Russia's War Against Ukraine

[bobarossa]

I'm starting to think the word "Kremlin" is Russian for "insane asylum".

[Anguille]

I'm starting to think the word "Kremlin" is Russian for "insane asylum".

Isn't it Duma?

[SirAndrewD]

My ex-wife used to enjoy this with me when I'd wax on to all hours at night about the threat of Russia and she humored me while dreaming of getting tats, dying her hair and sleeping with women.

[Crossroads]

@WhereIsRussia with a current status of Russian occupied Ukrainian territory. It must be very worrying for Putin's regime to not only be able to occupy Donbass in full, but to start to see Ukrainian counterattack to start liberating Luhans oblast in particular where Russia has been succesful so far.

https://twitter.com/WhereisRussia/status/1572262387188629504

[Pete Dero]

From Putin's speech a few hours ago :  (source : BBC)


The Russian president says that it's necessary to take an urgent decision to protect people in the "liberated lands".

"That's why I asked the ministry of defence to agree to partial mobilisation," he says.

He says the decree has already been signed and it starts today.

He says that all citizens who will be mobilised will have full armed forces status.

Putin says that the West has been blackmailing Russia but that Russia has many weapons with which to respond.

"We will use all resources we have to defend our people," he says.

"I trust in your support," he concludes.


The Kremlin leader blamed all Russia's difficulties on the West, which he accused of wishing the "disintegration of Russia."

Russia, he said, "would use all means at its disposal to defend Russia if its territorial integrity was threatened."

With Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine about to hold so-called referendums on joining Russia, that is a clear message to Ukraine and the West: Don't try to take back land we have seized and will claim as our own.

And just to make the point, he dropped in this threat: "Those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the prevailing winds can turn in their direction."




The UK's Foreign Office Minister Gillian Keegan has described Vladimir Putin's threat to the West that he has lots of weapons as "chilling", adding that the address was "more of Putin's lies"

"It's a serious threat but it's one that's been made before," she tells the BBC.

Earlier, she said his declaration that there will be a partial mobilisation of Russian reserve forces as a "worrying escalation".

She adds that Putin's comments should be taken "seriously" and also urged for calm in the face of his threat in his speech to use nuclear weapons.


The shock news that mobilisation will begin immediately, today, means that many Russians, especially young professionals, will be considering leaving the country as soon as possible.

The Russian stock market took a sharp downturn at the news, and there are reports of increases in sales of plane tickets in order to leave the country.

[Anguille]

We're really in a mad house now...

[Crossroads]

Looking at miltwitter it seems this is one of the more important goals of the "partial mobilization":

Potentially the most significant part of Putin's partial mobilisation decree:

All military service contracts (typically 3-6 months) currently in force extended indefinitely.

They were hemorrhaging contracted personnel already with tons of soldiers whose contracts were about to end. I guess they should have read the small print, too.

https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1572474655872630785

He continues:

I think Putin was told his entire professional army was going to quit at the end of their contracts rather than face winter huddling in trenches hunted by Ukrainian SOF and torched by HIMARS.

edit typos

[steve58]

All flights from Russia to neighbouring countries sold out on Wednesday as Russians sought to flee a partial mobilisation order drafting 300,000 reservists into the army announced by Vladimir Putin.

Russian news outlet RBC reported that there were no seats available on flights to destinations that do not require a visa until Friday.

Fears that men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave the country began to spread as the Russian president ordered the call-up, which followed the announcement of referendums to pave the way for the formal annexation of swathes of Ukraine.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ukraine-war-latest-men-flee-russia-to-avoid-mobilisation/ar-AA123Bsh

Putin didn't think this would happen?  I guess his goons will be boarding planes, asking to see papers and having military-aged men pulled off flights.

[Gusington]

'Jesus F*cking Christ, Russia'...forever.

[Pete Dero]

'Jesus F*cking Christ, Russia'...forever.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11234233/Screaming-former-Putin-advisor-warns-president-ready-NUKE-Britain-BBC-Today-Programme.html

A former Russian MP and Putin advisor warned that British cities could be targeted by Putin's nukes in a bare-faced tirade this morning on the Today programme.

Sergei Markov had barely exchanged pleasantries with BBC Radio 4 host Justin Webb when he launched into a series of threats about nuclear war.

'It's not a good morning for everybody. In Russia there's partial mobilisation and for your British listeners Vladimir Putin told you that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons against Western countries... including against Great Britain.  Your cities will be targeted.'


Welcome to the madhouse.

[W8taminute]

The irony of all this is that these threats and the announcement of partial mobilization are taking place on the international day of peace.

Supposedly the reason why the bear leader changed the time of his speech was because he had a health event occur last night.

[Gusington]

Health event you say?

[Pete Dero]

Supposedly the reason why the bear leader changed the time of his speech was because he had a health event occur last night.

Well it still is stroke season in Russia.

[FarAway Sooner]

 :o

For many years, Putin was viewed as a cynical, pragmatic chess master.  I think a lot of the complaisance in the West arose from the fact that Putin seemed to be as calculated as he was.  They knew he'd make trouble, but it'd never really threaten us (Americans and Western Europeans), just them (Syrians and Chechens and maybe a few separatist-inclined Ukrainians).

Fast forward to the modern day, where Putin is behaving more like one of the stars of a professional wrestling TV show, and the West is deeply troubled and unsure what to do.  This wasn't certain, but it seemed like one of the probable outcomes.  Lord only knows where this is going to end.

Our handling of China has been equally short-sighted, even if the warning signs from China have not been quite so blatant.

[W8taminute]

Health event you say?

Yeah I saw an article on The Sun website saying he had a coughing fit and chest pains last night.