September 28, 2023
Secretary of State Tony Blinken kicked off a new state department global music diplomacy initiative by showing off his own skills as a singer-guitarist.
After delivering remarks at a State Department event, Blinken said that it would not be complete “without a little bit of blues,” before playing and singing the Muddy Waters classic “Hoochie Coochie Man.”
Thanks
Turns out the Blinken guitar thing just happened after all.
Ukraine's reaction to the narratives around the 2022 peace talks.
Kharkiv?Situation near Harkiv seems to be serious.
That's the one.Kharkiv?
Yermak and Budanov said months ago that May and June would be very difficult periods for Ukraine because of the delay in American aid. This newWonder if this is an attempt to show strength ahead of Putin's visit to see Xi.
How will Russia win you reckon?It's going to be depressingly fun seeing how the "the russians fecked up by invading ukraine" narrative in the west will be spinned once russia wins this.
The narrative we were sold for months and months was that russia was going to be kicked out of ukraine, maybe even crimea. Their economy would go to shit. The west was going to be behind ukraine for as long as it takes and will send all the military help they need.How will Russia win you reckon?
By occupying whole of Ukraine?
How will Russia win you reckon?
By occupying whole of Ukraine?
So they waged a war only to occupy a bit more of Donbas? If that's their goal and it is cause they changed it once they realized they wont go into Kiev then yeah they won it..The narrative we were sold for months and months was that russia was going to be kicked out of ukraine, maybe even crimea. Their economy would go to shit. The west was going to be behind ukraine for as long as it takes and will send all the military help they need.
It seems they're going to keep vast areas of land, resources and industry and their economy is doing at least as well as it was before. The west is providing the bare minimum and everyone around the world is looking at those promises as empty words.
I don't see how this is anything other than a win for russia.
I guess that will be gist of the spin.Yes. By taking over all of Ukraine, which was after all Putin's original goal. If he does that then Russia wins. If he doesn't do that then he loses since the Ukrainians won't stop fighting to reclaim their land.
I dont see that happening as bleak as the situation looks at the moment.Yes. By taking over all of Ukraine, which was after all Putin's original goal. If he does that then Russia wins. If he doesn't do that then he loses since the Ukrainians won't stop fighting to reclaim their land.
Occupation of Ukraine is not, was not, and never will be one of the goals of what Putin calls his "special military operation". Russia will win by fulfilling the goals that were set out at the start of the war, and which have not at any point changed. And to answer the guy's question about how the West will spin the narrative: Blinken and Biden are already doing it. "Putin has already failed, because his plan was to take over the whole of Ukraine" (no, it wasn't). In other words: Putin has lost because he didn't achieve goals he never wanted to achieve. And Ukraine has won the war because even though they've been functionally destroyed and had a generation of men killed and they're now saddled with literally unpayable debt until the end of time...they're "sovereign!" The Russian flag does not fly over Lviv, like Putin wanted!How will Russia win you reckon?
By occupying whole of Ukraine?
I guess that will be gist of the spin.
I don't see how managing to occupy more land, destroy ukrainian hope of recovering it, managing to maintain a normal economy and showing the west as weak and unreliable is not a win for russia. Sure it cost them a lot but it's still a win.So they waged a war only to occupy a bit more of Donbas? If that's their goal and it is cause they changed it once they realized they wont go into Kiev then yeah they won it..
Yes, but by Ukrainian drones, not with US weapons, which are what are needed to take out Russian military bases that are getting ready to launch anotherAs for not using weapons inside Russia, werent targets inside Russia hit a number of times already?
Sure, totally it was never the goal. They just got lost when they tried to take Kyiv.Occupation of Ukraine is not, was not, and never will be one of the goals of what Putin calls his "special military operation".
I won't bother because I don't have the time, but I'm sure if I search this thread I'll find plenty of posts (probably even yours) claiming this was an absolute blunder by russia and ukraine, with the help from the west, was going to reclaim all lost territory. There was a period where many claimed even crimea was back on the table.Expect its not spin. Its reality. Had he succeeded in the beginning when he went after Kyiv, then he would've more than likely won the war. He was instead repelled and since then, its the Ukrainians who have made the more significant gains by reclaiming Kherson, all the while Putin has been forced to hang his hat on small towns like Bakhmut and Avdiivka; two places no one outside Ukraine had previously heard of. His only significant gain is Mariupol, but that was done at the beginning of the war. Since then, his only success (if you can call it that) is not conceding largely agrarian land in the south to Ukrainian counteroffensives.
Sure mate. You keep repeating Russian propaganda lines and then you wonder why people react.Occupation of Ukraine is not, was not, and never will be one of the goals of what Putin calls his "special military operation". Russia will win by fulfilling the goals that were set out at the start of the war, and which have not at any point changed. And to answer the guy's question about how the West will spin the narrative: Blinken and Biden are already doing it. "Putin has already failed, because his plan was to take over the whole of Ukraine" (no, it wasn't). In other words: Putin has lost because he didn't achieve goals he never wanted to achieve. And Ukraine has won the war because even though they've been functionally destroyed and had a generation of men killed and they're now saddled with literally unpayable debt until the end of time...they're "sovereign!" The Russian flag does not fly over Lviv, like Putin wanted!
Ukraine is being irrevocably destroyed as a functional state with any kind of future, and it will never join NATO. What you imagine Putin's goals to be don't correspond with his endlessly repeated statements about what Russia's goals are in this war.Expect its not spin. Its reality. Had he succeeded in the beginning when he went after Kyiv, then he would've more than likely won the war. He was instead repelled and since then, its the Ukrainians who have made the more significant gains by reclaiming Kherson, all the while Putin has been forced to hang his hat on small towns like Bakhmut and Avdiivka; two places no one outside Ukraine had previously heard of. His only significant gain is Mariupol, but that was done at the beginning of the war. Since then, his only success (if you can call it that) is not conceding largely agrarian land in the south to Ukrainian counteroffensives.
I won't bother because I don't have the time, but I'm sure if I search this thread I'll find plenty of posts (probably even yours) claiming this was an absolute blunder by russia and ukraine, with the help from the west, was going to reclaim all lost territory. There was a period where many claimed even crimea was back on the table.
Now it's "well they only won by a little bit" so yeah, fecking embarrassing by those ho vowed to protect ukraine and even claimed this was a war for democracy and western values.
Oh look, the "Russian bot" card has come out again. Never takes long. And for the record, I don't wonder why you call me that. It's the default mantra of those who are still, 28 months into this war, utterly clueless as to why it started.Sure mate. And you wonder why you're called a Russian bot here.
Ukraine is being irrevocably destroyed as a functional state with any kind of future, and it will never join NATO. What you imagine Putin's goals to be don't correspond with his endlessly repeated statements about what Russia's goals are in this war.
Did you ever consider that maybe if you stopped acting like a spin doctor for Putin it would stop? No, it must be everyone else that is wrong, obviously. Truly nobody can grasp your flawless vision.Oh look, the "Russian bot" card has come out again. Never takes long. And for the record, I don't wonder why you call me that. It's the default mantra of those who are still, 28 months into this war, utterly clueless as to why it started.
I guess I'll have to believe you instead of all reports coming from the ground by ukrainians themselves claiming they don't have the manpower or the military capacity to keep going for much longer and their being stretched very thin. I'm glad they're doing fine.Nothing has changed in this regard. All of these places are still on the table. Until places like Odesa, Kharkiv, and Kyiv are all in Russian hands, the Ukrainians are doing just fine, especially now that they are armed to the gills again with western weapons.
You don't "occupy" Ukraine with a column of tanks heading to Kiev and 180,000 troops coming over the border. That's how you attempt to make the Zelenskiy government flee. It didn't work. It was a major miscalculation. But the aim - to overthrow the Zelenskiy government - remains as one of the 4 goals of the war. "Occupation" of Ukraine is an absurd and literally impossible idea, do you even understand what that would entail?Sure, totally it was never the goal. They just got lost when they tried to take Kyiv.
I guess I'll have to believe you instead of all reports coming from the ground by ukrainians themselves claiming they don't have the manpower or the military capacity to keep going for much longer and their being stretched very thin. I'm glad they're doing fine.
I guess I'll have to believe you instead of all reports coming from the ground by ukrainians themselves claiming they don't have the manpower or the military capacity to keep going for much longer and their being stretched very thin. I'm glad they're doing fine.
You don't "occupy" Ukraine with a column of tanks heading to Kiev and 180,000 troops coming over the border. That's how you attempt to make the Zelenskiy government flee. It didn't work. It was a major miscalculation. But the aim - to overthrow the Zelenskiy government - remains as one of the 4 goals of the war. "Occupation" of Ukraine is an absurd and literally impossible idea, do you even understand what that would entail?
I don't see how managing to occupy more land, destroy ukrainian hope of recovering it, managing to maintain a normal economy and showing the west as weak and unreliable is not a win for russia. Sure it cost them a lot but it's still a win.
I see you're not commenting on the "russia will be kicked out of ukraine" predictions and a frozen conflict is now somehow a win.These reports have been intermittently coming in for well over a year in places like Bakhmut and elsewhere as a means to promote more western funding "Ukraine could lose if western money dries up" etc. They've been in a deficit for the past six months as Congress waivered on new funding and haven't lost any significant ground in the process. If they lose a major big city, then that would be significant. In the absence of that, we're still stuck in a largely frozen conflict where neither side are making significant gains.
So instead of occupation they would install their government in Kiev and let some small part of Ukraine to exist. All right, thats a big difference. I must correct you too, its not a war but a special militaty operation how Putin calls it. You're an expert on Russia goals after all.You don't "occupy" Ukraine with a column of tanks heading to Kiev and 180,000 troops coming over the border. That's how you attempt to make the Zelenskiy government flee. It didn't work. It was a major miscalculation. But the aim - to overthrow the Zelenskiy government - remains as one of the 4 goals of the war. "Occupation" of Ukraine is an absurd and literally impossible idea, do you even understand what that would entail?
