[Nigredo]

[Nigredo]

[Boiler]

Another Johnson spekes her branes

[Samanfur]

This snuck out quietly:

Snake Island sailors are freed as Ukraine and Russia conduct a prisoner exchange

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 10 prisoners of war each on Thursday in what Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called the first full-fledged swap of the month-old conflict.

The exchange also freed 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors who were captured as their ship tried to take Ukrainian troops off of Snake Island in late February.

Ukraine released 11 Russian civilian sailors as part of the deal, Vereshchuk said as she announced the transfer. The civilians had been rescued from a ship that sank near Odesa, she said.

Russia's takeover of Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, was much-discussed in the first days of the war after Ukrainian soldiers at the small military outpost in the Black Sea defied threats from a looming Russian vessel by flatly telling it, "Russian warship. Go f*** yourself."

The soldiers were initially feared to have been killed, but Russian state media later reported that they had been taken prisoner.

I only came across it when I spotted this:

This link appears to confirm that the entire garrison survived.

[Nigredo]

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ukraine ... us-2851163

Unsurprisingly, Russia are not withdrawing their forces eastwards and are actually shaping up to relaunch an offensive on Kyiv.

[Nigredo]

[Boiler]

I'm surprised at the number of rather grand and old houses round here flying the Ukrainian flag.

[Samanfur]

One of my neighbours has swapped his regimental flag for it.

[Nigredo]

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 022-04-01/

Russia's bluff got called, just as a new cold snap hits Europe.

[Spoonman]

Exchange rate between Sterling & Russian Rouble now stands at £1 = ₽113, essentially back to where it was just before the Ukraine invasion.

I'd guess the demand by Russia for their fuel exports to be paid in Roubles has played a part in it.

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from ... UB&view=1Y

[Boiler]

Just in case anyone forgets: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-60968546

[Bones McCoy]

Size of the cohones on this guy

[Nigredo]

EDIT:

Looks like Putin is dropping all pretense of this being NATO-provoked and it's just open genocide now.

[Nigredo]

And they had the gall to claim Ukrainians massacred their own in Bucha.

Russia needs to be declared a terrorist state at this point.

[Boiler]

Mmm. Sounds familiar.

[Crabcakes]

I seriously cannot see the endgame of this now, other than Putin being taken out. Russia isn’t winning the easy victory it expected, and sanctions are biting - which means people at home aren’t happy. But the ‘retreat to the Donbas’ strategy now seems to be being binned in favour of going all out again - and with the blatant genocide on display there’s going to be no de-escalation.

I don’t know whether to believe the whole Putin is mad thing or if he is just still getting dreadful intel. Either way, he clearly sanctioned the war crimes.

[MisterMuncher]

The mechanics of all that is when it gets really sticky.

Who snuffs him, and how Russia reacts to same is anything but predictable.

[Boiler]

I think, once again, we are presented with Putin saying to the West "stop me if you dare".

[Nigredo]

I don’t know whether to believe the whole Putin is mad thing or if he is just still getting dreadful intel. Either way, he clearly sanctioned the war crimes.

I've seen a couple of speculated reasons for why Putin has gone in as hard as he has, and none of them indicate a Russian withdrawal anytime soon even with the amount of losses of equipment and personnel they're taking.

In a month's time when it's their annual victory parade, Putin may sue for peace so long as he keeps at least the Donbass region (it's awash with natural resources) under Russian control though it's likely he will want everything east of the Dnipro River, and probably retaining Crimea as well.

Given all the hurt they've endured so far, I doubt any of that would be remotely acceptable to Ukraine.

[Nigredo]