Meanwhile, gas became 12 times more expensive here. It will be a cold winter, but this will accelerate the drastic change towards renewable energy in Europe. In a first phase, however, environmental pollution will increase. Undoubtedly, there will also be large protests in the streets against the rising prices, but in the end everyone knows where the real cause lies... The minds in Europe are not ripening for Putin. Mutatis mutandis, in Belgium it is similar to the Nazi propaganda about the Allied bombings, which increased from 1943 onwards. Despite the relatively high death toll in the country from these bombings, the population understood who the real culprit was. Energy independence from Russia (and a poorer Russia) will become the ultimate consequence.
On the brightside, 11.9T of that est. value is in coal. So only 500B in all the other precious minerals, plus the lost ports. ::shrugs:: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/10/ukraine-russia-energy-mineral-wealth/ $12.4 trillion in lost wealth Ukraine is widely known as an agricultural powerhouse. But as a raw-material mother lode, it’s home to 117 of the 120 most widely used minerals and metals, and a major source of fossil fuels. Official websites no longer show geolocations of these deposits; the government, citing national security, took them down in early spring. Yet SecDev’s analysis indicates that at least $12.4 trillion worth of Ukraine’s energy deposits, metals and minerals are now under Russian control. That figure accounts for nearly half the dollar value of the 2,209 deposits reviewed by the company. In addition to 63 percent of the country’s coal deposits, Moscow has seized 11 percent of its oil deposits, 20 percent of its natural gas deposits, 42 percent of its metals and 33 percent of its deposits of rare earth and other critical minerals including lithium. Some of those deposits are hard to reach or require exploration to assess their viability. Some were overtaken during either Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea or the Ukrainian government’s eight-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the east. Since the invasion began in February, however, the Kremlin has steadily expanded its holdings. According to SecDev and Ukrainian mining and steel industry executives, it has seized: 41 coal fields, 27 natural gas sites, 14 propane sites, nine oil fields, six iron ore deposits, two titanium ore sites, two zirconium ore sites, one strontium site, one lithium site, one uranium site, one gold deposit and a significant quarry of limestone previously used for Ukrainian steel production. Roman Opimakh, director general of the Ukrainian Geological Survey, said the government is still assessing the war’s impact on its mineral resources. But given how much of Ukraine’s raw materials are in the east and south, he suggested that the value of lost reserves exceeds the total calculated in the independent analysis. “There is a negative asset, which we’ve lost — resources which we use right now to support our industrial activities and to generate power,” he noted. “But there’s another dimension of minerals of the future which are still under the ground. Unfortunately, there is a risk that the Ukrainian people will not get the benefits of the development of those materials.” The bulk of the country’s oil and gas reserves remain under its control. But for Western Europe, Russia’s expanded land grab in Ukraine amounts to a tactical setback. “Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory has direct implications for Western energy security,” said Robert Muggah, SecDev co-founder. “Unless the Europeans can rapidly diversify oil and gas sources, they will remain highly dependent on Russian hydrocarbons.” The greatest threat is to Ukraine’s future. During the 2014 Russian invasion, in which Ukraine lost roughly 7 percent of its land mass, critical Western investment in the energy and mining sector was scared away. The current war has had the same impact. Polish-Ukrainian investment company Millstone & Co, for instance, struck a 2021 deal with an Australian mining company for active exploration at two untouched lithium sites. Once the war started, the companies froze those plans, said Millstone managing partner Mykhailo Zhernov. One site — a deposit covered by farmland — now is so close to the front lines that Zhernov remains uncertain whether it is under Ukrainian or Russian control. Initial plans to build a lithium battery factory there have also been shelved. Analysts say licenses for other mineral deposits sold by the Ukrainian government last year are now trading at deep discounts as investors question the viability of extraction. “Every day, Ukrainians are losing their economy,” Zhernov said. “I know many investors who started geology research, but they have stopped because [of the war]. Everything, it’s a bet now.” The blow to Ukraine is far worse because of the Russian seizure of key Ukrainian ports and a broad blockade of the Black Sea. Some analysts see the lost sea transit routes as more significant than the lost mineral reserves — particularly coal, despite its current value — as other countries switch to greener energy. “Raw materials like coal are not the future, they’re the past,” said Anders Aslund, an economist who has long studied Ukraine. “It’s more about whether Ukraine loses its ports, which I don’t think they will. If they did not have those ports, they would need to build a completely new infrastructure for exports.”
Is there any other video of Trump saying something smart? In the decades that he has been in the public eye, this is the only one I know of. It's kind of remarkable.
What is fascism then? To me it's merely a merging of conservative ethnic nationalist ideology with the desire to implement the ideology "at all and any cost necessary" as in attempting to overthrow an election and maintain power even after being elected out. On the opposite side, the merging of collective ideology with the desire to implement that ideology "at all and any cost necessary" would be authorarian communism.
[FOX News] Russia is already experiencing technical failures with Iranian drones The Russian military is already having bad luck with the drones it received from Iran, which have quickly begun experiencing several failures less than a month after the first batch arrived. "There are a few bugs in the system," a western security official told the Washington Post of the drones, according to a report Tuesday. "The Russians are not satisfied." Russia received dozens of Iranian-made drones on August 19, its first batch in what U.S. officials believe is supposed to be several hundred that Iran is planning to provide the Russian military. But less than a month after receiving the first batch, Russian forces are reporting technical difficulties and malfunctions with the drones. Russian officials reportedly visited Iran twice last month to view the drones that were to be provided to Russia, though it remains unclear whether the aircraft were a gift from Iran or whether the Russians were paying for the equipment. According to a report from Reuters, the drones are Shahed-series and Mohajer-6 models that are manufactured in Iran, and one U.S. administration official told the outlet that the drones have experienced "numerous failings." Russia has been slow to adopt drone technology in recent years, a fact worsened by U.S. and Western sanctions that crippled the country's ability to buy the type of technology needed to advance its own drone program. Faced with fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, Iran stepped up and agreed to provide Russia with the unmanned aircraft that are capable of carrying weapons. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have been able to use their own drone program with success since the beginning of the conflict, though Russian forces have become more advanced in jamming or shooting down the drones in recent months. The shipment of Iranian drones comes at the same time the U.S. has redoubled its effort to fund the Ukrainian war effort, announcing last week an aid package worth nearly $3 billion. "The United States of America is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they continue the fight to defend their sovereignty," President Biden said in a statement last week. ---------------- Also, Russians using artillery shells made the same year the Beatles made it big in the USA:
Don't think you know why it was called national socialism. You might want to read some history on that.
The @basso @Space Ghost "I'm an idiot, no I'm an idiot" hour is great but while nobody was paying attention Ukraine launched a big assault up north in addition to the one already underway in Kherson and it's apparently clowning the Russians - again Markos: Russia clearly surmised that Ukraine wouldn’t have juice for offensive operations in two separate theaters. And it guessed that Kherson would be Ukraine’s focus. Undoubtedly, Ukraine was very obvious about its arms buildup around Kherson, leaving armor in open sight of Russian satellites and drones. It undoubtedly did the exact opposite around Kharkiv. So Russia emptied out its forces in the Kharkiv area and around Izyum to bolster their southern flank. *** Therefore, if Ukraine reaches Kupiansk, even its outskirts, they won’t need to push Russian forces out of Izyum. Cut off and isolated, fighting for nothing they care for, mass surrender may be in the cards. Just today I counted around four dozen POWs in various videos. Russians and their proxies don’t seem too afraid to surrender. The quick progress behind enemy lines has proven a bonanza of new equipment for the Ukrainian army. Visually confirmed, Ukraine already has six new tanks, 12 armored personnel carriers, three anti-aircraft guns, five artillery guns, and some other assorted random stuff like trucks. We’ll likely count far more as more video emerges from the advance. https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022...ushes-toward-Kupiansk-Russia-s-logistical-hub
You don't understand - Russia is prospering, dammit. US monetary policy is the root of all problems - it's just a matter of time before Russia takes over.
Did I get this right? They have more or less a month to make gains before autumn rains starts making the ground unreliable for armored vehicles? Looks like EU isn't the only one racing against winter. P.S. loved the tactics and formation overview in that vid.
I'm pretty sure I've been the one mocking everyone talking about how Russia is building back the glorious USSR and taking over Europe . [.media]WhateverMemeFitsMyNarrative[./media]
Kupiansk is a Russian logistical hub, near Kharkiv in the North. The tweet below shows Ukraine's pincer movement from Kharkiv to Kupiansk. Another quote from the kos article linked below Multiple Russian sources have reported that Ukrainian forces are fast approaching Kupiansk, a mere 25 kilometers from Shevchenkove. And we know there’s nothing much defending in the middle, as multiple (gory) videos have emerged of Ukrainian infantry ambushes of Russian vehicles. This one, of a Russian GRAD MLRS rocket artillery, is VERY graphic, so click at your own risk. But I include it to make this important point: GRADs have a 52-kilometer range, they sit way back from the front lines, and they’re being ambushed and destroyed by Ukrainian infantry. This is the rear rear. There are no defensive lines, and Russian forces are being caught by complete surprise. There is also a complete absence of land mines, which is slowing Ukrainian advances around Kherson.
