I suspect Vlad may have briefed Xi on his evil plan during his visit to the Olympics, but now its gone to sh*t and it looks like there could be large-scale civilian casualties, they're beginning to get a bit uncomfortable and that they too could face the opprobrium of the west if they continue to stand with Russia.

Worth a read (Eliot Cohen is worth following if you're on Twitter - he has produce some excellent analysis of late):

DOH!

Last done in the same neck of the woods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War

The lack of a large letter on the sides suggests that the SA-8s are Ukrainian.

The troops in that convoy must be getting very pissed off. Hungry, cold, tired, frightened etc.

I'd kind of expect the letters to be scrubbed off pretty pronto as you don't want someone send an RPG up it by mistake. looks to me like the outline of a Z in the 3rd picture just before the back wheel

-edit. I wonder how many of the troops are running their engines to keep warm burning valuable fuel. Be nice if a brutally cold and rainy spell was on the cards - just not cold enough to freeze the ground

That would make a hell of a mess of their convoy if they can recover it and conceal it, I take it thats the good old Ukrainian mud coming into play, the good thing with that is it's limiting the Russians to roads, where they have no room to manoeuvre and from the photos tend to bunch up. I wonder why the Ukrainians don't block the route with a load of trucks or buses etc, set fire to them or booby trap them.

I am very surprised that they haven’t been relentlessly hitting that with anything they can, whenever they can.

The logical assumption is they don’t have anything to hit it with which is bad news.

Yea, I've been thinking that IFF has to be a bitch when both sides are using much the same equipment.

Just thinking out loud here, but fo get Warthogs - imagine what a few properly armed BUFFs could do to that 40 mile long convoy...

We all think that. But know it is not going to happen.

Or the perimeter either side has the decent troops protecting it.

Perhaps they feel they might as well leave them be for now. They're no threat stuck in a traffic jam and are just using up food, fuel and supplies. Save the attack for a time and place of their choosing.

Never interrupt your enemy whilst he is making a mistake, I believe the saying goes

The Ukrainians are having some local successes but the Russian Army is still advancing slowly but surely. Not surprising as it is a larger force and now aided apparently by the Belarus Army.
Russians now bombarding the Cities with rockets and whatever.
I have a terrible vision that Kyiv, and other of their cities, will eventually resemble Warsaw; post the suppression of the rising in 1944.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....544e648da.jpeg

I’m sure someone will tell me I’m living in the realms of fantasy - Captain Mainwairing style but here goes….

the no fly zone is out due to the nato issue along with any nato boots on the ground. The UN is useless and basically a talking shop, but I haven’t yet seen anywhere why the UN couldn’t have either got involved earlier after the Minsk agreements or perhaps in the future should the unlikely event of some kind of ceasefire be brokered.

UN peacekeepers, UN no fly zone all operated out of whatever is left of the UKR airfields. Is there a reason this hasn’t been suggested or isn’t feasible?

It seems big Vlad wants Ukraine all for himself, but he’s used the excuse of genocide in the east, Ukraine being run by nazis attacking Russians and being NATOs puppet. So what about the UN but non nato countries being involved? There must be enough countries out there who could get involved who aren’t in NATO?

i know Russia has a Veto at the UN, it just appears to me that as the west is trying to take the moral high ground and isolating him whilst trying not to get dragged into this directly, it would be an ideal thing to put to the UN to try call him out for what it is, he’s using nato and genocide as an excuse

maybe he’s done enough damage to his army and country to not have another pop then hopefully he’ll succumb to his fate one way or the other. Surely can’t be that many ex kgb, Cold War loving Russians left about who would get a chance at running Russia after this?

I think the clue is in the word ‘peace’! There is no peace - it’s still an active war.

They're not even flinching as the Russians fire into the air as a warning.