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Comment by bayindirh | Hacker News Reader

From what I see, these are the "tit" part of the "tit for tat" strategy. Neither Ukraine, nor Iran targeted these in the beginning, however when other side started to escalate, both replied by attacking more critical infrastructure for the other party.

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I seem to recall that this is optimal game theoretic strategy - don't initiate, but always immediately retaliate.

Whatever is happening now is payback for Putin's birthday present to himself from 2 days ago, firing a missile into a Ukrainian apartment building that killed 22 civilians (mostly women & children).

I think the Wildberries strikes were a unilateral escalation on the part of Ukraine and the current escalation cycle has ensued from that.

Russia has been hitting comparable logistics centers in Ukraine from the first year of the war. If someone has been escalating, it's Russia.

Apparently Wildberries carry/carried over 1/4 million items tagged as "for SMO" (Special Military Operation), so they had become a major part of the supply chain for Putin's war, which is why they were hit.

So presumably you'd be fine with Iran bombing Amazon warehouses if there was evidence they carried dual-use merchandise used by US military members?

In the case of Wildberries we're not talking about "dual use" items like a sleeping bag that your government fails to provide you, we're talking about specifically tagging items (1/4 million of them!!) as being for the war. It's Wildberries' business (literally) if they want to be a supplier for the war, and profit from it, but obviously that does mean they become a target.

Cutting off the enemy supply line is a classic and obvious military strategy. Ukraine didn't choose to be attacked, nor did they choose for Wildberries to become part of the supply line. They are playing the cards they were dealt, and I would say doing so with remarkable restraint.

of course that'd be fine, under the Geneva convention a civilian object loses its protective status when it makes effective military contributions and its destruction confers a military advantage.

What's supposed to be the argument against it, inconvenience for American shoppers during a war of aggression?

I don't think the Geneva convention is that unequivocal, I believe there's also a duty to assess proportionality of military advantage vs. civilian risk.

Ukraine has been at war for 4 years. They didn’t have the capability to hit Russia this hard and deep until fairly recently. These are mostly home grown weapons developed during the war.

That's true, however they don't use this capability like it's infinite. They only utilize this when Russia does something similar or plans of doing something similar leaks.

I'm not a fan of wars, regardless of where they happen. OTOH, I still believe you can fight relatively clean or be an unethical bully. If the war is unavoidable, I prefer to be the former.

I also commend Ukraine's ingenuity and bravery, as well.

Still not necessarily wise to voluntarily escalate an air war when you have very little air defence. But hey what do I know

Exactly, long-range drone attack capability is an asymmetric advantage for Ukraine only relative to their other capabilities, not relative to Russia. Russia can easily make Kyiv unlivable, as they are just starting to do.

Russia has tried to make Kiev unlivable for four years.

I mean "physically or psychologically impossible to continue living in"--I have Ukrainian colleagues living in Kyiv and they report that only in the last few weeks has it become absolutely unbearable with air raid sirens around the clock.

I just hope my elite understand the concept of pecking order ...

I heard from friends that a lot Ukraine's large distribution centers were also hit lately after Ukraine hit Russia's.

I haven't seen any site I frequent mention this once. The PR bubble is very real.

You frequent bad sites then. Don't make a conspiracy based on your own bad media consumption.

That's because it's nonsense. Russia has been targeting Ukrainian civilian logistics for years.

Russia has been hitting civilian logistics centers for years now. At least 2 of my packages were destroyed :C

I don't know what sites you frequent but strikes on distribution centers by both sides has been covered by mainstream US news.

Do the sites you frequent mention that Russia does double tap strikes to kill civilian first responders or that they have stolen thousands of Ukrainian children?

Complaining about an information bubble while being in one is pretty funny.

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