CayceG

I don't care if this is fake, unconfirmed, or not. I'm sharing it because it might be the raddest thing of the day.

Get their asses.

What you're feeling is sympathy. I felt it in 06, and 14. It wasn't until I went there that I even began to understand.

Two tweets. First is Russian airborne troops landing at the airfield. Second is from early evening, this shot appears to show a Ukrainian fighter-bomber (Su-24 type, which I speculate that Russia isn't using those here) dropping bombs on positions at the airport.

Chernobyl is in between Belarus and Kyiv. It's the most direct route. It isn't that they want it for any reason other than it's in the way and they need to move the Ukrainian forces out of it.

The NATO alliance's mutual defense pact is the deterrence that keeps Russia out of the other countries in Europe.

As I predicted.

Let's all feel better by watching this Ukrainian granny shout right into a Russian soldier's face:

I'm generally deferential to Ze, but this one's a bit much on the rhetoric.

Reports of "explosions" could just be MLRS as the rockets are fired--into Ukraine, no doubt.

Yes.

That seems like an indication that this is going to be a pretty significant event.

Ammunition, anti-tank missiles, man-portable anti-air missiles, and probably personnel equipment like body armor, helmets, medical equipment, night vision goggles, and such. EDIT: Add to that, counter-artillery radars as well. These are genuinely defensive. And smaller drones they can use for remove surveillance.

We're probably almost there.

A portion of them moved into the Sea of Azov.

I've generally been even farther west. L'viv, Lutsk, Rivne, Ternopil mainly. Rivne has a zoo that's pretty funny. They have this one exhibit with a fucking North American raccoon in it. Like, dude, that thing lives under my shed. It is not special enough to be in a zoo.

Kinda. Part of it is that everything is sort of gray because it's winter. Part of it's the pollution in the east. I always to go Ukraine in late summer and everything is relatively vibrant. And it's in the west, so there's less industrial haze. But this photo from my friend from last year really shows the beauty of some areas. This is at a monastery in Svyatogorsk in the Donetsk Oblast.

It's mud season:

It might almost be go-time.

For more Nestor Makhno info, check out the 2-part Christmas episode on him that Behind the Bastards did. (Christmas is when they do a non-bastard for a change). Part One: Nestor Makhno: Anarchist Warlord and Book Club Aficionado - Behind the Bastards | iHeart WWW.IHEART.COM <p>Robert is joined by Jamie Loftus to discuss Nestor Makhno, our 2020 holiday non-bastard episode</p><p>FOOTNOTES:</p><p>1. <a href='https://www.theyliewedie.org/ressources/biblio/en/Collective_-_The_Personal_Side_of_Nestor_Makhno.html'>https://www.theyliewedie.org/ressources/biblio/en/Collective_-_The_Personal_Side_of_Nestor_Makhno.html</a></p><p>2.<a... Part Two: Nestor Makhno: Anarchist Warlord and Book Club Aficionado - Behind the Bastards | iHeart WWW.IHEART.COM <p>Robert is joined again by Jamie Loftus to continue to discuss Nestor Makhno. Happy Holidays!</p><p> </p> Learn more about your ad-choices at <a href='https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com'>https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com</a>

Right. And that's why I think he might bank on NATO not coming to the defense of Ukraine in an actual invasion scenario. While larger in scale, I think this winds up being a "Georgia Plus" situation. By that I mean an assault to degrade Ukraine's military capabilities through strategic strikes and assaults, an armored push to drive the Ukrainian military out of the Donbas, and the Plus part being an airborne operation backed by another armored push into Kyiv in order to secure regime change and oust Zelensky. All of that sounds like a nightmare for the Russians. May the ghost of Nestor Makhno guide the Ukrainians.

I think this can drag on a few more days. Off ramp would mean we'd see units pulling back and relocating to their bases inside Russia. They're all still there at/near the border.