Ukraine: The Aristoblyats

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > Ukraine: The Aristoblyats

Loezi: Dec 18, 2012; Never buy the cheap stuff

Duzzy Funlop posted:

Counterpoint: Can also get shot from the next county over

Better make the first shot count, not gonna get a second off before the whole thing flips over with the new center of gravity.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:17

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 01:28

A.o.D.: Jan 15, 2006

That looks like a WWII anti aircraft turret.

Is that what it is?

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:23

Wickerman: Feb 26, 2007; Boom, mothafucka!

As far as Ukraine and Bakhmut, I think we've seen (prior to GBS events) posts ITT that have discussed how it's a rallying cry and morale issue for Ukrainian troops. That said, Ukraine has shown that they are willing to consider NATO recommendations regarding conflict decisions in the past (ie deferring some initiatives shown in war games to have higher likelihoods of failure in favor of initiatives with better probabilities of success.)

The entry of elite units could be to facilitate safer withdrawal, or to bide time to improve the next line of defense or to accommodate logistics. I hope...

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:23

armpit_enjoyer: Jan 25, 2023; my god. it's full of posts

https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1631703725399056384?s=19

Lavrov is in India but not even they are buying his bullshit, it seems

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:41

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

Check it out

https://twitter.com/PaulJawin/status/1632040908748210182

e: found an interesting thread on tank production in RU

https://twitter.com/TheIDGuyy/status/1631760852448694272

Power Khan fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Mar 4, 2023

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:47

Icon Of Sin: Dec 26, 2008

Power Khan posted:

Check it out

https://twitter.com/PaulJawin/status/1632040908748210182

What�s the box-thing at the end of the barrel? I googled pics and didn�t see that come up.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:49

Jonny Nox: Apr 26, 2008

Icon Of Sin posted:

What�s the box-thing at the end of the barrel? I googled pics and didn�t see that come up.

flash suppressor probably

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:50

spankmeister: Jun 15, 2008

Icon Of Sin posted:

What�s the box-thing at the end of the barrel? I googled pics and didn�t see that come up.

Compensator. It redirects some of the gases backwards to reduce recoil.

e: or actually a muzzle brake. Brakes are for horizontal movement (recoil) and compensators for vertical (muzzle flip)

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:51

Midjack: Dec 24, 2007

armpit_enjoyer posted:

https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1631703725399056384?s=19

Lavrov is in India but not even they are buying his bullshit, it seems

More to the point they're buying his oil.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:51

Jonny Nox: Apr 26, 2008

spankmeister posted:

Compensator. It redirects some of the gases backwards to reduce recoil.

right. that's what I meant.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:53

madeintaipei: Jul 13, 2012

Icon Of Sin posted:

What’s the box-thing at the end of the barrel? I googled pics and didn’t see that come up.

Muzzle brake. It redirects gases leaving the muzzle to the sides and slighly back, mitigating recoil and keeping the flash from blinding the gunner or revealing their position (as much).

# ? Mar 4, 2023 18:54

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1632066709342363648

The level of destruction in the east is pretty terrible

# ? Mar 4, 2023 19:02

kemikalkadet: Sep 16, 2012

MonkeyLibFront posted:

Are there any decent podcasts that cover the conflict at a fairly high level? I drive from base to home for roughly 4/5 hours every Friday and Sunday and would like to get a nuanced view of what's happening, I don't really have time during the week when I'm instructing to get a good view on events.

Maybe not exactly what you�re after but Perun on YouTube does very detailed deep dives on specific topics around the war. It�s more high level stuff than day to day happenings but they�re always great. I think he�s some kind of defence analyst from New Zealand that makes them in his spare time.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 19:19

boofhead: Feb 18, 2021

kemikalkadet posted:

Maybe not exactly what you�re after but Perun on YouTube does very detailed deep dives on specific topics around the war. It�s more high level stuff than day to day happenings but they�re always great. I think he�s some kind of defence analyst from New Zealand that makes them in his spare time.

Aussie not kiwi, but the channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU/videos

# ? Mar 4, 2023 19:28

Set: Oct 30, 2005

We have seen again and again, that when Ukrainian forces liberate Russian occupied territories that the civilian populace in these places has been terrorized and worse. There has been a lot of discussion whether these actions by Russian forces have been deliberate genocidal actions or demoralized troops randomly taking out their frustrations on innocent civilians. While the latter does happen (I translated an interview with volunteer grave diggers in Bucha that describes living through that specific type of hell:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=1&threadid=4016636&pagenumber=398&perpage=40#post529792726), it is now clear that torture dungeons and straight up murder of civilians who may pose a threat to the Russian government is both planned and organized. The Guardian release a shorter article that Yle continued and interviewed experts for, about this horrifying topic.
For me, this is what everyone who wishes for a Russian victory (no matter the reason) actually stands for. A totally terrorized population and a culture ground to dust.

I am not sure if this is the correct thread for this, but I've always attempted to focus more on the humanitarian aspects of this horrifying war as I think others have already the military aspects more than well covered. I also found this article to be an interesting look into how the Russian government does systematic persecution of civilians in the territories it has occupied. As a warning, the Yle link has uncensored news footage from Bucha, and some photos that may be upsetting, so don't click if you don't want to see that. The Guardian article has some really unpleasant descriptions in text form as well, that you may want to skip.

Author: Teemu Juhola
Release date: 04.03.23
Link to untranslated article: https://yle.fi/a/74-20020821
Link to Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/02/kherson-torture-centres-were-planned-by-russian-state-say-lawyers

quote:

New features of Russian atrocities against civilians were revealed in Ukraine - professor: "What makes it so brutal here is the systematic approach"

Researchers have revealed that Russian guards inflicted unimaginable brutality on civilians in the Kherson torture centers.

Electric shocks to the genitals, water torture and other brutal violence have been revealed in the investigation of the torture centers found in Kherson.

A team of researchers consisting of Ukrainian and international lawyers has been able to find out by interviewing the victims what kind of atrocities the Russian guards did to civilians in Kherson, located in southern Ukraine. 20 torture chambers were found in the city, which were maintained by the Russian administration during the occupation of the city.

Based on evidence gathered by a group called Mobile Justice, the torture centers were not randomly established, but planned and financed by the Russian state. The Russian security service, FSB, and the prison authorities were responsible for the operation of the centers.

The British newspaper The Guardian writes about the legal team's research results (check the link to the Guardian article earlier in this post).

Kherson has been added to a grim list

Professor Judith Pallot from the Alexander Institute of the University of Helsinki, who studies Russian penal institutions, says she is horrified, but not surprised by the brutalities revealed in Kherson.

- My first reaction to the news was that this is not surprising at all. Soon after the annexation of Crimea and the eastern parts of Ukraine, we started receiving reports about FSB-run prisons and other places where prisoners were tortured, Pallot tells Yle in a phone interview.

In the past, Russian soldiers' brutality against Ukrainian civilians has been revealed, for example, near the capital Kyiv in Bucha and Irpin, as well as in Izjum in eastern Ukraine.

- Now Kherson can be added to the same list of places where people have been tortured and deadly human rights crimes have been committed against prisoners, Pallot states.

According to the group of researchers, people with connections to the Ukrainian state and civil society were imprisoned in the Kherson torture centers. Those imprisoned included office holders, civic activists, journalists and teachers.

The researchers interviewed more than a thousand people in Kherson. The stories painted a picture of brutal violence. The guards tortured the prisoners with, among other things, electric shocks and water torture.

According to Pallot, the forms of torture used have been developed over the years in Russian prisons.

- There have been reports of similar torture in Russian prisons over the past two decades.

- One example is the use of telephones in electric torture. It doesn't leave much of a mark on the person being tortured. Hooded prisoners are also beaten with rubber bands through the back of their chairs. In Russia, it is important that torture leaves as few traces as possible on the victim.

According to researchers, the goal of the torture in Kherson was to terrorize and subjugate Ukrainians and to eliminate resistance and destroy Ukrainian identity.

Consistent persecution of civilians

Criminal law professor Kimmo Nuotio from the University of Helsinki considers the revelation of torture centers to be a significant matter.

- This paints a picture of the conscious persecution of the civilian population, Nuotio states in a telephone interview.

He says that the brutalities that have been revealed so far against Ukrainian civilians by Russia have mainly been connected in some way to Russia's military operations.

- There are new features here. The state connection is clearer than before. What is outrageous here is the systematic approach, i.e. if the FSB and the occupation administration have organized together to create a network of torture centers to which ordinary people have been taken.

According to Pallot too, according to the revealed information, the operation seems systematic. Kherson's torturers have not been furious and undisciplined soldiers who take prisoners at the front and torture or execute them.

- This looks planned. The perpetrators have not been soldiers who fought on the front line.

- The centers have been made, as it were, formally legal, when they have been transferred to the responsibility of the Russian prison authorities.

Electric shocks to the genitals

Survivors of the centers interviewed by The Guardian said that the torturers, among other things, gave electric shocks to the genitals of some male prisoners.

Some kind of re-education was also attempted, as the prisoners were forced to learn pro-Russian slogans, poems and songs.

At least one of the torture centers investigated was located in the basement of an office building. The other was a former youth prison.

More than a thousand people have provided evidence of the events to the investigative team. More than 400 people disappeared in Kherson during the Russian occupation. It is not known whether the missing were killed or transported to Russia.

Russia occupied Kherson for eight months, from the beginning of last March until November 11, when Ukrainian forces regained control of the city.

Pallot estimates that Kherson can be a central location for war crimes against civilians, as there were many protests in the city when the invaders arrived.

- Unfortunately, Kherson is unlikely to be the last place where something like this is revealed.

International law obliges to protect civilians

Nuotio states that international humanitarian law obliges warring parties to protect the civilian population. The atrocities that have now been revealed were committed by the occupation administration.

- Here, a regime of terror has been created in the occupied area, which has held the civilian population in its grip. It tells about systematic politics.

- We are talking about very serious things, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is the deliberate and deliberate intimidation and destruction of the civilian population as part of a strategy of warfare.

The legal team that investigated the Herson atrocities was founded and led by the British lawyer Wayne Jordash. The group helps the Ukrainian Attorney General in the investigation of Russian war crimes.

More than 70,000 suspected war crimes have been reported in Ukraine so far. Most of them will be processed in Ukrainian courts.

The evidence collected by Ukrainian and international researchers from the areas under Russian control and later liberated by Ukraine tells about large-scale crimes by Russian soldiers, such as executions, torture, rape and forced transfers.

The International War Crimes Court ICC, based in The Hague, Holland, will focus on high-profile war crime suspects. The legal proceedings in these cases take time.

- It is possible that issues related to the whole of Kherson will still be discussed in The Hague. The basic problem is how to catch the perpetrators. The more systematic the operation has been, the higher up the chain of command we have to go, says Nuotio.

So far, the ICC has not issued any arrest warrants for suspected war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia is not a member of the ICC, but it has participated in other international agreements.

- If Russia were a normal country, it would investigate and accuse the suspects, but Russia is not a normal country", Nuotio states.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 19:29

armpit_enjoyer: Jan 25, 2023; my god. it's full of posts

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1632089489332924416

Can anybody tell me what the deal with this account is? I follow plenty of ukrainian leftists (on account of being a polish leftist) and literally nobody i know follows this specific news account, despite it apparently being massive. I keep seeing posts from it shared in other places, too.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:09

bulletsponge13: Apr 28, 2010

I remember reading intel updates on the Russian military while I was still in, and they always made a big point of "The Russian Military has advanced little doctrinally and structurally from it's Soviet origins"
Nothing I've seen has disproven that assertion.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:20

M_Gargantua: Oct 16, 2006; STOMP'N ON INTO THE POWERLINES; Exciting Lemon

I don't know what being leftist has to do with it. I have seen a sudden up tick of their Twitter since the posting demographics shifted a little.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:20

Herstory Begins Now: Aug 5, 2003; SOME REALLY TEDIOUS DUMB SHIT THAT SUCKS ASS TO READ ->>

it was a new-ish (as in got started after the start of the war) ostensibly pro-ukraine messaging account that popped up several months into the war. allegedly of the osint world, though mostly seems to post basically basically every official ukrainian messaging effort

Herstory Begins Now fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Mar 4, 2023

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:24

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

https://twitter.com/Havoc_Six/status/1632084844116160513

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:50

M_Gargantua: Oct 16, 2006; STOMP'N ON INTO THE POWERLINES; Exciting Lemon

How do people not yet recognize video game footage

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:53

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

bulletsponge13 posted:

I remember reading intel updates on the Russian military while I was still in, and they always made a big point of "The Russian Military has advanced little doctrinally and structurally from it's Soviet origins"
Nothing I've seen has disproven that assertion.

Didn�t they finally switch from foot wraps to socks? Although wouldn�t be surprised if that had backslid.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:56

spankmeister: Jun 15, 2008

Power Khan posted:

https://twitter.com/Havoc_Six/status/1632084844116160513

Looking at the replies on the QT'd tweet, they're clearly doing a bit.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:08

Valtonen: May 13, 2014; Tanks still suck but you don't gotta hand it to the Axis either.

Hyrax Attack! posted:

Didn�t they finally switch from foot wraps to socks? Although wouldn�t be surprised if that had backslid.

They transferred back last year.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:16

bulletsponge13: Apr 28, 2010

Was beaten, but shortly after the Invasion began, troops stopped receiving socks and got foot wraps.
Which seem like they would not be comfortable

# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:17

armpit_enjoyer: Jan 25, 2023; my god. it's full of posts

M_Gargantua posted:

I don't know what being leftist has to do with it.

Ah, it's because we usually avoid news sources like Visegrad24, because they mix in right-wing anti-refugee rhetoric in their reporting, or are otherwise connected to right-wing activists/politicians.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:36

Power Khan: Aug 20, 2011; by Fritz the Horse

M_Gargantua posted:

How do people not yet recognize video game footage

There's one of these like every week. The previous one was something like a russian jet doing an extremely weird landing on an aircraft carrier (that alone should have been a crazy giveaway). It was DCS footage

# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:51

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

bulletsponge13 posted:

Was beaten, but shortly after the Invasion began, troops stopped receiving socks and got foot wraps.
Which seem like they would not be comfortable

Dang, now I�m trying to think of other armies with ridiculous mixes of high & low tech. Like Germany putting the first man made object in space while relying on horse drawn transport.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 22:07

Vahakyla: May 3, 2013

bulletsponge13 posted:

Was beaten, but shortly after the Invasion began, troops stopped receiving socks and got foot wraps.
Which seem like they would not be comfortable

If you do them right, footwraps are very very comfortable and can offer a very flush fit with the boot. They also dry faster than socks once you take em out.
However if you make a mistake or are inexperienced, they're hell to wear. It takes a lot of experience to learn to set them and wear them properly.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 22:17

M_Gargantua: Oct 16, 2006; STOMP'N ON INTO THE POWERLINES; Exciting Lemon

I imagine with the right boots the right wrap is warmer in extreme cold, as you can customize the thickness in different locations

# ? Mar 4, 2023 22:20

Madurai: Jun 26, 2012

A.o.D. posted:

That looks like a WWII anti aircraft turret.

Is that what it is?

Just post-WW2

# ? Mar 4, 2023 22:25

tiaz: Jul 1, 2004; PICK UP THAT PRESENT.

Zelensky's Zealots

Alan Smithee posted:

at some point you can just use an actual javelin

so Civilization 1 was right about a spearman holding off a tank after all ...

# ? Mar 4, 2023 23:06

Deus Ex Macklemore: Jul 2, 2004; Zelensky's Zealots

https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...ntent=link&ICID

Boy, if you don't get your Ratsputin looking rear end outta here

# ? Mar 4, 2023 23:17

A.o.D.: Jan 15, 2006

bulletsponge13 posted:

Was beaten, but shortly after the Invasion began, troops stopped receiving socks and got foot wraps.
Which seem like they would not be comfortable

Wraps are fine, but require skill to wear. They have several advantages over socks, one being that with foot wraps you do not need as precisely sized boots as compared to socks. They can also be longer lasting than socks, since there's no elastic component to them. However, they can also become undone, and unlike a sock, it's possible to wear them improperly, and it's not like socks have any meaningful deficiency as foot insulation. If you're thinking they're an example of Russian industrial and military culture deficiency.. you're right.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 23:35

McNally: Sep 13, 2007; Ask me about Proposition 305

Do you like muskets?

A.o.D. posted:

unlike a sock, it's possible to wear them improperly

It is absolutely possible to wear a sock improperly.

# ? Mar 4, 2023 23:43

Jonny Nox: Apr 26, 2008

McNally posted:

It is absolutely possible to wear a sock improperly.

not so improperly that you lose your toes to frostbite though.

Trust me, I've tried.

# ? Mar 5, 2023 00:00

A.o.D.: Jan 15, 2006

McNally posted:

It is absolutely possible to wear a sock improperly.

I don't know if anyone has taken the time to explain this to you, but if a sock can stand up on it's own, it's time to retire it and get a new sock.

edit; A funeral pyre is customary, both to honor its service, and to make sure it doesn't come looking for child support.

# ? Mar 5, 2023 00:19

Icon Of Sin: Dec 26, 2008

A.o.D. posted:

I don't know if anyone has taken the time to explain this to you, but if a sock can stand up on it's own, it's time to retire it and get a new sock.

edit; A funeral pyre is customary, both to honor its service, and to make sure it doesn't come looking for child support.

There�s wearing a sock the wrong way, then there�s wearing the wrong sock entirely.

This post is both of them.

# ? Mar 5, 2023 00:21

InsensitiveSeaBass: Apr 1, 2008; You're entering a realm which is unusual. Maybe it's magic, or contains some kind of monster... The second one. Prepare to enter The Scary Door.; Nap Ghost

Flyinglemur posted:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...ntent=link&ICID

Boy, if you don't get your Ratsputin looking rear end outta here

After some of his other "adventures" I expect him to fake being hooked up to a dialysis machine. Him being on pep pills for 15 years I totally believe.

# ? Mar 5, 2023 00:45

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 01:28

madeintaipei: Jul 13, 2012

Icon Of Sin posted:

There’s wearing a sock the wrong way, then there’s wearing the wrong sock entirely.

This post is both of them.

# ? Mar 5, 2023 00:54

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