Ukraine

Reset the counter. Again. https://t.co/cWwwA16okN pic.twitter.com/Kwigd6Zw1K

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) March 17, 2022

Not until James Blunt slams Putin on twitter.

To be fair, James Blunt is supposed to have history of facing down the Russian army

To be fair, James Blunt is supposed to have history of facing down the Russian army

Tank commander IIRC

Is Putin stupid?

No but even very clever people are capable of very stupid decisions.

CVRT Scimitar – so not strictly a ‘tank’, more a light armoured reconnaissance vehicle…. Blunt that is.

Not until James Blunt slams Putin on twitter.

He’s got a few targets…

Could all past and present soldiers of D Squadron please DM me. I’m putting something together. https://t.co/O6KA7ePpyi

— James Blunt (@JamesBlunt) February 7, 2022

That Arnie speech is quite something! Very impressed…

Here’s a slightly different perspective:

Ukrainian leftist criticizes Western war drive with Russia: U.S. is using Ukraine as ‘cannon fodder’

Arnie. What a legend.

He does those emotive pieces to camera really well. Maybe he was a better actor than we gave him credit for?

I think he actually was (and is) a good actor. There was one film where they were all in some futuristic prison and he was the old lag who staged a diversion to allow the goodie to escape, and him screaming and ranting in German as they dragged him off was really memorable to me.

Here’s a slightly different perspective:

It just parrots Russian propaganda. There’s just enough bits that are true to go along with the outright lies but it conveniently ignores all of Russia’s prior involvement.

Yes, the idea that a peaceful democratic government was overthrown in 2014 by American finance comes straight out of the Kremlin’s alternative reality

Yeah, peppered with truths… but the bit about the presence of the Russian military facilitating a free vote almost stopped me reading. Made it to the end though. Nothing I haven’t read elsewhere, it’s a compilation of one sided accusations.

Arnie’s piece to camera was good wasn’t it… admitting recent problems in the USA, past atrocities in Europe (and his own family’s part in them), and filled with love and admiration for the people of Russia.

Some great posts on this thread again, really liked the Arnie piece to camera

Yes, the idea that a peaceful democratic government was overthrown in 2014 by American finance comes straight out of the Kremlin’s alternative reality

Since then there has been a democratic election which gave Zelenskyy and his party overwhelming majorities.

Anyone seen the footage HERE of the Russian tank ambushed in Mariupol?

@ 1:20 just as the smoke cleats a bag is thrown to the guy left agonising at the side of the road. What you think it is? First aid?

I thought this was interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igq2fqa7RY4

Not pleasant to watch alpin.

Other than that, a lone tank wondering around an urban area with no infantry?

What on earth is Russia playing at, utterly symbolic.

It was taken out by the Azov battalion so I doubt that was a first aid kit…

Other than that, a lone tank wondering around an urban area with no infantry?

What on earth is Russia playing at

My thoughts too.

Sacrificial decoy?
Send one in, see what happens.
Took a wrong turning?
Trying to defect?

I thought this was interesting

Some of it. Tries too hard to make war “entertaining” to be comfortable watching for me. Perhaps that’s a culture clash as a non-USA watcher. Also claims we’re not being told lots of things that I already knew just from BBC and ITN(Channel4News) reporting… again, might be very different in the USA I suppose.

But some of his analysis is odd. Claiming that lack of air support north of Kyiv is just the Russians overlooking basics of using combined forces, or a communication failure, rather than even mentioning the possibility that the air cover isn’t there because of anti-air capabilities of those defending that area.

Oh, the pipeline back to Belerus stuff was very interesting. It’s going to be very vulnerable in places though, surely?

Task and Purpose is just a loud YouTuber who’s hit it big since Russia started kicking off.

https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCSq3p5NKEtyp5Rjd4ctiEbg

Any takers for this?

Why are companies, and individuals in professional settings, avoiding calling this a war? I’m seeing it on their PR, internal emails, talking to people.

Events in Ukraine
News from Ukraine
What’s happening in Ukraine
Situation in Ukraine
The mess in Ukraine
Due to Ukraine

I’ve since picked up “certain events going on in the world”, “horrible world events”.

Without links to actual examples we can’t try and answer the question due to a complete lack of context.

bikes – some people and organisations (in their public pronouncements) want to avoid uncomfortable truths.
The same approach is evident when using ‘passed away’ instead of died.
I’m sure there’ll be views that this sort of behaviour ‘respects sensitivities’ but that’s rubbish; it’s an attempt to duck reality.
Just say it how it is.

No context required.

OK… Having read a bit about the footage it appears that the sack I referred to is likely a torso thrown from the second tank that was attacked…. Delete if necessary.

Yes, I think it’s best to not post any combat videos at all. A week or two back an analyst on Twitter pointed out that the drone footage of tanks blowing up (or the helicopter shootdown) are deliberate ambushes, that’s why the drone was sitting there with the camera running. When you see the spectacular videos of the tanks exploding, that means that the crew inside have been incinerated alive, so you’re basically watching a snuff propaganda video. Once I had that pointed out to me, I realized it was best to not post any combat videos, even if corpses weren’t visible.

You rarely hear from mothers of Russian soldiers. This lady came up to us at an anti-war protest in Moscow, desperate for the safety of her 22 yr old son. She told us there were only 10 men left in his regiment. If there are voices Putin fears, it’s these pic.twitter.com/CNAY3gK0uj

— James Longman (@JamesAALongman) March 17, 2022

The truth is gradually filtering back to Russia, it’s just too big to hide.

Hence his rather brutal warning issued yesterday. He is now seeing his own people as the enemy too. Well, he always did really.

Epic paranoia on display.

Russia has not attempted to contact the Ukrainian government to extradite the bodies of its troops, she said.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 18, 2022

The truth is gradually filtering back to Russia, it’s just too big to hide.

pic.twitter.com/OwIHfCLWsi

— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 16, 2022

(Although the film crew arent being arrested)

Yes, one of the most frustrating things back in the 90s was American triumphalism. No doubt, the West won the Cold War (or, more accurately I think, the USSR destroyed itself), but the gloating about it was counter-productive. It just alienated countries that had just become potential friends and allies. I think it also led to the Iraq catastrophe, where the Bush administration believed all the nonsense that freedom would flourish if the jackboot of the oppressor was lifted. I think the Biden administration is much more restrained than past administrations but I can imagine Republican presidential hopefuls competing to outdo each other on the glories of capitalism and the American way. If one of those clowns wins the next election, they will probably alienate all the potential friends around the world who saw the U.S. acting in a much more humble and restrained manner this time around. And they will do it deliberately because their voters will think that antagonizing foreign countries is the purpose of foreign policy.

I sense the Ukraine conflict, NATO boosting & sweeping sanctions might resurrect Western triumphalism. The use of the term ‘West’ has exploded. It could energize supporters of the old order, as they contest the idea of a post-Western world. Interesting times for IR scholars

— Amitav Acharya (@AmitavAcharya) March 17, 2022

I recon Putin is insincere with his demands for “peace”. One of the demands is the Denazification of Ukraine ? So I demand “You massage my Ego and prove that I was right to start the war!”. Completely bonkers.

RT loses UK license…

RT had already disappeared off British TV two weeks ago, but that was because of a ban on the network across the European Union.

As the television feed comes from the EU, it became unavailable on the same day. Ofcom had also launched 29 investigations into RT’s content.

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) March 18, 2022

@ 1:20 just as the smoke cleats a bag is thrown to the guy left agonising at the side of the road.

Was it a bag or something falling back down from the explosion of the tank- a body?

When you hear anybody talking about the Russian Elite Airborne troops, THIS YouTube vid shows them reacting to an ambush.

Now I was never infantry trained, but what I did do still shows we how this is shambolic.

Hmmm. Partial win for Putin. He gets the south and a land bridge… Keeps poking Kyiv with missiles from the black sea to force a peace solution.

The forces in the north are aside show or distraction.

Ukraine forfeits the south and the west pays for reconstruction.

How far into Russian and Belarusia do standard tv and fm radio signals travel?

People in places like St Petersburg and Kaliningrad must be able to tune in to outside signal. Or does Russia jam the signals.