[RESOLVED, it's Luxembourg] ..osting with VPS support?

[Cheb]

And Biden wanting to force Europe to deny the gas access of the NordStream2 gasline from Russia to screw over Russia. But that's not up to him.

Despite that Germany already shut that down apparently (possibly on call from the USA, but more probable on the call of the EU (which was probably influenced by the call from the USA)), costing Russia billions (apparently) in income since about 60% of the Russian incomes on gas and petroleum are coughed up by Europe.

Actually, all these delays with nordstream2 cost us so far is investment into the pipe itself + potential future profit (which is being denied anyway, ns2 or no ns2). The existing pipes, as far as I know, are still working and long-term contracts being fulfilled. All that is delayed is an upgrade. Also due to gas prices jumping to suborbital height, I heard, Gazprom worth rose considerably.
According to (1, 2) the export to EU only dropped by 47% compared to the last year (and export to Ukraine about halved since February 1st)
They trumpet about increasing export to China 1.5 times, but when you dig up actual numbers (which are rarely available, LOL), that export to China is about 10% of what export to Ukraine was. Very easy to increase dramatically :p

Guess in whose interests this situation is (hint: they supply LNG and their name begins with "U"). Especially with natural gas prices bouncing as high as 1000 at times instead of usual steady ~230

P.S. USD course bounced up from its usual wobbling around 76 -- to 80 today. I was so right to buy that replacement TV ASAP.

[Neko-]

you could find the book terminally boring.

Probably. I find I'm somewhat levelheaded. Depnding on what I am reading, I also adopt a certain mindset, which I keep in mind at all times.

Reading fanfics - I take a lot with a grain of salt. Reading study materials - Very concious reading. Reading Adolf, I'm going in _knowing_ who wrote it, and thus would either take breaks often, switch that off with some Ranma fanfic or something, or just delete it if I really do find it boring. Probably the latter. I mean I'm not much for biographies and the like.

So I figure I'm not liable to get subverted too much. I mean I had the copy for a couple of years, just never gotten around to actually reading that insanity.

Guess in whose interests this situation is (hint: they supply LNG and their name begins with "U")

I already guessed before you asked that question... Well, more like stated. Because as soon as I heard that on the news, that was the first thing I blurted out to my mom.

[Cheb]

[wince] I did not expect my President to be that decisive.
On the other hand, both Sun Tzu and Alexander of Neva promote exactly that.
I just wish there was a way without people dying.

I expect this reposted all over internet soon:
https://chebmaster.com/_share/IMG_0679.MP4 (14 Megabytes)
About a dozen mi-8 (presumably full of spetznaz) and at least two lean attack helicopters come (Ka-50?) - allegedly - from over Kyiv Reservoir -- maybe to take control of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant?
The reservoir's norther end touches both Chernobyl and Belarus.
Note both stingers, at 0:04 and 0:24, flying proudly in a straight line

If some total idiot thought of destroying that dam... Kyiv would be washed away by a mudflow carrying half the Chernobyl worth of radioactive sediments [wince] Then the dried up bottom would become a nuclear wasteland carried by the wind... somewhere at random.
..and let's not forget about nuclear power plants (plural) further down the river
It's all one big pinata full of Chernobyls. Handle with extreme care. >_<

P.S. From another video, one helicopter downed in that operation (Ka-50?: the pilot was seen on parachute afterwards, I cannot imagine anyone jumping out of Mi-8 while Ka-50 has an ejection system). How many people have to die on both sides?

P.P.S. Allegedly, *fifty* helicopters and goal was to take an airport 20 km away from Kyiv.
Making a beachhead for a beheading strike, in other words. Maybe for bringing in a puppet government too.
F***.

[Spica75]

Funnily enough that book is banned in the Netherlands. It's been completely removed from circulation with fines attached to it and all... Still have a digital copy anyway, which I planned to read someday to see how insane Adolf really was.

Not entirely recommended, because as Cheb noted, it is devious. Preferred method is to read small sections nonlinearly.
I had a superb Swedish teacher(who ironically was a Finnish-swede, while i was the only "native" in the class) for my first year of highschool, she literally spent at least a month worth of the time going into how to see through rethoric, propaganda and demagogery, and she was extremely good at getting people to notice how easy it was to change what something meant or how it was made to affect the reader through tone, choice of words, what to include and exclude etc etc...

To some extent i read literally everything like it was a hostile entity ever since.

And Biden wanting to force Europe to deny the gas access of the NordStream2 gasline from Russia to screw over Russia. But that's not up to him.

Oh yeah, guess how much propagandising there has been about that UP HERE, where it's actually built! Mostly sandbox kiddies levels of argument most of the time, but the total has just been so absurd it's breathtaking.

And yeah, clearly USA wanting to sell its LNG at several times higher price than russian gas sells for, absolutely no connection, no sirrreee!

Despite that Germany already shut that down apparently (possibly on call from the USA, but more probable on the call of the EU (which was probably influenced by the call from the USA)), costing Russia billions (apparently) in income since about 60% of the Russian incomes on gas and petroleum are coughed up by Europe.

Our gas supplies in the Netherlands should be at 40 to 50% remaining right about now, but with the issues on earthquakes on the Groningen gas fields, they shut down those fields substantially to reduce the earthquake risk (for which the government promised financial aid, but is dragging it's feet in providing that financial aid). This meant the winter-supplies were less filled up, so the stock supply of gas is now at 23%. And the Netherlands is rather depending on gas as primary source of heating and generating power, coal plants being shut down to reduce the CO2 footprint with only solar and wind to replace those... and the move to no-gas houses is turning out to be WAY more expensive than they imagined.

Huh, i had completely missed that there were issues with the Gröningen gas fields, and that NL was racking up that much problems. And yeah, much easier when gas was never really big in homes like here and the transition away from it happened in the 60s-80s thanks to Sweden running so much on hydropower, something like 20-90% depending on when.

Hell, we only have one small nuclear plant in the Netherlands, tho there's been talk (just talk, nothing substantial yet!) about building two more.

Government is also hiking the gas price with taxes, to force people to isolate their houses and what not more in order to reduce the CO2 footprint of the Netherlands to insane levels (they want to be the forerunner on CO2 reduction for some insane reason). So gas contracts for people have already doubled or in some cases even quadrupled. Where they would pay 200 euros a month for their energy (gas and electricity combined), some now report seeing invoices of 800 euros a month. And electricity has also gotten taxes moving the cost up tho not as massively as gas got taxed. Energy for some costs the same as the rent for the place they live at, resulting in a complete depletion of funds for food or anything else for some. Poverty is likely looming for a lot of people.

Yikes... Even though i keep my computer on 24/7, i pay something like 30-40€/month in energy bills. Mom something like not quite triple that in a rowhouse, while i have an apartment. While there's been some serious pricehikes down south this winter, nothing like THAT.

Germany in the mean time has abolished Russian gas due to the conflict, wants to kill off all nuclear power stations by the end of the year (due to Fukushima), is phasing out coal and oil (still their primary means of generating power) as a means to generate energy in favor of gas, and is calling on an insane contract that was made between the Netherlands and Germany way back in the 70s or so to demand gas deliveries from the Netherland-gasfield. Which in turn means an inreased earthquake risk for the region those fields are in. So the dutch government want to shut down the gasfields to prevent earthquakes, find themselves in the position they need more gas due to depletion of gas-stock so need to drain more gas from that gasfield increasing the risk of earthquakes, and THEN Germany puts a knife to the governments throat to demand more gas as agreed in the contract frm way back when, resulting in the forced opening of the gas tap even further (again boosting the risk of earthquakes in the region).

And THEN the EU decided to put sanctions on Russia... And lock down the gasline from Russia. Which the Dutch PM is apparenly fully supporting, consequences be damned. So the Dutch government is willing to let the Dutch people suffer in cold rather than taking calculated steps. Not to mention that wars have the nasty tendency to hike prices on just about anything, so we have that to look forward to as well.

Then this week we got the news that there is an alternative for Russian gas. LNG... which the USA has invested highly in the production of the last year. So Biden apparently wants us to shut down Russia's gas, and the EU being cornered in a cold place (or atleast without a supply of gas from Russia while still needing gas substantially) to start paying the USA for the same resource that Russia was providing.

So Biden isn't just screwing over Russia. He's doing the same to the EU as well. And Germany is very willing to screw the Netherlands over as well.

A lot more senility than sensibility going around right now...

USA is close to losing its world domination spot and their rich clique, which mostly controls politics there, is doing all kinds of crazy shit to avoid it. Oversimplified by a lot, but essentially reality.

[Spica75]

[wince] I did not expect my President to be that decisive.
On the other hand, both Sun Tzu and Alexander of Neva promote exactly that.
I just wish there was a way without people dying.

I expect this reposted all over internet soon:
https://chebmaster.com/_share/IMG_0679.MP4 (14 Megabytes)
About a dozen mi-8 (presumably full of spetznaz) and at least two lean attack helicopters come (Ka-50?) - allegedly - from over Kyiv Reservoir -- maybe to take control of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant?
The reservoir's norther end touches both Chernobyl and Belarus.
Note both stingers, at 0:04 and 0:24, flying proudly in a straight line

If some total idiot thought of destroying that dam... Kyiv would be washed away by a mudflow carrying half the Chernobyl worth of radioactive sediments [wince] Then the dried up bottom would become a nuclear wasteland carried by the wind... somewhere at random.
..and let's not forget about nuclear power plants (plural) further down the river
It's all one big pinata full of Chernobyls. Handle with extreme care. >_<

P.S. From another video, one helicopter downed in that operation (Ka-50?: the pilot was seen on parachute afterwards, I cannot imagine anyone jumping out of Mi-8 while Ka-50 has an ejection system). How many people have to die on both sides?

Anything more than zero deaths is always too many.

But with how things have become worse and worse over time while Kiev regimes have spent zero effort to even begin try to implement the Minsk treaty, it was a matter of time before shit happened.
The fact that Kiev talked big about how the regions could never be anything else but Ukrainian(despite of course that they were never Ukrainian until IIRC, 1954), yet at the same time made absolutely certain that the population in those areas were actively excluded from any Ukrainian elections, well yeah, words matter little when actions show something else.

I have still not managed to reach any reliable sources of information, but my big question so far is whether Russian forces are acting primarily within Donetsk/Luhansk or outside and if so how much...

He was a Lv.80 toxic killer clown. Any heritage he left is to be treated as, I quote, "volcano full of radioactive Ebola".

*lol*

Well said.

Actually, all these delays with nordstream2 cost us so far is investment into the pipe itself + potential future profit (which is being denied anyway, ns2 or no ns2). The existing pipes, as far as I know, are still working and long-term contracts being fulfilled. All that is delayed is an upgrade. Also due to gas prices jumping to suborbital height, I heard, Gazprom worth rose considerably.
According to (1, 2) the export to EU only dropped by 47% compared to the last year (and export to Ukraine about halved since February 1st)
They trumpet about increasing export to China 1.5 times, but when you dig up actual numbers (which are rarely available, LOL), that export to China is about 10% of what export to Ukraine was. Very easy to increase dramatically :p

Ah, but the truly interesting part is how this provides great incentive to greatly expand the export capacity to China. China desperately needs more energy and is perfectly willing to pay decently for it. So while it screws over Europe, it may very well end up a longterm plus for Russia.

P.S. USD course bounced up from its usual wobbling around 76 -- to 80 today. I was so right to buy that replacement TV ASAP.

No, reeeaaally? What an absolutely unexpected surprise... Except, well, not.

[Neko-]

i had completely missed that there were issues with the Gröningen gas fields

The short of it is that the removal of gas from under the ground causes the ground to sink in. This results in eartquakes. Nothing major (see https://bevinggevoeld.nl/gasbevingen/ for a dump of measured earthquakes... As the colors indicate the blue ones are between 1 and 2, while the red ones are between 2 and 3).

But the result is houses that are NOT built to resist earthquakes to be damaged. Cracks, torqing and so forth. Which wouldn't be a problem, if it wasn't for the government NOT making haste in adressing these issues, and NOT providing compensation to the inhabitants to repair and earthquake proof their houses. Which has been exempted from insurance-policies for the reason it never happens, so people tend to just accept that earthquakes are not part of the policies.

And the government who profited hugely from the profits of that gas, has spent that cash elsewhere and isn't too keen on spending it on the people in the region. The field was found in 1959, and in 1963 a contract was signed. Took some doing to get insight in that contract, but it seems the dutch government has a certain amount of responsibility for the result damages as by legal means according to the contract.

And for the sale of that gas there are contracts till 2030 that Germany, France and Belgium are holding the Dutch government to. So the government has to deliver gas to those countries till atleast 2030, probably based on the demand given by those countries.

In order to mitigate the propagation of damage, they throttled back the outtake of gas from those fields, in favor of drawing gas from elsewhere. This has reduced the amount of earthquakes.

And then there is Germany: https://www.politico.eu/article/the-net ... h-germany/

So that ramps up the requirement for gas, resulting the dutch government being caught between a rock (earthquake damage in Groningen, and the resulting costs) and a hard place (denying those contracts and be hit with fines).

much easier when gas was never really big in homes like here and the transition away from it happened in the 60s-80s thanks to Sweden running so much on hydropower

Gas is still the biggest means of heating homes here. It's also the most efficient.
We don't have height differences in the country to the extend that hydro is an option. And while tidal power is an ongoing research bit, we mostly rely on gas powered turbines along with coal powered plants (which are pretty clean in terms of exhaust) for our power.

That does mean that heating with electricity isn't that feasable here tho. And gas is as stated more efficient and cost effective.

So while the EU (Germany and France) are bashing Russia by denying that NS2 line, they are also looking at the country most affected from that denial for the deliverance of gas, which causes earthquakes in an area that never had those to begin with.

i pay something like 30-40€/month in energy bills

That's what cheap hydro-electric wil do.

My last invoice came down to 373 kWh electricity in January, for which I needed to pay 58 euros. Gas came to 156 m3 for that same month, coming to 140 euros.

And I'm aware that as per the renewal date (set at April 1st) both prices will see an increase. That contract is se to a fixed price for a year, and I renewed that last Sunday, so considering the insanity with Russia now I was just in time.

[Cheb]

No, reeeaaally? What an absolutely unexpected surprise... Except, well, not.

I heard today it jumped to 110, then dropped to 86, then the exchange was locked down -- so there is simply NO number for today.
Ahhh, so nostalgic

Ah, but the truly interesting part is how this provides great incentive to greatly expand the export capacity to China.

They are working on it for years now. The Power of siberia, The Power of Siberia 2... As far as I see, the throughput is still negligible, 1..2% of the former export to EU. -- are those pipes connected to a different field?

but my big question so far is whether Russian forces are acting primarily within Donetsk/Luhansk or outside and if so how much...

Massive airstrikes at 6 in the morning across the entire country, Ukraine now allegedly has no aviation nor air defense. 30+ airfields hit, plus ammo storage warehouses (the big booms news agencies love so much). One anti-air defense missile shot over Kyiv by the air defense, debris fell down among apartment blocks.
No reliable info on ground forces movement in DNR/LNR expect that they are on the offensive.
Marines striking Odessa: 50/50, unknown. Either they came, rekt the Ukrainian fleet and left or there was nothing.
In the afternoon: the second wave, alleged air combat over Kyiv, strike planes flying at very low altitudes everywhere. Massive airborne assault 20km north of Kyiv.
So far this looks more like the mother of all surgical strikes than a conventional ground invasion.

[Neko-]

The question is... will this be over once the eastern provinces are overrun, or will Russia go for the whole country?

The fact that they're attacking well outside those two provinces is likely just to prevent any counterattack from being organized. But it still leaves for doubt if that is really all that is.

[Cheb]

or will Russia go for the whole country?

NO Please, no!
It would be like "boa had swallowed a whole alligator and BURST".
The republics are a given, up to their borders -- but I simply have no idea what goes in Putin's head anymore, it was enough to wait and Ukraine would have torn itself apart nicely without our help. I can hope he knows something that I do not.
The republics being sovereign, we don't have to spent billions dragging their living standards up.
What would be point of a full-scale occupation, I cannot see. Alienate the population? Test if we can create a logistical nightmare for ourselves?
Ukrainian army proved to be a paper tiger, only the few nazis fight -- all others go "f*** this shit I'm out". Did Putin overreact due to bad intel? That would be a hilarious tragicomedy. To tears.

Pity I would not be able supporting people on Patreon any more after Visa is shut down (to be happen soon, I presume). I could easily salvage the money by moving it to my Mir card inside the bank, but Sargeant Mark IV would have to finish his game without my $25/month.

[Spica75]

The question is... will this be over once the eastern provinces are overrun, or will Russia go for the whole country?

The fact that they're attacking well outside those two provinces is likely just to prevent any counterattack from being organized. But it still leaves for doubt if that is really all that is.

Unless some idiots in the "west" pushes something really stupid, almost certainly not. Russia has stayed low-risk for many years and it's unlikely to completely change now. But again, there's always the risk of someone trying to push, like Georgia did in 2008.
And the fact that mr president in charge of Georgia at that time then went to Ukraine and got an amazing leadership post in a region there, i'm sure that has absolutely no connection at all to anything... Nope.

The short of it is that the removal of gas from under the ground causes the ground to sink in. This results in eartquakes.

And lowered ground... Which is NOT something you want in a nation that is already too much below surface of the ocean(or too close to it) while we're looking at almost certain major rising sea levels in the next century.

But the result is houses that are NOT built to resist earthquakes to be damaged. Cracks, torqing and so forth. Which wouldn't be a problem, if it wasn't for the government NOT making haste in adressing these issues, and NOT providing compensation to the inhabitants to repair and earthquake proof their houses. Which has been exempted from insurance-policies for the reason it never happens, so people tend to just accept that earthquakes are not part of the policies.

Ouch, double whammy. That sucks.

Gas is still the biggest means of heating homes here. It's also the most efficient.

Here i don't think it was ever big for heating, just for gas stoves. Direct electric heating became big in the 60s-80s here but the single biggest source today is district heating, which despite losses from transfer has been shown to generally be the best working solution, one single heating plant for a town and a single investment in a distrubution system and it runs extremely well. Ground and air heat exchangers have also become quite common since the 80s.

That does mean that heating with electricity isn't that feasable here tho.

Yeah, it started becoming less popular here ever since the 80s when cost of electricity started going up, and ever since the powerlines connecting the Swedish network with the mainland European, along with a bunch of taxes, electricity is still "cheap" here compared to down your way, but it's also quadrupled in price since the 80s.

So, the house i grew up in, which had electric elements only as it was built in 1970 when those were the BIG THING, if it hasn't had those changed, the cost of heating would be insane during a cold winter(ie -20C or even colder sometimes).

My last invoice came down to 373 kWh electricity in January, for which I needed to pay 58 euros. Gas came to 156 m3 for that same month, coming to 140 euros.

Icky... I'm SOOO happy my heating here is part of the rent.

That's what cheap hydro-electric wil do.

We USED to ALSO have a solid setup of nuclear power to complement that, but the idea is that those are supposed to be got rid of... Yeah, not working out very well so far.

[Spica75]

They are working on it for years now. The Power of siberia, The Power of Siberia 2... As far as I see, the throughput is still negligible, 1..2% of the former export to EU. -- are those pipes connected to a different field?

Probably, almost certainly yes. You only build the infrastructure you expect to use after all, so pipelines tend to focus on "current" affairs and often do not interconnect very well, tends to be more multiple long lines in parallel rather than a single connected web of lines.

Massive airstrikes at 6 in the morning across the entire country, Ukraine now allegedly has no aviation nor air defense. 30+ airfields hit, plus ammo storage warehouses (the big booms news agencies love so much). One anti-air defense missile shot over Kyiv by the air defense, debris fell down among apartment blocks.
No reliable info on ground forces movement in DNR/LNR expect that they are on the offensive.
Marines striking Odessa: 50/50, unknown. Either they came, rekt the Ukrainian fleet and left or there was nothing.
In the afternoon: the second wave, alleged air combat over Kyiv, strike planes flying at very low altitudes everywhere. Massive airborne assault 20km north of Kyiv.
So far this looks more like the mother of all surgical strikes than a conventional ground invasion.

Thank you. That's quite possibly the most informative piece i've seen so far.

The republics are a given, up to their borders -- but I simply have no idea what goes in Putin's head anymore, it was enough to wait and Ukraine would have torn itself apart nicely without our help.

Except USA had started to mass import arms lately and have stocked up at least 10 thousand armored vehicles in the Baltics, Poland, Romania etc.. And having begun supporting Azov-battalion offensives into Donetsk/Luhansk. Which is essentially a warcrime by definition.
It wasn't at the level of what happened with Crimea, where the nazis outright proclaimed they were about to "marsching south to exterminate the vermin", but it has been building up in a bad way.

The republics being sovereign, we don't have to spent billions dragging their living standards up.

True, but i wouldn't be surprised if something like that didn't happen anyway. Really shove it in the face of the "west" just how easily the place could be so much better, as was done in Crimea, where the differences became almost laughable in the level of improvement.

What would be point of a full-scale occupation, I cannot see. Alienate the population? Test if we can create a logistical nightmare for ourselves?

Yeah no, highly unlikely. And the north and west parts of Ukraine are the most empoverished regions of all of Europe, if they want to keep playing Sieg!, let them pull themselves out of the black hole they've jumped into so gladly.

Ukrainian army proved to be a paper tiger, only the few nazis fight -- all others go "f*** this shit I'm out". Did Putin overreact due to bad intel? That would be a hilarious tragicomedy. To tears.

Nah, the nazis have been the problem from the start, and they were the ones getting more active into Donetsk/Luhansk over the last year or two.

Ukrainian army might have become a threat in a few years with how much USA have been spending on it lately, never a truly serious offensive threat against Russia itself no, but potentially enough that they could conquer the breakout republics by force, and if the nazis were leading that charge like they have been so far, chances are bad that it would be a genocide.
So while it's impossible to say for sure, or anywhere close, i can definitely see the potential reasoning. "Better now while we still CAN do something than just accept the surviving refugees later, with nato across the border eventually"...

As long as the republics remain independent, Russia gets a piece of nomansland between it and nato, and that looks like it could be very important in the next decade.

Pity I would not be able supporting people on Patreon any more after Visa is shut down (to be happen soon, I presume).

I wonder if they can afford such a complete cutoff. China is quite happy to take over trade with Russia which means to really make it work against Russia they would have to enforce it on China as well, and yeah, hah! Good luck with THAT.

[Cheb]

Ok, it seems I was down with the same sickness of lack of attention like most of the world population. Bad Cheb.
It was enough to sit and listen to Putin's entire morning speech (there was a re-run in the evening), however long.
In his own words:
1. The war is self-defense.
2. The war goal is demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine (and hunting down those nazis suspected in war crimes).
3. Why so drastic: Putin criticized Stalin again (re really dislikes him for his screw-ups) saying the attempt to keep appeasing the aggressor until it was catastrophically late cost us dearly. (an obvious conclusion from these words: strike preemptively and strike hard) The threat was a full fledged nazi regime emerging, possibly with nukes (btw. they have several nuclear power plants, sixties reactor design, dual purpose). So with this peacemaking operation (the words of another official) we are protecting Europe as well.
4. No one even thinks of occupation. (Putin uses persuasion on the Ukrainian army: "Lay down your weapon and go home! You gave your oath to the people of Ukraine, not to this corrupt government robbing it and installing nazis in power! Do not follow its unlawful orders!" It is SUPER effective. Saddam's troops feel like heroes in comparison, they offered at least token resistance. Why...? Interviewing POWs in DNR reveals most of them were in it only to have something to eat, this was the only job they could find. Way to buff your army with people who have absolutely no desire to actually fight, huh? The DNR plans to just let them go home.

I can say nothing about a possible puppet government. We could only wait and see.

We could tentatively assume the deadline for this operation is March 2 as any civilian transportation is locked down across the southern Russia til that date. Tourists stuck in Crimea are being evacuated by train.

Our army made another small incursion north from Crimea to unblock the Crimean irrigation channel (Ukraine blocked it, causing significant flooding in several of their villages, in 2014 to make the Crimean agriculture die of thirst)

Our Ukrainian migrant neighbor made one-eighty and is now all go Russia go, grab half the Ukraine so that Moldova is connected again. Had a spat with his mother (in Kharkiv) over the phone: she was oh noes we won't be able to travel to Europe freely now. He was: idjits, what for? For finding any job you could grab? Or for the fat cats? Do you prefer staying in powerty? and the like.

Someone reminded, I forgot who, when the red army liberated Odessa during ww2, there were no nazi collaborators anymore: the local population had lynched them all >_<

I am now thoroughly confused what the reason behind that air assault was: are they really going for something in Kyiv (like specific individuals/ institutions)? Are they protecting the "atomic pinata" dam? Is it a simple intimidation tactics? My boss who is much better at googling and has acquaintances IN Ukraine says half Ukrainian TV is gone, personnel fled. Half their parliament was gone yesterday.

Since i am going to work regularly again, I'm translating in the subway again. Chapter 18 of Dance Dance Rumble is ~25% translated now.

I was worrying about the war too much while I have 4 complex coding tasks with deadline "before March 1". And I've done absolutely nothing today at work except worrying about the war, watching youtube and printing a shop order on an office printer that costs like a small car. Which leaves me with... uh... Aaaaaah, the sky is falling! Kaput >_<

[Cheb]

Ugh. need sleep badly =_=
P.S.. : better from the source: the full speech (loses some of its compactness and expression in English as some phrases stretch longer)
https://theprint.in/world/full-text-of- ... ne/845714/
scroll down to
Citizens of Russia, friends,

[Spica75]

I was worrying about the war too much while I have 4 complex coding tasks with deadline "before March 1". And I've done absolutely nothing today at work except worrying about the war, watching youtube and printing a shop order on an office printer that costs like a small car. Which leaves me with... uh... Aaaaaah, the sky is falling! Kaput >_<

You make sure you're healthy first of all. C19 can sometimes be VERY slow to get rid of all the aftereffects, so take care not to overstrain yourself. In a few months it will be 2 years since my brother had it and he's not back to 100% yet.

I am now thoroughly confused what the reason behind that air assault was: are they really going for something in Kyiv (like specific individuals/ institutions)?

Or records. If they could dig up obvious links that can be proven in public between Hunter Biden and the 2014 coup for example? That would be a golden opportunity. Not like anyone sane hasn't already figured out why the boy suddenly got a cushy little fake job with a massive salary in a company owned by people linked to the future leadership, but any incriminating paperwork would be very useful.
Aside from that, probably people mostly, but yeah, shutting down media is a standard procedure kind of thing so also likely.

Our Ukrainian migrant neighbor made one-eighty and is now all go Russia go, grab half the Ukraine so that Moldova is connected again.

Seems all he needed was a bit of hope for an actual future. It's one of the reasons i can't really be unhappy about this crap, no matter how bad wars are, the civil war dragging on as it has been doing has been really bad for Ukraine in so many ways.

I can say nothing about a possible puppet government. We could only wait and see.

Aye, this could get troublesome no matter how it' s handled. If the republics stay independent, Ukrainian voters will have the same makeup as since the coup which may end up with a less than pleasant(or acceptable) government. And of course, regardless what it does end up as, according to "western media" it WILL be a puppet government, only question is how they will frame it and phrase it.

Although it would be kinda darkly amusing if there are elections held, decried as obviously rigged by the EUSANATO, and then they end up with the same politicians in charge as they had last week.
Not gonna happen, but damn it would be funny to see how they would try to talk themselves out of such a blatant oops.

We could tentatively assume the deadline for this operation is March 2 as any civilian transportation is locked down across the southern Russia til that date.

Let's hope for a quick finish then.

1. The war is self-defense.
2. The war goal is demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine (and hunting down those nazis suspected in war crimes).
3. Why so drastic: Putin criticized Stalin again (re really dislikes him for his screw-ups) saying the attempt to keep appeasing the aggressor until it was catastrophically late cost us dearly. (an obvious conclusion from these words: strike preemptively and strike hard) The threat was a full fledged nazi regime emerging, possibly with nukes (btw. they have several nuclear power plants, sixties reactor design, dual purpose). So with this peacemaking operation (the words of another official) we are protecting Europe as well.

Despite some exaggeration and propagandising, it's real enough to give a thin veneer of "proper" to anyone bothering to think. Which of course isn't anyone in charge in the EUSANATO block.
And considering the precedence set by Nato in Yugoslavia as well as the R2P doctrine made real in 2005, there's certainly decent arguments that this really is "legal". You're not going to ever hear that from any official or media sources of course, as hypocrisy is the name of the game.

4. No one even thinks of occupation. (Putin uses persuasion on the Ukrainian army: "Lay down your weapon and go home! You gave your oath to the people of Ukraine, not to this corrupt government robbing it and installing nazis in power! Do not follow its unlawful orders!" It is SUPER effective. Saddam's troops feel like heroes in comparison, they offered at least token resistance. Why...? Interviewing POWs in DNR reveals most of them were in it only to have something to eat, this was the only job they could find. Way to buff your army with people who have absolutely no desire to actually fight, huh? The DNR plans to just let them go home.

Good, but not surprising. Russia under Putin has tried hard to stay out of other nations, and considering all the provocations(and temptations), been pretty darn good at it.

Lol, [Putin uses [Persuasion]], [It's super effective!]... *insert game success tune here*

But yeah, Ukrainian military isn't even good enough to be called a paper tiger, at least a paper tiger can look impressive, more like a paper ant, possibly a paper ant on fire with a few legs missing. It also shows very clearly, AGAIN, just how totally not interested in making war or doing warcrime shit the average Ukrainian is.

Lets hope that that is also the total of it, no hidden elites held back for a surprise or much worse, "stay behind" terrorist forces like what was organised by USA in western Europe during the cold war, usually made up from the most rabid extremeists they could recruit

.

[Cheb]

Alas, no one is moving into Kiyv. So the "atomic pinata" theory was right. SBU (Service of Security of Ukraine) seen burning full dumpsters of papers

Official word from our army: VDV took control of the Chernobyl power plant, achieved an agreement with the Ukrainian special battalion guarding it and now they are guarding it together. The power plant is operating normally. The sarcophagus is safe, radiation levels normal.
No word on the Kyiv Hydro Plant operation, though. I assume it did not go as smoothly and we suffered losses.

Our neighbor's relatives from Ukraine: there are Russians in Chernobyl!
Rumors travel fast, the army's story confirmed.

From what I could gather, the fight in Donbass is a meat-grinder. Nazis fight to the end and even managed to shell civilian again.
Official data: The heavy defense lines broken through, the front line moved ~7 kilometers.

..and that's it for today: going to plug my ears and work hard adding new fields to the database, modifying algorithms and so on. Limited admittance opens @ March 1st.

(Donbass is an abbreviation for "Donyetsk coal basin[fields in English]")