Ukraine Invasion: Part 22

[MagicFox]

Here we are again

Not sure I’m going to catch up on 10 pages already but PMK.

Sorry to lose @DGRossetti comments from these threads as his wit and insight were a welcome combination.

Oh, what has happened to @DGRossetti ?

Let's hope we are prepared to make sacrifices ourselves one day. We may not like them, but we may have to send our own children to enlist in war or merely to enforce a peace.

As somebody with innocent, bright young children this has made me feel absurdly guilty for bringing them into the world

Me too @MagicFox, I was just about to post the same thing.

Yes and met too - though driven by climate change as much as anything. Even though I do have one who will have a military career.

@blueshoes

"So articles which say that Russia might still win have an important role to play to avoid complacency"

Absolutely correct, for all you reasons you list.

I suspect none of us here get to see the raw intelligence so analysis, analysis of analysis, etc etc is to some degree suspect.

No matter how well we think things are going we need be careful of becoming complacent.

The good news is we are starting hear of heavier equipment/munitions (especially artillery) being delivered and also tales of the Ukrainians being able to rotate personnel away from the front line for training on some of the same...the bad news is this isn't looking like a quick "win' for the Ukraine.

I used to think this, now climate change pales into insignificance for me against the picture you've just painted of a lifetime of war where our children might be forced to enlist and have their lives taken away from them

Word

Stratcom Centre UA
@StratcomCentre
·
20m
Pivden Ukrainian operational leadership (southern vector) reports that Russians are using tanks with Ukrainian flags in Kherson oblast, driving around and then shooting at occupied towns from these tanks, thus making locals believe they are under fire by the Ukrainian military.

I can see an upside to Putin becoming more insular and batshit. This could mean very little in the way of coherent strategic thinking coming out of Russia which will make it easier for Ukraine to use strategy to greater effect and more likely that Russia may lose some friends and allies if they see Russia as increasingly unstable and Putin losing and on the way out mentally. As Tesco says ‘every little helps’.

I do not believe there is a stronger sign of cowardice than that ^

They may not face war. They may just need to keep the peace by taking their turn in a European defence force. Soldier, sailor, pilot, physicist, doctor, farmer all potentially indistinguishable as far as an enemy dictator is concerned.

I do not believe there is a stronger sign of cowardice than that

And deceit. Utter, morally bankrupt deceit.

Was looking through those signatories to the Church Times articles, including some of the Russian ones. In a way I think they are the bravest of all with a lonely courage; they know that many Russians will despise them and they will probably end up in jail for at least 15 years. To stand up like that takes true moral courage of the standard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

What’s happened to DGRosetti?

@Tillsforthrills - he said he was leaving the site because of the inept "upgrade"

In all fairness to him it is utter bollocks this “upgrade”

The Times. yesterday Sat 23 April page 11.
some excerpts from a report by Charlie Parker:
Russia is believed to be using its submarines in the Black Sea to hit far off Ukrainian targets with cruise missiles.
——-

The Russian navy is thought to have four Kilo-class vessels operating in the Black Sea. They are relatively small, but armed with powerful Kalibr cruise missiles - equivalent to the American Tomahawk - which can be launched from torpedo tubes and have a range of about 1,550 miles.

Apparently the Russian defence ministry published a video Friday showing a warship launching four Kalibrs from the Black Sea. It said that “an entire battalion” was destroyed in the Dnipro region.

Is anyone else’s thread glitching on the IOS App? It keeps kicking me off when I try and refresh.

For the first time since the start of the war, I think, the rolling Ukraine news isn’t in the top stories section of Sky News.

There's very little on the front page of the international BBC site too. This is shit.

I thought of Bonhoeffer too. The theologians response has been criticised in some quarters as imperfect, which it may well be, but it was (crucially) swift. Anyone who knows about Orthodoxy, which can make the Ents look like Usain Bolt, will realise how unusual and inspiring it is.

Apart from the usual news fatigue and short attention span, I presume Sky and other news groups also have stats as to the page views. Ukraine news items must be getting fewer and fewer views, so the papers feel justified to drop it down the headlines.

It is depressing. I make it a point to click on Ukraine news items, futile as one person's clicks may be. I will always be hungry for news on Ukraine.

@prettybird @Ijsbear that’s a shame, thankful we still have most of our regular contributors

On another note, i too have been shocked to see so little coverage and silly headlines take over

which can make the Ents look like Usain Bolt That has to be the first time that the Ents and Usain Bolt have ever been in the same sentence together!

@katem98 Yes, I'm having that problem too with the iOS app. I've had to come on to my laptop and access MN via the laptop in order to post this , as this thread (and only this thread) chucks me out of the app before I've even been able to read it. (was going to put in an emoticon but that seems to be problematic on the desktop site and sends me to a black screen of death)