Putin has ordered his military to go to Donetsk and Luhansk regions in order to carry out "peacekeep

[yaesu]

Source: The Guardian

Putin has ordered his military to go to Donetsk and Luhansk regions in order to carry out "peacekeeping functions." In text of the presidential order he signed today recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Russia officially occupying parts of Ukraine's Donbas region


Axios: The latest: In a decree recognizing the independence of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), Putin ordered the Russian military to conduct "peacekeeping operations" in the occupied Ukrainian territories.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/21/russia-ukraine-news-latest-crisis-putin-biden-summit-kyiv-kiev-russian-invasion-threat-live-updates

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I don't think this ill be militarily disputed by Ukraine as the region is already in control by pro Russian dictators but this will definitely get them more sanctions

[Sapient Donkey]

1. That explains this

Link to tweet

[Botany]

2. And so it has started.

Damn.

[Deuxcents]

3. My god.. if I saw this coming down I95

I would be terrified. It looks like hell is coming.

[Botany]

6. And with the new generation of "shaped charges" that after they hit a tank burn their way through..

... the tank's armor and then the crew gets roasted alive. I wonder if Putin can keep power after
a lot of Russians come back in body bags or to hospital beds.

[Ruby the Liberal]

37. That sounds like a Geneva Convention violation right there

Lets hope it doesn't get to that.

[Botany]

41. R you kidding me?

In a war the object is to kill the other side's troops.

[eggplant]

39. to my untrained eye...

...it looks like they are plated in reactive armor, so I wonder how well it holds up to the latest shaped charges.

[Botany]

40. I don't know but when Isreal invaded Lebanon there were reports of Hamas fighters running after ...

... tanks.

[turbinetree]

4. Seriously..... he's been wanting to say those word's for how long.....

time to place economic sanctions on him and his criminal enterprise......

[aggiesal]

33. This isn't even in the area of the Regions he "recognized" ...

If the Twitter poster is correct, this is on the road to Kyiv (Kyev).

[EndlessWire]

5. Things are really simple

for Putin, aren't they? Formally recognize two areas, and voila! He thinks he can roll his tanks into two "new countries" and occupy them. Then, when Ukraine comes around and tells him to leave their country, he will claim they started a war. How simple that is!

But, alas, the rest of the world...

[greenjar_01]

7. Translation: Putin has ordered the invasion of Ukraine

Why the fuck is the Guardian accepting Putin's framing?

[L. Coyote]

24. Bingo, they are not to be called "peacekeepers" or you are a Putin pawn.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[orwell]

8. So once again...

...President Biden was right in his warning of imminent invasion.

Why is "the right" never right?

[Sapient Donkey]

13. They don't care if they are right or wrong.

I am certain that if Biden took a more passive or apathetic approach to the events in Ukraine, then they would be calling him weak for not standing up to Russia. In fact, I'm certain they will call him weak and say he gave Ukraine to Russia, while at the same time calling him a warmonger for trying to start a war with Russia.

[Jetheels]

15. I didn't think the right is about right or wrong.

I thought they’re about Power, Dominance. Control. Greed.
The two parties are playing by two different rule books.
Except one of the parties has no rule book.
I’m not sure one of them has yet to figure out this fact.

[Sneederbunk]

9. Trigger sanctions now. All of them.

[Roc2020]

10. Chilling. Absolutely

Chilling

[ificandream]

11. Thank God Trump isn't in the White House right now.

[oldsoftie]

27. He'd send two Ambassadors.

[bluestarone]

12. NO SUMMIT!

No fucking summit, i hope!

[marie999]

14. How to invade a country while saying you're not invading it.

[Talitha]

23. THIS

[greenjar_01]

29. Honestly, Hitler did the same with Austria, the so called "Sudetenland" and even Poland

The invasion of Poland was in part justified by the Nazis because the sogenannte "corridor" to Krakow was "ethnic German."

[Igel]

38. And Lenin did this with Georgia.

And to some extent, with Ukraine. Maybe other former tsarist territories that imperialists wanted to consolidate for the world revolution.

Putin did it with Georgia (2x), Ukraine (Crimea) and Moldova.

It's a dictator's way of giving reluctant combatants and excuse to pontificate and non-combat.

[greenjar_01]

42. The

US did it with "South" Vietnam.

[OLDMDDEM]

16. Imagine what Trump would do

In the situation.

Nothing.

[LoisB]

18. Ask Putin if he needed U.S. assistance?

nt

[OLDMDDEM]

19. Good point

[IronLionZion]

17. Putin "owned" Biden if you hear Freepers tell it

Yep, those tanks look super peaceful.

[Jetheels]

20. Like eskimos have many words for snow,

Russians have many words for war.
One such word is peace.

[IronLionZion]

21. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength

Whether it's the Csars, Bolsheviks, or Putin/Oligarchs, some things never change in Russia.

[L. Coyote]

25. Bombs are Peacekeepers.

Bullets are Lifesavers.

[inanna]

22. Ukrainian officials say Russian troops may have already entered separatist territory

22:34

KYIV — Ukrainian officials say Russian troops may have already entered separatist territory this evening as part of what Vladimir Putin claims is a “peace-keeping mission” to the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics.

The officials say local people in the town of Makiivka, 15kms west of rebel-held Donetsk, have seen what appear to be Russian armoured vehicles on the move. One source - who declined to be named - said “a huge convoy of Russian armoured personnel carriers and other equipment has been travelling for one and a half hours”. It was spotted heading north towards the city of Yasynuvata, also in the Donestk region.

Video released by Ukraine tonight appears to show a column of military vehicles with their headlights on moving in convoy along a road. The officials said it was not possible to tell if the troops belonged to the regular Russian army, or were from Russian-controlled separatist units.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/21/russia-ukraine-news-latest-crisis-putin-biden-summit-kyiv-kiev-russian-invasion-threat-live-updates

[oldsoftie]

28. Hell, they've BEEN there since '14. Remember back then they were "vacationing"

This just makes it official

[EarthFirst]

26. Invasion by an occupying foreign military...

Labeling this a “Peacekeeping” mission only further delivers the intent of Russian propaganda.

[Warpy]

30. There will, of course, be a temporary news blackout

but I strongly suspect those Russian troops aren't going to get the welcome Putin told them to anticipate from the ethnic Russians they are there to liberate.

If there is any lesson governments everywhere have needed to learn, it's that small countries full of people who have next to nothing will fight tooth and nail to keep what little they have.

Unfortunately, too many authoritarians and paranoid military hold the real power, and they will never learn this lesson. After all, they're not expected to die for it. People who aren't rich and/or powerful are expected to do that for them.

And so it goes.

[orangecrush]

31. Here we go.

Hit them hard, hit them early.

[DBoon]

32. time to unplug Russia from SWIFT

without access to global banking networks, they grind to a halt

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/26/investing/swift-russia-ukraine/index.html

As Western governments threaten Russia with a package of unprecedented sanctions aimed at deterring President Vladimir Putin from ordering an invasion of Ukraine, there's one measure in particular that appears to strike fear at the heart of the Kremlin: cutting the country off from the global banking system.
US lawmakers have suggested in recent weeks that Russia could be removed from SWIFT, a high security network that connect thousands of financial institutions around the world.

Senior Russian lawmakers have responded by saying that shipments of oil, gas and metals to Europe would stop if that happened.

"If Russia is disconnected from SWIFT, then we will not receive [foreign] currency, but buyers, European countries in the first place, will not receive our goods — oil, gas, metals and other important components," Nikolai Zhuravlev, vice speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, said Tuesday, according to state media outlet TASS.

[dalton99a]

35. +1. It's the only thing they really fear

The oligarchs don't like to carry cash in suitcases

[gab13by13]

34. Remember Neville Chamberlain and the Munich agreement?

May as well give up a piece of Czechoslovakia to avoid war.

What harm can come giving up a piece of Ukraine?

[TomSlick]

36. The US promised massive economic sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine.

Putin has called what he thinks to be a bluff. It's time to either follow through with the threat or accept the re-establishment of the Soviet empire under the treads of Russian tanks.

[DFW]

43. Quite the turnabout from the days when the Soviets accused US of imperialism

Also, Putin's strangling of the Russian media is having its effect at home.

A friend of ours was station chief for West German Radio News in Moscow about 25 years ago. He had met a Russian girlfriend with whom he was (is) very happy, but they had a peculiar long distance romance because he said he could never live in Putin's (it was already obvious that was going to be, and for a long time) Russia. On the other hand, she speaks only Russian, and they agreed she would never be happy living in Germany. So they visited often, and went on extended trips together, usually in parts of Eastern Europe, but also NL, Belgium and France. Since Covid broke out, he hasn't seen her in two years, but they speak on the phone frequently.

He said that she has recently begun to parrot the Putin line about Ukraine, and had obviously been affected by the monopoly Putin now has on the Russian media. She only knows what Putin wants her, and all ordinary Russians, to hear. He says it is hard to get another point of view through to her, since their phone calls together are the ONLY occasions when she hears another point of view. She lives almost hand to mouth, trying to survive on an almost insulting pension, and has the luck to have a son living in Beograd, who can send her some money now and then. My German friend is stretched thin as well, since he has an ex and a problem daughter he has to pay for out of his own pension (his only income). Any authoritarian regime loves it when its citizens are "free to travel" or paper, but de facto are confined to where they are by economic circumstances.

No wonder Trump and Putin think each other are so great. Putin loves puppets he can manipulate (or owns outright, like Lukashenko). Trump loves totalitarians he wished he could emulate (wrong country, there, Donnie--so far, anyway).