Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Wee Bully]

47 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

George Galloway has always been like this, it’s not a new development. He’s always been an appalling person.

Having a Z shaved into his 7 year old’s head, and posting it on Twitter is a new low.

Utterly disgusting human being.

[LongTimeLurker]

14 hours ago, ICTChris said:

Thread on forces available to Russia at this stage of the war.

 

Given the main western powers clearly thought Ukraine was going to lose at the outset and were pouring in weapons mainly to make the price high enough that the Russians wouldn't get any ideas about taking out the Suwalki gap in the aftermath, the more interesting dilemna in many ways is what NATO does next.

This war is likely to now drag on long enough that the disastrous Green Party inspired politics in Germany that led to a completely avoidable heavy dependence on Russian fossil fuels will actually have to be tackled head on at a time when said party is part of a governing coalition, and the US and UK have difficult decisions to make on supplying the military vehicles, anti-ship missiles and the newer model of Switchblade drone that could give the Ukrainians a shot at actually winning the war in the southern part of their country and in the Donbas.

Edited April 4, 2022 by LongTimeLurker

[ICTChris]

The UKG has already said they will provide artillery to Ukraine. What’s important is that these things happen quickly.

[welshbairn]

Forever grifting.

 

[ICTChris]

I see a few Alba types are fully buying into the false flag stuff as well. Worth remembering if, for some reason, you are considering voting for them in the council elections coming up.

[ICTChris]

A flavour of Russian state media on the war.

 

in that context, it’s interesting to see this - the Rusich group, linked to Wagner, of Russian neo-Nazis. currently fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

 

 

[Michael W]

A fool and their money, eh?

I'll never understand why people continue to hand money over to people like Galloway in that manner. Amongst other things, he is already a millionaire. 

It really has never been easier to take money off idiots. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Michael W

[welshbairn]

Jagfox linked it earlier.

15 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

A flavour of Russian state media on the war.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, jagfox said:

What should Russia do with Ukraine?   https://ria.ru/20220403/ukraina-1781469605.html

 

[Caledonian1]

3 hours ago, Wee Bully said:

Having a Z shaved into his 7 year old’s head, and posting it on Twitter is a new low.

Utterly disgusting human being.

Seriously, did that happen?

[Sweet Pete]

The stories coming out of the recaptured towns are absolutely stomach churning. I just recently read Blood Red Snow which is an account by a German soldier who fought on the eastern front in WW2 (Funnily enough in what is now Ukraine) And the atrocities carried out by the Soviets against their own civilians, Romanian and German civilians are almost exactly like those we are now hearing about from towns and cities near Kyiv (and surely more to come from towns occupied elsewhere). The Russians did the same in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria etc. It's a culture with those sick b*****ds. They have zero respect for human life, human rights or law. Evil c***s.

[Hillonearth]

16 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

The stories coming out of the recaptured towns are absolutely stomach churning. I just recently read Blood Red Snow which is an account by a German soldier who fought on the eastern front in WW2 (Funnily enough in what is now Ukraine) And the atrocities carried out by the Soviets against their own civilians, Romanian and German civilians are almost exactly like those we are now hearing about from towns and cities near Kyiv (and surely more to come from towns occupied elsewhere). The Russians did the same in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria etc. It's a culture with those sick b*****ds. They have zero respect for human life, human rights or law. Evil c***s.

I'd re-read Antony Beever's Berlin fairly recently (found a signed hardback copy in a charity shop!) and while all armies are prone to excesses, they seem to stick out from the crowd. Essentially, the first wave of troops to actually take the city in 1945 - the professional elements of theie army - were obviously not in love with the Germans but behaved well enough.

The ones that moved in to relieve them were the problem - they were a complete drunken rabble who instantly got rapey and looty with the local population. Why it seems to be a particular issue with the Russians I'm not sure - I've seen the theory that just as in WW2, they still lack a well-developed NCO corps who would at least be able to make some sort of effort on the ground to curb the worst behavioural excesses of the rank and file.

[Sweet Pete]

1 hour ago, Hillonearth said:

I'd re-read Antony Beever's Berlin fairly recently (found a signed hardback copy in a charity shop!) and while all armies are prone to excesses, they seem to stick out from the crowd. Essentially, the first wave of troops to actually take the city in 1945 - the professional elements of theie army - were obviously not in love with the Germans but behaved well enough.

The ones that moved in to relieve them were the problem - they were a complete drunken rabble who instantly got rapey and looty with the local population. Why it seems to be a particular issue with the Russians I'm not sure - I've seen the theory that just as in WW2, they still lack a well-developed NCO corps who would at least be able to make some sort of effort on the ground to curb the worst behavioural excesses of the rank and file.

I'd hazard a guess it comes from the same old issue as 80+ years ago: press ganging uneducated rubes into frontline military service, give them zero training, supplies, direction or instruction and loose them in human waves. Added to your correct point about lack of local officer command, everything is centralised and no decision making or initiative is allowed at the operational level, their doctrine is based on slavish obedience to distant higher ranking orders. A hands off, ears and eyes closed approach to running an army, together with a top down ingrained culture of dehumanization towards both enemies and comrades alike results in atrocities each and every time they're deployed. It's a tactic, they do it to try and rule by terror.

[Wee Bully]

3 hours ago, Caledonian1 said:

Seriously, did that happen?

Yup - it’s on his timeline from Saturday (but given how much he posts, its a long way down).

I’m not going to post it, as I find anyone using kids to make a political statement is OFTW

[Sweet Pete]

17 minutes ago, throbber said:

 

It's a reflection glare on the windscreen

[welshbairn]

25 minutes ago, Wee Bully said:

Yup - it’s on his timeline from Saturday (but given how much he posts, its a long way down).

I’m not going to post it, as I find anyone using kids to make a political statement is OFTW

tbf I'm not sure it has anything to do with the Russian army mark, could be a Harry Potter thing.

[bairn88]

5 minutes ago, throbber said:

Don’t think so myself on further inspection.

I've watched that about 5 times and I literally have no idea what I'm meant to be seeing there. Tragic how gullible some people are. 

[jagfox]

 

[bairn88]

4 minutes ago, throbber said:

Basically a fake corpse to spread misinformation.

 

[Wee Bully]

22 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

tbf I'm not sure it has anything to do with the Russian army mark, could be a Harry Potter thing.

It “could” be.

A bit like Rangers fans raised arm salute “could” be something to do with the Red Hand of Ulster, when in fact we all know it is just a fascist salute.

[welshbairn]

8 minutes ago, throbber said:

Basically a fake corpse to spread misinformation.

^^^russian bot