As the fighting continues in Ukraine and Russia's involvement increases, I have to ask how many of Putin's vacationing Russian troops have died fighting in Ukraine? Ukraine puts the number at 2,000. That is a pretty high number if it is true. Russia isn't telling the world or even its own citizens how many of its vacationing troops have died in Ukraine. At some point, as the death toll mounts, somebody is going to begin missing the dead troops. It's going to become increasingly difficult for Putin to explain away the deaths as training accidents. When do we get to that point? http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/09/08/346735504/some-in-russia-admit-their-troops-volunteer-in-Ukraine
More probably will be while helping take Mariupol to extend their controlled area (See map at end.) and get closer to having a "land bridge" to Crimea. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Caption of this figure is: "A woman walks past a burned-out a store at a residential sector affected by shelling in Mariupol, a city on the Sea of Azov, eastern Ukraine Feb. 3, 2015. Reuters " Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Peace may come when white area is "West Ukraine" and the area with color is "East Ukraine," with the year ago coup ousted elected president back there again. Just as the US would not accept a Pro-Russian coup in Canada or Mexico, Russia can not accept a coup making a Pro-US country on its border. Needs a buffer state. Not recognizing this, Russia's needs, could very well by miscalculation or misunderstanding escalate into nuclear WWIII. All great losers, but an end to AGW.
that shows a remarkably ignorant view point of how the ethnic ukrainians view the situation. i don't think their so will to give up half their country to appease their former oppressors. seriously why is in in all these cases everyone thinks the answer is to screw over the victims? as i've stated before they spent 700 years being controlled by others their not going to give up half their country to a bunch thugs without making damn sure no one will ever threaten their independence again. and putin will only look at your plan as he can invade and steal when ever he wants. why should russian needs mater more than ukrainian ones?
No you have swallowed the US's POV, hook, line and sinker. The Ukrainian POV was espressed in a very fair, internationally monitored, presidential election. That president and election got over turned in the bloody "Maidan coup." The US has a long and dishonorable history of doing this destruction of democratic process. I'll not go all the way back to the Monroe Doctrine, where this "manifest destiny" POV was officially proclaimed, but Just back to 9/11 (1973) - the original "9/11" well known in all of South America. On that date the CIA's right wing thugs, murdered the elected president of Chile - in the presidential palace, no less. (There is still uncertainty as to whether or not he took his own life, to avoid capture or not.) President Allende was the first the CIA eliminated as he was an openly self-declared communist. He was replaced by Pinochet, the bloody dictator who used the US supplied helicopters to drop more than twice as many as killed in the US's 9/11 into the sea (in highly drugged state, but not dead) Females whose crime was to want restoration of democracy and strive for that were gang raped repeatedly by the prison guards and when pregnant not badly mistreated until their baby could safely be taken from them and given to a childless couple that supported the dictatorship. Then they were "disappeared" with 10,000 or so others. There are at least 100 middle age people who thanks to needing a blood transfusion that their parents could not give, know their true mother gave birth to them in Pinochet's jails. There is a DNA bank that has samples of DNA from close relatives of the "disappeared" fighters who resisted Pinochet and were dropped into the sea from the CIA supplied helicopters. About two dozen people, thanks to this DNA bank, know who their real mother was, but more than 1000 still assume their "Parents" gave birth to them - not a prison guard and a captured female freedom fighter. In about a decade, EVERY democracy in ALL South American countries was destroyed by the CIA's support for right- wing dictatorships. The CIA destroyed Brazilian democracy in 1964 and the dictatorship was installed. It was one of the last to be destroyed. Some freedom fighters during that decade of democracy destruction managed to escape across the border, especially from Pinochet's Chile and were relatively safe as the various dictators did not like each other or share information; but all liked the CIA. So the CIA used its influence and computers to set up "Operation Condor" and many freedom fighters who had escaped to another country were capture and returned to be killed. All told, at least 50,000 young idealist who wanted to live under democracy were killed, with the CIA's aid. This link gives the names of those at the Washington DC dinner where Allennde's excution was planned before he was elected president, to have "contingency plans" available if a Communist did become president of Chile: http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2013/04/why-allende-had-die That could not be tolerated in the peak of the "cold war" era. Communist Cuba was too much. There is a book called: Operation Condor: The real terror network Some excerpt of it are here: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman /Condor_Herman.html Lets skip over four decades of CIA's crimes against humanity, several coups against left leaning elected presidents (most recent prior to Ukraine was in 2009 in Honduras*) and just note that Obama has admitted many were "remitted" to countries where they could be tortured. Except for the oversight in Paraguay's Palace of Justice in Asuncisn, almost all the official documents have been destroyed. These ~600,000 "forgotten documents" recently found by accident survived the general destruction. The CIA has a well establish 7+ decade history of toppling left-leaning governments - why would you believe, especially with US diplomatic recognitions almost immediately after the right-wing coup ousted the Pro-Russian elected president, that this was not just more of the same? * The United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS),[12] and the European Union condemned the removal of Zelaya as a military coup. On 5 July, the OAS, invoking for the first time Article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter voted by acclamation of all member states to suspend Honduras from the organisation. No country except the US recognized the right-wing government the coup put into power, with US supplied weapons. How could they? The army packed the president, still in his PJs, into small plane than few him out of Honduras before sun rise!
I can't wait until those A-10 Warthogs arrive there and start taking out all of those Russian tanks and cannons.
Are they going there? If so it will be interesting. They are slow and fly low to be effective with their main gun but are very tough. Question is what will modern Russain AA do to them? As far as I know, they are only planned to give ISIS a big head ache.
well they won't be going up against modern russian AA from what i've seen Russia using older hardware. A-10 have come back flying from sorties with the tail and and wing shot off. i doubt russian AA will do a whole lot to them. A-10 are essentially flying tanks
Are you really that biased? By your own logic you'd have to discount the Russian point of view as well because they have a equally long history of shenigans but you seem to think we should take as gospel. but than again you do have a track record of hating democracy. and again as I have repeatedly made clear when i'm using the term ukrainian i'm referring to the ethnicity not the nationality. again the the only reason maidan was bloody was of the the thug you support. the protestors were peaceful until they were attacked. again your arguing the russians in the ukraine are more important than the actual ukrainians. I haven't fell for any lines you on the other hand as is your you usual stick attacks the US for its misdeeds while ignoring the long list of misdeeds of autocrats so spare your bullshit your supporting people who've toppled governments. just because you hate the US and democracy doesn't mean your right just biased. so quit repeating the same tired anti us bullshit and start using facts instead of lies. and to repeat how can you say the ukrainian POV was supported by your pro russian thug when his power base was russians? the tartars and ukrainians didn't support him. his power base was in the east away from the ethnic ukrainians were concentrated.
They are equipped with radar jamming electronics that were updated recently to counter any radar so they should be just fine but those tanks won't be.
Indeed... the A-10C is an impressive beast...able to return home missing an engine, a tail, one elevator, and half of one wing, riddled with hundreds of bullet holes. It is incredibly hard to detect by thermal signature, is able to come in "under" many radar systems, and mounts the AN/ALR-69V radar warning system integrated with an AN/ALE-47 CMDS which can automatically release chaff, flares, and drop-away jammers, as well as being tied into the AN/ALQ-131 (now being replaced with teh AN/ALQ-184) jamming pods which use a three-tiered transmitter system capable of blanket-coverage of multiple signals or stacking to wipe out high-powered frequencies. The 184 can also work with the AN/ALE-50 towed decoys. Add in that something like 6% of the aircraft weight is JUST the armor surrounding the pilot/cockpit... yeah, it's a tough old bird. And to think... some paper-pushing pencil-dick bureaucrats think the F-35 JSF can replace it in the ground support role... hah!
You can't die fighting if you are on vacation. However, in unrelated news, Moscow Disney has a truly atrocious safety record with hundreds of deaths from prenetrating and traumatic injuries over the past few months. Curiously, almost all males between the ages of 18 and 27.
