Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]

[srikandan]

What this demonstrates is that when it comes white racist anglo Saxons, everything is politics. Only the house slaves pretend that sports (and cricket) must be separate from politics. But it is now common knowledge that "western civilization" is about power and.money, including knowledge and martial arts and science and medicine. We have people passionately argue that US needs to play well with India by recognizing India's intrinsic value..if there was any such thought in the US, India won't be trying to pull errant students out of Ukraine, while the Ukrainian Nazis stop them from going home. And India is portrayed as the errant enemy of freedom and democracy. India is not viewed as a country that will survive in the cold war/"neo con" framework, so they don't have a plan to deal with India other than their current gaslighting and effing with Indians.

[Baikul]

It’s been a demand of Ukraine’s for a while. Targeting Russian ships. Turkey also upping the stakes.

Since Turkey is in NATO, would Russia take it as casus belli by NATO itself? Then can it invade one of the Baltics? The southern most one.

Saar not only can Turkey do it by the Montreux Convention as a poster already said, even if there were no treaties in place, Russia IMO would still have to look the other way. How many countries can it take on openly?

For example large number of western nations are not only OPENLY ( by which I mean their governments have announced it) sending lethal weapons to Ukraine. I was reading somewhere that some 20,000 Javelins have been committed in this way to Ukraine. That’s enough to destroy Russia’s entire tank arsenal.

In what’s being seen as unprecedented, many Western nations have (in recalling England, Canada for now) said they would have NO problems to their private citizens going to fight against the Russians in Ukraine. For many of these countries it’s something that they’ve never done in the past.

What will Russia do? Declare war on everyone? They’ve bitten off a lot that proving hard to chew right now. Smartest thing is to shut up and focus on the war they already have IMO.

Remember the woman whose house was allegedly destroyed and posed for the Western media as a victim. Turns out she is an employee of the CIPSO. Centers for Information and Psychological Operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF)
]

Yeah I saw that on a telegram group. Didn’t comment because right now it’s good propagandu for the Russians but unverified (the lady in question has already done another round of rona dhona on media saying she is genuine onlee. But we shall see. In the meanwhile at least Russian propagandu is getting aggressive.

[Baikul]

Another perspective on the Russian ops

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498 ... 40167.html

…..

Good article. Summarises what we have been saying here in BR for a while, ie
- Russia is fighting in dribs and drabs,
- Russia underestimated Ukrainian desire to fight, assuming that few good blows would result in the political structure folding
- Many forward ground actions look like disjointed small unit actions (like the one we saw in Kharkiv yesterday where 8-10 Russian carriers entered the outskirts and were apparently routed) while
- Ukrainian forces pick off the lightly defended rear arty and supply units at leisure
- Russia is getting blown away in the information war
- it’s going to get very ugly as and when Russia gets it full firepower to the fight

To the last point, especially given that artillery is a traditional Russian strength, most Ukrainian resistance is centres around cities - well the next phase can inddde get very ugly.

[kit]

Okay I think this is one step too far.

Vladimir Putin's Black Belt Revoked by International Taekwondo Organization

World Taekwondo—labeled as the International Federation that governs the sport and is a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and International Paralympic Committee—announced it had revoked Putin's honorary 9th dan black belt that was given to him in November 2013.

The whities are good at kicking when people are down

[Tanaji]

The other point to note is the complete partisanship exhibited by even traditionally or nominal neutral sectors such as sports Ava big Tech. While it can be argued that big tech companies were never really neutral, at least they have adhered to a semblance of neutrality in the past. In fact, they have used this very position of neutrality to be claim to be not liable for the excesses of what happened on their platforms, be it racism, bullying or a myriad of other ills. However this has more changed. Even discounting traditional propaganda outlets such as Twitter, even companies such as commercial satellite imagery companies, SpaceX have jumped on the bandwagon

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/202 ... an-option/

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/202 ... broadband/

Another surprising thing is sports organisations jumping in. From Fifa to hockey to various sports, all of them are unilaterally barring Russia and in some cases Belarus.

Another aspect to consider when we do things that are not as per the western world view. For example, lets say there is another CAA type agitation and this time BJP actually grows a pair and used police force. What is to stop the same type of reaction from these orgs which will only too well be amplified by our woke idiots in press.

[Baikul]

Slowly but surely, based on chatter on social media, Russia’s war in Ukraine has exposed a cognitive fault line, when you compare western allies’ actions in the ME and Afghanistan.

The dissonance emerges when you, for example, ask people to outline how was Iraq war different from this one? America and the west were directly responsible for millions dead; at least casualties in Ukraine are stil contained. I’m seeing a lot of fumbling/ mumbling replies from western apologists online

It bothers people even more I just underline the fact that it’s not a Russian invasion that bothers the west; if it were Syria no one would care. It’s that Russia is invading a country of people like them, ie other white folk.

But ultimately the American establishment will be unrepentant; and that’s why we have to understand that American goodwill, American democracy applies only to inside America. And America’s word means nothing. Hillary Clinton is on TV talking about supplying Ukraine; this is the woman who as Sectetary of State was directly responsible for the intervention in Libya leading to lakhs of deaths. Only because she wanted to further her credentials as a war leader on the run up to the coming US presidential Elections.

[anishns]

Is there anything preventing ejecting Russia out of the International Space Station? Or is that going to be next

[Tanaji]

Is there anything preventing ejecting Russia out of the International Space Station? Or is that going to be next

I believe they are still dependant on the Russians for thrust required for altitude correction and more importantly, the ISS has a Rusdian module that it controls. Hard to throw out people in space if they don’t want to leave, unless you want to have a fight in space.

[ramana]

https://twitter.com/IndiainUkraine/stat ... I6dNQ&s=19

Request to get out of Kiev.

[Cain Marko]

For example, lets say there is another CAA type agitation and this time BJP actually grows a pair and used police force. What is to stop the same type of reaction from these orgs which will only too well be amplified by our woke idiots in press.

Hardly matters to India... When was the last time desh win any fifa competition, Hain ji? The sooner India stops playing by colonial, eurocentric world order, the better it will be.

[nits]

PM asks IAF to join Ukraine evacuation effort

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive against that country, sources said on Tuesday.

The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from Tuesday, they said. Till now, only private Indian carriers were evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace had been shut since February 24.

India began evacuation of around 14,000 of its stranded citizens on February 26. In order to scale up the ongoing evacuation efforts under Operational Ganga, PM Modi has called for the IAF to join the exercise, the sources said.

Leveraging the capacities of the IAF will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame, they noted. The large C-17 aircraft will also help deliver humanitarian aid to war-hit Ukraine more efficiently, they mentioned. -- PTI

[Prem Kumar]

What this demonstrates is that when it comes white racist anglo Saxons, everything is politics. Only the house slaves pretend that sports (and cricket) must be separate from politics. But it is now common knowledge that "western civilization" is about power and.money, including knowledge and martial arts and science and medicine. We have people passionately argue that US needs to play well with India by recognizing India's intrinsic value..if there was any such thought in the US, India won't be trying to pull errant students out of Ukraine, while the Ukrainian Nazis stop them from going home. And India is portrayed as the errant enemy of freedom and democracy. India is not viewed as a country that will survive in the cold war/"neo con" framework, so they don't have a plan to deal with India other than their current gaslighting and effing with Indians.

Well said. The West, like Islam, believes in total war. The concept of "total", in the 18 - 20th centuries meant a destruction of not just military but genocide of civilians, economic war, cultural colonization etc. Now, it has come to include everything that's globalized - monetary systems, social media, sports, international agencies, ratings agencies, infrastructure (like AWS), the Internet etc etc

We should build Atmanirbharta in everything. Zero trust of the white man. We knew that already, but this war reiterates the extent to which levers of control will be abused.

They will not hesitate to take actions that will result in the deaths of millions because, hey, that's a great opportunity to rebuild your country with their contractors, while spreading the gospel.

[Baikul]

Sometimes just putting together a list helps clarify the scope of an event. For forumers expressing surprise at one sanction of another, seeing the big picture may help underline the massive response - almost a total war without actual physical fighting - that the West is unleashing.

Military:

1. Massive influx of weapons by western nations - openly, in great detail (one example is the 20,000 Javelins being sent to Ukraine, which by themselves are enough to take out Russia’s entire arsenal of some 13,000 tanks.

2. An act hard to recall in recent memory, Western governments almost encouraging their non military citizens to pick up arms and fight (unprecedented) in Ukraine

3. Sunning reversal of national policies earlier laid down in stone: Germany with its traumatic past is supplying weapons and will make huge investment in its military

4. Committing new ground forces to NATO allies (example - Great Britain commits 1000 troops to Estonia and doubles its presence, besides upping aggressive air and naval presence)

Targeting of individuals and political institutions:

1. Some 40- 50 Individuals around Putin and key executives targeted individually (Sergei Lavrov, Sergei Shoigu, Valery Gerasimo, Kirill Shamalov, and so on) to freeze their assets and impose a travel ban.

2. EU has also restricted wealthy Russians’ access to UK banks, including a £50,000 limit on bank account

3. Russian parliament: The EU imposed sanctions on 351 members of the Russian Duma, placing them on a travel ban and asset freeze list

4. Diplomats, Russian officials and business people will no longer be able to benefit from visa facilitation provisions, which allow privileged access to the EU.

Banks and financial services

1. Russian Central Bank to be prevented from deploying its international reserves

2. SWIFT: Expulsion form an international system that will have a staggering financial impact

3. The top 8-10 Russian banks accounting for 80 percent and up of Russians global financial transactions have been cut off ( frozen assets, Ban on on issuing bonds, shares or loans in the EU for refinancing and equity restriction on major players)

Other Individual Companies:

1. Russian airline Aeroflot will be banned from UK airspace

2. Bans on:
- Rostec, Russia’s largest defence company,
- Uralvagonzavod, the world’s largest tank manufacturer
- Tactical Missile Corporation, a major supplier of air and seaborne missiles,
- United Aircraft Corporation, a Russian holding company that supplies military aircraft and includes all major Russian aircraft manufacturers,
- United Shipbuilding Corporation, largest shipbuilding company in Russia, which has constructed key Russian warships.

Attack on Russian Tech

1. EU-based companies are banned from exporting technology to Russian weapons maker JSC Kalashnikov, among others, as well as pharmaceutical companies, military communications units and shipyards.

2. US has prohibited the export of high-end and critical technical equipment and components in sectors including electronics, telecommunications and aerospace.

International Finance/ capital access

1. US has restricted companies critical to Russian economy from raising money through the US market:
- Gazprom, world’s largest natural gas company,
- RusHydro, one of Russia’s largest power companies
- Sovcomflot Russia’s largest maritime and freight shipping company
- Russian Railways and one of the world’s largest railroad companies,
- Rostelecom The country’s largest communications operator,

2. EU has issued a ban on listing the shares of Russian state-owned entities on EU trading venues. No UK individual or business can deal with the Donetsk and Luhansk, territories until Ukraine controls them again.

Sports

1. FIFA IOC UEFA and sports bodies asking for boycott of Russian sports (not just teams but also individuals -IOC recommends that international event organizers not invite Russian athletes to compete in events, as well as athletes from Belarus)
2. NHL has suspended partnerships with Russian businesses

This list is a start, it will probably expand we go along. As for impact analysis, we will probably spend weeks and months and and maybe years just figuring it out.

But it’s very clear that the western assault is multipronged, widespread and calculated to cause massive damage to Russia. As I said Total War without the actual physical fighting.

[Cain Marko]

^nice work baikulji. Comprehensive and well organized.

[vinod]

They probably are hoping to get a huge cache of weapons from the west and also planning to hold out against the invading forces by using civilians and foreigners as hostages.

Putin being a strategic thinker probably anticipated this. Imagine a Syria like country within EU. Weapons flowing across borders, nazis and racists coming over for battle experience. In few years, EU will be a battlefield between racists and islamists.

[williams]

Now that Russia-Chinese axis is really beginning to solidify, and with Paki trying to court Moscow's favor, is there an opportunity for India?

There is already a Russia-China relationship, it might improve a degree or two but that is nothing new to change geopolitics. Pakis will go with the begging bowl anywhere they find an opportunity that is not going to change anything.

If India agrees to remain strictly neutral in the wars to come, in exchange, China could put Pakistan on good behavior (end all terrorist activities against India), and do the same with the Taliban. The Chinese would like to run pipelines and do business in Pak anyways, and they need to extract natural resources from Afghanistan, so it's now in China's interest to turn off the jihad industry in both Pak and Afghanistan.

Chinese interest with the Pakis is not doing business. What business can they do with a Jihadi factory? Their interest is to break India and all this friendship is to that end alone. Afghan natural resources are way over-blown. There are much cheaper and easier ways to get the same resources. Moreover, why would Pakis listen to the Chinese? The moment they let go of their enmity with India, they will have to answer angry and starving Abduls and the moment that happens whatever little geopolitical value they have will also disappear. That is suicide for them.

IOW, China could actually neutralize the Pakis and Talibunnies so they're no longer a security threat to India. If Pak is playing nice with Russia, this makes me think Russia wants this outcome also. Picture India no longer threatened by Islamic terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Afghanistan, for the first time in over 40 years.

In exchange for India remaining neutral and agreeing not to attack China when they go to war over Taiwan or the SE Pacific, China agrees to keep its hands off Nepal and backs down on the NE border. Also China agrees not to put military assets in Sri Lanka.

IOW, China-Russia-Pak axis agrees to stay out of our neighborhood in exchange for Indian neutrality. I wouldn't have thought such a bargain was even possible a few weeks ago, but the world is changing fast...

There is absolutely no value in India staying neutral for the Chinese. What can India really do? The northern borders are in an absolute stalemate situation and Taiwan is a long way from us. There is nothing that will deter or mollycoddle China to stop acting against Indian interests in the region. They don't want a democratic, powerful country competing with them in the global market. Islamic terrorism will not go away until Islam is there. The only way out of all this is for India to become strong economically and bide the time until these snakes can be neutralized. Until then we need to punch these guys where possible and stay away from stupid moral high grounds.

[Baikul]

Dhanyavaad CM ji.

Meanwhile the city of Mariupol is surrounded and street fighting has apparently commenced as per SM. They are saying that we are going to see lot more vicious street fighting. If so this would be proof that Putin is committed to do what it takes.

As an aside here are the downsides of using social media in war time! The evening prior the Azov Battalion a Ukrainian Fascist / Nazi group had announced on SM that:

"Tomorrow, at 1000 hours, the Kharkiv Defense Headquarters will begin mobilizing in the state administration building with the territorial-defense volunteer division "Azov."

We are only accepting those with military experience. We also need women to help in the kitchen."

This morning prior to 1000 hours (to minimise civilian casualties) the Russians who were presumably grateful for this information from the enemy bombed the living daylights a out of the HQ.

[yensoy]

To all of you either attacking the western powers or supporting Russia...

If India had 2 things: (i) UN veto and (ii) reasonable self-sufficiency in weapons, would your stance be the same?

Why do we need to support a deranged madman in his quest for his empire when it is evident that he is the attacker? What happens between NATO and Russia is none of our business. With what has happened in the past week, you can be sure Ukraine will look westwards in the future.

Having weapons pointed at Moscow right at its doorstep is no different from our own situation where the Chinese and their proxies have weapons pointed at us, right at our doorstep. We are strong enough to take care of this and so will the Russians be, if attacked.

[Rudradev]

.

Another aspect to consider when we do things that are not as per the western world view. For example, lets say there is another CAA type agitation and this time BJP actually grows a pair and used police force. What is to stop the same type of reaction from these orgs which will only too well be amplified by our woke idiots in press .

This is what I have always, always said whenever something like Shaheenbag/"Farmer Protest"/Burqa-Niqab holds the Indian public to ransom and all the "RW" geniuses start complaining "We are a soft state onlee... Modi is not doing anything onlee... what kind of Hindu Hriday Samrat, what happened to 56 inch", etc etc etc.

Maybe now, after seeing the enemy in action against Russia, we will realise that GOI understands the enemy's capabilities to a degree that we on BRF had little or no idea about.

Discretion has not only been the "better part of valour"... it has been the ONLY way for the Hindutva cause to survive for another year, another election term, another generation until (decade by gruelling decade) our capacity to fight back is built up.

Every single tech and finance corporation in the West can be instantly conscripted by the US Deep State as a weapon of mass destruction against civil society & general public in ANY country. Except maybe countries like Iran or NoKo where it has already been weaponized, or Afghanistan or Mauritania where there is no civil society at all.

The tactic of blocking internet in Kashmir Valley post 370-Revocation is something we could count on using *once*. Now that card has been played, it's gone. Starlink has made sure of that. Only if we are willing to use ASAT against US govt assets, can this tactic ever be considered again.

The indigenization of electronic banking, credit & payment systems is off to a good start, but by no means can we assume Indian society is immune from the weaponization of these corporate services even at this time.

As for Social Media & OTT, the low grade weaponization of Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook/WA, Amazon, Netflix etc is something we are already familiar with. Now, against Russia, we can observe what it looks like when kicked into high gear.

So maybe we should understand that GOI's reluctance to use police liberally against CAA/other Soros-Aandolan disruptions may have nothing to do with GOI needing to "grow a pair". Do WE the people of India have the pair, the stones, the testicular/ovarian fortitude to take the savage punishment that will be DIRECTLY meted out to us in retaliation? If GOI gets tough, and everything from Amazon to Zelle, from Meta to Mastercard suddenly turns into a gun barrel spewing retaliation against you, me, our families and neighbours and children in every sphere of everyday existence... what then?

No foreign trips for business or pleasure, no foreign admissions for our offspring, no foreign goods or services or conveniences available to anyone in India anymore. Poorna swadeshi 2.0, for each and every one of us. Are we ready?

Are we, as a society, sufficiently ideologically committed and functionally prepared to withstand the deprivations, difficulties, and psyops brought against us for as long necessary until GOI prevails? Months? Years?

Or will MOST of us default to Standard Bharatiya Behaviour (from 1192 CE to Present era) and immediately turn around to blame the GOI?

[Aditya_V]

The easiness with which our society picks on weaker and does not show ability to make strategic decesion explains why we were occupied and made poor, to day also Politicans happily shut down strategic industries like copper to be in good books if the international agenda and the capture power.

[shravan]

[Pratyush]

To all of you either attacking the western powers or supporting Russia...

If India had 2 things: (i) UN veto and (ii) reasonable self-sufficiency in weapons, would your stance be the same?.

This is a case of false equivalence.

As far as I am concerned. Regardless of UN veto and self sufficiently in defence equipment. All things being equal, post 2004 flower revolution and 2014 coup in Ukraine. I will still support Russia.

As far as attacking an independent nation. Ukraine is no longer independent. The reason behind that is as follows.

Joe Biden when he was the vice president of US. During a visit to Ukraine told the Ukrainian president to fire a prosecutor who was totally not investigating a company in which Hunter Biden was a director. Telling the Ukrainian's that a billion dollar loan will not be given. Unless that prosecutor was fired.

Biden boasted that the prosecutor was fired, in under 6 hours.

After this any discussion about Ukrainian's independence and sovereignty should be stopped.

Trump got impeached for asking the current Ukrainian president to look into it.

[madhu]

40-mile Russian convoy threatens Kyiv; shelling intensifies

A 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and other vehicles threatened Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the sixth day of the war. But even as Russia intensified shelling of the country’s second-largest city, the Kremlin has found itself increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have sent its currency plummeting.

[kit]

They probably are hoping to get a huge cache of weapons from the west and also planning to hold out against the invading forces by using civilians and foreigners as hostages.

Putin being a strategic thinker probably anticipated this. Imagine a Syria like country within EU. Weapons flowing across borders, nazis and racists coming over for battle experience. In few years, EU will be a battlefield between racists and islamists.

you forgot all those mercenaries, psychos who were inside prison, murderers et all given free weapons and bunker busting weaponry, all riff raff, gang members from anywhere "to fight russians" .. ukraine is sinking deeper and deeper into that sink and would take the whole of europe with it

[Deans]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb83JwO3Vi0

This is in Russian (which I have a working knowledge of) but the situation maps are current and self explanatory.
He has a following of a million in Russia, incl a lot of serious military types.

Russians need to do 2 things (yesterday was an operational pause for bringing up supplies and fresh units) in the next 2 days.

1. Complete the encirclement of Ukie forces in the Donetsk-Luhansk region (which are the best units of the Ukie army), or let them withdraw
while inflicting casualties during their retreat and occupy the separatist districts fully - linking them with Crimea and the advance from
Kharkiv.

2. Completely cut off Kiev.

If these happen, I think Russia will be comfortable agreeing to a ceasefire.

[Cyrano]

Putin has demonstrated that when you attack the west, its interests, or even a half way ally, you are attacking its system. This "system" starts from abstract judo-chrisitan morality and extends down in a complex interlocking web of cross-national dependencies, geographical spread, an established "rules based order", treaties and pacts, diplomacy, trade and economic ties, supply chains, access regulations to markets, currency management, banks and lending institutions, academica, entertainment, media houses, and of course collective military capability.

Russia unfortunately remained at the fringes of this "system" partly due to its own doing. The USSR was a competing system though far less efficient, and collapsed under its own weight, with generous nudging from the West's system. USSR could flourish when the West was still recovering from post WW-2 destruction and fatigue, and was losing its colonies one by one. Then too, it built a closed, defensive system feeding on itself, with no way to let off its internal stresses and strains, where as the West rebuilt (somewhat organically) an expansive and more cunningly exploitative system that feeds on or co-opts others. Lets call it "system 2.0"

While Putin may wax nostalgic about regaining Russia's lost glory, history bears out that his Russia never had a "system" that expanded outwards and created its own complex web. Putin simply has far less levers to play with. Arms sales, Oil and gas sales, and nuclear weapons - thats pretty much it. Despite its immense spread, Russia enjoys little geographic dividends, and at some point its vast territory will become a liability.

China has understood this better and earlier than India and moved very quickly to integrate tightly with the Western system to feed it and feed on it (a 1.4B population will have a monstrous appetite), and is now trying to supplant it with its own system - be it corrupting West's political class, B&RI, hence the friction points with the west.

India is a peculiar case. Having suffered in the hands of pre-WW2 "System 1.0" we have developed a deep mistrust of "systems" themselves, and therefore took the "Non-Aligned" path. We could afford it since we enjoy considerable geographic dividends (distance from warring blocs, natural barriers to protect us, climate, perennial rivers, bio diversity, monsoons and a large population) but over time, "System 2.0" became too powerful and pervasive to ignore or wish away. USSR anyway fizzled out, Chinese upcoming "eat dog eat" is a suicide and the ineluctable conclusion is rapprochement with "System 2.0" which has been going on slowly, in bits and pieces since 30+ years, but strong military dependencies remain with the vestiges of USSR, today's Russia, and it can feel the threat of Chinese WIP system already at its borders. And India is no way conceptually, mentally or materially ready to imagine, contemplate or create its own "System". Anyways, there is simply no opportunity in this fast paced tech driven world to attempt any such ambitions.

Now if you superimpose the current situation in this tableau :
- Putin has tried brinkmanship and invasion but is highly unlikely to succeed
- Even if he achieves some military success, victory will be very ephemeral and superficial, he cant escape the vice grip of the boa constrictor that is "System 2.0"
- The current crisis has rejuvenated "System 2.0" which has woken up and discovering the pleasant sensation of flexing its muscles.
- The internal dynamics of "system 2.0" US-UK-EU-RoW differences do not make it substantially weak and it remains supreme in relative power parity.
- Whatever multi-polarity we keep talking about has to happen within "System 2.0" - any poles outside aren't strong enough to compete and won't be allowed to get stronger.
- The debacles of US, China and now Russia are ample demonstrations that military might alone doesnt help achieve one's strategic objectives, but can be a catalyst and power multiplier when wielded by sane, competent hands.

India's recent UN SC abstention, though justifiably cast in self interest, might be the last such vote it can afford to cast and get away with. So why did India play such an important joker card now? Because imminent as its complete integration into system 2.0 is, (which means integration into most if not all aspects I listed at the top) it wants to set come conditions, alter the functioning of the system 2.0 web to its unique needs (our 1.3 B people need to be fed and can feed others too) to some extent and actually signal that subject to a fair and accommodating welcome, India is willing to merge with it. This crisis was a good opportunity to do so and India has made its move. Resisting won't serve its interests much longer. Interestingly China has too, and openly sided with Russia - a proposition with diminishing returns and an admission that "Chinese System" is still far from standing on its own. Good for us.

Seen this way India's stance is fair, courageous and very reality driven. We have encashed the joker with good timing, its now time to play "System 2.0" earnestly, positively, competently, and when needed ruthlessly for the next few decades.

[Deans]

A 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and other vehicles threatened Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the sixth day of the war. But even as Russia intensified shelling of the country’s second-largest city, the Kremlin has found itself increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have sent its currency plummeting.

If the pic is accurate, it tells me the Russians have complete air superiority and are also not worried about Ukie artillery, in the sector the Ukrainian army will be most anxious to stop the Russian advance.

[S_Madhukar]

Isn't this dangerous considering West is sharing ground intelligence... may be this is to get all Armour in to the country before the Javelins are procured.

[Cyrano]

It seemed Russia has air superiority since the invasion started and not just since a day or two. I'm saying this based on numerous videos and reports of heli movements, heli drops, hardly any cases of their planes shot down and pilots caught after ejecting. Was it not the case in reality ?

The current situation points to:
- Poorly thought out or rather incompetent management of supply chain of food, fuel, reinforcing and holding troops behind the thrust contingents by Russia
- Smart tactics by Ukraine to draw Russian forces into urban conflict and put armed civilians in front
- Deliberate delaying of foreigner evacuations to increase external support
- Smart media and global opinion management by Ukraine, and its total neglect/mismanagement by Russia
- Ukraine and its supporting nations have managed to drag the conflict longer to make the effect of their retaliatory non-military moves hit Russia with more and more impact
- Whatever support Russia was counting on to come from within Ukrainian polity or people has not materialised

Even if Russian forces take Kiev, Zelinsky can simply move further west and continue to lead the seemingly disjointed resistance. What options does Russia have to create a victory and hold on to their control over a mostly hostile population ? For how long under the weight of sanctions ?

[yensoy]

To all of you either attacking the western powers or supporting Russia...

If India had 2 things: (i) UN veto and (ii) reasonable self-sufficiency in weapons, would your stance be the same?.

Biden boasted that the prosecutor was fired, in under 6 hours.
After this any discussion about Ukrainian's independence and sovereignty should be stopped.
Trump got impeached for asking the current Ukrainian president to look into it.

Right, so you send in your army and place your immense nuclear force on high alert because the US president got someone fired in a 3rd country.

Please, whether Ukraine is free or not is Ukraine's business. Peaceful infiltration into Ukrainian politics was always a possibility, which based on my understanding of your response was what the West used. If Putin had propped some other populist, bankrolled him/her, caused political turmoil or even a revolution, maybe even jabbed plutonium into someone it would be quite a different thing. No, he decided to send in tanks and artillery. Sorry you lost whatever sympathy I had for the Russians.

[arshyam]

Having weapons pointed at Moscow right at its doorstep is no different from our own situation where the Chinese and their proxies have weapons pointed at us, right at our doorstep. We are strong enough to take care of this and so will the Russians be, if attacked.

A small nuance - we have the Chinese at our doorstep because our dear Nehru allowed it by withdrawing from, and letting go of Tibet. So it's not just a matter of strength, but having to do with the situation as it is. Imagine if Tibet had continued as a buffer as it did since time immemorial - the Chinese-paki link up would have been still born, and our security matrix would have been completely different. Heck, maybe IG would have had her way and broken up west Pakistan as well in '71. Counter factual, sure, but I am just elaborating what we have lost by allowing an expansionist power to sit at our doorstep.

Russia is not that stupid and does not want a similar situation at their borders. I don't blame them.

[arshyam]

One can even draw some parallels with our handling of Sri Lanka - no power will want an inimical power sitting just outside their house. They'll build a fence far out so they have room to manouevre. At least India learnt its lesson from the Nehruvian blunder and held her line in Sri Lanka, and has blocked repeated attempts of the Amrikis from establishing a foothold in BD. So Russia is attempting something similar - whether it ends up like the IPKF or not time will tell.

[vinod]

Regarding all the logistics problems which the Russians have now, is it because they moved faster than they expected?
Ukraine probably put up very less resistance in open roads and wanted to draw them into urban warfare. Hence, Russians just raced forward more than they actually planned for.

[rsingh]

What if Ruusia attacks and destroy weapon supplies..... as soon as they enter Ukraine. Be it GermN or US.legitiMte tRgets.

[yensoy]

Russia is not that stupid and does not want a similar situation at their borders. I don't blame them.

Good point. But need to note that (i) Baltic states directly bordering Russia and physically close to Moscow are in NATO and (ii) today's news is that Finland is considering joining NATO https://www.politico.eu/article/finland ... ne-russia/

[rsingh]

There is a video on net where Ukrainen Politician is regretting about that white people with blue eyes are being killed.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ka2udbQYnA8?feature=share

[Zynda]

NaMo has asked IAF to help in students evac from Ukraine. C-17s & IL-76s to be deployed...I hope some Garuds will be part of the evac force...it would be good to show some strength along with diplomatic efforts.

[rkirankr]

https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status/14 ... 9165326337

[rsingh]

https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status/14 ... 9165326337

Please give more information as there are people who are not on Twitter.

[sampat]

about above twitter video

Consequences of Zelensky's decision to distribute 20,000 barrels of weapons to gopniks, drug addicts and alcoholics

video of dead person on street