Russia invades Ukraine

[Lazybones]

They apparently forgot to label Kaliningrad

[Thorin]

Sharp-eyed analysts have spotted tanks that can only be Russian in video footage shot in Ukraine.  Why can they only be Russian?  Because they have special reactive armour that Russia has never exported to another country: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28961080

Also, it turns out Russia had a large number of older tanks still in storage, similar to the ones Ukraine has but painted in a different pattern.  Analysts are now saying some or all of the rebels' tanks most likely came from Russia: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27849437

Thirdly, Russian media is now starting to report that Russia is attacking and / or invading Ukraine, although they're not yet calling it war: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28965597

I still think the most moving piece of information was what the Russian soldiers' mothers are saying in Russia, which I linked to earlier.

What sucks is that Putin will continue his invasion regardless of what others think until he is forcefully stopped.  And sanctions probably won't forcefully stop him, so that means some kind of military resistance to his troops.  Hmm, maybe the Vella Gulf and its sister ships will get into it soon?  The Vella Gulf is an American cruise missile destroyer that just recently travelled through the Black Sea (where Crimea is) to dock in Georgia, which is a sovereign country just south of Russia, near Ukraine, and which has also had part of its country invaded and annexed by Russia.

[Thorin]

This is a satire site for the US military that I just came across today.  I find it hilarious, although once you get to the comments you realize a lot of people don't understand satire...

"Russia Claims Ukrainian Border Inexplicably Jumped Over Its Paratroopers"

Darren, I think you'll get a kick out of it

[Darren Dirt]

"The Duffel Blog is an American military news satire organization featuring satirical articles reporting on US military news. It is often described as 'the military version of The Onion.'"

nice find!

also, >>>TIMESINK WARNING<<< because PLENTY O CONTENT:
http://www.duffelblog.com/
(I tried scrolling to the bottom to click one of the "About Us" type of links, but almost immediately MORE STORIES appeared all Tumblr-like... even doing it super-fast by holding down CTRL+END* for the last 2 minutes there's still TONS of more stories that keep coming up! But tbh it's actually kinda surreal/awesome glancing at the headlines as it is like slowly going back in time and reliving the current events of months and years gone past...)


*hitting SHIFT-TAB a bunch of times works though, since eventually the link in focus wraps around from the top of the page back to the bottom [or even simpler: clicking "MORE +" opens up all the other typical links that websites used to have less hidden, DAMN YOU MOBILE-FRIENDLY WEB 3.0! But found it eventually... http://www.duffelblog.com/about



PS: This DuffelBlog article mentions "Novorussia" (i.e. the new parts of Russia that were "formerly known as being part of eastern Ukraine") ...

Thought it was satire, turns out Nope That's A Real Thing(!) http://www.businessinsider.com/maps-of-novorussia-and-old-russian-empire-2014-4

[Thorin]

Part of the overall activities to do with Russia invading Ukraine is the Russian government vehemently denying they have any troops in Ukraine (and of course that they now consider Crimea as part of Russia so the troops there don't count according to the Russians).  Many Western-owned media outlets (is it still Western if it's based in Australia, way to the east of Russia?  I guess it's just a moniker for the media outlets we typically see in European / North American / English-speaking countries) have pointed out the lies, and the Russian government seems to have gone on the offensive, spreading lies and innuendo far and wide in their own country through their state-owned and fear-controlled media.

Now I understand the propaganda war about Ukraine, but I don't understand how quickly this phenomenon is spreading to all other types of news.  Case in point, a bright fireball was reported by several dozen people in the US.  At first this was reported to be part of a meteor shower, but then experts weighed in and said that it burned a lot longer than a meteor would have, and was most likely one or more pieces of a Russian spy satellite burning up on re-entry.  The US army believed this to be true, and removed that particular spy satellite from their list of satellites orbiting Earth.

So how did the Russian government spin this?  They suggested the American skywatchers were intoxicated or high or under some other influence, and that it clearly wasn't a Russian satellite: http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/09/17/u-s-experts-say-a-russian-spy-satellite-was-spotted-in-night-sky-but-russia-questions-what-condition-the-stargazers-were-in/

Huh?  What do you stand to gain from not claiming the wreckage as yours?  I'm pretty sure that the international rules say that if someone else's satellite debris lands on your country, you have to give it back as soon as feasible...

This is almost as absurd as the North Korean government telling their people that Americans sleep in the gutters, eat rats and other humans to survive, and wish they had it as good as the North Korean farmers.

[Lazybones]

Apparently they are buzzing our northern boarder and Alaska with fighter jets as well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-canadian-jets-intercept-8-russian-aircraft/2014/09/19/2c7e56ba-4055-11e4-a430-b82a3e67b762_story.html