I’ve been browsing the aftermaths of Ukrainian victories. They’re walking away with munitions, armored vehicles and I think helos. They are conscripts fighting a dedicated and fierce foe. The Russians have put their vaunted Guards armored units into battle with poor results. Having film of Russian units looting for food is telling. One video had Ukrainian forces showing Russian combat rations being 5 to 8 years out of date. I too think all is not well for Vlad and his conscript military.
A message to the Poles and that supply line. Otherwise a seeming nonstrategic use of missiles that are in limited supply
I would also add that if the US and NATO are able to provide Ukraine with air defense systems capable of hitting high altitude aircraft and cruise missiles as well as providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, the areas where the Russians do have a significant advantage will be reduced. Also, if the Ukrainians can continue to disrupt Russian supply lines their inventory of artillery shell will gradually depleted reducing their capability of shelling Ukrainian cities.
Great news "Ukrainian army says Russia's main routes for attacking Kyiv have been blocked From CNN's Andrew Carey and Olga Voitovych in Lviv The Armed Forces of Ukraine have issued an upbeat assessment of their defense of Kyiv, saying Russia’s two main routes for attacking the capital city have been blocked. In the face of a campaign to apparently encircle the capital ahead of a possible attempt to take it, Russian forces on both sides of the Dnipro river — which divides the city north to south — have been stopped, according to Oleksandr Hruzevych, deputy chief of staff."
Theater update, cnn live "Zelensky: 130 people have been rescued from bombed Mariupol theater, but hundreds still under the rubble From CNN's Alex Hardie and Chris Liakos Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that 130 people have been rescued from the bombed theater in the city of Mariupol so far. Hundreds of people were taking shelter at the theater when it was bombed on Wednesday. Speaking on Ukrainian TV, Zelensky said that rescue operations are continuing at the site despite the difficulties. However, hundreds of people are still under the rubble in Mariupol, Zelensky added."
Cnn live "US ambassador says Russia's "disinformation is a sign of its desperation" From CNN's Laura Ly United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield slammed Russia's attempts to lie about allegations of biological weapons in Ukraine once again Friday morning. "As I said one week ago, Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories – not near Russia’s border, not anywhere. There are only public health facilities, proudly, and I say proudly, supported and recognized by the US government, the World Health Organization, and other governments and international institutions," Thomas-Greenfield said in prepared remarks to the UN Security Council. "
Cnn live - Russian/Q lies "Over the last week, new details have come to light which allows to state that the components for biological weapons were being created on the territory of Ukraine," Nebenzia said in translated remarks to the council. "We can see that the American colleagues were not helping, as they claim, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, but rather the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense." Nebenzia claimed that a new document distributed to the council Friday morning "confirms direct funding and supervision of the Pentagon and its defense threat reduction agency of military and biological projects in Ukraine." "The representative of the US State Department continue to muddle the information and ascertain that US allegedly does not operate in any biological laboratories in the territory of Ukraine, but the facts show otherwise," the Russian ambassador claimed. More context: There are US-funded biolabs in Ukraine, but they are not building bioweapons. Actually, it's the opposite: Part of the reason for their creation was to secure old Soviet weapons left behind in the former Soviet republics. The State Department has described the claims as nonsense — and the US and Ukrainian governments have repeatedly, and for years now, tried to bat down conspiracy theories about the labs and spoken about the work that is actually being done in them."
Heard a report several days ago on NPR that Russia has been using dumb bombs almost from the get-go. I can see them running out of them but it sounds like they weren't using laser guided bombs from the get-go.
Cnn live "At least 3 cruise missiles shot down by air defenses in Vinnytsia on Friday, civil authorities say From Khrystyna Bondarenko in Vinnytsia, Ukraine At least three cruise missiles were shot down by air defenses in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Friday morning, the head of Vinnytsia war and civil administration reported. Vinnytsia has faced increasing rocket fire from Russian forces; the city’s TV tower and airport have both been hit by airstrikes in the past two weeks, according to Ukrainian authorities."
This whole thread is a fascinating look at football style homerism in a war thread. Almost all good news makes it here (mostly based on what an understandably biased Ukraine is saying), bad news, other points of view or bad future outcomes don’t, or are quickly whisked past when they do.
Cnn live "Baltic states expel 10 Russian diplomats in coordinated decision From Alex Hardie in London Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have expelled 10 Russian diplomats, according to statements from their foreign ministries on Friday. In a tweet on Friday, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs confirmed that the decision “has been coordinated with #Lithuania and #Estonia.” Lithuania declared four employees of the Russian Embassy to be persona non grata, while Latvia and Estonia have each done the same for three Russian Embassy staff. "
Also, I should point out that the U.S. has twice previously implicitly recognized Russia’s sovereignty over Ukraine during the days of the Russian Empire and later the USSR. And now we rightfully do not. So future U.S. administrations are likewise not bound to recognize the PRC’s sovereignty over Taiwan. The truth is Taiwan is an independent nation. In my opinion, the most effective way for the PRC to turn that situation from de facto to de jure is to take a stab at invasion.
Edit - apologies - as it was pointed out below you were possibly referring to the news media versus us posting on here. Edit 2 - removed the prior wording because it wasn't warranted based on below
I think what he was saying was that we’re really only getting tactical reports from the Ukrainian perspective, which might be giving us a skewed assessment for how the war is going. As Americans, we are used to such practices as imbedded journalists with our own forces and Pentagon briefings that give us updates as to how the war is progressing. Well, Russia does not do any of that, clearly, so all we receive is what Ukraine is telling us or what are intelligence sources are telling us, and even that is circular because I think our intelligence services are getting almost all of their information from Ukraine. The result is, probably, that we getting information that exaggerates Ukrainian accomplishments and Russian atrocities/setbacks while minimizing the opposites. It doesn’t help that, speaking for self, I want to hear that Ukraine is kicking the shit out of Russia, and Russia has accomplished nothing apart from gratuitous carnage.
Got it....added an apology because I honestly thought he was referring to us as posters not posting opposing bad news. The "this thread" is what threw me. I've definitely been trying to put only verified things for that reason - because there's going to be bloated stuff/propaganda. If there was anything credible from the Russian side that's one thing. But there isn't. Hence why live videos, social media that's been verified, etc are so crucial. So yes in the absence of anything credible, what gets reported is what's verifiable and available Edit - I actually went back & removed it. Thanks for clarifying his post.
yeah pretty much this. Along with that, even coverage on things like sanctions is fairly biased (even from our media). Brazil, India, Indonesia etc aren’t on board and have stayed neutral. India is even willing to buy Russian oil. So it isn’t some global condemnation, far from it. And what is happening in the south of Ukraine is as important as Kiev because if Russia takes the ports they can start to choke the, off. And that’s where Russia’s elite troops are. But that into where the press is because Zelensky isn’t there. I want to hear the Russians getting beaten down too, I am not saying I’m not part of the problem .
I think the term global condemnation is really used for the invasion itself. Someone posted it way earlier when the UN assembly had their votes. I think it was 5 against it including Russia, Cuba, North Korea & forget who else, a small handful neutral including China, and the rest against. Obviously global can't mean literally every single place because that's not possible. Vast majority I guess would be a more accurate term in a way. That's one reason I've tried to steer from sites other than CNN, & now that I've joined Twitter just treading carefully. Honestly if Russia wanted a reasonable side of things (to them anyway) they shouldn't have made the press pretty much illegal. Russian TV showing some video of Putin talking about wanting peace which was found to be a deep fake blend of Putin audios/videos from over a month ago doesn't help is an example of what that side is showing. So other than the western/Ukranian "side" I'm not sure how one would present the other side of things accurately since their side isn't even rooted in facts *shrug* Putin is cornered & he's going to reach the point of FAFO. The question is how much of the rest of the world does he take with him.
