The Russian Invasion of the Ukraine.

[dudalb]

Is there a chance at all that Belarus is there to help Ukraine, rather than join the invasion?

A little behind the news, I see.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Maybe Vlad gave them orders to get fighting and help out.

At a guess, Vlad told Lukashenko not to join in because the Ukrainians would surrender in droves, and now that not only isn't happening but that the Russians are getting a spanking, he's asked for some "help" from his puppet.

The Belarussian military is even more pathetic than the Russian one though, so I suspect this is just going to give the Ukrainian civilians even more APCs that they can nick.

Yeah but then why did Russia wait to ask them to join?

If Belarus had been part of the initial invasion force the planned "Get it over with quick" thing would have been more likely, Russia could have pretended they had "international support" and if any thing "ungentlemanly" happens they could have just blame the Belarus soldiers.

 

[theprestige]

Is there a chance at all that Belarus is there to help Ukraine, rather than join the invasion?

Serious question: Where on earth are you getting the idea that Belarus might be helping Ukraine?

 

[dudalb]

At a guess, Vlad told Lukashenko not to join in because the Ukrainians would surrender in droves, and now that not only isn't happening but that the Russians are getting a spanking, he's asked for some "help" from his puppet.

The Belarussian military is even more pathetic than the Russian one though, so I suspect this is just going to give the Ukrainian civilians even more APCs that they can nick.

And Belarus is going to get slammed with the same Pariah status that Russia is under.
I suspect the Lukashenko has been promised a slice of the Ukraine as a reward.
He is Mussolini to Putin's Hitler.

 

[jimbob]

Seems weird to jump on team Russia now rather than when the invasion began.

"Let's wait until they are having a much harder time then they were counting on AND they are massively unpopular with the rest of the world!"

It says to me that Russia thinks they lack the troops and need their client state to support them.

 

[JoeMorgue]

To clarify I'm not doubting that Russian has probably has strong armed their little puppet state into "helping" it just seems like yet another thing the Russians planned out poorly.

 

[plague311]

Serious question: Where on earth are you getting the idea that Belarus might be helping Ukraine?

I don't believe he was implying they were, but hoping that they might be.

 

[Wudang]

Serious question: Where on earth are you getting the idea that Belarus might be helping Ukraine?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/28/belarus-troops-ukraine-russia-invasion

Belarus may be preparing to send its soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion, perhaps as soon as this week, according to a US defence official,

 

[Galaxie]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1498346782656454656

Very grim rumors circulating about a Russian strike against a convoy transporting Israelis out of Ukraine, with intimations it is a very serious incident. @IsraelMFA
is involved.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Seems weird to jump on team Russia now rather than when the invasion began.

"Let's wait until they are having a much harder time then they were counting on AND they are massively unpopular with the rest of the world!"

Agreed. "Coalition of the willing" is the type of propaganda you do from the outset. A token Belorussian force should have been included in the initial attack if the goal was paint this as a coalition effort.

I wouldn't be surprised if Putin was not giving his allies much advance notice of this move.

 

[theprestige]

Yeah but then why did Russia wait to ask them to join?

If Belarus had been part of the initial invasion force the planned "Get it over with quick" thing would have been more likely, Russia could have pretended they had "international support" and if any thing "ungentlemanly" happens they could have just blame the Belarus soldiers.

Maybe Putin was worried Belarus would go off message and start committing obvious atrocities out in the open for the world to see. Or maybe he suspected Belarussian performance would be so comically inept and ineffective that it would be a net propaganda and morale loss. Now that the Russian troops are delivering that loss anyway, maybe having more boots on the ground doesn't seem like such a bad idea even if they are no-talent assclowns.

 

[Tony99]

Naive question; I know Russia has been frozen out of financial markets, but what is stopping the seizure of Russian assets in the west?
Say every day Russia remains in Ukraine, that's a 10% asset forfeiture.

I'm sure that may be seen as an act of war by the west on Russia.

 

[plague311]

Naive question; I know Russia has been frozen out of financial markets, but what is stopping the seizure of Russian assets in the west?
Say every day Russia remains in Ukraine, that's a 10% asset forfeiture.

I'm sure that may be seen as an act of war by the west on Russia.

I might be wrong but I thought they were already seizing Russian assets. Maybe I'm not understanding correctly.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Naive question; I know Russia has been frozen out of financial markets, but what is stopping the seizure of Russian assets in the west?

Republicans not wanting us to look at those assets AT ALL NO SERIOUSLY STOP LOOKING AT THEM LOOK OVER THERE PLEASE I'M BEGGING STOP LOOKING AT THEM...

 

[Hercules56]

Putin wants NATO to stop expanding, so he invades a country that wants to join NATO.

Then he threatens two other nations that are discussing to join NATO.

Seems Putin is doing NATO's work for them.

 

[theprestige]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/28/belarus-troops-ukraine-russia-invasion

I think you must have misunderstood my question.

 

[erlando]

Really wish everyone could huddle up and agree on a spelling and pronunciation for Kiev.

Kiev is the russian spelling. Kyiv is the ukrainian spelling. You pick.

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

Serious question: Where on earth are you getting the idea that Belarus might be helping Ukraine?

It is indeed a desperate, even pathetic, hope that Russia would stand alone in its madness.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Putin wants NATO to stop expanding, so he invades a country that wants to join NATO.

Then he threatens two other nations that are discussing to join NATO.

Seems Putin is doing NATO's work for them.

I gotta say, it's a baffling move by Putin. I thought some aggression might happen in order to try to snatch the Donbas, but a full scale invasion didn't seem likely to me at all.

Before the invasion I was happy to argue that the whole situation was a real mess full of nuance and complications and whatever. All of that is simplified by the extreme aggression shown by Russia. All of NATO's many warts don't really stand in comparison to the threat posed by naked Russian aggression on display right now.

I don't see how this move is going to leave Russia better off in both the near and far future. I don't see how this ends without Russia and any conquered territories ending up behind Iron Curtain 2.0 totally alienated from the West.

It really makes me pessimistic about how safe mutually assured destruction really is. At the end of the day, these nuclear armed countries aren't perfectly rational, carefully calculating actors. They can make huge mistakes and act on non-rational instincts, as shown by this full scale invasion by Putin. All it takes is for someone to back themselves into a corner and decide nuking is the only way out.

 

[trustbutverify]

I was wondering how long before Russia invading Ukraine was America's fault.

(And here I'll save everyone the trouble. *Clears throat* "tHaT's a StaRWAmAN. sHoW mE WHEere ANYOne sAID THAt!"

That was day one.