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[WealthyRadish]

If we're still on the topic of what would've happened if Germany had won WWI, I remembered a map from The Coming of the Third Reich that illustrates it well. It's actually relevant to a Russia thread IMO, since Germany was most interested in expansion in the east.

Spoiler: Managed to find it online and stitch it together (click to show/hide)

If you can't read the text, the black area was planned to be annexed, Poland and Belgium made tributary states, Estonia/Lithuania made a dependency, Ukraine made into what Ukraine was to Russia until recently, Romania, Finland, and the Caucases made allies against Russia, and Crimea resettled by Germans (odd how that keeps happening). There's also a chunk of northern France about the size of Belgium and further slivers past the Rhine demanded by the Pan-German League.

This is of course the ideal in the case of total victory, but with the eastern front collapsing as it did it really wasn't that far fetched. It's an interesting map, given how things turned out.

On a different note, drunk mainiac mentioned that the stable world we have wouldn't be possible if Germany had won, but I don't agree. Germany was as much an imperialist warmonger as all the other European powers, destined for a trainwreck as technology made war between delusional autocrats increasingly destructive, but I don't think Germany winning would've been as different as mainiac thinks. It still took WWII and total US/Soviet dominance to kill autocracy and imperialism in Europe, and that dominance was only possible because the war was so devastating. If WWII had been delayed 10 years, I don't even think that would make a difference in the technology, since there was so little advancement between the end of WWI and the start of WWII anyway. And even if it had, if nukes were available, would that really have been any different than the firebombing of cities that the US and Britain took part in anyway? We still killed millions of civilians, depopulated and leveled every major city in Germany and Japan with those "firecrackers", and yet something even more devastating would've left imperialism stronger after the war?

[Sheb]

Sheb, Rationalising Nationalist: This warrior hides his burning passion for his country and EU in general behind a mask of flimsy reason, thus allowing him not only to utilise the moral high ground, but also to accuse his opponents of being propaganda shills. He still, occasionally, shows his true colours with rants about how he's going to defend his belover EU from evil Putin.

I like to think my reasons aren't flimsy, but otherwise it's pretty accurate I guess. I'm only annoyed at Helgo: I really couldn't find a good bad thing to say about him in the context of this thread.

[Helgoland]

I'm only annoyed at Helgo: I really couldn't find a good bad thing to say about him in the context of this thread.

Yeah, I'm awesome

[Erkki]

Some "pro-Russian" news to get back to topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMlj4Aa_ms

Ignore that interesting way to hold a machine gun. Several sources seem to claim that video to be another proof of Russian soldiers in Eastern Ukraine. Apparently the badges/insignia worn by 1 or 2(cant say for sure as the video is blurry, but the man at the back could also wear one) men are of the Russian Marines'. I'm not convinced. Its common practice everywhere to strip everything from the uniforms, and since every man in that place knows there are cameras around and they may get captured(or have bodies end up in enemy hands), wearing clothing that would give out their unit, origin etc. just wouldn't be too smart. Probably uniforms like that complete with the Marine badge can be bought from a local outdoors equipment store too, just like the ones that have western camo patterns and flags.

On the other hand, it looks like all 3 separatist fighters have a similar uniform, and the man with the PKM carries a sidearm. Interesting.

[Guardian G.I.]

Some "pro-Russian" news to get back to topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMlj4Aa_ms

Ignore that interesting way to hold a machine gun. Several sources seem to claim that video to be another proof of Russian soldiers in Eastern Ukraine. Apparently the badges/insignia worn by 1 or 2(cant say for sure as the video is blurry, but the man at the back could also wear one) men are of the Russian Marines'. I'm not convinced. Its common practice everywhere to strip everything from the uniforms, and since every man in that place knows there are cameras around and they may get captured(or have bodies end up in enemy hands), wearing clothing that would give out their unit, origin etc. just wouldn't be too smart. Probably uniforms like that complete with the Marine badge can be bought from a local outdoors equipment store too, just like the ones that have western camo patterns and flags.

On the other hand, it looks like all 3 separatist fighters have a similar uniform, and the man with the PKM carries a sidearm. Interesting.

That badge looks like the unofficial badge of the Russian Naval Infantry. It can be bought in various stores on the internet, like this one or this one.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, if the soldiers in the recording are genuine Russian Naval Infantrymen, why do they fight in Donetsk and not somewhere closer to the sea, like Mariupol?

[Knit tie]

There's a bunch of Russian military uniforms for sale in the corner of my local thrift store. In Edinburgh. Just saying'.

[Guardian G.I.]

You can even buy Novorossiyan badges and chevrons in some places on the Internet.

[Fredson]

Awaking from my endless lurking slumber, I just found a quite interesting report about the bus shelling incident:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/01/18/unpicking-the-donetsk-peoples-republics-tangled-volnovakha-bus-massacre-narrative/

EDIT:
And this security cam video of the shelling itself:
http://uatoday.tv/politics/russian-tv-accused-of-faking-bus-attack-survivor-interview-403256.html

[FearfulJesuit]

You can even buy Novorossiyan badges and chevrons in some places on the Internet.

Now I want to see someone in the US flying the Novorossiyan flag. It would be pretty edgy.

[miljan]

You can even buy Novorossiyan badges and chevrons in some places on the Internet.

Now I want to see someone in the US flying the Novorossiyan flag. It would be pretty edgy.

Why? Most people will not know what its about anyway. They will maybe think its a flag of one of the states .

[FearfulJesuit]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or the flag of States' Rights™.

[Sergarr]

Well, I did the mistake of reading Mainiac adorable drunken rants this morning, and so instead of focusing on the inner working of differential centrifugation for my exam, my mind produced this:

I'm literally dying from laughter right now. 8/8 g8 b8 m8

[Sheb]

Ahah, I think I'll buy some of those novorussian badge for my dad, he'll hate them. :p

[Baffler]

And why does their support gunner look unsure of how to handle his PKM?

Also, according to Reuters, the Ukrainian army has made significant gains since Saturday. This article in particular claims that they've retaken most of the airport. Ukrainian army sources claim 3 soldiers have been killed and 66 wounded, while an (unnamed) rebel officer claims 8 rebels killed and 33 wounded in yesterday's skirmishes. Itar-Tass just reports that rebels have given government horses 24 hours to vacate the premises, and accuse them of using chemical weapons rather than contradicting the claim. Nothing from Cassad (at least from this page that translates him to English) or other more direct rebel sources yet that I can see.

[Knit tie]

English Cassad has long since stopped updating, unfortunately.

Actual Cassad claims that while the AFU are indeed attacking the Donetsk Airport, they have made no land gains whatsoever, as evidenced by their complete lack of photos and videos showing the AFU soldiers in the airport, as opposed to all the videos the rebels have shot. He also claims that the rebels are fighting to take Avdeevka and Peski, although there are no significant successes at either of those towns and all the claims to the contrary are just baloney. Overall, Cassad states that no significant advances have been made since yesterday by either side.

@Fredson: Looks like everybody's lying, at least partially.

EDIT: Cassad also says that both sides are yet to commit their reserves to action, so there is a great amount of uncertainty right now as well.