Russia invades Ukraine

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Ace

In all seriousness, could we put the chronological updates from HW in one thread. This real story from the ground is so impactful, I know I shared with many others. Such a great job HW did exposing the live emotion and reality. It truly something everyone should read.

I've obviously read about wars in the past. But to have someone you love and are married to literally meters away from a steady stream of tanks that roll in from Belgorod towards Kharkov was pretty surreal. It wasn't even real life to me much of the time. Like....how is that even possible to be in that location at this moment in time? ####. I mentioned before, but when I visited that village last year the first thing I thought was "this is where the tanks will come rolling through if Russia ever invades". Sadly, I was right

I just thought it was important to give the perspective of an everyday family just trying to live their normal lives, who had their lives turned upside down by the will of a madman. It's easy for most of us (myself included) to be the armchair general and try to give our opinions on what we think could/would/should happen. But ultimately it's the everyday civilians who suffer the most. Just wanted to share on how this war is hell for those everyday people.

[DFO]

Best wishes to the in-laws HW. Hope they make it out of this.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

I've obviously read about wars in the past. But to have someone you love and are married to literally meters away from a steady stream of tanks that roll in from Belgorod towards Kharkov was pretty surreal. It wasn't even real life to me much of the time. Like....how is that even possible to be in that location at this moment in time? ####. I mentioned before, but when I visited that village last year the first thing I thought was "this is where the tanks will come rolling through if Russia ever invades". Sadly, I was right

I just thought it was important to give the perspective of an everyday family just trying to live their normal lives, who had their lives turned upside down by the will of a madman. It's easy for most of us (myself included) to be the armchair general and try to give our opinions on what we think could/would/should happen. But ultimately it's the everyday civilians who suffer the most. Just wanted to share on how this war is hell for those everyday people.

Are you in fairly constant contact with the rest of the family left behind? Or has it been mostly cut off? That part must be really hard on your wife, knowing she is out, but they are still suffering.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Are you in fairly constant contact with the rest of the family left behind? Or has it been mostly cut off? That part must be really hard on your wife, knowing she is out, but they are still suffering.

Unfortunately the suffering is not over now that she and her 2 companions are here in Poland safe. It's extremely difficult for my wife and her cousin knowing that their parents are left behind. They both feel very guilty for being here and they are not. They still do not have power, heat or internet in their village. Luckily they have a water well which many people in the village are using, which replenishes everyday. Today they spoke to us and got a shipment of food to their village. They were able to get some pastas and other non-perishables. They have not had even bread since day 2 of the war.

As for contact, they are doing just a quick call on occasion to speak, but I'm honestly not sure how long that will last. With no power and an empty power-bank, it could be any day that contact becomes more difficult. I think what they are doing is since there are 4 of them remaining in their flat, they are only using 1 phone at a time to conserve power. Much of their day is spent sitting in the dark, as they try not to go outside unless absolutely necessary to keep a low profile. Their windows are covered all the time. They said the darkness is slowly driving them crazy. Especially at night when the loud noises are the loudest.

Their friend is with us also, and at least her Mom is already here living in Poland (not sure about her dad's situation). I can see it's incredibly hard on my wife and her cousin having to leave their parents behind. Their parents also said they straight up will not leave. Her step-dad is of fighting age and will never be allowed to leave the country. Wife's Mom and her sister won't abandon him. And his elderly mother is very immobile with high blood pressure (poor woman hasn't had any of her medication for weeks now). They also don't want to leave because this is their life, their land and nobody should take that from them. I remember Zamler said something similar about his family; they simply will not leave because Russians tell them to. Same for my in-laws.

[Bagor]

Abramovich sanctioned finally.
Assets frozen including his sale of Chelsea

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501890615243538433

[Fuzz]

It's gotta be so tough feeling so helpless, particularity knowing exactly what they are going through. So sad.

[burn_this_city]

Not sure about this but it seems possible.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501862686396661764

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501881466631897089

[burn_this_city]

Results of talks between Ukraine and Russia facilitated by Turkey

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501907775013765124

[CroFlames]

I listen to the Bayraktar song a few times a day now.

[burn_this_city]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501815926865510400

[SutterBrother]

Hey Russia!

Remember in WW1 when those first tanks rolled over the trenches, and a few smart officers realized the age of trench warfare was over?

Nice tanks you got there!

Welcome to the age of drone warfare. :-)

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501815926865510400

That is awesome. Proud time to be a Canadian.


But a missed opportunity to come up with a cool brigade name and patch. Coulda incorporated a stylized angry Moose or Beaver.



I suppose not a lot of time for marketing and focus groups right now

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Bagor

Abramovich sanctioned finally.
Assets frozen including his sale of Chelsea

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501890615243538433

Let's hope Chelsea go back to the bottom table club they were before Oligarch money too.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Not sure about this but it seems possible.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501862686396661764

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501881466631897089

Or they’re planning to move to Kyiv, the big city

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Let's hope Chelsea go back to the bottom table club they were before Oligarch money too.

Here are the rules the UK government has put out for Chelsea:

As announced by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Roman Abramovich is now a designated person and therefore subject to financial sanctions. This means all funds and economic resources belonging to, held or controlled directly or indirectly by this person are required to be frozen immediately.

Asset freeze restrictions also apply to any entities that are owned or controlled by Roman Abramovich. This means that Chelsea Football Club is now also subject to an asset freeze under UK financial sanctions.

In relation to this designation, HM Treasury, through the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), has issued General Licence INT/2022/1327076. This allows Chelsea Football Club to undertake activities that would otherwise be prohibited by financial sanctions, meaning the club can fulfil its fixtures and carry out football business, without undermining the impact of sanctions.

The full details of this General Licence can be found on GOV.UK, however the main permissions in the Licence include:

Reasonable costs necessary for the Club to host fixtures at its home ground or grounds (subject to conditions). This includes:
Security
Catering
Stewarding
Remuneration, allowances and pensions of all employees of the Club, including the wages of its players and other coaching staff employed by the Club
Reasonable costs of travel to and from fixtures by any of the Club teams for players and essential staff (subject to conditions)
Payments in relation to loan and sale arrangements of players made prior to the designation
Attending a match
As it is also prohibited to make funds or economic resources available to any individual or entity subject to an asset freeze, the General Licence also outlines permissions for those wishing to attend a match.

Anyone who has already purchased a ticket for a fixture, or has a Club season ticket, can attend fixtures and purchase refreshments while attending these fixtures.

Televising matches
Broadcasters are permitted to broadcast any fixtures involving the Club under pre-existing arrangements. Relevant bodies may also pay revenue to the Club for broadcast licensing related to any fixtures.

Merchandise
While this is subject to certain conditions, the General Licence permits parties who purchased or produced Club Merchandise prior to 10 March 2022, to continue selling that merchandise on the condition that no funds or other financial benefits are made available to the Club or to the designated person.

For further information on the impact of financial sanctions and General Licences, please visit the OFSI website and consult OFSI’s General Guidance for Financial Sanctions.

https://ofsi.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/10/...-need-to-know/

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Itse

Bayraktar BT2 drones are since 2019 a somewhat collaborative project between Turkey and Ukraine. Very likely Ukrainians have trained with the exact same interface in their own language, so it's not that hard to understand why they can use the turkish language version with little trouble.

(Plus it's far from impossible to learn a few key words in turkish if you're motivated.)

That particular video is actually an anti-tank guided missile. It looks like the Ukrainian-made Skif ATGM, but that particular one was likely manufactured for export to the Middle East or North Africa.

They're crude, but still pretty effective. You can hit a target that's up to 5km away while controlling it from up to 50m away from the launcher. So you can set the unit up on a roadside or in a field, and then control it from somewhere safer while hitting targets that are too far away to really effectively return fire (assuming you don't hang out long enough for them dial in artillery or send in an airstrike).

[Itse]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

Hey Russia!

Remember in WW1 when those first tanks rolled over the trenches, and a few smart officers realized the age of trench warfare was over?

Nice tanks you got there!

Welcome to the age of drone warfare. :-)

You still need armored vehicles to attack, hard to see drones changing that. Otherwise the speed and range of ground attacks is limited to how far and fast a grunt can run without losing combat capability.

But yeah, the cost effectiveness of drones is likely to make them even more attractive around the world now that they've had such a public succesful field test in wartime conditions.

In general, a "real" war like this is likely to become a testing ground for various technologies that are either relatively new or haven't seen much real action, like

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501543775700762633

(These high-velocity missiles are supposedly really good against helicopters and air-to-ground aircraft.)

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501815926865510400

I was told there are enough for a full Canadian staffed Battalion. Apparently some foreigners have already been deployed and are actively engaging the enemy.

[Monahammer]

y'know, there are a couple strange historical preferences for invasions/ put downs of former client states that turn into reversals and establishments for new global powers.

An example would be Tenochtitlan, where the Mexica of Tenochtitlan were actual a client of the Tepanec emperor. The tepanec emperor was quite a tyrant, and went a step too far by really brutally putting down one of their other clients, the people of Texcoco. Texcoco had long been a cultural hub and well known centre of the valley, and the people of tenochtitlan had blood ties to them. They ended up taking texcoco's side (over time) and then were besegied by the tepanec themselves. They managed to survive the siege, and formed the Triple alliance to crush the tepanec, then becoming defacto rulers of the valley themselves (albeit under a new system that had the other members of the triple alliance in more equal stance to the former empire of the tepanec.)

Anyways, I will be curious to see if the same could happen here. Kiev is a centre of historic slavic culture. If the Russian order falls apart in the wake of a failed invasion, could Kiev lead a revived, euro-slavic empire to the west?

This is not what kiev wants but maybe it's what Russians need. Rule from Moscow seems to be too steeped in historical aggression and cronyism.

Another example could even be Rome, who grew to unseen size and power after fighting off Carthage and then Macedon to overtake both at the end of the republican era, while prior-historically being more on the cultural edge of both larger empires, and adopting some of their customs.


This train of thought comes to me after thinking about just how much Ukraine has been armed through this- not only in actual physical advanced weaponry from western supporters, but in the mentality and rigour of it's population. There's something to be said about cultural and national purpose and unity, and I can think of a populace currently more united and focused on a goal in the world.

[burn_this_city]

Russia hits 1,000 photo confirmed vehicle loses.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501961460536250368

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501961657182003204

https://twitter.com/user/status/1501966399098470412