My point is that Putin didn’t know ahead of time who would win. So he was not waiting for Trump to leave office.
Ah ok. Thought I'd missed something in the article. I know there's some out there who think that this was his plan - to invade during Trump's 2nd term because by then Trump could've pulled the US out of NATO or continued to split NATO up. Yes he did get NATO members to pay more of their share and that's great. Ideologically they would've been split on acting versus sitting back. Biden won, Afghanistan happened, Covid was still a thing, and Putin saw his chance. There's also the illness angle playing a role. What he has who knows but he did have surgery before all of this and by videos & pictures you can tell he's not healthy. So I don't think he waited specifically knowing Biden would be President I just think it was part of his timeline and then he bet on weakness on our end.
Well, according to Russia, Ukraine had a bad day yesterday. Russia had crushing wins, including demolishing US sent howitzers, if true. Russians Reportedly Wipe Out Howitzers Sent From U.S. to Ukraine in Latest Strikes
I saw that but since it was the only place I saw it I didn't want to put it without corroboration. There's videos out there of the Howitzers being used yesterday against Russian troops so I don't know how accurate this is. I did see a video from the Russians bombing a single Howitzer and literally missing it from directly overhead, though. Like not even close. If true yeah that's not good. But it's a war zone so not exactly shocked some of the equipment may get destroyed.
Sounds like something some Republicans would say...cnn live "Cybersecurity firm says pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed Zelensky committed suicide From CNN's Sean Lyngaas Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed weeks into Moscow’s war against Ukraine that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had committed suicide, as part of an aggressive effort to dent public morale and undermine the Ukrainian government, US cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday. The false Zelensky suicide claim is just one of several information operations tracked by Mandiant from suspected Russian and Belarusian actors that were aimed at deceiving audiences in Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere in Europe – or at least muddling the truth about the brutal war. ....... In another case, Belarus-linked operatives falsely asserted that a Polish crime ring was harvesting the organs of Ukrainian refugees, with the complicity of Polish officials. “The proliferation of Russia-aligned information operations, in both scale and tempo, suggests the importance that Russia places on shaping the information environment,” Alden Wahlstrom, a senior analyst at Mandiant, told CNN. “We’ve observed known actors leverage longstanding campaign assets and infrastructure to target Ukraine during the invasion, using capabilities they’ve invested in developing over time.”"
Not saying that it didn't happen although this appears to be the source, a report from Tass on the "Special Military Operation in Ukraine". Russian attack drones, artillery wipe out US-made M777 howitzers in Ukraine — top brass - TASS Obvious speculation, it was most likely a rare albeit successful hit by the Russians.
The crisis is forming as the fallout from the war between Russia and Ukaraine. Even if it stops today the damage has been done. Is the war between Russia and Ukraine excerbating the issue? Yes. However, this issue was coming before the war even started. Granted the issue would have been much more managable without the war. May 19th, 2022. Special Brief: The Emerging Food Crisis. This morning is a special brief, an update on the warnings we all heard back in March that the world was facing a food crisis because of the war in Ukraine. I’m sorry to report that the crisis has in fact begun most especially in regards to wheat. So grab a map, buckle up, and come with me around the globe as we look at how war and weather are impacting the world’s ability to feed itself. And as always, we’ll discuss what this could mean for you and your family.
Unfortunate if true but can’t expect to take no losses. Hopefully it wasn’t too many and the Ukrainians figure out how to minimize this in the future.
A year ago, I might have been impressed. But I have since seen how well the rest of their technology works.
I've been keeping an eye out and other than Newsweek who used the TASS article as a source no one's mentioned it.
Hopefully the US has something like this to counter drones. If the ruskies have this, they haven't been very effective at limiting drone inflicted destruction
This is a reason why driving Russia out of Ukraine is a western priority. It really affects the entire world.
He was likely counting on Trump to help undermine Zelensky and put a Putin puppet back in power. Be able to control Ukraine without a war, just rig the elections. Much cheaper.
Forcing Russia out of Ukraine does not imply the situation will get better. Conversely leaving Ukraine to Russia doesn't imply that either. What we do know is resolving the issue one way or the other has much more promise of a resolution concerning a food crisis. Will it happen in the near future? No. Many warned this would be a long drawn out conflict. The question is who will blink first? NATO is placing their bets on Russia. When in fact neither NATO or Russia cares about global consequences on the rest of the population.
And we are planting hundreds of thousands of acres to make ethanol...smdh. can we be proactive just once?
Opening Ukraine to ag investment under a stable gubmnt of rules and laws would lead to much higher yields than even prewar.
Lasers suffer from atmospheric disturbances which scatters the light and drastically reduces its power. My dad worked on the airborne laser for the Air Force and they were trying different things like starting the laser diffuse and coming to point at a distance. I think they were trying to fit this in a 747 or equivalent sized plane. Point being, this supposed Russian system if it’s doing anything more than potentially damaging sensitive electronic sensors like image sensors would have to be pretty close to inflict any kind of damage. It wouldn’t be very portable and probably isn’t a candidate for the front lines.
Every country capable should start planting crops asap. This is not going to end well for the poorer countries.
