Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Too right i am, even on the slim chance they may be there. All these reports of failed helicopter evacuations and sea corridors to get people out from the area does give the impression maybe some people are in that steel plant are of the kind that should not be there. Why would you try and extract some guys who have been watching too many Braveheart films

We will find out soon enough what is there in the next few days when the get flushed out, probably just a few freedom fighters that were reported to of gone hopefully.

The much loved but seldom seen Valtras too. Shíts about to get real.

Someone clearly pointing a gun at them.

Either that he's picking the newest conscripts.

That would not surprise me. I mean imagine being in a conflict like this and half your partners have been funding the enemy weapons and a billion Euro's a day for the last 6 weeks.

I very much doubt the Russians are going to engage NATO ships, escalating the conflict to war with NATO, in a sea surrounded by NATO allies and the only way out for their fleet is controlled by NATO.

Seems German defense producer Rheinmetall is willing to send 50 leopard tanks to ukraine if the German government would ok the transfer,

The leopard tank is a decent step from older Russian tanks the Ukrainians currently use and the first batch could be operating in Ukraine within 6 weeks if they get the go ahead,

I'm baffled by the story that the Moskva was being towed to land yesterday. More plausible reports suggest that it sunk a few hours after it was hit by missiles and wasn't being towed anywhere.

No way in HELL is that a Slava class cruiser! There's no trace of the 16 SSM launch tubes, the radars & superstructure don't match and it's not even the right time of day. Besides, no way would a helicopter just be happily buzzing around a guided missile cruiser in the middle of a war zone. That's about as fake as Donald Trump's tan!

Not seeing anyone trying to escape or bodies in the water there. Didn't it get hit at night too?

Clickbait - "Presumably the way it would have sank" - like most ships with a hole in their side they go downwards

The German argument about having no weapons is kinda misleading. Really what they're saying is a mixture of:

• We don't have enough operational military equipment for us to feel "comfortable"; and we thus we can't spare any for Ukraine.
• Ukraine can only operate Soviet equipment; it doesn't know how to run or maintain German equipment and trying to teach them or supply them wouldn't be "useful".
• We only want to act in concert with our NATO allies in terms of what kinds of weapons to send; we won't act unilaterally.

How reasonable or honest any of those arguments are is naturally up for debate; but I think that's the gist of it.

Finally someone who understands what is going on in Germany. As for Rheinmetal giving the 50 odd tanks .... it is a case of other countries agreeing on deferred delivery to ensure the delivery can go to the Ukraine. The side effect to this is if the Russians were to attack the EU, these tanks may not be ready to use.

The Germans have an army which resembles the Irish one in many ways. It has been neglected financially for years, equipment is in a state of disrepair and in many cases the attitude was, sure we dont need the soldiers so why have them. Now the **** has hit the fan and the Germans dont know where to go.

Personally speaking, argument 1 is definitely a reasonable one. I'm German myself, I've had a lot of conversation with people who have served in the Bundeswehr, and the material state of the force is marginal, to put it mildly. For nigh on 30 years, the armed forces of Germany have been reduced in size, starved of funding and reduced to the bare minimum that allows Germany to still notionally fulfill its NATO obligations, e.g. sending troops to NATO battle groups, sending warships to serve in the alliance's standing task forces and provide QRA coverage. I've mentioned the case of paratroop battalions not having had any practice jumps in years before, and that type of issue is endemic. Some of the new equipment that was purchased is admittedly top-notch, but then you have the case of the NH-90 transport helicopters, whose cabin floor buckles when soldiers in full combat gear step on it, you have the Tiger attack helicopter which, in the version ordered by Germany, doesn't even have a chin mounted gun turret, or even any type of built-in gun, the Braunschweig class corvettes, which initially gassed their own crews due to issues with the exhaust trunking and so on. For me, it is not a stretch at all that the Bundeswehr is stretched thin in quite a few areas. That does not excuse the withholding of Leopard 1s or Marders though.

As for arguments 2 & 3, those are just fig leaves put forward by a political elite that does not want to admit that they got it wrong and who are now trying to sell sticking their collective heads in the sand as "leadership". No joke, that's what Olaf Scholz just said this morning. Quote: "I'm showing leadership because I'm not doing what you want me to do!"

So, yeah. great way of pissing away 70+ years of trust building!