Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[It’s so Joever]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

F**KING IDIOTS.

[Torie]

"Fringe extremist"? My view is on the fringe when it is shared by 1.4 billion people, and another 1.3 billion or so people share similar views, at least when it comes to how their respective governments have responded to the war? If you think my support for the CCP is "excessively weird", does it pain you to learn that by and large, Chinese people support the CCP and the government, particularly when the West and the USA are held up as an alternative?

I don't care if I have any support or no support. As I meet the standards of decorum on this forum, if you get me banned I will have been banned for my views and opinions and you will have shown your hypocrisy about free speech, a freedom deemed so important it is the First Amendment in the US Constitution. There is a saying in the US about free speech, or at least there used to be: "I disagree completely with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it."

This forum is not bound to follow the Bill of Rights, lol. I know you have contempt for the Constitution and everything it stands for, but your claim to free speech (1) Does not apply in this context, and (2) Is invalidated by the moral code you supposedly adhere to.

Sure, I don't deny that. This forum is free to ban me. But that is the ultimate display of hypocrisy; while arguing for "democracy and freedom" in supporting Ukraine, you're kicking me out because you disagree with my views.

You do realize that this is one of the few discussion forums that despite your expressing views on this topic that most posters find abhorrent, including most of the Mod team , and feel quite strongly about it (and obviously including me - Putin needs a bullet in his brain ASAP), that you are still here, correct? If you follow the TOS, you will not be banned. That is a core value with me. It is what makes this site special and attracted me to it in the first instance. So if you have a martyr complex, this is the wrong place for you. But be polite, even if baited. In this hot house situation, the judge and jury will tend to be a hanging jury if you get close to the line.

[lfromnj]

Overall it seems the Crimean Front has been fairly successful for the Russians .

[Middle-aged Europe]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

Good material for Russian government propaganda, I suppose.

[Middle-aged Europe]

https://mobile.twitter.com/YourAnonNews/status/1498337491056836610

[Omega21]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

Goes to show a Ph.D. or even a teaching position does not mean one is necessarily intelligent.

[Person Man]

Overall it seems the Crimean Front has been fairly successful for the Russians .

Even that front is slowing down though.

[7,052,770]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

You say "we" but both of those things happened outside of America.

[Middle-aged Europe]

https://twitter.com/YourAnonNews/status/1499137807750676482

[Aurelius]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

You say "we" but both of those things happened outside of America.

"We" as in the West as a whole. Those are two examples of many. But maybe the US actually learned something from that debacle. Too early to tell.

[Cassius]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

I mean, this is a war principally about nations and nationalism (whatever kind of high-and-mighty airy-fairy bullsh**t both sides attempt to bedeck their respective casus belli in), so it's not surprising that nationalist sledging should begin to take place.

(indeed name me a war that hasn't seen this kind of behaviour take place, although of course, theoretically, in the West we're not at war with Russia).

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1499100975126265867

So...everyone not Russian is a Nazi?

[It’s so Joever]

We've already gone beyond freedom fries 2.0, sadly.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1499146526404358148

You say "we" but both of those things happened outside of America.

"We" as in the West as a whole. Those are two examples of many. But maybe the US actually learned something from that debacle. Too early to tell.

Considering Russia House in DC was vandalized, I doubt it. I may even go give them my support in a bit bcuz they prolly have had business drop even though they literally are anti-Putin iirc.

[Middle-aged Europe]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1499100975126265867

So...everyone not Russian is a Nazi?

Yes, including Jews. Especially Jews.

(https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsaneTrollLogic)

[Storr]

Big if true. The Ukrainians need to make sure Kyiv does not get surrounded and cut off.

https://twitter.com/TCG_CrisisRisks/status/1499148309071470595?s=20&t=owIR7Y...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1499100975126265867

So...everyone not Russian is a Nazi?

If you are anti-Putin and overseas, you obviously are a Nazi, because the Ukrainian government is Nazi and you support the Ukrainian government!
This meme was brought to you by the "must seal my legacy" gang. No truth ought to get in the way of a convenient narrative!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Apparently Xi Jinping asked Putin to hold off on invading Ukraine until after the Olympics.

A Western intelligence report said senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Biden administration officials and a European official.

The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on Feb. 4 before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Moscow and Beijing issued a 5,000-word statement at the time declaring that their partnership had “no limits,” denouncing NATO enlargement and asserting that they would establish a new global order with true “democracy.”

The intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was classified. It was collected by a Western intelligence service and considered credible by officials reviewing it. Senior officials in the United States and allied governments passed it around as they discussed when Mr. Putin might attack Ukraine.

However, different intelligence services had varying interpretations, and it is not clear how widely the information was shared.


One official familiar with the intelligence said the material did not necessarily indicate the conversations about an invasion took place at the level of Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin. Other officials briefed on the intelligence declined to give further details. The officials spoke about the report on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intelligence.

When asked by email on Wednesday whether Chinese officials had urged Russian officials to delay an invasion of Ukraine until after the Olympics, Liu Pengyu, the Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington, said, “These claims are speculation without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China.”

China held the closing ceremony of the Olympics on Feb. 20. The next day, Mr. Putin ordered more Russian troops to enter an insurgent-controlled area of eastern Ukraine after state television broadcast a meeting between him and his national security council and a long speech in which he said Ukraine should be a part of Russia rather than existing as a country. Early on Feb. 24, the Russian military began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including carrying out attacks on Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles, artillery shells and tank units.

It is striking that both of Russia's previous two invasions (of Ukraine in 2014 and of Georgia in 2008) also took place in the immediate vicinity of the Olympics. Something about the Olympics gets Putin hungry for blood.

Also I recall the Chinese being annoyed in 2008 that there was a war going on during the Opening Ceremony, so not hugely shocking that there was discussion of postponing war until after the Olympics this time.

2014 was hosted in Russia, so obviously they didn't want boycotts.

[Mike88]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1499100975126265867

So...everyone not Russian is a Nazi?

Yes, including Jews. Especially Jews.

Quoting, but also paraphrasing, Lewis Black: "Glenn Beck Russia has Nazi Tourette’s".

[Person Man]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1499100975126265867

So...everyone not Russian is a Nazi?

Yes, including Jews. Especially Jews.

Quoting, but also paraphrasing, Lewis Black: "Gleen Beck Russia has Nazi Tourette’s".

How it started:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjCuXlNuW4c

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Four Russian fighter jets violated Swedish airspace today over Gotland; Sweden scrambled fighter jets in return.

Russia/the USSR has a long history of testing Sweden's airforce and navy specifically; in 2013 Russian nuclear bombers flying to Kaliningrad suddenly veered west and simulated a nuclear attack on Stockholm.

[Storr]

Oops?

https://twitter.com/pmakela1/status/1499101194580643842?s=20&t=QTFsbDSW7-vj0...

[Astatine]

Georgia's government has sent an application for EU membership today, after Ukraine recalled the Georgian ambassador and the GD government is getting under increasing pressure for their lack of support for Ukraine. For the 6th day in a row, people protested en masse for the resignation of PM Irakli Garibashvili, who got verbally assaulted today. Former President Giorgi Margvelashvili also attended todays' protests.

The EU application seems to be a desperate attempt to not drag the ruling party's reputation even more into the sh**tter (just yesterday they stood by their plan to submit the EU application in 2024), as many now see them as traitors towards Western orientation. I don't expect Garibashvili to hold on for long, he was never popular anyway.

Georgian Dream is in the worst dilemma a ruling party could be:
- Sanction and condemn Russia more, inevitably tanking the economy, overseeing a recession and bringing peoples' anger towards them, not even considering a potential Russian reaction (ah, and their most important donor Bidzina Ivanishvili is involved a lot in business in Russia, sooo...).
- Keep their lukewarm stance, an unpopular view in a country that really distrusts Russia, is very much pro NATO/EU (~80 %) and can alienate many on a "make or break" issue that sparks strong emotions (Ukraine is seen as a strong ally among Georgians).

[Storr]

I seriously don't understand why Russia continues to conduct these unprotected (from the ground or air) airborne helicopter operations. Has a single one been successful?

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1499088408827895818?s=20&t=dhNyTzC_Q...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Georgia's government has sent an application for EU membership today, after Ukraine recalled the Georgian ambassador and the GD government is getting under increasing pressure for their lack of support for Ukraine. For the 6th day in a row, people protested en masse for the resignation of PM Irakli Garibashvili, who got verbally assaulted today. Former President Giorgi Margvelashvili also attended todays' protests.

The EU application seems to be a desperate attempt to not drag the ruling party's reputation even more into the sh**tter (just yesterday they stood by their plan to submit the EU application in 2024), as many now see them as traitors towards Western orientation. I don't expect Garibashvili to hold on for long, he was never popular anyway.

Georgian Dream is in the worst dilemma a ruling party could be:
- Sanction and condemn Russia more, inevitably tanking the economy, overseeing a recession and bringing peoples' anger towards them, not even considering a potential Russian reaction (ah, and their most important donor Bidzina Ivanishvili is involved a lot in business in Russia, sooo...).
- Keep their lukewarm stance, an unpopular view in a country that really distrusts Russia, is very much pro NATO/EU (~80 %) and can alienate many on a "make or break" issue that sparks strong emotions (Ukraine is seen as a strong ally among Georgians).

Big shiny object of EU membership to distract people from their position and avoid having to make painful decisions.
This is transparently self-interested, isn't it?

[Storr]

Personally, I'd guess the figure is at least 3,000 Russians killed. If you assume the ratio of injured to deaths is 3:1 (after all, what official Kremiln ratio is 498: 1500), that's 9,000 injured. An army, even as large as Russia's, having more than 10,000 casualties in 7 days is not sustainable.

https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1499148057610489859?s=20&t=QTFsbDSW...