Ukraine War Watch Thread

[wjfox]

Air traffic in Europe (live map)

https://www.flightradar24.com/51.96,16.35/5

[weatheriscool]

France will provide defensive equipment to Ukraine
Source: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russi

France will provide defensive equipment to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a written speech to the country’s two legislative bodies Friday. The speech did not detail what the equipment would be.

Macron wrote that France will provide Ukraine with a “additional budgetary assistance of 300 million euros” and “will provide the defensive material they need."

France has not previously provided arms to Ukraine but has provided humanitarian aid and budgetary support.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed for citizens to take up arms against Russian troops and have been distributing guns and ammunition to reservists.

[weatheriscool]

Russian forces enter Ukrainian capital
Source: The Guardian

Russian forces have entered Kyiv and were threatening the Ukrainian capital from the north-west and east in a lightning attack apparently aimed at seizing the city.

The defence ministry in Moscow claimed its forces had taken control of the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west after a day of fighting, while Russian tanks were filmed by locals in the Obolon suburb about six miles north of the city centre in the morning.

Gunfire could be also heard close to St Sophia Cathedral, reporters said, creating an increasingly tense atmosphere in the capital, which many expected would have been better defended given its obvious strategic significance.

Konrad Muzyka, the president of Rochan Consulting, said the “situation does look dire at the moment” particularly regarding Kyiv. “It appears that the main goal is to take Kyiv, break the C2 [command and control], and ‘decapitate’ the political leadership.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... apital-war

[raklian]

[wjfox]

[raklian]

[andmar74]

https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war ... uildup-was

Putin's inner circle reportedly seemed to think his military buildup was just a bluff

[raklian]

[Xyls]

The attacks on Russia are concerning... if this were to spread into conflict in Russia itself Putin could use nukes... Ukraine needs to keep this kind of stuff to a minimum no matter how hard it is...

[Xyls]

Also fairly important:



Although Russia still has China for chips...

[raklian]

[Yuli Ban]

Dammit Johnson

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[Cyber_Rebel]

Is PM Johnson wrong in this instance though? You're talking about a legit World War with British/Nato tanks vs Russian ones.

[raklian]

[Xyls]

This is not good if true. I think Russia really thought they could try to avoid civilian casualties and quickly take Kyiv... they were sorely mistaken and now be planning actual crimes against humanity...



A lot of this fuckery is also probably due to the lack of discipline and morale in the Russian army. I have seen reports that Russia is sending conscripts from Chechnya for example to the front line. In other words Putin is trying to use less the well trained (non-ethnically Russian groups as fodder to protect from losses of families in Moscow and St. Petersburg) Russia can only hide casualties so much before people begin to complain about how many losses there actually are. Also reports that the front lines are not that coordinated and well supplied where some Russian soldiers have been captured looking for food (some of them are reported to be as young as 17) this is not Russia's best and they may be holding them in reserve... I do feel back fro the Russians that seem to be being stabbed in the back by their own government here too...

Then there is lack of discipline like with this story of Russian soldiers try to hit on Ukrainian women on Tinder...

https://www.livemint.com/news/world/ami ... 35502.html

[weatheriscool]

This is not good if true. I think Russia really thought they could try to avoid civilian casualties and quickly take Kyiv... they were sorely mistaken and now be planning actual crimes against humanity...

The fact that russia is losing means that they're going to do real evil shit. It will be like what the allies did in Berlin in 1945.

[weatheriscool]

Putins biggest mistake is showing just how weak the Russian military has become! America would drive them back to Moscow in about 2 weeks if we massed our troops and armor and wanted to go for it. The only card Putin holds is his nukes.

[Xyls]

Putins biggest mistake is showing just how weak the Russian military has become! America would drive them back to Moscow in about 2 weeks if we massed our troops and armor and wanted to go for it. The only card Putin holds is his nukes.

I'm not actually surprised that Russia's actual forces are performing worse than expected. There were hints that the Russian army had serious limitations back in the 2008 War with Georgia too...

However, the biggest danger from Russia is it's technological advantage. And it has the technology to do indiscriminate death against Ukraine if it chooses even if it can't win a conventional (honourable war) without killing civilians it may decide to depopulate Ukraine. But this will cause immense backlash within Russia against the government as well...

If this gets really bad I would not even rule about even a Russian military mutiny/coup. To be honest military revolt in Russia may be one of the scariest outcomes here... as a Russian Civil War would be a way bigger nightmare than what is going on in Ukraine...