Do the nitwits and failsons at the UKMOD not realize that Russia is not Afghanistan or Somalia? Russia is a developed nation with one of the largest armament industries on the planet. This is literally rehashed, long-debunked Nazi propaganda from WW2 that depicted the Soviets as using pitchforks instead of rifles. Who is actually going to fall for this?
At this point I genuinely cannot tell if they are all failsons who literally fell for their own propaganda or are desperate to convince liberals that everything is OK while their nation falls apart.
Oh, so we can stop sending arms to Ukraine if Russia is down to shovels? Or is there a shovel gap?
this is American Big Shovel trying to get in on that military aid grift
We must noooooooot allow a sand castle gap, mister president!
it's always so short-sighted too
"haha! check it out, the enemy don't have guns!"
a week later
"the enemy takes the city of [blank]"I've heard that the russians send people to the front in pairs, but they only have enough shovels for one soldier at a time, so when your partner dies you pick up his shovel and continue fighting. Truly harrowing stuff :sadness:
Well the field shovel is usually part of the standard issue in the field so technically they are fighting "with" shovels.
The propaganda mill really is just take something normal and sensationalize it into some exception. Like flybys or balloons or ship movements or generic script kiddies / spammers aka "hackers" exist in [NATION WE DON'T LIKE NOW] and all of them are either direct state actors or connected to state actors.
Which justifies more military spending and sanctions.
The US only knows how to drone strike, hot chip and lie
In late February, reservists described being ordered to assault a Ukrainian position "armed with only 'firearms and shovels'", the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.
The article is mostly describing the increase in intense close combat fighting as Ukraine and Russia go to the mat for Bakhmut. It’s still propaganda and it’s definitely taking advantage of the “no one reads past headlines” rule of media consumption, but it doesn’t say Russians are being sent to the front without guns
I am baffled by the "firearms" part of that comment. That's how we do war now.
Yea there’s no reason for the article to exist and it even says something along the lines of “the BBC cannot verify the ministers comments” so it’s literally just a press release from the British brass
Imagine not getting sent to the frontline armed with a chainsaw.
Why even fight?
Russian soldiers stripping off their clothes and uniforms because adding a shovel to their loadout causes them to fat-roll.
That does make the headline as close to an explicit lie as it can get without officially being one, the sole implication of the wording is that they are being sent without guns.
That was the blowy side of a trumpet. Russians are having to resort to the army orchestra, running out of soldiers and all.
I'm actually afraid Nato will be stupid enough to send in the guitar army after this. That might be just the thing that will kick of ww3
I hear the Russian goverments has started to attach explosives to their soldiers testicles (like Nic Cage in the film Prisoners of the Ghostland) that explode when they try to retreat.
So they're saying that despite them having received endless amounts of superior NATO wunderwaffen, a group of people who have never seen toilets or paved roads, armed only with shovels, kicked them out of Bakhmut/Artyemovsk?
I would just pack it in by now and admit defeat.
You would think constantly losing wars despite having the largest military budget in the world would humble the US/NATO a little
they're just gluttons for punishment
losing wars is the only way they can get offthey spend the military budget because it lets them give out big contracts to political donors. They don't care about winning
you reminded me of that tweet by some ghoul who was trying to get people to believe that Russian soldiers had never seen electrified street lights
remember seeing this exact comment on like ncd or sws or some shit
Haven't soldiers basically always carried shovels, like for thousands of years
Next BBC headline: Rain is made of water.
Russian Special Forces use trowels because they are smaller and more deadly whereas the rank and file officers get to carry ceremonial hoes.
Also using 'stock photo' is a great way to bolster your already flaccid story.
Literally just saw this reported as fact on 10 news here in Australia and laughed my ass off
