Russia - threadbanned users in OP

It shows that Russia has severe trouble taking a town in Ukraine, how will it have any hope with the cities in the 4 oblasts it claims?

Severodonetsk, how will Russia manage that, never mind all the other towns.

It speaks to how badly Russia is led when the only man who has delivered some progress for them, is reduced to games and feints to force the delivery of needed supplies.

If Russia was even just poorly organized it would have half of Ukraine now.

I'd be of similar opinion,he's not made any real progress except on the outskirts of bakhmut,it still doesn't make sense he's single handledly holding the Ukrainans back from the whole of donesk and Lugansk,the Ukrainans aren't even trying to them yet ,

Surely he knows if the Ukrainans decide to make a big enough push they will break through in various locations and his force won't be able to stop them,

More on the captured manual for the new assault groups formed by the Russians,this goes some way to explain how to FIBUA , urban combat, taking building and movement in areas ,

While having a manual can help in a classroom setting as part of a broad training program ,but it's feck all use on the go with forces who have little or no infantry training/school before being dumped in Ukraine, especially if they don't have the experienced NCOs capable of running the show on the ground,

Could be a 2 week old video.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." Desmond Tutu

The Orc embassy in Dublin is their main intelligence hub for western Europe, which doesn't just gather intelligence to help the Orcs Marinkafy communities in Syria, Ukraine - everywhere their fithy black Orc hearts have an interest in - but also performs more sinister functions, like acting as a base from which actual operatives work from and go forth to do evil, like that Cork cow in Australia. The government just lets it all happen as if their and Ireland's 'neutrality' is something admirable and that the activities enabled by that embassy are worthy of protection and succour.

IMO the Irish government isn't neutral, but is actually complicit in evil by enabling it and turning a blind eye to it.

Gorbachev was by far the nicest Communist leader in Russia, he over saw the killing of 2.5mn in Afghanistan and unknown more in the Soviet Union.

Putin could only dream of the control he had, Russia will never go back to the savagery of pure Communism, even with a Putin victory.

Yes, but the killer for Prigozhin was that try his hardest, he was unable to hand Bakhmut to Putin in time for the anniversary "Celebrations". Would not surprise me either if the regular Russian army leadership deliberately hindered him at every turn. There's no love lost between them. And this story, like Bakhmut is not over yet either.

Even IF they lose Bakhmut to the Russians, thats not quite the same as saying Ukraine has lost the war...far from it!!, just remember where Ukraine was this time last year, now that was really bad, almost hopeless in fact, consensus was that in a few days or week's at the most, the war would be over, and Putin in control. Yet look at what happened, and compare then with now. They are in an infinitely better position, while Russian has lost nearly 50% of the territory it once held, post invasion. All the naysayers and doomsday prophesizing has come to naught, and Ukraine will win and Putin will be defeated in the end.

Loss of life is always tragic, this goes without saying, and its this tragic loss of Ukrainian Life at the hands of Putin that has which triggered this war. This is very clear who the culprit is. Now what do you suggest could or should have been done to prevent Putin invading Ukraine? ( or indeed any of his previous criminal acts? )

They see themselves as great critical thinkers, but it hasn't dawned on them that a knee-jerk reaction of discounting everything a certain source says is just as stupid as a knee-jerk acceptance of it, and while they laugh at people who agree with MSM versions of events, they eat up alternative versions* with a big spoon and ask for seconds, no matter how poor the evidence, how unsound the argument or how blatant the agenda.

*Usually YouTube grifters. Apparently watching lots of these is called "doing your own research".

Interesting analysis and background by Julia Ioffe (31st Jan 2023). Some stand-out points she makes:

• No promise was given to Russia that NATO would no expand.
• Westerners tend to assume that Russians fundamentally have similar attitudes and values to them. They don't. Being western-looking doesn't make them western-thinking. On the intrnational stage, Russians tend to be cynical and lie where westerners are usually more up-front. This can result in westerners tending to assume the Russians are being honest, and Russians tending to assume that westerners are lying.
• Trump was an easy mark for Putin to manipulate.
• The Russians expected sanctions and thought they could soak them up as in 2014, but did not anticipate the scale of the current sanctions or the unity shown by the west.
• It's naive to aussume that there are moderate waiting to take over from Putin. He is more likely to be replaced by someone even worse.
• Most interestingly, she expects the military conflict to end shortly, but (frustratingly) the interviewer fails to press her for more detail about this opinion.

It's along clip (over an hour) but worth watching. (In the spirit of full disclosure I do find her very easy on the eye and ear. 😀)

They've mostly crappy dance soundtracks, at least this one had Rammstein (still not heavy metal) and fits nicely with the mechanics at play

LOL.....Yessss ooof course, we have, and have after careful consideration decided that they have not got one iota of justification for their illegal murderous invasion of an independent neighbouring state.

It's progress, relatively speaking, Bakhmut will fall shortly, at horrendous cost to the Russian penal system, at horrendous cost to Russian munitions as well.

It has also come at horrendous cost to Ukraine, the Wall St Journal saying it has been so brutal that it will delay the Spring counter offensive.

A lot more dead on both sides before Russia is pushed back.

Russia could easily exhaust itself to collapse after another year or two of this.

Ukraine will be lucky to avoid being a failed State, there are 8mn and rising refugees from there across Western Europe. If they don't go back in the next few years, then Ukraine has no future.

Like all significant wars the consequences of this will be playing out long after the guns stop.

2 broken failed States with a stand off in bits of Donbas might be the final outcome, the every one loses in one way scenario.

The quicker it ends, the less damage to all, Europe and North America should be ramping up military aid, all aid.

More dead now will mean a lot less dead long term.