Russian special military operation in Ukraine #54

There is so much both sides can work on together. It wasn't that long ago NK was the more developed and growing of the two Koreas.

Dr.Snufflebug wrote:
People in the west buy this stuff, which is why the Ukrainian Armed Forces are doing their "calculations" this way these days as well.

People in the west are buying this stuff because it is a part of the racist agenda they all share.
Remember that most of the Nazi higher command made a turn and only a few years later formed the core of the new Bundeswehr.
A NATO alliance member.
They have published tons of memories, and all of that was an obligatory lecture for the other westerners, because "they fought the Soviets so know best!".
And that was a problem.
They didn't.
They have just lost huge.
Process of whitewashing started already when the war was still ongoing.
The "Stalin hordes" concept was nothing new.
To support their own version of events, they have inflated the numbers to absurd level.
None of it withstands fact checks, but it does not matter.
Westerners want to hear this crap because it makes them feel better.
When in the end it turned out, that the Red Army's objective losses were on par with Germany - most of them were simply shocked.
So much shocked that deny these facts.

Just look at the ongoing UkroWar.
We have a very similar scenario and processes.
Westerners want to believe in things.
Ukraine is a small, innocent democracy being gang raped by the Mordor horde of orcs.
It stands bravely and kills them by thousands, yet it will be drowning in orc blood.
But hey, they were winning! And still will win!

I was presenting the detailed numbers a few weeks ago, but the core of the problem is that all the western bibliography repeats the same dumb arguments.
The Red Army was outnumbered when the Barbarossa started. Seriously outnumbered.
Reich was being supported by most of Europe in both resources and manpower.
They have absorbed the waste stocks of war supplies from all conquered countries.
Only Czechoslovakia increased the number of tanks they had over the pre-war limits.
Skoda facility in Pilzen produced more military gear than the whole of the United Kingdom.

kvs wrote:I have my doubts about supplies of 152 mm shells from NK to Russia.   NK needs those shells for its own needs since it looks like WWIII is around the corner.
Russia is not short on production.    I think that there are all sorts of deals with NK including ICBM tech, but shell supply to the Ukr front is not one of them.
Perhaps this was a symbolic slap at South Korea for supply shells to the Ukr front via the USA.  
   

NK has piled stocks of ammunition they have been producing for 70 years.
All that ammo has some shell lifetime, and after that becomes unstable.
It is getting dangerous to operate.
The disposal process is costly and energy-consuming.
You need to melt down the TNT that was poured into the shell body at the production.
NK is, mildly saying, not in the best economic shape.
And in a serious energy deficit due to UN sanctions.
If you ask me - I highly doubt if they have ever bothered to dispose of it properly.
Which makes their warehouses overloaded - as easy as that.
Before 2014, Ukrainian "ammunition depots" were piles of rusty shells accumulated without any protection, in open air.
They didn't have enough warehouse infrastructure to accommodate the giant stocks left after the dissolution of the SU.

Giving old stocks away, de facto resolves this problem.
Those trains and ships don't go there empty.

The same applies to Iranians. A quadruple hike in sea transport on the Caspian.
What is there in all those containers, that required four time the numbers?
Apples?

Big_Gazza wrote:
Compared to whom?  Europe?  

Compared to countries that don't face energy shortages and electrification rate is higher than half of the population.
So yes, accidentally it might be "Europe" in general.

A friend of mine visited Pyongyang two years ago.
Blackouts during the day were usual practice.
Sometimes there was no electricity all night long.

But I guess you have much better and closer observations.

Since the beginning of this year, in 77 days, aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces have dropped more than 3,500 aerial bombs on Ukrainian positions, which is 16 times more than in 2023, said Deputy Minister of Defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ivan Gavrilyuk.

GarryB wrote:

I seem to remember California having similar problems while at the same time NOT being under economic sanctions by the entire western world.
Perhaps they want a floating nuclear power plant... how much 152mm artillery shells would pay for that... I am guessing a lot.
Lots of countries around the world are having problems with electricity shortages because the new solar and wind generation projects they all started don't seem to be living up to the hype.
Europe might not be having blackouts like North Korea, but they are destroying the planet by powering up coal fired power stations to prevent blackouts.

California's blackouts are because of the prehistoric electrical grid and overwhelming consumption.
They have problems because everybody is turning on AC units.
Judge on your own how close is that to NK daily issues.

Ouch, that will hurt ...

We have a resident of this forums who traveled to NK.  He can give insight.

That said, the whole NK economic disaster of the early 90's was a factor of natural disaster (earthquake) that devastated the agriculture industry and the Soviet unions collapse.  NK stagnated since then.

They still have a ton of industries that work. These are goods, especially in form apparel that would work very well (especially silk).  NK could also be a place for Russia to help produce machinery and other tech. NK can get a lot out of this deals with Russia while Russia can get cheaper products.

Eugenio Argentina wrote: Spectacular and accurate hit by an LMUR guided missile on the position of Ukrainian FPV drone operators.

The non Telegram version