Yes. Yes it's paranoid.
Ukraine has always had an air force, and it's been active since day 1, despite notoriously failed early attempts by Russia to gain air dominance. The Ukrainian Air Force has proved very resilient.
Ukraine has also been targeting Russian military targets in Russia for a long time. They've destroyed quite a few aircraft on the ground in those bases, too. Russia has obviously already been attacking Ukraine airbases throughout.
No, Russia is not going to attack NATO bases, for what should be damned obvious reasons. And no, those aren't Ukrainian fighters in NATO bases. They're not Ukrainian until they're transferred to Ukrainian territory.
Russia can't even effectively take on Ukraine, and you somehow think they're going to drag NATO into the fight?
Your ignorance is staggeringly acute.
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Depending on the attack, NATO would at the very least commit a reciprocal response, and likely more than reciprocal, though measured. Perhaps taking out several of Russia's air defenses and air bases. Whether Russia chose to respond after that is another matter.
No, NATO wouldn't go from 0 to scorched earth in 5 seconds, but you can bet your ass they would respond with force. Doing nothing would not be an option.
"The difference between stupidity
and genius is that genius has its limits."
--Alexandre Dumas-fils
Given how badly damaged the sub was first time around, I'm surprised they tried to fix it.
Hey, you're just like Putin; you still somehow fail to understand that NATO was created to respond defensively, rather than offensively.
Even IF NATO were an offensive organization, it's a grotesque thing to casually suggest that they should have an obligation to kill an order of magnitude more people than this war has already claimed just to "stop" it.
Not to mention that if NATO were to take over Russia militarily.... then what? Are you envisioning some kind of occupation of Russia? Please learn from history and tell us how well that would go. Would NATO destroy all military apparatus and then leave? How many additional lives would be lost in the chaos that follows? Wouldn't that just bring rise to a whole new era of international terrorism against NATO countries?
See, I know that your preferred answer is just to nuke the whole of Russia. You don't often come out and admit it so blatantly, but everyone can tell that's what you (not-so-)secretly yearn for. And it's disgusting.
I can't even begin to see how you can view Russia's struggles in Ukraine and claim that opinion out loud. NATO has been sending what amounts to outdated cast-offs to Ukraine (along with a much smaller sample of more modern tools) and those have been used to devastating effect.
And I think you also grossly underestimate the size disadvantage that Russia would face. NATO has like 2-3x the military personnel and 4-5x the hardware. And that was before Russia started getting their asses handed to them in Ukraine.
Russia's best chance to take out NATO would be a surprise attack, and we all know that's very, very unlikely in today's political climate.
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Oh, wow, your lack of knowledge and understanding of history is just painful to witness.
You're basically saying that the only reason you can imagine not jumping towards genocide is... a fear of weakness?
Careful, your sociopathy is showing.
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Believing that Russia would overwhelm Ukraine, largely considering the disparity in the relative size of their militaries, is not the same thing as thinking that Russia's military was the equal of the US's military, let alone that of the whole of NATO.
And certainly any lingering belief in Russian military might has since evaporated into the smoke from all those oil refinery fires.
"The difference between stupidity
and genius is that genius has its limits."
--Alexandre Dumas-fils
BBC: Ukraine says it sank Russian submarine in Crimea
- - - Updated - - -Ukraine's military says it attacked and destroyed a Russian submarine while it was anchored at a port in the occupied Crimean peninsula.
The Rostov-on-Don, a kilo-class attack submarine launched in 2014, sank after it was struck in a missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol on Friday, Ukraine's general staff said in a statement.
It was reportedly one of four submarines operated by Russia's Black Sea fleet capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles. The Russian defence ministry has not commented.
Officials in Kyiv said the attack also destroyed four S-400 air defence systems protecting the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Intelligence officials in the UK noted last September that the Rostov-on-Don "likely suffered catastrophic damage" in a missile strike while undergoing maintenance at a Sevastopol shipyard.
Ukraine's military said Russia subsequently repaired the vessel and it was recently testing its capabilities near Sevastopol. The vessel was worth $300m (£233m), they added.
"The destruction of Rostov-on-Don once again proves that there is no safe place for the Russian fleet in the Ukrainian territorial waters of the Black Sea," the general staff in Kyiv said in a statement on Saturday.
It marks the latest attack on Russian naval forces in Sevastopol in recent months. In March alone, Ukraine said it hit two landing ships and a patrol vessel in the port city.
Since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 it has suffered several major naval setbacks. Ukraine says it has seriously damaged or sunk at least 15 warships, including the Black Sea fleet's flagship, the Moskva.
Last week Ukraine's military said Moscow had been forced to withdraw all of its naval assets from the Sea of Azov - a body of water connected to the Black Sea - due to repeated strikes on its vessels.
And Russia's internal security service, the FSB, recently said it foiled a Ukrainian plot to destroy its last remaining aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The ship, launched in 1985, has been undergoing repairs since 2018.
Well, Russia has completely removed it's naval forces from the Sea of Azov, so... yeah.
But subs take years and years to build. They have some in construction elsewhere, of course.
"The difference between stupidity
and genius is that genius has its limits."
--Alexandre Dumas-fils
In case you forgot (or in case you didn't know, because your lack of knowledge of history is eminent), WW2 was 80-85 years ago.
Germany lost 10% of its population in WW2, including an entire generation of young men. And Germany did poorly for a long time before things got better. Hell, the Berlin Wall didn't even come down for another 45 years.
Similar thing in Japan, where nukes were actually used.
...
I can just hear you thinking that the best way to "help" Russia would be to nuke them, then maybe they'd be doing well in another 80 years!
Just stop.
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A trip of months, sure, but much faster than the 7 years to completely build a new one, even if it were safe to do so in Sevastopol.
"The difference between stupidity
and genius is that genius has its limits."
--Alexandre Dumas-fils
Even that wont help them there unless they want those subs to just hang around in the Mediterranean and not actually reach the black sea.
Turkey wont let nations at war move military vessels through the bosphorus, as part of the montreux convention, a treaty dating back all the way to 1936.
The German and Swedish air forces scrambled NATO jets on Aug. 3 after two Russian jets were detected heading toward Latvian airspace over the Baltic Sea.
The German Air Force reported that the jets from NATO's Baltic air-policing mission identified two Russian Su-30s.
The Russian pilots "behaved uncooperatively but not aggressively," the German Air Force said.
I'll admit it's disappointing when news puts in a headline/title like that only to read the article and find out it's literally nothing.
They fucked around with Turkey during the Syrian civil war and found out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_R...u-24_shootdown
It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death
they won't because they do this petty shit knowing no one will mess with them over it. Emphasis on "petty"