Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Part 5

Matthew Young35 said:Let me be clear: I won't touch the nuclear button unless someone dares to strike Russia. Swear on my life.

That’s exactly why Putin is going to declare those occupied territories part of Russian soil.
The whole referendum thing is just a setup for that goal.

Benjamin Taylor6 said:That’s exactly why Putin is going to declare those occupied territories part of Russian soil.
The whole referendum thing is just a setup for that goal.

The legal goal here is basically to find a loophole—something that lets them send mobilized troops into war while dodging those extra combat bonuses you'd normally owe someone fighting overseas. I honestly don't get how people miss such basic logic.

Matthew Young35 said:Let me be clear: I won't touch the nuclear button unless someone dares to strike Russia. Swear on my life.

Man, I’d probably pull the trigger even if nobody touched Russia. 🤷

You guys are seriously overthinking this whole nuclear thing... and let's be real, there isn't much any of us can actually do about it anyway. Just go grab a coffee, hang out with your buddies, or find something else that actually makes you happy.. This constant paranoia and fear of some massive nuclear apocalypse is just getting way too toxic for my liking. 😉

gentlestag15 said:+18
He was wearing a swastika shirt, and now they’ll probably spin the whole thing to say he was sympathizing with Ukrainian Nazis, making that the excuse for why the idiot targeted kids. 🤣
View on twitter

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if someone just drew a swastika on his shirt after the fact to frame him.

hiddeneagle98 said:I swear on my life, I'm not going to attack Ukraine! And if I do attack it...

I'm going to drop the nuke, I swear to God! _________

Fill in the blank.

Looking back at what Lavrov said—he claimed Russia was just defending its interests... then they invaded.

Now he's saying they have the right to use limited nuclear strikes if anyone attacks Russian territory. And according to their own laws, once they annex parts of Ukraine, that becomes Russian soil. So... why bother predicting anything? Just get some fresh air. This whole thing has already gone way too far.☕

rowdyraven112 said:Looking back at what Lavrov said—he claimed Russia was just defending its interests... then they invaded.

Now he's saying they have the right to use limited nuclear strikes if anyone attacks Russian territory. And according to their own laws, once they annex parts of Ukraine, that becomes Russian soil. So... why bother predicting anything? Just get some fresh air. This whole thing has already gone way too far.☕

Are they seriously claiming they spent 4.5 trillion annually maintaining that arsenal, especially since the last test was back in 1989?

How sweet. So they can just annex territory whenever they feel like it? Everything being annexed is Russia, and if you dare touch anything they've claimed, you're looking at a missile strike.

Just hand over Crimea and call it a day, right? Oops, that’s exactly what he said.

And why stop there? Why not just grab Donbas and Lugansk too? Oh, and let's not forget Zaporizhzhia, Transnistria, and Moldova—just take them all.
Wait, what about Gdansk? We were practically there once, so why not just claim that as well?

boldotter2 said:First off, maybe stop getting your news from Russian troll sites? It might actually help with that nuclear anxiety you've got going on.

And hey, if you're feeling a bit twitchy about it, here are some facts to show why a nuclear strike—even if it happened—really just means the end of Putin and Russia:

- For 40 years, the world has been dodging a nuclear catastrophe. In that same window, we got The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the pill, the economic boom in Europe, the moon landing, and pretty much everything else that defined the second half of the 20th century. Basically, our whole modern civilization was built right alongside that fear.

- During that exact same timeframe, nearly 2,000 nuclear bombs were detonated globally. Some in war, most in peace, many above ground, leaving behind direct radiation and long-term pollution. The South Pacific, Nevada, and New Land all took a massive dose of Becquerel. Even John Wayne died from radiation exposure.

- We also had the Chernobyl disaster, which polluted the planet way more than all those 2,000 detonations combined. And then there was Fukushima.

- That Soviet thermonuclear "Tsar" bomb, the most powerful weapon ever, left a crater measuring 19 miles. A radius of 19 miles is basically the minimum exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant, surrounding the sarcophagus and that famous "Red Forest," where radiation still leaks from the melted reactor core today. The actual exclusion zone is way, way bigger than that.

The distance of 19 miles is the exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant, and that’s going to stick around for a very, very long time.

The distance from 19 miles is roughly the straight-line distance between Krško and Washington, D.C.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are just regular Japanese cities. Trinity and Los Alamos are basically tourist attractions now.

My point in one sentence: For someone living in, say, Washington, D.C., an unthinkable danger would probably be a major accident at the Krško plant rather than the detonation of the strongest atomic bomb ever over Karlovac.
So, I guess you should look at what's actually more likely to happen.

From the perspective of Ukraine, things are even crazier. Their capital is literally 31 miles downstream from Chernobyl.

The blast was roughly 6,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The explosion was so massive it sent a mushroom cloud soaring 64 kilometers into the sky. At the moment of detonation, a fireball 8 kilometers wide erupted. Everything—buildings, houses, structures, trees—within a radius of 55 kilometers was just completely leveled and wiped out beyond recognition. Within a hundred-mile radius, wooden homes were incinerated, while concrete buildings lost half their walls, doors, windows, and roofs.

The sheer heat from the blast could cause third-degree burns within a 300-kilometer radius. You could feel the shockwave up to 700 kilometers away, and window glass shattered in a 900-kilometer circle.
Atmospheric focusing actually caused broken windows as far away as Finland and Norway, even though they were over 1,000 kilometers from the site.
The bomb also triggered a 5.5 earthquake on the Richter scale. The shockwaves actually circled the entire globe three times.

I think we’re just way too close to Columbus.😁

The Tsar Bomba—or whatever equivalent we're talking about—is just way too heavy to be mounted on an ICBM. You wouldn't launch that thing on a missile; you’d drop it from a specially modified bomber plane. A bomb with that kind of yield definitely isn't flying thousands of miles on a rocket tip.

They’re acting like they’re planning to go full nuclear by moving troops from strategic nuclear forces straight into infantry and tank divisions. Honestly, can we please dial back all this doomsday doom-and-gloom?

boldcanyon14 said:The Tsar Bomba—or whatever equivalent we're talking about—is just way too heavy to be mounted on an ICBM. You wouldn't launch that thing on a missile; you’d drop it from a specially modified bomber plane. A bomb with that kind of yield definitely isn't flying thousands of miles on a rocket tip.

I get where you're coming from.
Only a complete idiot would actually go through with testing one, much like how the other nuclear powers handled those 2,000 tests back in the day. But hey, my mistake—we're talking about a thermonuclear weapon here, not just a simple atomic bomb.

It’s funny how we all collectively agree that CO2 from a tiny old sedan is the real threat to the planet.

Waterpark said:The guy isn't even addressing the actual questions regarding which analysts we're talking about; he just sidesteps everything and keeps rambling on his own agenda, claiming nobody will ever reach an agreement with Putin, what should be done, etc., etc.

Look, just read CNN or follow the links on there—it's specifically intended for anyone who actually wants to understand the official US stance. I am not the problem here, nor do I claim to have some magic solution; my point is how on earth do we convince Putin to back down without dragging everything straight into the abyss. Honestly, I don't understand some people in this thread; the situation is incredibly dire, yet they'd rather just trade insults. I'm really not interested in that kind of bickering, sorry.

Here is one where their own experts are predicting a rapid escalation if there's even a limited nuclear strike—we're talking 90 million casualties—and they say Europe is especially vulnerable. Anyone treating this like some sort of joke clearly has some serious issues.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/26/e...-ml/index.html

And that is exactly what Europe has achieved: becoming the primary victim of all this arrogant US-Russian posturing, despite not even being the one that started it.

darkhawk30 said:I guess I’m being way too optimistic here. I actually suggested a scenario where even a devastated Ukraine could hit its targets at the exact same time as us.

I have no clue when or how that happens... anyway, forget comparing this to things back home... let's look at Poland instead.
Man, I really wish I was wrong... but honestly? We're looking at decades, not years, to catch up.
We're teetering on the edge of a global recession while everyone expects military spending to keep climbing. You can't have your cake and eat it too—it's impossible to fund tanks and butter at the same time.

boldotter2 said:Wait, so you think Putin is actually going to launch missiles at the US? Is that really what you're implying?

That’s the only way you get into a nuclear war.

Except the Russian Federation doesn't even have the doctrine or the laws to justify doing something like that.

Are you seriously suggesting that some guy who’s too terrified to even mobilize his own army—preferring to just annex someone else's land instead—is suddenly going to toss out all his own country's rules and launch an unprovoked nuclear strike against the strongest nuclear power on Earth? Like, how, for heaven's sake, HOW does he think he can pull that off???
He's just a little guy who can't even control his own military when it comes to 31 milesMoscow.
I mean, sure, he can give an order, just like he gave the order "everyone head to Ukraine". But the real question is, can he actually handle the fallout?

The fallout from mobilizing would just break his army and maybe trigger a civil war. A nuclear order? That would be an instant bullet to the brain. And honestly, that's probably the best-case scenario.

---------------------------------

But okay, let's get serious for a second. The only real nuclear escalation we might see is if Putin bypasses protocol and pulls off a limited air or missile strike somewhere in Ukraine. At worst, hitting Kyiv.

Even then, he gains absolutely nothing. He'd just get the satisfaction of watching a Ukrainian defense point get wiped out, and that's it.

After that, because of the mess he just made, every single spy in every intelligence agency worldwide—including everyone except maybe North Korea and Syria, plus China and even Russia itself—every single field agent would get one order: eliminate Putin at any cost; the end justifies the means. And not just him, but his whole inner circle: Lavrov, Peskov, Zakharov, all the propagandists, the ideologues, the generals—basically anyone standing next to him.

Do you honestly think any of them—not Putin, but the people I just listed—think they can spend the rest of their lives living like rats in a hole? Wouldn't they much rather go back to their yachts and villas in Dubai, London, or Opatija?

And do you think Xi Jinping is just going to sit there while the global economy falls apart, losing Western profits and dealing with unrest in China, all because of some tiny guy's militant outbursts? No way. He already got snubbed by Kazakhstan.
Do you really think the CIA, MI6, Mossad, and Ukrainian services don't have enough assets in place to trigger total chaos across Russia in just a few days if they ever get the green light?
Look at Iran—they had a massive uprising and only sold a few drones. Think about that.

Anyone who is genuinely terrified of nuclear war should realize one thing: those Russian creeps in power are even more scared of it than you are. They aren't worried about you; they're worried about themselves.

Look, if you’re going to be serious about this, please—don't just sit there guessing on your own! Go read some actual American analysts instead. If Russia annexes Donbas while the Ukrainians, bolstered by the USA, continue fight, then Putin might actually follow through on those threats and drop a tactical nuke on Ukraine just to scare them straight—especially since he'll likely frame it as a defense against an attack on Russian territory. But the Americans have already stated they will respond, and their experts are predicting a rapid nuclear escalation that could lead to 90 million casualties, mostly over in Europe. So, cheers to your amateur analysis.

Kimberly Perez82 said:Look, if you’re going to be serious about this, please—don't just sit there guessing on your own! Go read some actual American analysts instead. If Russia annexes Donbas while the Ukrainians, bolstered by the USA, continue fight, then Putin might actually follow through on those threats and drop a tactical nuke on Ukraine just to scare them straight—especially since he'll likely frame it as a defense against an attack on Russian territory. But the Americans have already stated they will respond, and their experts are predicting a rapid nuclear escalation that could lead to 90 million casualties, mostly over in Europe. So, cheers to your amateur analysis.

Could you provide a link to one of those analysts or their specific projections?
This isn't a casual chat room.

gentlestag15 said:+18
He was wearing a swastika shirt, and now they’ll probably spin the whole thing to say he was sympathizing with Ukrainian Nazis, making that the excuse for why the idiot targeted kids. 🤣
View on twitter

A National Guard ID, Mein Kampf, and a copy of Sims 3.

Kimberly Perez82 said:Look, just read CNN or follow the links on there—it's specifically intended for anyone who actually wants to understand the official US stance. I am not the problem here, nor do I claim to have some magic solution; my point is how on earth do we convince Putin to back down without dragging everything straight into the abyss. Honestly, I don't understand some people in this thread; the situation is incredibly dire, yet they'd rather just trade insults. I'm really not interested in that kind of bickering, sorry.

Here is one where their own experts are predicting a rapid escalation if there's even a limited nuclear strike—we're talking 90 million casualties—and they say Europe is especially vulnerable. Anyone treating this like some sort of joke clearly has some serious issues.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/26/e...-ml/index.html

And that is exactly what Europe has achieved: becoming the primary victim of all this arrogant US-Russian posturing, despite not even being the one that started it.

I’d trust the Atlantic Council way more when it comes to potential moves, considering they basically act as an unofficial mouthpiece for NATO (and by extension, the US). Besides, that link is just a general analysis coming out of some war games; it doesn't even have a direct connection to Ukraine.

Gregory Ramos3 said:Man, I’d probably pull the trigger even if nobody touched Russia. 🤷

You guys are seriously overthinking this whole nuclear thing... and let's be real, there isn't much any of us can actually do about it anyway. Just go grab a coffee, hang out with your buddies, or find something else that actually makes you happy.. This constant paranoia and fear of some massive nuclear apocalypse is just getting way too toxic for my liking. 😉

The real question is, who’s actually losing their mind here and who’s just out here intentionally fueling the fire? It’s all just part of the psychological warfare, isn't it?

Gregory Ramos3 said:Man, I’d probably pull the trigger even if nobody touched Russia. 🤷

You guys are seriously overthinking this whole nuclear thing... and let's be real, there isn't much any of us can actually do about it anyway. Just go grab a coffee, hang out with your buddies, or find something else that actually makes you happy.. This constant paranoia and fear of some massive nuclear apocalypse is just getting way too toxic for my liking. 😉

Just for context...

1962 was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.... And it was also the year when the world saw a massive amount of nuclear testing, like 140 tests or so. So, we had the threat of nuclear war alongside 140 random detonations, it's just crazy! 😵

At the exact same time, 1962 was also the year The Beatles blew up and Beatlemania kicked off. It's the year Robert Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan and put out his first album. Over in New York City, some new kids named Mick, Keith, and Brian are meeting up to start their own band too.

I guess I wonder how many people today actually remember that first part, versus all this other stuff?

https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1...SGjuge13G3_5KA

I mean, sadly, this is just how it is. You see all these different groups over in Russia having such a garbage opinion of Ukraine and Ukrainians. It’s crazy how much propaganda it takes to make Ukrainians the target of all that hate... I guess even kids who probably haven't even met a single Ukrainian in their entire lives end up feeling that way too.