Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Welcome to the forum.
Your username makes me wonder if you are a Greek-American.

[NOVA Green]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Welcome to the Forum!

[Virginiá]

This is an actually trustworthy source here stating the obvious, this counteroffensive was not well thought out.

The good news is Ukrainian leadership is smart enough to put a halt on things for reevaluation, honestly that’s a good sign in some ways and does highlight a clear difference with Russia.

Operational pauses are not uncommon in offensives (something ISW has themselves said before. Example), and I don't see any statement in that tweet about this not being well thought out. That the Ukrainians were not able to immediately punch through several lines of defense and run wild in Russian rear areas within the first couple weeks is not indicative of failure or poor planning. This isn't to say that the overall strategy wasn't poor, but that's not something any of us know and won't at least for a while until we see how the rest of their operations pan out.

[Hindsight was 2020]

This is an actually trustworthy source here stating the obvious, this counteroffensive was not well thought out.

The good news is Ukrainian leadership is smart enough to put a halt on things for reevaluation, honestly that’s a good sign in some ways and does highlight a clear difference with Russia.

Waa sh
Operational pauses are not uncommon in offensives (something ISW has themselves said before. Example), and I don't see any statement in that tweet about this not being well thought out. That the Ukrainians were not able to immediately punch through several lines of defense and run wild in Russian rear areas within the first couple weeks is not indicative of failure or poor planning. This isn't to say that the overall strategy wasn't poor, but that's not something any of us know and won't at least for a while until we see how the rest of their operations pan out.

I don’t even see proof that this is true, all the reports today on tg and the map sites are the same of Ukraine pressing onto Robotyne, Rinvopil, the Bakhmut flanks, etc that has been going for the past several days so there isn’t a real sign of a pause

[NOVA Green]

Meanwhile while a certain poster is posting Tweets showing a few destroyed Ukrainian military equipment assets, there was a very big *BOOM* yesterday in Russian occupied Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1670498014215979008?s=12

So to follow up on Hindsight's post above, and the subsequent follow-post from our Irish comrade Epaminondas's:

That last explosion was at least 200km from the frontline. The storage area is completely levelled.

It does look like this is really a Big "Effin'" Deal (BFD), in terms of the quantities of ammo destroyed and potential impacts to Russian resupply efforts to the Southern frontline.

https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1670881874275696640?s=20

Here we have a 12 second clip:

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1670881294979330064

Here's a satellite comparison:

https://twitter.com/jaimi85012502/status/1670882508878262272?s=20

Now let's look at what is left of the structure from a ground view:

https://twitter.com/ItsArtoir/status/1670781783581892610?s=20

Although in this particular case it does not look like this is a simple case of a Russian soldier dropping a lit cigarette in an authorized "No Smoking" area, although surely one would imagine if Russia is so great at building minefields, complex Trench based multilayer defenses, surely they could at least construct a more solid giant ammunition warehouse going deeper underground with various layers of fire-rated walls, designed to withstand a large scale explosive warhead.

Here is the international GHS symbol for Explosives:

[CanadianDemocrat]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Trump and the MAGA cult are a cancer on Western foreign policy. Trump has betrayed Ukraine and NATO, in favor a Putin. You have MAGA clowns spreading Russian disinformation, such as the lie about the CIA bioweapons lab in Ukraine.

[TheReckoning]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Woodbury is pro-Ukraine.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Putin loses battle as UNESCO issued an emergency recognition of borscht as Ukrainian and not Russian.  A heavy blow

I don't understand the point of the borscht controversy. There is a Russian national soup shchi with a huge number of varieties, and the beetroot version is very similar to borscht.

It's as if the Germans were worried that no one wants to recognize the Fiat 500 as a German car, the main and only one. Absurd.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

*WARNING the following is quite disturbing
We can add more war crimes to the list as there are now hundreds of reported cases of recently returned Ukrainian pows who were found to of been castrated during their time in captivity and in one case the Russian solider who did it told his victims it was to prevent them (Ukrainian soldiers) from having kids so can we start finally calling what Russia in doing in Ukraine a genocide yet?!
https://archive.is/2023.06.17-184144/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4561e12a-0d14-11ee-aa7c-6e26d8c3ad9b#selection-841.0-841.78

Not clicking the link, but if true, this seems like a great way to get your enemy to fight to the death.

When a psychologically crushed person (by poverty, hopelessness, a crazy government and countless scumbags around him, skilled in psychological manipulation) gets an even more defenseless person at his disposal, he does not think strategically, he just rejoices, taking out the accumulated anger on his victim.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Woodbury is pro-Ukraine.

You could make a career as a great comedian.

[jaichind]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-only-has-20000-high-explosive-artillery-shells-left-report-2023-06-19/

"Germany only has 20,000 high explosive artillery shells left - report"

[Woody]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

I am not anything of what you just said. But I'm glad I inspired you to join the forum. Welcome.

[jaichind]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/06/18/the-russians-packed-a-robotic-t-55-tank-with-explosives-and-rolled-it-toward-ukrainian-lines/?sh=1b0236dc2f86

"The Russians Packed A Robotic T-55 Tank With Explosives And Rolled It Toward Ukrainian Lines"

One way for Russia to use T-55s is to use them as kamikaze tanks.  I can see why Russia want to drag more of them out od deep storage.  Not sure it will work but does not seem to hurt to try. 

[jaichind]

 https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2023/06/20/ucraina-la-controffensiva-si-e-gia-impantanata/7200446/

Il Fatto Quotidiano: Ukraine, the counter-offensive has already stalled

[GoTfan]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Woodbury is pro-Ukraine.

And George Wallace supported the Civil Rights Act

[jaichind]

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/20/russian-companies-record-historic-quadrillion-ruble-revenues-in-2022-rbc-a81562

"Russian Companies Record Historic Quadrillion-Ruble Revenues in 2022"

To br fair some of this has to do with inflation

[Hindsight was 2020]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Woodbury is pro-Ukraine.

Yeah no if you want to argue he’s pro-Ukraine but a Julian Röpcke style doom poster you run into the issue that even Julian will post a positive Ukrainian development once in a while. It’s not like he’s  unaware of where to get such info either as he was citing and calling Twitter profiles like Def Mon one of the best sources to follow on the war when he (def mon) was criticizing Ukraine staying in Bakhmut but funny enough this supposedly great source having a general positive assessment of the counterattack Bakhmut Bob is incredibly eager to call a disaster somehow escapes him

[jaichind]

https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-says-threat-putin-using-tactical-nuclear-weapons-is-real-2023-06-20/

"Biden says threat of Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is 'real'"

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/06/18/the-russians-packed-a-robotic-t-55-tank-with-explosives-and-rolled-it-toward-ukrainian-lines/?sh=1b0236dc2f86

"The Russians Packed A Robotic T-55 Tank With Explosives And Rolled It Toward Ukrainian Lines"

One way for Russia to use T-55s is to use them as kamikaze tanks.  I can see why Russia want to drag more of them out od deep storage.  Not sure it will work but does not seem to hurt to try. 

When Russia is forced to use helicopters that are useless in their main function and tanks that are good only as car bombs, this hardly means success.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Operational pauses are not uncommon in offensives (something ISW has themselves said before. Example), and I don't see any statement in that tweet about this not being well thought out. That the Ukrainians were not able to immediately punch through several lines of defense and run wild in Russian rear areas within the first couple weeks is not indicative of failure or poor planning. This isn't to say that the overall strategy wasn't poor, but that's not something any of us know and won't at least for a while until we see how the rest of their operations pan out.

Tactics and strategy are not the same thing, quite. It is telling that certain very active posters in this thread are not aware of that, despite everything we've seen over the past year and a bit.

[CumbrianLefty]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Woodbury is pro-Ukraine.

And George Wallace supported the Civil Rights Act

Well, he did eventually. Sort of.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Hi everyone! I’m new. I came across this board for more ways to get information on the war. I finally decided to sign up in order to ignore a certain Putin fan boy from clogging the feed. From just reading responses and posts, I can say that never before have I felt such a strong and genuine hatred for anyone online until I saw Woody and other western Putin-lovers. (Politically im center right. Very much an establishment/moderate Republican)

That said, Slava Ukraïni and to victory!

Woodbury is pro-Ukraine.

And George Wallace supported the Civil Rights Act

Yes, George Wallace even appointed more black people to state positions than any other governor in Alabama history in the 1980s. Not sure why you are pointing why he was no longer remotely a segregationist in the 1980s, it undermines your case.

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/kiraincongress/status/1671198609029701632?s=20

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1671163335805665280?s=20

[Storr]

Two completely unrelated events:

https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1671216334170882062?s=20

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1671218342261030917?s=20

[jaichind]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/world/europe/ukraine-soldier-funerals-lviv.html

"Digging Up Old Graves to Make Room for Newly Fallen Soldiers"