Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

[A380]

For sure - I think this is a major factor.

Can you imagine though - it would be like us being led by Bill Bailey in a war with France.

I'd follow Bill Bailey into the very jaws of hell itself.

 

[Pickman's model]

I'd follow Bill Bailey into the very jaws of hell itself.

But sadly not out of them

 

[A380]

We'd def win if led by sean bean who made his career fighting the french

Putin, you Bastard!

 

[Pickman's model]

Putin, you Bastard!

Putain

 

[A380]

Z being so good at being on camera is probably quite a big factor in how things have gone so far, shouldn’t be the case but I think it is.

Whatever else is going on Ukraine is definitely winning the information war. I think their campaign will be studied for years.

 

[Aladdin]

We have a war in Europe that is killing and maiming thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers and thousands of young Russian men and boys, most of whom were probably just seeking a better life for themselves and their families. There is a chance of wider expansion to kill and maim more people. For the first time since the late 80s and my CND days I (and I suspect many others) have this tiny but niggling fear that I could suddenly see a bright flash to the South or North East of me and see a second sun come to earth. We are losing focus on the existential threat that faces us and the rest of the worlds eco systems and the small chance we might have had to avert that may be significantly damaged by this. And, on a comparatively minor note, there is likely to be a significant recession or maybe a depression across the world with the suffering that will cause.

If you deal with pain, and blood and shit (real and metaphorical) and death regularly you learn to laugh where you can, or you die spiritually, emotionally or literally. And you are certainly not in a position to help others.

"With brittle intellectuals, Who crack beneath a strain--John Bunyan met that helpful set in Charles the Second's reign."

That has made me cry

 

[existentialist]

So will the Western powers consider the Russian Army a bit of a joke now? The whole op starting to look very ragged. Apart from the obvious massive firepower potentially at hand.

Anyone who does is a fool. But I think that what is happening is a very fundamental re-evaluation of the realities vs the touted capabilities, especially in areas such as logistics. And I think this Ukraine adventure might well be flagging up a few harsh realities about the essential-but-boring aspects of military operations - maintenance, supplies, etc. I am beginning to suspect that the corrupt kleptocracy that is the present Russian state appears not to have restricted its corrupt activities to beyond its borders - it is easy to see how corner-cutting and bribe-trousering might be much easier to do when it comes to mundane shit like spare parts, consumables (tyres and other wearing components) that you can probably get away with all the time the kit is parked up in laagers somewhere, but which can come to bite you on the arse when you come to need your trucks to be able to operate in difficult environments where it suddenly matters that your tyres aren't perished to fuck, and your sumps clear of sludge and not held together by back issues of Istvestiya.

But -

They can't suppress the anti aircraft defence.

Large parts of the Army are obviously under trained and under equipped.

Seems vehicles haven't been/ are not maintained properly

Logistics is obviously a nightmare.

All leading to very poor morale amongst uninformed troops. Although this will vary.


Seems to me also that the hand held missiles vs tanks, aircraft and other vehicles is potentially game changing. A bit like battleships vs aircraft in ww2.

Isn't there some saying about how generals are always fighting the last war? I think, in Putin's Russia, they may well still be fighting last century's wars. The kit seems to have been upgraded (for some value of "upgraded" - some of those new tanks seem to be a bit bodgetastic), but the ethos and culture of the military doesn't seem to take much account of the smartphone age, and the change in expectations that brings. If, 70 years ago, you lived in a turf hut on a steppe somewhere, and the only outside news you got was when Yuri turned up from Moscow with a dozen bathplugs, individually-wrapped bogroll (OK, so maybe it's Christmas), and a couple of transistor radios, plus last week's Pravda, the privations of Russian army life probably didn't look that bad. Not quite so good when you're comparing your life trying not to freeze your nob off pissing out of the back of a Ural with some kid doing a funny dance on Tiktok in the sunshine.

 

[RD2003]

Nobody can escape the facts, however much some might not want to listen.

Read and Share Twitter Threads easily!

Thread Reader helps you read and share the best of Twitter Threads

threadreaderapp.com

 

[existentialist]

Don't think so, but I might have. I often say stuff on the spur of the moment. It's entertaining, especially some of the responses from those who think they're actually politicians.

And even if I did, why is a different viewpoint a problem for you?

But a gaggle of you are derailing again by trying to make it about me. Try not to.

YOU'RE making it all about you, you silly cunt.

 

[RD2003]

YOU'RE making it all about you, you silly cunt.

And so he tries to start off another boring round.

 

[bimble]

Whatever else is going on Ukraine is definitely winning the information war. I think their campaign will be studied for years.

Yep. One thing i'm confused about is that until last week i thought Russia was the world epicentre of genius information warfare, thousands of clever multilingual people employed full time in 'troll factories' tweeting and meme-ing, successfully influencing world events and opinion.
So what is going on with that where are they?

 

[agricola]

Yep. One thing i'm confused about is that until last week i thought Russia was the world epicentre of genius information warfare, thousands of clever multilingual people employed full time in 'troll factories' tweeting and meme-ing, successfully influencing world events and opinion.
So what is going on with that where are they?

TBF watching Johnson, and especially the MAGA crowd in the US, one wonders whether they feel the need to do anything in English (which always was their medium of choice). I mean we are still acting stupidly and there are people in the US openly admitting they think Putin is preferable to Biden.

 

[bimble]

it looks like maybe there was one big organisation & its not been very active since 2020..

Internet Research Agency - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The mad shit about Ukraine being where Democrats are hiding their pandemic factories (as parroted by the Russian Foreign Minister today) is an indication that its still up and running maybe just you don't see the stuff if you're not in their target demographic.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Yep. One thing i'm confused about is that until last week i thought Russia was the world epicentre of genius information warfare, thousands of clever multilingual people employed full time in 'troll factories' tweeting and meme-ing, successfully influencing world events and opinion.
So what is going on with that where are they?

This is literally what happens when you spend all your time chatting shit online.

 

[Artaxerxes]

TBF watching Johnson, and especially the MAGA crowd in the US, one wonders whether they feel the need to do anything in English (which always was their medium of choice). I mean we are still acting stupidly and there are people in the US openly admitting they think Putin is preferable to Biden.

The US is doing fairly well under Biden compared to what would happen under Trump. It's just fundamentally broken internally thanks to its power structure and vested interests preventing any sort of reform or allowing a president to do anything.

Meanwhile aside from the NLAWs Britain is proving itself the best government money can buy.

 

[TopCat]

Yep. One thing i'm confused about is that until last week i thought Russia was the world epicentre of genius information warfare, thousands of clever multilingual people employed full time in 'troll factories' tweeting and meme-ing, successfully influencing world events and opinion.
So what is going on with that where are they?

Could this information be....western propaganda perhaps?

 

[cupid_stunt]

From a reliable source, basically don't trust the cunts.

 

[Pickman's model]

The US is doing fairly well under Biden compared to what would happen under Trump. It's just fundamentally broken internally thanks to its power structure and vested interests preventing any sort of reform or allowing a president to do anything.

Meanwhile aside from the NLAWs Britain is proving itself the best government money can buy.

Surprised Johnson stays bought

 

[weltweit]

It is an interesting point that the massive Russian convoy to the north of Kyiv doesn't seem to have moved at all in a couple of days. There could be all sorts of reasons for this, most of them are negative wrt the Russians.

 

[bimble]

Could this information be....western propaganda perhaps?

the troll farms never existed silly me.

 

[Yossarian]

it looks like maybe there was one big organisation & its not been very active since 2020..

Internet Research Agency - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The mad shit about Ukraine being where Democrats are hiding their pandemic factories (as parroted by the Russian Foreign Minister today) is an indication that its still up and running maybe just you don't see the stuff if you're not in their target demographic.

According to one former supposed "troll factory" worker, a lot of people moved on, possibly reasoning that they'd never top the successes of 2016, and social media sites got a little better at weeding them out.

Inside The 'Propaganda Kitchen' -- A Former Russian 'Troll Factory' Employee Speaks Out

“At first, when I got there, I didn’t quite believe that it was real at all. I had a kind of culture shock. Orwell described how it works. I thought it was a dystopia, but in fact this is how it works,” a former employee of the Russian “troll factory” told RFE/RL.

www.rferl.org

 

[RainbowTown]

(Advance apologies if these have been posted before)

From the excellent belllingcat and Global Investigative Journalism Network websites. Well worth a read:

Invasion of Ukraine: Tracking use of Cluster Munitions in Civilian Areas - bellingcat

Open source evidence shows that cluster munitions have hit civilian areas in Ukraine during opening days of war with Russia. The direction from which the rockets have travelled provide clues as to who may have fired them.

www.bellingcat.com

15 Tips for Investigating War Crimes

Reporting violations in an active conflict, previously a daunting and life threatening task, has now become easier thanks to open-source reporting techniques, which provide investigative journalists much greater ability to investigate war crimes as they happen.

gijn.org

 

[Cid]

Question - Why does Macron apparently have such unique access to Putin?

 

[Raheem]

Question - Why does Macron apparently have such unique access to Putin?

I'm assuming there is an arrangement where Putin only gets to speak to one western leader, so that he can't play games.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Question - Why does Macron apparently have such unique access to Putin?

They are both short.

*under 175cm

 

[bimble]

Question - Why does Macron apparently have such unique access to Putin?

No idea but it must be pissing Johnson off no end. He’s on the sidelines being berated by the EU for our uniquely compromised conspicuously shitty sanctions. Not very churchillian at all.

 

[weltweit]

Question - Why does Macron apparently have such unique access to Putin?

I expect he might be reaching out to get access, and seeming relatively less aggressive of the European leaders might be easier for Putin to talk to.

 

[Bingoman]

Ukraine's world cup Match with Scotland has been postponed, understandable I guess

 

[weltweit]

All these small missiles are certainly changing the face of the battlefield. Now tanks can be knocked out by a hand held missile, and aircraft. So massed tanks are vulnerable and air superiority and "we fly" zones may be a thing of the past.

 

[RD2003]

From a reliable source, basically don't trust the cunts.

Yes down with shit like ceasefires. The killing must go on.