Posted by roue_libre What a nightmare playing out right before our eyes. I feel so much for the Ukrainian people right now! The writing was on the wall: the West has placated Putin and enabled his brutal kleptocracy for way too long. Especially the UK, whose banks still launder a huge proportion of dirty Russian cash – despite having had a military-grade Russian nerve agent deployed on its soil in 2018 (killing an innocent civilian). Putin's huge war chest and military spending were bankrolled for years by the insatiable European demand for cheap fuel, whilst Russia's reputation was whitewashed by its hosting of prestigious sporting events (2014 Sochi Olympics, 2018 World Cup). Putin's strongman posturing was (is) enabled by Trump, his belligerent inclinations emboldened by Brexit and by the precipitous decline of the USA – not just as the global hegemon, but as a (now barely) functioning democracy. So here we are. Welcome to 2022. Hold on to your hats, people: shit's just getting started. Мужність, Україна! Stand strong, Ukraine!

Here's the thing... as my friend Radio has said, we've been watching this kind of closer than the rest. I was honestly surprised that Putin pulled the trigger as his 'war chest' is not that great. On top of that, the Russian ground forces are still going from playbooks (more or less) that are forty years old. And on top of THAT, the Russian army is not really a volunteer force like the US military. They use conscripts who are poorly paid and poorly trained, mostly relegated to supply duties, shit like that. Morale before this fracas was piss poor, and it's gotten worse since it started.

Putin cannot afford a protracted conflict. His game plan was to roll in, 'liberate' Ukraine, kill the president and his cabinet and set up a puppet government, much like Lukashenko next door in Belarus...

well, it's not going that way. Between the furious resistance of the Ukrainian people, the low morale and lack of progress on the part of the Russian army and the lack of supplies getting through to the forward areas, Putin will either have to take things to the next level, or give up and figure out a way to save face. I don't see the latter happening. My one hope is that some general or inner circle functionary will have the testicle to end him should he make a move for that sinister button we've all thought about since we were alive.

As it stands right now, Ukraine has the love and admiration of pretty much most of the world. They are heroes, i mean action movie, comic book-level heroes and their president has adamantium balls that clink at this point.

Sorry if this is all over the place... i have like 19 things going on around me.

Posted by Emperor Wang https://i.redd.it/flixduyxw7k81.jpg[/eimg]

LOL!

---

Less beer and more cocktails.

https://ktla.com/n...ty-against-russia/

^^ that sinister button is going to quickly become his next option I bet

Posted by Samurai Here's the thing... as my friend Radio has said, we've been watching this kind of closer than the rest. I was honestly surprised that Putin pulled the trigger as his 'war chest' is not that great. On top of that, the Russian ground forces are still going from playbooks (more or less) that are forty years old. And on top of THAT, the Russian army is not really a volunteer force like the US military. They use conscripts who are poorly paid and poorly trained, mostly relegated to supply duties, shit like that. Morale before this fracas was piss poor, and it's gotten worse since it started. Putin cannot afford a protracted conflict. His game plan was to roll in, 'liberate' Ukraine, kill the president and his cabinet and set up a puppet government, much like Lukashenko next door in Belarus... well, it's not going that way. Between the furious resistance of the Ukrainian people, the low morale and lack of progress on the part of the Russian army and the lack of supplies getting through to the forward areas, Putin will either have to take things to the next level, or give up and figure out a way to save face. I don't see the latter happening. My one hope is that some general or inner circle functionary will have the testicle to end him should he make a move for that sinister button we've all thought about since we were alive. As it stands right now, Ukraine has the love and admiration of pretty much most of the world. They are heroes, i mean action movie, comic book-level heroes and their president has adamantium balls that clink at this point

Hear hear!

Posted by RescueMe1060 ^^ that sinister button is going to quickly become his next option I bet

i hope not.

Posted by Samurai i hope not.

Looking at the prevailing winds, the fallout will be coming down on Moscow.

The rest of the world needs to get involved in this and come full force to resupply and help Zelenskyy

Can anyone please, PLEASE, explain to me why Russian troops would decide it was a good idea to do this??

Summary: Basically the largest nuclear power plant* in Europe is on fire and being actively attacked by Russian troops right now. How can Russia think this is a good idea being only a short distance from this location themselves? I cannot think of how this would be a good idea, even for Russia.

Putin’s actions at first seemed eerily reminiscent of a Hitler-style, madman-with-a-grudge, but now I’m thinking he might just be a bat-shit crazy madman in cognitive decline. Or both.

https://www.indepe...-war-b2028080.html


_{*Technically, the Ukrainian plant is tied with another plant in France as the largest in Europe, according to a lot of people that know way more about these things than I do.}

....just what we need...

EDIT: Makes sense the Russians would want to knock power out for the Ukranians, but attacking a nuclear plant isn't a good way to do it IMO.

Posted by WarBird69 ....just what we need... EDIT: Makes sense the Russians would want to knock power out for the Ukranians, but attacking a nuclear plant isn't a good way to do it IMO.

I believe Radio said something earlier about prevailing winds...?

The devastation a meltdown of one of the largest active Nuclear power plants in the world would have on Russia seems difficult to overstate (and it goes without saying the rest of Europe wouldn’t fare much better).

UPDATE: The last I heard, the nuclear power plant currently under attack (and on fire!), reported one reactor had been taken off-line, one had not yet been taken off-line, but there are four other reactors that they did not mention (there are six reactors total, not to mention, almost 200 spent rods on site). The site powers at least 25% of the entire country of Ukraine.

ONE LAST UPDATE (then I promise I’ll stop ): Ukrainian officials just reported securing the site and they still have containment, control of the reactors.
(...But I can’t help wondering - for how long?)

this is a direct quote from a reddit user named cellblock73

"I would like to clarify that it is impossible to blow up a nuclear power plant like a nuclear bomb. Without knowing specifics of this plant, it’s possible that it can over-pressurize and “explode” like Fukushima, but it won’t be the size of a nuclear bomb. It would still leak radiation which would be the main hazard if this occurs. I worked in nuclear power for 11 years if anybody has questions."


"I again can’t speak on specifics here, I don’t know anything about this place except that it’s under attack. If the cooling systems are significantly damaged then yes, that’s a large hazard. Gotta keep the hot rock cool. Obviously they should have many redundancies to accomplish that, but there are single point failures for sure. Like if one of the main cooling pipes got hit in an area that could not be isolated easily, then it could drain the whole core.

I also don’t know if they have any sort of emergency cooling system that would just pump water into the containment building. They probably do, but IDK."

I'm sort of hoping this plays out for Putin like a Mussolini v2.0.

Taken down by his own people.

Unlike Mussolini, Putin doesn't have a king to answer to and in December of 2020, he made some changes to Russian Law that he hopes would keep him from ending up like Mussolini.

https://www.reuter...ents-idUSKBN28W1EN

Putin has his own cheering section which includes people like Ramzan Kadyrov. He's kind of a piece of work that runs Chechnya for Putin. His father tried break away from Russian dominance, but all that got him was assassinated.

Kadyrov plays pivot-man in the Iran-Russia circle jerk and occasionally makes headlines for this sort of thing:

https://www.ibtime...g-chechnya-1616551

Putin replaced by Kadyrov would be even worse than Putin. Although highly inlikely, Putin replaced Sergei Mirinov could be a good thing. Even Gennady Zyuganov would be better than Kadyrov.

Worst case scenario:

Posted by RescueMe1060 this is a direct quote from a reddit user named cellblock73 "I would like to clarify that it is impossible to blow up a nuclear power plant like a nuclear bomb. Without knowing specifics of this plant, it’s possible that it can over-pressurize and “explode” like Fukushima, but it won’t be the size of a nuclear bomb. It would still leak radiation which would be the main hazard if this occurs. I worked in nuclear power for 11 years if anybody has questions." "I again can’t speak on specifics here, I don’t know anything about this place except that it’s under attack. If the cooling systems are significantly damaged then yes, that’s a large hazard. Gotta keep the hot rock cool. Obviously they should have many redundancies to accomplish that, but there are single point failures for sure. Like if one of the main cooling pipes got hit in an area that could not be isolated easily, then it could drain the whole core. I also don’t know if they have any sort of emergency cooling system that would just pump water into the containment building. They probably do, but IDK."

That last sentence highlights the biggest issue. You need power to power the cooling system from somewhere.

I was surprised to learn that the backups for these plants only provide power for hours, not days or more. There are usually two or more back-up methods, but these plants have also never really been tested in an all-out war - Anywhere, ever, to my knowledge. Still, that’s kind of irrelevant because their fortification was never meant to withstand shells and rocket bombardments. They are built, however, to withstand plane crashes and thankfully, Ukraine fortified their sites after the disaster in Fukushima as a precaution.
From what I’ve read so far, this generator back-up power (then lastly, battery power), would theoretically provide enough time to encapsulate and control the radioactive material (kind of like the sarcophagus that was done for Chernobyl) before the damage becomes catastrophic, but that’s assuming you’ve found a way to get water to the reactor. It would also require a bit of luck, a lot of efficiency, and of course, a reliable way to cool off the reactor for the foreseeable future. Then there’s those other nagging issues like people racing against the clock, potentially being bombed, taken hostage, or simply denied access. Not to mention having people that have been or are about to be potentially exposed to lethal douses of radiation. In the end, it sounds like a pretty huge gamble even during peacetime that they could significantly mitigate an actual meltdown (or multiple ones), so let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.

Think of an incident multiple times larger than Chernobyl or Fukushima (v2.0), but in the middle of a war and how that would turn out. Nuclear bombs aren’t the only “nuclear” things we should be worried about - especially since the enemy appears to give about zero fucks himself.

Edited, because I like pictures:




NPP = Nuclear Power Plant

I don't know that Russia wants to destroy or destabilize these Nuclear sites since they are trying to take over the country. What use is it to them to make a land grab with nuclear fallout?

Posted by RescueMe1060 I don't know that Russia wants to destroy or destabilize these Nuclear sites since they are trying to take over the country. What use is it to them to make a land grab with nuclear fallout?

"If I can't have it, no one will!"?

Maybe I'm more used to critiquing the NK regime, but I kind of get the impression no one in Russia is thinking about what happens after the end of Putin's natural lifespan.

Posted by Steed Maybe I'm more used to critiquing the NK regime, but I kind of get the impression no one in Russia is thinking about what happens after the end of Putin's natural lifespan.

Putin turns 70 in October.

There are a number of possibilities. Some are worse than others.

He has at least 2 daughters. Possibly 3. He rarely talks about his family.

Anyone interested in joining the fight?

https://www.milita...-heres-what-to-do/


https://www.nytime...kraine-russia.html

can't read the NYT article w/o making an account.

I will be buying shares of POWW first thing Monday morning


https://www.foxbus...bullets-to-ukraine