[Sticky] Russia-Ukraine War Geopolitical Analysis

"Pictured: A Soviet-era S-300 ground-to-air missile defence system is seen during a military parade (file photo). The S-300 missile system, first deployed in 1979, was originally designed to defend against air raids and cruise missiles for the Soviet Air Defence Forces". "SAM" stands for surface-to-air missile. Both the photo and its caption were posted within the article linked to below.

 

Russia has been hitting ground targets in Ukraine with ... surface-to-air missiles, reports have said, the latest sign of growing logistical issues faced by Moscow.
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... reports from Ukraine have said (that) the (S-300) system has been used by Russian forces to attack (land-based objectives), with the British Defence Ministry saying this suggests Vladimir Putin's forces are experiencing 'critical shortages' of ground-attack weapons.
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Full story in the Daily Mail

"Russian people walk on the street near gift-shop with T-shirts for sale with the letter Z and portraits of Russian President in Moscow." Photo credit: "YURI KOCHETKOV / EPA / TASS" In the lower left corner of the photo, there are two T-shirts; one of them has the initials CCCP, which means "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics". The second one is just to the right of the first one, and it appears to have the same initials. This second T-shirt also has the hammer and sickle, which is a Communist emblem. The photo, its captions and its credit were all posted within the article linked to below.

 

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Despite the mounting examples of Russia apparently targeting civilian areas, Moscow continues to eschew responsibility with a handful of talking points seeking to deflect and deny.

Whether by pinning the blame on Ukraine or attempting to paint civilian areas as military targets, Russia’s alibis have followed a pattern, Brian Castner, a war crimes investigator for Amnesty International, told The Moscow Times.

'Lately, we have seen Russian denials of attacks that are completely divorced from reality,” Castner said. 'The Russians will claim to have struck a mercenary training camp, or a high-level meeting of Ukrainian generals, when in reality they hit a residential block full of civilians.'
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Full article in The Moscow Times

 
The photos of Konstantin Kosachev (L) and Irina Yarovaya (R) were both taken from the Wiki articles about them.

 

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Two Russian lawmakers told reporters this week that the Kremlin is investigating the blood of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and has found 'evidence' of experimentation, Russian outlet Kommersant reported.

Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev told the outlet that the blood of Ukrainian prisoners contained traces of pathogens he claimed were 'atypical' for Ukraine.

Kosachev claimed this was evidence of 'experiments' being conducted on Ukrainian servicemen.

Irina Yarovaya, deputy chair of the State Duma, took the claims further, and said the supposed experiments were focused on the creation of more vicious soldiers ("cruel killing machines").
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The claims are a bizarre offshoot of the widely disproven, Kremlin-backed conspiracy theory that the US and Ukraine are developing bio-weapons together in secret.
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Full story in the New York Post

"A destroyed Russian T-90M tank in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region." Photo credit: "armyinform.com.ua (CC BY 4.0)" One military analyst, James Lewis of "the Strategic and International Studies Institute in Washington", said that "Russia’s failure to find an answer to modern anti-tank weaponry brings the future of Russia’s long-term reliance on tanks in warfare into question". Lewis is also directly quoted as saying that " 'Tanks will still have a place, but their future will be a smaller role because of their vulnerability' ". The photo, its caption, and the quotations are all incorporated into the article linked to below.

 

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But Russia’s losses are indicative of a failure to conduct combined operations in Ukraine rather than any problems with tanks in particular, (other) analysts told The Moscow Times.

'Tanks are supposed to fight as part of combined formations, but in terms of how they've been tactically used, Russia hasn’t done that effectively,' said Nick Reynolds, a military expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

In theory, tanks should be supported by infantry and artillery that are able to locate and destroy enemy soldiers armed with anti-tank weapons.
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Full story in The Moscow Times

"A 1950s Soviet poster." The image is credited to "mvdmedia.ru". The image, its caption, and the image credit were all posted within the article linked to below.

 

Following Russia’s bombing of a drama theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in March, St. Petersburg-based artist Alexandra Skochilenko swapped supermarket price tags with stickers containing information about the attack that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians.

A fellow store customer reported her act of resistance to the police.

'I was extremely outraged by the slander I read because I worry a lot about Russian soldiers in Ukraine,' the 72-year-old informant claimed in testimony published by local media.

Soon after, Skochilenko, 31, was arrested for spreading 'false information' about the Russian Army — a crime under new legislation that is being used to clamp down on information deviating from the Kremlin’s narrative of the war in Ukraine.

Skochilenko is one of dozens of Russians who have been criminally charged for anti-war actions or statements since the invasion began on Feb. 24.

Many have been reported to police by family, neighbors and passersby in a trend analysts say harks back to Soviet denunciations — and is being actively encouraged by Russian authorities.
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Full story in The Moscow Times