I’ve seen comments here and there about the level of professionalism of the Russian army and the “voluntary” nature of contract soldiers. People should read the tweet thread linked above for a more detailed account.
Does that put Kharkiv out of shelling range?
Mostly, but not entirely. I’m not sure it’s true either, the towns to the north I have heard were liberated are closer. The city center is only 50km from the border.
To be clear, the suspected war criminal above is the commander of a small NG unit.
There are still Russian troops closer than that to the north:
https://twitter.com/nrg8000/status/1521182694021165056?s=21&t=KfEPGM0j0H5ARwfCQdt0ng
The map in bobman’s tweet didn’t have a scale, but crudely estimating on Google maps, the tip of the red arrow is indeed about 40 km from Kharkiv.
Russian munitions plant explodes.
Multiple Dead After Mysterious Explosion at Russian Ammunition Plant (msn.com)
this is a very good analysis which would come as a surprise to someone living in russia, because it has simply been a part of their culture for 300 years. and unfortuntately it affects you even if you don’t necessarily buy into ethnic superiority and ignore it from kindergarten into adulthood. it’s so endemic, i doubt a vast majority is consciously aware of it. it would take some predisposition to “wokeness” and an opportune dialogue to even explain it to an average russian.
there are special complications between russians and georgians, russians and chechens, russians and ukranians, russians and buryaty, russians and tatars, russians and chuvashy, russians and jews, russians and fins, russians and poles, and on and on. one almost has to wonder whether there’s a common theme in these relationships. hmmmm
Arestovich reported that the “Russian Legion” volunteers, who are fighting for ukraine in ukraine, have counterparts in russia. those resisters to the war cannot leave russia, so they are doing sabotage independently. honestly, i wouldn’t be surprised. it would take only a few people to do random arson and explosions along railroads. it doesn’t look like sophisticated strikes, at least not yet.
meanwhile Russia is pulling out of ISS.
as they say in russia, “Yura [Gagarin], we shit it all away.”
Can the US claim the ISS as salvage now?
Honestly, the ISS has been a huge money sink and space exploration is arguably better off if we let it crash.
We need to leave it up there as a life raft for future Sandra Bullocks.
Spoiler tags please! I still haven’t seen 28 Days.
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Don’t even get me started on how nonsensical the physics of that movie was.
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meanwhile, telegrams are exploding with what looks like another round of misinformation around the division of ukraine. this time hungary was promised land if they helped russia by blocking sanctions. it’s… not plausible, but also not clear how the misinfo is supposed to help either side in the war at all. it’s making orban sweat a little but no, lol good luck to a smaller country sneak attacking ukraine now.