This map of the situation in Ukraine on March 29 is provided by the French Ministry of Defense. It is likely the most realistic and neutral one available. It comes with short notes about the numbered theaters.
Sorry...don't know enough & wasn't sure if that was a disputed area or not. Thanks...so how does this change things? Because now Russia can claim it's been attacked (not like it hasn't been doing that to Ukraine) so it just HAS to defend itself.
From the replies it seems this is the equivalent of the FAA losing every bit of info, license, registrations, etc.
In the early days of the war some Ukrainian ordnance landed in Russian territory. While Ukraine is not going to push into Russia, it cannot come as a shock that since Russia started this war that some of it would spill over their common border... play stupid games and all that.....
Putin bringing in the Wagner Group, 1,000 of the most experienced mercenaries on the planet. Guess he has no faith in his own military. Not only that, but Putin is right about the Nazi thread he's been hammering home. Though not all Ukrainians think like Neo Nazis, there are some with affiliations to Neo Nazis. The infamous Azov battalion are neo Nazis and embrace it. They have youth camps teaching kids how to use automatic rifles and grenade launchers and how to do basic guerilla warfare. How they came about has to do with Crimea. When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea, Ukraine's military was in shambles. Local militias came to their defense and once such militia was Azov. They repelled Russia and allowed Ukraine to rebuild. So much of Ukraine's military absorbed Azov and this is what Putin has been hanging his hat on. CNN finally caught up to what I've been saying for the past month: A far-right battalion has a key role in Ukraine's resistance. Its neo-Nazi links have given Putin ammunition | CNN
Russians have them too "The Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), an extreme-right militia based in St. Petersburg, was, in 2020, the first White supremacist group to be categorized as "Specially Designated Global Terrorists" by the US State Department. While the RIM has worked in opposition to Putin's regime, it has supported the Russian side in the war against Ukraine -- training Russian militants to join pro-Russian separatists in the conflict, according to the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University." ...... Now all that being said, somewhere in that link it showed the miniscule number of members. They've been training their own citizens to fight, including the famous grandma on her stomach with a machine gun photo. They've lost in elections. They have nothing at all to do with the government & the number of folks who could be classified as Neo Nazis has been declining in that unit. Putin's incoherent reasoning included the denazification of the entire Ukraine & a new government. This group which I don't think even equals 1000 people doesn't fit the bill. If thats what qualifies then time to invade Russia *shrug*
“Volunteers.” An interesting word. Especially as there is evidence of Russian forces being pushed back
There are neonazis in every country in the west. They only got 2 percent of the vote in ukraine in their last election. So Putin isnt “right”, unless you think he should be able to invade the US under the same pretext. If a full on neonazi ran here they would likely get some votes too, and we have had our share of extremists. Giving Putin’s self serving rationalizations oxygen only defends the indefensible. Jmo.
A few swastika waving yahoos on a compound in Idaho does not make the US a "nazi" country any more than that group in Ukraine makes that country a "nazi" country.
This is such an ignorant view. Only seeing the world as a place that has existed since 1939 can one hold this belief. There'd be union jacks on our flags and reichsadler across western Europe if not for the French.
