Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Part 5

boldbison40 said:Stop being so melodramatic. Americans blinked during Vietnam while the Russians supplied the weapons—nothing happened. The Russians blinked in Afghanistan while the Americans supplied the weapons—again, nothing happened. Why on earth do you think the outcome will be different this time? The Russians stumbled into a quagmire they never should have entered, but losing territory in Ukraine is nowhere near a threat to the very existence of the Russian Federation, and nobody is going to order the total annihilation of the world over that. This is a bluff; it's the only card they have left to play, but since no one has ever caved to a nuclear ultimatum before, they won't start now.

You can't even begin to compare Vietnam or Afghanistan to this Ukraine/Russia conflict, can you? It’s fundamentally different because it’s playing out on territory that the Russians view as their own, specifically places like Crimea and Donbas. We are looking at a completely different beast entirely. From the perspective of a psychopath, this is a war being fought on "Russian" soil.

Massive gas leaks coming from both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Looks like some serious sabotage considering they both went down at once.
View on twitter
I was under the impression Nord Stream 2 wasn't even fully operational yet, so where is all this gas actually coming from?
Also, you have to wonder if those pipes are just going to corrode out entirely once the seawater gets inside them.

While everyone is busy obsessing over the theoretical threat of nuclear weapons, let's look at what's actually happening on the ground: the Ukrainian Army has successfully liberated the city of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi on the east bank of the Oskil River, along with the village of Ridkodub.

https://twitter.com/hochu_dodomu/sta...28163854516225

I’ll throw my two cents in too.
This is a war over resources. That Russian excuse about wanting a buffer zone between NATO and the Russian Federation is nonsense. Just look at the map. Why aren't the Russians making an effort to seize territory along the eastern and northeastern borders? Like around Sumy, for example.
The most valuable things Ukraine possesses are the oil and gas deposits in the Black Sea (allegedly a bit less than what Norway has) and the mineral wealth in the Donbas mines. Basically, exactly what the Russians have already seized and are currently holding.
Nobody cares about sunflower fields—not one side or the other. You really think ExxonMobil or Chevron is going to come knocking for concessions on sunflower patches? Americans and Englishmen have burned through a few dozen billion dollars so far. What's that compared to hundreds or thousands of billions in oil and gas? Nothing. The Russians know it too. If they let the Americans and the European Union take those deposits, they can kiss their gas sales to Europe goodbye. There isn't a theoretical chance the Americans and Englishmen will just let Russia annex everything they're holding right now. It means they've raised the stakes and they aren't folding now that they have much stronger hands. They'll keep raising the ante until the Russians fold and try to negotiate a peace treaty just to salvage something. Just look at the weapons being sent to the Ukrainians. About twenty HIMARS batteries changed the entire battlefield. Now imagine if they send three times that amount plus ATACMS missiles. It's not like they don't have them. Anyone who plays poker knows you raise the stakes when you're holding a winning hand...
So... watching how this ends will be interesting. The stakes have been bumped up for now, but there's plenty of room to go higher. Whoever's bluffing is the one who's going to lose.
My take is that the Russians lost this war the moment they sent that first soldier into Ukraine. Putin didn't just bite the bait; he swallowed the whole bucket, and he realized that on the second day of the invasion. But hey, no turning back now...
The Chinese are staying quiet and wise. India is doing the same. Iran sent drones, and in return, they got a partial revolution in the form of women's rights protests. I doubt they'll be sending many more drones. Americans don't make threats; only the person with the weaker hand does that.
Putin might be a decent chess player, but he's a lousy poker player. And this is a game of poker, not chess.

gentlestag15 said:Massive gas leaks coming from both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Looks like some serious sabotage considering they both went down at once.
View on twitter
I was under the impression Nord Stream 2 wasn't even fully operational yet, so where is all this gas actually coming from?
Also, you have to wonder if those pipes are just going to corrode out entirely once the seawater gets inside them.

That might just be Nord Stream 1 leaking. Are both pipelines actually destroyed?

stormybear25 said:While everyone is busy obsessing over the theoretical threat of nuclear weapons, let's look at what's actually happening on the ground: the Ukrainian Army has successfully liberated the city of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi on the east bank of the Oskil River, along with the village of Ridkodub.

https://twitter.com/hochu_dodomu/sta...28163854516225

So, basically, Putin is threatening us with nukes over some tiny little backwater towns without even paved roads.

gentlestag15 said:Massive gas leaks coming from both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Looks like some serious sabotage considering they both went down at once.
View on twitter
I was under the impression Nord Stream 2 wasn't even fully operational yet, so where is all this gas actually coming from?
Also, you have to wonder if those pipes are just going to corrode out entirely once the seawater gets inside them.

On the very day the Norway-Poland Baltic pipeline—with its 10 billion cubic meter annual capacity—is launched, the Russian gas pipeline is knocked offline. 🤣

link

Now, the only viable route for most Russian gas will be through Ukraine and its pipeline network again. I guess those 5D chess players didn't see that coming.☕

In addition to that video showing the gas leak, I managed to find this photo too
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/statu...43941597073412

Carl Lee27 said:In addition to that video showing the gas leak, I managed to find this photo too
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/statu...43941597073412

If you watch the video at the 30-second mark, you can clearly see two separate geysers, unlike what's shown in that picture.
Basically, both Nord Stream 1 and 2 are completely trashed.
It’s definitely sabotage; now the only question is who pulled it off.

Tyler Jones6 said:On the very day the Norway-Poland Baltic pipeline—with its 10 billion cubic meter annual capacity—is launched, the Russian gas pipeline is knocked offline. 🤣

link

Now, the only viable route for most Russian gas will be through Ukraine and its pipeline network again. I guess those 5D chess players didn't see that coming.☕

It’s no coincidence that one pipeline is being switched on just as the other one goes up in smoke.
Sweden is holding an emergency government meeting because of the pipeline sabotage happening in its waters.

placidsurfer13 said:Well, okay, but that's just a natural boundary where the USA and the USSR used to live side-by-side...

The situation over in Europe is a whole different ballgame... I mean, it’s kind of like when the USSR tried to set up nuclear missiles over in Cuba, way too close to the US... obviously, the US wasn't going to just sit there and let that happen, you know? They couldn't allow it...

And it's pretty much the same deal now—Russia isn't going to want NATO sitting right on their doorstep... especially since, if you ask me, Putin is basically trying to rebuild a new USSR from scratch...

But, man, looking at how things are playing out, it seems like he really messed up, because now NATO is moving in right next to the borders of Finland and Sweden too...

Russia doesn't want NATO anywhere near its borders... so they invade Ukraine to occupy the whole thing, thinking that by doing that, they'll basically be knocking on NATO's front door instead... 🙂

demosten said:Even when they aren't moving any gas, those pipes are still pressurized.

So, you're saying air is leaking out?

Is Putin just pumping air into Swedish waters now? Is that enough to trigger Article 5? ☕

Nathan Evans78 said:So, you're saying air is leaking out?

Is Putin just pumping air into Swedish waters now? Is that enough to trigger Article 5? ☕

Gas... they just lost whatever was under pressure inside those pipes.

It looks to me like that pipeline is a lost cause. Once you have gas leaking out and seawater rushing into the line—that’s likely the end of the road. Corrosion will finish the job before we can even blink.
Beyond that, there are submarines specifically designed to sabotage or attach various "extra" devices to undersea communication cables, so they can certainly "work" on other underwater infrastructure too. At this point, it’s just a matter of figuring out who pulled the trigger and whose interests such sabotage actually serves.

Nancy Gomez26 said:It looks to me like that pipeline is a lost cause. Once you have gas leaking out and seawater rushing into the line—that’s likely the end of the road. Corrosion will finish the job before we can even blink.
Beyond that, there are submarines specifically designed to sabotage or attach various "extra" devices to undersea communication cables, so they can certainly "work" on other underwater infrastructure too. At this point, it’s just a matter of figuring out who pulled the trigger and whose interests such sabotage actually serves.

Americans

David Torres2 said:Americans

Anyone who wants to stop funding this Nazi tumor...

ironpuma29 said:Russia doesn't want NATO anywhere near its borders... so they invade Ukraine to occupy the whole thing, thinking that by doing that, they'll basically be knocking on NATO's front door instead... 🙂

🤣

Yeah, that’s exactly how the logic works—I guess.

The mantras of those ancient, historical, celestial beings...

Swedish seismologists: "We detected explosions near Nord Stream"

Bryan Taylor6 said:Swedish seismologists: "We detected explosions near Nord Stream"

Maybe time will tell if the explosion wasn't actually tied to the gas leak—could be more related to what hollowdriver13 just became, I guess. 😁

dustyfalcon122 said:Russia has way more natural resources than they could ever actually sell, plus they've got more land than they’ll ever be able to fill up.
Honestly, the whole reason for this invasion is just Putin's massive ego—nothing else.

Just think about it.

If Russia actually managed to occupy Ukraine, would that really give them better leverage to sell their own resources?

Europe is going to be buying whatever they can from Ukraine now because of this war. It's pretty much impossible to go back to how things used to be.

placidsurfer13 said:Wait, hold on... do you seriously believe Putin just woke up one day feeling bored at the White House, decided he needed a little hobby to pass the time, and then just gave the order for hundreds of thousands of Russians to invade Ukraine? Like he’s just playing some video game?......And you're still watching this like it's some sort of simulation?

btw, does Putin not already know that Russia is more or less a major global power or something?

Just look at what Boris Nemcov said back in 2015 regarding what Putin is planning and why. We're seeing it all play out right now in 2022.