Well Donetsk was founded by a lad from Wales so you never know... 😁
I was going to say "I did not know that" but actually I did read something about it a few years back
Wasn't he sent by either Peter or Catherine to explore areas to fortify cities and towns for an advance into the Caucasus? A former British army officer?
Maybe up to now the Duma has been like this, but I can't see it being acceptable to make such serious accusations as treason against Putin.....that's beyond the pale.
Maybe Putin sent Steven Seagal around to remind him of the Kremlin's dissatisfaction with the war.
Doubt it .
Can't see anyone nuking anything
He may be too deluded to even recognise or appreciate that it's either lost or about to be lost.
He may not even survive to witness such an event.
Sure, he's survived this long but things are changing faster now.
A definite possibility.
It will be interesting to see if Vlad gets the invite to London for the funeral. Stalin was invited to George's funeral but sent the ambassador. He'll be sat in the back row. Him, Meghan and Nicola Sturgeon.
Doubt he would nuke Crimea with its Russian population but he might nuke Snake Island as a warning
For the rest of his life Vlad and many thousands of other Russian Politicians and Soldiers will never be able to set foot in any country where the ICC can exercise an arrest.
That's not really a map of Ukraine in 1900. I'm not even sure if there was a Ukrainian entity within the Russian Empire but Lviv and Galicia were part of Austria Hungary anyway until the end of WW1.
Its seems to be a map of areas claimed as Ukrainian by certain Ukrainian nationalists (I'm not exactly sure which ones) around that time. It's likely areas where people who were Ukrainian or Cossacks who spoke/identified as Ukrainian lived (the Kuban, Volga, Ural and Caucasus areas).
HIMARS
Yup , and the resident tartars all went on holidays after 1945 at Stalin's request while it was a Russian province -
Who knows how many ruso- sympathetic residents will be left on the peninsula if Sevastopol is cleared of Russian military presence ..
Luhansk mobiki refuse to go to Kupiansk to support the Russian defense.
I thought there were still some Tartars left Mark, but I may be wrong.
They were deported (along with the Chechens and a few other Caucasian peoples) to Central Asia at the end of WW2 and only returned in the 80s
There's no up to now about it, that's what they are, a bunch of appointed yes men & women, even the "opposition" such as the communists. mr putrid was right about one thing, they're not like us. That's so often the mistake made in the West, attributing our thinking, systems or morals to them, it's not reality.
Ukrainian forces enter Balakliya. Locals are happy. This is what liberation looks like.
Russian defense line is in a total state of collapse.
That's gotta be a massive morale boost to the Ukrainian troops. They will have local support unlike the Russians and when they liberate large built up areas, there will be nowhere for the Russians to hide as the locals will expose their hiding spots.
I'll never forget the granny early in the war, she was calling in positions of russians for Ukraine artillery to hit 😀
If Xi secures absolute control in the party congress next month, I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if China maintained relations with Russia after limited nuclear strike on Ukraine.
Any link to the Ruskie tv show … what are they saying… threatening more dire reprisals?
oooooo today would be a good one to watch!
on one hand Putin said they lost NOTHING yesterday.
on the other, it looks like the most catastrophic day the Russian's have had has just happened. I'd LOVE to see how they are going to sell this now
A limited nuclear strike might be the cat out of the bag as far as the rest of the world is concerned. The US giving Ukraine and/or Twaiwan a limited nuclear deterrence would end all Russian/Chinese pretense at adventure outside their own borders.
Probably the sister of the one that downed a Russian drone with a steely eye aimed jar of pickled tomatoes.
If the Ukrainians enter Crimea, I think that's when Vlad would do something mental. They made sham republics on Donetsk and Luhansk but Crimea was specifically brought into the Russian federation. There was no bollocking about with that one.
He will see it as an invasion of Russia and he can do whatever he wants. He has already burned his bridges with the West. That ship has sailed, never to be returned.
The only relationship that matters to him now is China. The Chinese will probably see it as opportunity. They'll condemn it but knowing Russia become completely isolated after it, they will capitalize on it. Cheap everything for them.
snakicide? Greenpeace might have something to say about that even though there are no snakes on the isle
Downfall in reality
What a great few days. Too early to make strategic assessments but at the tactical level, Russia is getting its ass kicked most severely in the south and the east.
Ukraine's tactics and leadership just seem to be on another level. The boost to morale (and negative impact on Russia) can't be underestimated either.
I mentioned earlier in the thread that I knew a chap through work who supports Russia in this stuff and follows all the spin on that side. Well I was talking to him earliier today and going by him how the Russians are selling all this and the slow down for months on their side is:
There are apparently huge fortifications in Donbas built since 2014(paid for by the Yanks, of course) and the Russians are taking their time taking it inch by inch. Month by month is seems... Why they're slowed to feck all in the south too over months isn't mentioned...
They're not running out of ammo or going to north korea for same. They've decades of stockpiles apparently.
The stuff in the last few days is "nothing" and the Russian's essentially let them in and want to tie them up in the east, while building Russian forces in the south. Another feint, just like Kyiv. Oh and Russian troops in those areas were asked to retreat to save themselves, while reinforcements came up, and they said no and fought on. Oh and the reinforcements are tens of thousands of Russian troops. That after they take these fortifications they've a free run to the Dnieper.
Oh and Zelensky(the coke sniffer. this is mentioned a lot) has lost tens of thousands of his troops in the south and was told to make this push by Boris Johnson after his last visit or his backing would run out. That the west needed a win. That he claims to have seen videos of Ukrainian troops being slaughtered by Russian artillery as they made their way across open ground. That and 60 Ukrainian special forces slaughtered at the nuclear plant.
That Russia will keep pounding the Ukrainians, Ukraine is running out of fighters and this is why they're now conscripting women and when Russia gets to the Dnieper a deal will be done and the US/NATO/Boris will tell Zelensky to take it.
He firmly believes all of the above. So that's how they're apparently spinning it.
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