The Russia/Ukraine War Thread

[Muscatel Marauder]

 

[Satchmo]

 

Can't you see? It's all our fault..

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, in a ranting speech before a presidential election campaign, cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as an existential battle against purported attempts by the West to destroy Russia.

“We are defending the security and well-being of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia — a strong, independent power, a country-civilization,” Putin said, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia.

“And I want to emphasize: without a sovereign, strong Russia, no lasting, stable world order is possible,” he said.

 

https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-speech-ukraine-world-order-747d4cb0b899cf5c76f2f5ae80df376c

[Sharpshooter]

Something happening in Sevastopol? 

[SilentSam]

7 hours ago, Satchmo said:

 

Can't you see? It's all our fault..

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, in a ranting speech before a presidential election campaign, cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as an existential battle against purported attempts by the West to destroy Russia.

“We are defending the security and well-being of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia — a strong, independent power, a country-civilization,” Putin said, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia.

“And I want to emphasize: without a sovereign, strong Russia, no lasting, stable world order is possible,” he said.

 

https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-speech-ukraine-world-order-747d4cb0b899cf5c76f2f5ae80df376c

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

7 hours ago, Sharpshooter said:

Something happening in Sevastopol? 

this came up..

looking for more  

 

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

RuZ Drone stockpile / warehouse!

 

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

To add:  

 

 

 

 

[Canuck Surfer]

 Suggest that all please read all 17 slides;

 

Putin could be on a collision course with one of his closest allies (msn.com)

 

Surfer editorials include a few likely conclusions;

 

- suppressing Kadyrov is one goal

- Putin wants outlying republics to add to his war chest  

 

[Canuck Surfer]

Zelensky & Ukraine have balls. heart & drive bigger than Corey Perry.

 

Pretty easy to assume they don't like weapons being to Russia by Xi & the Chinese.

 

Ukraine's bold move: SSU allegedly paralyzes Russia-China railway connection

 

In a bold move that signals a significant escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) is believed to have orchestrated a major explosion on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a crucial railway link between Russia and China.

 

This event, which took place in the early hours of November 30 in Buryatia, Russian Federation, has effectively paralyzed a key route used by Russia, including for military supplies.

 

A source within law enforcement agencies, speaking to Ukrainska Pravda, confirmed the SSU's involvement in this strategic strike.

 

 

The explosion occurred in the Northern Tunnel. Bessolov, damaging the only serious railway connection between Russia and China.

The incident involved the detonation of four explosive devices during the movement of a freight train, causing significant disruption and challenges for Russian railway workers and the Federal Security Service (FSB) in addressing the aftermath.

 

While the SSU has not officially commented on these events, the implications of this operation are far-reaching. It represents not only a direct hit on Russia's logistical capabilities but also a message of Ukraine's readiness to extend its countermeasures beyond its borders.

The targeting of such a vital infrastructure element underscores the increasing intensity and complexity of the Ukraine-Russia war.

 

This development has drawn the attention of international observers, as it could potentially have broader geopolitical repercussions, affecting not just the war in Ukraine but also Russia's connections with key allies like China.

[Muscatel Marauder]

 

[Boudrias]

5 hours ago, Canuck Surfer said:

Zelensky & Ukraine have balls. heart & drive bigger than Corey Perry.

 

Pretty easy to assume they don't like weapons being to Russia by Xi & the Chinese.

 

Ukraine's bold move: SSU allegedly paralyzes Russia-China railway connection

 

In a bold move that signals a significant escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) is believed to have orchestrated a major explosion on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a crucial railway link between Russia and China.

 

This event, which took place in the early hours of November 30 in Buryatia, Russian Federation, has effectively paralyzed a key route used by Russia, including for military supplies.

 

A source within law enforcement agencies, speaking to Ukrainska Pravda, confirmed the SSU's involvement in this strategic strike.

 

 

The explosion occurred in the Northern Tunnel. Bessolov, damaging the only serious railway connection between Russia and China.

The incident involved the detonation of four explosive devices during the movement of a freight train, causing significant disruption and challenges for Russian railway workers and the Federal Security Service (FSB) in addressing the aftermath.

 

While the SSU has not officially commented on these events, the implications of this operation are far-reaching. It represents not only a direct hit on Russia's logistical capabilities but also a message of Ukraine's readiness to extend its countermeasures beyond its borders.

The targeting of such a vital infrastructure element underscores the increasing intensity and complexity of the Ukraine-Russia war.

 

This development has drawn the attention of international observers, as it could potentially have broader geopolitical repercussions, affecting not just the war in Ukraine but also Russia's connections with key allies like China.

Maybe it was the Japanese. No Russian reinforcements to the Kiril islands when they invade.  

[SilentSam]

Partisans work in RuZ ?!

 

Nice work,  clearing an explosion with railcars from what WAS a tunnel does not happen quickly .

 

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

Bold !

 

 

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

A little more info on that Tunnel that was taken out ..

 

a very strategic route lost for RuZ.

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

 

 

[Gnarcore]

13 hours ago, SilentSam said:

RuZ Drone stockpile / warehouse!

 

 

 

 

If that was all/most of those drones that is freakin huge! 

[Boudrias]

1 hour ago, SilentSam said:

 

 

Absolutely astounding numbers. I haven't seem much push back on the Ukrainian assertion that the 328,760 number is KIA not wounded + KIA. By the admission of the AFU their KIA number is close to 70,000. How many wounded. The AFU appear to have decent field evacuation and hospitals. The Russian side is a series truly horrific stories of their soldiers being abandoned. It will be far worse with the cold.

 

We should not forget that the much vaunted Russian army of WW2 was largely supplied by America. This time around America is supplying Ukraine. Wasn't it Eisenhauer who said wars were won with logistics.  

[Gnarcore]

29 minutes ago, Boudrias said:

Absolutely astounding numbers. I haven't seem much push back on the Ukrainian assertion that the 328,760 number is KIA not wounded + KIA. By the admission of the AFU their KIA number is close to 70,000. How many wounded. The AFU appear to have decent field evacuation and hospitals. The Russian side is a series truly horrific stories of their soldiers being abandoned. It will be far worse with the cold.

 

We should not forget that the much vaunted Russian army of WW2 was largely supplied by America. This time around America is supplying Ukraine. Wasn't it Eisenhauer who said wars were won with logistics.  

I don't recall if it was him but supply lines are paramount to success. 

[DSVII]

There was a very naive viewpoint in the pride tape thread that we don't need politics or representation for LGBT in sports because persecution people was something out of antiquity.

 

Well.....

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/30/lgbt-russia-movement-extremist-banned/?

 

 

RIGA, Latvia — Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday banned the “international LGBT public movement” as an extremist organization — even though the alleged movement has no organizational structure, leaders, membership, website or address.

 

While seemingly preposterous — given that there is no such organized movement — the Russian ban, nonetheless, could have sweeping implications for LGBT people in Russia. It could be used to prosecute any LGBT organization, activity, communication or mutual support initiative, including those online.

 

While critics called the ruling legal nonsense, the Kremlin appears to be banking on global homophobia as a unifying ideology that will align intolerant countries — particularly in the Middle East and Africa — against the liberal West.

 

In many Middle Eastern and African nations, homosexuality is illegal. Anti-LGBT polices have long been a populist cause, for example in Uganda, which criminalized same-sex relationships earlier this year, including imposing a potential death penalty for “aggravated” homosexuality.

 

 

The ruling, which was delivered in a closed hearing, shocked liberal Russians, and prominent independent Russian media organizations on Thursday displayed the LGBT flag on their social media pages in solidarity with LGBT people.

Judge Oleg Nefedov ordered that the ban, which followed a motion to the court from the Justice Ministry, come into effect immediately.

 

The ban will probably force LGBT groups to operate in secret and could be used against LGBT people, although the legal implications remain far from clear.

 

Activists said Russian authorities were using the court system to criminalize and persecute LGBT people.

 

A striking element of the ban is its sweeping, amorphous nature, raising uncertainty about what actions and organizations may be targeted as extremist. It is a form of legal obscurantism often used by the regime of President Vladimir Putin, sowing confusion and fear about how to avoid arrest and, potentially, prison.

 

 

Renat Davletgildeev, an LGBT activist, journalist and author of the Russian Telegram channel Gay Dynamite, called the ruling “absurd, extrajudicial, illegal.”

Davletgildeev said the case resembled the absurdist writings of Franz Kafka, Eugène Ionesco or Samuel Beckett. “But this is not the reality in which we exist,” he said. “I can’t fit it in my mind.”

 

“The illegality of this whole process was observed from the first days,” Davletgildeev said. “We sent both individuals and legal entities a petition to the Supreme Court asking to be made interested parties. We have all been denied.”

A ban could force the disbanding of rights groups such as Delo LGBT+, which provides legal advocacy for queer people in court; Center T, a group representing transgender people; the Russian LGBT Network; and others. Activists who try to support LGBT people could be charged and imprisoned for 10 years. Individual participants in the movement could face six-year terms.

 

The wording of the Justice Ministry motion implied that LGBT people are part of a shadowy global organization with extremist goals set on harming Russia.

 

The Kremlin has long asserted that the West, particularly the United States and its European allies, are enemies of so-called traditional family values and are responsible for promoting “decadent” lifestyles.

None of the arguments or evidence presented to the court by the Justice Ministry were public, nor was any legal representative of LGBT organizations permitted to appear to argue against a ban. The court denied an application by representatives of the Russian LGBT Network and others to appear as interested parties.

The secrecy around the court hearing reinforced fear and anger in Russia’s LGBT communities that authorities are using the judicial system to sow hatred against them, and to smear them as representing “decadent” Western values.

 

 

 

One Russian LGBT Telegram channel, Guys+, called the judgment a “parody” and an “attempt by the state to humiliate LGBTQ+ people and recognize them as second-class citizens.”

 

“The trial of all of us is taking place without us,” the group said on Telegram.

 

 

 

A Russian cultural magazine, Discourse, announced its solidarity with LGBT people and said it plans to publish underground material in support of them.

 

The ban comes after two previous repressive Russian laws against LGBT people: a ban on “LGBT propaganda,” which criminalized the spread of any information about LGBT identities, and a ban on transgender transition — both changing a person’s sex in official documents, as well as the use of surgery or hormones.

 

It comes as Putin is pressing a regressive agenda of “traditional” values, with growing restrictions on abortion and officials urging women’s careers and education to be put aside in favor of having many babies at a young age.

 

Putin has frequently attacked transgender people and parental or marital rights for LGBT people as alien to what he calls the “Russian world.”

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the Kremlin was not tracking the highly controversial court case.

 

Davletgildeev, the activist and journalist, said that because the hearing was conducted in secret, it was not clear what might constitute extremist behavior. “A gay-okay T-shirt, or a rainbow keychain, or an LGBT Instagram account or a social media post — we don’t know.”

 

Russian LGBT organizations were scrambling to publish advice to LGBT people on how to protect themselves, in an environment where the legal implications were murky. Davletgildeev advised LGBT-identifying Russians to flee the country, and called on international rights organizations to help people from those groups find refuge outside Russia.

 

Pro-Kremlin analyst Yevgeny Minchenko raised doubts about the Justice Ministry motion in comments posted on Telegram before the Supreme Court endorsed the motion to ban the international LGBT movement: “Is there such an organization? Is it possible to join it? Is there a charter, a program, a leadership and so on? It seems to me that if we are talking about an extremist organization, it must have the characteristics of such an organization,” he wrote.

 

Minchenko said the legal implications of the ruling were unclear: “Will its nonexistent offices be shut down? There are more questions than answers to the situation.”

 

Russia’s Supreme Court last year recognized an online movement praising the 1999 Columbine shootings as a terrorist organization, and in 2020 it recognized a Russian youth gang movement, AUE, as extremist.

 

[SilentSam]

 

 

Lol..  Merry Fkn Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

[SilentSam]

Somehow , I think this is tounge in cheek, and these are already there.
 

 

 “ USA postponed the transfer of long-range GLSDB to Ukraine, - Reuters

The United States of America (USA) is postponing to next year the transfer to Ukraine of the first large batch of small-diameter ground-based rocket bombs (GLSDB), adapted for striking at a range of about 160 km.

According to reports from Pentagon representatives and people familiar with the matter, such weapons may be transferred to Ukraine as part of defense assistance in the first half of 2024.

"People familiar with the current timelines say delivery to the US by Boeing, GLSDB's general contractor, will take place at the end of December, followed by several months of testing before shipping to Ukraine," the publication said. “

 

 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

Seems like the player the Vancouver Canucks acquired today (Nikita Zadorov) is one of few Russian hockey players that spoke out *AGAINST* the military invasion of Ukraine.  I like this player already before he's played a single minute as a Canuck.  Takes guts to come out like that.

[SilentSam]

THIS !

 

    If RuZ can steal or block UKraine exports on the Black / Azov Seas ,.    Why not take out the Oil Tankers?

If avoiding a Ecological Disaster is the reason ,  then take the Tankers out on the return.

RuZ dosent play by “Rules of War”.

Why should anyone else when facing them.

 

BaDaBoom 

 

 

[Muscatel Marauder]

 

[Canuck Surfer]

Budanov's wife?

 

Ukrainian officials say wife of Kyrylo Budanov has been hospitalised due to heavy metals poisoning.  Al Jazeera

Ukraine says Marianna Budanova, wife of military spy chief, was poisoned

 

“Yes, I can confirm the information. Unfortunately, it is true,” GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday without clarifying when the poisoning occurred or who was responsible.

 

Budanov has become a celebrated figure in Ukraine for his role in planning clandestine operations against Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

 

Yusov said this year that Budanov had survived 10 assassination attempts by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.

While it is not immediately clear who was behind the suspected poisoning of his wife, the BBC’s Ukrainian service cited Yusov as saying that other GUR officials have experienced milder poisoning symptoms.

 

The suspected poisoning was first reported by Ukrainian media. There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.

Russian media figures have speculated that the poisoning could be a result of infighting within Ukraine.

 

Russia has previously been accused of poisoning dissidents, including politician Alexey Navalny and two Russian exiles who attended a summit in Berlin organised by a critic of Russia.

 

Moscow has also blamed Ukraine for suspected involvement in the killings of a pro-war Russian blogger and a pro-war journalist on Russian soil, something Ukraine denies.