Ukraine war mega thread

[helge]

OK
They'll enter in the second act then

Could be a joker in the asymetric campaign later on.

Sneaky bastards

[david44]

a joker in the asymetric campaign later on.

Get a firm grip on the last chopper out

[OhOh]

A LETTER FROM A RUSSIAN SOLDIER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES




"Dear Mr. President Biden, as you may know, for every Abrams tank we capture or destroy, we get a bonus of $100,000 dollars, enough to buy an apartment in Moscow.

The few you have sent make it difficult for us to find and destroy. Could you please send more as we would all like to have the chance to own an apartment.

We would be willing to cut you in for 10% of our bonus. We believe you are a trooper and the best President ever."

[PlanK]

^
Dear Orc.

Statistics show your family are 200,000% more likely to recieve a 5kg bag of potatoes on your death than you ever getting an apartment. Your dictator thanks you for your sacrifice from his mansion (or his yacht).

Yay, Socialism!!!

[bsnub]

Yay, Socialism!!!

I am still wondering why the dumb vatnik has not moved ruzzia. Ohdoh really is a piece of utter shit.

[OhOh]

My years of living in Canada was enjoyable.

Thailand's climate and life style preferable for me now. Come over and see if you would enjoy it one day.

[Neverna]

Which European countries are you concerned about potentially being invaded by Russia, snubs?

Snubs?

[helge]

Dear Orc.

Statistics show your family are 200,000% more likely to recieve a 5kg bag of potatoes on your death than you ever getting an apartment. Your dictator thanks you for your sacrifice from his mansion (or his yacht).

Yay, Socialism!!!

Are you confused, drunk or american ?

[helge]

False flag, false false flag, propaganda or spin ?

Perhaps even real?
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Several countries report an increased risk of attacks this weekend in Moscow. But could it be Russia itself that is behind it?


The Foreign Ministry also warned Danes about attacks in Moscow over the weekend.







Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to win the presidential election campaign in Russia, which will take place next weekend. (Photo: © POOL, Ritzau Scanpix
OF
Silas Bay Nielsen

There is great mystery about what lies behind the warning that the Danish Foreign Ministry issued earlier today to Danes in Moscow.

It emerged that there is an increased risk of attacks against large gatherings in Moscow this weekend.

"The U.S. Embassy said there was an increased risk of attacks against large gatherings in Moscow this weekend. Avoid places where there are many people, especially concerts, writes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The U.S. Embassy issued the same warning to U.S. citizens in Moscow a few hours earlier.







The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that neither the ministry nor the Danish embassy in Russia have more to add about the risk assessment than what is stated on the Foreign Ministry's website. (Photo: © From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
DR has been in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Embassy in Russia to find out what lies behind the assessed increased risk.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that neither the Danish Embassy nor the Ministry has anything further to add than what is described in the updated travel guidance.

Could the warning have been planted by Russia?


On the face of it, the warnings are not something that is much debated in Russia. So says Kristina Aleksandrovna Pedersen, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen, where she researches political behavior and media in Russia.

Social media, which is also common among the opposition, do not describe the warnings, nor are there any major demonstrations for the coming days mentioned, she said.

However, she points out that the warning from the US embassy comes a week before presidential elections are held in Russia.







Following the death of her husband in a Russian prison, Yulia Navalnaya has called on Russians to protest against the 12 noon presidential election on March 17, which could prompt the Russian authorities to intervene. But no major demonstrations are planned this weekend, says Kristina Aleksandrovna Pedersen. (Photo: © PHILIPP VON DITFURTH, Philipp von Ditfurth/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
"The regime may be plotting false attacks that it would accuse Ukraine of being behind," she said, but stressed that it was still not known whether the U.S. embassy had learned of the risk from Russian authorities or whether it was information derived from U.S. intelligence.

According to Reuters, the warning from the US embassy in Moscow came hours after Russia's FSB said it had foiled an attack targeting a synagogue in Moscow.

The FSB said Islamic State planned the attack.

"Putin may have an interest in creating a fear of extremist groups. It's remarkable when it's so close to the election," she says.

She explains that a scaremongering campaign could help legitimize Putin as president and could mobilize voters, but added again that it is purely speculative and that something could point in the other direction when the major Russian media are not yet dealing with the story.

Speculation about Russian Kremlin attack


Mette Skak, associate professor emerita in Russia and the Soviet Union at Aarhus University, also cites the foiled attack on the synagogue, which is mentioned in Russian media, as the most obvious explanation for the warning from the US embassy.

She also points to the crucial issue of whether the U.S. warning comes from U.S. intelligence or whether it comes from the Russian authorities as determining how it actually works.

"The terror alert comes close to the presidential election in Russia, and the election is predictable both for Russians and in the West. So it may make sense if we assume that the FSB itself is behind a sham alarm to stir up the Russian duck pond shortly before the ritual presidential election, says Mette Skak.

She also points to the drone attack on the Kremlin last May, which Russia accused Ukraine of being behind. It came just days before Russia celebrated the Great Victory Day, which marks the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany.







The picture here shows the alleged Ukrainian attack on the Kremlin in the center of Moscow. (Photo: © OSTOROZHNO NOVOSTI, Ritzau Scanpix)
"Here, several observers thought that it could be Russia itself that was behind creating an uproar, because the Kremlin has this great symbolic value," Skak said.

READ TOO:Did Putin attack himself? Russian accusation of drone strikes against the Kremlin sparks theories
The Latvian Foreign Ministry is also warning its citizens of the risk of terrorist acts in Moscow within the next 48 hours. Here also refer to information from the US embassy in Moscow.

Latvia is one of the countries that has a large minority of Russian inhabitants.

[Norton]

Avoid places where there are many people, especially concerts

Lesson learned from a concert in Isreal?

[helge]

Isreal

Attempt at hidden political manipulation ?

You russian ?

[Norton]

You russian ?

Nope. Bukovinian..google is your friend.

[Neverna]

Warnings likely planted by the collective west to disrupt the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. If everybody stays home due to safety/security concerns, the collective west can they try to discredit the results of the vote.

[Neverna]

Warnings likely planted by the collective west to disrupt the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. If everybody stays home due to safety/security concerns, the collective west can they try to discredit the results of the vote.

However, Misskit's news thread (link below) from wionews, reports the US Embassy as saying that ""extremists" had imminent plans to target large public gatherings in Moscow."

US embassy warns of imminent plans of attack by 'extremists' in Moscow

[PlanK]

Are you confused, drunk or american ?

No, I'm not a Presidential candidate.

[pickel]

the collective west can they try to discredit the results of the vote.

You mean killing or jailing your opponents isn't enough to do that?

[OhOh]

16% threats to Russia:

"French President Emmanuel Macron has said that sending Western ground troops to Ukraine could not be “ruled out” as European allies announced new measures to deliver munitions and boost Kyiv in its fight against Russia.'

France’s Macron does not rule out Europeans sending troops to Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

The outcome:

"Napoleon invaded Russia on 24 June 1812 but suffered heavy losses as the Russians engaged in a war of attrition. Napoleon won the Battle of Borodino and captured Moscow but was forced to retreat through the deadly Russian winter. The invasion led to the destruction of the Grande Armée and to Napoleon's own downfall."

The reply from Russia:

[OhOh]

MOSCOW (Sputnik)

Demand for transporting goods from Asia to Europe by rail via Russia has increased by an average of 30% since the start of the Red Sea crisis, the Financial Times newspaper reported, citing logistics companies and rail operators.

"German shipping company DHL said that requests to transport goods on Russian railways have increased by 40% since container ships began traveling along alternative routes following the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the report said on Sunday.

At the same time, Netherlands-based Rail Bridge Cargo said that rail freight traffic via Russia was 31% higher this year compared to the same period in 2023, the report added.

Delivery of goods from China to Northern Europe via alternative sea routes has increased by 7-10 days to 50-55 days, while delivery of goods by train via Russia from China’s Chengdu to the German city of Duisburg takes about 30 days, the newspaper reported.

Some logistics companies also reportedly offer a "southern route" that bypasses Russia and goes via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkiye. However, this route, which involves a ferry crossing across the Caspian Sea, takes longer than a container ship voyage between China and Europe and can be used mainly for goods heading to and from Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, the report said.

The Houthis, who control large parts of northern and western Yemen, vowed in November 2023 to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halts military actions in the Gaza Strip. This led US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to announce the creation of a multinational operation to secure navigation in the Red Sea.

US and UK forces later launched major strikes against Houthi positions in a bid to degrade the rebels' ability to target commercial vessels."

Demand For Russian Rail Cargo Surges After Houthi Read Sea Attacks - Reports

[OhOh]

'Warmonger' EU’s Defense Strategy a Wishful Dream Without Hope of Realization

"Facing weapons stockpiles bled dry by NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, top EU officials laid out their plan for a dramatic overhaul of the bloc’s defense industry last week. The strategy involves getting member states to procure more weapons together and less from the United States, while fully including Ukraine in its plans.
The European Commission’s newly proposed strategy to coordinate its military industries to tackle the “existential threat” posed by Russia is, above all, a pipe dream, Colonel Jacques Hogard, who served 26 years in the French Army as an airborne officer in the Foreign Legion and the special forces, told Sputnik.

“The EU, whose initial vocation as a peacemaker in Europe has completely slipped and transformed into a warmonger, is seeking to exist, in the face of the visible disengagement of the United States in Ukraine. It clumsily tries to find a way out of the trap into which the Americans have made it fall. But in reality, 'defense Europe' is a dream. Born from a desire to bring the Franco-German couple together, this dream has never had the slightest beginning of concrete realization,” Hogard stated.

The pundit elaborated by pointing to the TIGER III, MAWS, and CIFS programs that were all successively “abandoned by Berlin, either to adopt purely German solutions or to turn to American equipment.”

The remaining two programs – SCAF (Future Combat Air System) and MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) – were plagued by “disagreements over the distribution of roles between German and French industries.”

“These programs were pushed through under pressure from politicians, without their future being assured,” Jacques Hogard said.

Continuing to support Ukraine militarily has left European countries’ existing stocks depleted, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell admitted in his latest blog post. He urged moving “from an emergency mode to a longer-term vision, in a new strategy would allow the EU to be able to “replenish our stocks and develop the defense capabilities,” while continuing to provide “adequate military support to Ukraine.”

“To strengthen our defense in a tense geopolitical context, we urgently need to overcome the fragmentation of our defense industry through more joint procurement and more common projects,” he wrote.

The blog post further elaborated on the new European Defense Industrial Strategy recently unveiled by Brussels. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, touted its plan worth around €1.5 billion (US $1.6 billion) as a way to turbocharge the bloc’s military-industrial sector. The strategy is geared to reduce the EU member states’ dependence on the US for defense needs. Procurement outside the bloc was declared "no longer sustainable."

The plans will need to be approved by the European Parliament and by member countries, who are already squabbling over military and weapons spending on Ukraine aid.

Franco-German relations have spiraled since the summer of 2023, with personal tensions running high between President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Hogard pointed out.

“The French and German leaders have continued to publicly display their deep disagreements, which result from two opposing visions and two competing ambitions in terms of defense. We can clearly see in these conditions that the European Commission's plan is a wishful dream which is not about to begin to come true even at a minimum," he said, pointing to the "harsh reality of an obsolete European Union, which is very likely not to survive the current crisis."

Josep Borrell presented the European Defense Industrial Strategy and European Defense Industry Program (EDIP) in Brussels together with Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager and EU commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton.

“The European defense industry is highly concentrated geographically: a few Member States make 90% of the total European defense industry,” Borrell stated. “It supplies around 40% of the needs of the European defense, meaning that our armies are importing the majority of the weapons and equipment they use. For the last two years, “78% of defence acquisition by EU Member States were made outside the EU,” he underscored.

The new EU strategy includes reducing purchases of weapons from the United States, but this objective “is also a dream,” whether in the short-term or even mid-term perspective, Hogard said.

“It is obviously not achievable with the wave of a magic wand. As far as France is concerned, its industrial dependence, due to the policy of alignment pursued for decades with the USA, particularly since the Sarkozy presidency, has greatly increased vis-à-vis the Americans. We can no longer count the industrial companies sold off by our successive governments for the benefit of the United States. This is extremely serious and cannot be made up for in a few years," the ex-special forces officer said.

The EU’s top diplomat talked a big game about the need to jointly “invest more in defense,” but in the current economic crisis this is, again, “wishful thinking,” the pundit suggested.

According to Hogard, Borrell was offering a “simple communication exercise,” facing the “reality of their monumental collective failure.”

“When this crisis is over, the current EU will have to give way to a new organization that is truly European but respectful of the Nations that make it up, from the Atlantic to the Urals,” Hogard concluded.

EU’s New Defense Strategy a 'Wishful Dream' Without Hope of Realization

[OhOh]

China-Russia Trade in January-February 2024 Up to $37.01Bln05:37 GMT 07.03.2024BEIJING (Sputnik) - "The China-Russia trade in January-February of 2024 has increased by 9.3% year-on-year and amounted to $37.01 billion, data of the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday.In the said period, China imported $16.808 billion worth of goods to Russia, a 12.5% increase in imports compared to the same period in 2023. China's exports from Russia increased by 6.7% year-on-year to $20.202 billion.In 2023, the China-Russia trade increased by 26.3% to a record high of $240.11 billion.Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping had set earlier a goal to double the bilateral and bring it to $200 billion a year by 2024 from $100 billion in 2018. This goal was achieved in November 2023.The China-US trade in January-February of 2024 has increased by 0.7% year-on-year and amounted to $99.55 billion, data of the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday.In the said period, China imported $73.41 billion worth of goods to the United States, a 5% increase in imports compared to the same period in 2023. China's exports from the US decreased by 9.7% year-on-year to $26.13 billion.The US remained China's third largest trading partner after the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union."China-Russia Trade in January-February 2024 Up to $37.01Bln - Customs Authority

[helge]

'not a red shrimp' means 'give fuck all' in......danish.

There's that sorted out

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Viktor Orban: 'Trump won't give a red shrimp to Ukraine'

OF
Morten Top




Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban recently met with former US President Donald Trump, who is likely to be the Republican nominee in this autumn's US presidential election.

Trump has previously stated that if he is re-elected president, he will end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, and during the meeting with Orban, Trump apparently opened up about how he intends to do it.

"He has a very clear vision that is hard to disagree with. He says he will not give a red shrimp to the Ukraine-Russia war. Therefore, the war will end, because it is obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own two feet," Orban said, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

"If the Americans don't give money and weapons like the Europeans, the war will be over. And if the Americans do not give money, the Europeans will not be able to finance the war. And then the war will be over, he says.

Donald Trump has not publicly confirmed Orban's interpretation of the conversation, but Trump calls the Hungarian leader "fantastic."

[bsnub]

collective west

collective west

collective west

collective west

Warnings likely planted by the collective west to disrupt the upcoming presidential elections in Russia.

You fucking idiot there is no real election in ruzzia. You have become nothing more than a vatnik parrot of propaganda.

If everybody stays home due to safety/security concerns, the collective west can they try to discredit the results of the vote.

How can someone be so fucking stupid?

[Norton]

"If the Americans don't give money and weapons like the Europeans, the war will be over.

Already the US and others not close to giving the support needed.
CNN
—
Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year.


Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.


The US military set a goal to produce 100,000 rounds of artillery a month by the end of 2025 — less than half of the Russian monthly output — and even that number is now out of reach with $60 billion in Ukraine funding stalled in Congress, a senior Army official told reporters last week.


“What we are in now is a production war,” a senior NATO official told CNN. “The outcome in Ukraine depends on how each side is equipped to conduct this war.”


Officials say Russia is currently firing around 10,000 shells a day, compared to just 2,000 a day from the Ukrainian side. The ratio is worse in some places along the 600-mile front, according to a European intelligence official.


The shortfall comes at perhaps the most perilous moment for Ukraine’s war effort since Russia first marched on Kyiv in February 2022. US money for arming Ukraine has run out and Republican opposition in Congress has effectively halted giving any more.


Meanwhile, Russia recently took the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka and is widely seen as having the initiative on the battlefield. Ukraine is struggling not just with ammunition but also growing manpower shortages on the front lines.
Exclusive: Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine | CNN Politics

[helge]

Zelenskyj: 'The Russian advance has been stopped'
OF
Morten Top




Ukraine is doing better in its war against Russia than it has for a long time. This is according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"The Russian advance has been stopped.

"Our military has stopped the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine," Zelenskyy told French broadcaster BFM, according to Ritzau.

"I can give this brand new information: The situation is now much better than in the last three months," Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president also said Ukraine was building defences over more than 1,000 kilometres.

In February, Russia captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdijivka, considered to be Russia's first major victory since capturing Bakhmut last May.

[Neverna]

You fucking idiot there is no real election in ruzzia.

I really don't care, snubs. Not my country.

You have become nothing more than a vatnik parrot of propaganda.

Hardly, but your propaganda parrotting dwarfs anything I might post.

How can someone be so fucking stupid?

Practice, snubs. Like being a fat bastard. Just takes practice and dedication eating and drinking like a glutton.


I have no dog in the Ukraine/Russia war, snubs. I really couldn't give a fuck. Neither are my country and I have no love not hate for either country. It's just another foreign war, snubs. I much prefer no war, no death, no destruction, but it's the way of the world, snubs. Some people (like you) love that kind of thing, and some countries (the UK and the good old USA, for example) are always up for a bit of war or bombing and they contribute to it whenever it can.

Carry on.