Putin, arse, elbow

[ajohn]

It seems unlikely the Russians are going to manage to feed a supply line much further west, unless they can use Transnistria as a base.

That's why I don't think Odessa will see any more than it has done so far. The Russians will be well aware of the tunnels there as well. Miles of them with entries all over the place.

More people have come out of the steel works. Reports of a Russian ship being hit. Report that Russia has launched from a submarine.

Given the nature of most of the fighting I think progress will be slow and drag on. Most of it involves taking various sizes of population centres which is what the Ukrainian troops are defending. It would be interesting to know what equipment they have and where it is. The defence seems to mostly result in troops retreating back into the population centres. The weapons supplied means tanks and helicopters can't be used as they might be to shift troops / get them in. Tanks have to work at range. They have been shown doing that several times - both sides but I did see Ukraine troops closely following a couple of tanks in a field but would suspect it was a training exercise. Or maybe a way through lines away from population centres.

A UK centre for strategic studies man reckons neither side has air superiority. Russians have more so in the east and Ukraine more so in the west. He put in down to Ukraine's mobile anti aircraft stuff and Russia mostly needing to use low level attacks that drop bombs. I did see one of the radar units these use with a pretty severe hole it in it. There is also self propelled units - one Ukraine one shown damaged. No idea how many they have.

 

[ajohn]

USA inflation 15 billion 1948 --> 165 billion 2022

At least. The UK got a fair piece of it as well. The basic idea was to modernise Europe as well as the more obvious ones.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

At least. The UK got a fair piece of it as well. The basic idea was to modernise Europe as well as the more obvious ones.

Germany did rather well out of it - we took there old equipment and machine tools, they got all new

 

[ajohn]

It seems the $33b Ukraine aid still hasn't been voted on
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rs-in-congress-on-immigration-abortion-fights

It seems it will cover Ukraine until September.

Germany did rather well out of it - we took there old equipment and machine tools, they got all new

More a case of some businesses taken as I understand it. Diana airguns for one. There is a lot of fiction about German machine tools compared with the UK's in this period and after. These days their businesses are prepared to spend more on manufacture. Take cars. Toyota looks to be the biggest again followed by Volkswagen. Toyota's growth from next to nothing when it just sold in Japan is fascinating.

 

[ajohn]

Odessa has been hit by some missiles (2?). Airport and another area by the sound of it. Plenty of smoke in the distance, firefighters mentioned. AlJ have one of their Arab reporters there. Also mention of several hits on southern cities this past week.

 

[transam]

Looks like Putin has lost another boat to a fire

Finland about to join nato bringing an army of over 230000 to the alliance

and 900000 trained reservists

 

[JohnD]

Finland is one of the countries that was attacked and invaded by vlad's predecessor

countries that have been occupied by russia are desperate to avoid it happening again

hence Ukrainians fighting like tigers.

 

[transam]

Swedes are likely to follow Finland into Nato (?)

 

[ajohn]

Swedes are likely to follow Finland into Nato (?)

I heard that applications will be later this year. The Finland fight is said to have been down to the boarder being rather close to Moscow - result the boarder was moved a bit. It was a fairly open boarder and some Russians have used it to leave. Numbers ~100,000+ mentioned also some into Georgia who it seems are worried about who they are letting in.

 

[Justin Passing]

to kickstart growth, recovery and peaceful prosperity in the war-shattered countries

and to avoid the suffering, poverty and resentement caused by the Treaty of Versailles that fuelled the resumption of WWI after scarcely a 20 year pause.

For the records and the naive yes, but it wasn't generous enough for much of any of that. Look at the amounts compared with the GDPs of the countries at the time. 1-3%

 

[JohnD]

For the records and the naive yes, but it wasn't generous enough for much of any of that.

west germany was pretty satisfied and recovered well.

 

[ajohn]

Germany did rather well out of it - we took there old equipment and machine tools, they got all new

The largest recipient of Marshall Plan money was the United Kingdom (receiving about 50% of the total), but the enormous cost that Britain incurred through the "Lend-Lease" scheme was not fully re-paid to the US until 2006.[4] The next highest contributions went to France (8%) and West Germany (12%). Some eighteen European countries received Plan benefits.[5] Although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as Romania and Poland.[6] The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not part of the Marshall Plan.[C]

 

[ajohn]

May as well add the rest of it
Lend-Lease, formally introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (Pub.L. 77–11, H.R. 1776, 55 Stat. 31, enacted March 11, 1941),[1] was a policy under which the United States supplied Great Britain, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was given on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States; this aid included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended on September 20, 1945. In general, the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. Canada operated a similar smaller program called Mutual Aid.
A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $690 billion in 2020) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[2] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to the other Allies. Reverse Lend-Lease policies comprised services such as rent on air bases that went to the U.S., and totaled $7.8 billion; of this, $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. The terms of the agreement provided that the materiel was to be used until returned or destroyed. In practice, very little equipment was returned and most was destroyed during the war. Supplies that arrived after the termination date were sold to the United Kingdom at a large discount for £1.075 billion, using long-term loans from the United States. Canada's Mutual Aid program sent a loan of $1 billion and $3.4 billion in supplies and services to the United Kingdom and other Allies.[

 

[ajohn]

And a bit more
Lend-Lease effectively ended the United States' pretense of neutrality which had been enshrined in the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s. It was a decisive step away from non-interventionist policy and toward open support for the Allies. Roosevelt's top foreign policy advisor Harry Hopkins had effective control over Lend-Lease, making sure it was in alignment with Roosevelt's foreign policy goals.[

 

[IT Minion]

Both sides are short of equipment. It seems unlikely the Russians are going to manage to feed a supply line much further west, unless they can use Transnistria as a base.

Russia is heavily reliant on rail for supply routes. But water is also far, far superior to road in terms of tonnage.

One of the many reasons that the Ukrainian ports are high up the Russian priority list.

In other news, if we wanted to read the Wikipedia article on the Marshall plan then we'd go read it there.