Wife says no. I have no military experience, but I have done a lot of shooting, and (owing to a career as a repo man), I have been shot three times and I'm still going. Health is terrible, sure, but not having as much time ahead of me as I have to look back on, I really want to do something worthwhile with it, you know?
I'm getting older, like others here, and I'm starting to get some of the medical issues that come from that... but I also have prior service (USAF, 1988-1992). But the real reason I'm not is because my wife said no.
I'm not providing links to every story this time since finding links which mentioned all of the information which I found relevant proved to be very time consuming. So instead, I'm writing up the information and throwing in links when the link would be more helpful than confusing or incomplete.
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MSNBC tv's daily Meet the Press show on Monday revealed how removing Russia from SWIFT was accomplished: there's a carve out for Italy and Germany to continue making their energy payments to Russia using SWIFT, even to banks which are sanctioned from SWIFT for other purposes.
That sidesteps the concerns that Russia's own payment communications system would get a huge boost and also the concern that it would lead to stabilizing the ruble and devaluing the dollar, like I discussed a couple of days ago.
Really a genius compromise that no one, including myself, had ever publicly considered or discussed.
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Shell Oil is following BP's lead in divesting itself of investments in Russian energy companies. Shell's investment in Russia's energy sector is about $3 billion.
In particular, Shell operates in conjunction with Gazprom, which is Russia's largest state-owned oil company.
Notable investments
1) it was one of the partners in providing funding for Nord Stream 2
2) the Salym Petroleum Development which is the development of three gigantic oil fields in Siberia. It is a 50/50 owner of that project with Gazprom (Russia's largest state-owned oil company) and presumably Shell had provided most of the technical expertise.
3) the huge Sakhalin 2 LNG plant (Shell holds a 27.5% stake) which exports primarily to China and Japan.
Japanese trading houses Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp, which own stakes of 12.5% and 10% in Sakhalin 2 respectively, said separately that they are examining Shell's announcement.
Norway's Equinor, majority owned by the Norwegian state, said earlier on Monday that it would start divesting from its joint ventures in Russia. (Equinor has been partnered with Rosneft searching for oil in several parts of Russia. You might remember that Rosneft is the Russian oil company which BP just dumped. So Rosneft has lost two of its major western partners. But it's still the largest publicly-traded oil company in the world.)
Russia’s stock market will remain closed on Tuesday, Russia’s central bank has confirmed. (Gee, I wonder why?)
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FINLAND on Monday announced it will donate 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 cartridges for the rifles, 1,500 single-shot anti-tank weapons and 70,000 combat ration packages to Ukraine. Also 2,000 composite helmets and 2,000 bulletproof vests, 100 stretchers and equipment for two emergency medical care stations.
They're basing their donations on Ukraine's wish list submitted to the EU and on what Finland has immediately available to send.
The United States announced Monday it is expelling 12 members of the Russian Mission at the United Nations, accusing them of being intelligence operatives engaged in espionage.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded to the Russian ambassador’s characterization of the expulsions as a “hostile act” by saying: “I think the hostile act is committing espionage activities on our own soil.”
According to the U.N. diplomatic directory, Russia has 79 diplomats accredited to the United Nations.
Switzerland and Monaco have both decided to honor the sanctions against Russia.
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Cyprus, ‘haven for Russian money laundering’, supports excluding Russia from SWIFT banking and all the other EU sanctions (Cyprus is not in NATO but is in the EU).
It's a notorious haven for Russian money, the official home of several companies owned by Russian oligarchs and the second biggest bank in Cyprus is Russian. So banning them from access to Cyrus hurts more than keeping oligarchs from vacationing on the French Riviera.
So if they're serious about actually enforcing the sanctions rather than letting things slide, it's significant.
Trudeau announces they're supplying Ukraine with anti-tank weapons systems and upgraded ammunition. This is in addition to our three previous shipments of military equipment – and it’s on top of the night vision goggles, body armour, gas masks, and helmets we announced yesterday.
“Canada will continue to deliver support for Ukraine’s heroic defense against the Russian military,” he said, according to Reuters. “We are announcing our intention to ban all imports of crude oil from Russia, an industry that has benefited President Putin and his oligarchs greatly.”
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German warplanes are flying armed air patrols in the skies over Poland, the German air force said on Tuesday.
“Safeguarding the skies over Poland,” the air force said on Twitter, above a picture of a starting fighter jet, without giving details.
A military spokesperson told Reuters the Eurofighter jets were flying missions out of Germany over Poland.
Germany is also refueling allied jets over Romania with an A400M tanker and supporting a multinational refueling mission over Poland, according to the spokesperson, on top of having deployed six Eurofighters to Romania where they fly armed air patrols for NATO.
On Monday, Germany announced it would send Tornado warplanes and a maritime patrol aircraft to the Baltic Sea area.
My Commentary: This looks like pure intimidation to me. It's obvious by the way that Putin has dribbled his forces into Ukraine that he was worried that NATO would respond in force and annihilate whatever he sent in...but leave alone whatever he didn't send in.
So he started off sending in less than a third of the forces he'd assembled. When those weren't successful in the first two days, he gradually ramped it up to half over the following couple of days.
But now Putin has gone up to a solid 75% of his forces committed.
So Germany starts flying cap over Poland (with Germany's military being the "monster under the bed" of Russian fears).
There's no particular military reason to be over Poland at this point since Putin already committed his forces elsewhere. But by putting them there, it's an intimidation move to try to keep Putin from committing the rest of his forces and putting them at risk (since NATO forces would be much less likely to attack Russian forces which actually remained on Russian soil as opposed to being involved in an invasion of Ukraine).
It's a pretty smart move.
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YouTube has blocked channels linked to Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe – including the UK – amid the invasion of Ukraine.
(The EU had been talking about turning off both media outlets for the duration anyway. So this might be just YouTube rushing to the head of a parade and pretending to lead it.)
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The 17 mile long convoy of Russian military forces on their way to Kiev grew to 40 miles over the last few hours. British military intelligence is saying the Russians are having logistical problems (likely fuel and breakdowns), So rather than the forces moving along in an orderly fashion, they're backing up along the road back to Belarus.
The satellite photos on TV show the forces almost bumper-to-bumper for miles.
If the Ukrainians had significant air-to-mud aircraft available, this would be a very target-rich environment (and likely vehicles detonating other vehicles). Makes me wonder if part of the financial military assistance to Ukraine is being devoted to buying more of those Turkish-made drones which have proved so effective against convoys.
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Belarus troops enter Ukraine to assist Russian invasion.
https://t.me/verkhovnaradaukrainy/6789
They're entering along the same invasion route as that 40 mile long convoy so I'd assume that they're mixed in with the Russian traffic jam.
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Australia’ commits $70m to provide Ukraine with missiles and ammunition.
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UK bars Russian ships from its ports. This includes chartered, controlled, operated, or owned by Russians.
A breakdown of the aircraft the EU is providing to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Air Force said on March 1 that Bulgaria will provide 16 MiG-29s and 14 Su-25s, Poland will provide 28 MiG-29 units, and Slovakia – 12 MiG-29s.
70 total.
(I nailed the identities of the three countries providing the aircraft: small personal victory!)
(And remember Poland had just donated a large number of air-to-air missiles for such jets as I mentioned in my last compilation post.)
edit: to give some context
Before the war started, Ukraine had
37 MiG-29s
12 Su-24s
17 Su-25s
32 Su-27s
So that's 98 total fighters if I did the math right in my head. And the EU just gave them another 70 fighters plus the ammunition to make them effective.
I read reports before the war started that Ukraine had more trained military pilots in service than they had aircraft. So it's entirely possible, especially with calling up their reserves and retired military pilots, that they could put those aircraft to use immediately.
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EU interior ministers asked EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson to prepare proposals to trigger the EU temporary protection directive, drawn up after the 1990s war in the Balkans. If approved, that would allow Ukrainians who flee the war the right to stay and work in the EU for up to three years.
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Taiwan has sent 27 tons of medical supplies to Ukraine, Reuters reports. Taiwan has joined with Western allies in putting sanctions on Russia.
Honoring the sanctions is notable because Taiwan is a major source of the world's semiconductors.
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Ukrainian ambassador to the US claims Russia used a fuel-air explosive (aka thermobaric weapon, aerosol bomb, or vacuum bomb) in an area with civilians and not on a military target. If true, that's a violation of the Geneva Convention.
The international criminal court’s prosecutor is seeking the court’s approval to investigate alleged war crimes.
Fuel-air explosions can be made large enough to be the next worst thing in size to a nuclear explosion. Russia previously was alleged to use such weapons in first and second Chechen Wars during battles over Grozny (the Chechen capital city and previously the most populous city of the disputed area).
Amnesty International has condemned Russia’s reported use of cluster munitions (a different weapons system) on civilian populations and say the use of them on a pre-school may be a war crime.
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Russian troops based in the country’s far east are heading for maneuvers closer to Europe, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s eastern military district as saying on Tuesday.
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An open letter
"We, the Presidents of the EU member states: the Republic of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, the Slovak Republic, and the Republic of Slovenia strongly believe that Ukraine deserves receiving an immediate EU accession perspective.
Therefore, we call on the EU Member States to consolidate highest political support to Ukraine and enable the EU institutions to conduct steps to immediately grant Ukraine a EU candidate country status and open the process of negotiations."
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Religious figure and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson says that Putin is being compelled by God to invade Ukraine.
(video available at the link)
Ukrainians are posting drive-by firebombing videos as they drive normal cars like minivans by Russian vehicles on the highway and toss a Molotov cocktail out onto them. They use a chase car to catch usable video. Armored personnel carriers seem to burn well.
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A poll shows that 74% of Americans oppose Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The other 26% think Trump is President.
— Henry M. Rosenberg
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Edited the section on "the donation of 70 fighter aircraft" to compare it to the size of the already-existing Ukrainian air force so as to give you the idea of just how huge of a contribution that was to the war effort.
Ukrainian pilots started moving those aircraft from Poland back home yesterday.
wcw43921 reacted to Logan D. Hurricanes in Jokes
wcw43921 got a reaction from Tjack in Funny Pics II: The Revenge
