Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I find it really strange that Russia are abandoning this position. It's one of the most defendable parts of the front given its geography. I suppose we will see what happens today/tomorrow.

There is a very small section of society that take digs at Bill Gates because they detest his support of vaccine programmes and philanthropy.

Mick Ryan was a bit tongue in cheek when he says:

This thread has largely been cleared of the bots and apologists now so perhaps the real discussion of what the future holds can take place. There will eventually be an end to this war and post war both Ukraine and Russia will need to find their place in the world. At this stage (indeed once Russia failed to take Kiev), it is obvious that Russia has lost the war in so far as their war objectives failed. It will probably drag on for a year perhaps 2 and eventually an increasingly well armed Ukrainian army will drive an increasingly poorly armed Russia out of most or all of Ukraine.

Then what? Russia (Putin-led or post Putin led) will have to face some home truths. The army they had before February was a paper tiger and post war even that paper tiger will have been severely damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. A NATO threat to Russia was always a lie. NATO and or the EU never had any intention of invading Russia and the suggestion they would have was always an obviously stupid assertion. Why, because there was and never was any need to. The EU, America, Japan, Australia, Canada, South Korea (The West) was happy to simply trade with Russia.

The ONLY threat to Russia has always been China, because it is another autocratic regime, and post Ukraine war the Russian army will not be capable of defending against a conventional attack from China. I do not for a moment believe China will attack Russia but I do believe they will meddle, invest, spy, undermine and generally stir trouble in Russia-in-Asia and eventually "little Green men" backed by China will do what the "little green men" backed by Russia did in Crimea.

At that stage Russias destroyed army will not have the capability to resist and I believe their only option will be to look to NATO.

It's a good question and I was wondering the same. It seems that the handheld AA weapons are only part of the answer - they are effective at lower altitudes, but Russian aircraft are using those lower altitudes to avoid other air defences e.g. medium and high-altitude SAMS and the Ukrainian air force itself which has has been careful not to throw its aircraft into the battle willy-nilly. This article seems to explain it well, and also discusses how the west may have something to learn from Ukrainian methods.

His tweets are priceless !!

Borrell: We provide military aid to Ukraine and are taking diplomatic steps to support it in Russia's war against it

the Uruk-hai are on the back foot

Nothing to worry about in Kherson,

All under control when we retreat we are being cunning and moving forward,

Forward towards Russia

Been pondering this one too. Ukraine is coming into the Western fold, that’s what they wanted, that’s pretty much what the war is about and they’re doing a sterling job in solidifying their position there.

But the old Russia Federation? There is the big question. As they currently are, I think we might be looking at years or even decades of “containment”. Putin alone isn’t the sole cause of their current mindset and so long as they feel that violently trying to grab away the freedoms of other people (just because they wanna) is ok…then they have no further place in the civilised world. The Ukraine / NATO controlled borders may become an odd sequel to the Iron Curtain with Russia carefully contained on the other side.

China would likely fill the Eastern Pacific regions with partisans who’ll sue for independence, resulting in independent republics subservient to Beijing. Russian support for Armenia is dissolving already, so we’ll likely see Azerbaijan reclaim all of Nagorno-Karabach (resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe for those living there).

If Moscow will likely lash out wherever they can. Georgia may be in danger if they try to reignite that fight.

Yes - lol.

More Yes is always welcome.

Russia will be seen as very weak from now on so i agree that there is potential for other regions to break free, particularly in the far east where China has eyes on some areas where it sees the locals as ethnically Chinese anyway. China could also move some of its own population into these areas to relieve population pressure within China.

Don't you know, the capitalists will move in and make everything neat and clean and profitable again. Sure, it'll be as if nothing even happened.