Ukraine: The Aristoblyats

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Wasabi the J: Jan 23, 2008; MOM WAS RIGHT

Shoigu isn't a fan of Rosgvardiya

Wikipedia posted:

Konstantin Gaaze, a Moscow-based political analyst and journalist with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said this new force was "linked to the election cycle" and that "Putin wants to make sure the situation that took place on the Maidan, in Ukraine, won't happen in Russia." Gaaze further said that Putin's creation of the National Guard created a counterbalance not only to the Federal Security Forces, but also to the Russian Army itself and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stating: "The newly established National Guard is the president's army in the literal sense of the word. An army, which can be used without intermediaries in the form of a defense minister and without the constitutional rules on the use of the Armed Forces."

# ? Jun 28, 2023 00:25

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 10:04

Murgos: Oct 21, 2010

Wasabi the J posted:

Shoigu isn't a fan of Rosgvardiya

Shoigu embarrassed Putin by letting this poo poo get out of hand. He�s as dead as Prigozin.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 00:39

Wasabi the J: Jan 23, 2008; MOM WAS RIGHT

No I mean my suspicion is this move was planned specifically for this reason.

Putin isn't loving dumb.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 00:40

Carth Dookie: Jan 28, 2013

Murgos posted:

Shoigu embarrassed Putin by letting this poo poo get out of hand. He’s as dead as Prigozin.

Putin just praised Shoigu to the armed forces in thanks for their efforts for halting an insurrection, while simultaneously accusing Wagner of being horrible terrorists... That will all be pardoned and can join the army now.

It's pure Calvinball in Russia right now.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:00

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Wasabi the J posted:

Shoigu isn't a fan of Rosgvardiya

The fact that Rosgvardiya is effectively Putin's personal army makes this even more embarrassing. When the time came to defend the regime, they stood by and did basically nothing

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:19

Carth Dookie: Jan 28, 2013

HolHorsejob posted:

The fact that Rosgvardiya is effectively Putin's personal army makes this even more embarrassing. When the time came to defend the regime, they stood by and did basically nothing

Maybe I'm completely off the mark, but I thought Rosgvardiya was armed to the point where they could bully 22 million muscovites, not counter an artillery strike from a hosed up rogue PMC. Putin pulling armor away from Ukraine to shore up more home defenses kinda suggested to me that they couldn't, rather than they wouldn't, but who loving knows?

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:22

Hannibal Rex: Feb 13, 2010

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

McGavin posted:

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

The X-man cometh posted:

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

TheWeedNumber posted:

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Tin soldier Hekk is coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four probed from Ohio

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:35

A.o.D.: Jan 15, 2006

Wasabi the J posted:

No I mean my suspicion is this move was planned specifically for this reason.

Putin isn't loving dumb.

After a year of this poo poo you still think Putin is playing 5D chess?

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:38

Hekk: Oct 12, 2012; 'smeper fi

Hannibal Rex posted:

Tin soldier Hekk is coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four probed from Ohio

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:40

Grip it and rip it: Apr 28, 2020

Wasabi the J posted:

No I mean my suspicion is this move was planned specifically for this reason.

Putin isn't loving dumb.

Actually Putin is very loving dumb

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:40

Jimmy Smuts: Aug 8, 2000

I'm starting to think Putin has brainworms and is playing 0.5D chess.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:58

KakerMix: Apr 8, 2004; 8.2 M.P.G.

Wasabi the J posted:

Putin isn't loving dumb.

What's your evidence? Like weigh it against current reality.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 01:58

Blistex: Oct 30, 2003; Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

Hannibal Rex posted:

Tin soldier Hekk is coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four probed from Ohio

# ? Jun 28, 2023 02:22

PurpleXVI: Oct 30, 2011; Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

In slightly lighter news.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1673803622142836737
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1673803628958580736

quote:

1/ A serving FSB officer and two lightly armed furries were among supporters of the Wagner Group who went out with their own weapons on the streets of Moscow on 24 June. All three were arrested before they could join the Wagnerites.

Prigozhin DID get some popular support, it looks like.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Jun 28, 2023 02:37

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

PurpleXVI posted:

In slightly lighter news.

clearly this is a CIA agent :colbert:

# ? Jun 28, 2023 03:00

GD_American: Jul 21, 2004; LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY AS IT'S INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!

Hannibal Rex posted:

Four probed from Ohio

# ? Jun 28, 2023 03:09

CBJSprague24: Dec 5, 2010; another game at nationwide arena. everybody keeps asking me if they can fuck the cannon. buddy, they don't even let me fuck it

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1673859612116676609

"Even the BLACK guy--who was POTUS but may not have been a CITIZEN--has ancestors who owned slaves! Sad! But not me!"

# ? Jun 28, 2023 03:15

A.o.D.: Jan 15, 2006

CBJSprague24 posted:

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1673859612116676609

"Even the BLACK guy--who was POTUS but may not have been a CITIZEN--has ancestors who owned slaves! Sad! But not me!"

So what he's saying is that he supports reparations to the descendants of slaves.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 03:20

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

why aren't they blexiting?!?!

# ? Jun 28, 2023 03:40

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

This seems very relevant wrt Ukraine

# ? Jun 28, 2023 03:46

CBJSprague24: Dec 5, 2010; another game at nationwide arena. everybody keeps asking me if they can fuck the cannon. buddy, they don't even let me fuck it

A.o.D. posted:

So what he's saying is that he supports reparations to the descendants of slaves.

This was meant for the current events thread, whoops.

Still, the musings of a stable genius who would end the conflict in one day!

# ? Jun 28, 2023 04:05

OddObserver: Apr 3, 2009

Gaius Marius posted:

This seems very relevant wrt Ukraine

To make things slightly topical, here is the drawing of Ira Aldridge --- born a descendant of slaves in New York, who went to Britain to act in a somewhat less racist place, and later toured Europe --- drawn by Taras Shevchenko, born a serf, and as a poet the central figure in Ukrainian identity:

# ? Jun 28, 2023 04:27

Hannibal Rex: Feb 13, 2010

https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1674015583304658944?s=20
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1674000768775467009?s=20
https://twitter.com/OlenaHalushka/status/1674003806781161478?s=20

Russia has proudly proclaimed how they took out NATO officers by hitting a packed restaurant at dinner time.

Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Jun 28, 2023

# ? Jun 28, 2023 13:29

OddObserver: Apr 3, 2009

Hannibal Rex posted:

https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1674015583304658944?s=20
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1674000768775467009?s=20
https://twitter.com/OlenaHalushka/status/1674003806781161478?s=20

Russia has proudly proclaimed how they took out NATO officers by hitting a packed restaurant at dinner time.

The injured baby was actually a French Lt. General.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 14:22

psydude: Apr 1, 2008

Hannibal Rex posted:

https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1674015583304658944?s=20

Russia has proudly proclaimed how they took out NATO officers by hitting a packed restaurant at dinner time.

And probably a bunch of Democrat pedophiles too.

# ? Jun 28, 2023 20:39

Murgos: Oct 21, 2010

Ukraine Thread > Two Lightly Armed Furry�s

# ? Jun 28, 2023 22:41

Charlz Guybon: Nov 16, 2010

This can't be true can it?
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-replace-shoigu-steven-seagal-iranian-reports-defense-minister-1809628

quote:

Iranian media outlets spread the claim on Monday, as Sergei Shoigu was forced to deal with the fallout of Yevgeny Prigozhin's rebellion.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 05:41

Carth Dookie: Jan 28, 2013

Charlz Guybon posted:

This can't be true can it?
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-replace-shoigu-steven-seagal-iranian-reports-defense-minister-1809628

Source is some Iranian tabloid so call it 99.999% chance its bullshit.

For now. But holy hell would it be funny if true.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 05:47

Mzuri: Jun 5, 2004; Who's the boss?
Dudes is lost.
Don't think coz I'm iced out,
I'm cooled off.

1843 has a piece up about a sniper who has seen some poo poo

https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/06/22/a-ukrainian-sniper-called-lucky-dreams-of-vengeance

quote:

A Ukrainian sniper called Lucky dreams of vengeance

Despite a slow start to the counter-offensive, morale remains high

By Liz Cookman

At just 21, Lucky (pictured above) has already lost more friends than he can count. His phone is full of defunct numbers. �Many of my contacts are either dead or unreachable. Perhaps those ones are also dead,� he said, opening a can of Non Stop, a Ukrainian energy drink. His boyish looks belie his experience of war: since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Lucky has fought at Mariupol and Bakhmut, two of the conflict�s deadliest battles. In Mariupol he endured the siege of the Azovstal steel works. He�s been seriously injured twice and spent time as a prisoner-of-war.

We were sitting in a caf� in Kostyantynivka, a city on the front line in eastern Ukraine. It�s 17 miles (27km) from Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces in May after nine months of fighting. The distant rumble of artillery hinted that another battle was under way: last week the Ukrainians claimed their soldiers had already broken through several defensive positions to the north of Bakhmut.

Sipping his drink, its sickly scent of lemon gummy-bears wafting through the air, Lucky joked that Non Stop ought to be the sponsor of this war: �Every battle in Mariupol was fought on this.� Lucky is a sniper with Ukraine�s Rapid Operational Response Unit (popularly known by its acronym, kord), a part of the Ukrainian police force that supports the army. Its remit is wide, from identifying Russian saboteurs and soldiers on reconnaissance missions to urban combat. One member of kord described its role to me: �When the regular army can�t do something, we do it.�

He was quick and controlled with his rifle, stalking through corridors with feline ease

Ukraine�s counter-offensive, believed to have started in early June, has been slow to make gains, but Lucky�s team has already helped to liberate Neskuchne, a village in Donetsk. When Ukrainian soldiers hoisted a blue-and-yellow flag over the ruins of a supermarket, Lucky and his colleagues were right behind them. Their job, as he put it, was to �clean up�. He described how they searched basements for any remaining Russian soldiers, detained the ones who surrendered and �fought with� those who refused to. They evacuated an elderly Ukrainian woman: the only villager left after more than a year of occupation.

While Lucky and his colleagues wait to hear where they will be sent next, they train for close-quarter fighting in abandoned buildings near Kostyantynivka. I wasn�t allowed to watch an official session, but Lucky simulated some of the exercises for me and a photographer. He was quick and controlled with his rifle, stalking through corridors with feline ease. Sewn onto his flak jacket was a badge with crossed rifles and an ace of spades, circled by the words: �From a place you will not see comes a sound you will not hear�.

Although Ukraine�s counter-offensive is still shrouded in mystery, it is widely believed that one of its main goals is to sever the land bridge between Russia and Crimea. That could involve liberating Mariupol and Berdyansk, cities in southern Ukraine which are currently occupied by Russian forces. Lucky is hoping for an order to push forward to Mariupol. He has unfinished business there.

Lucky is not his real name � it�s his call sign, a military identifier, and was given to him by his colleagues when he joined the Mariupol branch of kord in late 2021 after attending police-training college in the city. He didn�t want me to use his real name and revealed few details about his past. He is from the Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine that contains the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, both now annexed to Russia, and has an older brother who is fighting on the front line. Why Lucky? Some people just are � as he was at the battle of Mariupol.

Soon after Russian tanks rolled over the border, Mariupol was subjected to a brutal siege. Whole neighbourhoods were reduced to burned-out shells, with residents targeted in attacks on shelters and hospitals. Lucky fought to defend Mariupol until Ukraine ordered its forces to surrender last May. He lost many friends, including his sniper partner; some were killed in front of him. (He�s not allowed to say exactly how many men died defending Mariupol.) Lucky reckons over 30,000 civilians were killed, substantially more than the official toll.

Injured by a grenade, he had to run the gauntlet past Russian snipers to get help � �luckily, they kind of sucked�

The first time he was injured was during a grenade attack. Suffering from a wound to his arm, he had to run the gauntlet past Russian snipers to get help � �Luckily, they kind of sucked.� His other narrow escape came after the city centre fell to Russian forces. The Ukrainians were pulling back to the Azovstal steel works, an enormous concrete-and-steel fortress with a network of underground bunkers: the perfect place for a last stand. As Lucky�s unit made its way to Azovstal, the car behind was hit with an anti-tank missile. The man sitting next to him took the brunt of the explosion and died shortly afterwards. Lucky escaped with cuts and bruises and made it to the factory.

For a month, he hunkered down at Azovstal with soldiers and civilians as heavy artillery and air strikes pummelled their hiding place. �Sometimes they dropped three-tonne bombs over a bunker and you could tell right away everyone had died,� he said. Food and water were in short supply and few expected to get out alive.

When the order came to surrender, Lucky, who was ready to keep fighting, felt disappointed and scared. �We knew how Russians treat prisoners-of-war,� he said. A commander from Mariupol�s Azov Battalion had received a photo from one of his men�s phones, showing the soldier dead with his eyes gouged out. The message underneath read: �You�re next�.

Lucky and some of the other captives were taken to a dilapidated building in Olenivka, a notorious prison in Donetsk. More than 600 people were kept in a room big enough for only a third of them. They slept on a concrete floor, were given just a small cup of water each day, and were forced to listen to the Russian national anthem frequently. The Russians made the Ukrainians �do their dirty work�, said Lucky, sending them to Mariupol and Azovstal to collect dead bodies.

Prisoners were beaten, tortured and killed. They cut one man�s veins and left him to bleed. Lucky lost 20kg but escaped the worst of the beatings. �I guess I was lucky,� he said. After four months he was released in a prisoner exchange (the terms of the release prevented him from giving any further details about the horrors he witnessed). Many of his fellow fighters are still locked up in Olenivka.

�We have to go back and win, any way we can,� he said. �I dream of vengeance�

After a few months of rehabilitation in Kyiv, Lucky returned to work in February. He was thrown right back into the thick of it: a tour of Bakhmut, which was experiencing its most intense period of fighting to date. Two of his eight-man unit were killed, while Lucky had another near-miss. He and his colleagues were on the third floor of a five-storey building when they spotted a Russian soldier in a window over a mile away. He showed me the picture they took with a night-vision camera, pointing out the soldier: a tiny white square against a dark cityscape. They shot at him and missed, only by a metre. Then a helicopter came after them. It fired at the floor above and they were able to run away.

Lucky can�t rest until Mariupol is liberated and thinks Ukrainian troops could reach the city this year. �We have to go back and win this chapter, any way we can,� he said. �I dream of vengeance.� The counter-offensive has so far failed to deliver the lightning gains seen during last summer�s push, when Ukrainian troops won back Kharkiv province. The Russian army had ample time to reinforce its defences before the operation started, while the Ukrainians appear to be moving tentatively to limit losses. Lucky isn�t allowed to say much about the counter-offensive, but there�s one thing he�s keen to stress: we�ve seen just a small fraction of what Ukraine�s forces are capable of.

His confidence is shared by other soldiers I met in the countryside around Kostyantynivka. Men from artillery and drone units lurk in thickets, biding their time before the order comes to return to Bakhmut. They�re itching to settle old scores: everyone has lost something or someone. �We spent a lot of time defending places�It�s really unpleasant to pull back,� a soldier called Oleksandr told me. As we spoke, the air was thick with sulphur from artillery fire. �We will take [Lysychansk, Severodonetsk and Bakhmut] back, and Crimea too, by the end of this year.�

There seems little doubt among these young men that the counter-offensive will be a success and that Ukraine will eventually triumph. They just want the West to send more weapons and ammunition. Lucky isn�t scared of what lies ahead, although he�s keen to avoid another stint in captivity. As long as he has bullets, he plans to keep shooting, even if he�s the last man standing. �Maybe I�ll kill them or maybe they�ll kill me, but there will be no surrender,� he said.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 09:28

Murgos: Oct 21, 2010

Some reporting on the Wagner rebellion fallout: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-28-2023

quote:

Russian sources speculated that Wagner�s rebellion is already having widespread impacts on the Russian command structure. A prominent Russian milblogger claimed that Wagner�s rebellion has prompted �large-scale purges� among the command cadre of the Russian armed forces and that the Russian MoD is currently undergoing a �crash test� for loyalty.[7] The milblogger claimed that the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO) is conducting a review of the Russian military leadership as well as the individual unit commanders.[8] The milblogger claimed that Russian officials are using the MoD�s �indecisiveness� in suppressing the rebellion and �support for paramilitary companies (PMCs)� as pretexts to remove �objectionable� personnel from their positions. The milblogger notably claimed that Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) commander and rumored deputy theater commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky assumed responsibilities as overall theater commander in Ukraine from Chief of the General Staff and current overall theater commander Army General Valery Gerasimov on an unspecified date, but likely after the rebellion. The milblogger emphasized that Gerasimov will retain his post as Chief of the General Staff but will no longer have responsibilities for Russian operations in Ukraine. Another Russian source claimed that an �atmosphere of suspicion has enveloped the General Staff� and that affiliates of Gerasimov are accused of indecision and failure while the affiliates of deputy commander of the joint grouping of forces in Ukraine Army General Sergei Surovikin are accused of complicity in the rebellion.[9] The sources publishing these speculations have largely been accurate in previous reporting on Russian command changes, although the ongoing disruption to human networks and the severe potential consequences related to Prigozhin�s armed rebellion may affect these sources� accuracy. ISW cannot confirm any of these speculations about the command changes at this time, but it is evident that the armed rebellion is continuing to have substantial ramifications in the information space.

Russian authorities reportedly arrested Army General Sergei Surovikin on June 28, possibly indicating that the Kremlin intends to purge the MoD of figures viewed as disloyal.

Murgos fucked around with this message at 12:59 on Jun 29, 2023

# ? Jun 29, 2023 12:56

bird food bathtub: Aug 9, 2003; College Slice

Right now they've got the easily identifiable "Oh you're with Wagner? gently caress you" targets. Gonna be a lot more.....interesting....when they're done with the obvious ones but everyone still has to prove loyalty by outing others to save their own hide and it turns to people who are not loud enough and fast enough in their defense of "Dear Leader".

# ? Jun 29, 2023 13:04

Punished Ape: Sep 17, 2021

quote:

... he said, opening a can of Non Stop, a Ukrainian energy drink.

...

Sipping his drink, its sickly scent of lemon gummy-bears wafting through the air, Lucky joked that Non Stop ought to be the sponsor of this war: �Every battle in Mariupol was fought on this.�

Wondering how this stacks up to Rip Its, Wild Tiger, and Hit.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:17

Saul Kain: Dec 5, 2018; Lately it occurs to me,

what a long, strange trip it's been.

Rip its are the best, imo. I gave the laundry guy a rip it everytime I dropped off my bag in Afghanistan. It was always ready on time, well-cleaned, and folded.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:21

psydude: Apr 1, 2008

I can find Burn pretty regularly here in Europe. The only time I ever saw Rip Its outside of the military was at a small Korean deli in Rosslyn, VA. I guess they knew their target market, being so close to the Pentagon and Fort Myer.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:41

Pennsylvanian: May 23, 2010; Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky Independent Presidential Regiment
Western Liberal Democracy or Death!

It'd be perfect if Seagal told Putin all of his bullshit about being in the SEALs and CIA and Putin completely believed him.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:42

Nessus: Dec 22, 2003; After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!

I had some Rip Its in college.

I liked the camouflage lime flavor. Not enough lime flavor in the world.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 17:43

Crab Dad: Dec 28, 2002; behold i have tempered and refined thee, but not as silver; as CRAB

When my lovely little USNS ship pulled into Crete there was a pair of army transports stuck in port with a busted engine. They had a couple pallets of Ripits and gave us a couple flats each. Good guys.

# ? Jun 29, 2023 18:19