Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
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Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Man! My sock puppet is cleaning house. Go, go, go!
Nah.
Glad that you figured out how to transfer your old account to your new smartphone though.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Zelensky Expands Crackdown On Ukrainian Media
President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a new bill into law which strengthens government control over public access to news in Ukraine. Zelensky has already nationalized the country’s media under martial law powers invoked after Russia’s invasion last year, stoking criticism from press freedom groups.
Signed on December 29, the law expands the Ukrainian broadcast regulator’s powers over news agencies ”dramatically,” now including both print and online sources, according to the Kyiv Independent. The measure requires publications to obtain licenses to operate, and any media org without the proper paperwork can be shut down, the outlet reported, adding that the body handing out the permits will be under Zelensky’s control.
MORE AT
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/zelensky-expands-crack-down-on-n
ews-media-in-ukraine/
I sometimes listen to Gonzalo Lira, an American -educated Chilean who vlogs from Karkhov. He hosts what he calls "roundtables" and while he isn't that interesting, his guests are quite often knowledgeable. And as a host, he keeps the conversation flowing, it never bogs down. I wonder how this will affect him.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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Defending against Russian drones is expensive, but Ukraine sees the cost as worth it
They are lumbering and noisy and relatively easy to shoot from the sky. Over the New Year’s weekend, the Ukrainian military said it downed every single one of the 80-odd exploding drones that Russia sent the country’s way.
“Such results have never been achieved before,” a Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said on Tuesday.
But beneath that result lies a question: How long can Ukraine sustain its effort when many of its defensive measures cost far more than the drones do?
The Shahed-136 drones used by Russia and supplied by Iran are relatively cheap, while the array of weapons used to shoot them out of the sky are much more expensive, according to experts.
Artem Starosiek, the head of Molfar, a Ukrainian consultancy that supports the country’s war effort, estimated that it costs up to seven times more to use a missile to shoot down a drone than it does to launch one. The Iranian drones can cost as little as $20,000 to produce, while the cost of firing one of the surface-to-air missiles used by Ukraine can range from $140,000 for a Soviet-era S-300 to $500,000 for a U.S.-made NASAM, or National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System.
That is an imbalance that could over time favor Russia, costing Ukraine and its allies dearly, some analysts say.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a recent overnight speech that Russia is betting on the “exhaustion of our people, our air defense, our energy sector.”
Molfar said it estimated that, since September, Russia had fired around 600 drones at Ukraine. The campaign, which gathered pace just as Moscow sustained a series of battlefield losses, has caused rolling blackouts and outages just as the country’s harsh winter has started to bite, compounding the misery caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Both sides have used drones not just for reconnaissance and attacks since Russia’s invasion began in February, the first time that they have been widely deployed in a European war.
Military authorities in Kyiv have said little about the details of their air defenses in line with the operational secrecy that has shrouded much of their war planning, or about the cost, making analysis difficult.
Ukraine’s forces have used antiaircraft guns and small-arms fire to down some drones, but increasingly, as the Russians have taken to launching assaults at night, Kyiv has also relied heavily on missiles fired from warplanes and the ground. Officials said that Ukraine has employed surface-to-air missiles known as NASAMs multiple times over the weekend to counter drones.
Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the CNA research institute, said that Ukrainians are using “a zoo of different air defense systems” to combat the threat, including Soviet-era and NATO missile systems, each with its own cost profile.
Some of Ukraine’s antiaircraft guns, like the Gepard 2 radar-directed mobile gun system, are inexpensive in comparison with other Soviet-era and European defense systems being deployed. And some of the American-made interceptor missiles are relatively expensive.
Even so, Mr. Starosiek said, the expense of downing the drones with missiles needed to be seen in context. It costs far less to shoot down a drone than to repair a damaged or destroyed power station, he noted. And then there is the human factor.
“People are still alive,” he said.
In a report issued on Nov. 7, Molfar said that 82 percent of the drones were being shot down, but that figure has since increased.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/03/world/russia-ukraine-news#defe
nding-against-russian-drones-is-expensive-but-ukraine-sees-the-cost-as-worth-it
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Top Putin Propagandist Urges Russians to Embrace Death: ‘We’ll Go to Heaven’
Vladimir Solovyov’s bizarre tirade comes amid fears of a new military call-up.
Kremlin mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov is urging Russians to welcome death.
“Life is highly overrated,” the propagandist said in his program on state-run TV on Monday. “Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we’ll go to heaven. Death is the end of one earthly path and the beginning of another.”
He went on to question why people would let their fear of death “influence their decisions.”
“It’s only worth living for something you can die for, that’s the way it should be,” Solovyov told viewers from his warm TV studio.
Nearly a year into the war, the Kremlin seems hell-bent on keeping it going at all costs—even if that means hundreds of thousands more will have to be summoned to face likely death on the battlefield in Ukraine.
An obscure group calling itself the “Soldiers’ Widows” seemed to appear out of nowhere this week to call on the Russian president to do just that.
In an open letter published on Telegram on Monday, the mysterious group urged Vladimir Putin to declare a general mobilization and block all military-age men from leaving the country.
“Now is not the time to get cold feet,” the group wrote, urging Putin to be more like Josef Stalin, who “didn’t think about any ratings or dissatisfaction of dissidents” in his quest for “victory.” (See the Quote Investigator for more about sending people to their deaths: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/ )
Video at https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-putin-propagandist-vladimir-solovyov
-urges-russians-to-embrace-death
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Nobody believes that shit.
Get fucked, Daily Beast.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:There is a video and translation to English:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody believes that shit.
Get fucked, Daily Beast.
Quote:https://twitter.com/svtv_news/status/1609912011948785666
“Life is highly overrated. Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we will go to heaven!” — Solovyov. On the air of Russian television, the presenter said that Russians do not need to be afraid of death, because it is part of life.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Russia Has a New Plane Problem
Russia's reported transfer of its strategic bombers thousands of miles away to the Far East after its airfields were attacked could pose problems for Moscow's aging air fleet fighting in Ukraine, British defense officials have said.
Although Kyiv did not directly claim responsibility, it welcomed and was blamed for drone attacks on the Dyagilevo and Engels air bases on December 5. The attacks reportedly killed three Russian soldiers and damaged at least one Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber and possibly a Tupolev Tu-95MS.
The strikes were notable for how far inside Russian territory they reached. Engels air base in the Saratov region is 450 miles from Ukraine, and the Dyagilevo base in Ryazan, around 400 miles from the border.
On December 27, a day after Engels was struck again, Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that Moscow had moved its Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers to Primorsky Krai, over 3,700 miles away from the border with Ukraine. An estimated six Tu-95 aircraft have been moved out of Engels, according to open-source intelligence company Janes.
The British Ministry of Defense said on Thursday that Russia had "highly likely" responded by placing its LRA (long-range aviation) aircraft farther away from Ukraine.
While the aircraft can still fire air-launched cruise missiles into Ukraine because the weapons have a 3,100-mile range, in addition to the bombers' flight range, the U.K. Defense Ministry said that "operating from dispersal locations will add additional maintenance stress."
Their far-flung locations will also "further deplete the limited flying hours available on these aging aircraft," the daily assessment which emphasizes Russian losses and Ukrainian gains said. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
It comes as Ukraine warned of further strikes deep into Russian territory and amid questions over how Russia has used its air force during the invasion. Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's chief military intelligence official, told ABC News that Vladimir Putin should brace for more attacks "deeper and deeper" inside Russia.
"Russia clearly has an issue with its air force as it hasn't used what would be a small percentage of its on-paper capability to support the Ukrainian war," Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence officer told Newsweek.
"They should have gained air superiority at the beginning of their attack into Ukraine and maintained it," he said. "The fact they didn't points to an air force with the same planning and logistic issues as their ground forces" which have been "affected by corrupt supply chains and extremely poor reliability."
"This is probably true not just for tactical platforms but strategic platforms," he added, "Russia is likely running out of serviceable kit."
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-plane-tupolev-ministry-defense
-1771447
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:There is a video and translation to English:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody believes that shit.
Get fucked, Daily Beast.Quote:https://twitter.com/svtv_news/status/1609912011948785666
“Life is highly overrated. Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we will go to heaven!” — Solovyov. On the air of Russian television, the presenter said that Russians do not need to be afraid of death, because it is part of life.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Ukrainian citizen uprising is the war Russia didn’t see coming
BY TOM MOCKAITIS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 01/05/23 12:30 PM ET
As Ukrainian forces advanced to liberate Kherson, resistance fighters carried out attacks and provided reconnaissance for the liberators. One group posted photos of Russian soldiers on its Telegram channel with the tagline “we’re watching you.” The group also hung a banner that boldly declared, “If the HIMARS [U.S. rockets] can’t reach you, a partisan will.”
Effective though it may be, partisan warfare comes with significant risks. Unable to come to grips with elusive guerrillas, the Russian military will take its frustration out on the local population accused (rightly or wrongly) of aiding the insurgents. Atrocities in Bucha, Mariupol and elsewhere may have been a deliberate strategy to cow civilians into submission.
The Russians are also conducting a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in occupied areas. At least 900,000 Ukrainians have been forcibly relocated, including 200,000 children.
(Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian genocide is proceeding in plain view
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/vladimir-putins-ukr
ainian-genocide-is-proceeding-in-plain-view/ )
The Russian military has a well-deserved reputation for brutality. Putin crushed the Chechen insurgency using extreme violence that included torture and murdering civilians. A United Nations report found that Russians bombed civilians during the Syrian civil war.
Russia has adopted the same tactic in Ukraine. With the frontlines frozen, it has been targeting civilian infrastructure, especially the electrical grid. By denying them heat, electricity and water, Putin hopes to break the will of the Ukrainian people and compel them to sue for peace.
The tactic is not working. Ukrainian morale is high and will remain so if the West continues to supply the country with weapons. Popular resistance to occupation will continue.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3800333-ukrainian-citizen-up
rising-is-the-war-russia-didnt-see-coming/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:There is a video and translation to English:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody believes that shit.
Get fucked, Daily Beast.Quote:https://twitter.com/svtv_news/status/1609912011948785666
“Life is highly overrated. Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we will go to heaven!” — Solovyov. On the air of Russian television, the presenter said that Russians do not need to be afraid of death, because it is part of life.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
Moving on. Looks like you conceded that argument too.
Anything else stupid you want to say today that I can demolish? My afternoon is free.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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