War Invasion of Ukraine News Megathread - Thread is only for articles and discussion of articles, general discussion thread is still in Happenings.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that the United States will impose sanctions “far beyond” the ones that the United States imposed in 2014 following the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Biden said in a White House speech, signaling a shift in his administration’s position. “We will continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates,” he added.

Russian elites and their family members will also soon face sanctions, Biden said, adding that “Russia will pay an even steeper price” if Moscow decides to push forward into Ukraine. Two Russian banks and Russian sovereign debt will also be sanctioned, he said.

Also in his speech, Biden said he would send more U.S. troops to the Baltic states as a defensive measure to strengthen NATO’s position in the area.

Russia shares a border with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to go into the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine after a lengthy speech in which he recognized the two regions’ independence.

Western powers decried the move and began to slap sanctions on certain Russian individuals, while Germany announced it would halt plans to go ahead with the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

At home, Biden is facing bipartisan pressure to take more extensive actions against Russia following Putin’s decision. However, a recent poll showed that a majority of Americans believe that sending troops to Ukraine is a “bad idea,” and a slim minority believes it’s a good one.

All 27 European Union countries unanimously agreed on an initial list of sanctions targeting Russian authorities, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, and EU foreign affairs head Josep Borell claimed the package “will hurt Russia … a lot.”

Earlier Tuesday, Borell asserted that Russian troops have already entered the Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Lugansk, which are under the control of pro-Russia groups since 2014.

And on Tuesday, the Russian Parliament approved a Putin-back plan to use military force outside of Russia’s borders as Putin further said that Russia confirmed it would recognize the expanded borders of Lugansk and Donetsk.

“We recognized the states,” the Russian president said. “That means we recognized all of their fundamental documents, including the constitution, where it is written that their [borders] are the territories at the time the two regions were part of Ukraine.”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Putin said that Ukraine is “not interested in peaceful solutions” and that “every day, they are amassing troops in the Donbas.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday morning again downplayed the prospect of a Russian invasion and proclaimed: “There will be no war.”

“There will not be an all-out war against Ukraine, and there will not be a broad escalation from Russia. If there is, then we will put Ukraine on a war footing,” he said in a televised address.

The White House began to signal that they would shift their own position on whether it’s the start of an invasion.

“We think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia’s latest invasion into Ukraine,” said Jon Finer, the White House deputy national security adviser in public remarks. “An invasion is an invasion and that is what is underway.”

For weeks, Western governments have been claiming Moscow would invade its neighbor after Russia gathered some 150,000 troops along the countries’ borders. They alleged that the Kremlin would attempt to come up with a pretext to attack, while some officials on Monday said Putin’s speech recognizing the two regions was just that.

But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Tuesday that Russia’s “latest invasion” of Ukraine is threatening stability in the region, but he asserted that Putin can “still avoid a full blown, tragic war of choice.”

Article

 

[RodgerDodger]

Tradition of USA name changes got started with WWI. But the WWI U.S. people made name changes permanent, removed a major language and part of the culture [German] in the country. Which have been the buried hallmark of WWI. Thanks to unending English propaganda throughout WWI portraying the Germans as evil manifested on Earth.

The WWII names changes however have been temporary and the people realize it was cringe and went to undo the damage.

Well not entirely. Rebranding all of the pre WW2 Japanese Restaurants in America "Chinese" mostly stuck for the long term.

 

[Useful_Mistake]

Russian Forces Switch Off Networks at Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant: UN​

Russian forces switched off some mobile networks and the Internet at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, said the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Sunday.

In a statement, the IAEA’s chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said it meant that “reliable information from the site cannot be obtained through the normal channels of communication.”

“The deteriorating situation regarding vital communications between the regulator and the Zaporizhzhia [nuclear plant] is also a source of deep concern, especially during an armed conflict that may jeopardize the country’s nuclear facilities at any time,” his statement added.

Several days ago, fighting was reported around the Zaporizhzhia plant, one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world. There were erroneous reports from Ukrainian officials on social media that the power plant’s reactors caught on fire, suggesting a meltdown was imminent, as Russian officials alleged—without evidence—that Ukrainian forces provoked the Russian troops into firing on the plant.

Local officials in Ukraine confirmed later that Russian troops took over the plant. The IAEA also confirmed the development last week.


Amid the shelling and reports of a fire at an onsite training facility, some of the reactors were shut down and others were placed on low power, according to officials.

“I’m extremely concerned about these developments that were reported to me today,” Grossi said in Sunday’s statement. “Just a few days after I presented the seven main elements of nuclear safety and security to the IAEA Board, several of them are already being compromised.” He added that there are problems with food availability and supplies at the plant.

“In order to be able to operate the plant safely and securely, management and staff must be allowed to carry out their vital duties in stable conditions without undue external interference or pressure,” Grossi said.

Since Grossi’s statement, Russian officials have not yet made any public remarks in response.

The IAEA also expressed alarm that communications have been lost with facilities near Mariupol, Ukraine, and that there are “category 1-3 radiation sources, a probable reference to medical or industrial isotopes.”

In 1986, Ukraine suffered perhaps the worst ever nuclear plant disaster when the Chernobyl reactor melted down, as communist officials attempted to cover it up, sending radiation across Europe. After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, troops took over the Chernobyl containment site, which is located about 60 miles north of Kyiv.

https://archive.ph/0kG49

Russia: Countries Allowing Ukraine to Use Their Airfields ‘May Be Regarded’ as Entering Conflict​

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday warned that any country that offers the use of its airfields to Ukraine’s military for attacks on Russian assets could be considered as having entered the conflict.

“The use of the airfield networks of these countries to base Ukrainian military aircraft and their subsequent use against the Russian armed forces may be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the Interfax news agency on Sunday evening local time.

Konashenkov said Russian officials are aware of “Ukrainian combat plans which earlier flew to Romania and other neighboring countries,” without elaborating.

Since the conflict started on Feb. 24, the United States, its NATO allies, and other European nations have flooded Ukraine with missiles, anti-tank missiles, ammunition, weapons, and other supplies. There have also been reports claiming that European and NATO countries are working to sent fighter jets to Ukraine.

A report from the Financial Times, meanwhile, quoted an anonymous White House official as saying the United States is working with Polish officials to send the jets to Ukraine’s military, but Poland’s government disputed those reports as false.

“FAKE NEWS! Unfortunately you are spreading misinformation with quotation from 27/02/22. Poland won’t send its fighter jets to #Ukraine as well as allow to use its airports. We significantly help in many other areas,” the Polish prime minister’s office wrote on Sunday morning in a Twitter post to the pro-Kyiv news outlet NEXTA, which repeated the claim that Poland and the United States are trying to get fighter planes to Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked the United States and NATO to provide jets or enforce a no-fly zone, urging American members of Congress on Friday again to do so in a Zoom call.

But NATO’s Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, and top White House officials have said that a no-fly zone is not being considered over Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, because it would entail having U.S. or NATO planes shooting down Russian military aircraft or attacking assets in Ukraine and inside Russia. Stoltenberg warned late last week that the move would lead to a sharp escalation in the conflict with Russia, which has perhaps the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world.

Despite the risks, some members of Congress, including outgoing Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), have called for a no-fly zone to be enforced over the Eastern European nation.

On Sunday morning, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told ABC News that a no-fly zone over Ukraine would lead to another world war.

“A no-fly zone has become a catchphrase. I’m not sure a lot of people fully understand what that means,” Rubio told ABC News. “That means flying AWACS 24 hours a day, that means the willingness to shoot down and engage Russian airplanes in the sky. That means, frankly, you can’t put those planes up there unless they’re willing to knock out the anti-aircraft systems that the Russians have deployed in, and not just in Ukraine, but Russia and also in Belarus,” Rubio said.

https://archive.ph/MaDNq

Beijing Describes Ukraine as ‘Prodigal Son’ in State Propaganda​

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, China’s short video platform Douyin, known as TikTok overseas, released a video showing an elementary school teacher telling students that Ukraine is a “prodigal” child of the former Soviet Union.

In this video, a female teacher, whose face not shown, vehemently told dozens of sixth-grade students in class that Ukraine should have been a most proud country as it inherited the largest military legacy of the former Soviet Union at the end of the 20th century, but it is a prodigal and therefore now a most regrettable nation.

In the video, the teacher also engaged the students, asking them to take turns to answer a question—what legacy Ukraine had inherited from the former Soviet Union. Towards the end, she asked another question, “What have we learned from this incident?”

The answers from students included “stick to our own path,” which is a quote from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and “study diligently,” a communist slogan for students.


U.S.-based China affairs commentator Li Yanming told The Epoch Times that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has clearly launched another propaganda campaign to shape the views of the Chinese people in regards to the Ukraine conflict, instilling pro-Russian and anti-U.S. propaganda, promoting the narrative that Ukraine is suffering now because of its affinity for the West.

“In addition to the media, the regime also uses school classrooms to indoctrinate—even elementary school students are not spared,” Li said. “The CCP’s unscrupulous inculcation makes people suspect that it is secretly supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.”

Similar indoctrination has also been found on a newly-established official website “Daily News in Focus.”

In one articles, the author claimed, “With the disintegration of the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991, Ukraine, as the second son, inherited large quantities of weapons and military equipment, including world-class military factories such as the Yuzhnoye Design Office and the Black Sea Shipyard, as well as nuclear arsenal, more than 6,000 tanks, three aircraft carriers, and the world’s largest strategic Bomber Tu-160. But under the bewitchment of the West, Ukraine voluntarily abandoned or destroyed them, and eventually became the most regrettable country.”

As a matter of fact, Ukraine agreed to destroy the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal, including nuclear warheads, under the Budapest Memorandum, a legally-binding instrument that requires Britain, Russia, and the United States to safeguard Ukraine’s national security and territorial integrity.

The memorandum was signed on Dec. 5, 1994, by then Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, U.S. President Bill Clinton, and British Prime Minister John Major.

The signatories committed “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and “to refrain from the threat or use of force” against the country.

In addition, if Ukraine ever becomes a victim of aggression or threat of invasion in which nuclear weapons are used, a specific clause of the memorandum clearly states that “the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.”

Ukraine and the CCP​

Independent writer Zhuge Mingyang told The Epoch Times that Ukraine provided enormous help to the CCP’s military development following the collapse of the Soviet Union, including sending top engineers to China. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, the first aircraft carrier commissioned into the CCP’s navy force, was actually bought from Ukraine as the unfinished “Varyag” and then rebuilt in China. Ukraine provided a full set of drawings to help China succeed in this project.

Yet the CCP has now turned around to call Ukraine a prodigal, he said.

Tacit Support for Russia​

Li thinks that the Russian-Ukrainian war was probably the result of CCP-Russian collusion.

“In the context of the boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics by Western countries, Putin participated in the Winter Olympics as the only VIP to support the CCP, while the CCP blatantly supported Russia after the outbreak of the war. There must have been some kind of secret agreement between the two,” he said. “In fact, in the context of Western sanctions, they choose to stand together and provide support for each other, but at the same time, they have their own secret agendas.”

Russia released a statement on Feb. 25 saying that the CCP has expressed “respect” for Putin’s military action. Li believes this indicates that behind the scenes, the CCP approves of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

https://archive.ph/CtXCP

 

[Useful_Mistake]

Russia Recruiting Syrians for Urban Combat in Ukraine, U.S. Officials Say​

Moscow is recruiting Syrians skilled in urban combat to fight in Ukraine as Russia’s invasion is poised to expand deeper into cities, according to U.S. officials.

An American assessment indicates that Russia, which has been operating inside Syria since 2015, has in recent days been recruiting fighters from there, hoping their expertise in urban combat can help take Kyiv and deal a devastating blow to the Ukraine government, according to four American officials. The move points to a potential escalation of fighting in Ukraine, experts said.

It is unclear how many fighters have been identified, but some are already in Russia preparing to enter the conflict, according to one official.

Officials declined to elaborate on what else is known about the deployment of Syrian fighters to Ukraine, the status or precise scale of the effort.

According to a publication based in Deir Ezzor, Syria, Russia has offered volunteers from the country between $200 and $300 “to go to Ukraine and operate as guards” for six months at a time.

Syrians aren’t the only foreigners said to be involved in the invasion of Ukraine. Chechen forces have also been deployed to Ukraine, according to a Reuters report citing Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fighters are also pouring into the country to fight on the side of the Kyiv-based government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that 16,000 foreigners have volunteered to fight for Ukraine, part of what he described as an “international legion.”

With volunteers from other countries flowing into Ukraine, the conflict there could become a new center of gravity for foreign fighters, said Jennifer Cafarella, national security fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C.

“The Russia deployment of foreign fighters from Syria into Ukraine internationalizes the Ukraine war, and therefore could link the war in Ukraine to broader cross regional dynamics, particularly in the Middle East,” she said.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops are inside Ukraine and mortar, missile and other attacks are occurring daily in the northern, eastern and southern regions of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled the cities, which were home to roughly two-thirds of the population before the invasion began Feb. 24.

Ukraine remains in the hands of Mr. Zelensky’s government, and the largest cities, Kyiv, the capital, and Kharkiv in the east, remain under government control. Russia has taken over the port city of Kherson, and Ukraine’s other cities now face an assault from Russia.

Syrian fighters have spent nearly a decade fighting urban warfare, while Russia’s largely conscripted force lacks this skill set. Ms. Cafarella said Syrian forces deployed to Ukraine could also be asked to work a support role, based on how they worked in Syria with the Wagner Group, a mercenary force that some see as a proxy for the Russian government.

Russia has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
since it entered that conflict, largely through airstrikes, as well as Russian armed forces. The Wagner Group, which arrived in Syria shortly after Russia entered the conflict on behalf of the Assad regime, has conducted support operations such as seizing oil and gas fields and securing other government infrastructure, such as airports.

Russia, which positioned nearly 200,000 troops along the Ukrainian border in the weeks leading up to the invasion, said Wednesday 498 of its troops have been killed and another 1,597 have been injured, a rare public admission of battlefield losses. Others have put the figures much higher, including the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff, which, according to a Reuters report, said the estimate for Russian troop deaths was closer to 11,000.

https://archive.ph/M6AtA

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Russia relying on foreign fighters to fight their wars would actually give the Ukrainians and NATO an out: If Russia brings in foreign mercenaries for pay, then what's to stop Ukraine from using NATO money to do the same? NATO can give Ukraine the money to hire mercenaries and private military contractors from the west to help fight their war. You'll have soldiers from other countries fighting on both sides; soldiers from countries under Russia's sphere of influence fighting soldiers from NATO countries hired by Ukraine.

 

[Thomas Talus]

Russia relying on foreign fighters to fight their wars would actually give the Ukrainians and NATO an out: If Russia brings in foreign mercenaries for pay, then what's to stop Ukraine from using NATO money to do the same? NATO can give Ukraine the money to hire mercenaries and private military contractors from the west to help fight their war. You'll have soldiers from other countries fighting on both sides; soldiers from countries under Russia's sphere of influence fighting soldiers from NATO countries hired by Ukraine.

So when do the smart guns and cow-voiced mechs start showing up in this changed version of war?

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

So when do the smart guns and cow-voiced mechs start showing up in this changed version of war?

A month or two, maybe. At that point, I'd expect both the native Ukrainian and Russian armies to be exhausted, while foreign fighters on both sides take potshots at each other based on who pays their bosses.

 

[Oats12345]

A month or two, maybe. At that point, I'd expect both the native Ukrainian and Russian armies to be exhausted, while foreign fighters on both sides take potshots at each other based on who pays their bosses.

You know with all the talks of world War 3. Has anyone every considered a proxy war?

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

You know with all the talks of world War 3. Has anyone every considered a proxy war?

This already is one. And with both sides bringing in foreign fighters and mercenaries, it's even more of a proxy war.

"See! America and Russia aren't fighting each other! Only the men they pay fight each other, but those guys are 'independent contractors', not national soldiers!"

 

[SBG]

So when do the smart guns and cow-voiced mechs start showing up in this changed version of war?

Probably not that long given Ukraine is setting up a website at the moment to help enlist foreign fighters interested in coming.

https://archive.ph/sqFTP

A website to guide foreign fighters to enlist with the International Defense Legion of Ukraine was launched on Saturday night by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.


The enlistment website includes a step-by-step guide on how to join the legion, including specific contact information for individual countries. Israel was one of the countries included with detailed contact details.

Volunteers were instructed to contact the Ukrainian embassy in their country for an interview. After filling out documents, they would get instructions on how to travel to Ukraine and join operational units.

"President Zelensky has created the International Legion of Ukraine, consisting of foreign citizens wishing to join the resistance against the Russian occupants and fight for global security," said the website. "Join the Legion and help us defend Ukraine, Europe and the whole world!"


The website echoed instructions posted on social media by the Ukrainian armed forces on Thursday evening.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed what he claimed amounted to 16,000 foreign volunteers on Thursday.

The same day, Russia warned foreign fighters that they would not be treated as lawful combatants.

"I wish to make an official statement that none of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime in Kyiv can be considered as combatants in accordance with international humanitarian law or enjoy the status of prisoners of war," Konashenkov said on Thursday, according to Russian state media outlet TASS. "At best, they can expect to be prosecuted as criminals. We are urging all foreign citizens who may have plans to go and fight for Kyiv’s nationalist regime to think a dozen times before getting on the way."

The UK, Latvia, and the Canadian government have all stated that they will allow the enlistment of citizens to the legion.

Not sure if this has already been posted, but there's also a NYT piece on the phenomena.

‘I Just Can’t Stand By’: American Veterans Join the Fight in Ukraine​

Hector served two violent tours in Iraq as a United States Marine, then got out, got a pension and a civilian job, and thought he was done with military service. But on Friday, he boarded a plane for one more deployment, this time as a volunteer in Ukraine. He checked in several bags filled with rifle scopes, helmets and body armor donated by other veterans.
“Sanctions can help, but sanctions can’t help right now, and people need help right now,” said the former Marine, who lives in Tampa Bay, Fla., and like other veterans interviewed for this article asked that only his first name be used for security reasons. “I can help right now.”
He is one of a surge of American veterans who say they are now preparing to join the fight in Ukraine, emboldened by the invitation of the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who earlier this week announced he was creating an “international legion” and asked volunteers from around the world to help defend his nation against Russia.
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, echoed the call for fighters, saying on Twitter, “Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.”

Hector said he hoped to train Ukrainians in his expertise: armored vehicles and heavy weapons.
“A lot of veterans, we have a calling to serve, and we trained our whole career for this kind of war,” he said. “Sitting by and doing nothing? I had to do that when Afghanistan fell apart, and it weighed heavily on me. I had to act.”
All across the United States, small groups of military veterans are gathering, planning and getting passports in order. After years of serving in smoldering occupations, trying to spread democracy in places that had only a tepid interest in it, many are hungry for what they see as a righteous fight to defend freedom against an autocratic aggressor with a conventional and target-rich army.
“It’s a conflict that has a clear good and bad side, and maybe that stands apart from other recent conflicts,” said David Ribardo, a former Army officer who now owns a property management business in Allentown, Pa. “A lot of us are watching what is happening and just want to grab a rifle and go over there.”
After the invasion, he saw veterans flooding social media eager to join the fight. Unable to go because of commitments here, he has spent the past week acting as a sort of middle man for a group called Volunteers for Ukraine, identifying veterans and other volunteers with useful skills and connecting them with donors who buy gear and airline tickets.

“It was very quickly overwhelming, almost too many people wanted to help,” he said. In the past week, he said he has worked to sift those with valuable combat or medical skills from people he described as “combat tourists, who don’t have the correct experience and would not be an asset.”
He said his group has also had to comb out a number of extremists.
Fund-raising sites such as GoFundMe have rules against collecting money for armed conflict, so Mr. Ribardo said his group and others have been careful to avoid specifically directing anyone to get involved in the fighting. Rather, he said, he simply connects those he has vetted with people who want to donate plane tickets and nonlethal supplies, describing his role as being “a Tinder for veterans and donors.”
A number of mainstream media outlets, including Military Times and Time, have published step-by-step guides on joining the military in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government instructed interested volunteers to contact its consulates this week.
Several veterans who contacted the consulates this week said they were still waiting for a response, and believed staff members were overwhelmed.
On Thursday, Mr. Zelensky claimed in a video on Telegram that 16,000 volunteers had joined the international brigade, though it is unclear what the true number is. The New York Times was not able to identify any veterans actively fighting in Ukraine.
The outpouring of support is driven, veterans said, by past experiences. Some want to try to recapture the intense clarity and purpose they felt in war, which is often missing in modern suburban life. Others want a chance to make amends for failed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and see the fight to defend a democracy against a totalitarian invader as the reason they joined the military.
To an extent not seen in past conflicts, the impulse to join has been fueled partly by an increasingly connected world. Americans watching real-time video in Ukraine can, with a click, connect to like-minded volunteers around the globe. A veteran in Phoenix can find a donor in London with unused airline miles, a driver in Warsaw offering a free ride to the border and a local to stay with in Ukraine.

Of course, war is rarely as straightforward as the deeply felt idealism that drives people to enlist. And volunteers risk not only their own lives, but also drawing the United States into a direct conflict with Russia.
“War is an unpredictable animal, and once you let it out, no one — no one — knows what will happen,” said Daniel Gade, who lost a leg in Iraq before going on to teach leadership for several years at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He said he understood the urge to fight but said the risk of escalation resulting in nuclear war was too great.
“I just feel heartsick,” he said. “War is terrible and the innocent always suffer most.”
The risk of unintended escalation has led the U.S. federal government to try to keep citizens from becoming freelance fighters, not just in this conflict, but for centuries. In 1793, President Washington issued a Proclamation of Neutrality warning Americans to stay out of the French Revolution. But the efforts have been uneven, and often swayed by the larger national sentiment. So over the generations a steady stream of idealists, romantics, mercenaries and filibusters have taken up arms, — riding with Pancho Villa in Mexico, ferrying arms to Cuba, battling communists in Africa and even trying to establish new slave states in Central America.
The civil war in Spain just before the start of World War II is the best-known example. More than 3,000 Americans joined what became know as the Lincoln-Washington Battalion, to fight with the elected leftist government against fascist forces.
At the time, the United States wanted to avoid war with Europe, and stayed neutral, but the Young Communist League rented billboards to recruit fighters, and members of the establishment held fund-raisers to send young men overseas.
That effort, now often romanticized as a valiant prelude to the fight against the Nazis, ended badly. The poorly trained and equipped brigades made a disastrous assault of a fortified ridge in 1937 and three-quarters of the men were killed or wounded. Others faced near starvation in captivity. Their leader, a former math professor who was the inspiration for the protagonist in Ernest Hemingway’s novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was later captured and most likely executed.

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, told the Russian News Agency that foreign fighters would not be considered soldiers, but mercenaries, and would not be protected under humanitarian rules regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.
“At best, they can expect to be prosecuted as criminals,” Mr. Konashenkov said. “We are urging all foreign citizens who may have plans to go and fight for Kyiv’s nationalist regime to think a dozen times before getting on the way.”
Despite the risks — both individual and strategic — the United States government has so far been measured in its warnings. Asked during a news conference this week what he would tell Americans who want to fight in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken pointed to official statements, first issued weeks ago, imploring U.S. citizens in the country to depart immediately.
He said: “For those who want to help Ukraine and help its people, there are many ways to do that, including by supporting and helping the many NGOs that are working to provide humanitarian assistance; providing resources themselves to groups that are trying to help Ukraine by being advocates for Ukraine and for peaceful resolution to this crisis that was created by Russia.”
That has not dissuaded a number of veterans who are all too familiar with the risks of combat.
James was a medic who first saw combat when he replaced another medic killed in fighting in Iraq in 2006. He did two more tours, in Iraq and Afghanistan, seeing so much blood and death that 10 years after leaving the military he still attends therapy at a veteran’s hospital.
But this week, as he watched Russian forces shell cities across Ukraine, he decided that he had to try to go there to help.

“Combat has a cost, that’s for sure; you think you can come back from war the same, but you can’t,” James said in a phone interview from his home in Dallas, where he said he was waiting to hear back from Ukrainian officials. “But I feel obligated. It’s the innocent people being attacked — the kids. It’s the kids, man. I just can’t stand by.”
Chase, a graduate student in Virginia, said that he volunteered to fight the Islamic State in Syria in 2019 and felt the same urgency for Ukraine, but he warned against simply going to the border without a plan.
In Syria, he said he knew well-meaning volunteers who were detained for weeks by local Kurdish authorities because they arrived unannounced. He arranged with Kurdish defense forces before arriving in Syria. There he spent months as a humble foot soldier with little pay and only basic rations.
Tactically, as an inexperienced grunt, he said, he was of little value. But to the people of northeastern Syria, he was a powerful symbol that the world was with them.
“I was a sign to them that the world was watching and they mattered,” he said.
A few months into his time in Syria, he was shot in the leg, and eventually returned to the United States. He came home and worked for a septic tank company, then got a job writing about used cars. When he saw explosions hitting Ukraine this week, the part of him that went to war three years ago reawakened.
“Everything here is just kind of empty and it doesn’t seem like I’m doing anything important,” he said in an interview from an extended-stay hotel in Virginia where he is living. “So I am trying to go. I don’t think I have a choice. You have to draw the line.”

In comparison to stuff like Iraq, the Ukraine invasion may seem like a more genuine good fight to get in on to these guys.
Edit: Thinking about the foreign fighters it could also be an avenue for Western governments to pay to send in experts to help train people in weapons while at the same time acting like they're not personally involved. Because how far fetched is it that the US department of defense with its insanely bloated budget and hard on for hating Russians would just offer big fat checks to veterans to go over?

 

[Oats12345]

This already is one. And with both sides bringing in foreign fighters and mercenaries, it's even more of a proxy war.

"See! America and Russia aren't fighting each other! Only the men they pay fight each other, but those guys are 'independent contractors', not national soldiers!"

It's possible this could be another Vietnam. Since we haven't seen a non Middle East example in years

 

[Snekposter]

What this means is that you're going to see even more Russian boys turned into mincemeat. If they make conscription harsher, they'll be taking people who would usually be deemed unfit.
In some cases it's just people finding ways to avoid service, sometimes with doctored medical records and bribes. You'd be pressed to find young men who actually wants to serve, but it's mandatory anyway. And there's even fewer people who'd want to die for this stupid war.

To be fair, that's just how Russia does things. They have a distinctly Oriental mindset of life being cheap over there.
@Rezza

Putin says conflict will only stop if Ukraine stops fighting and Russia's demands are met - Kremlin

Russia will only halt its military operation if Ukraine stops fighting and Moscow’s demands are met, the Kremlin said in a statement, reporting on a conversation between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan.

Putin said the operation was going according to plan and to schedule, and that he hoped Ukrainian negotiators would take a more constructive approach at talks and take into account the reality on the ground, the Kremlin said.

That is my only response. A worn-out gif is my only response.

Let's put things into perspective on this: Ukraine doesn't have the infrastructure, weapons or knowledge to operate US/European fighter jets. MiG-29s however, it can, as it already operates these fighters.

All this would entail would be Poland - potentially Romania/Slovakia too - giving their MiG-29s to Ukraine in return for F16s they were already looking to replace them with.

The rest of Europe don't operate these old fashioned Soviet fighters, so they can't bolster what Ukraine has as they are not going to be able to operate Rafaeles, Typhoons or Grippens quickly enough for them to get into the fight and make a difference. So Ukraine might increase its fighters by about 1/3rd, which will make a huge difference but wouldn't be enough for Putin to try and broaden a conflict he is already losing.

I mean fuck the Russians appear to have run out of cruise missiles already, are we really to be worried about the rest of their conventional forces?

Its less the MiGs that concern me and more literally everything else. Its a lot easier to train tankers and maintenance crew how to operate and maintain a Leo 2, especially the 2PL export version the Poles ordered, than it is fighter planes. Ukraine was working on a 120mm armed MBT for export a while back, so its not like there's a total lack of experience with Western standards for ground vehicles, especially since they've had APC's designed around Western standards before this war happened. Considering the state of the Russian tank forces, Leopards, even poorly-crewed ones, would probably tear them to shreds. And according to that NYT article @SBG posted there's likely going to be an influx of Western volunteers who can conduct training on specialized equipment like that.

If Putin lying to his current forces about what they were actually fighting for was hurting them, I’m not sure what the guy expects sending in troops he had to force into the fight.

Probably total obedience. I mean, he is a former KGB agent. Dissent is a foreign concept to a man like him. As in, literally foreign, as only the decadent West would allow a weakness like that.

And if Russia is having all these problems while trying to topple the Ukrainian government, just imagine the nightmare it would be to simply hold the damn country, both in terms of manpower and logistics. The USA toppled Saddam's regime rather handily, it was holding the nation against rag-tag guerilla bands which caused the most damage to the US forces in Iraq. I can imagine Ukrainians would fight even harder the more of their people get hurt. After this, Russia's military is going to be a skeleton force full of draftees and unwilling combatants. I imagine they'll try to bolster it with mercenaries, but making mercenaries the bread and butter of your army is always a bad idea, since the enemy can always offer them a fatter paycheck to turn on you.

Don't forget Russia's broke, which makes mercenaries especially terrible as an idea. They're going to want either euros or dollars, not worthless rubles. One CIA agent with a briefcase full of $100 bills later...

Tradition of USA name changes got started with WWI. But the WWI U.S. people made name changes permanent, removed a major language and part of the culture [German] in the country. Which have been the buried hallmark of WWI. Thanks to unending English propaganda throughout WWI portraying the Germans as evil manifested on Earth.

The WWII names changes however have been temporary and the people realize it was cringe and went to undo the damage.

To be fair, the Germans were doing a pretty good job of that without the English needing to help. The French hateboner for the Germans post-war was nothing compared to the one the Belgians had thanks to how brutal the occupation was.

Spoiler alert: Ukraine gained its independence with a nuclear stockpile of roughly 1200+ units. They didn't have to fork over their nukes to Russia in the 90s, they did so because of a (now-broken) security promise from Russia. Also, Japan is a nation without nukes that also has the potential to make nuclear arms because they have a shitload of nuclear power plants just like Ukraine does. If you're gonna make baseless accusations of nuclearisation, be consistent and throw mud on both sides of the aisle.

Japan also has payload rockets for satellite launches that are totally not capable of being converted into ICBM's. Why, that would violate a whole chunk of international arms control treaties if they could do that. Pay no attention to the fact the V-2 MRBM was used to kickstart the space race.

A month or two, maybe. At that point, I'd expect both the native Ukrainian and Russian armies to be exhausted, while foreign fighters on both sides take potshots at each other based on who pays their bosses.

Well, what's Russia going to pay their fighters with? Vodka and borscht?

EDIT: Apparently here's a map of what Russia actually controls as opposed to what people say they do:
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1500613699417034756
Looks like just the major roads and cities on them, no actual territorial control beyond that.

 

[TheClorax]

It's possible this could be another Vietnam. Since we haven't seen a non Middle East example in years

And hey, everyone in ‘Nam was on the edges of trying not to escalate things into nuclear war then too.

 

[Useful_Mistake]

NYTimes: "Hidden away on bases around Eastern Europe, forces from United States Cyber Command known as “cybermission teams” are in place to interfere with Russia’s digital attacks and communications — but measuring their success rate is difficult, officials say."​

​

Arming Ukraine: 17,000 Anti-Tank Weapons in 6 Days and a Clandestine Cybercorps​

The United States has walked to the edge of direct conflict with Russia in an operation that is reminiscent of the Berlin airlift of 1948-49, but far more complex.

On a snowy tarmac at Amari Air Base in northern Estonia on Sunday morning, pallets of rifles, ammunition and other weapons were being loaded onto one of the largest cargo planes in the world, an Antonov AN-124, belonging to the Ukrainian air force. It is an artifact of the Cold War, built and purchased when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union.
Now it is being turned back against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, part of a vast airlift that American and European officials describe as a desperate race against time, to get tons of arms into the hands of Ukrainian forces while their supply routes are still open. Scenes like this, reminiscent of the Berlin airlift — the famed race by the Western allies to keep West Berlin supplied with essentials in 1948 and 1949 as the Soviet Union sought to choke it off — are playing out across Europe.
In less than a week, the United States and NATO have pushed more than 17,000 antitank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania, unloading them from giant military cargo planes so they can make the trip by land to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and other major cities. So far, Russian forces have been so preoccupied in other parts of the country that they have not targeted the arms supply lines, but few think that can last.
But those are only the most visible contributions. Hidden away on bases around Eastern Europe, forces from United States Cyber Command known as “cybermission teams” are in place to interfere with Russia’s digital attacks and communications — but measuring their success rate is difficult, officials say.

In Washington and Germany, intelligence officials race to merge satellite photographs with electronic intercepts of Russian military units, strip them of hints of how they were gathered, and beam them to Ukrainian military units within an hour or two. As he tries to stay out of the hands of Russian forces in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine travels with encrypted communications equipment, provided by the Americans, that can put him into a secure call with President Biden. Mr. Zelensky used it Saturday night for a 35-minute call with his American counterpart on what more the U.S. can do in its effort to keep Ukraine alive without entering into direct combat on the ground, in the air or in cyberspace with Russian forces.
Mr. Zelensky welcomed the help so far, but repeated the criticism that he has made in public — that the aid was wildly insufficient to the task ahead. He asked for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, a shutdown of all Russian energy exports and a fresh supply of fighter jets.
It is a delicate balance. On Saturday, while Mr. Biden was in Wilmington, Del., his National Security Council staff spent much of the day trying to find a way for Poland to transfer to Ukraine a fleet of well-used, Soviet-made MIG-29 fighter jets that Ukrainian pilots know how to fly. But the deal is contingent on giving Poland, in return, far more capable, American-made F-16s, an operation made more complicated by the fact that many of those fighters are promised to Taiwan — where the United States has greater strategic interests.
Polish leaders have said there is no deal, and are clearly concerned about how they would provide the fighters to Ukraine and whether doing so would make them a new target of the Russians. The United States says it is open to the idea of the plane swap.
“I can’t speak to a timeline, but I can just tell you that we’re looking at it very, very actively,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Sunday, during a trip that has taken him to Moldova, another non-NATO country that American officials fear may be next on Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s hit list of nations to bring back into Moscow’s sphere of influence.

And in downtown Washington, lobbying groups and law firms that once charged the Ukrainian government handsomely for their services are now working for free, helping Mr. Zelensky’s embattled government plead for more sanctions on Russia.
The Ukrainians are also asking for more money for weapons, though they reject the idea that Washington is manipulating Mr. Zelensky’s image to present him as Churchill in a T-shirt, rallying his country to war. Covington & Burling, a major law firm, filed a motion pro bono on behalf of Ukraine in the International Court of Justice.
It is, in many ways, a more complex effort than the Berlin airlift three-quarters of a century ago. West Berlin was a small territory with direct air access. Ukraine is a sprawling country of 44 million from which Mr. Biden has pulled all American forces in an effort to avoid becoming a “co-combatant” in the war, a legal term that governs how far the United States can go in helping Ukraine without being considered in direct conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.
But as the weapons flow in and if efforts to interfere in Russian communications and computer networks escalate, some U.S. national security officials say they have a foreboding that such conflict is increasingly likely. The American legal definitions of what constitutes entering the war are not Mr. Putin’s definitions, one senior American national security official warned over the weekend, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the American overt and covert efforts to aid Ukraine.
Mr. Putin warned on Saturday that any nation that attempted to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be “participating in the armed conflict.” On Sunday the Russian ministry of defense issued a statement warning NATO countries like Romania against allowing their bases to be used as a safe haven for the remaining planes in the Ukrainian air force. If they do so, it said, any “subsequent use against the Russian armed forces can be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict.”
Twenty years ago this month, as American forces began to flow into Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus famously asked, “Tell me how this ends.” In the case of Ukraine, a senior American official said, the question resonating around the White House is more like: “Tell me how we don’t get sucked in to a superpower conflict.”

A Flow of Arms Becomes a Torrent​

To understand the warp-speed nature of the arms transfers underway now, consider this: A $60 million arms package to Ukraine that the U.S. announced last August was not completed until November, the Pentagon said.

But when the president approved $350 million in military aid on Feb. 26 — nearly six times larger — 70 percent of it was delivered in five days. The speed was considered essential, officials said, because the equipment — including anti-tank weapons — had to make it through western Ukraine before Russian air and ground forces started attacking the shipments. As Russia takes more territory inside the country, it is expected to become more and more difficult to distribute weapons to Ukrainian troops.
Within 48 hours of Mr. Biden approving the transfer of weapons from U.S. military stockpiles on Feb. 26, the first shipments, largely from Germany, were arriving at airfields near Ukraine’s border, officials said.
The military was able to push those shipments forward quickly by tapping into pre-positioned military stockpiles ready to roll onto Air Force C-17 transport planes and other cargo aircraft, and flying them to about half a dozen staging bases in neighboring countries, chiefly in Poland and Romania.
Still, the resupply effort faces stiff logistical and operational challenges.
“The window for doing easy stuff to help the Ukrainians has closed,” said Maj. Gen. Michael S. Repass, a former commander of U.S. Special Operations forces in Europe.
U.S. officials say Ukrainian leaders have told them that American and other allied weaponry is making a difference on the battlefield. Ukrainian soldiers armed with shoulder-fired Javelin anti-tank missiles have several times in the past week attacked a mileslong convoy of Russian armor and supply trucks, helping stall the Russian ground advance as it bears down on Kyiv, Pentagon officials said. Some of the vehicles are being abandoned, officials said, because Russian troops fear sitting in the convoy when fuel-supply tanks are being targeted by the Ukrainians, setting off fireballs.
The convoy has also come under attack several times at different places along the column from another weapon supplied by a NATO member state. Armed Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, which the Ukrainian military used for the first time in combat against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine last October, are now hunting Russian tanks and other vehicles, U.S. officials said.

“All of us have been tremendously impressed by how effectively the Ukrainian armed forces have been using the equipment that we’ve provided them,” Laura Cooper, the Pentagon’s top Russia policy official, said. “Kremlin watchers have also been surprised by this, and how they have slowed the Russian advance and performed extremely well on the battlefield.”
Even the elements have sided with the Ukrainian military in the war’s early days. Bad weather in northern Ukraine has grounded some Russian attack planes and helicopters, a senior Pentagon official said. Many Russian vehicles that have driven off the main roads to avoid the stalled convoy have gotten stuck in the mud, making them more vulnerable to attack, officials said.

But the U.S. intelligence also has its limits. Mr. Biden’s ground rules forbid flying surveillance aircraft over Ukraine, so they have to peer in over the border, much as surveillance is often conducted over North Korea. There is reliance on new, small satellites — providing images similar to those that commercial firms like Maxar and Planet Labs are providing.

A War in Cyberspace That Has Barely Begun​

One of the odd features of the conflict so far is that it runs the gamut of old and modern warfare. The trenches dug by Ukrainian soldiers in the south and east look like scenes from 1914. The Russian tanks rolling through the cities evoke Prague in 1956. But the battle of the present day that most strategists expected to mark the opening days of the war — over computer networks and the power grids and communications systems they control — has barely begun.
American officials say that is partly because of extensive work done to harden Ukraine’s networks after Russian attacks on its electric grid in 2015 and 2016. But experts say that cannot explain it all. Perhaps the Russians did not try very hard at the outset, or are holding their assets in reserve. Perhaps an American-led counteroffensive — part of what Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, calls a doctrine of “persistent engagement” in global networks — explains at least some of the absence.
Government officials are understandably tight-lipped, saying the cyberoperations underway, which have been moved in recent days from an operations center in Kyiv to one outside the country, are some of the most classified elements of the conflict. But it is clear that the cybermission teams have tracked some familiar targets, including the activities of the G.R.U., Russia’s military intelligence operations, to try to neutralize their activity. Microsoft has helped, turning out patches in hours to kill off malware it detects in unclassified systems.
All of this is new territory when it comes to the question of whether the United States is a “co-combatant.” By the American interpretation of the laws of cyberconflict, the United States can temporarily interrupt Russian capability without conducting an act of war; permanent disablement is more problematic. But as experts acknowledge, when a Russian system goes down, the Russian units don’t know whether it is temporary or permanent, or even whether the United States is responsible.

Similarly, sharing intelligence is perilous. American officials are convinced that Ukraine’s military and intelligence agencies are populated with Russian spies, so they are being careful not to distribute raw intelligence that would reveal sources. And they say they are not passing on specific intelligence that would tell Ukrainian forces how to go after specific targets. The concern is that doing so would give Russia an excuse to say it is fighting the United States or NATO, not Ukraine.

The Lobbyists Fight, Too​

Ukraine has been receiving lobbying, public relations and legal assistance free of charge — and it is paying off. Mr. Zelensky held a Zoom call with members of Congress on Saturday, pushing for tougher sanctions on Russia and urging specific types of arms and other support.
An ad hoc team includes Andrew Mac, an American lawyer who has been volunteering as a lobbyist and nonstaff adviser to Mr. Zelensky since late 2019, and Daniel Vajdich, a lobbyist who had been paid by the Ukrainian energy industry and a civil society nonprofit group, but is now working for free. But American lobbyists are a sensitive topic in Ukraine, after Paul Manafort, later President Trump’s campaign chairman, worked for a pro-Russian president who was ousted in 2014, and after Mr. Trump tried to make military aid to Kyiv dependent on its willingness to help find dirt on then-candidate Biden and his son, Hunter.
Mr. Vajdich said he hoped his clients would redirect any funds they would have paid his firm to military defenses and humanitarian aid for Ukrainians forced from their homes by the fighting, drawing a comparison to early Nazi military aggression.
“Knowing what we know today, if we were living and operating in 1937 to ’39, would we have asked the Czechoslovaks for compensation to lobby against Neville Chamberlain and his policies?” he asked, referring to the British prime minister who ceded part of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in the Munich Agreement of 1938.
“No,” he said, “certainly not.”

https://archive.ph/wShxR

 

[Dread First]

Does anyone else find it hilarious that Russia's looking for Syrian mercenaries? While I'm sure that there are some takers considering how the Syrian economy is in shambles, I can't help but find the entire situation ironic.

 

[Useful_Mistake]

"JUST IN - Brent crude oil surges to $130 a barrel."

https://archive.ph/gipHi

"JUST IN - Netflix suspends services in Russia"

https://archive.ph/iwdwj

TikTok temporarily bans new video creation in Russia​

In response to Russia’s “fake news” law

TikTok is suspending new video uploads and livestreams on its app in Russia, citing the country’s newly-passed “fake news” law as the reason for the change.

“In light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law,” TikTok writes on Twitter. “Our in-app messaging service will not be affected.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on the fake news law last week. It punishes people with fines or up to 15 years behind bars for spreading “false information” about Russia’s military or for publicly calling for sanctions on Russia. As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, it has begun to crack down on social platforms and foreign media — Russia has put a block on Facebook, restricted access to Twitter, and has barred access to BBC news sites.

Last week, Russia’s communications agency Roskomnadzor called out TikTok for removing state-backed content from its platform. TikTok later announced plans to add labels to “some” state-controlled media, and has reportedly been making it harder for users to access Russian state media, in line with moves from Facebook, YouTube, and many others.

“We will continue to evaluate the evolving circumstances in Russia to determine when we might fully resume our services with safety as our top priority,” TikTok notes.

https://archive.ph/SYSBX

"NEW - Large metal gasoline cans are sold out almost everywhere in Germany."

https://archive.ph/0Vr79

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Does anyone else find it hilarious that Russia's looking for Syrian mercenaries? While I'm sure that there are some takers considering how the Syrian economy is in shambles, I can't help but find the entire situation ironic.

And as @Snekposter noted, how is Russia supposed to pay these guys? And what's to stop the west from paying them better and getting them to turn on their Russian masters?

 

[Rezza]

Damn, 130 per barrel? Suddenly nuclear is not that terrible idea, aren't they? Can anyone checked coal prices? I heard its also going up as well

 

[biscuitscilia]

Does anyone else find it hilarious that Russia's looking for Syrian mercenaries? While I'm sure that there are some takers considering how the Syrian economy is in shambles, I can't help but find the entire situation ironic.

It's simple really - there's less hesitation to pull the trigger if they're not fighting their own race. Morbid cynicism, but it gets results. That's humanity for you.

 

[SBG]

It's simple really - there's less hesitation to pull the trigger if they're not fighting their own race. Morbid cynicism, but it gets results. That's humanity for you.

Don't people in Russia routinely bribe doctors or whoever to get them out of the mandatory draft? Russia may be having a hard time getting anyone to go out and fight, in part due to the regular corruption at all levels of society there. I think there was mention of them sending in the equivalent of riot police to fight, so they seem fairly low on soldiers of any sort to go in.

And as @Snekposter noted, how is Russia supposed to pay these guys? And what's to stop the west from paying them better and getting them to turn on their Russian masters?

Can pay them in rubles that are rapidly dwindling in value, but also can throw in citizenship for those dreaming of a life in Russia.

 

[Snekposter]

Can pay them in rubles that are rapidly dwindling in value, but also can throw in citizenship for those dreaming of a life in Russia.

Why be a Russian citizen when the West can promise gibs as a migrant?