Moscow likely behind wiper attack on Poland’s power grid, experts say Russia was probably behind the failed attempts to compromise the systems of Poland's power companies in December, cybersecurity researchers claim. ESET attributed the attack with "medium" confidence to Russia's GRU-run Sandworm unit, after it investigated the attack and its use of wiper malware. The attackers, believed to be …
"Polish Prime minister Donald Tusk announced in November that he was closing Russia's last consulate in the country"
That's what you have to do when dealing with the despot Putin - close down all the subsidiary consulates and significantly reduce the staff numbers at the main embassy to reduce the Russian state's ability to get information on potential targets. It also requires a significant improvements in cyberwarfare capabilities.
I get the impression that he might have been wrong. An awful lot of people seem to be easily foolable all of the time.
Yup. Many commentors here prove that adage, but then they've been saturation bombed with propaganda since this conflict began. This one is entertaining because-
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/polish-court-considers-sending-suspect-germany-disputed-nord-stream-case-2025-10-17/
"The person being prosecuted, if he was the perpetrator, is entitled to functional immunity, which covers an act committed in connection with his activities for the Ukrainian state," judge Dariusz Lubowski said in his verdict that ruled that the German application was not admissible.
Germany wanted to extradite a Ukrainian suspect in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, Poland refused because bombing critical German infrastructure was fair game.. Which presumably means Russian attacks on infrastructure used to aid Ukraine is also fair game.
Or it's just another example of the dangers of escalation, and the lack of any sane peace proposals from our 'leaders'. But then while they're bleeding out Ukraine, why would they?
Germany wanted to extradite a Ukrainian suspect in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, Poland refused because bombing critical German infrastructure was fair game.
So critical in fact that the pipes lay completely unused for months before the sabotage, and indeed the one intact pipe has still never been used to this day.
So critical in fact that the pipes lay completely unused for months before the sabotage, and indeed the one intact pipe has still never been used to this day.
They were briefly in use, but then sabotage by an 'ally' and then Ursula & co(llaborators) deciding Germany and the EU didn't need cheap Russian gas. So sanctions to reduce dependency on that cheap energy, and then replace it with a dependency on more expensive US LNG. And as a result of sanctions, Germany is busily de-industrialising, car, chemical and other industry closing and a lot of jobs lost. Cutting off the German nose will really spite Russia!
Oh, and Poland opened a new gas pipeline just after the Nord Stream sabotage, so stands to make a lot of money from transit fees instead of Germany. Politics is fun like that. But in other news, we've been engaging in piracy against 'Russian shadow fleet' ships, which is the kind of escalation that historically has started wars. Or because of the way the shadow war has been escalating, expect more attacks on UK & EU infrastructure in retaliation to our helping attacks on Russia. It keeps our security services rather busy preventing those, but a realistic peace deal would be a better solution.
'realistic peace'", indeed, unconditional surrender and deportation. Like what happened to the people, and children, of Mariupol.
But look at it from Putin's perspective. If he doesn't win the war he and his entourage are dead.
Too much money and blood have been shed.
'realistic peace'", indeed, unconditional surrender and deportation. Like what happened to the people, and children, of Mariupol.
Ah, that old canard. So Mariupol was a city under siege. Combatants have a duty to protect civilians and minimise casualties. Some of those children were evacuated from an orphanage after the Ukrainians who were supposed to be responsible for their care abandoned them.
But look at it from Putin's perspective. If he doesn't win the war he and his entourage are dead.
Yep. Backing someone into a corner is always a good idea.
But the same is also true for Zelensky and his cronies. There was a video of an Azov commander threatening to kill Zelensky if he conceded any territory. So after the latest round of 'peace' talks, Zelensky stated he'll not give up any part of Ukraine. Or as Trump put it, the biggest obstacle to peace is Zelensky. We might have alternatives lined up, like Zaluzhny, Tymoshenko, Poroshenko, Klitschko etc, but installing those as a replacement can't be done without elections, which can't be done while Zelensky is still in power. If Zelensky should tragically and heroically die, Ukraine's succession kicks in. If, however another Maidan coup is engineered, or just happens organically because Ukrainians are fed up with Zelensky, democracy could be circumvented, especially if someone more willing to negotiate peace ends up installed.
Too much money and blood have been shed.
And whilst the conflict is kept ticking over, there's a lot more money to be made. Currently the EU is proposing an €800bn reconstruction package, with another €700bn in weapons. €1.5tn buys an awful lot of gold toilets. And our 'leaders' really don't seem to care about the blood being shed, and are content to fight this conflict to the last Ukrainian. €1.5tn though is rather a lot of money to load onto EU members, especially if it's done democratically and the cost spread evenly. Then it's 'only' €55bn, which I'm sure EU members (and their voters/taxpayers) can afford.
"So Mariupol was a city under siege."
By the Russians, who bombed fleeing civilians. After the Russians took the city, it was not under siege anymore. But then the deportations and rebuilding began.
"Combatants have a duty to protect civilians and minimise casualties."
But forcefully separating children from their parents is a well recognized war crime.[1]
[1] It's still a war crime when Putin's Orange fan and student does it.
By the Russians, who bombed fleeing civilians. After the Russians took the city, it was not under siege anymore. But then the deportations and rebuilding began.
Uhuh. Alternatively, Ukraine had been bombing civilians since 2014, then let the WW2 cosplayers, Azov run Mariupol who beat and tortured anyone that dared speak Russian. Then once they were evicted, many Ukrainians who'd fled to Russia started to return. But despite Russia's decrepit armies with their rusty shovels, they've managed to capture most of Ukraine's 'fortress' cities and are currently closing in on Zaporizhzhia. Zelensky and other grifters are still under the impression they can win, if we just keep buying them more golden toilets.
Peace would stop the killing, but why peace when there's still so much money to be made?
Forcefully deporting children to Russia without their parents still is a war crime. And there is never an excuse for war crimes.
True about war crimes, and this conflict, like any other will need any suspected war crimes investigated by independent experts. Then civilians can be evacuated from combat zones because combatants have a duty to protect civilians.. Especially vulnerable ones, like orphans who were abandoned by their guardians. But have a read of the lastest report here-
https://ukraine.ohchr.org/en/reports
Which covers evacuees, civilian casualties and more. Takeaways might be that civilian casualties have been relatively low compared to say, Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and especially Gaza. But it also mentions some Ukrainian civilians who were apparently due to be evacuated to Georgia, but then left in a bit of a limbo. Adult evacuees should be allowed to return to Ukraine, but conditions for evacuees there aren't great, which is another reason why our 'leaders' should get serious about peace. Not the current, bizarre 'peace' deal that Zelensky is going to sign with the US. Then apparently the US will sign a 'peace' deal with Russia. But the US isn't a party to this conflict, and there needs to be a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia to finally end this conflict.
They were not orphans and the Ukrainians were not protected but forcefully deported.
Of all evidence, we have the first Lady of the US:
While the exact number of missing children remains unclear, the Institute for the Study of War reported in March that Ukraine had verified that nearly 19,500 children had been deported by Russia. But the research non-profit said: “The true figure is likely to be much higher, because Russia frequently targets vulnerable children without anyone to speak for them.”
You use many words to paper over war crimes, but the war crimes stay warm crimes, however much paper they use.
...the Institute for the Study of War reported in March that Ukraine had verified that..
Ah, there's your problem. Relying on the Nuland/Kagan Institute for the Promotion of War and Ukraine for reliable figures. The UN OHCR hasn't verified anything close to that figure, and neither has the charge against Putin in the ICC.
You use many words to paper over war crimes, but the war crimes stay war crimes,
Sure, but they're not officially war crimes until they've been charged, prosecuted and convicted, which generally doesn't happen until after the peace.. Which will then determine orphans, evacuees and whether evacuations were lawful or not. Curiously, just after the Ukrainian NABU announced their fraud investigations against Zelensky's Kvartal cronies, Ukraine tried to insert a clause granting a blanket amnesty and immunity for all crimes. Unsuprisingly, both the US and Russia rejected that clause.
"Sure, but they're not officially war crimes until they've been charged, prosecuted and convicted, which generally doesn't happen until after the peace."
It is clear you really don't care what happens to the victims. But war crimes are war crimes even if the perpetrators can evade prosecution.
But you don't care, because your script says you don't.
ESET: “Sandworm has a long history of disruptive cyberattacks, especially on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure .. the coordinated attack occurred on the 10th anniversary of the Sandworm-orchestrated attack against the Ukrainian power grid, which resulted in the first ever malware-facilitated blackout.”
Beetlejuice !
But seriously, how vulnerable is the UK to this sort of thing?
There was a scare story a while back that some white hat hacker working for an alphabet agency 'accidentally' found an open SCADA access port that though inside a cabinet was still possible to access using a diagnostic interface and £4 worth of connectors plugged into the base under a trivially accessible plastic dust cover.. Duly reported it.
SIX MONTHS LATER!!!! it got fixed. The 'temporary' fix was to put a metal label over the connector so it couldn't be seen.
Later escapades include bricking smart meters using an exploited electricity key, and managing to actually infect the key updaters at (supermarket) - as a test fortunately.
...... with this sort of thing being some white/grey/black hat hacker/code cracker working for an alphabet agency or an entrepreneurial renegade rogue freelancer and AI Pioneering Networker and Semantic Web Developer opening SCADA access ports for a virtual barrage of never even imagined possible before catastrophic vulnerability exploits and ESPecial militarised 0day operations ????
Answer ....... Well, whenever the following reality of existing traditional leadership of connected executive administrative systems is honest and true ....... https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2026/01/23/ai_cyberattack_google_security/#c_5218474 ....... is any nation practically physically and virtually defenceless.
The thing is, military responses are mostly unnecessary. Russia has already become the walking dead by simple Western economic restraints. It's been gutted, bled dry, and only keeps moving out of inertia. Soon that will stop as well. Putin wants NATO military escalation, because then he can frame his foolish imperial war as a struggle between cultures, rather than what it is: the final narcissistic vanity of a dying old KGB spy whose best days are far behind him. The West is easily able to deal with whatever covert malarky he can think up. That's why you will always see escalation recommendations in any comment section in the free press. Those are russobots, trying to goad public opinion toward the only place that Russia thinks it is still strong: nuclear mutual assured destruction. And even in this, it has overplayed its hand. Rusted rockets with no fuel, and submarines that can't stay afloat, are little deterrent to the West.
The thing is, military responses are mostly unnecessary. Russia has already become the walking dead by simple Western economic restraints. It's been gutted, bled dry,
The thing is, with a sustainable peace, military spending is mostly uneccessary. Germany's all out of Patriots to give to Ukraine, and the US can't produce $1bn weapon systems that don't last very long on the battlefield before they're destroyed. And when they are operational, Russia just sends more drones, missiles, decoys and reconnaisance drones to pinpoint them for future destruction. There were videos of recon drones flying unopposed over Kiev on Monday, probably doing BDA and looking for the next targets.
But the 'walking dead' are currently winning, probably content to bleed the EU & NATO dry. The Russian economy is doing better than ours, and hasn't moved to a full, war footing. Yet. But we're also helping, so poised to attack Iran. This will spike oil & gas prices, and who does that help? Or boring little details like the state of the US and EU economy spiking gold & silver prices. Any idea which country has a lot of those?
Putin wants NATO military escalation, because then he can frame his foolish imperial war as a struggle between cultures, rather than what it is: the final narcissistic vanity of a dying old KGB spy whose best days are far behind him.
Classic projection, especially given one of the reasons behind this conflict was NATO expansion and escalation. But the narcissitic vanity of dying empires assumed that as soon as we told Russia to not cross our red lines, the shock & awe sanctions would be unleashed, and Russia's economy would crumble. Russia ran out of missiles only a few weeks into the SMO, and had to resort to recycling washing machines, and of course 'orcs with shovels'. Russia stood no chance against the 800k+ Ukrainian troops, armed and trained to the highest NATO standards during the Minsk deception.
Then Ukrainian officers pointed out NATO training didn't work and just got their troops killed.
And even in this, it has overplayed its hand. Rusted rockets with no fuel, and submarines that can't stay afloat, are little deterrent to the West.
Uhuh. Shroedinger's Russia again. It's simultaneously weak & crumbling, and an existential threat that is poised to invade Greenland unless we spend billions, and cut social spending to kill people. Oh, and of course Russia is building new submarines and other warships, and the rusty, empty Oreshniks say 'Hi!'. Kinda curious the way there's been no images from those strikes that I've been able to find. If they were ineffective, there should be no problem presenting evidence of this. But then Ukrainians have said they were actually pretty devastating, and there's nothing they can do to stop them.
But such is politics. Letting Ukrainians do the bleeding provides a convenient distraction to domestic problems and failures elsewhere in Europe, just as wars have always been used. Nafobots want to keep the conflict & money flowing, perhaps because some day, they'll have enough posting credits saved up for their own golden toilets.
That's a long post, but I will point out you base nearly the entire thing on one base falsehood "But the 'walking dead' are currently winning"...
There is no evidence Russia are winning. All evidence points to them being unable to replenish troop numbers, unable to advance. Unable to hold territory once they do take it, when a counter attack happens. Their economy is getting worse and worse.
So, claiming they are winning is not really very accurate. Neither side is winning. It is stalemate, pure and simple.
Also, we had a sustainable peace. Up until the point Russia invaded a neighbouring country which as no threat to them. This idea that it is about NATO expansion is deluded to say the least. Putin has even given speeches about it not being about NATO, but about rebuilding the Russian Empire.
Russia is indeed crumbling. They are no threat to Greenland - that is nonsense thought up by Trumpists to try and take Greenland's rich natural minerals.
Russia doesn't really have any Oreshniks. Intelligence points to them having 3 or 4. The idea that they're in full serial production is propaganda. If they had more, why weren't they paraded through Moscow at their last big parade? They're like the T-14. All noise, a few hand made ones, and lots of issues expanding it out. Even when in serial production, they'll only be making a handful a year. There's photographic evidence of Russia using them without a warhead guidance system, and have vacuum tubes in them... Hardly as "modern" as they claim.
Your last paragraph is hilarious projection.
There is no evidence Russia are winning. All evidence points to them being unable to replenish troop numbers, unable to advance. Unable to hold territory once they do take it, when a counter attack happens. Their economy is getting worse and worse.
Hilarious projection. Or it would be, if it wasn't the kind of delusion that's getting Ukrainians killed. Again it's the usual ignorance created by years of bad propaganda. Currently and constitutionally, this is still an SMO, which means Russia is limited in the forces they can deploy outside their borders. It hasn't imposed full mobilisation, or any mass conscription. Unlike Ukraine, which has their snatch squads dragging men off the streets, then sending them off to the trenches to get killed. Or for the lucky ones, desert. Desertion rates have been very high and have been increasing, especially given Ukraine doesn't have the manpower (or will) to rotate troops off the conflict line to rest them.
You're also repeating one of the big lies, ie Gen Milley's '3-day' claim, or the claims of 'full scale military invasion'. Russia started the SMO with around 2-300k troops vs Ukraine's 800k+ in a show of force to demonstrate they were serious about their red lines. This almost worked, and almost had the Istanbul deal signed after the first couple of months. But then Boris the Butcher went to Kiev, persuaded their Comedian-in-Chief to fight, and instead of peace, a lot of Ukrainians have been killed or maimed for our 'leaders' ego and vanity.. Plus of course all the money that's simply been stolen.
So then you have the 'linear warfare bros' inventing objectives for Russia, then claiming they haven't been met, so despite the ever shrinking Ukraine, Russia must be losing. Which is also Schroedinger's Russia. They're incapable of conquering even Ukraine, so how is it they're an existential threat to the rest of Europe? Which rather misses the point and Russia's stated aim, ie this is a 'war' of attrition to remove Ukraine's ability to fight.. Which they're doing. Ukraine's even helping with counter-attacks because that just means more Ukrainian forces sent into Russia's caulrdons where they are elimated. Zelensky is busy doing his 'Downfall' moment, pushing regiments that only exist on paper around maps, and hoping for his Steiner moment.
If you look at the maps, Russia is steadily advancing, and their rate of advance has been accelerating. The Donbas is almost entirely under control, and Russia is now advancing in Zaporizhzhia & Kherson, with forces only a few kilometers away from Zaporizhzhia, forcing Ukraine to evacuate that city because it's now under Russia's guns, and creating another large IDP problem for Ukraine to try and manage. But Russia's pretty much through Ukraine's 'fotress belt', with much less in the way of defences in the way to the Dnipr, which is the obvious partition line. Or Russia may decide to keep going and take Odessa.. But that's the point of attritional warfare and forcing a defence collapse.
Also, we had a sustainable peace. Up until the point Russia invaded a neighbouring country which as no threat to them. This idea that it is about NATO expansion is deluded to say the least.
So NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991, and NATO promptly expanded.. Despite the theat it was created to counter ceasing to exist. There was no 'sustainable peace' because although Minsk was supposed to provide that and end Ukraine's civil war, it was just a pretext to arm & train Ukraine so they could attempt their reoccupation of the Rhineland.. I mean Crimea and DPR & LPR. Merkel admitted Minsk was a ploy, and Crimea and Donbas were NATO and EU prizes, Crimea to create a base in the Black Sea, and Donbas for the resources. Russia was well aware of this and acted to stop Ukraine slaughtering ethnic Russians.. Because Ukraine still has a huge Banderite problem, and the Banderites hate slavs. We're defending those neo-Nazis for some strange reason, although Starmer has stopped chanting the 'Slava' thing, presumably because someone finally told him about the origins of that, along with Ukraine's red & black flag.
Russia is indeed crumbling.
Fine, then all we need to do is wait. After all, it crumbled over 3 years ago after Ursula's boasting about her schlock and awe sanctions and Russia's economy being in tatters. We're up to, what, the 20th round of sanctions now? And it's our economies that are crumbling, not Russias. Especially if the EU is serious about another 1.5tn in Ukraine spending, but that will buy a lot of golden toilets.
Russia doesn't really have any Oreshniks. Intelligence points to them having 3 or 4. The idea that they're in full serial production is propaganda.
Sure. Intelligence also pointed to Russia being out of missiles and ammunition over 3yrs ago. Shovels, washing machine chips, oh my! But intelligence also points to Oreshniks being placed in Belarus. How is this possible, if they only have 3 or 4? But there's propaganda around missiles. Ukraine needs Tomahawks, even though it can't operate them. Or it doesn't need them because it has their own Neptune and Flamingo missiles.. Or those were also lies, or Russia's already destroyed their production facilities. The V2/Flamingo was especially curious given 'Milanion', which appeared out of nowhere in 2025. And Zelensky's cronies, one of which now has an Interpol warrant for his arrest after defrauding Ukraine for $100m+ and who conveniently managed to flee from Ukraine to Israel the day before his arrest was due.
There's photographic evidence of Russia using them without a warhead guidance system, and have vacuum tubes in them..
Which of course I'm sure you can cite. A 12,300 km/h missile being intercepted by the ground wouldn't leave much trace of a vacuum tube, or guidance system. But then Ukraine has form for producing photos claiming to have been things like Kh-101s, yet clearly weren't.
Just read this on the news:
> Greenland's prime minister said on Wednesday there were red lines that could not be crossed in discussions with the United States, but acknowledged that more needed to be done to boost security in the region amid a more aggressive Russia.
I already knew that the US were the heroes of WWII despite sitting on the sidelines until Germany declared war on them and despite 80% of the losses being on the Eastern front, where 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians lost their lives to the German invaders.
What I didn't yet know was that it was Russia that was threatening to take Greenland "one way or another". Don't those bloody Russians have enough with Venezuela?
In other words: as long as you have a convenient boogeyman (yesterday it was Isis, today it's Russia, tomorrow it'll be someone else) your own politicians and oligarchs can keep rogering you up the arse without a condom for as long as they please, and you will like it because at least it's not "them".
Being too powerless to do something about it is one thing. Being too stupid not to realise is quite another.
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