Russian tank columns on high roads is probably the single greatest factor in the current state of the war and the reason they seem stuck to using roads is poor downtime maintenance of their equipment. Something so simple as exercising the equipment every month while in storage and this war would be going a totally different way. Not to mention in the video below there are zero troops accompanying the tank column. Total shit show. No spotting no on the ground intelligence. These guys are acting like they on their way to Dairy Queen. Although, I have to say, Russian troops are probably scared shitless to go in country right now.
WOnder why we dont transfer drone tech to them. A small army of drones can take out several columns of tanks and block the roads from more equipment rolling in.
Ukraine is getting many drones from Turkey— which have been proven very effective in attacking Russian columns. Most of the video clips (supplied by Ukraine) you see of attacks are by these drones from Turkey. These drones are low-cost (comparatively), easy-to-use and capable.
Both Caterpillar and Hitachi just quit doing business in Russia. Good luck doing construction or agriculture.
"We do not intend to attack any country. We didn't attack Ukraine either." Russian Foreign Minister: https://youtu.be/-FaQUFrM_0s
Have to give Reuters credit on the troll level of this picture. Just look how the person appears to be longing for that aircraft… lol. She has her hand on the window like she just wants one last touch before it’s goodbye forever.
Russia Admits To Using Thermobaric Bombs In Ukraine, Sucking Oxygen From Air, UK Says https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/09/russia-admits-to-using-thermobaric-bombs-in-ukraine-uk-says/
By the way: from what I see in socials how Russians try to move money around, current black market rate is 300 rubles to a dollar. Like I expected. Probably will move a lot higher than that. When the currency becomes not convertible, black market rates soar. I expect 1000 or more. Russians don't use Amazon, so Amazon stopping in Russia is a minor thing, but they use AliExpress a lot. And prices in AliExpress are tied to the exchange rate.
I mentioned it would not be a stretch for bartering to come back into the Russian market a la 1990s and was dismissed and told Russia will be fine, they’ll get what they need from China and the impact won’t be so bad. We’re still not in the bartering stage yet but China is making moves on what they will won’t supply Russia, on the road to turning Russia into a vassal beggar state. I said it before and I will say it again, Russia needs to get back into the western economy or they will become a vassal of China. The easiest, fastest way to do that is to get Putin out and to be perfectly clear, as long as Putin draws breath they will be severely limited in how much they can get back into the western market.
Western Union stopped its operations in Russia and Belarus. This may seem fairly minor but it is a huge thing. Russia has an enormous population of guest workers who do all the dirty work in Russia and who use this system to send their money home. The double whammy of a huge drop in ruble and closing of all the different transfer systems will cause an exodus of this work force and a collapse of several industries in Russia, as well as huge budgetary problems in several former Russian republics that count on these transfers for as much as 25-30% of their budgets.