2022: The year the world returns to war?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

And, like, a nation everyone likes. Who doesn't love Ukraine and Ukrainians?

Perogies, babushkas, Cabbage rolls, the funny folk dancing, like come on. I bet 85% of the Canadian prairie was settled by those lovely people.

I think we have to give the Russians some credit for making Ukraine such a miserable place to be that large swathes of people thought to themselves:

"Manitoba? Yeah. That seems like a nice place."

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by Locke

I think we have to give the Russians some credit for making Ukraine such a miserable place to be that large swathes of people thought to themselves:

"Manitoba? Yeah. That seems like a nice place."

You lookin for a fist fight?

[burn_this_city]

Careful Locke, Doukhobors like to get naked and march around in protest.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Careful Locke, Doukhobors like to get naked and march around in protest.

As long as they're willing to do it in Manitoba in the winter...

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I have Ukrainian heritage and have family members that perform Ukrainian Dancing.

I don't consider it funny.

Can confirm it's not funny. I just asked my Ukrainian wife is the dance is funny and she looked at me like I'm a big dummy for even asking.

[indes]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Can confirm it's not funny. I just asked my Ukrainian wife is the dance is funny and she looked at me like I'm a big dummy for even asking.

I can feel the eyeroll and glare through my screen!

[JoseCuervo]

Separatist areas in the Donbass are evacuating the residents there because of “Ukrainian aggression”. It seems Putin is creating his pretext for invasion.

[FlameOn]

Number of Russian troops at the border could now be up to 190K according to OSCE.

We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30. This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine. While Russia has sought to downplay or deceive the world about their ground and air preparations, the Russian military has publicized its large-scale naval exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic. Russia has publicly said the Black Sea exercise alone involves more than 30 ships, and we assess that amphibious landing ships from the Northern and Baltic Fleets were sent to the Black Sea to augment forces there.

https://osce.usmission.gov/u-s-state...iii-meeting-2/

US Intelligence has obtained a Russian hitlist of Ukrainian political figures marked for assassination or arrest post-Ukrainian invasion and are surprised at how detailed the lists are.

The United States has obtained intelligence that Russia may target prominent political opponents, anti-corruption activists, and Belarusian and Russian dissidents living in exile should it move forward with plans to invade Ukraine, as U.S. President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that the threat of a renewed Russian invasion of the country remains “very high” and could take place within the next several days.

Four people familiar with U.S. intelligence said that Russia has drafted lists of Ukrainian political figures and other prominent individuals to be targeted for either arrest or assassination in the event of a Russian assault on Ukraine.

A fifth person, a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the United States has been downgrading its intelligence classification regarding threats to specific groups within Ukraine to share this information with Ukrainian government officials and other partners in the region positioned to help.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/18...tion-invasion/

Meanwhile the Russian State Media reports the false flag operation is on schedule with explosives set off near the Donetsk government buildings.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1494705178578235394

[CroFlames]

Christ with 190,000 troops they could march on Berlin again before the western militaries get off their asses.

[Ozy_Flame]

They have about one million of active army personnel, with about two million reservists.

That's a huge number, but only a fraction of their military might.

That said, strength in infantry numbers doesn't always equate to success. Lots of variables could slow/stymie/render them useless. For example, if the Ukrainians turned their Eastern borders into soft, soupy mess of dirt and mud with plenty of natural traps during this time of year given the high amounts of snow on the ground (which I'm sure they are doing).

[Locke]

Hm...

You'd think of all cultures the Russians would know better than to start a land-war in Eastern Europe in the Winter.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Locke

Hm...

You'd think of all cultures the Russians would know better than to start a land-war in Eastern Europe in the Winter.

I don't know.

Off the top of my head I would say they have been pretty successful in fighting them during the last 200 years.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

I don't know.

Off the top of my head I would say they have been pretty successful in fighting them during the last 200 years.

From the defensive side and using 'General Winter' as their ally.

If they were to pull this stunt, their General would be defecting to the defenders.

Man, this is nuts.

Remember when 2020 was a nightmare? And then 2021 said 'hold my beer?' And now 2022 is really ringing it in with a whole new gear.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Can confirm it's not funny. I just asked my Ukrainian wife is the dance is funny and she looked at me like I'm a big dummy for even asking.

All folk dancing looks funny to a neutral observer. Bright and elaborate costumes with choreographed moves and interesting music.

Then again, head to Cowboy's one night and look at all the funny dancing that goes on there!

Originally Posted by White Out 403

Our shared Croatian ancestors were in fact settlers from Ukraine. Ukrainians everywhere!

I have German ancestors who are actually called Volga Germans. Germans who lived in Ukraine. Ukraine is truly the Ireland of the East.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Cappy

All folk dancing looks funny to a neutral observer. Bright and elaborate costumes with choreographed moves and interesting music.

Then again, head to Cowboy's one night and look at all the funny dancing that goes on there!



I have German ancestors who are actually called Volga Germans. Germans who lived in Ukraine. Ukraine is truly the Ireland of the East.

Dancing is serious business.

[FlamesAddiction]

Russia to stage massive nuclear drills.

https://www.cp24.com/world/russia-to...doff-1.5786564

Russia also accuses Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia of sending mercenaries to Ukraine to fight against Russia. Gee, I wonder why they selected those countries for the propaganda.

https://balkaninsight.com/2022/02/18...es-to-ukraine/

[Cheese]

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported at 7 am Kyiv time that in the last 24 hours, no Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in action. In the last 24 hours, Russian-terrorist forces opened fire on Ukrainian positions on the Luhansk and Donetsk sectors of the front 66 times in total, including at least 47 times with heavy weapons – artillery, mortars and tanks.


US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated on February 17, “Now, the Russians say that they are withdrawing some of those forces now that exercises are complete, but we don't see that. Quite the contrary, we see them add to the more than 150,000 troops that they already have arrayed on that border even in the last couple of days. We see some of those troops inch closer to that border. We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft. We see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea. We even see them stocking up their blood supply -- supplies.


The Netherlands will supply military goods to Ukraine. According to Ukrinform's correspondent in The Hague, the Dutch government made such a decision on Friday, February 18, in response to Ukraine's request for military assistance amid the threat of a new Russian invasion.

In particular, the Netherlands is to provide sniper rifles, helmets, body armor, radars and metal detectors to Ukraine. As was reported earlier, the majority in the Dutch parliament called for providing support to Ukraine in deterring Russian aggression.


Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada on February 18, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Ukraine had already received more than 2,000 tonnes of aid from international partners in the form of modern weapons, ammunition and armor.


US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Michael Carpenter stated, “We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30. This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine.

[FlameOn]

Biden is now stating Russia intends to strike Kiev as an initial target in the next few days. This lines up with earlier leaked reports saying saying Russia aims to end the war quickly by hitting Kiev as in the opening stages of the war using forces closest to the Ukrainian capital currently stationed in Belarus.

Biden said U.S. intelligence had prompted him to believe that Putin has decided to attack Ukraine and that an invasion — including a strike on Kyiv — could come within days.

“We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people,” Biden told reporters at the White House, without detailing the intelligence behind his statement. “We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly repeatedly, not because we want a conflict but because we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving.”

Biden also said that claims by Russia and its separatist allies in eastern Ukraine that the Kiev government has provoked fresh violence in the region aren’t plausible.

“There’s simply no evidence for these assertions and it defies basic logic,” he said. He repeated his own assertion that the Kremlin is trying to stage a “false flag” operation to create a fake pretense for its invasion.

https://financialpost.com/pmn/busine...ukraine-update

Estonian Intelligence has obtained and published a map of likely targets compiled by Russian Intelligence.

https://raport.valisluureamet.ee/en/...ready-for-war/

As part of it's ongoing disinformation campaign, Russia provided supposed evidence that showed videos from Russian backed "separatist" evacuating due to Ukrainian aggression, but all the video metadata showed these were filmed two days prior to the supposed incidents.
https://www.axios.com/telegram-ukrai...260102a4a.html

As expected the Russian Duma is using this as an excuse for the "big war"

https://twitter.com/user/status/1494788414205579265

[CroFlames]

I can't believe we are this close to the brink.

#### off Putin you authoritarian clown. Hopefully someone close to him in Moscow snaps out of it and assassinates him.

[White Out 403]

*starts a new game in CK3 in Kiev*

It's all I can do