Scrutable

Article on the threat of Russian chemical weapons

https://politicalviolenceataglance.org/ ... apons-use/

If used, possibly chlorine or ammonia to blame Ukraine for a false-flag attack on its own citizens

I didn’t like the idea of Dmitry “Lying Twunt” Peskov being interviewed on Sky but to be fair he is being brutally pwned and looks ridiculous.

As I write he is denying that Russia has shelled any civilian targets at all. He’s being asked how he sleeps at night (I’m guessing on a mattress filled with blood money)

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 4:01 pm

946461BE-D738-433E-AA5C-216401550E36.jpeg

The Human Rights Council is still totally useless, though, and still includes numerous human rights abusers, including China, who currently have a system of concentration camps and are trying to annihalate minority cultures.

Still, it's good to see how little international support Russia has at this point.

Peskov has apparently reported the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, a statement that was covered by TASS.

Now on the one hand, we know the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, but on the other hand this is the first time it's got any official coverage within Russia.

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:10 pm

Peskov has apparently reported the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, a statement that was covered by TASS.

Now on the one hand, we know the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, but on the other hand this is the first time it's got any official coverage within Russia.

By now, it must be getting on for more than the USSR lost in Afghanistan in a decade

jimbob wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:43 pm

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:10 pm

Peskov has apparently reported the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, a statement that was covered by TASS.

Now on the one hand, we know the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, but on the other hand this is the first time it's got any official coverage within Russia.

By now, it must be getting on for more than the USSR lost in Afghanistan in a decade

It's weeks since the western estimate was seven to fifteen thousand, with the Afghanistan losses at about fifteen thousand. Operations like the retreat from Kyiv don't happen without casualties, they just don't. I'd be surprised if Russian losses at this point were less than Soviet losses in Afghanistan.

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:10 pm

Peskov has apparently reported the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, a statement that was covered by TASS.

Now on the one hand, we know the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, but on the other hand this is the first time it's got any official coverage within Russia.

I hope it’s not used Asan excuse for the nuclear option literal or metaphorical

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 6:19 pm

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:10 pm

Peskov has apparently reported the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, a statement that was covered by TASS.

Now on the one hand, we know the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, but on the other hand this is the first time it's got any official coverage within Russia.

I hope it’s not used Asan excuse for the nuclear option literal or metaphorical

I am more afraid of the literal than the metaphorical.

Hopefully by June 01 I will be in Oz, further from the literal.

Nato member states have agreed to supply new types of advanced weaponry to Ukraine, alliance representatives said, as Kyiv prepares for an offensive by Russia in the country’s east.

[…]

Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, told reporters after the meeting that member states had backed giving more weapons.

“There was support for countries to supply new and heavier equipment to Ukraine, so that they can respond to these new threats from Russia,” she said. “And we agreed to help Ukrainian forces move from their Soviet-era equipment to Nato standard equipment, on a bilateral basis.”

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said Washington was looking at sending “new systems” to Ukraine.

“We are not going to let anything stand in the way of getting Ukrainians what they need,” he said. “We are looking across the board right now, not only at what we have provided . . . [but] whether there are additional systems that would make a difference.”

https://www.ft.com/content/1c0e6e15-c8f ... b6836bf0f4

Moving Ukraine to NATO standard equipment is a good ambition, though it’ll take years.

jimbob wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:43 pm

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:10 pm

Peskov has apparently reported the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, a statement that was covered by TASS.

Now on the one hand, we know the Russians have suffered significant losses of troops, but on the other hand this is the first time it's got any official coverage within Russia.

By now, it must be getting on for more than the USSR lost in Afghanistan in a decade

A fascinating article on the use of medal serial numbers to estimate Russian casualties

The Russians award the Order of Courage medal to those killed in action, and basically nobody else. Those medals have serial numbers. In the first days of the war. About a week after the invasion began, Russia was awarding this medal with a serial number nearly five thousand higher than the highest number observed before the start of the full scale invasion. Ukrainian estimates for Russian fatalities in this period are about a thousand higher than the number suggested by this technique - just under six thousand versus just under five thousand.

Edit: There's also this story in the Washington Post. Ukraine reportedly has around seven thousand bodies of Russian soldiers in storage, in addition to those not yet found/collected, and those taken home by the Russians.

One of the many things I still can't get my head round, though, is the utter lack of respect Russia has for its own dead. There's images of military trucks burned out on the retreat from Kyiv with a cargo of stolen washing machines - who loots a washing machine while leaving the body of his comrade on the ground?

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 7:33 am

- who loots a washing machine while leaving the body of his comrade on the ground?

Chetchen or Syrian mercenaries ??

Lew Dolby wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:12 am

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 7:33 am

- who loots a washing machine while leaving the body of his comrade on the ground?

Chetchen or Syrian mercenaries ??

I mean the Syrian army is absolutely notorious for stealing appliances, but there's no evidence any Syrians have actually gone to Ukraine yet, and though Kadyrovtsy are some of the worst people in existence, I'm not aware of any suggestion that those simply abandoned, including those piled up at Hostomel, were anything but regular Russian troops.

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 6:33 am

Nato member states have agreed to supply new types of advanced weaponry to Ukraine, alliance representatives said, as Kyiv prepares for an offensive by Russia in the country’s east.

[…]

Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, told reporters after the meeting that member states had backed giving more weapons.

“There was support for countries to supply new and heavier equipment to Ukraine, so that they can respond to these new threats from Russia,” she said. “And we agreed to help Ukrainian forces move from their Soviet-era equipment to Nato standard equipment, on a bilateral basis.”

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said Washington was looking at sending “new systems” to Ukraine.

“We are not going to let anything stand in the way of getting Ukrainians what they need,” he said. “We are looking across the board right now, not only at what we have provided . . . [but] whether there are additional systems that would make a difference.”

https://www.ft.com/content/1c0e6e15-c8f ... b6836bf0f4

Moving Ukraine to NATO standard equipment is a good ambition, though it’ll take years.

I've responded to this, and to Dyqik's post about logistics and training, over on the new Blyatskrieg thread.

Russia's just hit a station filled with civilians trying to evacuate with a ballistic missile.

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:47 am

Russia's just hit a station filled with civilians trying to evacuate with a ballistic missile.

It will be interesting to see if the Putin regime go with the “totally faked all cgi” excuse or the “that train station was a military base” excuse or the “the Ukrainians did it to themselves to make us look bad” excuse.

Utter scumbags

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:54 am

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:47 am

Russia's just hit a station filled with civilians trying to evacuate with a ballistic missile.

It will be interesting to see if the Putin regime go with the “totally faked all cgi” excuse or the “that train station was a military base” excuse or the “the Ukrainians did it to themselves to make us look bad” excuse.

Utter scumbags

Nearly right. You missed 'Azov Batallion'.
This is sickening.

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 07, 2022 4:20 pm

I didn’t like the idea of Dmitry “Lying Twunt” Peskov being interviewed on Sky but to be fair he is being brutally pwned and looks ridiculous.

As I write he is denying that Russia has shelled any civilian targets at all. He’s being asked how he sleeps at night (I’m guessing on a mattress filled with blood money)

I'm watching it now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0WScHPbaPA

What's the Russian for whataboutery?

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:54 am

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:47 am

Russia's just hit a station filled with civilians trying to evacuate with a ballistic missile.

It will be interesting to see if the Putin regime go with the “totally faked all cgi” excuse or the “that train station was a military base” excuse or the “the Ukrainians did it to themselves to make us look bad” excuse.

Utter scumbags

They are already claiming the type of missile - the Tochka-U, NATO reporting name Scarab - is only operated by Ukraine and not by Russia. Russia did supposedly retire them, but there's plenty of evidence of Russia deploying them in this conflict, having pulled them out of storage presumably due to a shortage of Iskanders.

Russian state media is now trying to blame the Ukrainians, yet not long ago they were boasting of carrying out attacks that meet this description, and it looks like there's footage of the launch from inside occupied Donbass.

I see after Patriarch Kirill's latest vile speech, people are pulling out the "maybe this horrible religious person is secretly an atheist because they help secular authorities" sh.t.

Which is bigoted nonsense - Kirill's Russian Orthodox Church benefits a hell of a lot from supporting Putin, including state persecution of other Christian sects, state sponsored homophobia and so on. If you are a liberal christian and believe those are against god's teachings, cool, good for you, you're a better person than Kirill, but it doesn't make his views not christian and thus secretly atheist - especially not as his views are pretty in keeping with those of a lot of senior clergy for most of the history of christianity.

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 9:49 am

They are already claiming the type of missile - the Tochka-U, NATO reporting name Scarab - is only operated by Ukraine and not by Russia.

How do they know it's a Tochka-U?

Because they fired it.

(Yes, I know there's a big lump of the rocket outside the station. How does that happen?)

TimW wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 10:39 am

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 9:49 am

They are already claiming the type of missile - the Tochka-U, NATO reporting name Scarab - is only operated by Ukraine and not by Russia.

How do they know it's a Tochka-U?

Because they fired it.

(Yes, I know there's a big lump of the rocket outside the station. How does that happen?)

If it's a cluster-rocket, then the main body of the rocket carries a cargo of smaller bombs, and doesn't actually explode. There's been a lot of cluster rocket carriers found in this conflict.

If it's a single warhead, the engine can still potentially survive, as the engine is designed to handle fairly extreme conditions and might get thrown away from the blast in a single piece. Finding a rocket engine isn't that surprising in this context.

In whatever conflict there is always a chance of friendly fire casualties and or civilian targets being hit by stray fire. I know whenever the Russians hit a hospital people always pop up and draw and comparison with what US and UK forces have done in Iraq. Is there any source which gives a fair comparison of the real world frequency of these type of events and the likelihood that they are indeed accidental rather than deliberate?

^^ OK thanks. I had trouble imagining anything other than it getting embedded in Platform 4.