The Belgorad Oil Storage attack was, I'd imagine, a guided-in, joint forces operation and therefore, perhaps, a little beyond the current envelope? - that may be why responsibility hasn't been claimed.
Either that, or it's the first (maybe even second) "mysterious" occurrence of the conflict.
Personally, I'd like to see Russia being issued a warning via the unexplained sinking of a carrier, something they can't spoof off to their public. If they can't pin something like that on either the US, or NATA, or a third party, what can they do?
Yet other countries are buying far more oil and gas than India are. Also USA has quietly dropped Uranium from it's sanctions as it is needed for it's nuclear reactors as well as fertilizer. It is just hypocritical really, you can't threaten others when you are doing the same thing.
BoJo is a loyal servant to the Oligarchs, they know his price and what he can and can't deliver.
But how can they say with a straight face that its "going to plan" when the NovoFuhrer hasn't shared the plan with them. At this rate the black comedy "Death of Stalin" was actually a documentary !!!
TBH who knows what is going on in their heads and if Putin is not getting the true picture nothing can be discounted.
If it was a Ukrainian operation I find it strange that the official Ukrainian channels have not claimed this operation. If it was them it was very risky and ballsy.
As for the so-called S400-S500 systems I reckon they are vapourware like much of so-called recent Russian military advancements. Its basically Russian Military Bullshit.
More counter sanctions coming as they look to limit food exports.
"Going to plan" - So thinning out your military forces and making them look like an Airsoft team on a sunday morning was the plan? Great jerb there!
BBC News - Russian MP says Putin's plan for Ukraine hasn't been shared with their parliament
So, the Duma doesn't know what the plan actually is, but it's going to plan, whatever it is. And they're deliberately advancing slowly to avoid civilian casualties? Yeah, right!
Why would Russia need a false flag event at this point,
They are 37 day's into an invasion which they are losing the war ,they don't need a reason to escalate or to justify failed invasion and occupation .
The more targets they can hit inside Russia the better ,
So much for the mighty s400 and s500 anti aircraft missiles if ukraine can fly Into Russia and back unopposed
Exactly - blowing up a couple of apartment blocks in Moscow would be more Russia's style. Fuel is important to Putin, a few hundred Russian civilians are not.
I would have said the opposite. Russia has claimed for a few days that they've wiped out the Ukrainian air force. Their entire narrative is around this being a limited conflict which they have full control over and are clearly winning. They've already lost some face because of this internally with the whole moving away from Kyiv part. Having the Ukrainian air force not just still flying but able to hit one of their own cities is the last thing they need as it makes it obvious that the 'special military operation' is not going anywhere near as well as they are claiming and ruins their strong man dominance narrative. I wouldn't be surprised if Russian state media glosses over the attack completely.
This attack doesn't affect Ukraine's reputation in Russia, but it does affect Russia's reputation in Russia.
We have so much information today, 24 hour news networks, social media, YouTube, Drone footage, camera phones, time stamps, and we still don't know what is real or fake news.
Imagine how it was for people back in the 1940s. All they had was government radio broadcasting and a weekly paper.
There will be “consequences” for any country, including India, that conducts local currency transactions through Russia’s central bank or constructs a payment mechanism that subverts or circumvents the United States’ sanctions against Russia, American Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics Daleep Singh said in New Delhi on Thursday, hours before Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed.
Yeah, not really hating that, to be honest. Countries propping up Russia at this point in time should be told it's not on. That it is also in the US's interest to have more transactions conducted in dollars is very much secondary in my collection of world concerns right now.
Looks like the US is warning "those that attempt to undermine the dollar based financial system." They will be starting on China next you watch.
My god those lads are brave, I wouldnt have the brass ones for that.
The majority of Russians think the Ukrainians are Nazis. So I don't think they need to worry about damaging their reputation in Russia.
I can't see how they would be risking the propaganda war at all if they are attacking strategic targets within Russia., if it will help limit Russias attack ability. Different story altogether if they go attacking civilian areas.
TBH at this stage I think the US and other NATO countries should be supplying more military assets that allow the Ukrainians to target the artillery pounding the east and ne part of the country. I think drones with a better range would be the ideal weapons. Something like the US Reaper with a range of 1800+ kms could be a gamechanger here, the Turkish TB2 that the Ukrainians are using has a range of 150kms. The UK have 10 so they could afford to give the Ukrainians a couple at least. A number of other NATO nations operate them as well.
Risk V Reward.
If the fuel depot was supplying the front line in Ukraine then it was probably worth it. It will cause all sorts of logistical problems, you can't just knock up a large fuel depot in a day.
Ukrainians haven't admitted it was them, that doesn't mean it wasn't though.
Either way the need to get longer range offensive missiles ASAP as tactics change.
The switch blade drones being sent are hilarious pieces of kit, basically designed to kill Generals.
Russia seems to be making a balls of their logistics perfectly fine all by themselves though. Yes a helping hand from Ukraine to make more of a mess of their supplies would be useful of course, but there aren't any other examples of Ukraine going on the offensive into Russian territory so far. Would be a major change in tactics from them to be attacking Russia directly, rather than just trying to force them back out of their own territory and with the weight of the worlds opinion fully behind them in that.
Attacking Russia directly is a risky move when they are winning the propaganda war everywhere except Russia.
You don't seriously damage a vital bit of infrastructure for some utterly pointless false flag. Russia clearly needs no justification for whatever it is getting up to, and no one is going to rise up in patriotic spirit cause an oil terminal was damaged (though it will cause you shitloads of problems logistically).
There is zero reason to think its a "false flag" bar people's love of claiming everything is.
The adva tag would be pretty obvious - to weaken fuel supply to Russian forces in Ukraine. Fuel seems to be a huge problem for Russian equipment so diminishing it would pay Real dividends.
Ukranians using their air force for this would be high risk but also potentially high reward.
Impact/morale boost
Not entirely convinced about that being Ukraine forces. Why do a high risk attack over the border, when there is plenty of Russians forces for them to attack in Ukraine. Popping over into Russia is surely a much bigger risk to the limited Ukrainian hardware.
I highly doubt it was the Ukrainians more likely a false flag by the Russians to ensure they get a full batch of patriotic conscripts to send to the meat grinder of the battlefields of Ukraine.
It doesn't make sense that the Ukrainians who have been very conservative with their use of their air assets would suddenly send 2 choppers 30 km into Russia in an area crawling with AA defenses.
This is a false flag for domestic purposes.
Newsflash : Putin to call off war immediately.
April fools! He's still a murdering scumbag thug!
Has been said several times (usually when there are upcoming elections), I'll believe it when I see it.
Remarkably good footage of the attack is floating around online, which has me wondering if this is an elaborate false flag to justify an intensification or an attack on Kyiv or ending the peace talks.
Has Ukraine commented on this officially yet?
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