No one knows for sure how much the Ukraine army has been supplied since the Crimea annexation in 2014. Biden recently sent anti tank missiles.
I hope NATO has quietly supplied weapons. That’s the only chance the Ukrainians have to defend themselves.
Russia has strongly signaled their intentions since 2014.
Stupid question alert: what would the invading Russians want with Chernobyl? If I understand correctly, nuclear power plant fuel and waste products aren’t suited to be converted into weapons.
Latvia delivered Stinger SAMs to Ukraine yesterday.
Nothing, it’s just that Chernobyl happens to be on the shortest route between the border and the capitol.
A commenter or two has said that Chernobyl is, in effect, the world’s largest suicide vest (penetrating the concrete sarcophagus could devastate much of Eurasia); therefore, it’s important to have control over it.
This is in addition to the pure logistics piece (it was on our way).
What if Russia launched a missile that inadvertently landed in Poland? Would that trigger Article 5?
Yeah. I was thinking that several of the reactors were still online, but they had all been decommissioned in the early 2000’s. So, most logical reason I’ve seen is it was simply on the way logistically to where they wanted to go, and these days the danger of going through the area is fairly minimal, as long as you don’t actually try and go into the reactor area. The roads still seemed to be in fairly good shape, at least the last time I saw a special on someone going into the area, so that also helps a lot.
Is the other power infrastructure in the area still live? Transmission lines, transformers, stuff like that?
I would guess that, even then, NATO would try hard to brush it off and move on as a “it was an accident” thing, and would accept apologies and compensation if Russia offered it, and try to get everyone to move on. NATO is not eager to invoke Article 5 at all.
You’d have to really poke NATO, on purpose, for them to invoke it.
I think that there is a new power plant in the area, so probably. It’s not nuclear, though can’t recall what it is. I just remember someone mentioning that to me.
Just one missile? And just randomly hitting somewhere in Poland? Yeah, they wouldn’t invoke article 5 for that. If, say, a couple dozen ‘accidentally’ hit several key sites in Poland though…
It’s worth reminding everyone to examine and critique what you see online.
The BBC coverage is pretty good. They got reactions from average Russians on the street.
Why do people insist on doing this fake video stuff? Every time there is some kind of dramatic news event some joker copies an old video or photo from some similar event.
Do they actually make much money out of it?
There are rumors going about that a Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot has scored 5 kills and become the world’s first ace in many, many years.
While it’s probably not true (pending verification), the Jane’s USAF/LO-MAC/Ace Combat/DID ADF fan in me sure hopes it is.
Yeah, that would be great. And yeah, it’s hard to believe. I’ve heard reports of Ukrainians taking out tanks and helicopters, but none of the reports seem verified, at least not when I was looking earlier. It’s hard to gauge how well…or poorly…Ukraine is doing at this point. But given the disparity in forces, it’s hard to see Ukraine doing that well, especially considering the difference in equipment and armaments.
What counts towards ace? I saw a picture of a supposedly downed Ukrainian plane, it looked to be some sort of transport. So while it’s a military plane it probably only has defensive measures (flares, chaff) & therefore wasn’t able to engage in aerial combat. I’m guessing that doesn’t count???
I doubt that there is a widespread successful checking of the advance, after all, even both Gulf Wars, thorough triumphs of the American military, also had over a hundred casualties and/or vehicle losses. These few inevitable losses by Russia could definitely be overemphasized by Ukraine if they wished to. Then again, it’s possible that it’s true, and I surely hope that it is.
A collection of Tweets from Ukraine. Some are difficult to read. This could easily be me or my best friend. I’m just lucky that my ancestors immigrated from Europe.
People lick ice cream bars out of store freezers for attention. You underestimate what people can do.
Here’s hoping that Ukraine will be able to replicate Finland’s successes.