Thread: No more powder

They will probably be soaking up all plant capacity making the ball powder grades for .50, 20mm and 30mm cartridges. Consumption of those caliber components must be out through the roof in the EU and other places making ammo, the Russians must have damn near consumed all of their fresh stocks of shells by now and be working on the older Soviet-era fodder. By all accounts the Russian stock of artillery tubes is due to be expended by the end of the year - that's an interesting sideline proposition as what do they replace all of their heavy weaponry with after they've used it all uselessly pounding the Donbas region for no really positive results?

Propellant supplies for the heavier caliber weapons will be chewing through raw material production as well which won't be helping the downstream supplies of civilian powders.

Originally Posted by No.3

They will probably be soaking up all plant capacity making the ball powder grades for .50, 20mm and 30mm cartridges. Consumption of those caliber components must be out through the roof in the EU and other places making ammo, the Russians must have damn near consumed all of their fresh stocks of shells by now and be working on the older Soviet-era fodder. By all accounts the Russian stock of artillery tubes is due to be expended by the end of the year - that's an interesting sideline proposition as what do they replace all of their heavy weaponry with after they've used it all uselessly pounding the Donbas region for no really positive results?

Propellant supplies for the heavier caliber weapons will be chewing through raw material production as well which won't be helping the downstream supplies of civilian powders.

It makes you wonder if the Russians actually had a clear plan and objectives in starting the war in Ukraine. Perhaps the believed their own propaganda over the oppressed Ukrainians wanting a return to their earlier rulers. If they were expecting to be greeted as liberators they were largely mistaken. All the liberators recieved were graves, often unmarked. A very sad event for all concerned which just reinforced that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

It makes you wonder if the Russians actually had a clear plan and objectives in starting the war in Ukraine. Perhaps the believed their own propaganda over the oppressed Ukrainians wanting a return to their earlier rulers. If they were expecting to be greeted as liberators they were largely mistaken. All the liberators recieved were graves, often unmarked. A very sad event for all concerned which just reinforced that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Grandpamac.

The whole thing was a shambles from the get go - you don't send in units directly after a month of wargames that have left your supply lines stretched to capacity with shifting consumables up to replace what's been used, your vehicles needing maintenance to get on top of all the glitches a month of solid hard off road use shows up and that's not factoring in fatigue and wear and tear on your people. After the initial failure, the Russians were left with two options - go home as a laughing stock, or double down and remain a laughing stock but with much limited military capacity and a lifetime of shattered families and trauma to deal with (and financial costs). Unfortunately they chose the latter option, which is going to have ramifications around the planet for a long time to come.

Those outfits and countries who relied on Russian supplies of munitions and hardware are now up the creek and will be looking for other sources, and once they've changed suppliers so to speak it will be a hard road going back. 'Western' arms suppliers will be both rubbing their hands together and alternatively shitting bricks as to HOW they can meet supply requirements, as their own Govt purchasing setups will be looking to curtail exports in favour of their own needs and supply shortages. It's bloody interesting, one war in Europe and it does more for world civilian arms control than any number of idealist dreamer politicians and police boffins around the planet. It also likely does more to set the global climate change agenda back than any other one event (maybe discounting the Aussie bushfires and the Tonga eruption). I hear that the Russians are flaring incredible quantities of gas with the pipelines shut down - it's apparently incredibly difficult to seal the wellheads and stop production so they are a little stuffed with regard to shutting gas flow off. It's either shut it off which can dictate a period of months to restart production or flare it for no profit, or sell it. I'd suggest the current gamesmanship with the EU won't last in the face of those decisions but it will be a long game of 'who blinks first'.

Originally Posted by No.3

The whole thing was a shambles from the get go - you don't send in units directly after a month of wargames that have left your supply lines stretched to capacity with shifting consumables up to replace what's been used, your vehicles needing maintenance to get on top of all the glitches a month of solid hard off road use shows up and that's not factoring in fatigue and wear and tear on your people. After the initial failure, the Russians were left with two options - go home as a laughing stock, or double down and remain a laughing stock but with much limited military capacity and a lifetime of shattered families and trauma to deal with (and financial costs). Unfortunately they chose the latter option, which is going to have ramifications around the planet for a long time to come.

Those outfits and countries who relied on Russian supplies of munitions and hardware are now up the creek and will be looking for other sources, and once they've changed suppliers so to speak it will be a hard road going back. 'Western' arms suppliers will be both rubbing their hands together and alternatively shitting bricks as to HOW they can meet supply requirements, as their own Govt purchasing setups will be looking to curtail exports in favour of their own needs and supply shortages. It's bloody interesting, one war in Europe and it does more for world civilian arms control than any number of idealist dreamer politicians and police boffins around the planet. It also likely does more to set the global climate change agenda back than any other one event (maybe discounting the Aussie bushfires and the Tonga eruption). I hear that the Russians are flaring incredible quantities of gas with the pipelines shut down - it's apparently incredibly difficult to seal the wellheads and stop production so they are a little stuffed with regard to shutting gas flow off. It's either shut it off which can dictate a period of months to restart production or flare it for no profit, or sell it. I'd suggest the current gamesmanship with the EU won't last in the face of those decisions but it will be a long game of 'who blinks first'.

What a lot of rubbish regarding Russian aggression, unfortunately it is the commonly held view of the situation created by incorrect media releases.
The reason the Nordstream 1 is shut is because of maintenance and theift of gas by Ukraine. Biden will not allow the replacement Nordstream 2 to be commissioned although it is sitting there ready to go and full of Gas.

The truth of the situation is that Zelensky tore up the Ukraine - Russia friendship agreement and made plans to takeover Crimea by force. This was announced worldwide in 2021 !

Ukraine approves strategy to “recover” Crimea, threatening all-out war with Russia

Jason Melanovski
19 March 2021
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced this week that the country’s National Security and Defense Council had approved a strategy that is aimed at retaking Crimea and reintegrating the strategically important peninsula.

Crimea, a peninsula in the Black Sea, was annexed by Russia in March 2014, following a US-backed, far-right coup in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

Announcing the move on Twitter, Kuleba wrote, “The signal is clear: we don’t just call on the world to help us return Crimea, Ukraine makes its own dedicated and systemic efforts under President [Volodymyr] Zelensky’s leadership.”

As part of its “3 pillars” strategy for retaking Ukraine, Kuleba notably stated that Zelensky’s administration sought “full Ukrainian sovereignty” over not just Crimea but that of the port city of Sevastopol as well, which serves as the home of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.

Following Kuleba’s comments, Ukrainian President Zelensky announced via Twitter the creation of a Crimean Platform Initiative which the Ukrainian government described as “a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to improve the efficiency of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, respond to growing security challenges, step up international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations, protect victims of the occupying power and to achieve the de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine.”

The first summit of the newly created group is planned to take place in August and Zelensky reported having already spoken with the EU, Canada the United Kingdom and Turkey regarding the group’s creation.

Following the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, the port of Sevastopol had been leased to Russia by several successive Ukrainian governments. Its potential loss following the US-backed ousting of the President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 was widely seen as one of the primary motivators in Russia annexing the militarily strategic peninsula.

As Kuleba and Kiev are well aware, any attempt to impose its “full sovereignty” over one of the Russian Navy’s most important warm water ports on the Black Sea would result in a full-scale war that threatens the outbreak of a third world war.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced Kuleba’s and Zelensky’s comments as a thinly veiled threat of war over Crimea.

“All efforts by Kiev to reclaim Crimea are illegitimate and cannot be interpreted in any other way but a threat of aggression against two Russian [federal] subjects. We reiterate that we will consider participation of any states or organizations in such activities, including the Crimean Platform initiative, as a hostile act against Russia and direct encroachment on its territorial integrity," Zakharova said.

Kiev’s escalation of the conflict with Russia over Crimea comes under conditions where the country remains mired in a civil war in eastern Ukraine that has now lasted for almost seven years. The war has claimed the lives of over 14,000 people, displaced 1.4 million and left 3.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance. UNICEF recently noted that millions in the war zone still lack access to clean drinking water and some don’t have regular access to any water, even as COVID-19 cases are again rising sharply across the country.

The move of the Ukrainian government follows a series of anti-Russian political crackdowns and military buildups that have exacerbated the threat of a full-scale war. In February, the Zelensky government undemocratically shut down three popular television stations run by pro-Moscow opposition leader and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, on the grounds of “national security.” Medvedchuk was later sanctioned and Kiev has continued to charge opposition politicians and reporters with “treason” for backing a negotiated settlement with Moscow over the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine.

The crackdown was predictably condemned by the Kremlin, which argued that it demonstrated that Kiev was attempting “to solve the problem of [Donbass in Eastern Ukraine] by force.”

International monitors in eastern Ukraine have also recently reported a rapid increase in the number of ceasefire violations by both Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed separatists. This year, already 10 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed.

While Zelensky was initially elected in 2019 on the basis of a rejection of the far-right militaristic nationalism espoused by his predecessor Petro Poroshenko, Zelensky is now adopting a potentially even more reckless strategy. Much indicates that he is being supported in this by the United States.

Last week, an op-ed in the Washington Post suggested that Zelensky is desperate to receive a phone call from US President Joe Biden but is yet to receive one. The op-ed backed Zelensky’s recent political crackdowns and urged him to move even more aggressively against Russia.

“Mr. Zelensky now has the opportunity to forge a partnership with Mr. Biden that could decisively advance Ukraine’s attempt to break free from Russia and join the democratic West. He should seize on it,” the paper’s editorial board urged.

Speaking to Politico, a former US official close to the Biden administration was quoted as saying, “There is merit to having Zelensky sit and wait his turn for a call. He is not struggling with all his might to fight corruption. In fact, pro-Russian oligarchs in Ukraine have gained immense power since Zelensky took over. So there needs to be tough love with Zelensky when that one-on-one conversation does happen.”

Ukraine is highly dependent on military aid and backing from the US in its confrontation with Russia. On Monday, the Pentagon announced a $125 million military aid package for Ukraine, the first distribution of aid to Ukraine under the Biden administration.

There is still $150 million left in the allocated 2021 Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding appropriated by Congress. However, this money will not be released until the Defense and State departments jointly certify that there has been “sufficient progress” made by Kiev on “military reform” efforts.

While Biden has yet to speak with Zelensky, on the seventh anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea the White House released a statement backing Ukraine in the dispute, stating, “The United States does not and will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation of the peninsula and we will stand with Ukraine against Russia’s aggressive acts.”

In its reckless military escalation, the Zelensky government is also driven by a deep social and political crisis in Ukraine itself. Its political support has fallen sharply as the country’s economy and health care system have been devastated by COVID-19, with no significant vaccination effort in sight. There is a real danger that the Ukrainian ruling class, driven by a deepening domestic crisis, is trying to divert these internal tensions outward, resulting in a war that would threaten the lives of millions.

During the Covid pandemic the US has been stocking Ukraine with arms in preparation for the assault on Crimea.

A further link regarding Bidens sanctions against the Nordstream 2 pipeline introduced in 2021 ( that is the year before the war started )
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/20...ns-on-russians

Here's what you're looking for Moa Hunter



Personally I prefer this one

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Here's what you're looking for Moa Hunter

Attachment 205429

Personally I prefer this one
Attachment 205430

I would much prefer a white flag shown by both sides and a negotiated peace rather than ongoing war.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I would much prefer a white flag shown by both sides and a negotiated peace rather than ongoing war.

Unfortunately we've already seen how well this approach worked out in Europe in the 1930s.

Someone, at some point, has to stand up to the aggressor.