SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
wantkitteh writes:
"The BBC is reporting that Russia has given Ukrainian military forces in Crimea a deadline of 3AM Tuesday morning to surrender or face assault. Moscow claims the position is to protect Russian civilians in Crimea following what it describes as the illegal coup in the past weeks. The Ukrainian Prime Minister has denounced Russia's actions as totally illegal and has called on it's allies to put pressure on Moscow. Russian military readiness in the area is very high with a blockade in place at Ukraine's naval headquarters and pre-positioned air and ground forces already in central locations around Crimea. Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and unprepared to face the threat. Demonstrations in the largely Russian-speaking area have supported Moscow's position while outside the area civilians are scared of what the future holds."
Russia's military has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until dawn on Tuesday to surrender or face an assault, Ukrainian defence sources have said. The head of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Aleksander Vitko set the deadline and also threatened two warships, Ukrainian officials said. However, Interfax news agency later quoted a fleet spokesman who denied that any ultimatum had been issued. Moscow has said its troops are needed in Crimea to protect civilians. The Kremlin says people in Crimea have come under threat from "ultra-nationalists" since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last month. Russia is now said to be in de facto control of the Crimea region.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 03 2014, @08:30PM
Why not try a tech discussion?
I have not heard of any "cyberwar" type stuff going on.
The Russians seem to be going in pretty low tech, boots on ground, APCs, that kind of thing, not so much high tech drones launching high tech missiles at wedding parties and journalists like the west would implement.
I've seen pics and none of them contained anything terribly new and exciting... so far. Would be interesting to hear if someone sees a beta test of a new tank or APC or who knows what. The best intel for this war might be dudes posting cell phone camera pix on reddit or similar.
Given that the eastern provinces, formerly Ukraine in name only, are like 90%+ ethnic Russians who speak Russian, its no great surprise there's no street fighting against the "invaders" who are after all their cousins. So far, anyway. But if fighting does break out, it was always a stereotypical excuse that 3rd world owners of .ru military equipment always failed because they had poor maint, no spare parts, etc. Well .ru isn't going to have that excuse so from a tech standpoint, if they do end up fighting, it'll be interesting to see how much more effective .ru weapons are when maintained and operated by trained .ru soldiers.