Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Horrible c***s. 

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I hope Putin meets a miserable end.

[Stellaboz]

I wish to Putin what happened to Deadpool at the start, but without the becoming a super hero after. 

[ICTChris]

In the middle of all this there continues to be heavy fighting in Belgorod, videos coming out of Russian prisoners taken by the anti-Putin forces. Several large towns in the area have been evacuated. There’s a video by a Russian conscript who says his unit took heavy casualties in an engagement with the RVC, he blamed the area commander personally for not allowing them to withdraw. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

5 hours ago, ICTChris said:

 

 

 

 

I know it looks like a dam, but is it really?

[ICTChris]

4 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I know it looks like a dam, but is it really?

Not any more.

here is the collaborator Saldo, standing in front of a flooded Nova Kahkova telling Russian state TV that all is fine.

 https://twitter.com/maxfras/status/1666079339178500100?s=46&t=VI9PBOGiArQ8qgQBk99O4w
 

 

[Dev]

What Russia cannot have it destroys. There's a long track record for such manic behaviour.

Ukraine will go straight through to the Sea of Azov - access between Melitopol and Mariupol is already dangerous for the invaders. Maybe that was the trigger. Russia smelled the coffee and decided to sacrifice every gain that they had made west of Donetsk Oblast. Crimea is a sitting duck as is what remains of Kherson "under its control."

The gloves are off. Russia is in real trouble. Some of its' own territory will now be lost and used as a bargaining tool by the Ukraine to regain the remainder of the invaded land. There'll also be a military free zone around Ukraine against Russia. Belarus will go too.

Admittedly I hope that the worst happens to Russia, in any case, due to their invasions but this terrorist controlled nation needs to be dealt with or else the same will happen again somewhere in the future and that's only a question of where and when and how bad it is. Whenever that happens lots of innocent people will be lost or permanently damaged and this must be prevented now. It will get truly nasty in the meantime if Russia is to be sorted out (if it can be?).

[ICTChris]

 

 

[Dev]

5 hours ago, ICTChris said:

The magnitude of this can't be understated.  This will kill many people, people are likely dying now.  It will destroy the environment in the area.  It will destroy wildlife in this area.  It will destroy agricultural land, impacting world food supply.  The deliberate destruction of dams is named specifically as a war crime in the Geneva Convention. 

We are also seeing some Russian soldiers making videos boasting blowing up the dam - this is similar to after they shot down MH17, loads of Russian boasting that was then shut down when they realised that they'd made a major f**k up.  The men behind the MH17 haven't been brought to justice yet, this is orders of magnitude worse.

According to Ukraine Pravda the dam was "allowed" to fill to unprecedented high levels before being destroyed so as to cause maximum destruction i.e. used as a tool of War.

The Dam also provided cooling water to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, about the largest there is. That is the next immediate issue.

Edited June 6, 2023 by Dev
.

[Musketeer Gripweed]

I like Russia using the "wisnae us mister, a big boy did it and ran away" defence. Pretty standard for them now.

[TommyDickFingers]

They are quite something to behold.

[sparky88]

Russia essentially sacrificing Crimea in an attempt to keep their gains in the Donbas probably wasn't what Putin had in mind in February 2022

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, sparky88 said:

Russia essentially sacrificing Crimea in an attempt to keep their gains in the Donbas probably wasn't what Putin had in mind in February 2022

The problem is this does nothing to protect the Donbas region. All this does is further harm Russia’s ability to maintain significant forces in the Crimea. Question, is this a planned operation save face by effectively mandating the evacuation of Crimea? By withdrawing forces from Crimea, and retreating to a defensive line at the old Donetsk boundary (just west of Mariupol), the Russian defensive lines would be significantly shortened and the newly available troops from Crimea would be available for a strategic reserve against any Ukrainian offensive.

A much larger, and under discussed, issue for Russia is the lack of armour units to place in a reserve. Since any Ukrainian offensive is likely to feature a large amount of combined arms armour units, Russian infantry formations in reserve are nearly useless without some tanks to support them…and Russia has a tank problem. The older tanks that Russia is having to use as its T-80/T-72 reserves are pretty much gone, are less capable working with the infantry in any role other than offense. The lack of modern communications gear and even, in some cases, the necessary units to plug into the R-124 tank phones, has already hindered Russian combined arms, and slowed the ability of infantry to warn the tankers about threats.

[Sergeant Wilson]

5 minutes ago, TxRover said:

The problem is this does nothing to protect the Donbas region. All this does is further harm Russia’s ability to maintain significant forces in the Crimea. Question, is this a planned operation save face by effectively mandating the evacuation of Crimea? By withdrawing forces from Crimea, and retreating to a defensive line at the old Donetsk boundary (just west of Mariupol), the Russian defensive lines would be significantly shortened and the newly available troops from Crimea would be available for a strategic reserve against any Ukrainian offensive.

A much larger, and under discussed, issue for Russia is the lack of armour units to place in a reserve. Since any Ukrainian offensive is likely to feature a large amount of combined arms armour units, Russian infantry formations in reserve are nearly useless without some tanks to support them…and Russia has a tank problem. The older tanks that Russia is having to use as its T-80/T-72 reserves are pretty much gone, are less capable working with the infantry in any role other than offense. The lack of modern communications gear and even, in some cases, the necessary units to plug into the R-124 tank phones, has already hindered Russian combined arms, and slowed the ability of infantry to warn the tankers about threats.

Haven't you got plans to fix that dam yet?

[Newbornbairn]

2 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Haven't you got plans to fix that dam yet?

He could do a Corbyn

 

[Guest]

We knew it was a "pro-Ukraine" entity that sabotaged the Nord Stream pipeline back last September. I think there was a belief among some it was a non-state, vigilante operation done by a private force and funded by an oligarch or something. This seems to confirm it was actually all done under the auspices of the Ukrainian state.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/06/nord-stream-pipeline-explosion-ukraine-russia/

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Haven't you got plans to fix that dam yet?

Dam the damn dam?

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Haven't you got plans to fix that dam yet?

Drop a load of beavers and logs from B52s?

[bennett]

26 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Drop a load of beavers and logs from B52s?

Or an elite team of builders.

 

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, bennett said:

Or an elite team of builders.

 

Where’s Ground Force when you need them? Just dump a load of rocks and pebbles in that hole!