What is weapon equivalency? Like 10 tank destroying javelins from Ukraine equal to 2 cruise missiles from Russia kinda thing. I’d like to hear about them drones US gave fucking shit up

3/27/2022 1:27:51 AM

These ceasefire negotiations in Turkey are tricky. Obviously Ukraine has tons of incentive to halt the fighting as soon as possible, but they've got to be concerned that Russia is going to use any time between a ceasefire and a finalized agreement/withdrawal to reinforce and reorganize its forces for a new push. Right now Ukraine has the initiative on several fronts, and they lose that if they pause fighting; on the other hand, they've got a much smaller pool of manpower and resources getting chewed up, and it may be more important to stop the losses than retain the momentum.

I smell a trap, but not sure they have any choice.

3/29/2022 2:11:26 PM

Looks like an ammo dump may have blown up in Belgorod, Russia. Shame.

3/29/2022 2:40:47 PM

Probably those evil Ukrainian Nationalists!

3/29/2022 6:51:39 PM

https://twitter.com/mrkovalenko/status/1509278005469847574

Quote :

"Seven busses packed with Russian soldiers suffering from Acute Radiation Syndrome arrived to #Belarus from the #Ukrainian #Chernobyl exclusion zone. Source: member of public council of state #Ukraine agency of exclusion zone Yaroslav Yemelyanenko via Unian news agency."

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/

Quote :

"Russian soldiers who seized the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster drove their armoured vehicles without radiation protection through a highly toxic zone called the 'Red Forest,' kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, workers at the site said."

Quote :

"The site got its name when dozens of square kilometres of pine trees turned red after absorbing radiation from the 1986 explosion, one of the world's worst nuclear disasters. A vast area around Chernobyl is off limits to anyone who does not work there or have special permission, but the Red Forest is considered so highly contaminated that even the nuclear plant workers are not allowed to go there. The Russian military convoy went through the zone, the two employees said. One of them said it used an abandoned road."

Quote :

"In the weeks the two plant employees were sharing the complex with Russian troops, they also said they saw none of them using any gear that would protect them from radiation. Specialists from the Russian military who are trained in dealing with radiation did not arrive at the site until about a week after Russian troops arrived, the workers said. They said the Russian specialists did not wear protective gear either. One of the employees said he had spoken to some of the rank-and-file Russian soldiers at the plant. 'When they were asked if they knew about the 1986 catastrophe, the explosion of the fourth block (of the Chernobyl plant), they did not have a clue. They had no idea what kind of a facility they were at,' he said. 'We talked to regular soldiers. All we heard from them was 'It's critically important infrastructure'. That was it,' the man said."

3/31/2022 9:00:50 AM

Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of folks

3/31/2022 9:10:52 AM

Stupid and sad at the same time. Most of the soldiers didn't even know about the accident. Censorship really works. WTF is wrong with Russia?

3/31/2022 1:53:30 PM

Censorship in a huge problem in Russia and China...shocking.

3/31/2022 2:15:39 PM

I would think there's enough road signs and warning signs around that they'd realize they were at chernobyl...

3/31/2022 2:31:40 PM

I think you mean at a critically important infrastructure site.

3/31/2022 3:16:06 PM

Ukraine blew up a fuel depot in Russia borders, with 2 helicopters

This was their first successful attempt it looks like with reaching into Russia. This could hopefully give them more leverage in negotiations, or piss Russia off even more, but interesting development…

4/1/2022 1:26:09 AM

Clearly Russia is a lost cause, they should surrender immediately and hope for the best. /s

4/1/2022 8:12:50 AM

They're a screwed up country, at least.

4/1/2022 9:48:33 AM

^^^It's lovely how Russia is whining like they're the victims there.

4/1/2022 10:16:45 AM

VICTIMS OF NATO IMPERIALIST EXPANSION!!!!!!!

4/1/2022 10:33:06 AM

pretty ballsy little raid by the Ukrainians... although i assume they already had the mi-24 in their inventory it would be funny if these were stolen.

4/1/2022 11:31:35 AM

The Kremlin's comment on the destroyed fuel depot:

Quote :

"Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks"

lol

4/1/2022 11:33:37 AM

https://twitter.com/MotolkoHelp/status/1509915151562063882?t=z3BBrvetXak3V8uWCFDTjg&s=09

Those damn, dirty Belarusians!

4/1/2022 11:48:39 AM

There's some great twitter threads explaining very easy, simple things you can do to slow down a rail network without needing any special skills or much in the way of equipment or time. These get translated and distributed, to the extent possible, to Russia and Belarus for...educational purposes.

4/1/2022 4:07:20 PM

Lots of images and video of dead bodies in ukraine

Pretty horrific but Almost feels like a coordinated release as a propaganda effort. Assuming it’s all real, it definitely doesn’t seem like Europe should be buying any oil or gas from russia funding all this.

4/3/2022 10:25:10 PM

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/04/06/russia-trenches-chernobyl-radioactive-red-forest-vpx.cnn

4/7/2022 6:04:50 AM

Interesting thread

Quote :

"As a Russian-speaking person of color who was born and raised in Ukraine, I believe that I am in a position to speak on the issue of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine. A long thread ??"

Quote :

"We hear about it a lot. What we hear less about is how much Ukraine has improved in recent years. Ukrainians have elected a president whose campaign was based on unity across identities. And this president is of Jewish descent."

https://twitter.com/mariamposts/status/1511995713135443969?t=002EUqZhTxETnrXIP-Adtw&s=19

4/7/2022 6:38:15 PM

Quote :

"Is Ukraine an ideal country without racism? No. Does the Ukrainian far-right have political prospects? No. Is Russia an ideal country without racism as they imply? No. Does the Russian far-right have political prospects? It already is a fascist state."

yeah, but we already knew this...

4/7/2022 6:52:15 PM

Luckily she a) wrote like 15 other tweets not just that one, and b) didn't address it directly to you

4/7/2022 6:56:46 PM

You said it was interesting, so I read it? :shrug:

4/7/2022 7:10:08 PM

Quote :

"Lots of images and video of dead bodies in ukraine Pretty horrific but Almost feels like a coordinated release as a propaganda effort. Assuming it’s all real [...]"

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/germany-intercepts-russian-conversations-on-indiscriminate-killings-in-ukraine/

Quote :

"Germany’s foreign intelligence service claims to have intercepted radio communications in which Russian soldiers discuss carrying out indiscriminate killings in Ukraine. In two separate communications, Russian soldiers described questioning Ukrainian soldiers as well as civilians and then shooting them, according to an intelligence official familiar with the findings who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. The findings, first reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel and confirmed by three people briefed on the information, further undermine Russia’s denials of involvement in the carnage. Russia has claimed variously that atrocities are being carried out only after its soldiers leave occupied areas or that scenes of massacres of civilians are “staged.” [...] Germany has satellite images that point to Russia’s involvement in the killing of civilians in Bucha, the intelligence official said, but the radio transmissions have not been linked to that location. The foreign intelligence agency, known as the BND, may be able to match signals intelligence with videos and satellite images to make connections to specific killings, two people said."

4/7/2022 7:24:06 PM

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/magazine/trump-putin-ukraine-fiona-hill.html

Really good article that traces out events starting in the last months of Bush admin. Makes it really clear to me that putin was going to takeover ukraine regardless and he got lucky that trump was so willing to let him have it.

4/11/2022 2:15:08 PM

daaave: "Russia is a country full of Nazis!"

4/11/2022 9:52:02 PM

STOP AGGRESSIVELY ATTACKING HIM TT10

4/13/2022 8:46:54 AM

I vividly remember Madison Cawthorn, sometime in early January, gushing that Putin’s hypersonic missiles would sink the American navy “to the bottom of the Black Sea.” Like he was almost giddy at the possibility.

Now the Ukrainians have sunk a Russian flagship using Ukrainian upfitted and manufactured subsonic cruise missiles.

Watching the right wing’s Putin boners go limp is glorious.

4/14/2022 12:08:34 PM

https://youtu.be/dVYa-VbIeDY

4/14/2022 4:50:57 PM

Got 'em!

^^And GG!

4/14/2022 6:00:04 PM

https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html?m=1

4/20/2022 10:52:23 PM

apparently the Russians gathered 50 senior officers together in a command post near their front lines, and the Ukrainians shelled it all to hell and back. Sounds like they likely killed 2 more generals. I think that would be a total of TEN now.

(I wouldn't be surprised if we tipped them off. I read we passed them location data for the Moskva, too. I wouldn't be totally shocked if, in addition to providing intel, we are covertly attacking Russian C4 via cyber capabilities or maybe even EW.

4/25/2022 1:44:08 AM

We should double those capabilities. And then triple them.

4/25/2022 2:44:56 AM

Got 'em!

4/25/2022 6:36:45 AM

Well, maybe. Any reporting to back this up?

4/25/2022 9:49:02 AM

We are absolutely providing Intel for the Ukrainians. Kirby (Pentagon's spox) has said we talk to them daily, what else do you think they're talking about?

4/25/2022 10:39:30 AM

^ duh...but I'm saying I wonder if that strike had our intel behind it.

^^ i haven't seen any from a reliable source that i'm familiar with.

4/25/2022 11:37:43 PM

https://thehill.com/news/house/3469582-four-republicans-four-democrats-vote-no-on-bill-urging-biden-to-confiscate-assets-from-sanctioned-oligarchs/

4/28/2022 10:34:57 AM

Any hot takes on Russia's increasing threats against NATO, Europe, and the US?

Bluster?

Tough talk for domestic audiences?

Draw larger powers into direct conflict and sideline Ukraine during negotiated peace talks?

4/30/2022 4:34:54 PM

^^

Quote :

"Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) voted against the bill."

LOL! What a team!

4/30/2022 5:45:20 PM

Horseshoe theory is real. Turns out the squad just hates American billionaires, not Russian ones.

5/1/2022 3:14:17 PM

yeah, and more so now than in any recent history, with the rise of populism (yuck) on both sides.

a couple of friends and i have talked about how dipshit MAGAs are way closer to Occupy douchebags & AOC/Bernie types than any of them are self-aware enough to see themselves. I didn't know there was any sort of developed theory or poli-sci name for it, though.

5/1/2022 4:08:52 PM

I guess this bombing the meeting of Russian generals near the front never materialized?

5/1/2022 4:15:03 PM

i don't know if I'd say that. I'd say it hasn't been confirmed by anyone except the Ukrainian government and a bunch of no-name outlets who are probably just parroting the Ukrainian statements.

That said, one of the 2 generals the Ukrainians claimed to have killed there has been confirmed killed by a "Western security source", according to Wikipedia.

I mean, that's all still pretty tenuous, but I'd still view it in the "unconfirmed" rather than "bullshit and/or propaganda" category.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Rezantsev

5/1/2022 4:26:32 PM

Quote :

"Any hot takes on Russia's increasing threats against NATO, Europe, and the US? Bluster? Tough talk for domestic audiences? Draw larger powers into direct conflict and sideline Ukraine during negotiated peace talks?"

Bluster. Hoping that it will ratchet down the material support for Ukraine a little bit.

He'd be insane to want to draw in "larger powers," which inevitably means the whole NATO bloc. Even taking the nuclear risk out of the equation, it'd be suicidal. NATO probably can't invade, occupy, and defeat Russia in the traditional sense, but it can destroy their ability to wage war for the next several decades. It can cause damage that would reduce its economy to something that would make the 1990s look like the roaring 20s. It can probably find someone to effect regime change and bring the war to a quick end. Russia can't do that to anybody with with conventional warfare. At the end of such a conflict, any such peace would see Ukraine restored to at least pre-2014 borders, whereas now I think Russia has a reasonable chance of at least gaining recognition of Crimea and maybe Donbas.

5/2/2022 12:13:50 PM

Finland and Sweden are basically assured to join NATO at this point. I guess Russia is now justified to attack them right daaaaaaaaaaaaaave?

5/12/2022 9:17:15 AM

Putin mad.

5/12/2022 3:32:41 PM

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/uo751i

Russia is taking some insane losses with no real way to replenish at scale.

5/12/2022 8:13:59 PM