Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 2)

I would watch that!

Sell it to Zelenskyy when the war’s over. He might want to star in it.

He’d be like Charlie, in Charlie’s Angels, a voice on the phone at the start and end of every episode.

“President Zelenskyy, I must re-iterate, we didn’t blow up that pipeline. A Russian idiot was smoking when he opened a valve to steal oil, and set the place on fire all by himself. Again.

“Oh, Oleksiy, you are so modest! One of these days, you will let me give you a medal, won’t you?” >rimshot<

“And your sabotage of that military aircraft facility - amazing!”

< flashback to Russian military jet rolling out of factory, taking off and promptly crashing back into the factory >

One episode is the team being asked what equipment the Americans can send them to help their work.

“Thirteen thousand cartons of Lucky Strikes, and a thousand Zippo lighters with instructions written in Russian.”

Modding: It is nice to have a lighter moment in this dark thread, but I think at think point we need to either cancel or spin-off the sitcom idea and return to our regularly scheduled news program.

I vote for spinning this off into its own thread. Much too entertaining to just drop. :slight_smile:

I’ll start one and see what happens.

The Guardian may not be the paragon of reporting, but I see they ran an article about Russian fuel tankers being sabotaged presumably by pro-Ukr partisans.

Russia delivered hammer blow as Ukraine takes out oil tankers in targeted hit to framework | World | News | Express.co.uk

I don’t mean to take anything away from Ukraine’s completely legit strategy of targeting Russian logistics, but just how hard is it for Russia to replace a 100 meters of rail line? Isn’t that the kind of thing that can be fixed in a day? I suppose the loss of the tanker cars is a bigger deal. In fact, I heard something a few months ago about how Russia is facing a shortage of rolling stock as western sanctions are preventing them from properly replacing the bearings in their railroad cars.

Here, I found something online about it.

Western sanctions have stopped Russian railway industry: Kremlin is panicking - YouTube

It’s interesting how just one item caught by sanctions can potentially block an entire sector - computer chips in modern munitions, ball bearings for railway cars.

That was the thinking in WW2 behind the bombing of Schweinfurt ball bearing factories, or the Ploesti oil fields. Remove one bottleneck item and there would be a cascading effect on other parts of the economy.

Russia has thousands of cranes and stuff, a million miles worth of spare rails and hundreds of rail workers to fix a little problem like this. Just take a look at the government contractors’ ledger domains. It is all right there.

Too bad both of those raids were total busts. :stuck_out_tongue:

You should be ashamed of yourself!

Of the many things for which I should be ashamed, that one does not even crack the top hundred thousand.

Any suggestions for updates on the battles?

Deny on YouTube is my main source.

Guardian and BBC are ignoring Bakmhut. There’s serious fighting there every day. The Russians are trying to break through Ukraine defenses.

I did see a short article that Russia is building defenses elsewhere. But they are splitting their forces attempting a offensive breakthrough around Bakhmut.

It’s part of the “Death by a thousand cuts” strategy. Sure, a one day delay might not seem like much. But if it happens every day, somewhere in the area of operations, it all adds up. Equipment and supplies are supposed to be at Place X at Time Y to shore up defenses before an attack. But they’re just one day late, and the defenses crumble in that one key position, which produces an opening that lets the Ukrainians roll up the Russian’s flank.

For want of a nail the battle was lost is a common theme in war. Attack the enemies supply line and it will eventually have an affect on the battlefront.

And if it doesn’t effect the battlefield, it will inconvenience the Russians in other ways. Which will further erode Putin’s support from the population.

Reporting from Ukraine provides some tactical and strategic analysis of ongoing battles.
19 Nov: Russians LOSE THE UPPER HAND | War in Ukraine Explained - YouTube

There’s always Paul from A Combat Veteran Reacts. He sometimes posts twice a day.
Russia Doubles Down On Ineffective Tactics, Then Bans Critics! 22 Nov Ukraine Map Update! - YouTube

I’m sure by now everyone has seen Denys. Not really a vlogger with any military background, but how can you not like this guy?
Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia lost almost half of their tanks in Ukraine | Bakhmut is a black hole - YouTube