Ukraine-invasion-part-16

[PestorPeston]

Warsaw Russian is letting out a lot of smoke - there has been no decision on who among them will be the next pontiff.

Biden is going there Friday

Is Boris Johnson the designated survivor?

Who the heck let me be in charge?

Finally lavrofs daughter step sanctioned!

Unless it's disinformation on our side .. what a headmess

The truth is so precious it must travel with a bodyguard of lies ..

Meanwhile the UKs obsession with propping up private companies with taxpayers money continues to be shit

www.theregister.com/2022/03/24/ministry_of_defence/

The UK Ministry of Defence has suspended online application and support services for the British Army's Capita-run Defence Recruitment System and confirmed to us that digital intruders compromised some data held on would-be soldiers.

Let's hope the digital intruders weren't hostile.

They're unlikely to be friendly.

@EsmaCannonball

Rolling Stone reporting multiple sources, including US intelligence, claim a wealthy Ukrainian businessmen, Pavel Fuks, was co-opted by the Russians to pay low-level thugs to engage in false flag Nazi activity in Kharkiv in the months before the invasion.

Its also worth keeping an eye on what happens with the Tatars (mainly Muslim, about 15% of the population of Crimea). A lot have been peacefully (emphasis) resisting the Russian occupation/advocating for more autonomy through passive resistance/peaceful protest. Putin's response has been to label them as Islamic extremists* and do what he generally does with protesters- a lot of arrests of community leaders etc. Also a lot of what looks like deliberate goading - markets etc built on graveyards etc. Its not the biggest problem in Ukraine at the moment, but they are extremely vulnerable if e.g. there is a repeat of the Moscow apartment bombings. So whatever any peace treaty decides on the Crimea etc minorities like that need protecting.

*they are not.

Kaitlyn Collins on Twitter (CNN correspondent) - ‘during closed-door session Ukrainian president Zelenskyy appealed to NATO leaders via video call, where he spoke eloquently and asked for more military assistance. he did not repeat his request for the no-fly zone or NATO membership according to a senior US official’

Interesting...

Loving the fact that the Ukrainians knew where the Russian ship they've just destroyed was because Russian state tv showed its position by broadcasting Russian propoganda.

@BringBackCoffeeCreams

Loving the fact that the Ukrainians knew where the Russian ship they've just destroyed was because Russian state tv showed its position by broadcasting Russian propoganda.

"Loose lips sink ships".

That Second World War slogan felt appropriate today.

War ships are staggeringly expensive to build ($870 million according to one Congress budget) and run ($50 million). The best way to reduce the strategic value of the Black Sea docks is to keep blowing the buggers up.

@RedToothBrush

Interesting...

If you watch the video though, the screen he's on flickers out a few times. Looks dodgy

If you watch the video though, the screen he's on flickers out a few times. Looks dodgy

www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/video/holoportation-virtual-3d-teleportation-real-time/

@BringBackCoffeeCreams

Loving the fact that the Ukrainians knew where the Russian ship they've just destroyed was because Russian state tv showed its position by broadcasting Russian propoganda.

lol! that's called shooting yourself in the foot in a Biiiiig way!

It's hard to imagine with Putin's two sidekicks that anything really has gone wrong. If they haven't been seen in public it might be because they are just very busy. Putin's made himself the figurehead of all this and he's the one with the media presence; the others might just be working.

It's hard to think that Putin would discard the only two people he's really worked closely with on this 'Project Flatten Ukraine' with.

On that note, he may not have directly planned this invasion with the army but with all those orders to move to the border they must have been pretty sure what was coming and done some brainstorming off their own bat?

@BringBackCoffeeCreams

Loving the fact that the Ukrainians knew where the Russian ship they've just destroyed was because Russian state tv showed its position by broadcasting Russian propoganda.

Oh the BBC have done worse in the distant past…..(Goose Green, bomb fusing)…..you’d have thought people would have learnt.

As far as that Russian ship goes - very impressive to get pretty much a direct hit first time with the kit claimed to have been used..

As far as that Russian ship goes - very impressive to get pretty much a direct hit first time with the kit claimed to have been used..

I wonder if the rush to make anti- defences means that you have to stop, or lose some capacity for more old-school weaponry ?

It's all very well being able to spot an incoming BigBollocksRocket with ABC, DEF and BFG as well as M&S and Miles at 1,000 kilometers and take it out at twice the speed of a departing oligarch. But it doesn't mean much if you now can't defend against someone lobbing a few grenades from a dingy.

Anyone who has had to scratch around for a 5.25 floppy drive would get my drift.

(daydreams about crowdfunding a ballista ....)

talking about old fashioned weopons, I mildly wonder if crossbows have any place in the sort of warfare that the Ukrainians are undertaking in block-to-block fighting. Fast, relatively silent.

Also this may be super daft idea but a military Brit who'd been in the far east at the time of the Vietnam war told me a few tales. One of them involved Ghurkas who sounded absolutely bloody deadly. Would there be a role for them?

[quote namitynamechange]@notimagain Fair enough (also I realised I wrote singer which is technically neither an anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapon but very useful for sewing curtains/heavy fabric. Unless you threw it hard enough). I think I was thinking of NLaws. But at the very least, spending millions on tanks/super flashy weapons has been proved completely useless if you don't also spend money on logistics, decent tyres. maintenance.[/quote]
In this war, with a mobile force against a monolithic army and Russia is still in control of huge areas of Ukraine.

Should Russia prevail and then head into Latvia etc, we will need to control the ground and push them back in to Russia or better still deter them from attacking in the first place.

I guess it comes down to Do you believe a former journalist or the Commons defence committee 'chair? (with combat experience) one i might add, who wanted to put 40,000 troops in Ukraine pre invasion.... had we done that, its possible Russia would never have invaded (i do accept its an unknown too)

It's hard to imagine with Putin's two sidekicks that anything really has gone wrong

Russian history is littered with bodies of sidekicks gone wrong in their kicking, literally and figuratively speaking.

talking about old fashioned weapons, I mildly wonder if crossbows have any place in the sort of warfare that the Ukrainians are undertaking in block-to-block fighting. Fast, relatively silent.

No muzzle flash either. Ammo might be hard to source. But then again much easier to make than hi-velocity jacketed bullets.

I can't help but feel if the Ukrainians had bought up our old Harriers, they'd be laughing now. A plane that doesn't need a runway ?

two nice bits:

Victor Kovalenko
@MrKovalenko
·
7m
The #Russian #arms plant "Vympel", which produces aircraft #missiles & #bombs, stopped production due to absence of foreign components. In last 2 weeks, more than 20 Russian arms plants, incl. #tanks making "UralVagonZavod", stopped working due to #sanctions - Gen.Staff of UAF.

and

Jack Detsch
@JackDetsch
NEW: Russia is now “likely” to deploy MORE conscript and reserve troops to Ukraine as well as mercenaries and private military contractors to replace “thousands of casualties” suffered in a month of war: British Defense Intelligence assessment

It is not clear how Russia plans to integrate these new forces into existing units in Ukraine or what impact they will have on 🇷🇺 combat effectiveness, UK defense intelligence said.

US defense officials said this week that 🇷🇺 combat power in 🇺🇦 dropped below 90% for 1st time

@DGRossetti

It really is possible to completely hide who are the real beneficial owners of UK property

Private Eye has been following this for years. As I understand it there is still no central complete register of who owns what in England. And a lot of land is held in trust (which is how the landed gentry swerve inheritance tax). And just knowing the names of the trusts doesn't automatically link to the trustees or beneficiaries.

And (naturally) trusts can own trusts, and trusts can own companies, and companies can own trusts.

There was also a book published about this last year I think- Who Owns England?

Disclaimer, I haven't read it but I remember seeing some articles about it and I believe the author is supposed to have done a lot of digging (though very much with a left wing, Friends of the Earth, reclaim our land perspective so not unbiased)

Just saw this on Twitter:

North Korea has fired a possible intercontinental ballistic missile into the waters west of Japan, Tokyo's vice defense minister says

Just what we need! Another madman firing these.

NEW: Russia is now “likely” to deploy MORE conscript and reserve troops to Ukraine as well as mercenaries and private military contractors to replace “thousands of casualties” suffered in a month of war: British Defence Intelligence assessment

I wonder if we could crowdfund a Western mercenary army ? Or more mischievously outbid whatever Putin is paying them ? Especially if we pay in dollars not roubles.

Generally I have mixed feelings about mercenaries - while it's far more sensible to fight for money than something as vague as "country" - it's not really a good reflection on people choosing a career of violence.

@AgnesWestern

Just saw this on Twitter:

North Korea has fired a possible intercontinental ballistic missile into the waters west of Japan, Tokyo's vice defense minister says

Just what we need! Another madman firing these.

The carnage amongst sea life must be horrific.