Another Russian ship mysteriously caught fire in the Black Sea near Snake Island.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-12-22/h_16287510171e54120a22480d29374389

5/12/2022 9:31:07 PM

Not that there’s anything wrong with that

5/13/2022 2:22:51 AM

Here come Finland!

Russia says:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmR89bFZLdc&t=34

5/15/2022 8:02:17 AM

Sweden too.

Seems like these countries saw where Ukraine isn't a NATO partner and thus got invaded with no NATO help and now they think the only way they can stay afloat is to become NATO members.

5/16/2022 10:15:42 AM

haha, ya think?

5/16/2022 9:45:54 PM

Turkey trying to cockblock.

5/17/2022 6:58:21 AM

Turkey will probably get some sanctions removed and be happy.

Russia seems to be backtracking a bit saying Finland joining isn't that bad.

5/17/2022 5:37:17 PM

https://www.axios.com/2022/05/25/israel-rejects-spike-missile-ukraine-germany-russia

5/25/2022 7:47:01 PM

Ooooh the slave getting uppity and saying NO to its master!!!

Wait, how can a slave command its master to do anything in the first place?

5/26/2022 3:10:06 AM

Russians on the run. In a few areas. You hate to see it. . .

9/11/2022 12:29:30 PM

I mean daaave legitimately hates to see it.

9/11/2022 1:46:33 PM

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/13/business/ivan-pechorin-death-russia-intl/index.html

Quote :

" ... Pechorin is at least the ninth prominent Russian businessmen to have reportedly died by suicide or in unexplained accidents since late January, with six of them associated with Russia's two largest energy companies. Four of those six were linked to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries, while the other two were associated with Lukoil, Russia's largest privately owned oil and gas company. Earlier this year, the company took the unusual public stance of speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine, calling for sympathy for the victims, and for the end of the conflict. Lukoil's chairman Ravil Maganov died at the beginning of September after falling out of the window of a hospital in Moscow, according to Russian state news agency TASS."

9/14/2022 12:32:01 PM

Being a Russian executive sure is dangerous. Might be good policy to stay on the first floor of buildings and avoid stairs.

9/14/2022 12:34:33 PM

Definitely don't ride on boats

9/14/2022 11:40:21 PM

Last night's Putin speech and partial mobilization order have me a little nervous, but only a little. There's a lot of bad historical precedent when you put the words "Russia" and "mobilization" in the same sentence, for one thing. And the goal is clearly to ram through a plebiscite in the occupied parts of Ukraine to declare them "Russian" so that Russia can treat any future Ukrainian advances as an invasion and react with a much larger mobilization. The pretext is needed to satisfy Russian law, not because any other country is going to buy it - though honestly I wonder why Putin even bothers "satisfying Russian law" at this point.

The sense I get from Russia and military analysts at this point is that the extra 300,000 troops won't make a huge difference, particularly in the near term, but the mobilization order is vague enough that it could be expanded dramatically if the regime thinks they can get away with it domestically. Even that, though, might just be throwing more meat into the grinder. As always, the concern is that Putin, faced with imminent and humiliating defeat, ups the ante by dropping a tactical nuclear weapon - probably not on the battlefield or populated area, but somewhere like Snake Island, just to show, "This is where we're at now."

9/21/2022 9:11:54 AM

Conscripts without equipment (or the desire to fight) are as good as worthless.

I don't think he drops a nuke, there simply isn't any coming back from that. Russia will become even more of pariah state then they are now. China and India will want zero part of that.

9/21/2022 10:50:47 AM

Check out all of the butthurt in these replies:

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1600473273158242306

12/7/2022 2:47:48 PM

Biden supposedly authorize USA to start offensive hacking operations. And Iran is seeing facilities explode now too, unclear if it’s related to domestic instability or retaliation for aiding Russia.

Either way seems like a relatively slow but constant incremental escalation centering on the ukraine war. Will be interesting to see how these tanks play out, but I fully expect in a few months ukraine to have long range weaponry to attack the cruise missile launchers, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see jets by summer being handed over to ukraine.

1/28/2023 5:36:59 PM

Why is it OK for Russia to receive weapons from the likes of Iran and North Korea to use in an offensive campaign against a neighboring country, but giving the attacked country weapons to defend itself against those very attacks is a red line for Russia? Bunch of punk-ass bitches, if you ask me.

1/28/2023 6:28:08 PM

The start of a coup?

Quote :

"The owner of the Wagner private military contractor made his most direct challenge to the Kremlin yet on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. The security services reacted immediately by calling for the arrest of Yevgeny Prigozhin and opening a criminal investigation. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin was taking the threat, security was heightened in Moscow and in Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine. While the outcome of the confrontation was still unclear, it appeared likely to further hinder Moscow’s war effort as Kyiv’s forces were probing Russian defenses in the initial stages of a counteroffensive. Prigozhin claimed early Saturday that his forces had crossed into Russia from Ukraine and had reached Rostov, saying they faced no resistance from young conscripts at checkpoints and that his forces “aren’t fighting against children.” “But we will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” he said in one of a series of angry video and audio recordings posted on social media beginning late Friday. “We are moving forward and will go until the end.”"

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-war-russia-nuclear-647a545db4e4628676ff7db5b1bded34

6/23/2023 9:31:31 PM

I don't know what to make of that guy. Is he serious or just posturing for an appointment?

6/23/2023 10:07:30 PM

Prigozhin now appears to be heading towards Moscow.

If nothing else, he's smart enough to not make that drive in winter.

6/24/2023 12:27:33 PM

Prigozhin better stay in one story buildings from now on

6/24/2023 9:59:57 PM

Might also want to check his tea with a Geiger counter.

6/25/2023 1:52:52 AM

RIP

8/23/2023 2:09:44 PM

LOL!

8/23/2023 6:08:21 PM

Good read and pics

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-war-frontline/

5/29/2024 12:54:01 PM

redacted

[Edited on May 30, 2024 at 12:54 AM. Reason : too rude]

5/30/2024 12:53:26 AM

bttt

8/5/2024 9:24:49 AM

Quote :

"TerdFerguson All American 6628 Posts user info edit post So uh, Once again I stand in awe of how poorly this is going for Putin. Even the low side of the Russian casualty estimates is terrible. 3/24/2022 8:31:22 PM"

3 years later and uh……. I still don’t understand how Russia is sustaining its force? Casualties, aircraft and vehicles, finances - they are getting crushed on every front. How has support on the home front not completely collapsed?

Comparisons - I’m not in a position to debate the details of casualty numbers, these are just quick searching:

US in Vietnam (12-20 years)
Killed - 60k
Wounded - 150k
Aircraft lost - 10k
Vehicles lost - varies - not a vehicle intense war.

USSR in Afghanistan (9 years)
Killed - 15k
Wounded - 35k
Aircraft lost - 400-500
Vehicles lost - 1500 armor, 10k transport


Russia in Chechnya (10 years)
Killed - 6k-10k
Wounded - 50k
Aircraft lost - 50-60
Vehicles lost - 200-300 armor?


Russia in Ukraine (3-11 years so far)
Killed - 160k-270k
Wounded - 500k+
Aircraft lost - 200-300
Vehicles lost - 3,000 to 4,000 armor 10k+ transports

It’s one thing to be caught in a mire and be slowly bleeding, but this is a level of loss that sends countries looking for any favorable off ramp.

6/5/2025 9:06:44 AM

Isn’t N.Korea helping to fill the ranks?

6/5/2025 9:48:55 AM

Quote :

"How has support on the home front not completely collapsed?"

The only places in Russia that matter are St. Petersburg and Moscow. Everywhere else is the sticks, inhabited by hicks or ethnic minorities. Either way, the cities sneer at them and Putin considers them disposable. Guess which populations get sent to fight in Ukraine?

So your average Muscovite family isn't mourning the death of their beloved Vanya. They're ignoring the deaths of a bunch of people with Tatar, Turkic, or Chechen names. Actually that's not true. They're unaware of those deaths, or at least the scale of them, because the Russian media environment is overwhelmingly controlled or censored by the government.

Of course, eventually you run out of hillbillies to send into the meat grinder, so eventually they'll have to start grabbing more people from the cities. They can probably get away with that for a while because they have characterized this tragic war of choice as an existential crisis for the Motherland. Once that fails, it's crackdowns by security forces, and somewhere in there Putin dies. Maybe because he's old, maybe because someone else in the upper echelons thinks maybe it's time to try a new approach.

Quote :

"Isn’t N.Korea helping to fill the ranks?"

The number of troops they sent is negligible. As is their quality, by all accounts. But by now the survivors have no doubt picked up a trick or two, and I'm sure South Korea is thinking about that whenever it can take a break from constant government upheaval.

To some extent NK and Iran have helped fill in some materiel gaps.

---

No matter what happens with territorial control at this point, Russia has suffered a catastrophic strategic defeat. Europe is actually rearming. NATO has expanded. Ukraine, even if it is left a rump state, will be militarized to a level that makes Israel look chill. Obviously Trump's victory and the prospect we might leave NATO is an upside for Putin, but that wasn't the result of the invasion.

6/5/2025 4:43:51 PM