More News From Ukraine

[ichkeria]

As things are hotting up:

Two Russian aircraft and two helicopters shot down over Bryansk (Russia) this morning and reports in the Russian media of a third helicopter since.
The link says friendly fire ….
The helicopters are allegedly an advanced type of which Russia possesses only around 20.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12080009/amp/Russia-loses-four-aircraft-shot-sky-Putins-Ukraine-border.html

Meanwhile, Russian troops continue to be pushed back in Bakhmut with a key location: Klishchivka, reportedly liberated.

Russians also claim it was a UK Storm Shadow which but a big building in Luhansk yesterday. The interesting thing about that is that it was preceded by sophisticated US decoy missiles which no one knew Ukraine possessed, but seems confirmed.
On the minus side, there was a horrendous fire in Khmelnitskiy, W Ukraine. Cause unknown but possibly an ammo store.

Rumours abound that Aleksandr Lukashenka the Belarus dictator, is in a coma after a heart attack: he left the May 9 Moscow parade suddenly looking very ill and immediately flew back to Minsk. And has not bern seen in public since. Tho if he’s that ill it’s hardly surprising.
Queue his turning up tomorrow :-)

[ichkeria]

"Am I allowed to ask how long the conflict will be, effectively, funded by the west. "

As long as it takes.
As repeatedly stated by more knowledgeable people than me.
Think, if you can, on what the consequences for us would be were a genocidal war be allowed to continue. And stopping the "funding" would not stop the war. Ukraine probably by now has a more powerful army than Russia with everything it was already got. Only in the air is it inferior, hence the need to bolster the air force (plainly that is happening)
No western lives were taken in the conducting of this war, although I appeciate that money matters more than lives to some.

[Peter Pedant]

Lukashenko turned up in a bandage yesterday according to the Times

Itch or the Times, I wd choose Itch - mwah mwah ! not really appropriate when men are losing their lives perhaps

[THECORBYLOON]

Do you have a link to an image with the bandage on the right hand?

[ichkeria]

The Times report doesn't say which hand :-)

I agree, on the subject of money, I agree that the method of financing military aid to Ukraine is insane: the more we do quicker, the shorter and cheaper will be the fix. But it's politics.

[douglas9401]

Nicely done, of course regardless of thiny veiled barbs the money will run out eventually, I really just wondered if there was a timescale known to the better informed.

Try to keep your dudgeon at medium.

[Peter Pedant]

"Am I allowed to ask how long the conflict will be, effectively, funded by the west. "

yes of course - this is AB - the paradise of free speech, so long as the mods havent been maddened that day by people like me !

Trump - hey ! did you hear a minion was peddling post-2024 pardons for $2m a pop, Only in America !

Trump said he wd solve Ukraine in a day. Presumably by re-iterating, what he said in 2016 - "they speak Russian so they are Russian right?" Money saved. Putin ( they SAY) offered Trump to make him the richest man in the world

Putin also said ( I think ) if they dont fight in Ukraine they will fight in Poland the rest.
Poland and the rest said the same by the way

domino theory, MacNamara 1964, Vietnam - abolute disaster

[ichkeria]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12085859/Belarus-state-news-publishes-photo-ailing-dictator-Lukashenko-bandaged-hand.html

I have to say, it looks like Mr Potato Head to me.

[ichkeria]

"Nicely done, of course regardless of thiny veiled barbs the money will run out eventually,"

It won't :-)

[THECORBYLOON]

The photo shows a bandaged left hand but I cannot see one with a bandaged right hand.

[ichkeria]

"It won't :-) "

Let me expand on that: as regards military spending, the more that is spent now the less will be needed later, as the improved state of Ukraine's military and its sutuation in the war, demands less.
Also, as regards reconstruction, many countries have already pledged funds for reconstruction: there'll be a lot of bulding contracts going out (don't see the Austrians or the Hungarians getting too many)
And then there is the matter of confiscated Russian money. There's a lot of that, and some has already been approved for use.

[ichkeria]

"The photo shows a bandaged left hand but I cannot see one with a bandaged right hand. "

I don't know. The Times said it was his right hand, and so did someone else.
Like I say, having seen the film footage, it looks genuine to me.

[ichkeria]

The Times said it was his right hand on May 9, I mean

[THECORBYLOON]

I'm not doubting there were reports but none of the ones I seen has a photo to confirm the claim about the right hand.

It could be an image or video was reversed.

[ichkeria]

lol I don't think the video of Lukashenko from the other day is reversed :-)
There are multiple reports so I guess they can't all be wrong.
The fact it might not be the same hand of course, doesn't mean it isn't him. But it was rather funny :-)

[Khandro]

ichi; The photograph second down, the one with the cameraman & a soldier saluting him in your link, at 10:39, has definitely been Photo -shopped.
The head has been (badly) superimposed onto a uniformed figure.

[THECORBYLOON]

There are often multiple reports about folk or events but they are copies, or slightly re-worded versions of a single source.

If that source is wrong, the other reports merely repeat the error.

[ichkeria]

Khandro: I am only looking at film footage and the footage of Potato Head in Belarus does appear to be him: assuming they are “when” they purport to be. That might also explain the arm thing, because it’s not obvious and doesn’t look necessarily like it’s intended to deceive in that regard

[THECORBYLOON]

I've found a clear image of the bandaged right hand.

https://t.me/belsat/100176

[ichkeria]

Thanks Corby: that picture was in my original link as a matter of fact I now realise. I hadn’t paid it any attention as I was concentrating on the film of Lukashenko. That is undoubtedly him I’d say and he’s talking about the downing of Russian aircraft in Bryansk so it’s definitely v recent. Def not well though. The fact it’s his other arm is interesting but maybe only from a medical perspective

[THECORBYLOON]

I seen the image in your link but the bandage was not immediately obvious and the one in my link is very clear.