Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Jaysus they might as well be done with it and just rename everything Pravda.

It reads like something uncle Joe would have been proud of, getting rid of the intellectuals, the rulers, throwing in some ethnic clensing for good measure.

Soviets idea of liberation was stand back and let the Germans slaughter the locals who dared fight the Germans, then come in and mop up, slaughtering the remaining officer, educated and intellectual classes, whilst partaking in wholesale raping of anything female.

Then setup a puppet regime of quislings.

Now we know, why Ukrainians fight so hard. They know their enemy too well. It was not only fight for freedom, but fight for their lives. If they surrendered in February majority of them would be in mass graves now. They had no choice, they had to fight for physical survival. And this is a very strong motivation, much stronger than freedom. It's down to basic instincts. Some people are able to trade freedom for "easier" life, while here it's freedom or no life at all.

I think Ukraine will fight even stronger now after all those war crimes were revealed. They have nothing to lose.

What's the story with the Aughinish Alumina Plant in Limerick?Will it continue business as usual..

Do we know if the Russians have a still a 'fail deadly' launch system that automatically responds to 2nd strike attacks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand Any retaliation to a first strike could set off their automated systems and end the world. It could even be set off accidentally if Putin arms it in advance of his own first strike, and then it gets triggered by an incidental earthquake or other false alarm.

Personally, after seeing the state of the Russian military hardware, it'd be skeptical that many of their nuclear warheads are still functional, but even if 1% were maintained, that is still 40 nuclear weapons traded between the US and Russia and whichever allies get sucked in.., enough to cause a conflagration the likes we haven't seen since the Dinos went tits up.

I would have thought that seeing the images and reporting coming out of Bucha would easily be more than enough to kick the Israelis into condemnation on it's own given their history. Bucha is only about 20km away from Babi Yar after all.

A total of 1,872 Nuclear Explosions to 1992

(I don't know whether Hiroshima & Nagasaki are included)

In total nuclear test megatonnage, from 1945 to 1992, 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions (including eight underwater) were conducted with a total yield of 545 megatons, with a peak occurring in 1961–1962, when 340 megatons were detonated in the atmosphere by the United States and Soviet Union, while the estimated number of underground nuclear tests conducted in the period from 1957 to 1992 was 1,352 explosions with a total yield of 90 Mt.

Above paragraph is from a Wikipedia page

These incidents are becoming systematic. From a BBC report:

The drone footage shows three cars speeding along an empty main road just outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, when they suddenly turn around and race back - all except one.

This white car turns, but then stops. A man steps out and raises his hands. Then his body falls to the ground. Moments later, Russian soldiers approach. An elderly woman and child leave the car, and a soldier walks them away.

The man on the ground was Maksim Iovenko. The 31-year-old was shot dead by Russian forces that were positioned at the roadside. His wife Ksenia, who was in the car, was also killed.

....

Then, on 7 March, they lost all power. With no electricity, heating or food, Maksim, Ksenia and other families staying in the area decided to return to Kyiv. They knew they risked running into Russian troops along the highway, but they thought they could make it through safely.

Maksim's car was third in the convoy, made up of about 50 people in total, including other children. In the windows of his car, he had put handwritten signs on white paper that read: "Children." His friend was part of the same convoy, and it was his mother who was in the car with Maksim and Ksenia, and he was able to tell Sergiy what happened.

When the shooting started, Maksim's car was hit. "The car's engine stalled," Sergiy says. "My son jumped out of the car, he raised his hands and started shouting that there was a child in the car, so that the child would be saved."

It's not clear why the rest of the convoy fell behind the first three cars, but Sergiy believes many of those driving behind turned back when they saw the cars in front turning and heard the gunshots.

After the shooting, Maksim's body was left on the highway and Ksenia's was left in the car. Maksim's son and his friend's mother were told by Russian soldiers to walk back along the road. When they got a safe distance from the Russian soldiers, she called her husband, who came to take them to safety. They returned to the dacha, and were evacuated safely to Kyiv the next day.

IMAGE SOURCE,

JEREMY BOWEN

Image caption,

A burned out car on the road where Maksim and Ksenia were killed

The boy is with his grandmother in a safe location in Ukraine but away from Kyiv, where Sergiy remains.

On Friday, Sergiy received a call informing him that the area had been re-taken by Ukrainian forces. There was more bad news.

"They burned everyone. Burned the cars as well," Sergiy says.

A team of BBC journalists taken to the same stretch of road saw many burned cars and bodies. Among them was Maksim's car, riddled with shrapnel and reduced to a shell by fire, with the burned remains of a body inside it and one on the road beside it, still wearing a wedding ring.

Full report here

The system is not as automated as it sounds, it still requires the activation of the Cheget I believe, it certainly didn't unintentionally wipe out half the world in 1995 during the Black Brant scare - the only known incidence of a nuclear briefcase being activated.

There's zero reason for him to use nuclear weapons over what boils down to a land grab.

If NATO become involved it's another thing entirely, but until that day, it's conventional all the way. Sure he can absolutely flatten Kyiv with conventional bombs if he wants. Why use nukes?

This was reported in thread on the day it happened, which was nearly a month ago.

I don't think Putin wants to flatten Kyiv to any great extent. Kyiv could be thought of as the cradle of Slavic civilisation, and therefore for its symbolism alone is probably a place that Putin would want relatively intact. That's why my guess is that if the Russians do decide to up the ante even further, they'll go for gas rather than ordinance. If Putin sees the Ukrainians are traitorous vermin, and vermin who are well embedded, from his perspective the sensible option is to call Rentokil.

Ah yes, somehow I completely missed this one on the day and didn't notice the date in the article I linked. Bowden has been doing a fantastic job.

Russian troops robbed President Zelensky's house on the island of Biryuchy in the Kherson region, also robbing hotels in Kyrylivka" https://liveuamap.com/en/2022/4-april-russian-troops-robbed-president-zelenskys-house-on

How about Italy stop pretending they don't know that massive yacht Scheherazade is Putin's and they seize it, formally confiscate it and re-register it in Zelinskyy's name as compensation?

I'm amazed Filatov and the other kgb scumbags in the embassy haven't all been sent packing at this stage, especially with all the latest evidence of mass killing of children and civilians.

You also have lovely 'enhanced radiation weapons' like neutron bombs.

Small hydrogen bombs that emit neutron radiation, killing everything but leaving infrastructure intact.