BattleGrackle said:

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⚡️ US congressman calls on troops' deployment in Ukraine if Putin uses chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.

Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger introduced a resolution on May 1 to authorize U.S. President Joe Biden to send troops to Ukraine in such cases.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) May 1, 2022

I don't like where this is going

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If Kinzinger is for it...

BattleGrackle said:

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Not my first choice for news, but several sights reporting this. Could be significant

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10770541/Putin-cancer-operation-near-future-hand-power-hardline-ex-KGB-chief.html

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agent-maroon said:

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If true, may their surgeons obtain the same level of success as their military!

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If you want any sort of resolution that doesn't involve very bad things then this is NOT the guy you want taking over. We'll deal with him if we have to. But this is a guy that WANTS WW3. This guy is your "Russian Hitler". You'll eventually have to either surrender to him or defeat him.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/29/russias-hardliners-present-their-manifesto-a77537

"He is truly the hawk's hawk. I have in the past described him as 'the most dangerous man in Russia' because of the way he drags Putin into even more extreme positions, fuelling his ambitions with talk of Russia's historical mission and his paranoias with warnings of Western plots. As such, he is in many ways the lead spokesman of the siloviki the 'men of force' of the military and security agencies and the most nationalist of them, at that."

"…in Patrushev's luridly imaginative worldview, Washington is forcing Ukraine to be its proxy, encouraging Nazis and generally engaged in nothing less than a struggle to break Russia's will to resist its hegemony, assisted by a morally debauched Europe, whose "neo-liberalism" means "Europe and European civilization have no future."

"…just as the Soviet system was always really a wartime economy, even during times of ostensible peace, this is the essence of the silovik manifesto: a Russia committed to a cultural, political and sometimes military Forever War with the West, demanding absolute discipline and the mobilization of society and economy alike."

On a serious note, how would you like to be on the surgical team operating on Putin? The only way you wouldn't be second-guessed is if he had a complete 100% recovery with no complications. And by second-guessed I mean held accountable with severe consequences for anything else, which probably isn't reasonable for an "abdominal cancer" resection.

Rossticus said:

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agent-maroon said:

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If true, may their surgeons obtain the same level of success as their military!

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If you want any sort of resolution that doesn't involve very bad things then this is NOT the guy you want taking over. But we'll deal with him if we have to. But this is a guy that WANTS WW3. This guy is your "Russian Hitler".

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/29/russias-hardliners-present-their-manifesto-a77537

"He is truly the hawk's hawk. I have in the past described him as 'the most dangerous man in Russia' because of the way he drags Putin into even more extreme positions, fuelling his ambitions with talk of Russia's historical mission and his paranoias with warnings of Western plots. As such, he is in many ways the lead spokesman of the siloviki the 'men of force' of the military and security agencies and the most nationalist of them, at that."

"…in Patrushev's luridly imaginative worldview, Washington is forcing Ukraine to be its proxy, encouraging Nazis and generally engaged in nothing less than a struggle to break Russia's will to resist its hegemony, assisted by a morally debauched Europe, whose "neo-liberalism" means "Europe and European civilization have no future."

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Makes one wonder txags92's scenario of putting Putin out to pasture is really coming to pass. I sure as hell wouldn't want this guy taking over while I was incapacitated if I were Putin...

Residents of liberated from the Russians Kutuzovka in the Kharkiv region greet Ukrainian servicemen and volunteers, who brought humanitarian aid. The village was occupied for more than two months. pic.twitter.com/8nokWdDYHy

— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) May 1, 2022

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Kutuzovka, which had been occupied by the Russians for more than two months, was released. About a hundred people, most of them elderly, children, lived in cold basements for two months. Without light, gas and food

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This is how an 11 year old boy sees the world after having been raped by #Russia soldier in front of his mother. I find it hard to read reports like this, even harder to tweet about them, and absolutely impossible to remain silent. The world must know the truth pic.twitter.com/ZtFLvvDBAA

— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) May 1, 2022

.... There have been reports about this situation from a few weeks earlier, for those who think this is fake...

Rossticus said:

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April 30 Assessment Highlight:#Russian forces appear increasingly unlikely to achieve any major advances in eastern #Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces may be able to conduct wider counterattacks in the coming days.https://t.co/uKDlg9yUCk pic.twitter.com/uVUCm3RyWa

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) April 30, 2022

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A site worthy of your time.

Dawg6 said:

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Rossticus said:

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April 30 Assessment Highlight:#Russian forces appear increasingly unlikely to achieve any major advances in eastern #Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces may be able to conduct wider counterattacks in the coming days.https://t.co/uKDlg9yUCk pic.twitter.com/uVUCm3RyWa

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) April 30, 2022

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A site worthy of your time.

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Looking forward to the Ukes going more offensive with their new heavy firepower.

I'll take "Science Fiction" for $500. They can't possibly believe that Trump was in their corner.

Meanwhile on Russian state TV: Political Scientist Dmitry Kulikov argued that Joe Biden has been trying to overthrow Putin since 2012. He claimed, Biden's plan to use Ukraine to destroy Russia might have worked—if not for Trump: "Trump gave us those 4 years. Thank you very much." pic.twitter.com/sAqCzvPeC8

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) May 1, 2022

Surely they're working on a plan to do just that. Or is there some reason the Ukes would want the bridge intact?

agent-maroon said:

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Surely they're working on a plan to do just that. Or is there some other reason the Ukes would want the bridge intact?

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If you trap a bunch of Russians there with no way to escape, you put them in the same position as the Mariupol defenders by trapping a bunch of armed fighters that can blend in with the civilians.

What would keep them from doing that even if they could escape?

agent-maroon said:

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What would keep them from doing that even if they could escape?

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Knowing that they can't run away and likely can't count on leniency if captured tends to focus how hard they will fight.

Full Thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1519288633748041730.html

So far I've only posted 10 videos there, but I'll be adding more. The ones I would recommend the most:

1. Interview with Russian Wagner Mercenary from Feb 26
2. Zhirinovsky speech on Jan 18 on the goals of Z-war
3. TV program on Zvezda channel
4. Sermon by Artemy Vladimirov

— Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) April 27, 2022

I wonder how long it took them to scrape all the cosmoline off of that old gun when they took it out of storage.

txags92 said:

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agent-maroon said:

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What would keep them from doing that even if they could escape?

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Knowing that they can't run away and likely can't count on leniency if captured tends to focus how hard they will fight.

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Sun Tzu says to always leave your enemy a way out. I don't know if that's still considered good doctrine, but his point is to let a beaten army retreat rather than force them into a final stand that can become a meat grinder of a siege against a desperate enemy. The goal is to win the war at the least cost; killing the enemy is not an end in itself.

Balanced against that is that it's a supply route into the city, so you kind of want to turn it off until the Russians are ready to leave.


EDIT: if it's not clear from citing a 2500 year old source that has been referenced and quoted in popular media a thousand times, I'm definitely not trying to set myself up as some kind of tactical expert. Would welcome better-informed rebuttals or elaborations.

bonfarr said:

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I wonder how long it took them to scrape all the cosmoline off of that old gun when they took it out of storage.

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They sure don't make 'em like they used to. But I'd hate to be the poor sob who has to mule around that chunk of cast iron hellfire.

aggiehawg said:

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CondensedFoggyAggie said:

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Do it Zelensky, bomb the only route linking Crimea to Russia.

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Been saying that all along.

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Does Ukraine not have the capability (that would seem surprising)? What is the tactical/political reason for not destroying the bridge? Leaving the Russians a way out?

Would Putin even want Russians from the Crimea?

Red Pear Realty said:

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Ulysses90 said:

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Rossticus said:

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Russia sending in older isht while Ukraine gets newer isht.

ржд pic.twitter.com/nqxS1vbvp7

— IgorGirkin (@GirkinGirkin) May 1, 2022

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Few weapons are as useless in the hands of the untrained as a howitzer. All that old stuff on those train cars requires manual laying which requires an understandingof geometry and that is probably absent in 90% of the conscripts in the Russian army.

In the US military the Fire Direction MOS requires a 105 GT and cannoneers require a 100 GT. Given the pool of conscripts from which Russia will be drawing to form those batteries, those guns are not going to be in action any time soon.

TLASBAP, Comrades!

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You are giving WAY too much credit to them. My vote is something like 99.999%.

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I suspect most of the Russians train on old, antiquated artillery anyway
Just like most Russians tankers probably train on T-72s and not T-80s or T-90s
It's also likely what most reservists were trained to use (for when Putin declares "war". Finally, it's lo-tech so rather immune to sanctions

How effective will they be? Time will tell.

Speaking of…

UK-funded research has exposed the Kremlin's use of a troll factory to spread lies through disinformation campaigns, designed to manipulate the public about Russia's illegal war in Ukraine.

🔍 More info here: https://t.co/0KAvLitKz7 pic.twitter.com/e9PIqDDRCl

— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) May 1, 2022

Depends on how much training they got which is probably not a lot

How Western-supplied artillery can help Ukraine prevail in the Donbas

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As the war in Ukraine moves away from the urban areas of Kyiv and other cities towards the more open areas of the Donbas, artillery will once again become a dominating feature. The topography of the Donbas is likely to allow Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles the ability to use their firepower and mobility to much better effect than they have been able to so far in this war.

Travelling at up to 30mph across broken ground faster still on paved surfaces tanks can fire accurately at dug-in Ukrainian positions from a mile away and be on top of them in less than two minutes.

Anti-tank weapons will be useful in this fight, but reaction times and the ability to fire accurately will be severely tested, when tank shells are bursting around defenders' heads.

Artillery or indirect fire to use the correct military term will be critical in breaking up these assaulting formations before the Ukrainian positions are overrun.

"Everybody thinks it's all about destroying tanks in Ukraine. To a certain degree that's true, but what really inflicted damage on the Russians and killed their combat power was artillery."

He's not the only one to say so.

"Anti-tank missiles slowed the Russians down, but what killed them was our artillery," General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. "That was what broke their units."

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https://archive.ph/Q1al4#selection-1591.0-1621.167

deddog said:

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aggiehawg said:

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CondensedFoggyAggie said:

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Do it Zelensky, bomb the only route linking Crimea to Russia.

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Been saying that all along.

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Does Ukraine not have the capability (that would seem surprising)? What is the tactical/political reason for not destroying the bridge? Leaving the Russians a way out?

Would Putin even want Russians from the Crimea?

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I read somewhere that it's the most heavily guarded bridge in the world. And was built to withstand multiple bomb and missile strikes.

But it's time is coming, no doubt.