Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (Official Thread)

[MoneyTron]

Yup, there is a huge gap between the Russian military's performance in Syria, Mali, Libya, and C.A.R. and this kind of half ass, on the edges invasion of Ukraine.

This is what I don't understand. If Putin wanted to get this over quickly, he would've sent his best and brightest in. He clearly hasn't.

Its missing the bombing, cyber attacks, electronic warfare, etc, etc.

It's hard to believe Putin 10-15 years ago doesn't have this over in short order.

 

[Broke Wave]

You are assuming we thought they magicked those items out of thin air with an EXCELSIOR?

Either way, the SWIFT decision was more impactful than the weapons.

Actually you’d be surprised how many people think Germany or any other country sending weapons to Ukraine is a principled foreign policy move rather than the offloading of years of NATO weaponry with all the announced funds going directly into the pockets of the defense industry, which is up big right now.

 

[Wild self]

the TLR thread is a insanity

Pro Russia posts on TLR makes me think that the GOP is growing among the incel population

 

[ill]

Any pro Russian perspectives on her? @ill ?

The only thing old Soviets hate more than outsiders is their own government. Especially when it's killing its own citizens and brothers.

Every Russian has family in Ukraine and vice versa. The bonds and ties are unbreakable.

Its one thing to exert influence and another to force people into submission. Putin fukked up majorly. His speech to the oligarchs....you could hear the fear in his voice...he knows he overstepped and fukked up in a big way. I'd imagine he's gonna get got by his own people at this stage.

As much as I wanted Ukraine to remain neutral and sovereign and have ties with both the west and the east, it's clearly out of the equation now. I'm officially Team Ukraine in this situation.

 

[jj23]

holy shyt
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to relinquish stewardship of club

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to relinquish stewardship of club

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has announced that he is handing stewardship of the club to trustees of its charitable foundation.

In a statement, the Russian billionaire said: "During my nearly 20-year ownership of Chelsea FC, I have always viewed my role as a custodian of the club, whose job it is ensuring that we are as successful as we can be today, as well as build for the future, while also playing a positive role in our communities.

"I have always taken decisions with the club's best interest at heart. I remain committed to these values. That is why I am today giving trustees of Chelsea's charitable foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC.

"I believe that currently they are in the best position to look after the interests of the Club, players, staff, and fans."

Oh shyt

 

[George's Dilemma]

Russia is looking bad out here. Now we got audio recordings. Man, they have completely wrecked themselves on the world stage.







Now this fool switches up on Russia. "Putin is a murderer" she says...

First time I can recall her looking nervous. She's usually super defiant.

 

[88m3]

Germany woke up.

Interesting

Italy talking about dropping Russia from SWIFT as well


Germany and Italy are the most connected/beholden to Russia in the bloc as well. Pretty wild

 

[Professor Emeritus]

That's why I really don't understand Putin's motives for this war.

It seems like a lose/lose situation for all sides, as well the rest of the world no matter how it turns out. I'm not sure who benefits at all...


It's an L for Ukraine obviously, an L for Russia (especially their economy because of all the sanctions), an L for Putin (since world leaders won't fukk with him at all now and he'll be remembered as a war criminal) and an L for the rest of the world due to the economic affects and increased gas prices.

Putin's #1 play in this is the hope that he can intimidate every neighboring nation that has not already joined NATO into being a pure Russia satellite state or risk invasion.

Just since Putin became Russia's leader, he's watched Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria (oddly), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia all join NATO. Plus Bosnia, Georgia, and Ukraine all want to join. This is a massive L for Putin in terms of his pride as well as the degree to which he can bully these neighboring states.

He wants to end that shyt. He thinks that with a show of force now he can start winding back that expansion, tell future aspirants and even current members "fukk NATO, if you don't kiss the ring then I'll do the same to you and none of them will help", and widen his sphere of influence because he's feeling very isolated in Europe right now. It's a tight line to walk though because his power isn't infinite and many of his supporters don't really want to risk their already precarious state with more war, so he's trying to have it both ways - intimidate everyone into believing that Russia is the only nation that will truly employ its forces without actually having to truly employ its forces.

 

[Tony D'Amato]

Here’s the thing… those anti tank missiles and stingers are just sitting on shelves in warehouses in Germany. They purchased them from their defense industry or the US. Now that they’ve found an excuse to offload them to troops who will be ostensibly tasked with using them, they have to buy more to replace that inventory. That’s the purpose of fueling and supporting conflict and also explains Germany’s hesitancy on helping earlier.

Still to publicly say they're sending them to fight the Russian army is big imo. Europe need to start letting their nuts hang. Stop actinike some hoes.

 

[jj23]

That Chelsea news is crazy.

Either the UK government literally told him to fukk off, or some shyt is going down in Russia and it's about to get ugly.

 

[ill]

This is what I don't understand. If Putin wanted to get this over quickly, he would've sent his best and brightest in. He clearly hasn't.

Its missing the bombing, cyber attacks, electronic warfare, etc, etc.

It's hard to believe Putin 10-15 years ago doesn't have this over in short order.

If Putin wanted to level Ukraine, he would have already. He's holding back because its his brethren. On top of that, it seems theres very few people in power both politically and military that were even aware this war was happening. That says to me he knew Russians would not want to attack Ukrainians.

I'd imagine him holding back is a show of good faith. He attacked mostly military installations so far so his fight is with the Ukrainian government "for now". I think he thought the people of Ukraine would just take the hint and not want the full on slaught of Russian weaponry. They offered cease fire talks last night that Ukraine rejected so I think the heavy weapons will be in play in the next few days.

He sent those 18 year olds cuz all they know about Ukraine is the past decade of turmoil and civil war. The older people know and love Ukraine so they would be far more conflicted during the initial wave. IMO of course

 

[Yessir_Araphat]

Oh shyt

What I miss??

 

[jj23]

What I miss??

Abramovich relinquished stewardship of Chelsea.

Abramovich hands ‘stewardship and care of Chelsea’ to charitable foundation

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Best Ukraine could hope for sadly for them a West and East Ukraine type thing. But how receptive to that would they be who knows I guess not very likely. And we know Russia won't give them any concessions either like we'll let you join the EU but no to NATO

Yeah, permanently split Ukraine is what I see as the most likely endgame scenario.

Russia "loses" - they fall back to eastern Ukraine and negotiate a ceasefire with certain eastern provinces becoming autonomous to save face.

Russia "wins" - they eventually have to stop occupying Ukraine and whatever government they leave in Kiev gets overthrown eventually and retakes the bulk of Ukraine.

 

[BaggerofTea]

Great thread by nap highlighting the deeper reasoning behind the russian invasion

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War. Incredible insight to the schism of Russian orthodoxy

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War