Russia Ukraine Update Thread

mobile.twitter.com... if this is accurate it seems the Russian forces lost a engineering convoy including a bridge layer ,not good at Identifying Russian engineering stuff so if any one can id what this stuff is that would be swell

Russian empire flag raised in newly captured southern Ukraine

twitter.com...

Flightradar24

* - Boeing E-8C - over Poland, based at Ramstein - call sign Redeye6

* - RC-135W - over Poland, based at UK - Call sign RRR7236

* - Lagr250 - kc-135 tanker, based at Spain

* - Forte11 - Drone over the Black Sea

* - Viper31 - F-16 Falcon - patrolling Romania skies.

Ukraine -
* - British Ministry of Defense: We believe that Russian military losses are greater than Moscow admits

* - Ukrainian military seized Russian military communications vehicles near Kharkiv

* - Russia has closed its airspace to aircraft from Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic, Rosaviatsiya reports

* - Shebelinsky oil refinery stopped

* - Kyiv tightens curfew, authorities warn that anyone who would be out after 17:00 would be considered "enemy"

* - Russian shelling targeting residential apartments in Chernihiv

* - Head of border guards of Ukraine sent message to head of Belarusian border guards condemning Belarus for waging aggressive war against Ukraine jointly with Russia (for those that missed it - Belarus is now being sanctioned for invading Ukraine)

* - Slovak government passed a "state of crisis" declaration that is valid as of 12:00 on Saturday (26 February). The decision is related to the mass influx of war refugees to the territory of Slovakia due to the war in Ukraine

* - Russia doesn't 'especially need' diplomatic ties with West - ex-president Medvedev

* - Damage to building in Lysychansk after an explosion in center

* - Shelling targeting Okhtyrka

* - Heavy indiscriminate MLRS attack on Kharkiv

* - Russian troops seen 30kms from Energodar, where Zaporizhiye Nuclear Power plant located

* - Kremlin claims that Ukraine refused negotiations, says their military operation was suspended before that, but now resumed (This event is known propaganda, displayed for awareness)

Russia probably buy a crap load of Wing Loong 2 attack drones from China if they need more ground attack capability without risking pilots. These were devastating in Libya used by the Russia UAE Egypt coalition

a reply to: YongpengSuen
They’ve raised one flag outside a small building in a town next to the coast . Hardly taken southern Ukraine have they

BBC news announcing further Russian troops advancing into Ukraine .
Russia saying they expected the sanctions being carried out . Not sure I believe the later

Hardcore Chechens about to deploy to eastern Ukraine. I think they will mainly be used to aid the separatists take the oblast borders.

twitter.com...

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: zatara

I'm a civilian,
I've never been in any of the Armed Services.
I'm getting on a bit now, 56 years old.

If a foreign nation invaded my country I would do anything and everything possible to try to repel them as I'm sure many would on here.
Why would you expect Ukrainians to be any different?

Yes, I understand but if there is a fighting chance I would certainly agree with you 100% There is nothing wrong with loving your country and be smart about it. But I consider it like a general who knows there is absolutely no advantage in winning the war but still sending his soldiers towards their deaths....to express his and their love for their country? I mean what force do you have left when all men..or most men are gone? I personally think it is better to save lives and wait for a moment to fight at an other time again.

originally posted by: da pickles
BBC news announcing further Russian troops advancing into Ukraine .
Russia saying they expected the sanctions being carried out . Not sure I believe the later

Why don't you believe that? The sanctions have been more than I expected honestly, but they're still not that serious. There's a reason the US stock market recovered. The sanctions are mostly for show.

a reply to: Freeborn
Good question and I don't really have an answer.
But as I suggested, maybe watch the video link. NOBODY, not one country is better than the other just now.
I'm also watching this Oliver Stone documentary about Ukraine from 4 years ago. Very interesting. All I'm seeing at the moment, which is not being talked about anywhere is the rise of fascism (which Putin has talked about) which is funded by the so called Democratic West.
Then to add to my conundrum, we have the Klaus Schwabb 'school' who list Blair, Trudeau, Ardern, Macron, Kurz (Austria), Orbán (Hungary), Juncker, Gavin Newsom, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Chelsea Clinton,

Graduates from the Young Global Leaders school, and Global Leaders for Tomorrow before them, find themselves very well-situated given that they then have access to the WEF’s network of contacts. The WEF’s current Board of Trustees includes such luminaries as Christine Lagarde, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and current President of the European Central Bank; Queen Rania of Jordan, who has been ranked by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world; and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the largest investment management corporation internationally and which handles approximately $9 trillion annually. By tracing the connections between the school’s graduates, Wolff claims that you can see that they continue to rely on each other for support for their initiatives long after they participated in the Global Leaders programs.

.... and guess who he said recently in a speech.... Putin..... go figure.
As far as I'm concerned, they are ALL in this together, and they are all singing to Schabb's (read Kissinger) hymn book. Schwabb was mentored by Kissinger during his University days.
Hence the reason I'm taking no sides...
Quote is from this link...
Documentary I am watching.....by Oliver Stone....
Ukraine on Fire - the real story
Call me a pacifist, I don't care, but I will not take sides when they are ALL in it. 'They' are controlling 'all' of us.
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: face23785

What I meant was I don’t belive that Russia expected the level of sanctions now levied at them. Seems to be a bit of a Bolshy statement to make , I suppose so they don’t lose face to their minions . Would appear a lot of oligarchs have lost a shed load of money thanks to Putins inability to let go of the Cold War era . Some threads have questioned wether he is playing with a full deck ? Personally I think mentally he is stable but just in the wrong era

a reply to: Xcathdra

MOSCOW, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Russia doesn't really need diplomatic ties with the West anymore, ex-president and top security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday, shrugging off sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Medvedev said the sanctions gave Russia a good reason to pull out of a dialogue on strategic (nuclear) stability and, potentially, from the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) signed with Washington in 2010 and extended in 2021.

In comments on his verified page on Russian social network VK, Medvedev wrote: "We don't especially need diplomatic relations... It's time to padlock the embassies and continue contacts looking at each other through binoculars and gun sights."

Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and deputy head of Russia's security council, said the West's "wonderful (sanctions) will not change a thing, of course".

Moscow will continue its military operations in Ukraine until it had achieved goals defined by President Vladimir Putin as "demilitarisation and "denazification", he said.

"The sanctions are being imposed for one simple reason - political impotence arising from their (the West's) inability to change Russia's course," Medvedev wrote.

He condemned as "really unfair" a decision by the Council of Europe, a rights watchdog, to suspend Russian membership, but added the move provided a good reason "to slam the door" for good on the organisation, giving Russia an opportunity to restore the death penalty for dangerous criminals.

Reuters

Now this might be meant for the russian audiance to show how fearless and great their goverment is, serving as a typical info war. However, it very much raises a concern about all the poor protesters, opposition and spokespeople and their fate.

a reply to: da pickles
The so called oligarchs in UK are the ones Putin and Medvedev exiled from Russia, so I don't think Putin will be worried about sanctions against them, probably having a wry smile.
This is a 4 part documentary entitled Putin and the West. Made by BBC I expected it to be rather biased, it wasn't. Well worth the watch and backs up my comment to Freeborn about Putin allegedly being a graduate of Schwabb's 'institute'.
BBC documentary
Rainbows
Jane

Seems the Ukrainians have no emptied most of the prisons and given the innmates rifles and sent them to the front.

Not sure that's the best idea personally, guess things aren't going to great for them despite their claims on social media.

a reply to: wordforword

Seems Medvedev has made a complete U- turn on his whole political career or this is just to appease the Russian populace which seems to have growing distrust for the ruling party

a reply to: da pickles

to be fare, nothing makes sense anymore. The outcome of this will be devastating for everybody.
Turkey is now banning the Russian ships entering the Black Sea. NOBODY WANTS THIS F*CKING WAR.

Large Russian armored column in southern Ukraine. Seems to be heading to Mariupol.

twitter.com...

Western sanction will of course push Russia more into China's orbit. China is world's biggest economy in terms of PPP and borders Russia via bridges on the Amur river.

newrepublic.com...

The New York Times’ Patricia Cohen and Jack Ewing put it even more brutally on February 21: Russia is a minor player in the global economy. Italy, with half the people and fewer natural resources, has an economy that is twice the size. Poland exports more goods to the European Union than Russia. “Russia is incredibly unimportant in the global economy except for oil and gas,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard economist who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. “It’s basically a big gas station.”

this plus the cost of supporting a war in Ukraine could really start to hurt the Russians back home and their apparently fragile economy

edit to add an update from the ministry of defense twitter.com... ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Fliveupdate%2F18hnzysb1elcs%2FLiveUpdate_f50ec1b2-970c-11ec-b7f7-2ea6130f7c65%2F0 per this the Russians have yet to gain full air superiority which is complicating things ,russians still 30KM from Kiev proper least for bulk of forces and Ukranians are putting up much higher then expected resistance ,and they state russian casualties are likely to be higher then expected and much higher then the Russians will acknowledge

a reply to: RalagaNarHallas

I don't think you're taking the real message in that paragraph. The message is that if you really want to cripple Russia's economy, you have to attack their oil and gas sector, which we seem to have signaled we're not willing to do.

Putin is laughing at the sanctions being leveled at them right now. Even Biden's State Dept said some of them are largely symbolic.

I don't put stock in much of what comes out of the Kremlin, but this observation by Medvedev is spot on:

"The sanctions are being imposed for one simple reason - political impotence arising from their (the West's) inability to change Russia's course," Medvedev wrote.

Putin appears to be getting the best of us at the moment. Everyone talking about the cost to the Russian military and Russian citizens is missing one important fact: Putin doesn't care.