Whatever you think about Trump he at least had the savvy to warn the Germans about dealing with the Russians.
He forced some of them into the Russian army so they won't think kindly of him for that.
Patton for all his faults knew his history better than anyone and saw the russians for what they are a mindless hoard
no russia does but germany and whoever else funded the pipelines need to take on some serious guilt
Then they should be careful what the ask for, they might just get it.
Yeah it’s not looking good in Bakhmut.
Russia seems to be throwing everything at it.
Ukraine have done really well to repel it so far but seems it’s getting worn down slowly.
So Germany foots the bill for Ukraine...
I don’t believe there was that much strategic consideration.
More like, Putin had been buying so much influence and peddling so disinformation in western political systems, bringing about Trump, Brexit, a hard lurch to the right in many EU Continental states, besides ingraining fossil fuel dependency in the main EU economies, since before 2014 and thence…
…couple that with a distorted perception of military capabilities and then he probably thought that he’d have to have go -now or never, like- as all this influence started to unravel after Covid (Biden in, GB on skids/into ever more irrelevance, EU not fragilised by Brexit/Covid, LePen didn’t get anywhere, far right losing ground in NL/AT/DE/etc.)
They did a General Patton on him-
Patton's chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, invited him on a December 9, 1945 pheasant hunting trip near Speyer to lift his spirits. Observing derelict cars along the side of the road, Patton said, "How awful war is. Think of the waste." Moments later the 1938 Cadillac limousine they were riding in collided with an American army truck at low speed.
Patton's views on the Russians-
The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.
George S. Patton - Wikipedia
There have been a few comments in the thread recently that are critical of the way the US have approached dealing with russia but I'm not convinced the way it was played was not the least bad option. After the 2014 invasion of Crimea there were statements from China pretty much saying it was up to russia to resolve their issues there. The way things have gone recently for the russians makes me think this is not the way putin was hoping his special operation would play out. Just a guess from what I can see from a good distance away but would he have been hoping for a NATO response to his provocation in Ukraine and with boots on the ground from the US and other NATO forces expect support then to be forthcoming from China? Even without direct military involvement or an escalation to nuclear war a supply of weapons from China to russian mobilized troops could have seen a much more complicated, bloody and protracted conflict. Was he hoping to use Ukraine to draw NATO into a scrap that would see them dragged down to russia's level?
He was called out several times but the fcukin Germans can't help themselves and let the bastard back in with cheap energy deals
That applies to both. The Kherson forces won't likely sit around From either side. They'll have minimum forces in defence and the intensity will pick up elsewhere.
Only change for Ukraine is they'll probably strike long range supplies stored futher back now or the Crimea supply routes and Russia will strike Kherson indiscriminately instead of Mykolaiv.
Another two condition1s should be that (1)The UKr wants all its nuclear mussels back and MUST BE IN WORKING ORDER and (2) that Russia REPATRIATE all those Russians that came to live/were planted in The UKr since 2012 and all those other Russians that hold RU passports only
"The FSB gave a clear signal - they will clean up everyone": how and why Stremousov was eliminated in the Kherson region
The odious traitor of Ukraine, the right-hand man of the Gauleiter of the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, Kyrylo Stremousov, according to "official" information, died in a road accident. However, the circumstances of the accident were so strange that they almost immediately raised many questions. Now we can say with great probability: Stremousov was killed, and by his own.
That was a traffic accident? For that matter; that was a car?
One of the big benefits of taking back the west side of the Dnipro in Kherson is that it'll free up tens of thousands of troops. The river acts as a perfect defensive barrier meaning that they won't need to keep that many troops to defend it. Instead they can be redeployed to Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Whatever about youZV I would lose an awful lot of sleep as I would be celebrating for weeks to the point of exhaustion - maybe then fall asleep
Russians are likely throwing the kitchen sink at Bakhmut now in an attempt to make up for the Kherson withdrawal.
Risky gamble.
An interesting question for me is what do Russian leaning people in the occupied and liberated regions now think of Putin and his regime. It would be hard to believe that everyone has a favourable opinion of him after eight months of bloody war (that he started).
i'm bringing to you great big news, liberation after liberation
Bakhmut-
The west should have called Putin out, decades ago. They should have seen he was a dangerous beast as he rampaged through Chechnya and Syria, but they were too morally bankrupt to speak out. They were also making money from their gas deals and their bank accounts got fat while the monster in the Kremlin got even fatter. They just didn't care because they were too smug and didn't have the moral fiber to call Putin out. Now Ukraine is paying the price for the west's boundless idiocy. They should have seen this coming. The least they can do now, to absolve their sins, is support Ukraine with ALL the defenses they need.
Ukraine.
bad for who though?
you'd also see massive amounts of russian arms and other dangerous material fall into the hands of arms dealers and other groups
Similar to events after the fall of the USSR - if you knew someone at a base theyd sell you it all for some real currency. A collapsed russia with increased poverty and an FSB in disarray would open the doors for many more such "bargains" to be had.
Super yachts at 50 paces.
Ominous. This guy is usually very reliable.
The tears of happiness from both sides just glad to see each other and the sense of relief it must bring.
Reminds me when Bucha was liberated an older lady ran into the arms of Ukr soldier and stayed hugging him for what felt like a long 2mins, nice to witness truly happy moments for a change.
If it did implode what you would see is multiple wars kicking off. The Russian Federation, same as the USSR before it, keeps a lid on a lot of rivalries
War of the Oligarchs'.
Ukraine erects a Kitten Inn at a trench checkpoint. peake morale.
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