quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

I've never really found murder or Nazi's funny. Jesus fucking Christ what is wrong with you?

Surely you're not referring to me?

I "think" he was referring to Dewhorse as the second.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

I've never really found murder or Nazi's funny. Jesus fucking Christ what is wrong with you?

Surely you're not referring to me?

Agreeing with you, I think.

Just to be clear, we're all taking what's obviously a Russian propaganda post at face value? And then arguing over it seriously?

Like I can't tell if we're mad at Nazis or Ukrainians or Russians or what, but we must be mad at whomever they are because we saw something on an account flying a Russian flag with the tag @Russiaprevails posting a video of an unverified account with a video of who knows what from who knows when with the number 88 in it.

Do I have that right?

quote:

Originally posted by Oat_Action_Man:
Just to be clear, we're all taking what's obviously a Russian propaganda post at face value? And then arguing over it seriously?

Like I can't tell if we're mad at Nazis or Ukrainians or Russians or what, but we must be mad at whomever they are because we saw something on an account flying a Russian flag with the tag @Russiaprevails posting a video of an unverified account with a video of who knows what from who knows when with the number 88 in it.

Do I have that right?

Don't forget that he was wrapped up like a piece of meat at a discount food emporium - or a state of humanity that I like to call, "Tales from my Senior Year of High School". It gets the feels.

https://nypost.com/2022/03/01/...ova-through-ukraine/






Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko appeared to broadcast a planned Russian invasion of Moldova during an address to his security council Tuesday that was televised and posted online by the autocratic regime.

Lukashenko — a wartime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has called himself the “last dictator” in Europe — stood in front of a battle command map that appeared to show a planned attack from southern Ukraine into Moldova, a former Soviet republic that borders Ukraine and Romania.

The blatant invasion map divided Ukraine into four sections, where lines of attack it highlighted had already been executed by Russia, except for what appeared to be a planned attack on the Moldova breakaway state of Transnistria through Ukraine’s port of Odessa, Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan noted.

An inset map of the US and Canada also bizarrely appeared on the huge chart of Eastern Europe, but nothing in the North American section was highlighted.

At today's security council meeting, Lukashenko showed what looks like an actual invasion map. It shows Ukraine military facilities destroyed by missiles from Belarus, attacks directions (everything agrees except Odessa-Transnistria). Also, Ukraine is divided into 4 sectors.

Lukashenko’s war map gave new credence to reports that Belarus was planning to deploy its own troops to Ukraine, to bolster Russia’s invasion, which has become increasingly violent as the country failed to win decisive military victories.

Russia last week sent ground troops into Ukraine through Belarus, which borders the war-torn country to the north.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian military intelligence warned that Russia was planning false flag operations in Moldova as a pretext for military intervention in Transnistria, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists, Al Jazeera reported.

Reminds me of Geraldo Rivera. That guy is a piece of work.

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko appeared to broadcast a planned Russian invasion of Moldova

As I recently posted in the other Ukraine thread:



Not quite.

There's one offensive arrow on the southwest (bottom left) corner of the map pointing from Odessa towards the Russian-occupied region of Moldova known as Transnistria. That's the skinny red-shaded area on the border between Ukraine and Moldova.

Similar to the regions of South Ossetia in Georgia and Donetsk/Luhansk in Ukraine, Transnistria is a Russian-backed breakway region of Moldova where Russia has stationed "peacekeeping troops" (read: occupation) since the early 1990s. Moldova and NATO have tried to convince Russia to exit Transnistria for a couple decades now, and Russia kept agreeing to do so, but then stalling and never actually withdrawing. And now it appears the plan is simply to add Transnistria to the Russian Empire alongside Ukraine.

There are no arrows on the map pushing further into Moldova. So the map appears to simply show the Russian forces in that southwestern offensive in Ukraine linking up with the Russian forces already currently stationed in Transnistria.

Note that Donetsk/Luhansk in southeast Ukraine are similarly shaded red (on the right side of the map). That red shading denotes areas outside of Russia that Russian forces were already occupying prior to the invasion of Ukraine pictured on the map.

Of course, Moldova would be the next logical country for Russia to gobble up, since it's small, poor, a former Soviet republic, and not a NATO member. But that's not explicitly shown on this map.

The Moldova headline is, for better or worse, an attempt at managing public opinion. Does Moldova or Ukraine control the region highlighted? No. Does any European country recognize that region as belonging to anyone other than Moldova and Ukraine? Also no. So, if Russia moved (more) troops into transnistria, it wouldn't change the effective control of the region. However, it is also useful to couch such an action as Russia invading a second country to help manage public opinion and to make it look like Russia's invasion is quickly growing to include more countries. Being able to raise the question of, "If they aren't stopping at Ukraine's borders, where will they stop, and who is next?" is likely to build support for continued and possibly stronger action against Russia.

It isn't actually wrong either. Even though Moldova doesn't really have any effective control over that area, Europe still considers it part of their country and isn't being terribly deceptive by calling it a planned invasion into a second country. However, it could also be said that Russia invaded it years ago and has just never left, as Rogue pointed out. The briefing in question also doesn't really suggest a full invasion of Moldova past the transnistria region, which is already occupied. So, the headlines aren't wrong, but they are definitely written with managing public opinion in mind.

Will Russia invade Moldova eventually? If they succeed in taking Ukraine, it is very likely, but that map doesn't really indicate it is going to happen as part of their next push into Ukraine. Russia would probably like to keep the narrative that they are only dealing with Ukraine rather than making a grand push to take anything between them and NATO, so leaving Moldova alone for the time being is probably a better move. It's certainly possible, and there isn't a whole lot Moldova could do about it, but it probably isn't politically expedient to invade beyond securing transnistria yet.

That is just my opinion though, and I could be wrong.

- Bret

Gentlemen, my post was in poor taste, I certainly do not want to derail this thread with it.

My apologies

Has Putin lost his ever lovin' mind?!?!

quote:

Four Russian Fighter Jets Violate Swedish Airspace: Military
By AFP - Agence France Presse
March 2, 2022

The Swedish Armed Forces said Wednesday that four Russian fighter jets had entered Sweden's air space to the east of the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

While Russian incursions of the Nordic nation's airspace happen fairly regularly, Wednesday's event was treated with increased scrutiny given Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Against the background of the current situation we are taking the incident very seriously," Chief of Sweden's Air Force Carl-Johan Edstrom said in a statement.

According to the statement the "violation" was brief but that Swedish Jas 39 Gripen jets had been scrambled to document and photograph the two Su-24 and two Su-27 fighter jets.

Full article: Four Russian Fighter Jets Violate Swedish Airspace: Military

^^ Didn't he test the Turks' will to defend their airspace on a regular basis when he was screwing around in Syria?

quote:

Originally posted by dewhorse:
Gentlemen, my post was in poor taste, I certainly do not want to derail this thread with it.

My apologies

You're good, man. We may have made too much of it anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
^^ Didn't he test the Turks' will to defend their airspace on a regular basis when he was screwing around in Syria?

Wouldn't surprise me.

Difference here is he's recently threatened both Sweden and Finland with "detrimental military and political consequences" if they attempted to join NATO.

Both countries have sent military and other aid to Ukrainian defenders. Both have also announced they're rethinking their past stances on joining NATO.

Right now, enforcing any ‘no fly’ zone is a no-go, obvious reasons.

I get the feeling a little intel is passed though. I’m sure we have eyes, ears & electronics tuned in the area.

Did anyone notice the insignia/unit patch in the chart in the upper RH corner of this map? The yellow one, with the black diagonal bar and the horse head. The one that looks like this..




Why is that on a map of the Russian military movements in Ukraine?

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

^^^^ I pointed it out in the other thread. 1st CAV.

Curious, no?

Funny thing is, they're at Ft. Hood, not Europe.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
^^^^ I pointed it out in the other thread. 1st CAV.

Curious, no?

Funny thing is, they're at Ft. Hood, not Europe.

Keep in mind that this briefing was ostensibly about Belarussian defensive military deployments against potential Ukrainian and NATO aggression. I assume that box in the upper right is a snapshot of "enemy" units bordering Belarus.

The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division was stationed in Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania (all of which border Belarus) until a few months ago when they were rotated out for the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division.

So it may just be old/bad intelligence. Or maybe whoever made the map just though the 1st Cav patch looked cooler/more distinctive. Or they can't tell the difference between the 1st ABCTs of 1st Cav/Inf (since they're all 1/1) and assume they're the same thing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

Anyone know what the Russian trucks are carrying on top in this picture?



Picture comes from an article in the WSJ this morning, about 1/4 down the page.

Looks like mulch (too much gardening on my mind, I think) but it can't be that - maybe camo nets?

Camo netting

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Does anyone else find it both ironic and hilarious that after many, many years of underpaying their fair share of defense spending (because they could always rely on US to pick up the slack ) Germany has had an epiphany and sudenly wants to spend lots more on defense? It only took them having Vladimir Putin getting them by the balls economically to wake them up:

Germany announces vast defense spending increase

Germany put itself in that position by choosing Russian gas over other forms of energy. The German greens have gotten enough power that the Germans have shut down all but three of their nuke plants and they won't frac for more oil and gas. So they put their own balls in Russia's vise, and now they are seeing the risk that creates. One writer I read said that Germany looked at Greta Thunberg and Vladimir Putin and decided Greta was more scary.

Perhaps this will wake them up to the importance of not being indebted to a dangerous strongman for energy.