Flight Radar identifies it...
Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk
Posted on 02/23/2022 6:10:04 PM PST by dynachrome
Explosions have been heard in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, as fears mount that shelling is underway.
Residents in the city, which is located in south eastern Ukraine, have been woken up by blasts 30 miles from the Russian border.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That border post the Spetsnas took was north of Crimea, not part of the two areas.
“Looks like Forte12 is headed home.”
Yeah. The drone.
I believe the "separatists" stopped just short of Mariupol in 2014.
Aurora Intel
@AuroraIntel
Putin now delivering an emergency address to the citizens of #Russia.
Same clothes and location as the one yesterday, possible that it was recorded at the same time for broadcast at a later date.
Belarus airspace is pretty empty, as well. I found one BRU (Brussels Airlines) but that’s about it.
Looks quiet at this point in Kiev from the livestream for the last few minutes. Doesn’t mean much, of course, either way. But power is still on, which does mean something.
Lol, I have known where Ukraine was for a long time, but the only city I'd heard of was Kiev until recent years.
These two breakaway republics (Donetsk and Lugansk) are basically the first 10% of Ukraine that you would encounter driving west from Russia. They don’t go anywhere near the Dnieper River which is about halfway to Kiev in that direction.
Putin’s plan may be to infiltrate those two republics (portions of Ukraine as most would say) with a blend of his own troops and locally raised militias, then see how much resistance Ukraine is prepared to mount; if they just sit across the new de facto borders and wait, then it would be like Crimea and settle into being the new normal.
Referendums were held in those two areas back around 2014-16 after Crimea was taken, and the territories first became autonomous under pro-Russian militia control. The people were given four options, none was an overwhelming choice. They could join Russia, become independent with close ties to Russia, they could remain in Ukraine with greater autonomy, or the status quo ante. While joining Russia was about a 3 in 8 choice, independence also had similar support and the other two were more like 1 in 8. Since about half the population is not ethnic Russian but Ukrainian (in the two regions) that was surprising and may indicate some tampering.
Probably the smart response would be to let the two regions go, and try to negotiate a permanent cease-fire after ratifying the transfer of Crimea and the two new republics to Russia. If it works out well for the local populations, no harm done, if it works out badly, it will dampen down any desire of less dominant Russian populations in Ukraine to leave.
Longer term, I see no really good reason to prevent both Ukraine and Russia from joining NATO. It’s not like we have too many friends to count in this world. Putin is an autocrat but if he died or left office, what would replace him? Something weak and prone to a communist resurgence more so than Putin himself which seems like more of a Franco does Soviet communism impersonation.
Flight Radar identifies it...
Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk
Yeah, that and Odessa were about it for me...
I just knew a neocon lackey pal of Hannity would make an appearance tonight with the war starting to pop off. I thought it would be Lindsay Graham though.
I’m just hoping Joe doesn’t send in troops in his Wag The Dong moment
Looks quiet at this point in Kiev from the livestream for the last few minute
the flashes I and others saw may have been distance lightning ..the camera did shake though
I had to stop regularly listening to Lookner after he went total drama queen mode over covid in 2020.
Kiev is a good ways from the border. The Russkies won’t stretch that far so quickly. It looked like they have mostly tanks and artillery stuff and maybe rockets but I didn’t see missiles.
“We”
That’s yet another time you’ve claimed to be Russian. Three times that I can think of.
Paul Sonne
@PaulSonne
·
4m
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is undertaking a “special military operation” in Ukraine saying his goal is to demilitarize and denazify the country but not occupy it.
The Media Hysteria Level right now is at 11.
Can anyone stop Biden? At least Vlad loves his country enough to let the oil flow.
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