The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

This will probably be a pretty easy double for Biden at bat. Hasn't he been in office longer than Putin?

[Madner Kami]

This will probably be a pretty easy double for Biden at bat. Hasn't he been in office longer than Putin?

[Beastro]

Hasn't this been an ongoing issue for Ukraine for some decades now?

It's been going on since the 18th Century at the earliest.

Welp, this is less than ideal. .-.

But hey, at least it's Capitalist Russia invading, not nasty Communist Russia. 9_9 So much better, amiright?

It's neither. This is old Russian Empire matters happening again.

Russia has always has a southern flank issue and they very much remember their history (Like the Crimean Tartar's slave raids that were kept up until the mid 18th Century). There are reasons why the Ukraine was brought into the Russian Empire and those reasons remain. It is entirely within their interests to annex the Ukraine, and thus, it's entirely within the West's interests to keep it separated.

Russians do not see the Ukraine as a nation, they see it as this with Russians and Ukrainians sprinkled around that is a nice flat invasion path all the way to Moscow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Fields

[Frustration]

You'd think it would be more productive to be friendly to the Ukraine, to the point that they'd be willing to make themselves less of an inviting target.

[Beastro]

You'd think it would be more productive to be friendly to the Ukraine, to the point that they'd be willing to make themselves less of an inviting target.

Leaving the Ukraine as it is keeps Sevastopol exposed and easy to isolate. Sevastopol has a history of that happening, both in the Crimean War and in WWII. The Russians were never going to allow their window into the Mediterranean to be so vulnerable. They went along with leasing the naval base until they were strong enough to just seize the Crimea outright. Now they want the path to Sevastopol solidly under their control so it can't be threatened.

There's also the fact that the Ukraine is a lot like Siberia in that it's the closest to a colonized region for Russia and seen as terra incognita. The Ukraine was depopulated and a wasteland centuries ago because of all the slave raiding. The Cossacks exist because they grew out of those who fled other places and gathered together in that wilderness to live where no one else wanted to. Then Russia went in and resettled large swathes of it (Why the east half has a Russian majority) while the Ukrainians lived in a shadowy period here with regard to their national identity. They were originally the Ruthenians and had declined through the Middle Ages being restricted to the Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland only to resurge back and relabel themselves as the Ukrainains in the 19th Century.

The Ukraine as it is could only assuredly be a buffer if solidly under Russian control, but too much of the Ukrainian people are against Russia due to their historical national identity issues going back to the 19th century for them to be a reliable ally. There's a bit of a "You're not a real people, you just created yourself over a century ago" thing going on there. It's similar to the issue Serbs have with Croats and Slovenes, that they are just Serbs using different names, Yugoslavia is their natural national entity and they all should be under Belgrade's rule again. It doesn't help that there's no differences in their languages and a Medieval Kingdom of Croatia...., etc, etc (Get a Serb and Croat talking on the matter and you feel like nothing's changed for them since the days of Franz Ferdinand's assassination).

Look at Belarus. They are seen to be as much a part of historical Russia as the Ukraine, if not more so (Belarus = White Russia) but things are ok between them because Belarus is seen to be reliably anti-Western and easily annexable if they change their minds on that.

[sayla0079]

After seeing what's going on with Russia as an 80s kid I have to say here we go again.

[Madner Kami]

Since ̶5̶̶.̶̶4̶̶5̶̶a̶̶m̶ 5am, shots are being fired back...

Russia invades Ukraine as Putin declares war to ‘demilitarise’ neighbour

Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure in early strikes with explosions reported at airfields, military headquarters and military warehouses

Russian forces have unleashed an attack of Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a “special military operation” at dawn, amid warnings from world leaders that it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.

Within minutes of Putin’s short televised address, at about 5am Ukrainian time, explosions were heard near major Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.

The scope of the Russian attack appears to be massive. Ukraine’s interior ministry reported that the country was under attack from cruise and ballistic missiles, with Russia appearing to target infrastructure near major cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Dnipro.

[...]

In a bid to justify the attack, Putin claimed “A hostile anti-Russia is being created on our historic lands.”

“We have taken the decision to conduct a special military operation,” he said, in what amounted to a declaration of war. He claimed it was for the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine, echoing a theme of Kremlin propaganda, the false claim that the Kyiv government is controlled by the far right.

“We do not intend to occupy Ukraine,” he said, and he had a chilling warning for other nations.

“To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside: if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me,” he said.

[...]

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well...shit.

[ProfessorDetective]

And it begins...

[Madner Kami]

A lot of white noise being produced at the moment, but basically:

• Russian troops are moving to occupy the entirety of the "people's republics" in the east of Ukraine (roughly two thirds of the territory claimed by these russian puppets, is currently being held by ukrainian forces)
• russian troops have crossed the northern borders from Belorussia, apparently belorussian forces are moving into Ukraine as well
• missile strikes on military installations all over the country, mostly airports, known arms depots and command and control infrastructure
• attacks on military installations on the southern coast, including missile strikes launched from submarines

Possible white noise, but good likelyhood of being factual reports:

• reports about attempted airborne landings on major airports, all of which have so far been denied by ukrainian officials, except a curious absence of a denial of such an alleged attack on the airport in Kiev
• reports of a large amphibious landing operation near Odessa, Black Sea