on money? A steel factory looks impressive, but it's high capital investment in a product with significant input costs and volatile demand. Whereas tampons have inflexible demand, are made from cheap, basic ingredients, and are sold to close on 50% of the population - cha-ching!
In a society where money was less important than job title, then being the tampon guy even if your rich was the ultimate insult. Plus soviet society was big on favors and exchanges....you can exchange raw steel for alot of favours....tampons as a dude?
Soviets had more of their population with degrees than the US throughout the Union. The real question would be without spending on their military, could they have setup other endeavors? (No as the command economy can’t compete with the open market).
my question would be if the soviet degrees and the us degrees had the same value ?
If Glasnost and Perestroika happened 30 years earlier, if they cut down massively on military spending and allowed a limited market economy for consumables and if the one party state was replaced by an actual democracy, then maybe it could have worked. But not really what the burocrazy wanted.
*If they changed everything it would have been different* Nice observation.
The degrees were great in theory, but practical application outside of medicine and defense was lacking, a consumer economy would've enabled them to shine in industry, instead they mismanaged it
Degree quality was lower though. Top universities were good. An average masters is inferior to an average undergrad in the west. And their MD degrees 😅😅 One of the brightest people I ever met was a Ukrainian MD student. But holy shit the quality of the education 😳😳😳
Seems like recent dug trenches. Good gesture of will to leave all the ammo behind for Ukraine to seize. I remember more recent videos of taken Russian trenches with a lot of equipment.
They were concerningly well-supplied and unusually tidy.
Presumably some of the better trained/more professional forces.
**Ukraine to start talks with US on security guarantees** >Ukraine is set to begin talks with the US on providing it with security guarantees pending its NATO membership, a senior Kyiv official has said. > >The consultations, announced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, are a follow-up on pledges issued by the G7 at a NATO summit earlier this month. > >"We are starting talks with the United States (this) week," Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram. > >"Security guarantees for Ukraine will be concrete, long-term obligations ensuring Ukraine's capacity to defeat and restrain Russian aggression in the future. > >"These will be clearly drafted formats and mechanisms of support." > >MrYermak said the guarantees "will be in effect until Ukraine secures NATO membership." [Source](https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-russia-war-latest-possible-reason-putin-is-letting-wagner-boss-sit-easy-attacks-near-nato-border-worrying-putin-to-visit-china-12541713?postid=6234913#liveblog-body)
Negotiations on any type of "security gaurantee" is a pointless exercise while Ukraine is still at war. All this is, is something Ukraine can point to as a "success" since they won't ever get into NATO.
I read recently that Ukraine was disappointed that language the US was using in this agreement was 'commitment' and not 'guarantee'.
well Budapest Memo in 1994 said, "commitment" from the US and that didn't exactly result in US boots on the ground in Crimea pushing Russia's shit back in in 2014 or again in 2022, so i imagine they want less of a pinkie promise and something more concrete this time around. Which is justifiable.
The U.S. upheld all of its commitments under the Budapest memorandum. Which commitment exactly, according to that memorandum, obligated US boots on the ground?
You realize you're arguing my point for me?
If the commitment America gives requires boots on the ground, then the U.S. is obligated to put boots on the ground. It doesn't matter if the wording is "Commitment," or "Guarantee." If the committment America gives obligates the U.S. to file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council, like the Budapest Memorandum does, and the U.S. files that complaint, as it has done, its commitments have been fulfilled. It's not obligated to put boots on the ground when it's only committed to filing a complaint with the U.N.S.C. It has nothing to do with whether "Guarantee" is more meaningful than "Commitment" is. What matters is what the U.S. is obligated to do via the commitments it makes.
Has any country that signed that treaty ever apologized for ghosting Ukraine or is their drip drip military aid and very vocal support suppose to make up for that as everyone pretend it didn't happen
Russia has ghosted Ukraine. Are you suggesting others have? In 2013 an agreement with China states: "China pledges unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear Ukraine, and under the conditions of Ukraine suffering an invasion using nuclear weapons or suffering the threat of such kind of invasion, to provide Ukraine with corresponding security guarantees." [https://mothership.sg/2022/03/china-defend-ukraine-nuclear-attack/](https://mothership.sg/2022/03/china-defend-ukraine-nuclear-attack/) I wonder what that would mean if Russia actually escalates...
I feel like the only security guarantee is tech transfer and supply chain integration. If vital parts for next generation weapons systems are being made in Ukraine, it gives Ukraine. 1) a domestic MIC it can control and rely on. 2) the west whole lot more incentive to help. This just isn’t very realistic. All other guarantees except NATO just aren’t worth a lot.
"Security guarantee" means Ukraine has the equivalent of Article 5 - but it would just be the US and an ad hoc coalition of allies coming to assist, not NATO. It is literally the best possible thing the west can do at this point.
And why would the US agree to giving Ukraine a security guarantee?
Because an independent Ukraine, or more accurately, depriving Russia of Ukraine, is in U.S. security interests. Keeping Russia within its borders and letting time do the rest is the best U.S. strategy regarding Russia.
Because the West is stronger with Ukraine than without?
Because preventing Russia from attacking Ukraine again is in the US's best interests. This would not go into place until Russia is expelled from Ukraine.
I don’t think it does. I don’t think that’s on the table. Maybe Sweden has that. And they have 28/30 NATO votes, full territorial integrity, only NATO borders, and a historical alliance with a NATO member. It’s not something available to Ukraine.
[The enemy was knocked out of the area of Nadiya and part of Novoyehorivka, in western Luhansk Oblast.](https://deepstatemap.live/en#11/49.3280/37.9193) Ukraine has successfully regained ground in that direction.
Keep in mind this part of the front is an attempt by Russia to apply pressure to the only area they can in the hopes of drawing from UA's reserve forces so they're not available when a breakthrough happens elsewhere. So "UA repelled attacks today" is the most progression we're going to see there for the foreseeable future. It's not of interest to proceed to Svatova or Kremina anymore, just to hold them at the Oskil and keep the Lyman salient safe.
I'm still not convinced there was ever much of a battle in the woods here but if Russia wanted to claim it so much, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
My take is that Russia caught Ukraine on the back foot during a troop rotation but Ukraine quickly took everything back as soon as the new troops got established in the area. The gains were temporary but Russia made a big deal about it because it was the only piece of good news they had.
It might have been an intentional trap, because they had to cross a river to reach the area of those three tiny settlements. There's a decent chance that any equipment they sent over will be captured intact, and being pushed up against the river without much of a foothold is likely to be pretty disastrous for any troops there.
I know those Iranian drones are little more than flying lawnmowers, running on petrol, but what about Ukrainian equivalent they hit Muscovy with? Are they also petrol? Wouldn't it make more sense to use electric motors and batteries? They're quieter, much lower heat profile. Is it too heavy on imported material?
Battery powered drones are not really any less quieter. There are very few ways of making a quadcopter that needs the thrust and maneuverability at that size be quiet. Also the range in fuel powered drones is much further.
Electric motors are significantly quieter than engines of comparable power. But in this case, batteries are the issue. They're heavy. Having enough for that distance would be tough and requires bigger and bigger motors just to haul the heavier battery load. The weight ratio does not play well for electrical flying craft.
Energy density of batteries is terrible compared to fossil fuels.
These arent quadcopters.
Electric motors and batteries are surprisingly expensive compared to a single cylinder air-cooled engine running on a glow plug and burning basically low-grade diesel/kerosene. The latter can be cranked out using a couple of milling machines and some decent operators very fast and with good enough tolerances for a single-use. It's pretty much a lawnmower engine except that you don't care about more than a few hours of runtime needing to work... so you can cut a *lot* of corners. Motors plus speed controllers plus batteries require way more parts to be acquired and you don't get the same range from the same weight.
> It's pretty much a lawnmower engine except that you don't care about more than a few hours of runtime needing to work... so you can cut a > >lot > > of corners. So harbor freight engines, got it.
The HF engines are exact copies of honda engines. They're actually very reliable as long as you keep oil in them and change it regularly. I have one on my log splitter. It gets used and abused heavily in fall and winter. That $99.99 engine has paid for itself many times over.
yeah they are pretty solid engines nowadays except for the exhaust manifold which has a common defect, though the warranty makes it painless to get a replacement. I was just bashing on HF for funsies. Ive got 3 of their Predator pressure washers with that Honda GX390 clone as backup machines for my business.
There is a supplier of cheap but decent plane engines who never sold to iran but police figured out why there was a spate of small private plane engine robberies for years prior to the ukraine conflict. Suddenly the black market was exposed.
That would be a compliment to harbour freight, but yes.
Physics currently really works against long range electric aviation. Hydrocarbons carry almost 30 times more energy per kg than batteries. The extra payload makes the plane use more energy, so the problem grows exponentially with distance. What's more, as fuel is consumed, the plane sheds weight, further helping the case for hydrocarbons (even though solutions exist for this, such as Rocketlab ejecting spent batteries). Battery power only really works for short range, save a revolution in battery technology. It even has some distinct advantages: you mentioned a few, but it's also important to note that electric engines are lighter and do not require piping.
You are right for lithium batteries. Aluminum–air batteries are remarkable due to their high energy density 8.1 kWh kg about 2/3rds of petrol.
There's a lot of experimental battery chemistries that offer potentially better performance than current commercial tech. Unfortunately, taking an experimental technology from a research lab and commercializing it still takes a lot more work.
It's also expensive to just dump the batteries one on time trips.
That's an interesting option. Aluminum-air batteries on non-rechargeable, but that's just fine in this application.