Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[DGuller]

From CNN:

Ukraine closes borders to Russia and Belarus
From CNN's Sebastian Shukla in Kyiv

Ukraine is closing its borders to Russia and Belarus, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced Saturday evening.

In a video statement posted on Telegram, Shmyhal said beginning Monday, February 28, only Ukrainian citizens will be allowed to cross from Russia and Belarus into Ukraine.

Err ...

Talk about closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

[DGuller]

Russians are claiming that Ukrainians are surrendering and are showing the clips of the captured POWs.  Apparently it's so bad for Ukrainians that some have already surrendered twice.

[Sheilbh]

Well done on that.

Yeah - and on doors and bolted horses, love that he said that after he'd already said "civilised" and "relatively" European ()

[Legbiter]

Kyiv

Jacob, this poster is cleared and he can stay.

Here we use Kænugarður when referring to the city, the original Old Norse name.

[Sheilbh]

Bigger than SWIFT - EU and US agree to sanction the Russian central bank. Very solid.

[Eddie Teach]

Accept everyone. Who are we to demand those men die for their country?

[Sheilbh]

Heart-breakingly resonant image of Ukrainians waiting to get the train to Poland
https://twitter.com/TanyaKozyreva/status/1497662931588296709?s=20&t=1hz-1GgTxIJDW4FKON1rdw

The railway service is also running evacuation trains from Kyiv to Lviv.

[Savonarola]

Yeah too far in to back out now. I'm too old to think this war will end well for Ukraine or Zelinsky, there will not be some Marvel movie deus ex machina twist to save the day. The Russians will grind them down with huge casualties. Zelinsky if I had to guess will either end up dead like Imray Nagy after 1956 or taken to Moscow in chains like Alexander Dubček in 1968.

I think that Zelinsky believes that he will be killed (and I think he's right, from the Russian perspective he's become too powerful a symbol to be left alive.)  That's why he didn't even consider negotiation and has refused to flee (as Poutine's assassins would find him wherever he went.)

By the same token I think Poutine realizes that a protracted war will cause him to fall from power and if that were to happen he won't be sent off to a Khrushchev style retirement.  For this reason I expect Poutine will wage an increasingly brutal war and will soon come down much harder on dissent in Russia.

So the world has become too small for both Poutine and Zelinsky to inhabit.

Edit: Cropped for Yi

[DGuller]

Watching the few videos there are from combat action, it's striking how pretty much all the Ukrainians are speaking Russian in them.  That kind of plays into the Russian stereotype that when the shit hits the fan, Ukrainians stop trying to speak Ukrainian and fall back to their native language.  However, it definitely doesn't speak to Russian propaganda that Russian speakers in Ukraine are oppressed, or that Russian speakers would welcome the Russians.  They don't seem to be too welcoming in the videos I watched.

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaGr8ECWllE

"A certain number of Russian banks" will be removed from SWIFT.

[celedhring]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaGr8ECWllE

"A certain number of Russian banks" will be removed from SWIFT.

The ones already on the sanctions list.

EDIT: now they're saying the list is "being finalized"

[Razgovory]

Edit: Cropped for Yi

If Monocropping is a thing so should Yicropping.

[Habbaku]

Monocropping is where you remove all instances of Chinese malfeasance, right?

[Grey Fox]

Finish reporter reports seeing a T-14 heading for Kharkiv. Russia is going to feel those losses if any get wrecked.

[Jacob]

Kyiv

Jacob, this poster is cleared and he can stay.