NATO declares that it is no longer bound to 1997 treaty with Russia to refrain from military buildup in eastern europe if Russia does the same.

Suffice it to say that Russia has somewhat violated that treaty.  Just a tad.

As such, NATO is no longer bound to this bad-faith treaty and is now free to establish bases wherever its members wish.  And Poland wants new NATO bases in its east (currently, they're mostly in Poland's west)

The same day, Russia declared that it'll build new bases in its west.  And as Ukraine's experience has shown, Russian military buildups along its frontiers are not necessarily defensive in nature.

Terrified Chechens avoid potential war draft

Quote"People agreed to this dangerous work because of the hopelessness of things here," she said. "But nobody knew that they would die in someone else's special operation."

Press X to doubt

QuoteThe Z and V insignia of Russia's main battle groups in Ukraine, now adopted by pro-war supporters in Russia, have been plastered across buildings in Grozny. Seemingly everywhere, there are posters of Kadyrov in military uniform and calling for volunteers.

It's beginning to look a lot like fascism...🎵🎶

QuoteMost of these young Chechen men have fled to central Russia or Turkey, which has a large Chechen diaspora. Some have also travelled to live with relatives in Europe.

"There are rumours of mass mobilisation," he said. "Today, many young guys who do not want to go to war are leaving Chechnya.

Russian general orders his troops to the front line, mexican standoff ensues, almost becomes a fragging

Morale problem is an understatement.

Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!"

QuoteYou know, it's f**ked up. We have our a**es kicked by Ukrainians. We have nothing to eat. Today we ate a Yorkshire terrier" - wrote a Russian soldier staying in the Russian-occupied Kherson region in correspondence quoted by the Security Service of Ukraine.

Oof, I felt that "it's okay" lie at the end.

Not saying it's false, but something about the idea of a Ruscist grunt knowing the difference between a Yorkshire Terrier and their own ass seems a bit far fetched to me.

*shrugs* Maybe he googled it with his cellphone or maybe his buds told him.  I'd be curious about what sort of dog it was too.

Besides, is it any more outlandish than Russians stealing toilets, Russians with  rations that expired 7 years ago, using tanks from the 60s, tanks festooned with loot, including a boiler and children's Disney blankets, Russians getting one of their tanks stolen by gypsies (hell, there's a video of a civilian riding on top of a stolen russian tank while eating pizza.  Who wakes up and puts that on their itinerary?), a russian soldier running over his commander with a tank, one KIA russian soldier found with a pink vibrator in his breast pocket (not that there's anything wrong with that), a russian soldier throwing a dog and a grenade into a washing machine, etc.  A LOT of odd things have happened so far.

Odd things happen in war and these are certainly odd people.  Desperation, zero discipline, and lack of adult supervision are a potent combination.

False story or not, the desperate food situation is real.  For some reason, lack of food tends to happen when the area is devastated with scorched earth tactics.

Apparently some Ukrainian teenagers came across some hidden Russian rations and stole them.

Russian state TV said they'd conquer Stonehenge

Satire is dead and the dividing line between fact and fiction is more unclear than the boundary between the atmosphere and outer space.

Two more russian colonels KIA, one of which was "best" paratroop commander

Pushing up sunflowers 🌻 🌻

White Russia, bloody hands: Belarus preparing to supply genocidal Russia with tanks

Lately there has been a lot of speculation about this, but now it looks like it's finally going through:  US to send $700 million worth of military aid to Ukraine, including MLRS systems with a range of 80km.  With the stipulation that they may only be fired at targets within Ukraine, not in Russia.  Ukraine's gov has agreed to this stipulation.

This hardware is expected to be a game-changer in these artillery duels, perfect for annihilating russian artillery and ending the war much more quickly and reducing casualties on both sides.  (Though of course, the presence of mind necessary to recognize defeat will be the main limiter for russian casualties)

Russia repeats mistakes (water is wet)

QuoteIn the early weeks of the war, Russia ran its military campaign out of Moscow, with no central war commander on the ground to call the shots, U.S. and other Western officials said.

Quotethe invasion is not "proceeding particularly differently in the east than in the west because they haven't been able to change the character of the Russian army," said Frederick Kagan, a senior fellow and director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. "There are some deep flaws in the Russian army that they could not have repaired in the last few weeks even if they had tried. The flaws are deep and fundamental."

At the top of that list is the Russian army's lack of a noncommissioned officer corps empowered to think for itself, Pentagon officials said. U.S. troops have sergeants, platoon leaders and corporals who are given tasks and guidelines and left to accomplish those tasks as they see fit.

But Russia's military follows a Soviet-style doctrinal method in which troops at the bottom are not empowered to point out flaws in strategy that should be obvious or to make adjustments.

QuoteAfter renewing an assault on the Donbas, Russia has pounded cities and villages with a barrage of artillery. But troops have not followed that up with any kind of sustained armored invasion, which is necessary to hold the territory they are flattening, military officials say. That means that Russia may find itself struggling to hold on to gains — as it did in Kharkiv.

"Are you willing to fight for your country?"
"Absolutely"
"Great, here's a sign-up sheet..."
*runs away* Oh brave Sir Robin!

From Gary Kasparov's twitter - what other countries would have to "willingly concede to end the war" if it was Russia invading them.

Edit - about to go to work, so don't have time to edit image and post it, here is link to the post.

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1532048112835076096

Quote from: Shiranu on June 01, 2022, 01:52:18 PMFrom Gary Kasparov's twitter - what other countries would have to "willingly concede to end the war" if it was Russia invading them.

Edit - about to go to work, so don't have time to edit image and post it, here is link to the post.

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1532048112835076096

All I know is that if Mexico declared Texas and New Mexico to be "independent" republics, sent tanks there, and then tried some fake referendums for them to join Mexico, all hell would break loose - we would hit them with everything we have and we would not accept any territory changes whatsoever.

No one should expect others to accept things they would never accept.

Besides, any "face-saving" reward for this invasion/genocide attempt will just encourage more attempts in the future.  This needs to hurt so bad that no one tries anything like this again for a long, long time.

Quote from: Hydra009 on June 01, 2022, 02:50:09 PMAll I know is that if Mexico declared Texas and New Mexico to be "independent" republics...

Now that wouldn't be a case of the pot calling the kettle black....lol.