Trump did win. America lost. Some people just aren't bright enough to figure that out yet. Of course, that has nothing to do with a line of reasoning that might be seven times as deadly as another line of reasoning. Try to stay on topic.
I would think they could look at the flight path on radar and determine what kind of missile it was, where it was launched from, how fast it flew, etc.
About all Trump can do is cut the funding and tell Western Europe they can take up the slack if they want (which they wont). As far as any peace plan Russia won't be giving that Donbass area back so that is off the table. There are a few little areas Russia holds they probably dont care about long term but it's not a lot. Basically Western Ukraine has nothing to bargain with and Russia holds all the cards and Trump doesn't change that. Ukraine should have been wiser and not let the western crooks use them for a proxy war and money laundering operation. I guess Zelensky won't care much long term as he is set up to live a real good life after all of this with some of that money.
@uftaipan To your many posts on the subject, Russia has no intention of escalating to a nuclear conflict and will avoid it at all costs. Their actions here, providing advance notice to the US prior to launching an ICBM, prove as much. Russia pre-notified US of 'Oreshnik' missile strike before attack on Dnipro
How does providing a pre-notice to this indicate they are not serious about using nukes? If anything, it’s a “this is what we’re going to do. Try to stop it. You can’t.”
This is about as succinct as it gets. I think Ukraine would love to have Crimea back, but I am not convinced they are too worried about the Donbas. After all, they'd been shelling Russian speaking citizens there for months and those areas aren't now going to magically agree to making Ukrainian the only official language in the region.
Problem was not taking a stand and forcing PUTIN (not his flunkies) to make a firm statement on it. "So, Vlad, you're saying that supplying arms and logistic support to a country you just attacked it grounds for global thermonuclear war? Why don't you tell the rest of the world that." Because the simple fact is nothing has changed from 50 years ago. Protocols are still the same. Armageddon is not going to dig Putin out of this hole. However, every time they make these worthless threats, the Biden administration reacts, which is why they keep making these threats.
I do think there are some valuable resources somewhere in that Donbass area but yes the people there overall probably prefer to be under Russia. There was zero chance Crimea was ever going back to Ukraine.
I fully support Ukraine in this, but 100% don't think they should get Crimea back. That's the thing about 2022. It was totally unnecessary and motivated purely by ego and hubris. Russia had everything it needed after 2014 and the lack of real action by the west indicates we were on board with this too. So why this? Ego. Hubris. Nothing more.
It’s one of the many reasons we don’t have boots on the ground over there. The last thing we want to do is get into a quagmire where the local population supports the side we are fighting against. Fighting against it via proxy isn’t any better of an idea.
why shouldn't crimea be returned to Ukraine. It was taken by military conquest, just like other parts of Ukraine
that depends on if the occupier collapses from within. you know better than I but things are tenuous at best on the home front. lots of balconies in Russia with trip hazards on them these days
I wouldn't read as much into that. Russia had a clear interest in having us know about that launch and watch it carefully just so we did not think we were seeing a nuclear strike against Ukraine (or worse) and react accordingly to whatever our plan would be in that case. Russia does not know what we would do in the event they launched a nuke on Ukraine, and they don't seem to want to find out. That being the case, it is even more true that they don't want to find out on accident. It's common for both sides to announce an ICBM launch, usually for testing purposes, to the other side in advance. Our satellites can spot a silo opening and launching immediately. I can only imagine the consternation it would cause at NORAD and STRATCOM if we had detected that launch and were not anticipating it. My guess is it would involve surging to a dangerous level of alert that could lead to unintended escalation. Wrong. It's what I said, a means to mitigate escalation that neither side wants. And while you might not think we can stop a Russian ballistic missile (not the launch, the impact), Russia does not suffer from the same illusion, at least not anymore. They certainly had an interest in not seeing us shoot down their missile with a THAAD, and we had interest in not wasting a THAAD on a missile that was not armed with a nuclear warhead or aimed at one of our treaty allies.
Trump has made his master very happy. Gabbard has never met a dictator she hasn't liked. She is expected to provide Russian propaganda to Trump during national security meetings. The U.S. will now be subservient to Russia in every possible way. The annihilation of freedom, democracy, and civilization has begun. Nice work, republicans. (That didn't take long--what's that, T-59 days?) Vladimir Putin Is “Gleeful” Over This Trump Cabinet Nomination
Total ignorance. The main and most vocal Russian supporters in the Donbas region are the terrorists that Putin planted there in 2014. By no means did they constitute a majority of the population, although they did comprise the majority of the violence and terrorist attacks in the region prior to the war. If there were some non-violent Russian sympathizers in the population, they were quickly converted when Russian troops stole their appliances and opened torture centers in the region.
1M+ Russians who will no doubt start an insurgency. Ukraine doesn't need that and, IMO, this is the only realistic way forward.
