For anyone confused about the picture: "Members of the territorial defence force attend training, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, outside an abandoned building in Sumy, Ukraine April 15, 2022. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra"

I was totally confused. Lol.

Watched a clip on drone usage in ukraine today. Apparently most of the drones used by ukraine are chinese. But the chinese gave the russians software that tracks the drones. So theyve been attacking where the drones take off from.

Has anyone else heard of any help from the chinese to the russians?

Quote from: Moab on May 17, 2022, 12:00:51 AMHas anyone else heard of any help from the chinese to the russians?

The PRC is always willing to make $$$. So they will play both sides against the middle as long as they can come out ahead.

Selling tech is good way to make $$$
https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/how-china-supplies-russias-military/

Oil at a discount is great way to make some big $$$
https://www.ft.com/content/4f277a24-d681-421a-9c94-29d6fd448b20

A PRC tech firm pulls out of Russia due to the financial restrictions...so no $$$ no business.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/chinese-tech-firms-pull-russia-174910858.html

I honestly would have thought the Chinese would be getting up to more seedy and/or sneaky crap while the world is distracted.

Guess Xi still has, *ahem*, matters or internal security to settle and isn't really keen on rocking the boat on an international scale.

Quote from: mzmc on May 22, 2022, 10:46:30 AMI honestly would have thought the Chinese would be getting up to more seedy and/or sneaky crap while the world is distracted.

Guess Xi still has, *ahem*, matters or internal security to settle and isn't really keen on rocking the boat on an international scale.

More likely, he's watching and taking notes of what not to do when China eventually goes after Taiwan.

Quote from: NT2C on May 22, 2022, 01:36:02 PM

Quote from: mzmc on May 22, 2022, 10:46:30 AMI honestly would have thought the Chinese would be getting up to more seedy and/or sneaky crap while the world is distracted.

Guess Xi still has, *ahem*, matters or internal security to settle and isn't really keen on rocking the boat on an international scale.

More likely, he's watching and taking notes of what not to do when China eventually goes after Taiwan.

Didn't he supposedly have a brain hemorrhage or something ?

I seem to recall reading something recently about Xi having a medical emergency, but the article was kind of vague and only mentioned something pertaining to a possible brain issue.

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on May 22, 2022, 01:51:11 PM

Quote from: NT2C on May 22, 2022, 01:36:02 PM

Quote from: mzmc on May 22, 2022, 10:46:30 AMI honestly would have thought the Chinese would be getting up to more seedy and/or sneaky crap while the world is distracted.

Guess Xi still has, *ahem*, matters or internal security to settle and isn't really keen on rocking the boat on an international scale.

More likely, he's watching and taking notes of what not to do when China eventually goes after Taiwan.

Didn't he supposedly have a brain hemorrhage or something ?

I seem to recall reading something recently about Xi having a medical emergency, but the article was kind of vague and only mentioned something pertaining to a possible brain issue.

If that is true, it would be a seismic event. I'm not seeing anything on my news feeds.

Quote from: majorhavoc on May 22, 2022, 02:10:18 PM

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on May 22, 2022, 01:51:11 PM

Quote from: NT2C on May 22, 2022, 01:36:02 PM

Quote from: mzmc on May 22, 2022, 10:46:30 AMI honestly would have thought the Chinese would be getting up to more seedy and/or sneaky crap while the world is distracted.

Guess Xi still has, *ahem*, matters or internal security to settle and isn't really keen on rocking the boat on an international scale.

More likely, he's watching and taking notes of what not to do when China eventually goes after Taiwan.

Didn't he supposedly have a brain hemorrhage or something ?

I seem to recall reading something recently about Xi having a medical emergency, but the article was kind of vague and only mentioned something pertaining to a possible brain issue.

If that is true, it would be a seismic event. I'm not seeing anything on my news feeds.

Yeah, I'm not seeing anything about it either.

More than likely it was just some internet rumor someone posted and it went nowhere.

Still looking for that last minute Father's Day gift?
Check it out
https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-soldiers-raise-money-writing-161605630.html?ncid=facebook_yahoomainf_js3jgx0vd5k&fbclid=IwAR0bnfjl65U-GpmhjRjX4WNbReg1U5fnShy5rwW_krPcdsuinmELXVKmcbs

Lithuania has stopped the import of sanctioned goods via its train routes to the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. The Russian state television has been calling for clearing a route to enable direct access to Kaliningrad for some time now. Kaliningrad is surrounded by Poland and Lithuania, both NATO states.

Quote from: tirls on June 19, 2022, 06:28:13 AMLithuania has stopped the import of sanctioned goods via its train routes to the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. The Russian state television has been calling for clearing a route to enable direct access to Kaliningrad for some time now. Kaliningrad is surrounded by Poland and Lithuania, both NATO states.

This is potentially a big deal. The Oblast of Kaliningrad is Russian sovereign territory (at least since ww2 others may know it as Konigsburg) and this does pose issues for all concerned. By international law they have a right to access to their home country. That right is not absolute and unlimited but there is precedent for demanding and even forcing such a right of access.

That said Kaliningrad is still accessible by water and only certain goods are denied train & road trans-shipment so a claim of a blockade is not perfected. This reminds me of the Cuban Missile Crisis' "quarantine zone". It and this sanction is not a "blockage" which is a long held valid reason for a declaration of war, but rather a restriction on the shipment of unlawful goods.

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/272592615/casus-belli-what-kaliningrad-blockade-means-for-russia

Still an eye opener.
Lithuania is a NATO country. A strike against it could not be ignored by NATO. All parties know this. 
That said Lithuania's actions should give all Lithuanians pause for concern. However, the only thing worse for Lithuania than doing this is ignoring the sanction. That would make them look weak. 

Still if Lithuanian customs folks are too diligent/abusive in checking for contraband items, that will add to tensions. I am not saying they should detail Sgt Shultz (I see nothing!) to be in charge of the inspection teams. However, accepting paper documents related to contents on their face would be a smart move for all involved...at least at first... That and allowing the goods already in transit to get their destination ... would be beneficial for all involved.

A shooting war over these products would be foolish for all involved.

QuoteAmong them are crude oil and oil products, coal, metals, construction materials, advanced technology, glassware, some foods and fertilizers,

A shooting war over sheet rock, nails, drinking glasses and laptops/cell phones would be foolish. Especially since they still be delivered via the Baltic Sea.

But then what the hell do I know. I am pretty sure Putin could have negotiated and acquired everything he has gotten to date from Ukraine at a much lower cost in rubles and lives. 

This outcome come to mind ... with apologies to Sun Tzu:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2013/10/03/sun-tzus-the-art-of-war-illustrated-chapter-2/?sh=60b9f14e4e60

Quote from: Raptor on June 20, 2022, 04:21:57 PMBy international law they have a right to access to their home country. That right is not absolute and unlimited but there is precedent for demanding and even forcing such a right of access.

There are a couple of additional accords going on between the EU and Russia as well. I tried reading into it and it´s a big mess. Some of them state that the EU guarantees Russia consignment and access, another states that Lithuania is allowed to implement border control according to national regulations. As a member of the EU this would include imposing the sanctions. I´m not sure who is in the right in this case.
 
Lithuania declared its independence as the first of the republics and thus played an important part in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russia tried to take back control through blockage itself at the time and led armed forced against the protesters but failed miserably. There is a lot of strain because of this between the two states. Our best friend is Lithuanian, he said the atmosphere is extremely tense at the moment.

Quote from: Raptor on June 20, 2022, 04:21:57 PMBut then what the hell do I know. I am pretty sure Putin could have negotiated and acquired everything he has gotten to date from Ukraine at a much lower cost in rubles and lives.

Putin´s actions used to be predictable, he was one of the smartest high-ranking politicians and extremely calculated. I think that´s the scary part of this entire clusterfuck, that it simply doesn´t make any sense. It makes it impossible to foretell how much further he is willing to go.

For those still following the details of the war, this is the best account I've read so far of what happened at the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol.  I'm sure the accounts will evolve.  They're going to be talking about this in history books for a long time.

Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege that Shaped the Ukraine War

It finally answered one question I had, which was exactly how so many civilian refugees came to shelter in the exact location that became the setting for the most brutal, protracted battle of the war.

QuoteThat morning, the general director of Azovstal, an industrial behemoth with more than 11,000 workers, convened his board. The director, Enver Tskitishvili, went on a war footing, deciding to power down the blast furnaces and cease operations for the first time since World War II.  Then the board made a decision that would shape the battle for eastern Ukraine.  Deep beneath the steel plant were 36 bomb shelters, a legacy of the Cold War.  The shelters, some more than 20 feet underground, had enough food to feed thousands of people for several weeks. Believing the fighting would not last long, Mr. Tskitishvili and the other executives saw the plant as a sanctuary and invited employees to come there with their families.

What Mr. Tskitishvili did not know was that Ukraine's military was also arriving at Azovstal. To the Ukrainian soldiers, the plant was a stronghold, surrounded on three sides by water, ringed by high walls, as seemingly impregnable as a medieval keep. It was the perfect place to make a last stand.

"The military never told us, and we never supposed that they would deploy with us," Mr. Tskitishvili said in an interview. "We planned only for the civilian population, and only as refuge from attack. We did not consider ourselves to be participants in the war."

Beyond that, it's a boots in the rubble view into what hell on earth looks like.
 

Quote"After a direct hit from those shells, nothing remains," said Elina Tsybulchenko, who fled on foot to Azovstal with her family and two dogs. "Everything inside burns and explodes into small pieces, flying in all directions, and disintegrates as if there was nothing ever there, not people, furniture, not appliances or walls or plumbing. It all just disappears."

QuoteA native of Mariupol, Private Zherdev already knew the troops at Azovstal, but the men he found were withered specters of those soldiers, hungry and exhausted and covered in blood and gun oil after weeks of constant fighting. They were shocked to see him.

"You see what's happening," he recalled one soldier telling him. "Why do you want to die here with us?"

QuoteThe city many of them saw now was an incomprehensible horror. Several fighters described streets littered with corpses that were being devoured by starving cats and dogs.

"I love cats," said Ruslan, a fighter who arrived on a helicopter in April. "I didn't know that a cat, when it's hungry, could eat a person."

QuoteThe civilians were starving.

By late April, Ms. Babeush and other adults in her bunker were rationed to a single meal a day, mostly a gruel of canned meat mixed with water. The 14 children got two meals a day, if they were lucky, starting with a breakfast of oatmeal that she mixed with a little flour and water and fried like a pancake. She recalled waking up one morning to find that a child had placed a drawing of a pizza on her bed.

Quote"I can see flying toward me this sparking, whistling thing on a wire and suddenly it just cuts through my leg like a sausage," he said. "I'm screaming, 'I'm bleeding out, I'm bleeding out. Give me a tourniquet. Shoot me, shoot me.'

"And some guy runs up to me and says, 'Not today.'"

Here's an archive link, if you don't have a subscription for the NYT:  linky thingy



That is one hell of a read. 

Quote from: majorhavoc on February 23, 2022, 10:32:45 PMSo many people are going to die in the coming hours and days.  Many of them innocents. 

I have no words ...

A very sobering account and one worth reading. It shows exactly what can be expected. The surprising thing to me was that prisoners were taken and while not exactly treated well many were released quickly. That said there is no way to tell how many the ruskies retained.

Quote from: Raptor on July 25, 2022, 02:35:58 PM

Quote from: majorhavoc on February 23, 2022, 10:32:45 PMSo many people are going to die in the coming hours and days.  Many of them innocents. 

I have no words ...

A very sobering account and one worth reading. It shows exactly what can be expected. The surprising thing to me was that prisoners were taken and while not exactly treated well many were released quickly. That said there is no way to tell how many the ruskies retained.

I wonder if gulags are still a thing in Russia.

If they are, that's probably where the prisoners are headed.

Quote from: 12_Gauge_Chimp on July 25, 2022, 06:32:05 PMI wonder if gulags are still a thing in Russia.

Of course not...

They are called corrective labour colonies.
Every couple of years another prominent opposition leader, human rights activist, or scientist seems to commit a crime that justifies being interned in one. That is if they don´t coincidentally die.

Quote from: tirls on July 26, 2022, 09:55:59 AMThat is if they don´t coincidentally die.

Yeah I mean Russia has this weird viral trend of seasoning seafood with radioactive elements. Allegedly.

Quote from: mzmc on July 26, 2022, 12:13:46 PM

Quote from: tirls on July 26, 2022, 09:55:59 AMThat is if they don´t coincidentally die.

Yeah I mean Russia has this weird viral trend of seasoning seafood with radioactive elements. Allegedly.

Note to self: Do NOT eat seafood in Russia or offered to me by any Russians.

Or tea.  Pass on the tea, and stay away from 4th floor windows.