@malenkov 293
The “good guys” did it, too.

Posted by: aquileia | Apr 1 2022 15:02 utc | 304

https://t.me/readovkanews/29802
Ukraine has suspended the recruitment of mercenaries to the “international military legion”
According to the National Post, the reasons for this are the lack of firearms and “a large number of inexperienced volunteers.”

Posted by: Boo | Apr 1 2022 15:04 utc | 306

The metallurgy problem with replicating RD180 rocket motors is perfectly straightforward. US already has equivalent alloys to established specs and standards. Impossible for anyone to admit or accept that the Russian equivalents are superior. Can’t reverse engineer something when you can’t acknowledge it exists. Of course it is all milspec and military is the dominant customer. Procurement is utterly ossified. Mills that did their metallurgy back in 70s and 80s get to collect rent forever.
Funniest example I know is Colnago titanium bicycles back in the 90s. The US importer and distributor was Todson in New Jersey. They had a shipment of Colnago Bititans impounded by Customs. Customs is always a pain in the rear for small importers and Todson tried to get them released. Then were informed it was CIA that requested the impoundment. The bikes were made with Russian titanium and the alloy was so top secret you could not breathe that it existed. Exact same bikes with exact same materials had been built and sold for years But that was without cognizance of the national security implications. The national security implications of f—-king bicycles.

Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 1 2022 15:10 utc | 308

@Boo 299
Lack of firearms, that’s funny. I guess they shouldn’t have handed them all out to civilians.

Posted by: aquileia | Apr 1 2022 15:12 utc | 310

https://t.me/mig41/15908

[Forwarded from 🇺🇦 UKRAINE / Open Ukraine news war 24/7]
APPEAL TO RESIDENTS OF THE SOUTH-EAST, especially Donbass (living in the territories controlled by Bandera)
We always say what we think is true, no matter how hard it sounds. Today we urge you to leave your homes and leave in any safe direction.
We think that the battle for the liberation of Donbass will be difficult, the Nazis will hide in cities and will hide behind civilians. It is necessary to snatch this trump card from their hands. We admit that the most modern types of non-nuclear weapons can be used against Bandera’s entrenched in urban development. There may be casualties among civilians. The most correct solution is evacuation
In this post, we are not joking, and we consider it important to warn as many people as possible about the impending danger. We ask you to take care of yourself and your loved ones and move to a safe place!
@OpenUkraine

Posted by: Boo | Apr 1 2022 15:15 utc | 312

@Abe | Apr 1 2022 14:18 utc | 279
“I finally realized why Russian use Latin alphabet Z,V,O on their vehicles and not Cyrillic letters.
“They are trolling westerners and have weaponized Latin letters. Noone is using Cyrillic in west, but Latin? Yes, you can bet. Damn Russkies just killed 2 letters, 20 something more to go…”
Not only striking a deathblow to the dollar, but to Scrabble and Wheel of Fortune as well. The US oligarchy will be unable to control the lower classes without Bread and Circuses!!

Posted by: Vintage Red | Apr 1 2022 15:36 utc | 314

detail on German BMP’s:
https://en.topwar.ru/194309-germanija-odobrila-postavku-ukraine-boevyh-mashin-pehoty-pbv-501.html
Additional search result on PbV-501 (BMP-1 derivative):
https://dan.wikitrans.net/BMP-1?redir=Pbv+501

Posted by: ptb | Apr 1 2022 15:52 utc | 316

@ malenkov | Apr 1 2022 14:55 utc | 293
LE DÉMONTAGE D’USINES EN ALLEMAGNE 1945-1949
The question is really interesting in today’s world, if we consider the Russian SMO in Ukraine as prehentive of WW III.
As far as I know, it was rather the French who distinguished themselves in their “zone of occupation” , bordering France.
The mechanism, as it was defined was an operation of demilitarization (and in the context of denazification.) 😉
The Russian method in Ukraine seems more radical.
Only “démontages” [Disassembly].
Here are some explanations from the French newspaper “Le Monde” in 1948, when the German civilian population started to be able to protest against an abusive and somewhat genocidal policy of the French occupiers.

Le Monde
Published 27 août 1948, Deepl translated

The [French] Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that it is necessary to recall the elements of the problem of reparations, and to make known the current state of the question in the following update:
The present system of reparations is the result of the Potsdam agreements of 1945. These agreements provide for the delivery for reparations of industrial equipment that is not necessary for the German economy. Since the German economy had been developed to an enormous extent for the war effort, and since the destruction caused by military operations had been practically limited, there was a considerable surplus of equipment in Germany, in view of the needs of a peacetime economy.
The list of factories available for reparations was therefore to be drawn up according to the determination of a peace level for German industry, a task which the Potsdam agreements had entrusted to the Control Council. Thus, in 1946, a level of industry was established that allowed the delivery of two thousand factories valued at 3 billion 1938 marks for reparations. Subsequently, the four allied powers recognized that this level was insufficient. The dismantling currently underway in the French zone corresponds to a first phase of this program, on which the three western powers have agreed; it also corresponds to similar dismantling already carried out in the zone.
The dismantled factories were placed at the disposal of the Interallied Reparations Agency (I.A.R.A.), whose role was limited to distributing them among all its members.
[…]

https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1948/08/27/le-probleme-des-reparations-et-le-demontage-d-usines-en-allemagne_1905454_1819218.html

For a good understanding, it is necessary to know that most of the factories destroyed in Germany by the French were never rebuilt in France.
The French Wiki is correct

In July 1946, during the second CMAE[h], Georges Bidault set out France’s point of view on the occupation of Germany: he declared himself in agreement with the general objectives relating to the disarmament and denazification of Germany as well as the granting of reparations to the countries that had suffered from the war, also supported by V. Molotov. On the other hand, he recalled that France’s demands that the Ruhr, the Rhineland and the Saar be separated from Germany had not been taken into account at Potsdam.
The Allies wanted to protect Germany from a military revival by preventing it from re-establishing its armed forces and by ensuring that its industrial apparatus would not be able to produce military equipment again. While there is consensus on the first issue, the same cannot be said of the fate of German industry.

USUK knows better why they needed a future for German military industry.

Posted by: Bastille | Apr 1 2022 15:57 utc | 318

@ aquileia | Apr 1 2022 15:55 utc | 310
That’s not “combat tanks” but

58 Panzerkampfwagen vom Typ “PbV-501” handeln, die ursprünglich aus den Beständen der Nationalen Volksarmee (NVR) der DDR stammen.

Light and old infantry vehicles in order to have more victims.
Show must go on!
To the last Ukrainian.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP-1

Posted by: Bastille | Apr 1 2022 16:07 utc | 320

“No one on this Earth should be seen as a minor player. Everyone is equal and sovereign.”
Posted by: juliania | Apr 1 2022 15:12 utc | 311
I’m sorry, but this is just not true as a description of international relations. It has never been true and it will never be true.
It may be the case that some arrangements of global power are more or less coercive, more or less just relative to others, etc., but it will never be the case that states will operate as the sovereign subjects of some unwritten law of democratic liberalism, according to which all are equal insofar as each is ‘sovereign.’ There will always be stronger and weaker states, and the strength and weakness of states and alliances will always determine, in particular cases, what states can and do get away with vis a vis other states.
The multipolar world represents an adjustment in the arrangement or distribution of the power enjoyed by certain states. It does not represent some utopia.
Lavrov knows better.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 1 2022 16:22 utc | 322

@karlof1 321
I sometimes wonder what overarching strategy the West is following. After WW2, they saw to it that the economy was strong because they needed to show capitalism was superior to communism, and of course because you need a healthy economy to start new wars all the time. Today, the big competitor is China and the West doesn’t want to play second fiddle to China, but I don’t see them making an effort at moving jobs back from China, improving education, etc. They seem to be content with petty schemes against China (which the Chinese see through), while letting what’s left of manufacturing go down the crapper, along with education and infrastructure. This doesn’t seem like a viable long-term strategy to me, but maybe I’m just not seeing the genius behind it.

Posted by: aquileia | Apr 1 2022 16:58 utc | 324

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1 2022 16:58 utc | 325
I am on the side of Thucydides and Augustine and Hobbes. Not sure where that places me in history.
Laws in states only have force because of the state’s ability and willingness to use coercive power against those who violate them. This is not the case when it comes to international law. There is no Super-State with the coercive power necessary to enforce international law. If there were such a Super-State, then this state would be the only sovereign state in existence. But there is no such Super-State.
One can argue, of course, that it is better than states work together through international agreements to settle their differences. Of course I agree with this. But even the UN, as currently constituted, recognizes the undeniable real-world difference that power differential makes, which is why there are permanent members on the Security Council, etc.
There have been multipolar worlds before the one currently being prophesied by many. From the fact that there is a multipolar world, it follows that there are multiple POLES or ORIENTATIONS of major influence and power, not that every state in such a world enjoys practical equality with and independence from every other. This has never been the case and will never be the case.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 1 2022 17:27 utc | 326

WJ @326–
Ah yes, Hobbes. No, a super-state isn’t required IF humanity evolves to the point where adherence to the Law is seen as a virtue and THE path to the betterment of humanity. Currently, most of humanity agrees with me; only the West resists.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1 2022 17:32 utc | 328

Ok sorry for offtopic but seriously, TEST.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Apr 1 2022 17:58 utc | 330

…indicated that NO SINGLE nation should hold UN veto power <- THAT IS A HUGE difference... I agree that this is a big difference between the neoliberal order and the multipolar world (assuming it comes about). From this difference it does not follow that every sovereign state will be equal in terms of right, as suggested by Lavrov. I am chiefly objecting to what I take to be the utopian rhetoric that often attends discussion of this emergence of a multipolar world. I of course think that, on balance, a multipolar world is likely to be better than a unipolar world--better, but also inherently more unstable, if, again, history is to be any guide.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 1 2022 18:37 utc | 332

Helicopters require a lot of maintenance. I wonder how well Western countries can maintain old Warsaw Pact choppers.

Posted by: Lysias | Apr 1 2022 20:40 utc | 334

Posted by: WJ | Apr 1 2022 18:37 utc | 332
Thank you for the reply: I’m glad I checked back before closing out this window!
Yes, it could be said that Lavov’s statement isn’t all that much different than that of “we’re spreading democracy and freedom!” [US/West]. But if there’s no veto power at the UN then one could say that That means equality. I doubt anyone with a fully functioning brain could compare let’s say China and Uganda and say they’re the same, TOTALLY equal.
I’ll end participating in this discussion (thank you for it) so I can focus on the latest thread…

Posted by: Seer | Apr 1 2022 20:57 utc | 336

The overall point is that there’re no exceptional nations just as there’re no exceptional humans. What does exist are nations and humans having talents and abilities that are unmatched by their fellows, although quite often those fellows have talents and abilities of a different sort that the others lack. The best example I know of is the efficiency provided by teamwork versus that pursued by an individual. That’s why communities are stronger than a collection of individuals out for their own interest and unwilling to help another in their pursuit lest it cause them to lag in theirs. The East learned the teamwork lesson long ago while the West lags far behind hindered by its pursuit of Zero-sum outcomes that ensures society loses and remains dysfunctional.
In the future, it appears likely humans will solve their energy problem, but that won’t solve the problem of resource depletion and other potential problems caused by ecological Overshoot. That’s why it’s almost a certainty humans will need to arrange steady-state political-economies that require a very close degree of equitability to avoid conflict. That’s why the goal of establishing a shared vision for all humanity is now a requirement–unless Hobbesian war is desired to exert totalitarian control.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1 2022 22:47 utc | 338

I am guessing that this is the “active” Ukraine thread so I will add the story below from AP

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department says it is providing an additional $300 million in military equipment to Ukrainian forces defending the country from Russian troops.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement Friday evening that the gear in the new package includes laser-guided rocket systems, unmanned aircraft, armored vehicles, night vision devices and ammunition. Also included are medical supplies, field equipment and spare parts.
Kirby said the new package “represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide new capabilities” to Ukraine, rather than delivering equipment drawn from U.S. military stockpiles.
The U.S. has provided more than $1.6 billion in security assistance since Russia’s invasion, Kirby said.

Do any not believe we are in a civilization war yet?
$1.6 billion in “security assistance” and that is just the old stuff from stockpiles so they can be replenished with more killing tools to keep the God of Mammon religious cult in power a bit longer…..

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 2 2022 5:09 utc | 340

adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Alexey Arestovich
southfront had nor 1 but 2 interviews where he praised isis torture techniques and beheadings, ahh the darlings of the moral west

Posted by: pablozz | Apr 2 2022 11:15 utc | 342