Reuters renames its section regarding the war from the vague and mildly misleading "Ukraine crisis" (what is the nature of the crisis and who is causing it and how?) to "Russia and Ukraine at war".

Imho, "Russian invasion of Ukraine" is the most direct and factually accurate way of putting it.  It's definitely a war, declared or not.  Specifically, it's an invasion of Ukrainian territory.  And Russia is the invader.  Those are just the plain facts of the matter.

So kudos to Reuters for clearing things up somewhat and being a bit more direct about the situation.

Near Krynky (hotspot south of the Dniper river), a Russian drone operator callsign Moses posted online that he would destroy Ukrainian drone operator callsign Magyar.

The next post was Moses' wife informing everyone that Moses had died.

Taking part in Russian aggression is bad for your health.

Introducing the new Olympic uniforms for team Russia!

I don't know if it's good or bad that Russia's elite forces are equipped with Iranian drones and N Korean shells, LOL. As for Russia invading Europe any time soon; that has to be straight from RT's Russian-balls inflation desk.

Quote from: Cassia on January 23, 2024, 09:34:31 AMI don't know if it's good or bad that Russia's elite forces are equipped with Iranian drones and N Korean shells, LOL.

Bad.  But the silver lining is apparently the North Korean shells are so low quality that the range and accuracy is diminished and they might even be damaging Russian guns.  The Russians have a similar but far less successful version of "sign my rocket" and a Russian-owned North Korean shell is signed "Trump 2024" :/

22 tanks!  51 artillery!  🔥

High attrition rate, likely due to the renewed push to the valuable prize that is the bombed-out town of Avdiivka.

Another interesting thing is the successful Ukrainian strike on the oil terminal near St Petersburg and other parts of Russia.  Russian air defense is evidently lacking within Russian borders because they deployed so much to the front lines and especially Crimea.  So now they're moving some from Ukraine back to Russia.

It's all a precarious balancing act and with their losses, sooner or later there will be holes in their air coverage, which will allow for a flurry of successful strikes that will allow for even more strikes...

NATO signs contracts for contracts to buy 220,000 155-millimeter artillery shells (worth $1.2 billion usd)

A Russian troop recorded a video while he was dying on the battlefield (his vehicle was hit by fpv drone), first complaining that the painkillers weren't working, that his comrades were probably already dead in a strange, mildly disappointed way, like he's reacting to a package in the mail being delayed for a few days.

But what got me was him saying to tell his son he loves him.  It kinda pulled on my heartstrings a bit, and then it infuriated me because he intentionally put himself at risk by going on some weird imperial adventure in Ukraine.  He risked having his son grow up without his father.  He set everything in motion for his own death and then he has the nerve to say something like that.

If you want to say it, say it in person in Russia, where you belong.  Where you'd live.

The sheer pointlessness and stupidity of joining an offensive war where you'd likely kill other people's dads and mothers and kids or die in the attempt.  "Tell my son I love him"  What meaningless words.  What does an invader - a butcher, a torturer, an oppressor - know of love?  (even if he doesn't personally do any of that stuff, he would surely be directly supporting it and making it happen regardless)

If you truly love your son, stay the F home in Russia and hug your son!  The Ukrainians don't want to have to kill him (but will to protect their own families) and he presumably doesn't want to die, so the obvious winning solution for everyone is to live in peace.  Instead, he's throwing his life away for nothing.  Shameful.

Miraculosuly, he lived.  But he's going to have grievous injuries forever and he's entirely to blame for that.  He could be playing catch with his son right now, instead his son will be wheeling him around.  He better find a way to make good on his words in the remainder of his life.

Turkey approves Sweden for NATO membership

Quote from: Hydra009 on January 23, 2024, 04:53:22 PMA Russian troop recorded a video while he was dying on the battlefield (his vehicle was hit by fpv drone), first complaining that the painkillers weren't working, that his comrades were probably already dead in a strange, mildly disappointed way, like he's reacting to a package in the mail being delayed for a few days.

But what got me was him saying to tell his son he loves him.  It kinda pulled on my heartstrings a bit, and then it infuriated me because he intentionally put himself at risk by going on some weird imperial adventure in Ukraine.  He risked having his son grow up without his father.  He set everything in motion for his own death and then he has the nerve to say something like that.

If you want to say it, say it in person in Russia, where you belong.  Where you'd live.

The sheer pointlessness and stupidity of joining an offensive war where you'd likely kill other people's dads and mothers and kids or die in the attempt.  "Tell my son I love him"  What meaningless words.  What does an invader - a butcher, a torturer, an oppressor - know of love?  (even if he doesn't personally do any of that stuff, he would surely be directly supporting it and making it happen regardless)

If you truly love your son, stay the F home in Russia and hug your son!  The Ukrainians don't want to have to kill him (but will to protect their own families) and he presumably doesn't want to die, so the obvious winning solution for everyone is to live in peace.  Instead, he's throwing his life away for nothing.  Shameful.

Miraculosuly, he lived.  But he's going to have grievous injuries forever and he's entirely to blame for that.  He could be playing catch with his son right now, instead his son will be wheeling him around.  He better find a way to make good on his words in the remainder of his life.

Just want to point out that many, perhaps even most, of the Russian troops dying in Ukraine are conscripts. While it's a stretch to say these conscripts don't have a choice that choice may be prison or the battlefield. 

Quote from: PopeyesPappy on January 24, 2024, 09:22:46 AMJust want to point out that many, perhaps even most, of the Russian troops dying in Ukraine are conscripts. While it's a stretch to say these conscripts don't have a choice that choice may be prison or the battlefield. 

Afaik, they still mostly use the contract/volunteer system - hence the billboards and the monetary incentives.  If they were dragging people away at gunpoint, such things would be unnecessary.

And as the Ukrainians repeatedly point out, some mobilized Russians opt for jail time instead of attacking fellow slavs.  Hell, even some inmates already in Russian prisons have reportedly turned down Wagner recruiters as well recruiters from the Russian government.

And finally, there's the surrender hotline or simply deserting, which can of course be dangerous, but obviously so is assaulting along roads literred with the corpses of those who were previously on assault.

This idea that Russian troops have no choice in any of this is pervasive but wrong, as evidenced by those who have made better choices.

An Il-76 military transport plane crashed in Russia today

Russia blames Ukraine (feigned surprise) and says that Ukraine shot down the plane, deliberately killing its own POWs for some reason (the motivation is a bit dubious)

Meanwhile, Ukraine says that one of the alleged victims on board the plane was a POW who had already been swapped and is safe and sound in Ukraine.  So - and I know this may come as a shock - Russia might be lying about something.  Russia lying about a plane crash isn't exactly a new thing either, as Prigozhin might've briefly attested to.  Other details aren't adding up, either.  Zelenskyy's office says it is preparing a statement on this shortly.

Currently, all we know for certain is that an Il-76 military transport plane crashed in Russia.

Russian state media also produced a list of French mercenaries killed in the Kharkiv attack that struck a residential high-rise building.  Footage showed civilians with grievous injuries, including an elderly woman whose face was stained with blood.  18 civilians were killed.

The Russian government would have us believe that these French mercenaries were embedded with babushkas and children for some strange reason and then abruptly vanished when the missiles hit, leaving no trace of their existence.

This is the same "news" agency that published a premature victory celebration for Putin, congratulating him on his successful invasion of Ukraine on February 26th 2022 before deleting it.