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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3389 "2022-03-26T00:38:16Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#):
>
> [https://twitter.com/WashingtonPoint/status/1507336374067810306](https://twitter.com/WashingtonPoint/status/1507336374067810306)
What is “TB2”, please?
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3390 "2022-03-26T00:41:18Z")
> **[Baykar Bayraktar TB2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baykar_Bayraktar_TB2)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
>
>
> The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., primarily for the Turkish Armed Forces. The aircraft are monitored and controlled by an aircrew in a ground control station, including weapons employment. The development of the UAV has been largely credit...
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3391 "2022-03-26T00:59:56Z")
And here’s the Wikipedia page for the song:
> **[Bayraktar (song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayraktar_(song))**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
>
> "Bayraktar" is a Ukrainian patriotic propaganda song that became popular after its release on 1 March 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Dedicated to the Baykar Bayraktar TB2 combat drone due to its successful deployment against Russian troops, the song is written by Ukrainian soldier Taras Borovok, and mocks both the Russian Armed Forces and the invasion itself.
> Borovok received a request from the Armed Forces of Ukraine to write a f...
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### Author:  [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3392 "2022-03-26T01:01:12Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#):
>
> Latest conflict update from the Institute for the Study of War:
>
> [Ukraine Conflict Update 19 | Institute for the Study of War](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-update-19)
ISW also thinks Russia’s claims of just wanting the Donbas now are bullshit:
> **[Institute for the Study of War](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-25)**
>
> The Russian General Staff issued a fictitious report on the first month of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on March 25 claiming Russia’s primary objective is to capture the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Sergei Rudskoi, first deputy chief...
> **The absence of significant Russian offensive operations throughout most of Ukraine likely reflects the inability of the Russian military to generate sufficient combat power to attack rather than any decision in Moscow to change Russia’s war aims or concentrate on the east.** Rudskoi’s comments are likely an attempt to gloss the Russian military’s failures for a domestic audience and focus attention on the only part of the theater in which Russian troops are making any progress at this point. **The West should not over-read this obvious messaging embedded in a piece of propaganda that continued very few true statements.**
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3393 "2022-03-26T01:15:59Z")
> [@romansperson](#):
>
> ISW also thinks Russia’s claims of just wanting the Donbas now are bullshit:
It doesn’t take learned scholars to realize that.
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### Author:  [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3394 "2022-03-26T01:29:58Z")
I’m not so sure it is bullshit, not 100%. It gives them a convenient pivot point if they can’t regroup and resupply to achieve their initial aims - the real question is: _do they really believe they can do that_?
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3395 "2022-03-26T01:30:48Z")
It’s certainly consistent with their shelling of Maryiopul - they want a land link to Crimea.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3396 "2022-03-26T02:44:47Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#):
>
> (The photo is actually real, but [it’s not from Ukraine](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ukraine-tractor-towing-russian-jet/).)
If my aircraft identification is correct – and I’m hardly an expert – that looks like a MiG-17 to me, pretty old school.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3397 "2022-03-26T02:55:55Z")
> [@DesertDog](#):
>
> that looks like a MiG-17 to me,
MiG-21 ‘Fishbed’.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3398 "2022-03-26T03:04:07Z")
You’re right – I’d assumed the dorsal ducting was some kind of upgrade. Still, it was last produced in 1985.
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### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3399 "2022-03-26T11:49:10Z")
Ukraine reports that the commander of a Russian tank regiment has committed suicide.
Apparently this happened in Russia, near the Ukraine border. He was supposed to reactivate tanks from a long-term storage depot, but everything of value had long since been removed from the tanks, including optical sights and electronics. Some didn’t even have engines.
It’s probably the same at many other Russian storage depots. The whole army is rotten with corruption.
>
[Translation](https://twitter.com/mikaheik/status/1507670824735674373/photo/1) of the bulletin from Ukrainian.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2022, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/3400 "2022-03-26T11:54:15Z")
That’s… actually sad. I mean, it’s war, yay those tanks can’t be used against the people we’re rooting for, but I can’t really applaud someone in such despair they kill themselves.
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