Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

WeePat said:
But do NATO even want to have Ukraine among its members? Isn't one of the stipulations for NATO membership that a country must not have any territorial disputes which, considering Russia annexed Crimea, is up for debate, so are they even eligible? And are the allied nations even wiling to set up a defence for Ukraine? Is it possible that this Russian invasion provoked by an idea (Ukraine joining NATO) that isn't likely to ever happen to begin with?
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I'm by no means well in formed on the subject but it's possible NATO has been stalling on Ukraine's admittance to NATO under the misguided idea of not provoking Russia.
 
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Paxi said:


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Watching this feels like footage from a too-close-to-reality Call of Duty 2022 release. So hard to believe this is all real. You go into a work meeting for an hour, then come back and think you have imagine it all, but no, alas.
 
Sweden and Finland (not part of NATO) will participate in the NATO summit tomorrow.

Swedish leader says no plans to join NATO though.
 
adexkola said:
I've not read her books, only her articles. And I'd disagree with your first sentence; if you advocate overly aggressive actions that will likely spark war then you're a warmonger (to a lesser extent). And she's not talking about Ukraine taking measures to protect itself; this is about the US and NATO not being forceful enough in her opinion.
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But war started in 2014 and the events of recent days have been coming for years. Passivity from the West and NATO has not stopped Putin. If anything, it has emboldened him to continue a long-term plan.

The (former?) German minister's tweets earlier said it all. Unless you have the weapons, soldiers and rhetoric to act as a deterrent, you embolden a dictatorship to attack abroad.
 
marktan said:
Would it? Russia accounts for 15% of global energy production, I'm sure we could all cut back 20% of our energy use in our lives.

Energy makes up 40% of Russia's economy and 60% of exports, if they do that then they're screwed financially. There's nothing like an economic crisis to enact populist change and get a country to sort it's shit out.
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I am not sure which country you live in but people would rather the whole world burn before they do that.

Secondly Europe and US will get their energy from somewhere, it is the poorer countries who will suffer, probably by taking out all grandma's off the ventilators.
 
DickDastardly said:
Quite unbeliveable.

They're just filming them?
I know they're reporters but feck me, that's too close.

What if they shoot at them?
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Chance spoke to the Russian commander, who gave him permission to film.

The interesting bit being that the Russian government are very strict on filming within Russia so they can control the narrative among domestic Russians, but are more than delighted to allow western journos to film them once they take Ukrainian territory because they know it will be widely seen by Ukrainians and global viewers.
 
VorZakone said:
Damn, CNN got some surreal footage.


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Why are the Russian military allowing what they view as a hostile media company to calmly record them? Surreal.

Raoul said:
Chance spoke to the Russian commander, who gave him permission to film.
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Why? How do Russians think it helps them. Always thought Putin's idea was to eliminate dissenting voices (usually meaning Western media) in war.
 
The sound of these firefights remind me of cartel vs military videos from Mexico. Fecking hell.

 
Yeah.

Like someone mentioned, this all looks surreal. Like a cod 2022 edition of something.

Part of me thinks this is all staged and everyone is in on everything.

Elaborate con scheme.
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
Why are the Russian military allowing what they view as a hostile media company to calmly record them? Surreal.


Why? How do Russians think it helps them. Always thought Putin's idea was to eliminate dissenting voices (usually meaning Western media) in war.
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I think since they’re there “officially”, unlike their presence in Donbass during previous years of conflicts, it doesn’t hurt their image (I mean, the fact that they’ve secured that airport compared to the global fact of the invasion).

Although who knows. Shooting at an international reporter would be worse for PR though.
 

Feck off. Serious situation not one for you to flap your cock around with 13yo memes. (And there’s no evidence yet he can)

Paxi said:
Could have been me fighting against Ukrainians. I left Russia as a child. I joined British military because I was always looking to do something like that and thus I would have almost certainly joined Russian military in another life.

I’m totally anti-war now by the way. It’s horrible stuff all around but it’s the world we live in.
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Similar but different story. Could have been Israeli military. Had to renounce citizenship to get navy clearance and not do national service there.

Not fully anti war. When you see babies nailed to walls and boats full of slaves in the 21st century, you realise somebody has to do it. Couldn’t go back to it myself though. Unless a tyrant like Putin invaded my homeland; then I’d fight.
 
harms said:
I think since they’re there “officially”, unlike their presence in Donbass during previous years of conflicts, it doesn’t hurt their image (I mean, the fact that they’ve secured that airport compared to the global fact of the invasion).

Although who knows. Shooting at an international reporter would be worse for PR though.
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Besides, all these dudes are probably extremely focused right now. Would be a waste to spend time getting rid of reporters.
 
@VorZakone do we have reliable intel on what’s actually happening and where?

I know about the air strikes and push from the east, and the northern push trying to flank kiev.

are the stories that he’s taken Odessa and Mariupol true?
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
Why are the Russian military allowing what they view as a hostile media company to calmly record them? Surreal.


Why? How do Russians think it helps them. Always thought Putin's idea was to eliminate dissenting voices (usually meaning Western media) in war.
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I assume for various reasons they want to put forward the idea that they're winning. In which case allowing footage of them controlling key locations to be circulated makes sense?
 
Raoul said:
It also shows that the pro-Russian narrative that NATO expansion was the problem was a big lie, when the problem all along, has been the corrupt, megalomanical Russian dictator with delusions of neo-imperialist conquest.
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I really don’t know how this wasn’t obvious to people. Few examples of them in this thread.
 
owlo said:
@VorZakone do we have reliable intel on what’s actually happening and where?

I know about the air strikes and push from the east, and the northern push trying to flank kiev.

are the stories that he’s taken Odessa and Mariupol true?
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Apparently heavy fighting at Kharkov but the south of Ukraine has basically been controlled by Russian forces. No significant news from Odessa/Mariupol as far as I can tell.

This is all happening live, new reports are constantly coming in.
 
owlo said:
Feck off. Serious situation not one for you to flap your cock around with 13yo memes. (And there’s no evidence yet he can)
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Don't be a dick. If you make a prediction dismissing other people's opinions, and then your prediction proves to be false, expect to be called on it.
 
harms said:
I think since they’re there “officially”, unlike their presence in Donbass during previous years of conflicts, it doesn’t hurt their image (I mean, the fact that they’ve secured that airport compared to the global fact of the invasion).

Although who knows. Shooting at an international reporter would be worse for PR though.
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Yeah.

Is there any good source for an accurate picture of where everything stands in terms of Russian movement? Will be uncertainty, because it's war, but if CNN are on the ground I'm expecting a relatively clear picture of where it all stands.
 
VorZakone said:
Damn, CNN got some surreal footage.


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Always boggles my mind that the man in this video and people that make up nonsense transfer rumours in the back pages of The Sun share the same profession
 
I am surprised at the incompetency of the Russians. I thought with their fire power they would have already done what they wanted? Even in Mariapol the Ukrainians are holding the Russians back.
The lunatics had taken over the asylum. Trump, Putin, Xii, Erdogan, BoJo and Biden.
 
Foxbatt said:
I am surprised at the incompetency of the Russians. I thought with their fire power they would have already done what they wanted? Even in Mariapol the Ukrainians are holding the Russians back.
The lunatics had taken over the asylum. Trump, Putin, Xii, Erdogan, BoJo and Biden.
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Ukraine is a massive country, you can give them more than 24 hours.
 
Vitro said:
I really don’t know how this wasn’t obvious to people. Few examples of them in this thread.
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With the qualification that it was never a pro-Russian argument (it was a historical/contextual qualification made by people in the US State Department who were/are responsible for Soviet/Russian containment). Anyway, not risking a derail again. Just want updates now.
 
Foxbatt said:
I am surprised at the incompetency of the Russians. I thought with their fire power they would have already done what they wanted? Even in Mariapol the Ukrainians are holding the Russians back.
The lunatics had taken over the asylum. Trump, Putin, Xii, Erdogan, BoJo and Biden.
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They are put/kept in place by "the people", well most of them...
 
JPRouve said:
Ukraine is a massive country, you can give them more than 24 hours.
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They are a country of 44 million people that have something to fight for, and are apparently quite well equipped too. It won’t be a walkover for Russia by any means.
 
Lets be somewhat realistic here. There is no actual threat towards Russia, it’s 2022, there hasn’t been an actual threat for quite some fecking time. It’s not like any western country actually wants to invade Russia, a full scale world war is also completely out of the picture. What the vast majority of countries want is a well functioning world with democracy and trade deals, where people can freely move between countries for work and holiday. Putin painting western society as a major threat towards Russias future, pretending that a global war is on the steps, is bizarre from a realistic point of view. Ideally, change would from within, but considering how long Putin has managed to stay in control, handing out billions to a closed circle and pretty much stomping down anyone simply thinking about challenging him, change isn’t exactly round the corner. It is quite honestly a bizarre country.
 
They really need to get the footages of women, children and elderly in the aftermath of the bombings to the Russian citizens. I suspect its like North Korea over there, with the Kremlin drip feeding them controlled information about the "operation" in Ukraine.
 
Important to have a bit of scale when overlaying graphics on maps. Ukraine is a massive place.

 
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