The Ukraine war thread
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Russia is actively looking to acquire weapons and munitions from North Korea in exchange for food, a U.S. National Security Council official said.
The potential arrangement is being brokered by a Slovakian arms dealer, NSC spokesman John Kirby said in a virtual briefing with reporters Thursday.
"We remain concerned that North Korea will provide further support [of] Russia's military operations against Ukraine and we have new information that Russia is actively seeking to acquire additional munitions from North Korea," Kirby said.
"We also understand that Russia is seeking to send a delegation to North Korea and that Russia is offering North Korea food in exchange for munitions," he added.
"Russia has lost over 9,000 pieces of heavy military equipment since the start of the war, and thanks in part to multilateral sanctions and export controls, Putin has become increasingly desperate to replace them," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Schemes like the arms deal pursued by this individual show that Putin is turning to suppliers of last resort like Iran and the DPRK," she said.
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Assassination of a pro-war blogger:
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https://www.ft.com/content/e0823df3-e5ec-4c44-a111-a0c311e3e107One of Russia’s most influential pro-Kremlin war bloggers, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in a blast at a restaurant in St Petersburg on Sunday.
The incident took place at around 6pm local time, in the centrally located Universitetskaya Embankment, according to the ministry of internal affairs, which confirmed Tatarsky’s death.
St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said that 25 people had been injured, with 19 of them hospitalised. Russia’s state investigative committee has opened a criminal case of “murder by a publicly dangerous method”.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin and who has more than 560,000 subscribers to his Telegram channel, was meeting supporters and subscribers in the restaurant.
According to local news outlet Fontanka, an unknown woman handed Tatarsky a statuette of himself, possibly stuffed with explosives, that exploded about five minutes later. The Ren-TV channel posted a video showing Tatarsky taking the figurine out of a bag and looking at it, film allegedly shot by a social media user directly before the explosion.
The venue has alleged links to Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Fontanka reported that Prigozhin had owned two different cafés in the same location as the restaurant where the explosion took place. The bar located there now hosts a discussion club at weekends called “Cyberfront Z” — Z being a symbol of those supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tatarsky is one of the most prominent pro-Kremlin “military correspondents” and a native of Makiivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. He had fought on the side of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic as well as for units of the Luhansk People’s Republic.
Last year, his popularity increased after his video from a ceremony at the Kremlin celebrating the annexation of Ukraine’s occupied regions went viral. Tatarsky was shown in it, saying: “We’ll defeat everyone. We’ll kill everyone. We’ll rob everyone we need to. Everything will be as we like it.”
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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Too early to know, although Navalny’s recent outpouring of sympathy for Ukraine should not be considered outright support:
Navalny is the darling of the liberal West and its media for no other reason than he is Putin’s enemy. People here really no idea of what Navalny believes. Navalny is to Putin what Trotsky was to Stalin.
I have never been much of a fan of Navalny given his past association and support of Russian nationalists.
https://www.rferl.org/amp/navalny-failure-to-renounce-nationalist-past-support/31122014.html
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-evolution-of-alexey-navalnys-nationalism
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Russia releases video of suspect
Russian investigators have detained a woman in their hunt for the killers of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in Sunday's blast at a St Petersburg cafe.
In video released by authorities - most likely recorded under duress - Darya Trepova is heard admitting she handed over a statuette that later blew up.
But the 26-year-old does not say she knew there would be an explosion, nor does she admit any further role.
Investigators said they had evidence the attack was organised from Ukraine.
However, Kyiv officials said it was a case of Russian infighting.
More than 30 people were wounded in the bombing in Russia's second city.
Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin), aged 40, had been attending a patriotic meeting with supporters in the cafe as a guest speaker late on Sunday afternoon.
A video circulating on social media showed a young woman in a brown coat apparently entering the cafe with a cardboard box.
Images showed the box being placed on a table in the cafe before the woman sat down. Another video showed a statue being handed to Tatarsky.
In a brief excerpt of her interrogation released by the Russian authorities, Darya Trepova appeared under duress as she sighed repeatedly.
When her interrogator asked if she knew why she was detained, she replied: "I would say for being at the scene of Vladlen Tatarsky's murder... I brought the statuette there which blew up."
Asked who gave it to her she responded: "Can I tell you later please? -
The Russian Military Is Destroying Itself
The British Military Intelligence has assessed that “a significant minority” of Russian casualties in Ukraine have been caused “due to non-combat causes.
Non-combat deaths are normal on a battlefield. But Russian Telegram news channels report “extremely high” numbers of deaths linked to alcohol consumption and crime.
“Other leading causes of non-combat casualties likely include poor weapon handing drills, road traffic accidents and climatic injuries such as hypothermia. Russian commanders likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness,” the British Military Intelligence assessed in its latest estimate on the war.
Although completely foreign to Western professional miliary forces, alcohol consumption is an integral part of Russian culture, especially Russian military culture.
“However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations,” the British Military Intelligence added.
Interestingly, the British Military Intelligence assessed that the Russian forces have lost up to 200,000 troops and didn’t corroborate the U.S. intelligence figure of more than 220,000 Russians killed or wounded. It is additionally perplexing because British Defense Minister Ben Wallace was the one who cited the U.S. intelligence figures earlier in the week.
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Bill Clinton’s remorse:
https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2023/0404/1374162-clinton-ukraine/
“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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@Renauda said in The Ukraine war thread:
Bill Clinton’s remorse:
https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2023/0404/1374162-clinton-ukraine/
I saw that story yesterday. Do you think Ukraine would have actually used nukes if Russia invaded?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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@Mik said in The Ukraine war thread:
Hard to say, but I think it would have been more of a deterrent. At the time I suspect we were thinking Ukraine would be part of NATO.
Not that I recall at the time or, from what I have subsequently read. Russia wanted all the Soviet nuclear weapons in former republics on Russian soil. The US, Britain and France also wanted the the nukes out of all former republics except Russia. Kazakhstan gave up all weapons with no or few strings attached. Ukraine on the other hand, bartered the weapons for energy and security guarantees from Russia and billions of dollars in aid from the US and Britain to decommission, clean up and encapsulate the Chernobyl reactor site and its surroundings.
