Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Torie]

I only hope he stays alive long enough to witness the final ultimate defeat of his invasion of Ukraine as Russian forces are driven out of the country:

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1607345753382436864

An article from the tabloid Post means it's already problematical right out of the box. Then we read that this dude says he has pancreatic cancer and early stage Parkinson's. If he has the former the odds are high he would already be dead,

If pancreatic cancer is left untreated, or if it is diagnosed too late, then yes.  Otherwise, he stands a good chance of surviving for a time.  And the article does mention quite prominently that he has access to western medicines and treatments.  

and if he has the latter he could be good to go for another 5 to 10 years before dementia sets in. Parkinson's took about 15 years to kill my mother at age 90. So suggesting Putin is in his final year does not add up given if their is some truth in the diagnosis, which is a big if.

We don't know for sure how long he has had Parkinson's, which typically afflicts people over the age of sixty, although it is not unheard of for it to kill people who are much younger.  
--------------------

I don't see why it is so out of left field to suggest he has either one of these ailments, given he is a dictator who has to worry every second of every day that he might 'fall out of a window', making the job of being President of the United States sound like a cakewalk by comparison.  

I googled pancreatic cancer, which used to be basically a quick death sentence, for an update. The prognosis is still pretty grim. The problem is that when it gets symptomatic, it is too late, just like esophageal cancer, which killed my Dad, and I knew he was going to be dead in short order when he told me he had it, and that it would be a painful final exit if he did not kill himself first. No, I did not tell him that, but I cried a lot. I figured if he really wanted to know he would ask me. He never asked.

https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/pancreatic-cancer/statistics

[Frodo]

I only hope he stays alive long enough to witness the final ultimate defeat of his invasion of Ukraine as Russian forces are driven out of the country:

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1607345753382436864

An article from the tabloid Post means it's already problematical right out of the box. Then we read that this dude says he has pancreatic cancer and early stage Parkinson's. If he has the former the odds are high he would already be dead,

If pancreatic cancer is left untreated, or if it is diagnosed too late, then yes.  Otherwise, he stands a good chance of surviving for a time.  And the article does mention quite prominently that he has access to western medicines and treatments.  

and if he has the latter he could be good to go for another 5 to 10 years before dementia sets in. Parkinson's took about 15 years to kill my mother at age 90. So suggesting Putin is in his final year does not add up given if their is some truth in the diagnosis, which is a big if.

We don't know for sure how long he has had Parkinson's, which typically afflicts people over the age of sixty, although it is not unheard of for it to kill people who are much younger.  
--------------------

I don't see why it is so out of left field to suggest he has either one of these ailments, given he is a dictator who has to worry every second of every day that he might 'fall out of a window', making the job of being President of the United States sound like a cakewalk by comparison.  

I googled pancreatic cancer, which used to be basically a quick death sentence, for an update. The prognosis is still pretty grim. The problem is that when it gets symptomatic, it is too late, just like esophageal cancer, which killed my Dad, and I knew he was going to be dead in short order when he told me he had it, and that it would be a painful final exit if he did not kill himself first. No, I did not tell him that, but I cried a lot. I figured if he really wanted to know he would ask me. He never asked.

https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/pancreatic-cancer/statistics

I am sorry to hear what happened to your parents.  I too lost my father not too long ago (back in 2017).  It is something private I was loath to share with an online forum, so you are only just now hearing.  

It still doesn't make it any less plausible that this article could be on to something with regard to Putin.  I can only imagine the stress he is under.  And stress (particularly of the kind he must be experiencing) can hasten death, especially if he already had pre-existing conditions.    

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/g_morkert/status/1607081233909178368

Great point! It's a well-known fact that homelessness in DC or elsewhere in America only started in February over 2021. Also grossly disingenuous to talk about zelinsky taking in billions rather than the country of the Ukraine.

[Logical]

https://twitter.com/g_morkert/status/1607081233909178368

https://twitter.com/man_ditch/status/1575219473220800513

[CumbrianLefty]

Its an intrinsically lame argument anyway (and accepting the false premise that there is a fixed "pot" of money that can only be spent on one cause or another) but those making it often seem remarkably unconcerned with the plight of the homeless (for instance) at other times. Funny that.

[The Dowager Mod]

Badass. 
https://twitter.com/BenSledge/status/1606214573253607424

[Badger]

Badass. 
https://twitter.com/BenSledge/status/1606214573253607424

Based beyond words

[OSR stands with Israel]

Badass. 
https://twitter.com/BenSledge/status/1606214573253607424

That is awesome

[NOVA Green]

Another Russian tycoon dies in mysterious circumstances...

Pavel Antov, a Russian lawmaker and businessman who made his fortune in the sausage industry, died after falling from the third floor of his hotel room while on vacation in India — the latest Russian businessman to die under mysterious circumstances this year.

Antov was found dead outside a hotel in the Rayagada district of India’s eastern Odisha region over the weekend, police told local media, two days after one of his travel companions, Vladimir Bidenov, was found dead at the same hotel. Bidenov was found unconscious in his hotel room, surrounded by empty wine bottles, according to local media reports. He was brought to the district hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Odisha police ordered its crime branch to take over the investigation into the “unnatural death of two Russian nationals” in Rayagada, the police department tweeted Tuesday.

In June, Antov appeared to criticize a Russian missile attack on a residential block of Kyiv, Ukraine, that killed a man and injured his 7-year-old daughter and her mother, according to the BBC. A WhatsApp message on Antov’s account said of the incident: “It’s extremely difficult to call all this anything but terror.”

The message was later deleted and Antov posted on social media that he supported Putin and his invasion. He chalked up the earlier post to “an extremely unfortunate misunderstanding” in which he had accidentally posted a message from a person with whom he disagreed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/27/pavel-antov-russia-sausage-tycoon-hotel-death-india/

[NOVA Green]

Awhile back I posted on this very thread that the wave of industrial accidents and mysterious fires breaking out in Russia was quite possibly not directly related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, either domestic or foreign sabotage operations.

Not that Ukraine might not have the desire to strike at targets such as Russian armaments and energy processing facilities, but even if one or two the incidents could be possibly tied to sabotage, it certainly is not sufficient to explain the extent of such incidents.

The Washington Post had an article a couple days ago, which speaks to the extent of infrastructure related issues which Russia has been experiencing for some time.

*** very long article, so this is just a snippet ***

As Russia has launched relentless strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, leaving millions without electricity, water and heat, towns across Russia have been beset by their own, utility-related disasters.

A huge gas pipeline explosion outside St. Petersburg last month, major fires in two separate Moscow shopping malls allegedly caused by dodgy welding and faulty power grids that have left tens of thousands without heat and electricity are just some of the incidents reported since Russia’s efforts to obliterate Ukraine’s infrastructure that began in October.

While disasters now raise suspicions of sabotage linked to the war in Ukraine, poorly maintained infrastructure is a long-standing and persistent problem in Russia — the result of old Soviet-era systems in need of repair and costly maintenance, decades of endemic corruption, and the government’s prioritization of defense and security budgets, as well as the development of major cities over regional towns.

“Not a day goes by that we don’t hear from one region or another in Russia about an accident in the housing and utilities sector,” declared a recent article in a local newspaper in the city of Perm.

Meanwhile, a Russian senator, Andrei Shevchenko, said last year that utility infrastructure in Russia had depreciated by 60 percent and that the cost of needed repairs exceeded 4 trillion rubles, or about $58 billion. Shevchenko noted that in some regions, the state of public utilities was “of great concern,” and that in some cases the overall wear and tear had exceeded 70 percent.

Analysts said sweeping sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have disrupted supply chains in the country and may significantly curtail Russia’s ability to resolve its own infrastructure problems.

A particular obstacle is the inability to import spare parts and products because of sanctions. Russia has long relied on imported equipment and technology and does not yet have the domestic manufacturing capacity to fill this gap. Since the outbreak of the war, imports have dropped by up to 25 percent, according to Russia’s trading partners.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/25/russia-infrastructure-volgograd-perm-neglect/

[NOVA Green]

Prior to the liberation of Kherson City, I had posted an occasional periodic story which would appear in the MSM regarding Ukrainian partisan activities within the city, as well as rural areas of Kherson Oblast.

The NYT posted another article a few days back, now that sources involved in the underground resistance against the Russian Occupiers are feeling free to talk.

Long story, so just a few clips here and there to give you a bit of the flavor, but a solid read for anyone interested... lots more there.

On a foggy morning a few months ago, Valentyn Dmytrovych Yermolenko, an aging Ukrainian fisherman with a bad back and horrible knees, puttered down a narrow channel off the Dnipro River, his inflatable dinghy cutting through the mist.

His city, Kherson, had been taken over by the Russian Army, and on the floor of his boat, concealed under a fishing net in a black plastic tub, Mr. Yermolenko had hidden three disassembled automatic rifles.

Guided by contacts in the Ukrainian security services, an assembly of ordinary citizens formed themselves into a grass-roots resistance movement. In dozens of interviews, residents and Ukrainian officials described how retirees like Mr. Yermolenko — along with students, mechanics, grandmothers, and even a wealthy couple who were fixing up their yacht and got trapped in the city for the better part of a year — became spirited partisans for the Kherson underground. It was almost like something out of a spy movie.

They took clandestine videos of Russian troops and sent them to Ukrainian forces along with map coordinates. They used code names and passwords to circulate guns and explosives right under the Russians’ noses. Some even formed small attack teams that picked off Russian soldiers at night, making the fear and paranoia that settled over the city two-sided.

“I never questioned what we were doing,” said Dmytro Yevminov, the yacht owner whom Mr. Yermolenko recruited into hiding guns and sacks of grenades in various boatyards. “I never knew I loved my country so much.”

The Yermolenkos’ grandson, 18 at the time, was itching to get involved. He joined a cell with three other young men that stalked Russian soldiers at night. The Russian troops were sloppy, he said, often walking around the waterfront in the dark while checking their phones, oblivious to the glow they were casting.

He said that his team had killed at least 10 Russians; his claim could not be independently verified, but interviews with other members of the local defense force supported his account that he had killed enemy soldiers.

“In the beginning,” he admitted, “we were terrified.” One friend, he said, swallowed a glass of vodka before every attack.

But soon enough, Valentyn said, they became steeled to shooting Russian soldiers at close range and plucking weapons off their still warm bodies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/25/world/europe/ukraine-kherson-defiance-russia.html
 

[Woody]

https://twitter.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1607549798260826113
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1607781179075207170?cxt=HHwWhICx9did_s8...

[Woody]

https://twitter.com/chris__759/status/1607828994551959553

[Dereich]

https://twitter.com/chris__759/status/1607828994551959553

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZT-wVnFn60

[NOVA Green]

@ SirWoodbury...

Pls dump the clapping frog from your sig, since although you are providing alternative sources of information, it might appear that you are actually endorsing Russian military gains (Or perceived Russian Military gains).

I think all of us adults posting on this thread recognize that wars and battles are complex and not everything benefits exclusively one of the nations at war, but yet still unless you are actively supporting Russian military gains, maybe just dump Pepe meme...

Maybe just save that an selectively insert for US Domestic politics and election related threads?

Lover not a hater, but maybe time to do a reread of The Wind in the Willows and toss in a Mr. Frog and Mr. Toad.

Needless to say, if you insist on having a frog or toad sig attached to your avatar, may I humbly suggest an upgrade, that perhaps provides a bit more Gravitas?

Here you go, not to endorse any particular vendor let alone Jeff Bezos, but you should be able to pick up a really cheap copy here.

Kindle Edition:

https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Willows-Original-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B007VDY5X2

Hardcover will original illustrations from Arthur Rackham you can buy used from multiple sites starting at something like $16 (Depending upon edition and condition):

Abe's books has one right here...

https://www.abebooks.com/Wind-Willows-Illustrated-Arthur-Rackham-Grahame/31296654751/bd?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade_10to20-_-product_id=COM9781473319271USED-_-keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4tOqnfua_AIVpyutBh3UvQufEAQYBCABEgKZyvD_BwE

I did like your sig of a Russian male teenager smoking a cig with his sheepskin coat from some random Russian vampire flick....

Still--- one of my brothers is a herpetologist, teaching classes at Universities, so hey time to give the "frog a revamp" and possibly even a "Reboot"

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/chris__759/status/1607828994551959553

I can't say what I think of you, you disingenuous Putin fan boy, without getting sanctioned. So you'll just have to imagine it.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

https://twitter.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1607549798260826113
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1607781179075207170?cxt=HHwWhICx9did_s8...

[CumbrianLefty]

Whatever else is true, the Pepe sig is an obvious troll and should be forcibly changed by the mods.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1608054146514419713

[Virginiá]

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1608113994723622920

[Mopsus]

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1608113994723622920

https://youtu.be/t5y54d4awkw

[Virginiá]

Aaaaandd to the repair facility weee gooo!

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1608199414967066624

[AndyHogan14]

It is definitely **Ukraine** that refuses to negotiate. </sarcasm>
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1608208975270404102?s=20&t=-tRwv1...

[CumbrianLefty]

https://youtu.be/t5y54d4awkw

Unfortunately, the above video is unavailable to at least some of us.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Known as "Señor Sausage" and "The Sausage King", sausage magnate and Russian politican Pavel Antov fell from an indian Hotel's Terrace and died on the weekend.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-29/indian-police-investigate-russian-oligarch-death/101815414

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437



Antov had set up the Vladimir Standard company in the 2000s and became a well-regarded lawmaker in the city of Vladimir

This follows two other senior Russian oligarchs and politician's who have also fallen from windows recently.

"Oligarch and chairman of Russian oil company Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, died in September after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, according to Reuters. "

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62750584