Ukraine 3

[Kamaji]

Turn their tanks and guns around and use them on their own generals and leaders, frankly, if what I'm reading is true.

That would work, too.

[Hoodat]

3 convicted in 2014 downing of Malaysian jet over Ukraine

MIKE CORDER and RAF CASERT  |  an hour ago

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft as it flew over a separatist-controlled region of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The convictions, along with the life sentences handed to the two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian who were tried in absentia, were seen as directing the blame for the jet’s downing at the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though the Kremlin has always denied any connection to it.

The trial, held in a courtroom near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport where Flight MH17 took off for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, put the Kremlin’s involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine at the heart of the case.

Against the geopolitical upheaval caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, the court held that Moscow in 2014 had overall control of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area where the missile was launched.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said evidence presented by prosecutors in the trial — which lasted more than two years — proved that the Boeing 777 was brought down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Moscow Ukrainian fighters on July 17, 2014. The crash scattered wreckage and bodies over farmland and fields of sunflowers.

The 298 passengers and crew killed in the downing came from more than a dozen countries, although nearly 200 were Dutch citizens.  .  .

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-kuala-lumpur-malaysia-netherlands-099084a82b49b77b116878e24fc63a18


Russia continues to protect those responsible for this 2014 Russian attack on civilians.

[240B]

[Hoodat]

One thing that amazes me is how the Russians offer no help to their comrades.  I have seen video after video of Ukrainian drones dropping grenades or mortar shells on Russian positions.  When the grenade goes off you can see one or two Russian with shrapnel wounds struggling to move.  The ones who are not injured simply run off, abandoning their wounded comrades, exposed and in need of medical aid.

[sneakypete]

One thing that amazes me is how the Russians offer no help to their comrades.  I have seen video after video of Ukrainian drones dropping grenades or mortar shells on Russian positions.  When the grenade goes off you can see one or two Russian with shrapnel wounds struggling to move.  The ones who are not injured simply run off, abandoning their wounded comrades, exposed and in need of medical aid.

@Hoodat

That's what you get when you have an untrained army that doesn't want to be there,and no leadership at the company level.

[DB]

They are strangers that don't know each other thrown into an impossible situation. All they want to do is survive.

[Kamaji]

Russia 'secretly moves 100 missiles back from Belarus, sparking fears he plans large-scale attack in Ukraine'

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE and AFP
18 November 2022

Vladimir Putin's commanders are reported to have secretly moved almost 100 air defence missiles to Russia from allied Belarus, sparking fears he is planning to launch a large-scale attack in Ukraine.

Analysts have said the movement of the S-300 and S-400 missiles is either a sign of Russia taking precautions against a potential Ukrainian blitz in retaliation of Moscow's recent strikes, or of a larger atrocity still to come - the use of a dirty bomb.

'Whatever Russia has in mind to inflict on Ukraine the Kremlin appears to be expecting retaliation on its own soil from Ukraine or the West,' an analyst told The Mirror in an interview on Friday. Their identity was kept confidential.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11444679/Russia-secretly-moves-100-missiles-Belarus.html

[DB]

It means Russia ran out of their supplies and are pulling them in from other countries.

[Hoodat]

Russia 'secretly moves 100 missiles back from Belarus, sparking fears he plans large-scale attack in Ukraine'

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE and AFP
18 November 2022

Vladimir Putin's commanders are reported to have secretly moved almost 100 air defence missiles to Russia from allied Belarus, sparking fears he is planning to launch a large-scale attack in Ukraine.

Analysts have said the movement of the S-300 and S-400 missiles .  .  .

Gee, how about that.  Russia did have S-300 missiles close to the Polish border.  Go figure.

[Hoodat]

It means Russia ran out of their supplies and are pulling them in from other countries.

Or it means Russia doesn't want to have to account for why one of their S-300s is missing.

[Kamaji]

Gee, how about that.  Russia did have S-300 missiles close to the Polish border.  Go figure.

Good point.

[Kamaji]

On a visit to Kherson, I see why the Ukrainians will win — with our support

By Douglas Murray
November 18, 2022

Russia is going to lose this war. And Ukraine is going to win it. How can I say that with confidence? Because yesterday I was in the city of Kherson and saw Russia’s defeat with my own eyes.

Kherson is part of the south of Ukraine that was invaded and occupied in March this year. In September it was one of the four regions which the Kremlin gave a “vote” to in order to pretend that the regions really wanted to be part of Russia, not Ukraine. These “plebiscites” were meant to validate the occupier. But the whole thing was a sham, with results not seen since Saddam Hussein held “elections” in which he regularly received over 100% of the vote.

The Kremlin thought it was playing a clever game in “making official” its gobbling up these vast regions. But all the time Ukraine — backed by military provisions sent from the West — fought a far cleverer and braver war.

In recent days the consequences have been paying off. Last week the Ukrainians managed to take back the city of Kherson and much of the surrounding region. And they did it with barely a fight. So swift was the Ukrainian advance that many Russian soldiers didn’t even get the memo that they were meant to have fled the city.

One Russian soldier went into the local shop in the morning to get vodka and turned around to see two Ukrainian soldiers behind him. He is now among the prisoners of war that both sides are collecting in preparation for any final peace deal.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/11/18/on-a-visit-to-kherson-i-see-why-the-ukrainians-will-win-with-our-support/

[Hoodat]

Russian missile intercepted with German AA.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/r1JUwxrXQwQ

[Timber Rattler]

UK PM Sunak on surprise trip to Ukraine, meets Zelenskyy

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-british-politics-kyiv-europe-c15a7620922eec1402ed4fa0d4b9b79b

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised 125 anti-aircraft guns and other air-defense technology as he made an unannounced visit Saturday — his first — to Ukraine’s snow-blanketed war-time capital for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The air-defense package, which Britain valued at 50 million pounds ($60 million), comes as Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power grid and other key infrastructure from the air, causing widespread blackouts for millions of Ukrainians as the frigid cold of winter draws near.

The package includes radar and other technology to counter Iran-supplied exploding drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian targets. It comes on top of a delivery of more than 1,000 anti-air missiles that Britain announced earlier this month.

The U.K. has been one of the staunchest Western supporters of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, giving Kyiv 2.3 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) in military aid.

Zelenskyy described the two countries as “the strongest of allies.”

“With friends like you by our side, we are confident in our victory. Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom,” the Ukrainian leader said on Twitter.

“The courage of the Ukrainian people is an inspiration to the world,” Sunak said in comments alongside Zelenskyy in the presidential palace. “In years to come we will tell our grandchildren of your story.”

He pledged that Britain “will stand with you until Ukraine has won the peace and security it needs and deserves and then we will stand with you as you rebuild your great country.”

Excerpt.

[Hoodat]

Russia fired cruise missile with dummy nuclear warhead, indicating shortage of weapons

18 November, 01:08 PM


Consequences of Russia's attack on the Zaporizhzhia Oblast (Photo:REUTERS/Stringer)

Russia is launching cruise missiles with dummy nuclear warheads at Ukraine – evidence that the enemy’s stockpile of cruise missiles is running so low that it is dipping into its strategic reserves, Ukrainian military analysts Defense Express wrote on Nov. 17.

Kyiv’s air defenses shot down at least four Shahed-type kamikaze drones and at least two cruise missiles on Nov. 18.

Defense Express, citing its own sources, reported that one of these two enemy missiles was of the Kh-55 type, which had no warhead at all. Instead of a warhead, a block was “screwed” into this missile, which acted as an imitator of a nuclear warhead.

“Simply put, for this strike, the orcs (Russians) took at least one Kh-55 from their ‘nuclear arsenal’, ‘unscrewed’ the nuclear warhead from this missile and replaced it with an empty ‘block’, and then fired it at Ukraine,” the experts said.

Such actions by the Russians may have several explanations, Defense Express said:

• The Russian military involved in the preparation and execution of the next attack simply took the orders “from above” to ensure the massive use of cruise missiles on Nov. 17. That’s why the X-55 with a dummy nuclear warhead was used. But even this option indicates that the stockpile of cruise missiles in the Russian Federation is being depleted to a level critical for the Kremlin, since they have started using missiles from the “nuclear arsenal.”
  
  
• Another possible explanation is that the Russians deliberately used the Kh-55 with a dummy nuclear warhead to add to the mass attack in order to overwhelm Ukraine air defenses.

“Indeed, this really fits the Rashists’ (Russian fascists) style – to ‘use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.’ But even this option shows even more vividly that the Russian missile stockpile is running out,” the experts sad.  .  .

https://english.nv.ua/nation/russia-fired-cruise-missile-with-dummy-nuclear-warhead-indicating-shortage-of-weapons-50285029.html

[Elderberry]

Massive explosion hits Russian Gazprom gas pipeline amid suspicions of sabotage linked to Putin's war on Ukraine

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11447127/Explosion-hits-Russian-gas-pipeline-amid-suspicions-sabotage-linked-Putins-war-Ukraine.html

•   Enormous explosion hit one of Russia's major gas pipelines, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky
•   There are fears it may be a 'tit-for-tat' after traces of explosives were found at the site of the Nord Stream blast
•   The fireball was visible for miles in every direction today after hitting about 14 miles east of St Petersburg
•   Swedish prosecutor claimed sabotage was the cause of the Nord Stream pipeline blasts of September 26



An enormous explosion has hit one of Russia's major gas pipelines, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky above and prompting fears it was a retribution attack for Vladimir Putin's continued invasion of Ukraine.

The fireball was visible for miles in every direction after hitting about 14 miles east of St Petersburg, the nation's second largest city and Putin's hometown.

One source said: 'Everything is automatic there, and such explosions by themselves, without external influence, are impossible.'

The blast is believed to have hit the main gas pipeline belonging to Gazprom Transgaz SPB, and could have potentially impacted up to one million people.

Ambulances and emergency vehicles were rushing to the scene this afternoon. Eyewitnesses reported intensive care vehicles also drove to the site of the explosion. 

It's understood investigators and forensic specialists were also at the site of the explosion as they rush to determine the cause.

However, the major blast did not hit close to residential areas, and there are no initial reports of casualties coming out of Russia.

One working theory is that the explosion may have been linked to the war in Ukraine.

Russia has deliberately targeted Ukraine's vital energy supply lines in recent attacks which have been condemned around the world and left millions of Ukrainians freezing as winter approaches.

More at link.

[Hoodat]

That's a shame.

[bilo]

Massive explosion hits Russian Gazprom gas pipeline amid suspicions of sabotage linked to Putin's war on Ukraine

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11447127/Explosion-hits-Russian-gas-pipeline-amid-suspicions-sabotage-linked-Putins-war-Ukraine.html

•   Enormous explosion hit one of Russia's major gas pipelines, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky
•   There are fears it may be a 'tit-for-tat' after traces of explosives were found at the site of the Nord Stream blast
•   The fireball was visible for miles in every direction today after hitting about 14 miles east of St Petersburg
•   Swedish prosecutor claimed sabotage was the cause of the Nord Stream pipeline blasts of September 26



An enormous explosion has hit one of Russia's major gas pipelines, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky above and prompting fears it was a retribution attack for Vladimir Putin's continued invasion of Ukraine.

The fireball was visible for miles in every direction after hitting about 14 miles east of St Petersburg, the nation's second largest city and Putin's hometown.

One source said: 'Everything is automatic there, and such explosions by themselves, without external influence, are impossible.'

The blast is believed to have hit the main gas pipeline belonging to Gazprom Transgaz SPB, and could have potentially impacted up to one million people.

Ambulances and emergency vehicles were rushing to the scene this afternoon. Eyewitnesses reported intensive care vehicles also drove to the site of the explosion. 

It's understood investigators and forensic specialists were also at the site of the explosion as they rush to determine the cause.

However, the major blast did not hit close to residential areas, and there are no initial reports of casualties coming out of Russia.

One working theory is that the explosion may have been linked to the war in Ukraine.

Russia has deliberately targeted Ukraine's vital energy supply lines in recent attacks which have been condemned around the world and left millions of Ukrainians freezing as winter approaches.

More at link.

It probably was Ukraine that did this and I don't blame them. I hope more pipelines are blown up. Russia should experience what they've been doing to Ukraine.

[Elderberry]

Russia’s military collapse is accelerating. Now what?

Blowing Hot and Cold

https://cepa.org/article/russias-military-collapse-is-accelerating-now-what/

Heat speeds up decomposition. But in the military, it is cold that corrodes. As the temperature drops, it takes more effort to move about and you get hungrier more quickly. If supplies fail to match needs, morale sinks. Desertion, surrender, looting, and mutiny all start looking more attractive. Actual fighting, less so.

In the past, General Winter was Russia’s great ally. But now the cold months are helping Ukraine. Its soldiers are better equipped, better trained, better led, better treated, and therefore more highly motivated. Russians, by contrast, are paying the price for their system’s endemic incompetence and corruption. When you are wearing the wrong clothes, the cold bites hard. Just ask the Germans and the French, who invaded Russia wearing their summer uniforms. Modern technology makes things worse: the thermal signature of vehicles, and even human warmth, is more conspicuous to infrared cameras. Russians suffered from that at the tail-end of last winter, nine months ago. Now it will hurt them again.

Russia badly needs a pause to regroup and refit but has little chance of enjoying one: Ukraine is on the front foot now and will press home its advantage. Long-range strikes are having a devastating effect on Russia’s already-flimsy logistics. The longer this goes on, the higher the chance of a Russian military collapse. That will raise the stakes in the power struggle that is already going on in the Kremlin. It is bad to lose a fight in Ukraine. It is even worse to lose one in Moscow.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

Give us coal for Christmas please: Ukraine

https://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/7989626/give-us-coal-for-christmas-please-ukraine/?cs=12

Ukraine is pleading with Australia to send coal shipments for Christmas as Russia targets the nation's energy infrastructure, dooming millions to a freezing winter.

Temperatures in Ukraine have already dipped below freezing and electricity is being rationed through scheduled blackouts as Russia ramps up its attacks.

Kyiv's envoy to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko is asking Australia to have coal ships loaded before Christmas to help Ukrainians make it through the winter with electricity and running water.

A shipment of coal takes around six to eight weeks to reach Ukraine, before being carted by train.

Freezing temperatures are expected to linger into March.

[Hoodat]

Ukraine is pleading with Australia to send coal shipments for Christmas as Russia targets the nation's energy infrastructure, dooming millions to a freezing winter.

As the Saudi Arabia of coal, the United States is in the best position to deliver coal.  But that won't happen because there is no way for Biden to launder money from it.  It would mean that we would actually have to send them coal instead of the current tactic of saying we were sending coal to Ukraine while instead giving money to USAID and the State Department to be funneled back to Democrat special interest groups.

[sneakypete]

Russia’s military collapse is accelerating. Now what?


Russia badly needs a pause to regroup and refit but has little chance of enjoying one: Ukraine is on the front foot now and will press home its advantage. Long-range strikes are having a devastating effect on Russia’s already-flimsy logistics. The longer this goes on, the higher the chance of a Russian military collapse. That will raise the stakes in the power struggle that is already going on in the Kremlin. It is bad to lose a fight in Ukraine. It is even worse to lose one in Moscow.

More at link.

@Elderberry

And worse of all,will be the Chinese invasion,with the Russians completely powerless to stop them.

AND......,this could even lead to WW-3 if any western nations came to the aid of Russia.

The US certainly can't afford to take Russia's side because the Chinese would shut down our supply of EVERY BLEEPING THING that they manufacture and sell to us,thus bankrupting the US.

[Timber Rattler]

The demonisation of Volodymyr Zelensky

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/20/the-demonisation-of-volodymyr-zelensky/

In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US offered Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky the chance to evacuate. But Zelensky declined. ‘The fight is here’, he said. ‘I need ammunition, not a ride.’

Zelensky’s defiant statement set the tone for his remarkable leadership over these past nine months. In the face of Russian aggression, he has stood as tall as he expects his people to. He has rallied Ukrainians in their hour of need. He has given voice to their desire for national freedom. ‘The most terrible steel’, he said on Ukrainian independence day this August, ‘is not within missiles, aircrafts and tanks but in shackles’.

Yet for those in the West wanting Ukraine to give in to Russian aggression, to surrender territory and sovereignty to an invading force, to accept the ‘shackles’, Zelensky’s leadership appears as a problem. And so those peddling this ‘anti-war’ line have taken to demonising him, often in an absurd fashion. They have presented his determination to resist foreign aggression as ‘escalationary’. They have repackaged his defiance as a provocation to Russia.

A lot of folks have no idea that Zelensky only became president in April 2019 after winning Ukraine's presidential election in a landslide on a reform platform.  He was an outsider and not part of the pro-European Poroshenko regime before him, or the pro-Kremlin Yanukovych regime before he fled to Russia in February 2014.  He was just a comedian and an actor in a popular TV show called "Servant of the People," which he used as a springboard for his candidacy, never expecting to actually win. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6235122/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/03/22/servant-of-the-people-zelensky-netflix-show/

Putin sized Zelensky up at the so-called "Normandy Four" summit in December 2019, just like Khrushchev did Kennedy in Vienna in June 1961, and decided that he was a lightweight coward who would flee at the first sight of Russian tanks bearing down on Kyiv. 

Like Khrushchev, Putin was wrong.

[240B]

Back when China was still China, before the entire American economy relocated there in the 80/90s, Russia and China had a lot of territorial disputes. No doubt today, China has already taken any disputed land/islands from Russia and more. Whatever they can get away with, China will certainly take.

[sneakypete]

Back when China was still China, before the entire American economy relocated there in the 80/90s, Russia and China had a lot of territorial disputes. No doubt today, China has already taken any disputed land/islands from Russia and more. Whatever they can get away with, China will certainly take.

@240B

No truer words have ever been written.

At their true apexes, Communism and Capitalism are indistinguishable.

WHY is it that no one seems to take any interest in and acknowledge this basic economic and human truth?