[Bjays92]

Meanwhile today, in Buffalo, NY...

Waiting for comments from Boris and Natasha...

From link.

I've been on that ship lol. Glad it didn't sink while I was on it.

Also Putin throwing a fit and bombing Kyiv as well as a bunch of other targets apparently.

The guardian is also reporting this:

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin may resort to using a tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon in light of military setbacks in the invasion of Ukraine, CIA director William Burns has said.

 

[kEiThZ]

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin may resort to using a tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon in light of military setbacks in the invasion of Ukraine, CIA director William Burns has said.

The only reason I expect Ukrainians won't try to take Crimea. But if he pops a nuke, even a demonstration over the Black Sea, that will likely bring complete isolation of both Russia and the Russian people. And I mean an actual willingness in Europe to both kick out Russian nationals and take the economic of pain of gas gas rationing. And with that the end of Putin's regime would follow.

Understand this, the West and Ukrainians will never accept nuclear blackmail. Legitimizing nuclear blackmail is an invitation for every dictator to try and get nukes and to do the same thing.

Also, understand this, countries with actual military prowess don't need to threaten nuclear strikes so casually. Take such bluster as an admission that Putin is both running out of options and scared.

 

[lenaitch]

Meanwhile today, in Buffalo, NY...

Waiting for comments from Boris and Natasha...

From link.

Odd computer narration. She was decommissioned in 1965 and donated as a museum ship. "Decommissioned for unknown reasons". Quite possibly because she was commissioned in 1943. It sounds like a fitting rotted through or a piece of the hull became too thin.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Meanwhile today, in Buffalo, NY...

Waiting for comments from Boris and Natasha...

From link.

That’s from poor maintenance. This is why HMCS Haida was sent to drydock to replace any weak plates.

HMCS HAIDA News

I‘ve visited many museum warship in the US and many are in very rusty shape. I think once the WW2 vets are gone the US will see several go to the scrap yard. Do you really need all four Iowa class battleships, for example?

 

[lenaitch]

That’s from poor maintenance. This is why HMCS Haida was sent to drydock to replace any weak plates.

HMCS HAIDA News

I‘ve visited many museum warship in the US and many are in very rusty shape. I think once the WW2 vets are gone the US will see several go to the scrap yard. Do you really need all four Iowa class battleships, for example?

Perhaps. Although the US is really big on shows of their military, at some point the maintenance may become too much for some hosts. They're not like tanks or planes where you can slap on a new coat of paint every few years.

******

On an unrelated note, I've been following the war on another site and one of the participants regularly posts Twitter feeds that are absolutely hilarious. The whole thing is an unfolding tragedy for sure, but here is the latest:

https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1514608885922865158%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Farmy.ca%2Fforums%2Fthreads%2Fukraine-superthread.111881%2Fpage-535

 

[kEiThZ]

Ha. I'm a fan of Darth Putin. The memes are the only upside to this war.

 

[kEiThZ]

This is a quality troll right here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1514605225356652551

 

[Admiral Beez]

This is a quality troll right here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1514605225356652551

The best damage control is anti-missile SAM or CIWS. Once a ship in the 10,000 tons or less size like Moskva is hit by two 2,000 lb ASMs that detonate magazines I’d think that any ship of this size would have trouble staying afloat.

 

[W. K. Lis]

"World War III Has Begun After Sinking Of Moskva": Russian State TV​

On another state-run television channel, a Russian anchor argued that Ukraine was doing the West's bidding.​

See link.

Russian state television has declared that World War III has already started after the sinking of its naval vessel Moskva in the Ukraine war. Though Russia said this was damaged after a fire, Ukraine claimed the credit of destroying the flagship vessel of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet through its Neptune missile.

But the sinking of the ship led to meltdown on the Kremlin's main propaganda mouthpiece Russia 1. Presenter Olga Skabeyeva made the chilling statement, informing the viewers that "what it's escalated into can safely be called World War III" and insisted "that's entirely for sure."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1514870832970960896

“Now we're definitely fighting against Nato infrastructure, if not Nato itself. We need to recognise that,” Skabeyeva further said, according to Metro.

A guest on the show compared the sinking of Moskva to an attack on Russian soil, despite Kremlin insisting that it went down because of a fire.

The man was reminded that instead of calling it a war, the government-approved phrase to be used for Russia's invasion of Ukraine is “special military operation”.

The clip of the show is going wildly viral on social media.

“They are poking the bear (pardon the pun) but in this case the NATO bear,” a Twitter user commented.

“They've lost 500 tanks, another 2,000 other vehicles, 82 aircraft, 18,000+ soldiers and a battlecruiser. NATO hasn't even arrived yet. It is fair to say that this war against NATO is not going well for Russia,” another user tweeted.

On another state-run television channel, an anchor argued that Ukraine was doing the West's bidding by carrying out "yet more provocations, bloody, horrible, completely unthinkable.”

Olesya Loseva, the host of Vremya Pokazhet on Channel One, said the West was now supplying "zillions of weapons” to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian news agencies reported late on Thursday that warship Moskva sank in rough weather while being towed back to port.

 

[afransen]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I can't even fathom Russia complaining that Nato isn't playing nice by helping the defender in Russia's not-war on Ukraine.

 

[kEiThZ]

The best damage control is anti-missile SAM or CIWS.

Only works if your crew doesn't get fixated on a single threat vector and points all the fire control radar in that direction.....

 

[Bjays92]

"World War III Has Begun After Sinking Of Moskva": Russian State TV​

On another state-run television channel, a Russian anchor argued that Ukraine was doing the West's bidding.​

See link.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1514870832970960896

Again, I know you have actual military experience Keith, as opposed to my purely political experience so please tell me if I'm wrong, but rhetoric like this seems to me like preparation for an actual war declaration.

Yes mobilization of any kind takes time, but clearly Russia is in for the long haul now so I don't see why that would be a major factor.

Likewise, in discussions of striking NATO countries, I don't think Russia would bomb Warsaw or Vilnius, but with the way they're framing this conflict and Putin's majorly distorted war logic, what if they go for staging grounds in NATO territory to cut off weapons shipments because they feel like that's a legitimate target. I worry about the consequences of a scenario like that based off of a horribly misinformed Russian calculation.

Russia also has to be angered over reports that British SAS troops are on the ground in Ukraine training soldiers, which though I support it, feels like playing with fire in a lot of ways.

 

[afransen]

Personally, I think the boldest Russia would get is cyber warfare or sponsoring terrorism. This is a war of Russian aggression. If they start attacking Nato in any direct way the gloves will come off and things will go very badly indeed for Russia and they must know that. Their play is trying to give Nato pause about escalation. If Russia actually escalate, that would be a big blunder.

 

[Bjays92]

Personally, I think the boldest Russia would get is cyber warfare or sponsoring terrorism. This is a war of Russian aggression. If they start attacking Nato in any direct way the gloves will come off and things will go very badly indeed for Russia and they must know that. Their play is trying to give Nato pause about escalation. If Russia actually escalate, that would be a big blunder.

I agree, but it wouldn't be their first big blunder either.

 

[Richard White]

Personally, I think the boldest Russia would get is cyber warfare or sponsoring terrorism. This is a war of Russian aggression. If they start attacking Nato in any direct way the gloves will come off and things will go very badly indeed for Russia and they must know that. Their play is trying to give Nato pause about escalation. If Russia actually escalate, that would be a big blunder.

Didn't they try sponsoring the Mujahideen in Afghanistan?

I hear that war ended really well.