"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

Jesus, this is practically a training video on how to DIY bomber drones done by Ukrainians! Shit is about to get all kinds of interesting globally.

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1627637446417473536?s=20

Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Biden administration and National Security Council were still split over "how fast and what weapons" to send Ukraine, which wants ATACMS missiles and F-16s.

"But I'm seeing increasing momentum towards getting the artillery and the planes in," he told reporters in central Kyiv. "And in any event, we can start training the pilots right now so they're ready."

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-lawmaker-kyiv-momentum-shifting-toward-atacms-f-16s-ukraine-2023-02-21/

LOL! Putin tried to flex while Biden was in Kyiv by test launching one of his new modern ICBMs but its second stage failed.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/politics/russia-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-test/index.html

Borshch like a Ukrainian!



And brace yourself for what he says after the 16 minute mark. Jebus, right in the feels. Right in the goddamned feels.

https://twitter.com/jack_mrgln/status/1628391357868871680


The three columns are expenditures for one day, expenditures for 10 days and what they received.

It's gratifying, to see all those Wagner criminals get smoked. Russia is totally incapable of fighting a modern war.

What do you think of this, @shootER ?
https://twitter.com/nicholadrummond/status/1627089956777893888?t=DDGCBMdT0CCA7VLOyxQScQ&s=19

Ah, Muscovy. Where your life is worth about 6 sausages.
https://twitter.com/SovietSergey/status/1628407017705508867?t=ZZE0Z1jMAgRym7gS0ZyLlw&s=19

Top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee tells @JakeTapper: “The President has the authority for 10x more weaponry than promised this week.”

https://twitter.com/theleadcnn/status/1628541966781751298

Yes… Keep the heat up guys…

oh shit, the first reply

Good news, they are Wangernites. Prigozhin shared it talking about how MOD not giving him enough ammo and other supplies is leading to multiple times the casualties around Bakhmut than would be otherwise.

See this tweet I shared earlier with a blurred version of the pic.

https://twitter.com/jack_mrgln/status/1628391357868871680

Better than no tank at all.

They'll have to be careful how they fight them because Leopard Is are thinly armored (which, fortunately, makes them pretty speedy).

Definitely not an expert but my understanding is that sights, FCS, training, tactics and comms > gun and armor. Which I have to imagine are all to the Ukrainians advantage.

Certainly.

No tank should try to stand toe-to-toe with another, but later generation MBTs at least stand a chance of withstanding frontal hits if they happen. Leopard I would be a sieve, no matter where it got hit, except for maybe the mantlet.

Fight from ambush, aim for the flanks, scoot.

Looks like a new front may be opening in the war.

Transnistria, yet another one of these breakaway states created out of thin air by Russian manipulation, is officially Moldovan territory. In Putin's quest to the West for the New Russian Empire it's stage 1 of his planned eventual takeover of Moldova, to the west of Ukraine. There have been repeated attempts at fomenting a coup there. The latest being run by a Moldovan politician that was advised by Trump's last Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grennell, during his advisor days. You might remember him for his previous job under Trump, German ambassador, who openly stated he wanted to back far right political parties in Europe.

But with all of this aggression from Russia the Moldavan president Maia Sandu has had enough, and reports are coming out that she's aligning with Zelensky and Ukraine, as only makes sense considering their joint enemy in Russia.

Putin got a bit ahead of himself though. In Transnistria is the single largest ammo dump in Europe. The Russian Army forward supplied it thinking they'd be taking Ukraine quickly. This by the way is one of those big signs that they never intended to stop after Ukraine. But there's only 1500 Russian troops protecting it.

If Sandu gives the OK Ukraine has said it can take the supply depot in 3 days, and likely hand Transnistria back over to the Moldavans not long after that. And yet more Russian equipment will be turned against the invaders.

Putin also revoked the 2012 decree that said Russia would uphold Moldovan soveriegnty in response to Biden's visit to Kyiv.

Russian monsters brought Ukrainian children abducted from Mariupol on stage at the pro-war rally in Moscow today. The RU war criminals forced the kidnapped children thank their captors who destroyed their city, tortured &/or killed their parents and families for "rescuing" them.
https://twitter.com/GicAriana/status/1628607662253346817

It’s been a while but I believe Moldova is heavily majority ethnic Romanian but with a distinct ethnic Russian minority and only the Transdisnestra region being majority ethnic Russian. However the Russians are relatively ‘new’ brought in by the Tsars and the Soviets to try and Russify the area.

Before being taken by the Russian Empire the territory was part of the different lands/principalities/kingdoms/states that now make up modern Romania.

Since independence there have been questions about reuniting with Romania. A decent but not huge majority of Moldovans have been against it but as Romania (in EU and NATO) continues to rapidly develop (Moldova is the poorest country in Europe) that is changing and something like a quarter of Moldovans under 50 have gotten Romanian passports (mostly to get access to EU [free movement for work]).

All that to say, IIRC it is part of the Romanian Constitution that whenever Moldova wants to rejoin they can. Meaning that basically Moldova could back door into NATO at any time which means NATO territory would have Russian occupiers which would be… interesting…

Russian State TV completely gobsmacked about Biden visit.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2H-vGPZeLvM

https://twitter.com/abc/status/1628690652451028995?s=46&t=3Hge6WyOMNk2o7GzhXaSiw

Speaking of Transnistria, the last 10 minutes or so of this podcast are about a guy's trip there a couple of years ago to pick up some booze. He even describes issues with Russian forces he had while he was there.

Thread on atrocities in Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1628705198460833793?s=46&t=3Hge6WyOMNk2o7GzhXaSiw

Putin held a pro-war rally.

https://twitter.com/Mike_Eckel/status/1628657023616274440?s=20

This video from the event is worth watching, if for no other reason than the expressions of the people at the event.

https://twitter.com/Mike_Eckel/status/1628657770751836160?s=20

The military people all seem to have expressions on their faces of: "This motherfucker's spittin'. Somebody needs to kill him quick." The crowd doesn't exactly seem overjoyed at any of it.

Part of Putin's speech was Russia's removal from the START accords. So pretty much all diplomatic contact with the US has broken down. Both POTUS and the VP have announced that Russia is committing crimes against humanity. They name dozens of torture camps in occupied Ukraine and the kidnapping of children to be raised Russian to destroy the Ukrainian culture.

Putin wanted to announce the successful test of the SARMAT missile, a nuclear capable ICBM. The test occurred several days before the speech.

However, he couldn't - the test failed.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-wanted-boast-russia-launching-042216875.html

Romania knows it's on the chopping block too. They just closed the Rucssian Center for Culture in Science in Bucharest for propaganda. https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/othe...nd-science-in-bucharest/ar-AA17KrZc?ocid=XMMO

I read somewhere that Putin is saying that he is ‘suspending’ New Start but will continue to honor the limits. That basically this is all about a) saber-rattling b) not allowing inspectors in. With the Russian military stripping itself of all its personnel and material they don’t want observers wandering around their bases.

It's just not enough yet. Europe is still in sleep mode and doesn't realize that the stakes are pretty high when it comes to security policy for the coming decades. We deliver a tank here, a gun there.... It's not enough. War sucks, but now is the time to rethink old dogmas and go all in.

But most of my friends are just bored with the whole thing and don't care what happens. Fuck Ukraine and all that.... The main thing is that we can go on living our lives as before. And the Russians are not so bad and Putin is actually quite ok...

It is frustrating.

I was active on Twitter with NAFO for months, but now the movement is no longer hip and is completely tattered.

I send money directly to the Ukrainian army every month, I guess that's worth more than having a big mouth on social media. There's not much more you can do.