Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Gurgeh]

Russia arrests US dual national over alleged $51 Ukrainian charity donation | Russia | The Guardian

 

The White House has said it is seeking information after Russia announced it had arrested a dual US-Russian citizen on treason charges, accusing her of collecting funds for Ukrainian organisations and openly opposing the Russian war in Ukraine.

 

A Russian legal NGO said the woman, named by Russian media as Ksenia Khavana, may stand accused of transferring $51 (£40) to a Ukrainian charity in February 2022, on the day Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of the country. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

[China]

Biden administration to impose major sanctions to hold Russia accountable for Navalny's death

 

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that his administration will announce major sanctions Friday to hold Russia accountable for the death last week of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

 

Biden confirmed the forthcoming package to reporters before leaving for a campaign trip to the West Coast. “What I came to tell you was we’d be announcing sanctions on Russia. We’ll have a major package announced on Friday,” he said.

 

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a briefing with reporters Tuesday that "it will be a substantial package covering a range of different elements of the Russian defense industrial base, and sources of revenue for the Russian economy that power Russia’s war machine, that power Russia’s aggression and that power Russia’s repression."

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

I thought there were already major sanctions in place, and that they weren't working very well because Russia has been able to circumvent them by trading with partners like China, Brazil, etc.

[China]

Sweden's potent anti-submarine weapon Torpedo 47: A game-changer in Ukraine's stand-off with Russian fleet

 

Despite numerous reputational blunders, the Russian Black Sea Fleet successfully blocked the Black Sea for an extended period. The introduction of new Western weapons, such as the Storm Shadow missiles, to Ukraine and relentless attacks from unmanned sea vessels eventually compelled Russia to retract its naval presence despite Ukraine lacking a formal naval fleet.

 

Moscow's remaining power in the waters is its submarines, which operate without any threat due to Ukraine's lack of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) resources.

 

This balance of power might alter in the near future as Sweden has announced it will supply Ukraine with a crucial new weapon named the Torpedo 47 or SLWT (Saab’s Lightweight Torpedo).

 

The announcement of the SLWT delivery was subtly made within the information that Sweden would support Ukraine with a weapons package worth $680 million. This includes, among other items, swift CB90 (Combat Boat 90) boats and 'underwater' weaponry.

 

Ukrainian sources infer that the aforementioned 'underwater weapon' refers to the Torpedo 47. What exactly is this weapon, and what are its capabilities?

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Denmark Signs 10-year Security Agreement With Ukraine

 

Denmark, one of Ukraine's staunchest allies, said Thursday it had reached a 10-year security agreement with Kyiv, following similar deals signed recently by Berlin, London and Paris.

 

Ukraine has been keen to shore up its security with bilateral agreements while it waits in hope of someday joining the NATO defence alliance.

 

"The agreement means that future military and civilian support will be established in a framework for the next 10 years in a bilateral political agreement," Denmark's foreign ministry said in a statement.

 

The support will be financed by Denmark's Ukraine Foundation, currently valued at 69.1 billion kroner ($10 billion), it said.

 

Denmark is the fourth-biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine, according to recent data from the Germany-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Putin ‘preparing for landgrab’ in another European country

 

Fears are rising that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is preparing for another landgrab in Europe in the wake of the two-year anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine.

 

There is much speculation that the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria in eastern Moldova is set to make an appeal to the warlord to join Russia.

 

It is believed he may use a speech of the Russian Federal Assembly on Thursday, February 29, to greenlight the annexation.

 

Oppositionist in Moldova, Gennady Chorba, said ‘MPs’ will gather in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, to possibly appeal to Russia to ‘accept the territory into the Russian Federation.’

 

 

He said this would allow Putin to strike Moldova, including Transnistria, ‘under any pretext’, and could use it a point for attacks on the Ukrainian port Odesa, seen as a far more significant prize.

 

But Moldovan officials have rejected such speculation, arguing that it is all part of Russia’s hybrid war in the region.

 

Click on the link for the full story

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Putin should probably solve one problem before starting another….

[PokerPacker]

9 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Putin should probably solve one problem before starting another….

Even without clicking the link, it mentions that it would be make for a staging ground to attack Odesa in Ukraine.

[Larry]

27 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Putin should probably solve one problem before starting another….

Hey, Putin and the Repoblican Party are working on solving the first one. 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

2 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Even without clicking the link, it mentions that it would be make for a staging ground to attack Odesa in Ukraine.

Yea, and? He’d have to have logistical capabilities to get to Moldova for resupply on that front. And there would likely be resistance from Moldova (since only a part of Moldova wants to join Russia.

Putin is hiding this Black Sea fleet and it is still being sunk… so how does he transit safely from Russia to Maldova while avoiding Ukraine?

Edited February 23 by CousinsCowgirl84

[DCSaints_fan]

1 hour ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Yea, and? He’d have to have logistical capabilities to get to Moldova for resupply on that front. And there would likely be resistance from Moldova (since only a part of Moldova wants to join Russia.

Putin is hiding this Black Sea fleet and it is still being sunk… so how does he transit safely from Russia to Maldova while avoiding Ukraine?

 

A really long tunnel?  I hear Russia is pretty good at construction ...

[CousinsCowgirl84]

39 minutes ago, DCSaints_fan said:

 

A really long tunnel?  I hear Russia is pretty good at construction ...

[China]

US targets Russia with more than 500 new sanctions

 

The US has announced more than 500 new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

 

These include measures against Russia's main card payment system, financial and military institutions, and officials involved in Navalny's imprisonment.

The EU has also announced new sanctions on access to military technology.

The measures mark a week since Navalny suddenly died in an Arctic Circle jail.

US President Joe Biden, who met Navalny's widow and daughter in San Francisco on Thursday, has said there can be "no doubt" the Russian president was to blame for his death.

The newly-announced US measures also include nearly 100 firms and individuals which will also face export restrictions.

Others target the state-owned operator of Mir, Russia's main payment system, which has become more prominent since Visa and Mastercard suspended their services there.

Companies involved in powering Russia's war effort, developing the country's future energy production and its co-operation with Iran over drones will also be hit.

More than two dozen entities outside of Russia - including people in China, the UAE, Vietnam and Liechtenstein - have also been sanctioned, accused of being connected to businesses that send materials to Russia's military.

The sanctions are unlikely to have an impact on Russia's economy. It is already the most sanctioned country in the world, and there are very few key entities or sectors that are not already subject to US and European restrictions.

Russian banks and military-industrial enterprises have adapted, and developed workarounds to evade existing sanctions.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

They need to go hard after the people supporting Russian like China and Brazil, and see if they can cripple Russian oil exports.

[DCSaints_fan]

Scratch another Russian AWACS ... 

 

 

Quote

 

The Ukrainian Air Force downed a rare Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft over the Azov Sea on the evening of Feb. 23, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk reported.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency confirmed the aircraft had been downed as a result of a joint operation with the Air Force. The downing is "another serious blow" to Russia's military capabilities, the agency said.

Oleshchuk posted on Telegram at around at 8 p.m. local time (UTC+2) to thank "all those who ensured the result."

 

 

 

 

Screenshot from a video shared on Telegram, purportedly filmed by locals near the scene of the crash Kanevskoy District in Krasnodar Krai on Feb. 23, 2024.(Crimean Wind / Telegram)

 

 

 

 

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-a50-plane-shot-down-over-azov-sea-military-says/

Edited February 24 by DCSaints_fan
update lead

[Gurgeh]

8 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

Scratch another Russian AWACS ... 

 

 

 

 

 

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-a50-plane-shot-down-over-azov-sea-military-says/

 

Each one of those planes costs over $300 million, and before the war the Russians had a total of six that were operational. The Ukrainians have now shot down two in the last month. Clearly they've found a way to target them, so you'd have to think the Russians won't be flying them anywhere near Ukraine until they figure out how the Ukrainians are doing it.

[China]

The West tried to crush Russia’s economy. Why hasn’t it worked?

 

Oil income: slashed. Oligarchs’ assets: frozen. Access to weapons: choked.

 

Russia has faced a historic slew of penalties from Washington, Brussels and beyond since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The punishments, chiefly economic sanctions, were designed in large part to drain Russia’s coffers so it would struggle to fund its war. And more pain has been promised as both the U.S. and EU unveiled new sanctions against Russia this week, some tied to the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

 

Yet, two years on, Russia’s economy has rebounded. Its factories are humming, its oil and gas sales are relatively strong and its people are at work in a system retrofitted to be all about the war. Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, appears firmly in charge of the Kremlin, despite hopes that Russia’s elite would turn on him as the economic pressure grew.

 

Why haven’t the international penalties knocked Russia out of Ukraine? The answer often comes down to two factors: political will and technical ability.

 

Legal, financial and even military resources are required to enforce the various punishments — whether that’s fending off lawsuits from Russian citizens whose money is frozen or staffing inspectors at commercial ports. But the countries pursuing the campaign don’t always have the same focus, finances or rules, making enforcement lopsided across allies.

 

Politics further complicate the equation: It’s hard for one government to pressure another to stop buying Russian products if it needs that country’s cooperation on other fronts. Washington doesn’t want to strong-arm a potential partner against China like India; Brussels doesn’t want to alienate Turkey in the Middle East.

 

“Sanctions and other economic measures alone are not going to win this war,” said Kim Donovan, an economic statecraft analyst with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. “We need to manage our expectations of what these tools can accomplish in the short term.”

 

The limits of the sanctions-heavy campaign also call into question the West’s larger project of containing Russia by non-military means.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Russia is resorting to countries like Iran and North Korea to restock its weapons: clearly it’s manufacturing capabilities are faltering as a result of the sanctions..: plus that one dude has to hitch a ride with one of the South American states president after a jet fuel supplier wouldn’t refuel his plane due to sanctions…:

Edited February 24 by CousinsCowgirl84

[The Sisko]

On 2/23/2024 at 12:38 PM, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Yea, and? He’d have to have logistical capabilities to get to Moldova for resupply on that front. And there would likely be resistance from Moldova (since only a part of Moldova wants to join Russia.

Putin is hiding this Black Sea fleet and it is still being sunk… so how does he transit safely from Russia to Maldova while avoiding Ukraine?

Putler has figured out how to skirt western sanctions to move petroleum products around the globe. Moldova isn’t exactly a super power militarily, is not a member of NATO and somewhat politically divided regarding the Russians. Do you honestly think getting enough small arms to Transnistria and motivating the Russian-speaking population in the rest of the country to rise up are problems too difficult for the Russians to solve? They’ve been meddling there for decades and continue to do so, so they know the area and which levers to pull.

One move Genocide Joe could make that would send a message is to pressure Israel into extraditing the Moldovan Putin Puppet they’re shielding from the Moldovan criminal justice system. If the Moldovans are smart, they’ll figure out some way to join Romania as a quick route to NATO membership.

Edited February 24 by The Sisko

[CousinsCowgirl84]

38 minutes ago, The Sisko said:

Putler has figured out how to skirt western sanctions to move petroleum products around the globe. Moldova isn’t exactly a super power militarily, is not a member of NATO and somewhat politically divided regarding the Russians. Do you honestly think getting enough small arms to Transnistria and motivating the Russian-speaking population in the rest of the country to rise up are problems too difficult for the Russians to solve? They’ve been meddling there for decades and continue to do so, so they know the area and which levers to pull.

One move Genocide Joe could make that would send a message is to pressure Israel into extraditing the Moldovan Putin Puppet they’re shielding from the Moldovan criminal justice system. If the Moldovans are smart, they’ll figure out some way to join Romania as a quick route to NATO membership.

No, I don’t think it would be hard for Russia to cause an uprising in Moldova.

 

I think it would be hard to use maldova to open up an effective second front against Ukraine, though. Which is what I was responding to. 

[The Sisko]

7 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

No, I don’t think it would be hard for Russia to cause an uprising in Moldova.

 

I think it would be hard to use maldova to open up an effective second front against Ukraine, though. Which is what I was responding to. 

Fair enough. However, you're talking tactics and Putler is thinking strategically. I think one of his major strategic goals is to fracture NATO. One way he could do that is by invading part of a small NATO state with his "little green men", then daring the US and the rest of NATO to risk nuclear war by trying to remove them. I was thinking more along the lines of him taking the Suwalki gap and/or Vilnius, but this could easily fit the bill too. He'd never do it under Genocide Joe because he'd quickly honor our commitments under the NATO treaty. However, once Tя☭mp or another fascist is back in power, all bets are off. Tя☭mp would immediately bleat "'Muricuh first" and "They haven 't paid their bills,"🙄 then declare it none of our business, after which the rest of the Baltic states would go and as much of Poland as Putler can grab.

[Riggo-toni]

Moldova isn't a NATO member.

Anders Puck Nielsen thinks Russia, rather than trying to take the Suwalki gap, would take up a portion of northern Finland to test NATO resolve and try to thus degrade/fracture/discredit the alliance before going into the Baltics.

[Gurgeh]

If the US pulls out of NATO then any route is on the table, eventually. However, Putin won't invade anywhere until he's swallowed up Ukraine and rebuilt his army. Moldova would be the easiest target (and no tangling with whatever remained of NATO), then a Baltic state.

 

Finland has a very large army, if lacking in equipment. Poland is already arming itself to the teeth and might have the most capable army in Western Europe in a few years. Given how badly things went against Ukraine which was hardly a modern fighting force, taking on either Poland or Finland on it's own would be a considerable challenge for Russia. And that doesn't allow for the intervention of the rest of Western Europe, which is very unlikely to sit by and watch another large country go the way of Ukraine.

 

The obvious and easy thing for Putin to do would be to not repeat the mistake of Ukraine, and just stick to destabilising democracies. It's not like there's a shortage of politicians who'd rather take his money than defend democracy.

 

 

 

 

[DCSaints_fan]

8 hours ago, Gurgeh said:

If the US pulls out of NATO then any route is on the table, eventually. However, Putin won't invade anywhere until he's swallowed up Ukraine and rebuilt his army. Moldova would be the easiest target (and no tangling with whatever remained of NATO), then a Baltic state.

 

Finland has a very large army, if lacking in equipment. Poland is already arming itself to the teeth and might have the most capable army in Western Europe in a few years. Given how badly things went against Ukraine which was hardly a modern fighting force, taking on either Poland or Finland on it's own would be a considerable challenge for Russia. And that doesn't allow for the intervention of the rest of Western Europe, which is very unlikely to sit by and watch another large country go the way of Ukraine.

 

The obvious and easy thing for Putin to do would be to not repeat the mistake of Ukraine, and just stick to destabilising democracies. It's not like there's a shortage of politicians who'd rather take his money than defend democracy.

 

 

 

 

Yeah I seriously doubt Lutin is going to test NATO without trying to destabilize first … Latvia would be an obvious target 

[Wildbunny]

On 2/24/2024 at 9:34 PM, The Sisko said:

I think one of his major strategic goals is to fracture NATO.

Well, Turkey is in NATO, so fracture exist already.

[China]

Ukraine Destroys Russia’s Brand-New $65 Million Warship

 

Ukraine has destroyed the newest patrol ship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the $65 million Sergei Kotov, and left pro-Kremlin war reporters sulking.

 

“As a result of a strike by Magura V5 maritime drones, the Russian Project 22160 ship Sergei Kotov received damage to the stern, starboard and left sides,” Ukrainian military intelligence said in a statement.

 

“The fewer such ships, the fewer anti-aircraft missile systems will be deployed on them, meaning more opportunities for Ukrainian security and defense forces,” spokesman Andriy Yusov told local media, adding that more than 10 ambulances were spotted rushing to help the evacuated crew members. At least seven crew members were killed, Ukrainian authorities said.

 

Audio of what Ukraine described as an intercepted radio communication also appeared to capture a Russian commander reporting on the “tragic event” and destruction of the ship, lamenting that a helicopter had also been obliterated in the nighttime attack near the Kerch Strait.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

I would have expected Russian naval combat ships to be a lot tougher to hit and sink.  

 

Silly me.