Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

the hea

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First satellite pictures seems to confirm that at least 1 TU-95 was damaged in the strike on Engels airbase.




This sounds like they used laser guidance for the terminal phase.


The big question still is how they where able to fly a missile/UAV designed in the 70s 700km into enemy territory without getting intercepted.
 

Rajma

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First satellite pictures seems to confirm that at least 1 TU-95 was damaged in the strike on Engels airbase.




This sounds like they used laser guidance for the terminal phase.


The big question still is how they where able to fly a missile/UAV designed in the 70s 700km into enemy territory without getting intercepted.
So that’s 2-3 strategic bombers out of action which are worth of 100M USD a piece and Russia has no way to replenishing them as production is simply not there. Looks very good return for a price of few drones.
 

Adisa

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I was anti NATO until Russia decided to launch a baseless invasion of its neighbour.
The idea that it is Russia that needs security guarantees is asinine.
They are the ines with a history of invading neighbouring countries.
 

stefan92

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Now a strike on an airforce base in Kursk is reported. Three strikes deep into Russia in two days is quite impressive, despite the apparently limited effectiveness.
 

the hea

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So that’s 2-3 strategic bombers out of action which are worth of 100M USD a piece and Russia has no way to replenishing them as production is simply not there. Looks very good return for a price of few drones.
Yes, the TU-95 mentioned above and this TU-22M at the Dyagilevo airbase that was confirmed yesterday.

 

Mihai

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I dunno... they're already a significant supply route for NATO weapons getting delivered to Ukraine. They're a full NATO member too, so they wouldn't quite be doing it on their own.
The Romanian government confirmed that they will not be getting involved even if Moldova is attacked, as far as I remember. I am confident this includes shooting down russian missiles over Moldavian territory. Especially since it's the second incident in the last 5 weeks with russian missiles flying through our airspace before.
 

MTF

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The Romanian government confirmed that they will not be getting involved even if Moldova is attacked, as far as I remember. I am confident this includes shooting down russian missiles over Moldavian territory. Especially since it's the second incident in the last 5 weeks with russian missiles flying through our airspace before.
Understood, didn't realize Romania had made their own position public on this.
 

harms

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I think you’re wrong, the goal shouldn’t be to defeat Putin regime instead we need to defeat a fundamental element Russizm on which the Putin regime and country has been built and for that you need to be showing hard truths about their society and not caring for the conditions of “their boys” in the trenches under Bakhmut.
The goal of showing the real picture of how those troops lack basic supplies and are sent to death by thousands is not to improve the efficiency with which the Russian army can murder Ukrainians, its to prevent people from joining the army & to make (Russian) people question the idea of this war that has their loved ones freezing to death in the above-mentioned trenches under Bakhmut.

The idea that TV Rain sends any supplies to the Russian army isn’t just ridiculous because they’ve been openly against this war since the very beginning and never changed their stance but also because they’re struggling to maintain their own existence due to the unstable financial situation.

And yes, the mistake of showing Crimea as Russia on the map is inexcusable considering the circumstances but it’s not a Freudian slip that suddenly shows the true colors of TV Rain like the sources that you quote keep saying.
 

Rajma

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Now a strike on an airforce base in Kursk is reported. Three strikes deep into Russia in two days is quite impressive, despite the apparently limited effectiveness.
I think calling it as limited effectiveness (given their cost) is a stretch when they put out of action a couple of strategic bombers which are priceless to Russia. Also putting a toll on the logistics by targeting oil depot near Ukrainian border.
 

stefan92

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I think calling it as limited effectiveness (given their cost) is a stretch when they put out of action a couple of strategic bombers which are priceless to Russia. Also putting a toll on the logistics by targeting oil depot near Ukrainian border.
True, but I just feel like the strikes were actually more or less failures/intercepted and did just a fraction of the possible damage, if they got a big warhead to explode correctly.
 

Rajma

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True, but I just feel like the strikes were actually more or less failures/intercepted and did just a fraction of the possible damage, if they got a big warhead to explode correctly.
That’s true as well, Russia got really lucky could have been a real carnage to that fleet had one of those rockets have gone off.
 

stefan92

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Not really surprising, need to identify what they're doing and fix the sanctions though.
Exactly... considering that a typical trade unit for semiconductors is "1000 pieces" it shouldn't surprise anyone if they had significant stock to make a few hundreds
 

TMDaines

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The goal of showing the real picture of how those troops lack basic supplies and are sent to death by thousands is not to improve the efficiency with which the Russian army can murder Ukrainians, its to prevent people from joining the army & to make (Russian) people question the idea of this war that has their loved ones freezing to death in the above-mentioned trenches under Bakhmut.

The idea that TV Rain sends any supplies to the Russian army isn’t just ridiculous because they’ve been openly against this war since the very beginning and never changed their stance but also because they’re struggling to maintain their own existence due to the unstable financial situation.

And yes, the mistake of showing Crimea as Russia on the map is inexcusable considering the circumstances but it’s not a Freudian slip that suddenly shows the true colors of TV Rain like the sources that you quote keep saying.
The problem is that TV Rain is still overtly pro-Russian (even if anti-Putin). Funnily enough they turned up to the meeting with the Latvian regulators without an interpreter and genuinely expected the meeting to be conducted in Russian.
 

harms

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The problem is that TV Rain is still overtly pro-Russian (even if anti-Putin). Funnily enough they turned up to the meeting with the Latvian regulators without an interpreter and genuinely expected the meeting to be conducted in Russian.
The main goal of TV Rain and other Russian independent media in this mess is to influence the opinion of as many Russians as it can to sway them away from supporting the war. You’re not going to convince anyone Russian with anti-Russian messages. If you have examples of anti-Putin but pro-war sentiments, I’m all ears. And Korostelyov’s thing doesn’t count since he was literally fired for it.

As for the meeting — I’ve read that all previous ones were held in Russian by mutual agreement. If that’s not true (this is what Dzyadko says) then this is obviously an extremely insensitive thing to do. It we’re talking about funny details, Āboliņš praising Putin and talking down about Ukraine surely is an interesting detail. It was a mistake and he apologized for it? Well, so did TV Rain.

Overall - I find it a bit weird that everyone’s asking Russians why haven’t they overthrown Putin yet only to gang up on the likes of TV Rain that have been speaking up openly (and quite loudly) against the annexation of Crimea, the war on Donbass, the current invasion etc. throughout the entire twelve-something years that they have existed.

I’m not even their fan — just like it usually is with Russian opposition, I have a lot of issues with both their goals and means to achieve them, plus they simply aren’t the most reliable source of information due to the nature of live TV but at this point stopping Putin is surely the priority and they are doing their job better than anything else does at this point. I’m not going to vote for Navalny in a democratic election but I’d back him if he’ll go against Putin — same logic applies here.
 

sport2793

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This is very misleading considering that Hungary just vetoed the 18 million euro deal, while the US number decreased only because of aid that was approved but not disbursed during the calendar year.
 

Raoul

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I think you’re wrong, the goal shouldn’t be to defeat Putin regime instead we need to defeat a fundamental element Russizm on which the Putin regime and country has been built and for that you need to be showing hard truths about their society and not caring for the conditions of “their boys” in the trenches under Bakhmut.
The two are inherently intertwined. If you get rid of Putin, much of the power structure of autocratic Russia goes away. There will of course still be others waiting to take his place, but it would also embolden the pro-democracy forces to seize the initiative.