Ukraine War Watch Thread

[wjfox]

[andmar74]

What if the Russians surround Kiev and let 2.5 million people starve to death? Are we just going to let that happen? Is this really how the human species is? Are we going back to the Siege of Leningrad?

[raklian]

What if the Russians surround Kiev and let 2.5 million people starve to death? Are we just going to let that happen? Is this really how the human species is? Are we going back to the Siege of Leningrad?

If they do, this information will reach the Russian population eventually. Putin won't last very long afterwards.

[joe00uk]

What if the Russians surround Kiev and let 2.5 million people starve to death? Are we just going to let that happen? Is this really how the human species is? Are we going back to the Siege of Leningrad?

In all likelihood, long before that point either Kiev will have surrendered or its defences will be too weak to resist the Russians.

[weatheriscool]

Russia has used vacuum bomb, says Ukraine envoy
17:44

Russia used a banned thermobaric weapon during fighting in Ukraine on Monday, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US told American lawmakers in a briefing.

"They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva convention," Oksana Markarova told reporters after emerging from the congressional briefing. This claim has not been verified by the BBC.

Thermobaric weapons do not use conventional ammunition.

They are instead filled with a high-pressure explosive, and suck in oxygen from the surrounding environment to generate an extremely powerful explosion and pressure wave.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60542877

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Ukraine Analysis
by James Dorsey
March 1, 2022

https://www.eurasiareview.com/01032022- ... -analysis/

Extract:

(The Eurasia Review) Mr. Putin has made no bones about the fact that he sees territories populated by Russian speakers and adherents of Russian culture as the determinants of Russia’s borders, not international law.

The Russian leader demonstrated in 2008, and since, his willingness to enforce his definition of Russia’s border with military might.
…
The United States and Europe responded by slapping Mr. Putin’s wrists. The sanctions imposed at the time did little to stop Mr. Putin from increasing his war chest or making the cost of continued pursuit of his strongman tactics too costly and risky.
…
…prominent BBC journalist Lyse Doucet, reporting from Kyiv, highlighted the fact that humans in distress are humans in distress irrespective of their ethnicity or religion.
…
“If anyone knows about the pain and hardship of living with war, it’s the people of Iraq, of Kurdistan. And if anyone knows what it’s like to live in a war that never seems to end, of living with powerful neighbours, and the importance of independent journalism, it is the Kurdish people,” Ms. Doucet said.

[weatheriscool]

Germany sends Tornado warplanes and maritime patrol aircraft to Baltic Sea area
Source: Reuters

2:07 PM EST

BERLIN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Germany is sending Tornado warplanes and a maritime patrol aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to the Baltic Sea area, Germany's mission to NATO said on Twitter on Monday.

A spokesperson for the defence ministry in Berlin said she could not immediately give any details due to operational security concerns.

Earlier in the day, the German navy dispatched six additional warships, four of them to the Baltic Sea.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ge ... 022-02-28/

[weatheriscool]

Russia pummels Ukraine's No. 2 city and convoy nears Kyiv
Source: AP

By YURAS KARMANAU, JIM HEINTZ, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and DASHA LITVINOVA

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.

With the Kremlin increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have tanked the ruble currency, Russian troops attempted to advance on Ukraine’s two biggest cities. In strategic Kharkiv, an eastern city with a population of about 1.5 million, videos posted online showed explosions hitting the region’s Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack on Kharkiv’s main square “frank, undisguised terror,” blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. “Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. ... This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”

Throughout Ukraine, many civilians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrai ... d844b5ee2f

[Cyber_Rebel]

@andmar74

Even without nukes, a war with Russia is very destructive. I wish more could be done, too, and I know that's easy for me to say, being so far away from things.