Putin's Invasion of Ukraine

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The teacher seemed genuinely stunned by the unexpected development. Though you can tell he was especially shocked and concerned by the part about his own face being recorded. I suspect he won't be as eager to host these sorts of events in the future.

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Attrition is hollowing out the Russian military. Second month in a row that Russia has lost more than it has recruited. Most of that is due to the Ukrainians doing things smart and efficiently. The Russians recently lost a vehicle crammed with about a dozen Russians to a FPV drone. Also, a bunch of them took refuge in an ammo storage building and were similarly dispatched by a single drone. The Ukrainians are getting a lot of bang for their buck.

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It seems Russia implemented a mandatory conscription system for men aged 18 to 30 late last year, barring a deferment. I read that some get a whole 10 days of training. That's basically a cosplay soldier.

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It seems Russia implemented a mandatory conscription system for men aged 18 to 30 late last year, barring a deferment. I read that some get a whole 10 days of training. That's basically a cosplay soldier.

Yeah, it's really bad. And as they saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians can now control drones from extremely long distances away - hundreds, possibly thousands of kilometers. Potentially, the Ukrainians can hit targets in Russia while deep in western Ukraine or possibly not even in Ukraine. An absolutely wild technology that'll change how wars are waged akin to the development of aircraft carriers in WWII.

And Ukraine has a delivery system set up very similarly to a pizza delivery system. They get an order in, they make the delivery, there's a very satisfied customer, and they basically get "War Bucks" to buy more equipment for their unit. This way, units with more successful "orders" get more equipment, so the best equipment is going to the people who have shown they know how to use it well. Also, this requires video confirmation so as a side effect, this war is very well documented and enemy losses are known with a high degree of certainty.

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And just when things couldn't get any crazier, stuff really hit the fan in Mali.

I know that it's not easy for most people to make the connection between the invasion of Ukraine and conflict in Mali, so allow me to explain. Russia has a military presence in Africa. Wagner (formerly) and Africa Corps (yes, that's their real name, and yes, the nazi parallel is intentional) operate in Africa, extracting wealth from African mines and securing "partnerships" with several African countries, with those countries often broadly aligning themselves with Russia. So when there's a UN vote and an African country votes the same way as Russia, don't be surprised.

Ukraine fights the Russian invaders where they are, and not just in Ukraine and not always directly, such as offering military training to African countries.

For several years now, rebels in Mali have fought against the government forces and the Russians. I can't speak on Mali's geopolitical situation, but I do know this, the rebels are quite capable of overrunning Russian bases and killing everyone there. Because they've done it in the past. I saw a video of the rebels marching through a destroyed Russian base, looting everything, and killing off any wounded Russians. It was very chaotic, very NSFW, and very chilling. The kind of crushing defeat where if you're sensible, you pack up and leave the country.

As you might guess, the Russians are not sensible and tend to repeat mistakes. So today, a Russian helicopter was shot down in Mali, killing the flight crew and the soldiers they were transporting.

Russian forces control key military bases in Sévaré, Gao, and Kidal, and also guard gold mining sites and other mineral deposits – compensation from the Malian authorities for “security services.”

The Russians no longer control Kidal - which they captured in 2023. They've negotiated a deal with the rebels where the Russians can safely withdraw from Kidal.

This certainly puts the Mali government in a bit of a bind. I would ordinarily look for a statement from the Mali Defense Minister, but he was killed by rebel forces, sooo... I'd imagine that things aren't going great for the Mali government right now. Expect to see a lot more articles about clashes in Mali with the potential for the Russians to suffer even more losses as the rebels gain territory.

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Ukraine strikes Tuapse again - third time in less than two weeks.





Bear in mind that before this latest attack, 24 of Tuapse's oil tanks - half of the total number - burned to the ground.

Before:



After:



Well, even more oil tanks caught on fire and there's thick black smoke all over the place once again, so presumably, a significant amount of the remaining tanks are fubar.

Earlier, I described this place as hell on Earth. With this latest strike, I'd upgrade that assessment to borderline apocalyptic. This place is so bad that the devil prefers hell to Tuapse. There's currently an oil-fire advancing through the streets and the firefighters there are struggling to deal with it. They'll almost certainly have more oil-rain and more oil spills. This is without a doubt a huge ecological disaster. I very much doubt this facility will work at all in the foreseeable future and I don't think it'll ever fully recover. The civilians there had better just go live somewhere else, preferably someplace more peaceful, because we've all seen what it's like to live in an aggressor state when the war comes back on them. It's a very ugly scene. But hey, you plant those seeds of destruction, and eventually they sprout.

Here's a video from 2022 of Tuapse's residents celebrating Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Before this, Ukrainians and Russians lived in relative peace. They brought war to the Ukrainians and then the Ukrainians brought their war to them. I just feel bad for the animals there.

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Ukraine hits Orsk oil refinery and oil pumping station near Perm

Jeez, Ukraine is just going ham on Russian oil facilities. It's difficult to keep them all straight.

Ukraine also hit an Iskander missile storage facility