[Politics] Russia invades Ukraine (24/02/2022)

[raymondo]

from BBC live news thread...

Ukraine-Russia war: Kremlin says Biden throwing 'oil on fire' by allowing Ukraine to use US missiles inside Russia

The decision by President Biden will allow Ukraine to fire into Russia using US long-range missiles it's had for more than a year.

www.bbc.co.uk

View attachment 192556

Indeed. France is way behind,and some of their cosmetic/ fashion companies were VERY slow to pull out of Russia, if indeed they have fully.
Nice words from Macron but far less action.

 

[Crawley Dingo]

The rules for conflict were created in 1949 at the Geneva convention, weren't they? Om which case surely the Allies can't have committed war crimes before then, because they didn't exist.

The rules of conflict were first settled in 1871 with the Washington settlement after Britain breached neutrality in the US civil war by selling ironclads to the confederacy, this was an international panel including Brazilians and Swiss etc as neutrals as the UK and US didn't much like each other back then.
It became a blueprint for future conflicts and developed basic rights like the treatment of POWs, this then grew via other international agencies like the league of nations until being codified in war rights law in 1949. It has been expanded since then to include other offences like rape.

This gives a partial view of events based on the legal action after the UK built ship CSS Alabama shelled the Union merchant navy.

Alabama Claims - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[raymondo]

Sky News digest - a few points:

Trump Jnr kicking off.
Big step to WW3, danger, provocation etc - various Russians.
Freezing conflict along current lines unacceptable - Peskov.
Some ambiguity from France over deployment of missiles - may be deliberate?

Ukraine war latest: Kremlin offers first response after Biden allows Ukraine to use US missiles inside Russia

Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to strike inside Russia with long-range US missiles, prompting dire warnings from Moscow. Meanwhile, 11 people have been killed after major attacks in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.

news.sky.com

It drives me mad that Russia commits war crimes DAILY against Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying civilian energy infrastructure and hospitals deliberately... and yet mainstream media do not call it out as WAR CRIMES daily.
Then there's an adjustment in targetting policy, still restricted to defending Kursk positions mainly, IIUC, and it's ESCALATION! everywhere.
Drives me flipping mad.

And as for Daddy Trump's little boy, let's hope daddy has a better understanding that it's a good thing to save some lives of Ukrainian civilians and military on a DAILY basis rather than wait for daddy's magic solution on Jan 21st.
Rant over.

 

[peterward]

from BBC live news thread...

Ukraine-Russia war: Kremlin says Biden throwing 'oil on fire' by allowing Ukraine to use US missiles inside Russia

The decision by President Biden will allow Ukraine to fire into Russia using US long-range missiles it's had for more than a year.

www.bbc.co.uk

View attachment 192556

And theres over $300 billion of Russian money frozen in EU.

Not only should that be given to Ukraine, doing so and signalling it will be used to buy 3x more weapons than have already been supplied may just alter the calculus in the Kremlin.

 

[Eric the meek]

This could be something or could be nothing.

We've seen that the central bank of Russia has been supporting the ruble to be above 1 cent.

But in today's graph, the ruble fell below one cent at 13.00, and at the time of writing, 14:06, there has been no discernible rise in its value, indicating that the central bank has not reacted. Perhaps it doesn't have any money to do it any longer.

Russian Ruble to US Dollar Exchange Rate Chart | Xe

RUB to USD currency chart. XE’s free live currency conversion chart for Russian Ruble to US Dollar allows you to pair exchange rate history for up to 10 years.

www.xe.com

Edit: Did I speak too soon? Looks like they found some reserves down the back of the sofa.
Edit @15:07 - False alarm. It's going south again.

 

[peterward]

Last week



Today

A data cable across Baltic Sea between Finland and Germany has broken and the cause is unknown

Authorities in Finland say a submarine data communications cable across the Baltic Sea between Finland and Germany has broken and the cause for the disruption is being investigated

abcnews.go.com

 

[raymondo]

The compassionate, tolerant Russian soldiers and priest are going to convert the godless North Korean heathens to Christianity... hallelujah

 

[amexer]

I read UK are deciding whether ro follow USA lead as far as missiles are concerned. Surely all of Europe should speak as one with this decision rather than just us in Europe coming over as the bad guys.

 

[peterward]

I read UK are deciding whether ro follow USA lead as far as missiles are concerned. Surely all of Europe should speak as one with this decision rather than just us in Europe coming over as the bad guys.

The first announcement we should here is after the first batch hits it targets. Why telegraph it too Russians?

 

[GT49er]

The compassionate, tolerant Russian soldiers and priest are going to convert the godless North Korean heathens to Christianity... hallelujah

Pot ... ... ... kettle ... ... ... black ...

 

[raymondo]

I read UK are deciding whether ro follow USA lead as far as missiles are concerned. Surely all of Europe should speak as one with this decision rather than just us in Europe coming over as the bad guys.

Europe should indeed, after we've smashed some of their facilities.
I think it's only UK and France that have provided Ukraine with long range missiles...but yes, it would be nice to hear a European statement of support (apart from Hungary of course).

 

[Me Atome]

I read UK are deciding whether ro follow USA lead as far as missiles are concerned. Surely all of Europe should speak as one with this decision rather than just us in Europe coming over as the bad guys.

All of it should be NATO decisions. Otherwise if it all kicks off NATO could just blame the US.

 

[peterward]

Oh FFS, from long range strikes deep into Russia, to just ATACMS in Kursk only ?

What a bliterthing coward Biden is.

 

[Eric the meek]

This could be something or could be nothing.

We've seen that the central bank of Russia has been supporting the ruble to be above 1 cent.

But in today's graph, the ruble fell below one cent at 13.00, and at the time of writing, 14:06, there has been no discernible rise in its value, indicating that the central bank has not reacted. Perhaps it doesn't have any money to do it any longer.

Russian Ruble to US Dollar Exchange Rate Chart | Xe

RUB to USD currency chart. XE’s free live currency conversion chart for Russian Ruble to US Dollar allows you to pair exchange rate history for up to 10 years.

www.xe.com

Edit: Did I speak too soon? Looks like they found some reserves down the back of the sofa.
Edit @15:07 - False alarm. It's going south again.

Sorry for replying to my own post, but this is good.

Full marks to the central bank of Russia - they've got it back up to one cent. How much it has cost Russia, who knows?

Russian Ruble to US Dollar Exchange Rate Chart | Xe

RUB to USD currency chart. XE’s free live currency conversion chart for Russian Ruble to US Dollar allows you to pair exchange rate history for up to 10 years.

www.xe.com

 

[fly high]

Oh FFS, from long range strikes deep into Russia, to just ATACMS in Kursk only ?

What a bliterthing coward Biden is.

Russian sabre rattling works again on cowardly old man.

 

[raymondo]

Oh FFS, from long range strikes deep into Russia, to just ATACMS in Kursk only ?

What a bliterthing coward Biden is.

I'm afraid that was my understanding from the outset..."strikes limited to the defence of Ukrainian forces in Kursk region". That in itself has some ambiguity: can they only strike within Kursk region, or can they strike (for example) any Russian airfield from which missiles, aircraft, drones are launched at Ukrainian forces in Kursk...? I have no idea .
Maybe Ukraine should 'misunderstand' the guidelines to see what happens.

Anyhow, Storm Shadow/ Scalp/, Taurus? hopefully lesson learned: develop our own nav tech and don't rely on the US. The whole thing is a farce ... even the preannouncing so that Russia can move aircraft etc back out of range .
Putin will be laughing his head off at the usual western weakness.

 

[Triggaaar]

I read UK are deciding whether ro follow USA lead as far as missiles are concerned. Surely all of Europe should speak as one with this decision rather than just us in Europe coming over as the bad guys.

All of it should be NATO decisions. Otherwise if it all kicks off NATO could just blame the US.

No, you're accidentally falling into Putin's narrative. The UK will stick with international law, and allowing Ukraine to defend itself with these weapons is within that law. It is Russia who break international law every single day, not Ukraine or its allies.

 

[GoldstoneVintage]

Even from the POV of not aggravating Putin (too much?!) this policy makes zero sense. "You can only use ATACMS to defend the bit of land you nicked off Russia."

 

[crookie]

Too little too late as usual. So much death and destruction of Ukrainian civilians/soldiers and buildings could have been avoided if we had supplied them with everything we had from the off. I've stated numerous times on here, they are holding the line for the whole of Western Europe. They are not asking for our soldiers, just our weapons. What good are they sitting in warehouses when they could be helping Ukrainians defend their country.

Read something earlier where the author was saying Spain had kept most of their Patriot batteries. Why, were they expecting an attack from Portugal ??!!!!

 

[raymondo]

Too little too late as usual. So much death and destruction of Ukrainian civilians/soldiers and buildings could have been avoided if we had supplied them with everything we had from the off. I've stated numerous times on here, they are holding the line for the whole of Western Europe. They are not asking for our soldiers, just our weapons. What good are they sitting in warehouses when they could be helping Ukrainians defend their country.

Read something earlier where the author was saying Spain had kept most of their Patriot batteries. Why, were they expecting an attack from Portugal ??!!!!

Triggered by your post I've been trying to find a list/ table, by country, of the numbers of air defense systems sent to Ukraine.
I haven't found one yet.