Apparently the Russian soldiers are now shooting at each other! 🤣 🫡

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 11, 2023, 05:12:18 PMBelgium creates $1.8 billion usd fund for Ukraine from interest on frozen Russian assets.

Yeah, we got cyberattacked for that one. :p

Russia's human wave attacks yield poor results

Quote"As was the case during Russia's failed winter offensive last year, the Russian military appears to be using human wave tactics, where they throw masses of poorly trained soldiers right into the battlefield without proper equipment, and ... without proper training and preparation," John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, said.

He added that Russia "continues to show no regard for the lives of its own soldiers, willingly sacrificing them in pursuit of Putin's goals, while Ukraine continues to fight bravely, effectively, and smartly."

Kirby said that where Russia is making progress, it is "very scant and short."

Can confirm.  Russian telegram boasted that they had taken a significant hill a few km from their lines fairly deep in the grey zone between Russian lines and Ukrainian lines.  And they weren't lying - their troops were there.  A drone photo revealed a bunch of corpses on that hill.  They didn't have a pulse, but they were there.  Apparently, Ukrainian artillery/drones routed/killed them not long after they achieved "victory".  I can't think of a more fitting metaphor for Russian offensive action.

Also, boasting of taking a specific location and then broadcasting that location online while your troops are still there is probably not the smartest idea in the world.

It seems the Russians are shifting from Avdiivka to other fronts to see if they can make more progress elsewhere.

I read a little news blurb that the Kremlin was seeking some sort of win - no matter the human cost - in order to make headlines showcasing their strength rather than weakness, to better control "the information space" (i.e. people's perceptions and opinions)  To me, that makes little sense.  They want to win the war, right?

Rationalizing failure the Russian way: Russian propagandist explains Avdiivka failure (fittingly, it's on twitter)

Essentially he says that it's good they're withdrawing because they're "hitting the impenetrable" (it wasn't impenetrable when the Ukrainians captured it, though)

Immediately after saying that it's good that they're withdrawing, he says that they cut Ukrainian supply lines and that was the "intermediate goal".  Moving the goalposts, much?

Then he says that the Ukrainians made concrete fortifications back in 2015 when "no one was firing at them" like they were paranoid psychos or something (what happened in 2014?) and bizarrely portrays concrete as some sort of impenetrable barrier for Russian artillery (I guess those North Korean shells aren't so good)

And he closes by saying the Russian "Defense" Ministry didn't promise anything, apparently making it okay to not deliver victory.  What a strange rationalization.

He also made it a point to state that he only consumes official Russian sources - i.e. that he's a sucker and deluded fool who has lost track of reality.  I bet that plays better with a Russian audience.

Imagine this sorry state of intellectual decline and lack of even basic honesty spreading throughout Europe.

Russia has threatened to shoot down western satellites. Would that be considered an act of war?

If you see someone on the news that looks like Putin, be aware that it might be a look-alike. His inner circle has apparently chosen a successor, but they may want to hide Putin's death from the world because they're such lying scoundrels.

Quote from: Unbeliever on October 16, 2023, 03:12:07 PMRussia has threatened to shoot down western satellites. Would that be considered an act of war?

I'm thinking yes. Yes indeed.  This would unleash chaos, and the world will be in trench warfare after we've destroyed our spacial capacities.   

Quote from: Unbeliever on October 16, 2023, 03:12:07 PMRussia has threatened to shoot down western satellites. Would that be considered an act of war?

Absolutely.  So they won't.  Talk is cheap.

Ukrainian drones hit 428 Russian pieces of equipment in a week, new record

Yeah, their bark is probably worse than their bite. I certainly hope so.

Quote from: Unbeliever on October 16, 2023, 09:08:00 PMYeah, their bark is probably worse than their bite. I certainly hope so.

I mean, they've threatened to nuke Germany and the UK so much that I've lost count.

Also, they're known to use coercion to manipulate people into improperly weighing Russian interests over other interests, thereby taking actions which are far more favorable to Kremlin interests than they otherwise might've been *coughEloncough*

Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed 9 Russian helicopters in overnight raid in occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk

They also claim to have destroyed an air defense system, an ammo warehouse, some unspecified special equipment in the vicinity, and damaged the runways.

Edit - just saw a video of the attack.  I'm surprised it didn't do even more damage than that.  Because you can see at least 4 huge fires in the distance with explosions.  It's like hell on Earth over there.

No Speaker of the House yet and a Nov 11 deadline to fund the US Govt. Neither Ukraine nor Israel can get substantial US aid without Congress. Ukraine has received around $100B so far and Biden is asking for $28B more. Also, Biden is looking for $100B Israel aid package for the Gaza crisis.

Guess we are gonna be selling some Treasuries to fund all this, LOL. I am wondering if the 10 year might make it to 7%. US debt is 33.5 $Trillion and counting. I hope they figure out how to keep Social Security and Medicare going. BTW, the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost taxpayers around $2.4 trillion or about 10x the cost of Ukraine and Israel if we commit.

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

He is absolutely livid about the ATACMS, you don't even need a translator for that body language.  :)

Also, what sort of crazy person eats pancakes with tea?  Is that some oligarch/dictator thing?

And finally, Biden's way too smart for poison.  He'd likely take the tea but forget to drink it and then wind up accidentally spilling it on some random Russian aide whose face melts off on camera.