Ukraine war mega thread

[russellsimpson]

100,00 is way high. And 20,000 on the civilian deaths seems high but not on the scale of the first.

I never thought Russia would ever invade and I never for a moment thought we would ever be talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea.

Clearly if the Ukrainian's are able to come by longer range missiles they may well challenge for Crimea although I can't help but think that by that time the Russians will have had totally used up their arsenal and will becomming desperate. I would still very much prefer for western leaders to force Ukraine to the bargaining table before more innocent blood is spilled.

The rational west is sick and tired of this.

[helge]

This is what happens when you get a trading block that thinks its a political organisation

Well; I didn't vote for the woman

Merkel did, if I remember correctly.

Still she is more man than Stoltenberg

[helge]

The rational west is sick and tired of this.

Common people are.

I have a neighbor, who is a socialdemocrat party soldier..

Only one I know who is blabbering the "Ukraine good" mantra.

Otherwise everybody has a nuanced view of this disaster

[misskit]

Biden 'prepared' to talk with Putin if serious about ending war in Ukraine

President Joe Biden said Thursday he's open to talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin about bringing an end to the war in Ukraine but only if the Russian leader is serious about peace negotiations.


"The fact of the matter is I have no immediate plans to contact Mr. Putin," Biden told reporters as he stood alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a joint news conference.


"I'm prepared to speak with Mr. Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he's looking for a way to end the war," Biden said. "He hasn't done that yet. If that's the case, in consultation with my French and my NATO friends, I'll be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he wants, has in mind. He hasn't done that yet."


Biden and Macron pledged to work together to hold Russia accountable and mitigate the war's impact on the rest of the world.


"We'll continue the strong support for the people of Ukraine as they defend their homes and families and their sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russian aggression, which has been incredibly brutal," Biden said. "I knew Russia was, but didn't anticipate it to be as brutal as it was."

MORE Biden '''prepared''' to talk with Putin if serious about ending war in Ukraine - ABC News

[bsnub]

I would still very much prefer for western leaders to force Ukraine to the bargaining table before more innocent blood is spilled.

The rational west is sick and tired of this.

Sounds great! Ukraine should lay down like a bitch and surrender their sovereign territory because the "rational west" whoever that is happens to be sick and tired. I will tell you who is sick and tired, it is the Ukrainians who are fighting every day for their very existence and freedom.

Ukraine has Russia on the ropes. The US and the truly rational intend to let them land the knockout punch and finish the job.

Take your wobbly kneed appeasement cowardice elsewhere.

[helge]

I'll be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he wants, has in mind.

Ouch

Spin or Zelesky will be fuming by now

[Switch]

Russia started a war based on fear of NATXoe involvement. Russia happily promoted such fear as an excuse for the pre-emotive attack on Ukraine.

It is interesting that Putin has been forced to deploy the tactic of starving Ukraine of energy resources in winter.
Anotiher mistake, and if the Russians think this will work against Ukrainian military and civilians, Putin is getting even more desperate for some kind of win.

Such desperation, and overconfidence was Russias downfall from the start, back in February. It seems the Russians have learned nothing!

[helge]

I will tell you who is sick and tired, it is the Ukrainians who are fighting every day for their very existence and freedom.

Ofcourse
We can't even imagine it

Ukraine has Russia on the ropes. The US and the truly rational intend to let them land the knockout punch.

And how will that play out and how do you know ?

[bsnub]

It seems the Russians have learned nothing!

They never do.

And how will that play out and how do you know ?

Maybe you should take your head out of the sand and actually see what is going on.

[helge]

overconfidence was Russias downfall from the start

Yes

Didn't turn out to be a 1 day war

It seems the Russians have learned nothing!

We'll see

[helge]

Ukraine has Russia on the ropes. The US and the truly rational intend to let them land the knockout punch.

And how will that play out and how do you know ?

Maybe you should take your head out of the sand and actually see what is going on.

But I'm no expert; that's why I ask

When and how is this 'knockout punch' coming ?

I won't tell

[misskit]

Deaths Back Home Leave Russians Furious With Putin

Russians are being plunged into a bleak winter where power outages and heating failures are already freezing people to death while President Vladimir Putin is choosing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars prosecuting an illegal war in Ukraine instead of helping his own citizens.


In many of the remote regions where conditions are at their worst, people are also being forced to contribute the most to the war via conscription drives that strip healthy young men out of the local workforce and send them to their deaths on the front line.

“They take young men—the only breadwinners—away and send them back in coffins. The guys freeze on the front, get sick, die while their families live in poverty,” Valentina Melnikova, a prominent advocate from the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, told The Daily Beast. “It seems authorities have no interest left in human lives at this point.”

While Russian missile attacks leave Ukraine without water, heating and power, Russia’s own cities—in Siberia, the Altai Mountains, Baikal and Kamchatka—are freezing without central heating.


The hot water pipeline burst in the center of Abakan, the capital of the Russian republic of Khakasia in Siberia. The crossing of Krylov and Kati Perekreschenko streets disappeared in clouds of steam. The accident meant a disaster for at least 70,000 local people: no hot water, no heating in the freezing -8F. Dozens of people spent the night calling the local emergency hotline on Sunday, asking when their apartment blocks would be warm again. But nobody seemed surprised—worn-down infrastructure and bursting pipes are typical crises in wintertime not only for this part of Siberia but for dozens of other regions of Putin’s Russia.

In a country of extreme winter temperatures, these infrastructure failures are often deadly. Last year 5,557 people froze to death in Russia, according to a study by First Moscow Medical University.


Scanning through social media, residents of regions including Omsk, Voronezh, and Barnaul are complaining about their heating going out on a massive scale. “Help, we freeze on Korolenko street #3, we have not had heating for five days!” Barnaul 22 channel published on Monday. “Everybody is freezing on the 9th of May street,” Artem Khaustov wrote.


People are frustrated that while Moscow spends billions of dollars on the war, they are left to die at home. The Russian regions of Tyumen, Karaganda, and Yakutia were among those which reported cases of frost victims in the past week.


Authorities mobilize men from the poorest of Russian regions, where a couple of strong hands are always in demand for cutting firewood.


“Dark times. Ukraine is surviving without heating and light and here in Khakasia our life is awfully hard,” blogger Nikolay Zolotov, 56, told The Daily Beast in a phone interview. “Bursting pipes is not the worst problem: people live on tiny salaries in a poorly maintained city, without cash to buy food, while our government spends billions on the special operation in Ukraine.”


Last year Putin admitted that poverty was Russia’s biggest challenge: “We have something to work on, here is our main enemy. Our main goal is to improve the quality of life for our citizens,” he said. But instead of spending money on fighting poverty this year, the Kremlin found a new enemy and decided to spend around $155 billion of the $315 billion annual state budget on defense and security. That meant less money for fixing central heating systems or for figuring out how to install modern plumbing for 35 million Russians who still live without a sewage system and have to rely on freezing outhouses.


The annual death rate in Russia was growing even before the war, increasing by 15 percent last year as the population shrank by 693,000 people. This year it is on course to be even worse, according to official statistics.

The poverty level in the republics of Tuva and Buryatia—where Russia has mobilized thousands of soldiers for the massacre in Ukraine—has become so critical that the Buddhist leader, Damba Ayusheev, formally asked Putin for help.


The lama begged the Kremlin leader for firewood for Buryatia, a republic near Baikal Lake that adheres Buddhism. “It’s necessary to provide concrete aid for families of mobilized soldiers,” he said last week.


The Republic of Buryatia with almost 1 million people is one of Russia’s poorest regions, where more than 40 percent of the population lives on $176 a month or less. And yet, on the scale of Russian soldiers dying in Ukraine, Buryatia comes second after the southern region of Krasnodar. According to recently published official data, 345 soldiers from Buryatia have already died in Ukraine.


One of them—who had to be buried in a closed casket—was 23-year-old Dmitry Sidorov. He had only returned to his home village to help his mother for two days when he was forced to sign up for the war despite his poor eyesight. He died in Ukraine just 12 days later.


Melnikova, the veteran campaigner for soldier’s rights, said the situation was worse than anything seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Putin meets with mothers of dead soldiers but it looks like a staged show,” she told The Daily Beast. “Nobody checks their health, nobody cares if they freeze to death or get killed.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-de...putin?ref=home

[bsnub]

When and how is this 'knockout punch' coming ?

Part of it will start as soon as the ground freezes over, that is when the Ukrainians will start a winter offensive, most likely in the south possibly retaking Melitopol which is a key logistic city. Taking that city will cut off the entire Russian army to the west as well as Crimea.

The next blow will come in the spring after the winter thaw.

[helge]

^^
Not really 'Ukraine' related.

Same sad story every year.

Incompetence and vodka

[helge]

Part of it will start as soon as the ground freezes over, that is when the Ukrainians will start a winter offensive, most likely in the south possibly retaking Melitopol which is a key logistic city. Taking that city will cut off the entire Russian army to the west as well as Crimea.

OK
I see you use the term 'most likely'.

Not that I know but Melitopol seems close to the Black Sea, so I wouldn't rely too much on Mr Frost for solid ground

The next blow will come in the spring after the winter thaw.

Again, the spring taw will differ depending on where in Ukraine we are talking about

[sabang]

Fact- Putin's popularity is higher than it was before Russia joined the Ukrainian war. The Daily Beast just spouts the sort of garbage it's readership wants to hear.
I would think finding a few disgruntled Russians is no more difficult than finding a few disgruntled yanks, or poms.

[helge]

The Daily Beast just spouts the sort of garbage

Sure

Fact- Putin's popularity is higher than it was before Russia joined the Ukrainian war.

Fact-polls- Russia.


Find the odd one out

(more than one solution

[bsnub]

Not that I know but Melitopol seems close to the Black Sea, so I wouldn't rely too much on Mr Frost for solid ground

Clearly you don't know. Average winter temps there are several degrees below freezing.

I would think finding a few disgruntled Russians is no more difficult than finding a few disgruntled yanks, or poms.

You are so utterly clueless about what is going on in Russia, it is laughable. It has been pointed out to you countless times that those polls are utter shit, but you continue to spout the same old, tired nonsense.

Do yourself a favor and watch this video. It is a Russian explaining why those polls are utter shit...



But you won't watch it because you want to live in your fake, false reality.

[sabang]

So now snubski knows more than the Russians about what is happening in Russia. As only an uneducated yank possibly can. No different in China, or Syria, or Venezuela innit. Only the dumbest breed of yank knows the real truth- far more than the people themself �� . Where would you like to pick up your Nobel prize?

[harrybarracuda]

Fact- Putin's popularity is higher than it was before Russia joined the Ukrainian war.

[harrybarracuda]

So now snubski knows more than the Russians about what is happening in Russia. As only an uneducated yank possibly can. No different in China, or Syria, or Venezuela innit. Only the dumbest breed of yank knows the real truth- far more than the people themself �� . Where would you like to pick up your Nobel prize?

Well at least his video was from an actual Russian.

As opposed to some fat, stupid, convict bint who you keep quoting because you've got the hots for her.

[bsnub]

So now snubski knows more than the Russians about what is happening in Russia.

You really are fucking dumb. Spew your nonsense, no one is listening.

[sabang]

Except the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Venezuelans, Brazilians, Sth Africans etc. But I realise that doesn't matter, they are untermenschen- all that matters is the manufactured opinion of the lowest class of fucking yank. You can pick up your Nobel prize from Grozny CBD.

[Hugh Cow]

Except the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Venezuelans, Brazilians, Sth Africans etc. But I realise that doesn't matter, they are untermenschen- all that matters is the manufactured opinion of the lowest class of fucking yank. You can pick up your Nobel prize from Grozny CBD.

You really do say dumb things. look at the countries you list as exceptions. You have no idea what the chinese think. Only what the chinese govt thinks. Well we can see how much the Iranians agree with their government. South Africans? The majority have no idea what goes on outside of Africa. many are either illiterate or at best semi literate and the govt is as corrupt as Putin. How much did they find in Ramapozas' couch again? Do you think that the venezualans give a fook about Ukraine? their govt is just reciprocating the support it gets from Russia as it has few friends outside of Russia and China, its fellow totalitarian states. Many Brazilians are totally ignorant of whats going on many again are illiterate or semi literate and of course they are part of the BRICS alliance as a non alligned alternative to the west. Any idea what the R stands for in Brics? Not one of those leaders of the countries you mentioned isn't tainted by corruption.
I do have a choice of believing you or General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. forces in Europe. Not much of a contest there.

Former US Army general Ben Hodges predicts failure in Ukraine could lead to collapse of Russian Federation - ABC News

[harrybarracuda]

Except the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Venezuelans, Brazilians, Sth Africans etc. But I realise that doesn't matter, they are untermenschen- all that matters is the manufactured opinion of the lowest class of fucking yank. You can pick up your Nobel prize from Grozny CBD.

Most of snubby's news reports come from Ukrainians, many of them in Ukraine on the battlefield.

It's typical of you to post this sort of irrelevant nonsense, isn't it?