Russian invasion of Ukraine

[LongTimeLurker]

Think the obvious angle for the Ukrainians doing it is to show that NATO doesn't need to worry quite so much about supposed red lines. Look we just bounced a drone off the Kremlin's roof and staged a mini-invasion of Belgorod oblast without Kyiv being hit with a tactical nuke. Gonnae send us those ATACMS, Joe?

[LongTimeLurker]

Heniches'k is in the part of Kherson oblast next to Crimea that is well out of HIMARS range:

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1664564709666746370

but sooner or later the GLSDB munitions are going to show up that have a 150 km range and are much less expensive than the Storm Shadows that have to be launched from a plane. Have seen people speculating that's what the Ukrainians are waiting for where their counteroffensive is concerned.

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Heniches'k is in the part of Kherson oblast next to Crimea that is well out of HIMARS range:

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1664564709666746370

but sooner or later the GLSDB munitions are going to show up that have a 150 km range and are much less expensive than the Storm Shadows that have to be launched from a plane. Have seen people speculating that's what the Ukrainians are waiting for where their counteroffensive is concerned.

Berdyans’k being hit as well. Saw an amusing report that the Ukrainians have been building wooden dummy HIMARS units to draw high-precision Russian missile strikes, which explains the Russians claiming to have destroyed more HIMARS than have been provided to Ukraine.

[bennett]

3 hours ago, TxRover said:

Berdyans’k being hit as well. Saw an amusing report that the Ukrainians have been building wooden dummy HIMARS units to draw high-precision Russian missile strikes, which explains the Russians claiming to have destroyed more HIMARS than have been provided to Ukraine.

I'd love this to be true, just like the decoy tanks and planes from ww2.

 

[TommyDickFingers]

 

2 hours ago, bennett said:

I'd love this to be true, just like the decoy tanks and planes from ww2.

 

Czech company apparently.

M270

Sammy the snake.

Edited June 2, 2023 by TommyDickFingers

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, bennett said:

I'd love this to be true, just like the decoy tanks and planes from ww2.

 

Reported by Forbes that an early wooden mock-up drew 10 cruise missiles…

[Newbornbairn]

 

[bennett]

10 hours ago, TommyDickFingers said:

 

Czech company apparently.

M270

Sammy the snake.

Was Sammy the snake designed by Throbber.

[Sweet Pete]

Reports of gunfire in Sevastopol, Crimea.

[TxRover]

5 hours ago, Newbornbairn said:

 

Just imaging the poor troops assigned to blow them up…a freaking pool floating takes an age!

[Bairnardo]

45 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Just imaging the poor troops assigned to blow them up…a freaking pool floating takes an age!

The Russians are pretty well versed at blowing up Russian kit tbf. 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

The Russians are pretty well versed at blowing up Russian kit tbf. 

Not as well versed as the Ukrainians, apparently.

[Newbornbairn]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rail-union-boss-slams-uk-support-for-ukraine-as-an-obscenity-and-accuses-britain-of-aiding-war-crimes/ar-AA1c374a

 

Quote

RMT President Alex Gordon told a Left-wing festival that "spending billions and billions of pounds on arms to Ukraine" was "an absolutely improper use of public money".

Gordon told the Arse Festival that the spending came "at a time when workers are struggling to pay the bills, when we can’t afford the food price rises and energy price rises, and when we hear the government supports an increase in interest rates to possible 5.5 per cent next month."

The union boss went on to allege that "there are war crimes being carried out in Ukraine with British arms," adding: "There are clearly use is [sic] being put to British weapons which they shouldn’t be put to."

c**t 

[Dev]

RMT President Alex Gordon told a Left-wing festival that "spending billions and billions of pounds on arms to Ukraine" was "an absolutely improper use of public money".

Gordon told the Arse Festival that the spending came "at a time when workers are struggling to pay the bills, when we can’t afford the food price rises and energy price rises, and when we hear the government supports an increase in interest rates to possible 5.5 per cent next month."

The union boss went on to allege that "there are war crimes being carried out in Ukraine with British arms," adding: "There are clearly use is [sic] being put to British weapons which they shouldn’t be put to."

 

Since when is It is a much better idea to let one nation invade another, destroying huge numbers of lives and permanently harming the lives of many others.

There-again what is to be expected from a Trade Union which kicks its' own country's rail users when the country has gone through difficult times. Compassion is not in this Union's dictionary. Neither is common sense.

[Newbornbairn]

Deputy Leader of the RMT (i.e. Mick Lynch's deputy, Assistant General Secretary Eddie Dempsey) wrote a tear stained eulogy for an LPR fascist militia leader who was killed by the Ukrainians shortly after the 2014 invasion. Here they are posing together in the Donbas. 

I'm sure RMT members were delighted to see paid officials prancing around supporting fascists. 

[highlandmac]

Don't agree with the RMT guy supporting the warmongering Russians

Do agree with them standing up for their members in the UK

[Dev]

57 minutes ago, highlandmac said:

Don't agree with the RMT guy supporting the warmongering Russians

Do agree with them standing up for their members in the UK

Supporting Russia and interfering with rail users in the UK. Russia supporters would be quite happy with that. It's nothing at all to do with standing up for rail workers.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Dev
.

[Cosmic Joe]

7 minutes ago, Dev said:

Supporting Russia and interfering with rail users in the UK. Russia supporters would be quite happy with that. It's nothing at all to do with standing up for rail workers.

What do you think Trade Union leader's remit is? 

[ICTChris]

Russian MoD claiming that they have repelled the first major counter-offensive attack in Southern Donetsk.  It's the Russian MoD so clearly worth taking the details they say with a mountain of salt but there does seem to have been an attack.  Not confirmed if it's newly constituted forces from Ukraine or a probing attack, some sources suggest the latter.  

There are also reports of Ukrainian counter attacks around Bakhmut and Soledar.  In addition to this, Wagner claimed that their retreat from Bakhmut was hindered by Russian army units mining their route out and attacking several of their columns.  A Wagner group captured the commander of a Russian army brigade and filmed him confessing to ordering the attack when he was drunk.  Doesn't seem ideal to have your forces literally fighting each other, if it's true.  Also some beef going on between Kadyrov and Prigozhin about how many Chechen troops are in Ukraine.

Anti-Putin Russian forces allied with Ukraine, as well as other nationalities, have continued to sign in the Belgorod region of Russia.  Heavy shelling from Russian forces has been reported.  The Russian Volunteer Corp and Freedom for Russia Legion have reported captured territory and taken prisoners, with the governer of the Belgorod region saying that he is prepared to negotiate with them to get the prisoners freed.  Both Wagner and Kadyrov have said they'll send their forces to secure the border in Belgorod, which was seemingly defended by conscripts.  I think this is all part of the shaping operations, designed to draw and confuse Russian forces and give them dillemas - pull troops away from the lines in Ukraine to defend Belogord?  Move Wagner there?  Move CHechens there?  How much aviation to move there, how many tanks, artillery guns etc? 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Newbornbairn said:

Deputy Leader of the RMT (i.e. Mick Lynch's deputy, Assistant General Secretary Eddie Dempsey) wrote a tear stained eulogy for an LPR fascist militia leader who was killed by the Ukrainians shortly after the 2014 invasion. Here they are posing together in the Donbas. 

I'm sure RMT members were delighted to see paid officials prancing around supporting fascists. 

Dempsey's choice at that time is worthy of a bit more consideration.

A good place to start is who Mozgovoy was. I found this to be a really good explainer: https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2015/06/18/the-spectre-of-communism-or-mozgovoy-as-che-guevara-for-tolikenists/

Mozgovoy was Ukrainian, born and bred in Luhansk, who had served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. That opinion above was written by Aleksandr Volodarskiy, who is also from Luhansk so presumably knows his stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleksandr_Volodarsky

Volodarskiy describes Mozgovoy as all things to all people, a militant with the local legitimacy and charisma to emerge as a leader. Then as Volodarskiy explains, Mozgovoy could've been used by either Kiev or Moscow, or he could've also become an independent champion of the common folk of Luhansk. It'll be that latter option that Dempsey will've (naively) thought Mozgovoy was. 

From 1991 to 2014, south east Ukraine was wealthier than west Ukraine due to it having lots of industry built during the Soviet era while the west had always been mostly agricultural (other than Kyiv). Accompanying that industry was remnants of the Soviet welfare system still functioning in south-east Ukraine which was absent in the west. Both those aspects, the industry and the welfare, were tied to the Russian economy. Maidan then happened in west Ukraine and Maidan was an explicitly right wing movement. I mean economically right wing (although there was a strong right wing identity component to it as well which didn't help). Maidan was championing globalised finance, foreign direct investment. West Ukrainians supported this because there is no leftist political alternative in Ukraine, the country being an oligarchy makes that impossible because political power can only be obtained by oligarchic patronage. No oligarch will put you in office only for you to take away his wealth for redistribution and nationalise his assets. So maybe foreign capital coming in and buying out the oligarchs could create something a bit better. There was also the hope from Maidan -supporting west Ukrainians that EU membership could be obtained and they could emigrate or at least work abroad more easily. Ukraine had already lost 10M of its citizens since 1991 due to post-Soviet immiseration and most of those emigrants had left from the west. It was a standard ambition for folk in that part of Ukraine.

South eastern folk in places like Luhansk worried their relatively better deal than the west would be shattered by the Ukrainian economy being globalised. They knew that EU and especially US relations with Russia were poor and their jobs and safety nets could be lost if Russia was cut out of the Ukrainian economy. There was also a lesser concern over the anti-Russian sentiment from some of the forces in Kyiv. There was an attempt to remove protection for the Russian language that made it through parliament in 2014 and but acting president Turchynov vetoed it. So there was that too but its important to recognise the anti-Russian thing was a far lesser concern of folk in the south east than we've since been told to believe it was by the Kremlin narrative. It was overwhelmingly material and economic concerns that motivated some folk in Luhansk to support the separatists.

So Dempsey will've likely seen right wing Kyiv versus right wing Moscow and hoped that the separatists were actually fighting for an alternative. They weren't. As Volodarskiy explains above, there was no ideological cohesion to the separatist movement at all. It was (mostly) former military men who were just about self-interest, trying to accrue local power and wealth. Mozgovoy was a prime example. It's not even known which entity killed him such was the muddy nature of the conflict in those early days. He was allied with Russian forces but never formally part of them and it might've been Russia that assassinated him.

Dempsey was a fucking idiot. You don't just fly to a part of the world you know nothing about, find a local "hard man" that's a murderer, probably a rapist and whatever else, then start championing him. From Volodarskiy's take, we can assume Mozgovoy sold Dempsey a good story, but that's no excuse. Dempsey's eulogy was soon after removed from its publication, so hopefully that means he realised how wrong he had it. Dempsey did it off his own back not on behalf of the RMT. A bit like how George Galloway used to fly to Iraq in the 90s as just George Galloway rather than on behalf of the Labour party or any organisation. Never trust folk who do that.

Edited June 5, 2023 by FreedomFarter