Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Afrospinach]

I also don't think NATO would actually care much if countries told them "we can't meet all our obligations because we're sending all that material to Ukraine instead" while handing over the receipts.

Any useful material being send to Ukraine more directly benefits NATO then anything going into NATO storage ever would.

This is my point exactly.

With big daddy watching over your shoulder you are pretty safe to "disarm" yourself to help another country - which is something that accurately describes the current status quo to be fair.

Today he is talking about escalation. In mine simple evaluation of this situation this is like negotiating with a terrorist. Ironically I think Biden just termed Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, their actions in Ukraine are a war of terror over being effective and so on. Putin has nukes, I get it, but frankly the west and most of the world that is not China has already picked a side and now it is feeling like an excuse or window dressing.

Even Russian state sponsored TV gets it. "We are fighting NATO's infrastructure". If only that were true but NATO squarely has their toe in the pool.

This is quite literally the war crime of the century and an obvious land grab. Where is the line?

[jonnysensible]

one more defense industry building in russia catching fire today loooool

[Afrospinach]

one more defense industry building in russia catching fire today loooool

I do think a significant factor around this war even starting was problems at home.

[Poopymonster]

one more defense industry building in russia catching fire today loooool

Looks like business is...

*puts on sunglasses*

Booming.

- - - Updated - - -

I do think a significant factor around this war even starting was problems at home.

We're disgruntled workers. Hey, people are raping half eaten corpses in the Ukraine?
Ivan, remember game we play last week? Now, we make it real!

[Zaydin]

one more defense industry building in russia catching fire today loooool

With this many going up it is looking less likely that they are accidents and more and more like deliberate acts.

[PhaelixWW]

The Moskva is currently too busy patrolling the bottom of the Black Sea.

So is the Alligator-class landing ship Saratov. Well, the bottom of Berdiansk bay, at least.

[Kaleredar]

With this many going up it is looking less likely that they are accidents and more and more like deliberate acts.

It hopefully emboldens others in Russia and/or Ukraine to strike at Russian infrastructure.

A lot harder to say everything is going to plan in Russia when your citizens can see pillars of smoke on the horizon.

[Gorsameth]

With this many going up it is looking less likely that they are accidents and more and more like deliberate acts.

I mean, making Putin lose this war so bad he gets deposed is the best chance for change in Russia.

If I was serious about political opposition in Russia, this is the way.

[Arrashi]

Are people even surprised by fires? There are what? 1.5 Milion Ukrainians living/working in russia. Most of them working in factories/construction. Thats quite alot of people who have both skills and opportunities to pull sabotage here and there.

[Mihalik]

I mean, making Putin lose this war so bad he gets deposed is the best chance for change in Russia.

If I was serious about political opposition in Russia, this is the way.

There's no political opposition in Russia.

Russians love this shit. Dictator daddies who make their country stronk.

If they replace Putin they'd replace him with another stronk daddy who will make Russia stronk. It will be a change without distinction.

Russia in its current incarnation is irredeemable.

Its power needs to be reduced to a point where it will no longer have any influence over the stans (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc), nor will it have the means to militarily threaten Scandinavia, Baltics, Ukraine, Georgia etc. And preferably it needs to go through a 2nd Balkanization period.

Long term western strategy towards Russia needs to be military containment and economic isolation.

Let it collapse under it's own weight. Then bit by bit the spin-offs like the Baltics and Ukraine and Georgia today can be re-integrated into the global community.

[Poopymonster]

There's no political opposition in Russia.

Russians love this shit. Dictator daddies who make their country stronk.

If they replace Putin they'd replace him with another stronk daddy who will make Russia stronk. It will be a change without distinction.

Russia in its current incarnation is irredeemable.

Its power needs to be reduced to a point where it will no longer have any influence over the stans (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc), nor will it have the means to militarily threaten Scandinavia, Baltics, Ukraine, Georgia etc. And preferably it needs to go through a 2nd Balkanization period.

Long term western strategy towards Russia needs to be military containment and economic isolation.

Let it collapse under it's own weight. Then bit by bit the spin-offs like the Baltics and Ukraine and Georgia today can be re-integrated into the global community.

Hopefully Molvania can get into the EU before Putin goes after it.
We need to ensure Zlad's safety.

[Zaydin]

I mean, making Putin lose this war so bad he gets deposed is the best chance for change in Russia.

If I was serious about political opposition in Russia, this is the way.

I said it the other day but if these are deliberate acts it becomes a question of who is behind it: Disgruntled Russians pissed over the war or Ukrainian special ops?

[Iphie]

I said it the other day but if these are deliberate acts it becomes a question of who is behind it: Disgruntled Russians pissed over the war or Ukrainian special ops?

Heck, it could even be chechens or another group within Russia, seeing their chance.

[PhaelixWW]

Lulz.

Russian state media commedians are now saying that it's only 1 dead and 27 missing from the Moskva, CNN reports.

One crew member died and 27 are missing after Russia's guided-missile cruiser, the Moskva, sank last week in the Black Sea, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday, according to Russian state media TASS.

It added that the remaining 396 crew members were evacuated from the Moskva cruiser to nearby Black Sea fleet ships and sent to Sevastopol.

The ship sank in the Black Sea on April 14 and CNN reported it was the biggest wartime loss of a naval ship in 40 years.

Ukraine and Russia have provided conflicting accounts of what happened that day.

Ukrainians said the Moskva sunk after being struck by Ukrainian missiles, but Russia denies the claim, insisting that the reason for the sinking was a fire. But the US on April 15 confirmed Ukraine's account, with a senior defense official saying that the US believes that two Ukrainian Neptune missiles hit the Russian warship.

[jonnysensible]

Lulz.

Russian state media commedians are now saying that it's only 1 dead and 27 missing from the Moskva, CNN reports.

this is all i can think of

[Milchshake]

i'm sure that russian infrastructure is nothing like russian military equipment, and the infrastructure has been well-maintained and isn't extremely vulnerable to sabotage, right? because it'd sure be bad for russia if ukraine were able to get saboteurs into russia and they found everything was already being held together by duct tape and chewing gum.

During the Cold War, the US and NATO had SF teams tasked with training and preparing for sabotage missions behind Soviet lines in the event of war. And the Soviets did the same.

Why am I bringing this up? No reason.


Reports of water gates having been blown causing severe flooding near Krasnodar Russia

[Vorkreist]

I said it the other day but if these are deliberate acts it becomes a question of who is behind it: Disgruntled Russians pissed over the war or Ukrainian special ops?

Maybe its signs of some significant power struggles. All these events are ultimately bad on Putin. Either there is direct significant damage to stifle the war effort or the optics of losing control over the country when so many similar events keep happening.
The executions of those oligarchs project some extra paranoia from Putin as well.

[Kiri]

germans when they talk to southern eu countries : You have to have austerity because you made bad choices
germans when they make bad choices about energy policy : We cannot have austerity because we made bad choices

They are proving to be an unreliable partner in EU security.

To be fair, calling them Germans might be true in the strictest sense of the word, but it does help to keep in mind that these crises were managed by different chancellors/parties in power. It might not be as harsh a shift as, say, the Trump years were for the US, but it really is less about the reliability of a country and more about the parties/people involved. Merkel, being mostly a reactionary, would probably have taken more measures by now. Scholz is just so passive in some ways that is quite aggravating, at least to me. Though on the other hand, he probably has a lot less leeway to act given the pains of the three-way currently going on.

Either way, reliability is often a bit of a victim of democracy, if the parties with a shot at power are sufficiently different. Just like if Le Pen wins in France, it could not really be relied upon the same way. True reliability in the sense of continuation ironically comes more from autocratic regimes because you tend to know where you are at most of the time.

[Corvus]

The president of Russia's central bank has said the reserves are almost gone and the economy will plummet in the second and third quarters but Putin is ignoring the evidence.

https://english.elpais.com/economy-a...e-warning.html

[Dead Moose Fandango]

The president of Russia's central bank has said the reserves are almost gone and the economy will plummet in the second and third quarters but Putin is ignoring the evidence.

https://english.elpais.com/economy-a...e-warning.html

And that president will no doubt have a terrible accident shortly.