Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

^ Have you not been posting reports of Americans and NATO soldiers already in Ukraine?

Actually its all very simple:

According to the head of the Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, Russia must carry out a "deputinization" before German-Russian relations can be revived. The term is based on the de- or denazification by the Allies after Germany's defeat in World War II and the collapse of the Nazi regime. "I use the term deputinization because this country is totally aligned with Putin," the former UN ambassador told the editorial network Germany
before the security conference he chairs in Munich, which begins on Friday. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is the ruler who makes all decisions.
Heusgen chose a corresponding formulation in his recently published book "Leadership and Responsibility". A new start in relations could only be “with another government in Moscow that acts on the basis of international law and is willing to carry out something like “denazification” in Germany at home”.

The Russian President is systematically disinformation about his war of aggression against Ukraine. "People should believe his story that there is an attack from the West and that the Nazis are invading Russia again," said former foreign and security policy adviser to former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Basically, Germans and Russians have maintained good relations over the centuries. "You can build on that."

Originally Posted by sabang

Put your own men on the ground, your own peoples blood in the soil.

Clean your jails, give them drugs, and let them run first to enemy line. Made in Russia!

So why doesn't the big talking US of A do that? After all, they have by far the largest prisoner population in the world today. Zelensky and his pals would love the cheap coke too, now that Hunter baby is no longer around.


Gonna Talk the Talk- or Walk the Walk? American politicians are good at coming out with these high falutin' statements (usually borrowed from Hollywood scriptwriters) and then ignoring them. Let's face it, they got no skin in the game except from their own taxpayers blood, sweat and tears. Pathetic.

Originally Posted by sabang

If you really wanna beat this 'Russian scourge', grow some cojones. Put your own men on the ground, your own peoples blood in the soil.

Why? No cojones needed! Russians were always good at beating themselves up. It's also more fun watching from the sidelines with some nice beer, surf & turf, and real popcorn . Life is good!!!

Originally Posted by sabang

It's sad actually, at least to me. From the ashes of WW2, the Germans and Russians actually built a positive and mutually beneficial trade relationship. Russia was the largest single supplier of energy to Germany, fueling the productivity of Europe's dominant industrial and manufacturing economy (great cars!)- and Germany was the largest single foreign investor in Russia. All gone up in smoke- except the Chinese and Indians now scoop up the ashes, and once proud German industry has to go offshore to remain competitive.

Now back to reality. What would happen if we held a vote in Russia if they want to be united with Germany? They could of course keep their language and vodka. I think the outcome would surprise you.
Young Russians know very well the difference between a Mercedes and a Kalashnikov. But first we need to de-Putinize.

Russian general takes his own life after being sacked by Vladimir Putin

A Russian general who led a suppression of opposition activists shot himself in the head after being sacked by Vladimir Putin.


Maj Gen Vladimir Makarov, 72, was found by his wife Valentina with gunshot wounds just weeks after he was fired by the Russian president in late January.


Police have ruled that his death was the latest in a string of suicides among high-ranking Russian security and military figures.


The major general had fallen into a “deep depression” and “didn’t know what to do with himself” after losing his job, relatives told Russian media.


Anonymous sources on social media linked to Russian security services claim he shot himself with a gas-powered hunting rifle in front of his wife.


His adult son called an ambulance to the family home in a Moscow suburb on Monday but the general could not be saved, according to reports in Russia.


Number of suicides


Maj Gen Makarov was deputy head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism.


The Putin regime uses the term “extremist” to describe its opponents, including jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and those involved in anti-government protests.


He was described in Russia as the main organiser in the “hunt” for “inconvenient” opposition activists and journalists.


Last summer, retired Federal Security Service Maj Gen Yevgeny Lobachev and Foreign Intelligence Service Maj Gen Lev Sotskov were found dead in what were reported to be two separate suicides.


Col Vadim Boiko, who was involved in Putin’s mobilisation of new recruits, was found dead with gunshot wounds in a suspected suicide in November.


His widow said he “executed” himself with five gunshots in the chests after allegedly being blamed for some of the problems plaguing Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Russian general takes his own life after being sacked by Vladimir Putin

Be nice if the rest of them did that.

Sure, along with the neo-cons. Then we might get back to building a better world.

Originally Posted by sabang

Then we might get back to building a better world.

Being a heinous cheerleader of the Russian genocide being committed daily in Ukraine, I do not think you care about building a better world. Speaking of that, the Russian offensive you were bragging about so far seems to be a total catastrophe.

Russian tanks keep running into Ukrainian mines outside Vuhledar. Either the Russians are getting sloppy, or the Ukrainians have tweaked their minelaying tactics.

More likely, both.

Indeed, there are indications the Ukrainians have adopted a clever new method of laying mines. Ukrainian gunners wait until Russian troops clear a path through an old minefield—then toss fresh mines onto that same path right as the Russians are crossing.

This tactic appears to be on display around Vuhledar—a town with a pre-war population of just 14,000 that lies a couple of miles north of Russian-held Pavlivka, 25 miles southwest of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The Russian marine corps’ 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Brigades and potentially the newly formed 72nd Motor Rifle Brigade—an inexperienced formation that belongs to the ill-fated 3rd Army Corps—several weeks ago launched a series of direct assaults on the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade and 55th Artillery Brigade in Vuhledar.

The assaults seem to be part of a wider escalation of offensive operations by the Russian army in Donbas—and possibly the vanguard of the Russians’ much-ballyhooed winter offensive. But the Vuhledar assaults each have ended in disaster for the Russians.

The pattern is familiar. Armored vehicles roll in neat lines across the fields and forests between Russian-occupied Pavlivka and Vuhledar. The lead tank hits a mine and explodes. The rest of the column falls into disarray. Some vehicles try to go around the wrecked lead vehicle, only themselves to run into mines. Even retreat is dangerous: there might be mines behind the column, too.

In just one bloody, chaotic day last week, the Russians lost 30 or more armored vehicles around Vuhledar. Their losses deepened in the following days. And it seems Ukrainian mines inflicted much of the damage.

Specifically, two types of mines. The Soviet TM-62 and the American Remote Anti-Armor Mine system. The 21-pound TM-62 is your traditional mine: a big metal disk, packed with explosives and fitted with one of several fuze types. The pressure fuze might be the most popular. Engineers bury TM-62s by hand or speed up the operation by deploying a GMZ minelaying vehicle.

The Remote Anti-Armor Mine system is a pack of four-pound mines stacked nine apiece in a hollow 155-millimeter artillery shell. A few well-aimed volleys can scatter scores of the tiny mines—each with a magnetic fuze—across a wide area. The United States late last year donated to Ukraine 6,000 RAAM shells.

The Ukrainian army for a long time adhered to Soviet doctrine. And in Soviet doctrine, engineers try to lay defensive minefields right before an anticipated enemy attack. The minefields tend to be narrow but deep, like a road is, rather than long but shallow like a fence is.

Soviet doctrine assumes shallow minefields “lack stopping power,” Lester Grau and Charles Bartles explained in their definitive The Russian Way of War.

There’s a simple countermeasure to these strip-like minefields. Fit a heavy steel plow to the lead tank in a formation and line up the rest of the vehicles right behind that tank.

But it’s a delicate tactic. If the lead vehicles misses a mine or the trailing vehicles stray even a few feet left or right, the column can collapse in a cataclysm of mine blasts and confusion.

Even a clean pass by a mine plow doesn’t guarantee safe passage for an armored column. According to one moderator of the pro-Russia forum Lost Armour, the Ukrainians have been aiming RAAM shells behind the mine-plows, “filling up the cleared corridor with them.” “The vehicles following the lead either were blown up by these mines, or when trying to leave the corridor,” the moderator wrote.

To defeat these tactics, the Russians need—at a minimum—better intelligence and more flexible command and control. If you know where the narrow TM-62 minefields are, it shouldn’t be hard to avoid them. But to keep up with Ukrainian engineers, a Russian commander would need 24-hour surveillance and reliable means of quickly disseminating fresh information to front-line forces.

The problem, of course, is that the Russian generals and colonels aren’t exactly known for their responsiveness.

But even good intel and flexible command might not save a Russian column from mines raining down from above. Probably the only way to stop RAAM is to suppress the guns that fire the mine-shells.

That means effective counterbattery: artillery firing on the enemy’s own artillery. While counterbattery once was a Russian strength, a year of war has sapped that strength.

Too many wrecked guns. Too many dead gunners. That could leave the infantry and tankers at the mercy of Ukraine’s artillery-delivered mines.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=602d9d355e31

You are the one in Denial. Ukraine is losing this war- and the adults are already well aware of that fact. Some may still entertain the fantasy that the latest Wunderwaffen will make some kind of tangible difference, but it is what is happening behind the scenes now that is of much more interest than your endless warporn. Informed adults are already noticing a change in tone, and rhetoric.

The documents issued to Dmitry by the Russian military carry an ominous hand-written designation: “Category One. State of Health B.”

It means he has been given a clean bill of health and should be in Ukraine, fighting on the front lines of Moscow’s fierce and bloody year-long offensive.

But the Russian in his 20s — wearing a hoodie and holding the army papers in his hands — is nowhere near the battles for Ukraine’s industrial east.

Instead, he is hiding from the authorities, trapped in his own country, and living in fear of being punished for refusing to fight and his stance on the conflict.

“Taking part in this disgrace marks you for life,” he said, describing Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as “barbaric” and “criminal.”

Dmitry, whose name has been changed for security reasons and who spoke to AFP at an undisclosed location in Russia, was among at least 300,000 reservists called up last year.

When President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization drive on state television in late September, it sparked a frantic exodus of military-aged men from the country.

Some, who didn’t want to leave the country or didn’t have the means, claimed exemptions on medical or professional grounds.

Others like Dmitry — and nobody knows the exact figure — just ignored the orders.

‘Ignored it’

In the months since, they have relied on luck, cunning or bureaucratic loopholes to avoid a raft of new punitive legislation that could land them in prison for evading the draft.

For Dmitry, who previously trained with Russia’s elite paratroopers as part of his mandatory military service, it was perhaps a combination of all three.

His mobilization order came at the end of September, days after Putin’s announcement.

But it was delivered to his old residence in a region where he no longer lives. He showed AFP the former address written on his government-issued identity documents.

“A utilities company tried to deliver the papers to me. But… I hadn’t been there for more than three months,” he told AFP.

He said local authorities should have removed him from the military register in that region. The fact that they didn’t gave him an easy out.

“I simply ignored it,” he said.

Among his social circle, eight have been mobilized, he said. Some secured last-minute exemptions. Others went to fight.

Nearly five months since, he is on alert, careful not to disclose his whereabouts accidentally to authorities.

‘Digital hygiene’

He only travels within the administrative borders of the region where he lives and works remotely for an IT company based abroad.

Dmitry also follows protocols of “strict digital hygiene” employing IT tools that mask the location of his telephone and computer.

He also avoids the surveillance cameras in his city that he knows to be equipped with facial recognition software and which have been used by law enforcement to scoop up other draft dodgers.

“Either you stay in the wilderness — the country is big and there are lots of places — or do the opposite, get lost in some big city,” Dmitry explained.

But whatever measures you take to avoid detection from police and military personnel, it’s impossible to escape the anxiety of being caught.

Another young Russian, in hiding after being called up, canceled an interview with AFP at the last minute, fearing that meeting journalists would attract police attention.

As time drags on, Dmitry’s fraught position looks increasingly precarious.

Dmitry chose to remain in Russia to be close to his loved ones — especially his partner and her child.

Leaving now looks far more dangerous since Russian security services have drawn up lists of mobilized people for cross-checking at the country’s borders.

‘Rather go to prison’

Adding to his worries are the rumors of a possible second call-up wave and announcements that military recruitment offices are digitizing.

As the political climate in Russia becomes increasingly suspicious of dissent, he is also scared of being denounced.

The stakes are high. If arrested, Dmitry could be handed prison time for insubordination.

But, Dmitry said, the choice is clear.

“If I can’t resist the state, I’d rather go to prison,” he said.

The outbreak of fighting that spurred Putin’s mobilization orders was a double blow for Dmitry, bringing fear but also regret.

That’s because he has extended family in Ukraine — including some now living in territory controlled by Russia — whom he has never met.

“It’s a cliche but I always dreamed of going to Kyiv and Odesa to meet my relatives and to talk to them.”

“It’s been shattered by one person,” he said.

Russian army refuseniks hide in fear to evade Ukraine conflict | The Times of Israel

And another one!


Marina Yankina, Russian Defense Official, Falls From Window to Her Death

Russian defense official has died after falling from a window of a building in St. Petersburg, according to local media reports.


The body of 58-year-old Marina Yankina, who headed the Financial Support Department of the Russian Defense Ministry in St. Petersburg's Western Military District, was found on Wednesday morning, Fontanka reported.


The Western Military District is one of the five military districts of the Russian Armed Forces.

Police found her body under the windows of a high-rise building on Zamshina Street in the Kalininsky district of St. Petersburg.


Fontanka reports that based on preliminary information, she lived in the building where she fell, and law enforcement agencies haven't ruled out that she took her own life.

The press service of the Western Military District confirmed that the woman worked with the department.

Russian Telegram channel Mashand other Russian media outlets reported that documents and other items belonging to Yankina were discovered on the 16th floor of the building.


Newsweek has been unable to independently verify those reports.


According to Fontanka, Yankina previously worked at the Federal Tax Service and served as deputy chairman of the Property Relations Committee of St. Petersburg.


Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, commented Thursday on Yankina's death on Twitter.


"Marina Yankina, head of the financial department at Russian ministry of defense, was found dead. She fell out of a window," he tweeted. "Her death is not the first among Russian high-ranking officials in the past year."

Reports of Yankina's death come just days after Major General Vladimir Makarov, who was recently fired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead outside of Moscow in a suspected suicide.


Makarov, former deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was discovered dead on Monday weeks after being relieved of his duties.


Law enforcement officials reportedly told Russian state media outlet Tass that the 72-year-old took his own life.

Russian journalist Cheka-OGPU wrote on Telegram that Makarov formerly organized the "hunt" for oppositionists and journalists.

A number of prominent Russian figures have mysteriously died since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Last year, the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute, Anatoly Gerashchenko, died after falling down "several flights of stairs."


Russia's Investigative Committee has yet to comment on reports of Yankina's death.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment.

Marina Yankina, Russian Defense Official, Falls From Window to Her Death

Russia’s Defense Ministry plans to launch aerial warfare over Ukraine

Russia’s Defense Ministry has made the decision to start extensively using aircraft in the Ukraine war. The Russian outlet iStories reported this, citing a source close to the ministry.


“Until now, they were sparing it,” said the ministry insider about Russia’s former reluctance to use aircraft. “Now, they’ve decided to change their tactics.”


The same source noted that Russia’s air-force has a clear numerical advantage over Ukraine’s.


Acknowledging that the new tactics will lead to the Russian planes and helicopters being “shot down en masse” by the Ukrainian air defense systems, the same insider said aerial warfare will still cause problems for the Ukrainian army.

Russia’s Defense Ministry plans to launch aerial warfare over Ukraine — Meduza

It already is failing...

Russia's "unprepared army" will fail to launch a successful offensive that has long been predicted for the coming weeks, said a retired U.S. general.

Discussing Russia's attacks in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that "any offensive, carried out by an unprepared army, is always a failure."

Ukrainian officials have said they believe Russia will time a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine to coincide with the first anniversary of the outbreak of full-scale war. Next week will mark 12 months since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, 2022.

But Western analysts have evaluated Russia's army to be unprepared for such a push in the eastern Donbas region. On Sunday, the British Defense Ministry said the Russian army was suffering from a lack of trained personnel and resources along from the front lines as well as from poor coordination.

Moscow's "untrained forces" have been "given shoddy equipment," placed under "poor leadership" and have been deployed to the front lines "without an understanding of what they were to do," Hertling said.

He argued Russian forces were hurrying to mobilize, whereas Ukraine was making preparations for planned offensives in the coming weeks and months.

Moscow's recruits in eastern Ukraine are "not ready for any kind of offensive, large or small," according to Hertling, making them "cannon fodder."

Reports of a poorly equipped Russian army have long circulated. One Russian soldier, cited by The Guardian, said in the fall that "the [Russian] army has nothing, we had to buy all our gear ourselves."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/sta...17085356605441

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC on Wednesday that around 97 percent of Russia's army was now committed in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said Wallace's information aligned with its belief that the Russian military needed "significant reconstitution before regaining the ability to conduct effective maneuver warfare."

Moscow likely lacks "combat-ready reserves" able to carry out a large-scale offensive for Russia, said the U.S.-based think tank.

Alongside efforts to mobilize, Putin is using missile strikes to force Kyiv's soldiers to defend both their front lines and their populations through air defense systems, Hertling argued.

Fresh rounds of missile strikes hit parts of Ukraine on Thursday, Kyiv said. Ukraine's air force reported that critical infrastructure had been targeted by Russian forces.

Russia launched 32 missiles across Ukraine, including eight "Kalibr" missiles from the Black Sea, the air force said. Half were shot down by Ukraine's air defense systems.

But Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said the country's anti-aircraft defense "coped with most of the enemy missiles and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]."

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-off...ne-war-1781655

Originally Posted by misskit

Russia’s Defense Ministry plans to launch aerial warfare over Ukraine

Oh I can't wait! With all the air defenses, Ukraine has now and with the Patriot coming into the country it should end well.

Originally Posted by misskit

Russian general takes his own life after being sacked by Vladimir Putin

A Russian general who led a suppression of opposition activists shot himself in the head after being sacked by Vladimir Putin.


Maj Gen Vladimir Makarov, 72, was found by his wife Valentina with gunshot wounds just weeks after he was fired by the Russian president in late January.


Police have ruled that his death was the latest in a string of suicides among high-ranking Russian security and military figures.


The major general had fallen into a “deep depression” and “didn’t know what to do with himself” after losing his job, relatives told Russian media.


Anonymous sources on social media linked to Russian security services claim he shot himself with a gas-powered hunting rifle in front of his wife.


His adult son called an ambulance to the family home in a Moscow suburb on Monday but the general could not be saved, according to reports in Russia.


Number of suicides


Maj Gen Makarov was deputy head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism.


The Putin regime uses the term “extremist” to describe its opponents, including jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and those involved in anti-government protests.


He was described in Russia as the main organiser in the “hunt” for “inconvenient” opposition activists and journalists.


Last summer, retired Federal Security Service Maj Gen Yevgeny Lobachev and Foreign Intelligence Service Maj Gen Lev Sotskov were found dead in what were reported to be two separate suicides.


Col Vadim Boiko, who was involved in Putin’s mobilisation of new recruits, was found dead with gunshot wounds in a suspected suicide in November.


His widow said he “executed” himself with five gunshots in the chests after allegedly being blamed for some of the problems plaguing Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Russian general takes his own life after being sacked by Vladimir Putin

He wont be missed. I wonder how many lives he helped ruin. Karma.

Originally Posted by bsnub

It already is failing...

This quote is your opinion only.,Why did you include this within the article you posted from an outside source?

You really are a disingenuous little warmonger.

If you really feel so strongly about the situation why not volunteer with the international force?

Quite, all talk no action!

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Why did you include this within the article you posted from an outside source?

Because it is the truth. Clearly the comment triggered you Vatnik.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

You really are a disingenuous little warmonger.

I am not the bottom feeding scumbag who was offering to make wagers on the conflict like it was horse racing that was you. Both you and sabang are scumbags who have been cheerleading Putin all along. The moment the Ukrainians start winning you, two lowlifes scurry like rats. Disgusting useful idiots of putin.

Russia can not be trusted that is a sad fact.

"I like anyone who wants to achieve peace through diplomatic initiatives," Kuleba told the newspapers of the Funke media group and the French newspaper "Ouest-France" (Friday editions). "But how can such an initiative work? Should the price of peace be that Russia remains in the occupied territories?"

Kuleba said that if the Kremlin experiences that it can conquer territories militarily, it has no incentive to end the war. "He might take a break and start another war in about a year," warned Ukraine's foreign minister, who will attend the Munich Security Conference that begins on Friday.

GDP down circa 35%, population loss over 8mm (conservatively), casualties appalling and being kept obscured, lost some 18-20% of territory, and still losing ground, totally reliant on foreigners for armaments because previous arms destroyed in combat. Government a shambles- corruption ridden, multiple senior resignations, three senior government security officials mysteriously killed a in a helicopter by a Ukrainian missile, totally reliant on foreign largesse to even pay it's monthly wage bill. With Victory like that, who needs Defeat.

But hey that's OK with snubski, as long as they kill a few Russians too.

Deputinize now!

Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky does not believe in a peace solution for Ukraine with Putin. "As long as Putin's regime is in power, the war will not end," said Khodorkovsky on Thursday in Munich before the official start of the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

Originally Posted by sabang

GDP down circa 35%, population loss over 8mm (conservatively), casualties appalling and being kept obscured, lost some 18-20% of territory, and still losing ground, totally reliant on foreigners for armaments because previous arms destroyed in combat. Government a shambles- corruption ridden, multiple senior resignations, three senior government security officials mysteriously killed a in a helicopter by a Ukrainian missile, totally reliant on foreign largesse to even pay it's monthly wage bill. With Victory like that, who needs Defeat.

But hey that's OK with snubski, as long as they kill a few Russians too.

Let's be fair, you can substitute Ukraine with Russia and it would make even more sense. The only difference is that Russia is a gas station with a few bucks in its cash drawer.

Listen my little Sabang, no one is denying that Ukraine has big problems with corruption etc., but we all know where that came from. Don't we? The Ukraine is like a mobster trying to escape the mafia. We are going to have to make a plea bargain and give them the best deal available.
They belong to Europe and Putler can not stop them. The wounds he has inflicted are too big.