How reliable are these likely to be? The mercenaries, not the plans, I mean.
Thanks to our current supply chain issues, production capacity for almost any manufactured product probably needs to be reduced by at least a third.
If I were the Ukr. I’d negotiate for the russians leaving … and the when they are leaving harass the living daylight out of them running.
(Saigon 1975)^2, basically
We are not shooting at them, but you know … our people are really angry and we now have farmers that own more armored vehicles than the army of Liechtenstein. … and sunflower-babushka has moved up to armor-piercing weaponry
plausible deniability, and stealing billions worth of equipment from them …
If they’re straight up mercenaries, I suspect Ukraine could run a GoFundMe and just out-bid Russia.
welcome them with huge posters in syrian “the russian pay you $200 to work for them, we pay you $300 to work for us … every dead russian’s name-badge is $20 extra, every officer’s, $100 - kill 5 russians and get dental care for the low-low price of $8,99”
… pls apply no later than monday April 5th at Pushin-bulevar 2.345, 6th floor. Have your insurance card ready.
do we still have doubts about the reliability of them?
- There is no language called Syrian
- These aren’t really mercenaries. They are Assad’s troops cloaked in plausible deniability
Sanctioning the Russian oligarchs is a necessary step. They must be feeling the pinch.
But, can they do anything about the war? They’re mostly pampered businessmen. Putin is old school KGB. The size of your bank account doesn’t impress him. He’d execute anyone that looks like a threat.
Just my IMHO.
Maybe the military can take control. That’s risky too.
Still, the good news is that there is still an open contract for them, so the production line is active and wouldn’t have to be re-started from scratch. And the US Army could tell the contractor “We’ll be adding an additional 500 missiles on the FY23-25 contracts” and meanwhile telling the Ukrainians “look what we just found lying around…500 Javelins. Have a good day.”
Supposition, of course.
Elon Musk has challenged Putin to single combat with Ukraine as the prize. 
What a fucking idiot. He thinks that the war in Ukraine is all about free publicity for himself.
… and he’s forgotten that Putin is a Judo expert. 
Not a problem.
Don’t remind him.
Agreed. The Russian boxer has a black eye and a split lip, but has landed more blows, and has been pressing his opponent throughout the fight. The fight isn’t over, but all 3 judges have him ahead. Also, he’s fighting with one hand.
Luckily Putin doesn’t personally the nukes. I hope if such an order was given that the guy with his finger on the red button would disobey the order. Even better would be if his superior officer disobeyed and never relayed the order down to the grunts who actually man the nukes.
But the other hand has a gun, and there are several people around them who also have guns.
If this metaphor gets any more tortured, we’re going to violate the Geneva Convention.
Even better if they push the red button and nothing happens because all the wiring between the button and the missile was stolen for repairs on all the megayachts.
Have you heard of rope-a-dope?
I found an informative video on Youtube that should help explain things.
Yes, strikes against Putin followed by… it’s the “followed by” part that really, really concerns me.