Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[T'Chenka]

I'm presuming that the "disturbing news" will be that, according to Russian sources, Ukrainians have suddenly decided that since a large majority of the Russian military is camped out near their borders  desperately looking for an excuse for war, they would be kind neighbors and give them one?  I suppose there are people who would be dumb enough to believe that.

The news is worse than I expected, I have yet to see more, but... this looks very bad.

Are you being ambiguous in order to troll us, or because you aren't supposed to say too much? I'm assuming the latter.

[T'Chenka]

I'm presuming that the "disturbing news" will be that, according to Russian sources, Ukrainians have suddenly decided that since a large majority of the Russian military is camped out near their borders  desperately looking for an excuse for war, they would be kind neighbors and give them one?  I suppose there are people who would be dumb enough to believe that.

No prizes for guessing correctly.

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1494215992599363588

What are the odds that this is a false flag... as in, Russians pretending to be Ukrainians or Ukrainians loyal to Russia / paid by Russia to do it to further Russia's interests?

[T'Chenka]

Yes (literally sane)

[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.

[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.

[T'Chenka]

Serious question:

Do the majority of the Russian speaking Ukranians actually like Putin?

According to Jack Crosbie, a journalist who's been on the ground in Ukraine for some time, the language a person speaks and their loyalties for/against Russia are not particularly correlated in (eastern) Ukraine.

SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvGsX-ocG90

[T'Chenka]

Putin also directly addressed members of the Ukrainian armed forces, calling on them to lay down their arms and refuse to take orders from their superiors in Kyiv.

He also warned anyone considering interfering with Russia’s plans of grave consequences, appearing to threaten the use of nuclear weapons.

“Whoever tries to interfere with our actions should know that the Russian response will be immediate and will lead to the kind of consequences you have never experienced in your entire history,” Putin said. “We are ready for any scenario of events.”

Is he actually completely insane?

He worded it in such a way that you can tell that he doesn't really mean nuclear weapons, but he wants you to think that MAYBE just maybe he meant that, so you'll be scared and think of him as unpredictable and dangerous. It's just political theater.

[T'Chenka]

What the heck, this is actually happening? The people of Ukraine are in my prayers. I just hope Andriy is alright. I feel really bad for him. I can't believe thousands of people are about to die for one man's ego trip and his revisionist view of history. Seriously, what the f--k?

It's time to impose the toughest possible sanctions on Russia and aid Ukraine with massive American weaponry to make this blatant violation of international law. Mr. Putin is actually a case of the Den Haag Court for War Criminals!

Based on how it's going so far, by the time all of the USA weapons show up in Ukraine for the Ukrainians to use against Russia, the invasion will already be over and Russia will have already won.

[T'Chenka]

Wait, is Russia actually invading Moldova now too? Or is that fake news?

[T'Chenka]

https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1496770643236638724

There isn't going to be a Ukrainian nation by the time it gets accepted into the UN.

[T'Chenka]

Ah, and is there any way to suspend a country from the UN security council? I guess China could veto it, but that doesn't hinder all other countries to boycott Russia's attendence and meet in their absence.

Somebody else pointed out tonight that TECHNICALLY Russia was never appointed to the Security Council. The USSR was and then Russia wasn't kicked off the council after USSR became Russia. But by legal technicalities, Russia could be theoretically removed because it never went through the proper process or received approval of the UN to be on the council.

[T'Chenka]

Putin NEEDS to be stopped. Are we seriously going to let Russia do whatever they want today because their madman is throwing a fit? The likes of JFK, Eisenhower, and even Reagan would be p**sed at how f**king weak American leadership is today.

As for Western European leadership…well I’m not even gonna start.

They need to weigh the risk of NYC, LA or Washington DC being nuked and millions of Americans dying. No, it is not likely to happen. Yes, it is POSSIBLE that it COULD happen. These things need to be taken into strong consideration.

[T'Chenka]

Hungary will not allow lethal weapons for Ukraine to transit its territory - FM

PRISTINA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Hungary will not send troops or weapons to Ukraine and will not allow lethal weapons to transit its territory in order to keep the country safe, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday during a visit to Kosovo.

https://www.reuters.com/world/hungary-will-not-allow-lethal-weapons-ukraine-transit-its-territory-fm-2022-02-28/

First crack in the European coalition. Ukraine and Putin will now be an important issue in the upcoming elections in Hungary.

F__ck Hungary and f__k Orban too.

[T'Chenka]

Looks like European resolve didn’t even last 24 hours.

Orban, you could have had a turn around, now you’re back on the sh**t list

Europe deserves invasion at this point. I’m saying it here. So does the US tbh.

You should settle down. These are scalding hot takes.

[T'Chenka]

The four staffers in former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Bundestag office have resigned in protest against Schröder's continued presence on the boards of Russian energy companies.

Meanwhile, former Left Party chair Gregor Gysi has practically accused his party colleague Sahra Wagenknecht, until last week probably Germany's most prominent Putin advocate on the left side of the political spectrum, of being a sociopath (incapable of feeling emotions).

In Portugal, a PCP headquarters in Alentejo, Beja city to be precise, was vandalized with anti-PCP and anti-Russian words. Words like "You have Ukrainian blood in your sickle" where written in the front of the headquarters.

Also, Russian communities in Portugal are receiving death threats and being bullied. According to Russian community associations, several Russian immigrants in Portugal are receiving threatening phone calls and are being discriminated in every day activities.

Jesus Christ, can people please leave Russian immigrants alone? They can't control what Putin does and a good % of them didn't like Russia or agree with it so they left.

[T'Chenka]

Visser Three from Animorphs

Not a reference I was expecting to see on Atlas...

[T'Chenka]

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1498815833681891332

Bu... but Comrade Putin has said in Soviet Russia you don't need large banks and financial institutions.

The Western sanctions against Russia are stronger then even Germany in WW2. The allies did not sanction the German central bank.

As a note, apparently the primary person who was pushing to sanction the central bank was Chrysta Freeland, Canadian foreign minister and Trudeau’s right hand woman.

She is the Finance minister (but she has been the foreign minister at a point and seems to pretty much run the government by herself). She is also half-Ukrainian.

fixed, thanks

You alluded to it but I'm not 100% sure if you know, she's basically the Vice President (but in Canadian terms). If Trudeau were to fall seriously ill or die, she would be the Acting Prime Minister until the Liberal Party decided to choose a new leader. And apparently it's "Chrystia" with an two "I"s. I'm embarassed to say that I thought it was "Christina" until right now, but in my defense, Canadian politics is really boring and hard to pay attention to most of the time.

On-topic: awesome stuff. Glad to see Canada not being overly silent or inactive here.

[T'Chenka]

Belarusian Forces Will Not Take Part in Ukraine War, Lukashenko Says

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that the Belarusian armed forces were not taking part and would not take part in Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

A close Russian ally, Lukashenko said he spoke to President Vladimir Putin at length by telephone on Friday. Russia has used Belarusian territory to carry out a multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine.

Did the Belarussian military not already cross the border into Ukraine?

[T'Chenka]

Some Russians sharing their views. Some of these surprised me. 2.5 minutes long.