Ukraine Conflict - "An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war"

[Mamoulian War]

Russians released the footage of how they blown up segments of Kakhovka Dam. Notice, that there is absolutely no visible damage to the road over the dam, despite months of HIMARS treatment of the near vicinity of the dam. Because contrary to Russian propaganda claims, all of the hits were performed to the bridges over water outlet on the left bank of Dnepr, which can be seen on the Maxar image, which I have linked few posts ago

 

[Zoraptor]

Fair enough. Guess we won't get the BBC insisting it's a remote controlled Ukrainian boat this time. lol at the commentator authoritatively claiming Russia was trying to destroy the generators though, the power station is on the Russian side of the dam.

You're still in whackadoodle land over the casualties though.

[Malcador]

Wonder what they used

[Mamoulian War]

12 hours ago, Malcador said:

Wonder what they used

Ukrainian claims, namely Arestovych that the bridge was blown, due to lucky HIMARS strike at the bridge segments which were already mined by explosives by Russia. And therefore it exploded prematurely, while a lot of Russians and their equipment were still on right bank, forced them to leave more equipment behind as planned, and retreat through Kakhovka dam, which was allegedly blow up later and according to Russian plans.

 

 

Also the airfield of Chaplynka, near to Crimea, from where were conducted sorties against Ukrainian positions on right bank of Kherson, already got HIMARS treatment. Also first barracks, where were retreating Russian soldiers temporarily stationed on the left bank, were hit by precision strikes, causing two truckloads of cargo 200.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/13/7376122/

 

[xzar_monty]

This has been pretty big news in the north of Europe, not sure about how widely this has been reported elsewhere. Doesn't look too pleasant. Neither does the drone stuff in Norway.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63601266

[majestic]

Well, at least the potential sentences are appropriate. We jailed a former Russian spy for like three years. Good job.

Edited November 13, 2022 by majestic

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, majestic said:

Well, at least the potential sentences are appropriate. We jailed a former Russian spy for like three years. Good job.

3 years doesnt seem long enough and he has the audacity to suggest 

"The accused denied espionage, saying he had merely passed on publicly available information, in a role similar to that of a foreign correspondent " 

Yet he was paid €220,000 which he admitted. I doubt the Ruskies would pay for publicly available information?

 

[xzar_monty]

8 hours ago, majestic said:

Well, at least the potential sentences are appropriate. We jailed a former Russian spy for like three years. Good job.

Wow! Astonishing.

Generally, I don't understand modern Austria. Kurz and the rest of recent Austrian politics just look so odd to me. There is no question I am not educated enough in the matter, but still, it's baffling.

[Mamoulian War]

13 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

This has been pretty big news in the north of Europe, not sure about how widely this has been reported elsewhere. Doesn't look too pleasant. Neither does the drone stuff in Norway.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63601266

We have Russian lapdogs in our parliament, and the police is still afraid to act against them. The most prominent of them, gets paid by Usmanov, and he even does try to conceal it, which is on the sanction list right from the beginning. But there is some small steps being made already, which could make the situation better in the future… 

 

also, over 1 hour long, but videos of this guy are worth every second spent on them…

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Mamoulian War

[xzar_monty]

Btw, here's an interesting piece of history which may help explain parts of why the war has so few vehement opponents in Russia at the moment. The comparison isn't entirely fair because the situations also contain many differences, but it's not completely wrong, either. Anyway.

In WW2, approximately 18 million people fought for the German Wehrmacht. However, there were also extremely courageous people like Oscar Schindler who did their utmost to help the jews and hinder the Nazis. Historians consider that the total number of these people during the war, in Germany, was approximately one hundred. So that's 18 million vs. 100.

Tallies chillingly with the observation that it's very easy to hold to the idea of oneself as a courageous person with high morals -- as long as they are not properly tested.

[BruceVC]

18 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

Btw, here's an interesting piece of history which may help explain parts of why the war has so few vehement opponents in Russia at the moment. The comparison isn't entirely fair because the situations also contain many differences, but it's not completely wrong, either. Anyway.

In WW2, approximately 18 million people fought for the German Wehrmacht. However, there were also extremely courageous people like Oscar Schindler who did their utmost to help the jews and hinder the Nazis. Historians consider that the total number of these people during the war, in Germany, was approximately one hundred. So that's 18 million vs. 100.

Tallies chillingly with the observation that it's very easy to hold to the idea of oneself as a courageous person with high morals -- as long as they are not properly tested.

That number of 100 doesnt sound very likely, Im sure its much, much  higher than that? Where did you get that from and I wonder what they define as "Germans opposed to the Nazi " because we wouldn't know peoples real opinions  because like Russia the Nazi controlled the state so people wouldnt have been honest about their views?

 

[majestic]

5 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Wow! Astonishing.

Generally, I don't understand modern Austria. Kurz and the rest of recent Austrian politics just look so odd to me. There is no question I am not educated enough in the matter, but still, it's baffling.

It helps to bear in mind that one of the ruling parties at the time was the FPÖ, a party that officially signed a treaty of "cooperation and friendship" with United Russia (which they recently declared to be null and void, for whatever reason, I can't quite figure it out... ). That being said, to borrow something a poster here used to say all the time: "Don't look at me, I voted for the other guy." I can't stand the ÖVP and I never once bought into the Kurz hype, and there are plenty of posts from me where I express my rather low opinion of the party, so I'm probably not the best person to ask what the appeal of that Trump in a slim-fit suit was.

 

[Chilloutman]

I liked Kurz. Well to me appeal of him was that he was only 'right wing' party leader. There are not many of those left in Europe

[xzar_monty]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

That number of 100 doesnt sound very likely, Im sure its much, much  higher than that? Where did you get that from and I wonder what they define as "Germans opposed to the Nazi " because we wouldn't know peoples real opinions  because like Russia the Nazi controlled the state so people wouldnt have been honest about their views?

The number comprises people whose actions actually mattered and made some kind of difference, such as Oscar Schindler. There were very, very few of those, hence the number one hundred -- although historians naturally agree that there is no way to know the true number. The number comes from Ian Kershaw's book To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949. Recommended.

Opinions, in this context, are absolutely meaningless. It's actions that count, actual deeds.

[BruceVC]

1 minute ago, xzar_monty said:

The number comprises people whose actions actually mattered and made some kind of difference, such as Oscar Schindler. There were very, very few of those, hence the number one hundred -- although historians naturally agree that there is no way to know the true number. The number comes from Ian Kershaw's book To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949. Recommended.

Opinions, in this context, are absolutely meaningless. It's actions that count, actual deeds.

Okay I see what you mean, you saying actions and not  personal views. That makes more sense 

[Malcador]

40 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

The number comprises people whose actions actually mattered and made some kind of difference, such as Oscar Schindler. There were very, very few of those, hence the number one hundred -- although historians naturally agree that there is no way to know the true number. The number comes from Ian Kershaw's book To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949. Recommended.

Opinions, in this context, are absolutely meaningless. It's actions that count, actual deeds.

Kershaw saying Bagration was a mistake, always stuck with me.   Not sure the reference (again to WW2..) really explains much though. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Malcador

[Mamoulian War]

Putin signed decree allowing foreigners to join Russian Army, today.

looks like we’ll see more of this soon

 

[BruceVC]

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/chinese-officials-speak-unprecedented-criticism-115245605.html

Rare but becoming more common of Chinese criticism towards Russia, this time at the G20

But China mustn't think we stupid, they would have been fine with the invasion if things were going well for Russia so this is just a reality of the failures of Putin's War....its not like the CCP really  care about the  sovereignty of Ukraine or there right to decide their own future

 

 

[xzar_monty]

Yet another fire in Russia, this time in a factory whose speciality makes you think that perhaps this is not accidental, even if many of the others have been.

 

[xzar_monty]

50 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/chinese-officials-speak-unprecedented-criticism-115245605.html

Rare but becoming more common of Chinese criticism towards Russia, this time at the G20

Also, Macron tweets "with" or "alongside" Xi, thus:

Interesting.

The photos of Lavrov in Bali (?) are also delightful: the guy's wearing a Basquiat T-shirt, and he's got a Western mobile phone and a Western wristwatch. Such a staunch opponent of the "decadent West" he is, indeed. No hypocrisy there at all.

Edited November 15, 2022 by xzar_monty

[BruceVC]

 I was watching an interesting interview on Bloomberg about how Putins War has created a reality where China and Russia are now on opposite sides of certain traditional geopolitical objectives. The failures of the invasion and Western sanctions have led to Putin trying to destabilize the global economy through things like energy blackmail and grain blockages which he hopes will lead to the West reducing support for Ukraine and insisting on some kind of negotiations. Putin doesnt care about the global economy because he is concerned only about surviving the consequences of invading Ukraine

China wants a stable world and global economy because its economy is dependant on that but China also has to consider its previous publicly stated ideological support for Russia. But the reality now is Russia and China have fundamental different objectives, China wants the war to end and Putin wants to survive it both politically and militarily

 

 

[Azdeus]

On 11/13/2022 at 10:50 PM, xzar_monty said:

This has been pretty big news in the north of Europe, not sure about how widely this has been reported elsewhere. Doesn't look too pleasant. Neither does the drone stuff in Norway.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63601266

It's funny how this happens just as the government wants to introduce an anti-spy law that also happens to make investigative journalism impossible.

[xzar_monty]

Not especially meaningful, but still a marvelous show of solidarity from Banksy: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/14/banksy-in-ukraine-seven-new-works-appear-in-war-torn-sites

Art specifically for or against something tends to be embarrassing (think Sun City, for instance), but these works look good. Of course it helps that there are no words.

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, Azdeus said:

It's funny how this happens just as the government wants to introduce an anti-spy law that also happens to make investigative journalism impossible.

Maybe its the US because they want Sweden to become a right-wing, neo-Nazi state !!! You just never know 

[BruceVC]

43 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

Not especially meaningful, but still a marvelous show of solidarity from Banksy: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/14/banksy-in-ukraine-seven-new-works-appear-in-war-torn-sites

Art specifically for or against something tends to be embarrassing (think Sun City, for instance), but these works look good. Of course it helps that there are no words.

https://www.suninternational.com/sun-city/

Whats embarrassing about Sun City, its a very prestigious and popular resort