Русский корабль - иди нахуй

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

1 hour ago, The Dog said:

This is what the Ukrainians shot down. Twice.

for perspective, here's how it compares to our C-17 Globemaster:

Less than a thousand of them have been made in their 50 year existence.  Designed for capacity, distance, and speed. Wonder how many of these still fly? Loss of the planes may be an equal or bigger issue for Russia than the paratroopers lost. Plus Russia now knows they can't just fly theses across the Ukraine without care.

Edited February 26, 2022 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[atomheartbevo 89644]

1 minute ago, Gravy Train said:

With such losses and failure to take Kyiv, how many doses of Novichok have been prepared for their own command personnel?  None of this operation seems to make sense,

This whole thing is still mind-bottling.

Whatever night-vision gear they may have has been mostly useless, and now they are back in daylight.  Advantage: Ukrainians.

Going back to earlier - I'm still seeing stuff claiming that Putin hasn't committed everybody, and that less than 40% of the forces are actually invading/etc.  Again, makes some sense, Soviets would hold reserves back to exploit breakthroughs, guard rear areas, guard their air bases, etc., but this is a small-ass force, and if they are struggling on Day 3 to take Day 1 targets, you gotta throw everything into the mix.

Unless anybody has better numbers, I'm going with about a 3:1 support/rear-to-infantry number with the Russians (we have a lot more support, but the Russians don't seem to take care of their infantry, and they have some tied up in the navy).  So 190,000-strong force, probably around 45,000 - 47,000 actual infantry (boots/mech/airborne/marine). Even if their navy is not included in that 190,000 number, it's still going to be less than 50,000 actual infantry (not "basically infantry", but honest-to-God actual infantry).

If they have committed 40% of their forces into the fight, what's that break down to?  How much of those 76,000 troops headed into a country of 44 million people are actual infantry and how much are drivers, tank crews, AA folks, maintenance, fuel, food, water, etc.?  And that 114,000 left behind is going to include their helicopters, helicopter crews/maintenance, artillery (and artillery sucks up a lot of people), security (gotta keep airfields and fuel depots secure), aircraft, aircraft crews/maintenance, plus hospitals, larger logistic vehicles/systems.  This is a combined-arms operation and not simply driving some soldiers across the border, and there is fighting all over Eastern Ukraine, which means lots of security/infantry spread out guarding a lot of areas.

If 40% are committed to the invasion, I have to believe that it's skewing pretty heavily towards tanks and infantry in APCs/wheeled vehicles, which means that they probably don't have much actual infantry left in in that remaining 114,000 that aren't engaged (hence the need to ask other countries, pull in Chechens, etc.).  

I don't think that 100% of their infantry is committed just yet, but I feel like it's a very high number, and it would not be hard to bog down 30,000 - 40,000 soldiers either having problems taking cities, or having to secure areas for the non-infantry/supply depots/etc. or having to secure long logistics chains.

I'd assume that they have a lot of the stuff attacking Kyiv based out of Gomel - 220 km/135 miles distance.  Yeah, for those of us in Texas, not a long distance, not even all the way to Houston.  But a big chunk of that is going to have hostiles and/or scouts counting and reporting on vehicles.  Going to have to have some security there.  And conscripts are going to make lousy fucking guards.

I think his generals fucked him.  Well, he fucked himself by surrounding himself with Yes Men, but the point being, somebody should have clearly explained how we did what we did in the two Gulf Wars, and why our ground attacks waited until we had complete air superiority and a huge chunk of Iraqi ground forces/command-and-control/electrical systems knocked out or at least out-of-action.

This is just continuing to bug the shit out of me. I just don't see Putin having the number of troops needed to take Ukraine.

[bluto 4915]

If Putin sends troops into Kyiv doesn’t that pretty well prevent him from leveling the city with artillery/heavy bombardment? And once they’re in, how difficult is it to pull back out? Or can you even pull troops out giving up that ground/morale?

[Born to Run 6569]

 
I wouldn’t take that too seriously, that’s pretty much a standard 3am for their Embassy 

Yeah I'm pretty sure we did that at 3 am in the 90s, granted we had a tight unit of beer consumption at our hostile, US Georgia frat bros, kiwis, aussies, Germans.

[Kel Varnsen 8459]

4 minutes ago, bluto said:

If Putin sends troops into Kyiv doesn’t that pretty well prevent him from leveling the city with artillery/heavy bombardment? And once they’re in, how difficult is it to pull back out? Or can you even pull troops out giving up that ground/morale?

[atomheartbevo 89644]

30 minutes ago, Caponata said:

Is there any footage of this? Majority of Ukrainians have smart phones..

25 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

Yeah, that's a real good point. Normally, I'd be very doubtful about numbers like this. But the fact Russia isn't trying to deny or downplay this is... well... something. Fuck, at this point I'd bet on Russia just having no idea what the number actually is and relying on Ukraine for the count.

You've been warned.  Occasionally older or non-relevant stuff gets posted (people get fooled on social media), but a lot of that gets downvoted/deleted pretty fast - they have people in these subs that are as obsessed with the accuracy of what's in the photos/videos as we are about football, down to whether some tank is a T-72br549 or a T-72br548.  And they have a lot of eyeballs on these subs, so the fake/old stuff gets filtered out quick.

You can sort by top or newest or whatever.

And some really graphic stuff - quite a few charred Russian corpses, body parts, etc.  And the Russians seem to leave all of their dead behind.  But those posts have spoiler tags you have to click.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/

https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/

 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

5 minutes ago, bluto said:

If Putin sends troops into Kyiv doesn’t that pretty well prevent him from leveling the city with artillery/heavy bombardment? And once they’re in, how difficult is it to pull back out? Or can you even pull troops out giving up that ground/morale?

When has Russia cared about cannon fodder?

[atomheartbevo 89644]

5 minutes ago, bluto said:

If Putin sends troops into Kyiv doesn’t that pretty well prevent him from leveling the city with artillery/heavy bombardment? And once they’re in, how difficult is it to pull back out? Or can you even pull troops out giving up that ground/morale?

Lot of speculation that he wanted Kyiv and the infrastructure intact, and then would use that as a bargaining tool in any "peace" negotiations (i.e. annex a huge chunk of Eastern Ukraine and he'll release Kyiv and leave the lights on).

I'm kind of leaning towards that as well - he has the forces to start leveling the city, but he's not using them - he could just park his artillery and rockets and just level entire areas.  Either he wants it as intact as possible (to install a puppet govt?), or maybe he actually is worried about the optics of leveling the city here in 2022 - EU/US/etc. are all getting tired of him, and everybody has some more sanctions/export and import controls/etc that they could use to really take things up to 11.

If the Russians can't take Kyiv by this time tomorrow night, I think he'll have to level it.  It will be too embarrassing to him, and will have sucked up too many troops.

[pops 6981]

Putin went all in before the flop. His oreo was wrong. 

[atomheartbevo 89644]

25 minutes ago, Helobious said:

3500 is high, but you have to think Russian casualties are pretty close to 1000 at this point, which is nuts. It’s been 3 days. We lost 3000 in 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan. 

I think it's probably a thousand dead as well.  Hell, could be 200+ from the airplanes if accurate.

I'm wondering how many wounded though, especially if they are calling in medical students and medical personnel from Mother Russia.

I would believe 3,500 wounded easily.  Which will suck up a lot of troops helping them that could be used elsewhere.

[dcar00 14181]

3 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

This whole thing is still mind-bottling.

Whatever night-vision gear they may have has been mostly useless, and now they are back in daylight.  Advantage: Ukrainians.

Going back to earlier - I'm still seeing stuff claiming that Putin hasn't committed everybody, and that less than 40% of the forces are actually invading/etc.  Again, makes some sense, Soviets would hold reserves back to exploit breakthroughs, guard rear areas, guard their air bases, etc., but this is a small-ass force, and if they are struggling on Day 3 to take Day 1 targets, you gotta throw everything into the mix.

Unless anybody has better numbers, I'm going with about a 3:1 support/rear-to-infantry number with the Russians (we have a lot more support, but the Russians don't seem to take care of their infantry, and they have some tied up in the navy).  So 190,000-strong force, probably around 45,000 - 47,000 actual infantry (boots/mech/airborne/marine). Even if their navy is not included in that 190,000 number, it's still going to be less than 50,000 actual infantry (not "basically infantry", but honest-to-God actual infantry).

If they have committed 40% of their forces into the fight, what's that break down to?  How much of those 76,000 troops headed into a country of 44 million people are actual infantry and how much are drivers, tank crews, AA folks, maintenance, fuel, food, water, etc.?  And that 114,000 left behind is going to include their helicopters, helicopter crews/maintenance, artillery (and artillery sucks up a lot of people), security (gotta keep airfields and fuel depots secure), aircraft, aircraft crews/maintenance, plus hospitals, larger logistic vehicles/systems.  This is a combined-arms operation and not simply driving some soldiers across the border, and there is fighting all over Eastern Ukraine, which means lots of security/infantry spread out guarding a lot of areas.

If 40% are committed to the invasion, I have to believe that it's skewing pretty heavily towards tanks and infantry in APCs/wheeled vehicles, which means that they probably don't have much actual infantry left in in that remaining 114,000 that aren't engaged (hence the need to ask other countries, pull in Chechens, etc.).  

I don't think that 100% of their infantry is committed just yet, but I feel like it's a very high number, and it would not be hard to bog down 30,000 - 40,000 soldiers either having problems taking cities, or having to secure areas for the non-infantry/supply depots/etc. or having to secure long logistics chains.

I'd assume that they have a lot of the stuff attacking Kyiv based out of Gomel - 220 km/135 miles distance.  Yeah, for those of us in Texas, not a long distance, not even all the way to Houston.  But a big chunk of that is going to have hostiles and/or scouts counting and reporting on vehicles.  Going to have to have some security there.  And conscripts are going to make lousy fucking guards.

I think his generals fucked him.  Well, he fucked himself by surrounding himself with Yes Men, but the point being, somebody should have clearly explained how we did what we did in the two Gulf Wars, and why our ground attacks waited until we had complete air superiority and a huge chunk of Iraqi ground forces/command-and-control/electrical systems knocked out or at least out-of-action.

This is just continuing to bug the shit out of me. I just don't see Putin having the number of troops needed to take Ukraine.

unfortunately we are still early in this but a 3500 number of dead would be big(hopefully that's true).  If they can hold them at bay for a week or so and cut off some supply lines this could get real interesting.

I don't think Putin is trying to take Ukraine.  IMO, his end game is to take Kiev and split Ukraine in 2 from Odessa to Kiev on the west side of the river, build as big a buffer as possible west of that and install the puppet. the puppet can deal with the insurgency in the west.

Hopefully this fuckhead fails epically and zelensky gets to "cut the head off the snake."  It really sucks they gave up the nukes.  I'm up for assassination at this point.  

 

[Chooky 13307]

31 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

I do not want to turn this into something else, but having a prominent Republican tweeting out messages that are blatantly pro Ukrainian, at a time when other Republicans are feeling like they're making a tough choice between supporting Ukraine and staying on good terms with Trump and his followers, is an excellent strategy for anyone who is pro-Ukraine.

Marco Rubio has acquitted himself very well throughout all of this.  I've also been critical of him but his genuine disdain, free from any petty impulse of cheap political advancement, of a flagrantly authoritarian power grab will buy him well due credit from me.  Rationality is a refreshing change of pace and deserves platitude on a case by case basis from every political aisle.  

[atomheartbevo 89644]

Headed to bed, but twitter stuff I've followed

• https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko
• https://twitter.com/jonostrower
• https://twitter.com/ameliairheart
• https://twitter.com/mchancecnn
• https://twitter.com/JackDetsch
• https://twitter.com/b_judah
• https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss
• https://twitter.com/markmackinnon
• https://twitter.com/michaelh992
• https://twitter.com/Liveuamap
• https://twitter.com/BNONews
• https://twitter.com/nolanwpeterson
• https://twitter.com/Caucasuswar
• https://twitter.com/marcorubio/
• https://twitter.com/NATOBrazeB
• https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM
• https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand
• https://twitter.com/RALee85

edit: dupes and the link won't post as plain text

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89644]

One more, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia

 

[bolverk 29659]

30 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I think his generals fucked him.  Well, he fucked himself by surrounding himself with Yes Men, but the point being, somebody should have clearly explained how we did what we did in the two Gulf Wars, and why our ground attacks waited until we had complete air superiority and a huge chunk of Iraqi ground forces/command-and-control/electrical systems knocked out or at least out-of-action.

This is just continuing to bug the shit out of me. I just don't see Putin having the number of troops needed to take Ukraine.

This would explain the reticence of his Yes Men to go on TV and approve of his "special operation."

[dimyh 1874]

13 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

...This is just continuing to bug the shit out of me. I just don't see Putin having the number of troops needed to take Ukraine.

Man I hope you're right. I didn't have high expectations going into this but was thinking the Ukes could make it costly before the numbers just overwhelmed them. Russians have just really floundered. The use of conscripts has been atrocious. Plus the timing of this whole operation has still been a mystery to me. It has to be hubris. Putin has been stocking up the warchest, all the gear, but they can't plan ahead and provide some actual training for these frontliners?

How many reserves does he have? And if he has to call up more does that get more protesters out on the streets? This is not a popular war to begin with and every day that sentiment gets uglier.

Finally, do you think if this open war lasts past a week is it better for Ukraines to hunker down in a defensive urban war? Or attempt to become more mobile, keep bleeding the Ruskies tanks and APCs and turn this into a classic hit and run? If Ruskies had full air support then that would be off the table but they have haven't wrapped that up yet...

If they stay in the city then I'm concerned that the full artillery barage will just eventually decimate them. The optics will be poor for Putin if he goes down that path but he appears to be in the fully "I don't give a shit" mode at this point.

 

 

 

[RPM 26318]

Edited February 26, 2022 by RPM

[Shady Ray 1633]

I was one who definitely underestimated Zelensky coming into this thing. And I’m here to eat some crow. Dude is a fucking gangster. As Brisket said upthread, this was a role this dude came into this world to play.

[Pods 7552]

At this point, it's clear that atom is right on the night vision. So far at least, the Russians don't have the ability to fight at night.

In addition to the MANPADS and Javelins, we need to get the Ukrainians more night vision equipment and let them start taking it to the Russians in the dark.

[JesusSweatDuck 17781]

3 minutes ago, Shady Ray said:

I was one who definitely underestimated Zelensky coming into this thing. And I’m here to eat some crow. Dude is a fucking gangster. As Brisket said upthread, this was a role this dude came into this world to play.

You really have to respect how he's handling this. 

 

Also, he's dragging his balls of steel across Putin's face

[JesusSweatDuck 17781]

15 minutes ago, dimyh said:

Man I hope you're right. I didn't have high expectations going into this but was thinking the Ukes could make it costly before the numbers just overwhelmed them. Russians have just really floundered. The use of conscripts has been atrocious. Plus the timing of this whole operation has still been a mystery to me. It has to be hubris. Putin has been stocking up the warchest, all the gear, but they can't plan ahead and provide some actual training for these frontliners?

How many reserves does he have? And if he has to call up more does that get more protesters out on the streets? This is not a popular war to begin with and every day that sentiment gets uglier.

Finally, do you think if this open war lasts past a week is it better for Ukraines to hunker down in a defensive urban war? Or attempt to become more mobile, keep bleeding the Ruskies tanks and APCs and turn this into a classic hit and run? If Ruskies had full air support then that would be off the table but they have haven't wrapped that up yet...

If they stay in the city then I'm concerned that the full artillery barage will just eventually decimate them. The optics will be poor for Putin if he goes down that path but he appears to be in the fully "I don't give a shit" mode at this point.

 

 

 

It really feels like Putin thought that if he shot a few missiles and some artillery that Ukraine would surrender.  That's the only thing that makes sense.

 

I don't think he had any idea that they would fight as hard as they are. 

[atomheartbevo 89644]

9 minutes ago, dimyh said:

How many reserves does he have? And if he has to call up more does that get more protesters out on the streets? This is not a popular war to begin with and every day that sentiment gets uglier.

Putin has a lot of reservists, but they will be even more pissed off than the conscripts.  Quite a few of the conscripts were badgered into going/lied to about going to Ukraine and had no clue what they were getting into.

The reservists will know from the start where they are headed, and they will definitely be badgered/forced into going.  They will be pissed/scared, because they'll know they wouldn't be there if the Ukrainians weren't putting up so much resistance.  Some will probably go AWOL, but their families will be threatened.  It could get some protests really going though.

9 minutes ago, dimyh said:

Finally, do you think if this open war lasts past a week is it better for Ukraines to hunker down in a defensive urban war? Or attempt to become more mobile, keep bleeding the Ruskies tanks and APCs and turn this into a classic hit and run? If Ruskies had full air support then that would be off the table but they have haven't wrapped that up yet...

If things are basically still the same in 2-3 days, they should stick with what's working, because 2-3 more days will see more weapons flowing in from NATO - anti-air and anti-tank, etc.  2-3 more days of heavy fighting will start to really strain Russian logistics.  

And Putin will be screaming at generals who will be screaming at colonels who will be screaming at captains and NCOs who will be screaming at lieutenants and the rank-and-file.

It's a matter of whether they can crack or stress the Russian logistics chain(s) to their breaking points.  Tanks and APCs don't do so well once they can't move anywhere, either because of fuel or breakdowns. And if Russian troops start having to forage for food en masse, that opens them up to being ambushed.

[SL Xpress 7513]

 

I remember reading a paper about a group of paleontologist who discovered a 100,000 year old skeleton of an old woman. They were able to determine from her jaw that she hadn't been able to masticate for some significant period in her life. Which meant someone had to chew her food for her and feed it to her.

The paper went on to discuss that one of the biggest mutations which differentiated bipedal humans from other species was the ability to care for one another. For other species, the injury to a leg meant death, either as a predator who could no longer catch prey, or as prey who could no longer run from predators. But for humans, there was fossil evidence of prehistoric man helping the injured to live past their injury. 

That's what I think about when I see this tweet. We are a complicated, combustible mix of traits. Seeing stuff like this makes me swell with pride to be a fellow human. 

[Hermanator 7037]

52 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Lot of speculation that he wanted Kyiv and the infrastructure intact, and then would use that as a bargaining tool in any "peace" negotiations (i.e. annex a huge chunk of Eastern Ukraine and he'll release Kyiv and leave the lights on).

I'm kind of leaning towards that as well - he has the forces to start leveling the city, but he's not using them - he could just park his artillery and rockets and just level entire areas.  Either he wants it as intact as possible (to install a puppet govt?), or maybe he actually is worried about the optics of leveling the city here in 2022 - EU/US/etc. are all getting tired of him, and everybody has some more sanctions/export and import controls/etc that they could use to really take things up to 11.

If the Russians can't take Kyiv by this time tomorrow night, I think he'll have to level it.  It will be too embarrassing to him, and will have sucked up too many troops.

Putin is definitely seeing how the world is reacting to this. He's seeing that he's becoming perceived as 21st century Hitler. He's seen even his boot licking allies such as Czech Republic and others turn down any request for aid and tell him "you're on your own bro". He has to realize if he levels Kyiv or any of the cities it'll only make it all worse. 

I wonder at what level do outside powers say enough is enough and engage Putin in Ukraine. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Hermanator

[SL Xpress 7513]

1 minute ago, Hermanator said:

Putin is definitely seeing how the world is reacting to this. He's seeing that he's becoming perceived as 21st century Hitler. He's seen even his boot licking allies such as Czech Republic and others turn down any request for aid and tell him "you're on your own bro". He has to realize if he levels Kyiev or any of the cities it'll only make it all worse. 

I wonder at what level do outside powers say enough is enough and engage Putin in Ukraine. 

Never.

[SL Xpress 7513]

https://twitter.com/patheditsindia/status/1497471677663301634?s=20&t=hnw1Qi5DUy-bRpNP-XZ8ZA

Edit - sometimes it just doesn't want to work for me.

Hot Ukrainian girls protecting the country's freedom. 

I feel like these women deserve $6.4b in military aid.

Edited February 26, 2022 by SL Xpress

[staboner 4969]

4 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

Putin is definitely seeing how the world is reacting to this. He's seeing that he's becoming perceived as 21st century Hitler. He's seen even his boot licking allies such as Czech Republic and others turn down any request for aid and tell him "you're on your own bro". He has to realize if he levels Kyiv or any of the cities it'll only make it all worse. 

I wonder at what level do outside powers say enough is enough and engage Putin in Ukraine. 

or he is seeing none of that and is just surrounded by the story he wants to hear.

such is mango

[Fondren & Main 6709]

54 minutes ago, pops said:

Putin went all in before the flop. His oreo was wrong. 

Vlady KGB?  LSUFreak could have some fun with this.  “He beat me, straight up.  Pay heem…pay that man heees money.”

[Hermanator 7037]

Just now, staboner said:

or he is seeing none of that and is just surrounded by the story he wants to hear.

such is mango

There's no way someone as egotistical as Putin isn't listening to how the world is reacting. He knows. He also knows how his forces are failing to perform. How he will react to those is anyone's guess. 

[clapclapclap 9000]

8 hours ago, troph said:

Wow Wesley Clark and the guest after him said the US has to act. Noted Biden said not troops but that leaves open air support and even establishing a no fly zone. Tone on the networks is changing…

 

edit - on CNN

LOL, Wesley Clark almost started World War 3 at Pristina in 1999, and thus a general refused to implement his order. 

Of course Clark wouldn't be afraid to now trigger World War Applebees.

Edited February 26, 2022 by clapclapclap

[Trey3216 15346]

5 hours ago, SizzleChest said:

 

We have to be careful.  We’d be offending the mentally disabled if he really has lost it.   

[BachelorTrek 2967]

38 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Headed to bed, but twitter stuff I've followed

• https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko
• https://twitter.com/jonostrower
• https://twitter.com/ameliairheart
• https://twitter.com/mchancecnn
• https://twitter.com/JackDetsch
• https://twitter.com/b_judah
• https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss
• https://twitter.com/markmackinnon
• https://twitter.com/michaelh992
• https://twitter.com/Liveuamap
• https://twitter.com/BNONews
• https://twitter.com/nolanwpeterson
• https://twitter.com/Caucasuswar
• https://twitter.com/marcorubio/
• https://twitter.com/NATOBrazeB
• https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM
• https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand
• https://twitter.com/RALee85

edit: dupes and the link won't post as plain text

 

 

Adding to this list:

 

• https://twitter.com/ignis_fatum
• https://twitter.com/ELINTNews
• https://twitter.com/ScooterCasterNY
• https://twitter.com/IntelCrab
• https://twitter.com/IntelDoge
• https://twitter.com/YWNReporter
• https://twitter.com/Conflicts
• https://twitter.com/ArmedForcesUkr
• https://twitter.com/graine_alien
• https://twitter.com/lookner

 

[bolverk 29659]

Obviously can't vouch for the veracity of this, but it's all over Twitter:

 

[BachelorTrek 2967]

3 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Obviously can't vouch for the veracity of this, but it's all over Twitter:

 

Reportedly inside a room in that building:
 

 

[RPM 26318]

nsiap

 

[TejanoAtUT 15]

6 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Obviously can't vouch for the veracity of this, but it's all over Twitter:

 

The BBC is reporting the same. I'm wondering if this was an errant strike, or if this might be the first of targeted strikes at locations of people (or families of people) on Putin's hit list.

[956 Worldwide 34705]

1 hour ago, Shady Ray said:

I was one who definitely underestimated Zelensky coming into this thing. And I’m here to eat some crow. Dude is a fucking gangster. As Brisket said upthread, this was a role this dude came into this world to play.

Remarkable and Ukrainian in the best way in the sense of pulling something out of nothing.

Those who follow Soviet and eastern bloc history should not be surprised at a comedian showing more balls and guts and smarts than scary ex- KGB man. The heroes of Czechoslovakia in 1968-1989 were psychedelic rockers and a playwright. 

[T-shirt Sip 2100]

After a night of heavy drinking, I raise my dram of Macallan Rare Cask and salute President Zelenskyy, the Klitschko brothers, Ghost of Kyiv, the trumpet player, Snake Island 13, Sunflower Lady, and all the other fighting men and women of Ukraine. I pray and hope that your resolve lasts as long as it needs to. Fight back. Defend your homeland. Fuck those commie assholes up! I'm drunk so I'm going to bed. 

[BachelorTrek 2967]

14 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Remarkable and Ukrainian in the best way in the sense of pulling something out of nothing.

Those who follow Soviet and eastern bloc history should not be surprised at a comedian showing more balls and guts and smarts than scary ex- KGB man. The heroes of Czechoslovakia in 1968-1989 were psychedelic rockers and a playwright. 

No matter how this goes, I see another role for Jeremy Renner playing Zelensky in his future.

[SL Xpress 7513]

Administrator for Slovakia posted this:

Ukrainians coming to #Slovakia get a temporary status with free health care and legal work possibility. For Ukrainians public transport is free of charge. There is food and beverages at the border #help #courage #Ukraine

https://twitter.com/VasakovaLivia/status/1497327591602143237?s=20&t=n5OwlvkZXebtZfesQAsxcQ

[Shady Ray 1633]

6 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

@Shady Ray

I honestly don’t know why they didn’t send one of the Bundeswehr’s ferocious rented ADAC helicopters to extricate him. Must have been needed to assist with a car accident on the A8 autobahn.
 

Seriously though, the coverage on this BND debacle has been all over the news this AM…it is quite simply the cherry on top of repeated and open incompetence on the part of every element of the German military/intel/security services.

 

I get fresh bread early every Saturday morning for the week for us, as well as for my in-laws. I drop it off at their place as soon as I leave the bakery and when I walked in this morning the first thing my father-in-law said was, “*derisive snort* Did you hear about this BND shitshow yet? What a joke we have become.” 
 

I have a lot to say on this, as we are in the middle of a huge internal mess brewing in Berlin, and I am going to write on this over the weekend when I have time. But essentially, every single federal minister has permanent Eli Manning Dumbface at the moment, and the only one who could theoretically come in and make an immediate impact wrt strong leadership, CDU chief Friedrich Merz, doesn’t see a political benefit in making any move to trigger snap electons in order to handle this shitshow when it is certainly eroding the support of all of his political opponents. Politically speaking, he is deriving way too many benefits by letting this slowly play out. But he may not have a choice over the next few months. In short, the Federal Government is white-knuckle-governing at the moment and it fucking shows. In fact, the SPD and their coalition partner Free Democrats are arguing in the media this very fucking morning about whether more money should be spent on the Bundeswehr…I mean, you don’t have to be a warmonger to answer this question in the affirmative when the fucking head of the military says, “Uh, yeahhh....we couldn’t defend ourselves in any type of war.”
 

It is a complete clusterfuck unfolding…one that has long been simmering, but that hasn’t been in the main discourse. 
 

What Your’s Truly predicted weeks ago here in Surly’s hallowed halls of Dickbutt, Sugar Babies, and Vic’s Voluptuous Vixens, is, as of today, now being openly discussed by the main media outlets. Specifically, that the existing coalition is already on the verge of fracturing if they do not do a complete overhaul of their entire approach to governing, and more specifically, scuttle their entire environmental policy as outlined in the Coalition Agreement. Which, even in light of what is going on with Ukraine, will be extremely difficult for them to actually do. If this recalibration was driven by something outside of energy politics, it miiiiiight be doable. But I just can’t see that happening in this situation. The rank and file of the Greens, and also to a large degree the SPD, are too emotionally committed to the idea of a Germany driven by an energy policy that simply does not exist. It is part and parcel of their entire political- and to a large degree, their personal - identity. At least for now, the Germans must have Russian gas. And to move away from that, the usage of coal must increase and the u-turn on shutting down the remaining nuclear plants must occur. There is no magic bullet.
 

As multiple people on this board have correctly noted, German’s are unable to react quickly. Stubborn obstinance is engrained in their individual and collective psyche and they are quite simply shellshocked right now. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Shady Ray

[Schulz2.0 28951]

 

 

[BachelorTrek 2967]

4 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Administrator for Slovakia posted this:

Ukrainians coming to #Slovakia get a temporary status with free health care and legal work possibility. For Ukrainians public transport is free of charge. There is food and beverages at the border #help #courage #Ukraine

https://twitter.com/VasakovaLivia/status/1497327591602143237?s=20&t=n5OwlvkZXebtZfesQAsxcQ

Hungary is also taking in fleeing Ukrainian refugees:

https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2022/02/25/hungary-takes-ukraine-refugees-fleeing-attack.html

https://hungarianfreepress.com/2022/02/24/hungary-prepared-to-accept-ukrainian-refugees-fleeing-russian-invasion/

[BachelorTrek 2967]

Lulz.  What a fucked-up war it is when encounters like this happen!
 

 

[InkaUtexas 25898]

Was on a date, missed the over night. She did not like me constantly monitoring twitter vs. her new hair style. Someone catch me up quick. Did we win?

[956 Worldwide 34705]

Oh shit. Dmitri Medvedev has proposed reinstating capital punishment in Russia. 
 

This is absolutely fucking crazy. I should not need to say it— when Russia behaves dangerously, Russians are in almost as much danger as anyone else. 

[InkaUtexas 25898]

3 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Oh shit. Dmitri Medvedev has proposed reinstating capital punishment in Russia. 
 

This is absolutely fucking crazy. I should not need to say it— when Russia behaves dangerously, Russians are in almost as much danger as anyone else. 

This cat better be on sanctions lists 

[956 Worldwide 34705]

Fucking LULZ. Driver rolls up and asks if they’re broke down. They answer that they are out of gas. “I’ll tow you back to Russia.”

A bit of discussion about whether they know where they hell they are headed (Kyiv). Explains that they’re all idiots, that Russians are giving up easily, and drives off. 
 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by 956 Worldwide

[BachelorTrek 2967]

1 hour ago, bolverk said:

Obviously can't vouch for the veracity of this, but it's all over Twitter:

 

Another angle in the bottom clip of the missile strike:
 

 

[SL Xpress 7513]

 

 

That's a long line of destroyed vehicles with the Z markings on them.