kraze

russians are producing missiles and they aren't using them again, so these estimates will become outdated next month. They will have enough to strike energy system this autumn is what really matters.

The guy was fighting in this war since 2014. That photo isn't just him posing with an RPK. They just give some of their more 'media-friendly' soldiers a press ID and they suddenly get to be "journalists". Not even talking propaganda here.

This is why I hate "human rights" organizations. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-director-general-deplores-death-journalist-rostislav-zhuravlev-ukraine One thing that I don't quite understand is "Journalists serve a critical role in informing the world about conflict situations and must be protected." The guy looks pretty protected to me.

So hopefully both Girkin and Navalny will have another live debate quite soon. Now about who sleeps near the toilet.

I think it also has to do with the math. Russia has occupied a lot of territories. Not only what is internationally recognized - but also quite a few along their borders. Now take the total length of their borders, borders of occupied regions, optionally add a length of certain internal borders, and divide by arty units they have. How much arty is there per 100 km? They have to make sure countries like Georgia and Azerbaijan don't get funny ideas and execute them.

And that's the point.

Western Europe should exhale with ease then because historically Russia had trouble reaching any of it.

Yes, let's pretend 1939 didn't happen. Or I guess Poland attacked Russia first. And then Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. And even Finland attacked Russia. I guess you get to occupy 1/6 of the landmass by being constantly invaded by everyone around you. Because everyone just wanted a piece of your precious Siberian eternal frost. I can just see how somebody in Warsaw thought "goddamn this warm weather in summer and fertile lands. That's it, Ogniezhka, we are capturing Yakutsk! Our kids will get to live in the swampy lebensraum!"

pretty sure those duds will cause much less issues long term than what russians did by mining every single meter of the frontlines with the whole USSR stock of AP mines. Breaches through that crap will be only meters wide and who knows how deep and maybe a hundred meters around them will be cleared, but a 1000 km line will not and walking through fields of Zaporizhya will cause dead and wounded for decades to come. Dropping clusters in there is like dropping a stick of wood into a burning forest.

well, at least that's some kind of an upgrade over them calling russian invasion a "civil war" for 8+ years. still doesn't excuse them protesting cluster munitions for Ukraine.

considering that Prig is in Petersburg and there's no sign of punishment for him apart from 180 degree flip flop on TV regarding Wagner and a rumor of Surovikin getting screwed - I'd say they may have just "settled it out of court". Whoever (quite possibly the real owner of Wagner - Utkin, among others) that could've gained anything from showing putin that Moscow is a very easy fair game should someone tries - probably gained something. At the same time the price was burning Wagner that was going to be burnt anyway. Remember - on June 24th it was to stop existing completely. But now it got to actively exist (and extort) in Africa and stuffs. The lack of people walking out of a window en masse 2 weeks down the line backs up an argument about this "settlement".

because when a russian, who himself was a part of the problem due to being an oligarch, supports another russian, who is a war criminal responsible for horrible warcrimes without count and who is uprising because Ukrainians aren't being killed effectively enough - means that that russian is perfectly fine with the war, warcrimes and he isn't ok only with putin because they had a falling out at some point in the past. Not even a big one seeing as how Khodorkovsky is alive. Khodorkovsky supported the immediate "regime change", which would possibly have led to a more "effective" war on a russian part. And this is exactly what makes him no better than putin or prig or whoever else. Or did you somehow think Prig winning was a better deal? Or that it was an "anti-war" coup?

Nah it's OK. I'm just genuinely interested why "human rights" got somehow mentioned in a tweet about Ukraine getting cluster munitions and these are bad, because, you know, they are going to be used in probably the most mined area in the world right now and that's bad. Using cluster munitions where russians put 3 AP mines every meter may hurt some Ukrainians.

what do Human Rights say about russians employing cluster munitions since 2014?

in his twitter he basically dropped all pretense and openly supported Prig's "coup", urging people to join him. Of course he is pissed off about putin's jailtime, but supporting another putin very much shows that his only problem with the "evil regime" is only personal. He's perfectly fine if filth is running Russia as long as it's his filth.

Khodorkovsky is Prigozhin's camp. I wouldn't put much trust in his words.

Yes and my point here is that no weapons that can be realistically provided to Ukraine would deter Russia from using nukes. It's a fact, shouldn't be even discussed. However the point here is that by "outpacing" the escalation (e.g. we are still not allowed to strike targets within russian territory using storm shadow despite huge escalation on russian part as an example) russians may get an impression (and I'm not saying a legit one or not) that the West is hitting the breaks in this run - and they may consider using actual WMDs to get what they want. If they are using exactly the same tactic as the West - boiling the frog slowly - and it works - e.g. ZNPP gets blown up, this makeshift dirty bomb irradiates large chunks of land and no real escalation happens in turn (as in - now you can absolutely smash russians anywhere with ATACAMS, oh and here have our 500 km storm shadows, blow all their **** up ASAP - for example) - so what would it tell russians if we get neutral "let's not get ahead of ourselves" reaction to an act of nuclear terrorism. If the West doesn't get off the couch and downplays the thing? Are you certain possible terrorist act using ZNPP won't be downplayed resulting in de-escalation instead of escalation? A year ago I myself would claim that no way, that would trigger the response. In fact we saw several countries take a similar stance a year ago. Even Stoltenberg hinted it's an Article 5 case. A year ago. But right now - there's silence. Only Russia can be heard. And that's what makes me worried the frog is being boiled slowly and it may just work. As for russians being on the defensive - sure, it's true. Nobody even remotely considers russians winning this war. But they may do enough damage for Ukraine to not win it either. We are already denied most of our industrial regions by them being wiped off the face of the earth - if the same happens to our agrarian lands - will there even be a victory for us save for being able to remain Ukraine?

Of course the West escalates. That's what I mentioned. Too slow for my taste as Leos would've been absolutely amazing about a year ago before russians mined our lands to hell and back - but that's my personal opinion. And of course defensive stuff is top notch. Problem is that at some point russians seem to have outpaced this escalation. Because let's be realistic here and ask ourselves a serious question - if the only deterrent for russians from dropping tactical nukes on Kyiv after much of our crop lands being irradiated for the next few centuries - would be providing us with ATACAMS on a condition we never use them anywhere within a russian territory - how long would it take for a tactical nuke to get from its new shiny launch pad in Belarus to the sky over Kyiv? As for Syria: I had no illusions about russians once I started seeing their reaction towards their second invasion of Georgia back in 2008. Syria? I thought Aleppo is a very good indication of what russians will do to our cities once they are able to (after all they already invaded Ukraine at that point). I just couldn't be too vocal or too idealistic about it because everyone would just look at me and tell me I'm being "russophobic", "hateful" or something. Pretty sure I'd be even quickly banned here if it was 2016 for my opinions about russians - as a bonus. Being right actually sucks.

sigh, russians can't just do a coup properly, they also ruin somewhat OK jokes by presiding only a month well at least we now know a single location on planet Earth where russians follow the international law.

Definitely need comments from the head of UN security council about this recognition.

Obviously it's not that simple: See - the West didn't know what would "escalate" too much - first the consensus was that sending any western made weapons bar ATGMs and MANPADS could "escalate" and then, gradually, as the West called russian bluff, first "dumb" arty started pouring in, then "smart" arty started pouring in, then tanks and missiles, now "escalation" sits at planes. And just like the West didn't know what would "escalate" too much - so did russians. But I think they started playing this "game" too. By gradually calling West's "bluff" more and more. We went from "russians aren't ever doing this" to "russians doing this" in just a few months with Kakhovka dam, itself a "bluff calling", being a logical step in between. With Kakhovka dam russians most likely killed a 5 digit number of people in one night but there was zero reaction. Even less than usual. So russians didn't use chemical weapons or nuclear terrorism because they didn't know if it will trigger more reaction than they can handle because they certainly would not be able to fight NATO being exhausted in Ukraine. But now they are themselves "escalating". "Two can play that game" and all. And that's where the "narrative" comes from. More like a bitter, gloomy observation about something out of one's hands.

"we will not stand by idly and watch these horrible warcrimes take place with cities being leveled using nukes - and promise that an international tribunal will eventually bring everyone responsible to justice" I just hope I'll not see any BS like above while not seeing it because I get to live and not otherwise.

yep - after zero reaction (not even the token "deeply concerned") I realized everybody in the West very much clocked out of every genocidal warcrime russians are going to do - and ZNPP attack is only a matter of time. It's possible that after tonight we may see not only T-55s employed at the frontlines by russians, but also tactical nukes in a month or two. After all tactical nukes cause much less wind spread radiation than a nuclear power plant blown up open and it won't even be an "escalation".

yeah, not happening.

Post-Prigs half assed coup so called "elite" and their desires and world view do not matter anymore. More and more russians now openly voice support for wagnerites because "they get s-it done" (e.g. kill Ukrainians "properly"), it's a delayed time bomb with timer dependent entirely on AFU's successes. In a state where a year ago one would go to jail for a bad retweet - now absolutely nothing happens to people who openly support "terrorists". Unless "elites" win somehow - that cattle is going to start the Animal Farm. See, Orwell depicted totalitarian societies really spot on - you run that farm while the cattle is afraid/respectful of your power. But the moment the farmer is seen as weak - well... you read the book, I'm sure.