Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Jersey Girl]

New York Times withdraws all correspondents from Russia for first time in more than a century

The New York Times (NYT) has pulled all its correspondents out of Russia, marking the first time in over a century that the paper will have no reporters on the ground there.

"Very sad day for the history of @nytimes in Moscow. Pulling all its correspondents out of the country. We have had reporters there continuously since 1921, with one or two short interruptions due to visa hiccoughs. Not Stalin, not the Cold War, nothing drove us out," Neil MacFarquhar, a former NYT Moscow bureau chief tweeted.

The paper announced its formal withdrawal from Russia in a statement Tuesday, citing new legislation which seeks to criminalize journalists reporting on Moscow’s invasion in Ukraine by outlawing any references to "war."

"Russia’s new legislation seeks to criminalize independent, accurate news reporting about the war against Ukraine. For the safety and security of our editorial staff working in the region, we are moving them out of the country for now," said New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/uk ... c34e49e2c0

[Jersey Girl]

While he's no Boris Yeltsin, I agree that Putin is definitely looking puffier and not as robust. I wonder how many analysts at the C.I.A. are studying his physiology?

I don't know. I do know that people are saying he's got mental health issues due to being isolated for 2 years on account of Covid. But is that really it? There was a point at which he isolated himself from his cabinet (or whatever it's called) because they came down with Covid. If you watch the video I linked to, you can see he's out of breath.

I think he got Covid and was put on a course of steroids...maybe he has long haulers or he simply still has a puffy face from his treatment. I could be wrong, but I don't think I'm wrong. If you see video of him walking into his meeting room right now, he doesn't look like he's had a significant weight gain but his face is puffy now.

Why would he pick now to invade Ukraine? Why has he seemed to have made so many miscalculations in forecasting the results? Is it because he's out of touch with the world due to isolation? His back is truly up against the wall. His ill conceived special military operation I mean, war, is costing them an estimated 20 billion dollars per DAY, his economy is collapsing around him, and the Ukrainians are mounting a defense he never expected.

Pay me no mind. Try as I might, I can't even hold my own weight on this thread because I'm largely ignorant of history--I've been reading like a maniac over here trying to play catch up. But I do like trying to figure out people and their motivations.

Just on the surface, this looks like a case of an older man going for broke in the name of self glorification on a quest to restore the Soviet Union and he's got neither the time nor the financial backing to pull it off.

But he thinks he has both.

[Manetho]

Just on the surface, this looks like a case of an older man going for broke in the name of self glorification on a quest to restore the Soviet Union and he's got neither the time nor the financial backing to pull it off.

While I agree that Putin wants Russia to have a wider sphere of influence like it had in the past (make Russia great again), I doubt he's thinking of the Soviet Union per se. Despite being an ex-KGB guy, Putin clearly has no interest in communism, and it's not clear whether he wants Russian influence to extend over all the former Soviet republics. What does seem clear, given his rhetoric, is that he wants to unite ethnic Russians in a single sphere of influence, if not a single state.

There are actually different regions that were historically called Russia: White Russia (roughly corresponding to modern Belarus, whose name literally means "White Russia"), Great Russia (the nucleus of what we think of as Russia, centered on Moscow), and Little Russia (roughly corresponding to Ukraine). The title of the tsar in the Russian Empire was "tsar of all the Russias". In recent years, Putin seems to have reduced Belarus to a virtual Russian vassal, so Ukraine is the big sticking point. It's actually more important to Russian national identity than Belarus, because Russians trace their national identity back to Kievan Rus, the first Christian state in the region, which, as its name implies, was centered on Kyiv for much of its history.

Ukrainians largely don't think of themselves as Russian, though, and their past pro-Russian governments have been extremely corrupt, so they've been moving toward a more functional democracy and closer economic ties to the EU. Putin is furious about that, but he may also have deluded himself that Ukraine's pro-Western moves don't represent the actual will of the people of Ukraine, instead being the product of some kind of covert action by the NATO states. The initial Russian approach to the invasion, which has left the forces moving toward Kyiv particularly vulnerable, makes no sense unless the Russians assumed they were going to rapidly knock over a weak government with no popular support — that is, if they thought they would be "greeted as liberators" by their Ukrainian brethren.

[Jersey Girl]

That rancid piece of rat bastard crap let his troops bomb a maternity and children's hospital In Mariupol. We need to quit fooling around, stop trying to cover our own ass, and get those jets handed over NOW. What's next? Chemical weapons? You know what, “F” this guy.

A direct Russian strike devastated a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Zelenskyy sayshttps://www.npr.org/2022/03/09/10854509 ... ian-strike

[K Graham]

That rancid piece of rat bastard crap let his troops bomb a maternity and children's hospital In Mariupol. We need to quit fooling around, stop trying to cover our own ass, and get those jets handed over NOW. What's next? Chemical weapons? You know what, “F” this guy.

A direct Russian strike devastated a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Zelenskyy sayshttps://www.npr.org/2022/03/09/10854509 ... ian-strike

As sad as it is for me to say this, I think we need to come to grips with Ukraine losing this war. Escalating it with weapons from other countries is only going to threaten nuclear war, in which case we'll all be well beyond outraged at what we're seeing, because we'll all be dead. Even if there is a 90% chance Putin is bluffing, that's 10% too much.

[¥akaSteelhead]

M-29s can takeoff and land in dirt.

The Mikoyan and Sukhoi design bureaus are respected, and their aircraft are considered capable. Russian aircraft are generally built to be less pampered and require less maintenance than their Western counterparts. But the range for their attack and fighter aircraft is usually less than U.S. aircraft.

Nevertheless, I'm a bit surprised that the Russian Air Force has not been more prominent. I've probably said this in another post, but the theoretical capability of a weapons platform is only as good as the supply lines to it. And because Russian attack and fighter aircraft are mostly short range, supply lines become that much more critical.

Last I read the average Russian pilot sees less than 4 hours a month actual behind the stick time. Best planes in the world (and $$ for $$ the Su-27 is hard to beat) means little when you can't afford to train pilots.

[Jersey Girl]

That rancid piece of rat bastard crap let his troops bomb a maternity and children's hospital In Mariupol. We need to quit fooling around, stop trying to cover our own ass, and get those jets handed over NOW. What's next? Chemical weapons? You know what, “F” this guy.

A direct Russian strike devastated a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Zelenskyy sayshttps://www.npr.org/2022/03/09/10854509 ... ian-strike

As sad as it is for me to say this, I think we need to come to grips with Ukraine losing this war. Escalating it with weapons from other countries is only going to threaten nuclear war, in which case we'll all be well beyond outraged at what we're seeing, because we'll all be dead. Even if there is a 90% chance Putin is bluffing, that's 10% too much.

Take a step back for just a moment and look at what you said.

in which case we'll all be well beyond outraged at what we're seeing, because we'll all be dead.

That doesn't make logical sense.

In any case, so far as I can tell this war remains a war of conventional weapons. I think we should give Ukraine the air power it needs to give them a fighting chance.

I'm gonna put my money on Putin's inner circle and the oligarchs to prevent him from launching a nuclear attack. My understanding is that he doesn't have the freedom to act unilaterally. I'm betting on the oligarchs and their love of all things lavish to stop this guy by whatever means they see fit, if he starts talking nuclear.

Call me naïve'. It's fine by me.

[Jersey Girl]

Oh good. The White House is now basically saying that Russia is prepared to and could use chemical weapons in Ukraine. Yeah. I said that a few posts back already.

If they do that, can NATO forces rightly go in there and dick the Russians away? Do we have a legal right to do that?

And...that raises the question of nuclear warfare all over again. Nuclear warfare is always going to be on the table when Russia is involved, no? I'm back to get the fighter jets into Ukraine hands and do it NOW. There has got to be some calculated risk involved.

I don't see that it's okay for NATO to stand back and watch while Russian unleashes chemical weapons on the Ukrainians.

Then again...I don't know a lot about political history. I'm always learning in real time when these things happen and trying to play catch up.

I guess I need to review the Geneva Convention now. If I'm going to get blown into oblivion, I want to know what steps we CAN take and IF we take them leading up to my untimely and radiated death.

[K Graham]

That doesn't make logical sense.

No one survives a Nuclear war. No one. At least not for long. Which is why we cannot escalate things. As I mentioned before, the CIA bent over backwards trying to hide the fact they were supplying stinger missiles to the Afghans in the 80's. It was understood that if the Russians were to trace any weapons back to the USA it would start WWIII. This is why we made deals with Israel, Syria, etc to smuggles those weapons in from other countries.

But today it seems no one gives a damn about being covert. Everyone and their media dog is belaboring the point that we're still sending them weapons even during war time.

In any case, so far as I can tell this war remains a war of conventional weapons. I think we should give Ukraine the air power it needs to give them a fighting chance.

I think the best Ukraine can hope for is to outlast Putin's tenure in office, which could come to an end in 2024 when they have their next election. Russia can take cities by force, but it is highly questionable if they have the manpower to maintain control of them. It requires at least 20 soldiers per 1000 civilians, but right now Russia has 3.4 soldiers per 10000.

I'm gonna put my money on Putin's inner circle and the oligarchs to prevent him from launching a nuclear attack.

I think the influence of the Oligarchs has been way overestimated. They would have stopped him from invading Ukraine at all if they could have.

[Jersey Girl]

Let me just take care of this one misunderstanding. I'll come back to read/reply to the rest of your post.

That doesn't make logical sense.

No one survives a Nuclear war. No one.

You wrote: in which case we'll all be well beyond outraged at what we're seeing, because we'll all be dead.

Kevin if you are dead, you're not going to be well beyond outraged. If you're dead, you're not going to be anything but dead. That's what I was getting at.