Ukraine war mega thread

[bsnub]

The west is full pogrompilled.

What an idiot.

[sabang]

Shucks, I wanted to see The Hermitage while the ruble was still tanked. Oh well, Thailand it is then.

[Norton]

But his 'slow and steady' approach to the invasion has left several puzzled, including me. Time is not his friend, but I hope that does not presage a worsening of this war- with accompanying casualties.

Putin stated early on he had no intention of occupying the Ukraine. This based on the now clearly wrong assumption the people of the Ukraine would welcome the Russians with open arms and would gladly see the "Nazi regime" replaced by a pro Russian government.

Now Putin is faced with only one option which will fail, occuption. Unless he backs off on what amounts to his desire to turn the Ukraine into a vassal state this war will go on for a long time and result in far more deaths for both Ukrainians and Russians.

Indeed time is not Putins friend. Domestic and world condemnation of the war will increase as a function of time. The ripple effect on the entire world's economies will reach a point where Putin will be forced to simply leave and claim victory. If he refuses to make this move, it will be his end one way or the other.

[sabang]

The noises coming from Lavrov & co suggest a more reasonable set of demands, but we shall see. No involved party is a stranger to duplicity.

[baldrick]

Indeed time is not Putins friend

how long do you think it will take our select group on this board to stop being his friend ?

[sabang]

Carnt speak for others, but Vlad and I were thinking of renewing our marriage vows.

[harrybarracuda]

The noises coming from Lavrov & co suggest a more reasonable set of demands, but we shall see. No involved party is a stranger to duplicity.

Lavrov is just a ventriloquist's dummy with Putin's hand up his arse.

[CalEden]

Pure speculation, but you know it's been thought about.
With Russians bungling Military in the Ukraine. One cannot help but wonder if China is reevaluating the Bejing Treaty of 1860, where China ceded Outer Manchuria to Russia. Which now includes Vladivostok Naval base. Maybe China will see easier opportunity than Taiwan. Russia moved troops out of this area for the Ukraine War and with the China Alliance.

[Backspin]

Another Ukraine documentary. It will get taken down soon

[david44]

A Rapture Index

steady now , nearly ruptured myself laughing, you imagine USA almost invincible until you realize so many believe in fairy tales.

[harrybarracuda]

Russia plans to seize assets of western companies exiting country

None of it matters. Once Puffy Putin is gone all will be returned.

[Switch]

Russia’s war on Ukraine has some Christians wondering: Is this the end of the world?

The war in Ukraine has reignited beliefs among some conservative evangelicals that Russia could help fulfill biblical prophecies about the end of the world.


These evangelicals, particularly charismatic Christians who focus on end-times theories, have long believed that Russia has a special role to play in the end times and are sharing new theories about why the invasion of Ukraine might be part of God’s plan.


Earlier this month, California megachurch pastor Greg Laurie, who was part of President Donald Trump’s inner circle of pastor-advisors, told his followers he saw a “prophetic significance” to what is happening in Ukraine. And Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin was “compelled by God” to attack Ukraine. Since then, people who engage in prophecy have been giving their own biblical interpretations to global events, particularly around Russia’s role in triggering the end of the world.


A Rapture Index that tracks what it sees as end-times activity recently increased its index to 187 out of 200. The index hit 182 after Sept. 11, 2001. In its most recent update, it notes climate change, the coronavirus and the rise of oil prices as factors for recent changes.

MORE MSN

This is the same bunch of contradictory mugs who elected Trump! Never a serious threat, just troublesome to have as neighbours.

[panama hat]

Forget human rights and the doctors oath

This is insane. A hospital in Munich, Germany sent this letter where they announce that "from now on and until further notice, we will not treat Russian and Belarusian citizens."

You really are a fuckwit of the highest order

We can’t read it and can’t trust you to state facts.

I can read it . . . and Troy has released the translation.

Will Backspit comment o it or just go onto another idiot rant? Oh, he's already done so.

Why . . .

[OhOh]

What has US done with bat coronavirus in Ukraine? World deserves explanation


By Global Times Published: Mar 10, 2022 09:42 PM

"The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday announced that US-funded biological labs in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples.

There is no smoke without fire. Some netizens commented that the Americans seem to have a special preference for making vampire-themed movies, and the prototype of the vampire comes from bat. The Americans' experiments with bat coronavirus have cultural origins.

Discussions about US bio labs in Ukraine are turning heated. Earlier, the Kremlin revealed evidence that the US was involved in biological weapons research in Ukrainian labs. It also said that Ukraine had destroyed samples of various pathogens. On Tuesday, Victoria Nuland, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs of the US, told a congressional hearing that Ukraine has biological research facilities and that "we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of the Russian forces."

Nonetheless, the US backtracked soon. On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released eight continuous tweets, which not only accused Russia of making false claims about US biological weapons labs in Ukraine, but also blamed China of endorsing this propaganda. US media outlet Bloomberg ran an article titled "China Pushes Conspiracy Theory About US Labs in Ukraine."

The accusation against China came after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian urged the US "to give a full account of its biological military activities at home and abroad and subject itself to multilateral verification."

The seemingly contradictory statements from different US officials only made the US' denial of its bio labs in Ukraine dubious. Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that during the US' foreign policymaking process, it is common that different departments hold different narratives, and such difference enables people to know the truth of the lie the US is trying to hide. The more the US contradicts itself, the more reasons the world has to question it.

US officials and media accused China of pushing conspiracy, but it is the US that is the No.1 player of conspiracy. In 2020, the Trump administration and conservative US media made the conspiracy theory of COVID-19 escaping from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. The hype of the lab leak theory has been an integral part of the US' overall China containment strategy. With the revelation that US-funded biological labs in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples, the US owes the world an explanation.

Regarding US bio labs across the world, many questions remain to be answered. The international community has no idea whether the US' 336 overseas bio labs and the labs on its soil such as Fort Detrick conform to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), while what is conducted inside these bio labs involves human security. Why has the US been standing alone in obstructing the establishment of a BWC verification mechanism and refusing verification of its biological facilities at home and abroad for the past two decades? Remember that the US is the only country left that owns chemical weapons in the world, and its destruction of these weapons has been delayed twice.

These have all led to a deeper concern from the international community. Labeling international concern simply as disinformation can only be seen as a way for the US to divert attention and shirk responsibility.

The US should clarify its bio experiments within and outside its borders, receive verification and destroy its stockpiled chemical weapons as soon as possible."

What has US done with bat coronavirus in Ukraine? World deserves explanation - Global Times

[Cujo]

Another Ukraine documentary. It will get taken down soon

Yep, the Russian dudinformation campaign is in full throttle.

Meanwhile, facts, not something most fox hosts are familiar with.

[pickel]

^^^
Why can't you ever include a link?

Here it is. And he also said the Ukrainians knocked alot of choppers out of the sky.

I’m one of the first Brits to join Ukraine – they fight like lions and I'''m proud to take on Putin with them

[Shutree]

Some netizens commented that the Americans seem to have a special preference for making vampire-themed movies, and the prototype of the vampire comes from bat. The Americans' experiments with bat coronavirus have cultural origins.

Maybe this is where the conspiracy theorists got it wrong. The planet isn't run by lizards, it's bats.

[Backspin]

The Kamov Ka-50 is the most agile attack helicopter out there

[pickel]

The Kamov Ka-50 is the most agile attack helicopter out there

Beijing Bewildered As Ukraine 'Shoots Down' Russia's Most Advanced Attack Helicopter On Shopping List Of Chinese PLA Navy?

[OhOh]

Cutting Through the Fog Masking ‘a New Page in the Art of War’

Pepe Escobar March 10, 2022

"The non-government in Kiev is simply not allowed by the Empire to negotiate anything. By now what we may call a Triple Threat has been established as the catalyst anticipating the launch of Operation Z.

1. Ukraine developing nuclear weapons. Zelensky himself hinted at it in the Munich Security Conference.
   
2. U.S. bioweapons labs in Ukraine. Confirmed, tersely, by none other than the Sinister Cookie Distributor neocon wife in the uber-neocon Kaganate of Nulands, who described them as “biological research facilities”. ”
   
3. An imminent attack on Donbass with massive civilian deaths. It could have been in March, according to documents seized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Or even in late February, according to SVR intelligence, which was monitoring the line of contact on a minute-by-minute basis. This is what eventually prompted Operation Z as a Russian version of R2P (“Responsibility to Protect”).
   

So after years of CIA-instigated shouts of “conspiracy theory!” and less than zero “fact checkers” activity, it turns out “it was all happening in Ukraine”, as divine messenger Maria Zakharova once again pointed out: “We have found your own products. We have found your biological material.”
The first-class investigative work of Dilyana Gaytandzhieva on Pentagon bioweapons was fully vindicated.

Based on documents received from Ukrainian biolab employees, the Russian ModD revealed that research with samples of bat coronavirus, among other experiments, were conducted in a Pentagon-funded biolab.

The purpose of all this research – which included another Pentagon project to study the transfer of pathogens by wild birds migrating between Ukraine and Russia and other neighboring countries – was “to create a mechanism for the covert spread of deadly pathogens.”

In trademark pysop mode, everything was turned upside down by the United States government: those evil Russkies could take control of biological samples, so any “accident” involving biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine would have to be blamed on Russia.

The White House, in yet another flagrant display of unredeemable stupidity, accused Russia of “false claims” and China of “endorsing this propaganda”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov came up with the adult perspective: “The whole world will be interested to know what exactly the American bio-laboratories in Ukraine were doing.”

Down on the ground

Meanwhile, defying the fog of war while being targeted by Kiev’s free distribution of weapons without any measure of control, civilians on the path of Operation Z confirmed over and over again that Azov neo-Nazis prevent them from escaping encircled towns and villages. These Banderastan fanatics are the shock troops transforming Ukraine into a large Idlib – according to His Master’s Voice’s plan.
Neo-Nazis are doing exactly what ISIS/Daesh did in Syria: hiding behind civilians taken as hostages. Azov are the white clones of ISIS/Daesh. After all they learned their tactics from the same masters.
They will be bolstered by a fresh contingent of 450 fighters just arrived from – where else – Idlib, including lots of non-Syrians from Europe and the Maghreb. Most though are al-Qaedites and members of the Syrian branch of the Turkestan Islamic Party. Their transit point: the Syria-Turkish border, a smuggling free-for-all.

As it stands, the most detailed macro-view of how strategic Operation Z is developing has been outlined
here. The inestimable Andrei Martyanov describes it as a “combined arms police operation”: a delicate crossover between formation-level warfare (“combined arms”) and a police operation to arrest and/or destroy criminals (the full extent of “demilitarization” and “denazification”).
For an undiluted, down and dirty, eye to the ground perspective (translated into English), it’s hard to beat Russian military man
Alexander Dubrovsky. He stresses how the objectives of the operation are “strategy and tactics”; and proceeding with haste is out of the question in this “completely new page in the art of war.”

Cutting through the fog, no one could realistically expect any breakthrough out of the meeting between Foreign Ministers Lavrov and Kuleba on the sidelines of the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya – as much as Turkey may have played a constructive role.
The non-government in Kiev is simply not allowed by the Empire to negotiate anything. The only tactic in town is stalling. Operation Z – or “the war” – could be stopped with a simple phone call from the Comedian in Kiev.

Lavrov at least was on some key issues. Russia does not want war; never used oil and gas as a weapon; and wants Ukraine to be neutral.
The West, Lavrov added, refuses to understand the concept of “indivisibility of security”; those who supply Ukraine with weapons and send mercenaries should understand “they’re responsible for their actions”; and referring to the hysterical sanctions swamp, he stressed, “we will do everything to no longer depend on the West in any strategic sectors of our life.”

It’s quite enlightening to juxtapose Lavrov with clueless NATOstan “analysts”, totally ignorant of Eurasia and pontificating about “a new ideological conflict between irredentist tyrannies and liberal democracies”. It’s about sovereignty, stupid – not ideology.

NATOstan of course is incapable of understanding the process of Nazification of Ukraine – the key theme of any serious political/cultural/sociological analysis. It’s not an accident that the list of nations supporting the neoNazi-infested collapsed government in Kiev happens to largely coincide with the list of nations that refused to vote in favor of the UN resolution condemning the rehabilitation of Nazism.
In historical terms, these “analysts” might learn something by reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard. Bulgakov considered Ukraine as an avowedly reductionist version of “the steppe”: culturally barren, not capable of creating anything, destined to barbaric destruction. It’s important to remember that when Ukraine attempted to constitute itself as a state in 1918-1920, cultural and industrial centers such as Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaev, Kharkov, Luhansk had never been Ukrainian. And western Ukraine for a long while was part of Poland.

All aboard the Eurasian train

On the economic front, the dogs of hybrid war bark while the Eurasia integration caravan marches on – with the Empire irretrievably being pushed outside of the Eurasian landmass.

In a phone call prior to the Lavrov-Kuleba meeting in Antalya, President Erdogan suggested to Putin setting up a trading mechanism in gold and also rubles, yuan and Turkish lira to beat the Western sanction hysteria. The source is Abdulkadir Selvi, very close to Erdogan. No Russia-China official comment yet.

The key fact is that Russia, China, and for that matter the entire Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – responsible for at least 30% of global GDP and the bulk of the Eurasian market – don’t need the West at all.

As Peter Koenig, a former senior economist at the World Bank points out, “Western GDP has a different basis, with blown out of proportion services, whereas the GDP of the SCO and the Global South is production-based. A huge difference when one looks at the backing of currencies: in the West there is literally none. Eastern currencies are mostly backed by national economies, especially in China and soon in Russia too. That leads to self-sufficiency, and no longer reliance on the West.”

In the larger geopolitical spectrum, the non-stop war of attrition by the Empire against Russia with Ukraine as a pawn is a war against the New Silk Roads; Maidan in 2014 took place only a few months after the launching of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), then OBOR (One Belt, One Road) in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. It’s also a war on the Russian concept of Greater Eurasia Partnership. In sum: it’s an all-out war on Eurasia integration.

And that bring us to the key aspect of BRI: Eurasia rail/road connectivity – between China and the EU and with one corridor traversing Russia. The coordinated NATOstan sanction hysteria is not only against Russia, but also against China.
For the Beltway, BRI is beyond anathema: it’s almost like the Beast of the Apocalypse. As a response, the West even has concocted puny schemes such as the American B3W (“Build Back Better World) and the EU’s Global Gateway. Their impact, so far, does not even qualify as negligible.

Ukraine in itself is not a problem for BRI; traffic is only 2% of eastbound China-Europe freight trains. But Russia is another story.

According to Feng Xubin, Vice Chairman of the China-Europe Railway Express Transportation Coordination Committee, the freight settlement system between China and Russia may be in trouble: “At present, freight is denominated in dollars […] If the West cuts off Russia’s intermediate settlement channel in the international financial system, it means that the settlement system for freight charges between China and Russia will not be able to proceed normally.”

From the EU’s point of view, trade interruptions are not exactly a good deal. China-EU freight traffic increased over 100% last year.
For instance, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are co-financing a 67 km high-speed rail stretch from Istanbul to the Bulgarian border.

Sanctions on Russia will definitely affect the trans-Eurasia supply chain – on transportation, ports, insurance, communications. Yet quite a few sanctions may be revised later on, as the EU itself starts to feel the pain.

China will have an abundance of Plan Bs. The key northern BRI corridor remains China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-EU, but there is a possible detour via the Caspian, in Aktau in Kazakhstan. There will be extra incentive to fully link the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway with the Turkish grid. And there will be extra movement in the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), with Baku connecting to the Iranian Caspian Sea coast and by rail to ultra-strategic Chabahar port.

So we may be heading towards extra impetus for BRI’s multimodal southern corridor – bypassing Russia: that means a boost for Turkey, the Caucasus and the Caspian. And no losses for China. As for Russia, even if this re-routing may last for a while, it’s not such a big deal. After all from now on Russia will be developing intensive trade towards the east and south of Eurasia, and not towards the sanctioning West."

https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...in-art-of-war/

[HermantheGerman]

^
^^

And now some REAL news:

Salome Zourabichvili:

Russia is already occupying parts of our territory,” she said, referring to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "The threat from Russia exists, although there is no immediate danger as all troops are currently mobilized in Ukraine," she said. “We don't know where Putin's appetite ends,” she warned, “that's why European solidarity is so important.

Zurabishvili sees Georgia as a laboratory for Putin's imperialist plans. From the invasion in August 2008 he got the impression that the EU would let him do it. But the casting strategy didn't work. The aim was to lead Georgia back into the "Russian Empire". The war, the Russian military bases, the Russification and the ban on the Georgian language in the occupied territories, and the shifting of the occupation borders all served Putin's ambition.

Georgia is in a strange position in the sanctions debate. All flight connections to Russia are interrupted. Tbilisi does not maintain diplomatic relations with Moscow. "We hardly have any efficient instruments to sanction Moscow," she says. Zurabischwili refers to the solidarity rallies with Ukraine, for which tens of thousands of people regularly gather in the capital Tbilisi. "Relationships with Russia can never be fraternal again after the brutal war of aggression against Ukraine," she warns.

Georgien durch Russland bedroht: Prasidentin will EU-Perspektive

[OhOh]

Disarming Ukraine Day 15: A Curious Hospital Bombing And 'No-Fly Zone' Pressure

"A CNN report and video.

Mariupol: Russia's bombing of maternity and children's hospital an 'atrocity,' Zelensky says - CNN

Allegedly happened on March 9 at about 17:30 local time (15:30 UTC) in Mariupol, Ukraine:

Russian forces bombed a maternity and children's hospital in southern Ukraine, authorities there said Wednesday, an attack described by the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky as an "atrocity."
...
Mariupol city council posted a video of the devastated hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air.
...
Police in the Donetsk region said that according to preliminary information at least 17 people were injured, including mothers and staff, as a result of the attack. Zelensky repeated his call for the NATO military alliance to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, as he expressed his outrage at the attack.

This is curious. The three story building is quite large with more than a hundred rooms.

Pictures show that all windows have been destroyed by a huge pressure wave. If there had been people in the building many would be dead and all would likely have cuts from glass and other debris flying around.

How come that there were allegedly only 17 people injured?

The video taken shortly after the incident (there is still daylight) and published by CNN shortly thereafter shows the completely destroyed interior of the hospital but no casualties and no traces of blood on the floors. The still pictures published with the CNN report show only one man in uniform who has some blood on his face. Other persons in the pictures have no visible signs of wounds.

A day before a news piece in the Russian magazine Lenta.ru published on March 8 at 00:01 local time (March 7 21:01 UTC) had mentioned the hospital. (The piece was fetched by archive.org on March 7 22:09 UTC.) It is a report from a Lenta.ru reporter in Donbas who interviewed refugees arriving from Mariupol. Here is a machine translated excerpt:

“They can’t hold out for more than a week” Residents of Mariupol talk about the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding before their eyes The correspondent of Lenta.ru visited the village of Bezymennoye in the south of the DPR, where residents of Mariupol fleeing the hostilities arrive, and talked with those who managed to leave the city.
...
Some of the residents of the villages adjacent to Mariupol managed to get to the territory controlled by the DPR without any problems. But not everyone is so lucky, and everyone has their own story.
...
During the first day of the humanitarian corridor's operation, only 52 people left Mariupol (and about 200,000 were expected). There are always human tragedies behind the numbers.

A man walks by the tents where refugees are taken. He is on edge and does not let go of the phone, his face shows that he has not been without sleep for several days. His name is Igor, he spent about a day on the road to get to Bezymennoye from the Crimea. He constantly approaches the military, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, asking to see the lists to find out if his elderly parents were able to evacuate from Mariupol. He is trying to go along with the soldiers towards the front line, closer to the city.

Igor said that in the last days of February, people in uniform came to the maternity hospital where his mother works. He does not know whether they were fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the nationalist battalion "Azov" (banned in the Russian Federation). The military knocked down all the locks, dispersed the staff of the maternity hospital, and set up firing points in the building in order, as they explained to the doctors, to prepare the “fortress of Mariupol” for defense. The reaction of the military to objections is standard: blows with rifle butts, shooting into the air.

On March 7 (UTC-5) the permanent mission of the Russian Federation to the UN published a statement by its Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia had made at a UNSC briefing on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. The briefing had been scheduled for March 7 3:00 pm local time (March 7 20:00 UTC). (The statement was fetched by archive.org on March 8 at 2:12 UTC.)

The statement says among other things:

By our records, 200 thousand civilians are trapped in Mariupol alone and held at gunpoint by the Azov battalion. The humanitarian situation in cities deteriorates rapidly. As for humanitarians who are ready to help, they cannot get in there and prevent the unfolding disaster. People in other regions of Ukraine that have been blocked by nationalist battalions find themselves in the same desperate situation. Ukrainian radicals show their true face more distinctly by the day. Locals reports that Ukraine’s Armed Forces kicked out personnel of natal hospital #1 of the city of Mariupol and set up a firing site within the facility. Besides, they fully destroyed one of the city’s kindergartens.

We have these records:

• On March 7 some time after 20:00 UTC the maternity hospital #1 in Mariupol was mention at a UNSC meeting as being occupied by the Ukrainian military.
• On March 7 21:01 UTC Lenta.ru published a report from a reporter in Donbas who had interviewed someone who said that the hospital was occupied by possibly Azov or other military forces.
  
• On March 9 about 15:30 UTC the hospital gets bombed and completely destroyed but with astonishing few alleged casualties none of which are documented despite video records taken on the scene shortly after the incident.
  
• Shortly thereafter President Zelensky uses the bombing to publicly press for a 'western' enforced 'no-fly zone' over Ukraine. (There is currently a Russian enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine.)

I leave it for readers to decide what really has happened here."

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/0...sure.html#more

[kingwilly]

https://www.moonofalabama.org

Moon of Alabama?

dafuc sort of source is that?

[bsnub]

Moon of Alabama?

It is a propaganda mouthpiece of the Kremlin. Total shit source. Literally, everything the Three Stooges post is utter garbage that should be doghoused.

Here it is. And he also said the Ukrainians knocked alot of choppers out of the sky.

Skiddy also conveniently omitted this part of the article...

Jason, who served two tours of Iraq, told The Sun: “The Ukrainians fought like lions and I’m proud I was alongside them. What Putin is doing is terrorism. He’s bombing kids and families for nothing. He’s a war criminal.”

The scumbag is just trying to distort the content of the article, so it fits his BS narrative.

[kingwilly]

The scumbag is just trying to distort the content of the article, so it fits his BS narrative.

his normal MO.

But actually this one is OhNO, who is also a heck of a scumbag.