Ukraine war mega thread

[bsnub]

Just amazed that you also were a Vlad fan.

You weren't alone on TD and it always amazed me how gullible people are.


Have you got it right this time ?

Why do you persist in being a garbage poster here? When was the last time you posted anything of value here? Herman was calling out Sabang for posting fake propaganda, and you show up like some low hanging turd backing him up.

Interestingly enough, I am listening to a man on a webcast who has an apartment on the square in Prague where the two protests took place. His description of both is startling, and the contrast he draws between the two is revealing. The first, a small gathering of weirdos who clearly came from outside of Prague and the second much larger response in support of Ukraine was an outpouring of local people disgusted by what they saw the day before.

The link I posted above shows one of the local protesters speaking at the second protest. You should watch it, you may actually learn something about humanity. Clearly you need a lesson.

[helge]

You should watch it, you may actually learn something about humanity.

You know what ?

You americans have actually learned me all I need to know about humanity.

Proud ?

[bsnub]

You know what ?

You americans have actually learned me all I need to know about humanity.

Proud ?

Another valued contribution from a grovelling sad Putin apologist. Your petty resentment is noted. Slava Ukraini.

[panama hat]

The West should listen to Putin and pursue dialogue

By the Global Times.

How about Putin ends his invasion and stop murdering tens of thousands, or does that not fit the narrative?

As for EU and NATO Czechia is one of the main beneficiaries and those amongst us I believe as a young shaver PH and me recall the bad old days of communist Prague.

The love for Russia/ns can be seen by the unwavering support Moscow is getting from former Warsaw-Pact nations.

That really says it all.

[david44]

The love for Russia/ns can be seen by the unwavering support Moscow is getting from former Warsaw-Pact nations

[HermantheGerman]

Nah

Just amazed that you also were a Vlad fan.

You weren't alone on TD and it always amazed me how gullible people are.


Have you got it right this time ?

Doing what you do best "Lurking & Burping".
I guess since you have no opinion your are always right.

[sabang]

The proxy war between the U.S. and Russia is devastating Ukraine, ironically in the name of saving Ukraine.




JEFFREY D. SACHS
October 30, 2022


President Joe Biden is undermining his party’s Congressional prospects through a deeply flawed foreign policy. Biden believes that America’s global reputation is at stake in the Ukraine War and has consistently rejected a diplomatic off-ramp. The Ukraine War, combined with the administration’s disruptions of economic relations with China, is aggravating the stagflation that will likely deliver one or both houses of Congress to the Republicans. Far worse, Biden’s dismissal of diplomacy prolongs the destruction of Ukraine and threatens nuclear war.

.... The U.S. and Ukraine should accept three absolutely reasonable terms to end the war: Ukraine’s military neutrality; Russia’s de facto hold on Crimea, home to its Black Sea naval fleet since 1783; and a negotiated autonomy for the ethnic-Russian regions, as was called for in the Minsk Agreements but which Ukraine failed to implement.

Instead of this kind of sensible outcome, the Biden Administration has repeatedly told Ukraine to fight on. It poured cold water on the negotiations in March, when Ukrainians were contemplating a negotiated end to the war but instead walked away from the negotiating table. Ukraine is suffering grievously as a result, with its cities and infrastructure reduced to rubble, and tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers dying in the ensuing battles. For all of NATO’s vaunted weaponry, Russia has recently destroyed up to half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

In the meantime, the U.S.-led trade and financial sanctions against Russia have boomeranged. With the cutoff of Russian energy flows, Europe is in a deep economic crisis, with adverse spillovers to the U.S. economy. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline further deepened Europe’s crisis. According to Russia, this was done by UK operatives, but almost certainly with U.S. participation. Let us recall that in February, Biden said that if Russia invades Ukraine, “We will bring an end to it [Nord Stream].” “I promise you,” said Biden, “we will be able to do it.”

Biden’s flawed foreign policy has also brought about what generations of foreign policy strategists from Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski warned against: driving Russia and China into a firm embrace. He has done that by dramatically escalating the cold war with China at precisely the same time as he is pursuing the hot war with Russia.


FULL- Opinion | Biden's Foreign Policy Is Sinking the Congressional Dems—and Ukraine | Jeffrey D. Sachs

[bsnub]

So Sabang wheels out his clown car again to post an opinion piece from a known Chinese shill and Covid conspiracy theorist. So more crap onto the pile.

[sabang]

^Yawwwn.

In 2004 and 2005, Sachs was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time. He was also named one of the "500 Most Influential People in the Field of Foreign Policy" by the World Affairs Councils of America.^[74]

In 1993, the New York Times called Sachs "probably the most important economist in the world."^[24] In 2005, Sachs received the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honor bestowed by the government of India.^[75] Also in 2007, he received the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution International Advocate for Peace Award and the Centennial Medal from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for his contributions to society.^[28]

In 2007, Sachs received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.^[76]

And so on-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs

[russellsimpson]

He has done that by dramatically escalating the cold war with China at precisely the same time as he is pursuing the hot war with Russia.

Yes. It bogles the mind . I was shocked when Blinken gave his Chinese counterpart that seriously rude and aggressive treatment at the gathering in Anchorage. Why to prolong this costly proxy war? Who's winning anything?

.. The U.S. and Ukraine should accept three absolutely reasonable terms to end the war: Ukraine’s military neutrality; Russia’s de facto hold on Crimea, home to its Black Sea naval fleet since 1783; and a negotiated autonomy for the ethnic-Russian regions, as was called for in the Minsk Agreements but which Ukraine failed to implement.

Sounds like a good place to start!

[sabang]

[panama hat]

Oh Dear.....

Why "oh dear"? It's his opinion. It's as valid as yours . . . well . . .

[Norton]

Wonder how long it will be until Vlad realizes desperation bombing civilians into submission simply doesn't work. As Adolf found out all it does is strengthen folks will to resist.

For our US bad Russia good friends in the doors here. Did you ever wonder what the world would look like if the US had not entered WW2? Would be a hell of a lot more folks speaking German and Japanese I reckon.

[panama hat]

Would be a hell of a lot more folks speaking German and Japanese I reckon.

Yea, probably not a bad thing really. Well, the language thing only, of course.

[sabang]

Did you ever wonder what the world would look like if the US had not entered WW2? Would be a hell of a lot more folks speaking German and Japanese I reckon.

Actually I reckon the Germans would be speaking Russian.

[Norton]

Actually I reckon the Germans would be speaking Russian.

Perhaps not if the US had not conducted another proxy war.

Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today's currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the “enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy — bloodthirsty Hitlerism.”

[bsnub]

Actually I reckon the Germans would be speaking Russian.

You as usual prove to be utterly clueless. If the US did not extend lend lease to Russia in WW2, Russia would have undoubtably lost the war. Not a surprise that a shill like yourself would be ignorant of that reality.

Norton was right, and you are completely clueless as usual.

[harrybarracuda]

Jeffrey Sachs - Wikipedia

If you want to know why sabang knocks one out to this guy:

During a January 2021 interview, despite the interviewer's repeated prompting, Sachs evaded questions about China's repression of Uyghur people and resorted to whataboutism by alluding to "huge human rights abuses committed by the U.S.

Who else do we know who does that shit?

*cough*wanketeers*cough*

[harrybarracuda]

Actually I reckon the Germans would be speaking Russian.

Fucking hell, how clueless are you?

[sabang]

"Clueless" enough to know that Lend Lease was far less critical to the Russian war effort, than the British. See the numbers below (tiny Britain received nearly treble the Lend Lease than Russia), but Russia had far more men under arms than Britain, and more Germans died in Russia during WW2 than the whole rest of the war combined, including in Germany.

A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $690 billion in 2020) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.^[2] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union,

Lend-Lease - Wikipedia


No cigar.

[misskit]

Syrians and Ukrainians share the same enemy

An enemy who has displayed complete disregard for civilian lives. An enemy who seeks to kill and destroy, to terrorise civilians and break their spirits.


On July 22, Russian warplanes attacked a poultry farm in Aljadida village in Idlib province, northern Syria. Seven civilians were killed, including four children. The injured were rushed to the hospital by my colleagues in the White Helmets, Syria’s civil defence team.

In more than eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the world has witnessed the same atrocities that Syrians have experienced — the indiscriminate bombardment of cities and the deliberate executions of civilians.


During the first few weeks of the invasion, we Syrians watched the news terrified, knowing full well what Putin is capable of. But we also felt a glimmer of hope. The whole world came together to take a stand against Putin and show solidarity with Ukrainians.


I wanted to believe that Putin’s war would be stopped. I never imagined that, instead, the horrors would continue to unfold with no end in sight.


Over the years, Syrians have documented and provided extensive evidence of crimes and violations, but our calls on the international community to take real action toward accountability were met with silence.


And it resulted in what is happening today in Ukraine. The failure to hold Putin accountable over the atrocities in Syria helped embolden him to attack and invade another country, a neighbouring country.


I want to tell the civil defence teams in Ukraine: “Stay strong, your work is valuable and you are on the right side of history.”


We in the White Helmets rush to pull civilians from under the rubble, evacuate the injured to hospitals and ease the suffering of displaced families living under the hardest of circumstances.

On one of the cruellest days of my life, I had to carry the body of a little girl I found beneath the wreckage of a destroyed home — she died alone after losing most of her family to the bombing. I kept her in my arms at the hospital until her relatives identified her.


We have been targeted by double-tap strikes — warplanes would retarget an area they just bombed in order to kill the first responders who had arrived on the scene to save lives and document evidence of war crimes. The White Helmets were also the targets of a Russia-backed online disinformation campaign trying to distort the truth about Syria with vicious lies.


As we approach seven months since the invasion of Ukraine, I think about the millions of people who were forced out of their homes, the cities burned to the ground, hundreds of schools and hospitals targeted with bombs. It feels like watching the last 11 years of Syria’s history condensed into six months.


We’ve lost our homes, hospitals and our kids’ schools to the Russian bombs. And now we have seen the same thing happening to Ukrainians. It’s heart-breaking.


I want to tell Ukrainian civilians that I share their suffering. I feel their despair and agony. I understand how hard it is.

World leaders must use all the leverage they have to pressure Putin to stop the horrors he has inflicted on Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere. Our children deserve to have a peaceful life. We are dreaming of the day we can wake up in the morning to enjoy a cup of coffee without worrying about losing a loved one to a bombing or a warplane.


This is what our life is like today. We worry every morning because the Russian warplanes are still roaming in our sky.

Новая газета. Европа

[misskit]

The Kremlin mocks the ‘freezing Europe’ while Russia spends billions of rubles on firewood to heat up schools and hospitals.

Vladimir Putin and Alyaksandar Lukashenka troll Europeans who are forced to buy firewood due to the lack of Russia’s gas “like in the Middle Ages.” Both, however, seem to leave behind the fact that many Russia’s regions still use firewood for heating. The authorities spend over 3 billion rubles (€49,7 million) on firewood each year to heat state institutions, including schools and hospitals. That said, in Russia the price of firewood, compared to the average wage level, is higher than in Germany.

This wooden building is a rural hospital in Borodino, the Moscow region, a two-hour drive away from the Kremlin. Eight cubic metres of birch firewood were purchased in September 2022 to heat it.


The Mozhaysk Central District Hospital buys firewood for the Borodino hospital, same as for 4 other health facilities in the same district. It spent a total of 800,000 rubles (€13,000) on firewood this year.


“People have started to stock up firewood for the winter, just like in the Middle Ages,” Vladimir Putin said in surprise on 12 October during this year’s Russian Energy Week event. “The reason is not the special military operation in Ukraine and Donbas, absolutely not. This is the result of the poor energy policy that had been in place for years.”


Putin did not sympathise Russians, those were “ordinary Europeans” he spoke about.


Taking cue from Putin, Alyaksandar Lukashenka prepared some drollery regarding the energy crisis as he chopped some firewood for Europe.

Rossotrudnichestvo, Russia’s agency for cultural exchange abroad, launched a campaign called “From Russia with Warmth”, inviting Europeans to their branch offices, Russian Houses, to “warm themselves for a while, drink a cup of tea and charge their cell phones.”


Firewood empire


Putin’s words about the Middle Ages are not irony but post-irony for those who know that entire regions of Russia permanently use coal and firewood for heating.


Russia has already spent 3.6 billion rubles (€58.5 million) on firewood this year, and this figure is most likely to surpass 4 billion by the end of the year.


The most frequent buyers are boiler station operators: they use wood to heat up people’s homes, spending a total of 2.1 billion this year (€34.4 million). Second to them are various state institutions, such as farming enterprises or the Russian Railways, who spent almost 450 million (€7.4 million).


Firewood is still used in Russia to heat up schools, kindergartens, and even hospitals countrywide. For instance, the republican vets hospital in Buryatia, the region which is among those that lost most men in the Ukraine War, is heated by firewood, same as the city hospital in Irbit, the region of Yekaterinburg. Hospitals in the regions of Tver and Saint Petersburg, European Russia, use firewood, too.

Governments in Russia’s settlements, also buy firewood for their own needs and or provide it to locals. Moreover, people who live in houses heated by firewood have plots of woodland where they are allowed chop wood themselves, and low-income families receive monetary aid for buying wood.


Firewood is also being handed out to families where all men have been mobilised, up to 10 cubic metres of firewood per family. However, receiving those becomes challenging at times.


Dreams come cruel


Surprisingly, the residents of Berlin and Russia’s Ulan-Ude faced similar problems this autumn. The shutdown of the Nord Stream pipeline caused the price of firewood to rise by 86% in Germany this year. Russia’s Buryatia which never had gas infrastructure anyway suffered a price surge of “just” 25%.


Notably, firewood is much more affordable for Germans than for the residents of Buryatia. A cubic metre of firewood costs about 9,000 rubles (€150) in Germany. The average monthly salary there is €4,100, or 27 cubic metres of firewood. Buryatia’s firewood is way cheaper: 2,900 rubles (€47.5) per cubic metre, however, the average income there is 33,000 rubles (€540), enough to buy 11.5 cubic metres.


The official statistics say that 12% of Russia’s homes have no heating systems, i.e., are heated by firewood or electric heaters which are not considered heating systems. Almost half of residents in Russia’s Chita region and Buryatia use firewood to heat up their homes (45–46%), as well as one third of the population in the region of Arkhangelsk and the annexed city of Sevastopol.


Regions in Central Russia also have heating issues. There are no warm radiators in almost one third of housing in the regions of Veliky Novgorod, Tver, and Pskov (the official stats count living space, not the number of apartments).


In nine Russia’s regions, less than 5% of all households have gas supply

Russia’s gas infrastructure expansion programme was launched in 2005. The plan was to supply each Russian village with gas in 10 years, until 2015.


The programme was extended to 2030 in 2019, the new proportion of settlements planned to be supplied with gas dropping from 100 to 85%. Novaya Gazeta gave an insight into why this happened and whether full gasification of the country was rational at all back in the day.


It needs to be noted that the programme bogged down drastically in 2008. Before 2007, the proportion of households with gas supply increased by an average 1.7% annually; from 2008 onwards, this number stands at around 0.7% each year.

One of the main reasons behind the low rates of gas infrastructure expansion was enabling Gazprom to have monopoly on Russia’s gas exports. It was planned that the gas giant would spend excess exports profit to connect distant settlements to the gas grid, but in reality, the money was invested into foreign infrastructure instead.


Gazprom’s export bonus was 2.1 trillion rubles (€34.27 billion) in the 2015-2020 period, but only one tenth of this amount was spent on Russia’s gas infrastructure expansion, about 209 billion (€3,41 billion), as per Vedomosti.


This means that Gazprom first constructed the Nord Stream pipelines, as well as the Blue Stream and TurkStream ones, at the expense of domestic consumers, and then, becoming a tool in the gas wars, lost its European market, too.


Will Europe freeze?


Russia’s gas supply to Europe finally became a tool in warfare since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Russia started shutting off gas valves for Europe in 2021, before ultimately stopping the Nord Stream operation in August 2022. This caused its gas exports to the countries outside the former Soviet Union to decrease by 40% this year. Russia’s share of the European gas market collapsed from 40 to 7.5%.


The Eastern European countries, such as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, as well as Germany are most dependent on Russia’s gas supply, not the Western European ones. These countries imported over 65% of its gas from Russia in 2020, heating more than a half of their households with it.

In these circumstances Europe started looking for an alternative to Russia’s supplies, and it did find one. The EU is now increasing its imports of liquefied natural gas. This commodity can be transported by fuel tankers. Russia is being replaced by the US and the UK. Great Britain imports the liquefied gas and then supplies it to the EU, using pipelines.


Moreover, the EU is rescheduling the closure of its nuclear power stations and is ramping up the production and usage of coal and firewood. The latter was commonly used for heating even before the Ukraine War, for instance, in Latvia and Hungary. However, the energy crisis forced even the middle-class Berlin residents to sweep their chimneys and to bring their old wood stoves into shape, preparing for potential heating supply issues.


Europe has managed to prepare for the upcoming winter overall thanks to reduced consumption and energy sources diversification. Germany’s gas reservoirs are 95% full, Italy’s ones are 93% full. The gas prices are spiralling downward.

Новая газета. Европа

[panama hat]

Actually I reckon the Germans would be speaking Russian.

You reckon shit . . . and have far too much faith in your fascist/communist heroes.

[harrybarracuda]

"Clueless" enough to know that Lend Lease was far less critical to the Russian war effort, than the British. See the numbers below (tiny Britain received nearly treble the Lend Lease than Russia), but Russia had far more men under arms than Britain, and more Germans died in Russia during WW2 than the whole rest of the war combined, including in Germany.

Lend-Lease - Wikipedia


No cigar.

It's like they didn't teach history at all at the approved school this bloke attended.

[bsnub]

"Clueless" enough to know that Lend Lease was far less critical to the Russian war effort, than the British.

Good job, Einstein, you just made a claim that would be contrary to the opinion of almost every credible WW2 historian on the planet. Your comment is beyond idiotic. Time and time again in this thread you have shown an egregious lack of historical, strategic and tactical knowledge, but this just about takes the cake.

An epic display of stupid if I ever saw one. Especially from someone who claims to be a former naval officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

It's like they didn't teach history at all at the approved school this bloke attended.

It is startling that someone of his alleged educational level could be so stunningly stupid.