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© Thomson Reuters 2022.Russia destroys power and water infrastructure across Ukraine
By Max Hunder and Jonathan Landay KYIV/MYKOLAIV, Ukraine©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
55 Comments
Yrral
We're is the Western defense money gone,it obliviously,it not working
obladi
Retire Putin
stormcrow
The Russians are worse than terrorists. Disgraceful.
plasticmonkey
Putin realizes that he can’t get what he wants. So he will try to destroy it.
Some of the posters here seem to be fine with that.
Putin must be ended.
PTownsend
The little male many of the global alt rightists have claimed is savvy, strong and smart, sounds like he's deranged to me trying to defend the territory that he imagined was his actually does belong to him. Only the most severely narcissistically impaired can believe territory that someone imagines he controls is his, and as a result he can start nuking places to defend it. The Putin led Kremlin sounds insane, no wonder so many Russian citizens are trying to escape this latest form of Russian madness. When will the globe's alt-right move to Russia to support the Kremlin by taking up arms (bring your own, your own food, a sanitary napkin, and a sleeping bag) instead of just continuing to spread disinformation. Or maybe they'd prefer shifting to China, Iran or North Korea. An added bonus If they die defending the Kremlin their sins (whatever that means in Russia) will be erased.
Haaa Nemui
Lie to your face.
Then mock you with an admission.
wallace
Putin is a war criminal destroying civilian targets.
Haaa Nemui
You told us yesterday you were done with 2022 and had transitioned into 2023. What happened?
Stephen Chin
Vladymir Putin was not born when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reduced to dust by atomic bombs. So he has not an inkling of what he is talking about when he threatens nuclear bombs against Ukraine.
An action begins with an idea. And a nourished idea becomes an action. Vladymir Putin is the most dangerous creature on planet Earth today. If he
puts into practice his threat of nuclearizing his war on Ukraine humanity will be reduced to dust.
wallace
More than 1,000 towns are without power.
The Iranian-supplied drones violated a UN Security Council resolution linked to a nuclear agreement, barring the transfer of certain military technology.
PTownsend
"It' has exposed Putin led Russia to be clearly shown (by reasonable people) to be a terrorist state, and Russia's partner states, and their online backers as supporters of terrorism.
ok1517
Once again (and easy to understand): Russia is a terrorist state, with Putin being the top terrorist.
Again terrorizing, wounding and killing civilians.
Again, as always, hitting civilian infrastructure.
Again, as always, trying to erase Ukraine from the map.
Again, as always, as always, always ......
Ukraine will prevail!
TrevorPeace
Time to destroy the same thing in Russia, close enough to Moscow or St. Petersburg to put some fright into Putin's nut-mind. Eye-for-an-eye, people. It's beyond time. And don't give me that now-or-never crap. World 'leaders' have no balls.
Antiquesaving
But isn't that exactly what the USA and it's Allies did on the opening days of the Iraq war?
The we had the use of Kamikaze!
So how many pilots died crashing these drones into power stations?
We use Kamikaze when a person kills themselves will commiting an act of terror, Kamikaze truck bomb driver, etc..we don't say kamikaze car bomb for a driverless car left to blow up.
The USA doesn't use Kamikaze missiles, it uses cruise missiles, we don't call smart bombs used by the USA kamikaze bombs.
This is what I mean by western media exaggeration and willingness to follow the government propaganda.
I know not to listen to RT etc.. because it is Russian propaganda, but now what we prided ourselves on freedom of speech and a free unbias press has faded and so many are just fine with that, to the point of attacks anyone they don't like or that points this out.
Mr Kipling
Though sad for civilians, the western weapons being transported to the east do so on the trains. These are all electric, so turning off the power is not a war crime. Just ask any US general who was ordered the targeting of the power grid in Iraq. Time to end this war before winter sets in.
Michael Machida
Any proud Russians around anymore?
Numan
Blockade shipments from Iran and the other NATO members should do their part to support Ukraine not just the US.
Putin is already getting ideas about those other smaller European countries.
It is pretty obvious that Putin blew up his own pipelines to punish NATO countries. Now they are spying on the competition because those same countries are looking to alternative suppliers; thus, leaving Putin with less money and less leverage over NATO countries.
Blacklabel
exactly.
Seems if it was really Russia they would want everyone to know that by the released results of a joint investigation. Not hiding behind "national security".
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sweden-shuns-formal-joint-investigation-nord-stream-leak-citing-national-2022-10-14/
Yrral
Wallace,these drone are GPS guided,
Desert Tortoise
Probably not. It is more likely they use GLONASS.
asdfghjkl
A leader who goes to war under the pretense of for the good of the people is his attempt to distract from his unpopularity with his own people and delay his own downfall.
Desert Tortoise
Power generation, energy, transportation and logistics infrastructure and manufacturing are unfortunately legitimate military targets. In WWII probably the most effective use of aerial bombing in the entire European theater was when the US and RAF started bombing German railways. Unable to ship coal, German power plants and steel mills were forced to shut down, halting German war production. In the Pacific one of the most productive uses of the B-29 was aerial mining of the Inland Sea. That sank a great many Japanese merchant ships and tied up shipping while those mines were removed, only to be replaced a night or two later by another mining mission by the B-29s. Aerial mining and submarine operations were starving Japan of oil and other resources not available domestically.
The solution isn't whining about it. The legitimate solution is to improve Ukraine's air defenses.
Blacklabel
Russia has supposedly been "running out" of ammo and weapons since a month after this started.
any day now I guess.
Meanwhile the USA announced they cant provide much more, because they are running out plus they are afraid that Ukraine will use those weapons to escalate the conflict further by attacking inside Russia.
Asakaze
@stormcrow
Russians do not anything the West did not do in Serbia, Iraq or Libya. NATO are worse than terrorists. Disgraceful.
@wallace
The West / NATO destroyed a lot of civilian targets in several countries. Ukraine was destroying civilian targets in Donbass for eight years. In 2014 Ukraine cut off all water supply to Crimea. It uses ballistic missiles and MLRS to destroy civilian targets now. Any comments on that?
@ok1517
Correct description of everyday actions of the terrorist state of Ukraine since 2014 against Donbass.
@Numan
Putin could just turn it off, without blowing the pipeline up. US did it to force Europeans to buy its much expensive LNG.
The Avenger
Isn't that called Genocide?
Targeting essentials needs?
Putin and his army general continue to have their childish temper tantrums. Perhaps they think thousands of Russian troops will somehow not be slaughtered over the winter months. And perhaps they think there will be no more inconvenient explosions inside Russia's borders over the next several months. I predict they are wrong on both counts.
Russia should be punished severely, financially, for the next quarter century for their disgraceful acts. The Russian people know what is going on, as evidenced by all the young Russian men heading for the exits. A punishing quarter century on all of them. Tax their exports at 35 percent and use the proceeds to rebuild Ukraine. And ban imports here from India and China if they do not join in the venture.
justasking
Bomb Russia too sonit will be fair.
Cards fan
This isn't true.
ok1517
Well, you called me, here I am:
"Correct description of everyday actions of the terrorist state of Ukraine since 2014 against Donbass."
You sure about this? Ukraine being the aggressor? Ukraine killing, looting, raping and so on? Ukraine destroying civilian infrastructure? Ukraine using terror UAVs? All this since 2014? And please, never forget that (not only, but also) Donbass was occupied by Russian invaders. It is not Russian but Ukraine's land!
fallaffel
You replace one fantasy with another. It doesn't make reality. Like Russia, US would have little to gain, and potentially a lot to lose from blowing the pipeline.
Desert Tortoise
Thanks to Lend-Lease, the industrial might of the US and Canada and the sacrifices of American, Canadian and British seafarers who manned the convoys from the US and Canada to Murmansk.
Asakaze
@ok1517
Overwhelmingly yes!! Ukraine is killing, looting, raping and so on!! Some particilarly insane types in Ukroforces posted videos in Ukrainian sicial media of them shooting at locals just for fun, "to get those separatists". Google for the "Alley of Angels" at Donetsk. Locals just hate the regime at Kyiv for a reason, in WWII even Germans treated locals better than Ukroarmy.
People of Donbass were living in bomb shelters for many days during peaks of bombardments by Ukroartillery and MLRS. And Ukroforces tried to destroy (sometimes they succeeded) power plants, railway stations, bridges.
Please never forget that there were no regular Russian army units in Donbass before this year, local militia was capable to defend its land from the nazi "Ukrainizators".
@fallaffel
As I've already said, the U.S. have a lot to gain from it. First, to force Europe to buy much more expensive American LNG. Second, to force some segments of European economy particularly dependent on energy to move to the U.S. Third, to destroy any possibility of Germany to come to terms with Russia about pipeline gas.
Desert Tortoise
No. Genocide has a specific narrow definition that involves deliberate efforts to exterminate a people. Every act of war is not an act of genocide. I am no defending the Russians. Everyone here knows my dislike of them. But in war, targeting things like power, energy and transportation infrastructure or essential industries is fair game. It is how enemies are defeated.
ok1517
"Morning winds",
" the U.S. have a lot to gain from it. "
Analysis by experts (not some wanna be experts) indicate, that the pipe was blown up from inside, which means, the explosive had to be inserted from Russian territory (probably using some kind of maintenance robot).
Everything else - well, guess we can agree to disagree!
Asakaze
@Desert Tortoise
The Lend-Lease supplies to the USSR were just several percent of the Soviets' own military production. Lend-Lease was very helpful, Western seafarers' contribution was very much apreciated by the Russians, but the fate of the war against Hitler was decided on the ground, on the Eastern Front battlefields where the Soviet army destroyed three fourth of all Hitler's ground forces.
Desert Tortoise
That is a mischaracterization of fact. Neither Sweden, Denmark or Germany has said they know who blew up the pipeline. All three are conducting investigations. The Swedes refused to join Germany and Denmark in a Joint Investigation Team trough Eurojust because the necessary agreements would require Sweden to share information it considers to be confidential national security information. That most likely means the Swedes have methods and information sources they do not wish to share.
It would not surprise me if the Swedes had some sort of truly sophisticated surveillance in the region they didn't wish to share with any other nation. During the Cold War the Swedes were doing things with data links, remote targeting and cooperative engagement that were far more advanced than anything in the rest of the world including the US. Sweden is a nation that had a nuclear weapons program for the better part of 20 years and conducted at least ten underground tests without ever being suspected. It was the Swedes themselves that owned up to the program when they claimed to have cancelled it, and likewise it was the Swedes some years after the fall of the USSR that revealed some of their air defense secrets, secrets that left us dragging out jaws on the deck in amazement. I strongly suspect the Swedes still have some out there tech they wish to keep a dark secret, hence their reticence to join an investigation with Denmark and Germany. Just my two cents.
1glenn
The Lend Lease program to the USSR was targeted to get them things they especially needed, such as four wheel drive trucks and SPAM, which the soviets are said to have loved.....much better than going hungry. They had their own supply of planes, tanks, artillery, and rifles.
Asakaze
@ok1517
Oh yess, that's why a U.S. Navy ship and USN helicopters were spotted near the area sometime before the blasts, and Sweden sain it would't disclose the results of its unvestigation of the blasts. Yeah, swedes
Asakaze
Sorry, slip of finger. Sure the Swedes are willing to cover for Putin!!
theFu
Read a story today about how China is selling integrated chips to Russia, but 40% of them are bad. Seems China is anti-Russia, just using the limited access to these things to dump crap ICs - thus eating Russian money and destroying their logistics capabilities. Kinda funny. In a month more, Russia will be driving trucks from the 1970s - those that don't have any ICs in them.
Ref: https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/russia_china_semiconductro_failure_rates/
60 Minutes did another story about Russians killing civilians in Ukraine. Seems these brave Russian soldiers like to kill people tied up and kneeling or shot them in the back while they are running with firewood and their children. Oh so brave.
/s
1glenn
The Russian dictator is repeating what he did in Chechnya and Syria......destroying that which he cannot conquer.
The US is afraid of nuclear war, so does not want to give Ukraine the conventional weapons it needs to reciprocate for what is being done to it. IMO, we should at least help them defend themselves from the current attacks, which we are in the process of doing, and then we must help them prepare for winter. While we are at it, we should help Ukraine push Russia out of their country. The Russian army is collapsing. Give them a push, and let them fall.
thaonephil
So Russia drops the act and embraces the reality of the war, it would be surprising from anybody interested on keeping appearances, but obviously Putin is now above silly things like logic and the international opinion.
ok1517
Asakaze,
"The Lend-Lease supplies to the USSR were just several percent of the Soviets' own military production."
just to give you a short history review concerning lend-lease for Russia druing WW2.
The US provided Russia with :
400,000 jeeps & trucks
14,000 airplanes
8,000 tractors
13,000 tanks
1.5 million blankets
15 million pairs of army boots
107,000 tons of cotton
2.7 million tons of petrol products
4.5 million tons of food
I total 180 billion $ in today's currency. Believe me, if this hadn't been done, Russia would've never made it, besides the second front, which was also of great help! No imagine and think!
Desert Tortoise
Lend Lease to the Russians provided aircraft, especially the Bell Aircobra of which the Soviets were especially fond, Republic P-47s, Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, Handley Page Hamptons, some 420,000 US made trucks (more than the total number of motor vehicles in Britain in 1939)(the Soviets were particular fond of the Studebaker 6x6s), 35,000 radio stations, 380,000 field telephones, almost a million miles of cable overcoming a serious shortcoming the Soviets faced lacking adequate communications infrastructure. The US, Canada and other allies supplied the Soviets with more than half the aviation fuel they used, more than half the motor fuels used, 53% of all explosives used and almost half of the copper, aluminum and rubber tires used. Most important perhaps were the 56%of all rails used and 1900 American made locomotives compared to the Soviet output of just 92 locomotives, plus over 11,000 railcars to add to the 1087 produced in the USSR. Lend Lease allowed the Soviets to concentrate their industries on making armaments. It wasn't just Spam, though the allies shipped enough food to the Soviets to provide every Soviet soldier with a half pound of concentrated nourishment every day of the war.
1glenn
The American tanks were kind of a joke. Not nearly up to par to either German or Soviet standards. A waste of metal, at least on the Eastern Front. Many of the planes donated were intentionally of types not wanted by the West, such as the P-39 fighter. Did not have high altitude capability.
Blacklabel
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is lying then?
But there are still a number of high-profile, advanced weapons that Ukraine wants and the U.S. won’t provide, due to political sensitivities, classified technology or limited stockpiles.
Asakaze
@1glenn
You must have confused Russian actions with what NATO did in Iraq or Afghanistan. Chechnya now is a peaceful part of Russia, Syria is saved from repeating the fate of Iraq or Libya.
@ok1517
I know the statistics. Compare the 14.000 airplanes supplied by the Western Allies with 125.000 planes the Soviets produced in 1941-45 themselves. As I said, the Western help was much appreciated, but it was not a deciding factor.
It would have been even bigger help if it opened in 1942-43, not in 1944 when the result of the war was obvious.
Anyway, glad to see you have no objections about what I say about Ukraine.
Wakarimasen
Isnt this what happens in war? Stuff gets destroyed? anyone see Iraq after the war? Afghanistan? not to mention Europe after Ww2?
This constant war criminal refrain every time stuff gets destroyed is a little bit silly. He should be accused of war crimes for killing prisoners or executing civilians in cold blood. Those charges would then carry more weight.
TokyoLiving
And that's just the beginning, make negotiations with Russia for the good of your people before it's too late, Ukraine can stop this war by recognizing its defeat.
Cards fan
lol No. Nowhere in the article does it say the US is running out of weapons as you claim.
As there is a difference between being "afraid" of something, and not wanting to escalate things more than necessary. Frankly this seems like an odd complaint to make, considering you've advocated for not supplying Ukraine at all. Which is it?
ian
Maybe silly to you but not to silly people.
But the ones who are doing it arenot silly, it's an effective way to condition and reinforce people's minds and beliefs
Blacklabel
what would limited stockpiles be referring to? hint- means you are almost out of something and need to keep what you have left for your own emergency.
Here is something else that uses the words you claim are missing
2020hindsights
Blacklabel
Nowhere in the article does it say the US is running out of weapons as you claim.
Nope. It means you need to order more. It's like a supermarket when a certain stock item drops below a certain amount, you order more. Nothing to do with emergencies.
ian
Nope.
Quote says stockpiles, look it up