"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (3 Viewers)

[Admiral Beez]

The company I work for, which is not one of the really big boys but does sell hundreds of thousands of units a year, has a strategy of moving production out of China over the next few years. But it's not easy finding manufacturing plants that produce the required quality in the required numbers.

One of the best ways I've found suppliers is to use the embassies of those countries. For example, I contacted the Taiwan trade office here in Canada and told them I am looking for a widget that we currently procure in China and want to look at Taiwan options. Once you tell them this the trade officer is put on alert and they make the connections with potential suppliers for you.

 

[buffnut453]

Just saw this on the BBC. UK is sending depleted uranium AP rounds with its Chally 2s:

On Monday, Baroness Goldie - a minister of state for defence - said in a written answer to a Parliamentary question that the UK would be sending "ammunition including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium" to Ukraine alongside a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks. She added that "such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles".

Depleted uranium is a by-product of enrichment of natural uranium for nuclear fuel. It is about 40% less radioactive than the starting material, and is capable of penetrating shells and bombs and of piercing tanks.

This ammunition was used in both Gulf Wars and in Yugoslavia, and its use has long raised concerns about health threats from exposure to uranium.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the UK plan to send such ammunition a "Yugoslavia scenario", saying it caused cancer and infected the environment.

But the effects of depleted uranium are debated.

Research published by the European Commission states that exposure to and intake of depleted uranium "appear to be below established tolerable levels for uranium" and that environmental "contamination in war zones is generally low, except in areas close to destroyed vehicles and penetrators."

However, many experts remain convinced that there are plausible links between congenital malformations and the use of depleted uranium.

A 2013 Lancet article quoted several researchers who cited the example of Iraq, where Allied forces are known to have used the ammunition in both the 1991 and the 2003 wars - after which certain areas of the country reported a significant increase in birth defects.

 

[GrauGeist]

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the UK plan to send such ammunition a "Yugoslavia scenario", saying it caused cancer and infected the environment.

Oh, so it's a bad thing to have depleted Uranium ammunition but yet it's ok to shell nuclear power plants.

 

[buffnut453]

Interesting take on the Ukraine war from China. Not a political commentary but certainly one that contains some refreshing candour:

An Insider's Perspective on China's Strategy in Ukraine

Russia cannot win, says former Chinese defense official

time.com

 

[Admiral Beez]

Just saw this on the BBC. UK is sending depleted uranium AP rounds with its Chally 2s

If the Ukrainians are willing to use DP rounds within their own territory, I say there's zero issues. It'll be just part of the decade-long cleanup once this war is over. It's the landmines everywhere that will cause the greater issue postwar.

 

[buffnut453]

More from the BBC:

Putin then says that if the UK supplies ammunition with depleted uranium to Ukraine, Russia will be forced to react.

I'm SHOCKED by this development!

 

[Admiral Beez]

Can the ERA armour on a T-90/72 counter a DP round?


View: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestroyedTanks/comments/p0ufzk/the_disastrous_results_of_an_abrams_122_mm/

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the UK plan to send such ammunition a "Yugoslavia scenario", saying it caused cancer and infected the environment.

Putin then says that if the UK supplies ammunition with depleted uranium to Ukraine, Russia will be forced to react.

I see a significant change of discourse.

When the west started to discuss sending western tanks. Russians stated that they will consider depleted Uranium ammo equivalent to a dirty bomb, leading to a nuclear escalation from their side. That was just 2 months ago.

Russia warns Leopard 2 tanks may be used as 'dirty bomb'

Konstantin Gavrilov, head of a Russian security delegation, claimed that Ukraine could arm their German-supplied Leopard 2 tanks with 'uranium core armour-piercing' shells.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Russia Warns US Delivery of Depleted Uranium Arms to Ukraine Would Be Akin to Use of Nukes

A Russian official this week responded to the Biden administration's failure to rule out sending depleted uranium anti-tank munitions to Ukraine by warning that deployment of such weapons—which have been linked to birth defects and cancer—would be regarded by Moscow as use of "dirty nuclear bombs."

www.commondreams.org

Russians are are continuously drawing redlines everywhere. But every time the west croses those lines they have no other option than backpedaling.

 

[Glider]

Interesting take on the Ukraine war from China. Not a political commentary but certainly one that contains some refreshing candour:

An Insider's Perspective on China's Strategy in Ukraine

Russia cannot win, says former Chinese defense official

time.com

The body language between Putin and Xi says a lot. Putin is doing all the talking, slouched in his chair spending the vast majority of the time looking down and anywhere but at Xi. Xi is more upright, but not stiff, looking directly at Putin nearly all the time.

There is no doubt as to who is the stronger person in the room.

 

[GrauGeist]

Theree isn't even a remote comparison between a "dirty bomb" and spent DU munitions.

From my post (#15,262) upthread:

Depleted Uranium has 40% less isotopes than raw Uranium found in nature, so you can safely handle ammunition or armor without risk of exposure.

It's the concentration of dust from knocked out tanks or targets (bunkers, etc.) that would pose a potential health problem until the DU oxidizes and returns to nature and becomes part of the natural background radiation, which doesn't take long.

So once a destroyed tank is washed out (rain or power-washing), it's ready to be dismantled and/or scrapped.

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

The key word is "depleted." It's still radioactive (half-life is about 4.5 billion years) and toxic.

ww2aircraft.net

This is just more bullshit from the schoolyard bully who takes offense when the kid they're beating up fights back.

 

[buffnut453]

When the west started to discuss sending western tanks. Russians stated that they will consider depleted Uranium ammo equivalent to a dirty bomb, leading to a nuclear escalation from their side. That was just 2 months ago.

Yep...and the comparison with dirty bombs has been repeated in the context of the UK providing DP rounds to Ukraine (again, from the BBC):

Russia's most senior government figures are now commenting on the UK's declaration that it would supply depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine.

Sergei Shoigu, the Russian minister of defence, just said that "another line has been passed - there are fewer and fewer of them."

Earlier, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said: "Nothing could surprise me." He also said that London has "lost its way" and that its actions are "underminining stability" around the world. Lavrov said that if the UK does send depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine, it means it is "ready to violate international humanitarian law as in 1999 in Yugoslavia".

"There is no doubt this will end badly for London," Lavrov added.

And Russia's representative at the European Organization for Security and Cooperation (OCSE), Konstantin Gavrilov, said that Moscow would consider the supply of depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine as using "dirty nuclear bombs".


I truly love how London is "undermining stability" around the world...but Russia's invasion of Ukraine wasn't? Breathtaking hypocrisy.

 

[RogerdeLluria]

View: https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1637745269289746437

Take it with a grain of salt, some sources say the first image is from 2020.

Which doesn't invalidate the conspiracy theory that Putin might have sent a double.

 

[RogerdeLluria]

On the economic front things don't go well for Putin either.

View: https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1638139654070317056

View: https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1637951662500478976

 

[buffnut453]

In Putinland, Nobel Peace Prize-winners are nazis:

Memorial raids: Russia targets leaders of banned Nobel Prize-winning group

Nine leaders of Memorial are targeted, months after their organisation was shut down by the courts.

www.bbc.com

 

[GTX]

View: https://twitter.com/UkraineNewsLive/status/1638152671113748482?s=20

 

[Admiral Beez]

Um… why is a flight of B-52s flying without a pair of F-22s as escort? If the Russians are willing to shoot down a Malaysian airliner and ram US drones, why does the Buff think it's safe solo?


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KFGG9qgPxCk

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I am confused by this part of the artical

The statement on social media said the missiles, designed to be launched from surface ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet, had an operational range of more than 2,500 kms (1,550 miles) on land and 375 kms (233 miles) at sea.

Why would the missiles range be affected by operating over land or sea?

That baffled me as well, and I don't know the answer to your question. I can think of one explanation. Perhaps there's a typo that added a zero to the "land" range. The difference now becomes much smaller, and is perhaps explained by the fact that the size of the land-based units might be limited by the trucks carrying them? It's the only guess I can arrive at.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

If I was Xi, I'd be saying "What? You want me to walk halfway down a room to shake hands...just to take photos? Sorry, but I have better things to do with my time!"

Am I missing something here?

And were I Putin I'd be loathe to let Russian soldiers see me living in such opulence while they're busy fighting and dying.

 

[Admiral Beez]

And were I Putin I'd be loathe to let Russian soldiers see me living in such opulence while they're busy fighting and dying.

Stalin lost 20 million soldiers and civilians in WW2 and carried on in power. Putin's losses so far in Ukraine amount to perhaps a fortnight of Stalin's. Putin will remain in power until he expires.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Stalin lost 20 million soldiers and civilians in WW2 and carried on in power. Putin's losses so far in Ukraine amount to perhaps a fortnight of Stalin's. Putin will remain in power until he expires.

I said nothing about him being toppled.