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

 

[The Door]

One would think current events would be a ringing endorsement against Macron’s views. Both china and the Soviet Union were former enemies of the US, enemies that briefly flirted with the idea of closer US relations. US even thought that both countries would mellow out, leave their tyrannical socialist past behind and slowly embrace democracy.

Yet, the exact opposite has happened. Those old grudges never vanished and both countries. China has near fully backslid into maoism and Russia is once again openly antagonistic.

If such a soft approach like the one Macron is proposing were used against Japan back in ww2, you would not have a democratic Japan in the modern day, you would have a resurgent Japanese empire.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Putin's grip on Russia is falling apart because of his asinine war:

Putin wanted this war to be his triumph, it looks like it'll be his doom. If enough Russian soldiers and generals get fed up with him, he won't last long.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Putin's grip on Russia is falling apart because of his asinine war:

Putin wanted this war to be his triumph, it looks like it'll be his doom. If enough Russian soldiers and generals get fed up with him, he won't last long.

I saw that one. It's that Warthog robot voice channel so take with a healthy grain of salt. Nobody knows exactly what's going on with Putin anymore than they know what is going on with Kim Jong Un. This is probably simply Uke wishful thinking. But it is interesting that they have named identifiable Colonels on intercepts openly ranting about Shoigu. Not that anyone would blame them at this point.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I saw that one. It's that Warthog robot voice channel so take with a healthy grain of salt. Nobody knows exactly what's going on with Putin anymore than they know what is going on with Kim Jong Un. This is probably simply Uke wishful thinking. But it is interesting that they have named identifiable Colonels on intercepts openly ranting about Shoigu. Not that anyone would blame them at this point.

The fact that colonels are ranting about how flaccid the Russian military leadership is pretty much shows how fucked their war effort is. They haven't achieved any of their goals, and any objectives they've taken are taken with gallons of Russian blood. All to gain turf that the Ukrainians can retake later, that offer no real strategic value.

 

[Snekposter]

So far it looks like the Ukrainians have taken back about 40% of the city, after starting yesterday with maybe 20% of it, plus some of the outlying villages. With the russians so heavily dependent on fire superiority, being attacked up close has got to be really fucking nasty for them, especially if they have barely any prepared positions, or possibly none at all.

Wouldn't shock me if they got overconfident and didn't bother to set up any fallback areas. Overconfidence has been Russia's defining feature throughout after all. Even a Slav finally learns their lesson after enough hard knocks though, so I also wouldn't be surprised if they finally did learn something this time. Although if the Russians wind up getting their asses kicked at urban combat, that really will be the tolling of the bell for the Russian military.

And now for some general Snekposter milshit autism: I'll let you guys in on a dirty little secret: the US Infantryman is terrible at providing his own fire, and has been ever since the Revolutionary War. Defensively his job is to keep the bad guys away from the artillery, so him being good at shooting isn't that important compared to being able to dig in and force the enemy to commit to costly assault operations (such as the initial battles at Ia Drang where Vietnamese assaults against that fixed position went terribly). In mobile operations his job is to keep the enemy pinned so something large and explosive can be sent their way, so again, being good at shooting things isn't all that important. However, there is one aspect of warfighting the US infantryman cannot pass off to fire support, and that is close combat operations. Ask the Mexicans at Mexico City how well being on the defensive in urban battles worked for them.

Oh...

Also, the US has also attempted to provide close fire support right to the hands of infantry ever since WW2, with an average of three rifle grenadiers per squad, then starting with the Battle of Okinawa adding recoilless rifles to weapons platoons, and with Vietnam and later on the M79 and various underbarrel launchers. Doesn't matter how good your aim with a rifle is when every third or fourth man in your squad can noob tube the enemy.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Don't even need to retake Crimea to cause the Russians massive headaches. If Kherson falls the advances to the north and south of it will have to pull back. Supplies in the north will be lost, and in the peninsula to the south their garrisons will either have to run or get cut off by any advancing forces. And the river will be excellent defensive territory for Ukraine, allowing them to devote more forces towards the Donbass area to prevent its encirclement.

They should just retake it anyway.

 

[Autopsy]

Yet, the exact opposite has happened. Those old grudges never vanished and both countries. China has near fully backslid into maoism and Russia is once again openly antagonistic.

Recent events in China (since Dec.) have been concerning but the verdict is out over-all. China has distinct economic and geopolitical interests that are coherent while Russia does not, China is still playing ball with the world system, China's attempts to decouple from the world system are sane and not "lol buy a bunch of gold," and China's political elite are dependent on the continuation of China by design, the CCP has no "eject button" like Russian oligarchs.
I would advise a lot of caution in analogizing the situations too directly, in many ways China is less of a problem but more of a threat.

The french have some historical context for this; their demands to humiliate Germany, after the great war, gave the impetus to Hitler's rise to power and saw France humiliated in turn.

Emasculating revanchists is impossible, they do it themselves as needed to justify their revanchism.
You compare to Germany, but I'll tag in China again: Chinese nationalism is rooted in the "century of humiliation," which is an imaginary fake and gay concept that Chinese nationalists invented early in the 20th century to tie together a bunch of unrelated events, many of which were China's fault, as if there was a grand conspiracy to humiliate the Chinese people. It fell out of favor for sixty years but returned with a vengeance in the mid-00's.

The century of humiliation is the bedrock of the modern CCP diplomatic policy and they used it to shunt out Deng's multinationalism, arguing that the humiliation had to be "answered for," versus Deng's silent dignity. Foreigner ambassadors and contacts are bewildered by how rapid this change was and find themselves interacting with a new cadre who are hostile, inconsolable, and will accept nothing less than revenge for humiliations over a hundred years old now.
It doesn't matter if the claims are retarded, because the West should be willing to "accept" they are "not in charge anymore." Geopolitical and human losses, as in any war, are justified because a DIGNITY is won in exchange. Never mind how little this dignity is worth, since less than ten years of propaganda were enough to erase it entirely.

In short, China was not humiliated when they were led by a man with a coherent foreign policy and no intention to invade neighbors, but then with Xi, suddenly the Chinese peoples are deeply humiliated and out for revenge - because none of it is real. It is trivial to sell a domestic polity the idea that they were somehow wronged even if their ancestors or parents brought it on themselves.

Will China act as Russia has? Not likely, but the point is that if the CCP decides to act on their foreign claims their people will accept far higher losses due to this pure narrative invention, as Russians accept tacitly already that this war in Ukraine is "revenge" for humiliations from NATO. Inventing humiliations is so easy that the Chinese are having trouble because this propaganda has become so successful many of the midling/younger generations of PLA (aged 25-35) hunger for a war with the West that the CCP cannot and does not want to provide. Even if the West made every requested concession and cared deeply about the "dignity" of Russia or China, the narrative of these countries about their humiliation would not go away.
Feeding into the myth of provocation politics is a mistake, don't fall to the temptation.

 

[Aidan]

The fact that colonels are ranting about how flaccid the Russian military leadership is pretty much shows how fucked their war effort is. They haven't achieved any of their goals, and any objectives they've taken are taken with gallons of Russian blood. All to gain turf that the Ukrainians can retake later, that offer no real strategic value.

I got news for you. Officers (and NCOs) complain about their superiors in the US military, too. Posting a video by a literally-who isn't news btw.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I got news for you. Officers (and NCOs) complain about their superiors in the US military, too. Posting a video by a literally-who isn't news btw.

This is far more worse than that. Especially when Putin is losing and axing generals at an alarming rate.

Again, this pathetic attempt to make an equivalency between the Russian and American armies relies upon a complete disregard for the context of what is going on.

 

[Snekposter]

They should just retake it anyway.

Might be too costly given the poor supply situation Ukraine would have, especially since either A. Russia will have it ceded to them during peace talks if Ukraine is forced to agree to concessions, potentially as part of a trade where Russia gives up claims to the Donbass region, or B. Russia is forced to repudiate all claims to it during peace talks if they are unable to force concessions on Ukraine. Really, when its status is just as likely to be determined at the peace table by the results of combat elsewhere as it would be by actual conquest, why bother spending the blood?

And no, a status quo ante bellum deal would just result in the post-annexation borders in 2014, and while that's a possibility, we'd just be posting in a Ukraine War 2: Slavic Boogaloo megathread in another couple years as both sides would find it equally unsuitable as they do now, so I doubt its all that likely. Russia would also have to be fucking morons to agree to such a deal that leaves things up in the air still, as their losses are crippling not just now, but to any potential military buildup, whereas Ukraine would ask for and likely receive just about anything from the West it wanted if it keeps the grain flowing. Especially since with Kharkiv's talent at armored vehicles to be proven in battle I can definitely see Rheinmetall and Thales deciding to invest in not just them, but Ukraine in general.

I got news for you. Officers (and NCOs) complain about their superiors in the US military, too. Posting a video by a literally-who isn't news btw.

American soldiers are (unofficially) allowed to complain about everything. Russian ones are not.

 

[Aidan]

This is far more worse than that. Especially when Putin is losing and axing generals at an alarming rate.

Again, this pathetic attempt to make an equivalency between the Russian and American armies relies upon a complete disregard for the context of what is going on.

>it's different because Russia
Again, this pathetic attempt at passing a random youtuber posting what you want to hear as news.

While I'm bitchin' about your posts, if you post an article, also post an archive link so people don't have to actually visit the news site. Extra credit for posting the contents of the article in a quote.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Recent events in China (since Dec.) have been concerning but the verdict is out over-all. China has distinct economic and geopolitical interests that are coherent while Russia does not, China is still playing ball with the world system, China's attempts to decouple from the world system are sane and not "lol buy a bunch of gold," and China's political elite are dependent on the continuation of China by design, the CCP has no "eject button" like Russian oligarchs.
I would advise a lot of caution in analogizing the situations too directly, in many ways China is less of a problem but more of a threat.


Emasculating revanchists is impossible, they do it themselves as needed to justify their revanchism.
You compare to Germany, but I'll tag in China again: Chinese nationalism is rooted in the "century of humiliation," which is an imaginary fake and gay concept that Chinese nationalists invented early in the 20th century to tie together a bunch of unrelated events, many of which were China's fault, as if there was a grand conspiracy to humiliate the Chinese people. It fell out of favor for sixty years but returned with a vengeance in the mid-00's.

The century of humiliation is the bedrock of the modern CCP diplomatic policy and they used it to shunt out Deng's multinationalism, arguing that the humiliation had to be "answered for," versus Deng's silent dignity. Foreigner ambassadors and contacts are bewildered by how rapid this change was and find themselves interacting with a new cadre who are hostile, inconsolable, and will accept nothing less than revenge for humiliations over a hundred years old now.
It doesn't matter if the claims are retarded, because the West should be willing to "accept" they are "not in charge anymore." Geopolitical and human losses, as in any war, are justified because a DIGNITY is won in exchange. Never mind how little this dignity is worth, since less than ten years of propaganda were enough to erase it entirely.

In short, China was not humiliated when they were led by a man with a coherent foreign policy and no intention to invade neighbors, but then with Xi, suddenly the Chinese peoples are deeply humiliated and out for revenge - because none of it is real. It is trivial to sell a domestic polity the idea that they were somehow wronged even if their ancestors or parents brought it on themselves.

Will China act as Russia has? Not likely, but the point is that if the CCP decides to act on their foreign claims their people will accept far higher losses due to this pure narrative invention, as Russians accept tacitly already that this war in Ukraine is "revenge" for humiliations from NATO. Inventing humiliations is so easy that the Chinese are having trouble because this propaganda has become so successful many of the midling/younger generations of PLA (aged 25-35) hunger for a war with the West that the CCP cannot and does not want to provide. Even if the West made every requested concession and cared deeply about the "dignity" of Russia or China, the narrative of these countries about their humiliation would not go away.
Feeding into the myth of provocation politics is a mistake, don't fall to the temptation.

Well that's the interesting Chinese Calculus at the moment, given Russia has to be pulling tanks and troops from somewhere, an the East is likely it. If Xi goes for Taiwan he gets the full Russia sanctions dropped on him. Which would be way more punishing to China than the global rural gas station that is Puttie's Paradise. But would anybody else in the world give a shit if he snatches Vladivostok while Putin's pants are around his ankles? Or would the world just point and laugh.

 

[Techpriest]

Well that's the interesting Chinese Calculus at the moment, given Russia has to be pulling tanks and troops from somewhere, an the East is likely it. If Xi goes for Taiwan he gets the full Russia sanctions dropped on him. Which would be way more punishing to China than the global rural gas station that is Puttie's Paradise. But would anybody else in the world give a shit if he snatches Vladivostok while Putin's pants are around his ankles? Or would the world just point and laugh.

Nobody else would really give too much of a shit. There'd be complaints and warnings but nobody would care too much as long as they didn't get the Pacific Fleet.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

>it's different because Russia
Again, this pathetic attempt at passing a random youtuber posting what you want to hear as news.

Except it's news that other news sites have also posted, as well. Get out of your bubble, for fuck's sake.

 

[Aidan]

Except it's news that other news sites have also posted, as well. Get out of your bubble, for fuck's sake.

This thread is to collect and discuss the various news articles on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Please take general discussion of the conflict to the Invasion of Ukraine Megathread in Happenings, this is ONLY for news and news related discussion.

lazy bitch I'm not watching your videos, they don't even work half the time through TOR.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

lazy bitch I'm not watching your videos, they don't even work half the time through TOR.

I already posted several articles that said the same exact thing.

 

[Snekposter]

Russia says Germany is risking European security by 'remilitarizing' Archive

June 3 (Reuters) - Russia on Friday accused Germany of throwing European security into imbalance by "remilitarizing", as Berlin moves to boost its military spending in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

In comments published in German newspapers this week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin would soon have the largest conventional army of NATO's European members.

"We perceive the statement of the German Chancellor as yet another confirmation that Berlin has set a course for an accelerated remilitarization of the country. How could this end? Alas, this is well known from history," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.


Scholz pledged in February to sharply increase defence spending and inject 100 billion euros ($107.39 billion) into Germany's armed forces, marking a major policy shift for the military after decades of attrition following the end of the Cold War. Lawmakers were expected to vote on the spending plan on Friday.

The money is to be used over several years to increase Germany's regular defence budget of around 50 billion euros and enable the country to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of its economic output on defence each year.


Russia has sharply criticised the move, which Berlin announced shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

"At a time when it is necessary to look for opportunities to reduce common threats, Germany, on the contrary, takes the path of escalating the military-political situation on the European continent, directing tens of billions of euros to increase the critical mass of weapons," Zakharova said

Russia calls its invasion a "special military operation" to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour. Ukraine and allies call this a baseless pretext for a war that has killed thousands, flattened cities, and forced more than 6 million people to flee abroad.

Yes, I'm laughing my ass off just as much as you guys are.

 

[Aidan]

I already posted several articles that said the same exact thing.

Then why post the video and act like it says anything new? I acknowledged the articles implicitly if you can't tell, quoting for context of your laziness and then I'm shushing to avoid a repeat of the last few pages.

Putin's axing more of his top guys amid the war not going as well as he'd hoped:

Putin fires top Russian generals amid difficult campaign in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked five generals and one police colonel this week in what is believed to be a reshuffling in the top ranks of Russia’s armed forces as the country continues to experience unexpectedly heavy losses amid slow progress in its 100-day invasion of Ukraine.

www.washingtontimes.com

Given the state of the war and the Russian army at this time, it looks like Putin unwittingly saved those men's lives.

‘Winging It’: Russia Is Getting Its Generals Killed on the Front Lines

Russian generals have had to lead from the front because its amateur army can’t move otherwise.

foreignpolicy.com

Lazy

The money is to be used over several years to increase Germany's regular defence budget of around 50 billion euros and enable the country to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of its economic output on defence each year.

Oh now they care about the 2% target. Does anyone not hate German politicians?

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Then why post the video and act like it says anything new? I acknowledged the articles implicitly if you can't tell, quoting for context of your laziness and then I'm shushing to avoid a repeat of the last few pages.

And? The truth remains the same. Comparing America's army to Russia's is stupid. The former didn't go through generals like the latter.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

American soldiers are (unofficially) allowed to complain about everything. Russian ones are not.

"It is an enlistedman's God given right to complain. Don't worry about complaints, worry when they gather in small groups and silent when you walk up." - PLDC, Baumholder, 1989.