Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Storr]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1624800739460628482
https://mobile.twitter.com/Tendar/status/1624803220391444481
https://mobile.twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1624828717007532035
Russia once again launched a failed and badly organized attack on Vuhledar with the same results as last time. It seems Russia really thinks it can human wave attack it’s way to victory

I'm guessing they're doing it because they lost most of their armoured vehicles in recent fruitless attempts to advance on Vuhledar:

https://twitter.com/PaulJawin/status/1624669085664481282?s=20&t=DI1uCKFieSdt...

https://twitter.com/PaulJawin/status/1624884608717271046?s=20&t=DI1uCKFieSdt...

https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1624709223937441792?s=20&t=3PzDW3...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1624354284841185282?s=20&t=GeYi-iwf...

The saga continues:

An interesting quote: "Our wives appealed to the Kazan prosecution office and received an answer: "DPR is not Russia. The DPR is a separate thing, we can't do anything, only send your appeal to the DPR prosecution office.""
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1624536177863802881?s=20&t=3PzDW32H...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1624823398227406848?s=20&t=1YFvl2FmEnQkdX...

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1624899836079230986

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1625073258579075073

[lfromnj]

https://t.me/strelkovii/3925

In general, this was the end of the "offensive of the Russian army on the entire Donetsk front" widely announced over the network by "cheers-military corps". Complemented by the rebellion (refusal to take the position) of the battalion of Tuvinian nomads and not only (in principle, I do not report anything about this kind of events until they are "leaked" by someone into the network and become publicly available).

Girkin from the above politico article claims that the Tuvans (Siberian minority on the Chinese border) refused to fight or take a position which helped cause the turkey shoot in Vuhledar.

[CumbrianLefty]

Tannu Tuva was an independent state until the 1940s and some of that mentality likely remains.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1625182117750620160
Even though this a pro-Ukraine source this vid has been circulating in pro-Russian twitter and in a pro-Russian vid meant to portray their “brave soldiers” fighting in Kreminna instead shows them just widely firing there guns in the air or doing a spray without looking. And this is meant to portray them in a positive light

[Badger]

I've finally decided to take the advice of others and ignore Woodbury and Jaichind's posts. Here is the new average Russia/Ukraine thread:

I've had that Putin simp Woody on ignore for forever, but just added jaichind moments ago.

And nothing of value was lost.

[Woody]

https://mobile.twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1625150858810871809
https://mobile.twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1625219874640302081?cxt=HHwWgsC43a...

[Estrella]

Tannu Tuva was an independent state until the 1940s and some of that mentality likely remains.

Funnily enough, though...

[Woody]

https://twitter.com/miladvisor/status/1625108362923745281?cxt=HHwWgoCx2cTcxY0tAA...
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1625260678909947905

[lfromnj]

Tannu Tuva was an independent state until the 1940s and some of that mentality likely remains.

Funnily enough, though...

IIRC the theory is Shoigu gets the head role specifically because if he's not Russian its unlikely he could ever gather the support to lead a coup to become the leader of Russia.

[jaichind]

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/13/u-s-wont-send-long-range-missiles-ukraine-00082652

"U.S. tells Ukraine it won’t send long-range missiles because it has few to spare"

[NOVA Green]

Is Ukrainian barring aid works and civilians from entering Bakhmut potentially a signal of a military withdrawal from the city?

Ukraine’s military on Monday barred aid workers and civilians from entering Bakhmut, saying it was too perilous as Russian forces tightened their grip, in what could be a prelude to a Ukrainian withdrawal and the biggest tactical gain for the deeply troubled Russian invasion since July.

But Ukraine’s military said it still held the besieged eastern city, though the one remaining major road it can use to deliver troops and supplies, or evacuate the wounded, was under Russian fire.

“Bakhmut is the epicenter of the enemy’s attack and therefore the situation is critical,” Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern military command, said in an interview on Monday.

For months, volunteers from Ukraine and abroad had taken extraordinary risks to evacuate civilians and provide medical care in Bakhmut, operating three heating and aid shelters in a city that has mostly lacked electricity or heat. (Pete Reed, an American volunteer medic, was killed in Bakhmut this month.) The presence of aid workers in this crucible of violence, despite the grave risks, had helped reassure the remaining residents that Ukraine had not abandoned them.

“We are fighting for people’s hearts,” one volunteer, Mykhailo Puryshev, said in a telephone interview. He estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 civilians were still in Bakhmut, including 60 children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-bakhmut-aid-volunteers.html

[NOVA Green]

Tank training has begun in Poland...

One by one, Leopard tanks crewed by Ukrainian troops and their Polish instructors zipped up a muddy field, bouncing over deep ruts and cresting a low dirt berm. They stopped, fired smoke grenades, then raced back in reverse to their starting points.

The demonstration on Monday, for President Andrzej Duda of Poland and his defense minister, was the first since Ukrainian troops began training on the Leopard 2A4 tanks after being promised them by Western allies nearly three weeks ago. With a massive Russian operation already building in eastern Ukraine, officials said they had compressed the tutelage for operating and maintaining the machines — which usually takes up to a year — into a couple of months.

Ukrainian Maj. Vadym Khodak, 57, said he and his fellow soldiers had been pulled off the front lines in Donetsk and Luhansk, the provinces that make up the heavily contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, and given three days to report to this drab Polish base near the German border.

Monday’s demonstration in Poland came on the same day that another group of Ukrainian troops began their training on Leopard 2 tanks in Germany. Still another group is being trained in Britain on that country’s Challenger 2 tanks.

The Ukrainians training in Poland are putting in 12-hour days, six days a week — an accelerated pace from what instructors described as a normal schedule of eight hours a day, five days a week. Much of it is being done on simulators, which Mr. Duda said were helping the crews learn how to drive, navigate, and fire.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/leopard-tanks-poland-ukraine.html

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1625335906281431041

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1625353567937650688

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/13/u-s-wont-send-long-range-missiles-ukraine-00082652

"U.S. tells Ukraine it won’t send long-range missiles because it has few to spare"

Do you even read the articles you post?

"The Pentagon’s assessment of its stockpiles is informed in part by how many weapons and munitions planners think they might need to confront an enemy. Those plans have not been significantly revised since the start of the war in Ukraine, and have not recalibrated what the stockpiles the U.S. might need in reserve to face a weakened Russia, or account for the fact that Ukraine is essentially fighting that war right now."

The Pentagon's assessment is based on a Russia that everyone thought could steamroll NATO in 48 hours. Not the one sending thousands of mobiks to their deaths to take a city with a population lower than that.

They also said that they are concerned Ukraine would use the missiles to attack deep in Russian territory, past the Kremlin's "red line"

Your fascist apologia is disproven once again.

[2952-0-0]

https://mobile.twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1625335906281431041

I noticed that western governments stopped openly trolling Putin after the first few months of the war, apparently after Biden concluded the trolling wasn't effective as a psy-op against the Russian war effort. I wonder what made them change again.

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1625078578131128323?s=20&t=K9mr4V...

[Storr]

In Soviet Russia police bribe you:

https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1625133436951314439?s=20&t=K9mr4VE2...

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1625151999950872576?s=20&t=K9mr4VE...

[jaichind]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/13/us-ukraine-war-critical-moment/

"U.S. Warns Ukraine It Faces a Pivotal Moment in War"

[jaichind]

Trolling in Moscow Zoo in a sign in front of a Amur Leopard

It says it is forbidden to feed or transfer to Ukraine

[jaichind]

https://www.ft.com/content/103dd193-f33d-4d8f-9d33-df4252cbc7b3

"Ukraine tells EU leaders to avoid ‘negative’ accession messaging"

I guess domestically one Ukraine government talking point is that victory in the war will lead to a fast track to joining into EU and some EU leaders saying that such a fast time frame is unlikely will undermine that message.