Jimmy_D

Our donations to Ukraine so far are around 3% of our military budget, and less than the increase in military spending announced last year. Much of what has been sent has already been replaced, some due to being obsolete, some old enough that it would have required being disposed of had it not been used, some as a result of the increased production in response to Ukraine. We’re not anywhere near sending our most capable stuff, and yet it’s been used to hold back what, just a few weeks ago, would have been seen as one of the biggest military threats we could have faced. We’re already using battlefield information from Ukraine to identify what’s been most effective and adjust. The direct quotes from Stoltenberg here seem to disagree with your assessment on the UK’s capabilities. https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1630833/british-troops-ukraine-russia-putin-military/amp Do you really think a leaked report of a military leader wanting increased military spending, while there is a war actively taking place in Europe, indicates we didn’t have a capable military before?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/08/statement-from-the-president-on-delivery-of-air-defense-systems-to-ukraine/

If Russian troops really believe that they’re getting their arses handed to them by a force they outgun 40-1, their morale must be through the floor.

It's also over a week out of date at this point.

We're the second biggest contributor to NATO. If we ever have to fight to defend Britain in a conventional war, we wouldn't be fighting alone.

I have one too, although I use it to make cider. The Waltham Forest one they do is excellent.

Saw The Killers at Wembley years ago, and at St Mary’s tonight. Utterly incredible both times!

Especially as neither cup final match goes down as a win for Liverpool in the record books.

Courtois MotM surely?

Like I said, it's not how rich Russia is that's hurting their war effort at the moment. There's a massive budget surplus because things that Russia need aren't being supplied to them, and there's nowhere else for Russia to buy. Huge swathes of Russia's economy have just... stopped. Even more swathes are running on reserves that aren't being replenished. Oil and gas are important, and the paper value of the rouble reflects that, but the range of services and products those roubles can be used for has been severely restricted, and is narrowing all the time, especially as further sanctions are being imposed. This isn't a situation that is improving for Russia.

That doesn’t quite mean what you seem to think it means. https://www.ft.com/content/22bd612b-c5d9-4f8f-98b8-5f5b69a1da37

The economic impact on Russia has been significant, even if the paper value of the rouble is inflated at the moment. Regardless of that though, it doesn’t matter how rich Russia is, one of the main impacts of the sanctions is to make it impossible for Russia to source materials and components required to maintain their military capability, for example, microchips for precision munitions.

Rhetoric that Ukraine should cede territory isn’t anything new or different. Russian shills have been peddling that line from the start. Russia and Ukraine have different short-medium term aims at the moment. Ukraine are fighting a war of attrition aiming to make the cost for Russia so high that they can’t fight any more. Russia are fighting to gain territory as quickly as possible, throwing everything they have left at holding the East of Ukraine, despite the immense unsustainable losses that they’re incurring doing so. This is likely because Russia know they’re on a clock. The presence of T62s and expanding their recruitment requirements shows that a combination of Ukraine’s tactics and sanctions are preventing Russia being able to maintain their current level of military capability, and it’s becoming more and more degraded. Meanwhile Ukraine have been training over a million soldiers that were drafted when Russia invaded, are receiving more and more NATO equipment, and are training on more advanced NATO equipment than they’re currently using. It’s getting to the point that Russia will be starting to compromise the conventional defence of Russian territory. Russia’s best option at this point is to capture the Eastern regions, unilaterally declare a victory of some sort, hold a sham referendum, and threaten nuclear retaliation if ‘their’ territory is ‘invaded’. It’s still not a good option because they’ve overused the threat of nuclear weapons, and the cost will be immense, but preventing this is likely the reason Ukraine are defending Severodonetsk so resolutely.

JWP seems established now? The PL Player of the Season nomination probably means Southgate almost feels obliged to include him in the squad. He obviously offers something to England that no other player does as well. KWP is unlucky. He did well during England's games, but his position has a few players that are already established and Southgate does tend to show a bit of loyalty to players. That combined with Saints poor finish to the season probably did for his chances. He probably needs a poor run of form from one of the established players if he's to get a realistic chance of keeping an England spot.

Ref pulled the game up while we were in possession for an injury, then gave the drop-ball to Leicester. They went ahead and scored while we were waiting for them to give it back.

Oh FFS.

Gerrin! Now let’s get something out of the game off of these cheating sods!

Erm. Come on Wolves? 😕

Moss is actually retiring right? He’s not going to change his mind?

To be fair, it’s pretty rare that a team doesn’t give it back, and it’s always seen as pretty low when that happens.

Ah, Leicester being a bit filthy with the restart not giving it back in the lead up to the goal.

It’ll be weird listening to Solent next season without Merrington commentating… Hopefully Brentford, City and Burnley can find something second half… As for Saints it’s been th… oh FFS.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61472221

Aye, seems wrong that no matter how well each team had done in the season, there was no way for either to avoid all that effort boiling down to one knockout game.

Champions! Get in!