Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Indeed, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, Zaporizhzhia, is under occupation in an active war-zone, it's a much more extreme risk than DU rounds.

I believe Russia is corrupt but this is ridiculous

That's the Russian propaganda in a nutshell. Makes ludicrous claims about DU shells being in the explosion and we're left discussing DU and background radiation rather than focusing on the initial claim.

I've seen claims on twitter it was drones.... then a very dodgy Iskander missile video pops up with a claim it took out 2.2bil in NATO equipment etc...

Same claims with Pavlograd and the train with 250 troops and multiple AA systems being blown up etc...

When it just appears it was just an old soviet era rocket fuel storage site, very similar to Khmelnytskyi.

Give it minute and you'll hear about pages and pages of leaks

Well I guess corruption and impunity at the top filters throughout Russian society.

There's no way Prigozgin knowingly leaked the position of Russian soldiers to Ukraine. This is obviously **** stirring by Ukraine in an attempt to sow further division in Russia.

Lushashenko looking very Madame Tussauds all of a sudden

As I understood it, it's Wagner in the town, but it's increasingly been regular Russian military on the flanks, who've been pushed back somewhat due to localised Ukrainian offensive operations. And the impression being given out through Prigozhin's rants is that these different factions of what can be broadly called Russia's forces are not always the best of bedfellows.

I'd be curious to know what the exact make up of the Wagner mercs pushing through the town is. If it's mostly grunts on the six month contract thing, then I'd hazard a guess that Prigozhin wants to try and take the whole town before any encirclement operation is completed, and he can go for broke on that if it's expendable men where the worst case is that it is they who get encircled while Prigozhin and his more experienced troops skedaddle.

Prigozhin may not have the forces/resources or be given them to wage another assault on a frontline town of any significant size, so it may be Bakhmut or bust.

"Band of Brothers" NOT!!! But it was common knowledge, even in the beginning that Russians already on the front line ( or not even near it) preyed on the new comers to rob them of everything they had. It was in part a continuation of recruit hazing custom's (Dedovschina) where more experienced soldiers treated the newer ones abominably. Seems its still alive and well.

I've been to the wax museum in St. Augustine, I can at least say it doesn't look like a wax stand in.

It's most likely not a recent photo. I wonder why no one has suggested he has a double. Even if Wagner take the last 20 buildings under Ukrainan control in Bakhmut,its going to be a meaningless and short-lived victory when their flanks are being over run. Also no way did the head of Wagner co operate with the Ukranians, it's most likely a psych op by Ukranian intelligence to muddy the water and exploit the friction between Wagner and the Russian Mod

Just to point out the twitter author on this is pro Kremlin troglodyte

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Yes, it will be interesting to find out exactly what game Ukraine is playing regarding Bakhmut. Did they really spend eight months taking a stand over a small town out of simple principle, or was it part of a larger strategy, as has also been claimed? Ukraine have been playing it a fair bit cuter than Russia in this conflict, so I think it fairly unlikely that the Ukrainian operation at Bakhmut has no nuance to it, but how that plays into whatever larger strategy Ukraine has remains to be seen.

That's a paywall. Are they going to have a higher GDP than UK in 2030?

A lower per capita income but as higher wealth as a country?

Let's hope they don't come to blows with Russia as I doubt Nato would back them unless Russia used nukes(which she would be entitled, if mad to do -if Poland moved over her territory. )