Ukraine

Of course we are in a proxy war. We are supplying weapons. Training thousands of Ukrainians in the UK. Full intelligence coverage. I have no doubt we are directing their Logistics Chain. We also know that before launching any major offensive the Ukes sit down and discuss it with the UK/USA Senior Command.

Would NATO have gone in before now without the nuclear fear? Putin would not have attacked without the nuclear backup. He was hoping to bully the West, capture Ukraine in a couple of weeks, have some sanctions applied which amount to nothing, with everything settling down after a couple of months. Basically he expected the same response as when he took the Crimea.

Contractors have been engaged in the repairs of the Crimean bridge,repairs that will take until late spring of '23 . any guesses when the current repairs may need to be extended by " further developments " on said structure

A Russian soldier ran up to a nun.
Out of breath, he asked, “Please, may I hide under your skirt, I'll explain later.”
The nun agreed.
A moment later two military police ran up and asked:
“Sister, have you seen a soldier?”
The nun replied, “He went that way.”
After the military police ran off, the soldier crawled out from under her
skirt and said, “I can't thank you enough, Sister. You see, I don't want to
go to Ukraine.”
The nun said, “I understand completely.”
The soldier added, “I hope I'm not rude, but you have a great pair of legs!”
The nun replied, “If you had looked a little higher, you would've seen a
great pair of balls too. I don't want to go to Ukraine either."

There is a media black out at the moment in Ukraine so not much is coming out. My feeling is that Kherson is a 'fixing' position for Ukraine. They will push and probe russian positions but their main aim is to fix the russians in their positions. The main thrust will come East/South East of Kherson. Once the rear of the russian troops around Kherson is threatened they will withdrawal.. They'd have to. 

I'm pretty sure the Ukes have got every single place where invading troops would have to move covered in every way. minefields will have been laid, bridges rigged for demolition etc. My personal opinion is that if Belarus move, then so will Poland. All Poland have to do is announce they are operating independently of NATO so therefore Article 5 will not apply.

RT presenter says ‘just drown those children’ as he promotes genocide in Ukraine..

Ukraine has called for a global ban on the Russian state-controlled RT media outlet after a presenter promoted genocide and promised to drown children.

“Just drown those children, drown them in the Tysa,” the 47-year-old presenter said. “You throw them in the river with a strong undercurrent.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, said in a tweet that linked to a clip of the interview:

Governments which still have not banned RT must watch this excerpt. This is what you side with if you allow RT to operate in your countries. Aggressive genocide incitement (we will put this person on trial for it), which has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide! t.co/xJC371rqyg

— Dmytro Kuleba (@dmytrokuleba) October 23, 2022
Mr Krasovsky was interviewing Sergei Lukyanenko, a Russian sci-fi author who holds strong anti-Ukraine views, when he said that he wanted to kill Ukrainian children.

Mr Lukyanenko had been talking about how he had made visits to western Ukraine as a child and met Russian-speaking children there who blamed Russia for occupying the country.

Later, Mr Krasovsky said that all Ukrainians should be killed.

“Shove them right into their huts and burn them,” he said and cracked a grin. “We will shoot them.”


Propaganda could take generations to unwind

Throughout the show, Mr Krasovsky constantly referred to Ukrainians using a racist slur.

Russian television is filled with propaganda talk shows like Mr Krasovsky’s, which are watched by hundreds of thousands of people.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has relied on state television propaganda to promote his war in Ukraine - which he has justified as a rescue mission to save Ukrainians from Nazis.

Analysts have warned that this propaganda bombardment and state-promoted hatred of Ukrainians has corrupted people and will take generations to unwind.

Mr Krasovsky is already a controversial figure and, even among Kremlin supporters, is considered extreme. He has called Ukrainians animals and said that they should be wiped out.

On Oct 10, after Russian missiles struck cities across Ukraine - killing 23 people in retaliation for an explosion on the bridge that links Crimea to the Russian mainland - Mr Krasovsky videoed himself laughing and dancing.

“To say that I am happy is an understatement,” he said. “I’m dancing on the balcony in Russian army pyjamas.”

RT, formerly called Russia Today, is headed by Margarita Simonyan, one of Putin's favourite propagandists. The EU has banned it as Kremlin disinformation.

Nationalism
It comes in many guises, but the fundamental principles are the same

The Russians are reported as leaving Kherson as I type!

The following update reports were in the Guardian -

In southern Ukraine, a Russian-installed occupation official said Moscow was likely to pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River, signalling a huge retreat that, if confirmed, would be a major turning point in the war. “Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left [eastern] bank,” said Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of the Kherson region, in an interview with Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.


Ukraine said it was wary that Moscow could be setting a trap by feigning a pull-out from the Kherson region and maintained its forces were still fighting in the area. Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap. “This could be a manifestation of a particular provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they are preparing for street battles,” she said in televised comments. “We continue fighting, also in the Kherson direction, despite the fact that the enemy is trying to convince us that they are leaving the settlements and creating the effect of a total evacuation.”


US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, said he believes that Ukrainian forces are able to retake Kherson, calling their work “methodical” and “effective”.

Nobby be interested in your view on Russian claims UK special forces were involved in the ship attacks recently.
As we are training them I suppose you could say we were indirectly involved.