2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine (Part 1)

That isn’t going to be external exposure either. Those poor kids will have inhaled a lot of contamination as well, probably a lot of it Caesium, which is chemically reactive like sodium, does a beta then gamma decay and definitely is not something you want in your lungs. If they are acutely sick already they are done for…

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That was my take as well. The pulmonary exposure has got to be devastating as far as future cancer risk and life expectancy, but if they are already symptomatic, we are talking palliative care stages.

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Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter attack on oil depot in Russian city

“Ukraine Strikes At Legitimate War Targets”

Fixed it for them.

He should consider making a giant banner that reads “Mission Accomplished” and giving a victory speech in front of it. That’s one surefire way to justify all the useless deaths.

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Also, at Stalingrad the Soviets were defending their country from a rapacious invasion. In Ukraine, they are the invading horde.

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Reports coming in that Ukraine struck at a fuel depot in Russia:

The fact that they apparently succeeded in a cross-border incursion using helicopters without getting shot down doesn’t speak well for Russian anti-aircraft defense. But not really surprising given what we’ve learned about their capabilities in recent weeks.

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Yep - he could certainly take a lesson from that - after all, that’s the way ‘liberal democracy’ goes about it. /s

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I have seen Swedish Air Force planes doing surveillance over the Baltic, but this is the first time that I see one doing it over a NATO country. Times a-changin’…

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Maybe that was the plan all along in sending them to Chernobyl unprotected… :arrow_down_small:

The more dead soldiers, the more reason to fight.

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It’s an odd one - a fuel depot doesn’t seem like a valuable enough target to risk losing two very precious attack helicopters. When Russian tanks run out of fuel, it’s because they don’t get the truck supply lines running properly, not because there’s any shortage of oil products in Russia. So the loss of the depot probably won’t matter much after a few days. It also wouldn’t make much sense as a target in a false flag attack - you’d expect something more sentimental to generate public outrage; in any case, Russian media doesn’t appear to be trying to propagandize this to justify some escalation.

Perhaps Ukraine received some intelligence that Russia had pushed all their air defenses to the front line, leaving some home territory undefended. So this might be a way to teach them a lesson and hopefully get them to pull back some of the gear from where it can hurt Ukrainian air forces.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov the strikes on the fuel depot can’t “be perceived as creating conditions comfortable for the continuation of negotiations,”

Love the implication that the Ukrainians were somehow in any way in the wrong to be attacking targets in Russia. Outraged that their target hit back, typical bully behaviour.

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Plus the implication that ongoing Russian offensives against Ukraine do not create uncomfortable conditions for peace negotiations.

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Fuel supply might be important to the course of the war in the east of Ukraine. The fuel shortages have so far been due to a gap in supplies when relying on road transport to supply the fronts, but in the east, there’s more chance for the Russians to lay down rail supply lines into Donetsk and Lukhansk. plus, if the war is being concentrated there, what supply convoys there are can be concentrated on one job.

Hitting other elements of the supply chain are probably helpful to keep the shortages going, as well as the other issues you mentioned.

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Fun fact - the sunflower is also Kansas’s State Flower. And blue and yellow are prominent colors on the flag.

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Someone got slapped.

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It also has psychological value for Ukrainians. “See, we’re taking the fight to them. We can win this.”

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NOPE, NOPE, NOPE!!!

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How exactly do you think they’re getting fuel to those trucks at the front? Where do you think those truck supply lines are coming from?

The way this works is they ship supplies to these supply depots. Apparently by train. And the truck based logistics chain brings it from there, into Ukrainian territory and on the to the front lines.

The idea seems to be that you can’t move more than 90-120 miles from that supply point, without having to setup another layer of depots. I might be misremembering the exact distance, but it’s practically about as far as combat units can carry enough supplies to to keep themselves going. At the longest, about as far as trucks can make it there and back to re-supply them.

Russia’s failed to setup that second leg of depots, and where they try can’t reliably build up stocks there. That’s why you need airfields deeper in enemy territory, and why it makes sense to take control of little towns on major roads.

The Ukrainians have spent a lot of time avoiding Russia’s combat troops, and basically flanking behind them to attack the supply lines feeding them.

If this went down it’s just a bigger version of that. That fuel depot would be shipping fuel out (and probably other things) in multiple directions, along multiple lines. Taking out the depot strangles the whole chain from there.

Russian just can’t magic gas from Siberia to Ukraine. They’d have ship enough gas to provide a build up, not just to cover immediate needs. And depending on the damage they might need to do it in a different spot. Then they have to rebuilt/restart whatever truck lines were sending that gas out to troops and other bases.

It’s not about how much gas Russia has everywhere. It’s about the way Russia moves gas in and around Ukraine.

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“The doctor’s area of expertise is outlined in his thesis entitled ‘Peculiarities of diagnostics and surgical treatment of elderly and senile patients with thyroid cancer’.“

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Oh My God Omg GIF by ESPN

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