ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqWAfnV8fjnGHZdGCDTTsMCGo92aWi6HiclcvSyFvuDFlJyj3hnzGYH7NzxyIrCWGVurQ&usqp=CAU
"Did you hear it is sure thing, Russia will be invading Ukraine on February 16?"
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLfAEYuhCLZ6hVjlhUvLT1hdkW_MpTXpwHGfKFBTlSQFNr3ILpqZu-R7HaTDtm4IYJwvA&usqp=CAU
"I am just kidding! Russia is already there!"

“Russia signals willingness to talk about ‘you know, whatever, do you like French cars?’l

“February 15, 2022 will go into history as the day western war propaganda failed. They have been disgraced and destroyed without a single shot being fired,” writes Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 15, 2022

Russian troops are apparently moving back from the Southern and Western fronts.

I really wasn't expecting that because I get all my information from US/UK media.

I really didn't need WWIII on my plate, got enough on as it is.

lol from a purely selfish pov I was looking forward to dying in a megaton nuclear airburst just for some relief!

Plenty more opportunities to come my friend!

absolutely insane website pic.twitter.com/UyBwDJh8GU

— ziyan (@ziyanm_) February 14, 2022

Some of the hawkish twitter I'd seen, which for sure had been reporting/relaying/amplifying stories that Russia was planning a false flag operation as pretense for invasion, are now completely credulously posting this:

Russian media outlet are reporting that a member of the People's Militia of the separatist LPR republic was killed as a result of sniper fire from the Ukrainian government side #Ukraine

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) February 15, 2022

Daily Mirror still on the beat.

Daily Mirror is not buying de-escalation talk today and insists the invasion will begin at 3am tomorrow morning

“The Mirror’s senior American source warned our team in Kyiv with a simple one line message saying: 3am Wednesday.”

🤦🏻‍♂️https://t.co/jZInOdSqj9

— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 15, 2022

Maybe the senior American source is just dropping their new album.

Paul Simenon’s new group Kiev 3AM

Why do I get the feeling the press is stroking themselves with the thought of an invasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BO6GP9NMY

We are shelling out fortunes on the House of Lords for the likes of this.. pic.twitter.com/kZowUsCcNk

— Murray Foote (@murrayf00te) February 15, 2022

Why do I get the feeling the press is stroking themselves with the thought of an invasion.

― Johnny Mathis der Maler (Boring, Maryland)

Jim Sciutto was just on cnn pretty much calling Vlad a punk for backing down lol

Not sure what’s going on there but Truscott is married to an alleged ex-KGB agent and has been accused of having overly close ties to Russian businesses. I’m not sure he’s advocating for a war unless, perhaps, he’s recently divorced.

Chris Morris otm

That's a v divorced dad q tbf

As anticipated, Putin rejects recognition of "republics", insists on Minsk II.
Russian troops are "sort of" moving away from the border.
So, Moscow is anticipating a Paris/Berlin/DC move "to help" Kyiv with implementation of Minsk. Otherwise we're back where we've started https://t.co/x6N4h2oSWA

— Anton Barbashin (@ABarbashin) February 15, 2022

The Duma voted in favour of a bill put forward by the Communist Party for Putin to unilaterally recognise the LNR and DNR as independent and he’s said no.

Ukraine could be under a cyberattack. So far, the website of the Ministry of Defense https://t.co/nrqxvlj1P2 and Armed Forces https://t.co/rT5ozqhXVE; are down;
problems reported with state banks Oschadbank & Privat

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) February 15, 2022

⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show a loss of connectivity to #Ukraine's State Savings Bank, impacting ATM and banking services; disruptions also reported on Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces networks; incident comes amid heightened tensions with Russia 📉 pic.twitter.com/QMbPPpCzaV

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 15, 2022

Modern war - terrifying in strange new ways.

could just be shitty comcast service again

honestly i do better when i don't think about the real world. i am too pessimistic. for example, i believe with 99.5% confidence that in the next 10 years there will be a massive cyberattack on the u.s. (from within or without, doesn't even matter) knocking out telecommunications for much of the country. mind you, i have no idea what the fuck i'm talking about, but i believe it all the same

this is why countries should always keep their malwarebytes installation up to date

If the average person (or hell, any of us) was threatened with shutting off their internet cold turkey, 99.9% would roll over and let the Russians invade. And the other 0.1% are already living off the grid in the woods and won't even know it's happened.

It's been a great time to prove you're hard.

Labour leader @Keir_Starmer tells me on @Channel4News “we should go now and hard with the sanctions” against Russia.

— Cathy Newman (@cathynewman) February 15, 2022

xp I'd finally crack open that dusty old door stop Scuffy the Tugboat and begin my education

how would this affect my saved game

So, am I piecing this together correctly? The Russian army just happened to thwart a "terrorist attack" in Donbas today and just, via sheer coincidence, happened to have multiple camera operators there to capture the thwarting from multiple angles?

Is Djokovic is about to invade a sovereign state? Because if not, his prominence in the news bulletins is insane.

— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) February 15, 2022

So, am I piecing this together correctly? The Russian army just happened to thwart a "terrorist attack" in Donbas today and just, via sheer coincidence, happened to have multiple camera operators there to capture the thwarting from multiple angles?

The FBI trained them well in the '90s.

Sounds like shit might be getting real over there? Or maybe just Putin flexing further after Biden's presser.

The Russians have been avid students of secret police and espionage methods since the Czars. They'd be insulted to hear you say the FBI could teach them any new tricks.

it's always good to learn new stuff, thanx aimless

tell milo

Russia bad. America good.

Half right.

Yikes. Head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in parliament claims Western media “hysteria is now costing the country $2-3 billion every month,” calls CNN, Bloomberg, WSJ coverage “worse than Skabeeva and Solovyov, top Russian state propagandists. https://t.co/VjXrQLf55U pic.twitter.com/zH5bdrWM3e

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 16, 2022

I don't know how reliable Arakhamia is but hard agree that so called respectable western media outlets who are uncritically reporting highly questionable Whitehouse briefings every day are presently no better or are even worse than the top Russian state propagandists.

At the same time, there is no way to know if the ott messaging/reporting from the west played any role in *preventing* a (further) Russian incursion (so far). Like, all that Russian military, blood banks, etc. weren't arrayed there for no reason at all.

All I know is it must be fun to be Putin.

At the same time, there is no way to know if the ott messaging/reporting from the west played any role in *preventing* a (further) Russian incursion (so far).

after being bombarded 24/7 with 🚨 BREAKING, PUTIN TO INVADE ANY MINUTE NOW 🚨 only for the situation to be gradually de-escalated is probably the clearest sign you'll get that the press are just stenographers for imperialist interests. add it to the chart next to WMDs

— pez 🇬🇭 (@periuspb) February 16, 2022

gyac otm

de-escalated?

The press are drama/conflict junkies.

Add it to the chart next to "Clinton will resign within the week" and "Trump is going to be dropped from the ticket."

As much as I’d love to blame the press, this seems to have been a deliberate strategy from the US government. Either they had credible information they didn’t share with the Ukrainian government for some reason or they’re flooding the airwaves with rubbish as some kind of unconventional deterrent.

How the media feels about being used in that way remains to be seen.

I don't trust the gov or the news to necessarily give me the truth, but ... there *were* close to a 100K Russian troops, tanks and whatnot that had amassed at the border, right? Why? Or was that all made up?

Sabre rattling

How the media feels about being used in that way remains to be seen.

― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Wednesday, February 16, 2022 4:58 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol after centuries of this i don't think it actually remains to be seen.

xpost Which I believe! But isn't saber rattling only effective if the audience believes there's a chance there's more than saber rattling?