Ukraine

The Russian dead need putting on a driverless train that chuggs slowly across the border, back into Russia…

I’ve often thought that a website where pictures of burnt, mangled, mutilated dead Russian soldiers can be uploaded.

Mothers of Russian soldiers can scrawl through in the hope of not seeing their son on there.

Think that may have a greater effect on Russian morale than having the Russian military hiding the deaths.

Before we even get to talk about the warfighting, seems the Russian military is it’s own worst enemy and meat grinder.

Doesn’t look like they’ve taken any lessons from their history of deployments at all, all the way back to WW2 at least.

Well it’s run for the enrichment of a few oligarchs at the very top, either supplying substandard kit at inflated prices and/or simply skimming off the top of what is supplied.

Couple that with top brass who are either directly involved or too scared to tell the truth about what the army is capable of and you have a mix of political leadership that believes the army to be far stronger and more capable than it actually is and doesn’t care in the slightest if soldiers are sent to their death anyway.

Tragically, the outcomes of untrained undisciplined troops is war crimes, looting and genocide.

I’ve often thought that a website where pictures of burnt, mangled, mutilated dead Russian soldiers can be uploaded.

I’m pretty sure that already exists, set-up by Ukraine.

LMAO

Irish media reporting this morning that Russian embassy in Dublin has asked Irish govt to intervene because companies have stopped delivering fuel to the embassy and they are on verge running out. Also reports that Bank of Ireland has closed the embassy’s bank account.

— Grace Cuddihy (@GraceCuddihy) April 5, 2022

Yup, some good articles on the defence industry shenanigans in Russia, some very well off officers for sure.

Their written doctrine reads like it’s well thought out, but they clearly don’t resource the training of it or to it. Sending barely trained troops and conscripts never ends well for them, and like you say for their opponents. So they default to jsut smashing everything.

They did the same in Afghanistan, noticed in the early days that women would grab their kids and run indoors when they saw or heard helicopters. Asked an elder why, turns out it was because way back when the russians would fire indiscriminately into compounds at people, so it was a warning handed down over generations.

Well it’s run for the enrichment of a few oligarchs at the very top, either supplying substandard kit at inflated prices and/or simply skimming off the top of what is supplied.

Couple that with top brass who are either directly involved or too scared to tell the truth about what the army is capable of and you have a mix of political leadership that believes the army to be far stronger and more capable than it actually is and doesn’t care in the slightest if soldiers are sent to their death anyway.

Tragically, the outcomes of untrained undisciplined troops is war crimes, looting and genocide.

most Russians probably believe they are winning

Eventually it’ll have to come out, because people will ask why they are still fighting. It’ll be interesting when it all comes crashing down, whenever that might be.

Think that may have a greater effect on Russian morale than having the Russian military hiding the deaths.

The Russian TV pundits are showing the massacre in Bucha and are claiming it as a false flag using crisis actors. They say it’s the work of British film studios as we are the “Best in the area of information operations, They know how to place the bodies correctly do everything correctly create a nice picture for the necrophiliac western consciousness”.

Which seems a fine and totally normal thing to say on national TV.

Tragically, the outcomes of untrained undisciplined troops is war crimes, looting and genocide.

I was pretty struck by some recent footage on the news showing the abandoned position of a Russian tank crew who were said to have been responsible for gunning down unarmed civilians. It looked like a bunch of teenagers had been at a festival for the weekend. Vodka and beer bottles strewn everywhere.

I’ve got mates who are in the forces and know how professional and disciplined they are. The contrast with what we just accept to be those standards of our own armed forces and the aftermath of the Russian troops shown, couldn’t have been more marked.

Judging by the reports coming out its not an army, it’s a mob

There was one image of the inside of a vehicle, made me shudder thinking how we’d have got melted for a fraction of the trash in one of ours.

It shows just how little training they’ve had to understand the reasons for keeping things in good order.

An organised, disorganised heavily armed mob at that.

– Hello,darling,I looted, raped, tortured and killed in #Ukraine. But I am sending you a TV, air conditioners,e-scooters and other goods.

I watched the 3-hour CCTV recording from a courier service in Mazyr, #Belarus. Russian servicemen send endless packages with what they stole pic.twitter.com/KOabKCvzSb

— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) April 3, 2022

I’ve got mates who are in the forces and know how professional and disciplined they are. The contrast with what we just accept to be those standards of our own armed forces and the aftermath of the Russian troops shown, couldn’t have been more marked

Judging by the reports coming out its not an army, it’s a mob

It shows just how little training they’ve had to understand the reasons for keeping things in good order.

An organised, disorganised heavily armed mob at that.

And you would assume the Russian troops sent to try and take Kyiv are the best trained!

My worry is that with the frontline Russian troops proving so ineffective they will just resort to wholesale siege and bombardment tactics.

Which is exactly what they are doing, and always have done.

Putin’s war
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220317-war-in-ukraine-sparks-concerns-over-worldwide-food-shortages
Already struggling after last year wheat and grain flowing into Africa is getting costly.

If you go back through history, Russian/Soviet military performance is poor. Their victories are mostly pyrrhic.

“But it’s not just wheat,” Abis said, “the two countries account for 80 percent of the world’s sunflower oil production, and Ukraine is the world’s fourth largest exporter of maize.”

From @PK13 France 24 article. The problem with news sources saying things like this, is that while Ukraine is without doubt one of the biggest exporters of those two, its not one of the biggest producers. For instance Ukraine’s exports nearly 80% of it’s wheat crop, and that is one of the biggest European exporters but that’s still only 0.9% of the worlds wheat crop

Videos of what are reportedly saboteurs, potentially Wagner sent in to ayub getting arrested by Ukr troops.

Brutal. Both a physical and metaphorical blow to Putin.

alpin – any link?

Nsfw

Ukrainian military police arrest saboteurs in Kyiv(?). According to the original Telegram source, these men are part of the assassination squads sent by Russia, but are now trapped due to the Russian retreat. from UkraineWarVideoReport

PMC Wagner (from earlier in this thread) have Dimitri Utkin as their founder/leader. He’s the one with the SS tattoos and reading on Wiki, they also have form for infamous videos taken of killing people with hammers and burning them to death… so a gentle shoeing barely rates on my nsfw scale.

Anyone posted this from Dr Caddick-Adams, war historian.

https://thecritic.co.uk/is-putins-war-turning-genocidal/

We should pretend to allow a humanitarian convoy to help the Russian Embassy in Dublin, then shell the road outside relentlessly so it can’t get through.

NSFW

TBH quite a restrained reaction from soldiers who are only a few km away from the scene of a war crime against helpless civilians, adult and child.

They certainly show a damn site more restraint that I would express.

TBH quite a restrained reaction from soldiers who are only a few km away from the scene of a war crime against helpless civilians, adult and child.

If they are Wagner members on a sabotage mission, then they’re lucky not to have been shot on the spot and strung up from the nearest still standing lamp post.

and that is one of the biggest European exporters but that’s still only 0.9% of the worlds wheat crop

Though that big number is mostly feed for animals, their proportion of the global flour milling wheat crop is quite a bit higher plus their share of the Turkish, Egyptian and Bangladeshi markets is high. The restriction on Russian exports will affect those three badly. Source https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/17/infographic-russia-ukraine-and-the-global-wheat-supply-interactive

Potential intelligence gold there. Those chaps will be having a rather uncomfortable time, hopefully the Ukrainians can get some useful and actionable stuff from them.

TBH quite a restrained reaction from soldiers who are only a few km away from the scene of a war crime against helpless civilians, adult and child.

Training and discipline

If they are Wagner members on a sabotage mission, then they’re lucky not to have been shot on the spot and strung up from the nearest still standing lamp post.

Yeah, not sure the Geneva Convention applies to infiltrators dressed in civilian clothing. Fortunately for them, they have some residual value for intelligence purposes.

It doesn’t. There are exceptions that remove mercenaries from being treated the same as regular/irregular forces POW.

Although there have been legal challenges to that. Some nations laws specifically remove them from the extension of domestic law to protect them as well.

Sorry, but clueless here… How does it work with groups like the Wagner mob? Who sub-contracts them? How are they paid and do they supply their own weaponry? (If anyone could point me to a documentary somewhere about them…I mean, I know “ish” about them, but no clue how they are deployed, who gives the orders etc. And what would be next for those guys in the video up there?

There’s a good wiki page on them:
The Wagner Group

TBH quite a restrained reaction from soldiers

there are apparently videos of ukranians shooting russian POWs, self -defeating , if not surprising, as more russian war crimes against civillians are uncovered

I'm not going to post it, but there is a video on Telegram that appears to show Ukrainian soldiers executing a wounded Russian soldier (there are multiple bodies) near Dmytrivka, Kyiv Oblast where several Russian vehicles were destroyed a few days ago. The video appears genuine.

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 5, 2022

especially in light of recent ukranian surrenders

First major surrender of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, reportedly 267 marines. pic.twitter.com/w5c5U3j4zG

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 4, 2022

although there have been quite a few prisoner swaps between sides

Training and discipline

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ukrainian soldiers are accused of, or have indeed committed war crimes of a similar nature (murder, or extrajudicial killings) . Their training is pretty much the same as the Russian troops they’re facing, and some of the units within the Ukrainian forces are exactly what you’d call “regular” anyway.  Plus they’ve conscripted thousands of civilians who’ve likely received little to no training in capturing enemy combatants or prisoner handling.

The aftermath of all this is going to be ugly.

loot & pillage

Items reportedly found on a captured Russian lieutenant pic.twitter.com/k1DuEU8Eb6

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 5, 2022

I’m not 100% sure that I condone this, Russian POWs calling home.

He added: “Often a Russian mother does not ask her son about his health, but immediately tells us the propaganda she was told on Russian television.

I see Matt le Tissier and a few other notable intellectuals have come out batting for the Kremlin in the matters of whether Russia committed war crimes.

I think the logic goes like this:

‘The media’ has at times in the past not always been truthful
‘The media’ is therefore not being truthful now
‘The media’ is currently saying that Russians committed war crimes in Bucha

…Therefore Russians did not commit war crimes in Bucha.

This aligns neatly with what the Kremlin is saying, which is handy because the Kremlin does not have any record of dishonesty or false statements, nor any recent history of committing war crimes. So there we go.

I’m not 100% sure that I condone this,

There’s a fine line, there are rules about exploiting POWs for propaganda.

There’s no doubt there will have been crimes committed on both sides – there probably are in all wars. The BBC have footage of Ukrainians shooting prisoners in the leg.

What the Ukranians may be doing to Russian troops is slightly lower down my outrage scale than what the Russians have done to Ukrainian civilians. Both are wrong, obviously.

Eventually it’ll have to come out, because people will ask why they are still fighting. It’ll be interesting when it all comes crashing down, whenever that might be.

Didn’t happen with Chechnya.

there are apparently videos of ukranians shooting russian POWs, self -defeating

Likely fake.

Only one guy wears blue arm band.

Not wearing patches correct way up.

That Ukrainian marine surrender video has been getting a bit of push back for being fake – it’s quite a murky pr battle going on.

Matt Le Tissier is a bit of an embarrassment isn’t he. Football’s Neil Oliver – what a title to win!

Twitter is a shortcut to peoples stupidity.

As for the videos, I take most of them with a pinch of salt. Both sides will be up to shithousery, one side is taking it to extreme levels, so a degree of reciprocation isn’t exactly surprising. If it’s acceptable is a whole other conversation though.

The UN Russian Uncle fester is at it again Trumping out Putin’s’Nazi’ narrative. How does he look at himself at night.