ALERT RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE - Consolidated Thread

danielboon

TB Fanatic
EndGameWW3

@EndGameWW3

·
30m

1/2 Update: U.S. Embassy Statement: “We call on both sides of the conflict in Donbas to abide by the terms of the ceasefire, but let's be clear - the Russian-backed side has repeatedly used howitzer artillery and drones against Ukrainian forces,
 

danielboon

TB Fanatic
EndGameWW3

@EndGameWW3

·
31m

2/2 in direct violation of the intensified measures agreed last year. Official Russian rhetoric that Ukraine is aggravating the situation is not only deceiving, but also contributing to the escalation of tensions. "
 

danielboon

TB Fanatic
EndGameWW3

@EndGameWW3

·
37m

Update: President Zelensky: "Ukraine defends its territory and its sovereignty in accordance with the duty and oath of everyone who serves today, who defends Ukrainian statehood. We do not attack, we only answer."
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
Excepting Crimea....what use would Russia have to take Ukraine?
ShadowMan is right; Ukraine is the traditional breadbasket of the region surrounding it, but most especially it's fed Russia. Stalin was the one who knew that specifically when he starved many millions of Ukrainians to death after plundering everything edible in the country.
 

ssbn642blue

Veteran Member
Only after having the 400K-500K invasion force heading north pumping into our heartland and causing chaos on a LARGE scale while others mess up our east and west coast cities, followed by surprises in thousands of CONEX boxes on both coasts...


I can't wait. Have to die sometime. Should be for a good cause. My Freedom.
 

Samuel Adams

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I can't wait. Have to die sometime. Should be for a good cause. My Freedom.

My kids’ and my grandkids’ freedom.

In my case, were personal freedom all that mattered, I would disappear into a large national forest.

The trappings of society have nothing left worth fighting for.

However......my progeny deserves to make that choice for themselves, and we have a duty to reestablish a “society” that is once again favorable to that end.

Tall orders.


Otherwise, I agree completely!!

Let’s get er done.
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
I can't wait. Have to die sometime. Should be for a good cause. My Freedom.

PRECISELY!!!

My kids’ and my grandkids’ freedom.

In my case, were personal freedom all that mattered, I would disappear into a large national forest.

The trappings of society have nothing left worth fighting for.

However......my progeny deserves to make that choice for themselves, and we have a duty to reestablish a “society” that is once again favorable to that end.

Tall orders.


Otherwise, I agree completely!!

Let’s get er done.

Agreed, though I got no progeny, beyond a niece and 2 nephews. NONE of the three are like-minded, no shock given the parental units. I STILL maintain a reason to wish to see a real modification in the country.

Watching the Sovs set up a somewhat different op than last spring doesn't give me a comfy fuzzy feeling.
Watching 400-500,000 troops invade Texas, doesn't make things any better.

ESPECIALLY since I have just recently come to terms with the fact I ain't gonna be gathering my gear and ruckin' ANY-DAMN-Place anymore.

At this point, I ain't gonna be runnin'-n-gunnin' Ay-Tall. Now that DOESN'T mean I won't be DRIVIN' or RIDIN', just not doing much on foot.
I'm sure there are slots for my skills when things get hot enough.
 

hoss

Out to lunch
Making mainstream news now -- hoss

Washington Post article

A renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia’s western flank.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the troop movements have reignited concerns that arose in April, when the largest buildup of troops by Russia near the Ukrainian border in years sparked an international outcry. The renewed movements of Russian forces in the area come as the Kremlin embraces a harder line on Ukraine. Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin on down have escalated their rhetoric in recent months, attacking Kyiv’s Western ties and even questioning its sovereignty. Putin has warned that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure on Ukrainian territory represents a “red line” for Moscow.
The situation also comes as the simmering 7½-year conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region enters a new stage. On Oct. 26, Ukraine’s military confirmed it had used a Turkish-made drone against a position in Donbas, the first time Kyiv has employed the technology in combat, prompting an outcry from Moscow.

Relations between Moscow and NATO are especially tense. Russia suspended its mission to NATO in Brussels on Oct. 18 after the alliance expelled eight members of the Russian mission on accusations of espionage.
What the Russian forces gathering near the Ukrainian border are doing is unclear.
Videos have surfaced on social media in recent days showing Russian military trains and convoys moving large quantities of military hardware, including tanks and missiles, in southern and western Russia.

“The point is: It is not a drill. It doesn’t appear to be a training exercise. Something is happening. What is it?” said Michael Kofman, director of the Russia studies program at the Virginia-based nonprofit analysis group CNA.
Officials in the United States and Europe began noticing the movements particularly in recent weeks, after Russia concluded a massive joint military exercise with Belarus known as Zapad 2021 on its western flank in mid-September.

According to Kofman, satellite imagery shows that forces from Russia’s 41st Combined Arms Army, normally based in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, didn’t return to Siberia after the exercises, and instead linked up with other Russian forces near the Ukrainian border. Kofman also said imagery appears to show that Russia’s 1st Guards Tank Army, an elite unit based outside Moscow, is moving personnel and materiel toward Ukraine.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, said in a statement that after the conclusion of the Zapad 2021 exercises, Russia left military equipment, as well as control and communications centers, at training sites along the Ukrainian border. Danilov estimated that the number of Russian troops deployed around the Ukrainian border at 80,000 to 90,000, not including the tens of thousands stationed in Crimea.

Moscow has prompted alarm by amassing large contingents of troops near the Ukrainian border in the past, only to subsequently withdraw those forces and quell fears of a renewed invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials see such moves as a way for Moscow to keep the situation tense and uncertain. Since 2015, when the front lines of the conflict more or less froze in place, the buildups haven’t led to a mass territory-gaining offensive by Russia or the separatist forces it backs.

Kofman said this time the situation may merit particular attention, however, because Russia appears to have lowered its threshold for what would prompt the Kremlin to act in Ukraine. “I think you have to step back and look at this past year holistically, and if you do, you will know that the Russian tone and messaging on Ukraine has changed dramatically,” he said.

In statements over the course of the year, Putin and other top Russian officials have said the expansion of NATO activities in Ukraine represents a “red line” for Moscow, whereas previously they cited NATO membership for Ukraine as a move they couldn’t abide, Kofman said. “It appears that Russia is shifting the goal post of what is acceptable,” he said.
Putin outlined that view in an article in July, claiming Ukraine was being functionally controlled by Western nations to foment anti-Russian sentiment. “We will never allow our historical territories and people close to us living there to be used against Russia,” Putin wrote. “And to those who will undertake such an attempt, I would like to say that this way they will destroy their own country.”

In comments to the Valdai Discussion Club this month, Putin said formal NATO membership for Ukraine may never happen, “but military expansion on the territory is already underway, and this really poses a threat to the Russian Federation.” Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and now the deputy head of Russia’s security council, called Ukraine a “vassal state” that is “under direct foreign control” in an Oct. 11 article in the Kommersant newspaper.
Previously, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin,accused the United States of building NATO military bases in Ukraine using training centers as a cover.

U.S. troops have been training Ukrainian forces in western Ukraine for years, an initiative undertaken by Washington and its NATO allies after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Ukrainian forces also have participated in joint exercises with the United States and its NATO allies. The United States has provided Ukraine with Javelin antitank weaponry but has not taken any active role in fighting.

Kofman said Russia this year suddenly invested a large amount of money in developing a ready reserve for its military and also ordered forces to practice anti-drone and anti-Javelin maneuvers relevant to the conflict in Ukraine, attracting the attention of military analysts. Putin has condemned comments by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who during a visit to Ukraine this month described Russia as an obstacle to peace and said NATO membership remained open to Kyiv. Austin, referring to Russia, said no nation had a right to veto membership.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday accused Ukraine of having plans to retake control of the Donbas region by force. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov a day earlier said sales of Turkish drones to Ukraine potentially “destabilized” the situation.

German and French Foreign Ministry officials expressed concern about Ukraine’s use of Turkish-made drones, calling for de-escalation. But Ukrainian officials said the country was exercising its right to self-defense after a Russian howitzer attack killed a Ukrainian serviceman and wounded another. “When the Ukrainian army feels the need to defend its land, it does so. And it will further act under this principle,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments to journalists Friday. “We are not mounting an offensive, we are just responding,” Zelensky added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia is “actively spreading fakes about Ukraine allegedly preparing an offensive or other nonsense. For the record, Ukraine does not prepare any offensive in the Donbas.”
Kuleba noted that Moscow has left in place hardware and personnel that were sent near the Ukrainian border during the spring buildup and the September exercises. The Russians “pulled back only a tiny part of the armada,” Kuleba said.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv warned Friday that Russia had repeatedly deployed howitzer artillery and drones against Ukrainian forces “in direct violation” of a July 2020 cease-fire agreement.
“Official Russian rhetoric suggesting Ukraine is aggravating the situation is not only misleading, it serves to escalate tensions,” the U.S. statement said.
 

Ractivist

Pride comes before the fall.....Pride month ended.
Give Ukraine 250 of our main battle tanks? Rates right up there with leaving or destroying 85 billion dollars worth of equipment in Kabul. Freedom From War, makes it perfectly clear they are destroying our military in real time in front of our eye's. They'd end up in Russia's hands at the end of the day.......World government in the wings pulling strings.
 

Grumphau

Veteran Member
Give Ukraine 250 of our main battle tanks? Rates right up there with leaving or destroying 85 billion dollars worth of equipment in Kabul. Freedom From War, makes it perfectly clear they are destroying our military in real time in front of our eye's. They'd end up in Russia's hands at the end of the day.......World government in the wings pulling strings.
At least we know the Ukies know how to use them. I meant an MBT is a terrible thing to waste.
 

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
I think it was a US Congressional committee that said we should sell 250 Abrams tanks to Poland ASAP.

Warmongers. All of this is due to expanding NATO east after Russia pulled out and voided the Warsaw Pact.

Russia will nevrr accept Ukraine joining NATO. The next 4 months or so are prime winter combat, if you prep for it like Russia has for decades.

Whatever happens we will face both Putin and Xi together.
 

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
Israel is going to full combat alert too. The drums of WAR are beating everywhere this Halloween, which is a pagan religious holiday in case anybody forgot that.

The only thing that will surprise me about what happens to the US military will be the magnitude of the military defeat we suffer. This WOKE military our traitors have created will be utterly crushed by our enemies. You should prepare yourselves for multiple carrier task forces to be blown into scrap metal by both China and Russia.


Drill for 2,000 rockets a day and internal strife: IDF preps for war
Home Front Command and RAHEL to carry out joint war-time drill starting today * In war, 2,000 rockets expected to be fired per day by Hezbollah
By ANNA AHRONHEIM
OCTOBER 31, 2021 09:43
Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
 IDF soldiers drill war with Gaza in the Southern Storm drill. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

IDF soldiers drill war with Gaza in the Southern Storm drill.
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Advertisement


Israel’s Home Front Command and National Emergency Authority (RAHEL) will hold a week-long drill starting on Sunday simulating a large-scale war in which civilians are evacuated from northern border communities and security agencies will deal with massive rocket barrages sent by Hezbollah.

The drill will take lessons that have been learned from past events in the North, as well as those from the May fighting between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip – Operation Guardian of the Walls – and from the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Following the May fighting, the Home Front Command “carried out a very significant learning process with a lot of research, and this exercise is going to test what we’ve learned,” said Home Front Command Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Itzik Bar.
 

jward

passin' thru
Status-6
@Archer83Able


It appears that Voronezh Maslovka railway station is again packed with the Russian military equipment, just like in April. Comms vehicles, 2S19 Msta-S SPGs on wagons, BMPs, MT-LB armored vehicles and more.
View: https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1453752459210407951?s=20



Alex Kokcharov
@AlexKokcharov

This was reportedly filmed in #Smolensk region, western #Russia, with the Russian army weaponry being moved on a train:
View: https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1454834986851393539?s=20
 

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Large-Scale Russian Troop Movements Along Ukraine Border Spark Alarm In US & Europe

BY TYLER DURDEN
ZERO HEDGE
SUNDAY, OCT 31, 2021 - 11:02 AM

There's new allegations of a Russian troop build-up along the Ukrainian border, and Western leaders are sounding the alarm over what's perhaps becoming another brewing showdown near Donbass and the Crimea region.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that "A renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia’s western flank."


Illustrative: Getty Images


The fresh allegations of Russian muscle-flexing aimed at Kiev come after last April's West-Russia showdown and tensions due to large-scale Russian drills along the border wherein tens of thousands of additional troops were deployed from their home bases to border areas near Ukraine. However, the Kremlin pointed out at the time that it's free to move troops anywhere within its sovereign borders that it wants.

The new weekend Washington Post report admits that the purpose of this current troop build-up remains "unclear" - while detailing the following:

Videos have surfaced on social media in recent days showing Russian military trains and convoys moving large quantities of military hardware, including tanks and missiles, in southern and western Russia.
"The point is: It is not a drill. It doesn’t appear to be a training exercise. Something is happening. What is it?" said Michael Kofman, director of the Russia studies program at the Virginia-based nonprofit analysis group CNA.

The concern comes just after the conclusion of the major 'Zapad 2021' military drills primarily held between Russian and Belarusian forces in September, including a handful of other allies. Analysts say large units never returned to their 'home' bases after the drills, but instead went to outposts near the Ukrainian border.



Ukraine's government is now suggesting as much as well, according to WaPo:

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, said in a statement that after the conclusion of the Zapad 2021 exercises, Russia left military equipment, as well as control and communications centers, at training sites along the Ukrainian border.
Danilov estimated that the number of Russian troops deployed around the Ukrainian border at 80,000 to 90,000, not including the tens of thousands stationed in Crimea.

In recent months the Kremlin has accused Kiev of renewed aggression against pro-Russia separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, resulting in new casualties, while Ukrainian officials have charged that it's the Russian state that's fueling renewed fighting on stalemated front lines, especially by secretly transferring arms.

This as Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders continue to warn Ukraine and NATO over Russian "red lines" of NATO military and base expansion into Ukraine. Russia has said it will be forced to act if in observes NATO military expansion in Ukrainian territory.

2/ Here is alleged video of Russian materiel being sent to Ukrainepic.twitter.com/aeKACKWX6u
— Josh Wolfe (@wolfejosh) October 31, 2021

Putin last summer charged that the West, especially the United States, exercises de fact control over Ukraine's top leadership.

"We will never allow our historical territories and people close to us living there to be used against Russia," Putin stated previously. "And to those who will undertake such an attempt, I would like to say that this way they will destroy their own country."

Large-Scale Russian Troop Movements Along Ukraine Border Spark Alarm In US & Europe | ZeroHedge
 
Last edited:

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Making mainstream news now -- hoss

Washington Post article

A renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia’s western flank.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the troop movements have reignited concerns that arose in April, when the largest buildup of troops by Russia near the Ukrainian border in years sparked an international outcry. The renewed movements of Russian forces in the area come as the Kremlin embraces a harder line on Ukraine. Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin on down have escalated their rhetoric in recent months, attacking Kyiv’s Western ties and even questioning its sovereignty. Putin has warned that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure on Ukrainian territory represents a “red line” for Moscow.
The situation also comes as the simmering 7½-year conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region enters a new stage. On Oct. 26, Ukraine’s military confirmed it had used a Turkish-made drone against a position in Donbas, the first time Kyiv has employed the technology in combat, prompting an outcry from Moscow.

Relations between Moscow and NATO are especially tense. Russia suspended its mission to NATO in Brussels on Oct. 18 after the alliance expelled eight members of the Russian mission on accusations of espionage.
What the Russian forces gathering near the Ukrainian border are doing is unclear.
Videos have surfaced on social media in recent days showing Russian military trains and convoys moving large quantities of military hardware, including tanks and missiles, in southern and western Russia.

“The point is: It is not a drill. It doesn’t appear to be a training exercise. Something is happening. What is it?” said Michael Kofman, director of the Russia studies program at the Virginia-based nonprofit analysis group CNA.
Officials in the United States and Europe began noticing the movements particularly in recent weeks, after Russia concluded a massive joint military exercise with Belarus known as Zapad 2021 on its western flank in mid-September.

According to Kofman, satellite imagery shows that forces from Russia’s 41st Combined Arms Army, normally based in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, didn’t return to Siberia after the exercises, and instead linked up with other Russian forces near the Ukrainian border. Kofman also said imagery appears to show that Russia’s 1st Guards Tank Army, an elite unit based outside Moscow, is moving personnel and materiel toward Ukraine.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, said in a statement that after the conclusion of the Zapad 2021 exercises, Russia left military equipment, as well as control and communications centers, at training sites along the Ukrainian border. Danilov estimated that the number of Russian troops deployed around the Ukrainian border at 80,000 to 90,000, not including the tens of thousands stationed in Crimea.

Moscow has prompted alarm by amassing large contingents of troops near the Ukrainian border in the past, only to subsequently withdraw those forces and quell fears of a renewed invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials see such moves as a way for Moscow to keep the situation tense and uncertain. Since 2015, when the front lines of the conflict more or less froze in place, the buildups haven’t led to a mass territory-gaining offensive by Russia or the separatist forces it backs.

Kofman said this time the situation may merit particular attention, however, because Russia appears to have lowered its threshold for what would prompt the Kremlin to act in Ukraine. “I think you have to step back and look at this past year holistically, and if you do, you will know that the Russian tone and messaging on Ukraine has changed dramatically,” he said.

In statements over the course of the year, Putin and other top Russian officials have said the expansion of NATO activities in Ukraine represents a “red line” for Moscow, whereas previously they cited NATO membership for Ukraine as a move they couldn’t abide, Kofman said. “It appears that Russia is shifting the goal post of what is acceptable,” he said.
Putin outlined that view in an article in July, claiming Ukraine was being functionally controlled by Western nations to foment anti-Russian sentiment. “We will never allow our historical territories and people close to us living there to be used against Russia,” Putin wrote. “And to those who will undertake such an attempt, I would like to say that this way they will destroy their own country.”

In comments to the Valdai Discussion Club this month, Putin said formal NATO membership for Ukraine may never happen, “but military expansion on the territory is already underway, and this really poses a threat to the Russian Federation.” Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and now the deputy head of Russia’s security council, called Ukraine a “vassal state” that is “under direct foreign control” in an Oct. 11 article in the Kommersant newspaper.
Previously, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin,accused the United States of building NATO military bases in Ukraine using training centers as a cover.

U.S. troops have been training Ukrainian forces in western Ukraine for years, an initiative undertaken by Washington and its NATO allies after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Ukrainian forces also have participated in joint exercises with the United States and its NATO allies. The United States has provided Ukraine with Javelin antitank weaponry but has not taken any active role in fighting.

Kofman said Russia this year suddenly invested a large amount of money in developing a ready reserve for its military and also ordered forces to practice anti-drone and anti-Javelin maneuvers relevant to the conflict in Ukraine, attracting the attention of military analysts. Putin has condemned comments by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who during a visit to Ukraine this month described Russia as an obstacle to peace and said NATO membership remained open to Kyiv. Austin, referring to Russia, said no nation had a right to veto membership.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday accused Ukraine of having plans to retake control of the Donbas region by force. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov a day earlier said sales of Turkish drones to Ukraine potentially “destabilized” the situation.

German and French Foreign Ministry officials expressed concern about Ukraine’s use of Turkish-made drones, calling for de-escalation. But Ukrainian officials said the country was exercising its right to self-defense after a Russian howitzer attack killed a Ukrainian serviceman and wounded another. “When the Ukrainian army feels the need to defend its land, it does so. And it will further act under this principle,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments to journalists Friday. “We are not mounting an offensive, we are just responding,” Zelensky added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia is “actively spreading fakes about Ukraine allegedly preparing an offensive or other nonsense. For the record, Ukraine does not prepare any offensive in the Donbas.”
Kuleba noted that Moscow has left in place hardware and personnel that were sent near the Ukrainian border during the spring buildup and the September exercises. The Russians “pulled back only a tiny part of the armada,” Kuleba said.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv warned Friday that Russia had repeatedly deployed howitzer artillery and drones against Ukrainian forces “in direct violation” of a July 2020 cease-fire agreement.
“Official Russian rhetoric suggesting Ukraine is aggravating the situation is not only misleading, it serves to escalate tensions,” the U.S. statement said.
Making mainstream news now -- hoss

Once Again TB2K is ahead of the MSM
 

danielboon

TB Fanatic
Russia sees US warships in Black Sea ‘through sights of defense systems,’ Putin says
1 Nov, 2021 19:20
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Russia sees US warships in Black Sea ‘through sights of defense systems,’ Putin says

FILE PHOTO. The USS Mount Whitney. © Global Look Press / SULUPRESS.DE / Joerg Waterstraat

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President Vladimir Putin has outlined the need to improve Russia’s defense capabilities, warning US warships in the Black Sea are being watched through weapon sights, after two such vessels entered the region in a matter of days.
Speaking during a meeting with the top brass of the country’s military and defense industry bosses on Monday, Russia’s president stressed the need to further improve the nation’s defensive capabilities, particularly in the airspace sector.
“This need has been prompted by the leading countries’ developing innovative strike weapons with advanced speed parameters,” Putin said, adding that the ramped-up NATO activities along Russia’s borders reinforce that need further.
“The general military-political situation also requires further effort, prompted partly by the increasing numbers of NATO flights close to Russia, and NATO ships with guided missiles appearing in the Baltic and Black Seas,” he said.
Just recently, as you know, a US ship entered the Black Sea – it could be seen through binoculars or through the sight of our defense systems.
Putin’s remarks came just hours after a US amphibious command vessel, the USS Mount Whitney, entered the Black Sea. The flagship of the US Sixth Fleet has been deployed to “operate with our NATO allies and partners in the region,” the US Navy said in a statement.
 
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