Turkish drone strike Russian forces | Hacker News Reader

Turkish drone strike Russian forces

middleeasteye.net

29 pointswslh23 comments

Ukrainan drone. Its origin isn’t exactly important here.

What’s more interesting is how fantastically reckless the Russians are with their equipment and troops, and how poor their logistics and communications appear. Those vehicles driving bumper to bumper indicates they are confident there is zero risk of attack. Yet they don’t have control over the airspace? Several days into the invasion?

Something doesn’t add up.

That's why you normally attempt to ascertain whether or not obvious tactical and strategic oversights are deliberate prior to taking advantage of them. Time will tell whether the Ukrainians actually did any homework, or simply rushed in headlong to a target of opportunity and 'damn the torpedoes'.

No, it sounds exactly like Russians. They haven't changed. Heavy drinking, fuck-it-all attitude, laziness, gross incompetence, nepotism, utter disregard for any human life including Russian (ie they adopted flak/bulletproof vests in the army much later than west) and so on. When they attack small nations like Georgia in limited scale, maybe they look strong.

But here all failures are in the spotlight and combine, you can't escape them or bullshit it away. That's why Putin is getting desperate and waving with nuclear arms. Big question is how west will see it - I call it desperate bluffing, but that tiny little chance has dire consequences...

> that tiny little chance has dire consequences...

I recently heard the joke: "What's the shittiest job now?" "Putin's poison tester."

As a consolation, the people who are actually responsible for pushing the big red button have proved to be reasonable cold-blooded types not so eager to engage in genocide, especially Stanislav Petrov and Vasily Arkhipov.

Nothing in this war adds up. Either Putin has an ace up his sleeve or he grossly overestimated the chances of success. Maybe the people who surround him are too afraid to tell him the truth about the actual condition of Russian army. It looks pathetic.

I feel similarly. As another comment mentioned yesterday some videos of the conflict are just surreal. Russian soldiers speaking collegiality with Ukrainians, multiple videos of abandoned equipment, poorly supplied troops, tanks with no infantry support. This is in contrast with absolutely awe inspiring communication from Ukrainian leadership. Comments like "The fight is here. I need ammo, not a ride," among them.

I can't imagine there is an "ace up his sleeve" at this point. If it was there from the start, why wait till now once so much of the world has already turned against you. From my (quite uninformed!) perspective it seems that plan A (Take Ukraine Quickly) may have already failed and the cost of a slow drawn out war is meeting much more international response and resistance from Ukraine than anticipated.

Well, maybe Putin's plan B at this point is to tell Ukrainians either give up Donbas and Crimea or he will proceed with carpet bombing the whole country. A month ago this wouldn't be an option for Zelensky but being responsible for the lives of millions gives you a different perspective, especially if you can end the war and the suffering of your people instantly with just one difficult decision. Tough spot. Especially when you know you can't believe in any word Putin says.

Carpet bombing of the largest country in Europe with what? They lost about 20 planes in 48 hours, i.e. one plane every 2 hours. At such rate, they will lose all their aviation, everything that can fly, in less than 6 months.

He doesn’t need to carpet bomb the whole country. He just needs to lay waste to Kyiv and Kharkiv with rocket artillery, maybe thermobaric weapons if he’s willing to commit even more unspeakable horrors. There was a TOS-1A sighted approaching Kyiv so the option is at least on the table.

Compared to what the Russian army is capable of doing to civilian population centers, they’re actually restraining themselves so far. I’m terrified that the gloves might come off…

It’s eerily familiar to fans of the Der Untergang meme.

This is an intentionally misleading headline by OP. Flagged

Edit: Misleading headline was written by publisher not submitter

Original OP, kept the Article title who said Turkish drone, maybe better to say Turkish manufactured drone....

I saw this video earlier: https://youtu.be/wmD_-Gaj27k

I don’t believe such destruction could be caused by a drone, especially not lightweight drones like Turkish TB-2s. This looks like the work of a fighter jet. Now given Russian air superiority over Ukraine, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is outside work of something like an F35. There are tankers flying tracks all around Ukraine fueling non-existent planes.

The video in the article is pointing to the strike happening at an airport, I don't think the video you've linked is of the same strike.

It’s a different strike for sure, I just used the opportunity to discuss something I’m puzzled about. Sorry for the derailment.

The man in the video says that this is the job of the self-defense unit. After 8 years of war, Ukraine has a lot of man with practical experience in this kind of war.

Here is the same video: https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2022/02/27/7326510/ .

The text says that they are stopped by an army unit with help of self-defense unit (territorial defense unit).

> Earlier this month, Ukraine and Turkey signed a series of agreements, including a deal that would expand the production capabilities of Turkish drone-maker Baykar in Ukraine

> Its drones were deployed last year in Kyiv's war against Russian-backed separatists in its eastern Donbas region.

Explains much about why Putin is so set upon forcing regime change in Kiev, and right now.

Very irresponsible headline. It is a drone manufactured by Turkey and operated by the Ukrainian army.

If it were really a Turkish drone attacking Russia, that triggers a NATO vs Russia war.

How could someone tell who is operating the drone?

My guess (and it is just a guess) would be an IFF transponder.

Any attack from a NATO country doesn't trigger anything from its other NATO allies. NATO only gets involved in a defensive war.

The fear would be that if a NATO country is seen becoming active against Russia, it could trigger sympathy for Russia from semi-allies, or make Putin escalate.

(I agree it's a very unfortunate headline.)

NATO is only obligated to get involved in defensive wars (and then, only for attacks in certain geographic areas.)

That doesn't prevent NATO action in other circumstances (likely, resulting from Art. 4 consultations rather than Art. 5.)

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