Europe War in Ukraine - Thread 5 - thread rules updated

[wannabejack]

...

Not sure how Ukraine comes out of this looking good

Your concern about how Ukraine looks is very touching.

 

[Crankyhawk]

""If we can do this to dictators, then the US knows what to do next"
Zelensky commented on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the Americans.

View attachment 2504782

in b4 its trump kidnapping Zelensky to deliver to Putin

 

[Aussie in exile]

Nazi Russian unit(fighting for Ukraine) says the leader has been killed. Later claims it was faked and we took the reward money(source on reward?)

Not sure how Ukraine comes out of this looking good

I would think little legs putin has at least trebled his security as donny must be eyeing up all that russian oil before little legs bankrupts the country as putin must now be in the crosshairs of donny.

 

[Zidane98]

Sounds familiar

 

[Zidane98]

 

[Zidane98]

As always, things are going great for Putin domsetically:









Russian investment in propping up Maduro dictatorship has also been a stunning success by Putin.


The bloke's a genius!

 

[Zidane98]

A thread about Putin's foreign policy and what is has meant for his puppets / allies:




Surely it's time for Putin to pull out of Ukraine and focus on shoring up Eastern Siberia protecting it from the Chinese who believe it is their possession. m

 

[Zidane98]

An account from a demoralised fascist invading Russian soldier:





It's hopeless for Pedo Putin, even barreness must admit that now.

 

[Zidane98]

Look at the difference between embracing Russia and rejecting Russia as your dominant partner:



No wonder the majority of Ukranians have had enough of Putin / Russia. They want to be like Poland. Not like Belarus or Venezuela.

 

[ferball]

Yeh that's not paedophilia

Oh a NY post article, UFO type areas. These things always happen in Britain(nonce island)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-long-standing-bitter-feud-putin-inquiry-told

So a blog post by a long time enemy and traitor. Seems a bit like Musk accusing that diver of being a pedo after being spurned.
I'm convinced

I remember all of that stuff.

I remember Putin tongue kissing the boy on the belly button and then giving some stupid sus explanation afterward and I remember Litvinenko then writing that blog post (that I've read, unlike most of the posters here I'm guessing.) I don't remember Litvinenko saying he had concrete evidence but he did say it was open secret in the KGB.

In it he said its no surprise that Putin did that and that it was well known he was into kids while he was in the KGB. That was why he was never promoted past his rank (mid ranking senior officer of some kind) in the KGB despite his obvious talent. His superiors thought he was a potential risk and would be easy to compromise given he was a rock spider.

Within three months he was dying in hospital or dead.

Litvinenko had been incredibly critical of Putin for years, blamed him for the apartment bombings and other terror that he (Putin) exploited to rise to power. He was the only person with any credibility (ie claimed to have actual evidence) to say that about Putin who was still alive at that point as all of the journalists in Russia who investigated those bombings and terror attacks had been murdered.

But it wasn't until he made that claim, in a pretty offhand manner (as in the tone of the article was wtte of "why is this a surprise didn't everybody know?",) that he was killed, in a particularly horrible way. And all he really did was mention that there were rumours about Putin, everybody believed them and assumed that was why his career stalled where it was.

Yes Litvinenko was a traitor (from Putin/Russia's pov) and yes he was working for or under the protection (lol) of British Intelligence when he wrote the blog post so it may be bullshit but there were other things about Putin's sexuality (mostly random claims from others) at the time and those events fit that pattern. IE They suggested he was a pedo.

Personally I'd file it in the "probably true" category but couldn't say any more than that.

BTW I'm not saying this to support that Zidane ****wit either, he's called me a vatnik more times than anyone else on this board.

 

[Zidane98]

A summary of 2025 for Putin's war effort in Ukraine:




80% of defense spending on Ukraine invasion. That's insane.

4300km of territory won - at a cost of needing to recruit 30,000 soldiers per month on average.

100,000 + killed. 4 times that wounded / out of action.



There is no way that this invasion is worth it for Putin or any state.


And Pedo Putin's goal of forcing Ukraine to agree new borders / recognise annexations is simply not happening, even with the help of Trump.


The internationally & legally recognised and absolute border / territory agreements remain in place. Russia has failed and Putin is destroying the place.

 

[Zidane98]

in b4 its trump kidnapping Zelensky to deliver to Putin

And Ukraine still wouldn't agree to Putin's demands if this happened!

That way Doinnie could say to Vlad listen here I've tried everything to help you reach your dreams of a Russian empire but it just ain't going to happen. Time to move on or you get the Maduro treatment!

 

[Aussie in exile]

As always, things are going great for Putin domsetically:









Russian investment in propping up Maduro dictatorship has also been a stunning success by Putin.


The bloke's a genius!

Keep targetting russian infastructure Ukraine

 

[Zidane98]

The only way to get the Orange Mussolini to take out Putin

 

[Andre]

As always, things are going great for Putin domsetically:









Russian investment in propping up Maduro dictatorship has also been a stunning success by Putin.


The bloke's a genius!

The railways is another indicator sanctions are working. It's harder to get/build engines and carriages. Already trains run slower/less often shipping military personnel and equipment then at the start of the full scale invasion, which this shows is only going to get worse. With roads and rail to Europe largely shut, Russia gets a large part of it's (non-oil / gas) exports out via rail to the South and East. As this gets worse they face more decisions about how much to utilise for the military versus to get exports out to fund the government (/war).

Vatniks try and crow sanctions didn't do a thing, as the country didn't immediately implode, but they were always a slow burn. This is just the latest in a long line of parts of the Russian economy that have increasingly struggled and become less useful for the military and/or made life harder for Russians in general.

 

[Zidane98]

The railways is another indicator sanctions are working. It's harder to get/build engines and carriages. Already trains run slower/less often shipping military personnel and equipment then at the start of the full scale invasion, which this shows is only going to get worse. With roads and rail to Europe largely shut, Russia gets a large part of it's (non-oil / gas) exports out via rail to the South and East. As this gets worse they face more decisions about how much to utilise for the military versus to get exports out to fund the government (/war).

Vatniks try and crow sanctions didn't do a thing, as the country didn't immediately implode, but they were always a slow burn. This is just the latest in a long line of parts of the Russian economy that have increasingly struggled and become less useful for the military and/or made life harder for Russians in general.

Of course sanctions have not made a difference to Russian aviation:

MSN

Putin decided to sign a law stealing passenger jets from lessors in Ireland for no reason at all.

 

[Zidane98]

Of note:

Despite pledges to produce more than 1,000 civilian aircraft by 2030, Russian factories built only five commercial aircraft total over three years of war. By 2025, just one aircraft was delivered out of 15 planned, forcing dramatic target cuts.

Sanctions have left airlines dependent on aging Airbus and Boeing fleets without reliable access to spare parts.

By late 2024, nearly a quarter of Russia’s passenger capacity faced potential bankruptcy, grounding aircraft and straining remaining operators.


The build 1000 commercial aircraft by 2030 was always highly amusing.


Clearly on track with just one aircraft delivered and 5 total since Putin invaded. Only 995 in 5 years, she'll be right. Perhaps offer workers vodka bonuses for getting work done quickly might speed things up.

 

[wannabejack]

12 December 2025

The Decline of Russia’s Railroads – Riddle Russia

Jeff Hawn on Russian railways as a diagnostic indicator of broader economic crisis

ridl.io

By August 2025, profits had plummeted to 2.7 billion rubles, a 96% decline; by October, the company was officially posting losses. Western sources report that RZD is now carrying roughly $ 51 billion in debt with no clear resolution in sight.

While opinions differ on the acceptable percentage of idle rolling stock, a 5% idle-wagon rate in India during the 1990s was already considered a sign of recession. Russia currently has around 20% of its wagons sitting idle, and that figure is rising.

With the surge in idle rolling stock, RZD is now asking more employees to take three unpaid days off per month, meaning fewer staff are available to resolve problems when they arise—further slowing traffic and deferring maintenance.

Meanwhile, skilled workers have been lured into military service with large signing bonuses, leaving RZD short of up to 5,000 critical technicians and unable to operate as many as 200 trains per day.

Beijing is instead using Russia’s rail collapse as an opportunity to insert itself deeper into Central Asia, building Belt and Road bypass routes that avoid Russian territory altogether.

The railways’ worsening state is unlikely to directly cripple frontline military supply in the near term, because military freight will always receive priority and the military can commandeer essentially any state asset it needs.

Recovery from the current state of affairs would likely take many years and require a massive infusion of capital. Yet the Russian state is rapidly running out of hard currency, and there is very little incentive for any external actor to invest in Russian railways—especially as China moves aggressively to dominate the Central Asian transit market and bypass Russia entirely.

 

[Andre]

Of note:

Despite pledges to produce more than 1,000 civilian aircraft by 2030, Russian factories built only five commercial aircraft total over three years of war. By 2025, just one aircraft was delivered out of 15 planned, forcing dramatic target cuts.

Sanctions have left airlines dependent on aging Airbus and Boeing fleets without reliable access to spare parts.

By late 2024, nearly a quarter of Russia’s passenger capacity faced potential bankruptcy, grounding aircraft and straining remaining operators.


The build 1000 commercial aircraft by 2030 was always highly amusing.


Clearly on track with just one aircraft delivered and 5 total since Putin invaded. Only 995 in 5 years, she'll be right. Perhaps offer workers vodka bonuses for getting work done quickly might speed things up.

That if anything under-estimates the problem. The Soviet philosophy for military equipment was the same as for their soldiers. 'Don't worry about the best quality, quantity is a quality all of it's own'. Their aircraft were designed with shorter airframe live spans, figuring they'll punch out heaps and would get new one's regularly enough. Plus they trained a lot less than the US and other NATO countries. With the Soviets pumping out those jets at big numbers, this was a viable choice. Sure, not as good as F-15, F-16 etc., but if you could get up more, that'd compensate. Except post Cold-War they:
1. Aren't producing those numbers
2. Are flying a lot of hours, due to the war. A lot of those airframes are near / at those life spans. That doesn't mean they'll fall apart mid-air as the clock ticks over, Wile E. Coyote style, but the risk of loss of aircraft during missions goes up significantly. This could be mitigated by point 3 below, to a degree, but that'd require Putin agreeing to a reduced use of them. Which won't happen.
3. Don't prioritise maintenance / safety like Western Airforces do. If something happens on a single aircraft / helicopter in Western forces, all of that type are stood down until a fix is in place. And they do a shit ton of maintenance hours per flight hour. These aren't guys dragged from garages, it's a highly skilled profession, taking years to get them fully up to speed. Russia isn't pushing more mechanics into training. If anything, like everywhere else, they've gone minimal numbers, so they can have more bodies in trenches.

Which the three together points to a decreased use of Russian aviation in 2026, with an increased number of incidents. Putin won't stop though. He could be down to the Russian airforce being one guy flapping his arms and going 'Whoosh', if he gets Ukraine at the end of it. No matter the cost, if Russia takes Ukraine he figures it'll be worth it, as they can rebuild. TBH, from a Russian point of view, not a moral one, that's a fair assessment. Which makes it all the more important to drive his airforce, trains, economy and everything else to the point of being broken, so he can't take it and Russia is still so broken they aren't a threat to anyone ever again.

 

[Zidane98]

Either he's ran out of vodka or something is seriously amiss with Dmitri:

 

[Zidane98]

Oops

 

[Zidane98]

 

[Zidane98]

Things going great economically for Russia thanks to Putin's invasion

 

[Aussie in exile]

Things going great economically for Russia thanks to Putin's invasion

Baronnesky and Ilovethepiesky won't like this

 

[Zidane98]

Ukraine drones produced locally now contain 97% Ukranian components:




Imagine anyone being dumb enough to argue that Ukraine fights on due to US backing. Especially considering the piss weak $800 military assistance package to Ukraine in the latest US military $1 trillion budget.


You'd have to be some kind of idiot to argue it's the US backing Ukraine now.