Russia Ukraine Update Thread

* - Russia calls in reinforcements from georgia signaling shift in strategy
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a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

If Russia was not hampered by humanitarian ideals it would all be over by now. Millions would have died, and then get stuck trying to administer a country, with revenge fuelled people, supplied with weapons from other places. That all males of fighting age would have to use whether they wanted to or not. They didn't do an Iraq and kill a million people. Neither have they droned wedding parties to get one person on the wanted list. Perhaps they have learned that you cant win a guerilla war because this is what it has turned out to be. Where one man in a ditch can take out a tank and crew, and well-trained snipers hold the upper hand. I am sure conventional warfare is obsolete.

originally posted by: anonentity
a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

If Russia was not hampered by humanitarian ideals it would all be over by now. Millions would have died, and then get stuck trying to administer a country, with revenge fuelled people, supplied with weapons from other places. That all males of fighting age would have to use whether they wanted to or not. They didn't do an Iraq and kill a million people. Neither have they droned wedding parties to get one person on the wanted list. Perhaps they have learned that you cant win a guerilla war because this is what it has turned out to be. Where one man in a ditch can take out a tank and crew, and well-trained snipers hold the upper hand. I am sure conventional warfare is obsolete.

Yup, putin is a 'humanitarian'.

If only those Ukrainians would stop getting in the way of russian artillery conducting a peace keeping exercise.

Clown world.

a reply to: anonentity

What we're seeing is actually conventional warfare. Although I expect partisan actions to take place in the rear area of both combatants on an increasing trend.

The balance between weapons and tactics is age-old. Europeans, though having used early machine guns in their colonies, were surprised by how lethal they were in the First World War. The machine guns, plus artillery, plus trenches made for stalemate that was not broken until the advent of tanks.

Now tanks are threatened by guided missiles. But that lesson appeared almost 50 years ago, in the October War. "Fire and forget" technology, along with top-attack profiles, have now given missiles an upper hand ... until "X" technology is deployed, and then the cycle starts all over again.

War, other than in a location or two, is now a stalemate. The tech factors that have helped the Ukrainians in defense will also help the Russians in defense.

Cheers

* - Turkish Ministry of National Defense: "The mine-like object detected off the Bosphorus was secured by the SAS Teams and an intervention was started to neutralize it”

* - Kyiv Governor announces the extension of the curfew from 8 pm to 7 am until Monday

* - Territorial defense in Vilkhivka, Kharkiv region

* - Russian air defense missile launched over occupied Sevastopol. Reports of drone

* - Britain: sending fighters and soldiers to join the NATO air control mission in the Black Sea

* - US President Biden to meet Ukrainian foreign, defence ministers in Warsaw: White House

* - Blackout in Sviatoshinsky district of Kyiv after shelling damaged power lines

* - Suspicious object movement has been recorded at the Black Sea entrance of the Bosphorus. Coast Guard Command teams took action for the object that fishermen noticed and resembled a mine

* - Explosion reported in Kyiv city

* - Russian troops kidnapped the mayor of Slavutych, Kyiv region Yuri Fomichev - the head of the Kyiv regional administration Olexander Pavlyuk

* - Russian troops seized hospital in Slavutich. Opened fire at pro-Ukrainian demonstration, there are wounded

As a reminder -

Just so people know and understand. Information from war zones can become confusing as there will no doubt be info released from the players (on both sides) involved that might not necessarily be true.

As such take everything as a possibility and NOT as absolute truth.

The very first casualty in a war is the truth and all warfare is based on deception

originally posted by: PatriotGames4u

originally posted by: flice
You keep trying to apply logic...

In the end, it's only about what Putin thinks and decides.

Exactly what I've been saying from the beginning, the invasion of Ukraine was based on the delusions of a madman.

All invaders are the same, but the victors decide who was a mad oppressor and who was a sane liberator.

I imagine there were many in northern Vietnam, North Korea, the Middle East and 40s Germany who saw the west as led by a succession of madmen invading their lands, or resisting their own sane liberators as they ‘occupied’ others. Jerusalem’s changed hands so many times over the centuries it’s almost farcical that anyone claims it as originally theirs.

Those in power, whatever side they’re on will always will tell you the other side is mad and out to get you.

But the truth is that to be in power is to be mad with the knowledge that it cannot last in perpetuity and one day you’ll probably fall. The way that most humans in that most precariously lofty position deal with this knowledge is to create the notion of an enemy and the belief that they are the only leader capable of protecting you. They all do it on all sides and no side does it better than ours. Then, almost inevitably, that evermore paranoid leader succumbs to their own exaggerations, spin and lies and goes on the offensive to prove their fantasy is real. They invade - they all invade eventually.

If you want to believe that your side invades only for righteous causes while the others do it because they are ‘mad’, then that’s a success for your sides propaganda machine - a pat on the back for the institutions spinning it.

I’m not saying that you, or anyone else is wrong to call Putin ‘mad’. Indeed, however ruthlessly cunning he may yet prove himself to be, as he often does, he’s operating by rules the vast majority of us would see as unhinged. But then, what really are the rules of war? It’s the victors that make these rules, which are spun from the same fantasy that was created to validate their invasion…

These offensives are spun to the home crowd as a ‘defence’; defence against terrorism, communism, fascism… the enemy - the losers - are always and ‘ism’; a mass pathology, a deadly virus of the mind that has infected a whole nation, meaning every man and woman of that nation are a threat to us all. So we must destroy that nation. Afterwards our leaders will have the history books teach the next generation that we were righteous in doing so and it’s then a fool’s errand to tell someone tutored since childhood that it’s all bull crap! Or perhaps replies to this post will prove me wrong. Probably not!

On their return the soldiers who did that destroying are told they have PTSD to account for the schism between the lies and the act of killing. But the true schism is that they’re really fighting to protect their leaders way of life - the rich and elite’s way of life. The way of life for the common people doing all the fighting and dying on both sides probably isn’t that different - it sucked before and it’ll suck afterwards whoever wins.

Is Putin any madder than the rest of history’s invaders! Putin appears to have acted on bad Intel when he invaded; the stats, the bribes and the opinions of his war cabinet misfired. Nor does Putin have the Kuwait invasion of Gulf war 1 to justify his no more imperialistic escapade, or the falsely manufactured WMD mandate the west dreamt up for Gulf war 2: The Sequel that allowed other nations to sit on the fence. Instead his nazification narrative falls at the first hurdle with Zelenskyy being Jewish - it’s farcical!

And regardless of motive and plausible lies to justify an invasion now that he’s knee deep in his escapade it seems that unlike the west (read as the US) Putin doesn’t have the aircraft and drone tech to surgically destroy the enemies capability to resist.

Without manufactured justification, without conventional military superiority Putin is now trapped in a politicly no-win scenario. He continues like this and he risks a coup at home… He pulls out now, without a convincing ‘win’ narrative and he’s a lame duck premiere with a bevy of potential usurpers to exploit this gigantic balls up…

So, he has two other options remaining: further escalation, or to spin, lie and manufacture a new narrative to exit this mess as the victor and save his premiereship.

I’d suggest that the second option is better for everyone (obvs!)

If we really want to do everything we can to avoid ww3 and curtail the awful loss of life in Ukraine as soon as possible the west, its msm and social media (including us) should refrain from perpetually calling Putin a madman and a liar for the new dodgy, self serving narrative he’s recently started spinning to make his loss look like a victory to his home crowd. Instead we should aid that narrative, because it may be the world’s only remaining lifeline…

This will allow Putin to pull out his troops as a victor and lick his wounds having secured a land route to the sea. This is the only sensible route to peace available. Unsavoury perhaps, but available. Best to focus on what is, rather than what should be, when the apocalypse is the booby prize.

Many here will retort that if we do that then Putin will just try this again once he’s regrouped, maybe with another country. I’m not going to dispute that - maybe he will, or maybe he’ll learn from this mess and not put his premiereship at such great risk again. But either way I ask you, what’s the alternative?

…Should we carry on with this game of nuclear chicken hoping that mad bad vlad blinks first and retreats?

Isn’t it somewhat contradictory to label him ‘mad’ yet expect him to show better judgement than us in this game of chicken? Good luck with that.

Playing chicken with a ‘madman’ with Armageddon at stake sounds like the worst plan in the history of mankind.

So in these crazy times and in lieu of a full psych evaluation it is indeed perhaps safest to assume mental instability in the enemy invader, regardless of the hypocrisy that entails. Talking the ‘madman’ du jour down from the precipice calls not for name calling, self righteous truth telling, but for the greatest of care and diplomacy - of agreeing with things we don’t really agree with in order to avoid a catastrophic plunge.

And remember it’s a crowded waiting room outside the mad-leaders Dr’s office in which all languages are spoken. We should brick up the door and not let them out. But meanwhile, while these madmen from all sides of the paradigm live out their paranoid fantasies it’s the common people from all sides that die to prove these lies are true.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Handers Georgia!

a reply to: McGinty

Praise the lord and pass the ammunition

Your post reminded me of the system of a down song - war



the call of the righteous man

a reply to: ISeekTruth101

Considering Sweden and Finland's reaction to Russia's invasion of her peaceful neighbour how do you imagine addressing Russia’s concerns or the capitulation of Ukraine will resolve or change matters?

NATO is not just one step closer to Russia now but three.

What happens when Sweden and Finland decide to join NATO?

Does Russia spit the dummy out and get to invade there peaceful nations?

Putin sealed Russia's fate as soon as he told repeated porkie pies about military exercises that turned out to be an invasion.

Never mind the fact that by the looks of things Russia has managed to lose command and control of the invasion at the operational level.

There troops are begging for food and retreat routes now ffs!

No nation on Earth is ever going to trust them again whilst your man Putin still reigns supreme and with an iron fist over his own people far as i can establish.

a reply to: ISeekTruth101

Good grief man....how many times.

Sure, in my opinion many of the policy decisions made by numerous US/UK/NATO/EU leaders over the years have contributed to the current situation.
I have stated that repeatedly.

But none of that alters the FACT that Poland felt threatened by Russia and that was its primary driver in seeking admittance into NATO.
In fact as far as I can make out it was the ONLY reason they wanted to join NATO.
transatlanticrelations.org...

I don't know how much - or how little - you know about The Cold War, The Warsaw Pact and life for those trapped behind The Iron Curtain.

I was given a quick look around East Berlin whilst I was in Berlin visiting friends who were working there just before the wall came down, I can't describe just what a bleak miserable place it was....and the people resembled their surroundings.
I like Germany and I like the people....these were a beaten, downtrodden people nothing like those I know.

I remember visiting Prague for the very first time only a couple of years or so later.
I went into a locals bar a little off the beaten track.
Smoke stained walls that were covered in portraits of Brezhnev, Andropov and Soviet insignia etc.....and full of miserable people staring vacantly into their drinks. Their souls destroyed by a lifetime of suppression by their Soviet overlords.
That is no exaggeration.

I've spoken to people all over Eastern Europe, people who lived under Russian rule.
None of them had a good word to say about their experiences under Russia.

And that has never been more pronounced than in my visits to Poland - been to Krakow twice, Warsaw and Gdansk briefly.
The people have a deep fear of Russian expansionism.
Every single Pole I ever spoke to about it, even those here in the UK, has a deep rooted dislike and mistrust of Mother Russia.....and Putin.

I could go on but I have the feeling I'm just banging my head against a wall; The West Bad and nothing anyone can say or show you will change your mind.
All your 'If only', 'what ifs' and 'what aboutisms' change nothing; the people of Eastern Europe have genuine fears about Russian expansionism and Putin's actions are clearly vindicating those fears.

And all of that is smoke in mirrors and has nothing whatsoever to do with Putin's invasion Ukraine and all the subsequent death and destruction.

a reply to: sapien82

Much truth in that sentiment - whatever side you’re on you’re always fighting the heathens. That’s the sales pitch in the branding exercise we always fall for. Truth’s the first casualty, lies and advertising the first and last weapon. Just ask Goebbels!

That’s not to say that I entirely endorse peace. There is indeed a war that’s been raging millennia - the rich vs the poor. That’s the only war the common man should fight. Any other war is a fight to maintain the lifestyles of our elites whilst they profit from said war.

Perhaps ww2’s broad existential threat might be used to retort that statement. We all had to fight as Hitler’s fascism threatened us all. But it was the rich in the west that built much of Hitler’s hardware. If the class war had already been fault in the lands that supplied Germany, then would Hitler have had the means to wage war in the first place?

So long as we fight wars for the rich instead of against the rich, then these mass slaughters of the common man will continue.

originally posted by: anonentity


If Russia was not hampered by humanitarian ideals it would all be over by now.

As ridiculous as the prospect of Putin the humanitarian reads, that opens a can of worms then, that just begs rebuttal.

If the US and UK and whole of europe and pretty much the rest of the world weren't hampered by humanitarian ideals, Putin's Russian hit squad in Ukraine would be toast and Putin too.

a reply to: alphabetaone

We’d all be toast 🤯

en.news-front.info...

Military report of the LPR. Situation on the line of contact on March 26 (updated)
26.03.2022 14:47

Military report of the LPR. Situation on the line of contact on March 26 (updated)

14:45 The shelling of the Horlivka village of Zaitsevo by AFU led to the burning of a house on Poletayev Street – Mayor Prikhodko.

14:41 Russian Armed Forces units carry out demining of Verkhnetoretske village


14:31 “Ukrainian armed formations are launching daily artillery strikes on the infrastructure of Pervomaisk. Extermination of LNR residents is taking place, genocide is taking place, they (AFU) are cornered like rats and are trying to do as much damage as possible”, – said LPR representative office officer in JCCC Viktor Matveev.

14:28 Ukrainian punisher in Dmytrivka shot a civilian with an assault rifle while trying to steal a car.

“The kid is 25 years old. He was in Dmytrivka taking firewood and water to our basement with his car. And some wandering Ukrainian soldier jumped out and shot at the car with a submachine gun”. Aleksandr, a resident of Donskoe village, told this.

“We were barely able to get him back to Donetsk. A vertebra was fractured and two lungs were shot through. He shot just for fun. Probably wanted to get away from the village.

14:27 Afternoon update from the DPR Territorial Defence Headquarters on 26 March 2022: During the joint operation by the Russian Armed Forces, the DPR and LPR to demilitarise and denationalise Ukraine, a group of DPR troops continue to liberate settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic that were previously under the control of the AFU. Fighting is currently taking place for Marinka, Novomikhailovka and Novobakhmutovka. Efforts to mop up Verkhnetoretskoye are ongoing.

14:26 AFU attacked Horlivka. Ukrainian fighters’ artillery smashed house buildings along Velikan Street in Gorlovka’s Tsentralno-Gorlivka district.

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a reply to: McGinty

Exactly my point, yes. Which is why i felt it a ridiculous prospect to even consider

a reply to: McGinty



You should send this to Ukrainians who are stuck in bomb shelters, to Ukrainians who lost their families and all the possessions bec of Putin. Send it to those who are still fighting for every inch of their own land. Tell them, 'let Putin take whatever he wants bec we all here are afraid of getting nuked.'

Putin & his army have crossed many lines (moral and not so moral). Even if he will snatch some land, he will not come out of this as a winner in any way.

Will there be some paradigm shift in the mindsets of everyone and we will start condemning all the wars in the same manner since now on? Let me think...

Also, with all the rumours coming from the Russian side, do we still think the 'nuking' is on the table?

Questions are rhetorical.

Talking the ‘madman’ du jour down from the precipice calls not for name calling, self righteous truth telling, but for the greatest of care and diplomacy - of agreeing with things we don’t really agree with in order to avoid a catastrophic plunge.

Or it calls for precision strikes against ALL perceived enemy targets and get rid of the nuisance animal. (bear in this case)

And Mr. Russian President Baby Jesus Putin can spend more time bent over for his puppeteers.

Meeting in the middle is not agreeing with things we don't agree with, its where we decide if we are going to or not. If the US isolates from the global community it will cease to exist. Russia on the other hand seems to thrive on being isolated.

What is the real difference in the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few or the one, which seems like a real noble idea..but its not, it just places more value on one 'type' of life or existence than another based on quantity not quality..because that makes money...which is rotten and festers.

Its sad to 'have' to walk away. Especially when people are being killed right in front of you. But hey, at least YOU know it could be stopped any time YOU want it to...thats something right? The high road and all. Hey Im no braver or willing to sacrifice any of my comforts than anybody else, but that doesn't mean Ill quit trying to figure it out..something may pop, ya know?

Thank You for the food for thought..

Elbo Grees