Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Vuhledar.

This is likely accurate, the Russians have been very quiet about this sector in the last few days for obvious reasons.

There are a few of them on here that think the ratio is 10:1 in favour of Ukraine - seemly because they spend most of the day watching drone footage of Russians getting blown to bits and have a completely 1 sided view of the war.

1 Leopard 2 would destroy 50 Russian tanks...

However to have similar nonsense from UCC professor is shocking...

Yeah it is. This sort of idea is something I was reading about in an effort to try to understand why Russia has been behaving the way it has for the last twenty years of whatever it is. Specifically, I read Modern Russian Politics, by a lecturer in UL. It is an interesting book that looks at a lot of different dimensions, but the discussion of this idea felt like an ah-ha moment for me, as I felt it gave me a bit more insight into something that generally confuses me.

I don't think he referred to the term cultural genocide, but said something along the lines of Russia/Putin perceiving a war of civilizations, and that their civilization is under existential threat. A cultural colonization. And obviously the americanization of a lot of countries is a thing. There is even a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers about it. It just isn't seen as anything other than a cultural phenomenon to most people.

To us in general their view makes no sense, so we tend to dismiss it as being unreasonable and largely deception and propaganda. However, one important thing to recognise in this mindset is the idea that they see themselves involved in a war with the West for a long time, which is being fought in many different dimensions. An actual physical military war for them is just a different phase in the overarching conflict.

My own frame of reference for it is to think of the game Civilization 3. In this game you could influence rival cities and even colonize them if your cultural influence in the area was stronger than theirs. You didn't need to be engaged in a war to do this. So that is my concept of the Russian concept of a war of civilizations. I don't know how accurate it is, and I don't agree with their world view at all, but I do think that only by trying to actually understand their view can any constructive dialog be achieved outside of what can be physically forced.

I'd imagine there will be more and more "no's' to equipment if Russia starts making more gains. It's a hard one for the west because what do you do when you turn convinced Ukraine will more than likely lose?

You don't want to risk your equipment either being destroyed or falling in to Russian hands.

Ukraine has to keep the west convinced they can win.

In WW2 the German V Soviets union soldier killed in fighting was 1-2 to3.5 depending on figures sourced. Factor in that Hitler's interference and insistence on holding unviable positions as well as counterattacking when an army should be retreating especially in the last few months of the war

No Zulu's with spears there. Russia has a history of not caring about death ratios.

WW1 the ratio was 1-2.5 approximately.

A leopard dose not change its spots

They claim to be fighting in the Dachas South East of Ugledar, but I havent seen any sources claim they have gained a foothold in Ugledar proper yet (the dense high-rise bit). They all seem to make a distinction between Ugledar and the dachas as if B is not a part of A.

In other words the russian government doctrine believe they are The Borg from Star Trek.

But individually Russian people crave the western life, Los Angelus, London, Milan. Someone once said one way to end the war before it started was for the EU to issue every russian invader in Ukraine an EU passport. How bloody true that probably would have been.

How have you come to that conclusion?

Russia is the only one making progress - slow and very costly but still progress.

They will throw another 150k men into the fight in the next few weeks which will have received 4-5 months training unlike most of the fodder that was thrown into the fire over the last 4 months. The next few months will be extremely difficult for Ukraine.

True, things have gone beyond that point right now alright. It's more hindsight at this stage. A bad combination of two things was involved. One was failing to recognize that they were becoming more and more hostile in stance. The other was empowering them by buying lots of their fossil fuels.

From "Reality Keeper" --

"After staging a violent coup to overthrow the legitimate government of Ukraine, and having pretended to agree to the Minsk agreement to buy time, the US and Ukraine started developing biological weapons right on the border with Russia in preparation for the war NATO ultimately provoked".

So there we have it folks --

Incidentally, who's stupid enough to "develop biological weapons" on an obvious potential FRONT LINE !!!

Don't expect much from the new arrivals,

Biolabs conspiracy theories and experts in warfare

Doubtful, I wouldn't put much stock in someone who fawned over Stalin

Russia had been fighting Ukraine for 8 years prior. During which time the Ukrainians completely changed from Russian style military doctrine, to a Western/US style, and became significantly better as a fighting force.

Russia has never tried to genuinely negotiate, so far they have just used talks as a ruse, and systematically broken international treaties. They annexed Crimea, and started a proxy war in East Ukraine. Probably the best outcome would have been if Ukraine joined NATO prior to 2013, which was completely within it's rights as a sovereign nation, and prevented all of this.

The US warned of the invasion and were shown to be correct. So far most Western analysis and information has been relatively spot on for a war. Ukraine and Russia engage in their own forms of propaganda, with Russia, of course, at the extreme end of the spectrum.

There's no "apparent" about it. The Ukrainians held back one of the most powerful militaries in the world and have obliterated Russia armor at a rate of at least 4 to 1. All of this has been done with their own man-power. Someone can be sent all the military equipment in the world, it doesn't mean jack if they don't fight with it (Afghanistan).

They have one of the world's largest navies cowering in the Black sea and sank it's flagship - without a navy. They have a tiny air-force, yet have denied Russia air superiority. They don't have cruise missiles like their enemy. They can't strike at infrastructure and logistics bases in Russian territory. They aren't just fighting one of the largest militaries in the world, they are doing so with one arm tied behind their back. Be interesting to see how they'd perform with proper equipment (MBTs, ATACMS, F16's, etc)

Russia is still a highly potent force, gradually they are learning and adapting, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make gains in the short term. However they are having to empty prisons, force people to fight, rely on mercenaries, ask North Korea for shells, use cold war missiles, dig up ancient tanks and equipment - all of that whilst losing their main source of revenue, having to sell resources for rock bottom prices to the East, being heavily sanctioned and a global pariah.

In terms of morale, Russians are fighting for money, the Ukrainians are fighting for their lives, families, culture and identity - no contest there

Putin, He is the decision-maker in Russia, and decided to invaded a neighbouring country in a war of choice (which he can exit at any time).

You left out these...

Totally evil. Comrade Putin is right.