No update today or tomorrow :deeper-sadness:
Courtesy of @TacoGyrosKebabShwama, I have added some Russian and Ukrainian telegram channels to the Links and Stuff, to scratch the itch of propaganda from the Russian people, rather than propaganda from overpaid media ghouls in the west. Note that while they sometimes have good anti-imperialist and anti-West takes, they are also typically socially reactionary in regards to LGBT, and also can show combat footage, so, CW.
Links and Stuff
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ ASB Military News, banned from Twitter.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster - crowd-funded U.S journalist, mostly pro-Russian, works on the ground near warzones to report news and talk to locals.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
With the entire western media sphere being overwhelming pro-Ukraine already, you shouldn't really need more, but:
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Yesterday's discussion post.
https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/v1nqb8/russian_army_on_brink_of_collapse_as_putin_loses/ supplemental cope
Considering the Russian Army has been deserting en masse since the invasion started (per :reddit-logo: ), there shouldn't be anything left to collapse
Reminiscent of those "China collapsing any day now" articles that have been getting put out since the early-mid 2000's
They actually all keep trying to desert at once and accidently taking territory as the Ukrainians flee the oncoming stampede of Russian conscripts.
The Russian conscripts share 1 gun between 20 soldiers and keep calling their parents crying that they're committing war crimes that are extremely conveniently intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence, but when they try to desert, they all try and go through the same door at the same time and they get stuck and so they can't leave Ukraine.
Not "deserting"... "desserting".
They all stopped for icecream cones before heading out to the front.
Anyone know a good take on why they raised the age? My uninformed view is that there are economic reasons behind it, with the ruble booming this seems like a straightforward way to get older people to get an extra or just better income to stimulate the economy instead of relying on the oligarchs to be "job creators" in time of crisis.
This is not relevant with regards to the actual war though since they have what over 1 million in reserve still and they are not even fully mobilized(something :reddit-logo: conveniently forgets).
It’s basically a social safety net in the form of a military job guarantee, or at least creating a lot of new jobs via directed state spending. This came at the same time that Putin raised pensions 10% and can be seen as a similar policy - a material handout to the loyal older Russian population to offset any hardship from sanctions.
If an older person lost their job due to sanctions they can still, worst case scenario, sign up for a logistical military job instead of homelessness and unemployment
hmm... To add to what Z_Poster365... Older people could work in the administrative/personnel areas of the military, freeing up younger more able bodied people for duties closer to the front lines during the war and, later, during the occupation after major military operations cease.
There’s no shortage of fresh younger personnel. I believe Russia’s reserves number in the millions and only a fraction of their active forces are even in Ukraine currently.
While this policy does have a useful side-effect for Russia of bolstering their military further, I don’t think that’s the intent behind it. If Russia was hurting for manpower they could do a general mobilization and start sending conscripts
Not so much as hurting (or needing) for troops now but more like preparing for the future.
NATO isn't going to go away any time soon. And the eastern regions of Ukraine that are going to try to be autonomous areas are likely to see some terrorist attacks ramp up after the hot war part ends. At some point those regions might ask Russia for "lethal aid" of one kind or another. Best to get things rolling now instead of trying to mirror the US trying to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan with a few hundred thousand troops.
I remember that Russia used the military as a way to occupy young unemployed men and not have them roam the streets in the 90ies. Modern military now days is as much about watching radar screens and repairing equipment as it is about marching and sitting in trenches. Age is much less of an issue and you want to be able to recruit experienced engineers and technicians.
I think the Russian version is that they wanted to induct civilian specialists like doctors or technicians who would otherwise be ineligible to join. The way they phrased it wasn't that they were recruiting old people to fight, but rather they were expanding the pool of experts that they could draw on. I suppose if you've been an airplane or helicopter mechanic, but you're 50, you can still do your job, but under the existing scheme you wouldn't have been eligible to join the military.
I'd say it suggests that Russia is taking significant losses and needs to make the best use of it's available manpower, but it doesn't sound like a desperation move to keep up troop numbers.
Perhaps its just because they wanted experienced retirees to come back and train people?
Fuck me. that's cringe. Its way to early in the morning to walk in on that. Its like a circle jerk but their just pulling lies out of their ass.
How do they get to that point? Like they must know what they are saying is a lie that they made up but then they don't realize the other people are all lying? What do they gain by sharing lies with eachother?
"The walls are closing in on Donald Trump"