Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

[Artaxerxes]

I like alternative history, so how would this have played out, which actors and what would have been the script?

At a minimum crash courses to divert away from Russian gas and make sure it’s not a weapons and a slush fund for Putins war machine

Alongside tightening up sales of real estate to suspicious offshore companies

 

[Chz]

I wonder how many more "accounting errors" the DoD is going to find in the aid to Ukraine that lets them send more stuff? I mean, not all aid is equal in terms of economic cost. Sending equipment is sending money already spent. Military equipment is not exactly a fungible currency. You can't pay teachers in Bradleys unless you want the next teachers strike to be a lot more interesting.

 

[Artaxerxes]

I wonder how many more "accounting errors" the DoD is going to find in the aid to Ukraine that lets them send more stuff? I mean, not all aid is equal in terms of economic cost. Sending equipment is sending money already spent. Military equipment is not exactly a fungible currency. You can't pay teachers in Bradleys unless you want the next teachers strike to be a lot more interesting.

I don’t the US is overly concerned with paying teachers tbf

 

[StoneRoad]

I wonder how many more "accounting errors" the DoD is going to find in the aid to Ukraine that lets them send more stuff? I mean, not all aid is equal in terms of economic cost. Sending equipment is sending money already spent. Military equipment is not exactly a fungible currency. You can't pay teachers in Bradleys unless you want the next teachers strike to be a lot more interesting.

BiB - oh, I don't know ...
A few years ago now, I knew several members from a group of teachers & lecturers, that between them owned an interesting selection of old military vehicles ...

I found out a few weeks ago that one of the group has sold his Ferret armoured car, and the Austin Champ is also up for sale.
I had a hankering to collect the OH - teacher - from their school one day, using the Ferret ... my big bike {AJS 650} had already featured in a school assembly, so why not ?

 

[Rob Ray]

I seriously don't get how Prigozhin gets away with this stuff when others don't - I used to think it was because Putin gave him more leeway as a "fellow patriot/one of the good ones" but some of this stuff seems like just an outright undermining of the Russian war effort.

Wagner chief accuses Moscow of lying to public about Ukraine

Yevgeny Prigozhin dismisses justification for war that Kyiv was planning 2022 attack on Donbas and Crimea

www.theguardian.com

 

[Pickman's model]

I seriously don't get how Prigozhin gets away with this stuff when others don't - I used to think it was because Putin gave him more leeway as a "fellow patriot/one of the good ones" but some of this stuff seems like just an outright undermining of the Russian war effort.

Wagner chief accuses Moscow of lying to public about Ukraine

Yevgeny Prigozhin dismisses justification for war that Kyiv was planning 2022 attack on Donbas and Crimea

www.theguardian.com

He's going to get the blame for when everything goes tits up properly

 

[Cid]

He's going to get the blame for when everything goes tits up properly

Yeah, but then why is he doing it? The guy may be many (many) things, but doesn't strike me as an idiot.

e2a: though he is still using that age-old idea of attacking those close to the leader, rather than explicitly Putin himself.

 

[Pickman's model]

Yeah, but then why is he doing it? The guy may be many (many) things, but doesn't strike me as an idiot.

You don't really want an idiot as scapegoat

 

[Cid]

You don't really want an idiot as scapegoat

Well no, but you also don't want to be a scapegoat.

 

[Pickman's model]

Well no, but you also don't want to be a scapegoat.

That's why I have kept my job in a library instead of moving to Moscow to mastermind the war effort

 

[tommers]

He's accusing the MOD of killing Wagner troops....

 

[friedaweed]

Shit just got real. Wagner gonna march on Moscow and kill Vlad.



In those pants.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Shit just got real. Wagner gonna march on Moscow

I would have thought he would be more likely to employ a stealthy Navy SEAL-type waterborne insertion method for his assassination plan

 

[spitfire]

It’s all kicking off.

Hopefully…

 

[tommers]

 

[agricola]

It’s all kicking off.

Hopefully…

I will believe this when I see it.

If it is genuine - especially the wilder claims that they are actually shooting at each other - then one would imagine Russian units in Ukraine may start to withdraw back to Russia / the Crimea by themselves (the pre-September 2022 version of Russia that is).

 

[friedaweed]

The real consideration should be if you have time to dig an Anderson shelter or not? All you fools will be begging us preppers for ciggy papers next week

 

[spitfire]

I will believe this when I see it.

If it is genuine - especially the wilder claims that they are actually shooting at each other - then one would imagine Russian units in Ukraine may start to withdraw back to Russia / the Crimea by themselves (the pre-September 2022 version of Russia that is).

Yeah me too but there’s a lot of it about. More than usual and I struggle to see any kind of strategy it suits.

But I’m not a master strategist.

 

[spitfire]

Or am I?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Wagner chief accuses Russia’s military of attack and says ‘evil’ leadership must be stopped

Yevgeny Prigozhin says scores of his fighters were killed and warns he will ‘destroy’ anyone who resists

www.theguardian.com

 

[MickiQ]

With the Russian Army it's at least as likely that they blatted the wrong camp by mistake, they don't inspire confidence at the best of times. If they're fighting amongst themselves now all to the good.
The Ukrainians are probably feeling a bit like the 2 Roman soldiers in Life of Brian stood to one side watching bemused as the Peoples Front of Judea and the Judean Peoples Front slug it out.

 

[spitfire]

Yeah me too but there’s a lot of it about. More than usual and I struggle to see any kind of strategy it suits.

But I’m not a master strategist.

I almost said chatter but I’m better than that.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Reports of parts of the Army taking sides, is this the start of the end game?

 

[ska invita]

Potentially incredible turn of events... Prigozhin sounds power-mad delusional and I cant imagine it ending well for him, but how loyal are Wagner troops to him?

 

[strung out]

As we enter day 485 of the three day special military operation to capture Kyiv, Putin's presidential caterer launches an armed insurrection, as Moscow initiates the Citadel Protocol to mobilise police to protect centres of power across Russia.

 

[Dystopiary]

Part of a thread by Jake Hanrahan, whole (short) thread worth a quick read imo.



thread here

 

[tommers]

Well he's hoping that the army has had enough isn't he? I mean, if any of this is real.

 

[maomao]

If he can draw in parts of the army or security forces then he has half a chance, on his own he'll surely get swatted.

 

[ska invita]

i listened to this the other day

Profile - Yevgeny Prigozhin - BBC Sounds

Enter the murky world of one of the most dominant men in Russia.

www.bbc.co.uk

he is an ego maniac by the sounds of it, and some do think he wants to be president, but also he recognises that he has been used and has "run out of road" - could be his last throw of the dice here.
smells a little desperate and delusional

 

[AverageJoe]

Not sure how I can find my posts from about 2 (maybe 4) weeks ago but I called it.

Opens up another bottle of claret in my opulant mansion.

I was decried when I said Wagner were loose cannons who will go where the money and ammo is, and that the main chap has ambitions.

And yet most of you went... "you're mental Joe".

Which is fair enough. I say that every day.