War in Ukraine

LOL, the virulently anti-Putin Mediazona claims to have identified 37,000 Russian dead. As far as I can tell, this includes Ukrainian seaparatists, Wagner, mercenaries and volunteers.

Mediazona confirms identities of over 37,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine

On the other hand, I can easily believe over a half-million Ukrainians and mercenaries dead or irretrievably wounded. This is simply because we know that Russia has never at any point sent meat waves, into defenses, as Ukraine has been wont to do.

I know you folks hate Russians. But for God’s sake, think! THINK!!!

 

Putin claims that his army is the best in the world at learning to employ new weapons. Talk about wishful thinking. His soldiers are struggling to learn how to operate 30-year-old tanks, 20-year-old infantry fighting vehicles, and 40-year-old aircraft. They are lucky if they can learn to operate a rifle. They should probably take lessons from Ukraine. Putin seems to know little or nothing about warfare, and readily laps up and repeats any lies that his military leadership tell him.

Putin claims his army learns new things and its strength "multiplies"

 

It must be difficult being semi-literate in today's society. We know that "Russia has never at any time sent meat waves" into defenses? You mean, with the exception of every intelligent article ever written on the subject? (I'm not talking about TikTok propaganda, BTW.) What else would the Russians do with all of the prisoners they sent into battle? Give them a rifle and hope they don't shoot their way through Russian lines to freedom? Bakhmut and Avdiivka were won with meat wave tactics, costing Russia tens of thousands of lives. Russian soldiers complain non-stop about it.

I have never seen any evidence of Ukraine sending waves up people into an area to try to take it. In fact, I would go as far as to say that if Ukraine ever made a significant practice of it, they would have run out of soldiers by now.

I know you circus folk love Russia. But for God's sake, read! READ!!!

 

He leads with the Wagner = prisoners trope. It’s been awhile since you’ve trotted out the zoo animals trope. I’ll bet you were pissed off when Zelensky fired the minister who fabricated the Russian mass rape narrative.

 

It's been a while since our propaganda trollmeister has trotted out the 37,000 Russian fatalities trope and the 500,000 Ukrainian casualties rumor/trope. Just because a mentally disturbed individual can believe something, does not make it remotely close to being true. Most western sources agreed at the end of August that there were 120k dead Russian troops (plus 180k injured) and 70k dead Ukrainians (plus 130k injured). The fighting has continued for the last four months. Estimates of Russian casualties have been as high as 1,000/day. Let's assume it is only 75% of that, or 750/day. That yields another 90k casualties. With 40% of Russian casualties being killed, that means 36k more dead Russian soldiers, or a total of 156k Russians killed and 234k injured. Assuming that the Ukrainian rate of casualties is the same relative to Russian casualties, that means another 21k killed and about 38k injured, for a total of 91k killed and 168k injured.

Obviously, the vast majority of the Wagner troops were not prisoners. But they did have prisoners assigned to them, and they sent them ahead of the line (with threats to kill them if they retreated) to draw the fire of the Ukrainians. That's how the Wagner troops identified and targeted Ukrainian troops. It's the primary method they used to (slowly) gain ground in Bahkmut. I suppose your Russian propaganda did not cover that detail.

There is no question that the Ukrainian military is doing a superior job to the Russian military in this war. Not only is Ukraine outnumbered and fighting with limited resources compared to Russia, they are easily killing and wounding more Russians than what the Russians are doing to them. Ukraine is more resourceful, more professional, and more capable than Russia.

 

“total of 156k Russians killed and 234k injured.”

That’s probably more than Russia has ever had on the frontlines.

Translation: this is TikTok level reportage.

 

Norway will now allow Norwegian companies to sell weapons and ammo directly to Ukraine. In the past, the Norwegian government had donated weapons to Ukraine, but not allowed direct sales from Norwegian companies. Excellent decision by Norwegian authorities.

Norway permits weapons, defense equipment sales to Ukraine

 

So all you have is a personal inclination that it is "probably" more than Russia ever had on the frontlines. Of course, you yourself have apparently not been on the frontlines. You seem to get most of your information from TikTok yourself (you quote TikTok and other social media fairly often). So, in summary, you don't know anything, you seem unable to provide sources for your information, but you feel that your seat-of-the-pants estimates are fairly accurate. Is that correct? Western officials and media have been reviewing drone footage and have been embedded with Ukrainian troops to witness some of the fighting, and that is where their estimates come from.

We all know that Russia would never do anything to hide casualty rates: they would never treat their wounded in Belarus hospitals; they would never order troops to abandon injured soldiers on the battlefield; they would never release false information in their propaganda, would they? (Actually, they did all of these things and more, counting on gullible people like yourself to repeat the lies.)

 

China reverts to previous policy of placing tariffs on Russian coal, to protect Chinese coal miners. This will reduce Russia's income from coal sales. This will not help Russia's economy.

China Restores Coal Tariffs in Threat to Russian Exporters

 

Ukraine Strike Hits Party of Russian Elites at Donbas Palace Hotel: Reports (msn.com)

Russian state media on Monday reported Ukraine's military attacked an exclusive hotel in downtown Donetsk shortly after midnight on New Year's Day, and local reports suggested Russian elites were gathered at the establishment during the time of the strike.

"The Donbas Palace hotel was shelled by the armed forces of Ukraine," a first responders spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Kremlin-operated news outlet Tass, which described the Donbas Palace as "a five-star hotel in the city center of Donetsk."

Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk region, wrote on Telegram that the city of Donetsk was subjected to heavy strikes on New Year's Eve, while a statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the assault on the city a "terrorist act" and alleged Kyiv's forces had targeted civilian infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko reported in a Telegram post that members of the Russian "elite" based in occupied Donetsk were attending a New Year's dinner with guests from Moscow at the time of the attack. Newsweek could not verify Tsaplienko's report, and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was contacted via email on Monday for comment.

 

maybe I am way off but I think Putin is dead. he went from a wreck that couldn't hold his body still and made very few public appearances and then stories of his fall and complete loss of bodily functions to being front and center, physically stable, and sounding healthy and strong. I think it serves a LOT of people's best interest to keep people thinking Putin is still alive, maybe even the west, as it provides stability. Am I way off here or has Putin made a miraculous recovery?

 

another report that Musk shut down starlink to thwart a drone attack on russian navy ships

Ukrainska Pravda: Elon Musk shutting off Starlink communications disrupted Ukrainian attack on Russian navy (msn.com)

“Elon Musk turned off the Starlinks, through which we controlled the drones,” the source said, according to Ukrainian Pravda.

Another source claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s attempts to convince Musk to switch communications back on failed and that Washington was also unable to pressure the billionaire as SpaceX, which operates Starlink, is a private company.

Most of the drones then sank in the sea or self-destructed on the way to the bay, according to the Brigadier General of the Secret Service of Ukraine (SBU) military counterintelligence. Two drones made it back to the Ukrainian side.

Following the failure, Ukraine modified its naval drones and successfully carried out an attack in Sevastopol Bay in October 2022.

 

Kyiv currently under substantial missile attack. The only reason I'm still awake is I'm watching the end of the game. But apparently Russia's really released a ton of their stockpile

 

Yet another reason I will never buy a Tesla.

 

No, I seriously doubt it. History suggests that hiding a dictator’s death is only useful long enough for the next strongman to consolidate power. And we are talking about a day or two at the most.

 

I don’t have a problem with that as long as Musk would take the same action to prevent Russia from using his network to attack Ukraine or anyone else. Russia has weapons that can physically destroy Starlink. We all have an interest in Russia not taking such an escalatory step. And I say this wishing Russia every ill in the world.

 

that attack on the Donbas Palace hotel must have taken out some important people. enough to agitate putin into unleashing this barrage?

not sure how much air defense munitions Ukraine has left while the pubs hold up funding for Ukraine.

in other news, the US is now encouraging that the $300B in russian central bank reserves frozen by the west be transferred to Ukraine to support their war effort.

West moves closer to seizing CBR's frozen $300bn of reserves (msn.com)

The US is pushing for the expropriation of $291bn in Russian Central Bank reserves frozen in the West and urging the EU to transfer the funds to Ukraine. The move marks a shift in the US stance on the use of these seized assets, with discussions taking place within the G7 in December to formulate a strategy for seizing Russian reserves by February 24, 2024, the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, The Bell reports.
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Following the start of the war, approximately €260bn of the Russian Central Bank's assets were frozen in G7 countries, mostly by Euroclear in Belgium, as well as other EU countries and Australia, comprising nearly half of Russia's $643bn in international reserves as of February 2022.

In December both the FT and then The New York Times reported that the United States has changed its point of view on the use of Russian Central Bank reserves seized in the West and is now, albeit gently, insisting that this money should be transferred to Ukraine.

The majority of these funds, over €210bn, are located in EU countries, with €191bn held in the Euroclear depository in Belgium. Another €19bn is frozen in France, €7.8bn in Switzerland and only €4.6bn in the US.

 

I suspect that Starlink was pretty much defeated or at least blunted, in Ukraine, along with every other game changer we sent.

 

seems like western companies already lost billions in market value by selling out at fire sale prices or just having their property confiscated (leased airplanes). Do the western countries still have much value left in Russia for them to seize?

Russia says it has a hit list of potential targets to seize if the West confiscates its assets to help Ukraine (msn.com)

The Kremlin said it has a list of foreign assets that it would seize in retaliation against any similar moves by the West on Russia's frozen assets.

"Well, of course, we analyzed a potential response in advance. And we will take action so that it best serves our interests," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, according to TASS, a state news agency.

Peskov declined to comment on which assets are on the Kremlin's hit list but added that Moscow has been preparing retaliatory action as it understands "the total unpredictability of our counterparties and their inclination to violate international law and other legislation," per TASS.

The West froze $300 billion in Russian central bank assets following its invasion of Ukraine. Now, leaders of the Group of Seven are set to discuss how to seize them legally when they next meet in February, Reuters reported last Thursday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the plans and a British official.

 

Kremlin Is Scrutinizing Every Corporate Exit From Russia, NYT Reports (businessinsider.com)

Now, not only do foreign companies departing Russia have to pay donations to the state and sell their assets at a steep discount before they can exit the country, but their departure plans must also be approved by a government commission.

Companies operating in strategically important sectors — such as energy and resources — also need President Vladimir Putin's sign-off before any asset sale.

Russian authorities are being so exacting with their scrutiny of companies wanting to get out that Nokian Tyres, a Finnish tire company, even had to seek approval to sell an apartment for $59,000, according to the Times, citing internal minutes.

Johanna Horsma, the chief transformation officer of Nokian Tyres told Business Insider that the transaction was likely related to a housing complex built by the company's Russian entity at the turn of the 2010s. Employees could buy an apartment in the building and own the unit fully after seven years of employment.