> Is anyone else completely shocked that our Ukrainian friends seem to have stable high speed internet?
The only reason Ukraine continues to have Internet access is because the Russian Army hasn't chosen to cut it. That's literally it. Internet infrastructure is incredibly fragile. A couple of well-placed missiles is all it would take.
There's no excuse for Putin's invasion. None. There are underlying reasons but they are in absolutely no way a justification. We can and should ask how we could've avoided this. It may well inform how we end it.
That being said, Russia is clearly pursuing a strategy of minimizing civilian casualties (for now at least). Targets have been military installations, key geographic points, bridges, airports and command-and-control infrastructure. I suspect that if Russian casulaties continue (and it seems like they've been reasonably high) then images and video of downed Russian aircraft and helicopters and the remains of Russian convoys may well cause Russia to cut off that Internet. It could get much, much worse.
And apartment building, hospitals and ambulances... I originally would have agreed with you, mind, but it would seem our shared optimism for minimized civilian targets was mistaken.
All of those things have happened. Straight up. And again there's no excuse for it. But it could also be much, much worse, particularly if the Russians decided to actually bomb civilians and target things like water treatment plants, utilities and so forth.
I concur, and to be clear I'm only noting that to counter disinformation that only military targets were hit, not as a criticism of your post.
It seems reasonable Russia wants to keep infrastructure intact, not just for minimizing outrage, but also a county reduced to rubble isn't very useful. Not to mention I doubt the average Russian soldier is terribly keen on doing more than necessary damage as well.
When I saw the apartment building on the news and I saw the fire fighters I immediately asked myself "wait, why are there fire fighters in the middle of a war?"
I started thinking that maybe these buildings were not targeted by the missile, but the missile landed there because it was deflected?
I don't have an idea on how weapons work, but I don't really think that these buildings were the actual targets.
This is clearly not a target. And if you ever had seen the damage from the cruise missile (hint - look at two previous days with tons of footage of Kalibr hitting intended targets) you would clearly see what this is definitely not the amount of damage a proper missile would deliver. More so, given the position and direction there is a pretty high chance what it was an AA missile from the Ukrainian side.
Anyway, it is amusing how when anything happens which involves Russia it is killing intent and war crimes immediately, without even an attempt to reason it with a common sense.
Can't say anything on the second link, though it is very little damage for a cluster munition.
The only reason Ukraine continues to have Internet access is because the Russian Army hasn't chosen to cut it. That's literally it. Internet infrastructure is incredibly fragile. A couple of well-placed missiles is all it would take.
There's no excuse for Putin's invasion. None. There are underlying reasons but they are in absolutely no way a justification. We can and should ask how we could've avoided this. It may well inform how we end it.
That being said, Russia is clearly pursuing a strategy of minimizing civilian casualties (for now at least). Targets have been military installations, key geographic points, bridges, airports and command-and-control infrastructure. I suspect that if Russian casulaties continue (and it seems like they've been reasonably high) then images and video of downed Russian aircraft and helicopters and the remains of Russian convoys may well cause Russia to cut off that Internet. It could get much, much worse.