Quote (ofthevoid @ May 17 2025 11:29am)

Think the Russians capped it to 909 per exchange. What's crazy is how that number has shifted up by such a magnitude from 2024 to 2025. I think we all know the Russian KIA numbers are higher than 34, because as they are pushing they are probably collecting their own dead, so it's probably in the hundreds/month but we have no way of knowing.

If we use the Ukrainian number as a potential proxy of monthly losses it seems to be going up. These are bodies that are collected btw, there's probably just as many that are unrecoverable, whether blown to bits or buried under ruble.

Quote

Russia has detained a Greek oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag as it left the Estonian port of Sillamae on a previously agreed route through Russian waters, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry added that the vessel, the Green Admire, was undertaking a navigational route established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland.
The Baltic nation will redirect traffic to and from Sillamea exclusively through Estonian waters to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.
“Today’s incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “I have also informed our allies of the event,” he said, referring to other NATO members.
Estonian Public Broadcasting (EPB), citing the Transport Administration, reported that the Greek tanker was carrying a cargo of shale oil destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It added that such incidents had never occurred before.

Quote (Goomshill @ May 18 2025 06:54pm)

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/estonia-says-russia-detained-tanker-baltic-sea-2025-05-18/

Russia has retaliated against the Estonian attempt to seize one of its tankers (Russian fleet, but Gabon flagged or whatever) in international waters a few days ago (thwarted when Russia scrambled a jet into Estonian airspace above international waters, the maritime borders are complicated)
Russia has now seized an oil tanker leaving an Estonian port (Greek owned, Liberia flagged).



Refer to the map I posted 2 pages ago. Sillamae is just west of Narva on that map, and there is a route through Estonian waters but presumably traffic in peacetime is supposed to travel along that international waters path and cut towards the ports, so you'd have to zig zag to avoid the Russian territorial waters that juts out. IE sail to the edge of Russian waters, cut towards Kunda, travel the coast to Sillamae. Instead they used a "previously agreed route through Russian waters". Which the Russians agreed to before Estonian started harassing them.

Quote (ofthevoid @ May 18 2025 06:41pm)

FAFO

The baltics will have to live next to the big bad bear for the next 100, 200, 300 years. Such short sightedness in antagonizing the Russians. None of us know if NATO is going to last another 50-100 years, most of us can accurately predict Russia remains Estonia's neighbor. This is really pissing in the wind behavior.

Quote (Norlander @ May 20 2025 09:48pm)

Quote (Goomshill @ 21 May 2025 07:10)

The irony being that the pro-war EU has been itching to deport Ukrainian men who fled the country so they can be fed into the EU's meat grinder, while the US and EU have been granting asylum to fighting age male refugees from countries like Syria, Ethiopia, etc fleeing instead of fighting in their wars. Now they're loosely aligned with Trump's goals. The difference being the krauts don't want to give up all the ukrainian women they hold as sex slaves in their brothels

Quote (bogie160 @ May 21 2025 08:09am)

Russian advances in Donetsk have picked up over the past few days as their spring-summer offensive gains steam.

The Russian bridgehead across the Oskil (North Kharkhiv) has also been steadily expanding, to the point where Russia almost has a clear transport line from their border to north of Kupiansk. If the recent Russo-Ukrainian talks are anything to go by, Russia is preparing to include part/all of Kharkiv in any settlement.