News from Ukraine Conflict

[jejo68]

In what category? I'd never doubt the German military's professionalism but it's listed as number 30 in active military personnel on Globalfirepower.com, with 183,000 service personnel as compared to Russia's 766,000, and only 400 tanks vs Russia's 15,500. Artillery, 185 v. approx. 10,000. Unit for unit the Germans might outmatch the Russians by a wide margin but overall the numbers are not in their favor as far as a conventional land war goes.

yeah well on paper the russian fleet in Sevastopol is pretty amazing, until you see that 9/10 are out of order.
at least half their tanks are nonfunctional in there current state, same with their airfleet.
Most of the materiel is shitty old stuff, compared to state of the art from germany.
etc etc.

btw russia is listed as nr 2 in the World so im in no way saying they would be a pushover, but just as germany wouldnt be able to conquor russia, the same holds true the other way around. Russia simply cannot spare the material needed to take on germany given the neighbours they have.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Where do you get these high % in disrepair numbers? It seems very unlikely that they would not have fixed that before starting a war.

[GDS_Starfury]

well the might fix most of whats wrong with what theyre sending into action.  the simple truth is that they just dont have the money to maintain their vast stockpiles in a ready state.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Surprise.


"Two diplomats said they did not rule out a ban on the purchases of Russian sovereign bonds to make it more difficult for the Russian government to finance itself on markets. The measure, however, might have little direct impact on Russia in the near term, as it has limited borrowing needs. Rich from oil and gas revenues, Russia has canceled many domestic bond auctions as the Ukraine conflict has pushed up its borrowing costs above acceptable levels. It has halved its domestic borrowing plans to 435 billion rubles ($12 billion) this year and has already raised more than half of that lower sum. Foreign buyers so far accounted for a quarter of the sales.
...
"But we can see from the PMI number today that Russia has considerable resilience. It also has high reserve levels, low debt, and a flexible exchange rate. By contrast, Europe's economy seems to be crumbling," Dehn said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/01/us-ukraine-crisis-sanctions-idUSKBN0GW28620140901

And guess what, EU fuel purchases paid for most of it.

[Gusington]

Wait...the EU economy is crumbling again??

[LongBlade]

Wait...the EU economy is crumbling again??

Unfortunately.

Someone around here used to cheer for a round of deflation to solve our woes. Hopefully he has learned the error of his ways.

The ECB (European Central Bank) actually made its lending rate negative: it is now paying banks to take money from it.

Bad news indeed.

The fear is that weak price pressures could ultimately trigger a dangerous deflationary spiral, where consumers and businesses put off spending amid expectations that prices will fall further still.

source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/03/eurozone-inflation-fall-deflation-european-central-bank-interest-rate-cut

[LongBlade]

And back on topic...

Vladimir Putin has boasted to European leaders that his forces could sweep into Kiev in two weeks if he wanted.

The Russian president reportedly made the threat to the European Commission president during talks on the Ukraine crisis.

Mr Putin told Jose Manuel Barroso: "If I want to, I can take Kiev in two weeks," Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reported, implying this could be the result if the EU stepped up sanctions against Russia.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11069070/I-can-take-Kiev-in-two-weeks-Vladimir-Putin-warns-European-leaders.html

Two weeks? I'm not so sure.

Russia should know better than to invade a country on the verge of winter...

[bayonetbrant]

Russia should know better than to invade a country on the verge of winter...

yeah, but if anyone knows how to be prepared for brutal winters, it's them

[pawelj]

Russia should know better than to invade a country on the verge of winter...

yeah, but if anyone knows how to be prepared for brutal winters, it's them

Russians are not some supermen. they got their buts kicked in the winter before. Russian record of fighting alone is pretty dismal, so a shooting war with them is not so crazy. Sanctions should be radically increased and military options should be threatened, while a military aid is given to the Ukrainians, plus some unmarked electronic countermeasures planes to allow for the Ukrainian air force an ability to do more air support. Putin only sees a military solution, and Obama seems to be bringing a speech to a gunfight. If we don't stop him now it will get much worse.

[pawelj]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/anne-applebaum-war-in-europe-is-not-a-hysterical-idea/2014/08/29/815f29d4-2f93-11e4-bb9b-997ae96fad33_story.html

[Airborne Rifles]

Putin apparently told an EU official that Russian troops could seize Kiev in two weeks if they chose:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/02/ukraine-shifts-tactics-against-rebels-while-claiming-full-scale-invasion-by/

Of course, it's all just a misunderstanding: "Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that Putin's statement was 'quoted out of context and carried a completely different meaning.'"

Not sure what other meaning that could be...

[BanzaiCat]

Listening to BBC Radio this morning, and they're now reporting that NATO is planning to put together a rapid reaction force.

NATO Weighs Rapid Response Force for Eastern Europe

WASHINGTON — As Ukrainian leaders warned on Monday of "a great war" with Russia, NATO leaders meeting in Wales this week were expected to endorse their most concrete response yet to increased Russian military intervention in Ukraine: establishing a rapid-reaction force capable of deploying quickly to Eastern Europe, officials of the alliance said.

The new force of some 4,000 troops, capable of moving on 48 hours' notice, will be supported with logistics and equipment pre-positioned in Eastern European countries closer to Russia, with an upgraded schedule of military exercises and deployments that are intended to make NATO's commitment of collective defense more credible and enhance its deterrence.

More at the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/world/europe/nato-to-create-a-rapid-response-force-for-eastern-europe-officials-say.html?_r=0

(I'm actually rather surprised that the NY Times has an article that's not taking a negative view of this. Then again they are mentioning Obama as much as NATO, so take it as you will.)

[Gusington]

Putin really meant to say 1 week.

[bayonetbrant]

Listening to BBC Radio this morning, and they're now reporting that NATO is planning to put together a rapid reaction force.

If they were all that "rapid," the news would be reporting on the overnight deployment of the rapid reaction force that's already in place before anyone realized it

[endfire79]

Putin really meant to say 1 week.

I hadn't had my coffee yet. I thought he said 'I could take Kiev in 1 week, while riding shirtless on a bear.