"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

[swampyankee]

The "annexation" of Austria was encouraged by the German Army, who crossed into Austria the day before the public vote on Austria's possible unification with Germany.
A vote against, was not a wise nor healthy decision.

There was also the Sudentenland as well as the "protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia", but the Czechs don't seem to be punished for that.

There were also significant national Austrian politicians pushing for union with Germany, unlike Czechoslovakia, where union with Germany was an issue for regional politicians. Politics in a lot of Central Europe was, at best, messy Before WWII. During the war, every occupied country* had parts of its population collaborating to some extent (I'm not counting somebody selling lunch to a German soldier as collaboration**, but turning in your neighbor for listening to the BBC up to and including cheerfully joining in implementing the Holocaust and joining SS military units do)




* Except, maybe, the Channel Islands.
** Especially if they spit in it and jack up the price

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Why do Russian soldiers break on the Ukranian battlefield?
The war through the eyes of Viktor Shayga, a Russian who volunteered to join the army as a contract soldier in March 2022.

Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

@ChrisO_wiki: 1/ Why do Russian soldiers break on the Ukranian battlefield? This third 🧵 in a series looks at at how their personal experiences of war have prompted some Russian contract soldiers to refuse orders, r...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Also interesting:

Part 1 Why do Russian soldiers fight in Ukraine?

Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

@ChrisO_wiki: 1/ Why do Russian soldiers fight in Ukraine, why do they quit and what happens when they do quit? Intercepted Russian phone calls published by the Ukrainians and accounts from the soldiers themselves s...…

threadreaderapp.com

Part 2: Why do Russian soldiers quit fighting in Ukraine and go home?

Thread by @ChrisO_wiki on Thread Reader App

@ChrisO_wiki: 1/ Why do Russian soldiers quit fighting in Ukraine and go home? In this second 🧵 in a short series, I'll look at what translated Russian accounts say about some of the factors prompting soldiers...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Putin misread the situation in Ukraine and the willingness of NATO and the world to intervene; so he expected a cakewalk. The invasion of Ukraine is going to enter history's list of large scale, geopolitical-changing military blunders, like Barbarossa and Pearl Harbour.

Agreed.

However, such military blunder is evident to anybody who is not brain dead since late march.
All the fighting since then is just face-saving (that IMHO is going from bad to worse) or a matter of not hurting Putin's feelings.

Other than that, what do they expect to get? Increasing Russian territory by 0,1%?, and that assuming that Russia doesn't go the way of the Soviet union.

 

[Admiral Beez]

There were also significant national Austrian politicians pushing for union with Germany...

Well, the chap in Berlin in charge of it all was Austrian.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Other than that, what do they expect to get? Increasing Russian territory by 0,1%?, and that assuming that Russia doesn't go the way of the Soviet union.

The Donbas is where Ukraine's gas and oil reserves are located. If Ukraine can retake this territory they can set up a competing pipeline service to Europe, making Russia more of an irrelevancy. That's Putin's two goals, to ensure that only Russia controls oil and especially gas from the east to Europe and to ensure that Ukraine never has the petro dollars to become a prosperous, western-like state.

 

[Greg Boeser]

But everyone has agreed to eliminate fossil fuels by 2030.

 

[Snautzer01]

Putin burned that card. Dont think western powers will buy any fossil fuel if there is something else on the market. And there is.

 

[SaparotRob]

One of the economists buffnut453 quoted, Mr. Sonnenfeld, has said that the oil pipeline going to China would barely provide the City of Leeds' energy requirements. It's all set up to go the other way.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Putin burned that card. Dont think western powers will buy any fossil fuel if there is something else on the market. And there is.

Jokes aside, this war has given alternative energy initiatives a serious slap on the butt to get moving. There's no way that without this war the Germans would be rushing toward alternative energy. And we'd never see nuclear getting any deutsche leidenschaft (is that a thing?) without Putin's folly into Ukraine.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com

At this rate we'll see the western Europeans crack nuclear fusion energy before the end of the decade.

German start-up aims to generate unlimited clean fusion energy with lasers

Marvel Fusion, a German start-up that has raised more than $65 million, aims to commercialize fusion using laser technology.

www.cnbc.com

Perhaps a planet with fewer GHG will be Putin's legacy.

 

[buffnut453]

Russia amping up the rhetoric about US/NATO engagement in Ukraine:

Ukraine war: Russia accuses US of direct role in Ukraine war

Moscow accuses the US of directly approving targets for US-made artillery used by Ukraine.

www.bbc.com

I really worry about Putin feeling so backed into a corner that he elects to go (literally) nuclear. I hope he's not that stupid but, of all the world's leaders, he's the most likely to push the button simply because he doesn't care about a single other human being on the planet.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Yup, you cannot expect an unreasonable person to be reasonable.

 

[Glider]

The Colonel called it correctly, saying "it's going to get worse" once Lend Lease is underway.

I have to say that this guy speaks a lot of home truths and I am more than a little surprised that they let him continue to speak. There was quite open criticism of the Russian Political and Military leaders, the use of contract soldiers, of the assumption that Ukraine are on the point of breaking, that India and China are unconditional allies, that the Ukraine troops could be considered unprofessional, and a whole lot more.

I hope he is careful about what he eats and drinks

 

[Admiral Beez]

I hope he is careful about what he eats and drinks

His latest appearances are much more in line with Putin. Someone nudged him.

 

[buffnut453]

Well...the prophecy that Serbia would go on the offensive against Kosovo a few days ago was clearly inaccurate. However, tensions are definitely rising. This article helps explain some of it but I feel there's a lot missing. Forcing ethnic Serbs to adopt Kosovo number plates on their cars seems a very poor reason for kicking off a shooting war:

Kosovo: Why is violence flaring between ethnic Serbs and Albanians?

There are fears of renewed hostilities between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.

www.bbc.com

 

[buffnut453]

Waiting for the big BOOM:

Ukraine war: IAEA says Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant out of control

Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated at Zaporizhzhia, the UN's nuclear chief says.

www.bbc.com

 

[Zipper730]

We just don't need another INES-7: We've already had two (and both in my lifetime) already (Chernobyl: 1986 and Fukushima: 2011). Frankly, you'd think even the Russians would realize that this doesn't benefit anybody. Fallout from a nuclear reactor doesn't care about national boundaries, it just goes wherever the wind blows it, and ionizing radiation doesn't care whether you're Ukrainian or Russian (or American).

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

We just don't need another INES-7: We've already had two (and both in my lifetime) already (Chernobyl: 1986 and Fukushima: 2011). Frankly, you'd think even the Russians would realize that this doesn't benefit anybody. Fallout from a nuclear reactor doesn't care about national boundaries, it just goes wherever the wind blows it, and ionizing radiation doesn't care whether you're Ukrainian or Russian (or American).

And the wind is generally west-to-east in that part of the world, though it does circulate NW as well.

 

[SaparotRob]

Putin is making Kim Jong Un look responsible.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The Battle of Kherson may well be a decisive clash.

Russia is preparing its forces for an attack on the southern battlefront, Ukraine says. (Published 2022)

www.nytimes.com

MSN

www.msn.com

This page will need an update…

Battle of Kherson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org