some of the videos ive seen are really heavy so trigger warning

  • happybadger [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    This might be the most interesting point in the war since the Wagner mutiny. With the Belgorod attacks Ukraine has been really pushing Russia's red line of no territorial attacks for symbolic victories. Freedom of Russia Legion Nazis take a photo of themselves holding a flag in some border village, lose all of their vehicles, and die in a ditch for nothing except propaganda value and the hope of drawing NATO further into the war. If this mass shooting results in any connection to Ukraine, I think Kiev and civilian infrastructure is going to come under much heavier assault in response.

    • SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 months ago

      this mass shooting results in any connection to Ukraine

      It very much likely is, how many mass shootings occur in Russia ever? This is the result of the West funding neo-nazis.

      • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        3 months ago

        We get some, occasionally. Had several school shootings and stabbings. But I doubt this one is one of those

      • happybadger [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        Russia has had some pretty notable school and barracks shootings and there are other separatist factions with varying levels of connection to the west. It's that degree of separation which makes the response ambiguous. Russia has done things more or less tit-for-tat and if they have a disproportionate response then it will have disproportionate consequences for them. I'm just curious to see which group is held responsible and how closely they're tied to the west because this is going to fuck up someone's day.

      • itappearsthat [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        Could be a Central Asian separatist group although those have definitely been less of a thing for the past few decades

      • happybadger [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/search?q=Freedom+of+Russia+Legion&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all

        The main subreddit that covers their quixotic adventures. They're Russian citizens under a far-right leader. Before the Russian election they released this masterfully cringey video: https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1bctpmp/ua_pov_the_legion_is_going_to_the_elections_wait/

        After that, they've made a few cross-border assaults on villages to take a photo of themselves holding a flag.

        (CW: death) https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1bdtkm9/ru_pov_ukrainian_saboteurs_attacking_a_border/

        In the big assault, they tried to cross the border checkpoint into Russia. Their tank immediately hit a mine trying to drive straight through it. The infantry then came under artillery fire, retreated to a ditch, and I can't remember whether it was artillery/lancets/drone grenades which were then used to pick them off.

        Since then they've done more raids where they hole up in some village and the Russians shell it. Occasionally they take a prisoner before going back to Ukraine.

      • happybadger [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        I mean it's all horrifying on moral and human levels. There's just also that world historical cool zone level where you're seeing decades happen in weeks. If you're watching a war like this develop as a meaningful geopolitical event, you have to either abstract it into competing systems or be broken by focusing on the personal/moral tragedy of every death. Emergency medicine is also interesting to me because if I only think about it in human terms it's nothing but hopeless trauma and gazing into the abyss.

        • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          3 months ago

          If you’re watching a war like this develop as a meaningful geopolitical event

          Except I'm not watching it like a geopolitical event. I am watching it as a conscription eligible Russian citizen in a city with a whole lot of targetable infrastructure (including my own workplace), and that has already been attacked prior.

    • Greenleaf [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I think Kiev and civilian infrastructure is going to come under much heavier assault in response.

      “Do not do what your opponent wants you to do” - idk Sun Tzu probably.

      Assuming the west/Ukraine are behind this attack… why? Obviously no military value. It’s not going to demoralize the Russian people. The only reasonable conclusion I can come to is they want Russia to respond with a heavy hand and hit Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure hard in response as payback.

      If that’s the case, I think the Biden admin and NATO country leaders are frustrated with the public’s and political opposition to further supporting the war - whether it’s more money or sending NATO troops. Russia continues their slow advance - just slow enough to not trigger alarm. Get the Russians to hit back hard and that could make it a lot easier for NATO to build support for escalation.

      I’m sure it’s not what Russia wants to do, but I think the best strategy is to stick to the plan because I think this attack was done to get them to come off that plan.

  • Aquilae [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Didn't the US just tell Ukraine to stop attacking Russian energy infrastructure in fear of retaliation?

    This will not end well...

    • WeedReference420 [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Presumably they're concerned about other attacks so are evacuating significant public places? I remember all of London got locked down and there were armed cops at every big train station after 7/7. At least I hope that's the case and there's nothing confirmed.

  • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 months ago

    Southfront points to a false flag psyop by the west to hide behind Muslim terrorists.

    The large terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall in Moscow was accompanied by large media campaign. Likely Ukrainian/NATO PSYOP forces shared numerous fake reports aimed to hide the culprits.

    The main goal of the ongoing informational operation is to assure the Russians that the attackers were muslims. For example, the photos of several natives of Ingushetia who are allegedly being searched by the Russian special services. It turned out that the photos showed terrorists liquidated in recent Russian anti-terrorist operations in early March. ..

    The main voice of American propaganda, CNN reported that ‘since November, there has been “fairly specific” information that ISIS in Afghanistan wanted to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia. US intelligence warned Russia about this’.

    Meanwhile, Ukrainians began phone terror. They are using fake numbers to call the 112 hotline number in order to sow panic. Mass fake calls claim alleged shootings and armed attacks in different public places, including shopping centers, schools etc.

    The culprits of the terrorist attack are yet to be identified; but the ongoing coordinated informational operation indicates that someone is trying to hide behind the ‘Muslims’.

  • itappearsthat [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    Wasn't there some joke around here last year regarding Ukrainian terrorist attacks like "I regret to announce that the events of April 14th, 2024 have become inevitable in this timeline" that's some fuckin nostradamus shit if it turns out to be Azov nazis doing this.

  • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    Unfortunately I think we're going to see a lot more of this sort of thing, not just in Russia but all over the world, as America continues to decline. The post-Cold War economic, political, and military dominance of the US is starting to crumble and the US response, as always, is to try and start more wars. But that instinct butts up against the fact that they simply are not capable of fighting even the wars they're currently conducting. Add in the fact that the US has only gotten bolder in it's outright denial of international law, as opposed it's previous side-stepping, and I suspect we're going to see a wholesale return to the kinds of terrorism and barbarism used in the 70s and 80s - a sort of global years of lead.

      • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        You can scoff but ISIS-K absolutely operates in line and accordance with US interests.

        As a splinter group of Al-Qaeda connected groups they went into Syria, where there were plenty of reports of them operating in and moving through US-controlled areas and even operating in what appeared to be pincer movements with US forces. They came back from Syria with more money, weapons, and intelligence and started attacking a laundry list of US enemies:

        • Non-US-friendly pre-coup elements in Pakistan
        • The Taliban goverment and Chinese business and diplomatic delegations to try and disrupt trade deals, including a hotel bombing
        • Iran, including the bombings of the Soleimani rememberance events as the US targeted Iran for support of Palestine and the Houthi blockade
        • And now Russia, just as the US grapples with Ukraine being a lost war and their previous attempts at destablising Russia (economic warfare, sanctions, Nordstream, possibly Prigozhin etc) have failed.

        Then you add in the fact that there's the overlap and collaborations between ISIS-K and TIP/ETIM trying to destablise China with terror and radicalisation, in the name of China's supposed Uyghur 'genocide'. With ETIM being removed from the terror list by the US supposedly because it 'no longer exists', which has been said to either be because those members have been absorbed by TIP/ISIS-K or because ETIM isn't conducting operations but now acts a convienient way for the US to more easily funnel money to TIP/ISIS-K.

        It's also notable that in all of ISIS-K's operations, including in and around US-Israeli controlled Syria, it's never attacked Israel.

        So you have an Al-Qaeda splinter group that served US interests Syria and got hands-off treatment by the US, that suddenly massively grew in scale, money, and ability, that only attacks US enemies and acts almost exclusively in line with American interests. Combined with the US's long, long, long history of funding extremist groups to carry out terror campaigns and proxy wars on their behalf.

        So what's more likely? That this group might serve US interests and that America is doing the exact thing it's done consistantly since at least the 1950s? Or that your incredulous assertion that America could and would not ever do such a thing?