The battle for Kyiv is already underway as Russian tanks push to within just a few miles of the city outskirts, analysts and witnesses have said, though initial assaults to the west and east of the capital were repelled yesterday as Putin's men face a long and bloody campaign to take the capital. Kremlin troops launched two attacks on Kyiv Wednesday - one via the besieged western city of Irpin and another through the eastern district of Brovary, with video showing how a column of tanks was bombarded with artillery in a devastating ambush and forced to turn back. Intercepted radio chatter suggested the column took heavy losses with the regimental commander killed, though that could not be verified. . Ukraine war: Putin's forces move on Kyiv but are beaten back | Daily Mail Online
Russia has confirmed it has used strictly regulated thermobaric rockets in its ongoing attack against Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence said today. The missile is seen as one of the deadliest on the modern-day battlefield, so much so its use is strictly regulated. The Russian missiles explode at a much higher temperature than most missiles, and their blasts last longer than conventional weapons. They are fired by the TOS-1A, an armored rocket launcher, which can be used to destroy infrastructure and due the heat it produces it can cause massive damage to internal organs and cause flash burns. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-russia-admits-using-thermobaric-26426880
It’s silly you say. Surely no one would take Maria Butina seriously. That type of nonsense would never work on wise US policymakers
I wish Ukraine had the capacity to launch attacks on Russian soil and blow up some critical infrastructure and military bases.
The Versailles treaty was bad, but don't forget there was long term military occupation and a partition of Germany. Japan had a long term of military occupation also after WW2.
People don't seem to grasp that the game of dominance and humiliation played by countries to reign in other countries, sets the conditions for leaders who promise to in turn dominate and humiliate others to restore their sense of national pride. Versailles, post Cold-War NATO expansion, etc. Hell, even the idea of American weakness and humiliation elected Trump. Continues to animate right-wing rhetoric.
I think they would show restraint if they actually did have the capacity. Right now they have the democratic community in their corner and some inkling of dissent within Russia. And attack would threaten that. And Russia has nukes. (I hate how many strategic roads end with "nukes")
Those nukes are the only thing keeping the West from helping Ukraine fully. So yeah Ukraine wouldn't risk getting nuked...except they're probably going to get chemical attacked/nuked anyway.
From CNN live "Ukraine's Zelensky says Russian propagandists "will be held responsible for complicity with war crimes" From Anastasia Graham-Yooll in London Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russian propagandists they “will be held responsible for complicity with war crimes” in a video message Thursday. “Russian citizens will hate you for consistently lying to them for many years. When they will feel the consequences of your lies, feel with their wallets, their dwindling opportunities, with the stolen futures of the Russian children. The war is never isolated. It always harms the victim but also the aggressor. Only the aggressor understands that later. But always understands and always suffers,” he said. .... The prosecutor general said her office also “took action against those who incited war and provoked further atrocities in Ukrainian territory.” A warning was reportedly issued to a number of people she called Russian “propagandists,” including several Russian celebrities who Venediktova described as Putin supporters."
There's plenty of other reasons not to go to war with Russia that have nothing to do with their nuclear capabilities.
Russia humiliated itself, or more accurately, Putin has done this to them by trying to relive the past. If in his mind “Making Russia Great Again” was to bring back the iron curtain, clamp down on free press, bring back stage ownership of the economy, his leadership could ONLY lead to eventual failure. Russia had the potential to “open up” and be a market based economy. Unfortunately Putin led them fully the other way, towards totalitarian centralized control. While they were purportedly not “communist” after the fall of the U.S.S.R, basically all their billionaires are state sanctioned oligarchs, people “placed” into positions of power. Their rule of law is notoriously very poor. Which is why there is little entrepreneurship or western investment, the business risk is too great (or in some cases, even risk of assassination). Now with this preposterous Ukraine invasion, and the insane propaganda to justify it, we see Putin’s true colors.
Didn't we back Yeltsin who helped engineered this post-USSR Russia? I mean anyone who wants to say "Reagan/USA won the Cold War" is tacitly admitting that we engineered their defeat/humiliation. Its very easy for their politicians to make the case that the West is deliberately keeping them down, which like I said, makes nationalist thugs like Putin appealing. The more we make the war about Russia (rather than Putin), and punish its people or cripple its economy, the more they will rally around Putin.
Yes but that's the massive one that has people tiptoeing & not sending planes, etc. If Russia didn't have nukes, I'm sure there would be more military aid pouring in, maybe even soldiers from bordering countries to help. Instead Putin is free to do what he wants, even if his economy is wrecked, and they'll justify it with their propaganda.
Explain it to me like I'm five: As a defensive alliance, how is NATO and its subsequent expansion a threat to Russia?
