Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....II

[Canoe]

Now this is a line: Putin is sending Nazis to kill a Jew in the name of ‘denazification’.
https://twitter.com/blairmcdougall/stat ... 4825569286

Two different outfits have been sent to kill the Ukrainian president — mercenaries of the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces. Both have been thwarted by anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB)

The Wagner mercenaries were unaware of the Chechen assassins but have carried out their own attempts to decapitate the government, after being embedded in Kyiv for more than six weeks, tracking the activities of 24 high-profile Ukrainian targets. Wagner mercenaries in Kyiv have sustained losses during their attempts and are said to have been alarmed by how accurately the Ukrainians had anticipated their moves. A source close to the group said it was “eerie” how well briefed Zelensky’s security team appeared to be. Ukrainian officials claim the information that led to the deaths of the Chechens came from disgruntled agents in the FSB who oppose the invasion. “I can say that we have received information from the FSB, who do not want to take part in this bloody war”.

https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1499710788512141322

[tweets claimed that other mercenary groups are in on the attempts too]

[Claimed]

US Drinks giant CocaCola have confirmed they will continue to support Putin and do "business as usual" in Russia despite the Ukraine invasion.

* Multiple calls for a boycot of CocaCola products, #BoycottCocaCola, and one for #BoycottCoke...
* Multiple lists and graphics of CocaCola brands & products going around.

"Coke AND Pepsi are still doing business in Russia. I won't buy ANY of either company's products until they halt operations in Russia and stop supporting Putin's war crimes in Ukraine. #BoycottCocaCola #BoycottPepsi"

"I've seen both #BoycottPepsi & #BoycottCocaCola trending today and I'm like, I didn't need a war for that shit. Fuck soda, drink beer!"

[Canoe]

Reports of a significant armor engagement in a suburb of Kyiv, …between Russian forces. Friendly fire restulted in the loss of 9 tanks and 4 infantry fighting vehicles.
https://twitter.com/AVindman/status/1499753688478494721

Correction: Ukrainian special forces will no longer capture Russian artillerymen.

The command of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces has warned that it will not spare Russian artillerymen in response to their “brutal shelling” of civilians and cities.

The special forces have now fully backtracked. The post yesterday was edited to remove the claim, and they added a new post: Specifically to make clear they *do and will* take prisoners & follow the Geneva Conventions.

https://twitter.com/enn_nafnlaus/status ... 4445408256

[Canoe]

[Remembering what they had to do - and what came out later... - regarding fallout during the Chernobyl reactor crisis, there's some panic in Europe regarding the attack on the Nuclear power station in Ukraine, on top of noting the raised Chernobyl levels measured after Russian equipment rolled in to capture it and stirred up dust & tore up some earth.]

What does it feel like in Europe rn? Pediatricians in Vienna are giving out free iodine tablets. My best friend in Germany tells me her phone is blowing up w/moms trying to figure out right dosage for their kids if worst happens. Docs also telling parents to "seal your windows."
https://twitter.com/rachelnpr/status/14 ... 1014269964

[Canoe]

Оккупанты везут ракеты, чтобы стрелять по Украине. Автор видео утверждает, что это Таганрог

Google translate: The occupiers are bringing rockets to shoot at Ukraine. The author of the video claims that this is Taganrog.

https://t.me/uniannet/35201

[Taganrog is a port city in southwestern Russia. 40 km west is the border with Ukraine, with the city of Mariupol another 40 km west of that border.]
[4+2+2 pops, plus the launcher. Look like a SA-12b Giant low-to-high altitude tactical surface to air missile system with anti-ballistic & anti-cruise missile capabilities, range 13 - 100 km, 150 km HE warhead]

[Simon of the Playa]

“This coming week, we will launch a multilateral transatlantic taskforce to identify, hunt down, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs: their yachts, their mansions, and any other ill-gotten gains that we can find and freeze under the law,” the White House said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ichest-man

[Canoe]

This on Roger Stone is crazy.

Roger Stone raged at ‘disgrace’ Trump over failure to overturn election – report

Washington Post The Post said it had viewed 20 hours of footage of the political operative that had been shot for a forthcoming documentary.
[Huge list of Stone's transgressions]
* Stone also said Kushner should be “punished in the most brutal possible way” and would be “braindead when I get finished with him”.
* Stone also mocked Trump’s apparent plan to run again, saying: “Run again! You’ll get your fucking brains beat in.”
* He told the film-makers: “Obviously if you use any of that, I’ll murder you.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ed-kushner

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investig ... -election/

[lucky420]

Stone seems to have some type of syphilis related brain rot

[Canoe]

This!
If you don't understand the motives for the huge disinformation & misinformation campaigns targeting largely the Western countries on COVID-19, democracy, election interference and race baiting, that are repeatedly traced back to Russia, and to China, this is simple enough and concise enough for an introduction to the underlying motive ultimately behind the overwhelming majority of disinformation & misinformation - wanting to stay in power, no matter what the cost.
If you're still drinking the Russian kool-aid, if you have any doubt regarding which state (country) actors are adversaries or enemies, that are working to destabilize your country (and recruiting for that, and to manipulate you into aiding that), you should be examining your dietary choices... and do some work on developing your critical thinking skills.

Why did Putin invade? Why is he doing this? Why is this happening?

Well if you were the cleptocratic dictator, sitting on top of a country that you were keeping poor and unhappy and backward, with no plans to do anything but more than that for another few decades, how would you feel about a big culturally similar neighbouring country, where your population and their population have lots of family ties, lots of connection, lots of overlap, lots of reasons to identify with one another. And in that large culturally similar neighbouring country, they recently threw out the pro-Russia puppet-leader that you had installed there. They took economic steps to align themselves with Europe, more than with you. They then elected, by a huge margin, a popular Russian-speaking guy who wants ties with the West, and Europe and the United States. A new, young, charismatic leader who said the night he was elected that everybody in the former Soviet states should look at his election and know that anything is possible. That anything is possible, even in the former Soviet world, thanks to democracy.

How does that look to you if you're Vladimir Putin? From the corner that Vladimir Putin has painted himself into, in the country he has ruined, the threat posed by a free democratic Western-minded modern Ukraine. That's like a skeleton hand that might grab you by the ankle if you let your foot drift too far off the edge of the bed at night.

He also just can't let any country near him work, in a way that may indicate to the Russian people that they too aught to expect their country and their government to work for them. He needs his neighbouring countries to be dependant on him, to be corrupt, to be fundamentally disappointing to their people. That's what he needs from the near abroad, from his neighbouring countries.

And from the far abroad, for us in the west, he would please prefer us to be disunified, destabilized and as disreputable as he can possibly make us.

https://www.tiktok.com/@msnbc/video/7068792453276503342

[Canoe]

Good luck with that...

This is a Russian oil refinery.

“ It started in Russia.
In Nizhnekamsk, workers at the Hemont plant went on a spontaneous strike because they were not paid part of their salaries due to the sharp collapse of the ruble.”

https://twitter.com/fascinatorfun/statu ... 5311090688

[Canoe]

Son: ... We were told that they would welcome us and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. They call us fascists. ...

#Луганщина. Жителі #Білокуракіно показують окупантам, хто господар на цій землі!
# Luganschina. Residents # Bilokurakino show the occupiers who are host on this land!

https://twitter.com/EspresoTV/status/15 ... 6067451905

У Херсоні виходить все більше і більше людей!
In Kherson, more and more people go out!

https://twitter.com/EspresoTV/status/15 ... 4500040710

People are hiding from Russian bombs

https://twitter.com/Vitaliy23404583/sta ... 3475569671

#Новопсков Луганської області. Російські фашистм відкрили вогонь по мирним мешканцям.
# Novopskov Lugansk region. Russian fascists opened fire in peaceful residents.

https://twitter.com/EspresoTV/status/15 ... 5904486402

#Одеса. #Бомбосховище пологового будинку. Гончаренко
# Odesa. # Bombstake [bombshelter] of maternity hospital. Goncharenko

https://twitter.com/EspresoTV/status/15 ... 3491345408

[The hospital has a bombshelter... Of course they do.]

Huge increase in the number of Russian fighter/bombers and helicopters shot down in the past day, seemingly following reports of missiles being delivered to Ukraine. Appears those are getting distributed and/or personnel trained up.

[Simon of the Playa]

https://twitter.com/nbcsnl/status/15003 ... LfYPVWoDyg

[Simon of the Playa]

C36155EB-0B93-478C-91E9-745F78F3AD49.jpeg

[Canoe]

... Huge increase in the number of Russian fighter/bombers and helicopters shot down in the past day, seemingly following reports of missiles being delivered to Ukraine. Appears those are getting distributed and/or personnel trained up.

One of the first glimpses of a PPZR Piorun MANPADS in the hands of Ukrainian forces.
Essentially a very heavily upgraded 9K38 Igla, this Polish system was provided to UA recently and may help explain some of the the recent RuAF losses.

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/15 ... 7365435395

CCTV footage of the shootdown.

https://twitter.com/KyleJGlen/status/15 ... 2991857670

Video of a Russian Mi-24 helicopter getting shot down reportedly from this morning.
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1500038514037202947
[From yesterday. I was wondering how this could be real, with a cam right there at height recording. Someone pointed out it was drone footage. Someone claimed by an artillery unit's drone. You can see the cam aim move right in the abrupt jerks typical of a drone cam.]

Javelin. Правила користування! Докладніше
Javelin. Terms of use! More details https://www.facebook.com/usofcom/videos ... 121339739/

https://twitter.com/ArmedForcesUkr/stat ... 4032918530
(how to set up and use a Javelin anti-tank guided missile. Ostensibly it seems the video is for training purposes for those likely to operate the system but haven’t had a proper training session on them. https://www.overtdefense.com/2022/03/05 ... ne-day-10/)

* More images of downed aircraft out now.
* Huge increase in images showing destroyed equipment, most Russian but some Ukrainian too. Most images are new, but some old images from earlier are going around too as late-comers in social media want to post too.
* Related

Weapons captured from the Ukrainian forces by the Russian VDV troops near #Kyiv - a NLAW anti-tank launcher, supplied by Britain, and 9K310 Igla-1 MANPADS.

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/15 ... 0495608832

Western weapons continue to flow into Ukraine - for the first time a Ukrainian serviceman was seen with the Swedish "Pansarskott m/86" (AT4-CS) anti-tank launcher.
It was previously reported that Sweden would supply 5,000 AT4 to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/15 ... 1981180933

* And more video of Russian equipment rebranded as and in service of Ukraine. More sophisticated equipment too.
* One being pulled by a tractor had words to the effect of 'do not burn down' painted on its side. Suggests that usable equipment is being searched for and identified as usable, not just grabbed randomly.
* Images of the equipment being recovered from inside Russian vehicles, shows that the equipping of Russian soldiers is very variable. Often a hodge-podge of equipment of different aged equipment, some improvised, suggesting shortages.
* One video showing Ukrainian artillery in action against a small convoy/patrol on a road.
* Various images showing Russian equipment destroyed that is attributed to Ukrainian artillery (including a Russian artillery camp). One such https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/15 ... 5697843206
* Tons more images of destroyed civilian buildings in various location in Ukraine. One presented saying it was a city that was largely Russian speaking, but was getting destroyed too. Another said the Russian plan was destroy, then occupy the rubble.
*

Footage circulating this morning shows what looks like a corridor for civilians to leave the city of Irpin near Kyiv coming under fire from Russian troops.

https://twitter.com/KyleJGlen/status/15 ... 8390158338

* Even more video turning up of Ukrainians protesting the Russian invasion, including in places already under Russian control.
* One video showed a huge crowd of Ukrainians milling around, saying these civilians of all ages were demanding that they be given weapons with which to fight the Russian invaders.
* And apparently the images of people tied or taped to trees with their pants down getting switched on the butt, are looters.
* Talks that Poland will supply fighter aircraft to Ukraine. U.S. approved. U.S. may "back-fill" equipment that Poland supplies to Ukraine. [I'm behind on this. Don't know where it stands, approvals, confirmations, reactions, etc.]

Financial measures are showing other consequences for Russia, and others.

Meeting of top defence ministry officials took place this week amidst serious concerns on meeting payment schedules. Over the last week, scheduled transactions to Russian defence entities were stalled after financial sanctions were announced.

Ukraine crisis: India examines exposure to Russian arms. DMA has collated info on current deals, pending payments, impact of delays. Immediate and 6 month impact being assessed. Concern as banks have deferred scheduled payments.
https://twitter.com/manupubby/status/15 ... 1810890753

[Canoe]

"It appears the Ukrainian government has spread the word to blur faces." [on images of Ukraine forces & citizens who took up arms]
So it's harder for an occupying force to identify who fought against them, hence may be in a resistance?

Against the background of the failed "special operation" against the economic collapse is observed.
Closing Ikea - 15,000 jobs.
The plant in Togliatti (Renault-Nissan) is shut down due to lack of imported spare parts - 35,000 jobs.
Autotor plant for assembling BMW - 3500 jobs.

https://twitter.com/rnbo_gov_ua/status/ ... 9944150016

[Comment says "closure of Russian factories. Big blow on Russian economy"]
[Another comment: "Putin says 'I really like 50 Cent. Or as we call him in Russia, 4 Million Rubble'"

[UK MOD update Mar 6]
* The scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continues to surprise Russia. It has responded by targeting populated areas in multiple locations, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol. This is likely to represent an effort to break Ukrainian morale. Russia has previously used similar tactics in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, employing both air and ground-based munitions.
* Russian supply lines reportedly continue to be targeted, slowing the rate of advance of their ground forces. There is a realistic possibility that Russia is now attempting to conceal fuel trucks as regular support trucks to minimise losses. [Ya'all think? All the photos of such might support such a "realistic possibility"?]
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/15 ... 9428763649

[Canoe]

People are hiding from Russian bombs

https://twitter.com/Vitaliy23404583/sta ... 3475569671

Slightly misleading text. While under the blown bridge provides questionable shelter against bombs (and with a collapse danger), an uncropped photo reveals that's also where they queue to cross the river for evacuating. Labelled as Irpin, Ukraine.
.

2022-03 queuing under blown bridge to evacuate Irpin Ukraine.jpg

.
Another angle, video at the same river crossing. Labelled as Kyiv.

elderly civilians trying to flee Kyiv evacuate as Russian forces close in on the capital city

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1500076163691171840

Irpin (Ukrainian: Ірпі́нь) is a city located on the Irpin River in Kyiv Oblast (province) right next to Kyiv city in northern Ukraine.

[Canoe]

March 5, 2022

Russia RSA (@EmbassyofRussia)

Dear subscribers, we have received a great number of letter of solidarity from South Africans, both individuals and organizations. We appreciate your support and glad you decided to stand with us today, when Russia, like 80 years ago, is fighting Nazism in Ukraine!

Germany in SA (GermanEmbassySA)

Sorry, but we can't stay silent on this one, it's just far too cynical. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is slaughtering innocent children, women and men for its own gain. It's definitely not "fighting Nazism". Shame on anyone who's falling for this.
(Sadly, we're kinda experts on Nazism.)

[Canoe]

I've no idea if this is true. Source is repeatedly apologetic of Putin's decisions, but it's an interesting claim. It could explain much of the aged or poorly maintained equipment, low-quality knock-offs in things like tires, and the variable quality of supplies found equipping the various Russian troops.

The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus. But as a military advisor you cannot report that to the President. So they reported lies to him instead. Potemkin military

The last 24 hours has seen more of the images of destroyed equipment having been burnt up. Don't know if it's related to what took the equipment out, or if it was torched after capture to prevent it's future use by the Russian forces. Note the one piece of captured equipment that had 'do not burn down' written on its side.

[Canoe]

This isn't like to be news for most, but just in case...

"In less than a week, the United States and NATO have pushed more than 17,000 antitank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania,"

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/us/p ... apons.html

[Canoe]

trigger warning: sorry, I don't know how to thumbnail it
.
Russian shelling in Mariupol (Маріуполі).
.

2022-03 Russian shelling Mariupol, 18m.jpg

[Simon of the Playa]

same as it ever was...

[Token]

This isn't like to be news for most, but just in case...

"In less than a week, the United States and NATO have pushed more than 17,000 antitank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania,"

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/us/p ... apons.html

Oh, that’s a drop in the bucket.

Our thoughts and prayers and endless outrage at a full scale war in Europe is what’s really lethal on the battlefield!

/s

[Canoe]

Oh, that’s a drop in the bucket.
Our thoughts and prayers and endless outrage at a full scale war in Europe is what’s really lethal on the battlefield!
/s

So is the U.S. backfilling Poland for anything they provide to Ukraine.

The Kremlin has approved a list of countries who have been “unfriendly” to Russia. They include:

Australia, UK, EU countries, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Korea, San Marino, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Japan

https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/sta ... 0657584131

"Russia officially recognises Taiwan"
[So Russia lists Taiwan as a country now. Interesting.]

[A lone tweet]
"Japan today making noises about reclaiming the Kuril islands from Russia, while Putin is otherwise engaged."

[Totaly unconfirmed]

Urkraine's farming output is expected to be reduced this coming year due to the loss of farming acres to all of the Russian equipment the farmers have stolen and parked on their land.

To keep farming acres productive, Ukraine may have to limit their no-tax policy on "acquired" Russian equipment.

[Token]

Oh, that’s a drop in the bucket.
Our thoughts and prayers and endless outrage at a full scale war in Europe is what’s really lethal on the battlefield!
/s

So is the U.S. backfilling Poland for anything they provide to Ukraine.

I seriously doubt Poland will send anything over. Why bother when we can’t set an example, just talk and posture.

[Simon of the Playa]

"This strikes us as a sincere attempt to answer the nagging question that many in the West have about wanting to do something about the humanitarian catastrophe Putin has unleashed without escalating into a potential nuclear conflict. The proposal described here is strictly about protecting civilians and enforcing the humanitarian corridors that Putin claims to back."

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/pl ... e-00015004

[some seeing eye]

Anderson Cooper is a senior television journalist with a lot of history. So you can count or discount as you like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uM6LglTl40

BTW, there are many good videos on the TubeofYou from the Frontline Putin Project.

Putin's negotiating positions are garbage but he is softening.
It seems to be something like
1 Russia keeps Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk
2 Ukraine doesn't join NATO in the constitution
3 Refugee corridors to Russia and Belarus to create human shields and hostages
How about
1 Give back Crimea and we will set up a long term lease on the naval base while you build one on your own land.
(Ideally the Black Sea should be demilitarized)
2 Long term agreement on the Gazprom pipelines to Europe and fuel supplies under long-term contract.
3 Pay to rebuild the country. If Russia wants, it can build a wall on its side of the border.
4 NATO is none of your business.
5 Refugee corridors to Poland and Romania and from airports across the country.
6 Don't invade Moldova.

[Canoe]

Nice thoughts on negotiations, if they're in negotiations in good faith, which it does not look like Russia is prepared to do. They negotiated a corridor for civilians to leave, then fired on them and shelled them. That's not in good faith. Their dip said it was Ukrainians doing that, but near all the munitions are new Russian munitions that Ukraine doesn't have.

Those points don't meet Putin's needs for:

• saving face
• and in a manner that allows him to stay in power, and keeping the tools he uses to do so (menacing invasion if you don't comply has less teeth if Ukraine gets free)
• having former soviet countries not succeed

  a free democratic Western-minded modern Ukraine
  He also just can't let any country near him work, in a way that may indicate to the Russian people that they too aught to expect their country and their government to work for them. He needs his neighbouring countries to be dependant on him, to be corrupt, to be fundamentally disappointing to their people. That's what he needs from the near abroad, from his neighbouring

• or be punished for not coming back under the fold (after Ukraine overwhelmingly voted out Putin's pro-Russia puppet leader that he'd installed there)
  The Russian method looks like their you'll succumb or you'll be rubble and succumb - what is in it for Putin/Russia for negotiating instead of continuing on their present course?
• enough buffer space around the navel base, which he now knows is need due to how easily Russia took Crimea

Right now we've been looking at systemic failures up and down the Russian military chains, and their rate of equipment loss is still significantly higher than Ukraine's and climbing. But that doesn't count for as much as people are hoping. Ukraine's rate of equipment loss is also still climbing, if significantly slower. Whatever Russian loses, they've got tons more available and on the way in. Ukraine, even with volunteers returning and foreigners volunteering, and equipment donations, Ukraine's resources are comparatively finite. And Russia is still making gains: consolidating the holes in the bits they took or skirted around, while slowly inching forward taking more ground. Yes Russia is taking losses, and yes Russia is bringing more resources in... Yes Ukraine shelled something like a dozen Russian helicopters on the ground, but Russia has 90+ sitting at an airport just across the border in Belarus. Etc., etc..

What it has bought, is some time. More 'allies' of Ukraine are sending in equipment. Some fighter/bomber aircraft are on the table, but where could they be operated out of. If a meaningful number, they're a meaningful target on the ground.

What remains to be seen, is what Ukraine and the West can put together with the time before Ukraine's resistance is reduced to insurgency fighting in one form or another. Many of Ukraine's operations are already of that nature. And they've had some successes on key targets, like two Russian generals. It's going to take more than that to win or even tie this war. What's the West going to do about it...
If they don't, who's next?

[Token]

Oh, that’s a drop in the bucket.
Our thoughts and prayers and endless outrage at a full scale war in Europe is what’s really lethal on the battlefield!
/s

So is the U.S. backfilling Poland for anything they provide to Ukraine.

I seriously doubt Poland will send anything over. Why bother when we can’t set an example, just talk and posture.

Hahahaha!

Can’t tell no mo’ who soiling their drawers more, us or the Poles.

Oh how terrified we are of the wee Ruskie.

The Pentagon dismissed Poland’s proposal to transfer their MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States for delivery to Ukraine, calling it not “tenable,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday.

[Canoe]

The father may hug his son for the last time and go to war with the Russian occupiers.
https://twitter.com/Vitaliy23404583/sta ... 0021257218

[Canoe]

Oh how terrified we are of the wee Ruskie.

And that is what Putin is counting on. Now. And in the future.
Which is why I think it is inevitable that the West gets truly involved. It's either now, or in the future. Or what we see happening now, over and over.

[Canoe]

... Or what we see happening now, over and over.

Russian forces have reportedly disrupted humanitarian corridors established in Mariupol and Sumy. This is the third successive day President Putin's forces have breached their own ceasefire agreements.
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/15 ... 7980305409

@joshrogin talked to the leader of Syria's Civil Defense (White Helmets), who hadchilling advice for Ukrainians: "Do not give GPS locations of medical facilities to the U.N., which may claim it needs the information to keep them safe. The Russians will use that information"

Unfortunately, I concur w/warning. Years of our Syria reporting, capped w/@malachybrowne & VI team’s definitive documentation, show Russian/Syrian govs purposely target medical sites, including on UN no-hit lists. No smoking gun that UN handed over GPS data, but NGOs are v wary.
https://twitter.com/ABarnardNYT/status/ ... 0604638212