Millions of us might be **** if we ignore the Russian-Ukraine war

[Dushan]

A ruz drone with a thin fiber optic cable for communication was obtained. The cable means it can't be taken down by EW, and more data transmitted with better quality video. I wonder. Like flying on a rope?

Big deal, I was doing that 60 years ago. And my cable was steel, not some flimsy glass string.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

This is definitely the A-50 hangar Probes, as there's nothing else on the airfield big enough.
However, no evidence here of anything more than two holes in the roof.
Since it was clearly the target, one would expect some kind of delayed action fusing so the warhead explodes inside the hangar.
Therefore, whilst it shows no more than two holes in the big roof, one would expect no more from a successful strike either.
Trying to start fires is likely less effective in a maintenance hangar than going for lots of frag damage which will take ages to fix and patch.

Meanwhile, at St Petersburg airport
https://mstdn.social/@noelreports/112072128061363596

Both these videos I have geolocated to Volkhonskoye Shosse, looking at the Philip Morris factory which is on the south side of the airport.
At 0:13, the camera is here
https://www.google.com/maps/place/59%C2 ... ?entry=ttu
It's difficult to be sure of the actual source of the smoke because the cross-angle is narrow, but I would guess at either one of the two tank farms, or the main apron, in the centre of the airport.

[probes]

Hmmm... a fire near an airport is bad even if it's not right on its territory?

Big deal, I was doing that 60 years ago. And my cable was steel, not some flimsy glass string.

Dushan!! Are you saying the ruz innovation isn't new enough???

Then, some are angry at the Pope suggesting UKR might be courageous and go for the 'white flag' negotiations. Obviously he expects no courage from putin.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The fire is not in the Morris building, and on that bearing there are a coffee wholesaler and an ag equipment dealership, the runways, then the tank farms.
I suppose it could be the coffee wholesaler, but it does look a bit more like the smoke from a fuel fire.

The Pope, under St Augustine's principles for a Just War, is obliged to advocate surrender if he believes there is no reasonable chance of Ukraine winning.
That is, he may be wrong about Ukraine's chances of winning (and I for one think he is), but he is following Catholic doctrine.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I've found two videos from Taganrog which record two of the explosions at the A50 factory.
https://geoconfirmed.org/ukraine
I've reviewed them, and agree completely with the geolocation. There are several unique features which allow exact location.
The southern one shows a distinctive narrow vertical plume of flame, as might be expected from an explosion inside the hangar going up through a hole in the roof.

Note at 0:07.

These are big bangs. That hangar is a mess at least.

[probes]

The Pope, under St Augustine's principles for a Just War, is obliged to advocate surrender if he believes there is no reasonable chance of Ukraine winning.
That is, he may be wrong about Ukraine's chances of winning (and I for one think he is), but he is following Catholic doctrine.

Wow. How did you know?
I tried to search a little and it is 'indirectly' so, it seems to me. But the war is not 'just', neither does the UKR want to defeat ruz, they want ruz out of their country - which ruz sees as humiliating defeat to their dream of an empire (! claiming to the African nations they have never colonised anybody) and entitled position as the most noble nation of all times. Also, the Holy Pope does not understand negotiating or surrender will not stop ruz going on with brutal killing and torture to those who identify as UKR.
So, shame does not enter into how many will end up dead, as far as I can see.
"When you see that you are defeated, that things don't advance, have the courage to negotiate," the Pope said. "You may be ashamed, but how many will end up dead? It will end up worse still. Negotiate in time, look for some country that may act as a mediator."
Well, but, ok, he's an elderly man and has a dream of people being nice to eachother. Incl all religions living peacefully side-by-side. Who wouldn't want that.

P.S. Pulkovo has stopped activities. Temporarily, presumably.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Well, I went to the oldest public school in the World, so we got a lot of familiarity with religion. Some of my lessons were given by a bishop who became Archbishop of Canterbury.
But the school was around longer before the English Reformation than it has been since, so he's just 'The New Kid On The Block'
And indeed the school produced the only English Pope.
But we have always been a rebellious lot - three old boys of the school were leaders of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
So, we got both sides of the story as part of our education - within 'the system' or outside it.

Then I was asked by a Religious Studies teaching colleague to do the lesson on The Just War, since I was the only person in school who'd been to one, so I did some reading up on it.

Whether the war is just from the point of view of Russia does not matter in the Catholic philosophy.
Your point about Russia not stopping the killing is a problem with that philosophy, as I also pointed out in my lesson.
The Pope's silence about Nazi Germany is well known.
Furthermore, the whole business of 'probably lose' is in direct opposition to those who deliberately fight against the odds, and the Battle of Britain and Thermopylae are good examples. We'd all be speaking Persian or German if we'd gone along with 'probably lose'.
Exactly why the Pope is advocating surrender is a difficult one. There are elements in the arguments of both St Augustine, and the later continuation by St Thomas Aquinas, that would support Ukraine continuing the fight.
One of these is that what Russia calls peace would not be, in a Christian sense. Another is why he thinks Ukraine is going to lose. You'd have to ask the man himself.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The CinC of the Russian Navy is reported fired. Probably because there were no Russian warships at sea in the Black Sea for most of last week.
Or maybe they just don't need so many Admirals now they don't have so many boats.

The new guy is a submariner, which makes sense with Russia having so many more submarines...that used to be surface ships

[probes]

edited: the 'double wow' was for the Just War enlightenment, the submarine chap requires at least a triple one!

Double wow!

There are elements in the arguments of both St Augustine, and the later continuation by St Thomas Aquinas, that would support Ukraine continuing the fight.
One of these is that what Russia calls peace would not be, in a Christian sense.

What are the others? (elements, that is)

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Augustine thought there was a duty to combat evil, Aquinas tended more towards avoiding it.
If one takes the view, as Zelenskyi does, that putin is evil, then Ukraine must continue the fight.
Even taking the Aquinian view, if one thinks that surrender would not avoid the evil, then the fight should continue.
Of course modern International Law does not adjudicate on morals, and in any case decides matters after the event, which is no use in most cases for Just War determinations.
The Pope has clearly stated that he thinks Ukraine is being defeated, and this is essential for him to conclude that Ukraine's struggle is Unjust -1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P81.HTM
See para 2309

However, as the para before states, Ukraine has a right to self-defence.

So, we can avoid the argument over morality and focus on the question of whether Ukraine has a serious chance of success.
Personally, I think the Ukrainian people have already won.
Even if Zelenskyi were to surrender, if individual Ukrainians fight on in guerilla actions then Russia will eventually withdraw. We've seen that in Afghanistan.
The Russian army is incapable, logistically and by average training, of occupying somewhere against general armed opposition.
Nor can the Russian State afford it.
However, the Catholic Church is pathologically opposed to a people rejecting hierarchies, for the obvious reason that they are the worst example of one.

..and the Pope has offered no explanation of his conclusion about Ukraine being defeated.

..and as for the blatant hypocrisies of the Crusades with respect to a Just War, the Catholic Church doesn't have a logical leg to stand on.

[probes]

Thank you!
Feeling wiser (and older ). Seriously, very interesting.

Zelenskyi, being brilliant with words, has said in his evening video, that UKR used to have plenty of white churches and other white walls, which are covered with blood and soot now (well, in these lines), which should make it clear who has to stop and go home without any need for negotiations whatever.

Ukraine starts official negotiations with aviation regulators on resuming international flights

[tango15]

One wonders why the Pope's advisers would suggest that he make such a declaration. Ukraine is not Poland - the Orthodox church in Ukraine claims more than 70% of the population consider themselves Orthodox, and as I have always understood it, there is little interest in Catholicism, so his words will, I would imagine, have been ignored by most of the population and Zelenskyy in particular. I wonder if it had been Greece at war, whether the Pope would have made the same statement.

Since perestroika both Russians and Ukrainians have taken a great interest in religion, and many I know are regular churchgoers. The churches, used for storage during the Communist era, (even St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square* was full of books I was once told by someone who would know), were re-opened and have been refurbished to an amazing degree. There is a lot of gilt adornment in them, and the icons (portraits of saints) have been replaced. Many were stolen and shipped out illegally during the Yeltsin years. I was a witness to one such event at Sheremetyevo Airport once.
Of the Russian apartments I visited, I think all had a small corner which was devoted to prayer. There is a special name for this which I cannot remember now.

So, in short, the people of both countries are quite religious and need no interference from The Church of Rome.

* This is actually a mistranslation that has been around forever. The Russian word for red is красный and the word for beautiful is красивый. Russians translate it as beautiful square, which to be fair, it is.

Anyway, back directly to the war. I see that bumbling Boris was sent (despite what the media says) to Venezuela to talk to Maduro. No doubt Guayana was on the agenda too, but the West is becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of materiel (and money) that is needed to support the war, and there is a lot of back-channel diplomacy taking place, which the governments concerned are trying to keep under wraps. Whether Putin will have any interest in this, post-election, remains to be seen, but as time moves on I think both he and Zelenskyy will be pressured into coming up with a solution.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

For the why's, we would need to ask a Catholic, which I am not.

Western politicians are discovering for the nth time that the best wars are short ones, and that they've screwed it again.
They simply do not have the courage to take decisive if brutal action early, which is why they have lost every war since Bosnia. They also don't have the humility to let their military personnel win wars for them, but feel obliged to interfere.
And these days you can add in the basic ineffectiveness of underfunded, woke armed forces, and that the western economies now have no spare cash.
The only conciliatory factor is that putin's criminally corrupt armed forces are even less efficient. However, he's happy to flatten everywhere and lose vast numbers of soldiers, hence the current short term stalemate.

[Dushan]

The CinC of the Russian Navy is reported fired. Probably because there were no Russian warships at sea in the Black Sea for most of last week.
Or maybe they just don't need so many Admirals now they don't have so many boats.

The new guy is a submariner, which makes sense with Russia having so many more submarines...that used to be surface ships

And submarines don't have balconies or open windows, so he's safe for now. Until tea time, at least, or if it starts to rain and he needs an umbrella.

[probes]

* This is actually a mistranslation that has been around forever. The Russian word for red is красный and the word for beautiful is красивый. Russians translate it as beautiful square, which to be fair, it is.

slightly off-topic, to check the unexpected fact by Tango - with the help of ChatGPT: What's the origin of the word 'Кра́сная пло́щадь'? Is it the russian for 'red' or 'to decorate, make beautiful'?
ChatGPT: The origin of the name "Кра́сная пло́щадь" (Krasnaya Ploshchad) in Russian, which translates to "Red Square" in English, is related to the color red. However, it's not derived from the word for "red" ('красный' - krasny). Instead, in old Russian, the word "красный" (krasny) had multiple meanings, one of which was "beautiful" or "fine."
Therefore, "Кра́сная пло́щадь" originally meant "Beautiful Square" rather than "Red Square" in the sense of the color red. Over time, however, the association with the color red became predominant, likely due to the Bolshevik Revolution and the symbolism associated with the color red in Soviet times.
So, while "красный" (krasny) in modern Russian primarily means "red," in the context of "Кра́сная пло́щадь," it originally meant "beautiful" or "fine," emphasizing the importance and grandeur of Moscow's central square.

back to topic: ruz newest Palantin mobile EW system hit (video)

And a command post blown up - it wasn't so smart to get it on a tanker, after all .

[PHXPhlyer]

And a command post blown up - it wasn't so smart to get it on a tanker, after all .

Impressive chunk of the ship blown off!

PP

[probes]

AND, of course - the Swedish flag was officially hoisted among NATO members today.

[tango15]

For the why's, we would need to ask a Catholic, which I am not.

Western politicians are discovering for the nth time that the best wars are short ones, and that they've screwed it again.
They simply do not have the courage to take decisive if brutal action early, which is why they have lost every war since Bosnia. They also don't have the humility to let their military personnel win wars for them, but feel obliged to interfere.
And these days you can add in the basic ineffectiveness of underfunded, woke armed forces, and that the western economies now have no spare cash.
The only conciliatory factor is that putin's criminally corrupt armed forces are even less efficient. However, he's happy to flatten everywhere and lose vast numbers of soldiers, hence the current short term stalemate.

That broadly aligns with my own thoughts on the subject, F3. Hence the multiple back-door attempts by the Western governments to try to end the war.
It seems that just about anyone in the public eye feels the need to weigh in with an opinion on world events these days. I am not a catholic either, but until now, I thought the Pope was above that sort of thing.

[llondel]

And submarines don't have balconies or open windows, so he's safe for now. Until tea time, at least, or if it starts to rain and he needs an umbrella.

In general, if it's seriously raining in a submarine then an umbrella is going to be the least of his worries.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I thought the Pope was above that sort of thing

The Pope is above things in the same way the sea is above the sky.

You need to remember that the Pope is a pacifist Commie.
It's the last one who was the corrupt Nazi