Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[bickster]

6 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Does this mean Russia's unlimited relationship with China now has limits???

It always had limits

China's position has always been two faced with Russia as it is with everyone else.

China does 3 times the business with the West than it does Russia so if it was sanctioned it really wouldn't do it any good and as Russia's economy is in the toilet, what is Russia going to pay China with? (which makes the whole pay us in Rubles to Europe monumentally silly)

Whilst China said vague things in support of Russia, special relationship blah, it never actually did anything, in fact loys of State owned businesses and banks have been pulling away from Russia, like withdrawing support for payment methods that Russians used etc

There was a story earlyish in the war that Lavrov went to China cap in hand for something or other and was totally rebuffed, got nothing was the rumour

Pre-war, China was Ukraine's single biggest trading partner. They were trading about $18bil a year with a $2bil trading surplus in China's favour. China was getting Iron Ore, Sunflower Oil and Grain from Ukraine. About 30% of China's grain imports came from Ukraine in 2020-21 in return Ukraine was buying Machinery and Consumer Goods

There's also Russia's support for "breakaway" republics which doesn't really sit well with the One China policy with regards to the likes of Hong Kong / Taiwan and who knows, China might even fancy it's northern lands back off Russia at some point if Russia is suitably weakened.

China will always do what is best for China

 

[bickster]

This is just how dumb the Russians are. Want to know where the Russian Army is? Just look at where the Russian mobile phone subscribers are in Ukraine

[magnkarl]

59 minutes ago, bickster said:

This is just how dumb the Russians are. Want to know where the Russian Army is? Just look at where the Russian mobile phone subscribers are in Ukraine

It's beyond me. I hope they can get this data in more detail and start hammering the biggest clusters with the long range artillery they've been given. Kupyansk and Kherson are the areas that Ukraine needs to watch out for, and they could probably push south of Zaporizzja.

Turns out one of the drone pilots that found the pontoon bridge the other day has written about it. They claim they took out 1500 Russians including a GRU colonel when they found the bridging attempt. There are pictures with more than 15 destroyed vehicles in one shot.

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by magnkarl

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

1 hour ago, magnkarl said:

when they found the bridging attempt

Bridge Building Project proudly delivered for the motherland by: Colonal Delboyeski & Sergant Rodneyshenko

[sidcow]

No doubt The Kremlin will make up some bollox of an excuse.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61425025

Ukraine conflict: Russian soldiers seen shooting dead unarmed civilians

Quote

When Leonid Pliats and his boss were shot in the back by Russian soldiers, the killing was captured on CCTV cameras in clear and terrible detail. The footage, which was obtained by the BBC, is now being investigated by Ukrainian prosecutors as a suspected war crime.

Quote

But this was no firefight: the video clearly shows five heavily armed Russian soldiers shooting the two unarmed Ukrainians and then looting the business.

We have pieced together the full sequence of events, matching what was recorded on multiple CCTV cameras around the site with the testimony of people Leonid phoned that day, as well as the Ukrainian volunteer fighters who tried to rescue him.

 

[magnkarl]

 

[LondonLax]

2 hours ago, magnkarl said:

It's beyond me. I hope they can get this data in more detail and start hammering the biggest clusters with the long range artillery they've been given. Kupyansk and Kherson are the areas that Ukraine needs to watch out for, and they could probably push south of Zaporizzja.

Turns out one of the drone pilots that found the pontoon bridge the other day has written about it. They claim they took out 1500 Russians including a GRU colonel when they found the bridging attempt. There are pictures with more than 15 destroyed vehicles in one shot.

 

It sounds like the Russians have succeeded with that bridge crossing though, through shear weight of numbers. They have secured a bridgehead and are now pushing into Novoselivka unfortunately. 

[bickster]

20 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

It sounds like the Russians have succeeded with that bridge crossing though, through shear weight of numbers. They have secured a bridgehead and are now pushing into Novoselivka unfortunately. 

Except Novoselivka is near to the Moldovan border and nowhere near Silverkyi Donets River

EDIT: and all the other Novoselikvas in Ukraine all appear to be in territory already held by the Russians around Donestk and Mariupol

[avfc1982am]

32 minutes ago, bickster said:

Except Novoselivka is near to the Moldovan border and nowhere near Silverkyi Donets River

EDIT: and all the other Novoselikvas in Ukraine all appear to be in territory already held by the Russians around Donestk and Mariupol

Isn't it Novotoshkivsʹka which is south of the Silverkyi Donets River and between 2 bridges? 

I thought they(Russians) held Luhansk anyway so coming South to the Northwest of Luhansk doesn't really seem that significant when Ukrainian troops are conceding ground and then taking back elsewhere? It's cat and dog across the frontline anyway. 

Edited May 12, 2022 by avfc1982am

[LondonLax]

27 minutes ago, bickster said:

Except Novoselivka is near to the Moldovan border and nowhere near Silverkyi Donets River

EDIT: and all the other Novoselikvas in Ukraine all appear to be in territory already held by the Russians around Donestk and Mariupol

It’s the road between Siversk and Lysychansk

 

7 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Isn't it Novotoshkivsʹka which is south of the Silverkyi Donets River and between 2 bridges? 

I thought they(Russians) held Luhansk anyway so coming South to the Northwest of Luhansk doesn't really seem that significant when Ukrainian troops are conceding ground and then taking back elsewhere? It's cat and dog across the frontline anyway. 

Yeah that’s the one. It’s super confusing trying to follow this in real time

[bickster]

11 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Isn't it Novotoshkivsʹka which is south of the Silverkyi Donets River and between 2 bridges? 

I thought they(Russians) held Luhansk anyway so coming South to the Northwest of Luhansk doesn't really seem that significant when Ukrainian troops are conceding ground and then taking back elsewhere? It's cat and dog across the frontline anyway. 

Yes that makes much more sense with the different spelling

 

[bickster]

So, if they cross the river and Ukraine blow the bridge up behind them?

[Mandy Lifeboats]

3 minutes ago, bickster said:

So, if they cross the river and Ukraine blow the bridge up behind them?

No problem. Russian tanks are superior to the Wests and can become submarines.

[avfc1982am]

14 minutes ago, bickster said:

So, if they cross the river and Ukraine blow the bridge up behind them?

I think this is Russia doing what they do only for Ukrainians to undo it somewhere down the line. 

If we can credit Russians with anything it's being consistently stupid so its a matter of time before the bridge gets targeted again.  

[AshVilla]

4 hours ago, magnkarl said:

It's beyond me. I hope they can get this data in more detail and start hammering the biggest clusters with the long range artillery they've been given. Kupyansk and Kherson are the areas that Ukraine needs to watch out for, and they could probably push south of Zaporizzja.

Turns out one of the drone pilots that found the pontoon bridge the other day has written about it. They claim they took out 1500 Russians including a GRU colonel when they found the bridging attempt. There are pictures with more than 15 destroyed vehicles in one shot.

 

A tugboat was sunk? 

Poor Theodore.

[sne]

12 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

A tugboat was sunk? 

Poor Theodore.

[avfc1982am]

Without knowing the timestamp on this video it doesn't appear that the Russian forces have created any bridgehead South of the river. This footage is definitely still north of the Silverkyi Donets river 

And they look to be getting pummelled. 

 

 

[LondonLax]

26 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I think this is Russia doing what they do only for Ukrainians to undo it somewhere down the line. 

If we can credit Russians with anything it's being consistently stupid so its a matter of time before the bridge gets targeted again.  

Possibly. From what I can gather it sounds like the Russians created 5 crossings expecting to lose some. The Ukrainians took out three and the Russians have used the other 2. 

[magnkarl]

2 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

Possibly. From what I can gather it sounds like the Russians created 5 crossings expecting to lose some. The Ukrainians took out three and the Russians have used the other 2. 

In the vids and pictures they crossed with loads of vehicles, got targeted by artillery which blew up the bridge and then tried to put up another bridge which was taken out by artillery again, and then the UA airforce bombed them to hell. There’s nothing left of this crossing and no Russians south of the river as far as I gather.

[LondonLax]

53 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

In the vids and pictures they crossed with loads of vehicles, got targeted by artillery which blew up the bridge and then tried to put up another bridge which was taken out by artillery again, and then the UA airforce bombed them to hell. There’s nothing left of this crossing and no Russians south of the river as far as I gather.

There’s an analyst I keep an eye on (goes by Tom Cooper on FB and ‘Medium’) who claims the Russians have been seen in numbers  around these coordinates (48.8538289, 38.1621551) (It’s not worth trying to spell Ukrainian village names in English ). I guess we will find out more of what has gone on in the next few days.