Ukraine (13 Viewers)

[Sailorsaint]

That's horrible. Those guys are victims of warmongers as much as anybody.

Some of them maybe, but there are a lot of others that rape, pillage, and murder innocents.

 

[boutte]

Some of them maybe, but there are a lot of others that rape, pillage, and murder innocents.

Yeah, that's going to happen when leadership doesn't care. It actually seems like they encourage it.

The Russian army has a history of it going back to the end of WW2.

 

[baarbogast]

 

[rail]

This would be my little girl. The clothes, the Dora sticker on the cage, all of it. So much of the awful images from the war have hit me, but this one's hitting harder right now. **** Putin and all his subhuman orcs. **** em all.

 

[baarbogast]

I wonder if the Himars made their presence felt.

 

[baarbogast]

I find it ironic that a dictatorship is actually a defense for desertion.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

Wonder what is in store

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[baarbogast]

 

[efil4stnias]

MSN

www.msn.com

Putin has routinely played the long game. The world has to be prepared to match.

 

[baarbogast]

Apparently another general was killed in the attack.

 

[boutte]

MSN

www.msn.com

For those who haven't read the article linked by BooBird Saint here's a quote.
For all the feel good stories we get everyday the actual situation is far from rosey. If the West doesn't grow some balls, and Fast, we'll be looking down barrel of a very bad situation by this time a tear from now. Most people seem to have grown bored with Putin's war and have reverted to petty partisan bickering.


Russia’s plan for Ukraine, in the south and the east, is still at an early stage. In the Kherson oblast, captured by Russia in May, plans for a referendum that will either establish a sham independence or join the region to Russia outright are afoot. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have been conquered or carted off into Russia are now being fed the same revisionist history lessons that students in Chechnya have received for two decades already. In another parallel, an insurgency is taking root against the occupiers in the country’s south.
For now, Ukraine’s fate remains in the balance. The nation is much larger than Chechnya, and its people are committed to the struggle. The flow of military aid to Kyiv from the West far outstrips anything the beleaguered rebels of the North Caucasus could count on. Yet the logic of attritional conflict is now on Russia’s side, and Putin’s strategic patience is based on sound precedent. Moscow knows what it wants the outcome of the war in eastern Ukraine to look like, because it will look like Chechnya. Should the West abandon a ravaged Ukraine to a similar fate—a flawed cease-fire leading to a failing state that is prey to a refocused Russian assault—this will be the scenario.

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[SamAndreas]

Several days ago I wrote a post about what I thought was misdirection in our media which was overplaying the progress of the Russian side while down playing Ukraines progress. Many news reports painting a grim image of Ukraine's chances without lots of aid forth coming from Europe and the US.

I said at that time it might not be a bad thing insofar as the effect it might have on the countries that do support Ukraine. ("The squeaky wheel gets the grease.")



Today Phillips P O'Brian wrote this in a long thread on Twitter:

"I look at what we see on the ground, Ukrainians resistance is fierce, Russian advances spasmodic. Doesn’t fit the public statements. As I said, think this was done for effect, and maybe overdone."

"Should have added the intended effect by these statements was on NATO governments to get more aid and on Putin. Would imagine the Ukrainians want him to bleed his army white in the Donbas. Remember the Ukrainians have talked for a while about draining Russian resources til Aug."

Here is a link to that assessment thread which comes so close to matching my own assessment:



I recommend clicking on the "read the full conversation on Twitter" link in that thread starting tweet and then read the entire thread.

I've not been feeling like Ukraine has been being overwhelmed by Russia. I've been being very optimistic of Ukraine's chances in spite of several weeks of reading media reports that would seem to say otherwise. I've noticed that Ukraine has gained more ground for the last month than Russia has despite media reports that seem to suggest it is otherwise.

It's nice to find another optimistic person on the Internet who happens to be a credible annalist.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

Russia’s plan for Ukraine, in the south and the east, is still at an early stage. In the Kherson oblast, captured by Russia in May, plans for a referendum that will either establish a sham independence or join the region to Russia outright are afoot. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have been conquered or carted off into Russia are now being fed the same revisionist history lessons that students in Chechnya have received for two decades already. In another parallel, an insurgency is taking root against the occupiers in the country’s south.

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​

Russia has begun installing its flags in besieged Ukrainian cities.​

Despite several military setbacks and embarrassments over the past 10 weeks, Russia has slowly gained control of a significant portion of Ukraine's territory in the south and the east.
As Russia looks to cement its stronghold on the captured Ukrainian cities, Russian authorities and their local proxies have begun removing the blue and yellow Ukrainian flags adorning government buildings and city squares and replacing them with Russian and Soviet flags.

• Russian authorities are attempting to strip occupied Ukraine of its national culture.
• Russia has installed its flags, monuments, and politicians in several Ukrainian cities and towns.
• The occupied city of Kherson is even being forced to use the Russian ruble.

—Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) May 1, 2022

 

[baarbogast]

 

[baarbogast]