"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (2 Viewers)

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Denniss said:
Track damage - takes some hours depending on damage
track blocked by collapsed bridge - may take several days depending on the size of the bridge and available heavy equipment
even some hours are a win if that deprives the enemy of urgently needed supplies
Click to expand...
Times two. It is going to take them a while to repair both sections. I think there may be damaged rolling stock to clear as well. They must have an undamaged "horse" to pull the equipment that's still able to roll. I'm sure they have a motivated and dedicated repair staff that is the equal of western railroads. It's possible they may overlook a few safety standards to return the track to service but it will take more than a couple days. If they have the necessary roadway maintenance machinery and work gangs stationed in between the two out of service sections, it might happen more quickly. Especially if there are several temporary bridge spans, rail, ties, as well as tools pre-positioned. I'd love to be the RWIC on that job. KA-CHING!
That line is SO screwed.
 
The Russian rail system is already in crisis due to sanctions. Things such as bearings for rolling stock are imported items
so carriages and flat cars are dropping in availability as they break - this is estimated so far in the thousands.

Production facilities are mostly idle as equipment can't be finished due to lack of essential parts.

Around half of Russia's transport industry relies on rail which affects export capability badly. Internal transport of coal
and oil to regions relying on those items for heating is becoming difficult.

Repairs to rail lines in Ukraine may still be achieved but replacement rolling stock becomes a problem as it will
further stress domestic availability - you don't want that when you are telling people at home that everything is
going swimmingly and they ask you how they are going to get to work or where are our food and heating products.

Even Chinese companies are not supplying bearings etc as they don't want to be hit with secondary sanctions -
especially given the difficulties of their economy at the moment.
 
Frog said:
There are also hundreds of well retributed Western attorneys who would plea against the seizure.
Click to expand...
True, but I did say with some imagination. It looks as if the USA have already started. That said I have only had two instances of American lawyers. once on my side when I found a fraud, and once against when negotiating with the EU and American Underwriters association. I was more worried in the former instance, and not the latter.
 
Russia may not pay reparations, but maybe Its successor state will.

Soviet Union also rejected to pay the US lend lease during WWII. What follows is the history of that debt.

The Soviet Union officially became a member of the Lend-Lease program on June 11, 1942. The Lend-Lease Act expired on August 21, 1945. The United States then calculated the debts and billed the recipient countries. The Soviet Union was initially charged $2.6 billion, but that amount was later halved. Stalin stated that "the USSR has fully paid its debts for the lend-lease with the blood of its soldiers." But this debt was not forgotten ...

The Lend-Lease Debt Agreement was signed in 1972, with the Soviet Union pledging $722 million, including interest, by 2001. But the following year, relations between the two countries deteriorated again and the Soviet Union stopped paying. In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George W. Bush agreed that the Soviet Union would pay $674 million by 2030. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the debt was reassigned to its successor, the Russian Federation, which paid it in full until August 2006.

Yes that's right, Russia finished paying URSS lend-lease debt with Putin as president.
 
RogerdeLluria said:
Russia may not pay reparations, but maybe Its successor state will.

Soviet Union also rejected to pay the US lend lease during WWII. What follows is the history of that debt.

The Soviet Union officially became a member of the Lend-Lease program on June 11, 1942. The Lend-Lease Act expired on August 21, 1945. The United States then calculated the debts and billed the recipient countries. The Soviet Union was initially charged $2.6 billion, but that amount was later halved. Stalin stated that "the USSR has fully paid its debts for the lend-lease with the blood of its soldiers." But this debt was not forgotten ...

The Lend-Lease Debt Agreement was signed in 1972, with the Soviet Union pledging $722 million, including interest, by 2001. But the following year, relations between the two countries deteriorated again and the Soviet Union stopped paying. In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George W. Bush agreed that the Soviet Union would pay $674 million by 2030. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the debt was reassigned to its successor, the Russian Federation, which paid it in full until August 2006.

Yes that's right, Russia finished paying URSS lend-lease debt with Putin as president
Click to expand...


$ 674 million at 2006 rate : a bargain compared to 1945 $ 2.6 billion converted at 2006 rate...
 
Dimlee said:
Dmytro Antonov, the last Captain of An-225 Mriya. Initial damage assessment of the home base.
Click to expand...

It's smaller, but here's a partial replacement.

Government of Canada orders seizure of Russian-registered cargo aircraft at Toronto Pearson Airport - Canada.ca

The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced that the Government of Canada had ordered the seizure of a Russian-registered cargo aircraft currently grounded at Toronto Pearson Airport, pursuant to the Special Economic Measures Act.
www.canada.ca www.canada.ca

toronto.ctvnews.ca

Russian cargo plane seized by Canadian government at Toronto Pearson Airport

A Russian-registered cargo aircraft that has been grounded at Toronto Pearson Airport for more than a year was seized by the Canadian government Saturday afternoon and could now be redistributed to Ukraine.
toronto.ctvnews.ca toronto.ctvnews.ca

The AN-124s can be put to good use, as its sister shows below.


View: https://twitter.com/CFOperations/status/1637831374211014656?s=20

What will it take to get the forfeited AN-124 back into service? I assume it's had no maintenance while it sat at Toronto's airport for year plus.
 
Snautzer01 said:
True, but for once they did did kept this deal. I am ok with that. Its token money but look what sacrifices the soviets made.
Click to expand...
Price of the 1939 Molotov Ribbentrop Pact : when you have dinner with the devil, it is better to have a long spoon.
They paid it dearly with 1/3 of WW 2 deads but a great part of the military losses were due to inept tactics (the civilians are of course another matter).
And they unforgivably begun with Katyn.
 
Snautzer01 said:
True, but for once they did did kept this deal. I am ok with that. Its token money but look what sacrafices the soviets made.
Click to expand...
What sacrifices the people under a totalitarian regime every bit as evil as that of Hitlers, you mean :(

I was re-reading 'The Devils Virtuosos' the other day. So brutalised and decimated were the peoples of the Eastern USSR that they initially garlanded Guderian's tanks with flowers and pressed wine and Vodka into the hands of the Wehrmacht. Many literally saw the Nazis as liberators compared to the oppression and starvation they had suffered under Stalin. That's an incredible but true fact. I've also read the contention that if the Nazis had held off on their atrocities and attitudes of racial superiority over the indigenous population, the populations of the formerly independent nations of the USSR would have willing and eagerly contributed massive manpower and support to the German cause against Russia.

Ask the people of Berlin and other eastern German towns what suffering meant when they were 'liberated' by the Red Army too...
There's still a tang of hypocrisy about the way we lionise the Soviets. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' can stretch only too far. The Soviet contribution to allied victory needs to be assessed in proper context. A huge proportion of Europe swapped one horrifyingly brutal dictatorship for another and remained unliberated for a generation. Ask the East Germans. Ask the Poles. The Czechs. Hungarians. etc etc. Their sacrifice was only just beginning at the end of WW2.

That 'token money' was seriously tainted.
 
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SplitRz said:
if the Nazis had held off on their atrocities and attitudes of racial superiority over the indigenous population, the populations of the formerly independent nations of the USSR would have willing and eagerly contributed massive manpower and support to the German cause against Russia.
Click to expand...
But, then they wouldn't be Nazis. Those lands were full of untermensch to be worked or starved to death so that the Nazi's autarky and lebensraum could be established. At best, per this report the non-Jewish populations "were to be resettled beyond the Urals to make room for German colonists."

Now, back on topic....

cepa.org

Think Ukraine’s Offensive Has Started? Wait for the Heavy Brigades

There’s fighting underway across frontline Ukraine, Ben Hodges says the decisive moment will be when hundreds tanks hit Russian lines.
cepa.org cepa.org

When we see large, armored formations join the assault, then I think we'll know the main attack has really begun. To date, I don't think we've witnessed this concentration of several hundred tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) in the attack. A Ukrainian tank battalion normally has 31 tanks. An armored infantry battalion would have about the same number. Add in armored vehicles carrying engineers, air defense, logistics, and so on. An armored brigade would likely have three tank battalions and one or two mechanized infantry battalions. In total, then, an armored brigade is going to have 250-plus armored vehicles of different types.
 
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