So, USA's setting up another false flag war, but one that will bite us all in the ass

Interesting article on the number of posters on various platforms seeming to have gone "on holiday" since the Russian invasion of Ukraine...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...e-social-media

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Others have observed the same phenomenon; those who frequently encounter bots or angry responses are now seeing a significant drop-off. Covid misinformation, which has often trended on social media over the past two years, seems to be taking a nosedive.

The reasons for this “bot holiday”, as Fisman calls it, are probably varied – but many of them point to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


Russia’s information war with western nations seems to be pivoting to new fronts, from vaccines to geopolitics.


And while social media has proven a powerful tool for Ukraine – with images of Zelenskiy striding through the streets of Kyiv and tractors pulling abandoned Russian tanks – growing campaigns of misinformation around the world could change the conflict’s narrative, and the ways the world reacts.


The likely reasons for the shift in online chatter are many. Russia began limiting access to Twitter on Saturday, sanctions have been levied against those who could be financing disinformation sites and bot farms, and social media companies are more attuned to banning bots and accounts spreading misinformation during the conflict.


But something more coordinated may also be at play.


Conspiracy theories around the so-called “New World Order” – loosely defined conspiracies about shadowy global elites that run the world – have converged narrowly on Ukraine, according to emerging research.


“There’s actually been a doubling of New World Order conspiracies on Twitter since the invasion,” said Joel Finkelstein, the chief science officer and co-founder of the National Contagion Research Institute, which maps online campaigns around public health, economic issues and geopolitics.


At the same time, “whereas before the topics were very diverse – it was Ukraine and Canada and the virus and the global economy – now the entire conversation is about Ukraine,” he said. “We’re seeing a seismic shift in the disinformation sphere towards Ukraine entirely.”


Online activity has surged overall by 20% since the invasion, and new hashtags have cropped up around Ukraine that seem to be coordinated with bot-like activity, Finkelstein said. Users pushing new campaigns frequently tweet hundreds of times a day and can catch the eye of prominent authentic accounts.


“We can’t say for certain that Russia is behind this or that it contributes directly to the propagation of these messages. But it’s pretty difficult to believe that it’s not involved,” Finkelstein said, with topics strikingly similar to Russian talking points about the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, being controlled by the west and the need to dissolve Nato.


A Russian bot farm reportedly produced 7,000 accounts to post fake information about Ukraine on social media, including Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, according to the security service of Ukraine.


And influencers who previously demonstrated against vaccines are now turning their support to Russia.

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I'd love to see a meta-analysis of posting patterns on various platforms, contrasted against various world events.

I noticed the exact same thing about disinformation at the beginning of the war. A ton of misinformation and propaganda regarding the Canadian and, now, U.S. “freedom” convoys, Trudeau, Covid-19 and anti vaccination stopped as soon as the war started.

Right now it looks like the far right has embraced Putin. It seems like the most popular fantasy they’ve latched onto is that the U.S. has bio weapon labs all over Ukraine and Russia’s real goal is to eliminate those labs before the “globohomo” forces (their word, not mine) release a new disease since Covid-19 didn’t have the desired outcome. Oh and Ukraine is also sitting on a ton of evidence that would destroy the Clintons, Bidens and Obamas because Ukraine has been a massive front for laundering dirty money and dirty secrets and are using that as kompromat against the West. The far right just loves their conspiracies…

What I find I find interesting is how Ukraine has become central to this mass delusion of the far right. To me it reinforces the idea that the actual bad actors have been in Russia all along and are spreading this misinformation to divide the U.S. and they’ve been at it for years. Because the far right is so open to conspiracy theories and they want to believe that this is all true so it gives these bad actors in Russia a large audience primed to believe their bullshit and divide us. And it’s scary how many of the far right view Putin as someone to be admired now.

Bad news: Russia and Russians owe Western banks $120 billion, and that money is likely gone.

Good news: I looked up the exposure of Canadian banks, and it's in the $13-40 million range. That's less than half of what is owed to Belgian banks, for comparison. Yay us!

Article link.

id love to know why American bio weapons labs would even make sense in Ukraine as a conspiracy, When hidden under a mountain in some remote part of WV makes a much more sensible conspiracy.

"Sense" and "conspiracy" aren't even in the same ZIP code.

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

"Sense" and "conspiracy" aren't even in the same ZIP code.

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Pretty much this.

The conspiracies originate by Russian bad actors. Their goal is to turn the international community against Ukraine. If they can’t do that they’ll settle for deepening the rifts between liberals and conservatives in the U.S. After all, if we’re fighting each other we’re not getting involved. And any involvement we do get into will have an exaggerated amount of opposition. Conservatives are more susceptible to conspiracies. Many already believe that liberals and Democrats are actually evil and these conspiracies play on that. They want to believe so they make easy targets for Russian disinformation.

Conspiracy theories are a game of connect the dots where you make your own dots. Anything and everything that attracts attention is fair game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSNo2FPQDQw

Putin needs the government core in Kyiv mostly intact so he has buildings to fill with puppets. Part of me is worried he’s gunna start lobbing gas shells into the city.

Remember when Russia invaded because President Zelenskyy was a nazi and the whole country was full of nazis? Well when that narrative didn’t resonate they went with secret biolabs!

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...ight-rcna19392

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Russian propaganda on Ukraine's non-existent 'biolabs' boosted by U.S. far right
Russian and Chinese officials have also pushed the theory, associated with QAnon, which has reached mainstream conservative media in the U.S.

March 14, 2022, 9:55 AM EDT
Russia’s early struggles to push disinformation and propaganda about Ukraine have picked up momentum in recent days, thanks to a variety of debunked conspiracy theories about biological research labs in Ukraine. Much of the false information is flourishing in Russian social media, far-right online spaces and U.S. conservative media, including Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News.

The theories, which have been boosted by Russian and Chinese officials, come as U.S. officials warn that Russia could be preparing a chemical or biological weapons attack of its own in Ukraine.

Most of the conspiracy theories claim that the U.S. was developing and plotting to release a bioweapon or potentially another coronavirus from “biolabs”’ throughout Ukraine and that Russia invaded to take over the labs. Many of the theories implicate people who are often the targets of far-right conspiracy thinking — including Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden — as being behind creating the weaponized diseases in the biolabs.

Disinformation experts said the biolabs theory echoes other Russian propaganda meant to justify its military efforts, which often makes allegations against other countries and populations that reflect similar attacks it plans to make.

PolitiFact has debunked the theories, and no evidence of U.S.-run bioweapons labs in Ukraine has been put forward. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee the U.S. has no evidence that Ukraine has pursued bioweapons and that the only assistance provided by the U.S. was “in the context of biosafety.”

“The ‘biolabs’ are serving as a false justification for why Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s defensive,” said Clint Watts, an MSNBC contributor who is a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University. “They create a situation where they go to a populist audience, push out talking points, get the audience primed and make it true later.”

Gavin Wilde, a managing consultant at the Krebs Stamos Group, a security consulting company, who previously was director for Russia, Baltic, and Caucasus affairs on the White House National Security Council, said the theories appeared to focus on the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was created to decommission Soviet-era chemical and biological weapons.

He said the program “has long provided fodder for Russian propaganda campaigns” and can be particularly effective on Russian residents.

“In a media environment almost completely dominated by Kremlin narratives — with few independent or Western outlets remaining — creating a pretext for escalation that the Russian public will accede to using these well-worn narratives is an easy task,” Wilde said.

The “biolabs” conspiracy theories were almost unheard of until the day of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

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Pyrra Technologies, a cybersecurity and threat intelligence company, said the first mention of biolabs came on the far-right social network Gab on Feb. 14, 10 days before the invasion. The user included an awkwardly worded graphic, titled “Exclusive US biolabs in Ukraine, and they are financed at the expense of the US Department of Defense.”

The post largely sat idle for days. Welton Chang, the CEO of Pyrra, said posts about biolabs on the top 15 far-right social networks numbered in the single digits in the days before Russia’s invasion. But on Feb. 24, the day Russia began its invasion, the number of posts about biolabs on English-language far-right websites skyrocketed into the hundreds and only grew in the days after.

Boosted by far-right influencers on the day of the invasion, an anonymous QAnon Twitter account titled @WarClandestine pushed the “biolabs” theory to new heights, using the same “US biolabs” graphic initially included on the Gab post that went largely unshared the week before.

Twitter said the account and others that pushed the biolabs theory were banned for “multiple violations of our abusive behavior policy.”

The biolab conspiracy theory has taken over as the prevailing narrative on pro-Trump and QAnon websites like The Great Awakening and Patriots.Win.

Chang said the rhetoric on pro-Trump sites, which had largely been anti-Putin in the first days of the war, has shifted because of the biolab conspiracy theory.

“These communities already know what the rhythm and cadence of Covid conspiracies should be like to get people to buy it,” Chang said. “They had a lot of practice with QAnon. The kinds of things that get people excited, like any time you say ‘secret biolab,’ it gets people’s emotions up.”

Russian and Chinese officials have also boosted the theory. On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry began pushing the conspiracy theory, asking for a “full account” of Ukraine’s “biological military activities at home and abroad.”

By Wednesday, almost two weeks after the invasion, the conspiracy theory had reached Carlson, who led his show claiming that the “Biden administration was funding secret biolabs in Ukraine.”

On Thursday, Russia requested a meeting at the U.N. Security Council about “military biological activities” in the U.S.

The Kremlin has a long history of planting false reports that the U.S. was developing chemical or biological warfare to distract from its own use of such weapons, said Thomas Rid, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University and the author of a history of Soviet and U.S. disinformation tactics.

In the early 1980s, as Soviet forces deployed chemical agents in Afghanistan and Laos, the Kremlin tried to distract from such attacks by publishing false tales, like one that the CIA was developing weaponized mosquitoes in Pakistan to spread encephalitis in Afghanistan.

“There were multiple incidents of Soviet disinformation that involved claims of American bioweapons, including the big one, HIV/AIDS,” Rid said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another attempt at accusing the other side of the thing they are in fact doing,” Rid said.

Zignal Labs, which analyzes social media, broadcast, traditional media and online conversations, found that English-language influencers helped create the talking point for Russian propaganda.

“Mentions of the bioweapon lab narrative in Russian doubled on March 6th,” about 10 days after the start of the invasion, Zignal Labs said in a report. From Wednesday to Friday, Russian mentions of the biolab conspiracy theory on social media have outpaced posts about the same propaganda in English, the report said.

Rid said he sees the theories as playing on some Americans’ fears about Covid.

“For the far right, I think it’s also about China and Covid,” Rid said. “It’s all mixed up in this mesh of fear and conspiracy theory about where Covid really came from. It’s just something that a lot of people can emotionally relate to, because the pandemic affected them so brutally for the past two years.”

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They've moved past biolabs and are now claiming that the U.S. is teaching the Ukrainians how to make nukes. It's like watching Survivor where the person who has pissed off the entire tribe is throwing every accusation they can at others trying to stay, when you know that even if the accusations were true people hate the person so much they're getting booted anyways. So if the goal isn't to turn others against the U.S. / Ukraine, because nobody is that stupid and they all hate Russia anyways, what's the point? Stop the war while the U.N. investigates, which would let Russia retain its gains so far and get the time to get their shit together? Or do they really believe this crap has traction with anybody? Even the American right seems to be getting tired of this nonsense.

Trump explains that there's "a lot of love" behind Putin's invasion of Ukraine

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Donald Trump claimed that there is "a lot of love" behind Russian President Vladimir Putin's devastating invasion of Ukraine, which has already resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties.

The former president's bizarre remarks came during a Sunday radio interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who asked Trump about the deadly incursion.

"He's got a big ego," Trump said of Putin. "Again, I know him very well ... I understand he's gotten rid of a lot of his generals."

Trump also speculated that the Russian president felt "cornered," suggesting that Putin might commit "unspeakable" acts of warfare if the invasion doesn't go his way.

Later in the segment, the former president argued that Putin is on a conquest to restore the Soviet Union.

"You say, what's the purpose of this? They had a country," Trump explained. "You could see it was a country where there was a lot of love and we're doing it because, you know, somebody wants to make his country larger or he wants to put it back the way it was when actually it didn't work very well."

The Soviet Union officially dissolved in 1991, which resulted in Ukraine's status as a sovereign state. However, for nearly a decade, Putin has argued that Ukraine is fundamentally a part of Russia, a false claim that is at the heart of Putin's invasion.

Since the invasion began, Trump has intermittently weighed in on the conflict, but his comments have been somewhat contradictory.

Just when the military assault was officially launched, Trump described Putin as "very savvy," calling his strategic sensibilities "genius." Days later, facing a chorus of condemnation from many of his congressional allies, Trump did a seeming about-face, calling the Russian attack "appalling."

"As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged and if I was the president," he added at the time.

Trump has also suggested that Putin is "playing [President Biden] like a drum," suggesting that if he remained president, the crisis would have been averted.

"The fake news said my personality is going to get us into a war...but actually my personality is what kept us out of war," Trump said during a March 12 rally in Florence, South Carolina.

But some critics have argued that Trump's actions as president actually emboldened Putin to take on a bellicose military posture that might have led to the current invasion.

During his presidency, the former president repeatedly heaped praise on Putin and openly rebuked NATO, at one point trying to extricate the U.S. from the security alliance. Trump also waged a campaign to withhold vital military aid from Ukraine in order to induce the country's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Biden's son, Hunter, for political purposes.

"All this did was say to Russia that Ukraine was a playground," former White House Russia advisor, Fiona Hill, told CNN last month. "Not once did I see [Trump] do anything to put America first. Not once. Not for a single second."

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

They've moved past biolabs and are now claiming that the U.S. is teaching the Ukrainians how to make nukes. It's like watching Survivor where the person who has pissed off the entire tribe is throwing every accusation they can at others trying to stay, when you know that even if the accusations were true people hate the person so much they're getting booted anyways. So if the goal isn't to turn others against the U.S. / Ukraine, because nobody is that stupid and they all hate Russia anyways, what's the point? Stop the war while the U.N. investigates, which would let Russia retain its gains so far and get the time to get their shit together? Or do they really believe this crap has traction with anybody? Even the American right seems to be getting tired of this nonsense.

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If this were Civilization, there would be no mercy and no quarter for Russia. You invade me, it is the end of your Civilization. Hell, I would have sent a settler off from Alaska with a couple artillery and about 5 tanks to create Portland in Eastern Russia a few weeks ago.

But then, I don't give a shit if nukes are used in a computer game so that's not going to happen here. Although, Putin is acting very much like a Civilization leader right now.

I hate Putin, but I also hate people who forward settle, so I don't know which side to be on here!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

They've moved past biolabs and are now claiming that the U.S. is teaching the Ukrainians how to make nukes. It's like watching Survivor where the person who has pissed off the entire tribe is throwing every accusation they can at others trying to stay, when you know that even if the accusations were true people hate the person so much they're getting booted anyways. So if the goal isn't to turn others against the U.S. / Ukraine, because nobody is that stupid and they all hate Russia anyways, what's the point? Stop the war while the U.N. investigates, which would let Russia retain its gains so far and get the time to get their shit together? Or do they really believe this crap has traction with anybody? Even the American right seems to be getting tired of this nonsense.

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Ukraine had nukes, they signed them away in 1994. On the grounds Russia would not invade them. I suspect they already know how to make a few nukes.

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

I hate Putin, but I also hate people who forward settle, so I don't know which side to be on here!

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Never play civ with me then- I'll settle 4 hexes BEHIND your capital! :P

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

Ukraine had nukes, they signed them away in 1994. On the grounds Russia would not invade them. I suspect they already know how to make a few nukes.

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So do I, learned it at school. Doesn't mean I have the capability, funds and will to create one including a deployment method.

They also signed them away in 1994 on the grounds that the EU or NATO would not expand eastward.

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Originally Posted by Branaman Starbinder

They also signed them away in 1994 on the grounds that the EU or NATO would not expand eastward.

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Got a source on that?

I can't find anything in the Budapest Memorandum itself (nor in any other documents) indicating that this was true for either NATO or the EU.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-b...pest-blow-1994 has a list of contemporaneous correspondence between Clinton and Yeltsin (obtained from a FOIA request) that contains quotes from both Clinton and Yeltsin regarding how future NATO expansion would proceed (the disagreement between the two was primarily about the timetable and rate of expansion, not whether it would occur or not).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e1BndTE6Lg

Quite a powerful message from Arnold ~

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

I hate Putin, but I also hate people who forward settle, so I don't know which side to be on here!

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I need military bases to support my invasion!! :p

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Originally Posted by Nerkahia

Quite a powerful message from Arnold ~

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Apparently Putin follows him, not sure on which social media outlet but that's very interesting.

The video is trending on Russian social media, so the message is getting through: BBC article.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zarbonius

Got a source on that?

I can't find anything in the Budapest Memorandum itself (nor in any other documents) indicating that this was true for either NATO or the EU.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-b...pest-blow-1994 has a list of contemporaneous correspondence between Clinton and Yeltsin (obtained from a FOIA request) that contains quotes from both Clinton and Yeltsin regarding how future NATO expansion would proceed (the disagreement between the two was primarily about the timetable and rate of expansion, not whether it would occur or not).

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I was going on the short notes stating:

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US, the UK and Russia affirmed in the Budapest Memorandum: (a) their commitment to Ukraine to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine; (b) their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations; and (c) their commitment to Ukraine to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.

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Which got messed up with the Maidan riots that overthrew their democratically chosen president in favor of a more EU/Nato minded government. Which then again resulted in the annexation of the Krim

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Originally Posted by Branaman Starbinder

I was going on the short notes stating:

"their commitment to Ukraine to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind."

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um, ok.
I mean, that's not what that quote means, but.. Ok.

EDIT - also, that has literally nothing to do with NATO nor EU expansion, which is the claim you made, so...

Animal cats shelter under blockade in Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjwturwbAG4

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Hello from Ukraine ����

My friends are now living in Shostka, that has been under blockade from the first days of war until now. A lot of people left the city, but right now actually it’s impossible to leave. Also, the city soon will face humanitarian catastrophe, as it gets way harder to find food and meds. Like, the queues for shopping can take at least 3h for now. Despite this, somehow my friends managed to create a small shelter (in the actual bomb shelter) for rescuing stray cats. 40+ cats and counting

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zarbonius

um, ok.
I mean, that's not what that quote means, but.. Ok.

EDIT - also, that has literally nothing to do with NATO nor EU expansion, which is the claim you made, so...

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He also conveniently forgets Yanukovych being a criminal as well.

Putin eyeing "Korean scenario" for Ukraine, says Ukrainian military intel chief

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Ukraine’s military intelligence head says Russian President Vladimir Putin could be looking to carve Ukraine in two – like North and South Korea.

Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Agency, said Russia’s operations around Kyiv had failed and it was now impossible for the Russian army to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Putin’s war was now focused on the south and the east of the country, he said.

“There is reason to believe that he is considering a 'Korean' scenario for Ukraine. That is, [Russian forces] will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine.”

Budanov said Russia remained intent on establishing a land corridor from the Russian border to Crimea, and said he expected to see an attempt to unite Russian-occupied territories into a single entity.

“We are already seeing attempts to create "parallel" authorities in the occupied territories and to force people to give up [the Ukrainian] currency,” Budanov said, adding that he expected Ukrainians to resist Russia’s political efforts.

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I just don't see how Zelinsky can be even considering these proposals.

I don't think that's going to happen. Ukraine has already tasted the success of being a functioning post-soviet democracy. It is wrong to assume that "his half" will venerate him, even by force, when he's decimated the country in the age of cellphones. The propaganda isn't working right now, the world's condemnation has been swift, and it's quite obvious by now that the Russian army is in no shape to enforce or manage it all, let alone fight the best case scenario that this war initially had: A 2-3 day invasion and 5-20 years of insurgency. It can't even do that, now.

I really doubt there is a graceful way forward in this war at this point. The whole invasion top to bottom has been fucked sideways, and the best prospects Russia had amounted to America in Iraq for nothing more than some food, maybe a new Klept market, and one less functioning former satellite-state.

The foolishness is historically astonishing. We really live in a sea of rich history, provided earth survives The Great Dumb. and this was dumb. Putin and The Klepts really do believe their own propaganda - they're the ones that absolutely shouldn't!

There is only one graceful way out, now. Just quit, wash your hands of it, and pretend it didn't happen to others who ask. There is no Sunk Costs Push here - it's just a plain waste and a wash for a fake-ass mission that you're already losing the narrative on. It's not getting better, but it can stop being worse. They've seemed to have opted for worse, for the time being.

He absolutely should not. This is a very unique situation in several ways, and if any Nuclear Armed nation can get away with bullying any non-nuclear-armed nation? Proliferation will skyrocket, conflicts will get much hotter and intertwined, and earth will likely destroy itself, because who knows what stupid person is going to launch an invasion of any kind when there's not even anything meaningful or strategically beneficial at stake?

Zelinsky has no reason at fucking all to surrender or make concessions until a VERY bitter end. Russia has really fucked itself with this one, and any nuclear armed power is now in the hotseat with every single non-nuclear armed nation on this planet.

"What the fuck are YOU going to do about this? We're not the ones with nukes. We talked about this! How do we know we're not next?!"

all that will happen now is an explosion in nuclear proliferation and I think any chances with Iran will fall flat. All Iran has to do now is point to Ukraine and say "Look what what happens if you dont have nukes, some big country comes by and decides they can take your shit". Same with North Korea, As long as they can point atomics at Seoul than they can prevent invasion. Any nation even remotely worried now about being annexed or altered by a big country will now seek WMDs and at a minimum medium range missiles.

Hundreds of Russian troops evacuate Chernobyl with 'acute radiation sickness'

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Hundreds of Russian soldiers were evacuated from Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear facility with "acute radiation sickness," according to a report.

The defunct nuclear plant was captured by Russian forces within the first day of the invasion, Pentagon officials said.

The soldiers stationed at Chernobyl reported they were "irradiated" and have since been taken to a Belarus medical facility, according to an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management.

"Another batch of irradiated terrorists who seized the Chernobyl zone was brought to the Belarusian Radiation Medicine Center in Gomel today,” Yaroslav Yemelianenko said in a statement.

"Have you dug trenches in the Red Forest, b******? Now live the rest of your short life with this. There are rules for handling this area. They are mandatory because radiation is physics — it works regardless of status or shoulder ranks."

The Russian troops first fell ill after they reportedly "looted and destroyed" a laboratory holding "highly active" radioactive material.

The laboratory held “highly active samples and samples of radionuclides that are now in the hands of the enemy," a Ukrainian state agency said, according to the report.

Ukrainian leaders such as President Volodymyr Zelensky have alleged the Russians are utilizing the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl to ready for future attacks, and the United Nations nuclear watchdog has employed an online program to monitor nuclear plants occupied by Russian forces, the report noted.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ackar

Hundreds of Russian troops evacuate Chernobyl with 'acute radiation sickness'

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Part of Mission: Is it still radioactive?

Mission Results: "Yup! Still radioactive!"

I have to wonder what the tactical value of the exclusion zone was, I mean Ukraine was not already dug in there probably for that very glowy reason.

"We can't continue peace talks because you have destroyed a target in our country without killing anyone, as opposed to what we're doing to your country day after day." Putin's statement on this almost - almost - makes my first instinct be that it was a false flag attack by the Russians against their own oil depot in order to take peace talks off the table completely. But then I remember how hosed the Russian economy will be once the storage tanks, like the ones hit, are filled and Russia has to start capping wells, and I figure there's no way they'd reduce storage capacity for any reason.

Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter attack on oil depot in Russia.

to Putin, Shelling Ukrainian civilians deliberately is perfectly fine. but Ukraine maybe shooting missiles at some gas tanks is a horrible evil.

But do not discount false flag, despite the whole capacity thing you mentioned Russia may be risking something that dumb just to keep the image of "we are the good guys" up. After all they threw conscripts at dug in defenders and drove tanks single file in areas where they knew Ukraine had Javelins, NLAWs and Drones(oh my).

Of course the Ukrainian forces have shown to have balls of steel so maybe they did attack the depot, They have been gaining back territory and a quick offensive strike on a low life loss target would be amazing for their own morale.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

"We can't continue peace talks because you have destroyed a target in our country without killing anyone, as opposed to what we're doing to your country day after day." Putin's statement on this almost - almost - makes my first instinct be that it was a false flag attack by the Russians against their own oil depot in order to take peace talks off the table completely. But then I remember how hosed the Russian economy will be once the storage tanks, like the ones hit, are filled and Russia has to start capping wells, and I figure there's no way they'd reduce storage capacity for any reason.

Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter attack on oil depot in Russia.

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I think it's more likely some poorly trained Russian pilots got lost and hit the wrong target. At least if we aren't going to credit Ukraine for the attack.

Ukraine has denied responsibility: link. Given how eager they've been to take credit for anything good that's happened, looks like it wasn't them.

Is there a ceasefire I'm not aware of? I don't understand what Russia would gain from faking it. It's beyond ridiculous to be surprised that when you start a war the target of your bullying fights back.

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Ukraine has denied responsibility: link. Given how eager they've been to take credit for anything good that's happened, looks like it wasn't them.

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They might be lying to preserve some kind of tactical secret/advantage.

UN watchdog opens investigation after Ukraine said Russian troops at Chernobyl got sick from high radiation levels

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• Russian troops gave up control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Thursday, Ukraine said.
• They were exposed to "significant doses" of radiation and started developing symptoms, Ukraine said.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency said it is investigating this claim.

The United Nations atomic watchdog said it is investigating after Ukraine said Russian soldiers at Chernobyl were exposed to high radiation levels and left sick.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday evening that Russian troops had transferred control of the plant to Ukrainian personnel and moved two convoys of service members toward Belarus.

This was confirmed by Yevhen Kramarenko, the head of Ukraine's agency in charge of the exclusion zone, The Guardian reported.

The Russians seized the power plant on February 24, the first day of the invasion.

The troops had entered the most contaminated part of the Chernobyl exclusion zone — the Red Forest — without any protective gear and exposed themselves to radioactive dust.

Energoatom, Ukraine's state power company, said the soldiers received "significant doses" of radiation after digging trenches in the Red Forest and that they "panicked at the first sign of illness," The Guardian reported.

The symptoms "showed up very quickly," Energoatom said, The Guardian reported.

Reuters reported that Energoatom said "almost a riot began to brew among the soldiers" amid fears over the radiation exposure and suggested that was why they left the zone.

The IAEA said it was investigating the reports of the exposure and would send experts to the plant in the coming days.

The Red Forest surrounds the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986. The forest is still the most contaminated area of the zone, Reuters reported.

Two Ukrainian workers who were working at the plant told Reuters earlier this week that the troops had kicked up clouds of radioactive dust while driving through the forest. They also said that some of the Russian soldiers had no idea they were in a radiation zone.

The power plant was fully decommissioned after the 1986 nuclear accident and the remaining work at the site is mostly directed toward decontamination.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wool

I don't understand what Russia would gain from faking it.

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Perhaps painting Ukraine as not being entirely defensive in their efforts? Breaking off the peace talks that other nations want them to conduct because of the incident? I agree that it's all pretty tenuous, but...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wool

They might be lying to preserve some kind of tactical secret/advantage.

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...if Russia didn't order it, Russia will assume it's Ukraine until proven otherwise and I can't think of a tactical advantage that Ukraine could have that would be preserved in that manner.

Oh, here's a reason for Russia to do it: they guessed that Ukraine would deny it, which allows Russia to say, "If it wasn't you, it must have been a NATO or EU-aligned attack", which gives Russia a casus belli for attacking their convoys in Ukraine. Seems stupid to me - NATO wouldn't put up with that shit for a second - but maybe Russia figures stating that would at least slow the pace of aid to Ukraine until the shipments could be properly escorted. Who knows?

Fingerprinted, photographed and registered: Ukrainians say they were transferred to the so-called 'camps' before being sent to Russia -- CNN

Russian Troops Took Highly Radioactive 'Souvenirs' From Chernobyl

Quote:

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Russian soldiers allegedly stole highly radioactive items as "souvenirs" from laboratories in Chernobyl, a Ukrainian agency said this weekend.

The troops looted and destroyed two laboratories in the Chernobyl exclusion zone that are used to study radiation influence, substance characteristics, and other radioactive uses, according to a Facebook post by the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management.

In an act of "nuclear terrorism," the troops allegedly entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources in one laboratory and "stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about seven million becquerels," the agency said. That number is comparable to 1,534 pounds of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation, it added.

"Even a small portion of this activity is deadly dangerous when unprofessional and uncontrollable behavior with it," the agency said.

Russian troops also allegedly stole computers and other office equipment from a laboratory in the NPP Security Institute, according to the agency.

The agency said the laboratories also contained sources of ionizing radiation and samples of fuel-containing materials, and their whereabouts are currently unknown. It is possible those items were removed and left elsewhere in the exclusion zone, but such an act would pose a safety risk to staff members.

"If radioactive materials were left in the exclusion zone, 'discarded,' this is a risk for staff, which further emphasizes the importance of immediate recovery of radiation-dosimetric studies and the removal of these highly active sources in specialties not a storage unit. After checking for the absence of measurements and the availability of equipment, this activity will be immediately restored," the agency said.

However, the agency noted that it is more likely that the items were taken by Russian troops as "souvenirs."

"In the case of carrying such a souvenir with you for 2 weeks, radiation burns are guaranteed and radiation diseases and non-reversible processes in the body begin," the Ukrainian agency said.

It added that such an irresponsible act should result in the soldiers receiving the "Darwin Prize"—a sarcastic prize that recognizes individuals who contribute to human evolution by accidentally killing or sterilizing themselves.

Chernobyl, located north of Kyiv, has been contaminated with highly dangerous radioactive materials since one of the world's worst nuclear disasters occurred at its nuclear power plant in 1986. When Russian forces began their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, they seized control of the power plant and exclusion zone.

However, the Pentagon and Ukrainian forces announced late last month that troops have since withdrawn from the area.

Newsweek reached out to the foreign ministries of both Ukraine and Russia for comment.

---

General who adores war crimes is being put in charge. I’d expect the gas missiles in the near future.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...ander-83995801

Or maybe a Ukrainian sniper will do the world a favor and score a three pointer. ;)

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt, according to Standard and Poor's.

It's a selective default - they tried to pay in rubles, they haven't defaulted on all their debt yet. But the full default can't be that far off, so long as sanctions hold.

https://abcnews.go.com/International...ry?id=84079250

This is very bad for the fleet. Some reports are this ship was the main provider of anti air and anti missile defense for the other ships.

It was. I imagine the extra missiles being fired tonight are the last hurrah for the rest of the fleet before they move out of Neptune/Harpoon range, before Ukraine can set up the rest of their missiles.

I think I found why the Russians may have done some false flag things, although it still doesn't make sense:

I really don't know what "declare war" would entail that hasn't already been done. Nukes?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

BBC says one of the things they hit was a weapons factory outside Kyiv that makes missiles in particular, Neptune missiles.

So perhaps someone can answer this question because I have no experience in military strategy, But this missile factory in a Kyiv suburb a section of the Russian officesive that was one of their first target regions was not one of the first things hit?. You would think a place that makes missiles that can hit and sink your boats would be a pretty darn big day one target.

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There have been many indications that Russian pre-war intel work in Ukraine wasn't the greatest. Also, the Neptune is a relatively new weapon and never used until now, and it was announced as a weapon meant to take out bridges and ships with a displacement of less than 5,000 tons -- the Moskva is more than twice that size -- so it's possible that the Russians just didn't see it as much of a threat.

Also, keep in mind that Russia's initial goal was to blitz in, install a sympathetic puppet government and then leave, so they probably gave no thought at all to destroying Ukrainian factories -- if anything, they may have wanted to preserve them for their own use later.

A view from a Swiss intel officer. Take it for what you will.

https://www.sott.net/article/466340-...-on-in-Ukraine

That is not a great site to be getting information from, you know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PPatty

Also, keep in mind that Russia's initial goal was to blitz in, install a sympathetic puppet government and then leave, so they probably gave no thought at all to destroying Ukrainian factories -- if anything, they may have wanted to preserve them for their own use later.

---

The Donbas area, in particular, is a hub of heavy industry. There has been some speculation that economics are a key part of the motivation for this attack.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VariaVespasa

A view from a Swiss intel officer. Take it for what you will.

https://www.sott.net/article/466340-...-on-in-Ukraine

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I really feel like this has some selective editing, or at least leaves out some perspective. Mainly, the US and NATO's. I mean, it tries to paint the US as the primary instigator of this war which is ridiculous. Russia are the ones that invaded. If the reasons this guy says are accurate, then it should have been really easy to provide evidence of these attacks.

But lets pretend for a minute that it is 100% accurate. So what? Russia directly interfered with a United States election and was and still is trying to interfere with every other one since. The US couldn't just attack Russia over this, particularly since Russia has nukes. So, baiting Russia into an invasion that could potentially bring down the entire regime? It's ruthless, it plays the Ukranians off as unwitting pawns in a bloody war, but it is supervillain levels of devious. Of course, this is impossible because something like this would take years to organize. It would have required training the Ukranian army to be far more effective than anyone thought, which actually did happen. However, it would have required Trump to initiate all that and there is no way that he would have done this. So, either the Biden administration is the sneakiest administration the US has ever had, or this guy is making some pretty big assumptions based on limited information.

Not saying this site here is gospel but just tossing it out
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/signs-of-the-times-sott/

So id question such a report if the media bias site is in fact an accurate factchecker.

Attachment 6640

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

Not saying this site here is gospel but just tossing it out
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/signs-of-the-times-sott/

So id question such a report if the media bias site is in fact an accurate factchecker.

Attachment 6640

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That sounds about right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dramadon

I really feel like this has some selective editing, or at least leaves out some perspective. Mainly, the US and NATO's. I mean, it tries to paint the US as the primary instigator of this war which is ridiculous. Russia are the ones that invaded. If the reasons this guy says are accurate, then it should have been really easy to provide evidence of these attacks.

But lets pretend for a minute that it is 100% accurate. So what? Russia directly interfered with a United States election and was and still is trying to interfere with every other one since. The US couldn't just attack Russia over this, particularly since Russia has nukes. So, baiting Russia into an invasion that could potentially bring down the entire regime? It's ruthless, it plays the Ukranians off as unwitting pawns in a bloody war, but it is supervillain levels of devious. Of course, this is impossible because something like this would take years to organize. It would have required training the Ukranian army to be far more effective than anyone thought, which actually did happen. However, it would have required Trump to initiate all that and there is no way that he would have done this. So, either the Biden administration is the sneakiest administration the US has ever had, or this guy is making some pretty big assumptions based on limited information.

---

I'll deal with the rest of it later since I'm busy, but two questions-
To be clear I have no idea if the attempted sabotage missions were fact or rampant asspulls, but even if the Russians had presented evidence that they really happened, tell me the chances you would actually believe them.
And the second, answer me this- Its October 25, 1962. Russian freighters heading for Cuba refuse to turn back. President Kennedy orders them sunk, and within an hour they are. Who do you blame for the war?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VariaVespasa

I'll deal with the rest of it later since I'm busy, but two questions-
To be clear I have no idea if the attempted sabotage missions were fact or rampant asspulls, but even if the Russians had presented evidence that they really happened, tell me the chances you would actually believe them.
And the second, answer me this- Its October 25, 1962. Russian freighters heading for Cuba refuse to turn back. President Kennedy orders them sunk, and within an hour they are. Who do you blame for the war?

---

They would have to have extremely good evidence from multiple sources. You are fool if you believe anything coming out of Russia. All they have done is lie, lie, and lie some more and when they are done lying they start lying again. I blame Russia for the war. They invaded Ukraine. Multiple times. Ukraine did not invade Russia. End of story. If there were legit reasons for Russia to invade, they wouldn't sneak into Crimea without identification while Moscow pretends they have no idea what is happening. It really is remarkable how many people believe Russia's poorly thought out bullshit. They don't even really try to make it believable. Probably because they know they don't have to.

As for the Cuba missile crisis, that is a completely different situation with absolutely nothing in common with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. You might as well ask me how the Cubs losing a baseball game allowed the Bulls to win a playoff game.

Putin signs law scrapping upper age limit to enlist in Russian military, says Russian state media

Quote:

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law scrapping the upper age limit for Russians and foreigners to join the military as contract service members, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Russia’s State Duma passed the bill on Wednesday but Putin's signature was needed for it to become law.

Previously, citizens aged 18 to 40 and foreigners aged 18 to 30 could enlist in the Russian military.

The changes were drafted by the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, and his first deputy, Andrei Krasov. According to TASS, they believe the abolition of an upper age limit will attract specialists in areas such as medical support, engineering and communications.

The explanatory note to the draft law also notes that the use of high-precision weapons and military equipment requires specialists and they gain the experience by the age of 40 to 45.

The changes in law come amid serious Russian casualties in Ukraine, where Moscow is waging what it euphemistically calls a "special military operation."

Russia also has a system of military conscription. The Kremlin initially said draftees would not serve in Ukraine but subsequently acknowledged they were serving in combat.

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https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ine-war-update

Not sure on accuracy or validity of stuff from Express but if true things are likely to pop off in Chechnya while Moscow isnt looking.

Speaking of the current war and its side-effects I feel the need to annoy certain people by posting this, since they cheerfully poo-poo'd the concept of onshoring critical production because of vulnerability to outside influence, particularly as related to China and Germany (and to a lesser degree Europe).
A thread of fuck you goodness. https://twitter.com/cabot_phillips/s...5Es1_&ref_url=

We need to build chip fabs in the USA and fast, Stupidly Intel is doing it in Arizona though. Chip fabrication requires shitloads of water and so while its good they are building a USA plant they are doing in a part of the USA that may not be inhabitable in 20 years. With coal a deadend venture they should be building the fabs in places like WV where there is plentiful water and plentiful people that can likely be retrained.

Russia Strikes Odessa Port After Signing Deal to Unblock Ukrainian Grain Exports

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KYIV, Ukraine—Russia launched a missile attack on Ukraine’s key grain-exporting port of Odessa hours after signing an international agreement to lift its blockade of the Black Sea coastline and allow for the transport of grain and other foodstuffs necessary to alleviate a looming global food crisis.

The attack on Odessa appeared to violate the terms of the United Nations-brokered agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Friday, which stipulated that both countries would refrain from attacking port facilities or civilian ships used for grain transport, according to a copy of the agreement reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the strike, saying in a statement that all parties had committed to ensuring the safe movement of Ukrainian grain shipments.

At least two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit Odessa, the only major Ukrainian port resisting Russian occupation, damaging infrastructure at the site, Ukraine officials said. Another two of the missiles, which Russia has been launching from warships and submarines, were shot down by aerial defenses, officials said.

A railcar discharging point and a warehouse used for loading grain were destroyed in the attack, according to international grain traders.

The target of the strike was likely a nearby shipbuilding yard, workers at the port said.

“It’s obvious that the agreement with Russia is not even worth the paper it was signed on…Russia is a terrorist state,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, who was present at the signing of the agreement.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the attack on Odessa was like spitting in the face of the U.N. and Turkey, which facilitated and hosted the negotiations.

“We urge the U.N. and Turkey to ensure Russia’s compliance with its obligations to provide a safe corridor for the grain exports,” Mr. Nikolenko said in a statement posted to Facebook.

Russia also struck Saturday a military airport and a railway station in central Ukraine, authorities said, in another long-range attack reaching far beyond the immediate front lines. Ukraine, meanwhile, is continuing to take advantage of Western weapons to stall Russia’s military advance.

Andriy Raikovych, head of the Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine, said 13 missiles were fired at infrastructure and military facilities overnight, leaving at least three people dead and 13 wounded. Another strike, on Mykolaiv in the south, destroyed a warehouse, authorities there said.

Odessa, the only key port city on the Black Sea still held by Ukraine, was also shelled Saturday, with local media reporting seven missile strikes inside the urban area.

Ukraine’s forces meanwhile used U.S.-made rocket launchers in a systematic shelling campaign seemingly aimed at cutting off vital supplies from the strategically important southern region of Kherson, which Russia has occupied since early in the invasion, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.

Kyiv’s use of Himars launchers to bombard two strategic bridges over the Dnipro and Inhulets rivers has already made tank and truck traffic between Kherson and Russia near-impossible, according to officials and footage from the ground circulating on social media. Ukrainian officials have said that they are preparing a counteroffensive to liberate the Kherson region.

Residents of cities throughout Ukraine have largely become accustomed to the sound of air-raid sirens portending a possible rocket attack, with the majority disregarding advice to find the nearest underground shelter and wait until the danger has passed. Mr. Raikovych asked them to reconsider.

“I continually urge you to not ignore the sirens and immediately go to a shelter,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The latest round of attacks beyond the front lines comes as Ukrainian forces slow the Russian campaign to take the Donbas region in the east. Ukraine’s strikes on arms depots and strategic bridges in Russian-occupied territory, and its effective use of Himars rocket systems and other Western-supplied arms, have made it much harder for Russia to solidify its occupation in certain regions and to main the relentless artillery barrages that have underpinned its piecemeal but steady advance since April.

Analysts say a brief operational pause earlier this month following Russia’s capture of the eastern Luhansk region has given its troops too little time to recover before their campaign resumed this week.

“Russian forces are degraded, they are beat up, tired and exhausted, and they need to regroup in order to be able to regain some of the combat effectiveness which they’d lost over the course of the Donbas campaign and the overall war,” said George Barros, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. “An approximately 10-day operational pause is not sufficiently long for the Russian forces to be able to regain the strength that they need.”

While the battlefield picture has ossified in recent days, diplomatic avenues to resolve the crisis have made some headway. In an agreement aimed at ending the grain crisis caused by the war, Ukraine and Russia paved the way for the resumption of exports from Black Sea ports blocked by Russian ships. Delegates from the two countries signed parallel deals Friday at a ceremony in Istanbul, following months of diplomacy led by Turkey and the United Nations.

The agreement could free up about 18 million tons of wheat, corn and other supplies that have been stuck at Ukrainian ports and grain silos for weeks. Grain analysts have said they expect it could take weeks for grain shipments to begin flowing again, if both sides remain committed to the deal.

Late on Friday, Ukraine said operations at some of its ports may resume in as little as three days. Yury Vaskov, Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister and a member of the country’s delegation at the talks in Istanbul, told Ukrainian media on Friday that the port of Chornomorsk south of Odessa is preparing to handle the first vessel carrying grain.

The most active wheat futures contract fell 5.9%, to $7.59 per bushel, in trading on the Chicago Board of Trade Friday, as the deal raised hopes that a restart to Ukrainian grain exports would ease a brewing global food-supply crisis.

The deal has been seen as a limited but promising step toward bringing the two sides closer to a peace deal. Some European Union countries have suggested Ukraine should make concessions to Russia in exchange for peace. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any pause in the fighting could merely give battered Russian forces a chance to regroup and rearm.

Instead he called for further weapons supplies from the West, and credited the support of Ukraine’s allies for shifting the balance on the battlefield and allowing Ukraine to bog down Russian troops fighting to capture swaths of the country’s east. Shortly after he spoke, the White House on Friday announced another $270 million worth of weapons for Ukraine, including four more Himars and hundreds more Phoenix Ghost drones.

The U.S. also said that the Pentagon is considering providing Ukrainian forces with fighter jets. It is “making some preliminary explorations into the feasibility of potentially providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communication. U.S. officials have previously resisted supplying Ukraine with fighter jets over concerns that they could risk a more direct conflict with Moscow.

---

Sanctions, eh?


"Oh but we never started this whole thing off to take over Russia, break it up and steal their resources, OH NOES! We are the Good Guys, TM!"

Here we go, nice proof on their own damn website of the aspirations of the US military industrial complex
the Russian response being a big fat "NYET!"
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/ran...ND_RB10014.pdf


And who the fuck ya think paid for and supports this?
CIA, MI6, banks and corporations desperate to loot Russia to keep their vampiric system going because they know the West's foul system is on the verge of collapse and need more victims to drain to keep the giant Ponzi scheme going
And why the Russians WILL KILL US ALL IF WE DON'T STOP FUCKING WITH THEM
it's an EXISTENTIAL WAR!
For Russia/CHina to stay as sovereign nations must see the destruction of the West, either financially, politically...or literally!!
there is NO MIDDLE GROUND cause our leaders are complete fucking out of touch, coked-up lunatics, as Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria etc have proven to the Russians/Chinese
so they are going to fight to the *death*


Planning the break of Russia...while Russia is wiping the floor in Ukraine...omfg, the hubris

https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/07/...ion-in-prague/


Ukraine is just one small part of a very big war that's 90% not about armies or battles or Ukraine.
I keep hoping some of you aren't so mind fucked you are preparing for what's coming and thus survive, sigh

And anyone still claiming the Ukrainians aren't riddled with, controlled by CIA, oligarch and Nazi cunts, is a moron.
Not only have they been boasting of their allegiance on social media for years, including tattoos and crimes they even posted videos of torture/murder of Russian POWs, not fake stuff like Zelensky and Co keeps posting, but actual on their own accounts fun fun detailed torture sessions of pulling otu eyeballs, kneecappings and neck shots
oh well, the tattoos make it easy to sort them out when captured
they also used them as "anti retreat forces"....you try to retreat, they shoot you, so there's been increasing conflict between the ordinary Ukrainian military and those fucks, and the Russians are SOOOO happy to bomb the fuck out of them especially with thermobarics

For months that bastard Zelensky and his media whores have been pumping out crap, while sending his people into a total meat grinder, while our media keeps saying "they are winning! this new thingy ma bob is a game changer!"
meanwhile the Russians are not fighting for territory at all and never have been
they are grinding the fuck out of the poor bastard Ukrainian army
there's less than 15% of the Russian army involved in this, much of it's the break away Republic militias and mercenaries
For every actual Russian tank getting taken out by a Javelin or whatever, it took at least 6 attempts...what do you think happened to those other attempts? You can find video footage if you want and have the stomach for it
Russian tank autoloader systems suck? well they are pretty good at loading HE-Frag and turning 5+ men into bloody rags toot fucking sweet

"Old Russian tanks suck! shows how desperate they are!" says our media
no, they are using them as deposable ASSAULT GUNS you sellout fucking corporate whores in our media!
Ukrainians hole up in Soviet era apartment blocks....updated T60s blow the living shit out of the building way out of Javelin range
Javelin = 900 metre range IF it works
tank gun = 5km range and can directly hit a single man at 3km, three shots out of five
Apartment block? pfft!

HIMARS? oh FFS...go read up on how many different types of multiple launch rocket systems the Russians have, and their single ballistic missile launchers, and the colossal amount of RESERVE units and ammo they have
Western stuff is in general over priced SHIT, it breaks down way too much, costs FAR too much, too much logistic train
meanwhile the Russians ARE the masters of rocketry and their total artillery always dwarfed NATO, with equipment that may not have been quite as good but was way more reliable and had absolute SHIT tons of it at way cheaper costs.
God is on the side of the Big ARTILLERY battalions
so now they are simply exterminating the Ukrainians :(
the Russians WANT the Ukrainians ot keep making these stupid attacks cause they wipe the poor bastards out, cause being out in the open when the entire suite of artillery comes down is....far worse than anything ever seen in World War One
but hey that's ok they are as usual, "dying for Uncle Sam and Democracy!" :Popcorn:


"Russians are running out of rockets, using old Soviet ones!"
because they WORK, you don't need a bloody million dollar missile to take out a fucking bridge THAT DOESN'T MOVE!
or a shopping mall which is being used to house weapon dumps
kind of funny how a massive bloody anti-carrier missile hitting a shopping mall in middle of the day at weekend only caused 15 deaths, isn't it...?
Well to anyone who had any damn brains, cause it was WEAPON dump with some military guards/logistics folk, not hundreds of civilians like normal
and shopping malls do not have massive secondary explosions...well unless it's 3 storey gun store maybe :p

maybe it's finally trickling through to some of you...if not, tough shit
I've got more important things to worry about, like quadrupled gas bills for Winter, if not more
and considering what to do if it goes nuclear

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Silverblade-T-E

Sanctions, eh?

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While I disagree with almost everything you've said, I am glad to see that you are alive and well, Silver.

Inflation and high fuel costs are hurting a lot of people right now - I hope you're holding up ok.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zarbonius

While I disagree with almost everything you've said, I am glad to see that you are alive and well, Silver.

Inflation and high fuel costs are hurting a lot of people right now - I hope you're holding up ok.

---

Zarb
being disabled and living in Scotland has resulted in less crap for me than others, so far
but this is going to get die as hell :(


as for Ukraine, sorry but the utter lying propaganda form the West is beyond anything the Soviets ever achieved,
and, it's falling apart, finally.

this shit has been known since the early days, with the Ukrainian hiding their military and ammo dumps inside civilian buildings, like...all the shopping malls that got blown up
funny how a huge shopping mall got blown up during a weekend and only 15 people died...unless it was holding munitions and soldiers, ergo no HUNDREDS or thousands of civilians inside, and thus less deaths AND why they were so many secondary explosions at these events

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-rel...tial-areas-new

Russian tactics are slaughtering Ukrainians every damn day FOR THE GLORY OF AMERICA and the profit of London banks and the US arms industry! (tm), Russians though don't keep making huge media BS all the time , they are doing a job of work, just grinding their cousins into paste :(
letting the Ukranians advance/attack where they can, drawing them out of fix defences to annihilate them on open ground
or as occurred in one small town other day, when they are in fixed defences, drop 6500 artillery round son it and fuxxor the poor buggers


So much for America's promises NOT give long range HIMARs missiles to Ukraine, or for Ukraine not to fire them into Russian territory, oh that's going to end well, not!
remember the Russians have THOUSANDS of long range missile systems, not just...24
and dribbling stuff in, ensures the Russians have time and ease to LEARN how to deal with NATO weapon systems, oh how clever of our leaders! Putin must be laughing his ass off! :rolleyes:
also, Ukrainians are busily SELLING the Russians Western gear up to and including...a HIMARS plus ammo!

West is pissing away its military inventory, we cannot make more because of all the logistic issues and corporate greed (West's stuff is crap for reliability and as the Ukrainians themselves have complained, NOT suitable for high intensity conflicts, "inbuilt obsolescence", who'd a thunk it?)
and whether you like it or not, NATO's own exercises have shown we don't have the ammo, replacement parts etc for less than a week of conflict with the likes of Russia, never mind China. Ammo and storing LOTS of it not being a "high profit" item for the "Military Industrial Complex"
Ever read what happened in the Korean War, hm? Not only read it, talked about it with lovely fella who'd fought in it.
lessons have been totally forgotten by the fuckwits generals who are whores for Lockheed Martin etc :(

While Silver is citing poorly sourced Amnesty reports and completely misunderstanding the nature of urban warfare, this is what either Russian troops or the rusich unit of Wagner PMC is doing to Ukrainian civilians:

Attachment 6673

Attachment 6674

A Twitter thread regarding Ukrainians and so called Nazis IE exposing Russia's bullshit propaganda justification for their invasion.
https://twitter.com/rynkrynk/status/...gk-RaF83y6UPBY

Just out of curiosity Silver - do you think the Holodomor happened?

My belief is that Silver is reading more right-wing sites (the ones more prone to his beloved conspiracy theories), and those places are filled with Russian propaganda. It's not malice, it's being deliberately taken down the garden path. I've been waiting for him to make a specific oddball claim that I could ask for "proof" on, so he'd link a source and we could see how bad it is. It's unfortunate that he follows Russian claims. There's one major conspiracy theory out there which, if true, has wrecked his life more than any other: that the Russians were providing significant funding and propaganda for the pro-Brexit side. Guess that's one conspiracy theory he doesn't believe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

My belief is that Silver is reading more right-wing sites (the ones more prone to his beloved conspiracy theories), and those places are filled with Russian propaganda. It's not malice, it's being deliberately taken down the garden path. I've been waiting for him to make a specific oddball claim that I could ask for "proof" on, so he'd link a source and we could see how bad it is. It's unfortunate that he follows Russian claims. There's one major conspiracy theory out there which, if true, has wrecked his life more than any other: that the Russians were providing significant funding and propaganda for the pro-Brexit side. Guess that's one conspiracy theory he doesn't believe.

---

You are far kinder than I, Delores. I am waiting for him to regurgitate the Ukrainians = Nazis bullshit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ninetoes

You are far kinder than I, Delores. I am waiting for him to regurgitate the Ukrainians = Nazis bullshit.

---

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...ists-lpjnsp7qg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Regiment

Symbol of the Azov battalion, until it became too obviously a problem for Western media who were BLURRING the fucking symbol out or cropping video/pics to hide the fact Azov are so prevalent/powerful in the Ukrainian military/power structures, and their symbol combines both the Nazi's "Black Sun" and the "Wolfsangel"...very embarrassing for the lying bullshit that the Ukrainians were all "uber heroes fighting the evil orcs!"

Attachment 6675


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massac...astern_Galicia

Quote:

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The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (Polish: rzeź wołyńska, lit. 'Volhynian slaughter'; Ukrainian: Волинська трагедія, romanized: Volynska trahediia, lit. 'Volyn tragedy'), were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or the UPA, with the support of parts of the local Ukrainian population against the Polish minority in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, parts of Polesia and Lublin region from 1943 to 1945.[7] The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943. Most of the victims were women and children.[8] Many of the Polish victims regardless of age or gender were tortured before being killed; some of the methods included rape, dismemberment or immolation, among others.[5] The UPA's actions resulted in between 50,000[1] and 100,000 deaths.[3][4]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ho...ion_in_Ukraine

There are plenty of photos and videos, including for years BEFORE this war began of the Azov, Right Sector and other scum showing off their Adolf Hitler, Black Sun, Swastika, Deathshead (specifically Totenkopfverbande NOT the usual "gothic" stuff) and Bandera tattoos
and boasting of their crimes against Jews, non-whites and mostly, Russian speakers.



Eastern Europe has long had a very vicious racist problem, all nations to extents do, but Eastern Europe it's above norms and that's what international experts concluded, too.

https://www.rferl.org/a/racism-europe/28497700.html

yet, most of the scumbags are Western Ukrainians, but they've been very happy killing Eastern Ukrainian Russian speakers for years

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Originally Posted by Ninetoes

Just out of curiosity Silver - do you think the Holodomor happened?

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And that gives excuse for this madness today?! Or similar hate-based insanity from the Poles, Estonians, Lithuanians (see Kaliningrad blockade) etc?
the hatreds for Modern Russia for crimes the Soviet's did, or Czars or ANCIENT Russia did, to the point folk WANT war today, is fucking INSANITY! :(


And ignores the fact that everyone over there, like the Poles (1918-20 war was NOT one sided in guilt or atrocities), or the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the Swedish etc started or did or involved in much of those ancient conflicts/atrocities

I never supported or wanted the IRA's bombings in England just because of my beef with Maggie Thatcher etc and sure as hell did not want WAR with England
The Irish had every right, after CENTURIES of abuse to be free, and they large won that, but the Republican extremists were mad evil bastards, who also totally screwed the work the sane moderates of the SDLP Republicans were doing


You lot are in fucking insane denial and its helping to wipe out much of the male population of Ukraine to feed the USA's military industrial complex, bankers, and degenerate nutbars in D.C.

Some of the Ukrainian units have taken 90% casualties in the dumbass offensives from their OWN reports, yer ex-military, go check the Russian artillery, armoured vehicle air advantage etc, be honest...what would happen when someone who does not have those advantages attacks over flat open terrain? It's pure slaughter
As always the vile evil West, which is even worse then the bloody Russians and they are no fucking angels at all, is throwing millions of people into meat grinders and robbing them and their OWN people blind at the same time

Holodomor? Yes it happened, but FFS, the West has way way outdone the Communist tyrants in megadeaths, it's just not as obvious and far better covered up.
Who the fuck funded the Nazi, hm? AND Stalin!
Who backed Pol Pot (hint: Maggie thatcher) and who CAUSED that horrific debacle?
Laos bombing, funded by heroin the CIA funnelled and thus what has the War on Drugs done to our societies?
Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and literal over a hundred more wars since 1945
Shit tons of assassinations including democratic and even ALLIED politicians and leaders and we know that's not "conspiracy theory" because the records/whistle blowers came out
Corporations allowed to kill millions, tobacco killed 100 million by the year 2000, government let them away with it, knowing the monsters had deliberately made their drug more addictive and deadly but hey it helped cure the pension problem so that and the kickbacks ensured tobacco execs never faced jail!
etc etc

Yes the Soviets were MTFer bastards (well definitely until Stalin died and some of the Warsaw pact countries suffering under horrors like the Ceausescu's), but that's no excuse to commit or ignore insane crimes of our own


But hey, you want to see Russia defeated so bad...enjoy the result, you'd think the sanction blowback would make folk think but obviously NOT
I give in, yer not worth it :(

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

My belief is that Silver is reading more right-wing sites (the ones more prone to his beloved conspiracy theories), and those places are filled with Russian propaganda. It's not malice, it's being deliberately taken down the garden path. I've been waiting for him to make a specific oddball claim that I could ask for "proof" on, so he'd link a source and we could see how bad it is. It's unfortunate that he follows Russian claims. There's one major conspiracy theory out there which, if true, has wrecked his life more than any other: that the Russians were providing significant funding and propaganda for the pro-Brexit side. Guess that's one conspiracy theory he doesn't believe.

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You do know that Russian outlets have been BANNED and blocked in the UK and Europe, even through most VPNs, hm?
that journalists and others who report on the conflict who don't spout the West's fucking lies are being sanctioned and in Europe, arrested?
And yes that's fact, and it's against basic British law to punish someone without trial, but they've done it because the concept of "rights" and "Western democracy" are illusions

Attachment 6676


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-62308528
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b2038859.html

Nothing you posted proves any of the bollocks Russia used to justify their invasion, nor does it refute the thread I posted regarding the absolute victim blaming bullshit that is the Ukrainians = Nazis lie. You are an apologist for war crimes and should be ashamed, were you actually capable it.

Slava Ukraini you orc lover.

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Originally Posted by Silverblade-T-E

You do know that Russian outlets have been BANNED and blocked in the UK and Europe, even through most VPNs, hm?
that journalists and others who report on the conflict who don't spout the West's fucking lies are being sanctioned and in Europe, arrested?
And yes that's fact, and it's against basic British law to punish someone without trial, but they've done it because the concept of "rights" and "Western democracy" are illusions

Attachment 6676


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-62308528
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b2038859.html

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Are you seriously an apologist for Russia? You fucking cock.

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Originally Posted by DmitrytheWizzy

Are you seriously an apologist for Russia? You fucking cock.

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Did you see his "Whataboutism" response to the Holodomor?

The Nazi stuff is IMO a big Russian lie that Putin is using to hide the truth. Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by force, his forces are on a mission of extermination as well as proven by deliberate targeting of clearly civilian infrastructure.

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

The Nazi stuff is IMO a big Russian lie that Putin is using to hide the truth. Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by force, his forces are on a mission of extermination as well as proven by deliberate targeting of clearly civilian infrastructure.

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This puts the lie to the whole Ukrainian = Nazi thing:
https://twitter.com/rynkrynk/status/...gk-RaF83y6UPBY

Amnesty Polish office condemns Russian war crimes

Russia started this war. Russia could end it. The attempts to make this Ukraine's fault somehow are insane.

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Originally Posted by DmitrytheWizzy

Are you seriously an apologist for Russia?

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He's been beating this drum for years. I guess maybe it's a little more extreme now but it's the same general rhetoric.

:p

Attachment 6677

Attachment 6678

Maybe Silver can tell this babushka what an evil Nazi monster she's fistbumping.

Ninetoes,



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfeflkpcOi4

Ooo a shaky Youtube video with no context no evidence - must be a Silverblade Apologist Special!

Russian Radio - Teachers who don't work for Russian Occupiers should be executed or put in a gulag: https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/sta...2ujO0zIAg&s=19

Amnesty International apologizes for report rebuking Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ne-2022-08-07/

This fuckers can't even apologize correctly - this is some "Sorry you were offended" level bullshit.

Hey Silver. Fuck you, you piece of shit. I used to think you were just some pathetic loser who did not believe in work. Now I know you to be a wad of cock juice. Fuck off and finish dying.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DmitrytheWizzy

Hey Silver. Fuck you, you piece of shit. I used to think you were just some pathetic loser who did not believe in work. Now I know you to be a wad of cock juice. Fuck off and finish dying.

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Slava Ukraini

My fondest wish for you Silver is you experience exactly the same amount of kindness and understanding you have shown the Ukrainian people.

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Originally Posted by Ninetoes

Amnesty International apologizes for report rebuking Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ne-2022-08-07/

This fuckers can't even apologize correctly - this is some "Sorry you were offended" level bullshit.

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wow... That is a full send corpo apology, I mean like their PR team pulled it almost word for word from the "big book of Corporate choose your own adventure: apology edition".

Attachment 6680

How will that apologist Silver blame the Ukrainians for this?

I wonder if they know a lot of that radiation would blow into Russia. Then again it's the Russian military, When have they ever given a flying fuck about civilians.

Ruskies lost some aircraft in Crimea, Sadly the Runway is still intact but good shooting anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62500560

Attachment 6681
Attachment 6682

There was a large line of traffic leaving the Crimea after that happened. Guess the Russians there have decided the time to get out is now.

Good argument for not blowing up the bridge, the more Russians leave the easier it will be for Ukraine to take the peninsula back.

Now Steven Seagull err Seagal is spreading Kremlin lies

I mean we already knew he was a Putler fanboy but he’s really all in here.

Push em back, push em back, way back

https://abcnews.go.com/International...ry?id=89748763

There is also rumors that things ain’t so peachy in Moscow.

Hopefully Ukraine can keep the pressure on.

Attachment 6693

Attachment 6694

whoops guess Putin did just admit its going as bad for them as it actually is
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/11242...ssian-citizens

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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a "partial mobilization" of Russia's armed forces on Wednesday morning — signing a decree that will send Russians who have gone through military training to join the fight in Ukraine while stopping short of an all-out draft.

"Only those citizens will be drafted to military service who are currently in the reserve and first of all those who have served in the army, who have certain professions and have necessary experience," will be recruited for the campaign, said Putin in a televised address to the nation.

The announcement came just a day after some Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine announced plans for referendums on becoming part of Russia. The choreographed series of events was reminiscent of the Russian leader's announcement to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February.

Putin's Wednesday announcement also came as his country has struggled to replenish its fighting force in Ukraine and suffered setbacks on the battlefield amid a surging Ukrainian counteroffensive.

In a separate television interview, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia would immediately call up 300,000 reservists to "hold the line at the front" in Ukraine.

In his address, Putin said the larger force was necessary as Ukraine continued to receive heavy weaponry from a "collective West" intent on "weakening, isolating, and destroying Russia."

The Russian leader also insisted Russia had a moral obligation to protect civilians in partially Russian-occupied portions of Ukraine as they held a series of "referendums" aimed at joining the Russian Federation later this week.

Putin also accused Western powers of providing Ukraine with long-range weapon systems that can strike deep into Russian territory — and again accused Ukraine and its allies of menacing Russia with nuclear threats. Putin warned Russia and its people would use "all available means" in their defense — noting Russia had its own capable nuclear arsenal. "This is no bluff," Putin said.

"Those who are blackmailing us with nuclear weapons should know – the rose winds can change and blow in their direction."

The defense minister also provided new figures on Russian casualties — saying 5,937 Russian soldiers had died fighting in Ukraine. Western estimates run much higher.

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