I think the most impactful thing Ukraine could do here is join the parade with some drones. It would embarass the shit out of russians until they could get rid of the drones and would be a psychological win.
Would make it more interesting to watch
A flypast of drones trailing blue and yellow smoke would be an impressive watch. Even more so if they hit something symbolic afterwards.
Destroying culturally significant buildings without military goal is both harmful to the war effort and a extremely severe war crime.
Destroying the cultural heritage such as ancient temples and churches is generally frowned upon, to put it lightly.
There are enough highly symbolic installations with military purpose in a capital like Moscow. The ministry of “defence” does have an address, so does military high command, or several intelligence services. All of them are sufficiently military targets to make hitting them no war crime at all. The parade itself consists of military, and therefore is a military target all in itself. Whether or not hitting it is a war crime, solely depends on whether the number of bystanders affected by an attack is in any way proportionate to the military effect. Air defence systems on the grounds of the Kremlin (there surely are some) are purely military targets, too.
That is factually incorrect. Eradication of cultural identity is a war crime/genocide.
Striking the ministry of defense is not a symbolic target per SE. But decapitation of high command may not be desirable. But it may. Generally strikes against heads of state are highly frowned upon.
A symbolic target is usually not a military target. You appear to mean a high profile military target. Which is decidedly not a symbolic target.
Well hitting the ministry of defense is a military target, regardless of the location. Else everyone would put their military assets into cultural buildings and get shielded for free.
But yes, purely simbolico/cultural target should be off the list
Yes.
No wonder Putin is taking a pass on attending. It would make his time and location line up publicly.
Would killing him be bad or good?
Was killing the Ayatollah good or bad?
Decapitation creates a power vacuum and may cause inferiors to act erratically in ways that harm all participants. Such as preventive or random strikes on foreign but not hostile nations. A invasion of e.g. the Baltics may be immediate.
An attempt could happen anyway, but Ukraine’s efforts have really made it less feasible.
our optimism may be detached from reality. A us war declaration is all but guaranteed and there are too few NATO troops to repel an invasion before the fall of tallin. The economics of war are currently unfavorable when matching Russian and NATO forces. And economic disparity is not sufficient to be able to succeed at those odds since interceptors are bloody expensive.
there are too few NATO troops to repel an invasion before the fall of tallin.
Realistically there are also not enough Russian troops available to start such an invasion. Not to talk about the fact that their logistics are too poor to not need months of very obvious troop concentration before even trying.
I don’t want to leave you on read, but I am too sad to respond in any detail. Going to go dissociate for a minute.
Probably bad.
The reason why I doubt that Ukraine would attack Moscow on Victory Day is that the risk of killing innocents would be high, which could (would) make Russians rally around the flag.
I do like the threat though. Putin and Russia shouldn’t be confident that Ukraine won’t attack, which causes a dilemma for them.
which causes a dilemma for them.
And pulls air defenses away from the front lines.
Putin and Russia shouldn’t be confident that Ukraine won’t attack
A parade is still a parade, an attack would likely kill civilians attending and definitely be a warcrime.
But they could make a nice show with colored smoke.
Disrupting a parade with colored smoke is not a war crime. Blowing up a bunch of civilians at a parade is.
Honestly… i don’t think that this would matter in this particular war anymore…
You still can’t bomb parades.
Why? I mean… yeah, i see the strategic dangers of doing so (including making Putin something of a martyr), but otherwise? I think at this point in the war (or the world) nobody really cares any more about the rules and customs of war.
No you still can’t bomb a fucking parade what the fuck is wrong with you?
Just a bit?
I agree that the threat is a smart move. Either Russia command responds, showing the population that everything is not going as well as they pretend. Or they do nothing, in which case they have deal with the backlash of ‘Oh, why did you do nothing, they told you they would do this’ if Ukraine attacks.
A power struggle within Russian command would almost certainly mess things up for the Russians on the battlefield
Only one way to find out, I guess
Didn’t he also say he is doing a cease fire?
On different days, apparently. I dont get it either.
Putin: “lets have a ceasefire on May 8th-9th”
Zelenskyi: “lets have one May 5th-6th”
Putin continues to bomb Ukraine on May 5th/6th.
Zelenskyi on May 8th: looks like you dont respect our ceasefires too much. Guess it’s only fair if we ruin yours too then, eh? :>
I think Zelensky is proposing to start the ceasefire on May 5th. So basically he’s saying that if Russia can manage not to murder Ukrainians for 3 days he will not bomb Moscow during the parade.
Yeah, thats probably the reasoning.
Everyone loves a parade.
