Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Person Man]

Very droll, but (if it actually needs to be pointed out) not happening.

I read it as a piece of fear-based propaganda meant to drum up support for Ukraine.

I mean, if we get to the point where there is very little resistance coming out of Ukraine  by the of the year, I think he will arrack the Baltics.

I don't think that Russia will be in any condition to attack NATO after a year of occupying Ukraine and dealing with the prolonged sanctions. I know there was some concern beforehand, but what we've seen over the last week makes it incredibly clear to me that the Russians stand absolutely no chance against the US and Europe. That said, it's also clear to me that Putin is not the shrewd, competent dictator we thought he was either. He might actually be dumb enough to attack NATO members.

There you have it. If he thinks he can, he will.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

Maybe, just maybe, they should get the f**k out of Ukraine if they want those sanctions lifted.

[DaleCooper]

Very droll, but (if it actually needs to be pointed out) not happening.

I read it as a piece of fear-based propaganda meant to drum up support for Ukraine.

I mean, if we get to the point where there is very little resistance coming out of Ukraine  by the of the year, I think he will arrack the Baltics.

I don't think that Russia will be in any condition to attack NATO after a year of occupying Ukraine and dealing with the prolonged sanctions. I know there was some concern beforehand, but what we've seen over the last week makes it incredibly clear to me that the Russians stand absolutely no chance against the US and Europe. That said, it's also clear to me that Putin is not the shrewd, competent dictator we thought he was either. He might actually be dumb enough to attack NATO members.

There you have it. If he thinks he can, he will.

The Russian Federation as we know it can't survive a conflict with NATO, so I wouldn't be surprised if Putin is ousted from within should he start ordering an invasion of NATO countries.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Looking for twitter updates on the Belarus situation and I found it the worst take on the war:

https://twitter.com/italian69572412/status/1497410104559165442?s=20&t=tNsi6Z...
Imagine non-ironically using cringe and based to describe a government.

This is exactly why age limits for social media is a thing

[GALeftist]

Looking for twitter updates on the Belarus situation and I found it the worst take on the war:

https://twitter.com/italian69572412/status/1497410104559165442?s=20&t=tNsi6Z...

Imagine non-ironically using cringe and based to describe a government.

Advanced hoi4 brain. Many such cases

[compucomp]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

Maybe, just maybe, they should get the f**k out of Ukraine if they want those sanctions lifted.

You misread my post. Westerners will feel the effects of their own sanctions, particularly in Europe with energy prices. They seem to be willing to accept this disruption and cost on their daily lives, even though they have no skin in the game. But they refuse to accept the minimal disruption and cost of wearing masks to slow down COVID, even though there's no doubt they have skin in that game. There's a huge logical contradiction here.

[Sir Mohamed]

What is happening now in Ukraine is the genocide of the Ukrainian people. If we talk about me, everything is calm in my region, except for the shelling of military units. I have now signed up for territorial defense and am preparing to defend my country

Andriy, I pay my deepest respects to your courage to defend your country and its freedom. It's your country and the country of your fellow Ukrainians, that a mad man in Kremlin tries to wipe out for his own personal purposes. And anyone pretending otherwise is morally bankrupt.

We're with you in your fight for freedom and democracy and I hope you and your family/friends stay save. Inbox is always open for you.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What the fuck are you talking about? I see people with masks on every time I'm in a shop. This is beyond off topic.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

Maybe, just maybe, they should get the f**k out of Ukraine if they want those sanctions lifted.

You misread my post. Westerners will feel the effects of their own sanctions, particularly in Europe with energy prices. They seem to be willing to accept this disruption and cost on their daily lives, even though they have no skin in the game. But they refuse to accept the minimal disruption and cost of wearing masks to slow down COVID, even though there's no doubt they have skin in that game. There's a huge logical contradiction here.

Dude, dimwits in America throwing a temper tantrum (before the vaccines) over wearing a mask is not representative of all Westerners FFS.

[Anti-Trump Truth Socialite JD Vance Enjoying Juror]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

Maybe, just maybe, they should get the f**k out of Ukraine if they want those sanctions lifted.

You misread my post. Westerners will feel the effects of their own sanctions, particularly in Europe with energy prices. They seem to be willing to accept this disruption and cost on their daily lives, even though they have no skin in the game. But they refuse to accept the minimal disruption and cost of wearing masks to slow down COVID, even though there's no doubt they have skin in that game. There's a huge logical contradiction here.

Whine about COVID somewhere else. Nobody cares.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1498364198740451336

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Romania returned the Ukranian Su-27 that made an emergency landing there at the start of the conflict, but unloaded all of its ammo first (as they brought it in flying).

https://www.twitter.com/MApNRomania/status/1498659636693680139
My guess is the ammo was or will be returned separately, but the recent shipments of missiles to Ukraine mean they probably have enough sore weaponry if not. This highlights Europe’s concerns about sending in armed and airborne Ukranian jets.

The source is the Romanian government, and pretty trustworthy - photos of the plane being escorted to the Ukranian border have also emerged today.

The Su-27 is not used by any other EU or NATO militaries, barring 2 used by the US for training (alongside a number of MiG-29s they bought from Moldova to prevent Iran purchasing them).

[compucomp]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

Maybe, just maybe, they should get the f**k out of Ukraine if they want those sanctions lifted.

You misread my post. Westerners will feel the effects of their own sanctions, particularly in Europe with energy prices. They seem to be willing to accept this disruption and cost on their daily lives, even though they have no skin in the game. But they refuse to accept the minimal disruption and cost of wearing masks to slow down COVID, even though there's no doubt they have skin in that game. There's a huge logical contradiction here.

Dude, dimwits in America throwing a temper tantrum (before the vaccines) over wearing a mask is not representative of all Westerners FFS.

Did you miss out on USGD in December when half of it was whining about phantom "lockdowns", restaurants closing voluntarily and holiday parties being cancelled, and mask mandates?

Anyway, why this is relevant here:

1. It's a huge logical contradiction.
2. Given that people shouldn't be that contradictory, and we've seen sustained resistance to mask mandates in the West, I have doubts as to whether the sanctions can be kept in place in the medium or long term. Maybe they will continue to tolerate the costs in the name of Ukraine and freedom but maybe they'll come to their senses and realize they are suffering directly for something that doesn't affect them directly, and push for the sanctions to be lifted. Too early to call.

[Torie]

Yikes! The downside of throwing such cocktails out of ordinary cars in a drive by is that the Russian troops might start firing at civilian automobiles on sight.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

I'm a believer in Long COVID. Look at the brain damage displayed above.

Or maybe we just thought he was smarter than he was because we don’t speak Russian. He just may have always been a half-mad buffoon and we never saw it because of translators.

[Aurelius]

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

In human cultures, the loss of life is generally considered lamentable. Hope this helps!

Yet wearing a mask is an intolerable burden to slow down COVID? While the effect of the sanctions will have a far greater impact on daily life, particularly in Europe where energy costs could surge?

Maybe, just maybe, they should get the f**k out of Ukraine if they want those sanctions lifted.

You misread my post. Westerners will feel the effects of their own sanctions, particularly in Europe with energy prices. They seem to be willing to accept this disruption and cost on their daily lives, even though they have no skin in the game. But they refuse to accept the minimal disruption and cost of wearing masks to slow down COVID, even though there's no doubt they have skin in that game. There's a huge logical contradiction here.

Our COVID policies have been decided individually by the nations in question, not by more powerful neighbors. Those us of in countries like the US with relatively dovish covid policies thus enacted those policies through a process of sovereign democratic will. Ukraine did not choose to suffer the deaths of hundreds or thousands of its young men and civilians, and occupation of swathes of its territory, in service of a neighboring despot's imperial fantasies. It is patently obvious that these situations are not comparable.

[Angel of Death]

Looking for twitter updates on the Belarus situation and I found it the worst take on the war:

https://twitter.com/italian69572412/status/1497410104559165442?s=20&t=tNsi6Z...

Imagine non-ironically using cringe and based to describe a government.

Beware of accounts ending with 8 random digits.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Romania returned the Ukranian Su-27 that made an emergency landing there at the start of the conflict, but unloaded all of its ammo first (as they brought it in flying).

https://www.twitter.com/MApNRomania/status/1498659636693680139
My guess is the ammo was or will be returned separately, but the recent shipments of missiles to Ukraine mean they probably have enough sore weaponry if not. This highlights Europe’s concerns about sending in armed and airborne Ukranian jets.

The source is the Romanian government, and pretty trustworthy - photos of the plane being escorted to the Ukranian border have also emerged today.

The Su-27 is not used by any other EU or NATO militaries, barring 2 used by the US for training (alongside a number of MiG-29s they bought from Moldova to prevent Iran purchasing them).

Btw, that this was not quickly shot down is proof that the Russian airforce is doing a bad job. Though it does not have air supremacy, it does have overwhelming superiority - hence the convoy being left mostly unchallenged - and it should have been able to take advantage of this to knock the Su-27 out of the sky or at least bomb it as soon as it had landed for rearmament.

[Dereich]

Also, it's clear that China got it right when it decided to ring-fence its internet, bar Western internet and social media companies that wouldn't meet its requirements, which turned out to be all of them, and develop domestic alternatives. Facebook and Twitter are turning out to be huge national security nightmares for Russia as they are clearly intervening on behalf of the Ukrainians and banning them now could cause backlash as there may not be an alternative (maybe Telegram?) and Russians are used to using them. China would not face this issue at all. Yes it's annoying to use the internet in China particularly to browse foreign websites but national security is more important than my convenience.

COPE

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

There is an obvious difference between private censorship and state censorship. For instance, I might think that you should be permanently banned from this site because you are a fascist useful idiot, an authoritarian stooge, a Wumao 50 cent shill, a gutless bloodthirsty keyboard warrior, and worst of all a Jerseyite. Nevertheless, I would still think you should be free to say what you want in the public sphere though. Hypothetically.

These days Twitter, Facebook, and other social media/internet services function practically as extensions of the public sphere even if they are regulated as private companies and have wide powers to deny service. They have clearly picked a side in this conflict and the situation is clearly asymmetric; if Ukrainian troop movements were filmed and posted, they would likely be quickly deleted, and Russian "fake news" is banned while Ukrainian reports that are likely just as fake are promulgated as news. I mean who really believes the 20:1 casualty ratio reported? Imagine how you would feel if Weibo were the dominant service in the US, Twitter were a fringe service like Parler or whatever the hell Trump is launching, and after the war started all you saw were pro-Russian posts and the pro-Ukrainian ones were suppressed?

Most of this you’re making up or being disingenuous about. The reason that there are so many pro-Ukrainian posts and reports is not because of some Western pro-Ukrainian bias and shadow moderation but because the invasion is happening on Ukrainian soil and the common citizens there who are tweeting things on the ground have an obvious and reasonable pro-Ukrainian bias. The other big reason is that there is only one side interested in publishing news and reports about the war. The Russians have been pretending that this isn’t a big deal and have not taken the initiative on presenting their own side on international social media. And when they’re telling their citizens that nothing major is happening there’s no reason for Russian social media users to fight for the narrative.

The one piece of “Ukrainian propaganda” that you picked, the 20-1 casualty ratio, was a terrible one. Because in that one area we DID get a Russian response. Namely, that they had ZERO (0) casualties in the first three days and ONE (1) casualty the day after that. The Russian response was so obviously and objectively wrong it was easy to dismiss and ignore. No pro-Western social media censorship required!

[Meclazine for Israel]

Yikes! The downside of throwing such cocktails out of ordinary cars in a drive by is that the Russian troops might start firing at civilian automobiles on sight.

That is the dumbest thing I have seen so far.

For the reasons mentioned, the Ruskies will send that between themselves and end up getting a lot nastier.

[Torie]

Debating the ludicrous proposition that there is some nexus between domestic covid conduct and international sanctions against Russia for its abhorrent invasion of Ukraine is a waste of bandwidth and a discourteous thread derailment to the participants of this thread.  If I were a mod here, I might be tempted just to delete all of such posts. Thank you.

Addendum: I see while I was typing the above, it appears that the posts were being deleted. I would not be offended if said mod deleted my post here if deemed appropriate. Thanks mod for reading my mind. 

[Sir Mohamed]

Re: Russian military convoy: Is it possible this is just a distraction so that Ukrainians pull together their troops around Kyiv so that Russia can attack elsewhere? I'm not a military expert, but think this could just be tactical move.

[OSR stands with Israel]

British MoD intelligence update, there's less in this one than compared to previous days:

https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1498551511445553158

We've never seen an advanced modern military operate without air superiority.

The most recent I can think of would be the USAF in Korea. Soviet pilots secretly began flying for the Chinese resulting in heavy American losses in the infamous "MiG Alley". But, it's a teeny stretch to call Korea a modern conflict. Maybe one of the Pakistan-India wars didn't involve one side with air superiority? I'm not sure. Even if neither nation gained air superiority, it's a questionable argument to make that they had "advanced modern" militaries.

We never held air superiority over North Vietnam, but I wouldn't even call that modern.

We didnt even invade North Vietnam

We invaded most of it before China joined the war.

That was in Korea not Vietnam

[Storr]

Beyond parody:

https://twitter.com/Den_2042/status/1498674777032114184?s=20&t=dkpCwEqOuYSP1...

[OSR stands with Israel]

Also, it's clear that China got it right when it decided to ring-fence its internet, bar Western internet and social media companies that wouldn't meet its requirements, which turned out to be all of them, and develop domestic alternatives. Facebook and Twitter are turning out to be huge national security nightmares for Russia as they are clearly intervening on behalf of the Ukrainians and banning them now could cause backlash as there may not be an alternative (maybe Telegram?) and Russians are used to using them. China would not face this issue at all. Yes it's annoying to use the internet in China particularly to browse foreign websites but national security is more important than my convenience.

COPE

Again, this makes no sense. I'm not Russian. I'm basically watching a football game here. I may have picked a side to support but I have no skin in the game. For some reason the vast majority of the forum, minus a few Ukrainians, thinks they do even though they are in the same situation as me.

 

So you view war as just another football game . What an absolutely horrific position to have