Please use this thread to continue discussing the war in Ukraine.
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Original thread:
There was a certain European country that took that approach in the last century. It can work as long as you don't overstep.
Now that F16's are in Ukraine I'm assuming Russian nukes are on the way. If you happen to read this, God speed.
I believe that western militaries are learning from this war. For example, UK MOD are looking to accelerate development of laser weaponry like DragonFire. Their director of strategic programs said:
The DragonFire trials at the Hebrides demonstrated that our world-leading technology can track and engage high-end effects at range. In a world of evolving threats we know that our focus must be on getting capability to the warfighter and we will look to accelerate this next phase of activity.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/13/europe/britain-air-defense-laser-dragonfire-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
To be honest, what they really have to learn is that large stockpiles of artillery are always needed. The previous idea of industries ramping up and delivering on-time when something like this occurs is the stuff of dreams.
F16's over Ukraine. T-minus 5 seconds until the concern-trolls come in "asking" why Ukraine is not immediately taking back all territory and defeating Russia in an instant.
You know Vlad has been pissing on about nukes since the first aid packet to Ukraine. 😁
some good news
Looks like they convinced the Germans to give up a KGB assassin in order to get them out.
Yeh multiple articles now, let it be a lesson to anyone to avoid going near Mordor
The Guardian's Article on the exchange:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/01/evan-gershkovich-other-foreign-citizens-freed-russia-prisoner-swap
Great to see that Vladimir Kara-Murza has also been released. He's already been poisoned twice. I thought that he would surely die in prison, just like Navalny.
A russian soldier's account of the war.
Hehe
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-concluded-one-of-the-largest-cyberattacks-against-russia-source-says/
"This is only a prelude to more interesting events"
I like the sound of that. Heady days indeed!
With news outlets coving this spy swap deal some will make reference to the one that happened in 2010. For anyone interested in all that kind of stuff, I’d highly recommend a book called Russians Among Us by Gordon Corera. It captures the dozen or so deep cover Russians (“illegals” as they don’t have diplomatic immunity like normal government spies) who embedded themselves into ordinary American life (by stealing the birth certs of long dead US kids) in the 90’s/00’s with the aim of trying to weed their way into political and economic circles. They then reported everything back to Moscow but thankfully none of them really got anywhere or into positions to influence.
The FBI cottoned onto what they were up to, tracked them until they had evidence of their actions and rounded them all up in 2010. They were then all swapped for 3 Russians, one of whom was Sergei Skripal of Salisbury poisoning fame. Another was a guy called Alexander Zhaporovsky who apparently informed the CIA of the existence of another mole in their ranks outside of the ones who were identified in the decade or so before (Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen if anyone recognises those names). Robert Baer’s book The Fourth Man tells this still unsolved story.
I’m absolutely fascinated with all this kind of stuff, would love if anyone could recommend similar reading!
Nice comment: give them a 30 day subscription to Crowdstrike.
Already seen claims of one shot down. Using a photo from a US Air National Guard crash a few years back.
I've said it before, the Kremlin's hitmen are the ones with all the incriminating evidence, so Putin takes great care of them (note how he met them personally)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/aug/02/russia-us-prisoner-swap-evan-gershkovich-paul-whelan-vadim-krasikov
I take your point but I suspect that that was one of the doubles.
The rule of thumb with Putin is - if you see him around regular people then it's likely not him. Plus this guy was hugging and kissing those people getting off of the plane. Also had a slightly different look to him
Reminded me of the "Putin" that went to Mariupol last year
Ladies and gentlemen
This is Putin number 5
One, two, three, four, five
Everybody in the car so come let's ride…
his realise doesn’t seem to be getting enough attention
You'd have to wonder what kind of life these doubles have. Locked away is some basement and brought out every few weeks.
At least as a double, you get to hug a lot of murderers and criminals, and travel to destroyed towns.
It's traditional.
"The children of the illegals who arrived yesterday only found out they were Russian on the plane from Ankara. They do not speak Russian,"
That's got to hurt.....summer holiday surprise of a life time/sentence
The abiding terror of Putin's doubles is that he was in an accident,and lost an arm or a leg or an eye…..or worse!!!
If that is the real Putin, then I am Mickey Mantle.
Depressing reading.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/08/ukraine-sitrep-catch-up-.html#more
Here comes another round of propaganda, followed by rebuttal which will be ignored and a disappearance for a week.
It's a far left blog site with questionable info
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/moon-of-alabama/
"Overall, we rate Moon of Alabama Left as Biased and questionable based on the promotion of pro-Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories, the use of poor sources, false claims, and a lack of transparency."
Again, you aren't "stumbling" across these types of sites, it's part of a pattern.
That is interesting they describe it as 'left wing'. I (had) thought it was a pro Trump/MAGA American blog. There's another very non left wing Russia/Putin-sympathetic poster who used to post wisdom from it here about the war in Ukraine every so often.
