Ukraine Invasion: Part 17

[MagicFox]

A new place for us to convene, thread 17.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/retreating-russian-troops-leaving-chernobyl-26596437
Russian troops leaving Chernobyl nuclear site 'have acute radiation sickness'

The Pentagon has said that Russian troops are leaving the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine, where fighting led to workers forced to work around the clock to prevent any further meltdowns

Russian troops leaving the Chernobyl nuclear site have 'acute radiation sickness', it has been claimed.

The Pentagon confirmed Russian troops were pulling out of the irradiated nuclear wasteland, but an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management said they were running away "irradiated".

He said they were being transported by the bus load to a special radiation medical centre in Gomel, Belarus to help treat their radioactive poisoning.

and

He went onto quote a Belarusian TV channel which said "about 7 medical PAZs arrived at the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology.

"The photo shows that people are visible in cars. Let's note that Russian soldiers are brought to this centre on a regular basis"

Could this be the real reason for the 'removal of troops from around the Kyiv area'?

Could this be the real reason for the 'removal of troops from around the Kyiv area'?

It only explains the possible withdrawal of that fraction that went through the Chernobyl site.

Thought elsewhere is the Russian troops on the ground around the Chernobyl site itself may inhaled a lot of the nasty stuff..and that’s distinctly unhealthy given some of what is there.

They may have disturbed top soil whilst digging in during the action or it got thrown up into the air by vehicles moving over contaminated top soil…

news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-mobile-networks-being-weaponised-to-target-troops-on-both-sides-of-conflict-12577595
Ukraine war: Mobile networks being weaponised to target troops on both sides of conflict

Electronic warfare is playing a prominent role in the fighting in Ukraine and it might help explain some of Russia's military tactics.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60938538
French intelligence chief Vidaud fired over Russian war failings

The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, is losing his job after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine, reports say.

Seven months after he took on the role, one report said he was blamed for "inadequate briefings" and a "lack of mastery of subjects".

The US correctly assessed that Russia was planning a large-scale invasion, while France concluded it was unlikely.

Gen Vidaud was blamed for that by France's military chief, a source said.

However, the military source told AFP news agency that his job was to provide "military intelligence on operations, not on premeditation". As Gen Vidaud's service concluded that Russia had the means to invade Ukraine, the source said that "what happened proves him right".

Early in March the head of French armed forces, Gen Thierry Burkhard acknowledged that French intelligence had not been up to the level of its US or UK briefings, which were publicised to pile pressure on Russia's Vladimir Putin. "The Americans said that the Russians were going to attack, they were right," he told Le Monde newspaper.

I strongly suspect that the message that Putin's advisors are hiding things from him has a target audience of one person.

Same technique by different actors was frequently used on Trump.

Carl Bildt @carlbildt
The Russian navy is currently blocking more than 90 civilian ships from accessing ports in the Black Sea. They seek to transport grain and other good products to nations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Some ships have even been shelled.

Max Fras @maxfras
2022 Ukrainian vocabulary:

(to) MACRONISE (verb) - displaying visible signs of concern about a particular situation (and making sure everyone sees how truly worried you are), but not actually doing anything about it

Ouch.

Wojciech Konończuk @W_Kononczuk Mar 30
Poland's PM has just announced a complete stop of Russian energy imports:
no Russian coal in April/May
no Russian oil from December "at the latest"
no Russian gas from December

In 2020 Poland spent $13.5 bn on Russian energy resources.

PM also called the EU for imposing a new tax on Russian oil & gas.

Lucy Fisher @LOS_Fisher

BREAKING: Britain announces 14 new sanctions on Russian propagandists and state media

Newly blacklisted are:

• the Butcher of Mariupol Col-Gen Mikhail Mizintsev

• Russian propagandist Sergey Brilev

• Kremlin funded TV-Novosti, which owns RT are blacklisted

@Confusedmonkey Airbnb were contributing towards the cost of accomodation for refugees. You could check them out.

@strawberriesarenot

If Putin wanted to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on Kyiv he would surely be moving his troops back in this way.

This had crossed my mind.

@RedToothBrush Ljsbear, Kamil Galeev did a thread about the tiktok gnome and why he was important to the war effort (propaganda basically) to legitimise and glorify it. He also gives it a face of credibility because of how westerners like elon musk have interacted with him. As a solider hes crap. But as a pr agent hes fantastic

Ty. I can't help thinking that he's basically a medieval peacock, with all the nasty habits of some of those despots.

Hacking and ransomware groups have pledged allegiance to both sides. This makes things very complicated and in some ways beyond the control of governments

That's very interesting for implications for future warfare too. )It isn't just one country waging war on another now, it's a whole pile of third-parties getting involved who aren't under anyone's control.

@RedToothBrush

Carl Bildt *@carlbildt* The Russian navy is currently blocking more than 90 civilian ships from accessing ports in the Black Sea. They seek to transport grain and other good products to nations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Some ships have even been shelled.

Not good geopolitics. Egypt, Turkey and Iran (amongst others) have been notably quiet about the war, partly due to their reliance on imported grain. If Russia is cutting off the supply, they are alienating their supporters for no good reason.

The longer this war goes on, the more it looks like the ritual suicide of the Russia state.

(Ps, this is very small but it's ijsbear actually, 'icebear', named for winter swimming habits)

Reuters @Reuters
Russia drafts 134,500 conscripts but says they won't go to Ukraine

DAILY SABAH @DailySabah
Turkey can be one of guarantor countries for Ukraine’s security, we look at this positively in principle; but of course the details of this need to be clarified, President Erdoğan says

@RedToothBrush

Wojciech Konończuk *@W*_Kononczuk Mar 30 Poland's PM has just announced a complete stop of Russian energy imports: no Russian coal in April/May no Russian oil from December "at the latest" no Russian gas from December

In 2020 Poland spent $13.5 bn on Russian energy resources.

PM also called the EU for imposing a new tax on Russian oil & gas.

This got me thinking about that NYT article upthread; that says Putin is actually after Ukraine's gas deposits. If it were not for his own essays and past actions (reuniting the USSR), I would believe it as most of Russia reserve gas supplies appear to be in the Artic and therefore economically unviable to drill.

On top of that, this war is counter-intuitively reducing the EU market for hydrocarbons. Who would want to be dependent on Russia for supplies, right now?

On top of that, this war is counter-intuitively reducing the EU market for hydrocarbons. Who would want to be dependent on Russia for supplies, right now?

India and China?

@DuncinToffee

Lucy Fisher *@LOS*_Fisher

BREAKING: Britain announces 14 new sanctions on Russian propagandists and state media

Newly blacklisted are:

• the Butcher of Mariupol Col-Gen Mikhail Mizintsev

• Russian propagandist Sergey Brilev

• Kremlin funded TV-Novosti, which owns RT are blacklisted

Why not Farage and Banks ?

@strawberriesarenot

If Putin wanted to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on Kyiv he would surely be moving his troops back in this way.

Perhaps,

FWIW they (certainly the Soviets) used to train and be equipped to continue to operate/fight in contaminated conditions (as did NATO forces)..

However given how Russian kit in general has been performing in the last month maybe they no longer consider that as an option…

Who would want to be dependent on Russia for supplies, right now?

Quite. Chasing energy sources when the market was already moving to renewables doesn't seem to make sense. Its investing in old technology rather than new which is where you would think the money will be in a few years. This seems to have speeded up that process.

We've been trying to reduce petrol consumption since just before the pandemic, which really helped focus our minds on that. We decided to go solar off the back of fuel prices and the war. It was something we've ummed and arhhed over for several years anyway. Events have pushed us over the edge with the solar. I doubt we are alone. We will ditch gas asap but we can't afford to both at once.

AFP News Agency @AFP
#UPDATE NATO is not seeing a pull-back of Russian forces in Ukraine and expects "additional offensive actions," the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday

Ooh yes please ...
Let's sanction Farage and Banks.

I am so on board with doing that !

Re: Energy and other resources in the Arctic which have hitherto been too difficult to exploit - I saw it being discussed on the news(?) last night, possibly Channel 4, that because the ice is melting this will soon change.

Another aspect will be both competition over these resources, and also Russia being even closer to the other countries near the Arctic.

from yesterday, ISW:

Key Takeaways

Russian forces around Kyiv held their forward positions and continued to defend against limited Ukrainian counterattacks. Russian forces are unlikely to give up their secured territory around the city and are continuing to dig in.
ISW can confirm Russia is withdrawing some units around Kyiv for likely redeployment to other axes of advance, but cannot confirm any changes in Russian force posture around Chernihiv as of this time.
Russian forces did not conduct any offensive operations in northeastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours.
Elements of the 20th Combined Arms Army and 1st Guards Tank Army are redeploying to support Russian operations on Izyum, but are unlikely to take the city in the near future.
Ukrainian forces repelled continuing Russian assaults in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. Russian forces continued to take territory in Mariupol but are likely suffering high casualties.

It's amazing that Mariupol is holding out at all by now. Nothing to lose I suppose.