I appreciate your comments Pointman, so please don’t take my posts as a personal attack on you. I’m sure it is a challenging time.
And at the end of the day the Russian people are the only ones with the power to change the course of their country. As it has always been.
I don’t post much anymore, but tonight for whatever reason I felt compelled. Maybe it’s my Ukrainian heritage making my heart ache.
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Pylon on the Edmonton Oilers:
"I am actually more excited for the Oilers game tomorrow than the Flames game. I am praying for multiple jersey tosses. The Oilers are my new favourite team for all the wrong reasons. I hate them so much I love them."
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I watched a story on Ukrainian fighters defending a bridge in Kherson, a city of about 350,000 in south Ukraine. A modern 6 lane bridge that looked a lot like one of the new bridges over the Fraser River in greater Vancouver. If you google map it the pics are eerily similar, with container ships making their way to ports on the river banks. It really hit home. Dead fighters on the damaged bridge. Imagine Russian troops making their way north to Calgary along highway 2 crossing the Bow near Okotoks. It’s late and I’m just typing away. It’s 2022, hundreds of thousands are on the move with families being ripped apart. Less than 100 years later and history is being repeated in Europe.
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Just so you could imagine the difference in media coverage. While western media keep running the "Russian warship go puck yourself" clip, Russian media report that 80 Ukrainian border guards on Snake island surrendered and are now taken to Crimea.
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Just so you could imagine the difference in media coverage. While western media keep running the "Russian warship go puck yourself" clip, Russian media report that 80 Ukrainian border guards on Snake island surrendered and are now taken to Crimea.
Location: Moscow, Russia
If you're in Russia and getting both media coverages that's a good sign
Just so you could imagine the difference in media coverage. While western media keep running the "Russian warship go puck yourself" clip, Russian media report that 80 Ukrainian border guards on Snake island surrendered and are now taken to Crimea.
Exactly, and it will all be sorted in time with how much was propaganda and what wasn't. Kyiv Maverick 'Ace's in a Day', Russian battalions surrendering, bridge martyr's- who knows.
So Kazakhstan, one of Russia/Putin's closest allies has both denied Russia's request for troops to help with invasion but also refused to recognise the two breakaway states Putin is in theory protecting
This is really starting to unravel for Putin
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After a day spent checking news feeds and photos of familiar places, I was able to make contact with my friend in Kyiv this evening. She, her husband, and their two year old are weathering the storm in Kyiv, with all the exit routes essentially paralyzed at this point. The armed civilians are organizing themselves as they wait for the Russian forces to roll in.
I have a girl who's almost 2 myself, and I can't imagine saying goodbye to her and my partner so that I could strap a Kalashnikov to my back and head out the door to organize with the other men in my neighbourhood, to discuss how we'll deal with a professional army when the tanks come rolling in, all while hoping that the buildings we left our families in are not levelled by missiles.
It is all so surreal and terrible, and I'm very afraid we haven't seen anything like the worst of it yet.
Edit: Ugh... even if true, I regret posting in anger.
Last edited by flylock shox; 02-26-2022 at 07:35 AM.
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So Kazakhstan, one of Russia/Putin's closest allies has both denied Russia's request for troops to help with invasion but also refused to recognise the two breakaway states Putin is in theory protecting
This is really starting to unravel for Putin
Very nice
NSFW!
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Damn, seems like a ripe time for everyone with Russian grievances to counter attack or stir #### up. Georgia is pretty pissed off right now, what about Chechnya and Dagestan? Probably your one shot at making something happen in recent memory.
The current leader of Chechnya is friendly with Putin. Not that means anything on the street level, but I suspect Chechnya is anything but free at this point and organization from anything from there is unlikely.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Apparently the Russians have a lot of Chechians serving in the invading forces, they are apparently asking Kazakhstan for troops, I wonder if they are having difficulty in getting their Russian troops to co operate, this is essentially a civil war that none of the participants wanted to be in, its just a guess but I am wondering if their units are starting to balk at killing their 'brother Russians' for no good reason
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Take those numbers with a grain of salt. Ukrainian Defense Ministry have also posted videos from DCS and claimed it was real footage of Russian planes getting shot down, and the Snake Island story is looking like BS as well. Of course propaganda is going to be heavy on both sides, it's how these things go, but independent sources are best
When it comes to casualty figures it'll take months if not years for real numbers to come out
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It's a few days into a major war, I doubt we'll have accurate casualty figures for months or years. But 500+ armored vehicles (which should also mean hundreds of trucks) should result in a lot of footage of that destruction. Here's a Ukrainian Army column that got destroyed and abandoned in Kherson, somebody counted over 70 vehicles that stretched over 15 km.
The current leader of Chechnya is friendly with Putin. Not that means anything on the street level, but I suspect Chechnya is anything but free at this point and organization from anything from there is unlikely.
Putin has, or at least had, Chechnya firmly under his thumb. Chechnya always showed best results for Putin and his party in every "elections". Frankly, keeping Chechnya in check seems like the only way to ensure stability. They are a bit unstable and unhinged when not under strict control. I guess that's how the rest of the world looks at Russia itself now. We are basically world's Chechnya.
An update from my wife and her family, who are currently bunkered down in their apartment close to Kharkov.
A lot of the focus has been on Kyiv, and rightfully so. However a large battle is taking place for Kharkov as well, which is the 2nd largest city in Ukraine and largely Russian speaking.
All night she heard tanks rolling through, yelling from soldiers coming through the forested areas around them, and gunfire and explosions in the distance. There are now 6 of them bunkered down in their single room apartment.
Since they are close to the border, she said that a lot of soliders are coming through the forested areas and end up in her village. Most of them are very young soldiers with Chechan accents. They sometimes ask the people in the village for food, or how to get to Kharkov. The road to Kharkov is a couple minutes away, so they just go on their way once they see it.
Strangely enough, and I'm not sure if this is on purpose or just random, but none of them seem to have GPS or working cell phone signals. They ask the villagers where to go and say they have no signal. The village itself still has internet. I'm not sure if was done purposely to cut their signal if it's not a UA service provider trying to access their network (or if that is even possible). I just though it was weird that while the tanks are able to just follow the road to Kharkov, the soldiers on foot are getting lost in the forests are asking locals where to go, and the locals still have internet.
As mentioned, many are very young men who were told they were coming to do training, and told last minute they were to attack. Just goes to show how much Russian leaders think of their own soldiers. Disgusting leadership that hopefully will be swinging from the gallows one day.
Overall my wife and family are doing as well as can be. They are still trapped in the village and unable to leave, probably for a while now, before making an attempt to leave the country, however that may be. Some villagers tried to walk in the forest towards Kharkov, but ran into Russian troops who told them to go back, so as to not get in the line of fire. Personally with all the fighting going on in Kharkov and troops attempting to surround the city, I think the best bet is to just stay in the village, which is largely being left alone. There are no UA soldiers there. There is no resistance. For that reason, I think they are off the radar for the time being. Scary stuff though and while my anxiety is a little less today, I'm still on edge from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed, constantly in touch with my wife on the situation.
I will end this update by saying that I am well aware of the saying "loose lips sink ships". If there is anything in my posts that anyone with any kind of intelligence or military background thinks is inappropriate to post in the slim chance it might put someone in danger, please PM met and let me know. I won't be offended and will immediately edit any of my posts. I don't want to post any detailed locations or photos anymore for that reason, other than this is occurring near Kharkov. However I do know in this digital age that any posts on CP show up on Google, and already had a CP member recognize me on Reddit which is obviously a worldwide platform. I just want to give some updates on my wife's situation with her and her family, being they are in the NE region and their experiences.
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So Kazakhstan, one of Russia/Putin's closest allies has both denied Russia's request for troops to help with invasion but also refused to recognise the two breakaway states Putin is in theory protecting
This is really starting to unravel for Putin
Huh. Why is Russia even asking Kazakhstan for troops?
Including Belarusian troops in the attack was a very different matter, as that was just as much about furthering the goal of full integration of Belarus into Russia, AND Belarusian troops are literally right there near the border, and they were presumably prepared to participate.
But why would they be asking Kazakhstan for troops? It's not like Kazakhstan could even move those troops to the front very quickly (so Russians not expecting a quick victory?), and Kazakhstan is still recovering from a borderline revolution just a month ago, so of course they wouldn't be eager to send any troops out of the country right now. Why even ask? For the symbolic value? But again, given Kazakhstans recent history, it seems really unlikely for them to agree. Kazakhstan has huge problems of it's own, many of which are economical, they are absolutely not in a position to get dragged into an international conflict. (Also, the January unrest in Kazakhstan was sparked by gas prices. Can't imagine them being very happy about Putin making things worse on that front.)
This is a weird story, one that would be nice to get confirmation on from non-Western sources, which I'm so far unable to find. Which isn't THAT surprising in itself, as Tokayev wouldn't want to embarrass Putin publicly.
But if true, it's a sign that things are not just "not going as well as hoped", it's a sign of actual desperation from Putin.
Take those numbers with a grain of salt. Ukrainian Defense Ministry have also posted videos from DCS and claimed it was real footage of Russian planes getting shot down, and the Snake Island story is looking like BS as well. Of course propaganda is going to be heavy on both sides, it's how these things go, but independent sources are best
When it comes to casualty figures it'll take months if not years for real numbers to come out
I agree with you about the Ukraine numbers and even a lot of these reports about planes being shot down,etc.
I'd also caution about believing other reports as well. That Russian snake island video of the surrenders is shot in a way where you can't see anyone's face. Could well be staged as well.
