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?

Thanks for thread.

www.reuters.com/world/russias-ambassador-indonesia-says-putin-plans-attend-g20-summit-2022-03-23/

JAKARTA, March 23 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend a G20 summit being hosted by Indonesia later this year, Russia's ambassador in Jakarta said on Wednesday, following calls by some members for the country to be barred from the group.

"Not only G20, many organisations are trying to expel Russia....the reaction of the West is absolutely disproportional," ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva told a news conference on Wednesday.

Staggering. What news are they watching in Indonesia right now?

Temperatures are not uniformly that low, not even at night, and not recently.

You can get hypothermia above freezing point, but not frostbite.

They'll just be doing as they're told by the Russian leadership and following the line that news of an unwanted Russian invasion is anti-Russian propaganda.

Radio 4 are running a series on Putin, managed to catch a little bit of it yesterday.

That's good of you to take them in (though yes, unfortunate word!). Do they get access to specialised help for refugees like help with registering at a GP and benefits or language courses or anything like that?

in haste - getting them registered at the council today. when they have done that they can set up a bank account at a bank here that's supporting refugees, Bunq, register with a GP and so on. Really I wish we could get them a good PC for graphic design as that's what they do, so they can work again, but it's way out of budge.

@WeAreTheHeroes I registered with a small but well thought of organisation as I was a bit nervous of Facebook. They app'd me and we took it from there, with the agreement that if it wasn't working out that they would rehouse them. But they seem to be lovely! Just so so worried.

flies off

@ljsbear - could you crowdfund for that equipment? You might achieve it by lunchtime.

Thanks for new thread

@TiddyTidTwo

Ah! Here we are. Thank you for the new thread

This MN thread keeps me grounded. I'm am ex military and "hawkish" and I'm feeling very angry and frustrated.

Btw I have volunteered for Nowzad to drive medical supplies to Poland for the animals in Ukraine. Waiting to hear back! As ex Royal Anglian RLC I need to do something. Already donated money to the Red Cross. DH also class 1 HGV and volunteered too.

I need to do something but I'm nearly 50!

That's brilliant Good luck with it. I'm a Nowzad fan too.

[quote TargusEasting]@ljsbear - could you crowdfund for that equipment? You might achieve it by lunchtime.[/quote]
That is a really good idea.

US should advocate for an EU defence force. I wonder if this is one of the things that might come out of Biden's visit: twitter.com/maxbergmann/status/1506385233410760713?s=21

@TiddyTidTwo - fingers crossed for Nowzad volunteering

@mpsw

I don't think the claims of frostbite can be true, as temperatures have consistently been several degrees above zero

And that undermines all the rest.

freemeteo.co.uk/mobile/weather/Nikolaev/history/daily-history/?gid=9037494&station=7662&date=2022-03-12&language=english&country=ukraine

It has been cold enough. I can only find historic data until 12th March. It was down to -9C.

It might have been better since then, but its unlikely to have been warm overnight either...

Nikolaev is an alternative name for Mykolaiv which is the area the reports relate to.

It is a credible bit of information which you can verify the data for to back up the possibility its true.

russians with frostbite
just propaganda
i am sure they not the only ones with frostbite.

Ukrainians are starving and dying

I remember Army exercises in Germany which would be cancelled when cases of frostbite in the feet became too prevalent. Prolonged exposure to snow in inadequate boots will cause frostbite. Forget quibbling about temperatures.
I don't understand why Putin kicked off in February for just this reason. May with the whole of summer ahead would have avoided these problems.
He really doesn't care about his own troops, let alone the Ukrainians.

[quote BringBackCoffeeCreams]Former Ukrainian president not happy about De Spaffle's comments equating brexit to the war in Ukraine.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/watch-former-ukrainian-president-has-a-message-for-johnson-following-brexit-remarks-317074/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=sfeu&fbclid=IwAR3F3aOlX-5B3O0NYoBy9qkjr4_M7GHMp-nNgkd6dUtj4azCWsAjOk28mb4[/quote]
...and why he isn't being invited to the EU defence summit, possibly the most insulting statement he could have pssibly made.

UK would be of great benefit to an EU force (and for us too) but can't really be in an EU force if not in the EU ? again, Putin plays the long game.

Trump or similar may well be back in the WH in 2024 and commitment to NATO isn't great

UK would be of great benefit to an EU force (and for us too) but can't really be in an EU force if not in the EU ? again, Putin plays the long game.

Can you believe it, for a minute I forgot we weren't in the EU anymore. What a clusterfuck

I don't understand why Putin kicked off in February

I understand it isn’t a good time to launch a campaign in that part of the world. He can’t have done much consulting with the military beforehand.

@KonTikki

I remember Army exercises in Germany which would be cancelled when cases of frostbite in the feet became too prevalent. Prolonged exposure to snow in inadequate boots will cause frostbite. Forget quibbling about temperatures. I don't understand why Putin kicked off in February for just this reason. May with the whole of summer ahead would have avoided these problems. He really doesn't care about his own troops, let alone the Ukrainians.

He needed water into Crimea by this summer at the latest.

I think to some extent whether the conditions have been such that X% had frostbite is slightly missing the point.

Some posters (not usually the regulars) have been very quick to leap in and claim there’s nothing that is written here is of much value since we are all apparently “randoms on the internet” all with the same level of expertise on the subject..

OTOH for some unfathomable reason a tweet seems to be automatically regarded as being somewhat more reliable/be more credible.

The reality is you need look really hard at the originator and then apply suitable weighting and even then given a former SACEUR’s wild speculation labeled as fact yesterday you need to be careful.

There also seems to be a tendency in some quarters to assume anything out of Moscow is a pack of lies, whereas anything that originates in a Kiev/the west can be taken completely at face value…,

Both sides are playing the infowar/dealing in propaganda so it’s worth looking at any tweet Russian or “friendly” with your sceptical or BS filters in place.

I don't understand why Putin kicked off in February

Apparently (a)he was asked by China to wait until the Olympics were over,
(b) dry frost is easier for the heavy machinery, (c) he probably thought/was told it would be all over in a matter of days.

Now he is probably getting antsy, because the May holidays are approaching and there is no end in sign, and it will be huge humiliation if this mess isn't sorted by then.

Completely agree with notimagain's previous post. Truth is always the first casualty of a war. I spent some in a country where I learned not to take anything at face value.

@notimagain Very difficult to find a way through the propaganda, all sides will portray themselves in the best possible light or not, depending on the objective.

But the reality is, Russia can produce dumb weapons at an alarming rate and has a huge number of troops to call upon, it is also slowly advancing on Odesa and that is something we really do need to stop, the 100s trapped in that theatre in Mariupol are still there and are dying of starvation.

Russia saying it wont rule out Nukes is no surprise, would the UK or US say under no circumstances we wouldn't use them either?

NGO's in Poland are saying its taking days per refugee to process people who want to come to UK, with a 9 page form demanding things like mortgage deeds work records etc etc its almost as if we don't want them to come here at all.....

Very difficult to find a way through the propaganda, all sides will portray themselves in the best possible light or not, depending on the objective.

The way to find your way through the propaganda of the old USSR/DDR media was to look not for what's there, but for what's missing.

Modern propaganda is of course more sophisticated.