The Russians have gone in

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This assumes that the Russian psyche does, or ever will, consider their country as part of Europe. I'm not convinced that they do.

Having just returned from 18 days in Europe, I can assure you that my friends there definitely don't see the Russians as European either...and if there was ever going to be any chance of that happening, that's gone now...
 
Having lived through the Cuban missile crisis, I am feeling much the same about today's situation as I did then.

Me too. To borrow a phrase from Elmer Keith - Hell, I was there!

Here are a few mementos from those days...

The shoulder patch on the left is from Field Command, Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) where I was on active duty, 1961-1963. The other patch is from the 158th Infantry Regiment, where I later served in the National Guard. The .45, my personal weapon which I extensively modified for accuracy, was carried by me both on active duty and in the guard.

John

 
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The question remains, would our leadership act? Perhaps not. Why was the transfer of the MIGs blocked?
 
The lack of action on MiGs was part to avoid provoking a nuke use by Russia, in part tactical.

If Russia uses nukes, all bets are off. It's public info that we have B61 nuclear bombs and the F-16Es to deliver them at Incirlik, just air-minutes from Sevastapol.
 
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As far as nukes are concerned, the worst-case scenario for the Ukrainians has been mentioned before:

Russian use of "small" tactical nukes on Ukrainian targets far enough away from the Polish border that it cannot be interpreted as an attack on NATO. The Russian army could "win" the looming battle on the Donbas front with one stroke. Ukraine would be finished. A lot of Russians would die too, but that hasn't fazed Putin so far.

The NATO heads of state could not hide behind Article 5, but would need to make a political decision to escalate and go to all-out war against Russia, involving WMD from the start. Would they? Impossible to predict.
 
If Putin uses a battlefield nuke, NATO will provide Ukraine with the weapons they have been requesting - fighter jets, heavy tanks and unlimited munitions, as it would then be a NATO vs Russia war.
NAYO will not nuke exchange with Putin because he is a meglomaniac with no bottom that when questioned about Russia ever using nukes that could start a world war that would decimate the planet, replied 'if there will be no Russia, why should there be a world?"
And if Putin did nuke Ukraine, there would be an endless line of Ukranian kill squads infiltrating Russia to kill him, and sooner or later they would succeed.
 
...Russian use of "small" tactical nukes on Ukrainian targets far enough away from the Polish border that it cannot be interpreted as an attack on NATO...
Even if the "collateral damage" (ie radiation) were to kill or maim people in Poland? This would likely be worse than a errant Russian missile ending up on Polish soil.

Xfuzz said:
Been talk of Putin touchin off a Nuke
near since this began to go bad for Russia.

In your opinion......

What happens if he does?

How to you say "sewage hits ventilation system" in Russian and all neighbouring countries' languages?
 
Consider the " operational effectiveness" of Russian nukes seeing how the army / navy has performed. An errant tach. nuke could end up just about anywhere within the missiles range. Scary situation.
 
Here are a couple pics of Moskva after being hit.

I note two things:
1) One of the impacts appears to be at the base of the superstructure. That would make sense for a radar guided weapon since that would be the largest radar return.

2) The closer image shows all the life raft canisters are gone. Hopefully that means deployed by the time the image was taken, not that they were missing in the first place.
 

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Heard this today:

Within Russia, news of Kremlin
defeats and death of troops
just proves the viciousness of the
totalitarian Ukrainian regime.

Therefore, Russia must destroy all
within Ukraine including its people
to avenge the atrocities committed
by the Kyiv government.
 
Sinking of Russian warship raises tense questions about fate of crew

WaPo (free) article here.
...Social media groups uniting mothers of Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine are filling up with photos and pleas from parents looking for their missing sons...

...One mother said her son, who survived, told her that about 40 people died and many were wounded and missing in the sinking....

..."There are dead, there are wounded, there are missing. My son called me when they were given phones. They left their documents and phones on the ship. He calls me and cries from what he saw. It was scary. It is clear that not everyone survived," said the mother...​
Russian officials are denying that there were any conscripts on board. (Except, it seems, for those that were.)

A similar article in The Guardian has a short video of the ship on fire, taken from a nearby vessel.
 
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The lack of action on MiGs was part to avoid provoking a nuke use by Russia, in part tactical.

If Russia uses nukes, all bets are off. It's public and nfo that we have B61 nuclear bombs and the F-16Es to deliver them at Incirlik, just air-minutes from Sevastapol.

Isn't that the weapon the Pentagon has announced they will do away with?
 
...and the artists are going out

Yet another important musician has left. With all the terrible news of the invasion, it's easy to foget that Russia, for all its troubles past and present, has an enomous culrural heritage. My gf and her Russian mother visited just after the fall of communism, and although the country was a mess, the cultural treasures were stunning. She still talks of visiting the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, which was overwhelming.

Citing Ukraine War, an American Resigns From Russia's Mariinsky

"There's no way I could ever be in denial of what is happening," said the conductor Gavriel Heine, a fixture at the prestigious Russian theater.

"The American conductor Gavriel Heine has been a fixture at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, for 15 years. He has led hundreds of performances of classics like "Swan Lake" and "The Rite of Spring." And he has done so as a protégé of the company's leader: Valery Gergiev....

"...The invasion of Ukraine changed his views on Russia and his place in it. He had a personal connection to Ukraine, having served as chief conductor of the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra there from 2003 to 2007. When he saw images of Russian missiles hitting a building in Kharkiv in early March, he was distraught.

"That broke me," he said. "I saw the faces of all of the musicians that I had worked with. I thought of my orchestra director who lives two blocks behind that building. I mean, that's his neighborhood. I just lost it. I couldn't do anything that day and I thought that was pretty much it."...

...Still, Mr. Heine has made his peace with moving on. "The sad part wasn't walking into the theater; the sad part was the disappointment and the sadness of the people that I had to tell I was leaving," he said.

"The theater's not going anywhere," he added. "I am."​
 
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