Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/business/status/1512779371127480328

[pppolitics]

What I don't understand is why NATO is not training Ukrainians right now to use Patriot SAM.

There are only so many S-300 SAM left to give.

The US won't give Ukraine Patriots because they don't want to risk them being captured.

Patriots are also ridiculously expensive for what they are, the US isn't going to give them away. I mean they aren't even giving Slovakia a Patriot battery in return for their S-300, just temporarily operating one while the Slovaks find a replacement.

The West's ground-based air defence systems in general are not all that capable. They're really designed for short to medium range protection of specific high priority targets like airfields and army bases. They aren't for long-range area denial of medium to high altitude threats. So even if the West wanted to give Ukraine such systems they wouldn't be as much use as those like the S-300.

Once the S-300s run out it's over for effective air defense.

It was already explained before that reason that Ukraine hasn't been given the Patriot SAM is that the Patriot SAM requires 90 trained troops to operate.

Now that old Soviet supplies are running low and the war is dragging on, some supporters are thinking of training Ukraine troops on NATO-style weapons.

https://twitter.com/business/status/1512779371127480328

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1512721988451717124

[Tintrlvr]

7,000? oof.

https://twitter.com/adegrandpre/status/1512541832990896136?s=20&t=wS6Dyq33bb...

There could be 7 million young russian bodies decomposing on Ukrainian streets getting eaten by rats and Putin would not care one bit. As long as he's gobbling up territory and resources, and butchering civilians for sport, he's happy.

Well currently he is doing a rather better job of the latter than the former.

Most definitely. Although one could reasonably make the argument that he has conquered an entire country in Belarus without firing a shot, courtesy of his puppet Lukashenko.

Don't give Putin any credit; Lukashenko has been a Russian puppet since he took office in the 90s.

[pppolitics]

BoJo apparently show up

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1512793357902307339

[pppolitics]

https://www.twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1512818345489408006

[CumbrianLefty]

To carry out their ever more bloodcurdling stated plans, Russia would at least have to occupy all of Ukraine - and for an actual genocide they would have to stay fully in control for decades.

How likely is this, exactly?

Or is it just more blowhard rhetoric mainly designed for impressionable outsiders.

[Person Man]

https://www.twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1512818345489408006

Shot load of projection, but that’s what fascists do.

[Storr]

BoJo apparently show up

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1512793357902307339

Serious credit to BoJo for visiting Kyiv.

Meanwhile, the Russian military is torturing and killing 78 year old former Soviet Navy veterans. I guess Ukraine is one step closer to denazification...

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1512710102675083264?s=20&t=Laf2pK...

[KaiserDave]

https://www.twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1512818345489408006

The idiotic "threat of NATO to Russia" as an explanation for why this war is happening arguments need to go away.

[Alben Barkley]

Based Boris!

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1512818337415372802?s=20&t=Fn1yKXh5R...

[NOVA Green]

A few miscellaneous snippets from a WP article on the Southern Front:

The head of the Mykolaiv district prosecutor’s office was detained Tuesday for allegedly passing sensitive information to Russian security services in exchange for his safety should the region fall to the invading forces.

Analysts who track Russian military movements on open sources said there is no evidence yet that Moscow is deploying more forces to Kherson, a Ukrainian city about 50 miles to the southeast that Russian troops have occupied since the early days of the war. Although Ukrainian forces have kept Russians out of Mykolaiv, parts of the city remain in artillery range of Russian positions in Kherson.

Rob Lee, an expert on the Russian military and a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said Moscow’s initial campaign to advance along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast failed because the military units in the area “bit off more than they can chew” between occupying Kherson and then trying simultaneously to capture both Mykolaiv and Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov.

In Bashtanka, a town about an hour northeast of Mykolaiv, local people are similarly bracing for a second bout with the Russians. The first was a surprising and convincing victory for the Ukrainians. Some 50 members of the Territorial Defense Forces, made up of civilian volunteers, and other residents rebuffed a Russian advance that included some 250 armored vehicles, the mayor said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/09/mykolaiv-nervous-russia-military-moves-south/

[Storr]

https://www.twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1512818345489408006

The idiotic "threat of NATO to Russia" as an explanation for why this war is happening arguments need to go away.

It won't. Russia is a deeply sick nation.

https://twitter.com/ASLuhn/status/1512750008222859266?s=20&t=ev19H4tWod1pxTe...

[NOVA Green]

Apparently as part of the discussions between Boris Johnson and Zelenskiy the following new military items are coming from the UK:

The Prime Minister has agreed that the UK will send 120 armoured vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems to support Ukraine following talks between Boris Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Saturday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/apr/09/russia-ukraine-war-latest-zelenskiy-calls-for-firm-global-response-to-war-at-kramatorsk-train-station-live

[All Along The Watchtower]

https://www.twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1512818345489408006

The idiotic "threat of NATO to Russia" as an explanation for why this war is happening arguments need to go away.

Reminder to everyone: the Maidan happened because Ukraine's then-President, under Russian pressure, reneged on his own promise to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, which is notably not NATO and if we're talking militarily, would be a competitor to NATO that would reduce the level of American influence and control over European security (which the Russians and their sympathizers say they support -- but then they wouldn't have the American bogeyman to justify their own imperialism and threats to Europe).

[Mopsus]

https://www.twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1512818345489408006

The idiotic "threat of NATO to Russia" as an explanation for why this war is happening arguments need to go away.

It won't. Russia is a deeply sick nation.

https://twitter.com/ASLuhn/status/1512750008222859266?s=20&t=ev19H4tWod1pxTe...

I’d be really curious to hear what NATO has to do with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were carried out before NATO was formed...

[All Along The Watchtower]

Really mad at the US Army Air Forces and the War Department to this day, and I petition for them to be dismantled.

[NOVA Green]

Transcript of briefing from Yesterday...


https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1512754909623590916?s=20&t=bxI5Jk...

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1512831376789233665?s=20&t=bxI5Jk...

[Mopsus]

Transcript of briefing from Yesterday...


https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1512754909623590916?s=20&t=bxI5Jk...

He says that there are 30-35,000 Russian troops in the Donbass, I wish he had said how many Ukrainian troops are there to defend the region. If they can at least match Russian forces they should stand a good chance of being able to hold them off completely.

[Storr]

If you want a good laugh, look at Michael Tracy's twitter for hilariously brain dead takes about the current conflict.

https://twitter.com/bdquinn/status/1512845159314165767?s=20&t=V7l-c40K9lBLG5...

[Storr]

I didn't know you needed permission to fire on your enemy's territory during war.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1512878968558526474?s=20&t=ELyWLw...

[NOVA Green]

Transcript of briefing from Yesterday...


https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1512754909623590916?s=20&t=bxI5Jk...

He says that there are 30-35,000 Russian troops in the Donbass, I wish he had said how many Ukrainian troops are there to defend the region. If they can at least match Russian forces they should stand a good chance of being able to hold them off completely.

I believe that Ukrainian Military officials are being deliberately cagey regarding their force numbers on various fronts...

Likely the US, as well as other allies of Ukraine with significant intelligence capabilities are likewise being very circumspect releasing information on force numbers to prevent accidentally divulging information to the Russian Government which they don't already have.

[NOVA Green]

So looks like geolocation data is validating that Ukrainian forces are making progress around Kherson, despite it being a very fluid front in the war.

https://twitter.com/COUPSURE/status/1512799973179600898?s=20&t=bxI5Jk2z8VYCu...

[NOVA Green]

Anybody curious what a Russian "filtration camp" looks like from a satellite?

... here's the one just East of Maripoul from a couple days back.

I don't know what's more disturbing the reports of how Ukrainian civilians are being separated and multiple layers of interrogation and after "processing" no visibility to where these people are being sent (Assuming that some are not simply permanently "disappeared") or the sheer scale and number of individuals impacted.

Zooming in on the image there appears to a huge number of something like (30) buses basically parked outside the facility.

https://twitter.com/obretix/status/1511419307485544450?s=20&t=bxI5Jk2z8VYCuZ...