Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack • Hacker News Board

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#971

Post by tablespoon » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:17 PM UTC

atlantas wrote: post #865

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #668

What is the endgame here? Russia is outclassed by NATO both economically and militarily. If NATO intervenes economically, Russia will lose much. If NATO intervenes militarily, Russia will lose much (but at great cost to NATO). The risk of NATO intervention is high, right? Russia understood this before invading, right? So it seems Russia is accepting a high risk of loss. But it doesn't make sense that a nation as soph…

Russia recognized weakness and appears to be correct about that. The head of the German army just confirmed they are not prepared! Google translation and source below. "In my 41st year of peacetime service, I would not have believed that I would have to experience another war. And the Bundeswehr, the army that I am allowed to lead, is more or less blank. The policy options we can offer in support of the Alliance are…

> Russia recognized weakness and appears to be correct about that. The head of the German army just confirmed they are not prepared! Google translation and source below.

Yeah, the German military is in an abysmal state:

https://www.stripes.com/news/as-germany-prepares-for-nato-cr...:

> Among the failures: none of Germany’s submarines is operational, only four of its 128 Eurofighter jets are combat-ready and the army is short dozens of tanks and armored vehicles needed for NATO missions.

> In addition, troops are short on the basics: body armor, night vision gear and cold-weather clothing.

> The situation is so dire that 19 helicopter pilots from Germany’s Bundeswehr were forced to turn in their flight licenses because of a lack of training time.

> The reason: not enough helicopters for the pilots to fly.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#972

Post by avion23 » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:20 PM UTC

kyberias wrote: post #803

it_does_follow wrote: post #781

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Russia is going to lose this one. People on HN tend to be in denial about the current state of the world, but I don't think Putin is. We're already starting to see some food shortages across the globe due to climate change, this will only intensify. Together Russia and Ukraine produce 29% of the worlds wheat exports. As climate change worsens food will become as big of a concern as oil. We are also runn…

You seem to be delusional.

How is that? I can follow his thoughts 100% and it's very plausible.

Also his reference to the german green party hits home because I'm from there. And I can see my electricity prices right now go to 90 Cent/kWh _before_ the war.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#973

Post by abc789654567 » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:24 PM UTC

smoe wrote: post #691

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #668

What is the endgame here? Russia is outclassed by NATO both economically and militarily. If NATO intervenes economically, Russia will lose much. If NATO intervenes militarily, Russia will lose much (but at great cost to NATO). The risk of NATO intervention is high, right? Russia understood this before invading, right? So it seems Russia is accepting a high risk of loss. But it doesn't make sense that a nation as soph…

I think the risk of direct NATO military intervention is very low, due to Ukraine not being a member state. As the Nato secretary said, they will support Ukraine, but made it clear the security guarantees are only for allies. "I think also that we need to realize that Ukraine is a highly valued partner. We support them with military support, with political support, with the cyber defences, with equipment. Different A…

>I think the risk of direct NATO military intervention is very low.

Because Joe Alzheimer is the weakest dictator in the US history.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#974

Post by tasha0663 » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:27 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #741

mleg wrote: post #729

Another Russian here. I don't agree and don't support this action. We anticipate long years if not decades of isolation, even more stagnating economy, even more authoritarian government. By all means it's a terrible thing. For both Russians and Ucrainians alike. But... The drama around it as portrayed in Western media is ridiculous. There won't be major loss of life nor any "war" in conventional sense. It would be no…

> There won't be major loss of life nor any "war" in conventional sense. That's a bit premature. As for the rest: Russians could rise en-masse to put a stop to this. Call a general strike all over Russia tomorrow and you might be able to avoid those decades of isolation and stagnating economy.

> Russians could rise en-masse

In order to do that in effective numbers that wouldn't get squashed immediately, there would have to be people leading and coordinating the opposition.

Appearing to be such a person is a quick way to accidentally eat plutonium for breakfast.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#975

Post by Zanneth » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:39 PM UTC

Can anyone provide a non-biased explanation about why this is happening? Why is Russia carrying out this attack?

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#976

Post by tremon » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:39 PM UTC

ed_balls wrote: post #446

drewhk wrote: post #442

From Hungary with deep shame because of our traitor government. There are many of us that are deeply disturbed with what is happening, and our government is not representative of all of us.

If Putin will take over Ukraine and the army will be in next to Hungarian's border, who will invest in Hungary? This is extremely short-sighted. I hope you will kick him out in a month.

Putin has no need to invade Hungary. Orban already rules the country with an iron fist and is very eager to play Putin's fiddle, I suspect. Romania has more to fear than Hungary.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#977

Post by walkhour » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:46 PM UTC

ifokiedoke wrote: post #911

There's some real vitriol here and comments bordering on being open discriminatory attacks ("Russia is a wasteland of civilization and we should just nuke them", "stop drinking Vodka, Sergei"). I hope that folks remember that the state isn't the Russian citizenry, and even if there is a minority support for this in the country it doesn't represent the people... _especially_ when the leader is a murderous autocrat. Th…

Putin's approval rating is at 70% [0]. From [1] (referring to the invasion of Crimea):

> President Putin's approval rating among the Russian public increased by nearly 10% since the crisis began, up to 71.6%, the highest in three years, according to a poll conducted by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, released on 19 March.[346] Additionally, the same poll showed that more than 90% of Russians supported unification with the Crimean Republic

So it looks to me that most Russians supported the Crimea invasion. Why would it be different now? Why do you think a minority supports this?

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-ra...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_...

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#978

Post by vernie » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 11:58 PM UTC

Zanneth wrote: post #975

Can anyone provide a non-biased explanation about why this is happening? Why is Russia carrying out this attack?

Non-biased answer: only Putin knows.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#979

Post by kragen » Fri, Feb 25, 2022, 12:36 AM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #489

0x38B wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend Transferwise [1](now just Wise) for getting money to someone in Ukraine. They've got low fees and the ability to send money to Privatbank cards. Used them many times, while in Ukraine and while in the US. 1: https://wise.com/

Thank you! Someone else also mentioned Transferwise. ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30453538 ) Apparently there's a $200 limit, but usually that's enough.

I look forward to hearing how this works out, to the extent that you're comfortable sharing details. I feel like probably escaping from a war zone might cost more than US$200 and currency exchange might be problematic at the moment.

Re: Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack

#980

Post by _dw7s » Fri, Feb 25, 2022, 12:39 AM UTC

mlindner wrote: post #793

mleg wrote: post #729

Another Russian here. I don't agree and don't support this action. We anticipate long years if not decades of isolation, even more stagnating economy, even more authoritarian government. By all means it's a terrible thing. For both Russians and Ucrainians alike. But... The drama around it as portrayed in Western media is ridiculous. There won't be major loss of life nor any "war" in conventional sense. It would be no…

That's a bit naive. There are already hundreds of civilian casualties. The Russian shelling is not precise. They don't have the technology for that. They were using MLRS rockets which kill indiscriminately. There's a video circulating online of a little girl who got hit by a shell and killed. This is not like Crimea.

> That's a bit naive.

They're not being naive. This is a deliberate effort to downplay the events. Always keep in mind that a war is often fought with different types of weapons, including information.