Board 8 > The Russia Ukraine War appears to have begun

(+) Yeah! (+)

masterplum posted...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1496854488933715972

Jesus

https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/1496856147336495112

https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1496854817767145478

Why the fuck would you send your troops to Chernobyl

Interesting UN development
https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1496710912648044548?t=YirKwv0InJGzL4SMqLt_KQ&s=19

Peace___Frog posted...

Interesting UN development
https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1496710912648044548?t=YirKwv0InJGzL4SMqLt_KQ&s=19

That's from last night, but China would veto any of that crap.

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1496859693637337093

Corrik7 posted...

https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/1496856147336495112

https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/1496860722059517958

cyko posted...

Apparently Nicaragua supports Russia and I don't believe they are held up by Russia.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaraguas-ortega-defends-russias-stance-over-ukraine-2022-02-22/

Granted, Nicaragua's government is basically a thinly veiled dictatorship pretending to be a democracy, so there's that.

Ortega is a wannabe dictator and his alliegances will change at the drop of a hat depending on who is giving him more kickbacks. They had a strong relationship with Taiwan for decades, and ended that arbruptly a few months ago in order to curry favour with China. It's sad, since Nicaragua is a beautiful and safe country that with proper leadership could be on the same level as Costa Rica in terms of stability and quality of life.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496862540957114370

masterplum posted...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1496854488933715972

Apparently this was fired from a Ukrainian Mig.

https://twitter.com/michaelh992/status/1496858080415473672

https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1496843044917760000

UltimaterializerX posted...

And youll be in the front lines yourself since youre so willing to volunteer others to be there, yes?

Obviously not talking about combat, that would be a terrible idea and Im a pacifist regardless. I was talking about sanctions, especially sanctions that target the oligarchs and the billions of dirty Russian money that floods other countries. Current moves have not been sufficient. Nobody sane wants other countries to get involved militarily when nuclear war is being threatened. There are, however, other options.

-Moving away from Russian energy.

-Ending golden visas for Oligarchs.

-Cutting off access to SWIFT.

-Removing Russian investments and political donations.

-Banning RT and other propaganda networks.

-Greater asset freezes and travel bans against key individuals and organisations.

-Cracking down on troll farms and bots online.

https://twitter.com/shcherbininainn/status/1496862283691085828?s=20&t=eCHNDrfUQjl-mZeg14FxeQ

https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1496862482492801030?s=20&t=LQQJjjifpT-aHu8RrkWR5A

It doesn't seem like there could be "heavy fighting" in Chernobyl unless Russia has someone to, you know, fight there?

It sounded like that story was supposed to make Russia look worse? It certainly doesn't make them look any better but if Ukraine is willing to disregard the potential consequences to their own territory by placing combat forces there, uh. Hard to blame Russia too much for that one if Ukraine doesn't give a damn what happens in Chernobyl either?

AxemRedRanger posted...

It doesn't seem like there could be "heavy fighting" in Chernobyl unless Russia has someone to, you know, fight there?

It sounded like that story was supposed to make Russia look worse? It certainly doesn't make them look any better but if Ukraine is willing to disregard the potential consequences to their own territory by placing combat forces there, uh. Hard to blame Russia too much for that one if Ukraine doesn't give a damn what happens in Chernobyl either?

It's the quickest route to kyiv from Belarus and makes an encirclement of kyiv easier

https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/1496864291424661504?s=20&t=bCJ2ckUCsKCeDCBbTolMKw

https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1496873022229073924

https://twitter.com/nolanwpeterson/status/1496867212711260162

UltimaterializerX posted...

Does any of that actually affect Putin? And are we shutting down all the bot farms or just Russias? Id definitely be in favor of that one.

I'm sure you already know this, but good luck on the bot farm front. That's among the least likely to get enforced successfully. Same with the political donations, because no politicians are going to ban people from giving them money (and it doesn't affect approaches to Putin/Russia as much as a lot of people think it does, to my knowledge). I think the RT part is unlikely and limited in effectiveness too, but I don't know enough about it myself to say for sure.

Moving away from Russian energy, yeah, that's the one I'd focus on. That's one of the biggest things they hold over the West's heads and needs to happen. There will never be a better time to do it and it will financially hit Russia hard, as well as ruining the oligarch's support. They are the key to Putin's power, and a lot of the sanctions' effectiveness will be decided by Germany's response. I think the Netherlands recieve large quantities of Russian oil too, and Poland are probably massive recipients, but they're possibly the most anti-Russia in the union, so if Germany cuts links the rest of the EU will follow. SWIFT is vital for international trade and cutting access would basically neuter Russia's trade links, but the US and EU (and their investors) will probably be too greedy to cut it unless this escalates beyond Ukraine (although I'm rather cynical, my field is international relations rather than economics and my knowledge of SWIFT is only in passing, so take that prediction with a pinch of salt).

Key financial backers of Putin being sanctioned and prevented from travel is also important, but pinning enough of them may be a challenge. It's usually good as a supplement to other sanctions to try and squeeze a regime out, but by itself wouldn't be too impactful. The asset seizure probably won't have the effect it sounds like it could because of how difficult it is to connect money directly to individuals, but it's worth doing in conjunction with other sanctions.

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1496870591483330560?s=20&t=KuRIpP0_09Jo-KpAIidqOw

https://twitter.com/ignis_fatum/status/1496878021403615236?s=20&t=W7sxSd2LOGSRfmnErILoNQ

https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1496876639308992512?s=20&t=-E_1Cos8pNStkacRQYRDjA

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1496877557559484427?s=20&t=8OfyOL9rS2AUNT_bxV870w

https://twitter.com/IntelCrab/status/1496882114486280195?s=20&t=96lrd9k-1-vNcr4GnxvW3g

I saw someone on Twitter call Ukraine the George Floyd of countries

...I don't know what that could possibly mean in this situation

https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1496880917398564869?s=20&t=QPIM4BVaC8korkuWYsIHtA

I live in Greece myself. Russia was traditionally an ally and a friend to us. Yeah even with stuff that Soviet Union did we still believe that here. In fact when at 2014 Russia annexed Crimea our country was the only European country that supported Russia more than Ukraine! At least according to some polls.

So yeah I don't know what to say here. Obviously war is bad, duh. But here is the thing, if a country feels threatened don't they have to do anything to you know counter that? Nobody can deny that. All countries in History have done that and will continue to do that.

Also Oil and Natural Gas prices have increased so much in the last few months and now if they increase even more we are screwed. But what can you do? When you are weak you are forced to do what the strong say.

Safer_777 posted...

I live in Greece myself. Russia was traditionally an ally and a friend to us. Yeah even with stuff that Soviet Union did we still believe that here. In fact when at 2014 Russia annexed Crimea our country was the only European country that supported Russia more than Ukraine! At least according to some polls.

So yeah I don't know what to say here. Obviously war is bad, duh. But here is the thing, if a country feels threatened don't they have to do anything to you know counter that? Nobody can deny that. All countries in History have done that and will continue to do that.

Also Oil and Natural Gas prices have increased so much in the last few months and now if they increase even more we are screwed. But what can you do? When you are weak you are forced to do what the strong say.

They don't feel threatened, they are full of shit. They just got sanctions lifted last year. A defense agreement is no threat unless you want to be aggressive.

They almost undoubtedly do feel threatened at being boxed in by Nato. But, not really an excuse. Win friends by being good partners. Not this way. They could have arguably peeled away Germany Italy and such over time. No chance now

Thats a good breakdown from Sheepy, though I think RTs influence is massively understated. There are a lot of open-source studies that indicate that its surprisingly influential, but a lot of politicians refuse further investigations for political reasons. It is ludicrous that RT is just allowed to broadcast propaganda in other countries. Russian interference needs to be dealt with.

Other suggestions from Ukrainian diplomats:

-Ending software licences for military and civilian equipment.

-Jamming satellite signals.

-Granting Ukranians access to the EU emergency aid system.

The EU is also now sanctioning Belarus, and has the harshest sanctions so far. Hopefully the UK and US will follow suit and Scholz is wrong about SWIFT. German officials say its still on the table anyway.

Safer_777 posted...

I live in Greece myself. Russia was traditionally an ally and a friend to us. Yeah even with stuff that Soviet Union did we still believe that here. In fact when at 2014 Russia annexed Crimea our country was the only European country that supported Russia more than Ukraine! At least according to some polls.

So yeah I don't know what to say here. Obviously war is bad, duh. But here is the thing, if a country feels threatened don't they have to do anything to you know counter that? Nobody can deny that. All countries in History have done that and will continue to do that.

Isn't this kind of like saying you have the right to shoot someone who is threatening you because you are trespassing on their property?

KingButz posted...

Isn't this kind of like saying you have the right to shoot someone who is threatening you because you are trespassing on their property?

This is more like saying you have the right to rob someone's house immediately because they are getting a new security system installed next week and you are threatened by the fact that it will hinder your ability to rob them in the future.

Nice analogy actually!

DoomTheGyarados posted...

They don't feel threatened, they are full of shit. They just got sanctions lifted last year. A defense agreement is no threat unless you want to be aggressive.

Yeah, basically every country that wanted to join NATO has proven themselves to be justified. Ukraine wanted to join NATO so this didnt happen. Russia cant punch a guy in the face and then cry self defense because he tried to join an anti getting punched in the face club a week before.

Also thanks for all these updates Corrik. Nice to have something put together like this.

Yeah, thanks for posting these updates.

it's surreal to watch a war unfold in real time. With the rise of social media, no other major conflict has unfolded so visibly.

Typically, with other recent smaller scale genocides (like Ethiopia, Myanmar and western China) the first thing the government does is shut off the local cellular service so images, videos and reports from the ground don't make it out to the rest of the world as easily. It makes it easier for them to control the narrative.

It's also a little crazy that with how quickly this is happening and how little resistance Ukraine has, Russia may gain control of the country within a couple of days - or less

I mean of course. Russia spends so much money on weapons. Of course their army is strong. Plus they have been planning this for months. I am pretty sure until like 2 weeks ago nobody thought that Russia would start a war.

Lightning Strikes posted...

This is the thing though, the people saying that it was a fake revolution or acting like Russias still communist are wrong. It is a very different Russia. Just not, as it happens, a better Russia.

The revolution WAS a farce, though.

I presume you think that America under Reagan and America under Obama were the same. Countries change, even with the same sort of government. Russia is still very much the dictatorship it was under Stalin, it's just that the despot at the top is a different kind of insane. He still uses KGB hitmen to rub out his opponents, controls the press, and holds absolute power. He also holds farcical elections to make it seem like the people want him. It's all a scheme to save face, just like the fake revolution was once all the SSRs declared independence. And now he's going "I'll be taking these back, thank you." Which isn't very different from the invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s.

Thats like saying the Russian Revolution was a false revolution because it still ended up a dictatorship afterwards. Obviously a lot has changed, just not the hostile dictatorship with imperialist ambitions part.

The Bolshevik Revolution was vastly different, though. The overthrew the czar and were attempting Marxism. Lenin was NOT a dictator - he wanted to make Marx's vision a reality. But because of corrupt assholes like Stalin, that was never going to happen. Stalin seized power and made Russia into a dictatorship, going against Lenin's ambitions.

The 1991 "Revolution" was a peaceful transfer of power to a new Soviet Premier while Putin manipulated things from behind the scenes. It was an attempt to save face while retaining the power structure, just in Putin's favor instead of the Communist Party. Think of it as a "rebranding" that was merely an attempt to look good to the rest of the world. Because of that PR stuff, the USSR needed to change with time.

https://twitter.com/business/status/1496921478721327110

https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/1496904933014216711

https://twitter.com/lilygrutcher/status/1496854795822387205

https://twitter.com/666_mancer/status/1496906426010193921

Gun battle in sumy supposedlyv

The tweet says Sumy, not Chernobyl.

https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/1496921935514681348

BlackDra90n posted...

The tweet says Sumy, not Chernobyl.

Okay thanks.