Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[Admiral Yi]

We had a bit of a chat about that earlier in the thread - about how the invasion could trigger a pretty serious increase in food prices, which in turn could trigger instability in a number of other countries across the world relying on imported Russian or Ukrainian grain to feed their populations.

Started by mongers, which is why I called him out.

[Jacob]

We had a bit of a chat about that earlier in the thread - about how the invasion could trigger a pretty serious increase in food prices, which in turn could trigger instability in a number of other countries across the world relying on imported Russian or Ukrainian grain to feed their populations.

Started by mongers, which is why I called him out.

[jimmy olsen]

https://eurovision.tv/mediacentre/release/ebu-statement-russia-2022

I've been following that all day and it was actually great. EBU's initial position was Russia would still participate. Then all day today you've had act after act from across Europe say they refuse to perform in a competition with Russia, so the EBU were forced to move.

First "Little Big" was robbed by Covid, now this.

Meanwhile, US officials seem to confirm the reports of Il 76s being shot down south of Kiev, which would be incredible if true. That would be 200-300 dead paratroopers

https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1497440267829399553

[jimmy olsen]

Does anyone else detect a whiff of farce to this war?  Meant to intimidate and put on a show rather than kill and seize territory?

I've seen many reports of missile strikes but not so many of heavy ground fighting.  And certainly no camera footage of what I would call heavy fightiing.

Tons of videos all over tik tok and twitter of heavy fighting. Livestreams too

[Zanza]

We had a bit of a chat about that earlier in the thread - about how the invasion could trigger a pretty serious increase in food prices, which in turn could trigger instability in a number of other countries across the world relying on imported Russian or Ukrainian grain to feed their populations.

Read an article about sub-Sahara Africa, which gets a lot of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia and how prices are already skyrocketing. It will lead to unrest there.

[Jacob]

I saw a thing that claims that Tucker Carlson has now pivoted and is saying Putin is responsible for whatever horrible things happen in Ukraine. Not that I want to extend any kind of sympathy to the man, but - if true - seeing Putin's American third columnists dropping their support is somewhat reassuring.

[Syt]

I find it hard to believe that levelling a city of 3 mllion people Russians consider "actually not really different from Russians at all" (while Putin also claims they're conducting "genocide" against... what's supposed to be their own people?) is going to work out well for the Russian regime in the long term.

That's what they did to Grozny and what they did when helping Assad in Syria. They promise a humanitarian corridor for people who want to leave and then go all in after a certain date.

Yeah but Grozny (Muslims) and Syria (Muslims, Arabs) were different for the average Russian. The attack on Ukraine is already proving a lot less popular than those, so leveling Kyiv would only worsen the perception.

[Syt]

Yeah, I was surprised with India too. Good point about the UAE as a smaller nation which has some fears about Iran, as do the Saudis and others in the region.

India is sourcing most of their military equipment and farming supplies from Russia. Saw two days ago that they were working on a new payment system with Russia to ensure this trade would continue despite sanctions or a potential SWIFT cutoff. Besides, Modi strikes me as the type to get chummy with Putin (authoritarian, nationalist, extremely conservative).

[viper37]

Don't know if it's been posted, but this might be another reason for the invasion:
Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas critical for lasers used in chipmaking and supplies more than 90% of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon

Not that Putin needs any extra reasons, but denying critical supplies to the US is certainly a good motivation for an invasion.

[Zanza]

I know nothing about producing neon, but shouldn't Linde and Air Liquide be able to make it...? What is so special about neon? 

[Syt]

'Who'd have thought that the the Corona pandemic would once be "the good old days"?'

[Iormlund]

I know nothing about producing neon, but shouldn't Linde and Air Liquide be able to make it...? What is so special about neon? 

Apparently it is obtained by liquefying air, so you could do it pretty much anywhere. It's just that most of it is currently done in plants in Odessa and Moscow.

[celedhring]

The US claims the Ukranians have shot down two Il-76s. That's a couple hundred paratroops gone, just because of recklessness. Seen a video of a Russian POW (a kid) scared shitless claiming he was just doing traning and then shipped off to the front.

The Russian army doesn't give a fuck even about their own.

[Josquius]

The UAE stand to profit quite a bit from this war.
With Russia closing down its airspace, possibly for keeps, we look set to go back to the old days when planes between west and east absolutely had to stop somewhere.
In the cold war this was Anchorage; however this was before the massive rise of the Gulf States and their airlines.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I know nothing about producing neon, but shouldn't Linde and Air Liquide be able to make it...? What is so special about neon? 

Apparently it is obtained by liquefying air, so you could do it pretty much anywhere. It's just that most of it is currently done in plants in Odessa and Moscow.

The bottleneck is probably whatever equipment is needed for the fractional liquification process; the other heavier noble gases are produced the same way btw.