Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[Brumstopdogs]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61114843

Quote

A Russian warship that was damaged by an explosion on Wednesday has sunk, Russia's defence ministry has said.

Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, was being towed to port when "stormy seas" caused it to sink, according to a ministry message.

The 510-crew vessel was an important symbolic and military target, and has led Russia's naval assault on Ukraine.

Ukraine claims it struck the warship with its missiles, but Russia has made no mention of an attack.

Throughout Thursday there were conflicting reports from Moscow, Kyiv and the Pentagon on what happened to the ship, whether it was still on fire - or had sunk.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

"You absolute word removed"

[Awol]

Interesting fact, the Moskva is the largest surface warship to be sunk in action since WW2. The previous record holder was the General Belgrano sunk by the Brits in 1982.

[sidcow]

9 minutes ago, Awol said:

Interesting fact, the Moskva is the largest surface warship to be sunk in action since WW2. The previous record holder was the General Belgrano sunk by the Brits in 1982.

Ace fact.

[Genie]

For a bonus point Ukraine should have sunk the ship towing the Moskva.

[foreveryoung]

Been busy, checking out that ship and see what's going on in Moldova.

https://www.flightradar24.com/FORTE10/2b7ce56a

[bickster]

24 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Been busy, checking out that ship and see what's going on in Moldova.

https://www.flightradar24.com/FORTE10/2b7ce56a

Nothing to do with the ship. The Moskva was 60 miles offshore from Odessa. the distance between Odessa and Sevastopol is about 190 miles. No idea what it was doing but that ship wasn't it

[sne]

[Awol]

B52 out of RAF Fairford saying good morning to Russia on the eastern flank. Some very aggressive dialogue on Russian TV last night, including whether Kyiv should be nuked. 
 

[foreveryoung]

2 hours ago, Awol said:

B52 out of RAF Fairford saying good morning to Russia on the eastern flank. Some very aggressive dialogue on Russian TV last night, including whether Kyiv should be nuked. 
 

Been some serious reconnaissance on that Moldova border lately, an that's only what you can see on flight radar.  3 Nato aircraft at the moment, including a AWACS. I'm a geek on flgiht radar lately, and from what I can see looks like somethings building. Much more military presence than in recent weeks.

[Mozzavfc]

6 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Been some serious reconnaissance on that Moldova border lately, an that's only what you can see on flight radar.  3 Nato aircraft at the moment, including a AWACS. I'm a geek on flgiht radar lately, and from what I can see looks like somethings building. Much more military presence than in recent weeks.

I guess the Moldovans are looking at having a crack at reclaiming Transnistria now the Russians can't prop them up

[AlwaysAVFC]

3 hours ago, Awol said:

B52 out of RAF Fairford saying good morning to Russia on the eastern flank. Some very aggressive dialogue on Russian TV last night, including whether Kyiv should be nuked. 
 

I was driving out of Swindon last week and saw a B52 on its decent into Fairford.

[Awol]

There’s definitely an unrepentant evil about modern Russia.

 

[bickster]

It’s also the home of Pinocchio 

 

[foreveryoung]

20 minutes ago, bickster said:

It’s also the home of Pinocchio 

 

Them nazis ain't half got some gear. Who would have thought they had Drones.

[magnkarl]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

It’s also the home of Pinocchio 

 

In case people didn’t get this, it’s more tanks and drones than Ukraine had when the war started.

It’s der Untergang ‘what do you mean there are no more tanks’-level ironic.

[sidcow]

The Russian mind is a strange thing. 

They refuse to accept that Ukrainian missiles sunk their ship and instead claim that a fire broke out on board and exploded the ammunition. 

So basically they think its better to claim incompetent operation and catastrophic faulty design of their flagship than admit some state of the art anti ship missile did it's job. 

[chrisp65]

4 minutes ago, sidcow said:

The Russian mind is a strange thing. 

They refuse to accept that Ukrainian missiles sunk their ship and instead claim that a fire broke out on board and exploded the ammunition. 

So basically they think its better to claim incompetent operation and catastrophic faulty design of their flagship than admit some state of the art anti ship missile did it's job. 

Then today, they’ve made a big deal of attacking the factory they claim makes the missiles that didn’t sink their ship.

There does appear to be a genuinely different thought process. Though I suspect its less ‘genuinely wired up different’, and more confused and struggling to control every utterance by every official when the Kremlin official line is so obviously flawed.

[ciggiesnbeer]

The word of the Russian government is simply worthless. They are proven liars. Their threats are empty as are their promises. Their words should be dismissed out of hand.

I have been watching some ex pat Russian youtubers recently. They mention the average Russian hates the ex soviet union countries because they are "ungrateful" for "liberating"  them from the Nazi's and "siding with the west" but at the same time hate the ex Soviet countries because they are clearly free, prosperous and happy whereas the Russian people are always the losers.

It never occurs to them that nobody wants to join Russia because its a violent oppressive evil empire with scumbag leaders that sided with Nazi Germany in WW2 until they were betrayed.

At the same time many Ukrainians are sick of the Russian peoples weakness and going along with Putin. As one said "When we have a terrible leader we overthrow them, Russians just cowardly accept it."

in the west we should have no interest in helping Russia ever again. isolate them, let them rot and bleed them white with sanctions. Wash our hands of the Russian people. This is their problem not ours. We should focus on expanding Nato and restoring the stolen territory to Ukraine, Finland, Georgia etc.

We in the west were far too kind at the end of the soviet union. We should never make that mistake again.


 

Edited April 15, 2022 by ciggiesnbeer

[LondonLax]

12 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

The word of the Russian government is simply worthless. They are proven liars. Their threats are empty as are their promises. Their words should be dismissed out of hand.

I have been watching some ex pat Russian youtubers recently. They mention the average Russian hates the ex soviet union countries because they are "ungrateful" for "liberating"  them from the Nazi's and "siding with the west" but at the same time hate the ex Soviet countries because they are clearly free, prosperous and happy whereas the Russian people are always the losers.

It never occurs to them that nobody wants to join Russia because its a violent oppressive evil empire with scumbag leaders that sided with Nazi Germany in WW2 until they were betrayed.

At the same time many Ukrainians are sick of the Russian peoples weakness and going along with Putin. As one said "When we have a terrible leader we overthrow them, Russians just cowardly accept it."

in the west we should have no interest in helping Russia ever again. isolate them, let them rot and bleed them white with sanctions. Wash our hands of the Russian people. This is their problem not ours. We should focus on expanding Nato and restoring the stolen territory to Ukraine, Finland, Georgia etc.

We in the west were far too kind at the end of the soviet union. We should never make that mistake again.


 

Wasn’t that a bit like the approach we took with Germany after WW1?