Offshoot

I don't think so. You is being used generally here to refer to anyone who might be transferred for a bribe, not specifically to his mother.

Likely they would go with whichever side they thought would provide the most stability and investment in infrastructure. If Ukraine joined the EU it might boost the pro-Ukrainian vote, or, given the older population in the Donbass now, the thought of Russian pensions might prevail. https://theconversation.com/the-hope-is-finished-life-in-the-ukrainian-separatist-regions-of-donetsk-and-luhansk-177685 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/17/russia-wants-recognize-independence-two-eastern-ukraine-republics-what-do-people-there-think/

The New Zealand Defence Force is providing training for the L119 now (https://mil.in.ua/en/news/ukraine-will-receive-105-mm-l119-howitzers/). If I recall correctly, the guns themselves were coming from the US?

Guy is a good shot

Was just about to post it from the source (https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3066864/fact-sheet-on-us-security-assistance-to-ukraine/). For some reason the DoD fact sheet doesn't say the number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems being sent. maybe because they haven't decided how many yet?

This shows your disconnect from critical analysis. You see, Einstein was in fact a genius who knew what he was talking about, whereas the man you are promoting here (assuming it is the same Mercouris, which you haven't denied) has been shown to have a very tenuous relationship with the truth (just one example from his rap sheet: "you purported to obtain a statement from H that was not a true document and you knew was not a true document and you had not had any contact with H"). You talk about facts but have not discussed any, instead dropping a link with no explanation. I don't accept anything as fact without verification, and certainly not when provided by some sketchy dude intermixed with a bunch of his reckons. Don't bother replying to me personally. I have added you to my ignore list as your contributions here are valueless.

Is this the same Alexander Mercouris who was disbarred by the Bar Standards Board in 2012? If so, he sounds like someone you can really trust for some "realism" - https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/disciplinary_finding/76984.html Edit: I should have noted that in another Youtube video he is described as "a former London lawyer".

I found this article telling the stories of some teenagers in Mariupol revealing (https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/apr/01/who-will-return-my-stolen-life-to-me-the-teenagers-who-fled-mariupol-ukraine). As they are young there wasn't any equivocation. The third one straight up thinks that the Ukrainians wanted to kill them and the Russians saved them based on his father's opinions. Most civilians wouldn't have a clue where shells and bullets are coming from, so it is easy to lie to them if it aligns with their pre-existing biases (and some in the Donbas have had this for years). It's just a short step from that to actively helping the Russians.

Crazy stuff but not such a surprise after reading about Fomenko's New Chronology and its connection to imperialism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_chronology_(Fomenko)) I wonder now if that fire at the state publishing company a couple of months ago was just an accident. Given Sumlenny shows there was a campaign to try to stop these publications, some people in Russia were clearly aware of it.

The death of a drone (2nd video from 40 seconds)

There is a guy out of his hole at the start, on the right-hand side of the road. When the tank fires almost right above him I bet he wished he was back in it.

Talking of blowing bridges. Translated from the Telegram page: Details: The 8th Special Forces Regiment, together with the NGU and the 15th Main Directorate of the UVKR SBU, in order to stop the offensive of the Russian armed forces in the direction of the cities of Severodonetsk and the city of Lisichansk, Lugansk region, destroyed the railway bridges captured by the enemy in the key communication between the city of Rubizhne and the city Severodonetsk, Luhansk region.

I asked similar questions when wondering why they were so particular about keeping the barrels out of the water if they were scuttling the tanks. I don't know anything about the different types, but I just watched a video that said the T72 driver can remove their seat back and go out through the turret.

Ukraine war: Military intelligence chief 'optimistic' of Russian defeat saying war 'will be over by end of year' Major General Kyrylo Budanov spoke exclusively to Sky News and predicted the war will reach a turning point in August. He correctly predicted when Russia would invade earlier this year. https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-military-intelligence-chief-optimistic-of-russian-defeat-saying-war-will-be-over-by-end-of-year-12612320?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter#

Here's a thread by a retired Australian major general. He starts by giving a rundown on the steps for a successful river crossing, describing how difficult they are. He then proposes, given their difficulty, that the Russians were heavily invested in converting this into a major axis of attack, which would explain why they kept coming back. Perhaps this point is rather obvious, though he has said other commentators have missed it. What alternatives do the Russians now have for this advance? Are they trying to hurry things up because they are worried about the impact the new weaponry (especially artillery) now arriving in Ukraine will now have? An important aspect of assault river crossings is that they are only undertaken if absolutely necessary... Therefore, such operations normally only occur on an axis of advance that is a main effort (or about to become the main effort)... the Russians clearly intended to invest in this axis and throw a lot of combat power down it... defeating this assault river crossing has probably denied the Russians an axis of advance they clearly thought was going to be productive for them in their eastern offensive.

It says at the end that this guy was the de facto assistant chief of staff of the regiment, and the video gives the impression he has no idea what is going on. If it is a good representation, it is no wonder the Russians are where they are.

Is it possible the red circled spots in the right-hand pic are from shelling? If so, they may have abandoned blue after it came under fire again and they finally decided to give up. The smoke would also indicate that there was fighting here after the first two bridges were destroyed. BTW, when I mentioned the vehicle traffic, I meant that it doesn't look like it was there until after yellow and red were destroyed.

Sorry, my post wasn't clear. I agree that there were three crossings. I don't, however, think that they swam vehicles from the Russian side of blue as there is no real sign of traffic there at a point when yellow and red have already been destroyed.

I'm not sure that is the case. I posted a side by side comparison before (but messed up the embed) of the two shown stages and by the time the first bridge(s) are down, there doesn't look like there has been much if any activity from the blue crossing. I agree it looks like they also tried a bridge at yellow. It seems I don't know how to embed an image file (the box goes red when I paste a URL from an image host into it). Here's the link again anyway: https://ibb.co/rcBtbS3

A side by side comparison of the two pontoon pictures. The Russians must really have wanted to get across there. You can't see any newly destroyed vehicles on the Ukrainian side (I assume top) in the second picture, so I wonder what happened to the forlorn tanks in the first picture? The holes in the pontoon bridges are new in the second picture, however. https://ibb.co/rcBtbS3

Looking at the two pictures, I am not convinced it is the same river crossing. Edit: Actually, I changed my mind, but the picture on the twitter thread appears to be some time before the Russians tried to put the 2nd bridge up.

He mentions Wali a lot, so here is an interview with him (Google translated). It gives some perspective of the war from the point of view of a foreign volunteer, not all good. ""It's a war of machines", where the "extremely brave" Ukrainian soldiers suffer very heavy losses from shelling, but "miss many opportunities" to weaken the enemy because they lack knowledge technical military, he summarizes. “If the Ukrainians had the procedures we had in Afghanistan to communicate with the artillery, we could have caused carnage,” he believes." https://www-lapresse-ca.translate.goog/actualites/2022-05-06/retour-du-tireur-d-elite-wali/la-guerre-c-est-une-deception-terrible.php?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Just make sure to turn off the chat to spare your sanity.

More likely he is a part of trying to pacify the masses against mobilization hysteria. I guess Russia doesn't want another rush for the border.

It also seems like they aren't concerned with stopping the war completely. The translation of the email as shown in that thread: "We demand: - Release Alexey Navalny @navalny and other political prisoners. - Withdraw forces of the 249th Separate Special Motorized Battalion "South" of the North Caucasus District of the Rosgvardia and SOBR "Akhmat" from the territory of Ukraine. - Removal of Ramzan #Kadyrov from participating in the command of the special military operation in Ukraine. - Refusal to announce general mobilization of Russian citizens to replenish the special operation forces. Russia will be free!" (END OF TRANSLATION)" Assuming it is real, why would they want only those particular units withdrawn?