@Cheasty is marching on Keev. Once he’s taken it he will likely stop and demand negotiations. @Tierneevin1979 vows he will never surrender.
Michael Kofman and Rob Lee are the new Luke O’Neill and Sam McConkey.
Some very early impressions of the last two days. It’s an operation with maximalist war aims, and Moscow’s thinking on this war seems to have been colored by war optimism. It looked as though Russian forces were expecting a quicker UKR military collapse and easier gains. 1/
Early campaign to knock out Ukrainian air defenses and air force had mixed results, Russian aerospace forces aren’t particularly practiced at SEAD or DEAD. Most of the strikes in the opening phase were via cruise missiles. UKR air force still has some aircraft up. 2/
A brazen heliborne assault to take Hostomel airport with a small airborne element was a puzzling move. I doubt the goal was to land more airborne at a contested airport easily covered by artillery and MLRS. Likely they expected to hold out for ground reinforcements. 3/
So far we’ve seen only a fraction of the Russian force arrayed for the operation. Unclear if Russian forces reached initial objectives, but best estimate is they expected more rapid gains & less resistance. 4/
Russian forces seem to be avoiding use of massed fires, except maybe around Kharkiv, focusing on trying to make a speedy advance. Expect they will revert to much larger use of fires when frustrated. Not seeing much in the way of cyber and less EW effects than many anticipated. 5/
Russian forces are mainly sticking to the road network (as in 2014-2015). Early advances made by recon troops, but driving along roads left support units open to ambushes. Already signs of urban warfare and firefights in cities. 6/
There has been heavy fighting around Kharkiv and in Symi. Russian forces tried to advance past Okhtyrka, and it looks like they’re attempting to go around Kharkiv. There is also an advance west of Symi to Konotop. This is a very incomplete picture. 7/
Russian forces entered from Belarus and went through Chernobyl exclusion zone to Dymer. Early signs of fighting on outskirts of Kyiv in Obolonskyi distict today. They’re clearly going for the capital. 8/
Main breakout appears to be in the south from Crimea. Russian forces pushed to Kherson, and Melitopol. There’s sustained fighting for Kherson still and around Antonovsky bridge. Some early signs they may have entered Mykolaiv, but probably just a recon element. 9/
Russian forces retain significant quantitative and qualitative superiority. UKR forces have demonstrated resolve & resilience. Russian conventional overmatch, such as it is, may not translate into attaining their maximalist political aims. This is just the opening of the war. End
There’s a trend now on social media, creeping in here as well, whereby people criticising Putin are mocked for caring but not enough to take up arms, what else can you do besides express support in any way at all, 99.999% of people can do nothing else.
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I turned on RT News there for a bit on the IPTV.
I see Russian TV is banned in Poland.
Although you should be ok with the IPTV @balbec
Its funny the media balanced now on this subject that is black and white but avoided when it was a grey area. Your right wring out Russia and putin for what they are
This has been a trend for years - the use of sarcasm and the self portrayal by people who are ultimately shilling for idiocy or worse, for tyrants, that they are smart, shrewd, knowledgeable, dispassionate observers not prone to emotion. And they think they are funny, when they are not. They ridicule caring or having values about things that matter.
They themselves are a huge part of the problem. They are the decadence and depravity at the heart of the west. Cunts who consider disinformation, hate speech and actual fascism to be legitimate parts of public debate. Of course they do, they are sneaking regarders for it, or they support it.
They say things like “you should be asking why so many people believe the things they do”. Well, that’s easy to answer. Mass disinformation and propaganda fucking works.
Examples of these cunts in the US are Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibi, Michael Tracey, Ticker Carlson, in Britain the Spiked Online and Spectator and Guido Fawkes and GB News set, in Ireland Johnny Arse and Ian O’Doherty and and Eilis O’Hanlon.
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The way of everything now is that when things are nuanced and grey, they are portrayed as black and white. And when things are black and white they are wrongly portrayed as nuanced and grey.
This is as black and white as it can be. It’s good v evil. For once, just once, let things be portrayed as what they are. This matters to all of us.
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If Putin invaded Ireland with an amphibious assault from the North Pole, who would be the head of his Vichy regime? I was thinking probably Mick Wallace.
Starmer wants RT banned in the UK. I think Germany banned it some weeks ago.
Russia hits back by saying there is no difference between RT and the BBC, they are the same thing.
And in lots of places on the INTERNET, edgelords who call themselves “free thinkers” or “critical thinkers” will be agreeing with Russia.
They have done the same thing to Georgia twice under Vlad as they are doing to Ukraine currently.
There wasn’t a tenth of the coverage . Maybe GDP potential of an invaded territory decides how much news it gets?
Is Kay Burley on the scene yet?
Choose from:
Wallace
Daly
Mattie McGrath
One of the Healy Raes
Verona Murphy
Michael Collins Cork TD
Michael McNamara
Arse
David Quinn
Ian O’Doherty
Eilis O’Hanlon
Sarah Louise Mulligan
That Irish wan who is a rabid Brexiteer Tory who occasionally pops up on Question Time - Laura Perrins
John Waters
Gemma O’Doherty
Ewan MacKenna
Eoin O’Murchu - an old school tankie who used to be on Tonight with Vincent Browne a lot
One of those fruitcake anti-vaccine GPs
That’s why I don’t trust any media, I’ve seen rte journalists advise people to only follow trusted news sources and blue ticks. The cunts can’t even report the basics without bias. In fairness I’ve gotten more off you on this tread with your internetting skills
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After all this the tans will have no EU, no US and no Russia. They’ll find it hard to keep the lights on.
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But that is not the lesson to learn. That is a black and white reaction which is wrong and it pushes people towards genuine fake news sources. On the whole, traditional media is by far the most trustworthy staple source of information we have. That is not to say that there are not good alternative people out there but there is no quality control. A total propagandist can just call themselves “an independent journalist” and suckers will believe them.
Often the problems with traditional media are grey. Often they involve subtle biases and influence in how a story is framed or what is covered. Ownership of traditional media outlets is a big issue. Some traditional media outlets are more trustworthy than others. Murdoch media on the whole is towards the less trustworthy end but that doesn’t mean that say, The Times, doesn’t have some some great journalism or isn’t a quality newspaper, even if it has the problem of a bad owner which can lead to bad editorial decisions. Funding is an issue. Quality journalism costs money whereas fake news sources are always free. Technological change is a massive issue for traditional media and that’s connected to the funding issue. Diversity of staff is an issue. Too many staff in traditional media come from too similar a background and too similar a background to those in powerful positions in politics or business. Opinion and commentary costs less - and controversial opinion brings in more money, therefore there is a financial interest for traditional media in giving morons a platform, which has knock on effects for the credibility of the outlets that platform them.
Understanding what the best sources of information are and when to trust them and when have scepticism is an art that can only be learned by experience. But in general, if people stuck to traditional “paper of record” centre-left or even centre-right newspapers and quality news programmes on the main channels as their staple sources of information, they won’t be going too far wrong in having a decent grounding for trying to understand the world - nobody will ever fully understand it.
This is a worthwhile stand by these countries and others need to join them. Stuff like this does matter, even if if is obviously not the stuff that matters most.
Estonia is likely to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Russia is allowed to compete, the chairman of Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) said on Friday.
ERR board Chairman Erik Roose said he has been in contact with colleagues from the European Broadcasting Union to discuss the situation.
“Obviously, it is inconceivable that Estonia will participate in Eurovision in a situation where Russia participates but Ukraine does not. Apparently, our colleagues from other Baltic countries are of the same opinion. We will continue to communicate with the EBU as the organizer of the song contest,” Roose said.
The Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in Turin in May.
Finland and Lithuania have already said they will not compete if Russia participates.
They should ban tvp1 while they are at it
Thread on Russian propaganda which is also pertinent to everywhere:
2/ Because just about any measure a government contemplates to punish Russia entails pain for its own interests as well.
Whether you are buying Russian gas or selling Russians Gucci there is a lucrative status quo that sanctions would disrupt.
Incentive is to do nothing. But…
3/ The situation is all over the news. Your people, the international community and perhaps even your conscience, demand action.
Russian propaganda aims to dilute that pressure and create a permission structure for you to do what’s commercially lucrative: token action or none.
4/ This is why it can seem like Russia’s publicly declared reasons for the war are an ever-changing and barely coherent morass of unrelated arguments.
They aim to throw enough at the wall that the resulting mosaic will be dizzying and exhausting, even if they’re not compelling.
5/ They also know that the best way to ensure their messages are amplified, repeated and shared virally is to ensure they slot neatly into existing culture wars or political fault lines.
If they use the right buzzwords (woke, CIA, Nazi), they’ll get amplified. And they do.
6/ They also, very importantly, don’t need you to think they’re the good guys.
They just need you to think Ukrainians are as bad, or even merely bad enough not to be worth making sacrifices or taking risks for.
A permission structure to declare a pox on all houses & tune out.
7/ If all this sounds familiar to you from domestic politics, it should.
Any number of recent Western leaders and their client press champions have, when in a scandal, resorted to both sideism and “Ah, but isn’t everyone a bastard?” rather than defend their own actions.
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