Their morale is failing as they wait for the main Ukrainian attack. It seems that their flanks around Bakhmut are collapsing which would lead to the encirclement of a large part of the Russian forces, unless they pull out in time.
Alexa, play Yakety Sax
Did you have to - seriously?
Now I have an old Paul Simon song lyric stuck on repeat in my head:
No, I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away
Yuck - just no!
Mum! How could you?
I receive papers. You should be dead by now.
As a wise power plant worker once said, "Completely normal phenomenon."
I can see Lukashenko ringing Kadyrov and urgently asking for the contact details for the liver specialist he flew in from the UAE, due to trust issues.
Is OK, we have insurance for 1.2X value.
«Pegging it!» as the Ancient Greeks might say :P
Is this an isolated incident, or have they collectivly lost what little nerve they had to begin with? If the latter is true, Ukraine might be having a good Eurovision night regardless of the song votes.
If Lukashenko has actually (obviously v sceptical) been poisoned ,who might have done it?
And why?
Wouldn't normally ask this sort of a question but this couldn't happen to a finer collection of gentlemen.
The Lukashenko one is a bit weird for me. He's been on Russias side, has helped them with gear, stationed men there, etc. Maybe Putin doesn't think he's doing enough, or isn't going to do enough. He's already a Russian puppet and will gladly bring Belarus back into Russia. There must be someone else in the wings thats more malleable if Putin/Russia are trying to take Lukashenko out. Hard one to suss
cnocbui threadbanned
Even more interesting to see how Byelorussians see it.....and react to it!
My money on would be patrushev, he seems to be one of the most odious of the Putin inner circle and was linked heavily with the apartment bombings that lead to the Chechen war. So he wouldn't blink an to poison a head of state.
As to the why, the only good reason I can think is to get the Belarusian army in the war and possibly open a new front to relieve pressure from the Ukraine counter offensive. Lukashenko has been threading a very fine line since the war started to not get involved, he knew his army would revolt of they were sent in.
It's regular force is at over 60k strong according to Wikipedia which would be a big reinforcement of trained troops to the Russian war effort. As to how well trained these are, I would be suspect and they would not be happy to fighting for Russia. Ukraine heavily mined and fortified the Belarusian border last year if I remember media reports last year when it seemed like Belarus could invade so they will not have easy time if it was to happen.
I think that the bridge too far for Lukashenko would be having to send his military to actually fight for Putin..its not a chance he's prepared to take because He might have to face a massive uprising that he would not be able to control this time round, And of course Putin is not impressed with his stance.
If the US had single day losses like that in Iraq there'd be pandamonium.
You love to see it. On a long enough timescale, very few invading forces are successful against a determined resistance. Even if the formal military phase is successful for the occupier, there remains the troublesome issue of suppressing the insurgency. Ukraine has become Russia's Vietnam, only more so. It took the United States ten years to incur the kind of casualties which the Russians are dealing with after 15 months, and that's a war which still lives in infamy in the American memory. Then again, they have a bit more regard for the lives of their soldiers. I say 'a bit', I should say 'a lot'.
Just watched a few video of the Khmelnytskyi explosion. so big it almost looks nuclear. There are videos on twitter and youtube, if real that was a huge amount ammunition/fuel thats been lost.
This one is the best quality
It could very well be Putin himself who wants to take out Lukashenko.
Back in the 90’s when the idea of a «Union State» between Russia and Belarus was first mooted, Lukashenko was regarded as far more energetic and charasmatic than his Russian counterpart of the time (Boris Yeltsin). If the Union State had properly established itself Lukashenko may have found himself President of that combined state.
Putin’s arrival shifted that balance, and there’s no chance of Lukashenko challenging Putin for Presidency of a Union State now. But perhaps Putin has no real patience for faffing about with a supranational «Union» when what he really wants is to get Belarus into the Russian Federation and under Kremlin rule. Perhaps killing Lukashenko makes that goal easier.
Perhaps with the spectre of defeat in Ukraine he knows he’ll need some kind of expansionist «Plan B» in order to cling onto power, and that might come in the form of another «referendum» but this time in Minsk.
Would "The West" step in to help Belarus if Russia decided to change tack and invade there?
Not a hope in my opinion, the states are too interlinked. There is no real opposition in Belarus as they are either in jail or in exile. Plus Russia already has troops stationed there, it would be a massive mess to get involved in particularly with a us presidential election coming up. They would just give more funding to Belarusian pro democracy groups.
Russia already has 30,000 + men in Belarus lushashenko signed into law the permanent deployment of Russian forces and weapons to Belarus, most of laws signed by lushashenko were personally sponsored by putin himself, we've already seen that Russia planned to return Belarus into Russia and that plan was several years along when putin invaded ukraine,
It was previously suggested Ukraine or Poland could invade in a regime change operation,but that brings more issues which in turn could bring other states ie china directly into the conflict.
One video in daylight, the other in the dark. I'll wait for official news sources rather than a computer generated voice over.
How about a Ukrainian news site ?
The Russians have 30,000 + in Belarus and I get the feeling that if push came to shove they will push thousands more in if needed despite what's happening in Ukraine
There was 30k at the start of the war in Belarus, seems be have been massively reduced:
But it's not bakhmut,
Belarus isn't ukraine,
Completely different scenarios, Russia had to invade Ukraine,in Belarus they're already there on a permanent basis, with a plan to reincorporate Belarus into Russia proper
But totally different scenarios.
No matter what anyone claims
Push more to the grinder I’d imagine. What do you think?
White Russian expert as well?
Zelensky wanted to invade and occupy parts of Russia border areas to use as leverage in any potential discussions/negotiations , along with bombing the Druzhba pipeline that the Hungarians are solely dependent on for there industries, which in Itself could have caused problems for Nato ....
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