Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[bickster]

 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

51 minutes ago, sidcow said:

They quite literally are the Uber Troll

Russia is turning into a country version of a Karen in a car park arguing over a parking space.  They have no self awareness at all and have no idea that they look like absolute words removed.  I feel a bit sorry for them in a way as they are so far off normality and truth they are just caricatures of humans beings now.  Some bird from the Duma actually said on Hard talk that the western media cannot be trusted and they haven't bombed any civilians at all.  Honestly,  I could blow her brains out and never think of it again in my lifetime.  

 

[blandy]

1 minute ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

They have no self awareness at all and have no idea that they look like absolute words removed

I think that's wholly incorrect, personally, Neil.

I see it as there are two audiences - domestic and international. To the Russian domestic audience, they are not perceived in the same way as in the west. The domestic audience will largely view them as not words removed at all, but as Heroes, victims, right (not wrong) and so on.

They are also fully aware of how others see them, and they utterly don't care in this instance. As many have said "trolling" pretty much sums up how much of a s**t they give about how others see them.

[LondonLax]

27 minutes ago, Straggler said:

Russia is the Max Verstappen of international politics.

That’s a bit much. They don’t whinge that much. 

[Mandy Lifeboats]

The Ukrainian helicopter attack on a Belgorod Oil depot is an amazing event.  Russia cannot even establish air supremacy over their own country let alone Ukraine. If Ukraine continues to attack Russia on their own turf it will tie up massive amounts of Russian forces to defend their infrastructure.  

I doubt these helicopters were "stealth" equipped.  If they can invade Russian airspace the USA must be fairly confident that the F22 deployed on the NATO/Ukraine border are causing a massive headache for the defence of Russian airspace.  

Edited April 1, 2022 by Mandy Lifeboats
Added details

[HKP90]

42 minutes ago, Straggler said:

Russia is the Max Verstappen of international politics.

Does that make China Christian Horner?

[sidcow]

We're definitely Lewis Hamilton. Used to dominate the world but now barely able to make it into a points position and nobody likes us much. 

[sidcow]

16 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

The Ukrainian helicopter attack on a Belgorod Oil depot is an amazing event.  Russia cannot even establish air superiority over their own country let alone Ukraine. If Ukraine continues to attack Russia on their own turf it will tie up massive amounts of Russian forces to defend their infrastructure.  

I must admit I thought it would have been long range missiles. To do it with helicopters is amazing. Another humiliation for Russia really. 

[Rds1983]

Just heard a woman sat on the table next to us in the cafe ranting about how she is completely for the death penalty, especially for Putin as he's evil. 

She then announced that she and her husband spend half the year in Saudi Arabia. Wanted to point out the irony in that but my wife suggested it was a bad idea. 

[MessiWillSignForVilla]

4 hours ago, bickster said:

 

Russia's response definitely makes me suspicious it could've been a false flag to undermine peace talks

[Genie]

Surely Russia want peace talks to succeed? Prolonging the military operation does them no favours.

[Cizzler]

13 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

Russia's response definitely makes me suspicious it could've been a false flag to undermine peace talks

Who does a false flag op benefit?

They are already performing atrocities on Ukrainian civilians, they don’t need to conjure up a ‘justification’.

And they already feed their own citizens whatever information they want - so it’s not like they need to ‘sell’ Ukrainian aggression. I find it hard to believe they’d deliberately blow up their own fuel supplies when they already control what their citizens believe.

[magnkarl]

Ruining the biggest fuel dump closest to Ukraine will further increase Russia’s logistical issues. It’s a solid move, one that doesn’t kill innocent civilians, no less.

[bickster]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Surely Russia want peace talks to succeed? Prolonging the military operation does them no favours.

Starting the military operation did them no favours either, it didn't stop them

Russia has different objectives and rationale to a Western Democracy. People are just units of flesh for a start off

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, bickster said:

Starting the military operation did them no favours either, it didn't stop them

Russia has different objectives and rationale to a Western Democracy. People are just units of flesh for a start off

I think when it started they had delusions of how it was going to go.

Now I’d have thought a negotiated peace they can sell as a win would be appealing, seems they are doubling down on their approach. 
 

[LondonLax]

Just now, Genie said:

I think when it started they had delusions of how it was going to go.

Now I’d have thought a negotiated peace they can sell as a win would be appealing, seems they are doubling down on their approach. 
 

I don’t think they are necessarily concerned with how the last few weeks have gone.

They are looking at focusing on securing a land corridor to Crimea and will just be using peace talks as an opportunity to pause and redeploy / rearm troops.  

[MessiWillSignForVilla]

1 hour ago, Cizzler said:

Who does a false flag op benefit?

They are already performing atrocities on Ukrainian civilians, they don’t need to conjure up a ‘justification’.

And they already feed their own citizens whatever information they want - so it’s not like they need to ‘sell’ Ukrainian aggression. I find it hard to believe they’d deliberately blow up their own fuel supplies when they already control what their citizens believe.

Because reports of what's happening in Ukraine are probably trickling their way back to the Russian people regardless of Putin's efforts to stop it, so an attack on Russian soil helps keep the general populace supporting the war. Or perhaps it could be further propaganda just to keep soldier morale high. We've seen lots of reports that Russian soldiers have no idea what's actually going on or being confused when they aren't greeted as liberators, maybe they'll be more motivated to keep fighting if they see it as a defensive war against Ukrainian attacks?

Plus it could be used as a justification for continuation to countries like China and India in the hope that they might see attacks like that as enough wiggle room to outright support Russia and help prop up their economy.

This is a guy that blew up an apartment building in his own capital just to justify restarting a war with an openly rebellious region of the country, so I don't think blowing up a fuel depot to continue this war as a false flag is much of a stretch, especially when they've been making very loud statements about withdrawing from Kyiv. I wouldn't be surprised to see Russian troops advancing back to Kyiv next week.

 

Whether it is or not, I'm not sure, but with Ukraine denying it was them and Russia referencing it in a way that would suggest they might use it as an excuse to walk away from peace talks, it makes me suspicious of it's veracity.

Edited April 1, 2022 by MessiWillSignForVilla

[blandy]

You know that Winter Olympics sport that the Scots do really well at - Curling, is it?

Here's Ukraine's team practicing, freestyle...with anti tank mines.

 

[bickster]

Quote

Russia: why the blocking of the pro-Ukraine web threatens to collapse

Several signs show that Russia may soon no longer have the means to block the internet as the Kremlin wishes.

For several years, and even more so since the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has increasingly controlled the internet to which the citizens of the federation have access. But with the recent crisis, the Russian telecommunications policeman, Roscomnadzor, and the country’s ISPs are finding it increasingly difficult to enforce the growing number of site blocks. Recently the Kremlin even ordered the very general blocking of all what it considers to be “fake news […] distributed under the guise of reliable messages” – in the face of the risk of “disturbing public order”.

Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, but also thousands of information sites, pirated content… according to our colleagues from TorrentFreak, everything indicates at this stage that the country’s infrastructure authorizing these blockages appears more and more dimension. And with the country being particularly harshly sanctioned, buying the missing equipment won’t be easy, so Roscomnadzor could be weeks or months away from a major breakdown.

Russia pushes its internet blocking infrastructure to its limits

Signs would even begin to emerge. Just over a week ago, Roscomnadzor reportedly asked ISPs to conduct an “urgent” internal audit to verify the effectiveness of the blocks. However, several problems have already been highlighted. For example, the RuTracker site normally blocked in the country found itself accessible again, due to technical problems at one of the ISPs in the packet blocking system provided by the Russian administration.

Roscomnadzor coordinates a galaxy of deep packet inspection (DPI) systems that the country’s more than 80 operators are required to integrate into their infrastructure. However, the Russian state demands a lot from this system, which has also recently had to restrict access to Tor, VPNs, and Twitter. According to the daily Kommersant, the economic context of the country reduces the reserves of equipment on which the operators can count.[...]

IntecHitec (more on link)

 

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, blandy said:

You know that Winter Olympics sport that the Scots do really well at - Curling, is it?

Here's Ukraine's team practicing, freestyle...with anti tank mines.

 

With all my military knowledge I'm guessing they're triggered when pressure is applied to a plate on the top

So the Russians simply scattering them on a tarmac road like that where they are clearly visible is utterly stupid, so many of them makes them even more visible, buried in mud or hidden in rubble its a different story, scattering them on the road to halt the tank and then ambushing it is different too but that just looks lazy and pointless like their heart really isn't in it