The creditors are private banks and investors. They didn’t refuse payment; Russia. couldn’t deliver the money to them.
Russia will probably say that they tried to pay, but the freezing of hard currency and kicking them off Swift means that they didn’t fail to pay - - it was force majeur, so they’re not liable.
The counter-counter-argument is that they got kicked off Swift and had their assets frozen because they invaded a sovereign state contrary to international law, so it’s their own damn fault they’re in default.
How does it all shake out? Dunno. But high priced barristers in London and New York are likely going to do well out of it all.
Kind of like a guy who’s getting in trouble at work for being late – because he’s walking in after getting his drivers license suspended due to drunk driving.
Kind of like if some individual (let’s call him VP) didn’t pay his mortgage because he didn’t have the money, and the reason VP didn’t have the money was that he’d lost his job, and the reason VP lost his job was that he’d gotten caught embezzling.
The appalling attack on the shopping mall in Ukraine is an odd one coming on the day of the G7. I’m trying to work out what the political motivation was for that.
Additional four have arrived and troops are being trained. GB is also training troops on the M270 MLRS tracked vehicle (HIMARS big brother with two missile/rocket pods, 12 in total). Not being snarky, but these weapon systems are a lot more complicated than, “pointy end goes downrange.”
I considered he was asking about longer range SAMs; but the question was just SAMs. The Russian have flown ZERO long range bombers over Ukrainian airspace. They have launched cruise missiles from Russian and Belarusian airspace.The Russian manned aircraft forays have been with low level fighter/bombers and helicopters.
The Ukrainian concern is a lack of ability to counter many of the cruise and short/medium range ballistic missiles. Their older aircraft do not have modern radars able to track and lock on incoming missiles from long range. Also, their air-to-air missiles are less effective against cruise missiles than current western systems. So I answered with what systems are in the pipeline to address those concerns.
Back to manpads; the US and other western countries have supplied Stingers, and former Warsaw Pact countries have sent Soviet versions of Manpads.
Some highlights:
U.S.-Made Stinger Missiles
These weigh about 15 kg, have a range of 4,800 meters or 4.8 km, and can engage low-flying aircrafts at an altitude of 3,800 meters.
They have a passive guidance system, which uses infrared technology.
Stringers have been sent or are currently being sent to Ukraine by the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.
Igla MANPADS
These are Soviet-made counterparts.
It also employs Infrared technology.
They were used in Iraq when it was invaded by the U.S. in 2003.
They have also been used by India, for instance, as part of the Operation Trishul Shakti of 1992, during the Siachen conflict.
Starstreak
It is the British army’s equivalent of the Stinger missiles.
Starstreak MANPADs have an active guidance system which uses a laser beam and needs the operator till the missile hits.
They offer a longer range (7 km) as compared to Stingers and are high-velocity systems.
U.K. is formulating a plan to provide Ukraine with a shipment of Starstreaks. Done.
On the Mall of Krementchuk, it is just south of a massive factory of vehicles (Kremenchuts’kyy Zavod Shlyakhovykh Mashyn) so “just missed by that…” is a possible explanation.
I wonder how similiar Russian fire control and US compare?
The US has a FO that calls into the FDC (Fire Direction Center) which does the calculations. They call the gun lines. The FO reports back any adjustments. Repeat.
There’s a lot of soldiers supporting the artillery. Everyone has to do their job right or risk friendly fire. Don’t want to kill their Forward Observer or drop shells on their own lines.
That’s a lot of people to train for the new guns.
Wikipedia has a flow chart that explains how Artillery is used.
