Ukrainian War Developments

yongpengsuen said:

Su-34 CAS jet

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1507329633586499586

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Soo they did all that for 1 truck? Is there a significant to that truck that outweighs the other trucks there? Or what's the deal?

Lethe said:

One question about this conflict that I haven't seen adequately addressed to this point is: why now? What were the immediate factors that precipitated this invasion now rather than in 2015, 2019, four months ago, or four months from now?

It's clear that diplomacy is part of the answer to this question, with high-level negotiations occurring between Moscow, Paris, Washington, etc. in the months preceding the invasion. From Putin's perspective, it's plausible that diplomacy may have reached the "end of the road". Yet the failure of diplomacy would not seem to require an immediate military response, or for the next step to be a full-scale "regime change operation" rather than more limited kinetic activity. This would still appear to be a war of choice to be waged on Moscow's timetable, which brings us back to the question of how extraordinarily unprepared Russian forces have appeared to be for the task they have been given.

I have seen some suggestion from pro-Russia sources that Ukraine was planning a major offensive in the Donbas region that would have threatened to "resolve" the situation there. This seems a superficially plausible casus belli, but it really needs to be fleshed out better in terms of sourcing and detail before I can readily accept it.

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That is the main reason according to the Russians. Ukraine had also just started deploying Bayraktars to Donbass, although they had only been used for reconnaissance. The Ukrainians did back down when the Russians had mobilised on the border.
I think political factors were the biggest reason. Zelensky had been elected largely on the mandate that he would be a change and could solve the Donbass issue peacefully. In actual fact he was much worse than even previous anti-Russian leaders who knew how much to poke the bear. He is politically inexperienced and angered the Russians without understanding the consequences.
It would be like if the DPP banned the KMT and then lost to a new party that wanted to improve relations with China. But instead when in power they start acting more belligerently than DPP.

America as well was much weaker now than in 2014 because of the worsening domestic situation & covid.

Putin smelt blood in the water and took the opportunity, we'll see if it pays off or not.

Lapin said:

Don't be so disingenuous. Don't pretend that there are not many writers who advocate--sometimes with apparent glee--that
the Russians act more ruthlessly in order to crush Ukrainian resistance. That advocacy shows an indifference to civilian casualties.
You--if you have any flicker of honesty--can identify these writers yourself.

Let's suppose that there's a confirmed nest of neo-Nazis in a Ukrainian city.
What would the Russians be justified in doing? Destroying the entire city? Destroying the entire neighborhood?

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So of you're one of the commanding officer responsible for the Russian military operation/invasion in Ukraine, what would your "humane" approach be like?

I have yet to read, witness any military operation that's absent any unintended, and intended civilian casualties from any wars committed by the literal virtue signaling country that is America.

War is inherently messy, extremely violent, and uncivilized way of conducting, and resolving political disagreements. If destroying a building, a block of city, town, cities etc...can expedite the end to hostilities by eliminating the opponents fighting force, morale, and will to fight then heck yeah that must be done militarily. The moment the use of force has been deployed, the debate on morality in my opinion is irrelevant because the very use, and employment of the use of arms is immoral. But to pussy foot around by denying your military force the best available method in not just ending the war, but the chance to save the lives of your soldiers is in my opinion deleterious and is deserving of death.

Russian military remains in full control of city of Kherson, residents say​

The city of Kherson remains under total Russian control, four residents of the city told CNN, contrary to number of reports from other media outlets, citing a senior US defense official.

"Today saw them with their guns at the market, possibly searching vegetables for buying," one resident said to CNN on Friday evening. "They lose only couple of villages, not towns."

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CNN is not naming the resident over concerns for their security.

The US official told the outlets, including CNN, that "we’ve seen reports of resistance there in areas that were previously reported to be in Russian control."

"We can’t corroborate exactly who is in control of Kherson, but the point is, it doesn’t appear to be as solidly in Russian control as it was before," the official said. "We would argue that Kherson is actually contested territory again."

The assessment that the city of Kherson was contested was based in part on images and media reports from the city showing the Ukrainian flag draped from city hall, according to two other defense officials.

Previous CNN reporting confirmed that the Ukrainian military counteroffensive has reached the Kherson region's northernmost villages. A CNN crew in one of the northernmost villages in the Kherson region, earlier this week, witnessed the Ukrainian counteroffensive there.

Despite that, in the city of Kherson, the situation is unchanged.

Ukrainian forces have been able to launch attacks from the Mykolaiv region just to the north, into Kherson region, for over a week. While the residents of the city continue to hold large protests, the Russians remain firmly in control of it and much of the region at this time.

For example, residents in town draped a large Ukrainian flag on Thursday down the side of city hall.

Richard Santos said:

Once trump clearly lost in Jan 2021 and it became clear the US would be in the hands of a much less feckless hardline anti-Russian hawk, Putin probably decided to set in motion a showdown with the US over Ukraine, backed by the force needed to take Ukraine if the US does not back down.

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You’re trying to trigger the Drumpfsters, aren’t you?

And, btw, he “clearly lost” in Nov, 2020!

Given the unprecedented confusion around the election, it would not have been clear to any foreign observer skeptical of the robustness of american political mechanisms whether trump would still be in the whitehouse in February 2021, until Biden actually swore in, and trump , still swearing, was physically out.

"why now ?"

because it was planned, it is the date (2021/2022) that appears in the interview with Alexey Arestovich, which was given to the Apostrophe TV YouTube channel in 2019

"our price of joining NATO is a big war with Russia"

and all the pieces were moving in the intended direction:

the US-Ukrainian , signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on November 10, 2021

and

troop buildup and preparations for war

As of yesterday, the UN counted 2788 civilian casualties, with 1707 being injured and 1081 dead since the start of the war on february 24th.

The majority of casualties happened as "collateral damage" of artillery strikes, missiles and air strikes

the striking thing about this story is that the ukrainians were looking for "a big war with Russia" ... and thought to defeat the russians with american help

the Ukrainian tragedy is the perfect definition of the West: silences, fantasies and lies.


"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards. The phrase often carries a negative connotation (...) accepting an idea or changing a preference due to popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion"