Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Except poor Bill gets blamed for everything from mass spying to the Coronavirus, this gobshíte gets lauded as some kind of deity.

(Pasted from the Guardian, reported earlier this morning) Zelenskiy signs decree ruling out negotiations with Putin. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a decree formally declaring the prospect of any Ukrainian talks with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin “impossible”.

“He (Putin) does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia,” Zelenskiy said on Friday.

I wonder will anyone in the Kremlin take the bait ? I'm not hopeful at this stage. Putin seems to have insulated himself well against the blunders made so far. It seems like a time-honoured tradition in Russia to blame someone else rather than just owning it. Then again, the punishments are severe it must be said...

Thing about dictators and dictatorships is that they appear strong, but they're awfully brittle. There's pressure on Putin, now, and he can only pray that it doesn't hit the 'crack' point, because if it does, it's over.

Seriously guys, do not give the Elon Musk thing any more oxygen.

Musk doesn't give a $hit about this war, regardless of whether it's Russia or Ukraine who's fighting. The literal only reason he tweeted yesterday was to distract from the fact that the Tesla stock price crashed after reporting problems. He knew these comments would deflect from the issues Tesla is having. He's done this crap before and will do it again with something else. Ukraine is just the handy current thing that was available for him to use.

Starosillya in Kherson reported as being liberated.

We'll be seeing a lot more villages liberated by the end of the day.

One of the things I'm most fascinated by is the Information War that is being waged on both sides, but especially on the Russian side. These past two weeks I've been paying more attention to the current affairs show that's excerpted here from time to time - and I'm never quite sure if this is the same program - the set is always the same despite the revolving door of hosts and panellists, but in the latest salvo of blame and invective, the male host seems to criticize Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of Russia Today, for her recent negative comments on strategy, which on the face of it smacks of old-fashioned male chauvinism, but it's surprising to see to such fault lines appear on the Kremlin's main mouthpiece. You get a sense that the internal wrangling is not being contained. I'm guessing that this opinion piece slipped by Margarita Simonyan, and she was none too happy....

The Russians have apparently withdrawn from Velyka Aleksandrivka.

Ukrainian flag raised in Novomykolaivka of Kherson region, looks like the Dnipro River will be the new front line

I only recently found this out, myself, but the show you're referring to is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_with_Vladimir_Solovyov .

Given that since mobilization was announced, 250'000 + military age men have left Russia for safer Country's, you would think that by now, anti -war protests would be springing up like mushrooms amongst these war refugees? Seeing that now they are safe from Putin persecution. But where are they? Or is it a case that they agree with the war, but don't want to go and fight it? If that's the case, they should not be given protection, but be sent back home and take their chances, same as Ukrainians and their fellow Russian citizens are doing every day.

I tell ya by the end of this I'm going to be fairly good at Ukrainian geography

That train, as per the photo I provided, contained a whole host of vehicles, none of which is the one you imply was the sole cargo. Someone questioning something doesn't make it a fact, it's just an alternative hypothesis, and this is clear from the comments by Konrad Musyka, who apart from stating that the train and equipment does indeed belong to the 12th Directorate, thinks it's 'only' nuclear sabre rattling, which does not preclude him from being wrong as the possibility remains that this movement of equipment might still be associated with the core function of that unit.

I'm likely older than you, so stow the condescension.

Will be interesting to see where the line stabilises now. If AFU can push down to the dam, then the Russians are down to one damaged road bridge and maybe one rail bridge in and out of Kherson. Both of which would also be well within striking range, as well as a large swathe of ground south of the river.

If they had any cop-on they’d pull back to a new line south of the river now, before its too late.