Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that he remains confident that the annexation of Crimea will be completed this week, and that the last of the legal process is virtually completed.
Crimea authorized the annexation in a referendum over the weekend, and the process was signed off on by President Putin almost immediately. The Russian Duma voted for ratification today in a 443-1 vote, and the upper chamber of parliament is set to vote on Friday.
The lone opponent, opposition MP Ilya Ponomaryov, said he believed the annexation was done with the best of intentions, but feared it would lead to a war.
The Russian Defense Ministry says that it intends to boost military infrastructure on the Crimean Peninsula in the coming weeks and months, saying they need to get the defenses in the area up to snuff to be a “worthy representative of the Russian Federation.”
Crimea looking pretty good. Perhaps not a Navy yet. But they are sitting on 45 MiG-29s that unfortunately Ukraine hasn't bought replacement parts for in at least a decade. I'm sure Russia can fix that in short order.
That is a pretty damn credible air force, easily capable of taking out three times as many F15 or F16s
Russian arms have always performed well when facing US and other Western weaponry. Look at Iraq versus the US and Israel versus Syria and Egypt.
I've had a VERY close look at how Russian arms performed when facing the US. Crawled in and out of numerous destroyed Russian tanks in Kuwait. How their other stuff performed may have been more a function of poor training, etc., but their newer tanks (the T-72s) were just complete crap.
Dear Thomas, for what it's worth, I was being sarcastic.
Dear Thomas, for what it's worth, I was being sarcastic.
Ah, OK. I didn't get that. I probably should have.
The only functional Iraqi tank I found in Kuwait was, believe it or not, a T-54/55. The crew had punched it into an administrative building at al Jabr air base and abandoned it in the middle of a bunch of office space. Full hopper of ammo. Didn't check the fuel, but if it had any I could presumably have driven the damn thing away.
Every T-72 I saw was completely pranged, usually with full turret separation.
On the other hand, my impression of Russian small arms, mortars and heavy machine guns was that they were quite good, at least in terms of durability. I was a mortarman, and the Russian 82mm mortars and 12.7mm heavy machine guns I found in the Iraqi front line along the Kuwaiti/Saudi border looked perfectly functional even weeks after the line had been abandoned/overrun. And of course the AK-47 is a fine main battle rifle. Not the most accurate at longer ranges, but you can throw it in a mud puddle, run over it with a truck, etc. and still have a functional weapon.
Russian analysts agree with you ))
Here is a good discussion in Russian, but you can use Google Translate if interested http://www.strategium.ru/forum/index.php?showtopi…
T72 tanks , on the contrary, was proven extremely vulnerable when hit in the ammunition compartment- immediate detonation occurred , catastrophic in its consequences for the tank and its crew . T72 armor was punctured easily by 120mm armor-piercing projectiles . In most cases, armor-piercing shells hit in T72 led to the detonation of ammunition – as a result -the reaction of pyrotechnic material core shell of depleted uranium armor with tank steel shell, causing the inner fire. Also, if one tank ammunition ignited, the fire quickly spread to adjacent tanks. As a result of detonation with T72 tower (?) would blow off. American tank crews observed T72 with toppled towers more often than for older T55 or T62 , perhaps because at T72 ammunition takes relatively more in the fighting compartment , and its explosion caused more destruction than the explosion of T55 or T62 ammunition . It should be noted the moral effect produced by explosion of ammunition on the T72 crews on other tanks . When Iraqi crews saw flying off the T72 towers , they were abandoning their tanks in panic …
Well done, Mr. Putin.
A wonderful heartfelt video, the Ukrainian NAVY Academy lowers its flag in Sevastopol, and raises the Russian Navy Flag (it used to me the Naval school before the breakup of the USSR.
The most touching are the last few moments. Several Ukrainian Cadets burst through the door upon completion of the official ceremony, and sing the Ukrainian Anthem (I am not sure it is the anthem, but it is in Ukrainian dialect) Defeated but defiant.