Russian invasion of Ukraine

https://twitter.com/lmharpin/status/1499305019413258242

Any comment? If Stop the War don't want to be seen as Putin's useful idiots, can they stop Kremlin propaganda being disseminated at their events?

If anyone is looking to donate then a friend has set up this go fund me. Donations being sent directly to individuals and charities in Poland helping refugees at the boarder.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/bqbyp-help-ukrainian-refugees-arriving-in-poland?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

Similarities to cycling here..... tank tracks are a lot like bike chains and wear whatever you are doing. You then have to do a session of“track bashing” which is incredibly hard work and tough on your hands. I’ve only done it on little Spartan CVRTs it must be far worse on Tanks. We seemed to have to do a bit, maybe just tensioning about every day.
If you don’t do it you can throw a track at the wrong moment. For me this was generally a miserable dark muddy ditch in Wales, looking on the bright side I didn’t have Ukrainians creeping up on me with Panzerfausts.

Other Track Trivia....CVRTs could snap tracks which then could snake over the vehicle hitting the top of the turret/your head.
I gave a girlfriend a candle holder made from a long spiral of Aluminium that a track ripped off the side of an apc , romantic eh.

The Bunderswehr have an incredible little tracked vehicle the Wiesel it has composite tracks and is the GTI of Panzers particularly as it has a VW turbo Diesel engine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hJpxmmzZFag

What the actual fuck.

I’m a Russian speaker, and the grammar and turns of phrase in the document are more than a little suspect.

Lots of links for fundraising have gone out already, but the Disasters Emergency Committee have finally opened their fundraiser.

DEC is a good one to donate to as they are a bipartisan collection of major UK charities. If you put your money there you know its going to be spent well by disaster professionals, with transparency and closely regulated.

https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

Finding it very hard to focus on work

+1

If you've not read it already this is a good piece on the sharing of Russian Propaganda (whether unwittingly or otherwise) by segments of the British left: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/02/russian-propaganda-anti-imperialist-left-vladimir-putin.

It's pretty well balanced. Like the writer, I've been to plenty of STW and STW adjacent events and, while it is only a minority, there are still some people on the left who view imperialism as purely Western phenomenon. It's a weird outgrowth of the old school tanky left and the Iraq war.

Anyone else stuck refreshing this thread, r/ukraine and the usual news
sites? Finding it very hard to focus on work

i've been doing the same and feeling pretty anxious - i found this quite a good read the other day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60557186
"Ukraine conflict: How to help yourself, your kids, and others"

TLDR; turn off the news and go for a ride

also, i'm finding this thread really useful as a digest of what's going on a couple of times a day without binge-ing on news feeds too much.

so thanks for keeping me sane LUFGUSSers

https://twitter.com/lmharpin/status/1499­305019413258242

Any comment? If Stop the War don't want to be seen as Putin's useful idiots, can they stop Kremlin propaganda being disseminated at their events?

Of course they can't control what people hand out outside their events.

This.

Thanks to everyone who posts here, it’s greatly appreciated.

also, i'm finding this thread really useful as a digest of what's going on a couple of times a day without binge-ing on news feeds too much.

so thanks for keeping me sane LUFGUSSers

+1 😘

Women turning to making camo nets, not sure if this is uplifting or depressing, probably both
https://twitter.com/nolanwpeterson/status/1499356394180395008

As suspected, the An-225 is gone (world's largest plane and only one in existence, obviously nothing compared to the loss of human life)

https://twitter.com/theragex/status/1499355599934574593

One of my close friends works for the MoD, his main job is basically advising the government and MoD on possible scenarios and outcomes on many different ongoing issues and threats, based on intelligence analysis him and his team complete.

Obviously this is something him and his team are covering extensively at the moment.

I'm not pushing him for info he can't share etc but he said this guy is an excellent OSINT analyst on the status of Russian hardware. He provides insight on what might currently be in play, what's lost, and interestingly reasons why some of the Russian hardware might be under-performing.

https://nitter.net/RALee85

TIL about nitter

Nitter is great. Replace 'twitter.com' with 'nitter.net' in any URL and you no longer need a log in to avoid those fucking sign up prompts.

Thinking about it @Velocio - any chance you can auto send Twitter links to Nitter on site?

(If the govt ever gets round to it before they hide them all) what happens to the seized oligarchal assets? Do they sell them off in an auction and > $£££$ profit to the treasury? I am imagining some junior civil servant suddenly having to look after a load of superyachts, Lambos, helicopters and London property (and footbal clubs) and work out what on earth to do with them.

https://twitter.com/peterpomeranzev/status/1499381097150484481

Am v worried about what Kremlin will use as an excuse for martial law in Russia: so many reports of Putin planning an atrocity inside Russia and blaming Ukraine

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev is a very good book on Putin's Russia, in case you haven't read it (bit out of date now).

It is claimed that Putin staged the Russian apartment bombings to strengthen his claim for the presidency. Christ knows what he would do now, but it could be ugly.

Does your friend know why there are so few pictures of destroyed Russian armour? The Ukrainians have thousands of various missiles I’d expect them to have fired a lot.
Could it be the terrain the photos on that Twitter account show lots of open ground with little cover for a tank stalk.

Russian TV interviewing a Moscow stock trader and he cracks a beer to toast the memory of the Moscow stock market "I'll be working as Santa from now on, cheers to our stock market's death"

https://twitter.com/page_eco/status/1499312352021577732?s=20&t=V-dMCvYxF6ogq4jOf0S9KQ

There's loads of photos of destroyed or captured Russian armour.

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons for example

Or Beslan, after which he gave himself power to propose heads of federal subjects.

TIL I learned what TIL means.
And nitter.
And OSINT.

+1 for this thread, very informative, and interesting personal insights (dau, dibble, atz...).

this seems wild:

https://nitter.net/CITeam_en/status/1499361692261756945#m

Russian soldiers have been forced to sign paperwork that says they never left Russia.