The Brink of War?

[cdnmatt]

Hey Moses, how is sinking of that ship in the Black Sea being reported in Russia? Can't seem to find anything about it.

Folks in Russia must know about it, right? Hopefully that gives them some pause, and makes them think the war might not be going as swimmingly as the leaders say it is.

[cdnmatt]

Now apparently Dmitri Peskov is saying that if Ukraine doesn't cut the shit out, Russia may have to declare war on Ukraine.

Really? Oh right, I forgot, this isn't a war. It's a "special military operation". So if Russia declares war, will Russians finally be able to call it a war, or will they still be facing up to 15 years in prison for doing so?

[Dodger]

.

So if Russia declares war, will Russians finally be able to call it a war, or will they still be facing up to 15 years in prison for doing so?

No, they will then be free to call it a "war", but if anyone's found guilty of calling it an "operation" they will be sent to prison.

There were several Ukrainian missiles which landed in small Russian towns across the Russian border yesterday. This apparently infuriated Putin who then threatened Ukraine by saying if they kept doing this he would keep bombing Kiev...LOL

I know this isn't a funny situation at all - but I just can't read some of this stuff without laughing hysterically.

If Putin's military is as efficient at handling nukes as it is at handling its trucks that run out of gas, armored vehicles and tanks that get bogged down in mud, soldiers that get lost, missiles that are aimed at airport runways but inadvertently hit schools and hospitals, and battle ships that blow themselves up, the people in Russia better duck and run for cover.

[cdnmatt]

Ohh, there we go. Turkey finally officially called this a war, and is going to close the straits. That means no replentishment of Russian naval ships. They got what they got in there, and that will have to do until the end of the war.

Only way around that one is for Russia to attack a NATO member, which I doubt they're going to do. They seem a little pre-occupied at the moment.

[cdnmatt]

Hey Moses, how is sinking of that ship in the Black Sea being reported in Russia? Can't seem to find anything about it.

Folks in Russia must know about it, right? Hopefully that gives them some pause, and makes them think the war might not be going as swimmingly as the leaders say it is.

Nevermind, I found out. Obviously, this wasn't an attack on the ship and was just an accidental fire, and Russian state TV is sticking with that narrative.

At the same time hypocritically saying this is the equivalent to an attack on Russian soil, Russia should now consider itself at war with NATO or at least NATO's infrastructure, and blah, blah...

Great, so then does that mean NATO gets to join the fight in eastern Ukraine and prevent further genocide from being committed? Russian state news anchors seem to be right up there with the lovely folks at Fox News.

[cdnmatt]

Uh oh, Russia is back to threatening the West with "unpredictable consequences". Didn't Putin already do that?

What do they think the West is going to do? Say, "oh sorry Mr. Putin, we'll get out of your way, go ahead and carry on with your genocide and war crimes uninterrupted".

[Moses]

Ohh, there we go. Turkey finally officially called this a war, and is going to close the straits. That means no replentishment of Russian naval ships. They got what they got in there, and that will have to do until the end of the war.

Only way around that one is for Russia to attack a NATO member, which I doubt they're going to do. They seem a little pre-occupied at the moment.

Wrong. Turkey may close straits only non-Black sea countries. For Russia Black sea is home sea, so they can't close straits for it, but may close straits for NATO countries. Surprise.

[dab69]

https://www.businessinsider.com/russ...eir-own-2022-4

A Russian soldier says Putin's troops have been blowing up their own 'as if they were terrorists'

Ukrainian intelligence officials claim to have intercepted a call in which a Russian soldier says Vladimir Putin's troops are shooting their own people in Moscow.

The Security Service of Ukraine released an audio clip of the call on Friday, in which a man's voice can be heard saying Putin's forces have been opening fire on a Russian town. The man, a soldier located in Ukraine's Donetsk region, was speaking to his wife on the phone, who's back home in Russia.

"These are our heroes," he told his wife.

"This is done in order to provoke ... Ukrainians," he said, according to Ukrainian intel.

The soldier said Russian forces bombed Klimovo, a Russian city straddling the border between Russia and Ukraine. Klimovo authorities, meanwhile, blamed Ukrainian soldiers for shelling the city, an accusation Kyiv has vehemently denied. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine characterized the blame as "an attempt to ignite anti-Ukraine hysteria in Russia," according to Radio Free Europe, a US-funded media company.

The Russian soldier compared the shelling to the series of bombings in Russian apartments in 1999.

"The same crap was in the Chechen war," he told his wife. "Apartments were blown up in Moscow, like ... they were terrorists."

He said it was orchestrated and carried out by officers with Russia's Federal Security Service, which has frequently been accused of torture.

The Russian invasion, which began on February 24, has forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homeland. So far, more than 4.8 million Ukrainians have escaped since the beginning of the invasion, according to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency. In the first week alone, more than 1 million Ukrainians left.

Ukrainians who spoke to Insider over the course of the ongoing invasion have painted a grim picture of the devastation. They've described hearing missiles fire through the sky in the dead of night, having to share a single bulletproof vest as Russian soldiers tear through their towns, and troops shooting at homes and hospitals.

Ukrainian intelligence said in a Facebook post that the call between the soldier and wife makes it "obvious that the Kremlin is indifferent not only to its military, but also to civilian Russians, who also suffered from the shelling of Russian troops."

[dab69]

Ukrainian officials troll Russia over the sinking of its flagship missile cruiser: 'Now it's part of the submarine fleet'


https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-off...104522283.html

[cdnmatt]

Wrong. Turkey may close straits only non-Black sea countries. For Russia Black sea is home sea, so they can't close straits for it, but may close straits for NATO countries. Surprise.

What the hell are you talking about? Right Moses, they closed the straits to stop NATO ships from entering the Black Sea, the very defense alliance they're a member of. You bet.

Turkey can't stop Russian ships from leaving the Black Sea. However, they definitely can and have stopped them from entering.