Rossticus said:
FriscoKid said:
This ship had to be the most expensive piece of equipment in the whole war right? I'm still in shock that the Ukrainians sunk it.
Furthermore, does this kill the whole fleet since I read that this one was providing the majority of the air defense for the rest of the ships (and southern Ukraine for that matter)
Hands down. Doesn't kill the fleet but somewhere between kneecapping it and severing its Achilles. Glorious.
That said, Russia will go all in on breaking the will of the Ukrainians from here on out. This is a turning point and I don't see any "negotiated settlement" after today unless it's forced on Russia by virtue of decisive Ukrainian military victory. Ukraine just publicly humiliated Putin even more so than they had already.
I'm a little lost by this line of reasoning. I mean Putin has been going all in on breaking the will of the Civilian Ukes since about day 10 by demoing most every building in every city east of the Donbass River. Seems like all he managed to do is get the Ukes to go all in on publicly humiliating Putin in response to him leveling cities. I'm pretty sure the Ukes are looking for any way to humiliate Putin as often as possible. I just can't decide if the Russian Army is that bad or they are that bad on purpose, re Kherson? Airport. "Oh, those Nazi Uke's wouldn't Dare shoot at us
again, surely they know it will really make us mad!"
Re the Mariupol link up posted somewhere else. If nothing else the 36th can share weapons or ammo and split fighting time with who they linked up with, and if nothing else, die with their friends even though the Russian's seem to have a hard time trying to make that happen.... They just keep adding to the legend of the Mariupolian Alamo. At the rate they are going, the might just survive with the loss of the Moskva. Won't be a pretty supply operation, but it just got a lot easier to use PT style boats if they try it, I suspect. I know they have the gonads to do it, if they haven't been trying already.
At the end of the day the Ukes may lose, but after today, every day they don't, makes it less likely they won't lose, and if Putin doesn't get his propaganda coup on 5/9 to celebrate that holiday, It's probably lights out for him. Either way, Russia is crippled for multiple generations, if not permanently.