Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 161 posts

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#91

Post by nradov »

LinuxBender wrote: post #56
kypro wrote: post #8

Something that's been concerning me about all these UFOs being shot down is that perhaps it could be best explained by the start of something else building up... Realistically these UFO's aren't alien crafts but hostile spy drones. Perhaps the reason we haven't heard about these drones before could be that the US has never felt the need to act (the spying poses no real imminent threat), or maybe the hostile state sen…

Am I wrong to be concerned? I don't think so. Normalcy bias is strong in the public right now and I don't blame people for wanting simple explanations for the recent events. Regarding the balloons my unpopular opinion is that they may have received intel that the spy balloons are to condition the US into complacency and then replace the payload with something else using a later set of balloons. This would never make…

Let's say Russia does decide to use nukes. What would they target? Their main objective in the war is to seize control of Ukrainian energy and agricultural resources; they don't want to turn it into an irradiated wasteland.

Using a nuke against Ukrainian military forces would be a waste since they are now dispersed and dug in. Many of those forces are close to Russian forces so a nuclear strike would endanger their own troops.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#92

Post by ylk »

californiadreem wrote: post #5
jb1991 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He likely genuinely believes they need to keep losing and losing much more badly than they are today before they can have a shot of turning the tide. I'm having some difficulty following your argument. You're saying Putin thinks Russia needs to keep losing the war so that eventually they can win it? I find that confusing.

"Judo (Japanese for “the gentle way”) emphasizes winning in combat by using your opponent's weight and strength as weapons against him, while preserving your own mental and physical energy."

Since jb1991 is being downvoted I want to clarify that this doesn’t somehow support the grandparent.

Using your opponents strength as weapon means deflecting their attack and using the force to throw them on the ground/defeat them.

Have a look at e.g. 5:58 https://youtu.be/-Qe_JKQjJTA It’s kata, so slow and meant for demonstration purposes.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#93

Post by JadoJodo »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #63

Why would United States citizens be in Russia to begin with? I would think that they would not be there at all, and that Russia would not even allow Americans in.

The article talks about how a lot (most?) of the citizens are religious workers. The Salvation Army, World Relief, etc. are often in places like Russia, despite the conditions or events transpiring in the world.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#94

Post by TrapLord_Rhodo »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #63

Why would United States citizens be in Russia to begin with? I would think that they would not be there at all, and that Russia would not even allow Americans in.

well, you get interrigated at the border because obviously the sentiment that you excuded. Utter confusion... "Why would you want to be here". but after an hour or two and they just realise you are a crazy american that likes the thrill of traveling to places they probably shouldn't be. Not that I have any experience in the matter... ;)

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#95

Post by ezconnect »

kypro wrote: post #8

Something that's been concerning me about all these UFOs being shot down is that perhaps it could be best explained by the start of something else building up... Realistically these UFO's aren't alien crafts but hostile spy drones. Perhaps the reason we haven't heard about these drones before could be that the US has never felt the need to act (the spying poses no real imminent threat), or maybe the hostile state sen…

Those recent balloons are just distraction from the Nordstream pipeline news. It's to flood the news stream with new breaking news. Typical USA playbook.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#96

Post by michaelt »

mattgperry wrote: post #34
kypro wrote: post #8

Something that's been concerning me about all these UFOs being shot down is that perhaps it could be best explained by the start of something else building up... Realistically these UFO's aren't alien crafts but hostile spy drones. Perhaps the reason we haven't heard about these drones before could be that the US has never felt the need to act (the spying poses no real imminent threat), or maybe the hostile state sen…

> It seems the US and allies no longer just wants UA to hold their own against RU, but actually win the war There is no "hold their own". This would be a state of perpetual warfare. The only way to end the war is to allow Russia to claim Ukraine or push Russia out of Ukraine. Personally I would rather the Russian border to be as far east as possible.

Theoretically, the US might hope to turn Ukraine into Russia's Iraq - never any decisive loss, just gradually bleeding soldiers and equipment for 20 years for little benefit, until they get bored and go home.

A conspiracy-minded person who thought America blew up the Nordstream pipelines to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas might see a similar benefit to prolonging the conflict.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#97

Post by inglor_cz »

rjzzleep wrote: post #45
barrkel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And in the event of a potential UA victory the use of tactical nuclear weapons from RU seem likely The consensus military opinion I've read on this is that tactical nukes aren't very useful militarily; troops in the field are too dispersed. If there's a hardened target, then yes, otherwise not great. They then have to be weighed against the costs of crossing that Rubicon. > why they're suddenly so worried about the…

What makes anyone on this platform believe that Ukraine has any chance of victory? It doesn't even have a working economy anymore, the US tax payer is paying both the government and the military's salaries. It's most resource rich areas are now in Russian hands. They started with over a thousand tanks, hundreds of jets, got hundreds of soviet tanks from various places, got hundreds of artillery pieces and hundreds of…

"All the while all authoritative western military institutions have said that the neither the US nor the EU can compete with Russia when it comes to either artillery nor missile production."

That is bullshit and you know it pretty well. Most Russian missiles are shot down by AA already and the terror waves have become smaller, indicating that Russians actually need to save the remaining missiles.

Russia can almost certainly outproduce the current West when it comes to arty ammo, but that factoid, while true, is irrelevant. Western artillery is much more precise and precision is what really matters. The Russians are great in turning random fields into a pocketed lunar landscape, WWI-style, but a single Excalibur round that obliterates a Russian headquarters or ammo dump has done orders of magnitude more damage.

Ukraine alone wouldn't be able to win this, no. But Ukraine with support of countries that, together, are about 30 times richer than Russia, is going to win this. The main problem is the human cost, but that is unavoidable when fighting a horde of orcs.

"When people agree that Ukraine loses multiple times as many people for every Russian that dies"

Russian propagandists agree on all sorts of bullshit, but it would be extraordinary if the ratio of losses on a static front favored an attacker. This only happens if the attacker is much stronger than the defender, like the US vs. Iraq, but in such a situation, the defender usually collapses rather fast.

We see the very opposite, the Russians have been trying to take Bakhmut for half a year, so far unusccessfully, and throwing more and more meat into the mix. Second army of the world, more like 140th.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#98

Post by kstenerud »

kypro wrote: post #8

Something that's been concerning me about all these UFOs being shot down is that perhaps it could be best explained by the start of something else building up... Realistically these UFO's aren't alien crafts but hostile spy drones. Perhaps the reason we haven't heard about these drones before could be that the US has never felt the need to act (the spying poses no real imminent threat), or maybe the hostile state sen…

The UFOs are mostly spy drones (although it's still to early to say how many of them are - maybe all of them are?). These drones are more likely opportunistic than tactical. Even the US response to them is valuable intelligence, as it has opened up the possibility of a DOS attack forcing the air force to waste missiles (which are not only expensive, but take time to replace).

Under Putin, Russia is unlikely to resort to nukes so long as Ukraine doesn't storm actual Russian territory (as opposed to annexed land). If Putin were to be replaced, the new guy will likely be a hardliner, and then it's anyone's guess (although still leaning towards unlikely).

America has already privately contacted all levels of the Russian government to spell out the consequences of nukes, and enough people in government (including Putin) still fear America's direct involvement in this war (rhetoric notwithstanding). No nation can ever be allowed to actually use nukes in conquest; the ensuing arms race as every despot rushes for their own immunity to the American military would be catastrophic.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#99

Post by inglor_cz »

vbezhenar wrote: post #83
nradov wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine has no chance of outright battlefield victory, however sufficient military aid can keep them in the fight and produce a grinding stalemate like in WW1. The hope is that this war of attrition will eventually lead to regime change in Russia and perhaps a further fragmentation of the country to continue the process started in 1991. Even if Russia holds together politically and continues to occupy parts of Ukrain…

IMO the only regime change likely in Russia will not make you happy. There're some very pro-military leaders arise recently. Putin does not allow for war to go full-scale. Those leaders will. Fragmentation is possible but I don't believe it, at least for now. Russia loses soldiers but they obtain much more soldiers with perfect battle training, they acquire priceless experience as to which weapons are effective and s…

"obtain much more soldiers with perfect battle training"

Funny how those soldiers with perfect battle training still suffer from enormous incompetence, resulting in routs such as in Vuhledar. The units that fought there were reportedly Russian elite marine units. They died like flies in an unforgiving terrain, without air and even arty support.

"Perfect" soldiers would not even start an assault in such conditions.

Re: United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

#100

Post by publicola1990 »

KyleBerezin wrote: post #75
Overtonwindow wrote: post #63

Why would United States citizens be in Russia to begin with? I would think that they would not be there at all, and that Russia would not even allow Americans in.

Work maybe? Family? I'm sure not every reason is good but some are.

Some US companies still are having operations in Russia. Cargill seems to be one of them.
Post reply on HN