Russia invasion of Ukraine

[Yu Ominae]

There's some gunfire going on in Kherson. Likely anti-Russian guerrillas.

[mangamuscle]

So, we are in the next phase of the war. Russia can't win and even a moron like putin knows it, so what is left for him to do?

- Ask his diplomatic (reads as spy) service to convince other governments to support a ceasefire.
- Destroy Ukraine's civil infrastructure (he ain't gonna win, so he does not need to rebuild it later)
- Bomb (hopefully) near nuclear power plants in Ukraine, hoping that europe will accept a ceasefire in hope of preventing another chernobyl.

Thanks to prolonged La Niña, this is going to be a brutal winter and worst case scenario is the kremlin going the "tactical" nuke route.Rainy season has already started in Ukraine so even if inevitable, Ukraine's army advancement will be slow for the rest of the year.

[Yu Ominae]

Ken Rhee released video of a Legion SOF unit he was working with.

From watching it, it looks like it concerns Irpin back in the early days of the war.

[Sheba]

Imagine you hate Americans so much you blame Ukraine for getting invaded for having the audacity to want to be part of the american sphere, and you turn a blind eye on all Russian war crimes because you think it's somehow the fault of USA and NATO.

This is the absolute state of youtube comments and social networks in the French sphere. Where French Putinists are drowning the voices of reason and call the others sheeples.

I hate that country.

[ramlaen]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...actually-means

"This Is What ‘Mobilization’ That Russians Keep Talking About Actually Means"

[Belkov]

The following link contains a transcript of a UK Parliament Defence committee in which George Robertson, former Secretary General of NATO being quoted that the West may have inadvertently goaded Putin to invade Ukraine

https://committees.parliament.uk/ora...nce/9911/html/

Lord Robertson: Clearly, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was not NATO’s finest hour. What it did was to underline a degree of internal lack of cohesion and a lack of consultation. I think that was a bit of a wake-up call to all of us, because we had complacently assumed all along that the United States would consult pretty well every inch of the way in relation to what was one of the longest-standing NATO missions in Afghanistan. The Ukraine experience has proved to be the exact opposite, because the West has now woken up and come together.

Putin’s objective to stop any further NATO enlargement has now produced the opposite effect, with Finland and Sweden, and even Switzerland, realising the benefits of collective defence. He wanted to split off the United States from Europe, and he has welded them together. He wanted to divide Europe, which he thinks is a dissolute group of nations, and he has united them as never before. He wanted to stop the mobilisation of troops in the areas and the new countries, and the exact opposite has taken place. Of course, he wanted to effortlessly reabsorb Ukraine back into Russia, and certainly into Russia’s sphere of influence, and now he has ensured that that will never happen.

Both of these operations have been contradictory in terms of the lessons that have been learned. In recent times, NATO has shown a degree of resolution and unity that is hugely important for all of us.

Q29 Stuart Anderson: That is interesting. You talk about the polar opposites and I agree that Putin has been successful in uniting everyone, as probably all parties believed would happen. Looking at the unity we have got from the Ukraine crisis, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Is there more that NATO could have done in the build-up to what has been happening in the Ukraine crisis?

Lord Robertson: It is difficult to know precisely what could have been done, and in many ways we did do quite a lot. I am not entirely certain that Putin had a long-term plan for the invasion. A lot of what has happened since then has suggested that it has been ill-thought-through, badly planned. This is a radical thought for me to give you, but I wonder: did we goad him into doing it? Was he assembling the troops around Ukraine in order to harvest some security guarantees but, at the end of the day, felt that his credibility would be diminished if he did not invade? That is a heretical notion, and history will prove me right or wrong, but a very senior Russian was in London before the invasion saying, “There is no way he is going to invade, but every day he doesn’t invade he loses a bit of credibility.”

So, what NATO could and should have done, and did do, was to be ready and conscious of the fact that Ukraine is not a NATO member but is a partner country, and to do as much as we possibly could to prepare it for the possibility that Russia was going to invade, as it seemed to be threatening with the troop formations that were put in place.

Q30 Stuart Anderson: Can you expand on the point about whether we goaded him—as you said, that is quite radical thinking. If it was viewed that way, do you still think he would have invaded if we did not actually do the build-up we did?

Lord Robertson: I do not know the answer, and I cannot see inside Vladimir Putin’s head. He is a very different individual to the one that I dealt with when I was NATO Secretary-General and I met him on nine occasions. All I am suggesting is that some of the more optimistic views that he must have had about how easy it was going to be to invade showed signs of a lack of preparation, a lack of intelligence, on his part. We thought we were right in exposing our intelligence that he was going to invade, that he had made preparations for the invasion, but then he would, if he was going to extract the maximum from the bargaining process. Only history will tell, but there is no doubt at all that this has been a badly planned operation, and he will rue the day that that invasion took place in the way that it did.

A strange comment from somebody with such strong links to both the British and NATO establishment?

[ramlaen]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ia-2022-09-21/

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and warned that Moscow would defend itself with the might of all its vast arsenal if faced with a nuclear threat from the West.

The blunt warning from Russia's paramount leader, whose country has more nuclear warheads than even the United States, marks the biggest escalation of the war since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and was accompanied by a decision to call up 300,000 extra reservists.

[Key Board]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Imagine you hate Americans so much you blame Ukraine for getting invaded for having the audacity to want to be part of the american sphere, and you turn a blind eye on all Russian war crimes because you think it's somehow the fault of USA and NATO.

This is the absolute state of youtube comments and social networks in the French sphere. Where French Putinists are drowning the voices of reason and call the others sheeples.

I hate that country.

Here in the US, the opinion on Russia right now is mostly negative but I suspect that could change depending depending on who is perceived to be winning

Unless you're deep in Qanon stuff. Than you truly believe Russia is destroying NATO's secret pandemic labs and child trafficking rings

//

[Yu Ominae]

Ken Rhee's interview with a Korean NGO worker. This was made after he decided to take leave due to injuries he got during a SOF op with the legion.

Note that the video's locked by Youtube, so you need to login.

[Ramero]

Originally Posted by mangamuscle

How to defeat fascism for less than a penny on the dollar:

That makes around at least 32 billion per year, with 800 billion worth of ordinances and stuff for over 25 years.

As for the current situation, the West would be pressured to take action if Ukraine's retaliation fails and the referendum was successful and decides to join Russia.

If that happens, then Russia would be the winner of the war.

[Guardian Enzo]

"Referendum".

[MeoTwister5]

People are apparently trying to leave Russia now that Putin's calling for conscription.

[Renegade334]

Yup, to the point that Finland is now mulling closing the whole border altogether, and from the first reports we're having...

Russia is forcefully conscripting people who have been arrested for protesting the partial mobilization...and concentrating on peripheral regions with ethnic minorities like Dagestan, Chechnya, Buryatia and Magadan Oblast. I surmise the government doesn't want to incense the Muscovites too much and instead hopes to offload most of the cannon fodder duty to the more forgettable and downtrodden citizens living in the Russian hinterlands.

Worse even, in certain areas like Yakutia, local companies are instructed to summon their entire able-bodied workforce, whose members are then loaded onto trucks headed for the military recruitment offices.

Not all is quiet on the Eastern front, though: there were at least three of these offices set ablaze since the announcement, one in St Petersburg (successful) and two others (less successful, but still) in Orenburg and Zabaykalsy Krai.


But as to whether the popular discontent will pick up, hold on and change things for the better...I wouldn't care to put a wager on it.
I said it before in this thread and I'll say it again: "Russia has a tendency to disappoint in this matter."

[Der Langrisser]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

But as to whether the popular discontent will pick up, hold on and change things for the better...I wouldn't care to put a wager on it.
I said it before in this thread and I'll say it again: "Russia has a tendency to disappoint in this matter."

It'll depend on the amount of people sent back home in coffins, I guess...

[Yu Ominae]

Some things concerning the pro-Moscow Chechens.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/...-asians-a78873

Kadyrov said that Chechens are "free" from being conscripted as they contributed 254% of their forces in Ukraine.

----

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/...l-siege-a77496

Adam Delimkhanov is awarded Hero of the Russian Federation for his "valiant efforts" in securing Mariupol.

The twitter post (attached) shows him in the middle of a wrecked building in Mariupol.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Ramero

That makes around at least 32 billion per year, with 800 billion worth of ordinances and stuff for over 25 years.

As for the current situation, the West would be pressured to take action if Ukraine's retaliation fails and the referendum was successful and decides to join Russia.

If that happens, then Russia would be the winner of the war.

Do you really think UKR will accept?

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Der Langrisser

It'll depend on the amount of people sent back home in coffins, I guess...

Not many, if they just leave the corpses in Ukraine.

[Key Board]

Originally Posted by Ramero

That makes around at least 32 billion per year, with 800 billion worth of ordinances and stuff for over 25 years.

As for the current situation, the West would be pressured to take action if Ukraine's retaliation fails and the referendum was successful and decides to join Russia.

If that happens, then Russia would be the winner of the war.

The cost of 800 billion is honestly cheaper than the economic cost of Russia getting away with this

17th September 1939 happened once, for a start

//

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

Yup, to the point that Finland is now mulling closing the whole border altogether

The government just pulled the trigger on that tonight. No more tourist visas. Even Russians who own property in Finland won't necessarily be allowed in anymore.

The rationale is that ut was necessary to have a united front with Europe. Even if we feel like it's not a national security threat to have Russians coming over, that's not the case for others, and Finland was being used for access.

And if Russians have truly had it with their country and want to leave, they can still swallow their pride and seek asylum. There still isn't a huge influx of those people - most just wanted to go on vacation in hopes of dodging the draft.

[Yu Ominae]

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status...69579430354944

A video of the Ukrainians securing a downed Mohajer-6.