Ukraine Invasion: Part 20

[HappyWinter]

Thanks to everyone for taking part in the thread.

@ScrollingLeaves I think I read this! His family have been visiting less and less and they’ve told the people next door he’s moved out they’re just coming to clean up. He said the only happiness/distraction he has is food. It sounds incredibly hard, I know how we all found lockdown so isolation on this level is just unimaginable.

I’m starting to find all these threats very jarring, putin now threatening very painful consequences if we stop buying his oil?! I’ve also noticed he keeps saying we are causing global instability…think he needs to spend some time reflecting…

I hope Georgia's government can provide wise and skilful leadership to deal with the tensions of the anti-Putin Russians .... though they ahve South Ossetia to deal with :s Can't be easy.

About nuclear stuff. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union various inventories found that nuclear grade uranium had gone mysteriously missing. No one knows where it is!

YorkshireLondonMiss

@ScrollingLeaves I think I read this! His family have been visiting less and less and they’ve told the people next door he’s moved out they’re just coming to clean up. He said the only happiness/distraction he has is food. It sounds incredibly hard, I know how we all found lockdown so isolation on this level is just unimaginable.

Yes, that was it. It is the most dreadful predicament. I am glad you remember as I just couldn’t refind it as there’s been so much.

@ScrollingLeaves

YorkshireLondonMiss

@ScrollingLeaves I think I read this! His family have been visiting less and less and they’ve told the people next door he’s moved out they’re just coming to clean up. He said the only happiness/distraction he has is food. It sounds incredibly hard, I know how we all found lockdown so isolation on this level is just unimaginable.

Yes, that was it. It is the most dreadful predicament. I am glad you remember as I just couldn’t refind it as there’s been so much.

It is on these threads somewhere as I posted a link to it.

It made for sobering reading.

@RedToothBrush
I thought you might have. Thank you for confirming that. I’ll look through again later.

Yes, it certainly was glimpse into the very dark reality of those poor young men.

Hanna Liubakova @hannaliubakova
#Belarus The foreign minister Uladzimir Makei called on the EU to restore dialogue and abandon the sanctions policy. He called torture and killings of citizens “the unfortunate events of 2020”

The regime needs money and wants to avoid responsibility for helping Russia in the war

Alexander Lanoskza @alanoskza
Things must be really getting desperate then in Minsk. Perhaps even more so than we realize. I did predict some time ago that the Belarusian regime would have a lot more difficulty than usual in trying to survive 2022. I suppose I should not underestimate it, but still ...

Interesting...

@RedToothBrush

Hanna Liubakova *@hannaliubakova* #Belarus The foreign minister Uladzimir Makei called on the EU to restore dialogue and abandon the sanctions policy. He called torture and killings of citizens “the unfortunate events of 2020”

The regime needs money and wants to avoid responsibility for helping Russia in the war

Alexander Lanoskza @alanoskza
Things must be really getting desperate then in Minsk. Perhaps even more so than we realize. I did predict some time ago that the Belarusian regime would have a lot more difficulty than usual in trying to survive 2022. I suppose I should not underestimate it, but still ...

Interesting...

Very! And quite heartening.

Jonathan Landay @johnathanlanday
Breaking: Russia's defense ministry says its Moskva missile ship has sunk - RIA (Reuters)

[quote ScrollingLeaves]@RedToothBrush
I thought you might have. Thank you for confirming that. I’ll look through again later.

Yes, it certainly was glimpse into the very dark reality of those poor young men.[/quote]
18.54 on 12th April (this thread)

@YorkshireLondonMiss

Even if they do conscription will that necessarily boost morale? I know they’re just pumped full of propaganda but surely the majority of people don’t want to be yanked out of their normal lives to fight and potentially die still?

100% spot on.

When I joined there was no conscripted service. It took anywhere up to 20 minutes to 20 days for those not really in it to ask to go home. They were volunteers. Even then, you would still be weeding out those who could not hack it physically or mentally and sending them home with at least a bit of pride and importantly unbroken. Joined a civvy and of course that is who we protect. More than anything the last thing instructors want is too many non-volunteers in the way. It hampers everything.

Max Seddon @maxseddon
Russia’s defense ministry admits the Moskva cruiser, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, has sunk.

They claim there was an explosion from a munitions accident on board and it sank in a storm.

Ukraine says it managed to sink the ship in a missile strike.

I love how the Russians would rather be seen as incompetent than beaten by Ukrainians.

@RedToothBrush

Jonathan Landay *@johnathanlanday* Breaking: Russia's defense ministry says its Moskva missile ship has sunk - RIA (Reuters)

I think I shall have a glass of wine to celebrate.

[quote notimagain]@Ijsbear

One hesitates to believe anything the Russian govt claims at all, but it's a pity if it's still towable and not currently providing the fish with a new playground

It ain't over yet - in '82 HMS Sheffield sunk whilst under tow towards South Georgia post it's Exocet strike...keep fingers crossed for high seas.[/quote]
You called it notimagain

ria.ru/20220414/kreyser-1783626130.html (state site)
Крейсер "Москва" затонул при буксировке во время шторма

"The cruiser "Moskva" sank while being towed during a storm"

Just think the Russians have spent the last 20hrs or so trying to work out how to spin it that they hadn't had a warship sunk.

Only for them to realise that they simply couldn't hide it.

I love how the Russians would rather be seen as incompetent than beaten by Ukrainians

Just your average unfortunate series of events, munitions accident plus stormy weather, nothing to see here no massive hole in the side of the ship

@Ijsbear

Sometimes I'm Iike a stopped clock....wonder if we (or the Russian public) will ever know the casualty figures?

Guesstimates only maybe for the Moskva. Ye gods, sinking a ship named the Moscow ... !

I mildly wonder if even the Russian army will know how many Russian soldiers die. They seem appallingly badly organised in so many ways.

.

Ukrainian MoD reporting that in the last three weeks 70 Russian soldiers on night patrol in Melitopol have been shot or stabbed to death by unknown members of the Ukrainian resistance.

@BreadInCaptivity

.

There are so so many memes.

I was up until after 2am giggling at twitter.

I think one of my favs was Putin going on an official tour of the Moskva

Sometimes I'm Iike a stopped clock....wonder if we (or the Russian public) will ever know the casualty figures?

The people who hope they will get their child home in one piece and don't, will know.
Which is why all those Russian potential 'conscripts' are hiding.

I love how the Russians would rather be seen as incompetent than beaten by Ukrainians

I don't think they have any choice do they?

Remember this isn't a war. It's a special military operation and you wouldn't expect to lose a warship - never mind a flagship in an operation.

Admitting the Ukrainians sunk it signals not only the extent of this "operation" but the scale of Ukrainian resistance and more importantly capability.

If they can sink a flagship what the hell is going on with all those soldiers currently deployed in Ukraine and why have tens of thousands of families not heard from husbands/sons/brothers when according to state media less than 2k have died?

@Ijsbear

Guesstimates only maybe for the Moskva. Ye gods, sinking a ship named the Moscow ... !

I mildly wonder if even the Russian army will know how many Russian soldiers die. They seem appallingly badly organised in so many ways.

I saw a report that in addition to the 50 odd who were rescued by the Turkish ship, 14 turned up in Crimea at 10am local time on another boat. There apparently were a number of boats involved in the rescue.

RTB I was rather partial to this one: