Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Corvus]

Lavrov has said that russia rejects Trump's 'peace' plan already. Another broken promise and he ain't even president yet.

Hard to say if Trump's simping for pootie outweighs the public snubbing.

[Poopymonster]

You know perfectly well there's no country in Europe, bar Belarus, with an active deathpenalty law. Even russia's deathpenalty is currently under moratorium and isn't used in sentencing or executed. (it's also a requirement for joining the EU.)

Yeah, Russia doesn't have the death penalty. You get conscripted and sent to to help with the next years crops in the Ukraine.

[Gabriel]

They are throwaway rable. Russia doesn't give a flying fuck what happens to the crew of non ruzzians, especially now that they completed their sabotage. Nah, instead of trying to come up with ways of punishing the disposables, we should come up with ways to actually punish the ones ordering the hit. Something that actually fucking sends the proper message of "don't do it again, ever".

Maybe we should close the baltic sea to unauthorized vessels. Or complete air, land and sea blockade of Kaliningrad. Or direct strikes at ruZZias vital infrastructure in turn.

"but those are all act o...." So is what RuZZia does. No, these would be the response, and a warning to stop fucking around unless ruZZia formally wants to declare war.

Maybe the next batch of throwaway rable would think twice about if they want to do something stupid just because someone offers them a bunch of rubles to fuck around.

[Odinfrost]

Unconventional Russian Attack Could Cause Substantial Casualties Top NATO Official Warns

Oh my god! The west might actually start to take Russia's sabotaging BS seriously now!

[Lahis]

Honest question because I just don't know, but I obviously expect a certain answer already.

Did stuff like this happen before the war frequently?
Because if not, I have no idea why the heck we just take it all the time.
It's not like the repairs are cheap and unproblematic or whatever.

Finland<>Germany
Lithuania<>Sweden
Finland<>Estonia
Sweden<>Denmark

do we just wait until we are blind or something?
It's probably not like these lines themselves will result in a blackout or anything serious by themselves.
But I guess they are not there just for fun.

Can't wait for China to investigate our/othe ships etc. on a whim, while making shit up, and when we deny it, they'll do it anyway.

No I don't remember any ships dragging their anchors over Baltic Sea cables before 2022.

This is clearly Russia's action against us. But the shadow fleet gives them enough plausible denibiality to not be held accountable.

[PhaelixWW]

Apparently the first successful attack of its kind:

‘I’m Hit, I’m Going Down!’ - Naval Drone Downs Russian Helicopter

Today on its Telegram feed, Ukraine’s military intelligence service posted a video of an downing of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter.

According to the post: “On December 31, 2024, soldiers of the special unit of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine ‘Group 13’ hit an air target for the first time in history with the help of a Magura V5 naval attack drone equipped with missile weapons.”

Although not completely unexpected this is a significant step. Ukraine’s drone boats have already played a major part in driving the Russian fleet out of a large section of the Black Sea, opening up the sea route for Ukrainian grain exports. This latest success will make the boats even harder to stop.

Drone boats have already engaged Russian helicopters with machine guns, but the successful use of a surface-to-air missile is a first.

The Magura is one of Ukraine’s most advanced drone boats or Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs). Back in May one was displayed with what was called a FrankenSAM arrangement: a pair of AA-11 Archer air-to-air missiles in an improvised surface launcher. The AA-11, known in Russia as R-73, is an infra-red, heat-seeking missile roughly equivalent to the U.S. AIM-9 Sidewinder. It is normally carried by jet fighters for dogfights, with a range of around 20 miles.

It seems the Ukrainian decided that air-to-air combat was less of an issue than defending their drone boats, and adapted the AA-11 for naval use. This is one of several unorthodox but effective projects such as FrankenSAM Soviet launchers adapted to American missiles.

The shootdown proves that the concept works. Its success was far from certain: getting a missile to lock on from a rocking boat is very different to aiming from an aircraft, and will have required effective stabilization.

...

The main feature of drone boats like the Magura is their expendability. At around a quarter of a million dollars apiece, the boats cost less than an anti-ship missile and can be expended in kamikaze attacks. Putting guided missiles on them pushes the cost way up. While Ukraine may have had some surplus R-73s which they could repurpose, even the small shoulder-launched Stingers supplied by the U.S. cost around $480,000 each, or about twice as much as a Magura. Putting two on a Magura dwarfs the cost of the boat.

On this basis, it might seem obvious to buy more boats rather missiles. But fitting just a few of the attacking force with missiles turns it into a game of Russian Roulette for helicopter crews attempting to intercept them. Maybe the helicopters can shoot at the drones with impunity, but maybe they themselves will be shot down. This threat means than an entire attack force can be protected with a few missiles. Given that even a cheap secondhand Mi-8 costs something over $10m, the Russians are unlikely to gamble.

[Corvus]

Ruble is going through some extreme volatility the last couple of days. When it hit 115 to the USD a while back, russia halted all foreign currency exchanges to get it under control, bringing it down to 100 again.

A week ago it began to rapidly climb again, reaching 114 a couple of days ago. Since then it has had a couple of 10% value swings up and down and is now sitting at around 113. Currency are normally stable, unless there are problems.

[Poopymonster]

Apparently the first successful attack of its kind:

‘I’m Hit, I’m Going Down!’ - Naval Drone Downs Russian Helicopter

People become genius inventors when their lives depend on it. You become a lot more experimental and safeguards drop to Capitalist levels.
"It might explode if we do that."
If we don't try it, we will die. If it does explode here, we die. If it works...they die.
"Let's do this."

[Makabreska]

In a oh so surprising news, Russia admits its homegrown consoles can't match the PS5 or Xbox Series.

[Corvus]

Pootie, in his new year's address, announced 'everything will be fine.'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-tel...CuBFEhaS5pVUSt

Yeah, that is not the kind of thing to inspire confidence or that you actually say when things are going fine.

[Ripster42]

You know perfectly well there's no country in Europe, bar Belarus, with an active deathpenalty law. Even russia's deathpenalty is currently under moratorium and isn't used in sentencing or executed. (it's also a requirement for joining the EU.)

Uh, the bolded is a formality. Kinda pointless to say there's a moratorium on the death penalty when they just throw people out of windows w/out a trial.

[Iphie]

Uh, the bolded is a formality. Kinda pointless to say there's a moratorium on the death penalty when they just throw people out of windows w/out a trial.

Not entirely, as a criminal you cannot be sentenced to death currently in the Neo-USSR. You can in Belarus. The goverment commiting extra judicial killings of those the deem undesirable, and who would be a threat to the regime, does not change that.

TL: DR: If I kill someone I will not be sentenced to death, but if I threathen the government I'll get a polonium tea breakfast. Big difference.

[Ripster42]

Not entirely, as a criminal you cannot be sentenced to death currently in the Neo-USSR. You can in Belarus. The goverment commiting extra judicial killings of those the deem undesirable, and who would be a threat to the regime, does not change that.

TL: DR: If I kill someone I will not be sentenced to death, but if I threathen the government I'll get a polonium tea breakfast. Big difference.

So there's a death sentence in russia. Got it.

[Iphie]

So there's a death sentence in russia. Got it.

One more time: formally you cannot be sentenced to death since there is a moratorium on the death penalty. Informally speaking if you cross putin you can be killed easily, but you won't get killed for regular crime.

But If you are going to be obtuse and ignore the difference between formal and informal I think we're done here.

[PhaelixWW]

If I kill someone I will not be sentenced to death, but if I threathen the government I'll get a polonium tea breakfast. Big difference.

How many of those "not-death-penalty" prisoners have been killed "fighting for the Motherland" in Ukraine?

[Belize]

In a move that can only be described as... uh... pure genius yeah let's go with that, a Russian court has ordered Yandex to remove refineries from its maps in order to avoid being hit by Ukrainian drone strikes. Yandex was also fined, for having accurate maps, which "undermines the country's defense", because Russia can't stop Ukrainian drones from hitting its refineries.

Ostensibly, Ukraine doesn't have access to maps from last week and forgets where Russian refineries are every morning when they wake up.

Truly, Russia is full of geniuses.

[Kaleredar]

In a move that can only be described as... uh... pure genius yeah let's go with that, a Russian court has ordered Yandex to remove refineries from its maps in order to avoid being hit by Ukrainian drone strikes. Yandex was also fined, for having accurate maps, which "undermines the country's defense", because Russia can't stop Ukrainian drones from hitting its refineries.

Ostensibly, Ukraine doesn't have access to maps from last week and forgets where Russian refineries are every morning when they wake up.

Truly, Russia is full of geniuses.

It’s simple, really.


It lets them blame… someone.


Other than Putin of course, the guy who’s the reason all of these refineries are being blown up.

[Edge-]

Ostensibly, Ukraine doesn't have access to maps from last week and forgets where Russian refineries are every morning when they wake up.

Truly, Russia is full of geniuses.

No different than health insurance companies pulling down their executive leadership pages recently. They're all operating with the same level of intelligence, it seems.

[Belize]

No different than health insurance companies pulling down their executive leadership pages recently. They're all operating with the same level of intelligence, it seems.

I wonder if being stupid is a correlation or a causation of being an oligarch.

[Edge-]

I wonder if being stupid is a correlation or a causation of being an oligarch.

Being uber wealthy allows for a level of detachment from reality that normies literally cannot afford.