Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (Official Thread)
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Russia deploying soldiers ‘as old as 60 and giving conscripts 19th century rifles’
Deploying coldwar conscripts armed with their grandfather's guns
Deploying coldwar conscripts armed with their grandfather's guns
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Russia deploying soldiers ‘as old as 60 and giving conscripts 19th century rifles’
Deploying coldwar conscripts armed with their grandfather's guns
the life expectancy for men in Russia is like 60
Russiaset went from attempting day and night to quantify nazis in Ukraine (which they were unable to do after more than a month) to claiming blatant war crimes and unspeakable atrocities with proof across multiple dimensions is fake, contrarian nikkas in shambles
Smart dumb set must be
So we are going to pretend that military personnel develop weapons and not defense contractors? 
Ukraine Quietly Receives Tanks From Czech Republic to Support War Effort
Move marks the first time a foreign country has provided tanks to Ukraine
Updated Apr. 5, 2022 12:10 pm ET
The Czech Republic has been sending old Soviet-designed tanks into Ukraine, providing badly needed heavy weapons to outgunned Ukrainian troops that are battling a much better-equipped Russian invasion force.
The efforts, described by three Czech and Slovak officials, mark the first time a foreign country has provided tanks to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24. In a potentially even more important development, both the Czech Republic and neighboring Slovakia, which shares a border with Ukraine, are considering opening their military industrial installations to repair and refit damaged Ukrainian military equipment.
Ukraine has captured 176 Russian tanks, 34 self-propelled artillery pieces, 116 armored fighting vehicles, 149 infantry fighting vehicles, 23 multiple-rocket launchers, and 45 armored personnel carriers, according to Oryx, an open-source intelligence blog that only counts visual evidence of equipment capture. Many, if not most, of these pieces—as well as a large number of Ukraine’s own tanks and fighting vehicles—would need to be repaired before use.
Russia’s campaign of missile strikes across Ukraine has targeted in particular the country’s defense industry, destroying facilities where such repairs and refitting could take place—something that makes the Czech and Slovak cooperation particularly valuable.
Western governments initially expected Kyiv to fall within a few days, and equipped the Ukrainian military mostly with shoulder-fired missiles such as NLAW, Javelin and Stinger that could be used by small insurgent units. The Ukrainian military, however, has managed to prevail over Russian forces around Kyiv in a large-scale conventional war, using long-range artillery, tanks and aircraft. It is now trying to stop Russia from advancing in the eastern Donbas region and to reclaim Russian-occupied areas in the south of the country—missions that President Volodymyr Zelensky has said would be impossible without a steady supply of heavy weapons.
A donor’s conference of some 35 nations, convened by the U.K. in London last week, agreed to supply Ukraine with long-range artillery, antiaircraft systems and infantry fighting vehicles, but stopped short of endorsing the transfer of tanks.
Images Show Russia Used Cluster Bombs, Hit Civilian Targets in Mariupol
Images Show Russia Used Cluster Bombs, Hit Civilian Targets in Mariupol
A WSJ analysis of videos, photos and satellite images from four weeks in March reveals how Russian forces destroyed civilian infrastructure through a series of shellings, with remnants of weapons indicating the use of cluster bombs. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
So far, the Czech Republic has sent slightly more than a dozen modernized, Soviet-designed T-72M tanks, said Czech defense ministry officials. The Central European country has also sent howitzer artillery pieces and BMP-1 amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, officials said.
These weapons supplies were funded by the Czech government, and private Czech donors who have chipped in to a government-backed crowdsourced fundraising campaign to arm Ukraine. Officials on NATO’s eastern flank generally worry that Western weapons and ammunition supply fall far short of what Ukraine needs considering the intensity of the war. In one day, Ukraine uses about as much weaponry as it receives in a week, a senior Polish official said.
NATO countries are looking to supply additional and more-advanced weapons systems, such as air-defense systems and U.S. Javelin antitank weapons, the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. He said allies are already supplying Kyiv with fuel, ammunition, helmets, protective gear and medical supplies. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization expects Russian troops to make a big push in Ukraine’s southeast in coming weeks and wants to quickly resupply Kyiv’s troops, Mr. Stoltenberg said.
Central European governments, with the notable exception of Hungary, are broadly eager to help rearm Ukraine, but some officials are nervous about depleting their own stockpiles of weapons and ammunition.
Several of those governments are turning to the Biden administration for assurances that the U.S. will help replace equipment they are donating to Ukraine. Czech supplies were reduced in 2014, when back to back explosions destroyed two warehouses holding more than 150 tons of ammunition. The government later blamed the blast on two agents from Russia’s military intelligence service.
“Much more, several times more, can be done if we join forces with other allies,” said Czech Deputy Defense Minister Tomáš Kopečný.
Slovenia, avowedly supportive of Kyiv, has been sending available military equipment to Ukraine from the beginning of the Russian aggression, its Prime Minister Janez Jansa told the Journal, to a point where it has run through its own stockpiles.
“If France, Germany or U.S. sent the same share per capita, Ukraine is already liberated,” he said. “Unfortunately, our reserves are depleted and now we try to replace equipment…with new delivery from U.S.,” he said. “Unfortunately, all procedures were slow, but [have] accelerated somehow after Bucha massacre.”
Moscow has warned that it considers arms shipments legitimate targets. So far, however, it hasn’t been able to choke off the daily military shipments to Ukraine from Poland, Romania or Slovakia. Russia’s air force, so far, also hasn’t demonstrated the capacity to disrupt military convoys between the border and front-line staging areas.
Poland, the staging ground for most of the weaponry going into Ukraine, also has a large collection of T-72 tanks, and is expecting a fresh delivery of 250 American Abrams tanks. Asked if Warsaw would provide the Soviet-designed tanks, Jakub Kumoch, the head of the International Policy Bureau in President Andrzej Duda’s office said, “Every conversation regarding whatever support for Ukraine is a conversation taking place between Poland and its closest allies, taking into account the needs of Ukraine and taking into account the aspiration to end as quickly as possible the war.”
One road has been effectively closed off to NATO weapon shipments, however: the route through Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban was re-elected Sunday after vowing to block NATO from using his country to transport weapons to Ukraine.
Australia said this week it is flying Bushmaster armored vehicles to Europe for delivery to Ukraine, with the first four already painted in Ukrainian colors.
Beyond tanks, Central European governments, including the Czech Republic, are weighing the risks of letting Ukraine bring war-damaged equipment into their countries for repairs. Slovakia, which has no tanks available to give, has discussed the issue, a senior Slovak official said.
Those deliberations are part of a realization that Russia’s war with Ukraine could drag on for months if not longer—and that, in a war of attrition, Russia’s overwhelming advantage in equipment could tilt the scales in Moscow’s favor.
“If the war is going to get longer and longer, the war equipment that is being damaged needs to get serviced,” said a Czech defense ministry official. “Ukrainian repair houses are 100% busy, and they are asking other nearby allies to help them with repairs.”
Natalia Ojewska contributed to this article.
Write to Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com and Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
News and insights on Russia's attack on Ukraine and the West's response, selected by the editors
