Russia invades Ukraine

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Wife just wrote me. She saw a steady stream of tanks heading to Kharkov for the past couple days. Then eerie quiet for a couple hours this afternoon. Now the attack, whatever is planned, is continuing at a torrid pace, louder than ever. She told me she will be as strong as she can and that's all we can do. Turning her phone and lights off so to remain dark. This will be the hardest night of her life and mine too.

#### Putin so much. Nobody deserves this.

Everyone here keep HW and his wife and family in your best thoughts along with all of Ukraine today/tonight and moving forward. Honestly having someone from the forums so closely affected by this brutal and gutless attempt at war has made it that much more real and tense for me to follow. It breaks my heart to see what these people are having to go through for what can’t be equated to anything less than tyrannical madness and lust for power. #### Putin indeed. Not a single soul deserves this kind of terror.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Yeah, I was going to say, this isn't 1999. There will be video on Twitter for everyone to see and people are by and large actually watching. Not to mention Kiev and Ukraine are places most people have actually heard of, unlike Chechnya and Grozny.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by karl262

Good luck to you and yours.

Have you received some good advice to help them shelter in place as safety as possible? I'm just thinking about flying debris from windows and such. It absolutely sucks and isn't right that anyone should ever have to think about this kind of thing.

Yeah they know to stay away from windows, lights off. Whatever they can do, they are. If anyone knows any good tips, by all means I am open to passing it on to them.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by AltaGuy

I'm getting worried that the Ukrainians are doing too well. Messed up as that sounds, the Russian army looks terrible right now, and I'm not sure that the Russian madman in chief won't consider mass atrocity before accepting prolonged embarrassment.

There could be a shift from trying to take Ukraine to trying to destroy it. #### Putin.

Seeing posts about russian troops being given gas masks in Donetsk/Donbas so they can stage a "blown chemical tank" false flag

[Faust]

Is international law powerless against Russian aggression in Ukraine? No, but it’s complicated:

https://theconversation.com/is-inter...licated-177905

Putin’s Historic Miscalculation May Make Him a War Criminal:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily...a-war-criminal

PM suggests Putin could face war crimes charges over Ukraine:

https://www.forces.net/ukraine/news/...s-over-ukraine

[chedder]

Originally Posted by Azure

Next 48H look to be the most critical.

You would think (hope) that western (pro nato) contract soldiers or mercenaries would be in the field of battle helping out Ukraine. Or do I just watch too many spy movies?

I suppose we'd never know for sure but kinda hope they're being helped quietly.

[Azure]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497606162866442251

[Leondros]

Great read on where Russia could run into trouble and reports have already shown that Russia is losing large amounts of truck supply convoys on the back of their invasion.

Russian army logistics forces are not designed for a large-scale ground offensive far from their railroads. Inside maneuver units, Russian sustainment units are a size lower than their Western counterparts. Only brigades have an equivalent logistics capability, but it’s not an exact comparison. Russian formations have only three-quarters the number of combat vehicles as their U.S. counterparts but almost three times as much artillery.

The reason Russia is unique in having railroad brigades is that logistically, Russian forces are tied to railroad from factory to army depot and to combined arms army and, where possible, to the division/brigade level. No other European nation uses railroads to the extent that the Russian army does. Part of the reason is that Russia is so vast — over 6,000 miles from one end to the other. The rub is that Russian railroads are a wider gauge than the rest of Europe. Only former Soviet nations and Finland still use the Russian standard — this includes the Baltic states. There are several railheads prior to Baltic capitals, but it will still take several days to reach and establish railhead operations. Forward railhead operations are more than just cross-loading cargo from train onto truck. It involves receiving and sorting cargo, repackaging for specific units, and storing excess on the ground. Due to the hazardous nature of military cargo, the ground needs to be prepared so that cargo can be stored in safe, distributed environments. This process can take one to three days. The site also needs to be outside the range of enemy artillery and secured from partisans. A single lucky shell or an rocket propelled grenade can result in a major explosion and have a disproportionate effect on the tempo of an entire division. This is assuming the key bridges, such as one at Narva on the Russian-Estonian border, aren’t destroyed and have to be repaired. Poland only has one wide gauge rail line, which runs from the Krakow region to Ukraine and can’t be used by Russian forces, without capturing Ukraine first. There are no wide gauge lines running from Belarus to Warsaw.

The Russian army does not have enough trucks to meet its logistic requirement more than 90 miles beyond supply dumps. To reach a 180-mile range, the Russian army would have to double truck allocation to 400 trucks for each of the material-technical support brigades.

https://warontherocks.com/2021/11/fe...rmy-logistics/

And we are seeing this in practice:

https://twitter.com/AVindman/status/1497619842551230468

[Azure]

Originally Posted by chedder

You would think (hope) that western (pro nato) contract soldiers or mercenaries would be in the field of battle helping out Ukraine. Or do I just watch too many spy movies?

I suppose we'd never know for sure but kinda hope they're being helped quietly.

Yeah, one does wonder if any NATO countries have SF there giving aid.

They just need to be doing it in such a way that they could never be caught and tied back to NATO.

[AltaGuy]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I was talking with a friend last night who’s a military history prof, and he thinks if the Ukrainians dig in and deny the Russians a decisive victory, the Russians will “do a Grozny” on Kiev. That is, use their artillery (the strongest arm of the Russian military) to siege and flatten the place.

Yeah - I'm also thinking of how Putin's buddy Assad approached urban warfare in places like Aleppo.

Hopefully Corsi is right and the spotlight can dissuade.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Minnie

This made me laugh. Cutting off the spank bank.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497254180108570633

Fake.

To check it out I literally had to come to Pornhub with my six years old daughter lying on my shoulder asking for her night fairly tale

[FlameOn]

Bellingcat investigative journalists posts this

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497570179026403329

[karl262]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Yeah they know to stay away from windows, lights off. Whatever they can do, they are. If anyone knows any good tips, by all means I am open to passing it on to them.

Yeah I think discussing this here could be productive. Let's all throw out some ideas, no wrong answers really. If you know an idea presented isn't beneficial, explain why. If your idea is shown to be maybe not so great, that's OK, no biggie.

I'll start with maybe they should prepare an airtight saferoom if at all possible to move into temporarily if there's a chemical attack. They can't stay in there permanently but maybe a couple hours or so if need be, depending on the room size.

Fuuuu*k Putin for this needing to be discussed on CP.

[Chingas]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Bellingcat investigative journalists posts this

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497570179026403329

I like the idea and hope they are doing something like this, but that picture in the tweet is obviously photoshopped.

[FlameOn]

More from Bellingcat, documented use of cluster munitions in civilian areas

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497523559647920130

[Heavy Jack]

Depending on the room they are in if they had materials like blankets/anything to dampen sound that they could hang on the walls, it could help amplify/clear up any sound coming from outside/through the windows/doors while keeping them quieter internally.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Chingas

I like the idea and hope they are doing something like this, but that picture in the tweet is obviously photoshopped.

That's intentional. Road signs agency posting that in obvious jest to the interior ministry sign removal post. Not like they went out and changed the sign and post that picture.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by karl262

I'll start with maybe they should prepare an airtight saferoom if at all possible to move into temporarily if there's a chemical attack. They can't stay in there permanently but maybe a couple hours or so if need be, depending on the room size.

If I recall correctly they have a small corridor from the kitchen to the living room which would suit that purpose. I hadn't thought of this scenario, but definitely something I'll pass on.

[dammage79]

The absolute absurd threats I'm reading from Russia keep piling up. Threat of Nuclear retaliation if anyone jumps in to fight with Ukraine to the RSA dropping the ISS onto a target!?

They've really gone off the deep end. Dropping a space station on someone is literally the most insane threat I've ever heard.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by dammage79

The absolute absurd threats I'm reading from Russia keep piling up. Threat of Nuclear retaliation if anyone jumps in to fight with Ukraine to the RSA dropping the ISS onto a target!?

They've really gone off the deep end. Dropping a space station on someone is literally the most insane threat I've ever heard.

That was a few days old. He threatened he could drop it in Europe or the US. and then he threatened China and India with that too.