# Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** ukraine-invasion, breaking-news\ **Created:** [October 29, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972 "2022-10-29T17:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 70
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1394 "2022-12-27T03:17:00Z")
My guess is they’re looking to underscore the Russian offensive. “We were talking about peace, and they sent another large invasion force.” ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1395 "2022-12-27T04:21:27Z")
Ukraine is asking for peace talks at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as a possible mediator. Any new Russian offensive would look very bad. It would be a snub of the UN and 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:** [December 27, 2022, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1396 "2022-12-27T08:03:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Maybe they intend to challenge the Ukrainians to a dance-off. I think they need more practice. And prettier costumes. Costumes are important in dance. > [@dougrb](#): > > An episode of zelenskyys-zeroes? Just think of how many times you could sneak a Belarus military dance platoon into the series. The possibilities are endless. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1397 "2022-12-27T11:07:20Z")
Drunken lunatic and former president/prime minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev makes his predictions for 2023: > ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1398 "2022-12-27T12:56:46Z")
Well, he did say they were “unexpected and absurd”. Maybe he was trying to be funny. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1399 "2022-12-27T14:51:39Z")
At times, Putin does a great Hitler impression. Putin is making similar mistakes. Cite [Putin, Isolated and Distrustful, Leans on Handful of Hard-Line Advisers - WSJ](https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-russia-ukraine-war-advisers-11671815184) Two quotes from a very interesting article. WSJ did a lot of research into Putin’s advisors. > [@](#): > > The president seemed to have limited understanding of the reality of the situation, according to current and former U.S. and European officials and a former senior Russian intelligence officer briefed on the exchange. His [poorly equipped front-line troops](https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-russian-army-falters-in-ukraine-paramilitary-leader-close-to-putin-flexes-power-11668258001?mod=article_inline) were being encircled by a Ukrainian advance backed by artillery provided by the West. Mr. Putin rebuffed his own generals’ commands and told the troops to hold firm, they said. > > The Ukrainian ambushes continued, and on Oct. 1, [Russian soldiers hastily withdrew](https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-russian-troops-flee-lyman-ukrainians-rejoiceand-help-themselves-to-russian-supplies-11664719877?mod=article_inline), leaving behind dozens of dead bodies and supplies of artillery to restock Ukraine’s weapons caches. > [@](#): > > Battlefield updates can take several days to reach Mr. Putin’s desk, leaving them often out of date, people familiar with the matter said. Front-line commanders report to the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor to the KGB, which edits reports for experts at the Security Council, who pass them to Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, the arch hawk who helped persuade Mr. Putin to invade Ukraine. He, in turn, passes the reports to Mr. Putin. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1400 "2022-12-27T14:59:39Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > So… The Russians are lying The fact that the Russians are the ones reporting this means we should add another digit to the number of casualties they’re claiming. Probably more like 33 casualties is closer to the mark. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1401 "2022-12-27T15:04:09Z")
I might of missed it being posted, but I’ll add this one. Another Russian Tycoon fell out of a hotel. > **[Russian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov dies in Indian hotel fall](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437)** > > Meat millionaire Pavel Antov, who recently denied criticising the war in Ukraine, had just turned 65. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1402 "2022-12-27T15:10:35Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/R3m6-U89Fxs/maxresdefault.jpg "The Weather Girls - It's Raining Men (Lyrics)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3m6-U89Fxs) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1403 "2022-12-27T15:11:37Z")
Medvedev should avoid windows in the coming year when drunk. ( just kidding, he’s in my CDP, take a dive). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1404 "2022-12-27T15:16:23Z")
OK, even if some of them might happen eventually, most of the things on that list would take considerably longer than a year. Like, the UK rejoining the EU? That’d need at least a general election before it could even get started, and once it started, the negotiations would take years. And just in case you argue that by “happen in 2023” he means “the first steps towards it happening beginning in 2023”, he also includes “The EU collapses after the UK rejoins”, which obviously can’t start until, you know, the UK rejoins. Of course, what he’s really trying to do is “Look at all of those idiotic and possibly evil things the bumbling, incompetent West is doing!”, to try to distract attention from the idiotic and possibly evil things Russia is doing. Except the West isn’t doing anything nearly that idiotic and evil, so he has to make up things that the West might, conceivably, do. And he can’t even hit the mark with that “might, conceivably”. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1405 "2022-12-27T15:21:25Z")
I think Medvedev is safe. He regularly posts crazy, rabid stuff. If he falls out of a window, it will be because he is drunk. > [@](#): > > During the first nine months of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin and former president Dmitry Medvedev have developed a shtick worthy of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Once seen in the West as a moderate and a source of hope for better ties with Russia, Medvedev now plays the role of Putin’s bad cop, using the kind of overtly fascistic language that makes the Russian dictator’s own menacing speeches appear positively moderate by comparison. > > Just recently, Medvedev compared Ukrainians to “cockroaches.” In early November, he opined that Moscow was fighting “crazy Nazi drug addicts” in Ukraine, whose Western supporters had “saliva running down their chins from degeneracy.” Russia’s task, he declared, was to defeat “the supreme ruler of Hell, whatever name he uses: Satan, Lucifer, or Iblis.” The identity of this supreme ruler of Hell is unclear, but presumably Medvedev had either octogenarian US President Joe Biden or mild-mannered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in mind. > **[Former moderate Dmitry Medvedev becomes Putin’s pro-war cheerleader](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/former-moderate-dmitry-medvedev-becomes-putins-pro-war-cheerleader/)** > > Once seen in the West as a source of hope for better ties with Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has emerged since February 2022 as a pro-war cheerleader who regularly demonizes Ukraine on social media. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1406 "2022-12-27T15:32:33Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > might of missed it being posted, but I’ll add this one. Another Russian Tycoon fell out of a hotel. > > [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437) Maybe someone found out what goes into the sausage? 😉 I’m concerned that apparently Russian hit squads are traveling and working in Western countries. What if they turn their attention to prominent Western leaders that support the Ukrainians? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1407 "2022-12-27T15:32:54Z")
That’s a long list of ways, all completely out of Russia’s control, that things could start looking up for Russia. You are truly desperate when your only hope is that your enemy suffers bad luck. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1408 "2022-12-27T15:50:37Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m concerned that apparently Russian hit squads are traveling and working in Western countries. What if they turn their attention to prominent Western leaders that support the Ukrainians? It’s always possible, but there is a big difference in complexity. Presumably an oligarch has relationships and contacts with Russians that can be used to get access to the oligarch. Less so for a Western leader. Additionally some of these falling deaths may be suicides – jump out the window and we’ll leave your family alone. Resist and we’ll kill you all. I think the point is to silence and prevent dissent in Russia and in Russian. Maybe it is to prevent an alternative government from forming. Assassinating a Western leader might boost morale in Russia, but it would also further galvanize the West. * * * It might be farcical that oligarchs are falling out windows or shooting themselves in the back of their heads, but each of these is successful op by Russia. It would be better for Ukraine and the West if these weren’t happening. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1409 "2022-12-27T15:59:48Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > It would be better for Ukraine and the West if these weren’t happening. I don’t know about that. If Putin’s grip on the reins of power were as strong as he’d like us to think, then all of these deaths of oligarchs wouldn’t be necessary. Maybe one of them to encourage the others, but dozens of them is a sign that Putin’s hold on power is weak. And it’s hard to see that as being bad for the rest of the world. As far as the hit squads going after Western leaders, remember that they all have the full resources of functional governments providing for their security. That’s a lot more security than private money can buy, especially if you had to leave a lot of that private money behind when you left Russia. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1410 "2022-12-27T16:05:42Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I might of missed it being posted, but I’ll add this one. Another Russian Tycoon fell out of a hotel. It could be that he was overcome with grief after the death of one of his fellow oligarchs at the same hotel two days earlier from a “heart attack.” ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1411 "2022-12-27T16:17:16Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I might of missed it being posted, but I’ll add this one. Another Russian Tycoon fell out of a hotel. > > [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64101437) Sausage tycoon? Coulda sworn his name was Abe Froman. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1412 "2022-12-27T16:18:33Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > What if they turn their attention to prominent Western leaders that support the Ukrainians? Putin can push Russian oligarchs out of windows because he’s trying to make a statement to other Russian oligarchs and there’s nothing much they can do about it. The stakes would be much higher for pushing a Western leader out of a window since they (the nation in question) COULD respond and Putin can’t afford for them to respond. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/1413 "2022-12-27T16:30:11Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > and there’s nothing much they can do about it This is the strange part. My guess is that men of wealth, in the hundreds of millions to billions, could afford to hire their own security. Worst case scenario is that they flip and agree to help Ukraine financially in exchange for protection from western security. Trying to lay low obviously isn’t working, so why not openly embrace the Ukrainian side? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972.md?page=69) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972.md?page=71)