Surely they have more T-34's to use? Like, at least use them? Why a single one?
Is he afraid even those can be used for a coup or something lol
yea it was pretty decent when it first turned up on the eastern front. (although iirc it was made in kharkiv, ukraine)
go to oryx list and look at tank losses lol, the Russian military had to "borrow" 10 Remdiesel Ahmat Z-STS from Kadyrov. just to get 51 vehicles in the parade
Russia had a 50 year build up of material and its lost in in year. They have lost over 10,000 pieces of military hardware. Tanks, artillery pieces, troop carriers. It will take them over 25 years to build that back up (maybe more). They are so fucked they are restoring old tanks instead of building new ones because they don't have the resources to build new ones. Its why T-62 keep turning up instead of T-90's. They have a new service rifle meant for troops (AK12) and they can only produce enough to arm 10% of their forces. And lets not talk about manpower. They have been on the offensive for over 6 months and have barely taken Bahkmut. Their offensive capability is gone, their ground forces pose no threat to NATO countries now.
TLDR They are using everything they have + Putin is keeping it small and controlled in case mothers of dead soldiers turn up and with pictures of their dead sons, or the legions of cripples.
So...it seems russia "borrowed" some vehicles from the Chechens to bolster their parade:
https://twitter.com/OAlexanderDK/sta...45525390864384
You just can't make this up.
Related (but I think a different tank than the one in the parade) and peak russian:
https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB/st...46975836262400
I just hope this flop of a spectacle doesn't lull the world into a false sense of security on the threat Russia poses. Something I see fail to mention is as this parade was ongoing, Russia unleashed a brutal missile attack on Ukraine's capitol.
Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine's capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country.
"As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed," Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv's city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Tuesday's attacks - the fifth in May - came a day after Russia launched its biggest drone swarm yet in a renewed air campaign unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March.
It also came on Russia's Victory Day, one its most commemorated public holidays, marking the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
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And more unraveling since, the Western world is only just discovering the scope of Russian infiltration and espionage planted outside their borders. They don't just openly destroy what they cannot take, but manipulate politics.
Last edited by YUPPIE; 2023-05-10 at 10:56 AM.
I believe those missiles were shot down by U.S.-made Patriot missile Defense systems.
Poland baiting Russia.
Kaliningrad: Russia fury as Poland body recommends renaming exclave
Russia is so arrogant and ignorant they think they can fight most of the world, which is effectively what they're doing given the supplies flowing into Ukraine every day. How stupid can you get?
It’s the sunk cost fallacy.
They swung at Ukraine thinking they’d show the world how big and strong they were against a weaker opponent and go home with an easy win.
Ukraine swung back. So now in order to “save face” internally and (hah) externally Russia needs to keep fighting, lest they look weak.
Now of course anyone paying attention knows Russia is weak. But they’re too far in the hole to do the right and smart thing, which is to just give up.
“Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
Words to live by.
I don't know, i'm not opposed to pissing off Russia's government for its own sake but wanting to rename a region that's not even part of your country is just weird.
Like what's the point? The name Poland wants to use is even the original german one (albeit translated into polish), as this territory was german before for hundreds of years.
Last edited by Kralljin; 2023-05-10 at 03:32 PM.
They aren't renaming it really.
Just using a historical name that's translated.
Same as in Sweden Gothenburg isn't said like that.
And if any country is historically great at renaming it's Russia.
Looking at you St Petersburg, Petrograd, Lebingrad, St Petersburg
While two of those names are technically the same in meaning (petrograd).
This is more Poland doing a late reaction to being independent.
Lots of history books call St Petersburg that when it was technically named Petrograd
- Lars
Yeah but that historical name is not being used be people that own the territory.
Belgians also would probably not be too pleased if the Netherlands started calling Belgium "Zuid Nederland" because they owned most of what now known as Belgium sometime during the 1800's.
I think there is however the difference that St Petersburg was russian for hundreds of years by now and those renames were pretty much always done by the russians themselves, whereas Kaliningrad was taken from germany.
Bit of a difference whether you choose to rename that you own by yourself and when someone else decides to call a place you own by the name of the previous owner.
It's less about renaming itself, but rather deliberately choosing the previous name as basis.
seems like Ukraine has liberated Bahkmut despite Russia's warnings of a "red line." Headlines are breaking all over of a complete breakthrough.
And Russia has been controlling Kaliningrad for less than 80 years, with germany even formally recognizing that Russia owns this territory.
Whether you call a place by a specific name can be quite the politically contentious issue, especially when talking about territory that was annexed.