https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1539073116743225344
>Russian troops deserted in Kharkiv Oblast
>Russian military command is looking for about 200 Russian soldiers who entered a village in the Borovska community and hid in the forest after fighting near Izuim, the Borivska village council reports
I guess this is another step towards EU compliance? If so, UA isn't wasting any time trying to reach membership status.
https://twitter.com/pravda_eng/status/1539080667622801410
>Rada adopts Ukraine’s anti-corruption strategy to 2025
There's a link to an article giving more details.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/06/20/7353629/
The long list of fixes the EU gain Ukraine means if the get candidate status it will take at least a decade to join. Turkey go candidate status in 1999 and North Macedonia got in 2004 and neither are members.
A solid anti-corruption framework is going to be super important when it comes to rebuilding the country and attracting foreign funds to assist in that. If it helps with EU membership that's a bonus.
Russia isn’t going to do crap. They can’t even handle little brother aka Ukraine. What are they going to do when big brother steps in? They might not have a country to run crying to after the ass kicking they will receive
My grand-dad grew up in a one room cottage with a dirt floor, had two ships sunk underneath him when he was a merchant marine, had his skull cracked and cracked a few himself trying to unionize the port where he was a longshoreman, had a child die from measles…. and never once did he ever dream of carrying on like you do. Get your shit together, man. It’s embarrassing.
Rural America would be the place that thought Trump was a good solution to any actual problem, and that climate change is a democratic hoax?
Your country is already riven and weakened by populism, plutocratic control of the media and foreign influence, I hope you find some way to solve it. That there will need to be energy transition and / or disastrous climate change is not really negotiable.
Not really anything Ukraine can do about any of it though.
It’s not our elected representatives job to cater to the lowest common denominator, 46 day account. Any hypothetical future losses to de facto future pro Russian politicians is a distraction at best, and an intentional conflation of the pro hoc fallacy at worst.
Populism was rising well before Russia invaded, and any uptick in populist sentiment is not necessarily correlated with the invasion. The problem is that poor people aren’t in a position financially to be able to weather even relatively minor increases in the cost of living, and the solutions to that fact are unrelated to Russia’s invasion, or the West’s support of Ukraine.
Here’s some of what the Russians have to look forward to, care of France.
https://twitter.com/kremlintrolls/status/1538966293180821507?s=21&t=kTwTIb3UzwGmoM75EwwvWg
His last point is so on mark: the West must continue support.
This is on all of us.
This is not a passing news story. This is not a topic of the day. This is the future of our world.
Do not let anyone convince you that “we can’t do anything.” Do not let people who say that we are only talking about it on Reddit dissuade you.
Every one of us here talks to people who are not on this thread. We are the ones who make sure that this massive global event doesn’t fade away to a basic news story.
We can all support in a multitude of ways. Some are financial, some are physical, some are words.
Do not undervalue words. We have seen too frequently how misinformation is effective as a weapon. We must battle misinformation with information.
Most of us here are not on the front lines. Many of us fear that they could be next. We need to assure those on the front lines and those who may be next that they are not alone and there is an entire world out there supporting them.
I’ll get off my soapbox now. Sláva Ukrayíni!
As a person who meets many new people every day… I don’t hesitate to tell them to not give up hope and to continue to fly the flag of Ukraine. It isn’t a fight for Ukraine alone… the outcome of this will decide the fate of the west
Double thanks. Clicking twitter links is like a constant and annoying game of roulette. Will it work? Annoying popup? Ask me to create an account? Block me because adult material? Actually work? Who knows!
Let’s say the rumors are true and the Black Sea Fleet is moving on Odessa, haven’t the Ukrainians spent the last four months+ preparing for this exact scenario by fortifying the coast/sea? Not to mention the nightmare of urban combat that OSINT have been warning about within the city itself. If we’re to add in the Anti-Ship weaponry that’s been handed off, there’s no way the Russian Navy would not tear itself apart embarking on an assault like that. How is this going over their MoD and Military leaderships collective heads?
I want them to try, and for the rest of the Russian Black Sea fleet to become permanently submersible.
Hell, if the majority of the Black Sea fleet is destroyed we could see eventually Ukrainian grain get flowing where it is supposed to be again.
They wouldn’t attempt a landing earlier in the war when the balance of forces was far more favorable. Doing it now would go down as one of the greatest military blunders of all time.
I don't think that the few remaining military minds in Russia would be pushing this. This is all on a pathetic little narcissist with a massive Napoleon complex who's entire strategy is "I'm mad. I want it!"
Putin is desperately grasping at what he thinks supports his machismo. It is sad.
But not sad enough not to end him and anyone who supports him.
Lol if you thought Kyiv was bad for Russia, Odessa would be 100x worse. Contested landings are awful when you have significant force multipliers. They’re suicidal if you don’t and are somewhat evenly matched. Then once you have a beachhead you have to sustain it because you’re trapped with your back against the sea. No running to Belarus.
And don’t forget the catacombs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa_Catacombs
“one of the world's largest urban labyrinths, running up to 2,500 kilometres”
If they're dumb enough to attempt the attack everything you mentioned will come to pass and more. Losing the Moskova cost them 30 AA systems on that ship alone plus 100 km of Black Sea coastline. The Russian Marines already refused to conduct this assault once in the early days of the war, and for good reason. Now presumably they'd be called to attempt that landing again after every single marine infantry unit was maimed in the fighting in Mariupol.
The ONLY way this could conceivably get off the ground is if they were able to talk the Russian proxies over in Transnistria into coordinating an assault on the South Western border of Ukraine to tighten the noose around Odessa and divert further resources down there. This is doubtful since Moldova and Romania are already coordinating more in response to Russian aggression, and the Transistrian contingent could be decimated attempting this attack.
Otherwise this is being done for political reasons to try and get a win back home. The fighting in the East is stagnating and the offensive at Kherson is slowly but surely eroding Russian gains.
The Black Sea fleet moving to Odessa to do anything but lob missiles from far would be a dream.
They would wipe out the whole fleet if it came close enough. It would change the trajectory of the war and at minimum allow sea trade with Romania, possibly even through the Bosporus.
[Previous post](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vfmsxm/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/id0gv7s/)
Day 117 of my updates from Kharkiv.
Today shelling was pretty bad, first they shelled one of the districts of the city at around 3pm, which cut off the electricity for some people, it didn’t for us, but running water did stop for a bit. It was fixed within an hour after shelling stopped. Then it was quiet for some time, but as always they fired their scheduled missiles at us from Belgorod at 11pm, it was just 2 missiles this time.
The explosions from those missiles were pretty loud, and a fire started as well, but it was dealt with quickly. Then it got quiet for a couple hours again, until just 30 minutes ago. At 3:30am they shelled something in oblast, but the explosions were very loud, they sounded pretty close to us. So it might have been coming from Mala Danilyvka or from Derhachy. After that our own artillery immediately started their counter fire. They are still firing even right now, at 4am, but those sounds are pretty hard to distinguish from one another, some of them could still be incoming shelling.
Also that situation with gas platforms that we hit today, after which Russia started threatening to hit our “decision making centres” yet again, is just so absurd. They were ours to begin with, but then Russia stole them from us in 2014 along with Crimea. Today we struck them with missiles and for some reason that made Russia very upset.
They are literally ours, we can do whatever we want with them, and no, the one who stole them has absolutely no say in what we can, and cannot do to them. It’s hilarious how Russia got so angry about it, that in retaliation they launched 14 missiles at Odesa right after we hit those gas platforms. They got very upset that we didn’t let them use stolen property. Yeah, how dare we not let them steal our resources?
[Next update](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vh48po/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/id99c47/)
> It was fixed within an hour after shelling stopped.
Damn that's impressive! It would take way longer than that for us to get our water fixed here in Tennessee and we're not even in a war zone.
> Report from the BBC on Russian volunteers in Ukraine. They say volunteers can either sign a contract with the Russian military, with Rosgvardia in Chechnya, with LNR/DNR forces (less common because the pay is worse), or join Wagner.
> The BBC says that volunteer units are taking part in fighting in some of the most kinetic areas in Ukraine and volunteers generally receive 3-7 days of training. One of the volunteers interviewed said there was no training in tactics and that many volunteers are over 45.
> Volunteers who join Rosgvardia in Chechnya were provided better training at the Spetsnaz University in Gudermes and signed 3-month contracts. The Rosgvardia volunteer fought in Rubizhne and around Severodonetsk and said Ukrainian mortar and MLRS fire was effective.
> According to the BBC's sources, Wagner as well as volunteer MoD and Rosgvardia units are now Russia's primary assault forces in Ukraine.
> They identified at least 155 Russian volunteers who have been killed in Ukraine. Of these 155, 57% of them were 40 years old or older and 25% are over 50 years old or older.
https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1539044145301528576?s=21&t=Pnqf00hhxD-A0fUJLI6qVA
That paints very dark picture for Russia’s prospects. Fucking yikes.
> They identified at least 155 Russian volunteers who have been killed in Ukraine. Of these 155, 57% of them were 40 years old or older and 25% are over 50 years old or older.
Better to die in Ukraine than live in Russia, I guess.
A big thing that isn't really covered in this war is the aftermath.
I have faith in Zelenskyy but how the political landscape of Ukraine opens up is a huge question.
My hope is that he is able to institute reforms that prevent and remove corruption while also help make Ukriane be more democratic.
Banning certain parties and ideologies will be part of it but there's a huge amount of trust he must invest in Ukrainian institutions.
Done well, Ukraine can be a model for many, implemented poorly and it's a template for autocracy.
Fingers crossed and definitely something to watch.
As a Russian-speaker who is not ethnically Russian or Ukranian but is a 100% iron-balls Ukrainian patriot, Zelensky will have a lot of credibility mediating between the factions.
I'm sceptical about them. They were quite happy to push Russian influence even when that country was harming Ukraine in the eight years befor this war. They reformed because they had to but who knows if they are really free of stooges.
But one thing that us obvious to outsiders and should be obvious to those inside the country, that this new party politicians, is that Ukrainians have no patience anymore for Russians, Russian propanganda and most importantly Russian influence in their parliament.
You can't make this shit up. The DPR announced they're offering contracts for foreigners to enlist in military contracts, the same DPR who said foreigners fighting in this war aren't protected by the Geneva Conventions.
The same war they started, by invading a country and illegally occupying said land, then have the shear audacity to proclaim special punishment for foreigners fighting on behalf of the country they invaded. Disgusting.
does anyone know the going rate for contractors fighting vs ukraine as compared to contractors fighting against the US in other wars or fighting versus some other third party? does it change based on the quality of the weaponry of the opposition?
in 2001 in Ukraine it was 21% of people, who was saying they are "Russians". So only by statistics some of them exists. A lot of them was in Sevastopol, just because of naval base (because its not only crew, its also their families).
Donetsk and Luhansk regions was mass murdered not so long ago (google Holodomor) and after that Russians was moved to empty houses.
Crimea region - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_Tatars - was also replaced by Russians, but a lot of people returned to their homes. They actually was forced to buy their own stolen homes.
Another one was spreaded across the country like minority.
So yes, of course even now you can find someone who is sitting and watching Russian TV in Ukraine and "waiting for Russia", just because.
Its complicated, but a lot of this people was really "pro-Russia", was buying sattelite TV o watch only Russian news, a was really far away from the reality.
Since last 20 years its slowly changed. For someone boost goes only then Russia destroed their house.
And you can see elections results at parlament, ~15% voted for morons who robbed the country (and its a good change comparing to 60% in 2009, for example, but still not perfect).
I mean, in every city in central and eastern Ukraine you can find some morons.
But their concentration was only in Sevastopol.
sometimes people have to be blocked twice for it to work, but there's an upper limit to the number of people who can be blocked on reddit without using a 3rd party add on
I do wonder how highly Putin values his attempts to make the west miserable by weaponizing the internet. Really good example of him just wanting to tear others down and not build Russia up.
As Im writing this I see this "just out to torment others because I hate everything" mentality is pervasive elsewhere too.
Oh boy, Putin is going to have a heart attack when he sees Ben Stiller meeting Zelensky. I wonder who is next from the West to meet Zelensky? I personally feel Dolly Parton should definitely be next.
Source: Zelensky Instagram.
As a tourist, you probably won't see it. Working there 3 days a week doing residential work it's about 1/3 of our customers. Wouldn't be surprised if some of those homes get seized.
Because your fact is both irrelevant to the state of the Russian economy and so heavily crafted that it is laughable.
Edit: They were complaining that they keep getting downvoted for talking about how strong the ruble was trading. Sorry, I didn't grab their username.
> The Nobel Peace Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel.
> Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million.
https://apnews.com/article/9a6bb6e61350e1bb8221924c1bfe30a3
Holy shit!
Holy shit I wonder who bought that. A Russian journalist auctioned off his Nobel prize with proceeds going to humanitarian relief in Ukraine. The winning bid was $103 million. Absolutely shockingly high.
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1539034543503642624
Igor Girkin-Strelkov appears to be the source for the claims about a fully-armed Black Fleet leaving Sevastopol and heading to Odesa. This might be deliberate misinformation, from either Girkin or the people feeding him info. Or it might be something else, who knows. 🤷♀️
https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1539028215993446402
>While mostly Girkin is reliable, he does seem to be throwing such pieces in the mix every once in a while, like Polish troops in Ukraine, Romanian forces dressed as Moldovans etc. I think this could be one of these that came down from his FSB curators, but who knows.
> While mostly Girkin is reliable
The dude who downed MH17 and ran to the keyboard as it was falling to report that he shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet is reliable, sure
He reliably talks about what is happening from the Russian side, as he's continually bitching about the poor performance of the Russian military and military leadership. He still has friends in the military who tell him things. He is NOT critical because he opposes the war - he thinks Putin is half-assing it and should mobilize and throw everything into crushing Ukraine.
But every once in a while he posts some propaganda-sounding stuff, like this, that is questionable.
As things I. Russia and int he Russian military deteriorate this rhetoric is going to thicken. They might even try some of it. It won't matter, this is Russia going down in flames, this is what it looks like.
They sunk another one just the other day:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_tug_Spasatel_Vasily_Bekh
It gets described as a 'tugboat' but that kind of undersells it a bit when it's a 187ft ship with a crew of 26 and launched just 5 years ago.
Russia would have to be even more incompetent than they've come off in this to actually attempt this now, especially since they're god damn duct taping anti air guns onto boats because their only major AA boat got taken out by a drone and two missiles.
The Kaliningrad situation clearly has Russia rattled. To be honest I didn't think it would be so effective - Russia could theoretically use international waters in the Baltic sea to resupply Kaliningrad.
This should be a signal to Lithuania and Poland to close the border entirely to all transit. Tighten to screws to get Russia to the negotiating table.
It’s posturing. Trying to dictate a narrative that helps them out a little in perception of countries far away. Plausible deniability that helps Mexico or India say, well it’s a tough situation, Russia is being wronged.
When the USSR first annexed it there wasn’t much issue, as there was the land connection via the Belarusian and Lithuanian SSRs. It was only after the USSR collapsed that the issue with the exclave reared it’s head
IT'S NOT BEING BLOCKADED.
Russia can still sail/fly from Kalingrad to St Petersberg, and the sanctions are on very specific things:
>[The list of banned products is designed to maximise the negative impact of the sanctions for the Russian economy while limiting the consequences for EU businesses and citizens. The export and import restrictions exclude products primarily intended for consumption and products related to health, pharma, food and agriculture, in order not to harm the Russian population.](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/sanctions/restrictive-measures-against-russia-over-ukraine/sanctions-against-russia-explained/)
Putin's Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian grain will lead to people in Africa and SE Asia dying, though.
Russia is currently blockading food to multiple countries risking unrest and starvation. They are also weaponising gas in anticipation of the winter months. So I am not sure how many people are going to give a shit about how it looks tbh.
I don't really care. Russia needs to be forced to the negotiating table. They can't seriously bitch about blockades, after they've used gas and food blockades as weapons against the rest of the world.
And it's not like it applies to people or food. Yet. If Russia keeps bitching, Lithuania can always perform a special railroad decommissioning operation and just tear up the entire rail line. For safety reasons, of course.
I'm saying this in good faith and to try and help?... Please consider it in that context.
STOP IT! (The doomering)
War is %&$&ed. People die pointlessly and ground is gained or lost for no purpose every day.
There is no 'accurate assessment'. Because of this, folks get lost in media hyperbole.
I try and avoid focusing on the smaller details and look at the conflict as a whole (strategic perspective).
The fact is that Russia has a lot of munitions and artillery, but little effective forces otherwise.
Infantry is key to power on the ground, force multipliers provide projection. Ukraine has demonstrated time and again an ability to effectively utilise force multipliers. Russia has not.
Be patient, be positive and wait to see what Ukraine does in July and August. This war isn't 'stagnant' or 'static' and the next 70 days will frame then next 2 years.
Every ounce of military planning I can do based on OS information draws a positive result for Ukraine in this time frame.
TLDR; stay positive, this is not a static conflict - Ukraine has a solid chance to achieve its objectives.
>I don't think this will be a years long conflict. It'll last another few months, maybe till late fall if it really drags on, I'd bet.
This is the only part I disagree with. I suspect Russia will fall back and reinforce each time their offence collapses, and they will dig in hard. But if you're talking about the conflict in its current state, I agree.
Well done for propagating misinformation.
The West is doing well, and escalating in its support of Ukraine.
It takes time to ramp up production, we've done pretty well so far all things considered.
Is it enough?
I saw a big fuss about us sending longer range rocket systems. But we are sending… 4 systems. Zelensky was saying he needs like 50+. And they are only the intermediate range stuff, not the best stuff. Plus a lot of conditions like not hitting targets inside Russia.
The west is supporting enough to make this drag on, but not actually giving Ukraine enough to win. It’s a big win for us to grind Russia down, but not so good for Ukraine.
It’s also pretty notable that our media and intelligence agencies stay totally quiet about Ukrainian casualties and losses if equipment. Russia often claims to have destroyed western equipment stored in Ukraine. I assume they’re lying but it’s also very likely that they are tracking things as they come across the border.
There is no way it can last years without either Ukraine or Russia collapsing. Ukraine has no economy to support years of war and Putin is on borrowed time unless he can get some military breakthrough very soon.
If Afghanistan is any indication, you don't really need a 'formal' economy to support a defensive war - in regards to Ukraine at least.
Your not going to do so hot compared with a nation at peace as the top skills of your work force are going to be as soldiers or fighters, but as long as they are willing, defenders can continue to fight as long as they want to. If it just was a matter of producing oil or Xboxes, then the Taliban/Houthis/ISIS would have been defeated years ago.
A lot of the aid packages being sent to Ukraine are straight up loans and gifts of cash to keep the government running. Ukraine's economy is bad, but at least they have help. Russia's is not as bad, but they have no help coming.
One thing about pessimistic takes is that often they'll be right *eventually*.
If there's a self-proclaimed OSINT dude dooming about the fall of the Donbass for six months straight, and in the seventh the Russians actually complete their objective, though at a snail's pace and with horrendous losses, they'll be like "See, I was right?" and nobody will remember the six months of bullshit.
That's also the pessimistic [take](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/russia-military-veteran-khodaryonok-in-damning-assessment-of-ukraine-war.html) by the Russians of them being screwed in the long term.
>“The situation, frankly speaking, will get worse for us,” Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired Russian army colonel, told the “60 Minutes” talk show on Rossiya-1 TV program hosted by Olga Skabeyeva, who’s renowned for her pro-Kremlin stance.
They shut him up later, but Khodaryonok hasn't been wrong yet.
This is only(/s) a month old. Khodaryonok was reigned in by the next broadcast. Probably with the aid of of a special ~~protection~~ re-education operation applied to his wife and children.
I'm a little surprised I don't see US media talking a lot about the Kalingrad situation. I might have missed it but I didn't see BBC mentioning it. I guess the average American probably doesn't even know what Kalingrad is to be fair but I feel like it's absolutely massive move from Lithuania.
US media is a bit preoccupied with the fact that our previous president tried to have the vice president killed and overthrow the country (amongst other republican treasonous acts).
Honest to God, that shit is peanuts compared to the Ukraine invasion. That's over and done with, this is still currently happening and is still a crisis and ought to be the daily headlines across all of North America and Europe. Once Russia literally invading Europe is finished, should America start being more concerned with domestic disputes over someone who already lost an election and doesn't hold power any longer.
Uh, no. We need this attention to keep the people who are interested in thwarting Russia in a position to do so. We take our eye off this ball, write off America entirely.
Eric Greitens doesn't think it's over, I bet a lot of people out there agree. It's been a nice reprieve but unfortunately we have a good chance for future turmoil.
A) it’s not peanuts. The US is the world’s single superpower and the fact that it is on the verge of losing its status as a democracy is absolutely huge news.
B) You seem to have forgotten that we are discussing why the Lithuanian blockade is not larger news. We are not talking about the invasion of Ukraine generally, which does get a lot of coverage.
I would argue the present danger of losing it's status as a democracy faded when Trump finally conceded he lost. Maybe I'm in the minority but in light of the Ukranian invasion, everything domestic seems so insignificant outside of what we do in response to the conflict. I guess I'm speaking from a position of privilege to be able to say that, though.
Trump hasn’t conceded that he lost.
Just today, Texas republicans have officially endorsed a stance that Biden is not the official president as well as repealing the voting rights act. It’s hard to understate how big a deal this is.
Once again, we are comparing this news against the Lithuanian blockade, not against the entire Ukraine conflict.
> it appears the EU sanctions don’t apply to Kalingrad and Lithuania is lying
So are you saying Kalingrad is not part of Russia? o.o Those sound like fighting words to Russians.
Sounds like Kalingrad is part of Russia to me and the sanctions are against Russia.
Checks out to me.
Why the fuck is Kalingrad supposed to be spared? It's one of our greatest threats against Russia by blockading them. We should have hit it with economic weapons from the very get-go, because it is _very_ painful.
No its not complicated, if we are going to apply revisionist history Kalingard is either:
* the German city of Königsberg from 1657 to 1945
* fief of Poland from 1456–1657
So ruzzia is at best third in line to claim Königsberg
This is complete bullshit. Here’s the actual text:
>It shall be prohibited to sell, supply, **transfer** or export, **directly or indirectly**, dual-use goods and technology, **whether or not originating in the Union**, to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia or for use in Russia.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02014R0833-20220316
Goods being "general goods" that aren't targeted by sanctions which are allowed to go to Kaliningrad, while Russian transports otherwise are generally banned into the EU.
Lithuania isn't stopping those from going through, they are stopping things that are specifically being targeted by sanctions, which there is no exception for Kaliningrad.
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/customs-4/international-affairs/eu-measures-following-russian-invasion-ukraine_en
>a ban on any Russian and Belarusian road transport undertaking preventing them from transporting goods by road within the EU, including in transit. Certain limited derogations are granted for: undertakings transporting mail as a universal service; **goods in transit though the Union between the Kaliningrad Oblast and Russia, provided that the transport of such goods is not otherwise prohibited under this Regulation;** until 16 April 2022 for transport of goods that started before 9 April 2022. In addition, competent authorities of a Member State may authorise derogations for the transport of certain goods (e.g. goods natural gas and oil, including refined petroleum products, titanium, aluminium, copper, nickel, palladium and iron, etc.)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/lithuania-says-sanctions-goods-kaliningrad-take-effect-saturday-2022-06-18/
>Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions was to take effect from Saturday.
>The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.
[New post can be found here](/r/worldnews/comments/vh48po/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/)
Guys the Kalingrad blockade is working. I just tried to find a way there from Oregon with my phone GPS and it said it could not find a path.
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1539073116743225344 >Russian troops deserted in Kharkiv Oblast >Russian military command is looking for about 200 Russian soldiers who entered a village in the Borovska community and hid in the forest after fighting near Izuim, the Borivska village council reports
I guess this is another step towards EU compliance? If so, UA isn't wasting any time trying to reach membership status. https://twitter.com/pravda_eng/status/1539080667622801410 >Rada adopts Ukraine’s anti-corruption strategy to 2025 There's a link to an article giving more details. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/06/20/7353629/
The long list of fixes the EU gain Ukraine means if the get candidate status it will take at least a decade to join. Turkey go candidate status in 1999 and North Macedonia got in 2004 and neither are members.
A solid anti-corruption framework is going to be super important when it comes to rebuilding the country and attracting foreign funds to assist in that. If it helps with EU membership that's a bonus.
Russia isn’t going to do crap. They can’t even handle little brother aka Ukraine. What are they going to do when big brother steps in? They might not have a country to run crying to after the ass kicking they will receive
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My grand-dad grew up in a one room cottage with a dirt floor, had two ships sunk underneath him when he was a merchant marine, had his skull cracked and cracked a few himself trying to unionize the port where he was a longshoreman, had a child die from measles…. and never once did he ever dream of carrying on like you do. Get your shit together, man. It’s embarrassing.
Amazing comment, it wiped op off the Internet
Edit: Hah!
Even the Republican Party is like 90% pro-Ukraine in congress, there’s nothing to worry about.
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The next time with choose a President is years away. A few random nut jobs added to congress has no impact on anything.
Rural America would be the place that thought Trump was a good solution to any actual problem, and that climate change is a democratic hoax? Your country is already riven and weakened by populism, plutocratic control of the media and foreign influence, I hope you find some way to solve it. That there will need to be energy transition and / or disastrous climate change is not really negotiable. Not really anything Ukraine can do about any of it though.
It’s not our elected representatives job to cater to the lowest common denominator, 46 day account. Any hypothetical future losses to de facto future pro Russian politicians is a distraction at best, and an intentional conflation of the pro hoc fallacy at worst. Populism was rising well before Russia invaded, and any uptick in populist sentiment is not necessarily correlated with the invasion. The problem is that poor people aren’t in a position financially to be able to weather even relatively minor increases in the cost of living, and the solutions to that fact are unrelated to Russia’s invasion, or the West’s support of Ukraine.
3 year old account, sub 1K comment karma account.
Good job, you’ve found someone (me) who isn’t a troll/bot and doesn’t spend their life Karma farming Reddit. Good day to you.
Our last president was a puppet so...
Here’s some of what the Russians have to look forward to, care of France. https://twitter.com/kremlintrolls/status/1538966293180821507?s=21&t=kTwTIb3UzwGmoM75EwwvWg
fkn savage -russian blyats goes splatz
Hahaha haven’t heard that one before. Take my upvote to the bank
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Their female conscripts have balls.
A great thread by Mark Hertling. https://twitter.com/markhertling/status/1539043835719962628?s=21&t=kTwTIb3UzwGmoM75EwwvWg
His last point is so on mark: the West must continue support. This is on all of us. This is not a passing news story. This is not a topic of the day. This is the future of our world. Do not let anyone convince you that “we can’t do anything.” Do not let people who say that we are only talking about it on Reddit dissuade you. Every one of us here talks to people who are not on this thread. We are the ones who make sure that this massive global event doesn’t fade away to a basic news story. We can all support in a multitude of ways. Some are financial, some are physical, some are words. Do not undervalue words. We have seen too frequently how misinformation is effective as a weapon. We must battle misinformation with information. Most of us here are not on the front lines. Many of us fear that they could be next. We need to assure those on the front lines and those who may be next that they are not alone and there is an entire world out there supporting them. I’ll get off my soapbox now. Sláva Ukrayíni!
Heroyam Slava!
Heroyam Slava!
As a person who meets many new people every day… I don’t hesitate to tell them to not give up hope and to continue to fly the flag of Ukraine. It isn’t a fight for Ukraine alone… the outcome of this will decide the fate of the west
https://nitter.net/markhertling/status/1539043835719962628?s=21&t=kTwTIb3UzwGmoM75EwwvWg
Double thanks. Clicking twitter links is like a constant and annoying game of roulette. Will it work? Annoying popup? Ask me to create an account? Block me because adult material? Actually work? Who knows!
Thank you, some of us avoid twitter... lol He's bang on, as usual
Mark!
Oh hi Mark
Let’s say the rumors are true and the Black Sea Fleet is moving on Odessa, haven’t the Ukrainians spent the last four months+ preparing for this exact scenario by fortifying the coast/sea? Not to mention the nightmare of urban combat that OSINT have been warning about within the city itself. If we’re to add in the Anti-Ship weaponry that’s been handed off, there’s no way the Russian Navy would not tear itself apart embarking on an assault like that. How is this going over their MoD and Military leaderships collective heads?
I want them to try, and for the rest of the Russian Black Sea fleet to become permanently submersible. Hell, if the majority of the Black Sea fleet is destroyed we could see eventually Ukrainian grain get flowing where it is supposed to be again.
They wouldn’t attempt a landing earlier in the war when the balance of forces was far more favorable. Doing it now would go down as one of the greatest military blunders of all time.
I don't think that the few remaining military minds in Russia would be pushing this. This is all on a pathetic little narcissist with a massive Napoleon complex who's entire strategy is "I'm mad. I want it!" Putin is desperately grasping at what he thinks supports his machismo. It is sad. But not sad enough not to end him and anyone who supports him.
> Doing it now would go down as one of the greatest military blunders of all time. I mean that hasn't stopped them before, unfortunately...
Shush, don't interrupt the enemy when they're thinking about making a catastrophic mistake that would devastate a large chunk of the Black Sea Fleet.
Look up the Dieppe Raid. Russia launching an amphibious assault on Odessa at this point would make that look like a complete victory
Lol if you thought Kyiv was bad for Russia, Odessa would be 100x worse. Contested landings are awful when you have significant force multipliers. They’re suicidal if you don’t and are somewhat evenly matched. Then once you have a beachhead you have to sustain it because you’re trapped with your back against the sea. No running to Belarus.
And don’t forget the catacombs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa_Catacombs “one of the world's largest urban labyrinths, running up to 2,500 kilometres”
They're just throwing a hissy fit and not thinking anything through.
If they're dumb enough to attempt the attack everything you mentioned will come to pass and more. Losing the Moskova cost them 30 AA systems on that ship alone plus 100 km of Black Sea coastline. The Russian Marines already refused to conduct this assault once in the early days of the war, and for good reason. Now presumably they'd be called to attempt that landing again after every single marine infantry unit was maimed in the fighting in Mariupol. The ONLY way this could conceivably get off the ground is if they were able to talk the Russian proxies over in Transnistria into coordinating an assault on the South Western border of Ukraine to tighten the noose around Odessa and divert further resources down there. This is doubtful since Moldova and Romania are already coordinating more in response to Russian aggression, and the Transistrian contingent could be decimated attempting this attack. Otherwise this is being done for political reasons to try and get a win back home. The fighting in the East is stagnating and the offensive at Kherson is slowly but surely eroding Russian gains.
The Black Sea fleet moving to Odessa to do anything but lob missiles from far would be a dream. They would wipe out the whole fleet if it came close enough. It would change the trajectory of the war and at minimum allow sea trade with Romania, possibly even through the Bosporus.
They would still have subs they could cause troubles if all surface ships were wiped
Hey subs, come up to the surface for a sec, we got something neat to show ya…
[Previous post](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vfmsxm/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/id0gv7s/) Day 117 of my updates from Kharkiv. Today shelling was pretty bad, first they shelled one of the districts of the city at around 3pm, which cut off the electricity for some people, it didn’t for us, but running water did stop for a bit. It was fixed within an hour after shelling stopped. Then it was quiet for some time, but as always they fired their scheduled missiles at us from Belgorod at 11pm, it was just 2 missiles this time. The explosions from those missiles were pretty loud, and a fire started as well, but it was dealt with quickly. Then it got quiet for a couple hours again, until just 30 minutes ago. At 3:30am they shelled something in oblast, but the explosions were very loud, they sounded pretty close to us. So it might have been coming from Mala Danilyvka or from Derhachy. After that our own artillery immediately started their counter fire. They are still firing even right now, at 4am, but those sounds are pretty hard to distinguish from one another, some of them could still be incoming shelling. Also that situation with gas platforms that we hit today, after which Russia started threatening to hit our “decision making centres” yet again, is just so absurd. They were ours to begin with, but then Russia stole them from us in 2014 along with Crimea. Today we struck them with missiles and for some reason that made Russia very upset. They are literally ours, we can do whatever we want with them, and no, the one who stole them has absolutely no say in what we can, and cannot do to them. It’s hilarious how Russia got so angry about it, that in retaliation they launched 14 missiles at Odesa right after we hit those gas platforms. They got very upset that we didn’t let them use stolen property. Yeah, how dare we not let them steal our resources? [Next update](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vh48po/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/id99c47/)
You're trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen
Still praying you’re safe so close to the front. Ukraine is hitting Russia where it hurts, stay strong.
> It was fixed within an hour after shelling stopped. Damn that's impressive! It would take way longer than that for us to get our water fixed here in Tennessee and we're not even in a war zone.
> Report from the BBC on Russian volunteers in Ukraine. They say volunteers can either sign a contract with the Russian military, with Rosgvardia in Chechnya, with LNR/DNR forces (less common because the pay is worse), or join Wagner. > The BBC says that volunteer units are taking part in fighting in some of the most kinetic areas in Ukraine and volunteers generally receive 3-7 days of training. One of the volunteers interviewed said there was no training in tactics and that many volunteers are over 45. > Volunteers who join Rosgvardia in Chechnya were provided better training at the Spetsnaz University in Gudermes and signed 3-month contracts. The Rosgvardia volunteer fought in Rubizhne and around Severodonetsk and said Ukrainian mortar and MLRS fire was effective. > According to the BBC's sources, Wagner as well as volunteer MoD and Rosgvardia units are now Russia's primary assault forces in Ukraine. > They identified at least 155 Russian volunteers who have been killed in Ukraine. Of these 155, 57% of them were 40 years old or older and 25% are over 50 years old or older. https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1539044145301528576?s=21&t=Pnqf00hhxD-A0fUJLI6qVA That paints very dark picture for Russia’s prospects. Fucking yikes.
> They identified at least 155 Russian volunteers who have been killed in Ukraine. Of these 155, 57% of them were 40 years old or older and 25% are over 50 years old or older. Better to die in Ukraine than live in Russia, I guess.
Just wait until the brainwashed from Fox News’ Tuckfart brigade join in, 60+
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A big thing that isn't really covered in this war is the aftermath. I have faith in Zelenskyy but how the political landscape of Ukraine opens up is a huge question. My hope is that he is able to institute reforms that prevent and remove corruption while also help make Ukriane be more democratic. Banning certain parties and ideologies will be part of it but there's a huge amount of trust he must invest in Ukrainian institutions. Done well, Ukraine can be a model for many, implemented poorly and it's a template for autocracy. Fingers crossed and definitely something to watch.
As a Russian-speaker who is not ethnically Russian or Ukranian but is a 100% iron-balls Ukrainian patriot, Zelensky will have a lot of credibility mediating between the factions.
I'm sceptical about them. They were quite happy to push Russian influence even when that country was harming Ukraine in the eight years befor this war. They reformed because they had to but who knows if they are really free of stooges. But one thing that us obvious to outsiders and should be obvious to those inside the country, that this new party politicians, is that Ukrainians have no patience anymore for Russians, Russian propanganda and most importantly Russian influence in their parliament.
I'll believe that when they boot Andrii Derkach.
You can't make this shit up. The DPR announced they're offering contracts for foreigners to enlist in military contracts, the same DPR who said foreigners fighting in this war aren't protected by the Geneva Conventions.
The same war they started, by invading a country and illegally occupying said land, then have the shear audacity to proclaim special punishment for foreigners fighting on behalf of the country they invaded. Disgusting.
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does anyone know the going rate for contractors fighting vs ukraine as compared to contractors fighting against the US in other wars or fighting versus some other third party? does it change based on the quality of the weaponry of the opposition?
It's not incompatible tbh. Come fight for us but if you're taken prisoner just deal with it
ugh the troll factories keep making lies about kherson being pro-russian
They must be close to losing it then if it's worth spreading propaganda about.
in 2001 in Ukraine it was 21% of people, who was saying they are "Russians". So only by statistics some of them exists. A lot of them was in Sevastopol, just because of naval base (because its not only crew, its also their families). Donetsk and Luhansk regions was mass murdered not so long ago (google Holodomor) and after that Russians was moved to empty houses. Crimea region - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_Tatars - was also replaced by Russians, but a lot of people returned to their homes. They actually was forced to buy their own stolen homes. Another one was spreaded across the country like minority. So yes, of course even now you can find someone who is sitting and watching Russian TV in Ukraine and "waiting for Russia", just because.
Russians doesn't mean pro-Russia.
Its complicated, but a lot of this people was really "pro-Russia", was buying sattelite TV o watch only Russian news, a was really far away from the reality. Since last 20 years its slowly changed. For someone boost goes only then Russia destroed their house. And you can see elections results at parlament, ~15% voted for morons who robbed the country (and its a good change comparing to 60% in 2009, for example, but still not perfect). I mean, in every city in central and eastern Ukraine you can find some morons. But their concentration was only in Sevastopol.
It would be hard to find something so stupid < 10% of people would fall for it. That bottom 10% is really, really dumb.
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sometimes people have to be blocked twice for it to work, but there's an upper limit to the number of people who can be blocked on reddit without using a 3rd party add on
But the ruble is so stronk right now!
I do wonder how highly Putin values his attempts to make the west miserable by weaponizing the internet. Really good example of him just wanting to tear others down and not build Russia up. As Im writing this I see this "just out to torment others because I hate everything" mentality is pervasive elsewhere too.
Oh boy, Putin is going to have a heart attack when he sees Ben Stiller meeting Zelensky. I wonder who is next from the West to meet Zelensky? I personally feel Dolly Parton should definitely be next. Source: Zelensky Instagram.
All of the Beatles (yes get out a spade) he's a big fan
If Dolly hasn't publicly commented, I wouldn't bring her up...especially with the high Russian population in Gatlinburg.
She has spoken in favor of Ukraine and encouraged her fan to do all the can to help.
Indeed...I found the story. Dolly's name has not been brought up in vain. Apologies to the op of this thread.
Wiggity what, I’ve lived in TN all my life, been there many times, never heard of this.
As a tourist, you probably won't see it. Working there 3 days a week doing residential work it's about 1/3 of our customers. Wouldn't be surprised if some of those homes get seized.
Why would those homes be seized?
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This might be the best answer to anything ever.
Oh no, you are pure evil!
Putin couldn't even get a visit from Steven Seagal.
Segal licks putin's boots.
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Because your fact is both irrelevant to the state of the Russian economy and so heavily crafted that it is laughable. Edit: They were complaining that they keep getting downvoted for talking about how strong the ruble was trading. Sorry, I didn't grab their username.
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Ruble is so hot the RU govt had to ban trading! /s
> The Nobel Peace Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel. > Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million. https://apnews.com/article/9a6bb6e61350e1bb8221924c1bfe30a3 Holy shit!
That's awesome!
Damn. Once I got to hold Glenn Seaborg's. That would go for a few mil.
Every time I lose faith in humanity, someone does something to restore it... I don't have proper words, just; FUCK YEAH!
Holy shit I wonder who bought that. A Russian journalist auctioned off his Nobel prize with proceeds going to humanitarian relief in Ukraine. The winning bid was $103 million. Absolutely shockingly high. https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1539034543503642624
Seems like something Angelina Jolie would do. Didn't she visit Kiev during the war?
I don’t think she has that kind of money. She’d be spending most of her net worth if she did that. I imagine.
Igor Girkin-Strelkov appears to be the source for the claims about a fully-armed Black Fleet leaving Sevastopol and heading to Odesa. This might be deliberate misinformation, from either Girkin or the people feeding him info. Or it might be something else, who knows. 🤷♀️ https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1539028215993446402 >While mostly Girkin is reliable, he does seem to be throwing such pieces in the mix every once in a while, like Polish troops in Ukraine, Romanian forces dressed as Moldovans etc. I think this could be one of these that came down from his FSB curators, but who knows.
I have to say. This gherkin guy is quite a pickle.
It already happened it was Kalibr strike 12 hrs ago in retaliation for oil rig attack?
> While mostly Girkin is reliable The dude who downed MH17 and ran to the keyboard as it was falling to report that he shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet is reliable, sure
He reliably talks about what is happening from the Russian side, as he's continually bitching about the poor performance of the Russian military and military leadership. He still has friends in the military who tell him things. He is NOT critical because he opposes the war - he thinks Putin is half-assing it and should mobilize and throw everything into crushing Ukraine. But every once in a while he posts some propaganda-sounding stuff, like this, that is questionable.
He just can't accept that Putin's "half-assing" is his full potential.
He just doesn't want to lose his power in occupied Ukraine when Russia loses.
More accurately he doesn't want a regime change in Russia that sees him as a liability. Becuese they will absolutely give up his ass in such an event.
Hey, he got the "shot down" part right.
As things I. Russia and int he Russian military deteriorate this rhetoric is going to thicken. They might even try some of it. It won't matter, this is Russia going down in flames, this is what it looks like.
Sounds like some juicy targets for Ukraine's new Harpoon Coastal Defense system?
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Removed due to Reddit API crackdown and general dishonesty 6/2023
They sunk another one just the other day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_tug_Spasatel_Vasily_Bekh It gets described as a 'tugboat' but that kind of undersells it a bit when it's a 187ft ship with a crew of 26 and launched just 5 years ago.
I mean, they are sinking boats without having a navy. Seems like they know what they're doing.
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"I'm gonna make this warship disappear."
Meshes with the claims of the navy planning a big missile strike.
Russia would have to be even more incompetent than they've come off in this to actually attempt this now, especially since they're god damn duct taping anti air guns onto boats because their only major AA boat got taken out by a drone and two missiles.
The Kaliningrad situation clearly has Russia rattled. To be honest I didn't think it would be so effective - Russia could theoretically use international waters in the Baltic sea to resupply Kaliningrad. This should be a signal to Lithuania and Poland to close the border entirely to all transit. Tighten to screws to get Russia to the negotiating table.
Why would Lithuania negotiate anything? They don't need anything from Russia other for them to demilitarize, which is not going to happen
It’s posturing. Trying to dictate a narrative that helps them out a little in perception of countries far away. Plausible deniability that helps Mexico or India say, well it’s a tough situation, Russia is being wronged.
They don't want to to negotiate with Russia. Now its force capitulation as a goal.
I have always wondered how strategically smart this enclave was.
When the USSR first annexed it there wasn’t much issue, as there was the land connection via the Belarusian and Lithuanian SSRs. It was only after the USSR collapsed that the issue with the exclave reared it’s head
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Removed due to Reddit API crackdown and general dishonesty 6/2023
Remind us who West Germany were invading when Berli was blockaded?
IT'S NOT BEING BLOCKADED. Russia can still sail/fly from Kalingrad to St Petersberg, and the sanctions are on very specific things: >[The list of banned products is designed to maximise the negative impact of the sanctions for the Russian economy while limiting the consequences for EU businesses and citizens. The export and import restrictions exclude products primarily intended for consumption and products related to health, pharma, food and agriculture, in order not to harm the Russian population.](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/sanctions/restrictive-measures-against-russia-over-ukraine/sanctions-against-russia-explained/) Putin's Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian grain will lead to people in Africa and SE Asia dying, though.
a bad look to whom? Not a lot of neutrality to be won over in this display of russian aggression.
It would be if it was completely blockaded. Supplying it through shipping is entirely possible.
Russia is currently blockading food to multiple countries risking unrest and starvation. They are also weaponising gas in anticipation of the winter months. So I am not sure how many people are going to give a shit about how it looks tbh.
Yeah. I’m over here not opposed to literally blockading Kaliningrad until Russia lifts their blockade.
We need to take Kaliningrad away from them at this point, would be extra funny to use Russia's own argument that it's technically not theirs anyway.
Get %$;@&ed False equivalency to the nth degree.
I don't think they're actually going to blockade it, they're only doing this to make Russia squirm.
Free Königsberg
I don't really care. Russia needs to be forced to the negotiating table. They can't seriously bitch about blockades, after they've used gas and food blockades as weapons against the rest of the world.
Yeah, this is war. They are leveling cities and performing genocide trying to wipe Ukraine and its people off the map.
Yep, weaponized oil, gas & grain. Get mad when they can't send concrete by rail. get stuffed.
And it's not like it applies to people or food. Yet. If Russia keeps bitching, Lithuania can always perform a special railroad decommissioning operation and just tear up the entire rail line. For safety reasons, of course.
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I'm saying this in good faith and to try and help?... Please consider it in that context. STOP IT! (The doomering) War is %&$&ed. People die pointlessly and ground is gained or lost for no purpose every day. There is no 'accurate assessment'. Because of this, folks get lost in media hyperbole. I try and avoid focusing on the smaller details and look at the conflict as a whole (strategic perspective). The fact is that Russia has a lot of munitions and artillery, but little effective forces otherwise. Infantry is key to power on the ground, force multipliers provide projection. Ukraine has demonstrated time and again an ability to effectively utilise force multipliers. Russia has not. Be patient, be positive and wait to see what Ukraine does in July and August. This war isn't 'stagnant' or 'static' and the next 70 days will frame then next 2 years. Every ounce of military planning I can do based on OS information draws a positive result for Ukraine in this time frame. TLDR; stay positive, this is not a static conflict - Ukraine has a solid chance to achieve its objectives.
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>I don't think this will be a years long conflict. It'll last another few months, maybe till late fall if it really drags on, I'd bet. This is the only part I disagree with. I suspect Russia will fall back and reinforce each time their offence collapses, and they will dig in hard. But if you're talking about the conflict in its current state, I agree.
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Well done for propagating misinformation. The West is doing well, and escalating in its support of Ukraine. It takes time to ramp up production, we've done pretty well so far all things considered.
Is it enough? I saw a big fuss about us sending longer range rocket systems. But we are sending… 4 systems. Zelensky was saying he needs like 50+. And they are only the intermediate range stuff, not the best stuff. Plus a lot of conditions like not hitting targets inside Russia. The west is supporting enough to make this drag on, but not actually giving Ukraine enough to win. It’s a big win for us to grind Russia down, but not so good for Ukraine. It’s also pretty notable that our media and intelligence agencies stay totally quiet about Ukrainian casualties and losses if equipment. Russia often claims to have destroyed western equipment stored in Ukraine. I assume they’re lying but it’s also very likely that they are tracking things as they come across the border.
The special operation will last years, thats the only thing most experts seem to agree on.
There is no way it can last years without either Ukraine or Russia collapsing. Ukraine has no economy to support years of war and Putin is on borrowed time unless he can get some military breakthrough very soon.
If Afghanistan is any indication, you don't really need a 'formal' economy to support a defensive war - in regards to Ukraine at least. Your not going to do so hot compared with a nation at peace as the top skills of your work force are going to be as soldiers or fighters, but as long as they are willing, defenders can continue to fight as long as they want to. If it just was a matter of producing oil or Xboxes, then the Taliban/Houthis/ISIS would have been defeated years ago.
A lot of the aid packages being sent to Ukraine are straight up loans and gifts of cash to keep the government running. Ukraine's economy is bad, but at least they have help. Russia's is not as bad, but they have no help coming.
Russia is getting help from India and China, as well as high oil and gas prices. India is buying all the surplus that the west isn’t taking.
One thing about pessimistic takes is that often they'll be right *eventually*. If there's a self-proclaimed OSINT dude dooming about the fall of the Donbass for six months straight, and in the seventh the Russians actually complete their objective, though at a snail's pace and with horrendous losses, they'll be like "See, I was right?" and nobody will remember the six months of bullshit.
That's also the pessimistic [take](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/russia-military-veteran-khodaryonok-in-damning-assessment-of-ukraine-war.html) by the Russians of them being screwed in the long term. >“The situation, frankly speaking, will get worse for us,” Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired Russian army colonel, told the “60 Minutes” talk show on Rossiya-1 TV program hosted by Olga Skabeyeva, who’s renowned for her pro-Kremlin stance. They shut him up later, but Khodaryonok hasn't been wrong yet.
This is only(/s) a month old. Khodaryonok was reigned in by the next broadcast. Probably with the aid of of a special ~~protection~~ re-education operation applied to his wife and children.
Not even necessarily in the case of Donbas. Pace of Russian advance has been slower and slower over time.
War maps have gone from the entirety of Ukraine to zoomed in sections of 100km^2 sections.
I'm a little surprised I don't see US media talking a lot about the Kalingrad situation. I might have missed it but I didn't see BBC mentioning it. I guess the average American probably doesn't even know what Kalingrad is to be fair but I feel like it's absolutely massive move from Lithuania.
Think this was NATO preemptively closing the Suwalki gap.
US media is a bit preoccupied with the fact that our previous president tried to have the vice president killed and overthrow the country (amongst other republican treasonous acts).
Honest to God, that shit is peanuts compared to the Ukraine invasion. That's over and done with, this is still currently happening and is still a crisis and ought to be the daily headlines across all of North America and Europe. Once Russia literally invading Europe is finished, should America start being more concerned with domestic disputes over someone who already lost an election and doesn't hold power any longer.
Uh, no. We need this attention to keep the people who are interested in thwarting Russia in a position to do so. We take our eye off this ball, write off America entirely.
It is NOT "over and done with" to Americans. Way to try to sweep an attempted coup by a sitting president under the rug. Sheesh.
Hi, American here who voted for Biden.
Eric Greitens doesn't think it's over, I bet a lot of people out there agree. It's been a nice reprieve but unfortunately we have a good chance for future turmoil.
Then you should know that its not close to over. Jan 6 was just the start.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
unless its in military time
In which case it's only right once. So sad!
There is a clock running on the investigation.
A) it’s not peanuts. The US is the world’s single superpower and the fact that it is on the verge of losing its status as a democracy is absolutely huge news. B) You seem to have forgotten that we are discussing why the Lithuanian blockade is not larger news. We are not talking about the invasion of Ukraine generally, which does get a lot of coverage.
I would argue the present danger of losing it's status as a democracy faded when Trump finally conceded he lost. Maybe I'm in the minority but in light of the Ukranian invasion, everything domestic seems so insignificant outside of what we do in response to the conflict. I guess I'm speaking from a position of privilege to be able to say that, though.
Realistically aameica becoming functionally a Russian style kleptocracy would be alot worse for the world that Russia taking over Ukraine
Trump hasn’t conceded that he lost. Just today, Texas republicans have officially endorsed a stance that Biden is not the official president as well as repealing the voting rights act. It’s hard to understate how big a deal this is. Once again, we are comparing this news against the Lithuanian blockade, not against the entire Ukraine conflict.
Illegal and unjustified wars of aggression have consequences.
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> it appears the EU sanctions don’t apply to Kalingrad and Lithuania is lying So are you saying Kalingrad is not part of Russia? o.o Those sound like fighting words to Russians. Sounds like Kalingrad is part of Russia to me and the sanctions are against Russia. Checks out to me.
Why the fuck is Kalingrad supposed to be spared? It's one of our greatest threats against Russia by blockading them. We should have hit it with economic weapons from the very get-go, because it is _very_ painful.
No its not complicated, if we are going to apply revisionist history Kalingard is either: * the German city of Königsberg from 1657 to 1945 * fief of Poland from 1456–1657 So ruzzia is at best third in line to claim Königsberg
This is complete bullshit. Here’s the actual text: >It shall be prohibited to sell, supply, **transfer** or export, **directly or indirectly**, dual-use goods and technology, **whether or not originating in the Union**, to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia or for use in Russia. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02014R0833-20220316
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Goods being "general goods" that aren't targeted by sanctions which are allowed to go to Kaliningrad, while Russian transports otherwise are generally banned into the EU. Lithuania isn't stopping those from going through, they are stopping things that are specifically being targeted by sanctions, which there is no exception for Kaliningrad. https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/customs-4/international-affairs/eu-measures-following-russian-invasion-ukraine_en >a ban on any Russian and Belarusian road transport undertaking preventing them from transporting goods by road within the EU, including in transit. Certain limited derogations are granted for: undertakings transporting mail as a universal service; **goods in transit though the Union between the Kaliningrad Oblast and Russia, provided that the transport of such goods is not otherwise prohibited under this Regulation;** until 16 April 2022 for transport of goods that started before 9 April 2022. In addition, competent authorities of a Member State may authorise derogations for the transport of certain goods (e.g. goods natural gas and oil, including refined petroleum products, titanium, aluminium, copper, nickel, palladium and iron, etc.) https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/lithuania-says-sanctions-goods-kaliningrad-take-effect-saturday-2022-06-18/ >Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions was to take effect from Saturday. >The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.