Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Of course they do. They think they're the hero because of the stories they tell themselves. We think we're the hero too because of the stories we tell ourselves. That's just how these things work.

I wonder how it will work if the Russianslose big shtyle and have to face the reality after the fact. Will they be able to accept it?

I listened to a bit about a British author in Germany in the 70. In a small rural village talking to people for his book. One guy sized him up for a few days before approaching him and telling him the British were so stupid. If they had joined the Germans in ww2, they would have divided the world between them... Moral of the story is thst some people are incapable of changing their mind. Most will probably face reality in time.

Proportionally Russia should have taken Kyiv days ago, they are doing terribly considering the size of their military vs the Ukrainians and how much time they've had to plan and prepare. Every extra day this drags costs Russia more in the upkeep of their war machine which thanks to the sanctions they are finding harder and harder to afford.

Sadly, parts of Ukrainian cities starting to look like the aftermath of the Syrian war. Only going to get worse. The rebuilding efforts will be massive. Russian money sized under sanctions should be used for the rebuilding.

What were you expecting when the tanks rolled across the border? Were you expecting the Ukrainians to be still putting up a fight at this stage?

You are not hearing about Russian victories because you need to hear about those from the Russians. That would be the Russians who are denying they are West of the Donbas region. It's hardly a victory to be bogged down in mud 30 miles away from your target when you thought you would have captured it nearly a week ago. What are they going to say "Glory to Putin. Another children's cancer ward obliterated"

To be honest, I've had the opposite experience - I'm from NI and any time I'm in the mainland UK, I usually find that they don't make much of a distinction between north and south and when it comes up in conversation - as far as they're concerned, I'm X from Ireland (which is fine). Especially when it comes to spending cash in England using NI bank notes (which are technically legal tender across the UK, in the same way Scottish notes are) but you get some strange looks as if you're trying to pass off some sort of Monopoly money (hence why NI airport ATM's dispense cash in Bank of England banknotes so that you can stock up before you fly) - thank God for contactless payments! If anything I've found them quite ignorant of NI/ROI (not ignorant as in 'rude', but ignorant as in 'not very knowledgeable')

Trump openly fawns over Putin and just before the invasion labelled him a "genius". The Russians also meddled in the 2016 elections, with the goal of getting Trump into power (and sowing division in the US).

But he uses big words. He must be smart.

This argument comes around a lot - at the beginning of this there was no word that the goal was capture Kiev in 48hrs or whatever. Where did that come from?

Latest news is that the Russian war machine can only sustain itself for 10 more days and beyond that Russia will collapse - I wonder what the story will be then when that doesnt happen in 10 days time?

As a southerner I have the same experience in mirror in England. Never once anything remotely hostile bar slagging which you give as good as you get!

Trump also cut funding for NATO, it's almost like....

Because the goal in war is not to make it last as long as possible, the quicker its over the less it costs in both lives and money. Putin may not care about either right now but he will soon definitely have to start caring about the money because if he cant pay to support and supply his army which he is barely managing to do anyway then his army is next to useless. BTW the 10 day thing was being reported on Saturday so its hardly the latest news.

Snipers can single handledly stop convoys or armour or large troop formations considering now they operate and kill people are distances of over 1 mile airstrikes are only available if you control the skies ,the Russians Learnt that the hardway in Finland ,and today's snipers and better equipped and trained then the WW2 ones ever were