Will Putin Invade Ukraine?

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Mysterious explosion in Melitopol hits vehicle carrying four Russian soldiers

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State of emergency declared in Russia's Voronezh region (just east of Belgorod region)

What comes around...

[Cassia]

I saw that a young Russian soldier was 'tiktok filming' an ammo truck on fire with his phone. It was a fatal video. I would have set a new land speed record to get away. You have to understand that something like that will go exponential in no time. It's almost like a critical mass thing. The shrapnel was probably like a cluster bomb. On the 4th of July I stay home under two roofs, because the 'necks around here kill or maim a few locals every year. I recall a car loaded with fireworks that melted a crater in the road and its 2 passengers who could not stop and get out in time won the Darwin award.

[Hydra009]

Yeah, he walked towards a fire while filming.  Not the smartest thing, especially in a war zone.

People in general act really blaise about fires and like to watch from far too close, only backing away when it's practically right on top of them.

I always tell people, when there's an emergency situation, get tf to safety first.  Don't grab your stuff.  Don't investigate.  Don't record.  Get out of there first.  We'll figure it out later.  We'll buy new stuff later.  We can't get new people.  I mean, technically, we can...

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I saw footage of 6 Russians taking cover behind a tree in the snow.  One well-placed Ukrainian artillery shot later, no movement except for the wind and snow.

Nothing in Ukraine is worth that.  Not the land, not its resources, not a few rubles, and definitely not Putin's approval.  Such idiocy.

[Cassia]

Looks to me like Europeans are bypassing the embargo through Kyrgyzstan. I hope there is a better explanation. Of course, India, the scam hotspot is happy to buy cheap Russian oil. And of course, for some reason they also need your grandma to purchase a gift card to keep their computer virus-free.

https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/kyrgyzstan
https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-official-kyrgyzstan-russia-evading-sanctions/32338817.html

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Belarusian children to start learning enough english to interrogate british/american prisoners

According to the document, during the elective, high school students will not only study the features of military translation, but will also learn how to interpret interrogations of prisoners.

In addition, as part of the elective, high school students will learn to "use acquired knowledge in various situations of foreign language communication, extract information from texts on military topics, read the contents of military documents and convey their essence in Russian, translate military and military personnel from English into Russian." technical texts, carry out two-way translation of a conversation or interrogation of a prisoner of war, and also determine by the insignia of the American and British military, their affiliation with ranks and categories."

It doesn't look like they're preparing for peace...

[Hydra009]

Abandoning the pretense: in a speech to the Russian people, Dictator Putin says that Russia will not give up its CONQUESTS (referring to Ukraine)

So I have bad news for anyone who seriously believed Putin's earlier statements that Russia was just trying to defend itself and the sovereignty of the allegedly "independent" republics (republics which have now been annexed by Russia, willingly giving up the very sovereignty they claimed they were fighting Kyiv for - a claim made in a very thick Moscow accent)

Now, Putin openly refers to conquests and billboards have gone up in Moscow saying that Russia's borders do not end anywhere.  What could he possibly mean by this??  🤔

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Medvedev posted that the existence of Ukraine at all - not just Zelenskyy's regime - is unacceptable (paraphrased because his word choice is filled with slurs)

But these are his exact words when translated to english:

"The existence of an independent state in the historical Russian territories will now be a permanent reason for the resumption of hostilities."

[Hydra009]

In better news, the Ukrainians are certainly putting those Bradleys to good use.

[Cassia]

The US Army is looking to replace the Bradley with an Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle. Edging closer and closer to robot vs robot warfare.

[Unbeliever]

Rise of the machines!

[Hydra009]

Ukraine launches successful drone attack on oil depot near St Petersburg

The cherry on top is that the war coming uncomfortably close causes a lot of anxiety in Russian oligarchs, particularly Putin himself.  When this sort of thing happened last year, IIRC he spent a lot of time "inspecting" his bunker and was outraged that a Ukrainian drone came very close to one of his mansions.

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Russian losses climb back to near 1000.  Russia lost a whopping 20 tanks yesterday.