History in the Making: Russian Invasion

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chernobyl-nuclear-russia-attack-ukraine-b2022444.html

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER

I'm lucky that my TV service offers Canadian Broadcasting (CBC) Chanel 9, out of Windsor, ON.

Trudeau speaking at 1:00 and then Biden speaking at 1:30 (rolled back from 12:30)

GameboyRMH said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chernobyl-nuclear-russia-attack-ukraine-b2022444.html

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER

I get that from an intellectual reason its a good spot for a base of operations, you aren't gonna get anyone bombing it to force people out, but I'd be damned if you were gonna station me there.

FatMongo said:

Changing topics a bit:

For what its worth, even the head of Germany's army admits that they are incapable of doing anything in this situation:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-army-chief-fed-neglect-102741650.html

The rest of the NATO countries, aside from Poland, are likely not  in much better shape. 

Could be a wake-up call for a good many countries, including maybe, you know, US?

Mr_Asa said:

GameboyRMH said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chernobyl-nuclear-russia-attack-ukraine-b2022444.html

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER

I get that from an intellectual reason its a good spot for a base of operations, you aren't gonna get anyone bombing it to force people out, but I'd be damned if you were gonna station me there.

If they are interested in disarray, I wouldn't put it past them to bomb the sarcophagus, but that would be next level insanity. 

Ukranian's confirm Russians now control Chernobyl

https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1496905910404460547?cxt=HHwWhsC5vdP_icYpAAAA

Grabbing Chernobyl is likely to be more about securing a short, direct route to Kyiv than anything else. 

5 minutes in and still no start to the 1:00 

It's an interesting insight to how "fluid" this all is as high levels scramble, including US delaying 1 hour

In reply to John Welsh :

CBC rules for Hockey Night in Canada!

One interesting aspect of this (before we hear what the new sanctions are):  Along the theme of why I originally started this thread, wherever the US and other countries where getting their info seemed to be vary accurate.  They pretty accurately predicted what the Russians where attempting to do (e.g. attack Kiev) and effectively hamstrung Russia's attempts to create a false provocation by pre-warning of them.  It seemed so effective that Put Put finally just gave up his little justification game and invaded.

I do wonder if he will attempt a follow through and present "evidence" of the genocide.... and OJ is still looking for the real killer...

Russia has been cracking down on protests, but people don't seem to be deterred:

Seems like at least some of the people aren't happy about it, and can see through the propaganda and misinformation

That is a good sign, and my be the real hope here.  He has gone too far and his people recognize this.

I believe that Russia has no restrictions on internet access (like China), so people there do have full access.  They of course are regularly bombarded with massive amounts of locally produced information that can be wildly confusing if you don't pay attention.

Of course, those protestors are now being arrested.  Russia can pretty brutal in that respect.

aircooled said:

One interesting aspect of this (before we hear what the new sanctions are):  Along the theme of why I originally started this thread, wherever the US and other countries where getting their info seemed to be vary accurate.  They pretty accurately predicted what the Russians where attempting to do (e.g. attack Kiev) and effectively hamstrung Russia's attempts to create a false provocation by pre-warning of them.  It seemed so effective that Put Put finally just gave up his little justification game and invaded.

I do wonder if he will attempt a follow through and present "evidence" of the genocide.... and OJ is still looking for the real killer...

I personally wonder if the constant beating of war drums didn't back him into a corner. As if we'd kept our mouths shut and it would have been a bluff game of who's wee wee is bigger and be done.

The protests maybe a game changer, maybe Putin is going to fall after all. 

aircooled said:

I believe that Russia has no restrictions on internet access (like China), so people there do have full access.  They of course are regularly bombarded with massive amounts of locally produced information that can be wildly confusing if you don't pay attention.

They're not China-level restricted, but it's not full access:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_Russia

OK, thanks for that clarification.

Looks like the Russians are in the outskirts of Kiev now.  They are trying to take Hostomel airport (10 miles NW of Kiev) with an airborne assault and reportedly took control.

Latest report is that Ukraine has re-taken the airport, so they ARE putting up a fight.  There are multiple reports of aircraft and helicopter being shot down so looks like those Stingers are still effective.

Edit:  To be clear, the above assault was almost certainly all airborne, so the main body of the Russian assault is not necessarily there, they are just trying to leap frog ahead and control the airport (likely to use as a base of operations, fly in more troops / equipment etc) 

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Who was/is this Canadian?

In reply to John Welsh :

Melanie Joli - Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada

aircooled said:

One interesting aspect of this (before we hear what the new sanctions are):  Along the theme of why I originally started this thread, wherever the US and other countries where getting their info seemed to be vary accurate.  They pretty accurately predicted what the Russians where attempting to do (e.g. attack Kiev) and effectively hamstrung Russia's attempts to create a false provocation by pre-warning of them.  It seemed so effective that Put Put finally just gave up his little justification game and invaded.

I do wonder if he will attempt a follow through and present "evidence" of the genocide.... and OJ is still looking for the real killer...

Thats your opinion.

The other side of the coin is that the Russians are/were fully aware that the we are collecting their transmissions and are/were purposefully planting disinformation in their comms.

The amount of essentially raw SIGINT taek this Admin has released is pretty unprecedented. I dont know if it ultimately helps us or not.

eastpark said:

In reply to John Welsh :

Melanie Joli - Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada

Spelled Joly but pronounced Joli

slefain said:

Somewhere in Ukraine my elderly uncle is trying to GTFO. He's always managed to extract himself from E36 M3storms, so I hope he got somewhere safe. I had already accepted I'd never see him again, but dude was still part of the family and I have a few good memories of him. Hope he pulls this one off.

If you've got contact info, I've got a spare bedroom. 

tuna55 said:

The protests maybe a game changer, maybe Putin is going to fall after all. 

Putin enjoys a ~70% approval rating at home. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/

Polls aren't trusted here, where there is at least the illusion of transparency, and you won't be sent to jail for your opinions. You really trust polls conducted in Russia?

In reply to FatMongo :

Can we trust those numbers? In a country that jails people that criticize the government, would you go on record saying that you didn't approve?

STM317 said:

In reply to FatMongo :

Can we trust those numbers? In a country that jails people that criticize the government, would you go on record saying that you didn't approve?

Granted, theres a big grain of salt to be taken with that, but it seems consistent with other reporting.