Ukraine Today

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I'll just assume it's not a right moment to remind you that we're not producing enough coal for even country market energy-wise and had to buy it - a lot of it from Russia. On the plus side, we have a lot of coal to eat, tho.
True. We bought it from Russia mostly because we sold ours to the western countries with bigger profits. I'm generally not sure if we weren't able to dig for more, or the EU limits didn't allow Poland to dig for more...
 
Yeah, that would've made me jump, if I was the one holding that! (I assume that's the detonator?) That's gotta be nerve-wracking as ****. It reminds me of a drama I watched when I was little called Danger: UXB, about British bomb disposal crews during WW2: according to the TV show, basically there was this arms/knowledge race going on between the British servicemen trying to figure out how to safely disarm un-exploded bombs (UXBs), and the Germans, who were actually trying to make the bombs more difficult to disarm without them going boom.
 
Yeah, that would've made me jump, if I was the one holding that! (I assume that's the detonator?) That's gotta be nerve-wracking as ****. It reminds me of a drama I watched when I was little called Danger: UXB, about British bomb disposal crews during WW2: according to the TV show, basically there was this arms/knowledge race going on between the British servicemen trying to figure out how to safely disarm un-exploded bombs (UXBs), and the Germans, who were actually trying to make the bombs more difficult to disarm without them going boom.

Should I make it even more nerve-wracking? This is a not so fun fact so readers beware. During the second world war a lot of bombs that were dropped had a delayed explosion. These Delay-Action Bombs (DAB's) impacted but didnt explode. This sometimes happens to normal bombs and these bombs would have to be removed before they could accidently explode or cause other harm. They were called "duds". So these "duds/DAB's" would explode either by a timer igniting the bomb or a timer activating a motion trigger. This would target either civilians, clearing out rubble from where the object impacted, civilians or military who tried to move the bomb or bomb defusal experts who were trying to disarm it. This pretty much guaranteed that every bomb had atleast a few casualties.

P.S. Arvenski, like your signature! Great game.
 
Dos anyone know where the Budapest Memorandum stands?
With Russia breaching it I assume Ukraine is no longer bound by it. So it's null and void?

1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances

To solidify security commitments to Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances on December 5, 1994. A political agreement in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Accords, the memorandum included security assurances against the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territory or political independence. The countries promised to respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. Parallel memorandums were signed for Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. In response, Ukraine officially acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state on December 5, 1994. That move met the final condition for ratification of START, and on the same day, the five START states-parties exchanged instruments of ratification, bringing the treaty into force.
 
Ukrainian politicians were bringing this up when it was clear Russia would attack, but it's a futile line of thought in the short term as it would have only given Russians more excuses to claim they are threatened. In the long term, I'm sure the Ukrainians could be bought off renouncing NPT by Western aid and more Russian threats.
This is why North Korea can't renounce their nuclear arms, they know they will be bullied without nukes. It's their prime leverage against bullying.
P.S. Arvenski, like your signature! Great game.
Dwarf Fortress??
 
Supposedly Erbil, Iraq. US embassy bombed:



Waiting for clarification.

UPD: Gunshots reports from Riyadh:


WWIII anyone?
 
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Generally good, especially with Syria during the cold war. A long story with personal relations. They still support Assad.
They also have a common enemy: the USA/west.
There was an article recently about Russia getting fighters from the Middle East to fight for them in Ukraine.

According to Iranian state media the target was an Israeli "strategic centre".
 
As much as I have seen people mock Russia's military tactics in invading Ukraine, I doubt that Putin is stupid if he spent all these years plotting this out. If they have strong ties with some of the Middle Eastern countries, I could see those countries be used as a distraction move towards the U.S. Not sure what all would happen, but I can say that the U.S. really isn't too united over our own leadership and international policies. As much as I see Putin wanting to reclaim former Soviet lands, I can't help but wonder if part of this war is to maybe knock down America quite a bit from being the dominate world power. A good leader would try to accomplish multiple objectives to accomplish a single goal, so I don't see it as too far stretched. It's not like most of the world wouldn't want to see America get knocked off the power seat.
But yeah, just seeing some of the videos and hearing some of the insights on Ukraine made me realize just how pathetic our own problems are in America: we certainly don't have to worry about being bombed or routed out by an invader and we certainly don't have to lose much other than maybe sacrificing some of our comforts. I can complain all I want about the current gas prices, but I get to go home everynight to a comfortable and secured home. I certainly can't say the same for what is happening to those in Ukraine. As necessary as war maybe, it's nothing to take lightly when thousands of lives at best are uprooted and at worst are killed in these conflicts for both sides. I'm just waiting to see what all will come out of this and whether citizens like myself may have to respond to another possible world war. It's not going to be pretty.
 
People may rightfully mock Russian military ineptness, but at the end of the day, they are still winning, at least in a military way. We are now entering the siege of Kiev phase which will be long and bloody, but would only slow them down (by a lot). I just can't see how the military situation can change in favor of Ukraine, because dictators can press on even with substantial attritional losses.
If Russia was a democracy, public opinion back at home may have forced Putin to accept he can't reach his war goals and negotiate a compromise from a strong position. But Russia is not a democracy and its citizens are brainwashed daily by government-friendly media, so there's not much internal pressure (yet?) to stop the war.
 
People may rightfully mock Russian military ineptness, but at the end of the day, they are still winning, at least in a military way. We are now entering the siege of Kiev phase which will be long and bloody, but would only slow them down (by a lot). I just can't see how the military situation can change in favor of Ukraine, because dictators can press on even with substantial attritional losses.
If Russia was a democracy, public opinion back at home may have forced Putin to accept he can't reach his war goals and negotiate a compromise from a strong position. But Russia is not a democracy and its citizens are brainwashed daily by government-friendly media, so there's not much internal pressure (yet?) to stop the war.

They have extended land supply lines and rasputitsa-the mud season-will start soon. The troops trying to besiege Kiyv, Mikolaiv, Mariupol and Kharkov will start running out of food, potentially forcing them to attempt to storm the cities.That would be desperate, bloody move that will most likely result in tens of thousands of casualties. That might be enough for some real mass protests, and even though the people have much less influence on government than in civilized countries, the socioeconomic impact can still be significant.
But all this is aimed mostly on those who could remove Putin from power.

What I don't see is what benefit can he gain from the war now. Even if he manages some kind of military victory, there's no way Russia can maintain an occupation force even on part of the Ukrainian territory, where they'll face significant civilian resistance. And even if he manages to somehow hold on to the south Ukraine, the damage to the infrastructure and state of Russia's economy will make them only economic liability for decades.

By now, the war is just driven by one old man's tantrum, "if I can't have Ukraine, nobody can."
 
As a minimum Russia will take over Ukrainian military material and bases.
I imagine the overarching goal is to annex Ukraine into the Russian Federation and set up a Russian friendly government.
Or they can attempt to break the country in half, with the eastern part (with most Russophones) becoming Russian.

Russia has for a long time tried to get more and more influence in Ukraine. The opposition party Platform for Life is pro-Russian.
Remember when Zelensky shut down 3 TV stations funded from Russia, and the owner jailed for leaking military secrets to Russia.
Russia will take over the media in general and many companies will be "given" to Russians, not least power stations (nuclear plants) and making sure Ukraine stays dependent on Russian gas/resources.
The mayors who were abducted and replaced by Russian friendly ones is on a small scale what we will see for the entire country.
EDIT: CNN just reported that the new mayor in Melitopol - Galina Daniltjenko - will air Russian TV.

Russia has many cards to play. In short they will try to take over the country on all levels, from military to politics, to economy, to energy, to culture.
Russian language teaching will be reinstated in all schools e.g.
 
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