Russia's War Against Ukraine

[JasonPratt]

To be fair, despite my joke, her teeth don't usually jutt out like that; it's no doubt due to the strain from flexing there.

That photo comes from the 1999 World Individual AA Final, by the way. Props for being a master athlete in any case!

This is, of course, a devious Russian ploy to distract from how badly they're losing their spicy military operation. ...SPECIAL, I mean 'special'.

[Gusington]

 ;D

[MengJiao]

  Or is it a "hoax"?  What's puzzling here is the Russians are threatening Finland -- but they aren't going to stop supplying natural gas?  So where does the
hoax begin or end?  Russia claims to be threatening Finland (and everyone else on the planet) so the threats would pertain to something less threatening
than a threat to shut off the gas?  Some bad memes on social media or something?  Maybe just some egregious misspellings here and there across the globe?
Maybe Bulgargaz with an extra "gar" as in Bulgargargaz?  Good Heavens!  That's brutal.



   Kremlin says reports that Russia will halt gas supplies to Finland on Friday are a "hoax"
From CNN's Anna Chernova


   Meanwhile, the Russians are going to cut electricity to Finland...despite the fact that Finland isn't in NATO yet and that Finland can probably stay electrified without too much trouble.  Plus
Turkey may stop Finland from joining NATO.  So it seems the Russians have devised yet another way to achieve results diametrically opposite from the benefits of not pissing off everyone on the
planet.  They could have just let Turkey stop Finland, but no...better to come up with a mess of threats and then just shut off the electricity.

[JasonPratt]

;D

They also use special busses to get the troops to their spicy destinations.  >:D

[al_infierno]

This reminds me of the classic "stabbing your hand with ladder splinters" technique in WW1.

[ArizonaTank]

Turkey making noises that it will block Sweden and Finland from NATO membership.

https://www.newsweek.com/turkey-poised-deliver-massive-win-putin-nato-expansion-1706518

[MengJiao]

Turkey making noises that it will block Sweden and Finland from NATO membership.

https://www.newsweek.com/turkey-poised-deliver-massive-win-putin-nato-expansion-1706518

  I expect Turkey will try to get some geopolitical advantages out of this.  After all they are blocking Russia from getting ships into the Black Sea right now and drones of their manufacture are
working wonders against the Russians.  The US cut them out of some weapons deals when they bought the Russian S-(400?) air defense system...so they expect some goodies and I imagine they
will get them for all kinds of reasons, but at least in part because they are now the regional power with all the cards (if not yet all the firepower) in the Balkans, the Black Sea, Syria,
the Caucasus, Iran, the Aegean and Iraq.  At one point Russia might have held them in check in some of those places -- but not anymore.  Turkey and China are both set to win big out of all
this if they play their cards right and so far they both have done that on the nose.

[GDS_Starfury]

[FarAway Sooner]

Female gymnasts seldom take a flattering photo in the midst of a performance; the make-up typical for such athletic performances tries to create a different esthetic than what one would strive for walking down the street, much less posing for a fashion shoot.  I'm sure Ms. Kabaeva is among the more attractive women her age on the planet...

As for tanks being a thing of the past, I think the primary lesson at this point is that tanks without proper infantry support are dog food.  And more lightly-armored front line combat units (AFVs and IFVs) are even more fragile.  The Russian BTG as a combined arms unit has turned in a disastrous performance.  It's a little unclear if that's a failure of equipment, training, maintenance, or doctrine.  Judging by the performance that the Russian military has turned in to date, it's probably an "all of the above" type of answer.

I do wonder how many observers NATO has embedded in front-line units in Ukraine right now?  Or whether they're just outsourcing all of that to firms like Blackwater, as a pre-condition for the copious military aid flowing in, so Blackwater can hire former US military guys to go in and then go back later and tell their next contract employers (i.e., the Pentagon) exactly what they saw, without making it look like NATO is actively involved.

[GDS_Starfury]

theres far far less blackwater then you think.  these are people defending their lives.

[GDS_Starfury]

this is important.
Ukrainian forces reportedly destroyed the railway bridge between Severodonetsk and Rubizhne.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1525899280426352640

[Jarhead0331]

It hasn't been known as "Blackwater" since 2009. It's changed hands several times since then too.

[FarAway Sooner]

Good to know on Blackwater.  I assume rebranding in that business is a common move.

Fury, I don't understand your response.  I wasn't suggesting that the Ukrainian resistance was a bunch of US-hired mercenaries.  I was simply speculating on how the US (and other NATO allies) was getting actively involved in-theater.  Because we know that their assistance isn't magically just stopping at the Ukrainian border, when they hand the keys of supply trucks over to Ukrainian drivers.

My speculation was on what sort of tradecraft was being used to gather that sort of front-line intel.

[Uberhaus]

BBC has an article "The spy war within the war".  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-61311026
Looks at the efforts to expel "the legals", the spies undercover as diplomats and the concern of GRU unit 29155 staging sabotage, in probably Poland, of transporting war material into Ukraine as this unit did in Czech Republic.  Someone, posted a great post extensively covering the attack in Czech republic donkey's posts ago with lots of info on 29155.

[Uberhaus]

this is important.
Ukrainian forces reportedly destroyed the railway bridge between Severodonetsk and Rubizhne.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1525899280426352640

Giving ground in the area? Or preparing a counter-offensive?