Russia - threadbanned users in OP

🤣 WTF?

Karma.

Great piece from the BBC about the Ukrainian engineers who race to fix the grid

Some snippets

"Since October, when temperatures began to plummet, Russia has been using strikes on Ukraine's power grid to force the civilian population into submission. For two weeks, the BBC watched engineers and technicians who run the network racing to repair the damage and keep electricity flowing across the country.

We have been asked not to reveal the precise location of some of the facilities we visit. We've also altered the names of some of the officials we meet.

"Every time the equipment is damaged, it gets us all right here in our soul," Michael says, tapping his chest.

Some of these huge rust-stained machines are older than the men who run them. But for Michael, the plant's manager, they're his babies.

"It's our life. Our second family."

"Then, even through the thick concrete walls of our underground retreat, we hear a distant explosion. There's tension in the room as the men and women check their phones. A crowded apartment block, not far away, has been hit.

The scene, when we arrive soon after dark, is chaotic and desperate. A missile has torn a gaping hole in the middle of the nine-storey building. Thick smoke, pierced by flashlights, rises from a pile of rubble. Dozens of rescue workers and volunteers are working frantically to find survivors.

The death toll, which mounts inexorably over the coming days, is one of the highest of the war so far. Mothers, fathers, children. Whole families.

At the power station, the following morning, the mood is bleak. Everyone believes the missile was aimed at them."

"Data collected by Kyiv's Energy Industry Research Centre (EIRC) suggests that about100 substation transformers, of various sizes, have been hit since October. Due to their cost and the many months it takes to manufacture them, not a single one has yet been replaced

Serhiy points out the gaping hole in the administration building, where a bookcase and dangling light bulb are pretty much all that's left of his office. He watched the destruction from 500m away, as a "kamikaze" drone tore into the building, wrecking the control room and taking the substation offline.

"We knew it would happen sooner or later," he says.

Repairing the damage will take years.

"They know perfectly well why this facility is important for Ukraine. That's why they decided to destroy it."

You must feel angry all the time, I suggest. Serhiy is a man of few words.

"Hate," he replies simply. "Hate towards those who came to kill my people.""

"With Western help and several months of experience, Ukraine is getting much better at defending itself. Most of the drones fired by Russia are now shot down before reaching their targets, and most of the missiles too. Data from EIRC shows fewer than 10% of the 1,400 missiles and drones fired at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure since early October have actually destroyed key components of the grid.

But it's still a scramble for the country's engineers to keep up."

"Ukraine officially declared its desire to join the European grid in 2017. It's typically a lengthy process - it took Turkey 11 years - but when Vladimir Putin decided to invade last year, the process accelerated dramatically. In February last year Ukraine disconnected itself from the Russian grid for the first time, to test the country's ability to manage in "isolated mode" during the winter months, when demand for electricity peaks.

The disconnect, the first of two, was due to take place on the 18th and last just three days. The Russians requested a delay. It eventually happened at 01:00 on 24 February.

"We disconnected four hours before the invasion started, from this very building," Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, told me at his Kyiv headquarters.

"When the invasion started, it became obvious we would not reconnect."

Was the invasion timed to coincide with Ukraine's moment of maximum isolation?

"I absolutely believe the war started on the 24th just because of this," Kharchenko says.

Infrastructure was targeted in the early days, but not enough to plunge the country into chaos.

"They thought we would have a national blackout," Kharchenko says. "That this would cause panic, no connection, no government, no-one knows where the president is, how to connect with your siblings, your parents."

None of this happened."

On the Olympics thing, Poland says it plans to boycott any Games involving the terrorist state and reckons they can get 40 more countries at least to join them in such a boycott.

Unfortunately it was expected ,

Died protection Ukrainians ,

Rip

Looking at Transparency International and World Data, Ireland ranks 13th out of almost 200 and 10th out of 118 respectively. Denmark was No1 in both lists, so saying we are apparently more corrupt than Denmark is no big deal.

I am sure that Denmark's contribution is not just a matter of being the least corrupt.

Canadian Leopards are on their way.

Meanwhile in russia....

Shame it's only 4 going

That is absolutely mental. An invading aggressor portraying itself as a victim. Unbelievable. Your one ,and all of them, claiming that they (Russia) did everything to negotiate with a peaceful neighbouring state, of no threat to them, which Russia invaded, pillaged and raped. I really cannot watch anymore of this garbage. As the world and his mother knows, this is an illegal Russian land grab.

Because if they don’t Russian tanks will be at Polish borders soon and that means NATO will have to put actual boots on the ground and sacrifice their countrymen.

Give Ukraine what they need now.

I think I read somewhere that a good number of russian tanks have already been put out of action in Ukraine, many of them with weapons supplied by NATO member countries. Do you think it would be a good idea to give Ukraine nuclear weapons again like they had before they made an agreement with russia to respect Ukraine's internationally agreed borders in exchange for their old soviet weapons? Seems only fair since russia has breached the agreement and now has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians and made millions in the country homeless.

Edit: Just found one of the more recent counts on russian losses in Ukraine since the escalation in agresion against Ukraine by russia last year and the Ukrainians count it as over 3200 russian tanks lost by the russian armed forces so far. How many active tanks do the russians have still available to bring to Poland?