State of Play: USA aligns with Russia?

It's now day 1103 of the Russia's two day special operation in Ukraine. While the battle rages on there it seems Russia is making some gains outside that theater, seemingly with the help of relatively newly re-elected USA president Donald Trump. In just around two months of his second time in office the USA has held "Peace Talks" with Russia without Ukrainian participation and decided to halt aid going to Ukraine after President Trump publicly clashed with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.

On top of this his high tariffs on Canada, Mexico (he also renamed their gulf) and China as well as sanctions relief for Russia some speculate he's building "the bridge" to trade primarily with the Russians in the future. This has sparked more than a few interesting comments of "Trump is a Russian agent" and "Congrats to Russia on winning the cold war". I suppose we will see if and how this changes the battle field but one thing's for sure: Putin must be pretty happy right now.

November 2022: NATO weighs in with words

With the war starting to spill out of the set boundaries "Defending Ukraine is defending democracy," says NATO and while the little country is finding ways to continue with power shortages as winter approaches, Zelenskyy has had more visitors in the form of Sean Penn and David Letterman while his forces continue to push East, capturing Kherson - the only regional capital Russia captured after invading in February. Here's an animated map.

Meanwhile Russia, whose economy is now truly in recession and dubbed a terrorist state by NATO, is aptly proving redditor Rhinomeat correct in his statement that "You cannot use logic or reason to dislodge someone from a position that they used neither logic nor reason to maneuver themselves into."

They are blessing their guns and vehicles to slay the Ukranian devils and are relying on ally North Korea to provide winter uniforms. Their other ally, Iran, has supposedly suffered some military losses too however they are currently busy beating up women at home and finding workarounds to their own laws which state they can't execute virgins. Lastly India has opted to continue to buy Russian oil, which in itself is a show of support for the Russians, right beside China who are currently experiencing their own riots.

These are more to do with the continued COVID lock downs though, which include being locked in theme parks, taxis and burning buildings. Regardless, their future war preparations continue as they have begun cloning drones being used in Ukraine and Russia. Just another reason for their rival the USA to not support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons while strong arming others to say the same. Global Second Amendment anyone?

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April 2022: Day 65 of the war

Or in Russian, it would be Day 65 of the special operation. There are now laws in which saying what the government doesn't want to hear or agree with a crime worth 15 years in prison. For similar reasons they've sent a wikipedia a hefty fine for spreading misinformation.

After losing a war ship, a few more tanks, being chased by drones, and being poisoned by locals, Russian forces were redeployed from attacking Kyiv to partake in a major offensive at Donbas to the East which includes the long besieged city of Mariupol. They have also started deploying dolphins, because that's apparently a thing that the USA does as well?

That's an artsy destroyed tank turret.

With the supposed default of the Ruble coming soon (speculated May 4th), Vladimir Putin has announced that the Russian lunar program will continue. Perhaps that's an additional reason why Russia is cutting the gas supply to both Poland and Bulgaria. To quote reddit: "Russia can't get enough fuel to drive a few hours to Kiev. Moon is a bit further".

Less people using Russian gas is exactly what the outnumbered Ukraine wants though, who are going hard on their propaganda with an excellent writing team - though sometimes a single picture can be pretty moving too. Support continues to flow for them from overseas, with Britain's Boris Johnson visiting Zelenskyy in Kyiv, USA's Joe Biden labeling Russia's action as genocide, France's Emmanuel Macron boosting weapons supplies for Ukraine after winning a second term of presidency over a pro-Russian opponent, hackers continuing to do their thing against Russia, and chef Jose Andres providing food to those he can reach.

It's also funny that Germany's Green party is saying the German government isn't being aggressive enough arming Ukraine. Again quoted from reddit: "Green party: Fuck it you know what would reduce emissions? BURNING MOSCOW *heavy metal riff*"

While I've been impressed at the use of drones in the theater of war, China is using them a different way - using mounted speakers to instruct the people locked down in Shanghai due to COVID to comply with the restrictions and "control the soul's desire for freedom". Sounds like another step towards a dark cyberpunk future! Actually, how is Hong Kong doing? Oh. Not great.

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March 2022: Day 35 of the war

Ukraine (backed by international support, some of whom had the balls to meet in Kyiv) continues with a strong defense thanks to troop training and morale, unlinking their power grid from Russian dependency, capturing tons of Russian hardware, and inspiring many volunteers to their cause, including some that consider virtue signaling more important than tactics resulting in a number of fatalities. Gotta get those upvotes right?

It's clear what would happen to Kyiv if it should actually be surrounded. It's already happening to Mariupol, a city right on the border, whose citizens are beginning to die of starvation. They're in a tough spot, because each time a ceasefire is called and a corridor is opened for civilians to flee, the Russian's either missile it, mine it, or simply make the corridor only go towards Russia (or their ally, Belarus).

This is now an official stamp.

Russia has declared Arnold Schwarzenegger an enemy for his anti-war video to the Russian people around the time journalist Marina Ovsyannikova managed to get an anti-war sign up on State TV. Nationalization of "unfriendly" companies has also begun, capturing hundreds of civil aircraft and McDonald's (which will now be Uncle Vanya's by turning the M to a B?). Despite their heavy losses, it doesn't look like they have any shortage of troops to recklessly throw into battle - regardless if said troops have working vehicles or supplies to get through the Ukrainian mud.

Said vehicles and/or supplies might be on amphibious ships that were spotted by Japan (apparently not all ships are "amphibious"?). In typical reddit fashion this has been summarized as "[Russia] is bringing military equipment to be abandoned in Ukraine. They should put a "Z" on it so Zelenskyy knows it's another donation for him".

Another of my favorites: "A few months ago Russia said it had 'no plans' to invade Ukraine. I'm starting to think they were telling the truth." 

Apparently China officially asked Russia to wait with invasion until after Olympics claims the New York Times, and since the USA could almost accurately predict the date and time of invasion it certainly was a bold decision on Russia's part to plan a surprise attack where their own men were the only ones not in on it.

Russia has also asked China for aid to which I'm not sure what the reply was as China is busy quietly expanding it's reach in the South Pacific (in some cases not so quietly).

Meanwhile Anonymous is siding with the rest of the world by doing a variety of hacks like putting this Russian Camera Dump online where you can... watch Russians do... Russian things? If you are the more visceral visual sort then r/combatfootage might be the place to go (not just for this war). Be warned, that site is not safe for life.

Lastly, since truth is the first casualty of war, it's up to you what to actually believe. For some, this whole thing is just a hoax and it's not happening at all - it's just a big movie set. I guess I need to watch Wag the Dog at some point.

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February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine

Not the best title to follow the one from last month, but in what seems to be a live action version of the game Iron Grip: Warlord, it seems Vladimir Putin is intent on expanding the Russian borders into the "little" country that seems to be backed and resupplied by almost everyone else (except Belarus, who are very pro-Russia). Ukraine's brave President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is doing a good job rallying his people though, as are the tales such as the battle of Snake Island, the engineer who sacrificed himself to take out a bridge to delay a tank column, the possibly urban legends of the Ghost of Kyiv (ace) and the Ukrainian Reaper (sniper), or videos like this on twitter. 

They're also hoping St. Javelin protects them.

Meanwhile it's clear Putin underestimated the amount and quality of gear and tech the Ukrainians were getting gifted. After their early capture of Chernobyl (which has seen increased radiation since) to open a passage to Belarus and a closer attack window to Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, the reportedly "tactically clumsy" but massive Russian army continues its advance and unlike the defenders they can't (and shouldn't) take to social media to announce their movements to create bad surprises like this one.

And it's only Day 4 of the conflict. The war continues.

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Seems fitting posts with those titles feature for this war time post. :/