Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Story sounds about as plausible as the Ukrainian mobilization document quoted here just before this, i.e. not very.

Bradleys on the way .

Indeed, so I looked around and also found it mentioned on a Russian site also. Along with a copy of a report which mentions assault and sexual assault on an NTV. Indeed, could be fake, but will see if any further mentions of it

https://pikabu-ru.translate.goog/story/v_melitopole_iznasilovali_zhurnalistku_i_izbili_operatora_kanala_ntv_9899793?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Not familiar with him, but he has a lot of complaints in the Irish Times I see.

To quote him: “because of its overwhelming superior firepower, Russia is winning a war that Ukraine cannot but lose, irrespective of the amount of western military aid or ‘wonder weapons’ it receives” and that as “there is no sign the Kremlin’s war machine is running out of steam . . . Ukraine has little or no hope of recovering lost territories”.

In July last year.

I'm sure it will be denied,

They have a belief that they are somehow superior, despite spending 60/70 years hiding behind a wall and living in a time capsule, meanwhile the the rest of us invested in democracy, freedom, innovation and technology

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.

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.