Ukraine

[Beany]

Nadine Dorries can't even spell Ukraine.

Deeply. Unserious. People.

[Beany]

Seeing various posts about how Russia has hundreds of fighter planes, so Ukraine could down half a dozen a day and wouldn't have clear skies for years.

These posts miss one important thing though - they don't have to destroy all the fighter bombers. They just need to keep destroying them till the pilots pay isn't functionally usable. Who's going to agree to risk thier lives for a pay packet that will barely cover their cost of living once hyperinflation kicks in?

[DeskJockey]

Nadine Dorries can't even spell Ukraine.

Deeply. Unserious. People.

I don't disagree with your analysis of her and the government, but sadly for once this isn't her fault. The hashtag was misspelt by whomever originated it, but has gained so much momentum that using a corrected version will mean it doesn't get seen.

[Beany]

If she were a serious person she'd correct the spelling

[Gavster]

Ukrainians are selling off spare equipment

[mik]

If you’ve ever been to Glasgow, you will know that this statue always wears a traffic cone.

[Beany]

Fuck me, even the full blown Ukrainian career diplomatic heads are IRL savage shitposters.

[Beany]

In other news, the generally reliable Bellingcat have an interesting thread.



TLDR; Russia have a fancy pants encrypted telecoms system, but it only works with a reasonable data connection, 3g or better.

Russia knocks out a significant proportion of 3/4g in Ukraine.

Russians have to use local SIM cards on 2g/GSM - no broadband data.

Which means it's a simple case of local mobile operators being asked to do media dumps of any calls from Ukraine to Russia (there's more to it than that, but not a lot) and then sift through the data.

And that's how we get from 'unconfirmed rumour' to 'from the horses mouth' confirmation that a pretty senior Russian commander is now good for nothing but making the grass grow.

conspiracy theorists will claim 4D chess, that it's propaganda to give the ukranian forces a false sense of security, but typically your try to win using 4D chess before your nation state becomes a bankrupted international pariah whose army is strewn in broken down convoys across thousands of square miles of a foreign land in a manner that would be more logistically complex to fake than to actually just have happen organically through sheer logistical failure.

Occam's razor suggests that the Russian armed forces in theatre are a bit shit.

[duncs500]

To call off the invasion, Moscow demands that Ukraine change its constitution to guarantee it won't join Nato and the EU

Why don't Ukraine agree to this, get the Russians to leave, use a ton of 'foreign aid' to bolster their military into one of the most well equipped and technologically advanced in the world, and await Putin's death. Then change the constitution to whatever they want to do.

[ZedLeg]

Presumably the agreement would stipulate that they couldn't be in the process of joining so if that was what they wanted it would be pushing the timeline back by decades.

[duncs500]

Presumably the agreement would stipulate that they couldn't be in the process of joining so if that was what they wanted it would be pushing the timeline back by decades.

I'm sure you're right, but there's plenty of other deals that could be done to bring Ukraine closer to Europe without formal membership.

[Gavster]

Fuck me, even the full blown Ukrainian career diplomatic heads are IRL savage shitposters.

This is Russian humour en pointe.

[Beany]

To call off the invasion, Moscow demands that Ukraine change its constitution to guarantee it won't join Nato and the EU

Why don't Ukraine agree to this, get the Russians to leave, use a ton of 'foreign aid' to bolster their military into one of the most well equipped and technologically advanced in the world, and await Putin's death. Then change the constitution to whatever they want to do.

One of the other demands, last I checked, was at least partial demilitarisation. I believe it was previously full but they've rolled that back to 'you can only have a small standing army so that next time we roll in, you can't defend yourselves'

I mean, they didn't say that last part but it's what they mean.

[Mito Man]

Wasn’t another demand to reduce their army to 60,000 troops.

[Sundayjumper]

I did a genuine derogatory LOL when I read the Russian demand. They want a legally binding commitment from Ukraine that they won’t join the EU / NATO. How many laws have Russia broken in the last fortnight ?? They are the last people that should be telling other people to obey rules.

[dinny_g]

To call off the invasion, Moscow demands that Ukraine change its constitution to guarantee it won't join Nato and the EU

Why don't Ukraine agree to this, get the Russians to leave, use a ton of 'foreign aid' to bolster their military into one of the most well equipped and technologically advanced in the world, and await Putin's death. Then change the constitution to whatever they want to do.

And in return, how about Ukraine stipulate a 50 mile No Military Zone around the border and the ability to monitor it and police it. One Tank rolls into the DMZ and Ukraine Joins Nato.

Russia are the aggressor here - Ukraine needs protecting form Russia, not the other way around

[Ascender]

The comms screwup really does sound like something Armando Ianucci would have written. Talking of which, I can't look at these Russian commanders and their medals without thinking about The Death of Stalin.

[duncs500]

To call off the invasion, Moscow demands that Ukraine change its constitution to guarantee it won't join Nato and the EU

Why don't Ukraine agree to this, get the Russians to leave, use a ton of 'foreign aid' to bolster their military into one of the most well equipped and technologically advanced in the world, and await Putin's death. Then change the constitution to whatever they want to do.

One of the other demands, last I checked, was at least partial demilitarisation. I believe it was previously full but they've rolled that back to 'you can only have a small standing army so that next time we roll in, you can't defend yourselves'

I mean, they didn't say that last part but it's what they mean.

Well theoretically it's a negotiation to allow everyone to save face, that would have to be taken off the table.

There's also the matter of demand for recognition of the independence of the Eastern regions. The reasonable thing to do would be to agree on an independently validated referendum on what the people of those states want.

Anyway, these are all reasonable things that could be agreed upon, but we know we're not dealing with reason at this point. I didn't suggest any of this was realistic!

[Swervin_Mervin]

The reasonable thing would be to tell Russia to fvck off and mind their own business. It isn't for any country to dictate to another whether or not they can join the likes of the EU or NATO etc. Recognising the Russian demands in any way would be bowing to their rose-tinted fantasies of imperialism.

Arguably letting Russia get away with the incursions in the eastern regions and Crimea, Georgia, Chechnya, is what has led to this situation.

[DaveE]

I wonder what our, NATO's etc response would have been if Russia had invaded Poland?