5242

Well, Putin probably considers all of Ukraine to be a separatist region.

5243

I continue to find this baffling. How do they think they’re going to hold the country with these low numbers, assuming they take it?

5244

Belarus forces? No idea.

5245

There’s still a chance they’ll be greeted as liberators!

Honestly, though, it doesn’t sound like they have the logistics to support what’s already there. I’m not sure throwing more troops into the country would help right now.

5246

Rest in peace keepers.

5247

Russian casualties are at least twice that number. They admitted 7k in the Chechen War, but while The Committee for the Mothers of Soldiers tallied 14k. A figure twice as high would agree with US estimates of around 3k.

5248

Am feeling distinctly in need of some new TB2 footage as a pick-me-up. And find myself hoping like hell that imported stingers etc arrive on the outskirts of the Kyiv encirclement round about now. Sigh.

5249

Probable Chinese perspective on the war:

5250

Given Russian/Soviet history, it’s possible that their leadership is simply refusing to acknowledge what is happening, and is operating on the assumption that everything is going fine.

It’s the 3.6 roentgens of military fiascos.

5251

Hahaha. “Not great. Not terrible.”

5252

So Russia may be having some trouble with its satellites.

Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin denied media reports that Russian satellite control centres have already been hacked amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, while warning against any attempts to do so, Interfax news agency reported.

“Offlining the satellites of any country is actually a casus belli, a cause for war,” Interfax quoted him as saying.

Anonymous is claiming they’ve already taken out Russia’s satellite network.

Anonymous has apparently also hacked Russian TV to show nothing but Ukraine footage.

Other sources have reported similar things regarding their TV networks being hacked.

5253

Is it really possible that Russia allows control of their spy satellite network over the internet? Do we do that? Are countries that dumb?

5254

As is well known, the constitution of the Russian Federation delegates declarations of war to the head of Roscosmos. Putin’s special military operation in Ukraine was a necessary work-around for the fact that he wasn’t legally entitled to declare war.

5255
5256

I am finding it much easier to believe lots of things about Russia’s military being sub-par. I think we all thought they were still the great bear that we imagined during the cold war. It turned out, even that was something of a fiction that we realized after the iron curtain came down… but at this point, they are definitely not even a shadow of their prior status as a superpower.

Negative.

I would think that yes, there are.

5257

My understanding is that Lukashenko is a sly old fox and is “co-operative” with Putin, but procrastinating as much as possible.

My source is a belorussian who is anti Lukashenko though, so no doubt bises!

5258

Anyone want to buy a football club?

Chelsea going up for sale.

5259

Crowd fund me?

5260

I mean, holy shit… to follow on from Thrag’s post…

If you don’t follow English Football, this isn’t quite Jerry Jones selling the Cowboys, but it is kinda Robert Kraft selling the Patriots or Stan Kroenke selling the Rams. Abramovich is one of the wealthiest owners in the Premier League, and since buying Chelsea he’s poured a lot of capital into the team to improve facilities and the roster both, and they’re perennial candidates to factor in the League title race, and other assorted trophies.

5261

That’s good. Utd may qualify for the Champions League after all. Oh, that also means we have evil Vlad to thank.