The Russian invasion of Ukraine (1 Viewer)

[ann post]

You could just bomb the mines - though i'm sure something along the lines of lidar would be the way to go.

UTM has a lump of metal shrapnel from the somme - there is so much of it lying around the tourists are encouraged to take a bit.

 

[magicbastarder]

how can you bomb something that covers the entire countryside?

 

[ann post]

I'm sure the military industrial complex has an answer for that that none of us want to know at heart.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

That's been claimed to be their ambition for some time now.
They knew at a certain point they weren't going to get what they wanted from Ukraine, so they decided to destroy it instead. At one point the fear was they'd use fissile materials, but this might be seen to cross a line.

So, they've used mines instead, avoiding the problem while still destroying large portions of the country. And in the meantime they can kidnap kids, steal cars and stuff, and rape the locals. It's a win win.

Well played Russia.

tactically they’ve bought significant time as well.

The Ukrainians have to make their offensive look like a success. The Russians simply don’t have to fall apart like they did at times last year.

Russians may or may not be able to rebuild from their own resources, but Ukrainian absolutely needs to keep the taps running in terms of aid.

 

[Deadmanposting]

There are machines that can clear mines
Just more difficult to use in an active war

 

[flashback]

You're talking something like174,000 square km of mines. That's more than twice the area than Ireland. There's areas with a density of several mines per square meter, the scale of the thing is difficult to get your head around.

Turned out Russia had a fuck load of land mines. Those mine clearing machines move slowly, and are sitting ducks for mortars and so on.

 

[magicbastarder]

let's say one of those mine clearing vehicles is 4m wide and moves at 10km/h (i suspect it's probably nowhere near as fast as that). every hour, it could do 4 hectares.
the area flashback mentioned is 17.4m hectares. 100 of those vehicles operating 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, would take 15 years to complete the job.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

There are machines that can clear mines
Just more difficult to use in an active

You're talking something like174,000 square km of mines. That's more than twice the area than Ireland. There's areas with a density of several mines per square meter, the scale of the thing is difficult to get your head around.

Turned out Russia had a fuck load of land mines. Those mine clearing machines move slowly, and are sitting ducks for mortars and so on.

It’s incredibly difficult to do what the Ukrainians are doing without air power incinerating basically anyone who might be inclined to take potshots at your slow moving sappers as they clear the area.

Also at least some of the anti personal mines being can be deployed by larger shells, from the air etc., so when they’ve been cleared the area can be remined.

Apparently the Ukrainians have gotten very proficient at knocking out Russian batteries using long range artillery, but it’s metre by metre stuff through the densest minefields

 

[seanc]

Did America give them any of those mine clearing rockets that they have?

 

[pete]

Ukraine's Crimea attacks seen as key to counter-offensive against Russia

This week's attacks against Russian targets are part of increased efforts to cut supply lines.

www.bbc.com

 

[ernesto]

Ukraine's Crimea attacks seen as key to counter-offensive against Russia

This week's attacks against Russian targets are part of increased efforts to cut supply lines.

www.bbc.com

Ukraine doing a lot of damage to Russia's military this month - destroyed anti aircraft systems, blown up airstrips, sunk a submarine.

Looking good for the Ukrainians

 

[rettucs]

I kinda think that maybe if they take Crimea that it will be massive kick in the balls to putin and it could start the house of cards toppling.

Unlikely to happy though

 

[seanc]

What do the Crimeans actually want? I'm sure they'd rather not have their gaffs blown up one way or another.

 

[rettucs]

What do the Crimeans actually want? I'm sure they'd rather not have their gaffs blown up one way or another.

at a push I'd say they'd rather be part of russia.

there are parts of both Latvia and Estonia who would rather be part of russia, so....

 

[hydromancer]

Crimea I think is a popular holiday destination for Russians but probably has some mixed opinions depending on what media people listen to. That everyone has had so much time to prepare for this offensive and be thoroughly dug in in advance makes any kind progress difficult it is like a near stalemate that could even be compared to earlier European conflicts but I am not really following it to be honest.

A strategic issue for Russia is that it is near land locked even though it has a massive northern coastline that is kind of useless when it is in the Artic. The war Russia lost with Japan was about access to the Pacific another reason to be interested in the Black Sea or Syrian ports even.

 

[Unicron]

at a push I'd say they'd rather be part of russia.

there are parts of both Latvia and Estonia who would rather be part of russia, so....

I'd imagine the percentage of the population living in Crimea who would favour Russian control of that land has increased quite a bit since the invasion of 2014, plenty of the Ukranians have probably scarpered.

 

[Cormcolash]

I'd imagine the percentage of the population living in Crimea who would favour Russian control of that land has increased quite a bit since the invasion of 2014, plenty of the Ukranians have probably scarpered.

Exactly, even if it may have been close at one point, you'd think that all the Ukrainian ones would have got the fuck out of there long before the full war started.

 

[ann post]

A strategic issue for Russia is that it is near land locked even though it has a massive northern coastline that is kind of useless when it is in the Artic. The war Russia lost with Japan was about access to the Pacific another reason to be interested in the Black Sea or Syrian ports even.

Well at the rate of burning fossils that'll be less of an issue down the line.

 

[taubstumm]

a “russian” missile gets recategorised as an “errant” missile — slightly closer to the truth but still not the truth

Ukrainian market tragedy may have been caused by errant missile fired by Ukraine

Evidence collected by New York Times suggests Russia may not have been responsible for strike

www.theguardian.com

 

[Space]

a “russian” missile gets recategorised as an “errant” missile — slightly closer to the truth but still not the truth

Ukrainian market tragedy may have been caused by errant missile fired by Ukraine

Evidence collected by New York Times suggests Russia may not have been responsible for strike

www.theguardian.com

Do you know the truth?