Russian invasion of Ukraine

[zealo]

Pretty sure it developed in Bulgaria?

It was, but Bulgaria hasn't exactly been a major power throughout more recent years to put it mildly, so it isn't really that surprising people associate it more with countries such as Russia.

[Saradain]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ne-2023-04-20/

April 20 (Reuters) - A Russian warplane accidentally fired a weapon into the city of Belgorod near Ukraine late on Thursday, causing an explosion and damaging buildings, Tass cited the defence ministry as saying.

Local authorities reported a large blast in the city, which lies just across the border from Ukraine. The regional governor said two women had been injured.

"As a Sukhoi Su-34 air force plane was flying over the city of Belgorod there was an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition," Tass cited the defence ministry as saying.

It did not say what kind of weapon was involved.

The Su-34 is a supersonic fighter-bomber jet.

The ministry said some buildings had been damaged and announced a probe was already under way, according to Tass.

Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, announcing a state of emergency, said on Telegram there was a crater measuring 20 metres (65 feet) across on one of the main streets. Four cars and four apartment buildings were damaged, he added.

Video footage from the site showed piles of concrete on the street, several damaged cars and a building with broken windows. One shot showed what appeared to be car upside down on the roof of a store.

The Belgorod region is one of several parts of southern Russia where targets such as fuel and ammunition stores have been rocked by explosions since the start of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russia, what is wrong? Why do you not blame ukrainian black ops black magic mind controlling grannies this time? Or nazis?

It begs asking, did Russia get inspired by Elon Musk with the creative wording "accidental discharge of aviation ammunition" or as commonly known, "Russia bombs its own city"?

[Iphie]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ne-2023-04-20/



Russia, what is wrong? Why do you not blame ukrainian black ops black magic mind controlling grannies this time? Or nazis?

It begs asking, did Russia get inspired by Elon Musk with the creative wording "accidental discharge of aviation ammunition" or as commonly known, "Russia bombs its own city"?

Stupid fucks...but you are right, WTF did they admit they bombed their own city...even accidentally when they can just say: "it was those darn Ukrainians."

[Kaleredar]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ne-2023-04-20/



Russia, what is wrong? Why do you not blame ukrainian black ops black magic mind controlling grannies this time? Or nazis?

It begs asking, did Russia get inspired by Elon Musk with the creative wording "accidental discharge of aviation ammunition" or as commonly known, "Russia bombs its own city"?

"two women were injured" ~ Russia


So how many Russians actually died? What's the over/under on +/- 50? Especially because they aren't blaming Ukraine?

- - - Updated - - -

Stupid fucks...but you are right, WTF did they admit they bombed their own city...even accidentally when they can just say: "it was those darn Ukrainians."

Well remember the ur-lie they have to keep going, here: that Russia has the situation mostly under control.

Do you want your citizens to think that a random fluke that "luckily didn't even kill anyone" was just a one-off mistake... or tell them that your enemy, that you provoked, suddenly has the ability to strike into your country with aircraft, is actively doing so, and your country is powerless to stop it?

[Iphie]

Well remember the ur-lie they have to keep going, here: that Russia has the situation mostly under control.

Do you want your citizens to think that a random fluke that "luckily didn't even kill anyone" was just a one-off mistake... or tell them that your enemy, that you provoked, suddenly has the ability to strike into your country with aircraft, is actively doing so, and your country is powerless to stop it?

Neither option seems tempting, but saying your army is incompetent seems not very useful.

[Gestopft]

Medvedev is doing his drunk jester routine again, saying that if south Korea dares to send weapons to Ukraine then north Korea will be given 'advanced' russian gear. Ignoring the fact they were begging NK for equipment not long ago.

The second sentence aside, how is the first even supposed to be scary? North Korea has nukes already...

[Kaleredar]

Neither option seems tempting, but saying your army is incompetent seems not very useful.

Sure, but like I said it's far less likely to stir people into an internal state of panic (and potentially protest/rebellion) than if they were to think that this war that Russia is keeping them in could now result in them being blown up from the sky.

Russians as a whole seem fairly resolved to simply keeping the status quo as it pertains to the war, and despite all the propaganda they're subject to I don't imagine that in a world still as interconnected as this one that they are, as a whole, under that grand a delusion about the pointlessness of their efforts in Ukraine or their rather embarrassing performance therein. Nevertheless they maintain the whole "keep your head down, keep quiet, and just go with the flow" mentality that resulted in a guy like Putin becoming a dictator that sends their young men to die for nothing, because they know speaking up will draw ire down upon them.

But in order for that to work, they need to think that in doing nothing they're (relatively) safe. Right now, they fear reprisal from the government, and so long as they let the war continue they're safe. But if the equation suddenly becomes "if the war continues, I become less safe" because they think, for example, that Ukraine is now able to target Russian cities and civilians with as much inhumane contempt as the Russians do Ukrainians, then there's eventually a tipping point where they fear the Ukrainians more than the Russian government, and decide that maybe this whole charade they've been tacitly supporting is no longer worth it.

[Iphie]

Sure, but like I said it's far less likely to stir people into an internal state of panic (and potentially protest/rebellion) than if they were to think that this war that Russia is keeping them in could now result in them being blown up from the sky.

Russians as a whole seem fairly resolved to simply keeping the status quo as it pertains to the war, and despite all the propaganda they're subject to I don't imagine that in a world still as interconnected as this one that they are, as a whole, under that grand a delusion about the pointlessness of their efforts in Ukraine or their rather embarrassing performance therein. Nevertheless they maintain the whole "keep your head down, keep quiet, and just go with the flow" mentality that resulted in a guy like Putin becoming a dictator that sends their young men to die for nothing, because they know speaking up will draw ire down upon them.

But in order for that to work, they need to think that in doing nothing they're (relatively) safe. Right now, they fear reprisal from the government, and so long as they let the war continue they're safe. But if the equation suddenly becomes "if the war continues, I become less safe" because they think, for example, that Ukraine is now able to target Russian cities and civilians with as much inhumane contempt as the Russians do Ukrainians, then there's eventually a tipping point where they fear the Ukrainians more than the Russian government, and decide that maybe this whole charade they've been tacitly supporting is no longer worth it.

All fair points, there is something else though, if Ukraine is striking russia then that could be used to rally the populace, so there is actually an incentive to blame Ukrainians as well. This war has taken some weird twists and turns to be sure.

[Kaleredar]

All fair points, there is something else though, if Ukraine is striking russia then that could be used to rally the populace, so there is actually an incentive to blame Ukrainians as well. This war has taken some weird twists and turns to be sure.

I don’t imagine that most of the Russian population actually cares one iota for this war. They probably know that they aren’t fighting NATO or nazis or whatever, they know this is their crazy country being crazy and, like I said, are just sort of tacitly supporting it through inaction and complicity even though it’s wreaking havoc on Russia’s economy and future prospects. Because a slow but steady degradation of their rights and economic prosperity is still preferable to prison, forced conscription, or just up and being black bagged.

So as I said my guess would be that the notion that the war they started, have done nothing to stop, and that they know Russia could end at any time, is suddenly coming to hit them at home would terrify them and really start to make them question the equation of whether they’re safer condoning the war amidst apparent Ukrainian escalation or working to end it.

And Russia has made this their game plan for a while now, including that ship Ukraine sank that Russia initially blamed on a “storm.” They don’t want it to seem like Ukraine has a fighting chance and is a fearsome opponent Russia continues to pester for no real reason, moreso than they ever want to appear competent. Because the notion that Ukraine has a fighting chance would probably come as more of an unnerving notion to the average Russian than the fact that their government is incompetent, which I’m sure they already know.

[Logwyn]

How close to this turning into a world War now?

[Santti]

How close to this turning into a world War now?

And what kind of world war would that be? Russia vs. absolutely everyone else, where Russia is struggling to beat just Ukraine?

The answer is zero chance.

And don't say nukes. As miscalculated and dumb as this war is, Russian elites will remain, whether Russia wins or loses this war. Nukes guarantee they lose everything, and I'm more than comfortable betting on rich, fat cats not pissing their life of luxury away like that.

[Kaleredar]

How close to this turning into a world War now?

Who, exactly, is siding with Russia on this matter?

And I don't mean "willing to use them as a source of cheap fuel," which is about as deep as any other country's allegiances go with Russia. I mean "willing to jeopardize the lives of their countreymen and potentially their national sovereignty to prop up Russia's land-grab attempt that was fucked from the start and has only gotten worse for them at every step"

[Santti]

Who, exactly, is siding with Russia on this matter?

And I don't mean "willing to use them as a source of cheap fuel," which is about as deep as any other country's allegiances go with Russia. I mean "willing to jeopardize the lives of their countreymen and potentially their national sovereignty to prop up Russia's land-grab attempt that was fucked from the start and has only gotten worse for them at every step"

I guess everyone on the planet dogpiling against one country is technically a world war.

[Corvus]

Yeah, there isn't going to be a world war. russia likes to talk about it as it feeds their delusion of still being an important world power rather than a third rate regional power. I'd the curb stomping russia would get is labelled a world war we'd have to relabel a lot of other wars as world wars. The Napoleonic wars far more deserve to be called a world war than anything that happened to russia.

And to say russia is a superpower because of nukes means you'd have to call NK or Pakistan superpowers too.

[Gabriel]

How close to this turning into a world War now?

You mean Russia getting glassed? Pretty low imo.

[Corvus]

Video of the bomb landing in Belgorod.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/st...538045953?s=20

You can see a car launched onto a nearby roof, it's headlights still on. Not sure how you can say people only took minor injuries.

What apparently happened was they were trying to launch a glide bomb on Kharkiv but the wings failed to deploy so it did what bombs do and fell.

[Iphie]

Speaking of bombs:

Oops another one...

1 is an accident, 2 is a trend...

[Corvus]

It seems both came from the same plane. So not only did the second fail to deploy its wings as well, but it also failed to detonate.

[jonnysensible]

Ukrainian forces have established positions in east (left) bank of Dnipro in Kherson Oblast as of yesterday.

lettss goooooo

[PosPosPos]

Who, exactly, is siding with Russia on this matter?

And I don't mean "willing to use them as a source of cheap fuel," which is about as deep as any other country's allegiances go with Russia. I mean "willing to jeopardize the lives of their countreymen and potentially their national sovereignty to prop up Russia's land-grab attempt that was fucked from the start and has only gotten worse for them at every step"

Other than China? Nobody.

China did send "hunting rifles" and body armor to Russia, and there are reportedly more and more Chinese parts in Russian weapons.

However, even if China were to directly send weapons without simply skirting the thin line of technicalities and loopholes, it wouldn't start WW3 all by itself, that would just lead to more sanctions on China for the most part.

World War 3 would require something more drastic, like China invading Taiwan, and even then it's still far from a guaranteed thing depending on the way the conflict plays out.