Ukraine reacts to fears of Russian invasion as troops build up at the border

[LadyTevar]

Ukraine has been doing that online, as you say Russia is blocking access to the website. Mind you, Ukraine could do it the old-fashioned way by using their artillery to scatter some leaflets. Since all the information available says Russian morale is already at rock bottom it stands a better chance.

Right now, I think Ukrainian artillery is more focused on firing "for effect", and making every shot count. I'm not even sure how they'd build leaflet canisters in a timely manner to get to the front.

[Solauren]

What about simple RC drones, modified to work with a Blackberry PI controller and a GPS, and flying a simple can that dumps them out over Russian positions.

That wouldn't cost more then a couple of hundreds dollars to do for each one.

And if it works, modify that to carry grenades to drop on enemy targets.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

What about simple RC drones, modified to work with a Blackberry PI controller and a GPS, and flying a simple can that dumps them out over Russian positions.

That wouldn't cost more then a couple of hundreds dollars to do for each one.

And if it works, modify that to carry grenades to drop on enemy targets.

Like this?

The Russian was lucky the fuses were too long.

[LaCroix]

It may be optimistic to say, because Russia is still holding a lot of troops in reserve in the north of the Kharkiv region, but it seems the offensive has either fizzled out or has runn into the proverbial brickwall.

Trying to poke a breach in the south has cost the Russians about 100 armored vehicles.
Bakhmut is holding and only slowly retreating into an even more defensive position that the outskirs of the town were.
Near Kremina, where the main push was done, in order to reach the river and start the "real offensive", Russia overcommitted troops, ran into an ambush and got couterattacked, which means that Ukraine actually advanced and now sits on top of the Kremina-Svatove road , which REALLY clapmps down on any further pushes.

Ukraine is now assuming that the russians will say fuck it, and open a new offensive/invasion from the north, towards Kupiansk, to join up with the Kremina forces, and restore supply. Anticipating that, they are building fortifications that will funnel the Russians like in good old Thermopylae, using the rivers as a hard border to the west and effectively shrinking the final frontline to a third of it'S potential size, creating more effective reserves...

Oh, and another General is dead... "Suicided"...

[Captain Seafort]

Oh, and another General is dead... "Suicided"...

Did he jump out of a window, or shoot himself in the back of the head a few times with a revolver?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Oh, and another General is dead... "Suicided"...

Did he jump out of a window, or shoot himself in the back of the head a few times with a revolver?

A gas-powered hunting rifle, apparently.
Russian general takes his own life after being sacked by Vladimir Putin

A Russian general who led a suppression of opposition activists shot himself in the head after being sacked by Vladimir Putin.

Maj Gen Vladimir Makarov, 72, was found by his wife Valentina with gunshot wounds just weeks after he was fired by the Russian president in late January.

Police have ruled that his death was the latest in a string of suicides among high-ranking Russian security and military figures.

The major general had fallen into a “deep depression” and “didn’t know what to do with himself” after losing his job, relatives told Russian media.

Anonymous sources on social media linked to Russian security services claim he shot himself with a gas-powered hunting rifle in front of his wife.

His adult son called an ambulance to the family home in a Moscow suburb on Monday but the general could not be saved, according to reports in Russia.

Maj Gen Makarov was deputy head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism.

The Putin regime uses the term “extremist” to describe its opponents, including jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and those involved in anti-government protests.

He was described in Russia as the main organiser in the “hunt” for “inconvenient” opposition activists and journalists.

Last summer, retired Federal Security Service Maj Gen Yevgeny Lobachev and Foreign Intelligence Service Maj Gen Lev Sotskov were found dead in what were reported to be two separate suicides.

Col Vadim Boiko, who was involved in Putin’s mobilisation of new recruits, was found dead with gunshot wounds in a suspected suicide in November.

His widow said he “executed” himself with five gunshots in the chests after allegedly being blamed for some of the problems plaguing Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

[Broomstick]

Ukraine is certainly making every shot count, in the meantime the main battle tanks can't arrive soon enough.

I don't expect to get truthful munitions production numbers, or truthful timetables for delivery of anything. You don't want to give the enemy that information because you don't want to give them any help in their planning.

[Broomstick]

The Ukrainians really have no choice - if they don't kill the oncoming Russians those soldiers will harm them and theirs.

Seems a bit odd that the Ukranian government hasn't pushed a "Surrender and we'll give you amnesty and arrange for you not to have to go back home" message. Can't imagine there aren't a fair number of Russian soldiers who would jump at that if they had the chance.

The Ukrainians have done exactly that, and have been doing so for months now. And some Russians have taken advantage of that.

I do not, however, think that the Ukrainians really want to adopt some of the really nasty convicts (others may not be that bad).

Part of the problem is that the Russian commanders have also heard of that offer. Anyone making any indication that they are willing to surrender and accept that offer is summarily shot (according to reports). It can be really difficult for Russian soldiers to get away sufficiently to surrender without getting a bullet in the head from their own side.

What do we know about how Ukraine is treating POWs ?

Although there have been some abuses and killings (because this is war) for the most part Ukraine seems to be treating the captured Russians humanely. In some cases they've even been allowed to switch sides. Others have been relocated to third party countries to sit out the remainder of the war.

[LadyTevar]

I wanna know how you manage to shoot yourself FIVE TIMES in the chest. Was the pistol semi-auto or something?

[Batman]

Hunting RIFLE. Making it even more unlikely.

[Solauren]

Hunting RIFLE. Making it even more unlikely.

Unless he botched several of the shots before hitting something vital or bleeding out.

However, I, like many others, think all the 'Putin fired them and they killed themselves' where either
'Putin fired them and they killed themselves because Putin said if they didn't Putin would have their families tortured/killed' or
'Putin fired them, and then had them killed for whatever reason Putin wanted'. Including the possibility Putin was merely bored.

[LadyTevar]

Hunting RIFLE. Making it even more unlikely.

No, the 5 shots was another guy, a Colonel, back in November, mentioned at the end of the article. One his widow says "executed himself", which is interesting wording.

The Major General probably just shoved the rifle under his chin and blew his head off.

[madd0c0t0r2]

What's the lifetime on artillery barrells before they warp and loose all accuracy?

[wautd]

The Guardian

Thousands of Ukrainian children put through Russian ‘re-education’ camps, US report finds
New report details network of dozens of Russian camps aimed at giving children pro-Moscow views, with some children detained indefinitely

At least 6,000 children from Ukraine have attended Russian “re-education” camps in the past year, with several hundred held there for weeks or months beyond their scheduled return date, according to a new report published in the US.

Russia has also unnecessarily expedited the adoption and fostering of children from Ukraine in what could constitute a war crime, the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab report found. The report was funded by the US state department.

Since the start of the war nearly a year ago, children as young as four months have been taken to 43 camps across Russia, including in Moscow-annexed Crimea and Siberia, for “pro-Russia patriotic and military-related education”, said the report.

In at least two of the camps, the children’s return date was delayed by weeks, while at two other camps, the return of some children was postponed indefinitely.

Russian authorities sought to provide a pro-Moscow viewpoint to children through school curricula as well as through field trips to patriotic sites and talks from veterans, the report found.

Children were also given training in firearms, although Nathaniel Raymond, a Yale researcher who oversaw the report, said there was no evidence they were being sent back to fight.

“Mounting evidence of Russia’s actions lays bare the Kremlin’s aims to deny and suppress Ukraine’s identity, history, and culture,” the US state department said in a statement. “The devastating impacts of Putin’s war on Ukraine’s children will be felt for generations.”

US state department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters the report “details Russia’s systematic, government-wide efforts to permanently relocate thousands of Ukraine’s children to areas under Russian government control via a network of 43 camps and other facilities.

“In many cases, Russia purported to temporarily evacuate children from Ukraine under the guise of a free summer camp, only to later refuse to return the children and to cut off all contact with their families.”

The report called for a neutral body to be granted access to the camps and for Russia immediately to stop adoptions of Ukrainian children. The report said that Putin aides have been closely involved in the operation, especially Maria Lvova-Belova, the presidential commissioner for children’s rights. It quoted her as saying that 350 children had been adopted by Russian families and that more than 1,000 were awaiting adoption.

Russia’s embassy in Washington responded to the report’s findings on Telegram, saying, “Russia accepted children who were forced to flee with their families from the shelling,” and, “We do our best to keep underage people in families, and in cases of absence or death of parents and relatives – to transfer orphans under guardianship.”

The report said some parents were pressured to give consent to send away their children, sometimes in the hope they would return. Others, the report said, “are sent with the consent of their parents for an agreed duration of days or weeks and returned to their parents as originally scheduled”.

The report -which was compiled with the help of satellite imagery and public accounts – said that the number of children sent to the camps is “likely significantly higher” than the 6,000 confirmed.

Researchers spoke to the parents of children who had attended the camps or were being kept there, as well as to children who had attended. “After calling the camp director, one mother was allegedly told that children could not be returned because, ‘There is war there.’

There is little information on the explanation given to children regarding delays in their return. An official at the Medvezhonok camp told a boy from Ukraine that his return was conditional: the children would be returned only if Russia recaptured the town of Izium, the report said. Another boy was told he wouldn’t be returning home due to his “pro-Ukrainian views”, the report said.


Some parents were told that their children will be released only if they physically come to pick them up. Relatives or people given power of attorney were not allowed to pick up the children. Travel from Ukraine to Russia is difficult and expensive, and men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving the country, in effect meaning only the mothers of the children may retrieve them.

“A significant portion of these families are low-income and have not been able to afford to make the trip. Some families were forced to sell belongings and travel through four countries to be reunited with their child,” the report found.

One of the camps is located in Magadan oblast, roughly 6,230km (3,900 miles) from Ukraine. This puts it “roughly three times closer to the United States than it is to the border of Ukraine,” the report said.

Raymond said that Russia was in “clear violation” of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during war and called the report a “gigantic Amber alert” – referring to US public notices of child abductions.

The Russian activity “in some cases may constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity”, he told reporters.

Ukraine’s government recently claimed that more than 14,700 children had been deported to Russia, where some had been sexually exploited.

AFP contributed to this report.

Just when you think that Putin's neo nazi terrorist regime couldn't get any more pervese, you get proven wrong again

[wautd]

Just when you think that Putin's neo nazi terrorist regime couldn't get any more pervese, you get proven wrong again

Russian chaplain priest advocating genocide, as in the eyes of Putin's regime, all Ukrainians (including old women and children) are 'satanists'

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEmZNWAfQJ0&t=69s[/youtube]

[LadyTevar]

Shit.
I knew last year they were taking children away from Ukrainian parents and moving them into Russia. I was wondering then how the fuck they were going to be tracked, and I knew they never meant those kids to return to their families.

I hate being right.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

What's the lifetime on artillery barrells before they warp and loose all accuracy?

Well if you believe the reports, the Russian artillery passed that point long ago.

[Solauren]

Shit.
I knew last year they were taking children away from Ukrainian parents and moving them into Russia. I was wondering then how the fuck they were going to be tracked, and I knew they never meant those kids to return to their families.

I hate being right.

More then likely they are there as hostages and human shields.

In the event of Russia being driven out of Ukraine territory, and the Ukraine preparing a large counter-offensive into Russia, Russia can put the kids in the way and offer to trade them back in exchange for 'a cessation of Ukraine hostilities', and remind the Ukraine citizens that now the Ukraine government is going to kill the children 'Russia removed for their own safety'.

That would bring a counter-offensive to a screeching halt.

[Broomstick]

No, I think there's also a genuine element of either absorbing Ukrainian children into Russia society, or a genuine belief that the child are better off with "proper" Russian parents, or genuine belief that the kids really are Russians and their parents "deluded" into believing in a "false" nationality, or....

No reason it can't be multiple things at once.

Although, sure - the human shield thing is an option. I expect if that happens at least some of the adoptive parents will be shocked and traumatized at having "their" children snatched away for that purpose.

Based on this sort of bullshit during WWII, I expect many of these kids will never be reunited with their birth families.

[Ralin]

Really, really doubt that they're seriously planning for a Ukrainian invasion of Russia. I mean come on.

[madd0c0t0r2]

No, I think there's also a genuine element of either absorbing Ukrainian children into Russia society, or a genuine belief that the child are better off with "proper" Russian parents, or genuine belief that the kids really are Russians and their parents "deluded" into believing in a "false" nationality, or....

No reason it can't be multiple things at once.

Although, sure - the human shield thing is an option. I expect if that happens at least some of the adoptive parents will be shocked and traumatized at having "their" children snatched away for that purpose.

Based on this sort of bullshit during WWII, I expect many of these kids will never be reunited with their birth families.

Weren't the bulk of the kids evacuated from the Donbas region, which had been at low key war with Ukraine since 2014? Their parent's tended to be russian speaking, east facing groups, and did legit see it as sending their children somewhere safer from war and from the west.

[LaCroix]

Another day, another window...

The body of Marina Yankina, head of the Department of Financial Support of the Russian Ministry of Defense for the Western Region, was found under the windows of a building in St. Petersburg.

Another "suicide"... or maybe she was to report about Russia's finances to Vlad, and considered the window to be less unpleasant.

[wautd]

Shit.
I knew last year they were taking children away from Ukrainian parents and moving them into Russia. I was wondering then how the fuck they were going to be tracked, and I knew they never meant those kids to return to their families.

I hate being right.

More then likely they are there as hostages and human shields.

Or Chechnyans brainwashing abducted Ukrainian children into becoming child soldiers, so they can later be sent to fight Ukrainians

[Solauren]

I expect if that happens at least some of the adoptive parents will be shocked and traumatized at having "their" children snatched away for that purpose.

I would be surprised to learn that there were only a few kids sent to adoptive parents (for photo-ops and PR purposes), and the rest are in dormitories (prisons) somewhere, waiting to be moved little cargo as needed.

[Zaune]

With everything else we've been hearing, I'd count it as a qualified win if those kids are even still alive.