# Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 1) **URL:** \ **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:** 491
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9892 "2022-10-20T02:40:44Z")
Wait, what? “Komsomolskaya Pravda”? Komsomol was the Soviet youth league (the “kom” part is for “communist”), Komsomolskaya Pravda was a Soviet newspaper founded in 1925. How is it still around, in “capitalist” Russia? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9893 "2022-10-20T02:57:15Z")
Brand value? ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9894 "2022-10-20T03:03:02Z")
After the breakup of the USSR it was privatized and is now owned by a company connected to sanctioned oligarch Grigory Berezkin. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9895 "2022-10-20T03:03:29Z")
« Trademarks are capitalist, tovarisch! » ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9896 "2022-10-20T07:21:14Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Similar drones have been rigged up to carry a bomb rack of several large mortar bombs, so the weight of a gun seems feasible. Mortar rounds only weigh about four or five pounds and the drones I saw only carried two or four rounds that were simply dropped, no recoil involved. The video purports to be a machine gun. The lightest machine gun in the US military weighs 22 pounds with ammo. Add on the structure you need to hold and rotate the gun and you are talking about a lot of weight, and that’s not even taking into account the recoil from the gun firing on full automatic. It’s unlikely you could hit anything with it from more than a couple feet away and you’d be lucky if the whole thing didn’t shake apart. Frankly, I don’t see a use for it. If you are going after enemy drones, there are already dirt cheap drones that you can crash into enemy drones much easier. And if you are looking at ground targets, the mortar is much better as it’s an area weapon and doesn’t need the accuracy of a machine gun. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9897 "2022-10-20T07:38:38Z")
Hypothesis: it could be a one-off stunt build solely intended to be featured in this video with the hope that it goes viral among Russian troops and makes the terrified green grunts even more paranoid that every little drone buzz means a new form of death raining down from the sky. The experienced soldiers will dismiss the video for the practical reasons noted, but it could be worth spending a couple hundred bucks max on this goofy little robot if it means taking yet another tiny chip out of the morale and cohesiveness of the new recruits being shoveled into the meat grinder. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9898 "2022-10-20T08:14:17Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Add on the structure you need to hold and rotate the gun and you are talking about a lot of weight, and that’s not even taking into account the recoil from the gun firing on full automatic. While I agree that the recoil from a machine gun would be problematic for a drone, you don’t need to rotate the _gun_ when you can just rotate the entire _drone_. That would save a bit of weight and complexity. More likely: > [@Cervaise](#): > > Hypothesis: it could be a one-off stunt build solely intended to be featured in this video with the hope that it goes viral among Russian troops and makes the terrified green grunts even more paranoid that every little drone buzz means a new form of death raining down from the sky. The experienced soldiers will dismiss the video for the practical reasons noted, but it could be worth spending a couple hundred bucks max on this goofy little robot if it means taking yet another tiny chip out of the morale and cohesiveness of the new recruits being shoveled into the meat grinder. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9899 "2022-10-20T09:28:25Z")
Bastards. They’ll flood the srea and remove a major source of hydro power. Cite [Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, October 19 | Institute for the Study of War](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-october-19) > [@](#): > > **Russian forces are also setting information conditions to conduct a false-flag attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP). The Russian military may believe that breaching the dam could cover their retreat from the right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukrainian advances across the river.** Surovikin claimed on October 18 that he has received information that Kyiv intends to strike the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), which he alleged would cause destructive flooding in Kherson Oblast.[3] Saldo echoed this claim and warned that Ukrainian forces intend to strike dams upstream of Kherson City.[4] Russian authorities likely intend these warnings about a purported Ukrainian strike on the Kakhovka HPP to set information conditions for Russian forces to damage the dam and blame Ukraine for the subsequent damage and loss of life, all while using the resulting floods to cover their own retreat further south into Kherson Oblast. The Kremlin could attempt to leverage such a false-flag attack to overshadow the news of a third humiliating retreat for Russian forces, this time from western Kherson. Such an attack would also further the false Russian information operation portraying Ukraine as a terrorist state that deliberately targets civilians. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9900 "2022-10-20T11:59:42Z")
It really sounds like an outraged hive of metal bees. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9901 "2022-10-20T12:08:33Z")
Not for the first time, on Russian state TV they openly discuss committing war crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine. > ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9902 "2022-10-20T16:03:38Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Hypothesis: it could be a one-off stunt build solely intended to be featured in this video with the hope that it goes viral among Russian troops and makes the terrified green grunts even more paranoid that every little drone buzz means a new form of death raining down from the sky. The experienced soldiers will dismiss the video for the practical reasons noted, but it could be worth spending a couple hundred bucks max on this goofy little robot if it means taking yet another tiny chip out of the morale and cohesiveness of the new recruits being shoveled into the meat grinder. I rather like this idea. It’s actually a much better plan than trying to actually field the drone. > [@Broomstick](#): > > While I agree that the recoil from a machine gun would be problematic for a drone, you don’t need to rotate the _gun_ when you can just rotate the entire _drone_. That would save a bit of weight and complexity. IIRC, they show the gun rotating both up and down and side to side. I’d have to go back and look again. > [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Not for the first time, on Russian state TV they openly discuss committing war crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine. > Russian lawmakers Andrey Gurulyov and Konstantin Dolgov advocate freezing, starving the Ukrainian civilian population Gee, I wonder if that sounds familiar to anyone from Ukraine? Let’s see, starts with “Holodomor”, can’t quite recall the rest. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9903 "2022-10-20T16:33:16Z")
The withdrawal of civilians from Kherson and Russia’s seeming admission that it will have to withdraw from Kherson strikes me as dangerous. They could be preparing to blow the dam, or they could even be hoping that Ukrainians bring in mass forces to take and hold Kherson and that’s where they’ll use a tactical nuke. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9904 "2022-10-20T16:42:44Z")
I think they’re thinking flood. Equivalent short-term damage to a WMD but none of the political issues of actual WMDs. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9905 "2022-10-20T16:57:57Z")
Here’s a map of potential flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which would be a war crime: > The Russians also claim that Ukraine has a nuclear bomb in Mykolaiv, north of Kherson, which they will set off and blame on the Russians, in order to drag NATO into the war. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9906 "2022-10-20T17:14:10Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I think they’re thinking flood. Equivalent short-term damage to a WMD but none of the political issues of actual WMDs. They’ve already telegraphed the bullshit by floating the idea that Ukraine will blow the dam. It’s pretty clear that this is the Russian “strategy” at this point. That, and starving/freezing the Ukrainian population in a re-run of the Holodomor. Russia has ceased to be a civilized country. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9907 "2022-10-20T17:15:19Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Not for the first time, on Russian state TV they openly discuss committing war crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine. How, exactly, does a nuclear-equipped nation with a comic book villain despot get prosecuted for war crimes? ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9908 "2022-10-20T17:18:43Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > The Russian commander talked about concerns that the Ukrainians would use chemical weapons or would destroy the Nova Kakhovka dam, which could cause catastrophic flooding to the city of Kherson. I think the chances of Ukraine doing these things are close to zero, but I wouldn’t say the same about the Russians. Yes, I read this as laying the groundwork for blaming the Ukrainians when they blow up the dam or use chemical weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9909 "2022-10-20T17:26:06Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Russia has ceased to be a civilized country. I’m not convinced it ever was. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9910 "2022-10-20T17:29:13Z")
Will the Russians stay to fight in the city of Kherson or not? From Rus standpoint the disadvantages are: 1) they’ll be fighting undersupplied and resupply will very likely continue to get increasingly more tenuous as the battle rages, 2) the forces deployed there now represent the lion’s share of Russia’s experienced combat troops still remaining. Their loss really can’t be replaced. Advantages: 1) fighting in an urban environment is a force multiplier for the defenders and will result in greater casualties to Ukr. forces attacking, 2) would result in the destruction of Kherson, thereby denying Ukr. of its economic benefits, and moves closer to the larger Russian goal of destroying the Ukrainian state. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/9911 "2022-10-20T17:33:57Z")
I was thinking the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037.md?page=490) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037.md?page=492)