There was a war crime, committed by the Russian who pretended he was going to surrender but then opened fire on the Ukrainian soldiers. Very clear case of a war crime. Committed by Russians.
I was wondering if that was the case.
The minute that Russian opened fired he condemned all of them to death. Very few soldiers in that position would take the chance it's a lone bod, it would be a fair assumption that it's a coordinated ambush (that's where my head would go); everyone wearing a Russian uniform would be treated as a threat and engaged if they moved.
I hope the fella who opened fire got dropped like the piece of shit he is.
Yes, there are videos on social media about it. Some Russian soldiers surrendered, Ukrainian troops accepted their surrender, but then a Russian soldier fired on the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians returned fire.
Got a link, cant find a vid of that.
No vids, but heres a couple of opinions on it
https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1593705944365633537?t=Al3kGT_GdbrlJbZq0xTg1w&s=19
https://twitter.com/polidemitolog/status/1593942960986529792?t=3lWTKpWxGZE5pDLX61USHQ&s=19
PaulJawin/status/1593538372588429317?t=EpRYq1fHk6VVHPhVrYC6sA&s=19
Link broken on purpose, but the recording stops after a few shots fired.
Its that thread which cites Perfidy as the war crime and links to the source I posted up thread.
Surely it's the ultimate deeply sad example of this classic linear relationship:
https://twitter.com/rogerskaer/status/1576025818182332416?s=61&t=QkEjM_vP2AADQRzjHFopsg
Slow motion.
/blockquote>
A link to a 55 sec video with Cyrillic captions and no clue to what it's about? Based on recent activity on here, I won't be clicking that without a little context TVM!
Sorry. Its the footage Thols was referring to earlier about the alleged war crime shooting of X number of surrendering Russian troops.
OK thanks 👍 I do think you need to warn people about the content when you post stuff like that.
Well nothing is actually seen beyond surrendering blokes in green uniforms,
Fair enough, I've not watched it, but that extra into is helpful in deciding whether or not I will 👍
Dressed in a different uniform to the surrendered? Makes one think it’s a regular/Wagner mercenary. Take out the Ukrainians then shoot those that surrendered.
What ?. Take out at least 4 Ukrainian soldiers including one in prone position with an lmg aiming directly at him.. I know the Wagner lot are insane, but chances of survival would be nil.
All due respect to Chewkw, I like that his appeal to authority fallacy almost literally included the words "here is an appeal to authority fallacy"
I'm going to suggest that we move on from an uncorroborated video that plays well into the Russian narrative and look at the context of the Russian lamentation.
Earlier this week the UN released an interim report into the treatment of PoWs.
Russia isn't allowing access to PoWs, which is an immediate warning sign, while Ukraine allowed investigators private interviews.
The UN note that while abuses have occurred on both sides, Ukraine has launched several investigations to investigate accountability. Russia hasn't evidenced any investigations
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2022/11/ukraine-russia-prisoners-war
It's clear that we wouldn't be discussing this if Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine further.
We weren't there, we don't know what happened and most of us don't understand the situation, the influence of PTSD, etc. The proper place for airing this isn't here
Apparently Swedish speed cameras have been disappearing and turning up in Russian Orlan drones. Also old games consoles are being snapped up, for use in guided missile manufacture. Organised crime is then used to smuggle it back to Russia via Belarus. Cunning stunts! 😵💫
As thols stated Russian guy comitted the war crime
https://twitter.com/ChrisKimberley/status/1594088022093762561?t=xhjNu33_8R-A_TSRgpJ1fg&s=19
As thols stated Russian guy comitted the war crime
AIUI, an uncorroborated video of a Russian guy (who) comitted the a war crime.
That doesn't exclude other war crimes and we can trust Ukraine to investigate them all, wherever they occur, appropriately. Best left at that for me 🙂
Well it does happen and to be completely honest its understandable. People have seen friends die in some cases horribly, so vengeance being the order of the day, either spontaneous or under instruction from weak officers.
But it happens, it will happen and its likely to continue happening, on both sides. Look at WW2. Russia seemed to have a policy of killing prisoners, but the Allies also committed atrocities themselves. The general consensus being that it's war and in war bad things happen.
So I think we should accept that fact that both sides are capable, and not scratch about looking for ways of denial.
What the real problem is is how that will affect the general idea of taking prisoners and keeping them safe. We could see the Russian side now offer no quarter and move towards a policy of surrender and you're good as dead. This is not the type of escalation anyone wants, and ending up in a tit for tat situation is going to impede efforts to bring this to the negotiation table.
A very pro western article here.
I do not know much about either CEPA or the author Thimothy Ash (beyond he thinks Brexit isnt a good thing.
www.cepa.org/article/its-costing-peanuts-for-the-us-to-defeat-russia/
Its viewing western support through a fairly selfish lense, more an investment than an ethical or ideological obligation.
US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment. If we divide out the US defense budget to the threats it faces, Russia would perhaps be of the order of $100bn-150bn in spend-to-threat. So spending just $40bn a year, erodes a threat value of $100-150bn, a two-to-three time return.
Meanwhile, replacing destroyed kit, and keeping up with the new arms race that it has now triggered with the West will surely end up bankrupting the Russian economy; especially an economy subject to aggressive Western sanctions. How can Russia possibly hope to win an arms race when the combined GDP of the West is $40 trillion, and its defense spending amounting to 2% of GDP totals well in excess of $1 trillion when the disproportionate US defense contribution is considered? Russia’s total GDP is only $1.8 trillion.
Anyone have any critique on this?
Also old games consoles are being snapped up, for use in guided missile manufacture.
At least they'll be able to hear them coming:
Anyone have any critique on this?
TLDR: European NATO partners will either have to buy US kit or drop out of the international export market, while developing an internal EU-market, so increasing US international market-share
NATO countries can catch up with the 2% defence spend. Germany added €100bn to its spending in February but has only been able to send one IRIS-T to Ukraine. The others intended for Ukraine are still being built because their industry simply doesn't have the capacity
The 2% spend is for defence, not for donating, so a proportion of what's needed for Germany's defence will head to Ukraine. Germany still needs to produce systems for its own defence with a lead-time some way down the road
The less well-known NATO figure is that 20% of the defence spend must go on "major equipment", which includes R&D. I'd suggest that IRIS-T would be a good example of this and a double-whammy because the production line is working for Ukrainian supply. In the short-term Germany will either need to switch general defence exports off (4.5% of the world major arms trade) or buy elsewhere. The US (39% of the world major arms trade) and France (11% of the world major arms trade) are the obvious candidates for increased sales because France is nearer to the NATO 2% than Germany and has the capacity to export.
What is less clear is where the defence industry strengths lie in different countries, but this is where NATO and EU standardisation applies. Germany produces good armoured vehicles but has an ageing air force, France has a strong aircraft industry, etc.
The article doesn't consider alternatives to the US arms market. Turkey, India, Iran and China, amongst others, imported Russian arms but will now be developing their own industries and vying for the export market. What's less clear is how big their foray into the major arms trade will be.
Russia's influence on other continents is sizeable, e.g. the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso and Mali https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cq23pdgvrqwt/mali , which is thought to have the largest gold deposits in Africa. It also has uranium, copper, iron ore, zinc, manganese, bauxite, lead, lithium, bitumen, diamonds and other stones, etc. There's a lot to trade for the means to rebuild, or a lot of space for China to become the major partner with Russia
1st hand account from the Maidan. A story already told but seeing as theres still plenty who like to remove the possibility of a choice being made by the Ukrainian people its worth a share.
https://twitter.com/TheStanislawski/status/1594735328866230273?t=R5_fR2wA6iDlw517r3m-TQ&s=19
A rare moment of honesty and national awareness from a Russian mil-blogger. Hopefully the scales will fall off a few more Ruski eyes and they will see their country for what it has become.
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1594779525791027220?s=20&t=xH86SWVtFAsjIzvC-S-QBQ
1st hand account from the Maidan.
I've read a fair bit about the Maidan revolution, but that's a great account, thanks for posting 👍
Interesting articke from Politico about Poland expanding its capabilities, less so for the green things with pointy things, but the nature of their relationship with the EU. To a degree reads a bit like theyre a bit indifferent to/annoyed by some parts of the EU, but that is completely overwhelmed by their views on Russia. Which all considering is understandable.
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-military-superpower-poland-army/amp/
Cheers for taking the time to respond @Timba
I chose the easy bit...
The defence of Europe has "suddenly" come into focus. Not only are people looking at budgets and materiel, but also the lessons learned from Russia's logistics problems. Poor roads, bridges and a general lack of infrastructure the further east you go https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-crisis-europe-defence
Infrastructure issues work both ways, of course
Interesting articke from Politico about Poland
Bottom line is that Europe has become too comfortable and too slow to react. The critical path for modern major arms production is long and tortuous and the Ukraine has shown us that NATO training, logistics, a 4WD with NLAWS and a £500 drone can be very effective.
Europe will have to engage more, listen to its allies and be careful about who it gets into bed with
The Poland/S.Korea-thing has been on the go for a while. Their Krab self-propelled gun that they supplied to Ukraine is a British AS90 NATO-standard turret on a Korean chassis
First thing in my Twitter Feed this morning....
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1594930173085765632
I saw a documentary on BAE Radway last year where small arms ammo is made. The contract with the MOD includes a provision that they maintain the capacity to deliver double the contracted capacity on demand. Hopefully there are similar clauses for Brimstone, Starstreak etc.
The Russian soldiers being dumped and burned in landfill by their own forces (if true) just goes to show that if they cannot even respect or at least give a slight **** about them, they must treat the Ukraine population with absolute hatred.
Wooksterbo Julia Davis is a good follow on Twitter. She captions a Russian talkshow and its staggering the rhetoric they spew out.
Reports that the UA have confirmed operations on the Kinburn Peninsula (if that’s the right name). No word yet of success or otherwise. Lots of fighting in the East around Svatove. Hopefully UA can breakthrough because if they take Svatove they severely compromise supply lines into Luhansk and Donetsk
I've become mesmerised and horrified by the genocidal and bat shit crazy talking heads on the Russian talk shows. It's great though when every now and then, there is a moment of sanity. When some courageous panelist goes against the flow. Solovyov the host of this, is a despicable excuse for a human being, it's great to see the Israeli guy on here really put him in his place - around 2.35 in to this clip. Solovyov has a proper Kevin the teenager huff at the end 😂
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1594529208650317824?s=20&t=SCnuqpsLOmo3lsLng4SB1g
Russian ambassador to the UK
on tv now.
Delusional
Yes watching it now. He's a stooge who's probably too scared/brainwashed to challenge the Putin narrative.
bat shit crazy talking heads on the Russian talk shows.
Are they not all stooges talking to prepare the audience for what's coming?
Ukraine's EU and NATO memberships aren't getting any nearer.
The choice of scarf by Hungary's PM Victor Orban at a Hungary v Greece football match caused a diplomatic row at the weekend because the scarf depicted a former Hungarian border that includes parts of Ukraine, amongst other countries. The Hungarian Ambassador has been summonsed by Kyiv
Trouble has never been far away following the break up of the Soviet Union (SU) because many countries have sizeable minorities from other former-SU countries.
Laws around the primacy of the Ukrainian language have upset Hungary, which has close ties to populations in Ukraine, and could cause accession problems to both the EU and NATO
Hungary agreed to confirm NATO membership of Finland and Sweden last week, but it still needs to be voted on by their parliament.
Turkiye is likely to agree to Finland joining NATO, but Sweden with a greater Kurdish minority population is more problematic for them
Orban, IMHO, is a Russian asset. I hope the planned multi billion € grant to Hungary isn't going to be shuffled sideways to the Kremlin.
Yes, the Turkey question is a difficult one. They already agreed to it (based on us here having t make changes to how we refer to Kurdish parties) and are seeming to change positions as time goes on, looking to get more concessions now that we have a government that is potentially more desperate and/or more willing to make concessions.
Basically blackmail. Because they can and no one can or will stop them.
Sea Kings already sent, after 6 weeks of training in UK.
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bye-bye-seaking
Reports that the UA have confirmed operations on the Kinburn Peninsula
Yes Institute for the Study of War are now reporting it so it appears to be real.
"Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security also reported that Ukrainian forces are continuing to carry out unspecified operations on the Kinburn Spit, but specified that Russian forces are still holding positions at the spit".
Note that the "spit" is a very small part of the "peninsula". My guess is that apart from trying to control access to their ports Ukraine are applying a bit of pressure to the Western flank of Russian defensive lines along the Dnipro making it difficult for them to move reinforcements Eastward towards Zaporizhzia which seems to be widely touted as the location for the next Ukraine offensive. Of course that means Ukraine will do something else.
Are they not all stooges talking to prepare the audience for what’s coming?
That being ?.
