War News Part Three

[ichkeria]

War News
War News Part 2
War News Part Three
War News Part 4

It’s back despite popular demand

Again I apologise for no link
And also for swearing at a mod in Russian (!)
Possibly an AB first.
It was for me at any rate
The Ukraine Air Force has been active overnight and this morning downing three Russian Sukhoi fighter jets and losing one Mig

[ynnafymmi]

Oh,by the way,calling Putin a serpent is doing a great dis-service to serpents.

[Khandro]

"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" - a quotation from Alexander Pope's, "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot".

The answer maybe, Vladimir Putin. The second question though is, if he breaks & possess Ukraine, can he hold on to it without a huge Russian military presence, for ever, plus terror, prisons and death-camps ?
A strange way to rescue the population from "Nazism".

[ynnafymmi]

Strangely enough 69 years ago today another murderous b*st*rd died.Stalin.Died in a pool of his own ***.Lets all hope Putin follows his hero footsteps.Hopefully sooner rather than later.

[ichkeria]

“Naomi
Ich, I'm not as au fait with all this as you are so just to get it straight in my head, these are Ukrainian people being bussed to ... where?”

Well anywhere safe or at least safer than where they are now. It was something agreed at the last meeting of Ukraine and Russia negotiators. A temporary ceasefire.
Regrettably it seems the evacuation has been postponed as the Russians allegedly began shelling again.
To be clear, this is not connected to the bussing of villagers from around Kharkiv, by Russians, across the border to Russia, which I mentioned before.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive has apparently started around Kharkiv

[naomi24]

Ich, I'm confused. You mentioned ethnic cleansing and now bussing people out of areas so I assumed the two were connected, but that doesn't appear to be so ...so who is doing the bussing to keep people safe? Sorry if I sound a bit thick - but I don't mind saying I am where this is concerned. If you can muster the patience I really would like to properly understand what's going on.

[ichkeria]

I mentioned ethnic cleaning in connection to the Kharkiv bussing and also in connection to the - now stalled - humanitarian evacuation because longterm I’d have thought the only way Russia might impose its will on hearts and minds in Ukraine is to move away those hearts and minds it’s not already destroyed. Naturally in the immediate term evacuation is a good thing if it means people are safer.

[ichkeria]

Mariupol has been under siege for days with most inhabitants without heating water or electricity while their homes are pounded by shells and missiles.
Volnovakhe was one of the first towns to bear the brunt of indiscriminate bombing
Hence the desireability of a humanitarian evacuation

[ichkeria]

Both are in the Donetsk oblast: Mariupol on the Azov sea coast, Volnovakha well inland

[ichkeria]

Naturally these humanitarian evacuations would be by the local Ukrainian authorities

[naomi24]

Thanks for that. That makes more sense now.

[ichkeria]

A good example of what I mean by "hearts and minds":

In Kherson now, which fell to Russian invaders earlier in the week, people are defying restrictions on public gatherings, to gather in the main square, wave flags and shout slogans of defiance at the occupiers.

[naomi24]

It makes my skin crawl. Just awful.

[Peter Pedant]

// Ich, I'm not as au fait with all this as you are so//....
thanks for keeping us informed Ich

not so much comments on strategy
but by god the people of Kherson have barlz- protesting against their liberation....

the prospect of being liberated by the Red Army still scares the crap out of people

as for refugees, where do they go? - Jordan pop 12m has 4m ( syrians) yup 25% of the population, not doing an awful lot.

I bet the arabs are saying - when WE were rendered refugees, no one gave tinker's cuss.....

[Peter Pedant]

Putin with the revolts in Luhansk and Donetsk stated a war aim was to deprive the populations there ( both russians and ukrainians, didnt really understand that bit) of water and electricity

no wonder they dont want to be liberated

[ichkeria]

https://ibb.co/vwzpYbN

Seen in a Lviv cafe (the header reads "like dew in the sun" (a line from the national anthem about the enemy fading like dew in the sun)
"occupiers' losses"
Ok, their dishes are to be served with a large pinch of salt, but the losses are nonetheless considerable, with Crimean hospitals reported to be overflowing with wounded

[sandra4444]

Like someone said on TV this morning, If you believe the Russian number of 500, That's 500 in 11 days.
In the Afgan war we only lost that many in 20 years.

[ichkeria]

The Russian losses seem huge, and whether they amount to the numbers claimed, the fact they are considerable should not be so surprising. This is a huge operation covering a much bigger area than that of many other wars, with advances attempted on several fronts.
There's been nothing like it in Europe since WWII.

[naomi24]

//Defiant Putin warns the west: your sanctions are akin to an act of war...specifically singling out the UK for what it called “sanctions hysteria” and its prominent role in supporting Ukraine. Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said Russia would not forget the UK’s cooperation with Kyiv......the UK Foreign Office advised all Britons in Russia to leave without delay by any available commercial routes. //

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/05/defiant-putin-warns-the-west-your-sanctions-are-akin-to-an-act-of-war

[sandra4444]

It also seems that the Ukraine forces have been picking away at that convoy that are stuck in the mud creating massive jams with no were to go.
Russian forces have also left their trucks /tanks for cover in the forests.

All the above must be true to a degree because there is no point whatsoever for them to be at a complete standstill for this amount of time.

Food and supplies are not getting to them because the convoy has more or less trashed the road.
When you get such large heavy trucks and tanks running over the same ground for a few hours it don't take long before it becomes impassable.

[ichkeria]

It is true