Ukraine war mega thread

[OhOh]

Shortly after the signing of the agreement, fighters loyal to Russia stormed Debaltseve and captured the place three days after the officially announced ceasefire, which already broke the agreement

Care to post a link to your allegation?

[harrybarracuda]

They should hit Putin and Russia with sanctions now.

No need to wait.

[harrybarracuda]

One good thing about Putin's sabre-rattling: The EU don't trust him not to cut off gas supplies so now is a really good time to sign some long term contracts with the US and others. Naturally the US are helping out, excuse the pun.

The Biden administration is talking with energy companies and major gas-producing nations to ramp up production in case a Russian invasion of Ukraine leads to winter fuel shortages in Europe, a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday.
Global leaders fear Russia could weaponize its gas deliveries to Europe if the West imposes harsh sanctions on Moscow over a potential attack on Ukraine. Russian companies supplies roughly a third of the natural gas used by Europe.

“We’ve analyzed the impacts of potential disruptions and we’re going to work to ensure Europe has alternative energy supplies,” the official said on a conference call with reporters.

Biden administration moves to cover European gas shortfalls if Russia invades Ukraine - Washington Times

[Backspin]

I am not surprised at the company you keep...

Also Paul Craig Roberts

He was the United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan and – after leaving government – held the William E. Simon chair in economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies for ten years and served on several corporate boards. A former associate editor at The Wall Street Journal, his articles have also appeared in The New York Times and Harper's, and he is the author of more than a dozen books and a number of peer-reviewed papers. held a sub-cabinet office in the United States federal government as well as teaching positions at several U.S. universities.

He is also recipient of the United States Treasury's Meritorious Service Award and the International Journalism Award for Political Analysis from the Mexican Press Club.

[Backspin]

One good thing about Putin's sabre-rattling: The EU don't trust him not to cut off gas supplies so now is a really good time to sign some long term contracts with the US and others. Naturally the US are helping out, excuse the pun.

Analysis: US reliance on Russian oil hits record high despite souring ties | S&P Global Platts

[Backspin]

Care to post a link to your allegation?

That was Minsk 1. Not Minsk 2. Minsk 2 is what's in force today. Not Minsk 1.

I have Herman the Nazi man child on block but I seen his dribble from your post

[Backspin]

Voice of reason from Europe: Croatian President announces that in the event of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, he will withdraw his military personnel from NATO forces.
Telegram Соловьёв Liv https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status/1485991607069462540/video/1

[Backspin]

Germany won't allow the UK to fly weapons over its airspace to Ukraine. Now this.

"Germany is blocking NATO ally Estonia from giving military support to Ukraine by refusing to issue permits for German-origin weapons to be exported to Kyiv as it braces for a potential Russian invasion." https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-blocks-nato-ally-from-transferring-weapons-to-ukraine-11642790772?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

[david44]

A third European civil war cui bono? USA and China divide and spoil.

I don't imagine many Germans queueing up to die on the Steppes under Scholz.

[sabang]

Ukraine's leaders have sought to reassure the nation that a feared invasion from neighbouring Russia was not imminent, even as they acknowledged the threat of invasion is real.

Moscow has denied planning an assault, but massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine, leading the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to rush to prepare for a possible war.

Several rounds of high stakes diplomacy have failed to yield any breakthroughs and this week tensions escalated further.

NATO said it was bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region and the US ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert to potentially deploy to Europe as part of an alliance "response force", if necessary.

The Kremlin said Washington's actions and statements around Ukraine were escalating tensions and that Russia was watching with great concern after the decision to put the troops on alert.

Russia has started making combat readiness inspections in its southern military district, which borders Ukraine, involving more than 6,000 troops, the RIA news agency cited Russia's military as saying on Tuesday.

The US State Department has ordered the families of all American personnel at the US Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country, and it said that non-essential embassy staff could leave. Britain and Australia have also said they were withdrawing some diplomats and dependents, with Canberra urging Australians to leave.

In Ukraine, however, authorities have sought to project calm.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday local time that the situation was "under control" and that there was "no reason to panic".

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that, as of Monday, Russia's armed forces had not formed what he called battle groups, "which would have indicated that tomorrow they would launch an offensive".

"There are risky scenarios. They're possible and probable in the future," Mr Reznikov told Ukraine's ICTV channel.
"But as of today … such a threat doesn't exist."

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, echoed that sentiment saying that the movement of Russian troops near Ukraine's border was "not news".

"As of today, we don't see any grounds for statements about a full-scale offensive on our country," Mr Danilov said Monday.

Russia has said Western accusations that it is planning an invasion are merely a cover for NATO's own planned provocations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday once again accused the US of "fomenting tensions" around the Ukraine, a former Soviet state that Russia has been locked in a bitter tug-of-war with for almost eight years.

In 2014, following the ouster of a Kremlin-friendly president in Ukraine, Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in the country's industrial heartland in the east.

The fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels has since killed over 14,000 people and efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict have stalled.

In the latest stand-off, Russia has demanded guarantees from the West that NATO would never allow Ukraine to join and that the alliance would curtail other actions, such as stationing troops in former Soviet bloc countries.

Some of these, like any pledge to permanently bar Ukraine are non-starters for NATO — creating a seemingly intractable stalemate that many fear can only end in war.

Mr Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk this week to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who is also planning to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Russia is awaiting a written US response this week to its list of security demands it has presented.

Mr Peskov said the US troop alert did not affect negotiations because the current phase of talks had been completed.

As part of a new $US200 million ($280 million) in security assistance directed to Ukraine from the US, a shipment including equipment and munitions was also expected to arrive Tuesday in Ukraine.

The US moves are being done in tandem with actions by other NATO member governments to bolster a defensive presence in Eastern Europe.

Denmark, for example, is sending a frigate and F-16 warplanes to Lithuania; Spain is sending four fighter jets to Bulgaria and three ships to the Black Sea to join NATO naval forces and France stands ready to send troops to Romania.

Ukraine urges calm, saying situation 'under control' and Russian invasion not imminent (msn.com)


Oh dear. You've been Had, again.

[Troy]

Germany won't allow the UK to fly weapons over its airspace to Ukraine. Now this.

"Germany is blocking NATO ally Estonia from giving military support to Ukraine by refusing to issue permits for German-origin weapons to be exported to Kyiv as it braces for a potential Russian invasion." https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-blocks-nato-ally-from-transferring-weapons-to-ukraine-11642790772?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

Germany have not refused any UK flights to overfly the country. This is just more misinformation.

[sabang]

UK planes delivering weapons to Ukraine detoured around German airspace Troy. Normal flights are not affected.

[harrybarracuda]

UK planes delivering weapons to Ukraine detoured around German airspace Troy. Normal flights are not affected.

See, Germany's shitting itself about the gas supply.

Told ya.

[sabang]

Germany certainly won't be bullied by the US & it's UK vassal. Already starting to sulk in the US-


Is Germany a Reliable American Ally? Nein

Berlin goes its own way, prizing cheap gas, car exports to China, and keeping Putin calm.

Is Germany a Reliable American Ally? Nein - WSJ



Three damn good reasons I might add. If you want to warmonger America, use bloody Aukus instead.

[bsnub]

If you want to warmonger America

Russia’s Top Five Persistent Disinformation Narratives

Theme #1: “Russia is an Innocent Victim”

Pretty incredible that Russia can park 100,000 troops on the border of a country that it has invaded twice since 2014 yet you actually with a straight face can claim that America is the warmonger.



The disinformation narrative hooks are deep inside you lemming.

[sabang]

Oh, thought you might enjoy this warmonger-


http://thesaker.is/response-to-the-us-department-of-states-fact-sheet-facts-vs-fiction-russian-disinformation-on-ukraine/

[Backspin]

See, Germany's shitting itself about the gas supply.

Told ya.

Nope. Germany just doesn't want this war and if it was up to them , they'd sign an inclusive European peace deal with Russia. The Anglo powers are provoking this war to try and drive Russia and Germany apart.

[bsnub]

Oh, thought you might enjoy this warmonger-

The guy is a Russian apologist who writes a totally one-sided Putin worshiping blog. Complete waste of time. It is no wonder you think the way you do, reading that utter shit.

Germany just doesn't want this war and if it was up to them , they'd sign an inclusive European peace deal with Russia.

Right now, the only country that appears to want a war is Russia, and it is proving it at every opportunity. It boggles the mind that there are people like yourself who are so hopelessly stupid and propagandized that you can't recognize the obvious.

[sabang]

The anglos are the ones talking up war and generally trying to stir up shit here, plain and simple. Go home yankee, and take your lapdogs with you! Leave this to the adults.

[Troy]

UK planes delivering weapons to Ukraine detoured around German airspace Troy. Normal flights are not affected.

I know, but it wasn't because Germany refused permission. It was just to avoid delay due to bureaucracy. Later military cargo flights did take the route through Germany.

At no time have military flights been refused to fly through Germany. That was just people coming to the wrong conclusions because of these flight plans.

[NamPikToot]

The anglos are the ones talking up war and generally trying to stir up shit here

What do you make of Putin ordering his Navy to conduct live fire exercises off the coast of Ireland Sabang, just friendly joshing in a country's territorial waters?

[bsnub]

WASHINGTON — As the United States issued warnings last month about the Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders and President Biden threatened President Vladimir V. Putin with sanctions if he launched an invasion, researchers noticed an uptick in social media posts accusing Ukraine of plotting a genocide against ethnic Russians.

In one example, an arm of the Moscow-controlled broadcaster RT circulated a clip of Mr. Putin saying that events in eastern Ukraine “resemble genocide.” News Front, which the State Department has called a disinformation outlet with ties to Russian security services, followed with an article on Dec. 13 that said the United States did not consider the massacres to be a genocide.

In the months since the Russian troop buildup began, Moscow and its online army of allies have pushed out old arguments about western Ukrainians being aligned with Nazism, falsely accused the United States of using proxy forces to plot a chemical attack and claimed that Russia’s planned military operations were intended to protect ethnic Russians or pre-empt action by NATO, according to researchers.

American intelligence officials said Russia had produced a steady stream of disinformation about Ukraine since 2014. But they observed an uptick in December and January as Moscow increased pressure on the government in Kyiv.

The technology firm Logically, a British-based company that helps governments and businesses counter disinformation, has been tracking Russian-aligned social media accounts, such as those of RT and Sputnik, along with Twitter accounts of Russian officials. Posts and articles accusing some Ukrainians of being neo-Nazis have dramatically increased since early November, according to Logically. The Moscow-backed information campaign accusing the United States of planning a chemical attack spiked on Dec. 21, the firm said.

Much of the propaganda is aimed at a domestic audience in Russia and at pro-Moscow Ukrainians, said Brian Murphy, the vice president for strategic operations at Logically. If Russia does invade Ukraine, he said, it wants to make sure it has the support of Russian speakers in the country as its tanks and artillery roll across fields or knock down houses.

“There are very few fence-sitters left in Ukraine,” Mr. Murphy said. “They are trying to strengthen support in the separatist-occupied regions of Ukraine and within Russia.”

But the propaganda can easily move beyond a Russian-speaking audience.

Intelligence officials have said that while Russia is unlikely to change many minds in Europe, its messaging has had more traction in South America and Africa, muddying the waters about which country is responsible for the Ukraine crisis.

Much like its efforts to divide the American electorate in 2016 by stoking debates about racism, guns and other divisive issues, Russia is trying to increase polarization in Ukraine to give it a tactical advantage, Mr. Murphy said.

The State Department said in a fact sheet issued last week that much of the disinformation repeated old themes, such as portraying Russia as a victim of U.S. actions, depicting Western societies as on the verge of collapse because they have moved away from traditional values, and describing Washington as the supporter of revolutions in the region.

Researchers have tracked similar themes coming from Russian accounts, including a rise in posts claiming that NATO and Ukrainian forces are preparing to attack Russian speakers in Ukraine. Allegations of a NATO intervention in Ukraine first hit a peak in late December before spiking higher in mid-January, according to Logically.

Mr. Murphy, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence branch, said that claiming NATO interference in Ukraine has long been a standard line of attack by Moscow.
While it is often difficult to track where a particular piece of disinformation originates, researchers can see when many Russian accounts begin pushing the same narrative.

“It looks like a coordinated campaign,” Mr. Murphy said. “They come out, around the same time, with similar messaging.”

The claim that the United States was preparing a chemical attack was originally made by the Russian defense minister. But disinformation experts tracked how various accounts amplified it.

Versions of the statement were recirculated by both state-owned media and websites that the U.S. government has said are used by Russian intelligence services, such as News Front and the Strategic Culture Foundation, said Bret Schafer, the head of the information manipulation team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks disinformation and other efforts aimed at undercutting democratic governments. The timing of the posts was curious, he said.

A few weeks after the posts appeared in December, American officials said that a false flag operation conducted by Russia could be used as an excuse to move troops into Ukraine in the name of protecting the Russian-speaking population.

“One could conceivably view Russian messaging last month as an attempt to muddy the water before their own impending operation,” Mr. Schafer said. “Or, in classic propaganda terms, to accuse others of that which you are guilty.”

Larissa Doroshenko, a researcher at Northeastern University, said that Russian disinformation tactics in Ukraine used both falsified stories and those that were true but tangential to current events in order to distort narratives or hide true intentions.

Dr. Doroshenko studied Russian disinformation around the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Ukraine and found that even then, Moscow used various means to push narratives.

“We focus on the social media, but it is a multiplatform approach,” she said. “It is social media, but it is also these so-called news websites, these propaganda websites, that present themselves to appeal to regular people.”

Mr. Putin took Crimea stealthily, Dr. Doroshenko said. But the troop buildup near Ukraine has been anything but hidden.

She said the Russian troop deployments and threats against Ukraine may be as much about stoking nationalistic feelings as they are about muting domestic criticism of Mr. Putin’s moves to shut down nonprofit groups like Memorial International, a human rights organization, or groups affiliated with Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader.

“If you can create an external enemy,” she said, “all these issues of what are happening with civic society in Russia are not as important anymore.”

Russia Steps Up Propaganda War Amid Ukraine Tensions - The New York Times

[harrybarracuda]

Qatar will be rubbing its little hands together.

President Joe Biden will host the ruling emir of Qatar at the White House on Monday, a visit that comes as US and European allies are scrambling to put together contingency plans to meet Europe's energy needs should supplies be impacted by Russia further invading Ukraine.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/joe-biden-to-meet-qatar-leader-as-energy-worries-loom-in-europe/articleshow/89130738.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medi um=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[Norton]

Putin's bluff called. No war. No gas shut off. Next.

[HermantheGerman]

Analysis: US reliance on Russian oil hits record high despite souring ties | S&P Global Platts

The alcoholic found something in the internet but fails again to understand what it means. Should I give the idiot a hint? Why not! Keeps him busy and out of Teakdoor.

"Mazut"