We don't stand outside those church walkways and shoot everybody that comes running out.... hopefuly. Its banned by the Geneva Conventions. Hollow-point bullets are also are prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, but used every day by police. [USA Today] Fact check: It's true tear gas is a chemical weapon banned in war
Ukraine wants NATO to come in and wipe out the rest of the Russian army overnight. So using the use of technically classified "chemical weapons" to tie back to the soft red-lines that NATO/US has used as a pre-req to respond to Russia. Can't say I blame them for playing the media game in order to save thousands of lives by putting this war to an end. However Putin also wants to drag us into this war so it helps him politically at home and also gives him better off-ramps for negotiating. Putin doesn't really want a full war vs NATO (he'd obviously lose) but he does want an easier to sell negotiation with NATO as an off-ramp. He has no off-ramp options with Ukraine as the war currently stands. He HAS TO win because of how boxed in he is since Ukraine will not sign off on giving up 1/3 of their country, but NATO will have more tools to negotiate with. So wouldn't surprise me if "soft" chemical weapons are kinda used as a way of "escalating in order to get to the negotiation table" with NATO/US. Not saying I personally WANT the US/NATO to get involved directly, but painting a better picture of why both Ukraine and Russia would play media/propaganda cards in order to get them to do what they need them to do in order to achieve their own respective goals.
They are papering over photos of Musk on billboards in Odessa thanking various people for his support at the start of the war.
I find the Elon chapter of this saga fascinating. If Musk is really so powerful and wealthy, him just cowering and flip flopping after one call with Putin is really telling. It's all a freaking façade with this guy. I think we need to start having conversations about whether liquidity > assets in terms of wealth. The guy is leveraged out the a$$, and doesn't have the real power from wealth we all think he does.
It's really something to voluntarily submit to Putin at his nadir, after his reputation as the master chess player has been exposed as a ginormous, tremendous fraud, and his only friends are basically nobody he can't kill or ffellow bad actors like MBS and XI, and get absolutely clowned by him, but Elon managed to do it. Muskovites should be ashamed. @tinman @AroundTheWorld @Commodore
Russians pulled 800 T-62s out of mothballs and are trying to modernize them to send to Ukraine. Not much better than the T-54s that Iraq had in the first Gulf War. I hope they have one hell of a modernization package, because as is, they are closer to WWII tanks. No ERA, no night vision, no targeting computer, 50's era electronics... The main upgrades from the T-54 were the slightly larger 115mm smoothbore gun, and a decent stabilizer for shooting while moving. The Russians had a nickname for the Lee Tank we gave them in WWII - "the coffin for seven brothers". This only has a 4 man crew, so unless they rebuild it from the ground up, it'll be the coffin for four brothers - it's basically a suicide machine, even against the broken-down T-80s the Russians have gifted the Ukranians. But still better than the actual WWII hand-me-downs they give the DPR and LPR:
❗Residents of Kyiv region reported that the occupiers had mined a beehive, and bees saved them from the explosion. After opening the lid of the hive, there was no explosion because in six months the bees filled the igniters with honey and the pins did not pop out. https://t.me/operativnoZSU
Musk doubled down and came out with his peace plan for Taiwan today. The residents of Taiwan were just as thankful as the Ukranians: [BBC]Elon Musk wades into China and Taiwan tensions My impression is Elon likes to wade into high profile geopolitical issues because of the self-agrandizement opportunities but as soon as it becomes real for him, he's not going to endanger himself for anybody else.
Someone should let the Russians know that if you see a bunch of regular, plate-sized circles across the road, you should probably stop driving.
