A perfectly valid question since Ukraine, and people who support Ukraine, will both try to argue that the DPR and LPR are part of Ukraine, but will also deny that there are any pro-Russian Ukrainians. It can't be both ways. Either there is a large portion of the Ukrainian population that wants to break away from Ukraine and supports Russia, or Ukraine is the aggressor against a group of people it does not consider to be part of Ukraine.
Regardless though, it's a completely moot point since we know for a fact there is a substantial amount of pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine even outside of the Donbas region because Ukraine has been very open about trying to suppress said sentiment.
Again, that is trying to have a political discussion when the matters are military in nature. The people in the DPR and LPR are not really a consideration when the invasion is moving past the separatist regions and advancing towards Western Ukraine. National identity isn't the problem here, it's the actual conditions on the ground. And Russian troops had to shoot into the air and toss flash grenades to disperse protesters telling them to go home. Ukraine suppressing pro-Russian sentiment ironically drives more people to welcome Russian troops so that's not actually reducing the number of people who'd welcome the invasion.
Who knows what they consider a hit? Let's say that the missile actuators actually fail and it whiffs the tank by a couple inches, the heat warhead discharges into the ground, and you still get a big ass explosion and dust cloud, and Ivan's buddy reloading the javelin wonders why that hit did nothing. Or it hits the tracks instead of the main hull, or it hits the engine deck and knocks out the engine without the tank going up in a big fireball, etc..
An interesting hypothesis are the control surfaces working, but then for whatever reason either the fuses don't set off the warhead or only the smaller charge detonates.
If the warhead doesn't detonate at all, it results in the missile crashing and burning like that NLAW fired from a window, which looks like a hit.
If the front charge detonates and the rear one doesn't, the damage is only from the charge meant to set off ERA.
Failures in the actuators would just result in missiles going dumb and flying straight as the commands sent by the control unit did not have an effect on the flight surfaces.
In addition, how do these damaged tanks 'prove' that Javelins don't work, these tanks can be getting hit from AT4s or even fucking RPG-7s.
Also mandatory information about Ritter.
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Ahahahaha oh wow
Apparently he fell for stings in 2001 and 2009.
Um, no. The people of the DPR and LPR declared their independence from the illegitimate coup regime in Kiev.
Meh. The president hired thugs to intimidate protesters and even tried to get the army involved, ended up passing laws which suppressed dissent.
The fucking "coup" was a corrupt government official fleeing the country and the parliament voting to remove him from power.
The people of Crimea voted not just to break away from Kiev but to rejoin the Russian Federation.
No. They were given the option to join the RF or return to the 1992 constitution. Which was in itself confusing because there were two constitutions written in 1992, one where Crimea is independent and the other where Crimea is part of Ukraine. Full independence would be a disaster for Crimea so the only option was joining the RF.