Yep! 
It really blows my mind that we have a President of the Russian Federation here who makes the case for poor little Nazi Germany being forced to start WWII.
And didn’t this whole thing start because he claimed that Nazis were running Ukraine and he was trying to get rid of them?
hid off topic post, What Exit?
I mean this seriously, why doesn’t the world at large just assassinate Putin? There have to be plenty of Russians who want him dead. Give them a hand. There’s too much at stake to allow a crazy person access to nuclear weapons. He could singularly end the world.
We have said he is emulating Hitler and now here’s the proof.
hid reply to off topic post. What Exit
Who and what do you imagine would replace him? The net result could most likely be someone very similar - or possibly worse.
Modnote: cease postings like this in the breaking news thread.
This is close to a warning.
Report from Ukraine that Ukrainian drones have sunk another Russian Naval ship, an amphibious assault vessel
American and British news sources have not confirmed, merely repeating that Ukraine claims to have sunk the ship.
For context of Russian Black Sea Fleet Status:
Somewhat out of date, doesn’t include the sinking of the Ivanovets or the (above) Caesar Kunikov
The Ukrainian claims are accompanied by video from the drones, some of which, while pretty jumpy and janky, show rather massive explosions.
Video of the attack released by the Ukrainian military:
In the final 15 seconds of the video, the ship suddenly heels over onto its port side. Pretty sure this is outside the standard operational envelope for this class of vessels.
Still from the end of the video:
On the left you can see the square bow of the ship sitting vertical instead of horizontal like it’s supposed to. You’re looking as if from above the ship in this image, except that “above” in this case is actually beside.
The first twitter link has a followup post by the author linking to the original post on Telegram, but Telegram’s website won’t play media this large, you have to install the Telegram app, so I figured the Twitter link is more useful.
This looks like a video we saw last week; only in retrospect, I think the previous video showed the ship firing on the drone. If the attack was today, it seems like a pretty quick release of the video.
You’re probably thinking of the attack on the Ivanovets, a missile corvette that was sunk not long ago. The videos all look similar because it’s all night/thermal-vision cameras bouncing around a lot.
Different ship. The ship in the new video is clearly a Ropucha-class vessel. They have a distinctive square bow that’s visible at several points in the video.
So, is there any word on why Zaluzhnyi was replaced? Replacing a general, while also giving him a prestigious medal, sort of sends mixed signals.
Arguments over strategy and tactics. Zaluzhnyi wants more troops and was pushing for more of a “total mobilization” of society, which Zelensky was worried would destabilize Ukrainian society more than it would help. Zalushnyi also was was not a fan of the NATO advisor’s push for Ukraine to fight a more NATO-style war by making a massive, concentrated push at one point followed by a breakout. Lacking NATO-style air power to suppress enemy air and artillery, Zaluzhnyi was concerned that they would suffer massive casualties with uncertain prospects of success. So he basically quickly scuttled that approach after early failures in favor of a more gradualist Soviet-style pressure at multiple points, probing for a weakness in the line that could then be exploited. Zaluzhnyi would rather trade an uncertain and probably very costly prospect for quick gains for time to build up more of a tech and manpower base, which Zelensky is probably rightly concerned is bad press when Ukraine is desperate for continued Western support. Zaluzhnyi didn’t see the point in the stubborn defense of Bakhmut, Zelensky considered it an important symbolic stand. Zaluzhnyi says the war is currently stalemated, Zelensky thinks that is bad optics. etc.
I’d say basically Zaluzhnyi has been making more of a very rational military assessment of the problems facing Ukraine, while Zelensky has been making more of a very rational political assessment of the problems facing Ukraine.
Here’s an excerpt of Zaluzhnyi’s recent essay on the state of the war right before he was dismissed: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/opinions/ukraine-army-chief-war-strategy-russia-valerii-zaluzhnyi/index.html
Sounds pretty standard to me. We even do it in the US military. See, for example:
https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Photos/igphoto/2002004604/
(That’s a photo of General McChrystal getting his retirement award pinned on him after being shit-canned by President Obama)
Think of it as something like the golden parachute, but for senior officers instead of CEOs. Not that they get any money for it (but they do have decent retirement benefits, at least in the US military, albeit not CEO-level benefits).
The medal is for everything good you did. Right up to the point where you F***-ed up. The firing is for that and whatever happened after.
There’s no cognitive disconnect or confusion there. Two separate phases of your career, each with appropriate “rewards”. Or at least appropriate just desserts.
Never mind, it’d be a hijack (I’ll just say I disagree with your take on the situation).
Not sure if this really belongs here but it’s breaking news and it might have an effect on internal Russian politics.
I just opened a thread with a few thoughts on that …
Avdiivka has finally been taken by the Russians again. From looking at where the fighting was happening in relation to the roads out of town, I figured this would happen by the end of the weekend, at least. Otherwise, the Ukrainians defending it would have been cut off.
Damn, I wish the house would get its shit together and approve the most recent aid package.