CainFortea posted:

I mean, I could see Sabaton doing something about it.

quote:

The band performed at a show organized by Putin loyalist motorcycle club Night Wolves in Russian occupied Crimea in 2015, and bassist Sundström stated in an interview with Sweden Rock Magazine in 2016 that Crimea had previously been occupied by Ukraine.

Antigravitas posted:

I could see that too, but perhaps not how you imagine.

the holy poopacy posted:

Internet VFW › Iron Maidan

Autisanal Cheese posted:

ah no not loving Sabaton

psydude posted:

I just find the notion of a band singing about World War I and World War II too cheesey, even by power metal standards.

Ronwayne posted:

https://twitter.com/urban_meadows/status/1660787151783489536?s=20

Dude remembers what its like to have the imagination of a 12 year old (I say that in a completely positive manner)

Antigravitas posted:

I could see that too, but perhaps not how you imagine.

Computer viking posted:

And another one about the horrors of Auswich, IIRC, so it's a mixed bag.

Generally, their project seems to be "war has always sucked, especially when you're just a random guy in the army".

quote:

The band performed at a show organized by Putin loyalist motorcycle club Night Wolves in Russian occupied Crimea in 2015, and bassist Sundström stated in an interview with Sweden Rock Magazine in 2016 that Crimea had previously been occupied by Ukraine.

the holy poopacy posted:

Iron Maidan

Herman Merman posted:

Sabaton is all about fetishizing war and "heroism".

And also

Antigravitas posted:

Yeah, that's clearly more the territory of death metal.

KozmoNaut posted:

I believe you meant

BOLT THROWER

Stravag posted:

Most 12 year olds i knew didnt put nazi symbols all over their stuff

Shaman Tank Spec posted:

Cartoon Man posted:

From the GBS thread:

mlmp08 posted:

Putting the image macro on, but leaving it all nazi symbols on the uniforms, 2/10.

Lovely Joe Stalin posted:

That certainly puts the choice of location into a more interesting light. And might explain the destruction of the bridge at Graivoron.

I don't think Ukraine's going for the nukes (doesn't really help them strategically), but Russia cannot ignore that. As it was, a prominent incursion into their territory was already something they would have to respond to from a PR perspective, but in close proximity to a nuke magazine? They can't ignore that even if they want to.
As far as diversionary thrusts go that's kind of brilliant.

RoyKeen posted:

Maybe I've glossed over it but is there any proof or indication that Ukraine is involved in this at all?

Herstory Begins Now posted:

there's also a comedy option of what this turns into if Russia under-responds

Janky The Clown posted:

So, no there is no proof or indication that Ukraine is involved.

bulletsponge13 posted:

Using Ukrainian equipment means little in that region, I would imagine- so much has been captured by both sides, I imagine that's part of the 'fun'.

quote:

A number of Russians are fighting their own countrymen alongside Ukraine - researcher: "It is likely that their number will increase"

There are two groups in Ukraine whose fighters are made up of Russians and who fight alongside the Ukrainians.

Description of video contents: The Freedom for Russia legion fights for Ukraine. Two soldiers can be seen walking along a forested path in what may be a park. The legion's goal is to topple the current Russia regime. Aleksei is being interviewed, and says that he fights alongside Ukrainian soldiers. They treat him with respect, and he returns the same to them. They are all doing the same work: fighting against evil. A map of the border area is shown, and a text scroll explains that a group know as "The Russian Volunteer Troops", had infiltrated the Russian side of the border in early March. The reason for their strike was to inspire resistance within Russia. An video clip of four armed civilians in masks is then shown, tagged as taken in Crimea. The text scroll mentions that Russian resistance members are also active there. The leader of the group, known as Atesh, says that they are preparing to liberate Crimea from Russian control. They also send their greetings and respects to the members of Russian Volunteer Troops, who they then call awesome and that they await them in Dzankoi and Crimea. Next an interview with Freedom to Russia legion-member Caesar, who explains that only one percent of the population took part in the revolution a hundred years ago, and that if 1.5 million citizens would now take up arms against Putin, then his regime would fall.

A mysterious group became famous at the beginning of March, when an armed group of 45 men from Ukraine invaded Russia.

Russia claimed that the group shot a car and took hostages in the Bryansk region.

However, all that is known about the event is that the group filmed a couple of videos in the locality.

Whatever happened in Bryansk, it was all quite humiliating for Russia. Russia even named last Thursday's massive missile strike on Ukraine as revenge for the incident.

Putin blamed Ukrainian "neo-Nazis and terrorists" for the invasion of Bryansk. However, the videos shot on the spot show that it was the Russian volunteer corps RDK (Russkiy dobrovol'cheskiy korpus).

So the intruders were Russians. Russians who are ready to kill their countrymen and who seek to overthrow Putin.

In this story, we present two groups of Russians fighting on the side of Ukraine.

Russian Volunteer Corps, RDK

RDK organized into its own group in August 2022. It is unclear whether it is officially part of the Ukrainian armed forces. The group itself states that it belongs to the International Legion, which is part of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine.

According to various estimates, RDK has around a couple of hundred members. They are united by extreme nationalism. It is known that most of them lived in Ukraine already before February 2022. Some fought in Ukraine already in 2014.

Denis Nikitin, a well-known far-righter, acts as the face and leader of the group.

One of the members says in a video that the members of the group consider themselves "ardently nationalist".

The group has a background organization organized in Warsaw, which helps to recruit more people to the group.

Although the leader of RDK is a well-known extreme right-winger, according to researcher Igor Gretskiy, the group cannot be considered extreme-right.

- Yes, their leader has an extreme right-wing background. However, the support group in Poland does not consider itself as far-right, but above all as nationalist. They stand against Putin's imperialism, Gretskyi tells Yle.

Gretskiy works as a researcher at the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute and is familiar with Russian fighters in Ukraine.

Gretskiy states about the group's attack in Russia last week that it was not significant in a military sense.

- However, the operation sent a clear message that Russia's borders are not secured and that Russia is unable to hold back even a few dozen men capable of operating inside Russia, says Gretskiy.

The group published the attached video in the Bryansk region. In the video, the organization urges Russians to take up armed resistance.

The Twitter link has not been attached to this translation as I can't be sure of what may turn up in the replies. The link is available in the original untranslated article.

Freedom to Russia Legion

The largest of the Russian forces operating in Ukraine is the "Legion Svoboda Rossii" or the Legion of Freedom for Russia. It was founded a year ago, i.e. in March 2022. The group primarily consists of former Russian army soldiers and prisoners of war who have switched sides.

There are other stories from the background of the members. Legion made headlines for a while last summer, when Igor Volobujev, deputy CEO of Gazprom Bank, said he had joined Legion.

The emblem of the legion is a blue and white flag. The Legion has replaced the red stripe of the Russian flag with a white one. According to the legionnaires, the red stripe represents blood and violence. The same flag is used by the Russian opposition on a wider scale.

The Legion is officially part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and fights as part of the International Legion. The number of its soldiers is unknown, but the legionnaires have talked about at least two battalions in interviews.

A battalion can be anything between 400 and 1000 soldiers. Some estimates have spoken of up to 4,000 soldiers.

According to Igor Gretskiy of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, the biggest figure may well be true.

- A significant number of Russians have been imprisoned, and new ones are constantly being added. They are a regular source of recruits for the Legion. It is quite likely that their number will increase.

Members of the Freedom to Russia forces have fought on the front of Eastern Ukraine as part of the International Legion in the worst warzones, such as Bakhmut.

In an interview with The New York Times, a Russian soldier using the name Caesar has told that he killed many of his compatriots in Ukraine without remorse. He is one of the few Legionnaires who appeared in public with his own face.

According to the Legionnaires, they are primarily fighting for Russia.

So they are not only fighting for Ukraine, but they feel that they are fighting for a free Russia. Their first step is to beat the Russian army in Ukraine. After that, the fight would continue in Russia.

- If Ukraine gets its 1991 borders restored and the groups are capable of fighting at that point, they could continue fighting on the Russian side, says researcher Gretskiy.

The groups have been declared terrorist organizations in Russia

Russian media hardly talk about these groups. The Russian Prosecutor's Office has declared the groups as Ukrainian terrorist organizations.

- The Russian state does not want to let the information spread in the media and admit that the Russians could challenge the Russian government. They don't even want to acknowledge the idea that the Russians could take up arms and start a war against Russia's political power, says Gretskiy.

The Russian security service FSB considers the Freedom to Russia Legion to be a particular threat, so new members must pass a strict screening.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian intelligence service, has said that the FSB has tried to infiltrate the legion several times. Caesar, a member of the group, has also commented on the issue.

- Putin and his administration are very afraid of the Freedom to Russia legion, because we are the first to put up an armed resistance to Putin's junta, says Caeser in the video.

In addition to the two groups operating in Ukraine, there is also a third group fighting against the current Russian regime. The Natsional'naya respublikanskaya armiya (NRA), i.e. the National Republican Army, has taken the name of attacks in Russia. It is an even more obscure organization than the groups mentioned above, and it operates in Russia, unlike the legion and the DRK.

It also uses a blue and white flag as its emblem.

- We have heard about them with the blow that killed Daria Dugina, but there is not much evidence of their existence, says Gretskyi.

Daria Dugina was the daughter of a Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher who died in a car bomb attack in Moscow in August 2022. The NRA has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Former Russian Duma representative Ilya Ponomarjov has appeared as the group's representative in Ukraine. He has tried to strengthen the cooperation of the three groups.

At the end of August, the groups held a joint press conference in Irpin, Ukraine, where they signed the "Irpin declaration". It agreed on joint strategic goals and, among other things, the use of the blue and white flag.

However, the Russian volunteer group DRK terminated the cooperation soon after this.

Combat units and propaganda tools

According to researcher Gretskiy, the groups act in two ways: as combat units and as a propaganda tool.

- They can serve both purposes. The battalions can serve as role models for the Russians on how to fight against Putin's regime.

Both groups are active on social media and post impressive videos.

- RDK wants to get attention. It wants to spark resistance in Russia. The wider the information about the attacks spreads, the more people might want to join them, says Gretskiy.

The researcher points out that a few hundred men is quite a small number of soldiers if you consider that more than half a million Russians fled Russia due to mobilization. RDK wanted to recruit men from those who had just escaped, but was disappointed.

- They certainly thought they would get more men in their ranks from those who left Russia. However, those fleeing the mobilization were not willing to fight against Russia, says Gretskiy.

For Ukraine, the significance of the Russians fighting on its side is mostly political.

- It is good for Ukraine to show that there are Russians who support democracy and freedom and fight on the right side, Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Ždanov told the AFP news agency.

Gretskiy points out that Russian groups fighting on the side of Ukraine criticize the Russian opposition because its representatives have not called on the Russians to engage in armed resistance.

- If you think about Russia's opposition abroad, none of them has called on the Russians to take up arms and fight. Khodorkovsky, Gasparov, Navalny's group - they are only fighting in the information field, holding conferences and broadcasts on YouTube, says Gretskiy.

Lovely Joe Stalin posted:

Well, if they are truly independent of Ukraine we should probably all be hoping the Russians kill them before they can get to Belgorod-22.

psydude posted:

Of course it's a Ukrainian-run operation. They're denying it while winking just like they have with every other attack they've done on Russian soil.

More to the point: does it really matter if it is? What's Russia going to do, invade them more?