International Politics

[Besticus Maximus]

Graham Linehan is the king of the heads. An epic bonce. Irish though tbf.

[Nintex]

Ukraine has taken a border village in Belgorod

[Nintex]

Chechen special forces commander blames leaders of the Russian MOD deceiving themselves and French and Polish speaking NATO troops for their mounting losses.

[Nintex]

Chechens are moving to the Kursk region.

[Nintex]

[killamajig]

Russians on telegram are moaning about the reinforcements coming have no combat experience and the ones that are veteran units are in the rear recouping and under strength.

All those Russian civilians evacuating not knowing where to go. It's a real shame I tell you. Keep begging Putin for help. I'm sure as soon as he finds out about the Ukrainian invasion everything will be fine.

EDIT: more russin telegram panic
goggle translate

In the Belovsky district of the Kursk region, the entry of a new brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
was recorded Tanks and a bunch of equipment with personnel are coming. They go in different directions!

The brothers are getting ready to meet! Pray for the soldiers of Russia! Don't panic! Do what you have to do and we will cope! 
The Belovsky district in the north-west borders on the Belgorod region.

The Belovsky District the southern most district of Kursk Oblast that borders Ukraine

I know this won't come as any surprise but the chatter from Russians on telegram is that the blame falls on the generals. Calling them thieves and traitors. It's always a good sign when the enemy starts pointing fingers at each other.

[Nintex]

We know from the start of the war that Russia is bad at mobile/guerilla warfare and Ukraine is extremely skilled at it. 
The Russians started to 'win' only when the battle lines were drawn and it became a war of attrition and numbers. 

In fact, this geographical reality is why Russia feels like it "needs" Ukraine as a buffer zone against NATO,  because with various mountains and rivers it can be defended and serves as the "gate" to Russia. Most of the Russian landscape is just wide open with railways and highways connecting the big urban centers and various 'junction points'. Prigozhin quickly found a mostly undefended route to Moscow.  

Ukraine now faces a risky decision, bring in reinforcements and heavy weapons and push forward or dig in and defend their gains.
Much depends on if the US allows Ukraine to use missiles, F16s and other long range and heavy weapons on Russian soil. 
But The White House (Sullivan / Blinken) always fear escalation. 

The bulk of the Russian armies are in Ukraine right now, so either they'll have to pull back reserves (at the risk of losing them in transit) or increase the pressure on Ukraine in other ways so they have to abandon the attack.

Anyway missiles are dropping in urban areas now.

[killamajig]

voluntary evacuation Belovsky District 

Population: 14,659 per wiki

Not a lot but more people clogging roads the military needs, the better


Shit hitting near Kursk? The city of Kursk alone is 415,159

If they have to evacuate? Oh, boy!

[Nintex]

The Z-bloggers are now blaming the Chechens for making a 'secret deal' 

Anyway, difficult to search anything about Kursk on X at the moment. Russia is flooding the hashtag with porn.

[killamajig]

I half expected a drone to hit those three clowns while they were trying to tell everybody the situation is tense but stable.

[killamajig]

45km to the nuclear power plant. 84km to Kursk military air base.

Ukraine uses the Krab (155 mm self-propelled tracked gun) with Excalibur precision ammunition, obtainis a range over 50 km.

I don't know if the US is going to change course with their use of ATACMS in Russia since Ukraine is in Russia now. Obviously they don't want to hit the nuclear power plant but they are getting in range of larger artillery. They still have drones with a lot longer range but I was curious to see what their longest artillery could do.

The other thing I was curious about is that nuclear power plant. I wonder if they'll shut it down if they get too close. It supposedly Powers 90% of Kursk's industry.

[who is ted danson?]

I think Ukraine should start shelling the nuclear power plant

I wonder if it's like attacking the enemies home base in an RTS

Takes forever to destroy it, but wins through game when you do

Zelensky PM me

[killamajig]

Yeah they should hit it like it's a red barrel in a shooter. It will take out all the adjacent Russians.

[Nintex]

Arestovych told his Russian "friends" this is actually the goal before they cut him off. 
The dumb "Hohols" are coming to kick down the door of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and press the big red button so the Russians will never try to attack Ukraine again. 

Marders, Bradleys and tanks have been spotted, trying to encircle or bypass the Russian defenders.
Ukraine is going to keep pushing deeper into Russia in the coming days.

[Nintex]

And because this is Russia, the corrupt authorities flee and leave the people behind to fend for themselves, so according to Russian TV there is a 'gypsy mafia' looting in the region.
It is more likely that the very same people Putin send to 'keep order' are instead looting the place like they did in Ukraine.

"Stores are being looted, there is a collapse in Korenevo, Magnit has just been robbed. No water, no gas, no light. There was no organized evacuation, and if there was any, why haven't we in Lobanovka [Korenevsky district] heard anything about it?" - a local resident wrote.

The situation is similar in other Russian border municipalities. Residents say that representatives of the administration have provoked a collapse in the border areas themselves by leaving people to their fate.

In a rare event, residents of Moscow spotted a helicopter leaving the courtyard of the Kremlin.

[Nintex]

The Russians have set fire to the cooling towers of the nuclear power plant in Ukraine. 
According to locals they're burning car tires.

[killamajig]

Per telegram

Russian occupational authorities says the cooling unit of Zaporizhzhia NPP was damaged. 

Russian occupation troops set something on fire near the unit of Zaporizhzhia power plant

That's the other one south on the Dnieper.

According to unofficial information received from sources on the opposite bank, the Russians set fire to large quantities of car tires in cooling towers.

Perhaps this is a provocation, or an attempt to create panic in the settlements on the right bank of the former reservoir.

Currently, the ZNPP is operating normally, as far as possible under the conditions of occupation.

Please calm down.

[Nintex]

The Moscow times reports that not army boss Gerasimov but the FSB director has been put in charge of the Kursk operation.
Bortnikov has no military experience. 

[Potato]

When propaganda and assassination are your best only weapons...

[killamajig]

google translate
Zelenskiy / Official
✔

Energodar. We record from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Currently, radiation indicators are normal. But as long as Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear power plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal. From the first day of the seizure of the Zaporizhzhya NPP, Russia has been using it purely to blackmail Ukraine, the whole of Europe and the world.

We are waiting for the reaction of the world, we are waiting for the reaction of the IAEA. Russia must be held accountable for this. Only Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhya station can guarantee a return to normalcy and complete safety.
t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official

588.2Kviews

[killamajig]

The Russians have set fire to the cooling towers of the nuclear power plant in Ukraine. 
According to locals they're burning car tires.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/russia-has-begun-a-full-scale-invasion-in-ukraine-read-staff-posts.556366/post-127045158

Pomerlaw

This looks fake as shit

[killamajig]

Russian channels report that Ukrainian attack drones are currently operating around Moscow

Ukraine  vs. Russia  

[Nintex]

Sounds like they picked Kursk for a reason. Zelensky calls the Kursk operation Putin's "finale".
"24 years ago, the Kursk disaster symbolized the beginning of Putin's regime. Now, we are witnessing its end, also marked by Kursk."

[killamajig]

Zelenskiy / Official
It is important that Ukrainians and Americans are truly winners in our defense of normal life and people's freedom.

Today I met with a delegation of the US Senate. We discussed what exactly is needed to end this war fairly, in particular our need to use long-range weapons.

Thank you to America for supporting our defense!

Fingers crossed. 

U.S. really needs to stop with the restrictions.

[killamajig]

Here are some veteran brigades pulled off the frontlines to stop the Ukrainian advance...

(Hulyaipole,Zaporizhia area) Southern front. 

38th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade

64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade 

(Avdiivka/Donetsk) offensive

810th Naval Infantry Brigade 

All three going north from Belgorod

[Nintex]

The southern front is quite a distance, bodes well for Ukraine that Russia has to pull back troops hundreds of miles away and can't just count on units from bordering regions.

Also interesting to see that similiar to Prigozhins drive to Moscow the local Russian population does not 'resist' the invaders at all (some are even joining the Ukrainians). 
When Russia entered Ukraine there were mass protests in the cities.

From what I'm reading the citizens feel that the Putin regime only cares about St. Petersburg and Moscow, so they won't lift a finger to stop the enemy on their own.

[Nintex]

Ukrainians are already in Lgov?

According to Google Maps that's like a 40 minute drive to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant

[killamajig]

Yep pretty far north. Lol

Maybe their orders were to drive North until they've made enemy contact. Then they realize they're past the E38. 

[benji]

Graunaid publishing a lot of articles demanding British imperialism and restricting the rights of people globally:

I worked at Twitter for most of Trump’s presidential term, serving as the most senior executive outside the US.

...

It’s hard to convince people now who didn’t use the product during happier days, through events such as the London 2012 Olympics or early X Factor, but Twitter used to be joyously good fun to use. A laissez-faire approach to abuse sadly allowed much of the carefree humour to be scared off.

...

The question we are presented with is whether we’re willing to allow a billionaire oligarch to camp off the UK coastline and take potshots at our society.
The idea that a boycott – whether by high-profile users or advertisers – should be our only sanction is clearly not meaningful. Other countries have banned the app, but we probably don’t want to find ourselves in a WhatsApp group with Russia, Turkey and Venezuela, the other countries on that side of the argument.

In the short term, Musk and fellow executives should be reminded of their criminal liability for their actions under existing laws. Britain’s Online Safety Act 2023 should be beefed up with immediate effect. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his team should reflect if Ofcom – the media regulator that seems to be continuously challenged by the output and behaviour of outfits such as GB News – is fit to deal with the blurringly fast actions of the likes of Musk.

What else should change? Social media should have norms and standards that are publicly accountable. Users should have the right to have their grievances reviewed and acted on by a real person within a week, and escalated to an ombudsman if they don’t like the resolution. Ofcom should have the right to demand certain voices, like Tommy Robinson’s, are deplatformed. Anyone who doubts the practicality of this should take a look at social media in Germany, where platforms are significantly more accountable. In Germany, illegal Nazi content is routinely removed within minutes of it being reported. Liability extends to local leaders and it is incredibly mobilising.

In my experience, that threat of personal sanction is much more effective on executives than the risk of corporate fines. Were Musk to continue stirring up unrest, an arrest warrant for him might produce fireworks from his fingertips, but as an international jet-setter it would have the effect of focusing his mind. It’s also worth remembering that the rules of what is permitted on X are created by one of Musk’s lesser known advisers, a Yorkshire man called Nick Pickles, who leads X’s global affairs team.

What’s the answer to this problem? Ideally, all politicians, journalists and influencers would defect en masse from X and use somewhere else as the global exchange for instant news and opinion. So far that’s presented a collective action problem: even governments who loathe X don’t want to leave while it remains a central forum.

It’s clear that schools should be teaching information hygiene, so children learn to avoid fake news the way they would avoid poisonous food. Clear, too, that we need online safety legislation with teeth and if, as Sadiq Khan has suggested, that means toughening up laws so new they are yet to be fully implemented, so be it. I like the idea of fines for social-media companies that don’t honour their own declared standards, though many are so rich they won’t feel it: better to fine the directors of those companies, hitting them in their own pockets. And, as Lies That Kill, a timely new book by Elaine Kamarck and Darrell West argues, given that this is a global problem, it will require a global solution: which “means that countries need to negotiate with each other on ways to cooperate in the fight against disinformation”. If 2025 sees Starmer sit down with a President Kamala Harris, this should be one of the first items on the agenda.

For now, though, there needs to be clarity on the nature of the problem. Lies can indeed kill and, though there are of course many others, one of the world’s most prolific enemies of truth is Elon Musk. He is surely the global far right’s most significant figure, and he holds the world’s largest megaphone. As he may put it, a battle to defeat him is now inevitable – and it has to be won.

[killamajig]

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-243-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) today visited the plant’s cooling towers to observe the impact of yesterday’s fire.

Whilst visiting the impacted cooling tower, the team observed burnt areas in the internal equipment higher up, near the water nozzle distribution level. They also observed droplets of burnt plastic and fragments of fallen concrete distributed across the cold-water basin. The team assessed that these droplets were consistent with melted and fallen plastic mesh from the fire. Samples of the debris, including burnt and molten plastic, were collected. The lingering odour from the fire was assessed by the team and determined that in the absence of a sulphur smell, was more likely caused from burning plastic.

Neither tyre nor drone remains were observed during the walkdown.

The nuclear safety of the plant was not affected, as the cooling towers are not currently in operation.