Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[President Johnson]

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1505610120541065218

[Storr]

Reminder that 90% of people in Mariupol speak Russian and the city is part of the Donbass. These are the people Putin claimed the "special military operation" was meant to protect. https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1505637493084930050?s=20&t=ZTmyGJS5u...

[ugabug]

https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1505638932217749508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1505638932217749508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

I was just about to post this. That's as much of a green light as the US government is going to publicly give. I wonder if Poland, the Baltic states, Czechia, Slovakia, etc. will actually deploy troops to Ukraine. It's easy to talk about doing something, actually doing it is another matter.

[ugabug]

I don't think any of them will end up sending troops to Ukraine(at least not officially) but could be interesting if Poland put it's army on the border with Belarus and started making some threatening noises.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

There was even a case in the beginning of the invasion where a pro-Russia mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine expressed support for the invasion and called the Russians "liberators", and was then attacked and killed by a mob. Anyone who stands with Russia here is going to face a fate similar to that of collaborationists in post-WWII France.

Or worse. There were, amazingly, more Frenchmen willing to make excuses for the Nazis in immediate postwar France than there are Ukrainians willing to make excuses for the Putinites and Kadyrovites now.

[dead0man]

[Storr]

Germany sending more ancient GDR garbage.

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1505646760055689219?s=20&t=hxjUowwFa3O...

[Torie]

The article is about personal stories of a few families of the intelligentsia leaving Russia, individuals that the author personally knows. I drew a map of the alternative flight route one took to get from Moscow to Armenia when the flight was cancelled.



https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/the-russians-fleeing-putins-wartime-crackdown

[dead0man]

[Torie]

https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1505638932217749508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

I was just about to post this. That's as much of a green light as the US government is going to publicly give. I wonder if Poland, the Baltic states, Czechia, Slovakia, etc. will actually deploy troops to Ukraine. It's easy to talk about doing something, actually doing it is another matter.

Why on earth would she say this unless such troops were already there in some capacity? What was the context of her saying this? This is a pretty significant story perhaps.

Addendum: She said it in an interview with Jake Tapper, and she clearly was under no pressure to say it the way she said it.

[pppolitics]

Is this another head fake?

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1505648831576395785

[Storr]

Is this another head fake?

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1505648831576395785

I don't believe that Turkish report at all.

Meanwhile, I guess shopping malls are legitimate military targets? I'm sure we'll soon be hearing Russian propaganda about how Azov was somehow using it for something.

https://twitter.com/aldin_ww/status/1505657987184087041?s=20&t=lqrB5vIue3_n0...

[Badger]

Can ya'll seriously stop feeding the troll? Most of the last 3 pages have been taken up by a inane debate caused by one or two bootlickers

Not everyone who disagrees with you in automatically a troll.

But compucomp is

You can call me what you want. But the fact is, I am expressing the views broadly held by 1.4 billion people, 1.3 billion or so have a government whose actions up to now are indistinguishable from China's, and as described by Red Velvet earlier in this thread, hundreds of millions live in countries that either sympathize with the alternate viewpoint or refuse to go along with Western sanctions, including American allies Saudi Arabia and Israel. I thought this was a political forum to discuss all viewpoints, and normally it is, but for some reason on this issue it is a complete echo chamber.

Again what exactly does sending aid to Russia give you? If you truly do want better US China relations but are also willing to balance other factors how will China sending aid to Russia benefit either America or China or their relations ?

Your position is merely one of wanting to own the libs.

It's quite embarrassing for Russia but they might need our support to keep the war going to a conclusion they can claim is a "win". If I really want to "take off the mask" and go full realpolitik, then I would say that having Russia as the West's chief antagonist is very good for China as then it means China is not, and Russia can be a huge supplier of energy and food for China to compensate for us possibly having our sea lanes cut off by the Americans. But Putin being removed and Russia in ruins or as a pro-Western client state would be a huge loss for China; we lose our ally, we become public enemy #1 to the West again, and Western relations with China will only get worse from that point; in short if Russia falls we're next.

 Rather disingenuous have you to claim your views are hailed by 1.4 billion people when they are or forbidden from expressing their thoughts, voting to elect a representative government, and force fed state propaganda media with Strange censorship of alternative points of view. But Hey, if Patting yourself in the back  About it Get you through the night, whom I to say to stop doing it?

Also, FTR even if it is broadly held among even a majority of Chinese, that doesn't make it any less a s****** view. I mean, to take an extreme version Early 40% of Germans voted for Hitler.

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/aldin_ww/status/1505660843085684738?s=20&t=e4Gc6O0-UrzWJ...

[NOVA Green]

Polish blockade of Russian and Belarus trucks leaving the country continues...

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3434145-morawiecki-poland-supports-full-trade-blockade-of-russia.html

https://khpg.org/en/1608810232

https://twitter.com/myPolitics__/status/1505098990022533123?s=20&t=NSToEFYZY...

[pppolitics]

I wonder when Russian casualties will exceed those of the Soviet Afghan war

[AndyHogan14]

I wonder when Russian casualties will exceed those of the Soviet Afghan war

If the Ukrainian numbers are to be believed, then they are pretty much there now. Based on the western assessments, then I would say three to four more weeks.

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1505449068297953283

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1505638932217749508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

I was just about to post this. That's as much of a green light as the US government is going to publicly give. I wonder if Poland, the Baltic states, Czechia, Slovakia, etc. will actually deploy troops to Ukraine. It's easy to talk about doing something, actually doing it is another matter.

I assume the tweet was not true since it has been deleted.

[Storr]

Ummm...

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1505669327676129282?s=20&t=yjF1jWy...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1505262100922478599?s=20&t=gOjZXBd...

Any bets on whether the wildfires were caused by one of those TOS-1A thermobaric launchers?

https://twitter.com/IntelCrab/status/1505676172734214148?s=20&t=-ZEELTDj3Qv6...

[Middle-aged Europe]

Ummm...

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1505669327676129282?s=20&t=yjF1jWy...

Ah great, Vladimir Putin's world-famous Jewish purity test.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Ummm...

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1505669327676129282?s=20&t=yjF1jWy...

Why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
Why let the truth prevent you from mudsludging the adversary even when it leads to making up the whole cloth?
In these times, media is not mainly used for spreading truth, it is used for sake of power. Increasing power, protecting power, and so on.
This war is a massive gift to fake news on both sides of the conflict, but Moscow's mouthpieces claiming that Zelensky isn't really Jewish, that the D leadership are Nazis, and that there is any "denazification" to do in Ukraine, shows how much the political class cares about the truth for truth's sake, and puts this all in very sharp relief.
EDIT: I should clarify that I don't think the pro-Ukraine side isn't really engaging in the fake news game on a comparable scale to Russia, but that's really because they don't really see it as something they need to do. In general I think it's important to have skepticism about politicians and to treat them as self-interested in what they say unless you have reason to believe otherwise.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Germany sending more ancient GDR garbage.

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1505646760055689219?s=20&t=hxjUowwFa3O...

Ukraine is burning through Javelins faster than they are being manufactured and they are overkill for most vehicles anyway. Sending them serviceable surplus that Germany won’t use is perfectly sensible. Old ATGMs were pretty effective against Syria, which uses many of them same vehicles Russia does.

More countries should have sent their Soviet kit instead of LARPing about their most advanced weapons and no-fly zones. Ukraine is familiar with this stuff and finding upgrades without Russia could be difficult and expensive.