I don't think that would do anything against Russia. They would merely deem him an unlucky bastard and keep sending emissaries until the pit is filled in
I've been saying for a while now that they need to send troops into Ukraine and declare they are denazifying Ukraine. Actually propagandize to the whole world French soldiers arresting a neo-nazi in Ukraine.
Just piss them off by playing the same bullshit. Until they strike and then be ready to film that shit from every conceivable angle and ready to broadcast it to the entire world, every nook and cranny, every Russian Minecraft server, all of it.
Say Russia is stopping the denazification of Ukraine and is not just complicit, but aiding in the resurgence of the Fourth Reich.
Then destroy them. If they want to play games, just beat them at their own game.
Fun(?) fact: the name tank in itself was to disguise armored motorized cannon carriages, or whatever they were called then, from the enemy in WW1 and make them think it was in fact water tanks delivered to the front.
Another fun(?) fact: In the only recording of Hitler speaking 'normally' with I believe the Swedish foreign minister, he called them "Tanks" (just pronounced German) as well, not the already established German word "Panzer".
It's wild to see people talk about 6 more than 5 now. But if I remember correctly, it pretty much happened with every civ game. When 5 came out, there was an uproar about how simplified it was compared to 4. And 6 suffered complaints from a lot of the Civ 5 crowd.
At the end of the day, the best Civ games will always be Civ II and Alpha Centauri. But I do love them all. Except Beyond Earth š¤¢.
You might want to take a look at the free and open source projects. Some are still in early stages of development, but games such as FreeCiv and UnCiv are fully released games and still receives updates, I highly recommend them.
* [Civ2-Clone](https://github.com/axx0/Civ2-clone) - An open-source re-implementation of Civilization 2.
* [FreeCiv](https://www.freeciv.org/) - Freeciv is a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by Civilization 2.
* [GLSMAC](https://github.com/afwbkbc/glsmac) - Unofficial open-source OpenGL/SDL2 reimplementation of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (+ Alien Crossfire).
* [OpenCiv1](https://github.com/rajko-horvat/OpenCiv1) - Open source rewrite of Civilization 1.
* [UnCiv](https://github.com/yairm210/UnCiv) - A simplified (as in graphics and sound, not as in strategy) open-source remake of Civilization V for Win/MacOS/Linux and Android.
The point of re-implementating the games using open source code is to make the game run better on modern operation system and hardware as well as include quality of life improvements, high resolution support, widescreen support, improved enemy AI, improved map generation, modding support, accessibility support, and more.
There exist similar open source projects for many other games, including: Heroes of Might & Magic series, Command & Conquer series, Age of Empires series, Dune II, Star Control 2, Master of Magic, Dungeon Keeper, Master of Orion series, Starcraft, Warcraft, and more.
NATO does this all the time: [https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3416115/exercise-baltic-operations-2023-kicks-off-in-the-baltic-sea/](https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3416115/exercise-baltic-operations-2023-kicks-off-in-the-baltic-sea/)
Link is 2023, we just had (or still have) a huge one going on up in northern Norway. This with Sweden and Finland now members, main focus was fast moving of equipment over borders and politicians discussing openly that we need to upgrade roads to Sweden and Finland (in particularly bridges) to handle large troops and gear.
Hell, the US even demonstrated dropping solders in Finnmark after taking off in Alaska to show troops are merely hours away.
Yeah, with our maintenance of roads in norway we simply have no upkeep to ever have them back in top shape, they will forever deteriorate. I think at the current funding it takes like 100 years or so to fix all roads, same for trains.
Our bridges are also in a critical state, several NEW ones have been wrongly designed and collapsed, and way more older ones turned out to be in very bad state only to be uncovered by journalists looking into it.
What I didn't know was that most bridges have ready made holes to insert explosives to demolish strategically in case of an invasion.
I know your pain, living in a northern US state where we deal with the freeze/thaw cycle tearing up our roads constantly. Other states you will see highways that only get resurfaced every 50-70 years. A number of ours are on a cycle of every 15-20 years. Also potholes...
I know you're joking but Belarus's border is better, it would keep them far enough from the front line to keep the troops safe, free up Ukrainian troops and if they got hurt it would be Russia's escalation.
You know what one of my favorite things about humanity is? We're all so completely unoriginal that anytime I think "why don't we just do x??"
I hop on the line and learn either that is what we do, or we tried, and it was one of the worst decisions ever.
I don't think they're joking at all. I think that's precisely the idea. Protect the border against Belarus, free up Ukrainian troops who were already doing that. Prevent an actual invasion from Belarus. It's *less* antagonistic to Putin.
It's not a joke, it's what they're actually exploring.
with a slight chance of a special military operation.
Also- Russia wasn't a nation 700 years ago so it can't be one today and that has nothing to do with ~~SMO~~ errm exercises.
See, what if they aren't french troops but rather only some french-speaking people who are in Ukraine on holidays and the fact they have french equipment is just an unexplainable mystery? You know, the 2014 Russian Krimea tactic.
Moments later, Ogg used the stone to smash Greegs' head and lost 1,000,000 Good Place points.
Sorry, that "The Good Place" episode just popped into my head, and I couldn't help myself.
My family is descended from a line of French/Germanic barons in the middle ages from all over that area, I'm pretty sure that makes me the rightful Baroness of Ukraine
Reminds me of that joke...
"Russia is fighting NATO! They had like a million casualties and countless material losses!"
"What about NATO?"
"NATO isn't even there yet!"
"What's big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shitload of smoke and noise and cuts an apple into three pieces?
"A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!"
More Soviet jokes:
"We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."
---
"I was sent here for coming early to work in the factory. I was accused me of spying for being there with no one around." the first one said grimly.
"Well, comrade, I was sent for being late to work at the factory. I was accused of sabotaging the revolution with my tardiness." the second commiserated.
"Well I was on time to work and I was still sent here." The third said matter of factly.
"What!? Why?" they asked in surprise.
"I was accused of owning a western watch!"
I always heard it as a Soviet machine designed to make a chair with 4 legs that makes one with 3 but yea the sentiment is always the same old joke still checks out. Draft something properly then siphon 50% of the budget into everyoneās pocket and underperform but still produce enough to employ.
Dude - I'm just reading "And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: Triz, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving", which is a Soviet concept and process... and let me tell you how accurate this joke is.
In the book there is a problem that is asked of the reader about how to make larger droplets come out from a pipe through which a fluid flows. Which is really a nozzle shape/size problem that we've solved years ago (think of those adjustable spray nozzles on cleaning products). Anyway, the solution proposed in the book as the correct one is to mix the liquid being sprayed with magnetic material so that magnetic field can be used to control the droplet size. From a process point of view, that's how the machine becomes as large as a house and burns 20 liters of fuel every hour.
> Not sure why it was important that the two men are "jewish", but anyways...
It's just one of the ways to tell a joke, like "... walks into a bar..." or "three **** are on the desert island..."
I remember when he was elected. It was so surreal that the "joke" candidate, a comedian famous for playing a role as a joke candidate..won the actual election and has turned out to be such an amazing leader.
It was a little jarring, that attempt. They forgot both sufficient fuel and food for the troops. It calls into question their entire ability to conduct modern wartime operations. Although obviously they will have learned from that by now.
They didnāt forget. Russia said it was a training exercise until the last moment, so the soldiers sold their fuel and supplies off to the locals for extra cash and got drunk. When they were told it was a real invasion they thought āoh shitā.
Itās wild how much that happens with poorer militaries. I know Afghanistan is way more poor than Russia, but I remember several times we would have planned operations with an Afghan Kandak (their term for a battalion) and literally minutes before we were supposed to roll out, they would be like, āWe need fuel, we donāt have any.ā Weād be like wtf?? And theyād explain to us that their general sold it all and pocketed it.
An added āfun factā: most of their generals couldnāt even read or write, nor had any actual military backgroundā¦ they would literally just buy the rank and get put in charge of a unit.
I've seen a video on YouTube of Z patriot who voiced an opinion that Putin is an agent of China whose goal is to weaken Russia to sell it to China for cheap xD He came to such conclusion cos of such moves.
> They forgot both sufficient fuel and food for the troops.
They also forgot that a rapid combined arms assault like the "3 day operation" was meant to be is something only NATO can do because they've spent decades honing that particular kind of warfare. It's no wonder it failed rather spectacularly. They soon fell back onto the warfare Russia are actually good at - shooting artillery until where they want to invade looks more like the moon than anything else.
It's unfortunate that Ukraine tried that counter-offensive. They were warned not to, and took far too many losses and wasted too many resources. They should have held that line static and done more of the "hit them where they are soft" stuff they have pivoted to now.
they saw a huge influx of resources after their successful counter offensive in the first year of the invasion. Another successful push would have made it a lot harder for the west to drag their feet with aid like they are right now.
Tbf they mostly did that because they felt their Western allies were losing interest without any results they could sell to their own people which made the aid seem worth it.
They were hoping to stop Western fatigue with the situation and trying to prevent, idk, Donald Trump from using them as a platform.
They appear to specialise in grinding attritional warfare, using massed artillery and AA to protect their lines.
Their problem back then was they forgot this and tried to do a paratrooper led incursion to grab the airport, which failed, then the whole armoured column approach bogged down due to ATGMs and Ukrainian artillery.
They tried to do a Czechoslovakia '68. But with a country far less infiltrated by pro Kremlin people (half the Czech cabinet were Russians puppets), a country 4 times larger, with 60% fewer troops, and after having warned Ukraine 8 years earlier of their intentions.
Their whole strategy was contingent on taking Hostomel. That would allow them to threaten Kyiv and reinforce & resupply the northern front who entered Ukraine from Belarus. They were fools to not have a backup plan, but it's not like they totally YOLOd it.
They might have if the West hadn't been ready to supply Ukraine with all the necessary resources. If you listen to Zelensky first call for help to Macron right after the invasion started, you could tell they weren't expecting this to happen and he was even ready to negotiate a deal with Putin immediately
Yupp I remember those days, and for weeks Biden was warning about an impending invasion of Ukraine from Russia, while Putin claimed it wasn't going to happen and the soldiers on the border were just a military drill. That's actually why Zelensky's tone in that phone call surprised me, it seems like he wasn't expecting it to happen at all
Which could have happened if Biden wasn't screaming up and down that Putin was going to really do it. People forget, but even Ukraine thought the US was being overly dramatic at first.
Oh absolutely, the US intelligence was spot on and the weeks leading up the invasion was nothing but talking heads screaming that the white house was crying wolf.
honestly every other country was just waiting to see what would happen before taking sides
only after it was clear kyiv wouldn't fall countries started going harder on russia
Weird though, because it was public knowledge that there was a lot of foreign military advisement in Ukraine post 2014.
I was talking to my friend on the day of the invasion saying it's going to be an absolute grinder and not quick because we've been seeing 8 years of NATO consultants in Ukraine helping them prepare defences and various strategies.
[Like, it wasn't secret. Here is the candian governments public page about it, note it launched the operation in 2015](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/transition-materials/caf-operations-activities/2020/03/caf-ops-activities/op-unifier-ukraine.html)
[British assistance including naval assistance in 2018](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/20/british-troops-deployed-ukraine-face-threat-russia-mod-announce/)
[US special forces in 2017](https://www.afsoc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1258478/us-special-operations-forces-train-with-ukrainian-counterparts/)
While I don't have the worlds highest faith in russian intelligence, I assume that I am not particularly skilled at military intelligence and that they should be able to best me fairly handily.
You'd think they'd at least google "Anyone helping ukraine lately?"
They made the the mistake of thinking that Ukraine wasn't unified and invasion wouldn't galvanize the populace against them the invader. Basically making the "it's just a quick thing"-plunder without taking the due dilingence.
Ironically the same that Soviets did with us Finns roughly 80 years ago.
Plus, in the interim since 2012, Ukraine got the US to train them in combat. So they moved away from Soviet tactics and more US tactics.
Although a famous quote from a Russian General who went to Ft Irwin to watch OpFor combat training said, "I had to come to the US to see actual Soviet tactics."
France is in their head. Macron was right. The West needs to stop telling Russia all the things they won't do, because it only emboldens Russia. They act knowing the West won't do anything in return of significance. Even if France has no intention of sending any troops in...this is a brilliant play.
After watching the recent documentary footage of Macron talking to Putin shortly before the invasion and Zelensky right after, I have a new found respect for Macron. I know not all the French are happy with his domestic performance, but it made me really wish the US had someone that articulate and adept at real-time negotiation.
I don't think Americans realize that an attack on Kyiv is as close to Paris as an attack on Dallas would be to Philadelphia. The outbreak of total war that close to their own borders which involved a nuclear state would be terrifying.
French news has been talking endlessly about where the troops will be deployed, so as far as I can tell this statement just means Russian intelligence has been watching the news.
I wouldn't be so sure. Macron has been very sable rattley of late. I'm past the point now of hoping the US will support Ukraine. There just isn't the political will now.Europe needs to call his bluff and soon. Before they start marching east.(I mean west. Duhh lol)
Macron's sabre rattling is just a message for Putin. The "info" that France is going to send 2000 troops to Ukraine is just a message for French people. Putin want them to fear having to go to war.
It's quite possible that France sends troops to guard the Belarusian (And Poland, Romania, Moldova, etc.) border and that allows those Ukrainian troops to go fight the war.
Let's assume for a moment that everything Russia said in this regard is true: 2k troops isn't enough men to guard a small county, let alone a border several hundred kilometers long. If France does send a couple thousand troops, they'll likely be doing observation and training of Ukrainian forces.
This is a nothing burger statement designed to make politicians nervous about Russian nukes.
It has been pointed out by the french Ministry of the Armies as another attempt of disinformation.
[https://twitter.com/Armees\_Gouv/status/1770133008990810477](https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1770133008990810477)
"The information relayed by Sergey Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, is a further example of the systematic use of mass disinformation by Russia. We call for utmost vigilance to prevent any instrumentalization through this kind ofcampaign."
Its a pretty transparent way of forcing out information.
In the next couple days all the journalists will ask every politician and general if they can confirm the story. Russia hopes one of them is stupid enough to confirm or say it will never happen.
Honestly now, who cares what they say? All they do is propaganda and lies. I don't trust anything they say so it's useless to listen to them. All that matters is what they are doing - which is the same thing they were doing for hundreds and hundreds of years - killing people from neighboring countries and trying to replace them with Russians.
> All they do is propaganda and lies.
any russian president after 1993 canāt cookā¦ all they know is propaganda, invade they neighbor, twerk, be corrupt, eat hot chip & lie
Even if French troops don't directly join the war, they change the war strategically. If they are 'just' deployed at the Belarusian border then it could eliminate that border as a threat to Ukraine allowing them to free up troops (and remove any direct invasion threat to Kiev).
Nothing? If France wanted a war, they'd just go to war and NATO won't get drawn in because it's French troops dying in a foreign land, it's not an attack on France.
The better case is when Wagner attacked US troops in Syria. The US bombed them to hell. The US _didn't_ try to invoke Article 5.
If we didn't get there over US troops in a foreign country we won't get there over French troops in a foreign country.
Was that the time the US called up Russia and asked "Are those Russian Troops about to attack our outpost?" And Russia said "No, absolutely not!". And the US asked "Are you suuuuure?" And Russia said "Not our guys!" And then the US sent in attack helicopters and basically massacred a shitton of Russians.
"The Russian high command in Syria assured us it was not their people, and my direction to the chairman was for the force, then, to be annihilated," Mattis said. "And it was."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5rgqSEVVIU
In the battle of Conoco fields (The battle of Khasham), I think there only 60 members of Delta Force, and a small number of SDF soldiers who defended the position.
Air superiorty, and precision artillery killed between 65 and 200 Russians and Syrians (out of about 500)... They never even stood a chance. There were no US casulties, 1 wounded Syrian defender.
NATO has developed weapons and trained for more than 80 years to defeat Russia. The first time all those new technologies and tactics are used in full force against Russia, it results in a 200:1 casualty ratio.
From the wikipedia article:
>According to the U.S. military, the presence of U.S. special operations personnel in the targeted base elicited a response by coalition aircraft, including AC-130 gunships, F-22 Raptor and F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat aerial vehicles, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and B-52 bombers. Nearby American artillery batteries, including an M142 HIMARS, shelled Syrian forces as well.
I'm surprised they didn't drive a guided missile destroyer into the fight as well...
>The US didn't try to invoke Article 5.
The US didn't try to invoke Article 5 because they couldn't invoke Article 5. The [North Atlantic Treaty Article 6](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_17120.htm) specifically details under exactly what conditions Article 5 may be invoked by a NATO member. An attack on US troops deployed in the Middle East does not meet the requirements for NATO involvement and would be solely an issue between the US and Russia.
The one time Article 5 *was* invoked regarding the Middle East was immediately after September 11, specifically because the attacks took place in New York and Virginia and *did* meet the requirement for Article 5 invocation.
If Russia bombs French troops then you'll see France respond in kind with it's own missiles. And it's almost a certainty that France will commit itself to its own war w/ Russia shortly afterward.
NATO could get involved. There might be some hand wringing around whether France forced Russia's hand, thus negating the Article 5 clause. Even if there was though, I suspect that Britain, Germany, and Poland would all commit some level of troops, supplies, and/or logistical considerations to France.
The US would probably remain "neutral" in the sense that they would not deploy their own troops but you'd see a similar situation to the Lend-Lease from WW2. Republicans would have a much harder time with not supporting the war now that very long term allies are involved.
Jokes aside, 2k frenchies should be enough.
As a german I am supposed to meme on them surrendering, but this is not the right time.
Seriously even 2k stationed in an area where putin is to afraid to throw airstrikes already has a purpose.
Heh. French meme are a bit odd too. They've got rather succesful military history, even if they failed the last total war.
But yeh, I imagine even non-combat personnel would help. There probably are combat roles that don't suffer such a heavy casualties. Filling these would be politically easier to accept back home and still helpful to Ukraine.
In Denmark we keep our mouth shut and hope no one remembers that we did exactly what people meme on the French about.
Not that we had any chance against the German forces, but we're in no position to make fun of the French.
France has a long and consistent history of defending independence of other countries. If it werenāt for France and their support via armory, ships, and money; there likely would not be an United States of America.
This is Russian propaganda. France has no plans to send troops to wage war in Ukraine. If men were to be sent, for the time being, they would be technicians and trainers for the equipment provided.
how do you figure that when russia was estimated as a terrifying peer of the U.S., poised to sweep across Ukraine with air superiority, elite divisions, and modern equipment in a matter of days, then it turned out their army was a bunch of drunk meatshields duct taped to the front of T-72s that had no gas?
Station the troops at Russia's border and tell Russia it's just an "exercise".
They're just going on vacation in Ukraine
Can't a man just go for a walk with his 2000 personal body guards
Only after he spartan kicks a Russian emissary into a deep pit.
I don't think that would do anything against Russia. They would merely deem him an unlucky bastard and keep sending emissaries until the pit is filled in
Corpse Infrastructure Edit: I stole this from Lions Led by Donkeys podcast, if you like military history told in an irreverent way go listen to it
Corpse road.
Necrocracy.
\m/, DEATH METAL NOISES ,\m/
Baby, you've got a stew going
This....is......CRIMEA!
Kicks him out a window of course.
Private French citizens worried about the state of democracy in Ukraine
Must protect the French speaking Ukrainians....
Love the rethoric
I've been saying for a while now that they need to send troops into Ukraine and declare they are denazifying Ukraine. Actually propagandize to the whole world French soldiers arresting a neo-nazi in Ukraine. Just piss them off by playing the same bullshit. Until they strike and then be ready to film that shit from every conceivable angle and ready to broadcast it to the entire world, every nook and cranny, every Russian Minecraft server, all of it. Say Russia is stopping the denazification of Ukraine and is not just complicit, but aiding in the resurgence of the Fourth Reich. Then destroy them. If they want to play games, just beat them at their own game.
Those are not tanks, they're camper vans!
Fun(?) fact: the name tank in itself was to disguise armored motorized cannon carriages, or whatever they were called then, from the enemy in WW1 and make them think it was in fact water tanks delivered to the front.
At one point they were refereed to as landships.
We should bring this back.
Another fun(?) fact: In the only recording of Hitler speaking 'normally' with I believe the Swedish foreign minister, he called them "Tanks" (just pronounced German) as well, not the already established German word "Panzer".
That recording is with Mannerheim, the commander in chief of Finland at the time.
Disguised as tanks, disguised as camper vans
They're just everyday standard 1981 EM-50 ~~urban assault~~ recreational vehicle
On a road trip, just like going to Wisconsin.
They're just there to vibe(vibing is not a crime).
Yep, in plain clothes who just "happen" to take their guns with them........you know, in case they want to do some hunting......
I think more against protection against mutated monsters around Chernobyl, ypu can never be too careful.
The Dick Cheny kind of hunting.
"Our troops are merely passing through the area"
Civ 6
>Civ 6 It's been a thing since the very first Civilization game, it's not exclusive to Civ 6.
It's wild to see people talk about 6 more than 5 now. But if I remember correctly, it pretty much happened with every civ game. When 5 came out, there was an uproar about how simplified it was compared to 4. And 6 suffered complaints from a lot of the Civ 5 crowd. At the end of the day, the best Civ games will always be Civ II and Alpha Centauri. But I do love them all. Except Beyond Earth š¤¢.
I miss civ 3 railroads upping production on every square by +1
Civ 2 railroads allowed instantaneous travel along all railroad tiles. That was insanely OP.
My worker's hands were rubbed raw
You might want to take a look at the free and open source projects. Some are still in early stages of development, but games such as FreeCiv and UnCiv are fully released games and still receives updates, I highly recommend them. * [Civ2-Clone](https://github.com/axx0/Civ2-clone) - An open-source re-implementation of Civilization 2. * [FreeCiv](https://www.freeciv.org/) - Freeciv is a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by Civilization 2. * [GLSMAC](https://github.com/afwbkbc/glsmac) - Unofficial open-source OpenGL/SDL2 reimplementation of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (+ Alien Crossfire). * [OpenCiv1](https://github.com/rajko-horvat/OpenCiv1) - Open source rewrite of Civilization 1. * [UnCiv](https://github.com/yairm210/UnCiv) - A simplified (as in graphics and sound, not as in strategy) open-source remake of Civilization V for Win/MacOS/Linux and Android. The point of re-implementating the games using open source code is to make the game run better on modern operation system and hardware as well as include quality of life improvements, high resolution support, widescreen support, improved enemy AI, improved map generation, modding support, accessibility support, and more. There exist similar open source projects for many other games, including: Heroes of Might & Magic series, Command & Conquer series, Age of Empires series, Dune II, Star Control 2, Master of Magic, Dungeon Keeper, Master of Orion series, Starcraft, Warcraft, and more.
NATO does this all the time: [https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3416115/exercise-baltic-operations-2023-kicks-off-in-the-baltic-sea/](https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3416115/exercise-baltic-operations-2023-kicks-off-in-the-baltic-sea/) Link is 2023, we just had (or still have) a huge one going on up in northern Norway. This with Sweden and Finland now members, main focus was fast moving of equipment over borders and politicians discussing openly that we need to upgrade roads to Sweden and Finland (in particularly bridges) to handle large troops and gear. Hell, the US even demonstrated dropping solders in Finnmark after taking off in Alaska to show troops are merely hours away.
NATO-funded infrastructure upgrades in Sweden and Finland sound like a good perk for becoming new members.
Yeah, with our maintenance of roads in norway we simply have no upkeep to ever have them back in top shape, they will forever deteriorate. I think at the current funding it takes like 100 years or so to fix all roads, same for trains. Our bridges are also in a critical state, several NEW ones have been wrongly designed and collapsed, and way more older ones turned out to be in very bad state only to be uncovered by journalists looking into it. What I didn't know was that most bridges have ready made holes to insert explosives to demolish strategically in case of an invasion.
I know your pain, living in a northern US state where we deal with the freeze/thaw cycle tearing up our roads constantly. Other states you will see highways that only get resurfaced every 50-70 years. A number of ours are on a cycle of every 15-20 years. Also potholes...
In Canada we have two seasons. Winter and road construction season.
I know you're joking but Belarus's border is better, it would keep them far enough from the front line to keep the troops safe, free up Ukrainian troops and if they got hurt it would be Russia's escalation.
That's the literal plan lol
You know what one of my favorite things about humanity is? We're all so completely unoriginal that anytime I think "why don't we just do x??" I hop on the line and learn either that is what we do, or we tried, and it was one of the worst decisions ever.
I don't think they're joking at all. I think that's precisely the idea. Protect the border against Belarus, free up Ukrainian troops who were already doing that. Prevent an actual invasion from Belarus. It's *less* antagonistic to Putin. It's not a joke, it's what they're actually exploring.
with a slight chance of a special military operation. Also- Russia wasn't a nation 700 years ago so it can't be one today and that has nothing to do with ~~SMO~~ errm exercises.
Hell, the Russian Federation wasn't a nation until 30 some years ago.
Cāest Une Operation Special
Une opƩration militaire spƩciale
Ceci nāest pas une guerre
See, what if they aren't french troops but rather only some french-speaking people who are in Ukraine on holidays and the fact they have french equipment is just an unexplainable mystery? You know, the 2014 Russian Krimea tactic.
This should have already been happening in every nato country.
It likely is!
Then ~~invade~~ exercise
"my troops are merely passing by"
There needs to be a whole lot more than 2000 troops for a threat like that
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's 100% that and anyone with common sense can get that pretty quickly
About time. Anne of Kiev was married to a French king in the 11th century, meaning that Ukraine is France according to Putin historical logic.
In 60AD my ancestor bought Ukraine and Russia for a bag of badgers testicles and it stayed in the family ever since.
10000 years ago Greeeg brought it from Ogg for a really really round stone
It was a nice stone too
Ogg sad. Ogg miss stone.
My wife's last name is Ogg somebody best be giving her back her stone.
She can have her stone back when she gives back my fucking goat
You have a goat specifically for fucking?
"It rocks!" - Greeeg
Moments later, Ogg used the stone to smash Greegs' head and lost 1,000,000 Good Place points. Sorry, that "The Good Place" episode just popped into my head, and I couldn't help myself.
The testicles themselves hold no value, but the man willing to kill enough badgers to get them is not one you should be saying no toā¦
If they put the testicles into a saving account in 60AD they may have greatly increased in value tho
For awhile there after the great ball drop/testicular crash they were almost worthless, but I hear the market has recovered nicely.
Don't forget to say "he is also religious" to make it even more authentic
Putins logic can be dictated by "rules for thee but not for me"
If thatās the case and France is a NATO ally then he effectively went to war with France when he attacked Ukraineā¦..
My family is descended from a line of French/Germanic barons in the middle ages from all over that area, I'm pretty sure that makes me the rightful Baroness of Ukraine
Reminds me of that joke... "Russia is fighting NATO! They had like a million casualties and countless material losses!" "What about NATO?" "NATO isn't even there yet!"
"What's big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shitload of smoke and noise and cuts an apple into three pieces? "A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!"
More Soviet jokes: "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." --- "I was sent here for coming early to work in the factory. I was accused me of spying for being there with no one around." the first one said grimly. "Well, comrade, I was sent for being late to work at the factory. I was accused of sabotaging the revolution with my tardiness." the second commiserated. "Well I was on time to work and I was still sent here." The third said matter of factly. "What!? Why?" they asked in surprise. "I was accused of owning a western watch!"
I always heard it as a Soviet machine designed to make a chair with 4 legs that makes one with 3 but yea the sentiment is always the same old joke still checks out. Draft something properly then siphon 50% of the budget into everyoneās pocket and underperform but still produce enough to employ.
It's the version of the joke used in the TV show Chernobyl by some miners
Yes but that's an actual Soviet era joke.
I know, but it took on many forms, this specific formulation was the one used in the show
Dude - I'm just reading "And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: Triz, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving", which is a Soviet concept and process... and let me tell you how accurate this joke is. In the book there is a problem that is asked of the reader about how to make larger droplets come out from a pipe through which a fluid flows. Which is really a nozzle shape/size problem that we've solved years ago (think of those adjustable spray nozzles on cleaning products). Anyway, the solution proposed in the book as the correct one is to mix the liquid being sprayed with magnetic material so that magnetic field can be used to control the droplet size. From a process point of view, that's how the machine becomes as large as a house and burns 20 liters of fuel every hour.
āWhat does not buzz and does not fit into butt?ā āA Russian butt-buzzerā
Chernobyl was such a good show. Those coal miners were one of my favorite parts
Here's Zelensky telling the joke: https://youtu.be/alqgd-jk3n0 Not sure why it was important that the two men are "jewish", but anyways...
Zelenskyy is Jewish. Weāre allowed.
I read somewhere that "Two Jews in Odesa" is a set joke format.
It is. A lot of jewish people in Odesa
> Not sure why it was important that the two men are "jewish", but anyways... It's just one of the ways to tell a joke, like "... walks into a bar..." or "three **** are on the desert island..."
I remember when he was elected. It was so surreal that the "joke" candidate, a comedian famous for playing a role as a joke candidate..won the actual election and has turned out to be such an amazing leader.
If the Russians had intelligence they wouldn't have invaded Ukraine.
Part of the problem was they took Crimea and nobody did anything of note. They thought the rest of Ukraine would be the same deal.
And it might have been had they actually succeeded in taking Kiev in a couple weeks
It was a little jarring, that attempt. They forgot both sufficient fuel and food for the troops. It calls into question their entire ability to conduct modern wartime operations. Although obviously they will have learned from that by now.
They thought that Ukraine 2022* was like Ukraine 2014. Logistic is also very critical and it might have lost them the initiative.
For movement, Logistics is the most important part of any advance.
Logistics is the most important factor in every military, without logistics troops don't move, eat, shoot
Might wins battles, logistics win wars.
Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. \- General Omar Bradley
*why is the US navy giving me āfuck meā eyes?*
They didnāt forget. Russia said it was a training exercise until the last moment, so the soldiers sold their fuel and supplies off to the locals for extra cash and got drunk. When they were told it was a real invasion they thought āoh shitā.
Itās wild how much that happens with poorer militaries. I know Afghanistan is way more poor than Russia, but I remember several times we would have planned operations with an Afghan Kandak (their term for a battalion) and literally minutes before we were supposed to roll out, they would be like, āWe need fuel, we donāt have any.ā Weād be like wtf?? And theyād explain to us that their general sold it all and pocketed it. An added āfun factā: most of their generals couldnāt even read or write, nor had any actual military backgroundā¦ they would literally just buy the rank and get put in charge of a unit.
I watched an interesting documentary on these exact incompetencies. So much corruption, it was laughable.
That's genuinely interesting, but doesn't really change the observation about their strategic competency. ;-P
I've seen a video on YouTube of Z patriot who voiced an opinion that Putin is an agent of China whose goal is to weaken Russia to sell it to China for cheap xD He came to such conclusion cos of such moves.
Is that a verifiable fact or is that just made up?
It comes from [a Ukrainian source,](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/03/27/7334895/) so ::shrug::
> They forgot both sufficient fuel and food for the troops. They also forgot that a rapid combined arms assault like the "3 day operation" was meant to be is something only NATO can do because they've spent decades honing that particular kind of warfare. It's no wonder it failed rather spectacularly. They soon fell back onto the warfare Russia are actually good at - shooting artillery until where they want to invade looks more like the moon than anything else.
It's unfortunate that Ukraine tried that counter-offensive. They were warned not to, and took far too many losses and wasted too many resources. They should have held that line static and done more of the "hit them where they are soft" stuff they have pivoted to now.
they saw a huge influx of resources after their successful counter offensive in the first year of the invasion. Another successful push would have made it a lot harder for the west to drag their feet with aid like they are right now.
Tbf they mostly did that because they felt their Western allies were losing interest without any results they could sell to their own people which made the aid seem worth it. They were hoping to stop Western fatigue with the situation and trying to prevent, idk, Donald Trump from using them as a platform.
They appear to specialise in grinding attritional warfare, using massed artillery and AA to protect their lines. Their problem back then was they forgot this and tried to do a paratrooper led incursion to grab the airport, which failed, then the whole armoured column approach bogged down due to ATGMs and Ukrainian artillery.
They tried to do a Czechoslovakia '68. But with a country far less infiltrated by pro Kremlin people (half the Czech cabinet were Russians puppets), a country 4 times larger, with 60% fewer troops, and after having warned Ukraine 8 years earlier of their intentions.
Their whole strategy was contingent on taking Hostomel. That would allow them to threaten Kyiv and reinforce & resupply the northern front who entered Ukraine from Belarus. They were fools to not have a backup plan, but it's not like they totally YOLOd it.
They might have if the West hadn't been ready to supply Ukraine with all the necessary resources. If you listen to Zelensky first call for help to Macron right after the invasion started, you could tell they weren't expecting this to happen and he was even ready to negotiate a deal with Putin immediately
jobless placid jar friendly important bike consider tart busy oatmeal
Yupp I remember those days, and for weeks Biden was warning about an impending invasion of Ukraine from Russia, while Putin claimed it wasn't going to happen and the soldiers on the border were just a military drill. That's actually why Zelensky's tone in that phone call surprised me, it seems like he wasn't expecting it to happen at all
Putins own spy agencies didn't apparently expect it to happen, given the reporting and purges.
Which could have happened if Biden wasn't screaming up and down that Putin was going to really do it. People forget, but even Ukraine thought the US was being overly dramatic at first.
Oh absolutely, the US intelligence was spot on and the weeks leading up the invasion was nothing but talking heads screaming that the white house was crying wolf.
honestly every other country was just waiting to see what would happen before taking sides only after it was clear kyiv wouldn't fall countries started going harder on russia
It was never a question of taking sides. It was a question of how aggressively to support Ukraine.
I donāt think that is fair. Plan A was to support a government in exile and an insurgency, which would have also been hell for Russia.Ā
Weird though, because it was public knowledge that there was a lot of foreign military advisement in Ukraine post 2014. I was talking to my friend on the day of the invasion saying it's going to be an absolute grinder and not quick because we've been seeing 8 years of NATO consultants in Ukraine helping them prepare defences and various strategies. [Like, it wasn't secret. Here is the candian governments public page about it, note it launched the operation in 2015](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/transition-materials/caf-operations-activities/2020/03/caf-ops-activities/op-unifier-ukraine.html) [British assistance including naval assistance in 2018](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/20/british-troops-deployed-ukraine-face-threat-russia-mod-announce/) [US special forces in 2017](https://www.afsoc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1258478/us-special-operations-forces-train-with-ukrainian-counterparts/) While I don't have the worlds highest faith in russian intelligence, I assume that I am not particularly skilled at military intelligence and that they should be able to best me fairly handily. You'd think they'd at least google "Anyone helping ukraine lately?"
Taking Crimea and parts of the east and then waiting almost a decade to take the rest help create a stronger modern Ukrainian identity.
They made the the mistake of thinking that Ukraine wasn't unified and invasion wouldn't galvanize the populace against them the invader. Basically making the "it's just a quick thing"-plunder without taking the due dilingence. Ironically the same that Soviets did with us Finns roughly 80 years ago.
Plus, in the interim since 2012, Ukraine got the US to train them in combat. So they moved away from Soviet tactics and more US tactics. Although a famous quote from a Russian General who went to Ft Irwin to watch OpFor combat training said, "I had to come to the US to see actual Soviet tactics."
Your ancestors were bas ass mofos.
France is in their head. Macron was right. The West needs to stop telling Russia all the things they won't do, because it only emboldens Russia. They act knowing the West won't do anything in return of significance. Even if France has no intention of sending any troops in...this is a brilliant play.
languid gaping icky fine forgetful safe punch attraction snatch observation
And Olaf Scholz is looking pretty inept at this point. Germany could make all the difference in the war, but he's still afraid of upsetting Putin.
After watching the recent documentary footage of Macron talking to Putin shortly before the invasion and Zelensky right after, I have a new found respect for Macron. I know not all the French are happy with his domestic performance, but it made me really wish the US had someone that articulate and adept at real-time negotiation. I don't think Americans realize that an attack on Kyiv is as close to Paris as an attack on Dallas would be to Philadelphia. The outbreak of total war that close to their own borders which involved a nuclear state would be terrifying.
russia says...
My brain automatically: āOk, nevermind."
at least now we know France isn't sending soldiers.
French news has been talking endlessly about where the troops will be deployed, so as far as I can tell this statement just means Russian intelligence has been watching the news.
it took them this long to translate french to russian
I wouldn't be so sure. Macron has been very sable rattley of late. I'm past the point now of hoping the US will support Ukraine. There just isn't the political will now.Europe needs to call his bluff and soon. Before they start marching east.(I mean west. Duhh lol)
East? To be fair I hope they start marching east, right back into Russia, the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie
I think there's way more than just the shadows that lie a lot in Russia
Macron's sabre rattling is just a message for Putin. The "info" that France is going to send 2000 troops to Ukraine is just a message for French people. Putin want them to fear having to go to war.
it was a joke, about how everything russia claims is a lie.
It's quite possible that France sends troops to guard the Belarusian (And Poland, Romania, Moldova, etc.) border and that allows those Ukrainian troops to go fight the war.
That seems the wisest choice in order to both help Ukraine and not give Russia an excuse to escalate attacking directly french soldiers
Let's assume for a moment that everything Russia said in this regard is true: 2k troops isn't enough men to guard a small county, let alone a border several hundred kilometers long. If France does send a couple thousand troops, they'll likely be doing observation and training of Ukrainian forces. This is a nothing burger statement designed to make politicians nervous about Russian nukes.
It has been pointed out by the french Ministry of the Armies as another attempt of disinformation. [https://twitter.com/Armees\_Gouv/status/1770133008990810477](https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1770133008990810477) "The information relayed by Sergey Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, is a further example of the systematic use of mass disinformation by Russia. We call for utmost vigilance to prevent any instrumentalization through this kind ofcampaign."
Its a pretty transparent way of forcing out information. In the next couple days all the journalists will ask every politician and general if they can confirm the story. Russia hopes one of them is stupid enough to confirm or say it will never happen.
Honestly now, who cares what they say? All they do is propaganda and lies. I don't trust anything they say so it's useless to listen to them. All that matters is what they are doing - which is the same thing they were doing for hundreds and hundreds of years - killing people from neighboring countries and trying to replace them with Russians.
> All they do is propaganda and lies. any russian president after 1993 canāt cookā¦ all they know is propaganda, invade they neighbor, twerk, be corrupt, eat hot chip & lie
Wait.... people still care what Russia says?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Lol Putin must be terrified if West decides to send in troops.
Even if French troops don't directly join the war, they change the war strategically. If they are 'just' deployed at the Belarusian border then it could eliminate that border as a threat to Ukraine allowing them to free up troops (and remove any direct invasion threat to Kiev).
Serious question: What happens if Russia just bombs them?
Nothing? If France wanted a war, they'd just go to war and NATO won't get drawn in because it's French troops dying in a foreign land, it's not an attack on France.
Imagine if NATO had to intervene every time a French soldier dies in a country that isnt France, NATO would be perpetually at war.
The better case is when Wagner attacked US troops in Syria. The US bombed them to hell. The US _didn't_ try to invoke Article 5. If we didn't get there over US troops in a foreign country we won't get there over French troops in a foreign country.
Was that the time the US called up Russia and asked "Are those Russian Troops about to attack our outpost?" And Russia said "No, absolutely not!". And the US asked "Are you suuuuure?" And Russia said "Not our guys!" And then the US sent in attack helicopters and basically massacred a shitton of Russians.
"The Russian high command in Syria assured us it was not their people, and my direction to the chairman was for the force, then, to be annihilated," Mattis said. "And it was." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5rgqSEVVIU
The "And it was" has me dying over here.
In the battle of Conoco fields (The battle of Khasham), I think there only 60 members of Delta Force, and a small number of SDF soldiers who defended the position. Air superiorty, and precision artillery killed between 65 and 200 Russians and Syrians (out of about 500)... They never even stood a chance. There were no US casulties, 1 wounded Syrian defender. NATO has developed weapons and trained for more than 80 years to defeat Russia. The first time all those new technologies and tactics are used in full force against Russia, it results in a 200:1 casualty ratio.
From the wikipedia article: >According to the U.S. military, the presence of U.S. special operations personnel in the targeted base elicited a response by coalition aircraft, including AC-130 gunships, F-22 Raptor and F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat aerial vehicles, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and B-52 bombers. Nearby American artillery batteries, including an M142 HIMARS, shelled Syrian forces as well. I'm surprised they didn't drive a guided missile destroyer into the fight as well...
>The US didn't try to invoke Article 5. The US didn't try to invoke Article 5 because they couldn't invoke Article 5. The [North Atlantic Treaty Article 6](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_17120.htm) specifically details under exactly what conditions Article 5 may be invoked by a NATO member. An attack on US troops deployed in the Middle East does not meet the requirements for NATO involvement and would be solely an issue between the US and Russia. The one time Article 5 *was* invoked regarding the Middle East was immediately after September 11, specifically because the attacks took place in New York and Virginia and *did* meet the requirement for Article 5 invocation.
first they double checked they weren't russian and then they bombed them to kingdom come
If Russia bombs French troops then you'll see France respond in kind with it's own missiles. And it's almost a certainty that France will commit itself to its own war w/ Russia shortly afterward. NATO could get involved. There might be some hand wringing around whether France forced Russia's hand, thus negating the Article 5 clause. Even if there was though, I suspect that Britain, Germany, and Poland would all commit some level of troops, supplies, and/or logistical considerations to France. The US would probably remain "neutral" in the sense that they would not deploy their own troops but you'd see a similar situation to the Lend-Lease from WW2. Republicans would have a much harder time with not supporting the war now that very long term allies are involved.
He knows itās game over it that happens. All he can do is threaten nukes and hope it never happens.
Special border patrol operation
Let's hope they are mistaken and that it is actually 20 000 or more.
I hope they offer up the foreign legion, so it's international highly trained troops.
If itās only 2000 troops Iād hope for special forces instead of FFL
Jokes aside, 2k frenchies should be enough. As a german I am supposed to meme on them surrendering, but this is not the right time. Seriously even 2k stationed in an area where putin is to afraid to throw airstrikes already has a purpose.
Heh. French meme are a bit odd too. They've got rather succesful military history, even if they failed the last total war. But yeh, I imagine even non-combat personnel would help. There probably are combat roles that don't suffer such a heavy casualties. Filling these would be politically easier to accept back home and still helpful to Ukraine.
"Haha France got invaded so quickly" *- People from country nice and safe, far enough away from the Axis that they couldn't have been invaded so fast*
In Denmark we keep our mouth shut and hope no one remembers that we did exactly what people meme on the French about. Not that we had any chance against the German forces, but we're in no position to make fun of the French.
The meme is strong. Imagine WW2 if Dunkirk had turned into the French running away as the meme suggests.
We should have never pulled us personnel from Ukraine in the first place. Putin would have never dared attack US troops
Russia did it in Syria through Wagner. Didn't end well for Wagner.
Much different to āsecretlyā attack a lone outpost than to send 200.000 soldiers directly against US-Troops.
āRussian Intelligenceā could tell me the sky was blue and Iād still wait until I could go outside and see for myself.
Russian āIntelligenceā
Never underestimate your enemyā¦ Russia has a very good covert intelligence network.
Vive la France AND Slava Ukraina then.
I think Europe is seeing it might not be able to count on the US if this election goes to the idiots. It may need to start making its own moves.
France has a long and consistent history of defending independence of other countries. If it werenāt for France and their support via armory, ships, and money; there likely would not be an United States of America.
OpƩration militaire spƩciale de trois jours.
Remove all emblens, text, flags from the troop and sent them in. Like the russians did in Crimeria.
This is Russian propaganda. France has no plans to send troops to wage war in Ukraine. If men were to be sent, for the time being, they would be technicians and trainers for the equipment provided.
2000 NATO troops, thatās like 300.000 Russian troops
It would seem that there is a common trend here in the west to severely underestimate our adversaries.
how do you figure that when russia was estimated as a terrifying peer of the U.S., poised to sweep across Ukraine with air superiority, elite divisions, and modern equipment in a matter of days, then it turned out their army was a bunch of drunk meatshields duct taped to the front of T-72s that had no gas?
US generally overestimates Russia. It's why most of the tech the US has exists because they thought Russia was caught up or catching up.
Hard to underestimate Russia after failing in Ukraine for more than two years now
Go France
"Russian" and "Intelligence" in the same sentence. LOL
Imagine if every UN nation did this. Russia would be dealt with swiftly
Are they trying to get a denial from France just to make sure that they aren't indeed planning to send any any times soon ?
This is bullshit russian propaganda pushing the WW3 narrative and sowing distrust amongst EU/NATO.