Because it's a large city defended by the most experienced and determined of Ukraine's army, and has been right beside the frontline of the unofficial war in the Donbas region for the last 5 years, so not likely to be taken be surprise like other areas. Instead the Russians are getting bogged down into street fights, with their artillery attacks having little impact except in terms of bad publicity, and a lot of their fighting now being done by Donbas conscripts, who really don't want to be there.
Bin man was late this morning too, definitely the CIA.
As for the helicopter attack on Belgorod - no way is that a false flag operation. How can the Russians possibly spin an incisive attack on a strategic target, with no collateral damage to spark fury with, as anything other than an embarrassment. Imagine the stretches to credibility they'll have to go through to explain how a few days after Putin announces - 'We've achieved our goals in Northern Ukraine', 2 attack helicopters fly unhindered 40 km into Russia, blow stuff up and merrily fly home.
As someone said on twitter, wouldn't happen to the U.S. or China, but 370,000 Begorod people are looking out their windows at a smoke plume, thinking the war is suddenly a lot closer, and asking questions
https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0401/1289690-ukraine-russia/
There's no indication as to why the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been denied permission to bring supplies of medicine and food into Mariupol. As far as I know, even the Nazis didn't dare to obstruct ICRC workers.
But how could the Ukrainian citizens in Mariupol - civilians and soldiers - have enough food and water to barely survive for that long?
Rationing, high death toll and a large number managed to evacuate. I can't imagine the situation for Ukrainians there is anything better than extremely grim.
Indeed. I'm aware that many Ukrainian citizens have been taken into Russia against their will. The only saving grace about the Russian forces is that, in spite of the war crimes they have committed, they haven't carried out massacres that would be on the same scale as Katyn in 1940 or Srebrenica in 1995.
Indiscriminate shelling of civilian populations is in the same realm in fairness. We have no idea what conditions those who have been taken away are in. There's no saving grace in the behaviour of the Russians so far and as the war drags on I can't see them improving either.
That would be the worst possible outcome for Russia if Georgia and Moldova made moves to take back their territory, but the scary thing is it would widen the conflict.
The other area that could kick off is Chechnya if anything happened to Kadryrov and/or most of his scum bag soldiers.
BTW he looks like a trailer park resident from one of those US reality TV shows like Moonshiners or something and has to have one of the worst wardrobes in the world. I guess the old adage money can't buy class is proven again.
Even when he wears a suit he look like he has a court date for handling stolen property and interfering with a relative.
Oh and he just appointed his 22 year old daughter as culture minister.
PS ladies he is on the lookout for a second wife by all accounts. 😉
Another Chopper is downed.
I've been following the frontlines at Mariupol on the LiveUAmap site for the past weeks, and if it's accurate the Russians have been approaching very cautiously, often preferring to stay outside the built up area. Up until early last week, they had only dared to jump into a couple of city blocks on the edges and then pull back a day or so later. Rinse and repeat a few times.
My guess is that the conscripted idiots that they're ordering forward into the city are being picked off by experienced Ukrainian shooters when they come around most street corners, and if they're skilled enough you only need a couple of these shooters to keep a whole street shut down to Russian troops. The bombings just makes things worse for the Russians by giving Ukrainian snipers an evolving set of places in the rubble to set up shop.
The Russians have gotten into the city center now, but they only control a slim corridor of city blocks, meaning that they still have to fight hard each time they want to take over a city block. If the city remains cut off, the Russians will probably win, but it will only be due to the Ukrainian soldiers running out of ammo, supplies or having been all bombed to bits. I feel that the Russian losses in that city alone must be quite high.
And that why Putin is panicking now,because he needs to take reserves from other russian occupied areas to fill the ranks,means he will weaken those positions and flanks.
So he is holding a referendum so he can justify invading it later if Georgia is taking action
I'm not denying that. However, I was thinking of point-blank shooting of thousands of people in specific locations. Being face to face with potential targets who are unarmed might make combatants less likely to shoot them. So far, Russians haven't carried out a Tiananmen Square-type massacre in the Ukrainian cities that they occupy.
Perhaps the fact that all of the Russian aristocrats were either killed by the Bolsheviks or fled Russia is a factor in the frequency of atrocities committed by Soviet and Russian forces, i.e. the contrast with aristocratic German military personnel who either plotted against Hitler or at least refused to obey some orders, e.g. General von Choltitz in Paris.
He was well and truly f*...
It took the tail boom out.
A factor in all this may be social media and instant news. It would be virtually impossible for the Russians to carry out massacres of thousands of captured troops and for it not to become public knowledge very quickly.
Apparently that's $12 million gone up in smoke!
The British MOD looked at the lessons of America's screwup with Vietnam and the role US and foreign media played in that and took that very much on board and only allowed embedded and trusted media with them to report back. The isolation of the Falklands helped too. The MOD controlled the narrative.
You have to think 8 years ago Russia threw everything at Mariupol bar the kitchen sink and the Azoz batillion kept them at bay ,they lost something like 30 tanks after making a big push to grab it ,
Now the Same battalion are bigger are better equipped than ever and they have prepared for years for this situation to come about , Russia hasn't ah sure we will just bomb it and they will surrender and will announce it as Russian territory ,
But yet the azoz battalions are invoking the spirit of the Spartans at Thermopylae,
Bomb our buildings and wr will fight in the rubble ,the Russians have to be bricking it every time they leave cover
Ukrainian or Russian ,
A Ukrainian mil8 medivac was shot down yesterday as well
Russian allegedly from today. Apparently a MI-28 Havoc. The one that was flying ahead of it was definitely a KA-52 Alligator.
Ukraine doesn't have any mi-28s and that looked like one.
It definitely wasn't a Mi-8 or Mi-17.
And it even looked a little long and small to be a Mi-24 (which Ukraine has) or Mi-35.
That may be a factor (though you have to question how much Russia care) but another rather mundane one is that Russia just don't have enough troops deployed in the occupied towns to do much of anything.
That a Havoc? They're modern! Oh noes!
Really India?
Yeah the high twin coaxial rotors. They are supposed to have lost a few of them as well.
They can always look at the positives, they only lost 2 personnel.
Pretty much agreed here. I will keep saying if there is any land they're considering ceding (Crimea isn't worth it) needs to be attacked as much as possible, give the Russians a taste of their own medicine. Get that bridge to Crimea blown up. Anything that looks like it might be a desalination plant in future needs to be blown up. Let them have Crimea then.
India was always aligned with the Soviet Union, so shouldn't really be a surprise. What can be a surprise is when you visit India and notice that "Mein Kampf" is widely available for sale, including in most train stations, presumably a bit of light reading on a long journey.
Those Ukraine chopper pilots would have had the adrenaline still pumping upon their return at a guess.....
Still quite a slow reaction to the apparent attack in Russia
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