Off course it's Kiev, therein lies the nation's governance. Cripple that you practically win the war (at least short term wise)
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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Off course it's Kiev, therein lies the nation's governance. Cripple that you practically win the war (at least short term wise)
For every citizen on this planet who wants prosperity and peace.
Then American mindset has to change.
Did they really think they can capture Kiev?
It’s one thing to see the troop buildup, another to pre-empt Putin’s actions exactly to such extend that Putin has had to improvise.
Could be, and that's probably why Putin called it a 'special operation'. Because occupying a big country like Ukraine won't be easy, so makes sense to just go for the head and the rest would largely collapse. Russia did test the waters though on the first day and tried to invade with half-hearted efforts from the south and the north, but it only seem to have had good success in the South, as they met some resistance in Kharkiv.
I have to say there are flaws in this rather optimistic point of view. Here are the reasons why many don't see any optimism for Taiwan unless Russia gets a very bad bloody nose in this conflict.
- Taiwan is the home of the remnants of the CCP's mortal enemies from before and after WW2. It's natural that the CPP would love to finish the job, especially when they have developed military capabilities to do so. And besides, Formosa (Taiwan's former name) was never in control of the CCP because of its Japanese colonial past prior to the Chinese Nationalists moving their government there.
- The prospect of controlling the entire semiconductor market by getting rid of Taiwanese control is very appealing as the world remains overdependent on TSMC.
- The only country that seems interested to send troops in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is Japan, but they are also stuck like Germany is towards Russia with the economy. Unless Japan decouples itself from China further, we have to consider that any military help would be extremely limited because of that mess called Article 9.
- China has a massive military industrial complex that begs for their products to be used on the battlefield and thus more money to come in for them in return. If Taiwan is not a perfect potential live testing ground for that weaponry while so close to home, why would anyone think they would first use that hrdware further away first?
- The exact words that Putin has used to describe Ukraine are perfectly in line with the CCP's stance on Taiwan. You would think that someone has been sharing forms of speech for both sides here.
- Last but not least, the rather weak reaction from the West so far will embolden the CCP down the road unless Ukraine itself resists the invasion to great effect.
Attaboy Russia, you fecking morons. I don't I've seen anything in history that was as dumb as this for a so-called strategic move. Furthermore, have those idiots not seen or read about how much had to be done to even contain the contamination in the first place?
Google Earth isnt real time.
This must be very familiar for Kostov. All the bombs raining down and anti aircraft and people getting killed.
This whole thing is unreal. Not only is there war in Europe in 2022, but we're watching live 24 hour coverage on social media. Seeing a conflict play out in ways that we've never had such access to before.
It's horrifying, like a bad dream. Most people are sheltered from war in the decadent west, we hear reports about it in far away lands and brush the awful reality under the carpet. Seeing developed, modern countries involved in a direct conflict, seeing western cities on fire, planes being shot down in the sky, it's absolutely unreal. I can't imagine what it must be like for those directly affected.
It's horrifying, like a bad dream. Most people are sheltered from war in the decadent west, we hear reports about it in far away lands and brush the awful reality under the carpet. Seeing developed, modern countries involved in a direct conflict, seeing western cities on fire, planes being shot down in the sky, it's absolutely unreal. I can't imagine what it must be like for those directly affected.
They have the analyst on CIA and pentagon. A full scale invasion like this would surely be analized to the nth degree, most of the scenarios and options are mapped. But I suspect some of the high profile "bugs" are in place somewhere within putin's circle.
Maybe, but the capabilities to see is there. Real time satellite images aren't exactly state of the art.
Money talks in this world; if Putin is ousted, I believe oligarchs will exert control over things again. The world will carry on trading and money will still accumulate with only a few.
If Putin falls, so will his stooge oligarchs and Russia will go democratic.
This could actually be this...
EDIT: Still conflicting reports about it (the Ukrainians seem to have claimed they downed it before the CNN report), but this is what CNN is reporting now.
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Would be good and poetic if it were a gay couple like the Greek tyrant killers Harmodius and Aristogeiton that did the deed
Not likely thoughDo the Russians even have resources to apply the shock & awe strategy a country the size Ukraine? It would probably bankrupt Russia, those weapons cost an absolute mind boggling fortune, how would you even finance their replacements?
I think it’s ridiculous to compare Iraq to the Ukraine. I’m not condoning the Iraq invasion for one second, that’s left a nasty stain on the US and UK. Iraq or even Bin Laden are completely different realities to the Ukraine. Ukraine is a first world democratic sovereign country that’s been under attack for 8 years simply because the Ukraine wants to be able to choose their own future.
good one!
What else would it do ? Putin would be gone and the masses, most of which are interested in greater freedoms would eventually form a new government and hold democratic elections.
Look, I know nothing about tactis and such.
I was only wondering about them attacking from everywhere, in the beginning. (Does not make too much sense for me because you will get held up at various places ... like the Americans in Falludscha.)
Now, we see bombings in Kiev - and I was just wondering. They might just try to get to Zelenski`?
Come on Raoul, how many have times have we seen this already? Iraq? Libya? Afghanistan? Egypt? Not all people in the world think the same way you think. And it seems to me that you seriously underestimate the support for Putin inside Russia.
I hope you're right but I don't know if it's really that simple. Various Russian governments have ruled autocratically for decades, centuries even. Or at at the very least since Stalin and arguably since Lenin. Before that, Tsar Nicholas II was absolutely an autocrat as were his forebears. There have been many changes of the guard, even two complete changes of doctrine twice in the last 105 years (imperialism to communism to capitalism) - but the police state has always survived, political dissent has never been allowed and fear and mistrust of the west appears to be the norm in ruling circles.
There remains the possibility that younger generations, connected to the west with social media, more liberal and less nationalistic, will spark a change when Putin has gone. It really depends on how much of a grip the establishment still has by that time.
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That's like expecting the next US president to be peace loving
That's not a valid argument I'm afraid. You have to look at conditions in each country on an individual basis. Russia has a pretty solid pro-democracy, anti-corruption movement as promulgated by the likes of Navalny. Most Russians are below the age of 40 and don't remember the swingin' Soviet days. They want freedom and democracy so they can build better lives for themselves and their families, just like a vast majority of humans around the planet.
They took out Ukraine’s major sea ports and began pincer moves on multiple fronts to try and isolate major Ukrainian cities.
It’s honestly reminiscent of…
What an absolute legend
"No way the next republican US president will be worse than George Bush"...
From a body count perspective this is true, so we’ll call it a tie.
So let me get this straight. Russia doesn't want a large border next to NATO so they invade the country separating them to actually then bring themselves directly to the border with NATO.
A bit of context they left out is that Kherson is known for its fields of endless sunflowers
no man, they all own Russia. Generations sorted by proxy. It’s been very well fixed. The people are genuinely the last hope for Russia (or America)
Erm... some pretty horrible european wars happened in the 90's...
No the idea is to have UKR as a buffer client state, not to add more territory.
Correct.
Although Putin would like to not only take Ukraine, but also foment trouble in eastern Europe with the intention of pushing NATO back to its pre-1997 border before the former eastern block Soviet states joined NATO.
Putin has said in interviews before that he believes the greatest tragedy to befall Russia was the fall of the soviet union. Not because hes a communist, but due to Russia losing superpower status and control over Europe. Russia can bully each small state individually and threaten invasion to control governments. But what happens when a small state joins regional powers and a superpower in mutual defence? How well do threats work? Not well.
The exact same thing was said about the other countries though.
They won't annex Ukraine, well at least not all of it.
But no world wars IIRC