Russia - threadbanned users in OP

10 days???...

Dated 2022. But in a sense, accurate. No gains of note since then.

One report of Ukrainians with F16s in Ukraine.

Hopefully true and are a help.

....

To put it in a nutshell, Russia is a Mafia state, with Don Putin at its head. He is the ultimate power in Russia, with the power of life or death, literally over everyone, and his tentacles reach worldwide. Skripol poisoning in England, and a bit closer to home, Prigozhin, one of his "Stars", but when push came to shove, he met his "premature" end to on Putins orders.

If you google "Putin Russia and the West", or Channel 4's "Hunting Russia's lost boys Dispatches" This was on last night, and by accident I happened to see it. A very telling slice of present day Russian life.... the complete disdain that the state has for its citizens, the sense of powerless these women felt when they tried to find out what had happened their menfolk. And also the implied threat if you asked to many questions. It also shows the real Russia not the glamour and glitz that is to be found in Moscow or St, Petersburg. If you watch it, take note of the conditions these people live under.

Adam Curtis is a pure stylist, I actually quite like his films but anyone who thinks they offer some sort of objective truth is deluded. He goes into the archives with his preconceived ideas and stitches together footage that supports these ideas

I can see three big advantages for the F-16 right out the gate.

• As a western-built aircraft, the Viper can integrate seamlessly with a lot of the weapons already provided by the west. You may remember that, early in the war, the Ukrainian Air Force was able to integrate the AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile into their MiG-29 and Su-27 force. This modification drastically reduced the attack modes that were available for the missile. When carried on an F-16, all attack modes will be available, turning the system into a much bigger threat for Russian AA systems. This is also true for other weapons systems provided to Ukraine, such as the AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile, JDAM and possibly even Storm Shadow, though I'm not 100% sure about that last one. It is NATO compatible, but the F-16 might need some software upgrades to handle the missile.
• The F-16 will enable Ukraine to better secure its own airspace against cruise missile or drone attacks, due to its greater emphasis on pilot situational awareness, data link capability and the ability to utilise weapons systems such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM. This is a massive step change compared to Ukraine's current inventory of MiG-29s and even the Su-27s.
• It simply means that Ukraine will have more airframes available for operation. The fact that the Ukrainian Air Force still has a significant number of Su-27s and MiG-29s operational at all is a testament to the skill of the air crews and the ground support staff, but things are getting thin. The Su-24 force (the aircraft modified to launch Storm Shadow missiles) and the Su-25 force (ground attack aircraft) seem to have taken quite a beating, and getting even a singe additional squadron of F-16s operational would increase Ukraine's capability quite considerably, even if only by adding additional airframes to the mix.

Having said that, the F-16 is no miracle weapon, and we should be careful to temper our expectations. There will be no massive fighter sweep that takes out the Russian Air Force once the first Ukrainian F-16 squadron becomes operational. We might see a slight increase in strikes against radar sites or key targets, but nothing world changing. Things in the air might change once more aircraft become available, but this is a long-term project, and in its early phases in particular, will likely be mostly defensive in nature.

Oh, and I think it's also worthwhile to point out that the first F-16s on Ukrainian soil will likely not be combat ready for quite some time even after they arrive. It'll take time for enough aircraft to arrive to form a combat-ready squadron, for the ground crews to work out the best way to service the aircraft at their home bases, for additional pilots to build up hours and so on. So even if the fist F-16s have arrived in Ukraine, which I'm sceptical about, I don't expect any major activity from them before December, possibly not before Christmas.

A few reasons. And from what we've seen Ukraine have actually managed to get some Ukranian modified BTR's across the water.

• Ukraine seem to have prioritised artillery support to cover these troops. They've also reportedly swarmed the area with surveillance and suicide drones and EW/counterbattery is extremely active from the UAFs side of the water.
• Many of the troops that Ukraine have pushed across the water are their better UK trained troops. They're also up against some of Russias poorest trained/condition reserve units.
• The several thousand troops that Russia would need to dislodge them are busy impaling themselves on the spear that is Avdivka. A political decision has come down the pipe to take it and regardless of what some would have you believe russias resources are not unlimited.

That's what I think anyway. But sure I'm noone at all.

If he's so easily dismissed, why not point out where Traumazone is historically inaccurate rather than simply ad hominem attack him? Or might that be because you haven't watched it?

The basic argument of the series is that Russia never had the chance to become a democracy after the fall of Communism because the Oligarchs stole power (along with vast swathes of the sovereign wealth of the nation). I'm curious as to how you could argue against this since even the 1991 election of Boris Yeltsin was criticised as not being entiely fair due to the interference of Soviet media and the chief prosecutor and no "election" since would meet the UN standards of "free and fair" (and most by rather a long way).

A Rubicon has been crossed :)

I'll post the video again if I come across it.

I don't think there'll be too many Russians comfortably chilling on a beach in Crimea this summer!🤣

Is Kaliningrad in range of any of Ukraine's drones?