This is coming from Radio Free Europe, an American government backed "news service". If RFE and RT interviewed the same twenty Russians we'd see two different reports. So yes and no. A few are feeling more confident to say it's going badly, though putin generally gets a pass. In public. I'd bet it's more to do with it coming home to them since mobilisation and before that they'd be far less critical. I'd also reckon for many it's not that they're against the war, but against the obvious fact that they're not winning it and they're looking bad because of it.
Today, the Kremlin says that they demanded security guarantees from Ukraine. It is worth stopping for a moment to think about such statements of theirs.
252 days ago, Russia demanded security guarantees from the United States of America. After eight months of Russia's so-called special operation in the Kremlin, they demand security guarantees from Ukraine.
It's a really dramatic change. This shows both the failure of Russian aggression and how strong we are when we maintain unity. Millions of Ukrainians who are fighting and working for our freedom. And millions of people around the world who help us resist Russian terror.6
Together we will ensure the defeat of the terrorist state and its punishment for terror. And we guarantee that the whole of Ukraine is and will be free.
Eternal glory to all our heroes! Eternal memory to all who gave their lives for Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Putin needs a change of underwear, and a large transfusion of brain cells. Perhaps he'd like Zelensky to drop by for some special tea as well?
Evident they've no trust in their leadership. Obvious they know it's FUBAR.
The US the most efficient Army medical logistical support Army in the world runs at 7-8 to 1. NATO is probably similar. The general ration else where is 3-1.
However the Russian figures on wounded to death are taught to be not much better than 1-1. This is the reason there KIA numbers are so high. Like everything else logistical they do it's a disaster. If they cannot keep military equipment in good order when not in use, they hardly kept there medical logistics in good order either.
This is the military force where there airforce use sat nabs to guide them around.
60-80k dead and the same wounded. In Russia unless you are the walking wounded the only way you will survive is if a UA medical team get to you
Interesting that people in Moscow are aware that the regime was supposed to 'take Kyiv in three days'. Looks like details of the failed special operation are getting through to them without any difficulty.
Possibly, there are troublemakers like Yevgeny Prigozhin, he rises and falls depending on what happens in Bakhmut. Ramzan Kadyrov is just theater, probably used to goad the Russian Federtion army leaders. The military has clearly forced Putins hand to sign the mobilisation. Dmitry Medvedev is seen as the oligarchs man, but is playing the onside game at the moment. Putin only has until 2024, so any contenders will be lining up for the top job. The Spring offensive will be about more that trying to hold territory in Ukraine.
Nuclear weapons are not off any table, Russian commanders have already discussed it, and a small tactical battlefield nuke can be fired from howitzer. There are many points of escalations before such a move is taken, but that's in the current situation. If however Ukraine started systematically attacking Russian territory and killing Russian citizens, in such a scenario Russian doctrine "permits" the use of nuclear weapons to "defend the motherland". This is why everyone has been very careful in the type of weaponry that is being supplied to the Ukrainians. Likewise Ukrainian officials have mentioned it many times that Russia would use attacks on it's territory to escalate the conflict.
Do you think Britain is in a weaker position than Russia right now?
Don't worry, Putin is after sending the electricity engineers to the front lines.🤭
It could be a long winter yet in Moscow..
The Kremlin perceives that the Brits are politically weak (that's not propaganda, they are) and sees them as a proxy for the United States. In much the same way as Belarus is a client state of Russia. They are not going to attack the United States directly, that's fatal. They can send a shot across the bows by exploiting Britains weakness, it would be for purposes of political maneuver. How is Britain weak? It only just skirted a financial crisis that almost (and still could) take down pension funds. This is war, it does not have to take the form of cutting fiber optic lines or blowing up gas pipelines. It can also be to insert division in alliances or divert resources away at key stages of battle. The XR/Just stop oil idiots are enough to cause disruption in the UK.
We don't know who blew up the pipelines to Germany, we can guess it is done with Americans tacit approval, and likely to keep Germany from breaking ranks. German industry is piling the pressure on their government. Having the Brits preoccupied with internal politics can work in the Kremlins favour, they don't negotiate with the EU as a political entity, it is always with nation states, that is why you see President Macron, or Chancellor Scholz in Moscow, they diss the EU representatives. Their goal must be to break or limit the NATO alliance or at least make them think twice about crossing the border in Ukraine.
Have Russia got any more escalation left in them?
And before anyone suggests it, they're not going to use nukes/chemical weapons etc. Their recent climb down about the grain exports disproves those threats.
The Ukrainians aren't doing it for obvious reasons, likewise the US and others aren't supplying the long-range weaponry - they all know it. Russia would use it to escalate the conflict to extremes.
A bit of a different opinion than the Russian representatives on this forum.
More like spooks. Imaginary and supposedly scary
Go on. You’re dying to say that it’ll be nukes!!
One gets the impression that the Russian talk show guys are fully aware the war is going terribly. This guy is talking about attacking Finland and Sweden with nuclear weapons.....it's all just hot air, bombast and nutty rhetoric.
No it isn't, any more than the UK attacking Russian infrastructure is. The Horde would not have attacked Ukraine if they had retained their nuclear weapons.
It really is laughable isn't it!! A country that manages to sink its only aircraft carrier in a drydock, is hiding 1/3 of its navy from a country with no navy, and an Airfrce getting its arse kicked by 1960/70s era migs is supposed to get past the Norweigan, Finnish, German, Dutch, British, French Navies or Polish, Czech, Slovak, German, French, Belguim, Norweigan, Dutch, British Airforces to attack UK infastructure. It really is a daft suggestion.
Putinbots wetting their man-knickers at a fantasy Russian attack on the UK.
Get a grip. Literally.
Let's be real here, do Russia want to risk trigger NATO's article 5 by attacking UK infrastructure? The answer is no, if there was any attack on the uk infrastructure they will be the prime suspects. The whole calling the uk ambassador over svastapol looks like another standard Russia ploy to say that they are against Nato for their domestic audience.
With what? They only thing they are capable of is poisoning people with perfume bottles.
An attack on UK infrastructure is entirely possible, Nobody is suggesting a full scale invasion.
Simple, they are utterly incapable of doing so. The shitshow that is the Russian army would not get 500 meters into Estonia, suggesting an attack on the UK is beyond a joke. You might as well have suggested The Zulus could have mounted an attack on London.
Why would they attack the UK? It's nonsense and designed to deflect and stir a bit of crap in their own media.
Attacking UK would be get Russia nowhere except a comprehensive overwhelming military response.
The "Visegrad group" as a concept of a collection of like minded EU members is kind of defunct now I expect (Russia's invasion killed it finally!).
That twitter account has a massive slant, but along with the odd bit of rubbish and "fake news" to push a particular agenda it (IMO) is sometimes well informed, and the stories can appear elsewhere later. Suggesting people who run it do have connections somewhere.
The article from "Oko" I linked (https://oko.press/visegrad24-anonomous-account-mystery-revealed/) was first thing I've found that tried to put a name to potential operators.
As the founder of Visegrad24, TrueStory pointed directly to Wojciech Pawelczyk, an associate of Jack Posobiec, a conservative American journalist.
However, according to my online investigation, although the direction indicated by TrueStory is correct, it is not Pawelczyk. Instead, I have identified two other individuals who can be related to Visegrad24. They are:
– Adam Starzynski, a journalist who formerly worked for the English-language program PolandDaily, produced by TV Republika; and the owner of the now-banned @BasedPoland account, which spread extremely conservative content on Twitter
– Stefan Thompson, a video creator and PR specialist (as he describes himself on Facebook), also affiliated with the MEGA [extracted from earlier in article: (Make Europe Great Again) network, i.e., Polish supporters of Donald Trump and the American far right] network, now a contributor to TVP (a pro-government Polish Public Television).
Why not?
No, doubt about it the Russian leadership own rhetoric that they intend to terrorize citizens of Ukraine and backed by some of their actions that is seemingly what they are doing, that is a war crime. You have to bear in mind that one day you could find yourself in a uniform or pushing a button to destroy a target, the laws of armed conflict apply to you. I was just following orders may be subject to review afterwards and also weigh on your conscience.
What are jus ad bellum and jus in bello?
Jus ad bellum refers to the conditions under which States may resort to war or to the use of armed force in general. The prohibition against the use of force amongst States and the exceptions to it (self-defence and UN authorization for the use of force), set out in the United Nations Charter of 1945, are the core ingredients of jus ad bellum (see the box titled "On the Prohibition against War"). Jus in bello regulates the conduct of parties engaged in an armed conflict. IHL is synonymous with jus in bello; it seeks to minimize suffering in armed conflicts, notably by protecting and assisting all victims of armed conflict to the greatest extent possible.
Rule 1. The Principle of Distinction between Civilians and Combatants
Numerous military manuals, including those of States not, or not at the time, party to Additional Protocol I, stipulate that a distinction must be made between civilians and combatants and that it is prohibited to direct attacks against civilians.
You have to be clear when you are hitting your target, for instance the Kerch stait bridge carried both civilian and military equipment. Since the Russian army uses rail to transport heavy equipment and fuel, so it can be considered a legitimate military target. If that was the ONLY means of supplying the 2 million civilians in Crimea with food and essential supplies and they had no other means to get them, then the judgement becomes less clear, since it would have a disproportionate effect on civilians, whichever side they are on.
Attacking in turn a electrical and communications nodes should be a component of degrading Russia's capacity to wage war. It's standard practice for the US for example.
I don't buy the argument that it's dangerously escalatory, the genocidal rhetoric from Russia is fairly stark in it's goals. The WW2 comparison falls flat imo, as there's a clear difference between indiscriminate bombing of civilians and targeted destruction of critical infrastructure. This is already a total war scenario for Ukraine, why should Russian be given the sole authority for dictating the terms of combat?
The increase in Russian casualties could be a result of the mobilized cannon fodder being pushed to the front lines, with bad equipment and Russian soldiers preventing them from retreating.
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