Latest happenings in Ukraine

Murrmurr

Murrmurr

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The US has delivered the M142-HiMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) to the Ukrainina military today. HiMARS is a multiple rocket launcher developed in the late 90s for the US Army. They will probably use HiMARS to retake Donbas and then the Lyschansk region. The US had also delivered robotic "dogs" to enter areas suspected to be mined, among other dangerous duties.

The EU has accepted Ukraine's application to join the EU.

McDonald's will reopen in Ukraine, and close for good in Russia.

Ukraine claims to have hundreds of hours of video showing Russian forces committing multiple war crimes, including rape of women and children, murder of civilian men, women and children, torture of both civilians and soldiers, and widespread theft of Ukrainian citizen's cars, food, clothing, furniture, appliances, and electronics.
 

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Ukraine will today hold a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian commander charged with raping a Ukrainian mother during Russia's invasion, the first of what could be dozens of such cases.

Mikhail Romanov, 32, who is not in Ukrainian custody and will be tried in absentia, is accused of gang-raping a 33-year-old woman repeatedly whilst her four-year-old son hid crying in a boiler room - just moments after the soldier shot dead her husband.

Romanov and another Russian soldier came to the family's home in a small village near Kyiv after dark on March 9 and shot dead the woman's husband Oleksiy, 33, at point blank range in the front yard, according to court documents.

Vladimir Putin's men then gang-raped the victim's wife repeatedly before leaving the family home - only to return twice more to rape her again, the court files said. The identity of the second solider has not yet been established.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...begin-trial-Russian-soldier-accused-rape.html
 
The M-142 missile launcher was tested by the Marines from an amphibious craft when Lockheed Martin first developed these weapons. These are mid range launchers with self-imposed guidance systems, meaning that they are not stable and may not hit their targets. No where near what we should be giving Ukraine if the U.S. wants this war to end.

I would like to say that I can't understand why this war is still going on, but then I would be lying.
 
Russia has carried out a deadly missile strike on a busy shopping centre in Ukraine in Putin's latest barbaric attack against civilians, with scores feared dead.

The crowded mall in Kremenchuk had around 1,000 shoppers inside when missiles rained down on the building this afternoon in what Ukraine described as a 'crime against humanity'.

Officials have initially said at least two people have been killed and 20 are injured but the death toll is expected to rise.

A rescue operation is under way and nine of the wounded are in a serious condition.

Panicked survivors desperately tried to flee for safety as the complex erupted in fire, with plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.

Putin's war propagandist Andrey Rudenko has already predictably dismissed the brutal assault as a 'fake' operation carried out by Kyiv. Russia previously made the same outlandish claims about the atrocities in Bucha.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram: 'It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims.

'It's useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia.'

Zelensky stressed that the target presented 'no threat to the Russian army' and had 'no strategic value' accusing Russia of sabotaging 'people's attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry'.


59584207-10957557-Russia_has_carried_out_a_deadly_missile_strike_on_a_busy_shoppin-a-46_1656344819134.jpg


Click the link for more of the story and pics and video..

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...siles-hit-Ukrainian-city-shopping-centre.html
 
It seems a-bit strange to me that , the west as they refer to us / UK/ etc, isn't rushing in with troops weapons etc ? It seems that , in my lifetime almost anytime a country is invaded a "swarm" of other countries swoop down on them , fairly early on , to help the one being invaded .
 
rgp said:
It seems a-bit strange to me that , the west as they refer to us / UK/ etc, isn't rushing in with troops weapons etc ? It seems that , in my lifetime almost anytime a country is invaded a "swarm" of other countries swoop down on them , fairly early on , to help the one being invaded .
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Putin is a lunatic...and has his hands on the "nuclear button". Every step the "western nation" take to help Ukraine, increases the chances of that "button" being pushed.
 
Don M. said:
Putin is a lunatic...and has his hands on the "nuclear button". Every step the "western nation" take to help Ukraine, increases the chances of that "button" being pushed.
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Except I don't believe Putin wants to be remembered as the button-pusher. If this invasion is about what he hopes will be his legacy; the man who reunified the Soviet Union; he won't go nuclear. Also, it's possible that, in reality, Russia doesn't have the nuclear power that the US and EU have, and Putin knows it.

Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I don't think so.
 
rgp said:
It seems a-bit strange to me that , the west as they refer to us / UK/ etc, isn't rushing in with troops weapons etc ? It seems that , in my lifetime almost anytime a country is invaded a "swarm" of other countries swoop down on them , fairly early on , to help the one being invaded .
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I agree. It's too hard to believe the inaction is because Ukraine isn't (yet) a member of the EU, but that's the excuse I keep hearing/reading; treaty, ally, and trade agreements between the EU, US, and Russia that would have the US charged with war crimes if it crosses certain lines.
 
Besides nuclear weapons, the Russian deterrent includes a massive arsenal of ballistic missiles with conventional warheads, modern cruise and short-range missiles, and hypersonic weapons.


However, it is particularly its nuclear capacity that makes Russia a force to be reckoned with.


“The Russian nuclear arsenal is vast insofar as estimates of it hold that it has 14,000 nuclear weapons in storage. That said, the majority of these weapons are not immediately usable. Closer to reality, Russia has over 2,400 strategic nuclear weapons, with the majority of them tied to the intercontinental ballistic missile force,” Lanoszka told Al Jazeera.

“Russia has an estimated 1,600 deployed tactical nuclear weapons… The plurality of these tactical weapons would be delivered from the sea, but many others would be delivered by the air or even by ground.”

INTERACTIVE-Nuclear-warheads-per-country.png

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/3/how-realistic-is-vladimir-putins-nuclear-threat
 
Murrmurr said:
I agree. It's too hard to believe the inaction is because Ukraine isn't (yet) a member of the EU, but that's the excuse I keep hearing/reading; treaty, ally, and trade agreements between the EU, US, and Russia that would have the US charged with war crimes if it crosses certain lines.
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Most of our European allies expect the U.S. to shoulder the burden. Any involvement by the U.S. would almost certainly be the demise of the grand N.A.T.O. experiment, as it would drag the N.A.T.O. alliance in as well. Note: European "allies" in this context would be the general population of those countries and not the rhetoric of the various N.A.T.O. leaders.
 
hollydolly said:
Besides nuclear weapons, the Russian deterrent includes a massive arsenal of ballistic missiles with conventional warheads, modern cruise and short-range missiles, and hypersonic weapons.


However, it is particularly its nuclear capacity that makes Russia a force to be reckoned with.


“The Russian nuclear arsenal is vast insofar as estimates of it hold that it has 14,000 nuclear weapons in storage. That said, the majority of these weapons are not immediately usable. Closer to reality, Russia has over 2,400 strategic nuclear weapons, with the majority of them tied to the intercontinental ballistic missile force,” Lanoszka told Al Jazeera.

“Russia has an estimated 1,600 deployed tactical nuclear weapons… The plurality of these tactical weapons would be delivered from the sea, but many others would be delivered by the air or even by ground.”


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/3/how-realistic-is-vladimir-putins-nuclear-threat
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But I hesitate to believe that what Russia says it has is actually what it has, or that what it has actually works the way it's supposed to work, or that what once worked has been diligently maintained and/or in reliable condition.

Historically speaking, Russia has a bad reputation in those particular areas.
 
Harry Le Hermit said:
Most of our European allies expect the U.S. to shoulder the burden. Any involvement by the U.S. would almost certainly be the demise of the grand N.A.T.O. experiment, as it would drag the N.A.T.O. alliance in as well. Note: European "allies" in this context would be the general population of those countries and not the rhetoric of the various N.A.T.O. leaders.
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True, which is why a previous president decided to reduce financial military support to said countries. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, most of those countries almost immediately increased their own military budgets 5 to 10-fold, more or less. Even Sweden made leaps in that direction.
 
Murrmurr said:
True, which is why a previous president decided to reduce financial military support to said countries. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, most of those countries almost immediately increased their own military budgets 5 to 10-fold, more or less. Even Sweden made leaps in that direction.
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Something the previous previous president threatened. Saying they are increasing defense budgets and actually increasing are somewhat different, as Germany has red tape galore. Besides they might be increasing defense budgets because there is doubt about the U.S. coming to the rescue.
 
Harry Le Hermit said:
Something the previous previous president threatened. Saying they are increasing defense budgets and actually increasing are somewhat different, as Germany has red tape galore. Besides they might be increasing defense budgets because there is doubt about the U.S. coming to the rescue.
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After decades of criticism and anger over the US acting like the "world police", this is as it should be, imo.
 
There is a saying, "The first casualty of war is the truth."
We are only just starting to see the tip of this iceberg, what about the small villages where the media has not gone to do interviews?
War brings out the monsters that dwell in the darkest part of the soul.
 
Tish said:
There is a saying, "The first casualty of war is the truth."
We are only just starting to see the tip of this iceberg, what about the small villages where the media has not gone to do interviews?
War brings out the monsters that dwell in the darkest part of the soul.
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Here's some journalists who did.

"Caught in Bombing on Ukraine Front Line"

 
Remy said:
I still can't wrap my head around how this is happening. I don't even know how to process it. My mentally ill mother would have been spinning out of control being a war "survivor" herself, if she were still alive to see this.
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I suspect there's a lot of people who have survived wars in the UK and the US.. who will be feeling just as your mother would have felt , and be terrified by it all
 
hollydolly said:
I suspect there's a lot of people who have survived wars in the UK and the US.. who will be feeling just as your mother would have felt , and be terrified by it all
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Absolutely. Including their children who watched the effects of what war can do to someone. Though I don't know if my mother became a borderline because of her trauma or she was born that way. People endure all kinds of terrible adversity and don't go crazy.
 
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