The first negotiation was to call the Russian bluff that this war was about NATO expansion.
It's not up to the west to decide what Ukraine should do or what kind of terms they should accept. Russia is occupying large parts of the country, and engaging in a large-scale assault in the east. What would they negotiate about? Russia isn't going to stop their war anytime soon - do you really think any negotiation would make them pull out of Ukraine? And if Ukraine agreed to hand over parts of their country, why would anyone trust Russia to stand down once they have rebuilt their military losses?
There aren't any winners in this war. It's a human tragedy that's happening for no good reason.
A good explanation as to how putin is recruiting new soldiers with big money contracts to go to war but when some reach the frontline its not so great.Watch from 8:25 for 3 minutes if you don't have time to watch it all.
There are problems at the front line with morale and exhaustion,troops from the area(canon fodder) are rebelling and the first of the contracts are coming to an end.Many troops have the right to go home but can they?will they?
And they didn't come anywhere close to a resolution for a reason. For now Ukraine's demands are a return to the borders of Feb 24th, not removing Russia completely from Ukrainian land - this is not just an emotional decision, Russia have quite clearly demonstrated that they absolutely can not be trusted. Any sort of deal that does not come with security guarantees for Ukraine backed by Western powers is just a chance for Russia to regroup and attack again and Ukraine know that.
A narrowing down of the MLRS systems and ammunition types that Ukraine is likely to receive, and the system's it isn't likely to receive. Also a thread within the thread outlining why the Western systems are simply just better than clunky russian hand cranked.......... stuff.
https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1531067601006301184?s=20&t=UZVPHf-6AkZanpfNJ3dCQQ
Russia forcing pilots to fight.Is there a rebellion coming or are Russians even able to say the word "rebellion".
"In the western military district of Russia, the families of officers were forbidden to leave the country. If the occupiers refuse to perform combat missions, their wives and children are threatened with relocation to the depressed regions of the Far East.The Western Military District Command has already ordered the forcible eviction of several families of servicemen from the 332nd Separate Helicopter Regiment of the 6th Air Force and Air Defense. The wives of the helicopters decided to have a rest abroad while their husbands fired missiles and bombs at the civilian population of Ukraine in the Slobozhansky direction"
https://gur.gov.ua/content/rosiiske-komanduvannia-trymaie-v-zaruchnykakh-sim-i-okupantiv-iaki-voiuiut-v-ukraini.html
its all Russia today, pounding the whole of the east, not much fight in the defenders today
Based on what, not the link in English which just highlights further Russian indiscriminant bombardment from possible war criminals. There's a follow on link to a site in Russian - WE DO NOT READ RUSSIAN.
By that I mean the typical user of Boards.ie (i.e. not those that joined relatively recently at any rate) CANNOT read Russian, rather than avoiding Kremlin propaganda. Without context for a largely English speaking audience your 'not much fight in the defenders today' comes across as Pro Putin/war mongering BS. Less of that if you please.
On rebellion, Reagan used to tell a joke
There are three dogs, an American dog, a Polish dog, and a russian dog.
The American dog says, if I bark long enough eventually someone will come along and give me meat.
The Polish dog says, what's meat?
The russian dog says, what's bark?
The Russian people are slaves.Most don't want freedom as it is too much to do(apathy),they want their own slaves to make themselves feel strong.
The ones that do want freedom are easily squashed by the slaves that are paid more.
All this talk about Russian gains well people need to be reminded they are also losing everywhere else. People would be surprised how many Russians listen to their church; the older generation of people. These old types tend to be Putins biggest supporters.
This guy is one of the few twitter reporters that's on the front lines and his tone is a lot less upbeat than you see from the rest. COuld be that Ukraine are pulling the same type of stroke the Russians do, letting the Russians beat themselves up against poorly armed troops and holding the main force in reserve for a counter offensive once the Russians have are at a certain attrition level
Kharkiv not so long ago
Hardly needs any comments, you won't see too many Russians supporting their lot of monsters in the same manner.
Well documented dissent is on the increase in Russia. Putin will soon have just 17-year-olds and gundogs to do his bidding.
very black and white analysis of a neutral remark posted in a neutral sovereign state
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 29 | Institute for the Study of War (understandingwar.org)
Key Takeaways
The only Russian momentum I can see in the last day is around Bakhmut perhaps.
Id wonder would the Russian settle for the Donbas at this stage, reinforce the area and call it a day (unofficially of course)
I don't think this is the case. The main body of the professional Ukraine army is in Donetsk. If the most experienced and best trained part of the army is getting out-gunned, I think it's fair to say reserve and territorial defence units certainly won't be equipped any better.
For all the talk from Zelensky and his cheerleaders (some of the worst of whom are in the UK urging Ukraine to retake all occupied territory, but providing relatively little in support), Ukraine doesn't have anything close to the level of support that it requires to defeat Russia.
Piece by piece
A combined border detachment of the Defense Forces is liberating settlements from the Russian occupiers in the Kharkiv region!
translation:
The Russian occupiers fired on an evacuation column from the Luhansk region. A French journalist died. The evacuation has been suspended
Ukraine have already defeated Russia at least once in this whole war by nullifying their northern campaign and forcing Russia to focus on a much more concentrated objective in the Donbas. The Western weapons and training that Ukraine has received is the reason that the entirety of Ukraine is not currently a province of Novorossiya right now, with Zelenskyy being thrown in a Siberian gulag (if he's lucky) and ordinary Ukrainian citizens getting the Chinese Uyghur treatment.
Here's a graph of Ukraine's defence spending,
Tops out at 6 billion in the previous year. Now, the US has just pledged 40 billion in aid to Ukraine (20 of this is military). That's on top of previous aid packages, and on top of what other European countries have been willing or able to send themselves in terms of military resources and general aid. We can at least say that Western support to Ukraine is not inconsiderable, but we could say a lot more, really.
Not to fear, however. The trolls are already consolidating their 'We're giving Ukraine and Ukrainians too much. We need to think more about ourselves. There's a cost of living crisis' line.
If that joke is referring to Finland/Sweden NATO accession, it would be better to wait until Erdogan is finished throwing his tantrum.
Yes, they probably would. But that makes certain assumptions, based on current circumstances. But if these circumstances change within the 10 year time frame you could have different outcomes., and this might mean an even worse outcome for the US. But meanwhile, it would seem that all is not going well in the communist utopia of China....they are facing mega financial problems too, with that old Capitalist problem of "Boom and Bust", not to mention population issues, single child policy now catching up with them. And of course, what if anything were to happen to Xi Jinping? Covid really showed just how dependent on China the world was., so change has already started, and if that was not enough the war in Ukraine will really speed up change. World wide, the next 10 years will bring unheard of changes. Everything really up in the air now.....and no one knows what the landscape will look like in the future. Interesting times.
I don't recall you picking up on my previous reference to the situation in Ireland. Do you think it was correct that Dail Eireann settled for the Free State, leaving the 6 counties under British Control or do you think Ukraine has less chance than the old IRA versus the British Empire?
I don't understand the point you are trying to make here. Can you elaborate?
So despite all the predictions on this site that the US would supply Ukraine with artillery capable of firing a long distance, they have decided not to provide them. Just another indication that despite all the 'talk'on this site and elsewhere, the west has no intention of crushing the Russian invaders. Indeed imo, they want a settlement to this conflict asap to enable Capitalism resume its journey.
If your 'business as usual' hypothesis was correct, then they wouldn't have sent any aid or imposed any sanctions.
But it isn't.
It could be claimed as a victory, saving their fellow Russians from the Nazis and all that, but it's still not clear they can even achieve that objective.
Who do you think sent them these Howitzers? The Tooth Fairy?
Good. They should sort out collaborators asap as well, better doing it in the "confusion".
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