Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[NOVA Green]

Russian Forces now Moving Towards Mykolaiev  in force on the Southern Front:

"
After capturing the strategic city of Kherson, Russian forces pushed west on Thursday, bearing down on another important port city, Mykolaiev, the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, said in an interview. Mr. Senkevych said roughly 800 Russian vehicles, including a column of rocket launchers, was headed toward Mykolaiev from the north, east and south. As of Thursday morning, there had been no shelling inside the city, but Ukrainian forces dug in on the city’s perimeter have been fired on by long range rockets, forcing them to move positions constantly, Mr. Senkevych said, adding: “The city is ready for war.”

"

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/02/world/ukraine-russia-war#trains-russia-finland

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Caspian Report came out with a new video yesterday.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Ukrainian troops applying racist policies against the refugees currently fleeing the country.

Refugees are reportedly being separated at the border between:

1.  white people; and
2.  black and brown people.

https://time.com/6153276/ukraine-refugees-racism/

“We entered the train last,” Kass says, describing how she and other African women were forced to wait outside as snow was falling, while white women and children were allowed to board before them. She believes her gender is the only reason she was spared being beaten. Groups of Nepalese, Indian and Somalian men described to TIME how they were kicked and beaten with batons by Ukrainian guards who later begrudgingly allowed them to cross over, on foot."

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/03/02/ukrainians-go-first-how-black-and-brown-people-are-struggling-to-escape-the-russian-invasi

"The soldiers there, they tell you: ‘you are going to stay here, you are fleeing the war, stay here, you are going to fight with us, you are not going to leave, especially you black people’.”

The last beating of black people in the Ukraine would have been by the Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen in 1941.

[ugabug]

An interesting take on Ukraine and NATO security from a retired British general.

I hope he's wrong about the Baltic states but unfortunately i could see the logic from the Kremlins pov about a quick strike and take it over and then threaten the west with nukes if they dare to try and take it back. I hope though that the current showing from the Russian army in Ukraine will stop such ideas though.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Soviet T34 tanks of the 3rd Guards Tank Army on the streets of Lviv

For a minute, I thought Ukraine had brought T-34s back into service. The Donetsk proxies used at least one.

I forgot to add April 1944.

[jaichind]

Soviet T34 tanks of the 3rd Guards Tank Army on the streets of Lviv

For a minute, I thought Ukraine had brought T-34s back into service. The Donetsk proxies used at least one.

I forgot to add April 1944.

Unlikely as USSR did not capture Lvov until late July 1944

[Lord Halifax]

The last beating of black people in the Ukraine would have been by the Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen in 1941.

Unlikely there were any black people in Ukraine in 1941.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Soviet T34 tanks of the 3rd Guards Tank Army on the streets of Lviv

For a minute, I thought Ukraine had brought T-34s back into service. The Donetsk proxies used at least one.

I forgot to add April 1944.

Unlikely as USSR did not capture Lvov until late July 1944

They didn't know where they were going and rocked up three months early.

[Meclazine for Israel]

The last beating of black people in the Ukraine would have been by the Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen in 1941.

Unlikely there were any black people in Ukraine in 1941.

Ukraine had quite a prevalent African-Ukrainian population.



Pictured here (L-R) are: Dmytro Voronovskyi, Volodymyr Bolharyn, Slavko Lomachynska, Oleksandr Likhvald and Yuriy Lavrenyuk.

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/mjluxmoore/status/1499012343581364224

[pppolitics]

Ukrainian troops applying racist policies against the refugees currently fleeing the country.

Refugees are reportedly being separated at the border between:

1.  white people; and
2.  black and brown people.

https://time.com/6153276/ukraine-refugees-racism/

“We entered the train last,” Kass says, describing how she and other African women were forced to wait outside as snow was falling, while white women and children were allowed to board before them. She believes her gender is the only reason she was spared being beaten. Groups of Nepalese, Indian and Somalian men described to TIME how they were kicked and beaten with batons by Ukrainian guards who later begrudgingly allowed them to cross over, on foot."

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/03/02/ukrainians-go-first-how-black-and-brown-people-are-struggling-to-escape-the-russian-invasi

"The soldiers there, they tell you: ‘you are going to stay here, you are fleeing the war, stay here, you are going to fight with us, you are not going to leave, especially you black people’.”

The last beating of black people in the Ukraine would have been by the Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen in 1941.

Ukraine is probably trying to figure out which ones are Indians.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Another seizure of a Russian oligarch's superyacht, this time by France.

France has seized a yacht owned by Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, the French finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Sechin is the CEO of Russian oil giant Rosneft. The European Union sanctioned Sechin earlier this week, describing him as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "most trusted and closest advisors, as well as his personal friend."

The yacht, named "Amore Vero" — or "True Love" in Italian — arrived at the French Mediterranean port of La Ciotat in January. It was scheduled to leave the port on April 1.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/business/oligarch-superyacht-seized/index.html

[WMS]

Something to keep in mind:

https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1499312091727020032?s=21

[Middle-aged Europe]

In addition to the ca. 1,900 missiles and grenades Germany has already delivered to Ukraine (or authorized the Netherlands to do so), there will now be another shipment of 2,700 Strela-2 surface-to-air missiles.

In a twist of historical irony the Strela-2 is of Soviet production and is coming from the depots of the former East German army.

[Torie]

An interesting take on Ukraine and NATO security from a retired British general.

I hope he's wrong about the Baltic states but unfortunately i could see the logic from the Kremlins pov about a quick strike and take it over and then threaten the west with nukes if they dare to try and take it back. I hope though that the current showing from the Russian army in Ukraine will stop such ideas though.

You sit there listening to a man who is basically saying that it's back to a redux of the cold war, but this time the West is in a much more vulnerable position, and that Putin does not have the bureaucracy of a politburo to tell him no when he wants to use nukes. There are no such checks and balances. And then he of course questions whether the will is there in the West to divert trillions of dollars on a crash basis to preparing to wage the cold war with adequate deterrence, with the ensuing crash in standards of living. You want to dismiss this man as having read too many cold war turned hot novels - a doomerist on steroids - but given his credentials as you listen to this superbly articulate and informed and measured man, that off ramp into surcease is rendered unavailable.

The equally articulate chap lobbing out the questions did not however bring up the business of political assassination. That is almost certainly just as well. One just doesn't discuss such things publically in serious circles.

It's all seems quite grim. The guy also draws the obvious inference as to what is implied by that 40 mile column of the Russian military sitting on the road without much if any apparent molestation. I had hoped that perhaps he might draw a less obvious one based on his expertise, but no. There was no tapestry of any optimism whatsoever interwoven into the fabric of his analysis. It was unremittingly bleak.

[dead0man]

Torie, making me look up words.  "surcease", really?

[Person Man]

An interesting take on Ukraine and NATO security from a retired British general.

I hope he's wrong about the Baltic states but unfortunately i could see the logic from the Kremlins pov about a quick strike and take it over and then threaten the west with nukes if they dare to try and take it back. I hope though that the current showing from the Russian army in Ukraine will stop such ideas though.

You sit there listening to a man who is basically saying that it's back to a redux of the cold war, but this time the West is in a much more vulnerable position, and that Putin does not have the bureaucracy of a politboro (sp) to tell him no when he wants to use nukes. There are no such checks and balances. And then he of course questions whether the will is there in the West to divert trillions of dollars on a crash basis to preparing to wage the cold war with adequate deterrence, with the ensuing crash in standards of living. You want to dismiss this man as having read too many cold war turned hot novels - a dommerist on steroids - but given his credentials as you listen to this superbly articulate and informed and measured man, that off ramp into surcease is rendered unavailable.

The equally articulate chap lobbing out the questions did not however bring up the business of political assassination. That is almost certainly just as well. One just doesn't discuss such things publically in serious circles.

It's all seems quite grim. The guy also draws the obvious inference as to what is implied by that 40 mile column of the Russian military sitting on the road without much if any apparent molestation. I had hoped that perhaps he might share a far less obvious one based on his expertise, but no. There was no tapestry of any optimism whatsoever interwoven into the fabric of his analysis. It was unremittingly bleak.

It is what it is.

[It’s so Joever]

Changes on the frontline: Ukraine appears to have had some success in the Kyiv area with Bucha and Vyshorod now under total Ukrainian control. Further East the situation is more dire, with the Russians reaching Makiivka and Lebedyn. Balakliia has been fully captured by the Russians.

While the Ukrainians have held out well in Kyiv and are making city control difficult, the Russian advance throughout the rural east is moving along well, with cities such as Sumy, Kharkiv, and Kyiv all potentially at risk of being encircled.

[Torie]

Torie, making me look up words.  "surcease", really?

My Dad was a superb writer, and my love affair with words has been with me from my very earliest memories. In due course, I on the off topic board will put up a letter he typed out to to his parents in Brooklyn as he sat in a hotel room. The place is Hollywood, the year is 1928, and the topic is his impressions of tinsel town. He does not mince words.

Anyway, blame my Dad for this aspect of my character. He was my role model. I adored the man.

[Sir Mohamed]

Big companies are shutting down Russia business en masse and pull out.

https://twitter.com/sam_baker/status/1499393496083361797

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1499388739319119885

[CumbrianLefty]

At this point it’s a question of whether Ukraine falls first, or Russia cracks first.

Has been from day one.

[Storr]

If the Ukrainians have already killed a general by day 8, things really aren't going well for Russia.

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1499363895357673475?s=20&t=VerHbOb...

[CumbrianLefty]

As for the "how well are things going for Russia?" question, why would the introduction of martial law even be strongly rumoured if it was all going swimmingly and everybody there loved the war??

[Sir Mohamed]

I feel like if Russia wasn't a nuclear power and NATO/American forces were involved through drone strikes and special forces, Russia would get kicked out and totally humiliated in a matter of days or 1-2 weeks. Mr. Putin would have to beg Biden, Macron and Zelensky for mercy.

[Person Man]

I feel like if Russia wasn't a nuclear power and NATO/American forces were involved through drone strikes and special forces, Russia would get kicked out and totally humiliated in a matter of days or 1-2 weeks. Mr. Putin would have to beg Biden, Macron and Zelensky for mercy.

They would be in Moscow within a month and the peace agreed to would be very similar to what Saddam was subjected to in 1991.