Ukraine

[Frances_iom]

well if you couldn't land rover on the moon at least you could bring a nuisance down to earth with a bump - guess the rest of the passengers in the plane would be collateral damage tho it also seems that the head of the Russian Airforce also has had his wings clipped -

[Bryn]

10 on the passenger list but only 8 bodies accounted for. Seems Prigozhin might have been on a second plane.

[Bryn]

Al Jazeera reporting that Russian media say Prigozhin dead.

[Bryn]

Very strange. The BBC Red Button Main Headline do not have a single mention of a certain aircraft incident. Not one in its 3 pages of headlines.

[Serial_Apologist]

Very strange. The BBC Red Button Main Headline do not have a single mention of a certain aircraft incident. Not one in its 3 pages of headlines.

'Twas mentioned on the BBC1 10 O'clock news - first item I think.

[alywin]

Very strange. The BBC Red Button Main Headline do not have a single mention of a certain aircraft incident. Not one in its 3 pages of headlines.

It did, but only on the World news pages.

Highly suspect, of course. Recalling the assassination of Janani Luwum, I can't help wondering whether the body will turn out to be riddled with bullets, or something. I do find it surprising that a) the "accident" took place in Russia, and near Moscow, considering that Prigozhin was supposedly exiled to Belarus, and b) someone just happened to be videoing it - even though smartphones are of course ubiquitous these days. My inner conspiracy theorist, though, is wondering whether this might have been an attempt to fake his own death. Either way, the "collateral damage" is unacceptable :(

[Retune]

Very strange. The BBC Red Button Main Headline do not have a single mention of a certain aircraft incident. Not one in its 3 pages of headlines.

They started a live blog on the main BBC News website around 6.30PM, and it's still the top story. This may say more about the priority the BBC gives to what we may politely call 'legacy services' than anything else.

[Bryn]

'Twas mentioned on the BBC1 10 O'clock news - first item I think.

Oh yes, the BBC is, in general, offering good coverage of the event and the Red Button main headlines was fairly soon updated to include a mention, though fairly low in the list. My guess is that it got temporarily lost during an update.

[alywin]

I did wonder whether they were still trying to Verify all the information.

[french frank]

I did wonder whether they were still trying to Verify all the information.

I wonder who's checking the black box? I suppose if the Russian authorities discover the crash was caused by a bomb, they'll still have the option of blaming Ukraine.

[french frank]

I wonder who's checking the black box? I suppose if the Russian authorities discover the crash was caused by a bomb, they'll still have the option of blaming Ukraine.

And how many Wagner troops will be prepared to take Putin's oath of allegiance to Mother Russia? They seem to have been better paid than Russia's regular troops, may have shared Prigozhin's disdain for the army chiefs they would have to obey and, as mercenaries, might look elsewhere for an alternative to the Russian state. The convicts may feel it's in their best interests to stick with Russia.

[Serial_Apologist]

And how many Wagner troops will be prepared to take Putin's oath of allegiance to Mother Russia? They seem to have been better paid than Russia's regular troops, may have shared Prigozhin's disdain for the army chiefs they would have to obey and, as mercenaries, might look elsewhere for an alternative to the Russian state. The convicts may feel it's in their best interests to stick with Russia.

Like Africa, you mean...

[groovydavidii]

Like Africa, you mean...

Marauding Wagner mercenaries, corruptive elites, an ineffective/indolent AU, it doesn’t augur well for Africa, very dispiriting.

[HighlandDougie]

Latest - interesting - thoughts from Sir Lawrence:

https://samf.substack.com/p/american-grand-strategy-realism-and?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

[Serial_Apologist]

Reports had come through in time for today's BBC lunchtime Radio 4 news to announce Ukrainian claims of some sort of Russian first line defense breakthrough in terms of mine clearance operations having been completed. I remain disgusted and sickened at my would-be leftist friends' opposition to supporting Ukraine using all manner of feeble excuses from alleging Welensky to have fascist connections to saying America's and European support is all just in aid of their respective armaments industries. I am reminded of the old parable about the man who refuses to have an arrow removed from his heart until he has been satisfied as to all there is to know about his assailant's gender, background and motivation.