Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Huh...

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1649532657561108481?s=20

So, they are fighting for, um, Lebensraum?

The squad "Rusich" is outright Nazis. We can read more about the participation of outright neo-Nazis in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Ifri's article "Right-wing radicals on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict" No. 95, July 2016.

Russia-Ukraine never cut along clean radical evil nationalist vs good incumbent government lines, and probably never will.
Russia's propoganda will never be able to alter this reality either.

[Hindsight was 2020]

The Brazil-China peace talks were already hurt by Lula’s big mouth so China decided to just kill it off completely
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1650060586909138945

[American2020]

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Has Damaged Its Global Reputation, even in Brazil

https://morningconsult.com/tracking-the-russia-ukraine-crisis/

[CumbrianLefty]

Fun fact, despite Woodbury's wet dreams about Russia exterminating Ukraine forever, the Battle of Bakhmut has almost been carrying on as long as the Battle of Verdun.

Are we going to go into May with it *still* not over?

[Woody]

The Ukrainians have crossed the Dnipro river numerous times, that doesn't mean they have established a beach head/landings.

Those operations are exclusively special forces. Mostly to probe where mortar positions are. I don't know why people are catching up to this just now.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Fun fact, despite Woodbury's wet dreams about Russia exterminating Ukraine forever, the Battle of Bakhmut has almost been carrying on as long as the Battle of Verdun.

Are we going to go into May with it *still* not over?

Probably, heck the battle still might ongoing when the counterattack happens

[Virginiá]

The Ukrainians have crossed the Dnipro river numerous times, that doesn't mean they have established a beach head/landings.

Those operations are exclusively special forces. Mostly to probe where mortar positions are. I don't know why people are catching up to this just now.

Yeah, I would have to say that having and even maintaining a "presence" is much different than actually establishing a beachhead with some sort of temporary bridge, which is what would facilitate the movement of large numbers of troops and equipment. If we recall the Russian evacuation, they needed a considerable number of ferries and a large pontoon bridge that was under constant attack. Until we see something similar by the Ukrainians, I don't think this is worth much extra attention.

[NOVA Green]

I think the most important rumours are the ones that the ukranian army has crossed the Dnieper river at Kherson.

The Dnieper has never been a substantial military obstacle, both the Germans and the Soviets crossed it without much of a problem in WW2.

It's too wide to defend it's banks and not wide enough to use naval vessels to block crossings,  another failure of the russian army to anticipate the inevitable.

It’s no longer a rumor 👀
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1650045911165222912

It should be noted that Russia is also relocating civilians in areas they control outside of Kherson as well as significant widespread looting, which in the past has been a pretty good indicator of Russian forces planning to withdrawal from the area.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/23/world/europe/ukraine-russia-kherson.html

[Woody]

PMC Wagner will not accept take prisoners of war anymore. It's kill on sight from here on out.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1650178073436774400
https://twitter.com/DrazaM33/status/1650112397179232256

Translation:

"We will never violate international laws of humanism. And the law of humanism starts from the moment you take a person prisoner. You take a prisoner - start taking care of him, treat him, don't maim him and give him back home after a while on an exchange. So we will not violate the rules of humanism. And we will just destroy everyone on the battlefield. We don't yet know the name of our guy, who was wounded and shot by Ukrainians. And we will kill everyone who are on the battlefield. Don't take any more POWs".

[Storr]

I'm guessing this mudslinging by PiS [the party in power in Poland] is for the purposes of rallying nationalist anti-German sentiment ahead of the Polish elections later this year.

The US was also against Ukraine joining NATO, at least in the near to medium term, in order try to avoid provoking Russia. Obviously that strategy did not work, but trying to blame Germany for the war in Ukraine is ridiculous.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1650175699515494401?s=20

[Storr]

Who could have predicted pardoning murderers would have led to more murders?

Rest of tweet: "...before he was supposed to return to the front.

Responding to incident, Wagner Group head Evgeny Prigozhin has emphasized the low recidivism rate among returning mercenaries. Just 20 felonies committed by a few thousand veterans! I guess this is the 21st."

https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1641468958623649792?s=20

There's been a second murder committed by a previously convicted murderer that was pardoned after fighting for Wagner, this time in the breakaway statlet of South Ossetia:

"Local authorities announced in the early hours of Tuesday that they had arrested a man who was suspected of murdering Tsugri. The man, who was identified by state-run media, was Georgiy Siukayev, a convicted murderer who was recruited from jail last autumn by the Wagner paramilitary organisation to fight in Ukraine."

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1650107604092190721?s=20

[The Dowager Mod]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1650207056614285312

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1649836374302834697?s=20

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1650207056614285312

The Empire which promotes so much hatred against both internal and external enemies, as defined by the Modern Day Czar in the form of Putin, creates hatred and conflict amongst their own population, including Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine regardless of conscripts or Wagner group.

Once the war is over Russia will face a domestic reckoning of the type which has not been seen for slightly over (100) years.

Random gun fights in the streets of Russian occupied Ukraine between the "Mercs" and "Scripts" is likely just the start of what will become much more intense eventually when the surviving veterans of Putin's war return home in large numbers.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

PMC Wagner will not accept take prisoners of war anymore. It's kill on sight from here on out.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1650178073436774400
https://twitter.com/DrazaM33/status/1650112397179232256
Translation:

"We will never violate international laws of humanism. And the law of humanism starts from the moment you take a person prisoner. You take a prisoner - start taking care of him, treat him, don't maim him and give him back home after a while on an exchange. So we will not violate the rules of humanism. And we will just destroy everyone on the battlefield. We don't yet know the name of our guy, who was wounded and shot by Ukrainians. And we will kill everyone who are on the battlefield. Don't take any more POWs".

Prigozhin runs his mouth a lot but this one might actually have some credibility. The easiest way to solve the Wagner POW execution video problem is to stop taking POWs.

[Pericles]

Killing all enemy combatants is a great way to make them fight to the death, this is stupid evil.

[2952-0-0]

There's been a second murder committed by a previously convicted murderer that was pardoned after fighting for Wagner, this time in the breakaway statlet of South Ossetia:

"Local authorities announced in the early hours of Tuesday that they had arrested a man who was suspected of murdering Tsugri. The man, who was identified by state-run media, was Georgiy Siukayev, a convicted murderer who was recruited from jail last autumn by the Wagner paramilitary organisation to fight in Ukraine."

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1650107604092190721?s=20

My prediction from last September:

Give another few months, and you'll see hundreds of thousands of angry, traumatized young men returning from Ukraine with their weapons and who refuse to accept any authority, with a demoralized police force surviving on tips from whomever they can extort.

Not a recipe for peace of any sort.

[CanadianDemocrat]

The Ukrainians have crossed the Dnipro river numerous times, that doesn't mean they have established a beach head/landings.

Those operations are exclusively special forces. Mostly to probe where mortar positions are. I don't know why people are catching up to this just now.

Yeah, I would have to say that having and even maintaining a "presence" is much different than actually establishing a beachhead with some sort of temporary bridge, which is what would facilitate the movement of large numbers of troops and equipment. If we recall the Russian evacuation, they needed a considerable number of ferries and a large pontoon bridge that was under constant attack. Until we see something similar by the Ukrainians, I don't think this is worth much extra attention.

After Kherson was liberated, there was rumors and videos showing Ukrainian soldiers landing on the Kinburn spit. The landings were real, but it was the Ukrainian special forces landing and harassing Russian soldiers, not a permanent beachhead.

[NOVA Green]

The Ukrainians have crossed the Dnipro river numerous times, that doesn't mean they have established a beach head/landings.

Those operations are exclusively special forces. Mostly to probe where mortar positions are. I don't know why people are catching up to this just now.

Yeah, I would have to say that having and even maintaining a "presence" is much different than actually establishing a beachhead with some sort of temporary bridge, which is what would facilitate the movement of large numbers of troops and equipment. If we recall the Russian evacuation, they needed a considerable number of ferries and a large pontoon bridge that was under constant attack. Until we see something similar by the Ukrainians, I don't think this is worth much extra attention.

After Kherson was liberated, there was rumors and videos showing Ukrainian soldiers landing on the Kinburn spit. The landings were real, but it was the Ukrainian special forces landing and harassing Russian soldiers, not a permanent beachhead.

You are correct regarding the Kinburn Spit, although naturally it is a major significant distance from KC (Kherson City).

That being said "Woodchucks will Chuck Wood", although it appears clear that Ukrainian forces are already present in various islands way upstream, and do appear to have created some sort of significant presence across the Dnipro River to the point that Russian forces are looting and pillaging as they retreat.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1650342922833756160

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1650228676867366912?s=20

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Huh...

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1649532657561108481?s=20

So, they are fighting for, um, Lebensraum?

The squad "Rusich" is outright Nazis. We can read more about the participation of outright neo-Nazis in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Ifri's article "Right-wing radicals on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict" No. 95, July 2016.

Russia-Ukraine never cut along clean radical evil nationalist vs good incumbent government lines, and probably never will.
Russia's propoganda will never be able to alter this reality either.

As a person who was born, grew up and lives in Russian culture, I can tell you that Russians are great chauvinists and xenophobes, but they disguise their radical nationalism under Stalinism. True Russian fascism is original, as befits fascism. As true fascism should, it unites all strata of society in ein Reich, ein Folk. And "Rusich" and other outright neo-Nazis with swastikas on their foreheads are just naive idiots who like to cosplay vivid images. They have nothing to do with true Russian fascism.

There are also tolerant people among Russians, but as a rule they are so thanks to a very close acquaintance with the culture of the West, which Red Velvet accused of racism with a 180-degree lie. There are very few such people among Russians, as a rule they are young people with higher education from large cities.

[Woody]

lol the comment section

https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/status/1649434753953570817?cxt=HHwWgoCx2e2K_OMtAA...

[Woody]

Leopard 2A4 somewhere in Ukraine

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1649709550008672258

[CumbrianLefty]

Tucker Carlson fired - a major blow to Putin's Russia