ALERT RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE - Consolidated Thread

mecoastie

Veteran Member
I suspect they are very aware how vulnerable they truly are to Russian fossil fuels.

Pandering to the Greens and shutting down their nuclear power plants is biting them in the ass.
Are they shut down as in shut down and gone or can they be restarted? I am hoping that they can be restarted and any remaining be allowed to continue to operate. But they want us all in the cold and dark
 

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Remarkably, coal is back on the table. That tells me they are in emergency mode now.
---------
German Utilities Prepare to Turn on Coal Plants Amid Gas Crisis
  • Country to rely more on coal power as Russia cuts supply
  • RWE and EnBW following through on government’s mandate
By Vanessa Dezem
June 23, 2022 at 10:40 AM CDT

Germany’s biggest utilities are working to revive their coal operations as Europe’s biggest economy turns to the dirtier fuel in a bid to reduce the use of natural gas for electricity generation.

EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG is finalizing the procuring and transportation of coal, as also securing the space required to store the gas it saves, a spokeswoman said Thursday. RWE AG is preparing for the reactivation of three lignite mines which are currently on standby, the company’s spokeswoman said.

“We are dealing with the question of the workforce needed, since long-term personnel planning was based on the premises of the original phase-out of coal,” EnBW said.

European powerhouse Germany is in the middle of one of its biggest energy crises in recent times as Russia reduces gas supply through Nord Stream, the biggest pipeline to the region. The country enacted the second step of a three-phase gas-emergency plan, and is preparing for further cuts when Nord Stream halts for maintenance next month. That could prove a major setback for refilling inventories in time for winter.

The government on Sunday unveiled a package of measures that included incentives for industry to reduce consumption and an offer of additional credit lines by state-owned lender KfW to guarantee gas injections into storage. A bill providing the legal basis for coal’s comeback is making its way though Parliament and should take effect after discussions in the upper house on July 8.

Still, the country could struggle in the winter when demand for power and heating typically peaks. Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said the drop in flows through Nord Stream makes it difficult to meet a target to have storage sites 90% full by November. Reserves are currently around 58% full.

German Utilities Prepare to Turn on Coal Plants Amid Gas Crisis - Bloomberg

Reality sucks big time sometimes.
 

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Are they shut down as in shut down and gone or can they be restarted? I am hoping that they can be restarted and any remaining be allowed to continue to operate. But they want us all in the cold and dark

Good question. Nuclear power plants are massive, and not designed to be frequently turned off and on.
It takes years to design, build, and shut them down.

What the current status of the German plants are right now, who knows? The Greens would be in the streets if they were restarted.
 

mecoastie

Veteran Member
Good question. Nuclear power plants are massive, and not designed to be frequently turned off and on.
It takes years to design, build, and shut them down.

What the current status of the German plants are right now, who knows? The Greens would be in the streets if they were restarted.
So there re 3 that are still active but scheduled to be shut down at the end of this year. Some are trying to get that extended/ cancelled . Dont know about the deactivated ones.
 

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
hmm.
Ukraine – the situation (June 30, 2022)
Confusion and wishful thinking comprise the gist of the US and NATO noise out of Spain
by
Uwe Parpart July 1, 2022

3344299110_80e69cb04d_o-768x511-1.jpeg

Ukraine says it needs 500 tanks along with 1,000 howitzers, 300 MLRS, 2,000 armored vehicles, 1,000 drones. Photo: US Army
Summary/overview

Since June 26, the noise from the Bavarian Alps (G7) and Madrid (NATO), mainly from the mouths of the same principal actors, has drowned out (as, one suspects, it was designed to do) much of reality, whether on the ground in Ukraine or, more importantly, in the global economy. I address some of those issues in the assessment below.
In the Donbas, as is evident from the map, Russian troops are now in control of all territory east of the Donets River and the fighting for Lysychansk appears to be evolving faster than the capture of Severodonetsk. The main road from the west into (or out of) Lysychansk is closed and the escape hatch for Ukrainian forces by small roads has narrowed to less then 10km.
WhatsApp-Image-2022-07-01-at-7.32.34-AM.jpeg

South of the transport hub of Bakhmut, Russian forces have gained ground and have established at least some control over the main north-south road in the area, sufficient to deny the road to Ukrainian usage.

Russian forces north and northeast of Kharkiv continue to improve their positions and are continually shelling Kharkiv and its suburbs.

In the south (Kherson area), position skirmishes continue with no significant gains or losses by either side. It’s the typical scout activity one would expect, as the main theatre of war will shift south after the Donbas campaign is finished.

East/center

Lysychansk, as noted, is nearly encircled. The Russians are making small but steady progress from the south and southwest; in the northwest of Lysychansk, they have crossed the Donetsk River. The pincer will force the Ukrainians to leave the pocket and retreat on small roads in the direction of Siversk. There are indications that the retreat is underway. The question is how fast.
The hardcore defense of Siversk itself is mainly by a group of several hundred foreign mercenaries, primarily Poles. The issue is whether these troops and retreating Ukrainians from Lysychansk will stand to fight.
Ukrainian troops withdrawing from Lysychansk not only will be pursued to the Siversk area; they also will be confronted from the west by Russian forces advancing down from Izyum and Lyman in the direction of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.
Siversk-based units will need to decide on whether to stay or withdraw much farther west to and beyond the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk line.

Assessment

There now, incongruously, exist two diametrically opposite assessments of the situation by the opponents of Russian President Putin.
First, there’s the view of the “US intelligence services” referenced by the major German daily Die Welt and channeled by US conservative political analyst (and secret services mouthpiece?) Edward Luttwak. This view is that – having regained the offensive – the Russians will not stop any time soon and “there is the sinister possibility of yet another plan, this time to seize all Ukraine except for the territories given by Hitler to Stalin in 1940.”
Au contraire, says Ukrainian President Zelensky, the war will and must be over before yearend because winter conditions would give the Russians an advantage. Before winter, he says, Russia needs to be and can be forced back to the lines of control prior to the Russian February 24 attack.
According to CNN, White House “officials” aren’t so sure of any of this, are “losing confidence” that Ukraine can retake all the territory Russia has seized and feel that they need to convince Zelensky to change his “definition of victory.”
A realistic net assessment of Ukrainian versus Russian manpower and weapons provides clear evidence in support of the White House concern.

Here’s a calculation by a US military intelligence officer who has done the math:

As Clausewitz noted, some things must be done and some things can be done and one must not confuse the two.


So they, the Ukrainians need Billions, and Billions, and Billions more US Dollars. We ain’t got ‘em. Maybe, the US should tell Ukraine to either pound sand, or go and forcibly TAKE weapons from Russia- the good old fashioned way… Israeli’s, for example, killed or captured Muslim crews, refurbished their former weapons. It was as if Elvis was singing, “Return to Sender.” Or, turn about, and around, is fair play. Very financially responsible.

The US? Not nearly so much, nor nearly as smart. We seem to be terminally stupid, but then considering who’s orchestrating this burning shit show and dumpster fire, called American military and foreign policy, we shouldn’t be surprised. Mr. Reagan, bless his soul, caused the Russians to commit financial suicide, due to SDI. We, on the other hand, can’t keep the presses running so fast they don’t melt, and our benevolent government can’t steal, er- tax, We, the People into bankruptcy, fast enough.

Need weapons, Ukraine? Buy ‘em, capture ‘em, or steal ‘em. Otherwise, the violin section will soon be playing- for both of us…

OA
 

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
Excellent points! I worry about what has come thru our southern border. Years ago, when it was trying to be stopped, there were 305,000 Other Than Mexicans (OTM) caught on our border. I would be surprised if there were not sleeper cells present here right now.

Our Special Forces established years ago that attacking only 9 places on the grid would bring it down coast to coast. Later they figured a different nine would do the same. I think an enemy would attack many more than 9.

Loss of the grid has been estimated to cause up to a 90% loss of population in a year. Even a quarter of that would be catastrophic.

Without the grid to pump fuel to keep the diesel generators cooling nuclear power plants for six months, just keeping them from melting down would be a logistical nightmare. If we failed with just one the radioactive contamination would deny a large area downwind of inhabitability. Lose a couple and it is hard to imagine. Well, we have Fukishima to reference for that.

I haven't mentioned food, water, sewage, medicine and essential services.

Kind of makes ya wonder what would be left that an enemy would want. Unless they just wanted to be rid of us.

Shadow
Exactly, and that’s why the grid will be taken down first, and our own government will let the populace die off (forget “a year”, I figure most will die in the first 2-3 months...), and China will wait till it is safe to invade, no doubt hailed as our saviors.
 

Squid

Veteran Member
Exactly, and that’s why the grid will be taken down first, and our own government will let the populace die off (forget “a year”, I figure most will die in the first 2-3 months...), and China will wait till it is safe to invade, no doubt hailed as our saviors.
Not even close.

China, Russia, hell the UN want nothing to
do with invading the current US, to many potential cross hairs to continually take out their soldiers. They want traitors like Brandon and the democrats to disarm the US first and then allow the facists democrats and normal Americans to take each other out. Then they need the farm capacity of the heartland so throw some nukes to take out coastal cities. Then it might be time to roll in.
 

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
Not even close.

China, Russia, hell the UN want nothing to
do with invading the current US, to many potential cross hairs to continually take out their soldiers. They want traitors like Brandon and the democrats to disarm the US first and then allow the facists democrats and normal Americans to take each other out. Then they need the farm capacity of the heartland so throw some nukes to take out coastal cities. Then it might be time to roll in.
The grid here is extremely vulnerable. The consequences of it going down would be terminal. Like any seige, all it would require is for the enemy to be patient...
 

DuckandCover

Proud Sheeple
The grid here is extremely vulnerable. The consequences of it going down would be terminal. Like any seige, all it would require is for the enemy to be patient...

Serious question here (I'm honestly ignorant of this). What makes other country's grids less vulnerable than the US grid?
 

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
Serious question here (I'm honestly ignorant of this). What makes other country's grids less vulnerable than the US grid?
I do not know if any country in the world has its grid entirely underground and not connected to the Internet, but if such exists, that country might survive.
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
Excellent points! I worry about what has come thru our southern border. Years ago, when it was trying to be stopped, there were 305,000 Other Than Mexicans (OTM) caught on our border. I would be surprised if there were not sleeper cells present here right now.

Our Special Forces established years ago that attacking only 9 places on the grid would bring it down coast to coast. Later they figured a different nine would do the same. I think an enemy would attack many more than 9.

Loss of the grid has been estimated to cause up to a 90% loss of population in a year. Even a quarter of that would be catastrophic.

Without the grid to pump fuel to keep the diesel generators cooling nuclear power plants for six months, just keeping them from melting down would be a logistical nightmare. If we failed with just one the radioactive contamination would deny a large area downwind of inhabitability. Lose a couple and it is hard to imagine. Well, we have Fukishima to reference for that.

I haven't mentioned food, water, sewage, medicine and essential services.

Kind of makes ya wonder what would be left that an enemy would want. Unless they just wanted to be rid of us.

Shadow
Just like the Land O' Lakes reimaging of their butter package by removing the Indian maiden. I had to laugh because it was so clumsily done and so typical of white man treatment: get rid of the Indian but keep the land.

That's what's being done to us. We'll die off either from loss of conveniences or killing each other, they just have to come pick up the pieces of what's left.
 

jward

passin' thru



Samuel Ramani
@SamRamani2


BREAKING: Leaders from dozens of countries and international organizations will meet in Lugano, Switzerland next week to discuss a Marshall Plan for Ukraine
This builds on Olaf Scholz's recent statements about the need for a Marshall Plan for Ukraine. Beyond post-war reconstruction, dealing with the environmental fallout of the war like chemical pollution, mines, trenches and forest destruction is crucial 1656816917952.png
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
Fair Use Cited
----------------
July 3, 20225:54 AM CDTLast Updated 29 min ago
  • Moscow blames Ukrainian missile attack for deaths in south Russian city
Destroyed residential buildings after blasts in Belgorod

Destroyed residential buildings after blasts in Belgorod

Destroyed residential buildings after blasts in Belgorod


1/3
Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after the blasts in Belgorod, Russia July 3, 2022. Alexey Stopichev/BelPressa/Handout via REUTERS

July 3 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, the regional governor said, in what Moscow said was a Ukrainian missile attack.
At least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private houses were damaged, including five that were destroyed, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on the Telegram messaging app.

"I emphasise that this missile attack had been intentionally planned and was launched at the civilian population of Russian cities," Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Konashenkov said Russian air defences had destroyed three Tochka-U missiles, but fragments of one of them fell on residential buildings. He said they had also destroyed explosives-laden Ukrainian drones approaching Kursk, another city in southern Russia.

Reuters could not independently confirm the claims.

Since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, there have been numerous reports of attacks on Belgorod and other regions bordering Ukraine, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of carrying out the strikes.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility but has described the incidents at weapons stores and other sites as "karma" for Russia's invasion. read more

Belgorod is a city of nearly 400,000 people, some 40 km (25 miles) north of the border with Ukraine. Regional governor Gladkov said at least four people were injured and two hospitalised in the latest incident, including a 10-year-old boy.

"The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming," a resident of the city told Reuters, describing blasts that took place around 3 a.m. local time. "All the windows in our house were shattered."

Moscow blames Ukrainian missile attack for deaths in south Russian city | Reuters
 

Squid

Veteran Member
I am not entirely buying Ukraine attacking residential neighborhood. I think Russia did this to shore up local support. Ukraine still has too few missile systems and too many Russian military targets to waste their limited number attacking apartment buildings.

I am not unwilling to consider a strike from Ukraine but first thoughts are Putin trying to shore up Putin internally.
 

mecoastie

Veteran Member
I am not entirely buying Ukraine attacking residential neighborhood. I think Russia did this to shore up local support. Ukraine still has too few missile systems and too many Russian military targets to waste their limited number attacking apartment buildings.

I am not unwilling to consider a strike from Ukraine but first thoughts are Putin trying to shore up Putin internally.
From the article it sounds like Russian air defense shot it down and the debris is what did the damage. Could have been headed for a mil target.
 

jward

passin' thru
Samuel Ramani
@SamRamani2

1h

BREAKING: Turkey detains a Russian cargo ship possessing grain stolen from Ukraine

This is a major victory for Ukraine's efforts to pressure Turkey on illegal grain transfers. But it will also undermine Turkey's neutrality between Russia and Ukraine on the food security issue, and augment tensions with Moscow which are rising over northern Syria
1656863920556.png
 

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
GAME OVER FOR UKRAINE. MITARY DEFEAT CONFIRMED.
ZERO HEDGE ARTICLE CONFIRMS:
"Russia Asserts Full Control Luhavsk Region With Fall Of Lysychansk. Total Control of Luhansk Province.

As usual the Ukies send missiles into Belorod and Russia conquers an entire province, plus zippy warms up his private jet for the trip to his mansion in Florida.

Russia will now conquer the rest of Donbass and then Odessa, Mdovia and the dneipper river.

NATO is reinforcing failure.
Finally, Lithuania didn't get the memo about kalingrad. They are tearing up the tracks. WTF NATO is blocking the rail line and the EU is trying to keep it open. Shees what a tital cluster /_&&
 

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Samuel Ramani
@SamRamani2

4h

The Donetsk People's Republic announces it will only start using the death penalty in 2025 This provides a temporary reprieve for foreign fighters who are currently facing death sentences


This is a a purely political and perception move by the DPR. The twofold objective is to give them leveraage over the NATO Bloc in political negotiations and further, to present a more 'humane' front to the world.

Readers should also note that we've heard absolutely nothing about the former Canadian general who was captured with the Azov Battalion, as well as nothing about the assorted NATO officers - allegedly including some Americans - who were supposedly captured.

Readers here can be sure that we are only seeing a fraction of the back channel negotiations that are taking place.

It should be noted that these aren't the dark Stalinist days; I suspect that none of the captured NATO officers are going to be thrown into some dank, KGB-like dungeon and tortured. Today's Russia is not the Soviet Union. I suspect that the officers will be given clean and more than adequate lodging and good food. The Russians will have extensive dossiers on any of the important officers, including their sexual and alcoholic beverage preferences. They will be offered - all while being monitored, of course - unlimited alcohol, be lightly drugged and be interrogated.

They will, perhaps while highly inebriated, be offered women, boys, ponies or chickens (whatever their sexual preference is) to develop blackmail material. This isn't nearly as effective as it was decades ago, but it's so easy to do that the Russians will certainly give it a shot.

It should go without saying that the rank and file line grunts of the Ukrainian Army will not be offered such luxuries, but will be confined to very spartan-but-adequate POW facilities.

Best
Doc
 
Last edited:

phloydius

Veteran Member
Fuat @lilygrutcher 3h

Wow. Lithuania starts dismantling railway tracks to Russian-occupied Kaliningrad.
Russian-occupied? LOL.
Its Russia

I ain't going to lie, jward, but reading that made me freak out a little, but a few seconds later, my brain was thinking "there is no way". So I started looking thru the thread, trying to find a source on it, but all I could realistically find (other than tweets that had been deleted) was this post mentioning the source site was a satire website called Panorama:

View: https://twitter.com/vmorkevicius/status/1543591694746406912


Unless anyone can find anything else, I'm going to assume it was satire.
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
When Russia launched its February 24th invasion of Ukraine, Germany was one of the nations that experienced a dramatic, near overnight political shift.

Germany turned its eyes to rearmament after decades of reduced defence spending, while outside commenters criticised the limited number of heavy weapons the great Central European industrial power was able and willing to provide.

The reality is that Germany's military is both one of the best funded in the world, and also one of the least prepared for action with much of its military reduced to scrounging from other units while equipment is out for maintenance. It is a military hampered by deep budgeting and procurement difficulties that have caused its readiness rates and equipment to run down to dire levels.

German defence industry is among the world's best. It's capable of developing world beating products (especially when working with other European powers) but it operates at production levels, and in a procurement environment, that mean it has often been foreign militaries, not the Bundeswehr, that benefit most from German military-industrial potential.

In this video, I go through some history of how the Bundeswehr came to be so run down. I go after the myth that the Bundeswehr has been poorly funded (there's both a yes and no answer there) and go through some of the reasons I think Germany's planned 100 billion Euro equipment spend could go horribly wrong if proper reforms and plans aren't put in place.


Runtime 1:17:54

Germany, rearmament, and Ukraine - "Why 100 billion Euro may not fix the German military"

View: https://youtu.be/8jDUVtUA7rg
 

danielboon

TB Fanatic
Fire in Massive Moscow TV Tower
ByABC News




M O S C O W, July. 3, 2022-- Firefighters are struggling to contain flames leaping a quarter-mile above ground from the blazing upper half of Moscow’s gigantic Ostankino television tower.
An electrical fire broke out in the tower this afternoon, driving three television channels off the air and forcing the evacuation of visitors from a popular tourist restaurant near the top of the tower.
Three elevators in the tower fell from a height of 1,509 feet because of the fire, igniting another fire on the ground floor, Russia’s Tass news agency said.
No casualties are being reported.
According to some reports, the fire was still spreading rapidly at midnight, spreading from near the top of the tower to below the Seventh Heaven restaurant, covering more than half of the building’s total height.
“We have never seen anything like this,” Mikhail Serikov, the head of a team of firefighters, told Reuters. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
But Russian news agency Tass reported that the fire had stopped growing by late evening. “The fire spreading in the Ostankino television tower has been stopped. There are no casualties or missing as of 20:45, Moscow time,” Tass announced.
Tass also quoted Minister for Emergencies and Civil Defense Sergei Shoigu, just before midnight local time, saying the situation was under control.
A number of television and radio stations went off the air, and other communications such as pager services were also disrupted.
The tower also links Russia’s police, ambulance and fire services. President Vladimir Putin, who made highly public statements about the fire throughout the evening, summoned Communications Minister Leonid Reiman to the Kremlin to discuss ways to restore television service and keep the fire and ambulance communications running.

Escape From Elevator?
There have been conflicting reports of people who may still be trapped in an elevator, amidst fears that the top of the 1,772-foot tower could collapse. A Reuters reporter in Moscow said a total of four people — three firefighters and an elevator operator — were trapped in an elevator,
The reporter quoted Moscow fire department spokesman Nikolai Starychev sayingrescue crews were trying to reach the elevator. Starychev said power went off when the four were at a height of 889 feet on their way up to deliver supplies to firefighters. They had risked the elevator instead of taking many flights of stairs, he said.
But Tass, hours after saying the four were missing in the elevator crash, reported that they had been found outside the building.
The agency quoted Starychev saying firefighters had used powder fire extinguishers to stop the blaze from spreading. “No one was found” in the elevators that came down, he said.
Europe’s Tallest Building
The fire began at around 3:30 p.m. local time in the wiring of the 1,771-foot tower, the second tallest freestanding structure in the world and the tallest in Europe. Only the CN Tower in Toronto is taller.
“At first, the third level from the bottom was on fire, then the fire slowly moved to the second and to the top ones. And, now smoke is moving down. We have been here for half an hour watching fire,” one eyewitness said.
About 40 fire trucks lined the streets near the base of the cylindrical tower, and a giant water-dumping helicopter was on hand. Some reports said firefighters, unable to use water to combat the electrical fire, were resorting to hand-held fire extinguishers.
Helicopters buzzed over the tower all afternoon, at one point trying to pipe fire retardant inside. But officials appeared to scrap a plan to ferry firefighters to the towersummit.
Short Circuit Blamed
Fire safety service spokesman Vitaly Statsenko said the fire was burning in the tower’s electronic cabling.
It broke out after a short circuit in the wiring used by a paging company at about 1,520 feet above the ground, according to the Russian state television channel RTR, which resumed broadcasting after briefly going off the air.
It knocked off the broadcasts of the NTV private television station and of two smaller stations, TV-6 and Kultura.
Police set up barriers forcing thousands of spectators to stand more than 2300 feet away in case parts of the building collapsed. Two television studio buildings are near the base of the tower, which houses some 20 television and radio stations. But it is surrounded mostly by a pond and a park.
Seventh Heaven Evacuated
The fire occurred in a technical area above the Seventh Heaven restaurant, which offers a panoramic view of the city. Guests were told to leave the 1,096-foot-high restaurant via an emergency exit, one diner said.
“Everyone has been successfully evacuated, and they are all fine,” a restaurant employee said. “For now, the restaurant remains closed for technical reasons.”
The tower in northern Moscow, larger than the Sears Tower in Chicago, is made of reinforced concrete. The interior has a bank of elevators and a single emergency stairwell.
A source of pride and symbol of modernity for the Soviet Union when it was built as the worldˆs tallest building in 1967, Ostankino became a battleground in 1993 when rebels tried to topple the government of then-President Boris Yeltsin. RTR continued to broadcast during the rebels’ takeover of the station.
Although broadcasting resumed to most of Russia tonight using reserve transmitters, Moscow screens remained blank. Only cable television subscribers and those able to receive UHF frequencies had television.
“This is the first time this has happened in the past 10 years,” RTR news editor Yuliya Gavrushina told Reuters. “Even in 1991 and 1993, we continued to broadcast.”
ABCNEWS’ bureau staff in Moscow, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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