Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Cassius]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

[Helsinkian]

AFP claims that Lukoil wants the war to end.

https://twitter.com/robr1/status/1499418356847464456

[Dr. Arch]

AFP claims that Lukoil wants the war to end.

https://twitter.com/robr1/status/1499418356847464456

Their only concern is their bottom line, which is suffering quite a fair bit.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Su-24s are 1970s-vintage strike aircraft with the NATO reporting name "Fencer". If those are managing to strike Russian convoys, then their air defence is shocking.

Russia still uses some Su-24 - some of its fleet have been sighted (and a number allegedly shot down) in Ukraine. It’s ageing, but with the right modernisations, it’s perfectly serviceable.

This goes to show how badly the ex-Soviet bloc jets are being overlooked as a potential boost to Ukraine. They’re not state-of-the-art, but even vintage jets could make a difference in the right hands.

[It’s so Joever]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

Do you have a f**king crystal ball?

[AndyHogan14]

https://twitter.com/PedderSophie/status/1499409342197608450?t=CDPHtHLsmXx6OMHBWL...
I'm starting to think that Putin has actually gone insane.

The fact that he brought up the insane idea that the Ukrainian government is run by Nazis with Macron suggests that he actually believes that garbage. That is a bit scary and proof that he's definitely gone off the deep end—hopefully the FSB or someone in his inner circle sees the writing on the wall and takes him out.

[Cassius]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

Do you have a f**king crystal ball?

So that’s a no is it?

[It’s so Joever]

In some other news, it does appear that Bucha is now being contested again. Are the Russians attempting another attempt at Kyiv maybe?

[It’s so Joever]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

Do you have a f**king crystal ball?

So that’s a no is it?

[Lord Halifax]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

Do you have a f**king crystal ball?

So that’s a no is it?

They're clearly hurting the interests of the oligarchs, which increases the likelihood that someone within the governing elite in Russia will topple Putin, and that's the only easy way out of the crisis.

[Omega21]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

Do you have a f**king crystal ball?

So that’s a no is it?

They're clearly hurting the interests of the oligarchs, which increases the likelihood that someone within the governing elite in Russia will topple Putin, and that's the only easy way out of the crisis.

I'm still inhaling my hopium and trying to hold on to the thought of there being some sort of negotiated peace, but my hopium supplies are starting to run out...

[Cassius]

Difficult to work out whether the Brest-Litovsk Zwei stans are being ironic or not, but worth remembering that present day Russia is essentially within the borders of what was agreed at Brest-Litovsk.

Gee, I wonder...

If there is one thing that’s clear, it’s that this whole Ukraine crisis has broken Cassius’s brain.

I mean, my brain’s been broken since I read the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History from cover to cover in 2000, but I’m not the one dismantling the global economy in order to make a point.

Yes, because the reason we are imposing sanctions is totally to own the Russkies and not because they decided to invade a sovereign nation of 40 million people and now are literally razing cities to the f**king ground.

Are the sanctions stopping that?

Do you have a f**king crystal ball?

So that’s a no is it?

They're clearly hurting the interests of the oligarchs, which increases the likelihood that someone within the governing elite in Russia will topple Putin, and that's the only easy way out of the crisis.

I mean, the ‘oligarchs’ don’t run Russia (certainly not people like Abramovich and Usmanov), but that aside, this has been the logic behind broad based sanctions on Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, and has failed to bring about regime change in all four cases (instead the result is often intensified domestic repression and authoritarianism). Possibly Russia will be different, but that seems… unlikely, unless there is a commitment from the West to full restoration of normal relations conditional upon a pullback from Ukraine and the removal of Putin (a commitment that also seems unlikely to be forthcoming).

The best way to effect regime change is always military action, but for good reason there is no appetite for this in the West. So, what are we left with? Russia continues to blast its way through Ukraine, whilst the Russian economy is slowly crushed by sanctions, potentially wiping out the living standards of millions of innocent Russians. Meanwhile, we in the West suffer from the concomitant effects of the economic dislocation caused by attempting to isolate Russia from the Western economy - rocketing energy bills, broken contracts, lost jobs etcetera. All for a policy that is unlikely to save a single Ukrainian life.

[afleitch]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/1499421918629404681

Thanks right wing culture warriors! Great help.

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1499252246139318272

[Virginiá]

Even invading a peaceful country and bombing their cities to rubble is wrong now. So much for the tolerant left. SAD!

[compucomp]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/1499421918629404681
Thanks right wing culture warriors! Great help.

Along with that, the Russian ambassador to the UN said yesterday that Trump actually won the 2020 US Presidential election but had it stolen from him. The Russians really do know how to push Western buttons, this is something China can definitely learn from them. After all, how did some Russian influencers on Facebook and Twitter with a few million dollars budget manage to outmatch Hillary Clinton's billion dollar advertising juggernaut and swing the 2016 election?

[Person Man]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/1499421918629404681

Thanks right wing culture warriors! Great help.

What a crying little bitch.

[Admiral Kizaru]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/1499421918629404681

Thanks right wing culture warriors! Great help.

Don't think that's fair. Cancel culture whilst often getting over exaggerated at times, is a real thing that plenty of people get annoyed by and can in some examples be a serious problem.

Naryshkin is just trying to sow division in the west by hijacking the term rather than trying to make a sincere good faith parallel to it.

Lavrov used the same tactic a few days when trying to blame Liss Truss for Putin's nuclear alert which got called out by even the likes of Nicola Sturgeon. The unity of the West - which the Russians have been surprised by - has been strong. Let's not let Moscow win in using crude tactics to attempt to blame us or Western problems/issues for their own barbaric behavior in starting this conflict.
 

[Middle-aged Europe]

Personal impressions from my way home in Berlin: First I came by the extended security zone around the Russian Embassy. Then the buildings with the Ukrainian blue-yellow banners on them. Some public buildings also use projectors insted of banners to light themselves up in blue and yellow. At least aesthetically that has a nice touch at night. Finally a Toyota with Ukranian license plates and a sh**tload of suitcases in the back parking in front of a hotel - mother, grandmother, son, from the looks of it - about to check in there. That's the moment when you ask yourself what the world has come to.

[compucomp]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/1499421918629404681
Thanks right wing culture warriors! Great help.

Don't think that's fair. Cancel culture whilst often getting over exaggerated at times, is a real thing that plenty of people get annoyed by and can in some examples be a serious problem.

Naryshkin is just trying to sow division in the west by hijacking the term rather than trying to make a sincere good faith parallel to it.

Lavrov used the same tactic a few days when trying to blame Liss Truss for Putin's nuclear alert which got called out by even the likes of Nicola Sturgeon. The unity of the West - which the Russians have been surprised by - has been strong. Let's not let Moscow win in using crude tactics to attempt to blame us or Western problems/issues for their own barbaric behavior in starting this conflict.
 

I am wondering if Trump will go back to supporting Putin after the Russian UN ambassador said that the 2020 election was stolen from him. If Trump had any honor or sense of duty to his country, then he will not, but this is Donald freaking Trump we're talking about and the ambassador did just give him the flattery that he desires.

[2952-0-0]

https://twitter.com/EchoMskNews/status/1499436686027399169

The State Duma is going to adopt amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, according to which citizens can be fined for publicly "discrediting" the Armed Forces and calling for "obstructing their use"

The punishment for this will be a fine of 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. If these actions “create a threat to life and health,” then the fine will be from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles, - Kommersant. The interlocutors of the publication note that in this way anti-war slogans fall under the ban.

[Person Man]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/1499421918629404681

Thanks right wing culture warriors! Great help.

Don't think that's fair. Cancel culture whilst often getting over exaggerated at times, is a real thing that plenty of people get annoyed by and can in some examples be a serious problem.

Naryshkin is just trying to sow division in the west by hijacking the term rather than trying to make a sincere good faith parallel to it.

Lavrov used the same tactic a few days when trying to blame Liss Truss for Putin's nuclear alert which got called out by even the likes of Nicola Sturgeon. The unity of the West - which the Russians have been surprised by - has been strong. Let's not let Moscow win in using crude tactics to attempt to blame us or Western problems/issues for their own barbaric behavior in starting this conflict.
 

"The Lionization of Weakness".

[Lourdes]

https://twitter.com/sandumaiamd/status/1499426835201150978

Moldova has now applied to join the EU.

[The Free North]

https://twitter.com/sandumaiamd/status/1499426835201150978

Moldova has now applied to join the EU.

Thank you Putin.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Russia has drawn up plans for public executions in Ukraine as and when cities are captured by Russian troops, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg cites a European intelligence official as saying that Moscow has drafted strategies to break morale in order to discourage Ukrainians from fighting back as cities fall under the Kremlin’s control.

The official said Moscow plans to crack down on protest, detain opponents and potentially carry out public executions, the news agency writes.

Bloomberg is paywalled so linking to the Guardian citation

Just in case anyone is still on the ‘Just let Russia have it’ bandwagon, I think it’s good to remind everyone what that means.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/mar/03/ukraine-news-russia-war-vladimir-putin-biden-latest-live-updates-kherson-kyiv-kharkiv-refugees-russian-invasion