War in Ukraine

Yep. Doesn't change anything I said.

 

Russia's military has been heavily dependent on western technology and parts, in spite of Putin's attempts to get Russia to develop its own technology. That does not bode well for Russia to fight a long, drawn-out war and have to manufacture more weapons systems.

Putin Tried for Years to Stop His Military From Using Western Parts — And Mostly Failed

 

Man, can’t get parts. Can’t get troops. Can’t get socks. Using tampons for bandages. Out of missiles. Fleeing on bicycles. Eligible males fleeing for Alaska. Putin has cancer. Can’t go outside for fear of catching a bullet. Fired all his generals. Up against 30+ nations feeding wonder weapons to Ukraine. Ben Stiller and Bono love Zelensky. How is Russia even in this fight ?

 

All indications are that these were left wing dummies, not right wing dummies. Both parties have extremists that oppose supporting Ukraine, ostensibly for different reasons but in any case they’re working for the Russians whether they know it or not.

 

I check my mailbox every day. When do I get my rubles ?

 

This is off-script ...

As Europe falls into recession, Russia climbs out

 

I never thought I’d say this, but I think I miss Obama ...

American officials keep insisting they won't negotiate with Russia, but now they're also leaking a belief that Ukraine can't win. Is this 4-D chess, or cluelessness? Or is there no plan at all?

Taibbi: Does The United States Have A Plan In Ukraine? | ZeroHedge

 

100. Just that it would have made sense for the left to support Russia. historically. It's been an incredibly quick pivot from anti-Russia to pro-Russia for the GOP.

 

Just for a small, very vocal number. Speaking for self, I’ve yet to meet anyone in person who supported Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

 

I'm not so lucky. A lot of my family, Ronald Reagan Republicans, think Brandon is dragging us into WWIII. I don't mean to make this D/R. It just saddens me that true conservativatism is being silenced by this madness. Make no mistake, it's happening.

 

Throwing a wildcard in this, but there is something peculiar about how Putin made his first military move on Ukraine in 2014 with Biden as Obama's point man on Ukraine. Nothing during the Trump presidency and then Biden becomes president and boom, we have a "special military operation in Ukraine." You have Hunter, Burisma and the infamous Trump call with Zelenskyy in between. And don't get me wrong, I'm not hailing Trump. He was very much attempting to play the pay-for-play card with Zelenskyy during that call. My point is all of this: Trump, Biden, Burisma, Hunter... and now we are flooding Ukraine with weapons and intel, fighting a proxy war with Russia. All seems a little too coincidental to me.

 

That's some twisted up thinking - searching for coincidence. You should watch the Julie Ioffe vid @Gatorhead posted up thread. A sensible, logical explanation backed by actual facts.

 

More reports of Russia running out of supplies and their inability to produce the parts required to make more

US claims in new report that Russia is having difficulty replenishing its military hardware due to sanctions (msn.com)

AU.S. report revealed Friday that the Russian Army has lost nearly 6,000 units of military equipment since February 24 and that it has no capacity to replace or manufacture the technology lost on the front lines due to the effect of Western sanctions against Russian industry.

As early as May, Washington began to detect shortages of critical supplies in the Russian ranks, especially diesel engines, helicopter parts, as well as aircraft or armored tanks. Russia's ability to manufacture precision weapons has also been affected by the export veto, according to a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Thus, according to the report, echoed by The New York Times, Russian intelligence services are "illicitly" acquiring technology, while resorting to other countries, such as Iran and North Korea.

In fact, the assistant secretary of the US Treasury Department, Wally Adeyemo, explained this Friday that "Russia cannot access advanced technology", which "hinders the ability of its defense industry to produce weapons, as well as to replace those that have been destroyed in the war".

"Two of Russia's largest domestic microelectronics manufacturers have had to temporarily halt production due to a lack of critical foreign technologies," he said in a Treasury Department statement.

 

more on the russian caught with drones surveilling Norwegian oil facilities. Two russian passports and an Israeli one. Who is he working for?

Norway detains Russian at border with drones, videos and 3 passports (msn.com)

Norway said Friday it had detained a Russian caught crossing the border in the Scandinavian nation's far north as he returned home with two drones and a cache of photos and videos. The move comes as Norway is on high alert following several reports of mysterious drone sightings close to offshore oil and gas drilling platforms run by major energy producer Norway.

Last month's Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts in the Baltic Sea are widely assumed to be the result of sabotage. The man, identified as 50-year-old Vitaly Rustanov, was arrested this week at the border post of Storskog, the only transit point between Norway and Russia. A judge at a court in Vadso ordered Rustanov placed in custody for two weeks in line with a police request.

"There are... reasons to believe the accused will try to escape judicial proceedings unless he is placed in provisional custody," the judge ruled. Rustanov was carrying two Russian passports and an Israeli one when arrested, he noted.

 

I think you are overstating the importance of Bakhmut, though there is no doubt Russia has been feeding a bunch of meat into that grinder.

Meanwhile in Svatove......

 

Battle being carried to Russian soil

Ukraine Strikes Back: Multiple Explosions Rock Russian Border Towns (msn.com)

With much attention focused on new air defense systems to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian missile and drone attacks, the Ukrainian military appears to have launched a missile barrage of its own targeting Belgorod in western Russia. According to claims by Russian state news agencies, the attacks left an undisclosed number of people in the region, which borders Ukraine, killed or injured, with a rail line and an ammunition dump being among the apparent targets.

Rail services in the Belgorod region were suspended today after at least one missile — apparently a Ukrainian Tochka series, or SS-21 Scarab tactical ballistic missile — came down on a line near the town of Novyi Oskol. Pictures said to have been taken at the site of the strike that has appeared on social media show obvious damage both to the track and the overhead power lines. The photos also look to show the tail end of a Tochka or Tochka-U missile.
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The ammunition dump that was reportedly struck was in the village of Oktyabrsky, where Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti said there had been fatalities and injuries. It's not clear what munitions may have been used in this instance. Russian authorities blamed the explosion on Ukrainian “shelling” from over the border. This may imply long-range artillery, including multiple rocket launchers, or it could also have involved the Tochka. Oktyabrsky is only around five miles from the border with Ukraine.
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Gladkov also said that an ammunition dump near Belgorod city and a border post in the frontier town of Shebekino had been destroyed and that further damage had been inflicted on a school in a village close to the border. There is so far no independent confirmation of these claims, although videos posted to social media, including the one below, purport to show the burning ammunition depot.

 

Thinking President Biden will drag us into WW III and not getting involved in the Russia / Ukraine is not a sign that one supports Putin and his invasion. It is more like watching two competing teams you have no interest in. Leave me out of it.

 

I agree it is something that cannot be dismissed out of hand and the same thoughts have crossed my mind as well.

 

It is most of the time. It’s just a seemingly neutral sounding justification for actual support of global right wing autocracy. No one is fooled

 

I think Biden is handling this situation about as well as it can be handled from the U.S. side. (That wasn't the case in 2008-2016, but that's more on Obama.) I don't see the argument that what we are doing is "dragging us into WWIII." It only takes one crazy person with nuclear weapons to start WWIII. If we don't oppose this invasion, we will be giving a green light to all of Russia's future invasions, and Putin will pick off his neighbors one by one and then continue to expand his empire.