Is that bank lady “falling” out of her window war related? not seeing the connection.
Moderating:
OK, please don’t go meta here. leave the moderating to the mods.
But lets drop the Banker out of the window stuff.
I just had a Ukraine war-related article I found, but it’s from May so never mind.
The Russians targeted a pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk. I had assumed it was a dumb bomb that was badly aimed. But a traitor provided the targeting information.
Fucking animals.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/europe/kramatorsk-deadly-strike-ukraine-war-intl/index.html
reports that General Surovikin has been arrested for possible complicity with Wagner march.
Also speculation about a detailed purge in the Russian armed forces, to identify those who were sympathetic to Wagner
ETA: CNN reports that Surovikin may have been a VIP member of Wagner group.
One has to wonder whether in the end the number of Russians killed by Russia in some way will outnumber the number of Russians killed by Ukraine.
I don’t aee this as good news. I doubt the Russians will withdraw from Zaporizhzhia without doing something to that nuclear plant. A power plant is too important an asset to leave behind for Ukraine to use.
Guardian Blog
Be careful.
During the Iraq and Afghan invasions and conquests (well 1 for 2) the USA unwittingly blew up an awful lot of innocent people on the say-so of some local who had a score to settle with some other local.
Trusting the veracity of locals is always tricky biz. Especially when you control the Thor hammer they’d love to have you wield to their benefit.
It took far longer than it should have for the US intel & targeting teams to learn that lesson.
I know the Russians shell residential and business areas. What gets hit is random. That’s pretty bad.
Targeting a restaurant with a missile has more malicious intent. There’s families there. It bothers me more.
You make a good point that we don’t know the motives behind the person that reported that location to the Russians.
Creating terror within Ukraine is part of Russian strategy.
I still don’t get the pizza thing. OK, deliberately going after civilian targets just because you’re an evil bastard who wants to cause unnecessary pain: I can see that (not agree with it, of course, but I can see that there are people for whom that would be a motivation). But even given that, why specifically target a specific restaurant? If the goal is just to hurt civilians, then most civilian targets would be as good as a restaurant. Why not target a residential neighborhood, or a school, or a hospital (all of which are bigger targets, and so also easier to hit)?
Because they claimed off-duty soldiers also ate there.
ETA: ninja’ed. In more detail …
- Mr. Russian sympathizer hates the pizza joint because the owner is mean to him. Or the pizza doesn’t have enough anchovies. Or …
- Mr. Russian sympathizer sends vid and a message to credulous Russian intel: “the local mayor and police chief and a bunch of Ukrainian guerillas eat here every day at 5pm.”
- Lt. Ivanov of intel sends the coordinates and target time over to the Air Force along with an explanation “Confirmed enemy C&C node”.
- Boom! Dead pizza joint.
OK, that… does actually make sense. It’s probably stupid to trust that your informer is reliable and accurate, but if you have intelligence that a pizza parlor is in fact a meeting place for C&C, then it’s a reasonable strategic target.
We should expect Russia to sabotage/blow up the nuclear power plant as soon as Ukr forces get near. In fact, I think there’s been reporting that explosive charges were observed being rigged by Russians at the power plant, just like they did on the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Prevailing winds would put most of the fallout in Russia proper. I would hope that any sabotage wouldn’t directly involve the reactors.
Yes, much like when they blew the dam and ended up flooding out some of their own forces. As much as I’d like to believe enlightened self-interest would prevent them from blowing up the nuclear power plant, I’m far from convinced that sort of logic applies to the Russian MoD’s thinking.
The only “Russia” that matters is wherever the MoD, General Staff, and Putin happen to be at the moment. The rest is expendable for any reason, including spite.
They’re going to blame the Ukrainians for it. A little or even a lot of collateral damage in Russia that Ukraine is to blame for is probably seen by Putin as a good thing.
Chances are extremely good there’s a bomb installed somewhere in the plant. Just like the dam. If Ukraine has some kind of special forces, they might try a quick strike operation to seize the plant to try to forestall that bomb from being exploded.