The most delightfully useless bit of info I've come across this year!
Love it!Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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Love it!Read this yesterday. Even as a college student, I thought realism was overly simplistic and dumb. Mearsheimer looks like a moron from that interview (accepting an interview with Isaac Chotiner thinking thinking he'd look great in it proves he's a moron).
Read a suggestion to deny Russia coffee and cigarettes, have to say it’s a great idea, if possible.
If this is true, that's impressive as hell.
Tbf, I don't think too many people actually understand what it means to call and enforce a NFZ. People think it's just something you announce and suddenly no one flies over it
They'll go nuclear over this
This is the only video on YouTube with “Ukraine” and “fault” in it, gone from 7 million views when it was first posted in this thread to 15 now.
He seems to feel that Russia should be allowed to control the Eastern Hemisphere the way the US controls the Western, i.e. no one else’s soldiers are allowed in the Americas (besides locals and the US).
And since Russia can’t defend its southern plains effectively they should be allowed to control Ukraine.
Made sense in the USSR, not any more.
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Am I wrong to be shocked that Russia still hasn’t taken Kiev at this point?
Naah, think everyone's been pleasantly surprised by the Ukrainian fightback. If he survives, zelensky is set to become an absolute legend. Even if he doesn't tbf but always better if he does
At this point I'm afraid Putin will escalate this war up to the point before nuclear weapons, in an attempt to hasten Ukraine's downfall.
Western nations are already doing everything they can to damage Russia. The sactions and cost of waging the war will escalate as this crisis continues, which means it's not in Putin's interest to prolong this war.
Putin will have to quash unrest at home as well, which means martial law, more crackdown on liberties, and ultimately more suffering for the Russian people.
Also shoutout to the Belarusian people who are taken hostage by their own dictator figure Lukashenko, alienating themselves from the world and suffering as a result.
Western nations are already doing everything they can to damage Russia. The sactions and cost of waging the war will escalate as this crisis continues, which means it's not in Putin's interest to prolong this war.
Putin will have to quash unrest at home as well, which means martial law, more crackdown on liberties, and ultimately more suffering for the Russian people.
Also shoutout to the Belarusian people who are taken hostage by their own dictator figure Lukashenko, alienating themselves from the world and suffering as a result.
The cost for Russia will remain, even if Putin wins the war.
"Monstrous Provocation": Russia Claims Attack On Nuclear Plant By Ukrainians
Russia's defence ministry on Friday blamed an attack at the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Ukrainian saboteurs, calling it a monstrous provocation.
Ukraine has said Russian forces attacked the plant in the early hours of Friday, setting an adjacent five-storey training facility on fire, in an incident that provoked international condemnation of Moscow, a week into its invasion of Ukraine.
A Russian defence ministry spokesman said the nuclear plant was operating normally and the area had been under Russian control since Feb. 28.
"However, last night on the territory adjacent to the power plant, an attempt was made by the Kyiv nationalist regime to carry out a monstrous provocation," spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted as saying.
He said that a Russian national guard patrol was attacked by a Ukrainian sabotage group on the territory adjacent to the plant.
The Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson stated that Ukrainian claims of the attack on Zaporizhzhia coming from Moscow were an "attempt to blame Russia for causing a radioactive hotbed". He said the shelling of the plant was a "lie".
I think if he gets assassinated or killed during fighting, he will be hailed as an international hero for generations to come, like some modern Garabaldi or even Che type figure, the enduring image being his first salute to the EU.
Almost like he has to die to become that martyr!
Hoping he survives this however, the world needs more leaders like him.
Probably, at least since the first night when it felt like Ukraine might fall in hours. It became very clear quite quickly than Russia sending missiles all over the country in those opening exchanges was all about shock and awe, rather than an indication of how quickly they could cover large areas of Ukraine.
Kyiv is a huge city, one of Europe’s biggest, it will always be a long siege if it falls. Destroying it will be easier option than controlling it.
Kofman wants people to be a bit more realistic. Russia becoming a spent force, even in weeks, doesn’t mean this really ends with a glorious Ukrainian victory.
You shouldn't be shocked. Anybody who was confident this would be done quickly wasn't paying attention to the history. Mainly Yugoslav wars as last european conflict. Plenty of sieges there that went on for months and years. Ofcourse this isn't completely the same, but I believe when defending the one key resource is morale. It can significantly drive manpower, as we are seeing right now. Equipment, resources and food is also important but strong morale will keep you going even when they are low. But that is not an issue for Ukraine as yhey get supplied by west. Low morale OTOH, well we are seeing how Russians are performing.
Of course there was always a chance Russia would steamroll. They still might kick up a gear and overwhelm eastern ukraine. They've been advancing in south east, perhaps just slower than expected.
An excuse for killing civilians when the ceasefire ends essentially (if it ever even started?)
“We warned you” and all that crap
Well it took the US/UK 3 weeks to take Baghdad. It's the media that controls the narrative so they are playing it hard that Russia is struggling, the same media at that time weren't saying that the US/UK coalition were struggling (although I'm sure Iraqi state media was!).
You'd figure given how we're being told Russia is so shit at this war thing that the EU would be less fearful about attacking them. They might throw a nuclear bomb on themselves.
This is a massive fecking army, they'll take over eventually. The EU won't do anything, that's the sad reality, I just hope the Ukrainians don't let them sleep easy for the time they are there.
When did Marco Rubio become the IndyKaila of the crisis?
The US/UK taking of Baghdad is in no way comparable to this. Baghdad was on the other side of the world while Kyiv is only 200km from the Russian border, and even closer from the Belarussian.
The fact that the Russian army is not able to supply their troops with fuel and food while being that close to home shows how badly run they are.
You cant compare the size of the Ukrainian military with that of Saddam's military. Iraq had a lot more tanks, planes and soldiers -- a lot who were battle-harden from its previous conflicts.
Big diff.
Do you think the USA/UK were just supplying troops to Iraq directly from their countries for that conflict?
Think it should be clear by now that this cartoonish view of the Russian military as some incredible shadow force is nonsense (which makes sense with an economy smaller than Italy's). They've suffered a lot of (very satisfying) reverses but think it's kind of stemmed from a media led impression as well beforehand that Russian tanks would still be able to roll across Eastern Europe in no time. Which goes with this view of the Russian military above.
Baghdad is over 600km away from Kuwait, Kyiv is 90km away from Belarus. So of course it would take longer to reach Baghdad.
US and their allies lost 172 soldiers (and around 20 Kurtish allies but they were not under their command) to overthrow Sadam. Russia has already lost a few thousand soldiers in this.
I think that the US lost 4 tanks and 8 aircraft during the invasion. Russia has lost hundreds of tanks (for more than 80 there is photo evidence) and likely a few dozen aircrafts.
Never ceases to amaze me how often governments / organisations / companies make really unpopular or morally bankrupt decisions only to reverse that decision when uproar ensues to end up doing what they should have done in the first place with their reputation having taken a knock.
The number of (old) tanks, planes and soldiers means absolutely nothing when you're being peppered from the sky constantly by the world's most advanced air force and missile battery.
It's of course silly to compare anyway because a) Russia is, without nukes, a middle power and America is a hyperpower and b) because Ukraines military is probably in a better shape than the Iraqi military was in 2003.
Either way, Russia have lost a lot more already (I imagine partly because the imbalance of forces is much less) and hopefully this causes a rethink from the Russian inner circle.
Putin wants a Soviet Union version 2
He might get a North Korea version 2
He might get a North Korea version 2
I think they thought they could invade Ukraine on the cheap -- a bit like the Cheney doctrine. The problem will be how will they hold the cities? They will need a lot more than the 190-200k troops they have utilised. Too thinly stretched out then they just get picked off during the next phase, insurgency. Then the body bags start to pile up for Putin.
In parallel, can Putin afford a sustained war? How will he pay for it all in view of all the financial restrictions. He will really have to pick his poison in a few months time.
Time is what the Ukraininans need. They need to buy time.
Presume this has been shared already? Crazy footage.
Baghdad is right in the middle of the country. It took 2 weeks to get there across desert and 4 days to take it once they'd arrived. At no point were the US forces significantly slowed down in their advances and they took less than 200 casualties in the whole campaign. Its nothing like the Russians stalled outside Kyiv.
This looks so fake? But claimed to be the downing by Ukraine.My first thought was fake...but i think i'm being duped by the high quality of the video?
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My first thought was fake...but i think i'm being duped by the high quality of the video?
In your opinion, what exactly looks fake about this video? I am by no means an expert, but to me, it looks real.
My first thought was fake...but i think i'm being duped by the high quality of the video?
Looks real enough to me.
Just keep supplying the Ukrainians with Javelins and Stingers, and they can make this extremely difficult for the Russians.
The smoke was my first thought, however that's what i mean by the good quality is throwing me. First thought was fake, but then i thought the HQ nature of it was just messing with my brain and is probably real
Yep, difficult to know whether Putin genuinely miscalculated so significantly or what we're hearing is slightly exaggerated in terms of Russian war aims. One of the major long term problems of dictatorships, especially ones based on one man, is that they inevitably surround themselves with yes men and discard of those who disagree.
So I can genuinely believe that Putin thought he'd be welcomed into Ukraine as liberators, I can believe that he genuinely thinks he's there to 'denazify' Ukraine. God knows what he's thinking now. Probably that he would have taken the country already if it wasn't for the pesky West.
Don't see how this can be a sustained operation for them to be honest.
The smoke was my first thought, however that's what i mean by the good quality is throwing me. First thought was fake, but then i thought the HQ nature of it was just messing with my brain and is probably real
yeah, the quality is absolutely insane, that's true. If it's a fake, it's one of the best I've ever seen - and while it's reasonable to have doubts seeing such footage in this quality, I think it actually is real.
What we should never forget when watching this combat footage, that every human death is a tragedy and although one might cheer for the Ukrainians to be able to prolongue this war and showing what they are capable of, human beings were unnecessarily killed. Those soldiers have mothers, fathers, children, grandfathers, friends...ripped from their earthly existence. In the matter of seconds, for nothing.
I understand the reality of war and I am obviously pro Ukraine in this conflict, but even in the anonymity of such videos we must not forget the individuals on either side. It's incredibly sad.
War is hell.