What's going on in Ukraine?

[tabascoboy]

There's a NATO exercise in Romania but it's still wild to see a B-52 on station over the Black Sea. Russians must be losing their minds. This is what flying attack drones that hit a NATO member's territory buys you.

[sockwithaticket]

They'd have died without causing everyone else so much trouble if there were some sort of benevolent higher power.

[TB63]

[Hellraiser]

Biletsky released a video of the Russians deliberately shelling their own men who tried to surrender at Andriivka.

[yermum]

Drone calling for the surrender by loudspeaker

[geordie_6]

Nobody does anything!? They literally just drive round and carry on...

[inactionman]

I feel sick.

That was utterly dreadful, in all possible ways.

[Hellraiser]

Nobody does anything!? They literally just drive round and carry on...

Welcome to Russkiy mir.

[Hellraiser]

Fatalism is hardwired into the Slavs generally but Russians are particularly deterministic

This is Luhansk. It's what a decade of Russian occupation produces.

[geordie_6]

Nobody does anything!? They literally just drive round and carry on...

Welcome to Russkiy mir.

Fair!

[Hellraiser]

3rd Seperate Assault Brigade clearing Avdiivka.

[Openside]

WTAF?? no one takes any notice at all

[Flockwitt]

Was checking out the latest gen Vector drones Ukraine is due to receive from Germany and came across this useful resource. A bunch of related article links at the bottom of the article.

https://www.technology.org/2023/02/02/u ... es-vector/

[Hellraiser]

Azov really are terrible at being Nazis.

A Ukrainian fighter, a Jew from the special forces brigade "Azov" with the call sign "Rabbi", is glad to meet his pilgrim friend during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah in Uman.

Photo: Wladyslaw Musienko

@yigal_levin

[Hellraiser]

[tabascoboy]

On 17.09.1939, at ~4am, the USSR attacked Poland. Without declaring war, under the pretence of a “liberation campaign”. The similarities to the actions of the USSR’s successor state are obvious and eerie. Both then & now, they count ignorance & apathy of the world

[Hellraiser]

Klishchiivka has been cleared and retaken.

[tabascoboy]

Not enough medals

[tabascoboy]

In The Hague at the UN International Court of Justice hearings began in the case against the russian federation on charges of violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of Genocide.

Ukraine proves that the russian federation manipulated when it argued for a full-scale invasion by saying that it wanted to protect people in Donbas from genocide.

The court will hear arguments from the parties within two weeks.

[tabascoboy]

It's being claimed that Kadyrov had a kidney transplant but it was rejected by the host, and he is now being prepared for a second transplant attempt. Hopefully the kidney will be alright but it will reject the host...

[tabascoboy]

it's considered that the starboard damage is from an explosion on the interior after the sub was struck...

Somebody leaked footages of the Russian submarine “Rostov on Don”, which got hit by Ukrainian missiles (likely Stormshadow).

The bow of the submarine received a direct hit. Additionally, there is an impact at the starboard side.

You can strike this ship from the list.

[tabascoboy]

Jens Stoltenberg explains again what Putin proposed NATO before the invasion of Ukraine.

"So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders"

"The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn't sign that.

The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that.
So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite" Jens Stoltenberg said.

Now the vatniks are claiming that the NATO boss admitted that NATO provoked Putin’s bloody war.

NATO was right not to sign Putin’s trap.
But If NATO not went eastward, Putin would have went Westward. That’s proven in Ukraine.

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"Crisis? What crisis?"


*Coughs* Russia raises interest rate to 13% as economy struggles

By raising borrowing costs, the central bank is trying to fight price increases as Russia imports more and exports less, especially oil and natural gas, with defence spending going up and sanctions taking a toll. Importing more and exporting less means a smaller trade surplus, which typically weighs on a country’s currency.

"Export revenues from oil sales are our most important source of income. These incomes have already decreased by about 40-45 per cent, and it looks like this trend will continue," said Ruslan Grinberg, scientific director of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Unemployment - or the lack of it - is also a problem. Even before the war, Russia had an issue with its low birth rate which meant it had a smaller workforce to draw on. Since the invasion there's been a brain drain of talent to former Soviet states such as Georgia and many men have been conscripted into the military.

"The Russian economy is working at the limit, at the absolute limit of its capabilities. And this can be verified, first of all, by such an indicator as unemployment, which is at historically low levels. This means that there is literally no one to work in the country," explained Alexandra Prokopenko, from the Berlin-based Center for East European and International Studies.

"When there is no one to work, it means that production capacity is pushed beyond reasonable limits. So the Russian economy is trying its best to overcome the pressure it’s facing after Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine."

And yet the Russian government recently improved its forecast for economic growth for 2023 to 2.8% and predicted that next year GDP will increase by 2.3%.

[Hellraiser]

[Hellraiser]

[Slick]

What are we watching here? And why have they got hi-vis on? Incredibly depressing scenes.

[Hellraiser]

What are we watching here? And why have they got hi-vis on? Incredibly depressing scenes.

Ukrainian troops advancing at Avdiivka. The tape has been ever present since the start of the invasion, blue, yellow, and green, to identify friend from foe. The Russians use white and red. I'm very surprised you never noticed this before.

[Slick]

Thank you

I'm very surprised you never noticed this before.

I've tended not to watch too many of the videos to be honest, not good at seeing the reality

[Guy Smiley]

Thank you

I'm very surprised you never noticed this before.

I've tended not to watch too many of the videos to be honest, not good at seeing the reality

Same for me. While I've got some emotional investment in seeing Russia defeated and reduced, I'm not so keen on the war porn.

[Hellraiser]

Thank you

I'm very surprised you never noticed this before.

I've tended not to watch too many of the videos to be honest, not good at seeing the reality

Same for me. While I've got some emotional investment in seeing Russia defeated and reduced, I'm not so keen on the war porn.

It's not war porn though. Any mainstream news media footage of Ukrainian infantry, or Russian for that matter, will show or have shown tape on uniforms and helmets over the last 17 months.

Now that being said the Russians seem to have abandoned tape in the last six months, which I attribute to increasing amounts of chmobiks and prisoners in the ranks. The contract professionals might get it, but those two groups are just meat.

[TB63]

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[inactionman]

I suppose all these FPV and drone footage give a previously unseen view of conflict, but that is ultimately a video of someone dying.

Sort of obvious from the text that it wouldn't be pleasant, but could I ask that anything featuring death is spoilered?

I know they're the 'invaders' in the broadest sense, and god knows many of their comrades have performed some dreadful acts, but I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a degree of sympathy for Russians who are dragged to front lines simply to die is an uncomprehending terror - it's still horrific to watch.

Eta: Top man TB63, ta mate

[tabascoboy]

Whether this is reliable and verifiable is an open question but very revealing if this has informed recent Russian policy and is not just some think-tank report. Worth noting that "The report was prepared at the request of the Russian Presidential Administration". In essence to create a vast depopulated buffer state existing purely as an agrarian economy and enforcing effectively slave labour in Siberia from "resettlement".

Karaganov prepared a secret report for Putin. For migrants - everything, for Russians - deportation to Siberia and hard labor

If we talk about Ukraine, the team of authors considers it reasonable within the framework of the Northern Military District to annex the south-eastern regions of Ukraine, followed by “intensive ideological indoctrination similar to that of the GDR with the displacement of nationalist elements.” “Do not annex most of the Right Bank, but destroy the transport, energy, industrial infrastructure, turning the region (possibly dividing it with its neighbors) into an agricultural outskirts, preventing its use for military purposes (puppet government(s), military bases)," they suggest They. The main thing in resolving the “Ukrainian issue,” in their opinion, is to transform the region into “a friendly buffer on our borders with the West.” The authors believe that a program is needed to resettle 1–2 million people into existing cities in Siberia, as well as for the development of new spaces. They propose to send prisoners of war and convicts during the Northern War to the construction of transport routes, especially meridian ones, connecting Russia with Asia and with the Arctic Ocean.

https://newsland-com.translate.goog/pos ... r_pto=wapp


See also: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1703 ... 50945.html

[Brazil]

Whether this is reliable and verifiable is an open question but very revealing if this has informed recent Russian policy and is not just some think-tank report. Worth noting that "The report was prepared at the request of the Russian Presidential Administration". In essence to create a vast depopulated buffer state existing purely as an agrarian economy and enforcing effectively slave labour in Siberia from "resettlement".

Karaganov prepared a secret report for Putin. For migrants - everything, for Russians - deportation to Siberia and hard labor

If we talk about Ukraine, the team of authors considers it reasonable within the framework of the Northern Military District to annex the south-eastern regions of Ukraine, followed by “intensive ideological indoctrination similar to that of the GDR with the displacement of nationalist elements.” “Do not annex most of the Right Bank, but destroy the transport, energy, industrial infrastructure, turning the region (possibly dividing it with its neighbors) into an agricultural outskirts, preventing its use for military purposes (puppet government(s), military bases)," they suggest They. The main thing in resolving the “Ukrainian issue,” in their opinion, is to transform the region into “a friendly buffer on our borders with the West.” The authors believe that a program is needed to resettle 1–2 million people into existing cities in Siberia, as well as for the development of new spaces. They propose to send prisoners of war and convicts during the Northern War to the construction of transport routes, especially meridian ones, connecting Russia with Asia and with the Arctic Ocean.

https://newsland-com.translate.goog/pos ... r_pto=wapp


See also: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1703 ... 50945.html

It doesn't seem improbable - in Prisoners of Geography Marshall observes that the existence of Ukraine must give Putin nightmares because it's a direct avenue for an invading force to get to Moscow. The fact that nobody has had any intention of driving tanks to Moscow for some time seems to have been the missing element from Putin's strategic calculus, unfortunately.

[tabascoboy]

[Uncle fester]

I suppose all these FPV and drone footage give a previously unseen view of conflict, but that is ultimately a video of someone dying.

Sort of obvious from the text that it wouldn't be pleasant, but could I ask that anything featuring death is spoilered?

I know they're the 'invaders' in the broadest sense, and god knows many of their comrades have performed some dreadful acts, but I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a degree of sympathy for Russians who are dragged to front lines simply to die is an uncomprehending terror - it's still horrific to watch.

Eta: Top man TB63, ta mate

I'm mostly "fück them" but ponder on what I'd do in such a situation. Can imagine that suicide rates must be through the roof.

[Sinkers]

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A surprising amount of coverage of this war seems to be some poor fucker sitting in a hole in the ground on his lonesome.

Yes, I know they’re Russians, Orcs, invaders etc but it’s f’ing depressing to watch and you have to give a thought what it must be like to be in their shoes.

[TB63]

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A surprising amount of coverage of this war seems to be some poor fucker sitting in a hole in the ground on his lonesome.

Yes, I know they’re Russians, Orcs, invaders etc but it’s f’ing depressing to watch and you have to give a thought what it must be like to be in their shoes.

I did see one vid, taken from a drone that had just dropped a grenade on a soldier, he rolled on his back, unclipped and sprung a grenade off his belt and held it to his head..

Can't get that vision out of my mind..

[inactionman]

I know it sounds weird, but it's Putin's treatment of his own countrymen that I find the most disturbing.

Fighting a war of conquest (for whatever reason - opening up warm weather ports, fossil fuels, food etc) at least has its own rationale and I can at least see why. I hate him for it, mind, and my heart bleeds for the Ukrainians, but I can comprehend it.

Just not giving a shit about people you're supposed to represent, not giving them food and shelter, medical aid, any means of defending themselves, up to the point of needlessly butchering them - it's just so callous, its so far beyond the pale.

I just can't fathom being in that position, but then I thought the same about 'soldiers' at Stalingrad just being sent into slaughter with one rifle between two men. It's such a weird culture. I read Dimbleby's travelogue of Russia and he admits to finding is a bleak, depressing place, there's' just something in the culture that is so sinister.

[inactionman]

I suppose all these FPV and drone footage give a previously unseen view of conflict, but that is ultimately a video of someone dying.

Sort of obvious from the text that it wouldn't be pleasant, but could I ask that anything featuring death is spoilered?

I know they're the 'invaders' in the broadest sense, and god knows many of their comrades have performed some dreadful acts, but I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a degree of sympathy for Russians who are dragged to front lines simply to die is an uncomprehending terror - it's still horrific to watch.

Eta: Top man TB63, ta mate

I'm mostly "fück them" but ponder on what I'd do in such a situation. Can imagine that suicide rates must be through the roof.

I keep expecting another revolution, but have been very sadly disappointed. I think Putin is being very careful to keep the worst of the conscriptions away from the urban Russians, and there's not the groundswell.

[Hellraiser]

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Darwin Award