Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[TheReckoning]

May every Russian  Soldier who enters the Ukraine catch a bullet through the eye socket.  Every. God. Damned. One.

There, I said it.

Not very Christ-like of you, Badger.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1496729940108386313

[Frodo]

Anybody else leaning towards the concept that Russia is moving towards a full scale invasion and occupation?

Could be a great Putin bluff, but why go all out unless you are looking for the best position on the chessboard?

There is no possible case that it is limited to Donetsk/Luhansk, given that we have video of troops crossing from Belarus into Northern Ukraine etc, which is nowhere near.

It is possible that Putin may not want to occupy 100% of Ukraine all the way to the Polish border, but it is clearly not some small portion of it that he has in mind.

It could be that Putin is aiming to acquire all of Ukraine (including Kiev) east of the Dneiper, leaving the Ukrainian pro-Western portion alone for now.  This is assuming he isn't going to launch an amphibious invasion to take Odessa (and beyond) and thus strip Ukraine of its access to the Black Sea.

Wait, I see someone has already preceded me:

It could be that Putin wants to use the status of Luhansk and Donestsk to push the border up to the Dniper, thereby leaving a rump Western Ukrainian state with Kyiv still as it's capital while swallowing up the rest of Ukraine. This is just speculation though and Putin's aims are included in the fog of war.

Edit: On second thought, I can't see Putin pushing up to the Dniper and not annexing Kiev even if it's not the same bank of the Dniper.

[Badger]

May every Russian  Soldier who enters the Ukraine catch a bullet through the eye socket.  Every. God. Damned. One.

There, I said it.

Not very Christ-like of you, Badger.

 Don't you have a spate of unintelligible completely obtuse obtuse and missing the point posts to make somehow defending this?

Piss off.

[Storr]

Well umm, I'll let the official Ukrainian government twitter account speak for itself on this one:

https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1496716168920547331?s=20&t=eV0eI2wYxUEeQ6...

[TWTown]

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1496730367881269257?s=20&t=DyOwc1hZ7lk6ub...

Rest in peace.

[TheReckoning]

May every Russian  Soldier who enters the Ukraine catch a bullet through the eye socket.  Every. God. Damned. One.

There, I said it.

Not very Christ-like of you, Badger.

Piss off.

In your heart, you know I’m right.

[Bismarck]

I hope Biden leads the west in doing everything we can to destroy the Russian economy.

[OSR stands with Israel]

May every Russian  Soldier who enters the Ukraine catch a bullet through the eye socket.  Every. God. Damned. One.

There, I said it.

nothing wrong with saying that

[NOVA Green]

Anybody else leaning towards the concept that Russia is moving towards a full scale invasion and occupation?

Yes. Ukraine will no longer be a sovereign country from here on out. Russia will control and own it. NATO will ensure that Russia faces massive punishments for doing this, but they won't send in troops to actually stop it from happening.

So bit of devil's advocate here a bit, thinking about it from a military perspective, why hasn't Russia just gone ahead and grabbed Kharkiv yet, since after all a large majority of pop speaks Russian and is a City of 1.4 Million just a handful of Kilometers over the border with Russia?

Is it simply that this might be more of a difficult "urban combat" scenario which wouldn't fit Mr. Putin's narrative presented to his own people?

Afghanistan again proved itself to be the "Graveyard of Empires" for Russia, English, and Americans...

Iraq 2.0 showed the limit of American power to successfully occupy with overwhelming support against a determined Guerrilla Resistance.

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1496710912648044548

[OSR stands with Israel]

May every Russian  Soldier who enters the Ukraine catch a bullet through the eye socket.  Every. God. Damned. One.

There, I said it.

Not very Christ-like of you, Badger.

Piss off.

In your heart, you know I’m right.

No you are not right

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496728317969539076

[emailking]

We shouldn't want anyone to die. The best thing would be if all fighting stopped right now. It won't, and so Ukraine has to defend itself. But the whole thing is a tragedy.

[TheReckoning]

Won’t Sactions just cripple the lives of everyday Russians instead of actually ending the war?

[nicholas.slaydon]

We shouldn't want anyone to die. The best thing would be if all fighting stopped right now. It won't, and so Ukraine has to defend itself. But the whole thing is a tragedy.

I agree that all deaths are a tragedy, and wish that this war had never started. However, let's not get it confused as to who the villain in this war is, and it sure as hell isn't Ukraine.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1496710912648044548

I guess it could work if you had a vote like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_2758

[emailking]

Won’t Sactions just cripple the lives of everyday Russians instead of actually ending the war?

I think deterrence is part of the calculation there. Over time it might lead to Russia giving up if there is a long insurgency in Ukraine.

[Aurelius]

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1496702809097527297
Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point

Moldova was part of the USSR. Unsurprisingly, Putin sees it as rightfully his. He's already done the same frozen conflict BS there that he did in Georgia and Ukraine.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

May every Russian  Soldier who enters the Ukraine catch a bullet through the eye socket.  Every. God. Damned. One.

There, I said it.

nothing wrong with saying that

If you really want to wish death on someone, perhaps do it upon the leader who sent the young Russian soldiers into Ukraine, not on the young soldiers themselves who are not really the ones responsible for all this, remember that they are pawns in a larger machine.

[Bismarck]

Won’t Sactions just cripple the lives of everyday Russians instead of actually ending the war?

Hopefully it hurts their lives enough that they stop supporting Putin.

[T'Chenka]

Anybody else leaning towards the concept that Russia is moving towards a full scale invasion and occupation?

Yes. Ukraine will no longer be a sovereign country from here on out. Russia will control and own it. NATO will ensure that Russia faces massive punishments for doing this, but they won't send in troops to actually stop it from happening.

So bit of devil's advocate here a bit, thinking about it from a military perspective, why hasn't Russia just gone ahead and grabbed Kharkiv yet, since after all a large majority of pop speaks Russian and is a City of 1.4 Million just a handful of Kilometers over the border with Russia?

Is it simply that this might be more of a difficult "urban combat" scenario which wouldn't fit Mr. Putin's narrative presented to his own people?

Afghanistan again proved itself to be the "Graveyard of Empires" for Russia, English, and Americans...

Iraq 2.0 showed the limit of American power to successfully occupy with overwhelming support against a determined Guerrilla Resistance.

Russia has focused tonight on bigger cities and destroying the Ukrainian air force. They can worry about smaller cities later. I suppose they aren't worried about pretexts anymore. Also, I watched a Majority Report interview with a journalist who's been on the ground in the Ukraine for some time yesterday, and according to him, the political alignment of Ukrainians doesn't really correlate with language... ie, Russian-speakers are not necessarily more pro-Russia than other Ukrainians.

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1496710912648044548

https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1496713122937192450?s=20&t=9u_cgsUpAym...

Huh, Ukraine might actually have something here.

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/PDocumentarians/status/1496731018723835907

[emailking]

After today, I'll take that technicality if it works.