War in Ukraine

Friendly fire? may be at the heart of it. Bad comms, bad planning?

 

The commander may or may not be responsible for the loss of the f-16 but it is ultimately his responsibility. Not sure if we will ever know the story, but I am curious.

 

Compared to Ukraine, the Russian public has no resolve. The vast majority of Russians could care less about winning this war. They are just hoping the military people they know don't get killed.

Of course it will affect what's happening on the front lines, if Ukraine knocks out Russia's weapons factories, air bases, and oil and fuel depots.

Did you just fall off the turnip truck? If Russia could hit back ten times harder than what they are already doing, they would actually be doing it right now. You are just repeating the idiotic propaganda coming from Russia's blowhard mil-bloggers. Russian troops are fighting as hard as they possibly can in a non-existential war. That's just a fact. And if you are thinking that Russia could possibly hit Ukraine back ten times harder than Ukraine hit them, guess again, Lee Harvey. The only time in this war that Russia was able to hit Ukraine ten times harder than Ukraine hit them, was when Ukraine was running out of ammunition. That does not seem to be the case right now. Once again, you are repeating the typical lies and bluster that come from Russia's mil-bloggers. Russia simply cannot hit Ukraine any harder than they have been doing, and its been unimpressive, considering the size difference between the two armies. Again, it is a non-existential war for Russia, and the Russian soldiers are mostly acting like they do not want to be in this war. And the Russian officers are mostly acting like they do not know what they are doing. Russia has racked up nearly 600,000 casualties in this war, out of what, 900,000 fighting men when they started? Ukraine has only lost a fraction of that number.

Peddle your propaganda somewhere else.

 

The latest sanctions seem to be having an impact. Russia's trade problems with China got much worse in August. Russia is having to go through third countries to get the Chinese banks to process their transactions, and this is costing Russia 6% and creating delays up to three weeks.

Exclusive-Russia payment hurdles with China partners intensified in August, sources say

 

Russia using chemicals weapons in violation of the chemical weapons convention that they are a party to...Biden scared to let Ukr use weapons to strike in Russia. SO infuriating the way Biden and his boy have been and continue to handicap them and costing them so many lives in the process

no reason at all that long range weapons shouldn't be used to eliminate the facilities that these are produced at or the areas where they are stored

‘Silent killer’: Russia boosts grinding Donbas advance with chemical warfare (msn.com)

Russia has increasingly deployed chemical agents in its grand offensive to occupy the last cities in the Donbas region under Ukrainian control. The suffocation tactic is to take out entrenched personnel and dampen the morale of Ukrainian soldiers who – severely outmanned and outgunned – have been withdrawing village by village in the east for nearly a year.

The attack experienced by Ihor occurred as Russia ramped up its illegal use of chemical agents during its full-scale invasion launched 2.5 years ago to over 4,000 officially recorded cases, marking a sharp uptick from about 600 as of January, according to the Ukrainian military.
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The testimony of the junior sergeant from the 214th Separate Special Battalion OPFOR is among the over 4,000 officially recorded cases where Russia violated the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, a post-Cold-War disarmament treaty that bans the use of chemical weapons in war and obliges countries to eliminate them. The United Nations watchdog Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says that tear gas is “considered chemical weapons if used as a method of warfare.”

Russia’s use of gas attacks is rising. In January, 229 cases were recorded compared to 639 in June and 358 in July, according to the Ukrainian military’s Support Forces, a branch of the army responsible for inspecting chemical warfare.

 

Russian mil-bloggers are getting excited about the hope that Ukraine might either surrender or give up the eastern part of their country to them. Next on the agenda? Invading Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. They will need new excuses for the invasions, but that should be no problem. They know that western cowards will not stand their ground and support the freedom of these smaller countries. They know they can control the thinking of the simple-minded western cowards with propaganda and idle threats.

So get ready, American isolationist cowards. You asked for trouble with your opposition to supporting Ukraine's freedom, and now it looks like you might just get it. The U.S. military may be at war with Russia before you know it, and your cowardice helped make it happen. Who knows? Your extreme cowardice might bring Russian nuclear weapons into your neighborhood. Something you can brag about to your grandchildren (assuming you survive and their genetic mutations are not too bad). If this bothers you, you might want to see if Putin has any soothing propaganda for you to suck on as you suck your thumb and stare at Fox News.

‘Street Thug’ Putin and His Allies Considering Invasion of 3 More Countries

 

Mamas in Russia are begging Putin to give them back their conscript children before they get killed. Yes, they are THAT enthusiastic about fighting this war. This is what Russian trolls call a "stiffening of the resolve" to win this war.

As anger erupts in Kursk, Putin plays down Ukrainian offensive

 

Kursk like Roach Motel for Ukrainians. They check in but they don’t check out. But then, what would he know ? He’s just a Ukrainian soldier and not some pompous chimpanzee with the throat of a parrot being dragged across his keyboard on a discussion forum.

 

Jake Sullivan carrying Putin's water, with Biden's blessing, cowering at empty threats. Russia wants no part of a war with the west

Why the US and the UK are at odds over allowing Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia (msn.com)
Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Business Insider: "From the US standpoint, in particular, Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, has repeatedly paid significant attention to Russia's stated red lines and sought to avoid treading over them," adding that this argument has been very influential on the administration's thinking.

But Hess added that it was "pretty clear that Putin's supposed red lines on this stuff aren't really that red."

"Just a few years ago, Russia was saying the US sending Javelin missiles to Ukraine for targeting helicopters would be a serious escalation," he said.

Hess said he believed that privately, the UK and France would argue that the risks of potential escalation are hugely overblown and that the long-standing practice of Russia was to seek to intimidate the West into pulling back support.

 

Update on Russian casualties from a virulently anti-Putin source that has made no such effort to estimate Ukrainian losses …

Over 66,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, media report suggests

 

One captured soldier does not make a roach motel, Lee Harvey. Certainly not compared to the hundreds of Russians who surrendered in Kursk. Why don't you let the grownups focus on the war--the big picture--while you focus on your childish trivia with your microscope, preferably in private.

 

What we do know is that Ukraine is still in this, and that the whole world is not a radioactive cinder.

So go ahead and keep telling yourself how bad Biden and others have done.

I'll just sit here breathing fresh non-radioactive air.

 

From your own article:

The real number is probably much higher than that, considering that many of the dead would have been poor or from remote areas, where there would be no probate or inheritance records available. So is it your contention that 54,000 soldiers have been brought back from the dead? The article is a bit strange, in that it comes up with different estimates of dead/casualties, but no discussion of which one might have the best accuracy.

 

Is that your standard for success? Because we can have that and surrender everything else that Russia and China demand. Just say the word.

 

So you see that as the only alternative? So I guess we should just preemptively nuke them.

See how that works? I didn't say we should surrender, you didn't say we should nuke em. How about we debate what is actually happening.

 

On Russian red lines and why it’s foolish to take for granted the non-radioactive air we currently breathe …

 

During the nearly two and a half years of the war Russia has fired about 10,000 missiles on the Zelensky regime. But if Zelensky can fire a missile on Russia “Russia is so screwed!”

 

What a load of crap, Lee Harvey. Russia was not "warning" the west that interfering in their Ukraine adventures would result in a Russian invasion. They were trying to figure out if they could get away with it without a direct western military response. They were simply floating the idea out there to see how the west would respond (no western country committed their military to defending Ukraine). They were also conditioning the west to get used to the idea of Russia invading Ukraine. They wanted minimal response, just like they got with in Georgia and other locations. Their intention was always to invade Ukraine, unless they thought a western military response was likely. Once they judged it wasn't, the pathetic excuses (Nazis led by a Jew!) poured out and the invasion was on. Only a fool would think otherwise. Putin's hero Stalin was a thug and bank robber, and that's essentially what Putin is. The bank in this case is a country with agriculture and mineral deposits. It's a simple bank robbery led by primitive barbarians with modern(ish) weapons. Why you worship barbarians and thugs is a mystery to me.

The Russians aren't stupid. They know that nuclear war means annihilation of Moscow and any hints of civilization in Russia. They use their nukes, and Russia ceases to exist anymore. And much of that is bluffing, because Russia does not know for sure that any of their nuclear weapons even work. If only a small percentage of them actually work, they will have done minimal damage to the west while invoking a full nuclear response that utterly destroys their country. Putin is not going to be able to convince anyone with, "We only had six nukes go off in your countries, so you can only fire six at us!" There is a reason that Putin is having his dimwitted lapdog, Medved or whatever his name is, issue these nuclear threats. It's because there is nothing to them.

As long as Moscow is not threatened with invasion or massive destruction, Ukraine and the west can do pretty much whatever they want and Russia will not respond with nuclear weapons. If you are too cowardly to stand up for your freedom, you may not deserve to be free. Take your Russian red lines and shove 'em.

 

If you sit on your hands long enough, you'll be able to breathe Russian air--probably smells like a refinery, with a hint of lies and repression. No doubt, Biden did a decent job of "not provoking" the Russian bear. But they are not going to use nukes until their nation is in serious danger, just like we wouldn't (and haven't, since 1945). And that means invasion or destruction of Moscow (and maybe St. Pete). Stay away from Moscow, and there will be no problems. Using nukes is a double-edged sword--it guarantees you will defeat a particular enemy, but also guarantees your complete destruction. We have crossed Russia's "red lines" repeatedly during this war. This is not an existential war for Russia. As long as we do not make it one, they will not resort to nuclear weapons.

The goal is to see Russia defeated, not merely to avoid nuclear war. This goal, if achieved, will extend to avoiding war with China, not to mention making the world a more peaceful and civilized place. With civilization comes free trade and economic prosperity, which should not be taken for granted. Achieving the goal will require the U.S. and Europe to take some very small risks with Russia's red lines. If you let a country of barbarians know that you are intimidated by this simple (and hollow) threat, this threat will be repeated over and over again until Russia owns the world. Intimidation is just another tool for a communist government, like diplomacy is for democratic governments.

 

Paywall Economist article about the dire nature of Ukraine’s Eastern front:

Even as it humiliates Russia, Ukraine’s line is crumbling in the Donbas

And we’ve bled out Ukraine as a result and there are increasing reports Ukraine is losing a lot of ground in the past week. I voted for Biden but it’s been almost criminal the way this administration has handcuffed them in this fight at Ukraine’s expense in lives lost and territory lost.