A Russian civilian - resident of Tuapse - posted a video from her car, crying and complaining about the situation.
She says she just wanted to live by the sea with her child but the sea is contaminated with an oil spill (presumably, from the refinery) and the Ukrainian drones are ruining everything and she doesn't know if she'll wake up alive or not.
The Ukrainians on the other side of the Black Sea have been living with that exact horror for 4 years!
I know she didn't start this war, but these are the sorts of thoughts Russians - and any aggressor - should've had on day 1 of the war. War is inherently unpredictable. The same devastation that an aggressor brings to its neighbors may be brought back to it.
I really love how this guy explains it. He couches it in so much jargon and technical language that Vance is in the DMs. Very much a "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage" sort of vibe.
“I expect to hear detailed reports today on the current economic situation and why the trajectory of macroeconomic indicators is currently below expectations,”
Translation: not stonks
“Moreover, below the expectations of not only experts and analysts, but also the forecasts of the government itself and the central bank of Russia.”
Translation: It's bad, fam. Worse than everyone predicted.
Thomas Nilsson, head of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service, told the Financial Times that the real situation was even worse and that the Russian central bank was underestimating inflation, which he believed was closer to 15% than the official 5.86%.
Russia was also understating its budget deficit by $30 billion, and had noticed some financial indicators that could point to a future banking crisis.
Russia is “living on borrowed time,” he said.
Despite a huge increase in the cost of oil, Russia remains in serious financial jeopardy:
Moscow would need prices for Urals crude, its main blend of oil, to remain above $100 a barrel for a year to close its budget deficit, and for significantly longer than that to smooth over its other economic problems.
“They still have a systemic problem,” Nilsson said, adding: “It’s not a sustainable growth model to produce material for the war that is then destroyed on the battlefield.”
Yes, in the longterm the Iran oil crisis will help Russia - but only if their ports/refineries aren't on fire (Tuapse is FUBAR with civilians reporting oil-rain, which is far from ideal for Putin) and it'll take time for Russia to reverse course financially - a year to plug its deficit and more than that to truly recover. But Russia doesn't have that sort of time - the war situation is rapidly changing and Russia is not winning. The Ukrainians have reversed a year's worth of Russian gains in a few months, Russian equipment and manpower losses are staggering, and the Russian military continues to degrade.
It's interesting to note just how few of these drone components are adequately produced by Russia. Russia is very much at the mercy of outside parties, especially China, to produce drones.
Re: Putin's Invasion of Ukraine
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 11:34 pm
by Hydra009
Tuapse Prosecutor's office spontaneously comes up with tree-planting activities (in office clothes, of course), presumably to avoid having to deal with the disaster behind them. That whole area looks like hell on Earth. I've seen Ukrainian cities near the front lines that are in better shape.
Re: Putin's Invasion of Ukraine
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2026 11:39 pm
by Cassia
Ukrainian army captured 2 Russians. One Russian says there were 6 of them at the front and they started looting and drinking. One by one they got drunk, had fights and killed each other until the last 2 were captured. What a sorry army.
Re: Putin's Invasion of Ukraine
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2026 1:22 am
by Hydra009
Cassia wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2026 11:39 pmUkrainian army captured 2 Russians. One Russian says there were 6 of them at the front and they started looting and drinking. One by one they got drunk, had fights and killed each other until the last 2 were captured. What a sorry army.
Wouldn't surprise me. Some units are more or less left to their own devices and/or brutalized. So morale isn't very good to start with, but when you add the specter of Ukrainian drones, it nosedives. Weird that they offed over half their own forces, apparently math isn't a strong suit. Because if you outnumber the enemy 3 to 1 but you kill 2/3 of your own forces, it significantly changes the matchup.
Soon afterwards, EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels gave preliminary approval to the loan, as well as a 20th package of sanctions on Russia, officials said.
Earlier, I reported that Orban was blocking the loan due to his perception that Ukraine was intentionally holding up the flow of Russian oil to Hungary. Apparently, that's not quite correct. Even with Orban out of the picture, it seems that the safe transit of Russian oil through the country it's invading was still a big sticking point for the loan to protect the invaded country. What a strange sentence to write!
Imagine if in WWII, the UK demanded that a not yet taken over France safely transport cars produced by Nazi Germany to port so they might be sold to UK customers and if this demand is not met, they would not help France against Nazi invasion. That would be a bit morally problematic, wouldn't it?
The strike on the "Gorky" oil pumping station damaged three oil storage tanks, sparking a large fire that spread over an area of 20,000 square meters, according to the preliminary reports.
"Damage to such key facilities causes serious disruptions to oil supply logistics within Russia," the source said. "The operation of main pipelines is disrupted, refinery efficiency declines, and transportation costs increase."
"This directly affects Russian budget revenues, which are used to finance the war against Ukraine."
The operation, during which operators carried out "eight precision strikes on the target," was conducted by the Unmanned Systems Forces together with fighters from the 1st Corps of the Ukrainian National Guard's Azov Brigade, the statement read.
The command post that was struck was responsible for sabotage operations, building intelligence networks, recruitment, carrying out terrorist attacks and arson, and coordinating Russian proxy forces, according to Brovdi.
Re: Putin's Invasion of Ukraine
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2026 4:36 am
by Hydra009
At a Russian university, they had a special recruitment operation where potential recruits receive a remote video chat with a real drone operator working near the frontline. And that is true, he's just not a Russian one. He told the class that he's Ukrainian and that the frontline hasn't moved in 4 years and if they join the war, they will die. He also informed them that all their faces have been recorded, especially the professor before they cut the feed.
Like the special military operation, that certainly didn't go as planned. And it is very likely that if they do sign up with the Russian military, that won't be the last time that a Ukrainian watches them from a computer screen. Hopefully, they all got the message loud and clear and do something better with their lives. Because if they do sign up, they won't have to worry about attending any of the graduation anniversaries.
