Ukraine

[Doodoo]

Mikhail Gorbachev has lived to be 91 years of age in Russia exacly by keeping his mouth shut

[tamada]

judging from the pictures of civilian areas hit either the Russians are doing it for terror purposes or their highly vaunted "precision missiles are crap... It makes me wonder why the Ukrainians haven't gone all out to get their Special Forces up into Belarus to hit those Iskander missile launchers..

I think the Russian claim to 'precision' is another untruth among many.

As for Ukrainian special forces, I recall Zelenskyy claiming whatever ordinance takes a week to come from NATO can easily be used up in 20 hours. I think they have to choose their targets with something other than precision.

Anyway, I would think that some US special forces would do it better. They're doing bugger all else (maybe)?

[rick]

Many of the former communist countries in Eastern Europe back a no fly zone. The rest
Of NATO are more reluctant. They could keep russian planes out but missikes? Not so easy. The west have neglected their mid-long range AA missile defences, they are thin on the ground.

[rick]

So far, Ukraine has killed 4 Russian generals - reckoned to be 20% of that rank involved in the Ukraine war. Such a casualty rate is unusual at that rank. Possibly a result of the failure of their secure communications system and some very good Ukrainian snipers.

[tamada]

The delusion runs deep. Even after getting sacked by Putin, Medvedev toes a pathetic line.

According to the former president, the reason for the ever-growing anti-Russian sentiment is that Moscow has become a strong power in the world, capable of standing up for its interests and protecting its citizens abroad.

https://www.rt.com/russia/552141-medved ... lict-west/

Russia protecting its citizens abroad? I guess he's talking about the Russian-speaking Ukrainians that they gave Russian passports to. The greater and more worldly Russian diaspora probably doesn't expect the Kremlin to lift a finger for them when they're in trouble.

[Earnest]

They jump the queue at Swampy, bad form.

[GT93]

Stickman in his most recent column published this observation from one of his readers:

Pattaya Immigration is currently over-run with Russian and Ukrainian visa extension issues. Most Ukrainians have no access to money. Many Russians are in the same boat and / or have just half the money they used to have. Apparently, there are Russians helping and sympathetic to the Ukrainians, understanding their plight. Apparently the only aggression is between Russians who do not support Putin and Russians who do. I believe all Aeroflot flights are cancelled and with all the air space closed to sanctioning countries, apparently it’s pretty hard to get back to Russia and impossible to get back to Ukraine (possibly a good thing?).

[mak]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWClXZd9c78
One thing Arnold forgot to mention, Yuri was Ukrainian.

[tamada]

It appears that Putin did a Trump-style sports stadium rally in Moscow, chock full of flag waving adulatory crowds.

Before Putin spoke, Russia's stirring national anthem, with the words "Russia is our sacred state" boomed out across the stands of the stadium used in the 2018 Soccer World Cup along with more modern pop hits such as "Made in the U.S.S.R.".

Putin's favourite Russian band, Lyube, sang patriotic songs about war, sacrifice and the honour of those fighting for Russia.

Pan-Slavist poetry by Fyodor Tyutchev, whose verses warned Russians that they would always be considered slaves of the Enlightenment by Europeans, was read out.

Hey Vlad! That schittt didn't work (and still not working) for Donald did it?

https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-hai ... 022-03-18/

[tamada]

When you look at Ukraine and it's historical place in Russia, ie. beyond the very recent history that Putin claims was written by Russians as the only history the Ukraine has, it has been the commercial, Intellectual, educational, scientific, military and agricultural hub of Russia and the whole CIS/USSR/Tsarist Empires that preceded it. I can see why he's reluctant to let it go.

[Khun Paul]

In fact eons ago, what is now Ukraine was called Rusland,,but then the peoples might go back , but the geo=political misfortunes of what is now Ukraine has see-sawed the centuries and in fact only in the last 200 years has Russia had major impact in Ukraine the USSR and only in the last 30 years has it been independent .
HOWEVER Poo-tin hated the breakup of the USSR and seeks to regain controlo over the ex-satellite states and Ukraine was the obvious choice as he fostered and assisted their independence in the first two regions bordering Russia and after he annexed Crimea, it was the obvious choice
However his actions has now made him a pariah and a MASN no longer to be trusted and any outcome will certainly hurt Russia and its progress for decades.

[tamada]

Here's someone trying too hard to read Russian disaffection with the Ukraine invasion. She comments that the cosmonauts suits were "yellow with blue accents" suggesting they were the same colors as the Ukrainian flag. All I can see are three guys in yellow suits with a couple of large Russian flags on them.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... -zelensky/

[tamada]

In the meantime, however, there’s a joke going round pro-Putin circles inside Russia:

Two Russian soldiers are drinking champagne in Russian-occupied Paris, the whole of Europe conquered. “Did you hear?” one smiles to the other. “We lost the information war.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... omerantsev

[mak]

Oops!

[tamada]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... us-ukraine

[mak]

Director of the Russian Central Bank has resigned, two top FSB generals under house arrest. Is the house of cards crumbling from within.

[mak]

A 96-year-old man who survived a string of Nazi concentration camps including Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen has been killed by an explosion during the Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

[mak]

A slow Russian hypersonic missile.
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/lD3A8 ... 2f9a4fb324

[GT93]

Things are going so bad for the Russians perhaps the Germans got it wrong. They should have cut their defence spending.

[pepesgrill]

i keep hearing about these turkish baeraktar drones that are slow & obsolete but wreaking havoc for ukrainaian side. oohh 3x redundancy avionics earnest. pilot , payload, & commander ah