This all boils down to one thing, and its the same all over the world.. control the means to eat, and you can dictate your terms. In Pakistan, India etc. poor families are forced into conditions where their very survival depends on accepting the terms on offer. Being uneducated copper fastens the system. And this is happening in many Countrys world wide, in 2022.
This point exactly.
Detained and sentenced to hard labor reconstruction of Mariupol and anywhere else thats been badly damaged by them
The Nazi story is just a cover for the population, always demonise your enemy (i.e the war on terror). The intention behind most wars is usually control of resources or denial of the resources to an enemy. For instance the dismantling of Libya was about denying Chinese expansion. The Russians intention for Ukraine:
They had reckoned that since the south of the country is primarily Russian speaking (i.e culturally compatible) that any resistance would be quickly eliminated.
Tweet has been deleted. At least he doesn't leave BS out there if it turns out to be the case.
The Russian military has become used to knocking over sandcastles and bullying small nations along their borders. Just like everyone else here i am no military expert or psychologist, but mayhap this has given their top brass an overinflated sense of their capabilities?
This isn't like invading Georgia or dealing with an irritating insurgency. They're now up against a capable military of a large, independent, motivated nation backed by NATO. An area so big that's it's challenging to capture key targets quickly, and the opponent can trade space for time. Russia just isn't used to countries standing up to them.
Actually didn't some senior Russian general (or maybe politician) call it early on as well that Russia had managed to unite the world against them? Propaganda and a weekly pay cheque will take the Russian soldiers so far but the apparent lack of equipment, occupying within range of Ukraine artillery and now being forced back will sap moral quickly. I can't imagine defending rubble-ised cities and towns is particularly inspiring either. I've a funny feeling that in a months time we will be looking at Ukraine reclaiming Mariupol and finding out a lot more about the atrocities carried out there.
A great quote from an analyst in February was "Britain had an empire, Russia is an empire".
I think we are witnessing the end of Putin. There is no way out for him and his corrupt regime.
The Russians may look the other way, and may swallow some **** that is spouted by state TV, but they never struck me as a stupid people. They will oust Putin in due course and replace him, probably with another crony but a crony the West may be able to do business with.
Regardless, victory in Ukraine for Ukraine looks to be inevitable barring some unforeseen event, like mass mobilisation but I don't see Putin doing that because he is too weak politically after these setbacks.
I can see Ukraine take back all of their territories, including Crimea. I also see Ukraine joining NATO in the next few years after the war is done and dusted. There is nothing to stop them from doing so now.
Imagine, the year is 2035, and Ukraine is a member of the EU and NATO. Perfectly reasonable to see this come to fruition.
One thing this war shows the world, for all our 'woke' introspection on the West and how many in the west like to criticise themselves all the time, as a war machine and an economy capable of waging war, 'we' are still number 1.
A criminal empire
Maintenance schedule going well then.
All the washing machines in the fuselage slid to one side and unbalanced the thing.
Which reminds me, I must look to see if there are any Moscow-based glazing firms I can buy stock in. Then again, the sanctions would probably make it difficult.
Went too hard on the elevator and the ailerons for his speed perhaps. Or the surface controls were messed up maybe
Should be a wake up call to the west, we won't be top dogs for long indulging in the global utopian nonsense we've been promulgating. Need to start thinking of hard nosed security and long term viability
smoke seems to be coming from the No1 engine I wonder did he lose his Left engine in a hard left turn and couldn't recover.
Lol at washing machines.
Spike Milligan in his war memoirs said they came across a village in Tunisia called "MacDonald", where all the inhabitants had red hair...
It also kind of refutes the "woke" = "weak" claims that Putin is so fond of. It must be a bit jarring to see the decadent and weak-minded west kicking the Russian army's ass without even setting foot on the battlefield.
I was wondering if he was caught in his wingman's wake turbulence.
Looks like Moscow and St Petersburg politicians (don’t forget where Putin rose to power from) are very worried about the mass mobilisation if Putin decides to double down and expand his “colonial” war to rebuild empire
In meantime I would not be surprised if Severodonetsk is captured in next few days
They can't even get that right; 'gives you good health and happiness'...
"Neanderthal DNA Linked To 12 Human Disorders, Including Depression" https://www.medicaldaily.com/neanderthal-dna-depression-anatomically-modern-humans-373318
Did Putin not take into account that the US was immune to his energy sanctions?
Did he not take into account the reaction of the former soviet bloc countries and Finland and Sweden?
Did he really not understand the Ukranian attitude to Russia?
I watched winter on fire back in 2016 and I knew then that Russians would never be welcome in Ukraine. The maidan revolution was more fierce and bloody than our Easter rising and war of independence combined. How could Putin have not known that Ukraine would resist fiercely I find it impossible to believe he could have not known that.
Some people think he is a genius. I recall Pat Kenny describe him on the radio one time as Hyper intelligent. After this debacle you’d have to question that narrative.
Maybe extremely intelligent at achieving and consolidating power but tone deaf at geo politics.
I too married a redhead .... good luck.
That clip from Russian TV last night had one guy saying that Putin was under the deeply erroneous impression that the Russian army would be greeted as liberators in Ukraine, even in Kyiv.
They had become so immersed in their own state propaganda that they even began to believe it themselves,
Who do you see taking over?
What constitutes a victory for Ukraine. It's up to them to decide of course. I can see them wanting Crimea to regain some access control over the sea of Azov or at least having a say over access in a final surrender settlement with Russia. What the locals actually want is hard to know.
Donetsk is heavily railed and will be a much more difficult nut to crack, given how long fortifications have been able to be built up there. Again do they want to take on the headache of the pseudo Russians there? I'd suggest a People's Republic for at least part of that Oblast to start with and then let them decide on their own fate. Again with Russia ceding to accept that and not lay any claim themselves. After all wasn't it the Russians that touted that idea in the first place.
Perhaps he’s just a stupid Cnut and you’re giving him too much credit about his intelligence.
Dick Cheney was a stupid journeyman too and he got to second in command and was a war monger as well.
It seems one has to be a certain level of stupid to have no empathy.
At Kharkiv direction Russian army shelled Kostiantynivka, Udy, - General Staff of Armed Forces of Ukraine says in the morning report
Yes absolutely.
In fairness to the Russians, those Victory Day celebrations are beautifully corographed and do portray a sense of power BUT as we know now, it's all talk and no trousers.
The West doesn't need to put on those shows because they are confident in their own abilities, technology and doctrine. It's now I've understood that those parades in Moscow and Beijing are not really for us in the West, but for the domestic audience, to show them the lie to them that the state or whoever is in power can protect them from 'us'.
Interesting thread on where the frontline might end up in Luhansk (purple line 5 below) if the Ukrainians are quick enough to cross the Oskil before the Russians manage to establish a strong line there. But also saying that if it did end up at Line 5, the Russians might as well concede all their original gains in the Oblast.
The difficulty for Russia defending the Oskil is that the closest troops are the retreating ones that will have abandoned most of their equipment. And the ones regressing from Northern Kharkiv have a longer road to travel and may not enough have time to get there if the Ukrainians are quick enough.
Hard to believe only recently we had posters telling ukraine to forget about the lost territory it's now part of Russia and they are never going to give it back so surrender and negotiate because ukraine can't win against Russia.
What's happening with Putin is what happens to all dictators eventually. They surround themselves with yes men and women who become terrified of telling the truth about anything that puts the regime in a bad light. It's actually plausible that Putin believed he had a great army that could compete against the west much in the same way Saddam believed Iraq would be a graveyard for the west prior to the invasion there.
A move will have been prepared against him for some time the only question now is does it come within the next few days or weeks and where exactly it comes from.
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