Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[bickster]

11 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

That aged well. 

There's an awful lot of wrong takes at the start of this topic, I'm not sure trawling back through them though, serves much of a purpose past point scoring. It's opinions now that matter.

There were an awful lot of supposedly intelligent and informed opinions that read this completely wrong. Plenty of "think-tanks" that were talking utter shite and the oft parroted 2 hours to Kyiv in a tank seems to have struck a chord with a lot at the time. It was bollocks the second it was said by whoever said it. There were plenty of people invading the information space with Putin propaganda, people like the Stop The War Coalition claiming that the situation was brought about because of NATO aggression etc (and there are still knobheads on the UK far left parroting this horseshit even now)

When this is all over, it'll be worth looking at who said what before it started and how they were funded because there should be some serious questions that need to be answered

It's still happening all over Europe now. There's a case of a German Energy Company director who is acting as an observer in the referendum and he says everything is clearly transparent. By all accounts he'll be unemployed by the morning. Marine le Pen hasn't been that quiet about her support for Russia either. Russia's influence in everything that has gone on in the last 10-15 years of European politics needs to be exposed, including Brexit, the Tory Party, Far Right Parties across Europe, Amrican elections, an American President, the whole lot. Won't happen though

[avfc1982am]

11 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Putin really is billy no mates then isnt he if he cant even rely on his mate from belarus

He's destabilised nearly every region on Russian borders. Shit hasn't even started to unfold yet. Things are going to get a whole lot worse imo. 

[mjmooney]

17 minutes ago, bickster said:

Russia's influence in everything that has gone on in the last 10-15 years of European politics needs to be exposed, including Brexit, the Tory Party, Far Right Parties across Europe, Amrican elections, an American President, the whole lot. 

100% THIS. 

[avfc1982am]

In our ideal world, the corrupt are held accountable and the innocent live in peace. The problem is we leave in the ideal world of the corrupted whereby peace isn't an option for the innocent. 

[bickster]

Translation: (twitters Own)

A source in the AP told Novaya. Europe” that after the announcement of “partial” mobilization, 261,000 men left the Russian Federation, as reported by the FSB. Nevertheless, "the atmosphere in the Presidential Administration is such that the security forces and the Ministry of Defense will be able to convince Putin to close the exit before it's too late."

[magnkarl]

9 minutes ago, bickster said:

Translation: (twitters Own)

A source in the AP told Novaya. Europe” that after the announcement of “partial” mobilization, 261,000 men left the Russian Federation, as reported by the FSB. Nevertheless, "the atmosphere in the Presidential Administration is such that the security forces and the Ministry of Defense will be able to convince Putin to close the exit before it's too late."

In a a country with more of a demographic problem than China this will be deadly. They’ve got negative population growth in the categories that matter for the last umpteen years and now they’re killing off all men of working age. Well done Vlad.

Edited September 25, 2022 by magnkarl

[Xann]

In the first part of this our hero runs along frontline fortifications under fire, checking on his team and engaging the enemy.

The second part he turns mentor and health & safety officer, yet somehow conspires to put himself in more peril than he did in the first part.

[bickster]

Not sure about the title. Ukrainian SF operate deep in Russian Held territory?

They are in a trench surrounded by ammo boxes and plenty of spent ammo, this doesn't look much like a SF incursion

[Xann]

5 minutes ago, bickster said:

Not sure about the title. Ukrainian SF operate deep in Russian Held territory?

They are in a trench surrounded by ammo boxes and plenty of spent ammo, this doesn't look much like a SF incursion

Couldn't tell you?

Though there's been some crazy, in your face, bayonets on trench warfare videos in the last few days, with fighters from both sides in the same trenches.

I'm not posting horrible stuff here though.

[avfc1982am]

18 minutes ago, Xann said:

In the first part of this our hero runs along frontline fortifications under fire, checking on his team and engaging the enemy.

The second part he turns mentor and health & safety officer, yet somehow conspires to put himself in more peril than he did in the first part.

Was about to say this isn't SF deep in enemy lines but Bickster beat me to it. It's one bloke with a squad of kids around him by the looks of it. A very impressive bloke but the kids look like rookies which would indicate this more of an intrenched position on the frontline somewhere. Not a very good position either from the maze of shallow trenches exposing them to incoming from what looks like 3 directions. Couple of mortars in there and it's over. 

[avfc1982am]

2 minutes ago, Xann said:

Couldn't tell you?

Though there's been some crazy, in your face, bayonets on trench warfare videos in the last few days, with fighters from both sides in the same trenches.

I'm not posting horrible stuff here though.

Yeah, I've seen a few vids I wish I hadn't tbh but it's a bit late and my curiosity now and again gets the better of me. I leave that stuff for people to seek out themselves though because it isn't good.

[magnkarl]

Georgia stepping up to the plate. Hope they’ve received arms too. A second front would be good.

 

[magnkarl]

NASAMs indirectly confirmed in Mykolaiv instead of Kyiv is the chat atm. Could it be the reason Russia has been losing so many planes in that direction in the last week?

If so, ballsy move. Also good for Nammo to see their product in action against Russian planes.

Edited September 25, 2022 by magnkarl

[djdabush]

 

Feels like Dagestan is definitely the place to keep an eye on. Lots of videos doing the rounds of protesting there and very different to the protests going on in Moscow and St Petersburg where there has always been much more of an anti-war movement.

[TheAuthority]

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

100% THIS. 

It feels very much like us in the West have been living through a world wide pysops operation since about 2014. And sadly we still are - people on both political sides so frothy-mouthed angry at everything and the right wing in America essentially having their own "alternative facts" and false reality. 

Putin has played a large part in this.

[mjmooney]

44 minutes ago, Xann said:

there's been some crazy, in your face, bayonets on trench warfare videos in the last few days, with fighters from both sides in the same trenches.

And they film it on their smartphones. I wonder what the 1916 lads would have made of it all? 

[bickster]

1 minute ago, mjmooney said:

And they film it on their smartphones. I wonder what the 1916 lads would have made of it all? 

A lot of Ukraine troops have Go Pro style helmet cams

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, bickster said:

A lot of Ukraine troops have Go Pro style helmet cams

I remember the novelty of Vietnam being 'the first television war'. They've ramped things up considerably since then. Is this 'the first Instagram war'? 

[bickster]

3 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

I remember the novelty of Vietnam being 'the first television war'. They've ramped things up considerably since then. Is this 'the first Instagram war'? 

I think we can call it the first war in which Social Media had such a significant impact on opinion shaping

I don't think I've watched a single mainstream media broadcast on the war, the information and stories they broadcast are generally a couple of days behind reality.

Twitter isn't really the space to be following it because that is absolutely full of trolls and bots. Sure stuff gets posted there but it also does in telegram, which is used far more by eastern europeans (on both sides). For me Reddit really has lived up to its byline of being the front page of the internet. it's much easier to follow an reddit and fake / propaganda posts on any social media platform will get called out as such on reddit in next to no time. Reddit has become the aggregator of all social media (apart from the risible Facebook) and its users act as judge and jury over everything.

I feel at home on reddit, it's like a lawless version of VT on a global scale, everything is there but it is essentially just one big giant forum.

But yes, I'm wibbling. Yes it is but Instagram isn't the platform (as insta is just full of fake knobheads) nor is TikTok, unless you are a Chechen warlords pawn

[Xann]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

And they film it on their smartphones. I wonder what the 1916 lads would have made of it all? 

Drone footage of the trenches is fraught.

You can see them about to walk straight into each other on corners, and how grenade blasts are contained and channelled increasing the blast radius.along the trench.