I don’t know what to tell you about Crimea. I can have any child look at a map of Russia and Ukraine, ask them what country is this peninsula a part of, and get mostly the same answer. I recognize that it’s a sticking point for both sides and a lot more killing is going to have to happen for it to get less sticky for one side. I will point this out, though. Ukrainian military victory is not outside the realm of possibility. And if that happens and they have to fight to clear Crimea et al of Russian forces, then there will not be a population of 90% ethnic Russians, there will not be an opportunity for them to keep their property and possessions in exchange for an oath of loyalty, there will not be protection of their civil liberties, and there will not be an amnesty for those who aided and comforted a foreign army of conquest. So …
Russia is going to have to show a great deal more success on the battlefield to get those kind of terms.
Pretty reasonable, although I don’t see the reparations part happening. Money to rebuild Ukraine will likely come from the West.
Crimea was given to Ukraine as a gift in 1954 and then given autonomous status from Ukraine in 1991. So 37 years. If Crimea is a sticking point for NATO, then this is going to escalate a lot further.
That's one way of putting it. Yet another way of putting it is that in 1954 the Soviet Union formally recognized an already well established and accepted fact that Crimea is indeed geographically part of Ukraine. The Russian successor state validated that Crimea was part of Ukraine in 1991 and again in 1994. I have no problem with Ukraine deciding to make Crimea an autonomous region. There is much precedence for that in many other countries. That's Ukraine's internal decision, but I think it could be part of a future negotiation. However, again, if they are able to and must retake it by force, re-establishment of any kind of autonomous region is going to be moot in terms of both desire and necessity. Finally, the sticking point is not with NATO; it's with Ukraine.
So, Ukraine is going to re-take Crimea by force and strip their autonomy? I believe such a move would be NATO-inspired. I don’t see Ukraine making that move unilaterally. So I would still say the sticking point is with NATO. I believe Ukraine is okay to give up Crimea if it means security overall.
Britain is backfilling Poland with its own 4th Gen fighters. Pretty soon all of NATO will have 5th generation fighters. You get a Mirage, you get a f22, you get a Rafael, you get f35, you get a Gripen. Putin doing a great job of upscaling its military might beyond his wildest dreams. Britain ready to fill Warsaw's air defence gaps after MiG-29 delivery to Ukraine, die Welt reports
So you'd have Putin pinky swear? Russia withdraws to the pre-2014 borders and returns ALL Ukrainian citizens. They get I-phones and Adidas back....a huge win for the Russian population.
An interesting article comparing China and Russia's alliance to the German and Japanese alliance in WWII. Russia and China’s new alliance is beginning to echo December 1941
Apart from an indicator that Russia is using munitions at a greater rate than it can produce them itself, I don’t see anything earth shattering here. We already knew China was Russia’s ally and does not want to see Russia humiliated too badly.
Because it’s so grown up to climb down in a hole and shut the lid because you don’t want to hear voices unlike your own.
Ukrainian forces like an overloaded beam ... Many analysts see Russia’s modest territorial gains as a sign it is losing. However in a war of attrition, if capturing and holding vast areas of land mars an army’s kill ratio, such moves can lead to defeat. The objective is to hold strong positions which maximize enemy deaths while sparing your own fighter’s lives. The strategic defensive is the ideal configuration. Historically Russian armies have retreated and traded land for attrition. In Ukraine both the Kharkov and Kherson retreats by Russia changed the battlefield to ensure better kill ratios for Russian forces. Quelling the Fire in Ukraine
Probably had nothing to do with Bolton issuing threats against ICC judges and their families were they to investigate US war crimes in Afghanistan.
No connection between earlier ominous threats and present actions ? In any case, the ruling on Putin is completely a gesticulation of impotent Western rage and completely irrelevant.
