War in Ukraine

Yes! This is what I'm talkin' about! Keep. The. Pressure. On.

Sure wish the US /west would do more.

I said here before the invasion this had a 1914 feel to me. Maybe it was 1917 I was feeling.

 

Russian jets reportedly entered Swedish airspace with nukes

"On March 2, 2022, four Russian combat aircraft, including two Su-27 Flanker fighters and two Su-24 Fencer tactical bombers briefly violated the airspace over the Swedish island of Gotland.

The incident took place while the Finnish and Swedish forces were engaged in a joint exercise in the Baltic Sea. The Russian flight group took off from the nearby enclave of Kaliningrad.

They were met by a patrol of two JAS-39 Gripen fighters of the Swedish Air Force to intercept and visually identify them.
....

Citing anonymous sources, the Swedish channel TV4 Nyheterna reported on March 30, 2022, that the two Su-24 bombers were in fact armed with nuclear weapons at the time of the interception. "

 

Cnn live

"China "cannot turn a blind eye to Russia's violations of international law," European Council head says

From CNN’s Alex Hardie and Pierre Meilhan

President of the European Council Charles Michel said China “cannot turn a blind eye to Russia’s violations of international law” after a virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

The EU and China agreed that “this war is threatening global security and the world economy,” Michel said.
.....

“We will remain vigilant to any attempt to help Russia financially or militarily" and circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Michel said, "but any move on China to help end the war will be welcomed."

“We had the chance to explain the EU’s position, to call on China to act, to commit to participating actively in all efforts which are being made to restore peace and stability,” he added. "

 

Russia is being so damn irresponsible! It is like they are begging to start a nuclear war.

Trump was right, Putin has to go.

 

Related to the war in Ukraine, I’m glad to see the Administration found a face-saving way to move out Jen Psaki. Maybe she was the right person for the job before the Russians revealed the way the world actually is, but she was clearly out of her element in delivering straight, informed answers to fair questions from the press. For anyone bristling at what I’m saying, I would like you compare her performance with that of John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. Now that man is every inch the Democrat that Jen Psaki is, but when he speaks he exudes confidence, he controls the room, he gives straight answers, and he handles challenging questions from the media with tact and professionalism. If I were the President, I would promote him immediately to White House spokesman.

The next person that the White House needs to discreetly and tactfully show the door is Jake Sullivan. If there has been a single point of failure for all bad foreign policy decisions over the last year, it’s him. Again, maybe he was the guy for the world the White House believed it had in early 2021, but to channel Michael Corleone, Jake Sullivan is not a wartime consigliere. The President needs to bring in someone who understands that defeating Russia must be our national strategic main effort, develops a strategy that actually consults with generals, and ruthlessly oversees its execution. If it were me, I would ask Mattis to take on the role and give him what he asks for. The Democrats should be on board with that for the finger it sticks into Trump’s eye.

 

Just heard from my friend in odessa that missiles launched from Crimea have landed in Odessa.

 

Please tell him or her many of us here are thinking about Ukraine. I wish we were all doing much more for his or her country.

 

The incident demonstrates two factors with respect to the Russians. First, their military leadership is grossly incompetent and secondly, they really do not value the lives of their soldiers.

 

Cnn live

"The ruble’s artificial recovery masks the devastation of the Russian economy, US Treasury official says

From CNN's Matt Egan

Russia’s economy is getting devastated by Western sanctions and the ruble’s swift recovery has only been made possible by Moscow’s efforts to prop the currency up, a senior official of the US Department of the Treasury said Friday.
....

During a call with reporters, the senior Treasury official said Russia’s economy is plunging into recession and getting crushed by crippling inflation.

Although the ruble has bounced back to pre-invasion levels, the Treasury official argued the currency’s purchasing power has been decimated by skyrocketing prices in Russia.

As CNN has previously reported, officials in Russia have sought to prop the ruble up, in part by ordering exporters to swap 80% of their foreign currency revenue for rubles, banning Russian brokers from selling securities, forbidding Russian residents from making bank transfers outside of Russia and other steps. The steps have artificially boosted demand for the ruble."

 

False flag?

 

Mods remove if against the rules but...

 

They're using duct tape

 

I read somewhere that one of the Russian soldiers has died. Will try to find the tweet/link

 

Let’s just say it is a false flag. Then it’s a pretty dumb one. What? Are the rules that Russia is allowed to attack in Ukraine as much and as long as it wants, but if Ukraine does a single reciprocal attack on Russia then that’s crossing a line? Oh, and I would be fascinated to know how Ukraine pulled off this helicopter deep strike logistically. From what I understand all of their functioning air has been pushed into the west. Do they have, like, magical helicopters that don’t need to be refueled, or was this a suicide mission? If so, show me the helicopter wreckage. And does Russia also mean to tell us that they did not manage to shoot down even one enemy helicopter while being on the highest state of alert?

 

Maybe they have mysterious help.

 

No one accused the Russians of being smart But I'd put it more towards an off the books, unofficial, "you get caught you're on your own" mission. (Dad flew for Air America, so he'd been on his share of *that* type of job).

Honestly it's fair game. Though the argument about not giving Ukranians planes to keep from escalating is moot if they can attack over Russia's border.

Belarus is involved too, so I'd be fine if Ukranians start firing on Russian missle positions even in Belarus. At least they'd be actual military targets.