The public sentiment regarding the Ukraine-Russia conflict displays a complex mix of overwhelming support and admiration for Ukrainian forces, alongside significant frustration towards NATO and U.S. responses to Russian aggression. While many commenters celebrate Ukraine's military achievements and the bravery of its soldiers, there is a strong call for more decisive action and criticism of perceived inaction from Western leaders. The comments reflect both hope for Ukraine's future and concern about the high human costs of the war.

NATO

United States

Ukraine

Ah, the standard senior member of military branch X says military branch X in serious need of more funding due to perceived threat only branch X can counter story.

Patch95

Well, probably need to factor in that we don’t have air defence set up specifically for a situation like that hence why it didn’t turn out well. Given our distance from Russia, there would be probably two scenarios:


1. Russian aircraft would probably be shot down en-route, given the various different countries in between us and them and we’d probably have a fair amount of warning. If Russia was launching missions against us we’d already be at war with them.

2. If Russian aircraft did get into a scenario like this successfully, we’d already be knackered because of the lack of anything between us and Russia stopping them. Again, said war would be going terribly.


In a real life scenario, we would’ve escalated and prepared for an attack like this because the warning signs would be there. Just another scaremongering piece.

ImABrickwallAMA

You can't read the linked article without opening an account...

[deleted]

Is this a surprise? The UK does not meaningfully have air defences.   
  
The Army Air defences are limited to CAMM point defence systems. 

The Navy has six destroyers capable of area air defence, which is an incredibly vulnerable way to defend yourself. 

The Air Force relies entirely on fighters for air defence, which is relatively limited when considering ballistic missile attack. 

We simply do not have systems like the US Patriot or the Russian S-300. 

The defence infrastructure of the United Kingdom is basically predicated on the idea that an attack on mainland UK is responded to with nuclear weapons. That has been the case for decades.

Happytallperson

Best thing Ukraine did in the first days was in the battle of Antonov Airport where they damaged their own airport to a point where it could not be used to airlift Russian troops in. Would UK forces be willing to damage their own infrastructure on that way?

Frosty_Customer_9243

Did they account for the residents of Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and the entirety of Scotland?

burner4lyf25

This ignore the fact that for the northern fleet to mobilise, or to get anything in striking range of the uk it will have to go round or through our allies, and we would have plenty of warning, hours for aircraft and days for ships. 

Generally military sims do numerous runs w a wide range of variables and greatly over estimate the strength of our enemies and underestimate that of our allies, in other words the worst case scenario and try to fight agasint that. Cus it’s better to over achieve than underachieve. 

Ultimately u cannot give an accurate guess at all on what would happen cus there are way too many variables.

And one thing is for sure, if Russia tries to strike anywhere on our island u can be damn well sure the rest of Europe will get involved.

Which is something that sim does not take into account,

RECTUSANALUS

Sim was in 2022.

Article says improvements since 2022.

No retest?

Just concern about modern warfare, namely drones. Fair enough. Solvable.

But the backstop is still the nuclear deterrent.

Critical_Quiet7972

Well then hopefully we'll wake the fuck up and remember that Americans won't be coming to save our ass this time.

OminOus_PancakeS

Really? Because i remember russia initially losing multiple troop planes just by incompetence?

steepleton

Feels like something military would not openly admit

apple_kicks

Should we be saying all this stuff..you know…out loud?!

charlotterbeee

The title alone is enough. No need for data or elaborations. Triple the defense budget

zack189

Massive exaggeration of what was said. I wouldn't take this too seriously.

AliceKite

Hey the Labour Party should, if it’s serious about preparing for a similar attack to Ukraine, lift all restrictions on private small arms ownership and teach all high school kids some basic field craft, how to use an automatic weapon and build drones.

happierinverted

Military people want more money for military stuff, what a surprise.

Cutwail

what targets would they be hitting in that simualtion? radar sites and airfields?

Virtual-Guitar-9814

It will probably totally destroy the economy as the UK is heavily dependent on capital inflows from abroad.

About time they did something about it eh?

Or just scratch your ass in government and blame someone else….. but I had my thumb up my own ass that simulation didn’t count.

Particular_Advance84

S400 and patriots struggle with ballistic missile interceptions especially hypersonic ones, no shit UK would struggle. It just doesn't have assets to deal with that.

Datnick

Air defence of the UK is comfortably one of the worst aspects of our military.

fitzgoldy

Well, let’s pack it up and head home. No point wasting our time. Maybe we can buy some new stuff from Trump.

IlluminatedCookie

I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty if we just sat back and just let Russia attack us, it is true our military needs funding and modernization but lets not pretend we don't have the intelligence and capability to detect and intercept a force capable of carrying out a significant threat, we need to pull our finger out but were not helpless.

WrinkyNinja

Grim Reapers youtube channel did some PC-based video wargames on a Russian missile attack on the UK.  

Obviously nowhere as sophisticated or realistic as the MoD wargame system.  

But interesting to watch to get a feel for some of the tactics that might be employed and issues arising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwIGfabvzHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeUnrwAEOoc

stovenn

The whole military needs more money. Raise the spending up to 4% and help British defence companies grow. Write a new law demanding we buy from british sovreign companies for 90% of our weapons and material. The rest we buy from europe. We need to be as robust as usa, china, india and russia when it comes to sustainability and production in war time

FluidLock1999

The US have also had "not pretty" results in war games.     What was the scenario?

https://www.realcleardefense.com/2024/10/30/how_the_us_military_lost_a_250_million_war_game_in_minutes_1068747.html#:~:text=Secret%20for%2020%20years%2C%20a,conflicts%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Afghanistan.

goobervision

In the era of attack drones, hypersonic missiles and electronic warfare, are helicopters a thing of the past?

Blamire

I recall during my service (late 90s to early 2000s) there was a huge exercise planned between the UK &amp; US.  It was meant to last over a week with thousands of troops involved. 
At the time the RAF had the Tornado strike fighter.  As the clock to the exercise beginning struck, Tornado’s at high altitude simulated a strike against the US command centre. The simulation proved effective and ended the whole exercise within an hour of starting.

The edge - was technology. Back then the UK had it, with Stormshadow and other less known gear.

We need that edge again.

War creates innovation and we have skin in the game with Ukraine. Let us hope our innovators get the resources they need.

ManxMerc

That’s why UK and allies should do that first. A single very thorough round is enough to eliminate the issue for a century.

no mention if the Orwell Bridge, apparently a very juicy yet soft target for russia.

It's terrible, we'd lose Ipswich town centre, some big roundabouts in Milton Keynes and the Granada service station outside Stansted in the first 24 hours.

retrofauxhemian

In fairness though our defence isn’t about withstanding that type of attack , it’s about the retaliation that follows it and the NATO alliance.

Ukriane’s problem was not being part of such an alliance. It’s why any peace deal should involve NATO membership

Wild-Lengthiness2695

This can be solved relatively easy by acquiring more sky sabre batteries and the SAMPT

Xylem15

What a shocker.......well not really if I have known  that for years so the Ovvand military top brass should have known too

RAF819

How many of our historic wars would we have lost if they had only been run in a simulator, sure we could do with more defence but what are we going to give up? Or whose will to pay the extra tax for it. This is the same vain as we should increase funding for the NHS, build more prisons, get more police etc etc. what are people willing to pay for. 

Oh I know we need to tax the wealth or waste less money, let’s face it none of our political parties have the capability or will power to do either of those things.

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AutoModerator

Tell me Trumps not following PUTIN’s orders.

slywav

Excellent time for MBDA to step in with SAMP/T.

purpleduckduckgoose

radio3030

Routine_Shine5808

Good. They will be backdoored anyway. European is best.

drproc90

No, TRUMP refuses. If it were up to me and most patriots in this country, you'd have your AA systems.

Lui_Le_Diamond

Why? I mean I already know why, but just more money for the MIC. 

Unabashable

Ukraine must develop its own deterrence capabilities. Historically, nuclear deterrence has been the most effective.

Kuklachev

Mike5473

Fvck it's funny watching the musk/trump fallout that EVERYONE knew was going to happen.

SnooHedgehogs8765

ZombieIMMUNIZED

Fucking shoot those ruso terrorist missles down!

mofo222

Complex-Sir-6125

EU has to at least protect its own airspace. Russians violate your airspace not once, particularly in Baltic. This looks like an impotence!

pragmasoft

&gt; Poland, together with allied countries, scrambled military aircraft overnight on May 25 in response to Russia’s combined attack on Ukraine. Additionally, ground-based air defense systems and radar reconnaissance units were put on high alert, according to the Twitter (X) account of the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces.

&gt; The statement from the Polish military department says that due to the attack by Russia, which is striking targets located on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aviation have begun operations in our airspace.

&gt;The Polish side notes that these actions are carried out in accordance with established procedures.

&gt;The Polish Operational Command added that the operational commander deployed all available forces and resources at his disposal, with fighter jet pairs scrambled into the air, and ground-based air defense systems and radar reconnaissance reaching the highest state of readiness.

MothersMiIk

Trump has clearly given Russia new confidence knowing that the US won't do anything and are probably going to reduce help to Ukraine.  Europe are still dragging their heels and have admitted they can't really do much without the US.  And UK's 'Coalition of the Willing' has achieved very little, if anything, and will likely slowly disband and be forgotten.

I'm so ashamed to be British.  We're giving Ukraine minimal help at their time of greatest need.  

Oh, and fuck Trump.

cuppachuppa

Europe needs to close the sky over Ukraine

Limp-Machine-6026

Mikey129

Same and same again... not a proper action against Russia. Fuck Russia

Nostradamus_of_past

why they did it??? several times russians missiles were on theirs territory and they did nothing. blind position. shame.

Andrew_Secret

Useless posturing and a waste of resources. Maybe try putting these air assets to use or something.

space_vogel

Nice training exercise for them. Fly around and watch the missiles and drones hit targets or be intercepted by a competent fighting force.

Same thing they’ve done for over 3 years.

Coldsmoke888

TheLatis

I’ll be honest.. I still find this conflict heart breaking. And it’s never lost to my mind that it’s just ordinary Ukrainians having to upturn their lives for this shit. And it’s ordinary people being intentionally targeted in these attacks on cities.. it’s like fucking shit out of WW1 and WW2… i

ZeroEqualsOne

Europe is repeating the same mistake I've seen countless times in market fluctuations - waiting too long to hedge against obvious risk. Poland launching air patrols is like finally buying insurance after your house catches fire. During my recent business trip to Warsaw last quarter, locals expressed concern about Russia's territorial aggression, yet NATO's collective response resembles an undercapitalized startup rather than the military alliance with the economic might of $40+ trillion GDP. Markets reward decisive action, and Putin's regime only responds to strength - something I've observed repeatedly in both geopolitics and when analyzing Russian market dynamics at vtrader.io.

Vtrader_io

And those "patrols" are going to do what with Russia?

Major-Ursa-7711

There's gonna be some kinda altercation between Russia and Poland and then it's ww3. Jeez.

Suitable_Ad6848

Are they going to shoot them down, or are they going to gently escort these lost suicide drones out of NATO airspace so they can go kill Ukrainians?

PayasoVolador

Why can’t Ukraine and everyone else attack inside Russia? This is already a full scale war where there are little to no repercussions for Russia. They cannot be reasoned with.

JamIsJam88

Budget-Engineer-7780

Fact is that Europe/Nato is not ready for a war with Russia at the moment. Europe needs time. To get enough equipment, for countries to work together, to prepare it's civilians. We haven't done enough the past 25 years. And now we all see the priority.

And in the meantime we can only look at what's happening to Ukraine. I wish we could do more right now. But i don't think we can.

We have to do something in the near in the future though, there is no other way. When we are ready we have to take action. For the future of Ukraine and Europe.

Potential-Delay-4487

The US are just waiting for Russia to o take over Ukraine so the US can take over Greenland +++, China will now take over Taiwan without the threat of the US, because Trump isn’t interested in the land anymore as he’s got want he wants from the land, he’s already taken a team of the intelligence to build his chips to the US so they don’t have to rely on China’s chip to build their phones.
The whole world now is being run by Narcissists Murders all with Greed in their eyes no more love your neighbours it’s l WANT,  I WANT AND I WILL GET WHAT L WANT!! And if we don’t get want we want we will just have a Hissy fit and TAKE IT !!!! Just run by a buch of self righteous idiots!!!!!! We need to get all of these NASTY so called leaders of the world that are killing innocent people and put them in an Arena together and let them all fight to the death without killing all of these families trying to just protect their own loved ones 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

No_Elderberry7123

Edited: Sarcasm!

Given the unrest Ukraine is causing by not surrendering in this not-a-war to Russia. Maybe Poland should create a 50-100km buffer zone in Ukrainian airspace to control the flights and protect its own air. Of course, this is nothing against Russia is to make sure that the Polish air defense will capture all lost Ukrainian missiles before they hit Poland

PriorityMuted8024

found808

West military complex needs this war for money.

It’s cool. It's your own fault. Every day 100 drones are shot down over Russia. For May 8. Russia will win 100%

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So not only did they hit the bombers but they might have hit cruise missiles as well, destroyed them on the ground...... Jesus, what a hell of a hit on russia.

GaryDWilliams_

One of the most ingenious operations I’ve ever seen.

Geopoliticsandbongs

And to think they planned this all one year ahead.

Puzzleheaded-Cap1300

Russia demanding Ukraine reduce its armed forces and not join NATO is like a burglar demanding you keep your front door unlocked and forbid you from getting a burglar alarm.

BreakerSoultaker

The timing on a strike operation that has been planned and executed in stages over a year and a half is unlikely to be executed or altered significantly based on intelligence of an impending significant Russian attack.

Ukraine hit five air bases, bases that Russia likely have maintained a recognizable pattern of activity at over time allowing Ukraine to both plan and assess a high probability of success of finding as well as hitting these targets.

From the operation received final go/ no-go approval it likely took days from the cargo items (drone hosts) were loaded until they arrived at their destination. All five at the same morning hundreds if not thousands of km apart from another. You do not improvise on such a delivery schedule when your primary strength is operational surprise and parallel assaults.

You do not wing it at the end of such a long and difficult operation simply because target rich environments might get somewhat richer. This makes little sense given the level of planning, resources and preparations committed.

Sometimes coincidences happen.

RealSuggestion9247

Good.  So people can fuck off with the "provocation by Ukraine" bullshit.  It won't stop them from saying it anyway, of course

Severe_Intention_480

Well that blew up in the Kremlin’s face. Figuratively and literally.

Kan4lZ0n3

To be fair, Ukraine attacking Russian war machines always made sense.

KitchenBomber

I believe this is called preemptive retaliation.

Nice one, Ukraine. RuZZia is high on copium.

Random-Mutant

Clearly we have some very deep insiders, thanks to those brave guys.

Breech_Loader

Thanks for alerting me to this channel. That was a great summary

AlexFromOgish

so if a cruise missile was blown up, would it make the same mess as if it flown into something....obviously i know squat about this stuff

Ill_Locksmith5729

RockingRocker

But they hadn’t even taken the tires off yet

That explains why you can see on the drone footage, that some of them already had missiles mounted under their wings.

ShineReaper

Really...he's using Sushko as a source ? haha

red_keshik

What does the video talk about? I’m getting ‘content not available.’

coffeespeaking

Offender1338

They killed the cabinet.

And tomorrow there is a new cabinet.

People who consider themselves irreplaceable (sociopaths) always make the error of thinking everyone is like them.

CardOk755

I thought the Arab world rode for each other… they sure attacked us when they get pissed off.

reddithater212

whoopercheesie

Recent reports indicate a significant escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, highlighted by Ukrainian F-16 jets successfully intercepting a large number of Russian missile strikes.

Ukraine-Russia Conflict and Air Defense Operations

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

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What the people want