Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-26

[Jacob]

Pure evil

[Valmy]

Pure evil

It is moments like this I really wish I had Trump Derangement Syndrome, that my loathing and fear of this regime was based on some delusional derangement. But no, they are not only every bit as horrible as I fear but worse. It is really incredible. There is no level of depravity low enough that this regime will not stoop to.

[Tamas]

From Putin on Trump's 28 point surrender plan:

I believe that it, too, can form the basis of final peace settlement

He is not even making it a secret that he will not stop at it even if Ukraine agrees.

[Razgovory]

Question about Drones:  Is it more cost effective to use drones to put high explosives on a target than a big cannon?

[Zoupa]

Orders of magnitude cheaper, in general. It's also much cheaper to train drone pilots.

[Tamas]

Orders of magnitude cheaper, in general. It's also much cheaper to train drone pilots.

Precision strike maybe but don't tell me an army of drones can do an artillery barrage cheaper than a batter of field guns.

[Razgovory]

I'm wondering about cost per pound of explosive.  Speed is probably a factor as well, it seems like a battery of guns of could drop explosives much faster than some drones.  An 155mm gun can fire about 2 rounds a minute for an extended period of time.  So that's about 30-40 pounds of boom per minute for one gun.  

[HVC]

Isn't a battery of artillery much more open to a counter bombardment?

[Razgovory]

Isn't a battery of artillery much more open to a counter bombardment?

I suppose.  On the other hand you can't shoot down artillery shells.

[grumbler]

Cost per pound of explosives, a gun is cheaper than a drone.  One 155 HE shell delivers a ~50 kg shell with ~7 kg of explosive. A Shahed-3 delivers a ~25kg warhead with about ~10kg filler. The shell costs ~$5,000 and the drone ~$20,000.

The drone has better range, of course, but a mch lower "rate of fire."

Tactical FPV drones deliver tiny warheads very accurately and cost in the low thousands of dollars. But $$/kg of HE is very high.

[Razgovory]

I can't wait till we hand this over to AI.  Thousands of drones attacking at once with minimal human intervention.  Then someone like Sam Altman can wipe out most of the US government in a day.

[Tamas]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/22/ukraine-zelenskyy-peace-deal-us-nato-meeting

Asked why Kyiv should be forced to give up territory in the east that Russian troops have been unable to capture for 11 years, a US official said the deal "was beneficial to Ukraine". They said they envisaged Trump and Zelenskyy sitting down together and signing a document "for peace".

That's the crust of it I think. The extent to which Trump and thus his lapdogs consider this - it's a great photo opportunity for Trump to sign the "peace deal". Who the hell cares what's in it.

[jimmy olsen]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/22/ukraine-zelenskyy-peace-deal-us-nato-meeting

Asked why Kyiv should be forced to give up territory in the east that Russian troops have been unable to capture for 11 years, a US official said the deal "was beneficial to Ukraine". They said they envisaged Trump and Zelenskyy sitting down together and signing a document "for peace".

That's the crust of it I think. The extent to which Trump and thus his lapdogs consider this - it's a great photo opportunity for Trump to sign the "peace deal". Who the hell cares what's in it.

That's always been true. He's never beleived in anything.

[Josquius]

Agreeing to a buffer zone with international troops in place first - fine.
Agreeing to a referendum in the contested areas if they want to be part of Russia - that would be fine (at least on the Ukrainian side I'd trust it to be fair)
Swapping donbass land for land elsewhere - I could see how that could be possible too.
But just withdrawing on the vague promise Russia honestly won't put troops there but the land is Russian... Fuck no.

[Josephus]

Wasn't that long ago we were talking about finding an exit strategy that Putin can swallow. Now we're talking about how much land to give him. [sigh]