By 13-2 votes, the Russian Federation shall immediately suspend military operations that it commenced on February 24, the verdict said. Only Russian and Chinese judges dissented, according to reports.
Goes to look up the 2 votes against… Oh surprise the Vice-President of the court from Russia and the Judge from China.
He’s queueing up Russia’s own dolchstosslegende in anticipation that they’ll have to withdraw from Ukraine with no real gains. Add Russia’s Jews and Muslims to those who might consider getting out before they’re turned into scapegoats for his own regime’s military screw-ups.
That’s how the court is structured-- the members of the security council are allocated some judges, and the general assembly are allocated some judges. And if a party is not directly represented on this panel, that party gets to appoint a Judge ad hoc
Thanks for that! I’ll aim to improve my reading on the subject.
“I have come here to suck on a lollipop and kick ass…”
she looks like most of the 6th grade girls i taught. i’d guess she’s 11-13. she has guts.
Highlights for me especially well what a relatively pampered life I’ve led.
An additional difference is that fighter jets and main battle tanks require trained personnel and logistical support trains (fuel, mechanics, comms) to operate effectively. Almost anyone can fire a shoulder-mounted missile with minimal instructions and take out an enemy tank or aircraft.
The borderline cases are drones and missile batteries, which could be used offensively and which do require training. Russia would probably see shipments of the latter as a provocation to escalate but apparently not the former (as much as they hate the Bayraktar).
That’s the kind of photo that gets a Pulitzer.
More on Putin’s speech here
Of note:
President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday referred to pro-Western Russians as “scum and traitors” who needed to be removed from society, describing the war in Ukraine as part of an existential clash with the United States and setting the stage for an ever fiercer crackdown at home and even more aggression abroad.
Comparing the West to Nazi Germany, the Russian leader laced his speech with derision for the “political beau monde” in Europe and the United States, and for the “slave-like” Russians who supported it. It was a far more hard-line message than one delivered earlier in the day by Mr. Putin’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, who said that Russia saw “a certain hope that a compromise can be reached” with Ukraine to end the war.
The clash in tone indicated that even as Mr. Putin was directing his officials to explore a negotiated end to a war in which Russia faced far heavier resistance than the Kremlin had anticipated, he was prepared to keep raising the stakes in his conflict with the West.
Javelins and stingers are pretty complex, and apparently take a fair bit of training to use.
Probably not drives a tank training, but you apparently can’t just hand them to some one and expect them to hit anything.
Part of the reason NATO is sending thousands of simpler anti-tank/rocket launchers is things like MLAWs and Carl Gustafs can practically be used by anyone with some brief training.
From what I’ve read the Stingers and Javelins are mostly being given to, and have had their best results with Ukrainian Special Forces groups. And those guys got months training with US advisors on these systems and tactics for them. Both can also be fired from fixed placements, vehicles, and for stingers aircraft.
The drones are different story, I think the Bayraktars they’ve gotten post invasion were drones they bought and paid for before the Russians crossed the border. Least ways they apparently had dozens on order, along with a ton of smaller drones. So it’s tougher to categorize those as “aid”.
The Stinger can be taught without a lot of training. The full MOS training is about two months but a few hours of instruction will have you in pretty good shape for operating a Stinger. The harder part is learning when NOT to shoot, and aircraft recognition.
An M1A1 isn’t that tricky to drive either. Its all the maintenance that is the hard part.
I havent fired a Javelin, but from what I recall our TOW missile operators took a two week training course to get up to speed.
M72 LAW and the AT-4 have the instructions written on the side.
I was going to say, they supplied Stingers to the Afghans with out a ton of training, and they did well with them.
Still, trained Ukrainian forces (e.g. Special Forces) will know WHEN and WHERE to use them better than untrained fighters.
Evidently, some LAWs have Cyrillic instructions on them. (about 20 secs in)
