Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Storr]

These were already publicly known to have been sent to Ukraine, but it's neat to see photos of them "at the front":

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1611645187368820738?s=20&t=R1JOBK...

[Storr]

Based if Poland does this:

https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1611395418004267008?s=20&t=8cNUR6k0XuMnNQH...

According to wikipedia, Poland has a total of 249 Leopard 2 tanks.

https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1611487336465944593?s=20&t=UBlcn8WZ...

For clarification:

https://twitter.com/CorporalFrisk/status/1611753469710409730?s=20&t=R1JOBKLk...

[Storr]

This gives me strong Capitol from The Hunger Games vibes.

Moscow does have the highest GDP per capita of any Russian federal district that isn't a sparsely populated Okrug in the Arctic or Far East buoyed by the Oil and Gas industry. [With the single exception of Sakhalin Oblast; also blessed with oil/gas riches. Much of which actually belonged to Japan before the end of WWII. Japan even still lays claim to several islands, but that's a whole other story.]

So, I guess the comparison fits at least somewhat.

https://twitter.com/premanamva0541/status/1610852388356739072?s=20&t=R1JOBKL...

[Frodo]

If Ukraine is going to launch another offensive, sooner would be better than later:

https://twitter.com/POLITICOEurope/status/1611773464309899264

[Middle-aged Europe]

German parliament vice presidents Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) and Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) jointly came out on favour of sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine:


https://twitter.com/ntvde/status/1611887045848489985?t=_m8UIewBF5GolCest8vRjQ&am...

[Person Man]

This thread has turned into a 2023 Military Spec Buyers Guide.

The ironic thing is I don't even like war or weapons. Every shred of interest I have here is ultimately tied to how all of this can help less Ukrainians die and more quickly expel the hordes of genocidal scumbags. I suspect once that infestation is dealt with I'll go back to loathing the military industrial complex.

The times have changed... quickly. This week I had a chat with a fellow German Green Party member where he confused the Marder with the Gepard and chided himself for that mistake and for incorrectly believing for a minute that the Marder had already send to Ukraine months ago. Weirdly ironic discussion given the historical roots of the Greens and all.

But... we also have the situation, apparently amplified by the post-Ukraine world, where large parts of the Green Party base including surrounding activist NGOs and/or adjacent media publications have come around in support of the CETA agreement after having "traditionally" opposed it in large-scale protests only five years ago or so. But since February last year there had been a growing "f**k it, better to have Canadian capitalists than Russian/Chinese imperialists" mood, I guess. I'm almost expecting some buyers' remorse to emerge with regards to the end of TTIP too... which would only be a logical conclusion given that Trump had killed TTIP and Trump and his followers are often such Putin fanboys, and while the Greens around here used to hate TTIP back in the days they hate Trump and Putin now even more.

I started to ramble a bit here, but that's something I have been musing about recently.

I mentioned this before but there is this weird ideological disconnect going on in Western leftism both in the US and in Europe where a lot of leftist leadership is shaky at best and in some cases outright against Ukraine (see the infamous Ukraine letter here or comments by people like Noam Chomsky) vs young leftist on the ground who are firmly in the “arm Ukraine until Russia has been kicked out” camp and it has been making for some strange political bedfellows

I really hope that this is a Lincoln or Ataturk style moment where we can have the establishment of some sort of revitalized institutionalized muscular progressivism.

[Alben Barkley]

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

[OSR stands with Israel]

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

What makes you think his replacement would be any better

[🇺🇦 Purple 🦄 Unicorn 🇮🇱]

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

What makes you think his replacement would be any better

Yeah - it's not just Putin alone. It's a murderous Kremlin/Wagner mafia. Basically the worst people in control of Russia, at the worst time possible. Russian people are not bad per se, but right now it looks like only criminals, fascists and mentally-ill are leading this country.

[🇺🇦 Purple 🦄 Unicorn 🇮🇱]

Kremlin:

Больше места для жизни для наших людей.

Haven't we seen and heard this before already?

Yes:

[Alben Barkley]

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

What makes you think his replacement would be any better

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

What makes you think his replacement would be any better

Yeah - it's not just Putin alone. It's a murderous Kremlin/Wagner mafia. Basically the worst people in control of Russia, at the worst time possible. Russian people are not bad per se, but right now it looks like only criminals, fascists and mentally-ill are leading this country.

Russia is now officially a fascist state. It's not "just" run by fascists, it is literally no different in any meaningful way from Nazi Germany anymore. This evil regime must be exterminated, wiped from the face of the Earth, immediately, at any and all costs. And I do not buy that killing the fascist in chief, Putin himself, would not be effective. All this nonsense about "WhAT abOUt his rePLACemEnt??" is garbage coming from people who are too cowardly to admit what needs to be done. Nazi Germany literally collapsed within days of Adolf Hitler's death. Beheading the snake is an EXTREMELY effective anti-fascist strategy, and I see no reason to believe this would be any different. Putin's cult of personality in Russia at this point rivals only Stalin's. To see their false god's head on a spike would send massive shockwaves throughout that s--thole country that might give many of those Orcs pause and make them stop and wonder if maybe dying for this dead fool isn't worth it. Kill him. Kill him now.

And I say this as a staunch opponent of the death penalty. I make an exception for genocidal fascist dictators.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

What makes you think his replacement would be any better

Putin absolutely must be assassinated.

Where is the CIA when you need them???

What makes you think his replacement would be any better

Yeah - it's not just Putin alone. It's a murderous Kremlin/Wagner mafia. Basically the worst people in control of Russia, at the worst time possible. Russian people are not bad per se, but right now it looks like only criminals, fascists and mentally-ill are leading this country.

Russia is now officially a fascist state. It's not "just" run by fascists, it is literally no different in any meaningful way from Nazi Germany anymore. This evil regime must be exterminated, wiped from the face of the Earth, immediately, at any and all costs. And I do not buy that killing the fascist in chief, Putin himself, would not be effective. All this nonsense about "WhAT abOUt his rePLACemEnt??" is garbage coming from people who are too cowardly to admit what needs to be done. Nazi Germany literally collapsed within days of Adolf Hitler's death. Beheading the snake is an EXTREMELY effective anti-fascist strategy, and I see no reason to believe this would be any different. Putin's cult of personality in Russia at this point rivals only Stalin's. To see their false god's head on a spike would send massive shockwaves throughout that s--thole country that might give many of those Orcs pause and make them stop and wonder if maybe dying for this dead fool isn't worth it. Kill him. Kill him now.

And I say this as a staunch opponent of the death penalty. I make an exception for genocidal fascist dictators.

Its the other way around, Hitler committed suicide because it was clear the Nazis were about to be totally defeated by the allies and the Nazi regime was days away from completely collapsing. The Nazis did not fall in WW2 because of a Coup d'etat, but rather cause we were able to successfully take Germany from them.

So unless you think we should invade Russia, this analogy makes no sense what so ever. Btw invading Russia is not realistic whatsoever given their nuclear arsenal so the best case we can hope for is Russia defeated like Iraq was in 1991.

[Cassius]

I’m not sure, given the CIA’s lamentable track record at assassinating foreign leaders (possibly as many as 600 failed hits on Castro alone), why people have this faith in the CIA’s ability to magically assassinate Putin at will. Besides, the assassination of foreign leaders has effectively been illegal since Gerald Ford signed an executive order banning the practice in the 1970s (Biden could theoretically rescind but I doubt that would be a good look).

[CumbrianLefty]

Well yes, but Hitler only survived a well planned assassination attempt in 1944 through dumb luck.

[Cassius]

Well yes, but Hitler only survived a well planned assassination attempt in 1944 through dumb luck.

True, but that was just one of a number of failed assassination plots (assassinating high ranking leaders is hard contrary to popular belief) and, as you say, was well planned (literally months of planning) and organised by relatively high ranking military officials (including, literally, the chief of German military intelligence) without Allied assistance or backing. I doubt a similar thing is going to happen in Russia and if it does I’ll simply repeat the usual caveat that expecting it to redound to the benefit of Ukraine and the West is wishful thinking.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well that it doesn't happen very often shows in itself that its not that easy.

Though the past year has seen at least a couple of credible attempts on Putin's life.

[Torie]

“Three targets; 186 metres away; shoot to kill.” Sultan lies down, flicks her ponytail behind her head. Ka. Ka. Ka.  The bullets land no more than an inch off target. She seems unsurprised.
“You have to kill without giving a damn. And I don’t give a damn.”

Meet Ukraine’s tough sister sniper corps.

https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/12/28/ukraines-women-snipers-take-the-fight-to-putin

[rc18]

If Ukraine is going to launch another offensive, sooner would be better than later:

https://twitter.com/POLITICOEurope/status/1611773464309899264

Not really; more bodies just means more mouths to feed, people to arm, wounded to treat etc, stretching already poor logistics. At this point it will just make the Russian army even less effective.

[Frodo]

If Ukraine is going to launch another offensive, sooner would be better than later:

https://twitter.com/POLITICOEurope/status/1611773464309899264

Not really; more bodies just means more mouths to feed, people to arm, wounded to treat etc, stretching already poor logistics. At this point it will just make the Russian army even less effective.

Perhaps.  But perhaps not.  As far as I can tell, Putin's grand strategy is now to hold down Ukraine to its east and south in a grinding war of attrition (preventing any further Kharkiv-style blitz counter-offensives, at the very least), while building up his strength in Belarus in preparation for (likely) one last major offensive to the north to take Kiev and Lviv to cut off the flow of weapons and supplies from Poland.  Hence the call-up thus far of nearly a million men, beginning with the 300,000 we already know about.  

[Helsinkian]

Russia claimed to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a missile strike on a school turned into barracks (in an inversion of Makiivka). But the thing is, a Finnish reporter is on the ground at that school, and it's intact. Two missiles struck the area near the building, but his sources say that the building was empty. So, it looks like the Moscow regime is just desperate to have its people think that Makiivka has been 'avenged'. Put that claim into the same category as Russians claiming to have destroyed a hundred HIMARSes...

https://twitter.com/YLEKuronen/status/1612093160343191553

[Woody]

Build-up for almost 2 months now. So called "regional grouping"

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1611871202770812928?cxt=HHwWgICwjbSUwt4s...
https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1611871736613445633
https://twitter.com/RoINTEL/status/1611064488773488652
https://twitter.com/_Nex3_/status/1611295561461780481
https://twitter.com/Feher_Junior/status/1611295370101002240

[Woody]

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPR/status/1611416178534006786
https://twitter.com/ManojKu40226010/status/1611500293111582720
https://twitter.com/MaimunkaNews/status/1612106436388986883
https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/status/1611320568233476097¨
https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1611369643393929217

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/IlvesToomas/status/1611862817581269000?s=20&t=NVE0f9NoKM...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1612106099842318339?s=20&t=NVE0f9...

[Storr]

Russia claimed to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a missile strike on a school turned into barracks (in an inversion of Makiivka). But the thing is, a Finnish reporter is on the ground at that school, and it's intact. Two missiles struck the area near the building, but his sources say that the building was empty. So, it looks like the Moscow regime is just desperate to have its people think that Makiivka has been 'avenged'. Put that claim into the same category as Russians claiming to have destroyed a hundred HIMARSes...

https://twitter.com/YLEKuronen/status/1612093160343191553

https://twitter.com/DanieleRaineri/status/1612122429169762308?s=20&t=MW2le8a...