Originally Posted by
etudiant
Surprised that the salvage boats were left undisturbed. Are they not legitimate military targets?
I am not sure if I should laugh or cry at how utterly out of touch this utterance is.
I'll cover three points:
1. Ukraine isn't in a race with the Russians to go diving for military advantage or intel on that wreck. Before the USSR broke up Ukranians manned those ships in the Black Sea fleet.
2. They have far more pressing priorities than shooting their limited supply of weapons out into the Black Sea: you are aware, I know since we have discussed this, of their difficulty in getting their grain to market.
3. The salvage operation is retrieving the dead. It poses no threat to Ukraine. Why waste precious resources on that when they have a close fight going on all over their own territory and adjacent to their coast.
And lastly, if they start shooting the salvage ships they hand Moscow a propaganda win.
Information/Propaganda/Spin/Misinformation ~ those are also weapons in war, not just bullets.
Welcome to the year 2022, but the same has been true since the Yellow Journalism in the Spanish American War, and even before that.