Russia invades Ukraine again?

[aufbahrung]

Night of the Long Knives(Russian translation). Gotta get them all if he wants to win immortality in the history books.

[pErvinalia]

How close are we to nuclear war, Crump? You've got your finger on the pulse of these things.

[aufbahrung]

How close are we to nuclear war, Crump? You've got your finger on the pulse of these things.

First nuke before christmas at the going pace of events. Just a display tactic in the desert, not meant to trigger the whole stack but it might?

[aufbahrung]

Always thought the clue with Russia was in the word Russia...seems to be staying true to form, getting Cuba on board...who'd have thought Russians acting like Russians?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66715773

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-13/ ... /102842914

The sights, the sounds and the smells were almost unbearable.

Twisted decomposing bodies were being exhumed from the sandy soil of a pine forest outside of Izium, Ukraine, as war crimes were uncovered one grave at a time.

Dozens of workers, shovels in hand, dug for weeks on end.

It was grim and gruelling work, and they carried it out with diligence, care and respect.

The sound of those long-handled shovels, digging, ploughing, gripping and shifting the sand around the bodies of Izium's dead, will forever stay with those present.

On a nearby pathway, relatives of the tortured, murdered and other victims of war crimes waited for their loved ones to be identified.

This grisly scene was underway in September last year, after Izium, in the country's east and less than 200 kilometres from the Russian border, had been liberated by Ukrainian forces.

Six months earlier, Vladimir Putin had told the people here that his troops were coming to save them from what he called a government of "drug addicts and neo-Nazis".

When Ukraine recaptures its territory, initially there is joy, and then despair follows as the evidence of atrocities emerges.

In this pine forest on Izium's outskirts, people watched as the disfigured bodies of their relatives and neighbours, killed and tortured by the Russian president's troops, were dug up.

Across three days in September last year, the ABC's Foreign Correspondent team documented the site as prosecutors patiently and methodically gathered evidence of war crimes.

Now, a year after the graves were first discovered, investigators are continuing the slow process of accumulating evidence, finding the perpetrators, and pursuing justice for those killed during the Russian occupation.

New intelligence released this week by the Centre for Information Resilience — a not-for-profit human rights group — has also shed more light on the war crimes in Izium, including identifying key locations where torture took place and which units could have been involved.

[aufbahrung]

No nukes until Ukraine takes Crimea (about four weeks from now) then psycho state Russia goes full ballistic having lost the war, prepare for the year
of fighting unnecessary that ended in nukes before...

[Tero]

Ukraine begs and US House ignores, moves on to impeaching Biden

The big picture: Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, hopes that 2024 will be the year when the U.S. and Europe lose patience with the war and allow him to claim large parts of Ukraine permanently. “Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,” President Biden warned at the White House yesterday, while standing beside Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president.

If Russia gains the upper hand, it would be a blow to European democracy and a potential sign that the world has entered a new period of military aggression. Ukraine’s leaders and their allies hope they can prevent further Russian advances and inflict enough damage to make a stalemate seem like Putin’s best outcome.

NYT

[Tero]

Poland as support

In regard to U.S. plans of hosting missile defense shield bases in the country, Tusk hinted skepticism toward the project, saying that their presence could potentially increase security risks from Russia, and rejected U.S. offers in early July 2008.[47] By August, however, Tusk relented, and supported the missile shield, declaring: "We have achieved the main goal. It means our countries, Poland and the United States will be more secure."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk

Under his cabinet article there is an AP news story

“I can no longer listen to some European politicians and those from other Western countries who say they are tired of the situation in Ukraine,” Tusk said. “They say to President Zelenskyy’s face that they no longer have the strength, that they are exhausted.”

In his speech, Tusk stressed that his country on NATO’s eastern flank would honor its obligations as a Western ally.

https://apnews.com/article/poland-new-g ... 8236eaf4fc

[aufbahrung]

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/17/worl ... index.html

Finland next in line then?

[Tero]

Pentagon juggles money out of empty account.

There are two pots of money for weapons and security assistance set up specifically for the war. One is the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, under which the U.S. provides weapons already in its stockpile. The other is the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds long-term weapons contracts.

Money for USAI has all been spent. That pot is empty.

And money for the PDA also appeared to be gone. But then the Pentagon determined that it had overstated the value of the weapons it had already sent Ukraine, overcharging the Ukraine weapons account by $6.2 billion. That effectively left Ukraine with a store credit that is slowly being whittled down. It now stands at around $4.4 billion.

PDA packages continued to be announced every few weeks. But in recognition of the dwindling money, the latest packages have been smaller — about $200 million or less, compared with previous ones that often totaled $400 million to $500 million.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how- ... t-of-money

[rainbow]

But then the Pentagon determined that it had overstated the value of the weapons it had already sent Ukraine, overcharging the Ukraine weapons account by $6.2 billion.

...a simple accounting error.

[JimC]

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking' real money...

[aufbahrung]

Old weapons in storage. Accountancy error. Like yourself in a hundred years. I remember when a billion was a billion, like yesterday.

[Tero]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2 ... -stop-him/

It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.

Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.

[Tero]

Finnish guy:

"Sosiaalisessa mediassa levisi keskiviikkona kuvamateriaalia Keski-Venäjällä sijaitsevan asetehtaan räjähdyksestä. 1200 kilometrin päässä Ukrainan rajasta sijaitsevalla tehtaalla valmistetaan ballistisia ohjuksia. Venäjän valtiollisen uutistoimiston Tassin mukaan räjähdyksen taustalla oli "suunnitellut kokeet".

"Image footage of an explosion at a weapons factory in central Russia spread on social media on Wednesday. Ballistic missiles are manufactured at the factory located 1,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. According to the Russian state news agency Tassi, the explosion was behind "planned experiments"."