For Those Who Might Be Wondering Why We Might Be In Ukraine

[ChloeTzang]

Looks like four -and possibly a fifth- strategic bombers are burning at Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk region. All nearby roads have reportedly been sealed off, with only emergency services allowed access. Russian media report an emergency meeting is underway in the Kremlin following Ukraine's massive drone strike on key strategic aviation airfields.

Local Russian residents claim that a truck arrived in Olenegorsk, with the driver running around in panic as FPV drones repeatedly launched from the trailer. According to them, traffic police have detained the driver, who reportedly said, "I was told to come here, someone would meet me." The drones continued to take off one after another.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1929156369334042712

 

[ChloeTzang]

Ahhhh, it becomes clearer. Ukraine probably advised the US officially at a routine low level update that the operations was on, but the info didn't make it up thru the chain to the White House before it happened. Smart move.

 

[ChloeTzang]

That aircraft score will need to be updated.

 

[ChloeTzang]

This is a nuclear sub base was hit. And not just any base, but where 2/3rds of Russia's nuclear subs are parked. The Russian Nuclear Submarine base in Severomorsk is now being attacked by Ukrainian Drones.

"The russians report a large explosion in Severomorsk, where submarines are located."

There are now incoming reports of loud explosions and large fires from Russia’s nuclear submarine base in Severomorsk near Murmansk

https://twitter.com/x/status/1929150854562541837

 

[icanhelp1]

Ahhhh, it becomes clearer. Ukraine probably advised the US officially at a routine low level update that the operations was on, but the info didn't make it up thru the chain to the White House before it happened. Smart move.


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Something quietly happening behind the scenes. It is rumored that Trump made a deal with SA to increase oil production by 400,000 brls per day. I believe, but can't substantiate this, this is being coordinated for dual purposes. One to deal with Iran since Iran is an existential threat to SA and the second is to drop the price of oil to $40 bucks a barrel. This I believe is a very quiet kick in the balls to Putin without broadcasting it globally. This will possibly force a collapse of the Russian economy and the end of Putin. IMHO

 

[Politruk]

Something quietly happening behind the scenes. It is rumored that Trump made a deal with SA to increase oil production by 400,000 brls per day. I believe, but can't substantiate this, this is being coordinated for dual purposes. One to deal with Iran since Iran is an existential threat to SA and the second is to drop the price of oil to $40 bucks a barrel. This I believe is a very quiet kick in the balls to Putin without broadcasting it globally. This will possibly force a collapse of the Russian economy and the end of Putin. IMHO

The U.S. should not be siding with SA against Iran.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The U.S. should not be siding with SA against Iran.

Hey, you know it's going to happen. We have so many ties to Saudi

 

[Politruk]

Hey, you know it's going to happen. We have so many ties to Saudi

Which is entirely regrettable.

 

[Lazaran]

Something quietly happening behind the scenes. It is rumored that Trump made a deal with SA to increase oil production by 400,000 brls per day. I believe, but can't substantiate this, this is being coordinated for dual purposes. One to deal with Iran since Iran is an existential threat to SA and the second is to drop the price of oil to $40 bucks a barrel. This I believe is a very quiet kick in the balls to Putin without broadcasting it globally. This will possibly force a collapse of the Russian economy and the end of Putin. IMHO

ineedhelp1 consistently demonstrates that they are the dumbest poster on the PB…and we have a Derpy, a Rightard, an Ishtard, and a BB…

 

[ChloeTzang]

Which is entirely regrettable.

I don't know. I lived in Riyadh for 2 months and my experience was that Saudi's are really lovely people, in the context I met them in, which was with my dad and mom so the Saudi's and their family's we met were both educated and rather westernized from studying in the US and the UK. Incredibly friendly and hospitable, and really hapy to explain their whole culture and history and Saudi in general. That's at a purely personal level and takes the whole Muslim thing out of the equation.

I guess one could probably say the same for Iranians, but I din't know any Iranians. Now the religion is a different thing entirely, and as for the politics, at least Saudi is more or less aligned with us for purely practical reasons.

 

[Politruk]

I don't know. I lived in Riyadh for 2 months and my experience was that Saudi's are really lovely people

But they have a really ugly government, much worse than Iran's. I really couldn't believe the first thing Bush did after the invasion of Kuwait was "Operation Desert Shield" -- specifically to protect SA!

 

[Rightguide]

1939. Molotov-Ribentrop Pact where they divided sphere's of influence. They split Poland between them, and on the USSR's portion of Poland, the exterminations started. My great-granddad was in the Polish Army on the border with Russia and was shipped off to Siberia. His family owned quite a lot of farmland outside Lvov, so they were probably executed or shipped off to the gulag. WHatever happened, they didn
t survives WW2 and that was Stalin AND Hitler. Like a lot of other Poles. Throw in the Holodomor, whuch exterminated more Ukrainians that Hitler ever managed with Jews, and you had a good start. Now toss in Latvia and Estonia, where the Russians rolled in and immediately started the executions and shipped thousands off to the gulags, and way to go, Stalin. No wonder Latvians and Estonians signed up by the thousands to fight the genocidal Russians. Lithuanians too. Those guys who signed up to fight the Russians were the real heroes. Not to mention the Russian invasion of Finland - the Winter War.

It is estimated that at least 125,000 Lithuanians rose up to fight the retreating Soviets during the time between the initial German crossing of the eastern frontier and the final evacuation of all Russian troops. At least 4,000 are said to have been killed during this period, and another 10,000 wounded in action. Numerous Lithuanian cities were also liberated even before the Germans arrived, a sign of the fierceness with which the Lithuanians were willing to fight for their homeland and the enthusiasm with which they greeted the German troops as liberators. After WWII ended, tens of thousands of Lithuanian forces remained across Lithuania and they continued to engage in fighting the Soviet occupation forces well into the 1950s. The last of the Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan forces are thought to have been wiped out around the time of 1955-56.

France and the UK were prepared to sent an expeditionary force to Finland to help fight the USSR, and they were planning a large scale bombing raid on the Baku oilfields, to be launched from Syria by the French Airforce and the RAF, when France fell. The USSR was just as much the enemy as Germany was. The German attack on the USSR simply served to confuse the picture. With western help, the USSR survived and fought Germany, but in the war between the western democracies and totalitarianism, one of the TWO totalitarian regimes survived and emerged as the ruler of all of Eastern Europe. WW2 only ended when the USSR disintegrated and the eastern european states regained their independance and freedom. Patton was right - we should have gone on and destroyed the Red Army and liberated eastern europe in 1945. Partly because Roosevelt was a Stalinist-symp to the core.

However, we didn't, and the core of the genocidal and totalitarian Soviet regime survived in Russia. Russia was never demilitarized and denazified, nor were its many war criminals ever put on trial at the Hague. The end result is that we now see Putin emerge as Stalin's heir, yet another genocidal and murderous Russian maniac in the great traditions of the Tsars and the Bolsheviks. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is really a continuatrion of the same war from that perspective, and there are still many other countries and people within the artificial borders of the Muscovite Empire that wait for their liberation and freedom.

How Lithuanians greeted German troops at the start of WW2..............and, gosh, Lithuania welcomes German troops in....2025. I wonder why.....
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No one here is defending the Soviets—before, during, or after the war. What we’re defending are the facts. If you want to have a moral reckoning, we can also talk about how FDR and Truman knowingly consigned 110 to 120 million Christians to Stalin’s godless Communism. The Russian state has always been a creature of its own history, brutal, paranoid, and self-perpetuating. Our greatest folly, both then and now, is believing we could rewrite that history from the outside, or worse, pretend it doesn’t exist.

 

[Politruk]

If you want to have a moral reckoning, we can also talk about how FDR and Truman knowingly consigned 110 to 120 million Christians to Stalin’s godless Communism.

There was nothing either of them could have done to stop Stalin taking over Eastern Europe -- nothing at all. Don't buy that stupid old canard about Patton being in a position to stop it if given a free hand -- there was nothing he could have done either.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Seems the Ukrainians got another Russian AWACS aircraft again too. Russian A-50 Early Warning Aircraft Reportedly Burning at Ivanovo Airbase. This is just too awesome for words

The Ukrainian drones were reportedly AI-based, and had been trained to autonomously detect and attack targets. Apparently the drones were built inside Russia… in Chelyabinsk, of all places? Russian sources say they were assembled in a warehouse near the Kazakhstan border. If true, that means Ukraine managed to quietly set up logistics, smuggle parts across the Russian border, and launch an op deep inside enemy territory all while under constant invasion. That’s not just impressive. That’s next level asymmetric warfare.

LOL. We've reached the point where Ukraine needs to consider very hard whether it's willing to extend a Ukrainian security guarantee to NATO.

Internal chaos within Russia is mounting after this attack: tightened cargo inspections are jamming up logistics, causing costly delays and confusion. On top of that, they’re scrambling to urgently relocate aircraft, warships, and submarines. It’s a logistical nightmare and a strategic disaster.

The price they’re paying is only going up. And what’s coming next will be even more devastating.

 

[Rightguide]

But they have a really ugly government, much worse than Iran's. I really couldn't believe the first thing Bush did after the invasion of Kuwait was "Operation Desert Shield" -- specifically to protect SA!

Desert Shield was primarily about energy security, geopolitical dominance, and establishing the U.S. as the sole global enforcer after the Cold War as well as protecting our allies in the region, like SA.

 

[Politruk]

Desert Shield was primarily about energy security, geopolitical dominance, and establishing the U.S. as the sole global enforcer after the Cold War as well as protecting our allies in the region, like SA.

Exactly -- SA never should have been an ally, no matter how much oil they've got.

 

[dmallord]

Ukraine says it destroyed more than 40 Russian bomber planes deep inside territory​

A Ukrainian security official on Sunday said that Kyiv destroyed more than 40 Russian aircraft in drone attacks that struck airbases thousands of kilometres from the front lines. Russia uses the strategic bomber planes to fire long-range missiles at Ukraine. Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base in Siberia on Sunday, the first such attack so far from the front lines more than 4,300 km (2,670 miles) away, according to pro-Russian bloggers. Unverified video and pictures posted on social media showed Russian strategic bombers – whose purpose is to drop nuclear bombs on distance targets – on fire at the Belaya air base north of Irkutsk.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage but in Kyiv, a Ukrainian intelligence official said that Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, conducted a large drone attack on over 40 Russian military aircraft. The Ukrainian source, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters in Kyiv, said the struck aircraft included Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers, which Russia uses to fire long-range missiles at Ukraine. The claim would mean that Ukraine damaged $2 billion worth of Russian aircraft parked at airbases thousands of kilometres away. The source said Russian airbases in the eastern Siberian city of Belaya, in Olenya, up in the Arctic near Finland, and in Ivanovo and Dyagilevo, both east of Moscow, had been targeted.

Disclosing operational details, the official added that the attack took over one and a half years to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This was a hugely ambitious SBU operation. According to people familiar with the attack, codenamed “Spiderweb”, it was planned more than a year in advance and “personally supervised” by Zelensky. It used dozens of FPV drones armed with explosives that were smuggled into Russia. Photo below: SBU Chief Vasyl Malyuk looks over a map of Russian targets in today's attack.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/...0-russian-bomber-planes-deep-inside-territory

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Watching this on CNN right now. Amazing distance and wonderful outcome. Only better news would be that some of the ordnance took out Putin as well!

 

[Rightguide]

There was nothing either of them could have done to stop Stalin taking over Eastern Europe -- nothing at all. Don't buy that stupid old canard about Patton being in a position to stop it if given a free hand -- there was nothing he could have done either.

Did I say that? The flaw in Patton's thinking was similar to Napoleon's, but not quite the same. The Napoleon was defeated because the depth of his lines of supply increased with every step taken towards Moscow as the Russians retreated, drawing them into forced envelopment and final destruction. This is the problem with the idea of attacking Russia over the vastness of Steppes. Patton’s view was shaped by military confidence, geopolitical foresight, based on a lack of Soviet resilience and available manpower, but was ultimately overridden by diplomatic reality.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The most devastating blow to Russian air power since June 1941. Around 30% of Russia's strategic air power has been destroyed.

President TACO told President Zelenskyy, the leader of the free world, that he didn't have any cards! Bwa-ha-ha! Zelenski had 4 aces up his sleeve. He played them today.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Ohhhh, and Anna is very excited. We're up to $7 billion worth of Russian aircraft burning now. Seems they may have hit up to 100 aircraft and maybe even a submarine

All the operation was conducted remotely, with all operators safely back inside Ukraine before th operation kicked off. Different operations all over Russia, all launched at the same time. Over 100 Russian aircraft (some of them likely being cannibalized for spare parts). 34% of Russian's strategic aviation destroyed, as well as stockpiles of cruise missiles. These aircraft cannot be replaced - they were built back in the old USSR days, and a lot of the manufacturimg was in......Ukraine!

She rubs in TACO's "you don't have the cards."

 

[ChloeTzang]

Another take on the devastating Ukrainian hit on Russian airfields

 

[ChloeTzang]

Ukraine destroys $7b worth of Russian bombers in surprise drone attack​

Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, said it carried out the attacks on Sunday on strategic bombers at five air bases deep inside Russia, reaching as far as Siberia, destroying 41 aircraft worth $US7 billion ($11 billion). “Thirty-four per cent of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation were hit,” the SBU said on Telegram. The drones hit 41 planes stationed at military airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said. The Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3 long-range bombers are capable of deploying conventional and nuclear weapons and Moscow has previously used them to launch missiles at Ukraine. A-50s are used to co-ordinate targets and detect air defences and guided missiles.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe...in-surprise-drone-attack-20250602-p5m418.html

 

[ishtat]

I don't know. I lived in Riyadh for 2 months and my experience was that Saudi's are really lovely people, in the context I met them in, which was with my dad and mom so the Saudi's and their family's we met were both educated and rather westernized from studying in the US and the UK. Incredibly friendly and hospitable, and really hapy to explain their whole culture and history and Saudi in general. That's at a purely personal level and takes the whole Muslim thing out of the equation.

I guess one could probably say the same for Iranians, but I din't know any Iranians. Now the religion is a different thing entirely, and as for the politics, at least Saudi is more or less aligned with us for purely practical reasons.

Two of my best friends at UNI were Iranians, one an Iranian Moslem the other an Iranian Jew. Both very well educated and sophisticated. The Iranian Jew still lives there but the Moslem emigrated years ago. They both despised the Shia priesthood and hated the Shah (imposed on them by the west) Unfortunately the Shia clergy gained power by leading the less well educated rural people and creating the Revolutionary Guard- think of them as Moslem MAGA!

Also worth noting that all Iranians without exception have a huge superiority complex with respect to Arabs.

On two occasions I have had to explain my prior visits to Iran to US immigration people.That took quite some time as we had to start from the fact that neither interviewer actually new where Iran was.

 

[ChloeTzang]

President Zelenskyy on Operation Spiderweb.

"What’s most interesting, is that the “office” of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions." Adding insult to injury LOL

https://twitter.com/x/status/1929273356425248853

 

[ChloeTzang]

I didn't realize that was the last A50 AWACS the Russians had left. They're half-blind now......