No.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/22/politics/zelensky-congress-address-transcript/index.html
Oh yeah, I remember that now. I even watched his speech.
I looks like this is his 3rd time out of the country, and this one much closer to home.
In one video, she sits, after giving the bust to Tatarsky, about four or five meters from the location of the explosion. She’s also seen leaving the cafe after the explosion with the wounded, although she doesn’t appear to be wounded herself. The bomb appears to go off when Tatarsky is putting the bubblewrap on the bust in its box, so I’d guess it was remotely detonated by someone in the room, rather than being on a timer.
In the video though she did seem to anticipate the explosion, she raises her hands to cover her face and seemed to be bracing for it right before it went off. Still odd that she sat so close, and if Tatarsky wasn’t standing in-between her and the statue-bomb, she stood a good chance of being at least severely injured herself.
I’ve seen that video, which ends with the screen going black and the sound of an explosion, but it doesn’t match what’s going on in the purported video of the actual explosion - Tatarsky is pixellated a second before the explosion, so one doesn’t see him being blown up.
Hid off-topic post
More are moving away from the dollar:
http s://www.firstpost.com/vantage/why-the-world-is-dumping-the-american-dollar-vantage-with-palki-sharma-5522
while the chicken hawk press continues to imagine otherwise:
htt ps://www.barrons.com/articles/dollar-china-petro-yuan-saudi-b0b6e48f
Why? Because doing so would be disastrous, as the U.S. would no longer be able to continue decades of voodoo economics:
http s://seekingalpha.com/article/164163-krugman-and-the-pied-pipers-of-debt
http s://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2009/9/30/saupload_public_and_private_debt_burden.jpg
Warning for @ralfy and you are officially banned from this thread.
Yet another hijack of thread with an off-topic post. Keep this up and your posting privileges will come under discussion. This is following prior notes in this thread to you and several thread closures over the weekend.
Happened in October but being reported on now, one of Putin’s elite personal security officers defects to Turkey and calls Putin a war criminal.
Brave man. Better find a nice bunker to hide out in and move on from Turkey ASAP.
Turkey seems a strange place to defect to. Perhaps he should have run over to the US or British embassy in Turkey.
There’s a substantial Russia ex-pat community in Turkey, not so dissimilar to Brits in Spain. It’s not unlikely the family has friends of friends there. Whether that’s their ultimate destination, or the first stop of many is hard to guess.
I was thinking of protection from the Russians. Umbrella tips, open windows, that sort of thing.
The Brits have a poor record of protecting Russian ex-pats from Putin. And the US is one of the easiest places in the world to have someone murdered.
Seeing reports of a Ukrainian counter offensive around Vuhledar.
This might be the long way round to Crimea, as the Ukrainians can’t realistically approach directly by trying to cross the Dnipro river. So this way would be to travel down towards Crimea by attacking to the east of the Dnipro, and then moving back west and cutting off a number of Russians holding the line between the Dnipro and Vuhledar. Or it could be a feint - after all the Russians probably fear the loss of Crimea more than anything so might over commit to its defence leaving other areas more vulnerable. (This is my analysis and I know nothing so it’s probably wrong!)
On the other hand it looks like the Russians are creeping further into Bakhmut after weeks of stalling.
Will be interesting to see the updates tomorrow, feels like more has happened in the last couple of days than has happened in weeks.
Anyone know how the mud situation is going? We’ve all been told that early Spring in Ukraine is too muddy for moving much heavy equipment, but I’m not sure exactly what the timetable is for that. Are things starting to dry up now, and that’s why more seems to be happening?
It’s still muddy, although I think there’s also been snow in the last week or so.
On Tatarsky’s death, it seems that the woman bringing the bust was trying to leave but got called by Tatarsky himself to come sit. She seems to protect her face with her hands just before the explosion, when Tatarsky put the bust back in its box.
On the interrogation by Russian police, she is filmed close up, and seems to look at something on her left each time she give an answer. Journalists think she is giving answers dictated by official Russian to get Ukrainians implicated.
Anyone heard if the US or other NATO country are war gaming the Ukraine battle plans?
General Norman Schwarzkopf’s book details how War gaming made the difference. His command had just started a exercise for a Iraq invasion of Kuwait. The tactical information had alreadly been put in the computers. It was a big advantage in preparing Desert Storm.
Ukraine would benefit from having similar tactical studies of their potential counter offensive plans.
Of course they are, but its not something you talk about. We didn’t just give them billions of dollars worth of weapons and stop there. They are taking our advice and our real time surveillance information. And we are going to let them take all of the credit, because democracy needs heros, and battles are fought on the ground.
Russia has similar tactical centers inherited from the Soviet Union. The Soviets satellite surveillance was quite good. They are dated now.
NATO is leveling the advantages that Russia uses.