Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[Grey Fox]

You guys, especially Dg, buy way too much of Russia might mythology.

Have faith, it's a failed state.

[Valmy]

Plus there is a weird Russophobic side to this which I find really baffling. For me the point of cultural sanctions is to cut Russia off from the world - no football games, no film festivals with Hollywood stars (except for Depardieu and Seagal), no theatre/ballet/orchestra tours etc - because regimes draw prestige and credibility from those events. It is not to cut ourselves off from Russian culture - unless there is a specific reason to do so (for example if an author wrote a big piece about how great the invasion is) - and it is mind-numbingling inane to see universities cancel seminars on Dostoyevsky or Tarkovsky festivals. If, at the height of the Cold War, we can still engage with Shostakovich, Tarkovsky, Grossman etc; or during the apartheid bocott we read Gordimer and Coetzee - we can still engage with Russian art. It's not infectious - and the only people hurt by that stuff are ourselves

Nothing weird at all about that, it always happens. I find the rush to rename all English names for Ukrainian cities to their Ukrainian spelling very 'a war just started' kind of nonsense. Liberty Cabbage and Petrograd type stuff.

[DGuller]

You guys, especially Dg, buy way too much of Russia might mythology.

Have faith, it's a failed state.

Just to follow up on the angry mothers video - this (from within the last hour) strikes me as a pretty striking thing for Putin to be saying within a fortnight of this war. Now obviously he's not to be trusted so this will probably happen and this is technically just re-stating the legal position, but it fees like an indication of where public opinion is in Russia:

AFP News Agency
@AFP
#BREAKING Putin says will not send conscripts or reservists to Ukraine

I believe Putin on this one.  He can just continue forcing the conscripts to sign contracts before sending them to Ukraine.

[Sheilbh]

The naming stuff was changing before the war. Ukraine's been asking foreign media and governments to use Kyiv etc for years - and they generally have. It's more like Mumbai or Kolkata or Derry. All that's changed is wider awareness outside of places with style guides.

[mongers]

The naming stuff was changing before the war. Ukraine's been asking foreign media and governments to use Kyiv etc for years - and they generally have. It's more like Mumbai or Kolkata or Derry. All that's changed is wider awareness outside of places with style guides.

Indeed, but there's another round coming:

[Valmy]

The naming stuff was changing before the war. Ukraine's been asking foreign media and governments to use Kyiv etc for years - and they generally have. It's more like Mumbai or Kolkata or Derry. All that's changed is wider awareness outside of places with style guides.

I mean a quarter of Kiev/Kyiv are still native Russian speakers. I don't really get why it matters which version we derive for the English word. Speaking Russian doesn't make one any less Ukrainian.

Imagine if Italy demanded we use Italian for all their towns. We would have to change every damn name except Palermo. I don't know why Palermo gets off so easy.

[Malthus]

The naming stuff was changing before the war. Ukraine's been asking foreign media and governments to use Kyiv etc for years - and they generally have. It's more like Mumbai or Kolkata or Derry. All that's changed is wider awareness outside of places with style guides.

Indeed, but there's another round coming:

This always happens, though. Peking into Beijing ...

[mongers]

This always happens, though. Peking into Beijing ...

Malthus I was joking, I think the SKA ending is just the way in Ukrainian that the official region around the city is denoted. 

[Valmy]

Kharkivska? Odeska? Now they have gone too far. I WILL CALL VIENNA WIEN OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!11...or unless I learn German or something.

[Valmy]

This always happens, though. Peking into Beijing ...

Malthus I was joking, I think the SKA ending is just the way in Ukrainian that the official region around the city is denoted. 

Oh phew.

[Jacob]

Christo Grozev (Bellingcat Exec Director) on the killed Russian general: https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500959074653024259?t=BWZB_RjvPUU4Pvz9tsaSCw&s=19

Jesus, Ukraine just killed Gen. Maj. Vitaly Gerassimov, chief of staff of the 41 Army. At Kharkiv.
Russia, if you're listening: delete your army.

...

This is not the worst part. In the phone call in which the FSB officer assigned to the 41st Army reports the death to his boss in Tula, he says they've lost all secure communications. Thus the phone call using a local sim card. Thus the intercept.

...

His boss, who makes a looong pause when he hears the news of Gerassimov's death (before swearing), is Dmitry Shevchenko, a senior FSB officer from Tula. We identified him by searching for his phone (published by Ukrainian military Intel) in open source lookup apps.

...

In the call, you hear the Ukraine-based FSB officer ask his boss if he can talk via the secure Era system.  The boss says Era is not working. Era is a super expensive cryptophone system that @mod_russia introduced in 2021 with great fanfare. It guaranteed work "in all conditions"

...

The idiots tried to use the Era cryptophones in Kharkiv, after destroying many 3g cell towers and also replacing others with stingrays. Era needs 3g/4g to communicate. The Russian army is equipped with secure phones that can't work in areas where the Russian army operates.

...

In closing, here's the origin of the greatest military opsec failure of all time.
First, Putin signed the so-called  @bellingcat law, prohibiting soldiers from posting on social media.
Then he told the military to not use foreign phones as they are "insecure".
The rest is history.

[DGuller]

The naming stuff was changing before the war. Ukraine's been asking foreign media and governments to use Kyiv etc for years - and they generally have. It's more like Mumbai or Kolkata or Derry. All that's changed is wider awareness outside of places with style guides.

Indeed, but there's another round coming:

Those are oblast names, not city names.

[viper37]

How is this dissimilar?

I don't get your meaning.
There's lots of differences and similarities.

You complain about Ukraine's exageration in its war against Russia and you liken this propagande to fascism.

I am asking how it is different than all propaganda made in wars in the past.  Not propaganda in the Russian sense, like inventing totally bogus stuff, or killing villager and making it look like it was your ennemy. 

More like this poster, mischaracterizing the ennemy, exagerating the threats just a little bit.  We all know by now that the German Empire of 1914 was no more evil than the British Empire.

America also exagerated the threat posed by the Iraquis during their latest conflict.

I fail to see how what is Ukraine doing right now vastly different thant what was done by other belligerent in the past that would qualify them as "fascy".

Unless you believe that all nationalism is pure evil while imperialism is all good? Ukraine here is somewhat at fault for rejecting the glory of being part of Russia and seeking independence in the early 90s?  Is that what is bothering you here?  I just fail to see what is so disgustingly evil about Ukraine's attitude in this conflict, in the medias or in the battle field.

Exception: the part about forcing Russian pows to face the camera and admit their remorse in invading Ukraine.  That's a bit too much.

[viper37]

Just to follow up on the angry mothers video - this (from within the last hour) strikes me as a pretty striking thing for Putin to be saying within a fortnight of this war. Now obviously he's not to be trusted so this will probably happen and this is technically just re-stating the legal position, but it fees like an indication of where public opinion is in Russia:

AFP News Agency
@AFP
#BREAKING Putin says will not send conscripts or reservists to Ukraine

... unless, of course, they volunteer. And who wouldn't volunteer for the great glory of the motherland, especially if there people up the chain with quotas to fill?

the law says if you protest, you get drafted and sent to Ukraine.

Clearly, it means that any protester is willing and able to fight for Mother Russia.

[viper37]

You guys, especially Dg, buy way too much of Russia might mythology.

Have faith, it's a failed state.

they have numbers on their side.  1% of their army got killed in one week.  So what?  There's 99% left.