# 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:** 267
### Author:  [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5385 "2022-05-04T16:05:20Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> Or “Uncle Vova”. What the hell is that?
I noticed that, and Googled to learn that “Vova” is a diminutive form of “Vladimir.”
Reinforces the whole paternalistic / authoritarian view many Russians have of their leader.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5386 "2022-05-04T16:19:13Z")
There also appears to be a slow attrition of Russian industries at the moment due to “industrial accidents”. It’s not going to bring the country down but combined with the sanctions it’s going to hurt, particularly as the ability to acquire the relevant products from elsewhere is limited.
This, I suspect, is where China and India will step in.
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### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5387 "2022-05-04T17:37:53Z")
No wonder Russian military efforts have faltered so badly against Ukraine. First it was babushkas uttering curses while handing Russian soldiers sunflower seeds, now it is black magic sigils painted on buildings. How are Russian forces equipped in terms of their Anti-Occult capabilities? Is Ukraine receiving any Supernatural assistance from NATO?
[Russian Media Accuse Ukraine of Using ‘Black Magic’ as Invasion Falters (msn.com)](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-media-accuse-ukraine-of-using-black-magic-as-invasion-falters/ar-AAWVkD6?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=76a26252635947489b485120098ebefc)
[how the heck do you make ‘boxes’ for articles linked to?]
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5388 "2022-05-04T17:47:42Z")
If you just post the bare link, Discourse normally will display it in a box. There are some links that don’t do it, but that’s the link page itself that doesn’t have that capability.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5389 "2022-05-04T17:49:34Z")
Like this:
> **[Russian Media Accuse Ukraine of Using 'Black Magic' as Invasion Falters](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-media-accuse-ukraine-of-using-black-magic-as-invasion-falters/ar-AAWVkD6?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=76a26252635947489b485120098ebefc)**
>
> A Kremlin-backed news outlet said "signs" of black magic were found at a Ukrainian artillery headquarters.
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### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5390 "2022-05-04T17:52:04Z")
[Russian Media Accuse Ukraine of Using ‘Black Magic’ as Invasion Falters (msn.com)](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-media-accuse-ukraine-of-using-black-magic-as-invasion-falters/ar-AAWVkD6?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=76a26252635947489b485120098ebefc)
Test. Huh, doesn’t do it for me.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5391 "2022-05-04T18:01:06Z")
Are you hitting the « link » code at the top of the reply box? It looks like additional coding is being inserted somehow.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5392 "2022-05-04T19:56:46Z")
Likely related to the Ukraine war:
> **[Russia accuses Israel of sending mercenaries to Ukraine](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-ukraine-israel-accused-sending-mercenaries)**
>
> Spat escalates days after Russia's foreign minister compares Ukraine's Jewish president to Hitler
> **[Senior Hamas leaders went to Moscow to speak with Russian officials](https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-705840)**
>
> The Hamas delegation will meet with Russian Foreign Ministry officials and the head of the Chechen Republic.
Russia seems (seems) to have decided to piss off Israel and start supporting Hamas. I’m not seeing any reason to do that other than to help create new crises for the world to worry about, to distract from Ukraine and, maybe, divert resources.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5393 "2022-05-04T20:02:49Z")
> [@Cardigan](#):
>
> Test. Huh, doesn’t do it for me.
To get it to work, you must paste in a naked url. It must begin with “https://” (no quote marks) and have no formatting tags around it, as in “[some words] ( link )” . You may be using some thing that automagically converts it into linked text format.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5394 "2022-05-04T21:35:19Z")
Test of MSN link
> **[Russian Media Accuse Ukraine of Using 'Black Magic' as Invasion Falters](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-media-accuse-ukraine-of-using-black-magic-as-invasion-falters/ar-AAWVkD6?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=76a26252635947489b485120098ebefc)**
>
> A Kremlin-backed news outlet said "signs" of black magic were found at a Ukrainian artillery headquarters.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5395 "2022-05-04T23:08:04Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> Russia seems (seems) to have decided to piss off Israel and start supporting Hamas. I’m not seeing any reason to do that other than to help create new crises for the world to worry about, to distract from Ukraine and, maybe, divert resources.
This would presume a more dispassionate master plan than they’ve given any indication of so far. Much more likely to me is a surge of anti-semitism overcoming the former wary practical political agreements with Israel. Anti-semitism is an integral part of the Hate The Others campaigns ongoing in Russia and nearly everywhere else populist autocracies are in the ascendancy. They all seem to read the same playbook.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5396 "2022-05-05T00:57:54Z")
[U.S. Intelligence Is Helping Ukraine Kill Russian Generals, Officials Say](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/us/politics/russia-generals-killed-ukraine.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the classified intelligence being shared with Ukraine.
>
> The administration has sought to keep much of the battlefield intelligence secret, out of fear it will be seen as an escalation and provoke President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into a wider war. American officials would not describe how they have acquired information on Russian troop headquarters, for fear of endangering their methods of collection. But throughout the war, the U.S. intelligence agencies have used a variety of sources, including classified and commercial satellites, to trace Russian troop movements.
Usually I am all for leaks. But there is nothing I see in the article that isn’t blazingly obvious (including that there is a rank ceiling – Lieutenant General – above which the U.S. won’t pass on the location of a Russian general). The only justifiction for the leak, if you can call it that, is to provoke our adversary. I don’t like it.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5397 "2022-05-05T01:38:18Z")
Re my last post, I just thought of something that makes me a bit more tolerant of the Biden administration bear-poke. Telling Russia’s colonel generals that they are alive at our sufferance may lead them to think about what would instantly change our approach (use of even one of the smallest battlefield nuclear weapons).
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5398 "2022-05-05T02:15:32Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> I was thinking that it might be a Pyrrhic victory for _Russia_ , if they end the war with more territory taken from of SE Ukraine.
More of a pyre-ic victory, I think.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5399 "2022-05-05T02:49:43Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> they _embrace_ the deceptions, the dissonance, all in service to a belief in a Strong Leader who does not require them to reason, to have compassion, to try to understand anything. The same sense of an imminent return to the greatness they believe they once had. The same relief found in hatred of the Other. Rather than look helplessly at the incoherence of the present and the fear that the future will be even worse.
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Combine that with the baseline Russian fatalism and nihilism, and you don’t really need to try that hard.
> [@Sauron](#):
>
> the population is perfectly content to follow a strong leader no matter what decisions he makes. They’re fatalistic, and will go to any mental lengths to justify terrible things done to others “to defend the Motherland.”
When one of the historic rulers of the state is nicknamed “the Terrifying” and that is supposed to be a term of _ **praise** _, and when [Princess Olga of the Kyivan Rus](https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/medieval-renaissance/olga-of-kiev-one-saint-you-do-not-want-to-mess-with/) is a canonized _saint_… well…
It’s a vision by which Machiavelli is twisted around into that the way to become loved is _ **by** _ being feared.
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> Anti-semitism is an integral part of the Hate The Others campaigns ongoing in Russia and nearly everywhere else populist autocracies are in the ascendancy.
It’s a well-tested book. And in the case of Russia, on top of that it had already been a very long standing phenomenon, reached for by both czarist and communist regimes at different times.
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> But there is nothing I see in the article that isn’t blazingly obvious (including that there is a rank ceiling – Lieutenant General – above which the U.S. won’t pass on the location of a Russian general). The only justifiction for the leak, if you can call it that, is to provoke our adversary.
True, I don’t get what’s the usefulness of that leak. It only validates Putin’s bullcrap narrative that the West is calling the shots in Ukraine.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5400 "2022-05-05T03:34:33Z")
Wish there were no rank ceiling. I want to see Russian 4-stars, 5-stars getting sniped/bombed.
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5401 "2022-05-05T05:04:30Z")
It looks like the mystery of this particular Russian fire has been solved, and it wasn’t faulty wiring:
>
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5402 "2022-05-05T05:18:45Z")
Looks like the Azov Battalion is going to fight to nearly the last man in Mariupol.
They successfully tied up a lot of Russian troops and equipment that could be fighting elsewhere in Ukraine.
Their original beginnings were fascist. But by now a lot of their recent members just wanted to defend Mariupol.
The Soviets did an excellent job building the bunkers under the steel works plant.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5403 "2022-05-05T09:13:07Z")
Any bets on the Victory Day parade and speech?
Double down? Declare victory and pull out? Car bomb? Cancellation?
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/5404 "2022-05-05T10:02:57Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> Looks like the Azov Battalion is going to fight to nearly the last man in Mariupol.
>
> They successfully tied up a lot of Russian troops and equipment that could be fighting elsewhere in Ukraine.
> Their original beginnings were fascist. But by now a lot of their recent members just wanted to defend Mariupol
The rather dark upside to this is that after the war the fascist contingent is likely to be greatly reduced from its pre-war levels.
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