Optimistic, I say. But the next stage in Ukraine’s strategy is to force Russia’s hand with a new wave of mobilization. If it does that, then that is mission success.
Cuba is cracking down on a ring of human traffickers that was capturing Cubans and sending them to Russia to fight Ukraine, in another clear example of desperation from Putin. Do business with Russia, and this may be what you can expect. The rest of the article is about how desperate Russia is for munitions. Video Appears to Show Kim Jong Un’s Absurdly Slow Train Ride to Russia
"What we have here, is a failure . . . to communicate." Russia forces its soldiers to buy their own radios, and is quite shocked that different units cannot communicate with each other. Maybe for their next war, Russia will be really unprepared and send the soldiers out in their underwear. Russian soldiers have to buy their own radios and phones in battle, but the systems are incompatible and proving useless: reports
“When you decide to dance with the bear, it’s you who decides when to stop dancing.” — Russian saying —
I wish I knew. The next interesting thing to happen in terms of new U.S. equipment hitting the fight won’t be the aircraft anyway. It will be the Abrams. The Leopards and Challengers, which are less advanced tanks, have already proven very useful to the Ukrainians in the field. The best evidence I have of that is that Russian claims of how many of them there are in the field are three or four times their actual number. This is the only way they can realistically claim to keep “destroying” the same tanks over and over.
Zelensky decree rules out negotiations as “impossible” … All while incessantly whining that Russia refuses to negotiate.
Putin finds agreement from unlikely source … According to Putin, the American political system is in complete disarray as one party is corrupting the system in order to persecute its opponents, completely robbing America of any moral position it has on the world stage, and this is great news for Russia. "For us, what is happening in today's conditions, in my opinion, is good," said Putin. "Because it shows the rottenness of the American political system which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy," he added to applause from a watching crowd. "Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons," he continued. "That's what it is. And this is being done in front of the US public and the whole world. They simply exposed their internal problems." Putin Weighs In On the Trump Witch Hunt and Points Out a Sad Reality About America's Political System
Uh, they wholeheartedly agree with Putin on this. But we didn’t need to hear from Putin to admit that we’re a banana republic.
They are negotiating for different things. Zelenskyy: "How much will Russia pay to rebuild our country from all the damage it caused after Russia leaves our country?" Putin: "How much area of your country will you give up, before we re-build our military and take the rest of it and finish stealing the appliances and raping the women?" They have to be negotiating on the same page before there can be any progress.
Putin has never been restricted by rules of any type, and he finds it strange that rules could be enforced on someone of the privileged class who was once in power. He's a dictator--he makes the rules, he does not follow anyone else's rules. This reminds him that he cannot retire and walk away from office after he started this invasion. He has a reasonable fear that the U.S. will demand that he be handed over for trial for war crimes before Russia gets any assistance from the west. And if he retires, someone else will be making the rules.
Russia is methodically and unhurriedly denazifying and rebuilding as it goes. See: Mariupol. I’m sure that Russia would be willing to save a rump state for the tinpot dictator Zelensky to rule over. But he’s not going to give him parts of Russia.* *I hope you’re not one of those crazy MAGA-type election deniers.
Some of their tanks that Russia is destroying are likely plywood replicas. A Ukrainian company can make a replica tank for less than $1000, and Russia may spend tens or hundreds of thousands on a missile or other weapon to destroy it. I doubt the person that authorized the missile firing is going to admit that he just blew up a plywood tank. The fake tanks are very realistic (presumably less so after they are blown up).
I pity the person gullible enough to believe the denazification lie in 2023. Or the "free elections in eastern Ukraine" lie. You probably also believe that Putin's upcoming election is a free, democratic election, even after Putin selected his opponents. I suppose that's why you are recognized as a Russian propagandist by essentially everyone on this board.
A Czech company makes less realistic inflatable tanks, and the Russians still seem to fall for it. How Ukraine is using fake tanks and guns to confuse the Russians image: AP
More on the Ukrainian company: True to life but without the price tag: The decoy weapons Ukraine wants Russia to destroy | CNN I can't find a tank picture, but here is what looks like a communications system of some sort.
They're making progress, but it's still slow and grinding. I'm hoping a Come to Jesus moment is upon us once mud season returns and people have time to think things over and come up with some kind of a ceasefire plan. Just not sure how you get the talks started without undermining Ukraine's bargaining position.
