Ukraine is game to you? Part deux.
- Thread starter Made in Hurry
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It's incredible how we all pretend Russia isn't actively at war with the West.
View: https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lxwbckks5s26
View: https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lxwbckks5s26
Once removed from the undesirables the organs themselves become very desirable...
I'll pitch in on the bidding for Putin's heart or liver if it can be delivered inside of a week. I don't even care if it's in a cooler.
I know this is lowbrow humor, but I ran across this on a Ukrainian news service (NEXTA). The caption is:
"The savior's TV channel is broken. Oops, or should that be the case? The sign on the building of the Orthodox TV channel 'Spas' has broken, and now the name glows not at all as intended. A new slogan?"
New Orthodox TV slogan?
I'm claiming relevance due to the fact that the Ukrainians felt it important enough to ban the Orthodox church in Ukraine as it was a front for Russian influence operations. As such, it seems it is not only fair game for ridicule, but effective propaganda. Humor in time of war at the enemy's expense for a weary population.
My knowledge of the Ukrainian alphabet extends only far enough to read YouTube video titles (which feels like an indictment of me), but I think that sign would read something like
"The savior's TV channel is broken. Oops, or should that be the case? The sign on the building of the Orthodox TV channel 'Spas' has broken, and now the name glows not at all as intended. A new slogan?"
New Orthodox TV slogan?
I'm claiming relevance due to the fact that the Ukrainians felt it important enough to ban the Orthodox church in Ukraine as it was a front for Russian influence operations. As such, it seems it is not only fair game for ridicule, but effective propaganda. Humor in time of war at the enemy's expense for a weary population.
My knowledge of the Ukrainian alphabet extends only far enough to read YouTube video titles (which feels like an indictment of me), but I think that sign would read something like
'Anal Snack?'
Not even incurable, just take away their immunosuppressants and let the transported organs fail on their own.
They have been conducting psy ops on us through social media for years now, it is causing real damage. We should have cut the fuckers off of the internet a decade ago.
Since the BlueSky post doesn't have the link to the original post (I really hope the Ukraine OSINTers get that habit under control, because it is one way that misinformation spreads very easily), here's the PDF:
https://www.iiss.org/globalassets/m...-the-scale-of-russian-sabotage-operations.pdf
For people who haven't read it yet, it's a good summary of all the bullshit that has Russian fingerprints all over it. Provides a lot of context to that particular infographic.
Like, for example, Gotland AGAIN having mysteriously lost all power. Though to be fair, that particular bit happens pretty often and at least the last two incidents were traced to lightning and a technical fault. But for anyone who reads Swedish, this may be good to confirm. Because for God's sake Google, Xitter is NOT an authoritative source on ANYTHING. Stop linking your AI summaries to it.
just eyeballing the map (I'm not going to count them) it looks like >50% of the incidents are "realistically possible" or "likely" incidents of "Spying by uninhabited aerial vehicles" or "Vandalism"
EDIT - There's also two (that I see) markers for "Weaponized Immigration".
EDIT - There's also two (that I see) markers for "Weaponized Immigration".
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The things is that, in the security industry, at least with regard to cyber warfare, it is pretty common knowledge that Russia has been attacking America and Europe since at least 2008. We've been talking about the bears for a long time now.
Yeah this is what irritates me. I'm in cyber and I've been fighting these obvious Russian sabotage campaigns for two decades. It's beyond infuriating that these open attacks were just fucking ignored for so long. And now here we are.
Gotland lost power for about an hour a few days ago due to lightning strikes. While the poor state of transmission capacity to Gotland, and within Sweden in general, can certainly be a security issue itself, I'm not sure we can blame either thunder storms or shitty regulation of the power grid market on Russia...
That's not what the article or the map are about. It describes a mostly "gig-economy" style approach (paying locals to do stuff), mostly but not entirely focused on monitoring and disrupting flow of military aid to Ukraine (e.g. paying local patsies to place cameras along rail lines used to transport AFVs). It covers 2018-2025 with a handful of incidents from 2018-2021 then kicking off in 2022 with the invasion and really ramping up in 2024:
More recently, Russian sabotage operations in Europe have increased their range of targets and severity of attacks. The number of attacks almost quadrupled from 2023 to 2024 (see Figure 1). IISS data shows that the most frequent ECI targets are facilities linked to the war in Ukraine and government facilities.7 Russia targets bases, production facilities and those facilities involved in transporting military aid to Ukraine.
Also spends some time preaching about the generally fragile and neglected state of infrastructure in Europe, and lack of a united response. Sources for the individual incidents are OSINT.
EDIT - 'mostly' gig economy
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Source: Obozrevatel.ua (Ukrainian news outlet)
It seems that the American president is concerned about a Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zartsuka, who was murdered in Charlotte, NC, by "a crazed monster who was free to roam after 144 arrests" This is indeed a tragedy. Why not show similar concern and support for those in Ukraine?
It seems that the American president is concerned about a Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zartsuka, who was murdered in Charlotte, NC, by "a crazed monster who was free to roam after 144 arrests" This is indeed a tragedy. Why not show similar concern and support for those in Ukraine?
Poland has reportedly shot down Russian drones that crossed into Polish airspace. About time.
https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...ace-during-russian-attack-ukraine-2025-09-09/
https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...ace-during-russian-attack-ukraine-2025-09-09/
I realize why it’s not so easy, but I wish the EU countries would adopt the same approach to Russia that Türkiye used when it shot down Russian fighters provoking them by strafing into their airspace.
Russia is an expert at trolling, and things that should be considered acts of aggression, such as cyberattacks, but which they have just enough deniability for, that they can whine about “Russophobia” when they’re accused.
They only do this because they know EU won’t react in a meaningful way.
Instead, we should adopt the approach of Malone in the Untouchables. Swift retribution - they hack a power station, we destroy one of theirs. They violate airspace, despite fair warning? We destroy the plane. And so on.
It’s all the Putin admin understands. Strength.
Russia is an expert at trolling, and things that should be considered acts of aggression, such as cyberattacks, but which they have just enough deniability for, that they can whine about “Russophobia” when they’re accused.
They only do this because they know EU won’t react in a meaningful way.
Instead, we should adopt the approach of Malone in the Untouchables. Swift retribution - they hack a power station, we destroy one of theirs. They violate airspace, despite fair warning? We destroy the plane. And so on.
It’s all the Putin admin understands. Strength.
Source: Sternenko
Trump, leaving the restaurant, ignored journalists' questions about the Russian attack on the U.S. NATO ally.
Trump, leaving the restaurant, ignored journalists' questions about the Russian attack on the U.S. NATO ally.
Poland needs to react very strongly otherwise Russia will keep escalating. The hybrid war is ongoing for years. In May 2024 huge shopping center was completely burnt down in Warsaw by Russian agents. There are migrants being flown to Belarus and later sent to our and Baltic states borders (very controversial issue). Strange "objects" fly to Poland and crash from time to time. Now this.
For broader context there are military drills in Belarus. Border with Belarus will be closed since Friday IIRC.
The attacks will continue and at some point Russia will say. OK we will stop sending migrants or attacking you with drones or something like that if you stop sending weapons to Ukraine or stop sanctions. This is why Poland and NATO reaction must be very, very strong. Otherwise we will reach the point where Russia will openly ask for concessions.
As for tonight's attacks. My colleague from work has family near Zamość. It's South-East Poland not far away from Lviv. There is radar installation nearby built in 2011. It could have been a target. For them it felt like a war. There were a lot planes, helicopters in the air, even windows were shaking. I hope this isn't new normal. Not that long time ago war near our border felt unreal, now we got used to it. What's next?
For broader context there are military drills in Belarus. Border with Belarus will be closed since Friday IIRC.
The attacks will continue and at some point Russia will say. OK we will stop sending migrants or attacking you with drones or something like that if you stop sending weapons to Ukraine or stop sanctions. This is why Poland and NATO reaction must be very, very strong. Otherwise we will reach the point where Russia will openly ask for concessions.
As for tonight's attacks. My colleague from work has family near Zamość. It's South-East Poland not far away from Lviv. There is radar installation nearby built in 2011. It could have been a target. For them it felt like a war. There were a lot planes, helicopters in the air, even windows were shaking. I hope this isn't new normal. Not that long time ago war near our border felt unreal, now we got used to it. What's next?
This. It's clearly a deliberate attempt by Putin to normalize attacks on EU countries. The creeping gradualism will continue until the bully gets punched in the nose. Fortunately, this attack was significant enough to justify an actual response. Hopefully the Poles will take advantage of the opportunity.
Zapad joint Belarus/Russia military exercise is happening or about to happen next door, and Gerbera drones can carry SIM cards to transmit intelligence in real-time. If they find any Polish SIM cards in the wreckage, that'll prove premeditation. But I'm sure Russia is testing NATO's defences.
NATO deployed an F-35 serving as AEW&C, a tanker (Dutch?) to refuel it, and I hope also other assets that weren't squawking.
Edit to add:hearsay claims 19 23 drones crossed into Poland. Even for a 600+ 400+ salvo, that's hardly an accident.
NATO deployed an F-35 serving as AEW&C, a tanker (Dutch?) to refuel it, and I hope also other assets that weren't squawking.
Edit to add:
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I sincerely hope that this will finally get EU nations unstick their thumbs from their arses and to finally actively patrol western Ukraine with airforce assets and to proactively shoot anything down that doesn't belong there.
This. It seems like the safest way to hurt Russian war plans. Make Russian provocation have a cost that Russia must pay. Patrol Ukrainian skies to block missile/drone attacks. And give the NATO pilots some training for conflicts to come. Win-win.
There may be contingency plans for this, but I imagine the complexities of coordinating with multiple air defense systems to prevent friendly fire are substantial.
It would probably mean grounding MIG-29s and SU-25s, only stuff with Link-16 and NATO FoF can fly
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Yeah, that is problematic.
Not sure how much of the Ukrainian AF that is at this point, but probably most of it. It doesn't seem likely that it is possible to segment the airspace either, as I imagine the Ukrainian planes are as far West as possible to avoid being wiped out in Russian strikes.
Zero Chill
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I have to agree that the current situation wherein every western decision is put against the potential threat of escalation whereas Russia just does whatever the fuck it wants, wherever it wants, whenever it wants and basically dares the west to meaningfully respond (which it almost never does) is inherently untenable.
It's high past time we gave the Russians a damn good fucking reason to worry about escalation.
It's high past time we gave the Russians a damn good fucking reason to worry about escalation.
Honestly, fuck this shit. It is now kinetic time. Russia sent more than 20 drones whith active routing within Poland (no ewar deviations) and these drones had polish SIM cards. It is time to strike Shahed launchers in Russia and to impose an embargo and total RF blackout on Kaliningrad.
Zero Chill
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Besides my default stance of giving the Ukrainians literally every single thing they ask for from US stockpiles, I would argue for an immediate no-fly zone within 100 km of Ukrainian and all NATO countries' airspace. You come close to a border, we shoot you down. You light up our air units on radar, we take out the radar. Period.
I thought this deserved to be posted here from the front page unofficial thread:
It's not just about preparing them to fight, it's also about indoctrinating them into Putin's service, and stripping them of Ukrainian identity.
And because it's Russia, abuse is mandatory.
The tanker is quite likely to be registered Dutch, but they're operating under NATOs Multinational Multi Role Tanker Transport Unit. The aircraft (12 total in future iirc) are jointly owned by 6 different countries (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourgh, Norway, Czechia). NATO is supporting the ongoing air security missions in the region by basically operating all their tanker training flights over there. It's good practice for the pilots and operators and everybody still gets to operate "their" hours on the aircraft.
The same A330 MRTT aircraft are also operated by the UK, France and Spain and I've seen those visiting the main base for the MMRTTU at Eindhoven Airport too. Germany has some slightly smaller A310 MRTTs too.
From Putin's perspective, this might be the best time to start a fight with NATO. EU countries are in the process of rearming, but they don't have their new weapons yet. America won't back them up. This gap between the dropping of the US shield and preparation to stand alone is his best chance. Chaos in France also helps, as they have the nukes.
A dangerous moment.
A dangerous moment.
von der Leyen has come up with a new way to not confiscate Russia's frozen assets. Some (unclear how much) of the money will be loaned to Ukraine (presumably interest free), with the terms that Ukraine only have to pay back the loan once Russia ponies up war reparations to Ukraine (i.e., never).
https://kyivindependent.com/von-der-leyen-floats-new-ukraine-loan-funded-by-russian-assets/
https://kyivindependent.com/von-der-leyen-floats-new-ukraine-loan-funded-by-russian-assets/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80gvz3l7n2o
You know what else would help? Sending Ukraine the military resources they need to push the Russian's out of their country, instead of doing the whole "on again, off again" relationship with Putin, and all the "if Putin doesn't cooperate, bad things* will happen" talk (*bad things being waiting a few weeks, then repeating the threat).
Biden slow-walked the military support for Ukraine, with the arbitrary restrictions that they could only use American-provided long-range weapons on Ukrainian territory instead of letting them hit Russian military targets. If Trump wants to fix this, give Ukraine weapons and intel to let them better cripple the Russian MIC, that would have worked a whole lot better at doing the whole "I will end the war in a day" nonsense...
Russia has nothing with which to attack. They are all in Ukraine. Some air force is left and their rusted naval hulls. Now is the time escalate on EU side because Russia has nothing and their economy is on the verge of collapse.
Attack with what?
If Russia didn’t have nuclear weapons, this would be the perfect time for Europe to attack Russia and depose Putin. All he has is nuclear blackmail.
Let's go Finland! Some incursions into their airspace, spook them, make them send more resources to the endless border far away from Ukraine.
But yes, not sure what game Putin is playing here. Create political divisions in EU countries? He isn't a total idiot, I don't think.
I saw someone mentioning it on BlueSky but I couldn't find a source.
https://united24media.com/latest-ne...era-drones-really-looking-for-in-poland-11535
The Defence Express article says, though:
https://en.defence-ua.com/news/krem...russian_uavs_with_polish_sim_cards-15775.html
But yeah, Russia is always thinking about war, and they've remembered to get prepared properly after the mad rush to Kyiv got them smacked hard. Russia learning from its mistakes has been a constant in this war, while NATO has been learning from Ukraine but it's not the same as learning from mistakes. Moreover, I hope our militaries are working on resilience and reconstitution, because I fear we may have a glass jaw and if our initial forces get their asses handed to them due to lack of experience, we may not have a second wave ready to go and apply the new knowledge. And the pressure to surrender will be immense.
To quote Colin Powell in regards to the Invasion of Iraq: You break it, you buy it.
It's easy to be sitting behind a keyboard and suggesting regime change, but another to actually be doing it. It has a number of high risks. One of them is rallying indifferent members of a population in support of the leadership against the invaders. Whoever would succeed Putin would have a major benefit when stepping in—an energized populace, and valid excuse to rearm.
Invasions and occupations are a major endeavor. How well did Iraq and Afghanistan go for the US, and so far, Ukraine for Russia?