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Dalisclock

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Bad night for the Russian Navy In Crimea, apparently.


Update: Russian MOD has apparently acknowledged 2 ships damaged.
 
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Silvanus

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Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Elon Musk, has admitted that the detail in his book about Musk requesting that Starlink over Sevastopol be deactivated was false. Starlink was not yet active there, and although Ukraine requested it be activated, it remained offline.

Pretty major difference. Why the fuck would you publish potentially explosive claims like that without due diligence?
 

Thaluikhain

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*grumbles*

Also, it casts doubt on other criticisms and allegations, many of which will turn out to not be made up. If Musk was a cleverer man, you'd wonder if he'd planned it.
 

Gordon_4

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Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Elon Musk, has admitted that the detail in his book about Musk requesting that Starlink over Sevastopol be deactivated was false. Starlink was not yet active there, and although Ukraine requested it be activated, it remained offline.

Pretty major difference. Why the fuck would you publish potentially explosive claims like that without due diligence?
An imbecile, who I assume is now going to be sued into oblivion.

Whats that line from The Usual Suspects? If you’re going to shoot the devil in the back, make sure you don’t miss. Well this clown missed by a country mile.
 
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tstorm823

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Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Elon Musk, has admitted that the detail in his book about Musk requesting that Starlink over Sevastopol be deactivated was false. Starlink was not yet active there, and although Ukraine requested it be activated, it remained offline.

Pretty major difference. Why the fuck would you publish potentially explosive claims like that without due diligence?
Honestly, as cynical as I may be at times, I suspect it was a bit of poetic license. The visual of precision missiles navigating with Starlink, getting disconnected mid-flight, and diverting harmlessly into the water is Hollywood-level writing. As compared to "those missiles that missed might have hit if they had Starlink at the time", which is marketing-level writing.

Ultimately this is good news. We know longer have to consider the reality where Elon Musk personally knows exactly when and where Ukraine is attacking Russian forces.
 

Silvanus

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Honestly, as cynical as I may be at times, I suspect it was a bit of poetic license. The visual of precision missiles navigating with Starlink, getting disconnected mid-flight, and diverting harmlessly into the water is Hollywood-level writing. As compared to "those missiles that missed might have hit if they had Starlink at the time", which is marketing-level writing.

Ultimately this is good news. We know longer have to consider the reality where Elon Musk personally knows exactly when and where Ukraine is attacking Russian forces.
I suspect you're right that it was poetic licence rather than an effort at manipulation. But good lord, what a short-sighted and foolish thing to take licence on.
 

Silvanus

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Poland's PM has announced that they will stop sending arms to Ukraine. Poland was previously one of Ukraine's biggest suppliers during the war.

There's two aspects to this. Firstly, the grain deal. Due to Russia blockading the export of Ukrainian grain through the black sea ports, Ukraine has had to send grain westward through its European neighbours. However 5 European countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia) blamed this for a collapse in the price of local grain, and so the EU brokered an agreement to prevent the sale of Ukrainian grain in those 5 countries (while still allowing the grain to travel through those countries on its way elsewhere for export). That deal ended recently after the local price returned to normal, but Poland continued to pursue protectionism anyway. Zelensky accused them of playing into Russia's hands, and Poland's PM has in retaliation ended the transfer of arms.

Then there's the upcoming parliamentary election in Poland next month. The ruling right-wing party PiS is likely to emerge with a reduced plurality. Its position rests on social conservatism and whipping up anger towards minority groups, migrants and the EU-- so there is likely to be an element of shortsighted grandstanding in its approach. On the other hand, Poland also knows it has a lot to lose from a Ukrainian defeat in the long term-- Russia unilaterally cut off Poland's oil access in February, and has threatened Poland militarily in the recent past.
 

Hades

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It’s really strange when Neo Nazi’s fight against Russia. Putin’s Russia is easily the closest thing Neo Nazi’s will get to their perfect state.
Yes, but wars are complex. Even in ww2 Greece and France, there were extreme-right resistance to the nazi occupation. Of course it's easier when it's foreign (you have american extreme-right militants in this very forum who are critical of Ukraine's invasion even though ideologically Putin clearly incarnates their ideal political leader, and they fully support every action of his US versions), but apparently there are other inner stakes and gripes towards the stake.

In a war, people tend to fight for a variety of reasons on a variety of aspects, hence paradoxical alliances and awkward post-war situations (including civil wars once the common enemy is defeated). I do hope (feebly) that the war will end with Putin's defeat, but I don't expect any "lived happily ever after" in Ukraine. The country will be a dangerous mess. For itself and, very possibly, for its neighbours. But, as the guy used to say, this will be another story for another time...
 

Thaluikhain

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Yes, but wars are complex. Even in ww2 Greece and France, there were extreme-right resistance to the nazi occupation. Of course it's easier when it's foreign (you have american extreme-right militants in this very forum who are critical of Ukraine's invasion even though ideologically Putin clearly incarnates their ideal political leader, and they fully support every action of his US versions), but apparently there are other inner stakes and gripes towards the stake.

In a war, people tend to fight for a variety of reasons on a variety of aspects, hence paradoxical alliances and awkward post-war situations (including civil wars once the common enemy is defeated). I do hope (feebly) that the war will end with Putin's defeat, but I don't expect any "lived happily ever after" in Ukraine. The country will be a dangerous mess. For itself and, very possibly, for its neighbours. But, as the guy used to say, this will be another story for another time...
One might also note that the original Nazi party was divided into factions that competed (or even openly fought) each other, by design.
 

Dalisclock

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Another bad day for the Russian Navy.


Ukraine claims the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet was killed in the attack.

Every time I start to think that Russia can't be any more embarrassed, the universe finds a new way to surprise me.
 
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CM156

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Another bad day for the Russian Navy.


Ukraine claims the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet was killed in the attack.

Every time I start to think that Russia can't be any more embarrassed, the universe finds a new way to surprise me.
A bad day for the Russian military is a good day for humanity.
 

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TWZ: Who killed former Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin?

KB: I wouldn’t be in a hurry to say he’s killed.

TWZ: You think he might be alive?

KB: I just wouldn't rush with that question. I don't possess any confirmation.

TWZ: You don’t have confirmation that he’s dead yet?

KB: We don’t possess that.
KB: Look, [Starlink] is a private property of a private person. Yes we really very widely use [Musk's] products and services. The whole of the line of contact talks to each other to some extent using his products and services. The only thing I can say here is that without those services and products it would be a catastrophe. But it is true that he did turn off his products and services over Crimea before. But there's another side to that truth. Everybody's been aware of that.

TWZ: So he did turn it off?

KB: This specific case everybody's referring to, there was a shutdown of the coverage over Crimea, but it wasn't at that specific moment. That shutdown was for a month. There might have been some specific cases I'm not aware of. But I'm totally sure that throughout the whole first period of the war, there was no coverage at all.

TWZ: But did he ever put it on and then shut it off?

KB: There have been no problems since it's been turned on over Crimea.
 

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