Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Someone quoted Galloway and a pedophile in the same post ......

Someone smoking crack again

Run forest run has about the same credibility as Putin......

Well, anyone who can carry off lie after lie after lie and believe themselves when they speak, must surely qualify for a disorder of the mind. In no way can anyone in sound mind carry on like Putin. He has gone beyond egomaniacal to severely delusional.

Vladimir Putin said Moscow was "doing everything right" in its nearly eight-month invasion of Ukraine according to the above link. How nuts is that considering he has got everything wrong and blundered endlessly? Russia is doomed for another 50 years with the way he is carrying on.

Just reading through the thread and got to someone, unironically making a Scott Ritter reference. Was gonna fire up a response but I think other posters have more than covered it!

In other news....seems like a major offensive in Kherson has kicked off this morning. Hopefully we'll see some major advances there.

So this week Russia clamped down on their own bloggers for accurately reporting what was happening on the front-lines (as opposed to just parroting whatever nonsense the MoD issues). That might mean that the fog of war has just gotten a lot denser. In the past the likes of Rybar were used in order to figure out movements in the front-lines but they may no longer be as reliable. We may have to literally wait for videos and photos of Ukrainians liberating settlements.

And no doubt she is one of thousands.

Ukraine's offensive has gone a bit quiet this last week, as far as we know.

Thats a good thing, because they are supplying and consolidating the positions they took with 'thunder runs' over the last month. Russian proxies in Kherson seem to be panicking, trying to get people out, but with little help coming from Mother Russia.

Sounds like Kherson could be liberated with relative ease over the next week or 10 days. Ukraine very cleverly getting into good positions before the winter sets in hard, but will now have all of the occupied territory in range of rocket artillery, while having much improved air defences themselves.

Reports abound too that Russia are running out of mid to long range Cruise and Ballistic missiles (down to about 30% inventory strength). Those are the only remaining projection weapons they have, short of low-yield nuclear missiles, to cause strategic damage in unoccupied Ukraine.

I would say its a good strategy for Ukraine and NATO to let Russia suffer a long and panicked winter and see where the internal politics end up.

Fire at oil depot in Belgorod region, authorities blame a shelling from Ukraine

I know you're allergic to Twitter but this is a the Ukrainian Minister of Defence's account so reflects official government messaging.

Perhaps he has issued this message via an alternative means of communication that you would be happy with, such as nailing it to the door of Kyiv Cathedral or via an interpretive dance - I haven't checked.

Murder of musician in Kherson-

I'm so sick of this guy. Not even sure if he's being facetious here or what:

At this rate I hope someone can just buy this off of him so that someone more stable can be in control of it.

Am not sure that there's other larger (I think?) + older companies that have a stronger hold on the US space or defence budgets (and who have been outperformed by SpaceX recently as regards contracts for NASA) is important.

I think Musk wants SpaceX to obtain that kind of "Boeing-like" position + a guaranteed eternal funding stream.

Starlink's usefulness to Ukraine here may help. According to media reports, he was sending private requests to US Defence dept. for more money over a month ago, well before any twitter storms.

Now he's doing his thing (IMO) where he tries to use public tweets and his high profile/popularity against what he believes are biddable/weak democratic governments (vs likes of dictator of China, who he doesn't say boo to!) to obtain what he wants (see past examples of how he's tackled regulators or officials in US and Germany when they've gone against his companies, or angered him).

I kind of think that is what is happening with recent positive remarks about a Putin-favourable "peace" + hinted threats to turn off Starlink in Ukraine if more money is not forthcoming. Don't think it was wise to use these tactics in this case though...may blow up in his face (if that's not a bad metaphor to use).