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SkyDekker

Ukraine

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17 hours ago, Slim King said:

FISHED IN!!!!!!! Instead of retreating WAGNER just assaulted Bakhmut big time!!!!!! Russia gave them the ammo they requested and now the city of Bakhmut is in flames. The Russians captured and tortured a Ukrainian. He said that Ukraine had held several thousand civilians in basements of Bakhmut instead of letting them flee 9 months ago. The poor prisoner said that Ukraine would used them as HUMAN SHIELDS in order to escape if need be. Can this be true? Torture is another horror of war just like human shields of women and children. Stop the war ... Negotiate peace and save lives.

There is no point to negotiating with armies that torture prisoners-of-war.

It becomes a question of: "Would you prefer to be tortured today or tortured tomorrow?"

The Geneva Convention bans torturing prisoners-of-war because the practice is ultimately unprofitable. First, victims will cheerfully tell you ANYTHING in hopes of stopping torture. Whether torture victims tell the truth is .... vague ... difficult to predict ....

Secondly, if they expect to be tortured, soldiers are less likely to surrender. If they expect to be tortured, they will fight to the bitter end, long after hope is lost.

Thirdly, if they have tortured prisoners-of-war, those subjugated people are more difficult to rule in the long run. Many centuries ago, Western European nobles figured out that if they only displace the ruling elite, it is much easier to convince peasants to return to their plows. Apparently Eastern Europeans are not bright enough to lean this lesson. They will need to mature a few more centuries before they understand the Geneva Convention.

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As I suspected the current war in Ukraine is partially funded by drug smugglers. The latest issue of "THE ECONOMIST" outlines how the current war in Ukraine is interrupting traditional smuggling routes while opening up new opportunities.

Traditionally, Afghan-grown opium moved towards Western European markets via the old Silk Roads (see books by Frankopan). Most of the Post-Cold War fighting has been along the traditional Silk Roads through China, Turkmenistan, Persia/Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, etc. There is also an alternate Northern Silk Road through Ukraine and Poland.

Back during the 1990s, I could not understand who was financing the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Even with wealthy diasporas in Western Europe and North America funding private armies, it was difficult to understand who was financing the fighting in the former Yugoslavia. It only started to make sense when I read "Whistleblower" (book and feature film) written by an American femal police officer who went to the former Yugoslavia to train Yugo police on modern policing methods. She blew the whistle on how U.N. troops were knowingly and unknowingly abetting Serbians who were smuggling drugs and human sex slaves from Eastern Europe to Western Europe. In one case, a U.N. ambulance was used to move sex slaves across Serbian/Croatian lines.

Most of those sex slaves were pretty young women born in Ukraine or Russia who were offered low-skilled jobs in Western Europe or North America, but they ended up as strippers (exotic dancers) or prostitutes. These are the "Ukrainian widows" that Slim sees advertised on the internet.

Nowadays, fighting in the Eastern provinces/oblasts of Ukraine interupts traditional smuggling routes. It is difficult to move illicit goods Westwards past mine fields, trenches and trigger-happy artillerymen. Organized criminals are forced to develop new routes farther north or farther south. Some patriotic Ukrainian gangsters refuse to do business with Russian invaders, while others just see new opportunities for profits.

Speaking of profits ... after the war .. when it comes time to rebuild Ukraine, organized criminals will see plenty of opportunities for graft, corruption, bribes, shoddy work, etc. We hope that Western donors will also send plenty of auditors and inspectors to keep Ukrainian construction companies honest.

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4 hours ago, olofscience said:

He actually called for war crimes to be committed in a previous post.

 

Somehow he's still here, cheering on war crimes and defending nazi language.

“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

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2 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

He's not an idiot.

He has some fairly indefensible positions, but, if nothing else, his spelling and grammar are usually correct.

It's pretty clear who and what he is. A true idiot wouldn't be in that role.

We've had some pretty stupid people posting on here.

 

He's not in that class.

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(edited)
On 5/8/2023 at 9:00 AM, Phil1111 said:

Не пора ли положить конец бесплатному рупору путинской пропаганды. Где обвиняемый военный преступник платил пропагандистам за распространение дезинформации. Ложь.

Не пора ли SC отправить Slim в запрет? На ДЗ в Крыму.

Edited to add translation: 

Isn't it time to put an end to the free mouthpiece of Putin's propaganda. Where an accused war criminal paid propagandists to spread disinformation. Lie.

Is it time for SC to put Slim on the ban? At the DZ in the Crimea.

Edited by wmw999
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On 5/8/2023 at 4:00 PM, Phil1111 said:

Is it time to end the free mouthpiece for Putin propaganda. Where an indicted war criminal has paid propagandists spreading misinformation.Lies.

Is it time for SC to send Slim packing? To the DZ in the Crimea.

Crimea is Ukraine. Don't let this Putin monkey come to us in Ukraine...
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18 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

It's pretty clear who and what he is. A true idiot wouldn't be in that role.

I don’t think he is working for Russia. There’s one very unexpected person who shares a lot of his views and kind of explains how he’s got to where he is - Oliver Stone. 
 

Oliver Stone was completely disillusioned by the Vietnam war of the idea that western foreign policy is ever altruistic. He’s a conspiracy theorist, notably with JFK, that again ties in malign CIA foreign policy motivations. He’s then seen the whole Cold War in terms of western aggression designed to feed the military industrial complex. Somewhere that’s fed into the idea that if the west are the bad guys then Russia are maybe not the good guys, but definitely not the bad guys. And then they can start to admire Putin in terms of standing up to the west, and then you can think Putin might not be a bad guy at all.

Clearly Slim has gone to a whole new and despicable level with his approval of both Russia’s invasion and the worst of their crimes in the fighting. But when you see how someone like Stone can be lead astray by their (in some senses well founded) distrust of the US, then you can imagine how it’d affect someone so much more impressionable and so much less sharp in Slim.

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(edited)

Anyway, in good news there are some rumblings now about a European coalition wanting to supply longer range terrain following cruise missiles to be integrated into Ukraine’s Mig 29s. 
 

While the Russian Air Force is in general an unreliable, inflexible, undertrained shambles their modern air to air missiles are surprisingly excellent, so it’s very dangerous for the older Ukrainian jets to operate close to the front line. But a 300km range would allow them to target bases, ammo dumps, HQs, staging areas and logistics terminals well inside Crimea and the Donbas as well as front line targets.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/09/british-led-coalition-hoping-to-supply-longer-range-missiles-to-ukraine

Edited by jakee

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4 hours ago, Vladimir K said:

Crimea is Ukraine. Don't let this Putin monkey come to us in Ukraine...

    Crimea is Ukraine. i was thinking that you'd give active FSB employees an appropriate welcome at 14k. Perhaps a refreshing water jump in the Black sea!            

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1 hour ago, jakee said:

Anyway, in good news there are some rumblings now about a European coalition wanting to supply longer range terrain following cruise missiles to be integrated into Ukraine’s Mig 29s. ...

Credit to the UK for such thinking. President Biden is wrong in being so timid in the types of weapons to supply Ukraine.

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On 5/8/2023 at 10:33 AM, riggerrob said:

As I suspected the current war in Ukraine is partially funded by drug smugglers. The latest issue of "THE ECONOMIST" outlines how the current war in Ukraine is interrupting traditional smuggling routes while opening up new opportunities.

Traditionally, Afghan-grown opium moved towards Western European markets via the old Silk Roads (see books by Frankopan). Most of the Post-Cold War fighting has been along the traditional Silk Roads through China, Turkmenistan, Persia/Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, etc. There is also an alternate Northern Silk Road through Ukraine and Poland.

Back during the 1990s, I could not understand who was financing the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Even with wealthy diasporas in Western Europe and North America funding private armies, it was difficult to understand who was financing the fighting in the former Yugoslavia. It only started to make sense when I read "Whistleblower" (book and feature film) written by an American femal police officer who went to the former Yugoslavia to train Yugo police on modern policing methods. She blew the whistle on how U.N. troops were knowingly and unknowingly abetting Serbians who were smuggling drugs and human sex slaves from Eastern Europe to Western Europe. In one case, a U.N. ambulance was used to move sex slaves across Serbian/Croatian lines.

Most of those sex slaves were pretty young women born in Ukraine or Russia who were offered low-skilled jobs in Western Europe or North America, but they ended up as strippers (exotic dancers) or prostitutes. These are the "Ukrainian widows" that Slim sees advertised on the internet.

Nowadays, fighting in the Eastern provinces/oblasts of Ukraine interupts traditional smuggling routes. It is difficult to move illicit goods Westwards past mine fields, trenches and trigger-happy artillerymen. Organized criminals are forced to develop new routes farther north or farther south. Some patriotic Ukrainian gangsters refuse to do business with Russian invaders, while others just see new opportunities for profits.

Speaking of profits ... after the war .. when it comes time to rebuild Ukraine, organized criminals will see plenty of opportunities for graft, corruption, bribes, shoddy work, etc. We hope that Western donors will also send plenty of auditors and inspectors to keep Ukrainian construction companies honest.

I just watched a www.youtube.com video about smuggling in Iran. "Shootis" drive their souped up Peugots at 200 km to move banned goods (e.g. alcohol) from one Iranian city to the next while "tbars" risk their lives smuggling diesel oil to Pakistan and foot porters (aka. sherpas) carry consumer goods (e.g. washing machines) through the Kurdish-controlled mountains of Northern Iran. Iran is just one step along the traditional Silk Roads (see books by Frankopan). Ukraine is just the Northern detour to deliver Afghan opium, etc. to markets in Western Europe.

We already know that Prigozin (sp?) has been financing the African adventures of his Wagner Group of mercenaries by securing promises of mineral rights, etc. from aspiring African dictators.

This causes us to wonder which coal-mining or natural gas drilling rights Prighozin has been promised in Eastern Ukraine.

Or is Prighozin hoping to cash in on bribes paid by smugglers?

Or is Mr. Poutine just being a bully by decimating the Ukrainian steel industry (see Mariupol) in hopes of limiting the worldwide supply of steel and thereby improve Russian steel mills competitive edge?

This current war in Ukraine raises too many embarassing questions???????????

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10 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

This causes us to wonder which coal-mining or natural gas drilling rights Prighozin has been promised in Eastern Ukraine.

Or is Prighozin hoping to cash in on bribes paid by smugglers?

Or is Mr. Poutine just being a bully by decimating the Ukrainian steel industry (see Mariupol) in hopes of limiting the worldwide supply of steel and thereby improve Russian steel mills competitive edge?

This current war in Ukraine raises too many embarassing questions???????????

Only problem being that Putin would not be the slightest bit embarrassed about any of that. Russia's economy is staggeringly underdeveloped and they essentially produce nothing to sell to the world except natural resources and stop motion animation. So fighting a war that gives the Russian economy (more precisely the ligarch's under Putin's wing) access to more natural resources and less competition is just business as usual.

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On 5/10/2023 at 2:29 PM, Phil1111 said:

I stand corrected.

No worries, but we're getting closer: Storm Shadows have been delivered to Ukraine - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65558070

The Kerch bridge is well within their 300km range.

Additionally, they've lost quite a bit of ground on the southern flank of Bakhmut. Slim won't be able to deny it because his boss has actually released a video complaining about it.

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(edited)
2 hours ago, olofscience said:

...The Kerch bridge is well within their 300km range.

Yeah thats the first thing I checked out. They can now take it out from Ukrainian airspace.

They can also finish off the Russian fleet in Sevastopol.The Novorossiysk sub base. Together with the two sub bases in the Sea of Azov. :D All without leaving Ukrainian airspace.

Technically the subs would have to leave the Russian bases in Russia proper. Since Ukraine isn't supposed to use the missiles to attack Russia directly.

2 hours ago, olofscience said:

...Additionally, they've lost quite a bit of ground on the southern flank of Bakhmut. Slim won't be able to deny it because his boss has actually released a video complaining about it.

There were reports among the Russian positions that the Ukrainian offensive had started.  Russian troops dropped AKs and beat feet for up to 3km over a 6km front.

I wonder if Slim's troops will collapse as fast as Saddam's.

Edited by Phil1111

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7 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

Yeah thats the first thing I checked out. They can now take it out from Ukrainian airspace.

They can also finish off the Russian fleet in Sevastopol.The Novorossiysk sub base. Together with the two sub bases in the Sea of Azov. :D All without leaving Ukrainian airspace.

Technically the subs would have to leave the Russian bases in Russia proper. Since Ukraine isn't supposed to use the missiles to attack Russia directly.

There were reports among the Russian positions that the Ukrainian offensive had started.  Russian troops dropped AKs and beat feet for up to 3km over a 6km front.

I wonder if Slim's troops will collapse as fast as Saddam's.

Hi Phil,

Are you saying that they cannot have an OOPSIE?

Jerry Baumchen

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8 hours ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Phil,

Are you saying that they cannot have an OOPSIE?

Jerry Baumchen

Like Russians bombing themselves??

Having grown up during the cold war, it's almost laughable to me to see how incompetent the Russians actually are. Is their Naval fleet still rusting away as well?

They seem to have quite an underdeveloped economy thanks to their leaders and oligarchs.

 

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