Russia tells citizens to switch off home surveillance because the Ukrainians are coming Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs is warning residents of under-siege regions to switch off home surveillance systems and dating apps to stop Ukraine from using them for intel-gathering purposes. Residents of the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions were issued with the warnings amid what seems like Russia being thoroughly …
"It is highly discouraged to use online dating services. The enemy actively uses such resources for the covert collection of information."
Well yes having statistics of dick-pic size is clearly going to help overthrow the government!
Oh you didn't mean "the Ukrainians are coming" in that sense?
I have seen a claim (so no idea if it were true) that the the convoy of trucks carrying Russian infantry that got pretty much totally destroyed a few days into the offensive was located by the Ukrainians after they hacked the Russian traffic camera system.
I have seen a claim (so no idea if it were true) that the the convoy of trucks carrying Russian infantry that got pretty much totally destroyed a few days into the offensive was located by the Ukrainians after they hacked the Russian traffic camera system.
That one appears to have been rather simpler. A convoy was shown by a Russian TV channel heading towards the Kursk region. Ukrainians watch TV as well. Who knew? Then wreckage of 8-12 trucks turned into claims of 1,000 dead Russians, which I guess means Russia has developed TARDIS technology. Or Russians really are starving to fit so many into so few trucks. But that was debunked after there was video of Ukrainians looting a rather well stocked store, including grabbing bottles of Coca Cola. Russia isn't as desperate as Germany was, and they're not forced to drink Fanta. The US version of which I'm fairly convinced is high fructose corn syrup flavored with Agent Orange.
But it's been an interesting turn of events. Ukraine absolutely was not trying to make a beeline for the Kursk NPP, just as it hasn't been attacking the ZNPP either. People have gotten all excited because Ukraine has conquered <0.01% of Russia, and has crossed the ultimate 'red line' without invoking a response. I get the feeling that like in many aspects of life, Zelensky is a little premature. Large columns of Russian troops and weapons are still heading in that direction, and it doesn't seem to have had the desired effect of drawing Russian units away from the south and east. As through most of the conflict, people are fixating on lines on maps. Russia stated it's objective is attrition, and Ukraine seems to have committed a lot of it's reserves to a pretty pointless PR stunt.
LOL -- if you want to believe that.
Me, I'm starting to believe that, after 2 years, the Russian military equipment and personnel has been degraded to the point where an invasion is not only possible, but they can't immediately kick it out.
So now significantly weaker than most countries of similar GDP...
I saw this as someone that wants to see Russia utterly made impotent: be careful with your hopes and beliefs. When all is considered, that territory taken from Russia is literally nothing to a country that size. They could allow Ukraine to take even more just to cause their supply lines and troops to be spread thin on all fronts. True the psychological impacts may even be so great as to topple Putin in the long term, I won't deny that as a very real outcome. But it is simply not true that Russia is out of equipment though they have certainly lost a great deal of everything. Check out Covert Cabal's Youtube for satellite surveys of tank, ifv, artillery and spg numbers for example. And they have more manpower they can still call up resulting in an even larger military force grinding down Ukraine in the short term. And again, another draft may very well be the end of Putin, but will it end him soon enough to prevent those increased forces from hitting Ukraine or even worse, being in the hands of a new person in charge that is more determined to see things through than Putin? This is at best a desperate side show. One that has only been forced on Ukraine by the lack of proper aide (or perhaps better said as the proper concentration of aide delivered in a single point in time) from the West.
The area of this incursion, like a lot of the territory involved in this "SMO", is well known to WW2 historians. Kursk is the general area of the largest single tank battle ever -- in fact its reckoned to be the largest single land battle ever -- which makes this incursion by a relative handful of UAF troops look like a pinprick. The fate of this incursion is likely to be that the invading forces will end up like a roving band of marauders, blundering around causing damage but with no real strategic purpose and eventually being isolated and -- unfortunately -- systematically eliminated.
Based on history I wouldn't count the Russians out. They tend to screw up badly when the first go to war but then rapidly adapt their tactics. They effectively have unlimited resources and currently have a lot more personnel than the UAF. The only way NATO can keep this going is by becoming actively involved -- or rather, openly involved -- which is something that the populations in Europe still aren't prepared for despite a chokehold on information being exercised by governments over its media. (We're a lot more fortunate in the US -- we don't have a mechanism for banning content like the EU has; both the EU and the UK are not being exactly truthful about what's going on in the East, who's involved and so on).
>So now significantly weaker than most countries of similar GDP...
Its not, and that's what's worrying me. Western Europe and the UK are mired in economic problems, deficits and so on. Russia is not -- because it fundamentally isn't a European country, its an Asian one. So our politicians delude themselves about how important we are (OK, we're the US so we are important, like it or not) and in doing so continue to gradually circle the drain.
"Western Europe and the UK are mired in economic problems, deficits and so on. Russia is not -- because it fundamentally isn't a European country, its an Asian one. So our politicians delude themselves about how important we are (OK, we're the US so we are important, like it or not) and in doing so continue to gradually circle the drain."
Well, there's some nuances here, that Russia remains a command economy under sanctions. Nobody sensible is lending them money, and spending the surpluses of the oil trade on unproductive outputs is exactly the sort of moronic central planning that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. Obviously shortarse Putin doesn't care as he's yet another geriatric ruler who doesn't care about the damage he causes, but Russia doesn't have unlimited resources. This also applies to the "Russia has unlimited cannon fodder" argument, in that Russia has manpower double that of Ukraine, except that Russia has to man potentially hostile borders with a lot of other countries (some less trustworthy than others), has endlessly festering internal dissent in the Caucuses, has to maintain a military hardware and nuclear deterrents that are both over-sized and desperately obsolete. Battlefield losses in Ukraine mean that Russia has few modern battle tanks left and is having to use T-62s that are as old as I am (which I assure you is old). Likewise, Russia has lost 40% of it's pre-war Ka-52 attack helicopters, mostly with their crews roasted inside them.
Ignoring analogies featuring The Austrian, it's still worth considering the status of Britain in June 1940. At war, beleaguered, few allies, facing down the world's best trained and equipped military. But when you're fighting for your country and your family, there's a certain resolve that puts invaders at a disadvantage.
At the moment, I suspect the biggest threat to Ukraine's defence is not Russia's crap, ill equipped and unwilling conscript army, but cowardly Western states who'd happily use withdrawal of arms support to pressure Ukraine into a disadvantageous peace.
Mired in economic problems, but with an economy that is almost 1 order of magnitude bigger. Oh, and while the European economic problems are a bit of inflation, unemployment, etc., the Russian problems are that they fight a massive war.
So while your statements may seem factually correct on some level, they also totally ignore the reality of the situation. Russia is in self-destruct mode, throwing away a generation of economic development and a good number of their young men. Europe, OTOH, is running through their usual cycle of rich-country problems, one of which is that they start investing about 1% more of GDP into defense.
I wouldn't count Russia out either. The Duke of Wellington defined "victory" as "the ability to go on fighting five minutes longer than the other army". Looked at in that light, you see what a big ask it is to defeat a country of Russia's size and resources.
However, it's happened before. Germany in WW1 kicked their arse so hard, the country and its government as previously known literally ceased to exist. And that was with half of the Germans' military power focused on a totally different front. In WW2, the Soviet Union survived with huge support from the West, of the same kind that it's now getting from China, Iran and North Korea.
Let that sink in for a moment. Russia is accepting support from North Korea. A country with the GDP of freakin' Somerset. That's how hard up they are.
Yes, the Russians have "adapted their tactics", though I wouldn't say "rapidly", since the start of the war, but then so have the Ukrainians. A war of attrition is about more than just how much meat you can feed into the grinder. If you want your soldiers to go anywhere near the enemy, they need uniforms, food, weapons and ammo, communications, fuel and transport... All things that Russia has, in principle, in abundance, but to control and funnel them all into the place where you need them to be - that's also a big ask, as Nicholas II found out. And stunts like this - telling your own people not to use their own resources - that's a win for Ukraine, however you slice it.
Let that sink in for a moment. Russia is accepting support from North Korea. A country with the GDP of freakin' Somerset. That's how hard up they are.
Why do you think they're hard up? Ukraine is accepting support from the might of the EU & NATO. Weapons and equipment being poured in from our Arsenals of Democracy. Ukraine of course keeps demanding more air defences, more missiles, more jets, more tanks, more AFVs and even submarines. Our stocks are running down, so are Russias. But the DPRK has spent the last decades churning out artillery & ammunition. GDP is the wrong metric because it's a market-based metric, and the DPRK is.. well, weird. It's a closed country with a command economy, and that command has been to churn out military gear. Plus it's effectively got a slave labour force who either work as the state tells them, or gets sent to one of the DPRK's labour camps.
So industrial capacity is arguably more important. If Russia + DPRK can churn out more 152mm artillery and ammuniton than NATO can, it stands a better chance of winning. Same with rockets, dumb bombs etc etc. And then of course there's China, which officially isn't supplying armaments, but who knows? But as is often the case with sanctions and geopolitical posturing, we've forced Russia to seek new alliances and partners. Russia gets weapons, DPRK gets resources and technology sharing so they can make better weapons. In our 'leaders' infinite wisdom, we've created a pariah's club that doesn't exactly have our best interests at heart.
And then of course there's BRICS.
And stunts like this - telling your own people not to use their own resources - that's a win for Ukraine, however you slice it.
I don't think so. It's basic OPSEC. In the first days of the invasion, Russia was asking for intelligence from people with phones. This is the joy of virtually everyone having at least 1 sophisticated surveillance device that can send images complete with geolocation. Hence so many videos on YT, Telegram etc. Of course that also means Ukrainians can be easily geolocated inside Russia because their mobiles will register with a Russian base station, and it would be pretty trivial for Russia to filter & triangulate roaming Ukrainians. That's bad OPSEC from Ukraine, especially after Russia's used mobiles to target their forces inside Ukraine. Russian soldiers aren't supposed to carry their phones for the same reason.
Was this before or after it was going to be over in two weeks announcement?
You have this wrong. It was three days. But that was from Milley. The two weeks almost worked, ie the peace conference in Turkiye, but then BoJo went to Kiev, and death rode with him.
The claim is 14 trucks, from the images (multiple sources), many burnt, all badly holed by GMLRS fragmentation. Claims I've seen are 200-400 casualties. 30 people per truck is easily possible, and could be more, so the claims I've seen are credible.
The original point: The claim I saw was that the Ukrainians could track the convoy on traffic cameras, so knew where and when to look for it.
If Russian TV was so stupid as to broadcast real time reports of where and when the convoy was, that just makes the Russians look more incompetent.
I haven't seen the video of Ukrainians looting a store, but I don't doubt it, I believe Kursk Oblast is quite warm in summer, so the squaddies likely wanted something to eat and drink.
I have seen the Ukrainian videos of their soldiers doing supply runs to Russian civilians abandoned by the Russian authorities. Also, Russian social media posts by those that found themselves under Ukrainian occupation, who appear to be finding the situation bemusing but not particularly scary.
The contract between being occupied by the Ukrainian army and by the Russians is stark.
And you are almost certainty right (yes, I realise that you were actually being sarcastic), the Ukrainians are absolutely not making a beeline for the Kursk nuclear plant. If they were, the drive would be much more focused on that one direction. Plus there is no real reason to do so - unlike the Russians, the Ukrainians appear to follow, as best they can, the rules of war.
I don't recall seeing any Russian claim that their objective is 'attrition' - mostly, their stated objective is to destroy Ukraine.
the story of those 'cameras' is somewhat muddled, the original claim (Ukrainians hacked the cameras, they're are spying on us, etc!) surfaced on pro-Kremlin, pro-war telegram channels. Which, allegedly, resulted in either the whole system being taken offline, or even - by Ukrainian claims - destroyed by the Russians. And then, later, at least one claim surfaced on the Ukrainian channel, 'thanking' the Russians for taking out that system and helping the Ukrainian troops move without being observed from those cameras. It will be practically impossible to find out what really happened (or didn't happen).
re. the short videos of Ukrainian soldiers distributing supplies and water and talking to civilians, I have to say that to me they look... well, not exactly 'staged', but... 'curated', i.e. released for propaganda effect (and it works). And it reminds me of the Russian videos from 2022, with Ukrainian civilians. If you're a civilian under any occupation, and you're approached by an enemy soldier, armed, on the street, you don't tell them to fuck off, do you.
btw, but it is a bitter irony, when one of the Ukrainian channels, dug up a short video from 2022, some woman in Sudzha, during some pro-war meeting with plenty of z-labelled civilian cars, praising the Great Leader for his genius leadership and invasion of a neighbouring country. Fast forward...
If they were, the drive would be much more focused on that one direction.
Initially, it was. But then it got halted.
Plus there is no real reason to do so - unlike the Russians, the Ukrainians appear to follow, as best they can, the rules of war.
Err.. right. Silly Russians keep attacking their own ZNPP. But there was a lot of head scratching as invading Russia didn't really make much sense. Then statements from Ukraine that it was to seize.. something it could then use to try and strike a 'just' peace deal with Russia. Trading NPPs kind of makes sense, trading potato fields doesn't. In the coming years, maybe there'll be a rational explanation.
I got to wonder what you have against Ukraine?
I think I've explained it often enough. It's stuff like this-
https://decripto.org/en/rai-interview-with-ukrainian-soldier-with-nazi-symbols-correspondent-ilario-piagnarelli-apologises-on-x/
The interview in question was part of an extensive report broadcast by RAI News 24 on a Ukrainian military operation that crossed Russian territory in the Kursk region. In the segment, Piagnerelli was filmed talking to a Ukrainian soldier wearing a khaki cap with the emblem of the SS ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ division. This SS division is known for the war crimes committed during the Second World War, in particular in the Italian town of Marzabotto, where hundreds of civilians, including children, were massacred.
which seems to be in the process of being memoryholed as it rather embarassed RAI, much as Canada was embarassed when Trudeau, Zelensky and the Canadian parliament gave a standing ovation to an SS volunteer. The 'news' is usually pretty good at pointedly ignoring or airbrushing out nazi and far-right symbols. Ukraine still has a far-right problem, and shouldn't be allowed into the EU until it's passed a law banning these symbols, as most civilised countries have.
Or there's this-
https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/articles/cvg56mdlvdmo
After a year and a half of discussions and disputes, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law that explicitly prohibits the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and paves the way for the same decision regarding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (formerly the Moscow Patriarchate)
which for some strange reason, the Bbc English 'news' site hasn't bothered to report on. But this explains why-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Ukraine_%22On_the_Protection_of_the_Constitutional_Order_in_the_Field_of_Activities_of_Religious_Organizations%22
The law defines the criteria and consequences of banning the activity of foreign religious organizations and their branches, the specifics of the termination due to the motives of propaganda towards the ideology of "Pax Russica" and by direct instruction prohibits the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP) in Ukraine.
Even before the start of legal proceedings regarding the prohibition of religious organizations, the authorities will be able to take state or public property from the lease of such structures, including temples and architectural monuments, whose lease contracts are terminated automatically a few months after the law's approval. According to BBC sources, there are about three thousand communities of the Russian Orthodox Church that use ancient churches.
So Ukraine violating Article 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights-
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Freedom of religion isn't a thing in Ukraine, even though it's a thing in the EU's human rights legislation as well. But so far, so normal for Ukraine and it's policy of de-Russification, banning political parties, banning media, locking up journalists.. One of which, Gonzalo Lira died in Ukrainian custody.
There are certainly neo-nazis in the Ukrainian forces. There are certainly neo-nazis in the Russian forces. There are certainly neo-nazis in the British forces.
Young men from deprived backgrounds with an interest in guns, death, WW2 and clear answers in life get SS tattoos and join their local army.
Some Ukrainians probably airbrush history into "the enemy of my enemy" while in parts of Asia, nazism is just a dressing up box.
Judge them by their actions and Russia are the genocidal fascists in this fight.
As for freedom of religion, one sect of the Orthodox religion has a Patriarch employed by Putin. Does that make it still a religion or an arm of the state?
You might ask why the Anglicans didn't do so well in Ireland under British rule to help answer that.
Young men from deprived backgrounds with an interest in guns, death, WW2 and clear answers in life get SS tattoos and join their local army.
Except in most of the civilised world, SS or other nazi or neo-nazi tattoos would bar them from military service, or have them discharged if they were caught later. Ukraine could have stopped the 'baseless allegations' very easily, at least in theory. So just implement the same legislation as most of Europe and ban the display of nazi symbols. In practice, it can't because it relies on neo-nazis to maintain power. There's also Ukraine's xenophobic ultra-nationalism, ie the Banderites who still wave the red & black flag of the OUN, and use the same 'slava' greeting as Ukrainians used during events like the Volhyn Massacre, or the Lviv pogroms. If you greeted someone in Germany, or the UK with a 'heil hitler!' you'd probably get punched or arrested & jailed.. Yet useful idiots do the 'slava' thing because they have no idea of the origins, or the attrocities committed by the people who used that greeting.
Judge them by their actions and Russia are the genocidal fascists in this fight.
Quite the opposite. Ukraine is systematically trying to erase any traces of Russian culture, and see this as an example of fascism, plus an unusually critical report on the way the Ukrainian regime operates-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0473y0p0ego
“I don’t deserve to be here at all” is a protestation you would expect to hear from someone in prison. But, as she sits in her maroon overalls, Tetyana Potapenko is adamant that she is not who the Ukrainian state says she is.
One year into a five-year sentence, she is one of 62 convicted collaborators in this prison, held in isolation from other inmates.
But this is also why the conflict started after the Donbas broke away and the civil war started.. Which had militias like Azov handing out their own punishment beatings to anyone they thought might be a 'collaborator'.
As for freedom of religion, one sect of the Orthodox religion has a Patriarch employed by Putin. Does that make it still a religion or an arm of the state?
Howsabout this one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_England#Structure
All rectors and vicars are appointed by patrons, who may be private individuals, corporate bodies such as cathedrals, colleges or trusts, or by the bishop or directly by the Crown. No clergy can be instituted and inducted into a parish without swearing the Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty, and taking the Oath of Canonical Obedience "in all things lawful and honest" to the bishop.
Ok, so we've been around a lot longer than Ukraine, and went through our own history of religious discrimination and persecution. But you don't seem to be aware of how things work-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Synod_of_the_Russian_Orthodox_Church
They elected Kyrill as Patriarch and Primate, and employ him. Not Putin. The state may have some influence over the church, but the opposite could also be true, ie the Kyrill's been pretty consistent about calling for peace and restraint, as you'd expect religious leaders to do. And as they've done pretty much since we established organised religions. So there have been similar persecutions and blood libels along the way, along with looting. There has always been a thriving illegal trade in stolen icons from Orthodox churches, and now there will probably be more to hang on oligarch's walls.
You might ask why the Anglicans didn't do so well in Ireland under British rule to help answer that.
It's a good example of why you don't pull stunts like this. Ukraine's already had protests over demolishing churches, or just locking them up and arresting priests. Religious discrimination and persecution rarely ends well, hence why religious freedoms are usually protected in the civilised world.. But not Ukraine.
As for freedom of religion, one sect of the Orthodox religion has a Patriarch employed by Putin.
Interestingly, I read the other day (can't remember where) that the Ukrainian Orthodox church is being sanctioned within Ukraine due to its strong links with the Russian Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Kirill, who is essentially, for all intents and purposes, employed by Putin.
It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Putin's original goals of the invasion were to capture Kyiv, in order to control the birthplace of the Orthodox Church, force unification with the Moscow-based Russian branch, and to be buried there as a saint. This would, of course, only have worked, if the original Blitzkrieg attempt hadn't been so woefully miscalculated, and there was a chance of him achieving this goal before his (alleged) cancer finishes him off.
Anyway, I see Jeel is busy piping out the steaming hot fresh Kremlin agitprop. I wonder what happens when the Ukrainian army reach his contact points in Russia and his payments stop?
(posted anon as I have no intention of getting involved in a wall of far-right talking points with the aforementioned Russian apologist)
.. who is essentially, for all intents and purposes, employed by Putin.
Repeating a lie doesn't make it true. Again the Patriach is elected and appointed by the Synod.
t's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Putin's original goals of the invasion were to capture Kyiv, in order to control the birthplace of the Orthodox Church, force unification with the Moscow-based Russian branch, and to be buried there as a saint.
And then he'll be in Paris, dismantling the Eiffel Tower because that would look so much better in St Petersberg..
posted anon as I have no intention of getting involved in a wall of far-right talking points with the aforementioned Russian apologist
I'm not suprised you've decided to post as an anonymong after posting that garbage. A simple bit of 'fact checking' and you would have learned that the actual birthplace of the Orthodox Church, and the Eastern Orthodoxy was Constantinople. Haga Sophia. Heard of that? Don't they teach kids anything in school these days?
Russian Orthodox Church != Greek Orthodox Church. Yeah, St Cyril taught the Russians to read and write, but that's about as far as it goes. Russian Orthodoxy was started by the Greeks in Ukraine, due to the trade links with Greece around the Black Sea.
Your historical revisionism is as bad as your agitprop, tovarish.
Russian Orthodox Church != Greek Orthodox Church
Ermm, yes, I know this. Especially when I pointed out the orginal claim was, well, bollocks-
to capture Kyiv, in order to control the birthplace of the Orthodox Church,
I don't know if that was your comment, or you're just another blathering banderite doubling down on dumb..
Yeah, St Cyril taught the Russians to read and write, but that's about as far as it goes.
Err.. wrong again. Not to mention being a spot of casual discrimination. Your ignorance might be excused by there being a bunch of different St Cyrils, along with what you might think Russia was. But 'Russians' knew how to read & write, it's just 'Russia' being kinda huge had a lot of different languages. So you may be thinking of these chappies-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_and_Methodius#
Who went off to the Khazar Empire as missionaries and diplomats. And along the way invented the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets so that scripture could be translated into Old Church Slavonic and the Orthodox & Christianity could be spread amongst the Slavs. Arguably this chappy was more important in promotiing that-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_I_of_Bulgaria
Who created a literary school in Preslav that further refined Cyrillic. Ukrainian was invented much later, along with most of the Ukrainian mythology that the Banderites & Galicians cling to. It's much the same as the way Teutonic myths and fantasy infected Germans during WW2.
But I digress. Should Starmer ban those dour Presbyterians, ban their church services, and seize their property because they're not following the UK state religion? Of course that would be silly, not to mention illegal. But Ukraine's banning a religion. Do you think that's right?
Not the best move in the debate.
Neither are cryptic comments like yours. Obviously the original claim that the Orthodox Church was founded in Kiev is a rather major bit of historical revisionism, and obviously incorrect. As was the suggestion that St Cyril (which one?) taught the 'Russians' to read & write. But that's just a modern version of Orientalism and assuming the 'Slavs' are a homegenous population rather than comprising of hundreds of different ethnic groupings.
But it doesn't really alter the fact that Ukraine's religous opression and discrimination would seem rather contrary to UN and EU fundamental rights. But that again is one of the reasons why this conflict started. Western Ukrainians (at least some of) follow Ukrainian ultra-nationalism, regard themselves as more European than Slavic, and copied an old Austrian house painters hatred of that grouping.. So the OUN, Banderites, 'slava Ukraine' etc. But those nationalists are also a problem for Ukraine because they want it to be 'independent' and oppose EU membership as well.. Which is too late because Ukraine is entirely dependent on the EU & West right now.
But that's a set of problems that Ukraine's President for Life has to juggle.
Interestingly, I read the other day (can't remember where) that the Ukrainian Orthodox church is being sanctioned within Ukraine due to its strong links with the Russian Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Kirill, who is essentially, for all intents and purposes, employed by Putin.
DId you really mean Patriarch Kirill? The former KGB officer, the one who is clearly not short of a few bob given his £20,000 watch and his estimated (by Forbes) fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Clearly no vow of poverty there. The one who started the persecution of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses? Compared Gay Marriage to Nazi Germany etc. that Patriarch?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17622820
https://www.forbes.com/2009/02/20/putin-solzhenitsyn-kirill-russia-opinions-contributors_orthodox_church.html
https://time.com/4797521/russia-orthodox-gay-marriage-nazi-germany/
DId you really mean Patriarch Kirill? The former KGB officer, the one who is clearly not short of a few bob given his £20,000 watch and his estimated (by Forbes) fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Clearly no vow of poverty there.
As an ally of Putin, Kirill is, of course under attack. There does not appear to be any evidence that he was a KGB officer, only vague claims that he may have been a KGB agent, or informer. So not really any different to the claims that Angela Merkel was a Stasi officer. AFAIK there is no requirement to take a vow of poverty to become an Orthodox priest, just as there is not for Rabbis, some of which have become very wealthy. Most of the Abrahamic religions oppose gay marriage, because scripture regards it as a sin, or perversion. But scripture also says stuff like judge not, lest ye be judged, and there are Christian faith groups that are more tolerant of homosexuality and gay marriage. There are also groups that are far more intolerant.
But all that is rather drifting off topic, which is whether Ukraine's decision to ban a religion and seize their property is compatible with UN or EU Human Rights legislation, and in making religious discrimination 'legal', would harm Ukraine's chances of EU accession. As it should.
And all you could do is a thumbs down JE. Cant stand to be corrected?
I don't see anything you've said that shows you to be correct. All I ever tend to see from you are 1 or 2 line hate filled insults. Aren't you aware that hate speech is increasingly illegal, as well as being against forum rules?
JE: Shills for Putin
Everyone else: You're just a shill for Putin
JE: Calling me a shill is hate speech.
The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. I sincerely hope the Kremlin is paying him well, it must be causing a great deal of mental anguish to have a full-time job twisting and squirming to keep up with the agitprop, especially when he is getting no traction whatsoever with it.
JE: Calling me a shill is hate speech.
I'm simply copying from the left. After all people recently have been arrested and charged for shouting a a dog, challenging the establishment etc.
The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. I sincerely hope the Kremlin is paying him well, it must be causing a great deal of mental anguish to have a full-time job twisting and squirming to keep up with the agitprop, especially when he is getting no traction whatsoever with it.
And back to projection. Do you have any evidence that I am a 'Kremlin shill', or am being paid? But there is no mental anguish. I'm prettty used to hate filled trolls who can't do anything more than hurl playground insults. Do you actually understand this conflct, or are you content to simply regurgitate the propaganda you are fed?
Do you have any idea why Ukraine chose to invade Russia, rather than defend it's existing fronts, or attempt to regain territory it's lost? It's currently losing Toretsk as Russia seems to be accelerating its offensive in Donetesk. There are pics now of Ukraine's 79th Air Assault Brigade colours in Russian soldiers hands. Meanwhile, the WLB is still ranting about filling the 'exchange fund' as though he still has any chance of dictating terms to Russia.
And other than some flailing around, what do you think of Ukraine banning a religion? Do support this decision? Do you think other Christians will support this decision? Or that the law is compatible with UN and EU HR legislation? Of course the Russian Orthodox believers are probably Kremlin shills as well, so Ukraine was perfectly justified in bulldozing churches, arresting priests etc.
No, you're simply a twat in the employ of the FSB.
And you're, to paraphrase, "a mysoginist creep who crawled out of the 1950's". Me, I like twats. But you seem to like the 1950's-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
A Red under every bed. But the extreme left also seems to be a fan of neo-McCarthyism. Anyone who disagrees is 'far right' and should be locked up. Starmer is in the process of doing this, and prejudicing cases in the process. But a lot of the prosecutions are arguably justified, ie rioting, criminal damage, assaulting police officers, looting etc. Others, perhaps less so, like using S.3 of the Public Order Act 1986 to arrest and charge people for inciting racial hatred. Under that Act, 'racial hatred' is defined by ethnicity, rather than genetics, and ethnic slurs like 'vatnik' would fall under it. Along with general Russophobia, Russians being an obvious ethnic group.
But hating on Russians seems Ok for some reason, and hate is all that some lefties have.
Luckily the UK also has the police and security services, who are responsible for counterintelligence. They have actually arrested and charged a few people recently who may actually have been paid by Russia or Iran. They could do this because they had actual evidence. Unlike you, and other trolls here who simply hurl out baseless allegations without any evidence because you're incable of making a coherent argument. For all I know, the security services may already have given me the hairy eyeball and found no evidence of my alleged FSB employment, or payments. And they won't, because there isn't any.
So they're just baseless and defamatory statements made by clueless people on the Internet who are full of hate.
Again I suggest you go and read Popper's "Tolerance of Intolerance" paradox. You may realise where the intolerance actually lies. Introspection can be a good thing, if you can get past your own intolerance. Then you might actually start to read my posts. I seem to confuse a lot of intolerant people who assume that my criticisms of Ukraine, and the West's policy regarding Ukraine are wrong, and dangerous. Just because I don't automatically condemn Russia, it doesn't make me a Russian shill, but again that's down to hate, intolerance and people's inability to debate rationally.
So back to the story. Ukraine has invaded Russia for reasons that are unclear. It diverted forces away from defending its lines to do this, and those forces now appear to be bogged down, and Russia is in the process of eliminating them. It seems to be becoming a replay of the last Kursk invasion. Meanwhile, over in Dontesk, Russia's offensive has continued and is accelerating as exhaused & poorly supplied Ukrainian forces have to retreat, or face destruction.
India's Modi has just been in Kiev, probably to try and talk some sense into Ukraine and push for peace. Meanwhile, our 'leaders' still don't seem to want peace, only more dead Ukrainians. Don't you think we should be giving peace a chance?
Yes, because being on russias side is what right wing muppets like you do best. All hail the "strong" leader.
The problem with the left is they tend to make it about personality rather than policy. Just because I don't support Ukraine, it does not follow that I'm on Russia's side. I'm on the side of peace & diplomacy.
So Kursk, and as the Bbc described it-
An estimated 10,000 elite Ukrainian troops burst across the poorly defended border, taking more ground in a matter of days than Russia had won in Ukraine so far this year.
Capturing an area about the size of Greater Manchester. Or <0.001% of Russia. And diverting 10k 'elite' troops from other parts of Ukraine for a PR stunt. And many of those troops are now stuck in pretty indefensable territory where they're slowly being eliminate by artillery, bombs, missiles & drones. And Russia had around 200,000 troops that had been rotated from the front for summer R&R, who are now coming back. And Russia is advancing and capturing more territory in Donetsk, because Sirsky diverted forces for his Kursk2.0. And once Russia has moved through the heavy defence belts Ukraine had prepared over its 10yr civil war, there is little to stop Russia doing a repeat of it's WW2 invasion of Ukraine. Possibly even capturing Odessa, again.
So Ukraine poked the bear by invading Russia. Today, Russia put it's Bears in the air and launched a large missile & drone strike against Ukraine's infrastructure. Ukraine wanted provocation and escalation, and it got it. Ukraine also released a video showing off it's shiney new F-16s, including where they're based. It isn't clear if that airfield was a target in this strike. But now more Ukrainians are without electricity & water, and probably aren't very happy with Kiev's PR stunts.
And yesterday Starmer posted a video wishing Ukraine a happy independence day, along with the usual 'whatever it takes, for as long as it takes'.. Which is increasingly looking like 'a miracle'. Why isn't Starmer pushing for peace and an end to the killing? Oh, and of course he signed off with the 'Slava' meme. Has nobody told him about the origins of that phrase, especially as Labour has been regularly accused of anti-semitism, and that phrase originated with the OUN, who gave the world the Volhyn Massacre, Lviv Pogroms etc etc-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia
Encountering resistance, UPA commander in Volhynia Dmytro Klyachkivsky "Klym Savur" issued an order in June 1943 for the "general physical liquidation of the entire Polish population".
Re: "Human Rights":
I think it's pretty clear that Kirill has been a warmonger against Ukraine from the start, and Ukraine has had a lot of problems with people spying for the Kremlin - including within the Russian Orthodox church, so I am not very surprised at all at their efforts to shut down that particular fifth column along with various others.
Given how Putin laughs at the entire concept of human rights, I'm just gonna laugh at your effort to slander the Ukraine govt for taking such measures against the invaders.
You know the best way to respect human rights? Don't invade a country that hasn't attacked you, slaughter thousands of civilians, women and children, bomb entire cities and towns to rubble for no military reason, target hospitals, schools, basic services like electricity and water, etc etc etc etc etc.
Meanwhile they are jailing teenage girls in Russia because they oppose the "special operation" in Ukraine.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/life-and-public/2023/03/arkhangelsk-student-olesya-krivtsova-cut-her-electronic-tracking-bracelet
Any rational human knows who is on the right side of history here.
According to videos by Russians I’ve seen, it isn’t actual Coca Cola, it is a sort of own-brand knock off version made by former Coca Cola employees in former Coca Cola factories. Fairly similar to the real thing, but not exactly the same as they don’t have access to genuine Coca Cola syrup.
According to videos by Russians I’ve seen, it isn’t actual Coca Cola, it is a sort of own-brand knock off version made by former Coca Cola employees in former Coca Cola factories. Fairly similar to the real thing, but not exactly the same as they don’t have access to genuine Coca Cola syrup.
So Fanta redux. I did mention it because it would be much the same issue WW2 Germany had when it was denied syrup. The bottles and lables looked genuine enough, but I somehow doubt Russia's too bothered about trademark infringement right now.
Then wreckage of 8-12 trucks turned into claims of 1,000 dead Russians
- Can you provide a source for your 'claims of 1,000 dead Russians'? As far as I could see, the estimate ranges from 'several dozen' (dead) to 'up to 100, maybe more'. Interestingly, the real figure can be usually verified from obituaries on Russian social media (as in 'that strike' on New Year's Eve), but nothing has surfaced yet about this particular... incident.
...
But that was debunked after there was video of Ukrainians looting a rather well stocked store, including grabbing bottles of Coca Cola.
- care to provide a source for this claim? There's one video of Ukrainians monkeying around and throwing candies around and such, one pretending to work as a cashier? (which is poor taste and they should get their ass kicked, for obvious reasons) Or the one when tho other open fire in a liquor store? Unless you mean a cctv of two Russian soldiers (pardon, Chechens) looting a local mobile phone store in Glushkovo, suddenly a famous non-place? https://t.me/vchkogpu/50070
Ukraine absolutely was not trying to make a beeline for the Kursk NPP,
- you're absolutely right, Ukraine was not trying to make a beeline for the Kursk NPP. But there was wild speculation on the subject, usually by click-baiting Ukrainian media sources and a few such media in the West.
Large columns of Russian troops and weapons are still heading in that direction,
- you have no proof of that (which doesn't mean they're not). But you have no proof because there's been a blanket ban in Russia on showing such convoys. This ban was introduced in rather hilarious circumstances: only a few hours after the videos of 'that' convoy surfaced and a shitstorm began, one of the official Russian tv channels showed _yet another Russian convoy_ on the way, and it was filmed at an easily-recognisable location in Kursk Oblast'. This practically brought the 'z-patriot' bloggers into tears, given they'd just spent the previous half a day lamenting how no lessons had been learnt, etc, etc.
The irony might be even stronger in that department, a couple of days later they showed a Russian strike on a 'Ukrainian convoy', only that there's this awkard image: one of the vehicles is a famous Russian 'bukhanka' ('a loaf'), and I honestly don't remember having seen them used by the Ukrainians. So it might have been yet another Russian convoy hit by their own side (1st was fired on by Russian attack helicopter, and finished off by Ukrainian drone). But fair to them, the situation in that area is 'dynamic', so it's hard to see who's who and where, which resulted in at least a couple of Ukrainian 'advance groups', sometimes quite large, being ambushed and probably wiped out.
As far as I could see, the estimate ranges from 'several dozen' (dead) to 'up to 100, maybe more'.
It could also be a lot lower. Pretty much all the casualty claims assume the trucks were carrying troops, when they could have been carrying supplies.
- care to provide a source for this claim? There's one video of Ukrainians monkeying around and throwing candies around and such, one pretending to work as a cashier?
Nope. It was a video of a Ukrainian pushing a shopping trolley out of a store. Videos aren't exactly the easiest thing to search for, especially when this was a few days ago and there have been hundreds of new videos since.
- you have no proof of that (which doesn't mean they're not).
See previous comment. Proof I guess will come when those units go into action.
The irony might be even stronger in that department, a couple of days later they showed a Russian strike on a 'Ukrainian convoy', only that there's this awkard image: one of the vehicles is a famous Russian 'bukhanka' ('a loaf')
Ukraine also uses the mystery machine. There have also been videos of Ukraine capturing Russian vehicles, and vice-versa along with both sides destroying abandoned vehicles. There's no real way of knowing if it was blue-on-blue, but that's been happening by both sides. It's usually more obvious when it's NATO kit being destroyed, and there has been a lot of that.
Large columns of Russian troops and weapons are still heading in that direction, and it doesn't seem to have had the desired effect of drawing Russian units away from the south and east. [...] Russia stated it's objective is attrition, and Ukraine seems to have committed a lot of it's reserves to a pretty pointless PR stunt.
Thank you for your propaganda comrade. Please pick up your 100 ruble payment at the dead drop location.
A small number of Ukrainians invading Russia has massively increased the area of land that the Russians need to patrol/defend.
To defend the motherland, troops will have to be pulled out of Ukraine. Plodski isn't going to be much use against tanks manned by battle hardened veterans. If they don't defend their own territory then the Russian populace will rightly wonder why not. A huge loss of face will ensue.
An even bigger win for Ukraine is that they can severely mess up supply lines. If they can damage and disrupt the Russian logistics enough, then no amount of rhetoric and bully boy tactics will avoid the inevitable implosion of the illegal, Russian, invasion of Ukraine.
Farty, pseudo wankery about fizzy drinks cannot escape the cold, harsh, reality of the importance of logistics in waging warfare. A decisive deployment of force at a critical point can be important but logistics is king. Even better is a lightning strike against the enemy logistics and widening the territory involved in the war, massively. "An army marches on its stomach".
PS ... ring ... snort, gribble etc!
To defend the motherland, troops will have to be pulled out of Ukraine. Plodski isn't going to be much use against tanks manned by battle hardened veterans. If they don't defend their own territory then the Russian populace will rightly wonder why not. A huge loss of face will ensue.
Ah, well, here's a thing. Ukraine has made much of their fresh human capital that it's looking forward to trading in future prisoner exchanges. So it's been showing videos of fresh faced young Russians, ie the conscripts that had been manning the borders. You don't seem very aware of the Russian constitution limiting the forces Russia can deploy outside its borders. One of the reasons why there's an important distinction between SMO, now CTO and war. So Ukraine wasn't facing off against veterans. Russia's been busily bringing in forces like the former Wagner soldiers who'd been training Belorussians, Chechens, and of course its own forces. So it can call in forces from their Central and Eastern military districts.
This is one of those problems with the lie that keeps being repeated, ie Russia's 'full scale military invasion'. Russia still has plenty of forces, Ukraine does not. The bigger loss of face is likely to come from Ukrainians wondering what this invasion of Russia was supposed to achieve, especially as Russia continues to gain ground in Donbass.
An even bigger win for Ukraine is that they can severely mess up supply lines. If they can damage and disrupt the Russian logistics enough,
If. But Ukraine's forces in Kursk also need supplying. Those are being damaged and disrupted as Russia uses its mine-laying rockets, drones, missiles, glide bombs and artillery to damage and disrupt Ukraine's logistics.
Even better is a lightning strike against the enemy logistics and widening the territory involved in the war, massively. "An army marches on its stomach".
You would think that, yes. So what enemy logistics have been disrupted by attacking Kursk? Sure, Ukraine has dedicated a lot of logistics to the Kursk venture, and given itself another front to fight on when it's barely holding its lines along the Donbas.
Can you provide your military logistics experience please.
I have a black belt in Risk?
I'm visiting a military logistics expert this weekend (Colonel, British Army), and would like to compare your experience with his.
That's nice. While you're there, ask a couple of questions..
1) What is the logistical significance of the Kursk salient? You can do some homework ahead of your visit by just looking at a map. Note the roads and rail links in and around the salient. Note that.. there's rather more that completely bypass it which Russia can use to supply its forces in say, Donbas, Crimea, or pretty much anywhere along the border. Then notice that... there are far fewer logistics routes from Ukraine into their new cauldron.
2) Why is Ukraine so determined to destroy the Kerch Bridge? Maybe they've got a bunch of leftover stamps they need to get rid of, but there's this 'land bridge' now, complete with new rail liines that means the bridge has pretty much only been used for civilian traffic.
3) Ask him about his experience with the Army's logistics being increasingly outsourced..
@Korev: It might be a real person, these forums are custom coded so they'd need to make a bot specifically.
As a coutner point I've personally down voted every one of Jellied Eel's 6237 posts, and Martin Usher's 3897 posts, plus a few other assorted vatniks and trolling scum.
As a coutner point I've personally down voted every one of Jellied Eel's 6237 posts, and Martin Usher's 3897 posts, plus a few other assorted vatniks and trolling scum.
Nice of you to admit to using a bot to abuse the forum, and its posters, and all from a position of being a clear anonymong troll. I suspected someone was doing this after my totals suddenly jumped. But thank you for demonstrating one of the problems of 'social' media. Never mind the content of 10,134 posts, you just demonstrate the level of hate from the far-left and attempt to ratio people you don't like. Plus of course you throw in a 'racist' slur into the bargain..
yes, this was Putin's decree, I just can't wait to see the interviews on Russian telly! ;) They're already milking anything they can, showed some video of an ex-US soldier fighting for Russia. Forgot to mention he ran away in 2024 before he was due to appear in court for child porn or such. Oh well, every little helps.
I wouldnt chuckle, there are those that state its all the fault of NATO and Putin is misunderstood - the same people who decry being woke as an anti-christain harbinger of the Apocaylpse.So really would take up the ant-woke refugee status, at least they say they will. The one I am thinking off is born again and lives in Australia.
"...vehemently against Putin and his stupid war"
No, they're not vehemently again Putin and the war. They mightn't like Putin as a person, but they all believe deeply in the superiority of Mother Russia so they support the war as a sunk cost fallacy
Say "Slava Ukraini" to one of them and you'll see how they really feel.
Russia has buried millions of landmines, built tank traps and trenches, etc. making taking back Ukrainian territory that has been occupied by Russia extremely difficult. So on the logic of going for the soft target, going into Russian territory made perfect sense, even ignoring the obvious boost in Ukrainian morale and the massive hit to Russian morale. They can take out places being used to launch missile attacks into Ukraine, bridges and railroads used for supplying Russian occupation troops, etc.
Even if Russia is able to push them out from the territory they've taken if they want to prevent this happening again they'll have to invest massive resources putting up minefields and other defenses all along their border with Ukraine. That's resources and manpower they can't use in Ukraine, so the more Ukraine forces Putin to defend his own land the better for them!
Now with a Trump win looking more and more unlikely by the day, Putin knows he's not going to get the free pass his clueless stooge would hand him if he got back into office, and has to contend with the fact his resources for fighting this war begin to run out by the end of next year, while NATO can continue supplying Ukraine for as long as they wish to continue the fight.
unfortunately, they can afford this war for quite a little longer, I think. And their pain threshold is a lot, lot lower than ours. Sure, one day all this folly will collapse in a big pile of dust, but nobody knows whether it's going to be next year, or in 5 years' time. All predictions are wild. As far as I remember, nobody predicted Soviet Union to collapse when it did, and in such a spectacular fashion, and I don't think we have really more accurate metrics these days.
Yes, higher, but that's the Kremlin's pain threshold.
What the people actually think does not enter the calculation. They're being continuously fed propaganda and having the truth removed from all data sources, and those who attempt to share the truth end up in jail breaking rocks.
Time after time I read about the details in various places (including places closer to Russia and Ukraine, not the usual propaganda outlets) and it's extremely clear that Putin is just throwing cannon fodder at that war in obscene numbers including former prisoners, young men from poor Eastern Republics, etc etc etc.
We are literally watching a madman at work.
What the people actually think does not enter the calculation. They're being continuously fed propaganda and having the truth removed from all data sources, and those who attempt to share the truth end up in jail breaking rocks.
And more projection. Ukraine's been jailing and murdering journalists. Notable example would be the death in custody of Gonzalo Lira, a US citizen. Russian media is banned in much of Europe, and the UK. Wonder why that is? The MSM has been equally careful in feeding propaganda in ways that would make Goebbels proud. As I pointed out before, Bbc Ukraine reported on the new religious discrimination laws, Bbc English.. <crickets>. I would have thought that was news worthy, especially as it means Ukraine couldn't (or shouldn't) be allowed into the EU. Oh, and of course people who spread 'Russian misinformation' are being jailed in the EU as well.
They have already destroyed several bridges and I'm sure more are going to fall.
Russia destroyed a few as well. But there have been videos of Ukraine using cluster munitions against pontoon bridges.. and then having their HIMARs destroyed in exchange. I'm sure Russia can replace bridges faster than Ukraine can replace HIMARS. And it's not as if those cluster munitions would have been more useful against the Russian forces that are currently massing to close the lid on this latest misadventure. But I guess destroying the bridges gives an indication that Ukraine isn't planning to go any deeper, just sit and wait for the inevitable artillery, rockets and bombs. So whether this is shaping up to be a repeat of Ukraine's last glorious counter-offensive that managed to leave lots of wrecks around Robotyne. But I'm sure Ukraine has the men and materiel to waste like this. We can just give them more Leopards, Challengers, Strykers, Marders, Iris-Ts etc etc..
Can't we?
I'm wondering if Ukraine has the resources to fully cut off the entrenched Russian troops. If they could come around and hit Donbas from the east it would certainly save a lot of Ukrainian lives. They don't need troops to hold Russian territory, they just need to make their way through and destroy bridges and other infrastructure like they have in Kursk. And the Kerch bridge has to go.
I haven't seen any media analysis of that kind of strategy.
A nice thought, but very unlikely.
It's a fairly long way from where the Ukrainians have advanced into Kursk Oblast even to the limited Russian penetration near Kharkiv. The main area of occupied eastern Ukraine is a lot further still.
While the Russians demonstrate daily their general lack of competence, even they could probably upset a Ukrainian drive that was supposed to go all the way around the Donbass front.
What the Ukrainians might achieve is:
At least for a while, mobile warfare, of a nature that the Ukrainians have been quite well equipped to do, and apparently quite well trained to do, but which the Russians have so far shown little skill at: this means the Russians can't hide behind minefields and defensive positions, nor can they use their artillery and air power as effectively as they are on the more static eastern front. This hopefully pushes up Russian casualties and pushes down the Ukrainians'.
A whole load more Russian prisoners
Casualties amongst the yearly conscripts, who include sons of people living in Moscow and St Petersburg, not just from the eastern ethnically non-Russians; i.e. casualties that are less expendable from the Russian establishment point of view.
Disruption to the rail network and other infrastructure, by cutting routes.
Disruption to Russia's general transport network, as they try to redeploy troops to the new front, including then establishing new supply routes to these troops.
Also, of course, the huge political win that Putin has been seen to fail to defend Russia, with the Ukrainians (and more importantly, Russian civilians) posting social media of Ukrainian troops being polite and well behaved, and helping the Russian civilians that the Russian authorities left behind,
Ultimately, when the Ukrainians withdraw, they will return to a border line or something akin to it, which they previously had to guard adequately, in case of a Russian attack, but the Russians will have to find troops to adequately guard the entire northern Ukraine border, which apparently they previously left barely defended, on the grounds that it was them that was going to do all attacking, not the Ukrainians.
The distance of the incursion into Russia looks quite large, indeed. However, if the Ukranians were to try encircling the Russian forces, they could not do it in one swoop. It seems to me, a person with no intel or knowledge of what is going on*, it looks like this was a test of sorts. The intention being to try and draw forces away/open a second front, and rading the Russian supply lines.
However, I think the long term planning here is important. If the Russians don't act quickly, the Ukranians will have the option of fortifying their new position. This means they can encircle at their leisure. Continuing raids as they slowly move deeper behind the Russian lines. This would make their current postion actually quite smart of this sort of strategy. If the Ukranians had pushed in closer to the current front, it would be too easy for the Russians to simply extend the current front to handle the situation.
*I mean it's the internet, what would expect :P
Whenever the Ukrainians withdraw, leaving some fine cratering charges under the roadbed on the way out would also be a good harassment and delay move. Big plus if the timer is set for long delay and it craters the road while the Russians are using that section, even missing vehicles in the middle of a convoy would disrupt the movement of Russian forces and generate more confusion and well, present a really, really nice bunch of parked Russian vehicles for drone and missiles to greet.
The intention being to try and draw forces away/open a second front, and rading the Russian supply lines.
Ukraine's intentions are rather unclear. But what supply lines? Russia is rather large and has many supply lines, few of which go through the small area it's managed to occupy in Kursk.
However, I think the long term planning here is important. If the Russians don't act quickly, the Ukranians will have the option of fortifying their new position. This means they can encircle at their leisure. Continuing raids as they slowly move deeper behind the Russian lines.
Think about that for a moment. If Ukraine digs in and attempts to hold territory, it has to commit forces to try and hold those fortifications. Then it would also need forces to try and move deeper, or encircle.. something. Where does Ukraine get the forces to do this? This explains Ukraine's danger-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salient_(military)
A deep salient is vulnerable to being "pinched off" through the base, and this will result in a pocket in which the forces in the salient become isolated and without a supply line.
Russia has been doing this all along the contact line creating its 'cauldrons'. Ironically, wiki gives the example of Germany's attempt to cut off a Russian salient in Kursk during WW2. History has a habit of repeating itself. Plus there's deception. Much has been made of Ukraine's 'suprise' attack and its advance. Prior to this, there had been reports that Russia had been building up forces around Kursk in preparation for an incursion into Ukraine. So Ukraine pre-empted this with their own incursion, which only encountered fairly light resistance. So this could be one of those 4-D chess things where Ukraine has been baited into a trap. Ukraine has committed a lot of its reserves and equipment to creating this salient. Ukaine's advances seem to be stalling, and the cauldron may be closing. The longer it continues, the more Russian forces can be brought in and history repeats.
So this could be one of those 4-D chess things where Ukraine has been baited into a trap.
Or it could just be a major propaganda win, where the Ukrainians can withdraw in good order leaving Putin embarrassed and mad, and probably executing his own commanders for their failure (which will work wonders for lowering morale in his army). Meanwhile the Ukrainians get a morale boost, a laugh, and can cheer their guys on. Where's the downside?
Meanwhile the Ukrainians get a morale boost, a laugh, and can cheer their guys on. Where's the downside?
The morale boost is temporary when Ukrainians realise the cauldron is closed and their troops and equipment can't be withdrawn. Or they wonder if some potato fields for Pokrovsk was a good trade. Russia's offensives around the Donbas had paused for a few days while they figured out wtf was going on in Kursk. Now they're back on and as Ukraine diverted men & materiel to Kursk, the defenders around Donbas have less to work with.
And maybe, just maybe it would have been better to defend Ukraine rather than attack Russia.. Who is now a tad displeased, and will no doubt retaliate. Something I've been wondering is where Russia will stop, ie settle for clearing the annexed oblasts, or push further. The Dnipr makes an obvious demarc, but if Russia will try to take Odessa again. November will also be interesting. If Trump wins, it'll test the claim that he can end this conflict in 24hrs. If Harris wins, well, she really likes school buses!
What you Russian apologists don't get is while their manpower is effectively unlimited (plenty of stupid peasants Putin can forcibly conscript) their other resources are running out, in particular armor and vehicles. The quality of "new" deployments of those have been declining precipitously over the past 12 months, and it is projected Russia will simply run out (attrition higher than their limited ability to make more) before the end of next year.
That's why Putin is so desperate to see Trump win, because he knows the US will stay in this and keep supplying Ukraine with fresh (and better, over time) armaments while his are in decline. It'll be the opposite of the situation Ukraine faced at the end of last year when the US was in the midst of political infighting and delayed approving new money. Unfortunately for Putin, Trump has gone from maybe a 80-90% chance of winning to an 80-90% chance of losing in a month, and the momentum is all on Harris' side. When she wins, it'll be interesting to see Putin's response, will he escalate going all-in trying to win before he runs out of resources because he knows he probably won't survive (literally) a loss in Ukraine? Or will he pull back and become more open to real negotiations, hoping to get a little something (like going back to the pre 2022 "lines") to save enough face to avoid a public hanging in Red Square.
What you Russian apologists don't get is while their manpower is effectively unlimited (plenty of stupid peasants Putin can forcibly conscript) their other resources are running out, in particular armor and vehicles.
You Ukrainian apologists can't grasp this either. Russia hasn't started conscription, yet. It has been relying on volunteers, and now Russia has been invaded, it may get more volunteers. Ukraines manpower is much more limited. It may get a boost on the back of the invasion, but the fundamental problem is Ukraine just has a far smaller population. It's been fairly telling that the WLB has been bragging about refilling the 'exchange fund', ie capturing Russian soldiers. But I thought Russians had been surrendering in droves along the Eastern front? Where there have been reports that Ukrainian conscripts have been surrendering in droves.
Same is true for armor and vehicles. A lot of Ukraines have already been lost in this conflict, and more in the Kursk adventure. Russia has also been taking losses, but it's a conflict of attrition, and which side can sustain losses more. We've been scraping the barrel to find stuff to send to Ukraine and we're running out. Stuff like 155mm ammunition, air defence missiles etc are in short supply, and that may get worse given the situation with Israel and Iran.
Russia hasn't started conscription, yet. It has been relying on volunteers
Would you like to volunteer to die on the front lines, comrade, or spend the next 15 years in prison?
Yup, that "volunteering" sounds an awful lot like it's nothing like conscription, right?
This all leads the rest of us to wonder, why do you bother? Are you actually being paid by the Russian state to push this ridiculous propaganda, or are you actually this stupid? Just like the Russian "limited military engagement", you're clearly making no headway on these forums, the only up-votes you are garnering are clearly from the other pro-Putin trolls. Is this a case of the old fascist technique of "tell the same lie often enough and people start believing it". That only really works on uninformed, or stupid, people, who can't see that this so obviously what you are doing, like uneducated 40-something white middle-Americans and Russian conscripts.
Would you like to volunteer to die on the front lines, comrade, or spend the next 15 years in prison?Yup, that "volunteering" sounds an awful lot like it's nothing like conscription, right?
I think you're confused and have the wrong country. Ukraine has been conscripting people to feed their meat grinder. Hence why so many Ukrainian males have fled the country, or stay indoors to avoid the Ukrainian snatch squads.
Are you actually being paid by the Russian state to push this ridiculous propaganda, or are you actually this stupid?
Are you being paid by the SBU, or have you just been indoctrinated with years of anti-Russian propaganda, and lack the critical thinking skills to see through that?
Just like the Russian "limited military engagement",
That's a case in point. Idiots call this 'war', but war has a specific legal and constitutional meaning. So it's an SMO in Ukraine, CTO inside Russia. Russia hasn't declared war on Ukraine, yet. Germany did, but quickly walked back that comment from their foreign minister. But there's other idiocy along the same lines. So it's always a 'Russias full scale military invasion'. Russia started the SMO with around 1-300k troops. Now it has around 6-800k troops inside former Ukrainian territory, so I guess it's now an even fuller full scale invasion?
Is this a case of the old fascist technique of "tell the same lie often enough and people start believing it". That only really works on uninformed, or stupid, people,
Of which there seems to be many, hence all the downvotes I'm collecting. But that's how politics and the media work. They tell you the same lie repeatedly, like 'full scale invasion' or 'unprovoked' or Ukraine isn't a fascist and extremely authoritarian dictatorship.. And you believe the bs you're fed. I simply try and point out that the truth is often more complex than the lies you're being spoon fed.
Oh, and of course challenging the narrative means I also collect a lot of insults, slurs and hate speech from 'liberals', like you probably think you are..
"Russia hasn't started conscription, yet."
Not only have they been doing it since at least last year (when they increased the age range at which they can force Russian subjects into the military), in March they increased the monthly target numbers of doomed cannon fodder to throw onto the fire again. On the volunteer soldier front, in July they doubled the enlisting bonus for military volunteers and are now giving out other regional signup incentives eg in Tatarstan.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-putin-signs-decree-spring-military-conscription-2024-03-31/
https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-russia-toughens-up-draft-law-to-round-up-more-people-for-the-frontlines-233048
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/europe/russia-putin-war-ukraine-intl-latam/index.html
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3272672/ukraine-war-russias-putin-doubles-signing-bonuses-volunteers-fight
https://www.politico.eu/article/tatarstan-russian-military-recruitment-war-in-ukraine/
https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/07/17/russia-s-payments-to-soldiers-and-their-families-amount-to-eight-percent-of-federal-spending-study-finds
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/06/03/we-want-justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Russia
Not only have they been doing it since at least last year (when they increased the age range at which they can force Russian subjects into the military), in March they increased the monthly target numbers of doomed cannon fodder to throw onto the fire again. On the volunteer soldier front, in July they doubled the enlisting bonus for military volunteers and are now giving out other regional signup incentives eg in Tatarstan.
Interesting choice of sources. Good'ol Meduza again. Also I guess you cherry picked the wiki link, but didn't bother to actually read it-
Although President Putin repeatedly promised that young conscripts would not be deployed in the war with Ukraine, conscripts from the FSB Border Service from several Russian regions were sent to fight with Ukrainian troops in Kursk Oblast
So conscripts.. ermm.. aren't fighting in Ukraine, they're fighting in Russia. Russia like many countries has mandatory military service, aka conscription. As does Ukraine, who's been increasing the age range of people it can conscript and throw into the meat grinder. Which is one of the reasons it's in the process of losing, and it has lost so many of it's male population who've either fled to avoid conscription or already been killed or maimed. Many of the males who are still in Ukraine are busily trying to avoid Ukraine's snatch squads. The pressgangs get paid a 'recruiting bonus' not the people they 'recruit'.
But such is politics. You may be content to cheer and fight The Putin to the last Ukrainian, me, I think our 'leaders' should try giving peace a chance rather than waste billions to try and save their fragile egos. Shock & Awe sanctions that backfired. Russia's economy doesn't appear to be in tatters. Despite Russia being out of missiles, or forced to fight with shovels using scavenged chips from washing machines, it is still fighting. But you are getting your 'news' from the same 'experts' who cited anonymous sources that claimed The Putin was afflicted by mutliple terminal diseases and actually died years ago. Copecaine is a wonderfull drug.
Again I'm puzzled that so many seemingly intelligent IT types cheerfully swallow all the bs and then regurgitate it on command. Or again perhaps this is why there are so many IT fsk'ups.. Some IT types really are that gullible.
J.E. the Kremlin Apologist wrote:
Again I'm puzzled that so many seemingly intelligent IT types cheerfully swallow all the bs and then regurgitate it on command.
That's funny, after looking at the last 10 comments of yours I came to the conclusion that your command directive is pretty straightforward:
SET PERSPECTIVE=KREMLIN; START
I posted something like 6 or 8 links, you cherry pick a sentence or two from a couple you don't like because they disagree with you and pretend that's some kind of discernment? LOL
Putin and his regime minions are cynical, pathological liars who make "agreements" only to buy themselves time to do the exact opposite of what they promise. Of course Ukraine is not going to try to attempt to "negotiate" with a party like that, all they understand is superior force. They've been screwed repeatedly on that, it's time to stop playing Putin's charade.
Like all the unmarked vehicles and soldiers wearing insignia-less military fatigues flooding into Ukraine from Russia in the weeks before the "special operation" and when questioned about what the hell they were doing there: "THAT'S A BLATANT LIE! YOU ARE SLANDERING US! THIS IS ALL JUST A CYNICAL PLOT TO UNDERMINE MOTHER RUSSIA!!" or the incessant denials of their proxies shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 airliner with a Buk missile - more of the same feverish, screaming, lying denials. Target hospitals and schools with guided bombs and missiles: "WE DIDN'T DO THAT!", and they didn't kidnap scores of children and take them to Russia for "re-programming" either, or incessantly torture and sexually abuse prisoners of war, bla bla bla bla... "WE WERE JUST TRYING TO HELP THEM!!" - yeah, did it occur to anyone over there that the best way to help war refugees you were responsible for bombing them out of house and home is to LET THEM GO BACK TO THEIR COUNTRY?? And it's cheaper, too!
Like Trump, these people literally do not know how to stop continuously lying.
I hope you get an extra 100 rubles this week, you've definitely been putting in an extra effort.
I posted something like 6 or 8 links, you cherry pick a sentence or two from a couple you don't like because they disagree with you and pretend that's some kind of discernment?
Yep. All from pretty much the same theme, and all making much the same point and mistake. Russia's Constitution limits the way it can use forces outside of Russia, as does the SMO. Russia declaring Ukraine's invasion as a terrorist attack & CTO means it can use more force. Racist trolls like you don't seem to understand what the differences are, and what Russia actually declaring war would mean. People who do understand the situation are generally more cautious with the words they use, and their actions.
Putin and his regime minions are cynical, pathological liars who make "agreements" only to buy themselves time to do the exact opposite of what they promise.
More projection. You have that bass-ackwards. Remember the Minsk 'cease fire' agreements to try and stop Ukraine shelling civilians in Donetsk? Including firing these things-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFM-1_mine#Compliance_with_the_Ottawa_Convention
Into Donetsk. Ukraine is a signatory to the Ottawa Convention and was supposed to have destroyed its stockpiles, but of course it ignored that convention. Just as it ignored Minsk, and continued to shell the Donbas. And then we admitted that the Minsk agreements were just cover to buy time for Ukraine to rebuild, retrain and rearm its forces after the mauling they took from the DPR and LPR during the civil war that started after the coup. It did that, then deployed its forces along the Donbas borders ready to start its ethnic cleansing operation. Russia warned this was a red line, the West ignored this warning, so the SMO began and drew Ukraines forces back from Donbas.
And then there was Turkiye, where Russia and Ukraine appeared to have agreed in principle to a fairly reasonable peace plan. Ukraine signed, Russia started to withdraw forces, then BoJo flew into Kiev and said 'No, you must fight to the last Ukrainian!' and the killing started. And since then, Russia has repeatedly offered peace talks, but we have rejected those and just sent more weapons and cash so the Kiev regime can keep sacrificing its population for our 'leaders' egos. Our 'leaders' don't want peace, they want their proxies blood.
And now of course Ukraine has decided to invade Russia. This perhaps demonstrates that the Napoleon complex is real, and Ukraines WLB decided to invade Russia to 'defend' Ukraine, sacrificing yet more men and materiel. And much like with Napoleon, if Ukraine hasn't withdrawn before the rains start, and General Winter enters the field, those troops will likely never leave Russia. But the WLB did more ranting and posturing, shouting that Russia doesn't have any red lines. It does, and he's about to find that out. Nations have been warning their citizens to leave Ukraine if they can, and today is Ukraines 'Independence Day'.. Which is ironic given Ukraine is now entirely dependent and entirely at the Wests mercy.
Like all the unmarked vehicles and soldiers wearing insignia-less military fatigues flooding into Ukraine from Russia..
Ukraine has been doing the same. Plus sometimes wearing Russian uniforms, which violates the laws of war (perfidy). Plus Ukraine's international 'volunteers' have been wearing their nations flags on their uniforms, which again violates the laws of war. Only the flags of the beligerants should be worn on uniforms. And speaking of flags, there was a selfie of the Ukrainian and Georgian flags being held up in Kursk. Neither I, nor Georgia probably realised they'd entered the conflict on the side of Russia. And then of course there are the 'Ukrainian' cosplayers wearing Nazi insignia, which should be abhorent to anyone with a brain.
And yet you blindly support Ukraine. and parrot their propaganda..
I hope you get an extra 100 rubles this week
And I sincerely hope you develop a conscience this week, but given the level of your programming, I think that unlikely.
re. conscripts, it's a very big Russian gamble. On one hand, like Vietnam, their Afghanistan scars ran deep for many years. But then, it appears that the American public has got over that trauma, given the events of the last 20 odd years. There was a conviction in the West, a myth perhaps, that the Russians keep their heads down, as long as the State doesn't touch them. But then, the State did touch them with mobilisation, and - no revolution happened. Yes, there were tremours, more serious than perhaps we see, and the State had to half-retreat, but no revolution happened. Yes, they're trying to avoid another conscription, but when things get worse enough for them, they will not hesitate. And as to the conscripts, which post-Afghanistan, were considered 'untouchable', the regime has taken a gamble - they do not transfer any troops from Donbass, but instead, it appears, they plug the Kursk direction with more... conscripts. At least there are some signals about such hole-plugging, plus hastily patched, battle un-hardened troops from, er... Koenigsberg region, as the Ukrainians like to troll them, plus Leningrad Oblast (Petersburg). But they haven't actually any large reserve force, so it might be that they will settle for the current status quo and they will _not_ try to 'liberate' that area any time soon. Given that the Russians, as a people, don't seem to give a flying monkey about what happens in Kursk Oblast, as they generally only care about what happens in their proximity. If Ukrainians were marching on Moscow... but then, they wouldn't.
"...and they will _not_ try to 'liberate' that area any time soon."
Probably not, what is being sent is a token really. They can't spare the manpower and equipment and historically, Russia has traded land for time many times over their history. It's one upside of being so vast, one can trade a lot of real estate to be retaken much later.
Ukraine doing an end run around the Russian forces in the east of Ukraine is unlikely. The distances are massive. Destroying the quite limited rail links that supply the occupied territory is the real key, since that's the only way Russia can support their offensives. The means to attack those rail links is already in Ukrainian hands, but they're currently not allowed to use them on targets in Russian territory. Perhaps that will change now it's been shown how empty Putin's talk of "red lines" not to be crossed was.
Roads and railway lines with huge holes in them when going through long cuttings or embankments are a nightmare for military logistical planners. Obviously, leave a few mines for added excitement, if you have time.
An army needs POL (petrol/oil/lubricants), munitions, food and much much more to function. ♫ That's logistics ♫. If you can fuck up the opposition's logistics sufficiently, then they will stop functioning, eventually.
Not quite long cuttings. Short sections of rail, alternating sides being removed or blown at a junction between rail sections for a decent length delays far more than a long section being fully dismantled. The more twisted steel to remove, the better. Cut bridges, not at stringers and beams, but the trestles at varying heights from the top and unevenly again delays reconstruction.
There are dozens of dirty tricks to be applied, trained in most of them over the decades in the US Army.
I'm afraid there's absolutely no way to achieve that. Same reason they didn't even go for the Kursk nuclear power station, only 1000 x more impossible, firstly, because of the logistics and secondly, equally, because the Ukrainians don't have the resources (men, weapons) to achieve anything like that. The further they go, the higher the chance of getting cut off from their supply lines, and then bombed. If Kursk were much closer to the border, then a capture of such a (relatively) large city might be a different story. But then, Belgorod is close to the border and there's a good reason why Ukrainians didn't decide to capture it.
They likely didn't go for the Kursk NPP because it carried a lot of responsibility and little benefit. If it's anything like Zaporizhzhia, it can't be shut down quickly and can't be disconnected from the grid. They would have had to put a significant force there to protect the staff shutting things down. And in the end what have they gained? They shut off power to local civilians and have very little effect on infrastructure supporting the Russian troops. And talks about taking the plant would probably concern NATO as well.
As far as what is possible for Ukrainian troops... two weeks ago it was assumed they'd be doing a bloody D-Day style attack against entrenched occupying forces. All the fighting was on Ukrainian soil and invading Russia was unthinkable.
But then, Belgorod is close to the border and there's a good reason why Ukrainians didn't decide to capture it.
Belgorod is a much larger and better defended city. It's a whole lot easier to 'capture' undefended villages and take selfies.
The one I've wondered about is Transnistria. Russia can't supply or reinforce that. Moldova could probably give permission/ask for assistance in bringing that back into Moldova. Plus there's a massive arms and ammunition dump there. On the minus, that's also old and apparently badly maintained, so may make a very loud bang if anyone looks at it funny, along with rumors that the Russian forces there have it rigged to blow anyway.
I wondered that as well until I saw where they'd entered Russia. But I don't think they NEED to get to a location where they can attack Russian troops from the rear. They just need to force Putin's generals to consider that possibility and defend against it. That means a lot of resources that could have been deployed at the front will be deployed to protect the rear, and the supply lines in Russian territory supplying the occupying forces in the Donbas and Crimea.
That's in addition to all the forces Russia will need to deploy to defend their border, which is quite long just between Russia and Ukraine in the uncontested areas - and much longer if you include their vassal state Belarus. Not sure whether it would make sense for Ukraine to cross that border, but a strategic buildup (even if it is never intended to actually cross) will worry Belarus and force them to commit resources to be ready to defend their border against a possible incursion. And that worry might drive a bit of a rift between them and Putin, because they sure didn't sign up for being invaded when they aided Putin's war against Ukraine but that could be the position they find themselves in as a result of that bad decision.
they sure didn't sign up for being invaded when they aided Putin's war against Ukraine
They didn't sign up to anything, they are Putin's vassal state, and do exactly what they are told to do. Putin's big mistake was thinking that success in capturing Belarus in this way could be extended to Ukraine way back at the time when they failed to put a puppet president in place and Zelenskiy got elected on an anti-corruption ticket instead. Putin has been trying to get rid of him and install a puppet ever since. This is why Kyiv was the target on day one of his invasion, and why there have reportedly been several assassination plots against Zelenskiy that have been foiled. Putin expected him to flee to an EU state, leaving a vacuum for him to fill, and didn't count on Ukraine rallying behind him and fighting back.
It'll also tie up Russian forces that otherwise could be sent to reinforce attacking forces, as they're now en-route to Kursk.
If one action can be leveraged to achieve multiple goals, that action becomes far more economical than for single goals like just grabbing some land.
This far, they've grabbed some land, achieving a morale boost, a major PR shot in the arm, got Russia to dismantle their own video surveillance network, got Russia to "suggest" major alterations of online behavior in their civilian and military populations, destroyed multiple Russian supply line bridges and tied up columns of Russian troops that otherwise would've been available for frontline reinforcement and instead are scrambling to catch up with Ukrainian forces.
slight correction: Russia says it has has buried millions of landmines. The Kursk administrator interviewed somewhere said that it was cheaper to just put up the signs and trade the mines to another region in return for spare parts because no-one is going to invade Russia.
Is this just the government telling people to do things to make them feel they'll be more safe? Home cameras are going to be more of a problem to tap into than useful unless they are pointing at main thoroughfares. Not going on dating sites? That would be more of a covert operations thing than a way to develop intel for 'hot' operations. "You are so hot. And, btw, any troop buildups in your area?"
This sounds like a page out of the security theater script in the US. Of course eliminating curbside baggage check in will be less safe. I mean, what are they going to do if they get the suitcases further in advance of the flight time? It's much better that people are made to stand in long queues to check their luggage in. The airlines don't seem to staff their counters with enough people and are amazed at the number of people that have shown up for flights (with most people having booked far in advance to get the best prices). TSA screening? shcuyah. Even if I only have an ounce of sunscreen left in the bottle, that bottle did once hold far more than would be allowed so I have to throw it away. The little Victorinox 1" blade knife on my key ring obviously outs me as a terrorist. A really clever madman would binge watch MacGyver and figure out how to create lethal weapons out of pocket fluff and the safety brochure. It's all a show. Something needed to be done, they did something, something has been done so we are all much safer.
"Dp they still do mailorder brides?"
Yes. There are plenty of women (and men) that desperately want to emigrate to a better situation to take the risk. If you are open to inheriting children, even better. I know a few people that met online, fell in love and one moved countries to be with the other. I say they fell in love, but I'm guessing and have lost touch so if the marriage lasted 5 years, often the min in the US for citizenship, and they're still together, great. These days it's possible to learn more about your prospective new spouse before you agree to sponsor them and they might learn enough to trust emigrating. IIRC, in the US, a new spouse won't be allowed to work for a year in the US, so that's a test. There might also be a home visit to see if it's a marriage or the two people are living as roommates if they are in the same home.
There are still arranged marriages in many places where children are told by their parents who they will be marrying. Some of those even work out for a whole lifetime.
There must be a few lonely Russian girls who'd be tempted by a muscular lad in a uniform and the prospect of an EU passport in the next 10 years.
Yesterday, Ukraine was besieging a Russian womans prison in Kursk. Hardly suprising given the number of Ukrainian women that fled the country*. But apparently there is stiff resistance. Mainly because Russia had evacuated the prisoners and now it's occupied by Russian soldiers.
*One of those little demographic timebombs Ukraine is going to have to deal with because Ukrainians who left to flee the conflict (or regime) may not want to return.
all this suffering and death so one methhead putin can chase is dream of dictator.
It's amazing how pathetic the masses are to serve such selfish fools. How many dead over this? and for nothing but ego and greed.
How many russians has putin gotten killed just to feed his ego? one was to many, the world is run by fools chasing personal goals. He should have been Put down a long long time ago. One life for a hundred thousand.
It's amazing how pathetic the masses are to serve such selfish fools. How many dead over this? and for nothing but ego and greed.
Quite so. But that's Western politics for you. So back when this all started, there were peace talks in Turkiye and a tentative peace plan agreed. Ukraine would remain neutral, it could join the EU if it wanted. Then BoJo went to Kiev and convinced their little green man that he must fight to the last Ukrainian. Comedians. Kiev's WLB is currently telling Modi all about his 'peace' plan, which is basically Ukraine will think about it, if Ukraine's allowed to go back to its 1991 borders. He's also been telling the world that Russia doesn't have any red lines after crossing another one by invading Russia. Russia obviously does, because it was crossing red lines that started the conflict in the first place.
But that's our 'leaders' for you. None of them seem to want peace. Ukraine's coup was sponsored by us to drive Ukraine into the arms of the EU and NATO. That triggered Ukraine's civil war and around 18,000 deaths. Having used Minsk as an excuse to re-arm and retrain after the UAF lost heavily during that civil war, it was poised to attack the Donbas and re-occupy the Rhineland. Russia intervened to prevent ethnic cleansing, just as we did when we invaded Yugoslavia and broke up that country. And of course the EU's 'schlock and awe' sanctions were supposed to leave Russias economy in tatters. There'd be another regime change, and Putin would go the way of Gadaffi or Hussein, and could be replaced with a hand-picked puppet like Navalny. Then the serious business of breaking up and asset stripping Russia could happen.
Of course that didn't quite work out. Sanctions have affected us more than Russia, but it's still been great business $200bn+ poured into the arms industry and Ukraine, with virtually no accountability. Politicians like Lindsay Graham saying what a great war it is because Russians are being killed without needing US boots on the ground. Ah, thank heavens for proxy wars. But of course millions of Ukrainians are displaced, dead or maimed to serve our 'leaders' selfish egos and greed. The Putin simply must be defeated, and they'll fight to the last Ukrainian to try and make that happen.
Of course peace would be easy. The constant refrain from Ukraine's WLB is 'Give Money!' 'Give Weapons!'.. because Ukraine is entirely dependent on the West now. It's bankrupt. It needs our money to pay the pensions of it's WW2 SS veterans, or just its civil service. We could, of course just say 'No more', and point the WLB at the negotiating table to get serious about thrashing out a peace deal. Of course now that Ukraine's invaded Russia, the prospects of Russia listening are increasingly remote. But that was probably the point. Escalate ahead of the US elections so the killing continues, and there will be no peace.
But after Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan etc etc, perhaps people might realise we're the bad guys.. not Russia. But our 'leaders' will tell you that if we don't stop The Putin now, he'll be in Paris by Spring. How can Russia be such a threat to Europe when it's apparently doing so badly in Ukraine?
There is so much more - Xi had his troops ready to invade Taiwan if the world let RU take Ukraine. NK was ready to go into SK if Xi went to Tiawan, and Iran was prepping attack on Iseral. The dominos were waiting to fall, what we ended up with is messy stagnation. The only thing keeping the corrupt idiots from taking over anything is other corrupt idiots (and maybe a few good hearted people) messing up their plans for their own. I doubt it will ever "really" get better.
"None of them seem to want peace"
Well, there's peace and then there's production farm land.
Decisions, decisions.
With the lack of prosecutions for shoplifting, do I pay for the thing I want that's under $1,000 or do I just take it? Does Russia just invade with claims that ethnic Russians occupying enclaves within Ukraine want to secede or do they enter into trade agreements? Ok, invade it is. That will get rid of some moldering munitions and reduce the population a wee bit.
Well, there's peace and then there's production farm land.
I think it depends what you mean by production. Sure, Ukraine has productive farm land. So does Russia, and lots of it. No more USAid shipments of grains to starving Russians, showing the world that communism wasn't the way. So now Russia developed its agricultural sector, exports a lot of food and competes with the West both economically, in terms of soft power & aid, or just quality. Would the worlds customers prefer Tyson chickens with 57 varieties of hormones & antibiotics, or something a little more natural?
Or there's farm yields. Those could be improved if Western agribusiness owned Ukraine's farmland and payed a minimum wage to Ukrainian farm workers, or just leased it back to them. If they can't pay the rent, foreclose, rinse and repeat. Ukraine's already massively in debt, in default on bonds and either way, is going to be under new management. Take these loans, deafult on those, ask Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland etc what happens next.
Does Russia just invade with claims that ethnic Russians occupying enclaves within Ukraine want to secede or do they enter into trade agreements?
Well, some did. So Sevastapol and Crimea were pretty much Russian enclaves and wanted to secede so they did. That really upset the West because that would have made a nice NATO base on Russia's doorstep. On which point, Ukraine's ordering Belurus to move it's troops away from the border because apparently it feels threatened. Russia wasn't supposed to care about being steadily encircled by NATO. And now Ukraine's copying CHAZ and has occupied <5% of Kursk, which some Ukrainians regard as their ancestral homeland, and are talking about installing their own governors to administer.. chickens or something because most of the population evacuated.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's just had one of the largest missile and drone strikes since the conflict started. Normally there would be claims that Ukraine had shot down 220/200 missiles and drones. But not this time. Mainly because it has left most of its cities (other than Kiev, naturally) undefended and moved its air defences to protect the glorious Kursk2.0 defensive offensive. Ukraine's population may realise this and start asking more pointed questions of their comedian in chief. Or just thinking that perhaps things weren't so bad when they traded mostly with Russia. Partnering with the EU has only really brought them darkness, and death.
By this point though. any peace will be on Russia's terms, which is something our 'leaders' can't accept. They told us Russia was out of missiles years ago. They told us the Black Sea Fleet had been destroyed, yet this ghost fleet launched a lot of the missiles today. They told us Russians are butchers, yet after one of the largest strikes of the conflict, apparently only 7 civilians died. That could be because Ukrainians were in shelters, or it could be the apartments struck previously were as a result of intercepts.
But such is politics.
Decisions, decisions.
Slava Ukraine !
Hmm.. I explain the origins of that phrase, and yet you repeat it. Should I assume you agree with the OUN's philosopy?
Some of you can't see it, but Ruzzia is already cooked.
I suggest you stop watching Denys. He can't fly any more on account of being cooked on meth. But then you may see things more clearly, including how to spell 'Russia'..
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