Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Russia's failure to pay debt in dollars essentially means that a 30-day countdown has now started during which they are obliged to make the payment before default occurs.

https://twitter.com/IvanTkachev1/status/1511640331686715395


Chance of Russia defaulting on its debt "within a year" placed at 99% now.

https://twitter.com/business/status/1511716375617806344

[pppolitics]

...got to get rid of the evidence

https://twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1511659934081028102

[Torie]

Russia as I feared probably plans to blow places up from afar with its high tech ordinance, since its boots on the ground leave something to be desired from a command and control standpoint. The destruction/killing includes in particular Kiyv. So Ukraine really does need something that precludes antiseptic genocide and destruction from venues that are a "safe zone" for Russia.

From the NYT:

"An assessment published on Sunday by the Institute for the Study of War said that Russian forces will likely expand their bombing campaign on Kyiv instead of trying to encircle the city in the coming weeks."

[Person Man]

They actually did it.

https://www.twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1511649305089695745

Well, we have this year's Darwin Award winners,

https://twitter.com/Nrg8000/status/1511614133476945920?s=20&t=I7OEQZrCehk39V...

Retarded. Wolf. Pack.

[Silent Hunter]

...got to get rid of the evidence

https://twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1511659934081028102

Cremation is not a quick process. You're talking one to three hours per body at 800 to 900 degrees Celsius. You'd be able to do eight to ten a day per 'unit'. How many of these units are there?

[President Johnson]

I'm strongly leaning toward a complete energy embargo at this point.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1511735493150445568

[Omega21]

So it now seems the UA executions of Russian POWs happened before the discoveries in Bucha, according to NYT.

https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1511760338743545858

[Person Man]

I'm strongly leaning toward a complete energy embargo at this point.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1511735493150445568

At a certain point, secondary sanctions should be on the table. Beyond that, an alternative to a NFZ might be a blockade of the ports of Russia's most important trading partners that aren't China.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

So it now seems the UA executions of Russian POWs happened before the discoveries in Bucha, according to NYT.

https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1511760338743545858

I guess it should not surprise anyone at this point that neither side could be expected to act with humanity towards the hated enemy.

[Omega21]

21st century technology + Chechens =

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1511723346614005768

[dead0man]

meanwhile, in Mali

Suspected Russian mercenaries participated in an operation with Mali’s army in March in which about 300 civilian men were allegedly killed over five days, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

Witnesses and local community leaders said hundreds of men were rounded up and killed in small groups during the anti-jihadist operation on 23 March in the central town of Moura. The rural town of about 10,000 inhabitants is in the Mopti region, a hotspot of jihadist activity that has intensified and spread to neighbouring countries in the Sahel region.

Local security sources told HRW that more than 100 Russian-speaking men were allegedly involved in the operation, which HRW described as the worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s decade-long armed conflict. Witnesses spoke of white soldiers talking in an unfamiliar foreign language they believed to be Russian.

[Logical]

The soft underbelly of Europe.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1511724733326372866

[Person Man]

The soft underbelly of Europe.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1511724733326372866

Hopefully they are now getting a huge bull’s eye on their heads.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/ukrainesinger/status/1511198612507791361?t=vKqRN1YZ7WQzskwSe...

]I just wanted you to know this story. And if the events that are unfolding in Ukraine are not genocide, then I do not know what is

This is absolutely horrific.

At the beginning of this war, I had some measure of sympathy for Russian soldiers, as reports were coming out saying a vast # were conscripts and were lied to and/or didn't want to be there.

I no longer feel that way. I find myself daydreaming of them getting sniped or shelled now.

[DaleCooper]

https://twitter.com/ukrainesinger/status/1511198612507791361?t=vKqRN1YZ7WQzskwSe...

]I just wanted you to know this story. And if the events that are unfolding in Ukraine are not genocide, then I do not know what is

This is absolutely horrific.

At the beginning of this war, I had some measure of sympathy for Russian soldiers, as reports were coming out saying a vast # were conscripts and were lied to and/or didn't want to be there.

I no longer feel that way. I find myself daydreaming of them getting sniped or shelled now.

Yeah, I never had much sympathy for the Russian soldiers, lol. Kill 'em all, please.

[Storr]

They actually did it.

https://www.twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1511649305089695745

Well, we have this year's Darwin Award winners,

https://twitter.com/Nrg8000/status/1511614133476945920?s=20&t=I7OEQZrCehk39V...

This is beyond parody.

[KaiserDave]

https://twitter.com/ukrainesinger/status/1511198612507791361?t=vKqRN1YZ7WQzskwSe...

]I just wanted you to know this story. And if the events that are unfolding in Ukraine are not genocide, then I do not know what is

The Russians Army is an army populated largely by murderers and criminals. The spirit of Beria and Blokhin, rapists and murderers lives on in many of these soldiers today. It's absolutely disgusting. They all must be expelled from Ukraine mercilessly. The West needs to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons and jets for the total expulsion of the Russian Army.

I will merely add, that the SS and Nazis did stuff like this, and worse, with great frequency and frightening regularity. They were as bad as it gets.

[Storr]

The soft underbelly of Europe.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1511724733326372866

Can we (rest of NATO, US, Poland, I don't care who does it) do a quick 1968 Czechoslovakia and get rid of Orban? If we're in Hungary we might as well take out Serbia while we're at it. We didn't finish the job in 1999.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

The soft underbelly of Europe.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1511724733326372866

Can we (rest of NATO, US, Poland, I don't care who does it) do a quick 1968 Czechoslovakia and get rid of Orban? If we're in Hungary we might as well take out Serbia while we're at it. We didn't finish the job in 1999.

A very bad idea for many reasons I won’t go into, but what I will urge is not to take this “vice signalling” of his at face value. He has not vetoed any EU measures with regards to Ukraine despite his public stances against EU-wide sanctions, and does not represent a major market for Russia.

Let him play to his base, and save pressuring him to be a team player for when the time comes. The main focus must be kept on larger, more influential countries that are resisting further sanctions, such as Germany.

[Storr]

The perfect place for a secret nazi biolab: underneath a steel mill

Russian cope twitter is a weird place.

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1511816551883751432?s=20&t=xSl6pJ_TrJc...

[Storr]

The soft underbelly of Europe.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1511724733326372866

Can we (rest of NATO, US, Poland, I don't care who does it) do a quick 1968 Czechoslovakia and get rid of Orban? If we're in Hungary we might as well take out Serbia while we're at it. We didn't finish the job in 1999.

A very bad idea for many reasons I won’t go into, but what I will urge is not to take this “vice signalling” of his at face value. He has not vetoed any EU measures with regards to Ukraine despite his public stances against EU-wide sanctions, and does not represent a major market for Russia.

Let him play to his base, and save pressuring him to be a team player for when the time comes. The main focus must be kept on larger, more influential countries that are resisting further sanctions, such as Germany.

I probably should have mentioned it, but I was being sarcastic. Hungary wouldn't be worth the effort to invade. It's similar to Serbia and Belarus, small countries with pro-Russian governments that roll over for cheap Russian gas and Chinese investments/loans. But, Hungary is more annoying since it's in NATO and the EU.

Though seriously, some corporation or nonprofit should heavily invest in independent media in Hungary so the media landscape isn't dominated (especially outside of Budapest) by government and other pro-Orban news outlets.

[Antonio the Sixth]

If Hungary does veto the energy sanctions but the other 26 countries are on board, nothing would stop them from unilaterally enacting them on their own, right? I know as a European I'm supposed to know this stuff, but EU treaties are notoriously difficult.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The soft underbelly of Europe.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1511724733326372866

Can we (rest of NATO, US, Poland, I don't care who does it) do a quick 1968 Czechoslovakia and get rid of Orban? If we're in Hungary we might as well take out Serbia while we're at it. We didn't finish the job in 1999.

A very bad idea for many reasons I won’t go into, but what I will urge is not to take this “vice signalling” of his at face value. He has not vetoed any EU measures with regards to Ukraine despite his public stances against EU-wide sanctions, and does not represent a major market for Russia.

Let him play to his base, and save pressuring him to be a team player for when the time comes. The main focus must be kept on larger, more influential countries that are resisting further sanctions, such as Germany.

I probably should have mentioned it, but I was being sarcastic. Hungary wouldn't be worth the effort to invade. It's similar to Serbia and Belarus, small countries with pro-Russian governments that roll over for cheap Russian gas and Chinese investments/loans. But, Hungary is more annoying since it's in NATO and the EU.

Though seriously, some corporation or nonprofit should heavily invest in independent media in Hungary so the media landscape isn't dominated (especially outside of Budapest) by government and other pro-Orban news outlets.

Some independent media would certainly be helpful in rural Hungary in particular. One wonders what Orban would do if this was indeed tried.

[Torie]

Another heartbreaking article about going home again to a place that was visited by something far worse than Satan in search for a spouse that had been rendered to a corpse. And now all I hear on the media is that Ukraine is another forever war, and will end only when Russia loses the ability to wage war, or Putin is removed, not decades perhaps, but years.* So the standard of living of the planet goes down, starvation up (whomever was responsible for the truncation of natural gas supplies needed to produce fertilizer to ramp up food production, should also burn in hell but I digress).

The basic assumptions that assumed an interconnected world needed for a better life for all, with understanding and economic interdependence, has been utterly destroyed.  That is about as reckless as running around with rats during the Bubonic Plague as an anti vaxer.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/collecting-bodies-in-bucha

*articles like this make it basically impossible even for the morally challenged to just say, let's move on, this too will pass.

[Middle-aged Europe]

So it now seems the UA executions of Russian POWs happened before the discoveries in Bucha, according to NYT.

https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1511760338743545858

I guess it should not surprise anyone at this point that neither side could be expected to act with humanity towards the hated enemy.

However, there only happen to be Ukrainian civilians around in the combat area to massacre.