Russian Ukraine shenanigans

[uhhello]

4 minutes ago, waveshaper said:

Here's the latest (just now hitting the news cycle):

"Russian Navy’s Black Sea flagship RTS Moskva (121) has sunk while being towed toward Sevastopol, Crimea, after sustaining major damage in a fire Wednesday, Russian state media said on Thursday.

“During the towing of the Moskva cruiser to the port of destination, the ship lost its stability due to damage to the hull received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition. In the conditions of stormy seas, the ship sank,” the Russian ministry of defense told the TASS newswire."

UPDATED: Russia Says Damaged Cruiser Moskva Sank Under Tow Headed to Black Sea Homeport

UPDATED: Russia Says Damaged Cruiser Moskva Sank Under Tow Headed to Black Sea Homeport - USNI News

 

friggin niceeeee

[Day Man]

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[Clayton Bigsby]

[Prosuper]

 

[Prosuper]

[bfargin]

This version might be more accurate.

[ClearedHot]

If you are looking for a way to help I highly recommend the The Mozart Group  They are looking for funds AND volunteers.

The founder is a good friend and retired Marine O-6 who has been on the ground in Ukraine for some time trying to make a difference.  He stood up this group and they are working hard to train Ukrainian forces in a large array of tactics and capabilities as they kick the shit out of the Russians.

[Swizzle]

[Majestik Møøse]

This entire war is amazing to watch. Russia’s only off ramp to return to normalcy is if the FSB kills Putin and his successor says, “yeah, he was a crazy asshole, good riddance, now who wants to buy some oil?”

I’d put $69 on it happening within the year.

[hindsight2020]

I'm sure 'tea time' at the Putin household is a nervous time for the tasters lol. 

"Would you like some polon--*cough* sugar with your coffee this morning, sire? " 😄 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by hindsight2020

[Blue]

The speculation I've seen about Putin is all over the board.  Everywhere from "He's isolated in his ivory tower, suffering from a fatal, incurable disease," to "He's 100% in control of all of the levers of government."  I assume the truth is somewhere in the middle, but who knows.

Would love to see some kind of palace coup, with a bloodless transfer of power, and a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.

I worry about the results of a cornered Putin.  Cornered via continued losses in Ukraine, or via some kind of internal struggle.  The cornered rat bites the hardest, and all that.

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Blue

[StoleIt]

21 hours ago, Blue said:

The speculation I've seen about Putin is all over the board.  Everywhere from "He's isolated in his ivory tower, suffering from a fatal, incurable disease," to "He's 100% in control of all of the levers of government."  I assume the truth is somewhere in the middle, but who knows.

Would love to see some kind of palace coup, with a bloodless transfer of power, and a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.

I worry about the results of a cornered Putin.  Cornered via continued losses in Ukraine, or via some kind of internal struggle.  The cornered rat bites the hardest, and all that.

 

I'd really like to know how the average Russian citizen feels. I feel like we (or maybe just me) is hearing about the protests followed by mass arrests. But I figure that has to be a small minority. How does generic Ivan (Joe Shmoe) and Anastasia (Plain Jane) really feel about Putin?

Quote

"Surveys conducted immediately before and after the outbreak of the Ukrainian invasion on 24 February report that the majority of ordinary Russians expressed support for the Ukrainian war and for President Putin."

Source (no idea on it's validity): https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/03/17/what-do-ordinary-russians-really-think-about-the-war-in-ukraine/

[brabus]

38 minutes ago, StoleIt said:

How does generic Ivan (Joe Shmoe) and Anastasia (Plain Jane) really feel about Putin?

There have been a lot of recordings of conscripts calling family back home where it goes something like this:

Con: "Fuck this place, I was supposed to be home a month ago and they're saying we're not leaving."

Family: "But you're doing great things, you'll be a war hero!"

Con: "Fuck their medals, I don't want that, I don't want to die here and I'm sick of all my friends dying"

Family: "Yeah but you guys are kicking their ass!"

Con: "The fuck we are, we don't even know if we're hitting anything, but they're sure as shit hitting us!"

And so forth. Conversations like this seem to shed light on what the general population is being fed information-wise vs. what is actually being experienced in Ukraine. Surely there are groups of people who know better and are protesting, but seems like they're the minority.

[fire4effect]

McCarthy says Ukraine invasion should serve as ‘lesson’ for arming Taiwan (msn.com)

Timely article. Hope we see concrete actions from those who can actually make it happen.

He touches on an interesting point that had we done more arming Ukraine earlier it might have prevented the invasion in the first place. Clearly no way to know in hindsight. Of course, no one ever remembers the attack, mishap or crash for that matter that is prevented or otherwise never occurs.

Edited April 17, 2022 by fire4effect

[Prosuper]

5 hours ago, brabus said:

There have been a lot of recordings of conscripts calling family back home where it goes something like this:

Con: "Fuck this place, I was supposed to be home a month ago and they're saying we're not leaving."

Family: "But you're doing great things, you'll be a war hero!"

Con: "Fuck their medals, I don't want that, I don't want to die here and I'm sick of all my friends dying"

Family: "Yeah but you guys are kicking their ass!"

Con: "The fuck we are, we don't even know if we're hitting anything, but they're sure as shit hitting us!"

And so forth. Conversations like this seem to shed light on what the general population is being fed information-wise vs. what is actually being experienced in Ukraine. Surely there are groups of people who know better and are protesting, but seems like they're the minority.

Hell that sounds like a GI calling home from Kandahar.

[Lawman]

Picture of the Moskva

Appears to be in the middle of fighting fires aboard. Obviously the guy on the support vessel who snapped this didn’t do his annual cyber awareness and OpSec training.


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[pawnman]

2 hours ago, Lawman said:

Picture of the Moskva

Appears to be in the middle of fighting fires aboard. Obviously the guy on the support vessel who snapped this didn’t do his annual cyber awareness and OpSec training.


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Man...just look at the waves made by that storm, tossing the boat like a toy...

[Lawman]

Man...just look at the waves made by that storm, tossing the boat like a toy...

Looking at how low it’s riding in the water, and given the condition of so much other Russian equipment in this war…

I’m betting they made a hell of a lot of effort fighting fires, but don’t have the pumps and trim capability to deal with the excess amounts of water the ship was filling its self up with trying to contain the fire.


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[Prosuper]

2 hours ago, Lawman said:

Picture of the Moskva

Appears to be in the middle of fighting fires aboard. Obviously the guy on the support vessel who snapped this didn’t do his annual cyber awareness and OpSec training.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Two holes at the water line , turned everything inside and above into a inferno.

[Clayton Bigsby]

Two holes, like maybe two anti-ship missiles?

So many Ruskov lies...

[ViperMan]

2 hours ago, Clayton Bigsby said:

Two holes, like maybe two anti-ship missiles?

So many Ruskov lies...

Two holes? Still about 6-9 less than Putin's mom has.

[DirkDiggler]

  Good video of Russians getting grenade’d.

[Prozac]

36 minutes ago, DirkDiggler said:

  Good video of Russians getting grenade’d.

Looks like a possible setup/PR trap by the Russians. Standing by for Russian state media headline: ‘Ukrainian Nazi Regiment Slaughters Civilians in Mariupol’ with associated photos/video of burning civilian vehicles. 

[Sim]

 

interesting interview.

[Best-22]

39 minutes ago, Sim said:

 

interesting interview.

"Interesting" in the sense that you can show people this video as an example of everything we learned at SERE being applied in real life.

The interviewer pretends to be an independent western journalist but is actually employed by and under armed guard of the FSB. He used to be an amateur blogger doing reviews of prostitutes before the FSB picked him up. He's done such a good job they even gave him a medal.

https://m.censor.net/en/photo_news/349247/graham_phillips_british_pseudojournalist_as_a_tool_of_russias_fsb_and_kremlins_propaganda_photos

 

https://www.stopfake.org/en/british-citizen-exposed-as-a-tool-of-russia-s-fsb/

Also, im pretty sure the dude isn't a mercenary he's a member of the Ukrainian military and has been for like 5 years.

 

The interviewers constant prodding about "and everything you say is of your own free will right?? We aren't forcing you to say anything right??" To the guy literally wearing handcuffs should have been your first clue something wasn't right here. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Best-22