Ukraine

The Germans are scared. Russia, although not directly Putin himself, recently said publicly that any country providing military support to Ukraine is a legitimate target. Germany, despite its relatively healthy economy, is not a combat ready country. Their involvement in international coalition activities tends to be more of a token gesture for political reasons than a significant practical contribution. Going back a few years now, they once admitted that they only had 9 airworthy fighter jets. On paper they had a lot of fighter jets, but most of them were broken or otherwise unfit for use.

I think Russia is probably in a similar position, albeit on a much larger scale. Their statistics portray a formidable force, but as the world has seen over the last year, numbers on paper don't necessarily represent practical realities of capability. If the stats were a true reflection of reality, Russia would have conquered Ukraine in a weekend. I suspect this is why western supporters are getting more and more blasé about it all as time passes. I just hope Russia's nuclear capability is also grossly misrepresented in statistics.

 

I remember the first Gulf war.
Our troops didn't even have decent boots that were suitable and they were buying their own.
Half of all the equipment we are supposed to have is probably mothballed due to cost.

 

Mothballed or motheaten?

 

Interesting analysis of the situation with Russian oil revenues.

 

Interesting factoid. If you look at the media, Bulgaria have not sent any weapons to Ukraine because they were partly pro Russian. Reality is that they have been covertly supplying weapons to Ukraine via a third party. Being the US and UK. Putin doesnt like it when others use his own tactics. Good on Bulgaria I say.

 

Good on you Estonia .

The Estonian ambassador in Russia has been ordered to leave the country by 7 February after the Kremlin accused the country of "Russophobia".

Estonia responded by asking the Russian ambassador to leave by the same date.

 

Great to see Germany is sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Looks like 14, the same number Poland will send and the same as our Challenger 2 tanks. Seemingly 14 is a NATO tank company.

 

I just hope we can trust the Ukrainian government. I read today that Zelensky has sacked some senior ministers for corruption, and we already knew that some Ukrainians are pro Russian. I just hope we and our allies aren't inadvertently reducing our own readiness while simultaneously handing state of the art tech to the wrong people.

 

I hope that the Russians don't have similar anti tank weapons to the ones we were sending to Ukraine.

I had the impression that the tank was almost obsolete as a weapon, but obviously these tanks are supposed to be much better than the older Russian tanks.

I guess we will see.

 

The idea of tanks charging across an open plain like the cavalry is obsolete but the modern tank using modern tactics is a force to be reckoned with.

 

Personally, along with being in a submarine I cant think of a worst place to be during a war.

 

Totally agee. Tanks alone are vulnerable to rocket attack - but with infantry and artillery - together they make a formidible force.

Russian reckons that supplying tanks is an escalation - they are already murdering civilians - it can't be escalated any further.

Putin was looking for a cold Winter to freeze out Europe - it's been the warmest year on record for much of Europe.

Slava Ukraini.