Sorry, you lost me here. What is the “Anonymous” group?
Do you mean the hacker group?
Yeah, it wasn’t all her fault. The German people have been moving away from nuclear for a while, this was simply the final straw. I won’t say she doesn’t have any blame, especially for what they chose as an alternative, but it was the will of the people not simply her whim that took Germany down this path. In the short term, they are probably screwed, especially if they actually follow through on real sanctions against Russia that strike at their energy sector…the only ones that would really hurt them.
He should say that the US is imposing the strongest sanctions at our disposal and that we hope our other allies and anyone who is shocked and dismayed at this naked land grab should join in with following our lead. Those sanctions should be targeted broadly at Russia’s energy sector as well as cutting Russia off from international banking mechanisms. And we will support any country that follows our lead. Oh, and we are stepping up shipments of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
Yes. We have already been getting cyber reports about potential or even imminent Russia threats, and Biden should make sure everyone knows that so that when it starts to happen everyone knows where it’s coming from and no one is fooled by Putin with butter not melting in his mouth telling all and sundry that it wasn’t me…
Yep. They seem oddly quiet. Nothing I noticed about China from them either of late. I wonder why.
Why is Russia the only country in the world with any sort of cyberattack capabilities? It seems like something other countries should have looked into, too.
They aren’t. They are one of the best, however. And Putin has already made the threat and, my WAG is that intelligence keeps an eye on Russian state or state-sponsored cyber groups and are seeing activity.
Ironically, the current President of the UN Security Council is Russia.
Well, I was off base in my prediction. This doesn’t look limited in any way. I would have expected some distracting attacks in the north to try to spread what Ukraine has thin. But landing paratroops at Kyiv’s airport is more than a distraction. Putin wants the whole thing, either as a client state or as part of Russia proper.
Yeah, I didn’t expect this either, but this seems like a full-court press with the idea of perhaps taking the capital and the government and forcing a full surrender.
What is the extent of armed resistance by Ukr? Is there shooting back and forth, or just unilateral?
I’m sure they are shooting back, but reports are pretty incoherent so far. I saw a report, probably exaggerated, that the Ukrainians ambushed and shot down 4 Russian helicopters in the north.
It won’t be unilateral, but Russia has overwhelming advantages. And the terrain isn’t really great for defense against armored spearheads either, unfortunately…in fact, it’s almost perfect tank terrain. But if the Ukrainians fight they will make the Russians pay a heavy toll for taking it…maybe more than the Russians can afford. This isn’t the old days when Russia had endless manpower and equipment. Every loss hurts them pretty badly, especially of their more modern formations and equipment.
According to the NYT’s live blog, there’s serious resistance happening around Chernobyl:
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s interior ministry announced Thursday that Russian troops had pushed from Belarus, north of Ukraine, into the highly radioactive Chernobyl exclusion zone, touching off a battle that risked damaging the cement-encased nuclear reactor that melted down in 1986.
“National Guard troops responsible for protecting the storage unit for dangerous radioactive waste are putting up fierce resistance,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister. Should an artillery shell hit the storage unit, Mr. Herashchenko said, “radioactive dust could cover the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the countries of the European Union.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Twitter that Russian forces were trying to seize Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. The site is now inside a protective zone covering about 1,000 square miles, including part of the shortest direct route from Belarus to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. “This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Thanks.
When they talk about paratroopers landing in Kyiv, I guess I don’t know how that happens. How tough is it to defend an area well within your borders against paratroopers?
And even tho the terrain might be great for tanks, wouldn’t it also be great for antitank missiles - of the type the West has supposedly been pouring into Ukraine?
I don’t know whether the plan was to resist at the border at the initial incursion, or only after things reached a certain level. I understand a desire to not be too quick on the draw, but often it seems that any delay allows the invader a nice advantage.
It’s tough when your enemy has air superiority and you don’t have a lot of advanced anti-air systems, which the Ukrainians don’t have. Still, this surprised me so I’m waiting to see a good report on what all this entailed. If the Russians pulled off a major airdrop that close to Kyiv it would be really bad, especially since anything they dropped they have to support…which means the Russians think they can. That’s…worrying.
The problem is the Ukrainians can’t really protect or defend their lines well. Sure, it would be great defensive terrain too to stop armored spearheads…if they could defend their lines and dug-in tanks and ATGM teams from air attacks. But they can’t, at least not that far east. I’m not sure they can further west. They have man-portable anti-air, but that stuff is really best against helicopters or low flying ground-attack aircraft. Russia also has a lot more missiles that they are currently using to bombard Ukrainian positions pretty much at will since Ukraine doesn’t have a lot of anti-missile assets either. Basically, Russia has all the cards and Ukraine has a busted flush. 
My WAG, FWIW, is they plan to defend at the river and further west, giving the Russians much of the south and east and forming their lines at defensible terrain obstacles and where they can concentrate their few anti-air assets to force the Russians to dig those out first.
Hmm, according to Johnson’s most recent statement, apparently removing them from the SWIFT system is in the cards.
I can’t understand what possible incentive Russia could have for wanting to mess around with the radioactive protective facilities. The release of contamination would be just as contrary to Moscow’s interests as anyone’s.
Can hold a significant amount of Europe hostage that way. Dig and an dare anyone to try to dig you out.
Zelensky‘s focus on fighting around Chernobyl is a way to convince the world public that they are endangered by Russian aggression as well. The most famous place name in Ukraine might get the attention of the millions of Westerners who couldn’t otherwise care less about this story. Now he has them worried about radioactive fallout, and by extension, the Ukraine crisis in general.
The shortest route to Kyiv from Belarus is through the Chernobyl area, it may not be much more than that.
The German government currently considers its options. By the current estimate we might barely scrape by this winter, absent another cold spell, if Russian gas is shut off, on one end of the pipe or the other.
German gas supply companies have scrambled for alternative sources this last half year or so, as Gazprom has only supplied the contractual minimum and German gas storage facilities are depleted. The Dutch government has already complained that Germany ordering too much gas might cause earthquakes. A major German nitrogen fertiliser plant has already shut down because they cannot afford their feedstock.
Gas supplies seem not to be fungible enough on a timescale of months. LNG is not just a matter of terminal facilities but also of existing contracts that suppliers have to fulfil.