Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

^^^ There was talk of the Russians bring their cremation lorries in, its kit they just load the bodies in, cremate then and pardon the pun, bury the evidence

Originally Posted by sabang

I can sadly but firmly opine right now this is gonna get considerably worse.

I fear it will to, the current progress is making Putin look bad and he won't have that for long - he'll order them to pound civilian targets.

Originally Posted by sabang

As I understand it, Russian heavy munitions are steadily trundling towards the front lines- including Kiev.

It is a pathetic display. The anemic and archaic Russian military is dated and creaking along. Those young, scared conscripts are lambs to the slaughter. If the US was involved in this war, it would be over already and there would be massive Russian casualties. Incredibly inept tactics on display, as seen through a multitude of social media sources for those savvy enough to fish it out.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

I fear it will to, the current progress is making Putin look bad and he won't have that for long - he'll order them to pound civilian targets.

They already are desperate and have been shelling small towns. They are now using cluster bombs on civilian areas of Kharkiv.

The convoy seen yesterday. Looks as though it would be too easy to destroy them all lined up like that.


Satellite images capture 3.5 mile long Russian convoy heading towards Kyiv

Satellites have captured what appears to be a huge convoy of Russian troops and tanks travelling towards Kyiv.


The images, which were taken yesterday by US company Maxar Technologies, show the 3.5-mile long deployment about 40 miles from the capital city of Ukraine.


When the photos were taken the convoy was located north-east of the Ukrainian city of Ivankiv, Maxar said.


Among the convoy are believed to be logistics and armoured vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery, infantry fighting vehicles and logistics vehicles.

MORE Ukraine: 3.5 mile long Russian convoy seen travelling towards Kyiv | Metro News

Originally Posted by misskit

The convoy seen yesterday. Looks as though it would be too easy to destroy them all lined up like that.

I have posted some videos of rather large columns that have been completely destroyed. It should be noted that Russia has failed to achieve air supremacy, as the Ukrainians continue to use Turkish drones to a punishing effect on these columns.

What we are seeing is an ailing, largely conscript army with low morale being ground up. Facing older, more determined fighters who are fighting for their homeland. It is worth noting that the best soldiers and generals of the USSR were all Ukrainian.

The next 24 hours could decide how this war turns out.

CNN’s video here. Live updates: Russia invades Ukraine

Originally Posted by misskit

CNN’s video here.

That is days old. The only way you can follow the Russian defeat is on Twitter and tiktok.

Originally Posted by bsnub

I have posted some videos of rather large columns that have been completely destroyed.

Sadly, my videos have been scrubbed from this thread.

Originally Posted by bsnub

The only way you can follow the Russian defeat

I don't think that is very sensible language to use atm.

Ruble plummets as sanctions bite, sending Russians to banks

MOSCOW (AP) — Ordinary Russians faced the prospect of higher prices and crimped foreign travel as Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine sent the ruble plummeting, leading uneasy people to line up at banks and ATMs on Monday in a country that has seen more than one currency disaster in the post-Soviet era.


The Russian currency plunged about 30% against the U.S. dollar Monday after Western nations announced moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and to restrict Russia’s use of its massive foreign currency reserves. The exchange rate later recovered ground after swift action by Russia’s central bank.


But later Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions that would immobilize any assets of the Russian central bank in the United States or held by Americans. The Biden administration estimated that the move could impact “hundreds of billions of dollars” of Russian funding.

MORE Ruble plummets as sanctions bite, sending Russians to banks | AP News

Kremlin Says Russia Will Ride Out Western Sanctions

A defiant Russia said Monday it could ride out Western sanctions over its invasion of neighboring Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin huddled with officials to discuss the economic turmoil of the five-day-old war.


"The Western sanctions on Russia are hard, but our country has the necessary potential to compensate the damage," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He added that "today Putin will be working on economic questions" and meeting key ministers.


"The economic reality has significantly changed, let's put it this way," he said, adding that Russia had taken steps to prepare for it.


"Russia has been systematically preparing for quite a long time for possible sanctions, including the heaviest sanctions that we are now facing," he said.


The severe financial punishment imposed by the West has sent the ruble into a tailspin, with the Russian currency down 20% against the dollar in midday trading.

Moscow's stock market remained closed for the day, meanwhile.


The sanctions targeting the Russian financial sector are intended to change the Kremlin's calculus, but on the ground the roughly 100,000 Russian troops thought to be inside Ukraine continued their assault from the north, east and south.


Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, sending shockwaves around the world.


Ukraine forces, backed by Western arms, are continuing to resist the Russian offensive, a day after Putin ordered the country's nuclear forces onto high alert.


Asked whether the Kremlin and Russia's military commanders were satisfied with the offensive so far, Peskov said: "I don't think now is the time to talk about any results of the operation or its effectiveness. You need to wait for its completion."

Kremlin Says Russia Will Ride Out Western Sanctions - The Moscow Times

Russia State-Owned News Site Tass Hacked With ‘Putin Makes Us Lie’ Message

People logging on to Russian state-owned news agency Tass to get the Kremlin’s version of events in Ukraine got a shock early Monday. Instead of the latest lines from the Kremlin, the site showed an anti-war message that condemned President Vladimir Putin for forcing Russian journalists to lie. “Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death. Putin makes us lie and puts us in danger,” the hacked site read. “In a few years we will live like in North Korea. What is it for us? To put Putin in the textbooks? This is not our war, let’s stop it!” It’s not clear who changed the site, but an Anonymous logo followed the message and it ended with the sign-off: “This message will be deleted, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we can’t take it anymore... Indifferent journalists of Russia.” After the hack was noticed on social media, the Tass website became unavailable. The Moscow Times reports that several Russian news outlets were hit by the hack.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tass-s...ssage?ref=home


When I tried to open Tass and RT this morning, they were down.

Love this.....from the Beeb new feed

Ukraine conflict: Russia blames Liz Truss and others for nuclear alert

Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert after comments by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and others, the Kremlin has said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "unacceptable" remarks were made about possible "clashes" between Nato and Moscow over Russia's attack on Ukraine.

It is unclear precisely which comments by Ms Truss Russia objects to.

On Sunday, she said if Russia was not stopped, other states may be threatened and it could end in conflict with Nato.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office source told the BBC: "I don't think anything Liz has said warrants that sort of rhetoric or escalation."

They said the foreign secretary had always spoken about Nato as a "defensive alliance" and that the UK needed to support Ukraine.

On the Beeb. Micron is at it again.

Macron repeats pleas for peace in Putin phone call

France's President Emmanuel Macron has spoken to Vladimir Putin on Monday, echoing international calls for Moscow to end attacks on Ukraine and stressing the need for an immediate ceasefire, according to a statement from the French presidency.

It says Macron asked the Russian president to halt all strikes and attacks against civilians and places of residences, preserve civil infrastructure and secure main roads.

Putin confirmed his willingness to commit to those requests, the French statement said.

However a Kremlin statement about the same telephone call says that Putin told Macron "a settlement is possible only if Russia's legitimate security interests are taken into account - including a recognition of Russia's sovereignty over Crimea, and a resolution of the objectives of demilitarisation and denazification of the Ukrainian state and ensuring it has a neutral status".

France said in its statement that Macron had also asked his Russian counterpart to stay in touch in the coming days to prevent an escalation of the conflict, to which he is said to have agreed.

From the Beeb. I think "Cluster bombs" will be featuring.

Posted at 19:5719:57
BREAKING

International Criminal Court to investigate invasion
​

The International Criminal Court will open an investigation into alleged war crime conducted by Russia in Ukraine.

"There is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine," Karim AA Khan, the ICC prosecutor has said.

"It is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my Office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine".

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status...yqlMs9naQ&s=08



Drive by molotov thrown by women, Russians are getting battered.

FIFA Indefinitely Bans Russia From 2022 World Cup; International Games

Fifa took their time, corrupt as ever.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

including a recognition of Russia's sovereignty over Crimea

So he wants the world to say it's OK to invade sovereign countries and steal their territory.

One sincerely hopes the global community tells him to fuck off.

London/Moscow (CNN Business)Russia was scrambling to prevent financial meltdown Monday as its economy was slammed by a broadside of crushing Western sanctions imposed over the weekend in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin held crisis talks with his top economic advisers after the ruble crashed to a record low against the US dollar, the Russian central bank more than doubled interest rates to 20%, and the Moscow stock exchange was shuttered for the day. It will stay closed Tuesday, the central bank announced.

The European subsidiary of Russia's biggest bank was on the brink of collapse as savers rushed to withdraw their deposits. Economists warned that the Russian economy could shrink by 5%.
The ruble lost about 25% of its value to trade at 104 to the dollar at 12:15 p.m. ET after earlier plummeting as much as 40%. The start of trading on the Russian stock market was delayed, and then canceled entirely, according to a statement from the country's central bank.

The latest barrage of sanctions came Saturday, when the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada said they would expel some Russian banks from SWIFT, a global financial messaging service, and "paralyze" the assets of Russia's central bank.

"The ratcheting up of Western sanctions over the weekend has left Russian banks on the edge of crisis," wrote Liam Peach, an emerging market economist at Capital Economics, in a note on Monday.

Freezing reserves

Putin's government has spent the past eight years preparing Russia for tough sanctions by building up a war chest of $630 billion in international reserves including currencies and gold, but at least some of that financial firepower is now frozen and his "fortress" economy is under unprecedented assault.

"We will ... ban the transactions of Russia's central bank and freeze all its assets, to prevent it from financing Putin's war," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement Sunday.

The United States also banned US dollar transactions with the Russian central bank in a move designed to prevent it accessing its "rainy day fund," senior US administration officials said.
"Our strategy, to put it simply, is to make sure that the Russian economy goes backward as long as President Putin decides to go forward with his invasion of Ukraine," a senior administration official said.

Peach at Capital Economics estimates that at least 50% of Russia's reserves are now off limits to Moscow.

"External conditions for the Russian economy have drastically changed," the Russian central bank said, announcing its dramatic rate hike and series of other emergency measures. "This is needed to support financial and price stability and protect the savings of citizens from depreciation," the bank added.

Russia is a leading exporter of oil and gas but many other sectors of its economy rely on imports. As the value of the ruble falls, they will become much more expensive to buy, pushing up inflation.

The crackdown on its leading banks, and the exclusion of some of them from the SWIFT secure messaging system that connects financial institutions around the world will also make it harder for it to sell exports — including oil and gas despite the fact that Russia's vital energy trade has not yet been directly targeted with sanctions.

Finnish oil refiner Neste said it had mostly replaced Russian crude oil with other supplies.

"For a long time, Russia has been methodically preparing for the event of possible sanctions, including the most severe sanctions we are currently facing," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "So there are response plans, and they are being implemented now as problems arise."

A run on the banks

But analysts warned that the turmoil could lead to a run on Russian banks, as savers try to secure their deposits and hoard cash.

"The sanctions target Russia's domestic financial system, causing bank runs and forcing Russia's central bank to continue hiking rates and/or to use its foreign exchange reserves," the Institute of International Finance said in a report published Monday.

"Furthermore, we believe that the [central bank] will have to institute strict capital controls and possibly declare a bank holiday as bank runs accelerate and demand for foreign exchange continues to rise sharply," it added.

One early casualty was the European subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender that has been sanctioned by Western allies. The European Central Bank said Sberbank Europe, including its Austrian and Croatian branches, was failing, or likely to fail, because of "significant deposit outflows" triggered by the Ukraine crisis.

"This led to a deterioration of its liquidity position. And there are no available measures with a realistic chance of restoring this position," the ECB said in a statement.

Sberbank (SBRCY) shares listed in London fell by nearly 70%. Other Russian companies with foreign listings were also hammered. Gas giant Gazprom (GZPFY) dropped 37% in London trading. Shares in internet service provider Yandex (YNDX) were suspended from trade on the Nasdaq, alongside seven other Russian companies listed in New York.

Nasdaq declined to comment. But a person familiar with the matter told CNN that the exchange was asking Russian companies whether they need to make material disclosures following the sanctions announced in recent days by the United States and other nations.

The Russian central bank last week intervened in the currency markets to try to prop up the ruble. And on Friday, it said it was increasing the supply of bills to ATMs to meet increased demand for cash. On Monday, the Russian government ordered exporters to exchange 80% of their foreign currency revenues for rubles — a measure analysts said was aimed at relieving pressure on the Russian currency.

The central bank also temporarily banned Russian brokers from selling securities held by foreigners, although it did not specify which assets. The government had also ordered a ban on foreign exchange loans and bank transfers by Russian residents outside of Russia from March 1, Reuters reported.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/28/busin...ons/index.html

Ukrainian pilots have arrived in Poland to start the process of taking control of fighter planes they expect to be donated by European countries, a Ukrainian government official told POLITICO.
The potential transfer of older Russian-made planes to be used in combat against Russian forces could be the most significant moment yet in a wave of promised arms transfers over the past 24 hours that includes thousands of anti-armor rockets, machine guns, artillery and other equipment.

It’s not clear just yet what countries are donating the jets, but European Union security chief Josep Borrell pledged over the weekend that the EU would fund the transfer the fighter planes from multiple countries.

Borrell walked that back slightly on Monday, acknowledging that any transfers wouldn’t come from the EU itself, but would instead be donated “bilaterally” by individual EU countries.
Representatives from the Polish and Slovakian governments did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Monday said he had rejected the request.

Poland and Slovakia still fly Russian-made planes similar to those used by the Ukrainian air force, meaning the pilots would not need much training if the planes were transferred.

In a move likely aimed at increasing pressure on Europe to act, the Ukrainian parliament on Monday tweeted that Europe was sending 70 fighter planes to Ukraine, including 28 MiG-29s from Poland, 12 from Slovakia and 16 from Bulgaria, along with 14 Su-25s from Bulgaria.

The fighter plane drama came on top of a flurry of announcements over the weekend that saw European leaders promise a flood of new weaponry for the Ukrainian military to assist in fighting off invading Russian troops, an overt and very public acknowledgment of Europe’s newfound will to inflict pain on the Kremlin for its military adventurism.

With the air corridors to Kyiv closed by Russian anti-aircraft weapons and fighter jets, U.S. and European powers have started pushing weapons into the country by road.

Poland, Estonia and Latvia were some of the first to act, sending ammunition, Javelin anti-armor weapons, fuel and medical supplies to the Ukraine border for hand-off to Ukrainian forces.

On Monday, Finland announced it would join the club, pledging 2,500 assault rifles, ammunition, 1,500 anti-tank weapons and 70,000 ration packages to Ukraine. Sweden is also readying a large arms and aid package, announcing the upcoming delivery of 135,000 field rations, 5,000 helmets, body armor and 5,000 anti-tank weapons.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is heading to Poland Tuesday to coordinate the shipment of 100 Carl Gustaf anti-armor rocket launchers, along with 2,000 munitions and other aid.
Speaking with reporters before the trip, she said “we will be able to make sure to send lethal aid to Ukraine. My role in this is to make sure that this aid gets in the arms of Ukrainian soldiers that are fighting for their life and fighting for their motherland. That’s exactly why I’ve been able to get an agreement from Poland to make sure that that delivery could be done through their borders.”

One of the biggest surprises in recent European political history came Saturday, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he was sending 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, a reversal of the German post-war policy of barring the transfer of arms to warring parties. He also pledged an immediate $100 billion infusion into the German military.

President Joe Biden also ordered the release of up to $350 million worth of weapons from U.S. stocks to Ukraine on Friday. Speaking with reporters at the Pentagon Monday, a senior U.S. Defense Department official declined to go into detail about what will be included, but said “there will be capabilities in there to help them with both their ground defensive capabilities as well as airborne defensive capabilities.”

Ukrainian pilots arrive in Poland to pick up donated fighter jets - POLITICO

^ That's interesting, encouraging, but also disturbing.

If they sortie from outside Ukraine and return to outside Ukraine for refueling and re-arming ... that's going to create serious sabre rattling from Putin.

BTW, all power to the Ukrainian people and FUCK Putin

^^ MiG-29






14 Su-25

Cough ... I'll be in the MiG thanks

Originally Posted by bsnub

It’s not clear just yet what countries are donating the jets

Never know. It was Russian weapons that turned the tide against Russia in Afganistan.