Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Labster]

Russia recently celebrated Navy Day! It's a lot like Fleet Week, except it's less gay in both senses. So how did that go? Well, the celebrations in Sebastopol had to be canceled due to a drone attack that injured 5 people. Ukraine denies the attack, because their drones don't have the range. It could be partisans. Or it could be a fabrication by Russia as an excuse to not show off their shrinking fleet.

But they made a cool poster!. Pictured on that is recently self-fucked russian warship Moskva, along with the carrier USS George HW Bush. It's pretty obviously not the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, Russia's only aircraft carrier, because that ship has a "ski ramp" for takeoff. Don't expect to see the Admiral Kuznetsov in action in this war -- her refit is expected to take until 2024. The refit started in 2017 near Murmansk, where they put her in a floating drydock. The drydock sank, and as it did a crane fell onto the deck and caused a lot of damage. Then a couple years later, a major fire broke out on the ship. Is it really a "fleet in being" if it isn't? It's hard to take pictures of an aircraft carrier you don't really have.

Incidentally, the carrier was built in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. On Ukraine's independence, they claimed ownership of the ship built by Ukrainians at a Ukrainian shipyard a couple years back. Russia took that as a sign to leave port and sail to the Arctic. If you think about it, a warship is just a large appliance, so it makes sense that Russians would steal it.

-- Speaking of Mykolaiv, Russia bombed a hospital there, as well as killing Ukraine's richest farmer in his bedroom.
-- First grain ship departs Odesa.
-- Another story of that famous Russian morale: Russian general beats up Russian general who called him a coward
-- Russians get tired of Ukrainians blowing up their bases, so they decide to put a base at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
-- Piers Morgan banned from entering Russia. Can our country also do this?
-- US sending still more arms to Ukraine. Four more HIMARS have already arrived.
-- QAnon and antivax accounts on Twitter switching to spreading pro-Russian disinformation on the war
-- In general, Russia is advancing slowly in the Donetsk oblast, while Ukraine advances slowly in the Kherson oblast. Skirmishes but little movement near Kharkiv.