Russia V Ukraine

[chrisswim]

At Historicon, perhaps I should run a Russia vs. Ukraine/NATO and/or Poland, Romania, etc.
Have T-90, BTR=D, BMP-T, etc. Didn't the Russians pick up 400 VBLs or was it another wheeled APC?

Cold War 2 has gone 'HOT',

[chrisswim]

What are the next predictions for Russia and Ukraine?
Is Russia going to come across the border?

[piersyf]

There might be Australian troops on the ground in Ukraine by next Friday (securing MH17 crash site). Troops and Feds with guns (the Dutch might send troops as well, but for now will only send unarmed police and investigators). All hinges on approval from the Ukraine parliament, and they aren't saying no...

[TAMMY]

I think difficult and dangerous to have armed foreign troops i an area controlled by separatists. Besides being a bit late, up to now unarmed inspectors had trouble to examine the area I do not thgink that armed ones will do better.

[Noble713]

Putin is a lunatic.

Only if you listen to Western media sources. He's got a far lower overall body count to his name than either our current or previous Commanders-in-Chief....

I was following events closely until about 3-4 days ago (busy IRL). I'm not sure what caused him to draw down from the huge buildup a few months ago and switch to supporting an insurgency. This whole MH17 incident probably threw a wrench in those plans, and since the Ukrainian military is bringing more and more armor to the fight successfully, the rebels are on the defensive and starting to lose.

That *could* trigger some kind of short-duration offensive by Russia but post-MH17 I don't see how Putin could expect to get away with it. It's possible he's willing to accept having a terrible reputation with the US and Europe. But at the end of the day, Germany needs his natural gas, Austria and I think Hungary do as well. Russian elites are busy divesting themselves of London real-estate/financial assets. Russia also recently cut a huge $400 billion gas deal with China. So they could probably weather any political consequences without crashing/destroying the economy.

[Noble713]

Putin is possessed of a thought process that isn't always rational and a weak moral compass. He is the most dangerous kind of person to have power of that magnitude.

His moral compass is no worse than any of America's crop of 21st-century "leaders". It takes a certain type of manipulative sociopath to ever achieve such positions of power, so pretty much all of them (Russian, American, Chinese, whatever) are cut from the same cloth.

[TAMMY]

Putin is not master of demcracy but is not a lunatic.

He knows very well what he wants. Essntially to stop Ukraine to move west.

He has annexed Crimea without much probems and now support the Ukrainian separatists.
He has a powerful position in Europe as most countries depends on the Russian gas supply trhrou Ukraine. The contract just signed with China for gas supply is a good commercial alternative for Russia..

Moreover Europe is divided on the actions to do. For example France confirm the sale of 2 Mistral clòass warships to Russia and at the mpomet 400 Russian sailors are at St. Nazaire for training on the new ships.

I do not think that Putin is directly responsible for the Malayian 777. He surely supplied the missiles but they were not under his direct control. I view him as no more responsible than Reagan for the Iranian Airbus shot down by USS Vincennes in 1988.

[sultanbev]

Moving onto a more technical note, recently the Ukrainians have been fitting slat armour to their BTR-80s and BTR-4E. An example here of one that "survived" an RPG hit.

http://en.censor.net.ua/photo_news/2884 ... ents_photo

Mark

[TAMMY]

Siltanbev, intersting pics. Can somene identify the RPG hit? Mowst of the damages to the slat armour semm due to explosios and not to a direct hit.