The Azerbaijain MoD has requested that Russia withdraw all Armenian army units currently in the territory of Azerbaijan recognised by the international community (ie Nagorno-Karabahk). So, yeah, tension brewing there again while Russia is not in much of a position to do much about it.
Given the very close ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey, you do have to wonder if Turkey is feeling out things behind the scenes, and maybe considering stepping up thing in Syria again.
And Russia now have confirmed losses of 300 tanks (and almost 2000 vehicles in total.) This isn't guesswork or wishful thinking - these are vehicles that have been documented to have been lost. Which means actual losses will be higher than that. Considering that at full strength (and after a prolonged deployment and exercises, full strength is wishful thinking), the 120 BTGs were mean to have 10 tanks each, for a total of 1200 tanks. So more than 25% of Russia's starting tanks have been lost.
"It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."
~ Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow"
So as the war is dragging on the inevitable is starting to happen, from ex minister saying that ~~"Discussion about good Russians or bad Russians should conclude with - simply dead Russians" to Ukrainians shooting the legs of POW's, if not more (judging by recent POW videos - probably more...) and filming it.
Would have preferred not seeing it, but alas...
And this
is pretty much expected. Probably not as directly, but still.Russian oligarchs, banks and businesses could have sanctions against them lifted if Russia's President Vladimir Putin ends his invasion of Ukraine and commits to "no further aggression", UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said.
Nah, the Himalayas do not care for sides - there cannot be a large scale war over there, mountains simply block that + both countries do not have pressing water issues and won't for a foreseeable future (as far as I know).
I am sticking to what I said before - until the end of 2030 China will attempt to "resolve the question of Taiwan" forcing USA to make a choice whether to be involved or not and upon that choice will weigh the future of their global influence - and if we are still alive and shitposting here you can call me out on this.
It's somewhere in the middle. Russia absolutely does have and use repair and recovery vehicles (BREM-1/1M), they will do field repairs where possible. But when you don't have things like modular engine+transmission block and it takes hours to swap a dead engine compared to less than 1h for most Western tanks (numbers are from ~4 to 8 for T-72 family), then yeah, maybe just swapping for a new tank is faster - and Russia has enough reserves for that. Armata does come with modular engine block in a first for Russia, but that is for future and not applicable to this war.
Anecdotal evidence - as per "dude" on Lost Armor after the first couple weeks there was large amount of vehicles in various conditions being returned non-stop to Russia via trains for repairs, that number dropped with time (so when Russia changed tactics).
I remember Aliyev being a little bitch during peace talks (well, not talks, Armenia was no more than observer in them). Who knows, maybe he has lost it with older age and decided to get some more land under the noise, even if he is not in a position to fuck with Russia - Turkey cannot help, south has Iran who really does not like Azeris (the last war showed as to why) and Russia is very very important as trading partner,
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With regards to the incident with the PoWs, it was an artillery unit taken prisoner at Kharkiv and the only ones shot in the legs were the officers who had been ordering the shelling of civilian populations. Not excusing it, but given they were war criminals they were damn lucky to only get shot in the legs.
How things look for some mothers of dead Russian soldiers (reaction to Deuche Welle article in Russian):
Julia Ioffe twitter
Originally Posted by Julia Ioffe
Translation of the video;
<bunch of inaudible talking as he approaches a soldier>
Cameraman: Where are (he says "Razvidosi bitch", I am not sure what this means, could be Razvedka, which would be recon unit, that wasnt with these guys when they got captured. He is asking about their location)
POW: On the left side
Cameraman: Where?
POW: As you enter the village on the left side
<he takes off the bag>
Cameraman: Left, side. Where exactly? <he lets him down> Speak up! Bitch Speak up.
<man in the background is asking "Who has relatives in Ukraine?">
Cameraman: Where are you from? Tell me.
<POW is unresponsive>
Cameraman: He lost consciousness.
<People in the background are heard asking others their full name, place of birth, address, talking about having so many POWs they have nowhere to keep them, and involving prosecution in starting cases against these guys>
Cameraman: Turn him over. <they turn him over>.
Cameraman: Legs are shot huh? <someone else replies "yeah">
Cameraman: I think he is fucked.
<Someone in the background is heard yelling "Because you were fucking up Kharkiv, you are used condoms (Gondon)"
<Man in background continues "You are a fucking officer, (implying that he knows whats right and whats wrong) and you were fucking up Kharkiv"
<Cameraman approaches another hooded POW and takes off bag>
Cameraman: Fucking bitch. Whats your nationality?
POW: Azerbaijani. I have documents.
Cameraman: Why the fuck did you come here?
POW : Those were the orders
Cameraman: Fucking orders huh?
<Someone in the background is heard saying "You were shooting back">
Cameraman: You had a recon regiment here, how many people?
POW: On 6th of March when we entered we had 50 people.
<men in the background saying something is shot up, I cant make out what they are talking about>
<Cameraman walks back and shows his leg and asks "Broken leg? yea?", someone else replies "Broken leg">
<Man in background says "Are there officers?" (someone else was talking to an officer earlier, so this must be someone that just entered, maybe a higher ranking officer asking for an update). He continues "Are there officers?">
<Someone in the background says "Come here". Then "Stop">
<Camera pans to a dude with black shirt and dark pans (this is so that you know at which part in the video we are)>
<Someone in the background asks again "Are there officers?"
<Soldier walks up to him and says "Hello" and shoots him in the leg>
<They proceed to shoot 2 more guys, looks like 3rd guy knew it was coming and kneeled>
Voice asks again "Who are officers?"
<video ends>
Kind of sounds like they were targeting the officers. When you start going around deliberately murdering civilians it is going to provoke strong reactions.
Imagine being so brain washed you actually believe Ukraine was going to bomb Russia before the invasion.
Welp we tried. Time to hit reset on russia."if we didn't bomb them, they would've bombed us."
So brainwashing works in russia? More news at 11.
You don't have to translate that for me, I know Russian and can at least generally understand spoken and written Ukrainian as well (duh). Just saying that they do not look like officers (and low ranks do not make decisions anyway) - and that you should never ever trust anything POW's will say, no matter the side. I trust it should be obvious as to why?
And... Still zero excuses for this. And yes, this will always happen in wars, I know.
Oh, I am very well aware that Russia is far from any kind of general dissent/rebellion, I don't have any illusions about that.