# Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 1)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Tags:** ukraine-invasion, breaking-news
**Created:** [February 24, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037 "2022-02-24T08:30:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 204
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4123 "2022-04-05T21:44:25Z")
Suck them in, cut their supply line, and encircle them?
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4124 "2022-04-05T21:54:30Z")
Hopefully. As Russians withdraw their forces from northern Ukraine and move them east, that frees up Ukrainian forces to do the same.
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### Author:  [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4125 "2022-04-05T22:04:49Z")
> **[Karma? Russian soldier dies after replacing armor plate with stolen Macbook...](https://popularmilitary.com/karma-russian-soldier-dies-after-replacing-armor-plate-with-stolen-macbook-in-ukraine/)**
>
> A Russian soldier is believed to have been killed wearing a MacBook where a ballistic plate should have been. The allegation arose after a video surfaced, showing a Ukrainian soldier holding up a MacBook that was reportedly looted by the…
Karma indeed.
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### Author:  [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4126 "2022-04-05T22:37:41Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> Well, calling it a country-sized concentration camp is a bit off
Perhaps a bit off, but essentially what I meant is that Putin’s aim at this point is to wipe out the population of Ukraine and to destroy everything so, technically and literally, no not a concentration camp. But is it any better at this point?
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4127 "2022-04-05T22:42:25Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> If sanctions just generally hurt the economy, maybe that would be counted against Putin. But anti-Russian-people sanctions, like kicking disabled Russians out of the Paralympics, played into the up-against-a-world-that-hates-us narrative pushing Putin well above that 2/3 mark you mentioned.
>
> I think we are doing a terrible job at psychological warfare, and those polls show it.
Well eventually he’ll run out of soldiers and the Paralympics athletes will be recruited.
In the meantime we do need to up our game about getting information into Russia. There will be a lot of wounded soldiers coming back with stories to tell.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4128 "2022-04-05T23:08:55Z")
Really? Wounded soldiers coming back?
I am beginning to think I’m an outlier because I think much darker things about Putin’s Russia than most. There are reports of the Russians leaving their wounded behind when they leave. If it’s important to Putin that the truth not come out back in Russia then there are ways to make sure those wounded soldiers, or less than absolutely faithful soldiers, don’t get an opportunity to speak to a mass audience. Internal exile, for example, the old “send them to Siberia” method. Or just so pumping out the propaganda that anyone not toeing the line will be discredited. And so one - so many unsavory things that could happen.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4129 "2022-04-06T00:32:27Z")
This is a week old but gives some flavor easily missed:
[Panic on Russian state TV](https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/world/russia-ukraine-war-final-and-complete-defeat-panic-on-russian-state-tv-over-the-war-in-ukraine/)
> [@](#):
>
> Yakov Kedmi, an Israeli-Russian pundit and former diplomat, is usually a reliably pro-Kremlin voice. But in an appearance on the prime time show Tonight with Vladimir Soloviyev, he was remarkably negative about the situation in Ukraine. . . .
>
> In his nightly address, Zelenskyy mocked the Russian government for seeking to suppress an interview he gave to independent Russian journalists hours earlier. . . .
>
> Russia has forbidden the media from reporting on or publishing the interview, though multiple outlets defied the government’s orders.
I don’t mean to mean to imply that Russian media is half free. If you hear the same message 90 percent of the time, the effect of rarely hearing something else may just be to convince yourself of not being hoodwinked. So Putin may be fine with his people occasionally hearing a bit of real Zelenskyy. It’s a more subtle approach than that of North Korea or Turkmenistan, but maybe just as effective.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4130 "2022-04-06T00:37:00Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> I am beginning to think I’m an outlier because I think much darker things about Putin’s Russia than most. There are reports of the Russians leaving their wounded behind when they leave.
If they’re leaving wounded behind then reporters from around the world can interview them.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4131 "2022-04-06T00:55:13Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> In the meantime we do need to up our game about getting information into Russia. There will be a lot of wounded soldiers coming back with stories to tell.
The U.S. spends money on content:
[Radio Liberty](https://pressroom.rferl.org/frequently-asked-questions)
I don’t know that we do anything much on the VPN side, nor do I know how practical it would be for foreign governments to step in there.
As I have posted previously, it’s not just about getting our message in, but also about having a legitimate message of, dare I say, love for the Russian people at the same time we resist Putin’s war.
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4132 "2022-04-06T01:05:02Z")
I saw that speech a few days ago - [one can watch it here](https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/1508425276883181575) - and found it quite curious. The speaker is known to be pro-Kremlin, but the speech’s content is negative and critical of the war. The conclusion he comes to, though, is that Russia must win the war or face “the beginning of the end of the Russian state”.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4133 "2022-04-06T01:29:23Z")
I’m not sure he’s wrong. I think the war has already begun the “end of the Russian state”.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4134 "2022-04-06T01:41:39Z")
Zbigniew Brzezinski summed it up well: “Russia can be a democracy, or an Empire, but it can’t be both.”
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4135 "2022-04-06T01:46:25Z")
That reminds me. Is the current US ambassador to Poland a relative of Zbigniew Brzezinski?
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4136 "2022-04-06T02:28:47Z")
His younger son, Mark Brzezinski.
> **[Mark Brzezinski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Brzezinski)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
> Mark Francis Brzezinski (born April 7, 1965) is an American lawyer serving as the United States Ambassador to Poland since 2022. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to Sweden from 2011 to 2015 under President Barack Obama.
> The son of Zbigniew Brezinski, former US National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, Brezinski attended Dartmouth College, the University of Virginia Law School, and St. Antony's College, Oxford.
> Brze...
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4137 "2022-04-06T02:31:24Z")
Ah. I didn’t think to check Wikipedia. I saw his bio from the State Department and it didn’t say.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4138 "2022-04-06T08:12:29Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> > [@Broomstick](#):
> >
> > I am beginning to think I’m an outlier because I think much darker things about Putin’s Russia than most. There are reports of the Russians leaving their wounded behind when they leave.
>
> If they’re leaving wounded behind then reporters from around the world can interview them.
But that doesn’t get the information into Russia, which was the point of the post I was responding to.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4139 "2022-04-06T10:07:12Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Really? Wounded soldiers coming back?
Everything old is new again…
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypPrKnUew44)
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4140 "2022-04-06T12:19:21Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Everything old is new again…
Aw man, I was gonna post that…
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4141 "2022-04-06T12:33:56Z")
This calm before the next storm is making me nervous. No one knows what Russia will do next. There’s always a concern they could return to Keiv.
Ukraine is getting more tanks. They need to resupply quickly and build defenses.
> **[Soviet-made tanks headed to Ukraine, courtesy of U.S. and allies](https://news.yahoo.com/soviet-made-tanks-headed-ukraine-170112372.html)**
>
> Soviet-made tanks headed to Ukraine, courtesy of U.S. and allies
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4142 "2022-04-06T14:07:27Z")
These are the lines I found most poignant, even though the song context is different:
Kiev! said the commissar
from there your own way home
But I never got to Kiev
we never came by home
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