[crutonius]

With the US budget exploding Ukraine is about to go bulletless soon. This peacekeeping mission is about over.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/ukrainians-real-trouble-bakhmut/

Oh Bakhmut was their true goal all this time?

Well if they want to use any port or vessel covered by this agreement then they'll have to.

They have hundreds of ghost tankers to offload say in Saudi storage to only sell at a premium when oil get scarce soon.

Maybe.  Interesting idea.  Russia produces 11 million barrels a day.  Saudi Arabia has maybe 80 million barrels of storage which are currently in use.  So in order to make this plan work and horde oil through the winter then all Saudi Arabia has to do is add an additional level of storage double the size of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Could happen.  They've got a lot of slave labor there.  We'll see.

[markjo]

With the US budget exploding Ukraine is about to go bulletless soon. This peacekeeping mission is about over.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/ukrainians-real-trouble-bakhmut/

I guess that it's a question of who runs out of ammo first.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-running-out-ammo-how-much-longer-can-keep-fighting-1762346

[J-Man]

India a BRICS member has something like 135 million barrels storage and uses 5 mill a day? they import most their oil and are a current buyer at deep discounts. Russia will sell it's oil, it's black gold for a reason.

[J-Man]

Europe is buying Russian LPG like crazy since gas is a no no. LPG is not and Russian sales have increased over 40%. It's all a stupid media hype game. Russian GDP increased this year2-3% I think.

[stack]

Russia GDP:

[J-Man]

Russia GDP:

ouch ouch

if you were russia, wouldn't you want NATO and the west to think your hurting from sanctions?
They just made $1 billion off grain harvest in Ukie

[crutonius]

Russia GDP:

ouch ouch

if you were russia, wouldn't you want NATO and the west to think your hurting from sanctions?
They just made $1 billion off grain harvest in Ukie

Actually it's the opposite.  These numbers are probably worse in reality.  Since the war started Russia has been cooking their numbers to make their situation look better than it is.

[stack]

Russia GDP:

ouch ouch

if you were russia, wouldn't you want NATO and the west to think your hurting from sanctions?
They just made $1 billion off grain harvest in Ukie

Hilarious, when it's convenient, you now all of a sudden believe NASA???

Russia Reaped $1 Billion of Wheat in Occupied Ukraine, NASA Says
- NASA Harvest uses satellite imagery to model wheat crop
- A quarter of Ukraine wheat is grown on land claimed by Russia

Ukraine has lost at least $1 billion of wheat that was harvested in areas controlled by Russia, according to research using satellite imagery from NASA’s food security and agriculture program.

Ouch is right. Your hypocrisy on display.

[J-Man]

Two of russia's old drones hits 450 miles inside russia. Putie gonna be pissed.

[crutonius]

Incorrect.  It's an epidemic of smoking related accidents inside of Russia.

[stack]

Two of russia's old drones hits 450 miles inside russia. Putie gonna be pissed.

Is this more information you want to share from NASA?

[Rushy]

I doubt Russia would be using S-300s, a SAM platform, to attack ground targets if their economy was booming and they were doing fantastically under sanctions. There's been big dollar values thrown around for Ukraine aid, but that's just the paper numbers for what the equipment Americans have been giving them is 'worth'. At the end of the day, America has been doing nothing but giving Ukraine old trash from stockpiles that sat unused for decades. Russia is having trouble fighting a soviet bloc country equipped with late 80s and early 90s US technology. Imagine how horrible they would do in any modern war. HIMARs are from the 90s. Javelins are from the 90s. Hell, the stinger missiles we've given them started production in 1981! Russia is having trouble fighting a soviet-tier military equipped with the same stuff the US was giving Afghanistan in the 80s! It's comical to watch how much Pentagon analysts overestimated Russia's abilities. It's like the whole country's military doctrine froze in the mid 80s and never evolved further.

The most surprising thing at this point is that Putin hasn't managed to fall out of a window after causing all of his little oligarch buddies to have their pristine lifestyles rudely interrupted.

Everyone knows Russia is a shithole country. Even Russians admit it, but still, they prided themselves on a supposedly well equipped and powerful military. Now, they don't even have that. Sad!

[crutonius]

Yeah.  It almost makes me a little bitter.  I understand the value of having the best military but good god.  A conflict between the US and Russia wouldn't even be close.  I feel that the military industrial complex has been all to happy to massively overestimate the Russian military for the last 50 years.

[Lord Dave]

Yeah.  It almost makes me a little bitter.  I understand the value of having the best military but good god.  A conflict between the US and Russia wouldn't even be close.  I feel that the military industrial complex has been all to happy to massively overestimate the Russian military for the last 50 years.

You all are assuming that the US isn't overinflating their own shit.  We haven't fought an actual superpower since what... Vietnam?

All our wars have been against countries with alot less resources and weapon technology.  And they still weren't completely defeated. 
*See 20 years in Afghanistan

[Rama Set]

Yeah.  It almost makes me a little bitter.  I understand the value of having the best military but good god.  A conflict between the US and Russia wouldn't even be close.  I feel that the military industrial complex has been all to happy to massively overestimate the Russian military for the last 50 years.

You all are assuming that the US isn't overinflating their own shit.  We haven't fought an actual superpower since what... Vietnam?

All our wars have been against countries with alot less resources and weapon technology.  And they still weren't completely defeated. 
*See 20 years in Afghanistan

Wasn’t Vietnam just funded by China? I think the Korean War was the last time.

[Rushy]

You all are assuming that the US isn't overinflating their own shit.  We haven't fought an actual superpower since what... Vietnam?

All our wars have been against countries with alot less resources and weapon technology.  And they still weren't completely defeated. 
*See 20 years in Afghanistan

Iraq, at the time of the 2003 invasion, had the 3rd largest military on the planet. They were effectively defeated in a single month. They lost 45,000 troops during that time while the US lost 196 (the US landed almost half a million troops in Iraq). Iraq and Afghanistan were not pushovers. There was a reason the Gulf War happened and there's a reason why Russia lost, militarily, to Afghanistan in the 80s.

There was no 20 years of 'war' in Afghanistan. It was the US occupational government that failed, not its military strength. Afghanistan and Iraq were defeated, militarily, within weeks of their respective wars beginning. What the US lost in Afghanistan was effectively a culture war, not one of military control.

[J-Man]

Ship broker Braemar estimated that about 120 of the 212 tankers sold to likely Russian buyers this year were looking at Russian crude oil trades, while there were virtually no sales last year to buyers involved in shipping Russian crude.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russian-oil-sanctions-send-prices-old-tankers-new-records

Vlad is making the bucks.

[J-Man]

Last few posts confirms it. Women and Gays ad ease.

[Lord Dave]

You all are assuming that the US isn't overinflating their own shit.  We haven't fought an actual superpower since what... Vietnam?

All our wars have been against countries with alot less resources and weapon technology.  And they still weren't completely defeated. 
*See 20 years in Afghanistan

Iraq, at the time of the 2003 invasion, had the 3rd largest military on the planet. They were effectively defeated in a single month. They lost 45,000 troops during that time while the US lost 196 (the US landed almost half a million troops in Iraq). Iraq and Afghanistan were not pushovers. There was a reason the Gulf War happened and there's a reason why Russia lost, militarily, to Afghanistan in the 80s.

There was no 20 years of 'war' in Afghanistan. It was the US occupational government that failed, not its military strength. Afghanistan and Iraq were defeated, militarily, within weeks of their respective wars beginning. What the US lost in Afghanistan was effectively a culture war, not one of military control.

3rd?  Seriously?  That's surprising.  Even so, numbers aren't everything. 

Yes, there wasn't 20 years of war, just 20 years of trying to fight the rebels and failing to completely snuff them out.  Which was my main point.
Lacking sophisticated weapons and tactics, the Taliban was able to basically keep themselves active then take over the country without much of a fight once America left. 
Which, to me, says that the US, with all its weapons and technology, just couldn't win.
Even if it was a culture war, they still posed enough of a threat to be able to keep recruiting.