The Belarusian people have accepted this plan? News to me.
If Russia really wants to annex territory, it just does it, as we've seen. They don't follow some sort of orderly integration timeline that dot's the i's and crosses the t's. Belaurus has close political, cultural and historical ties to Russia, in a similar fashion to Ukraine, but just like Ukraine, its people seemed to broadly prefer sovereignty, overall, even if it's nominal. Attempting to strip Belarus of that could blow up in Russia's face.
As ever, Russia is attempting to make up for its failure to cultivate soft power by locking down what's left of its former sphere of influence, regardless of how the peoples living in those regions may feel. I would say that Russia should tend to its own garden to attract the butterflies, but it's awfully hard to tend to those plants when you've novichok in one hand and an AK in the other.
Orcs are such scumbags
Russia - 0 points.
It's just flu ......
Russia to appoint a puppet and attack Ukraine from the North?
“Belarus initially denied involvement with the conflict, but has since admitted to allowing Russian missile launchers stationed on its territory to shoot at Ukrainian targets.” (Google)
not a hope. Let the leopards eat their face if that happens.
Yep- a slow cancerous death to Putin and his children
Nothing on the main stream media as far as I can see.
This is dynamite if true.
Would be interesting to see. Belarus is currently strengthening it's army while showing no sign of joining the fight. Meanwhile Russia army is weakening and is fully focused on Ukraine.
If they decided to take Belarus by force and they fought against it they'd probably partially succeed. Lukaschenko being the weasel he is would probably formally ask Poland and Ukraine to help defend.
In reality they could probably hold Minsk and everything South and West of it. But would surely lose territory on the Russian border.
A few videos (which for some reason refuse to embed) of Russians in Klischiivka under heavy artillery fire. It looks this area has moved from being under Russian control to contested.
The Russians leadership think differently, they have a Stalingrad mentality, but this will reach a tipping point with the public soon when the Kremlin spin can't obscure the abysmal reality of this war. In time Putin, who was once seen as a master strategist, will be viewed worse than Mikhail by many Russians.
I doubt he's been poisoned. More likely just another nonsense sensationalist rumour someone on twitter dreamed up and the usual suspects here, the same ones who every week in 2022 predicted Belarus was about to enter the war because that was also on twitter, treat it as near fact.
I know Belarus are in all but name a part of Russia with Putin bending Lukashenko over and having his wicked way. However, the people of Belarus may not fancy that. If Lukashenko is dying/ousted and someone else is coming to the fore, would the Belarussian public rise up again and be tackled again by the powers that be. That could be a reason to enter and "help" the people of Belarus, most likely via the UN or something. I dunno really. Just thinking...
Zelensky in Berlin today. Huge new military aid package announced. More of this please. Germany has not done enough this last year but at last it's gone in the right direction.
More
I suspect they have a spy in the ranks.
I noticed that too. Looks a bit computery to me.
Now their outhouses will be without doors!
The reason Lukashenko won't get his troops involved is because the army and the people wouldn't have it. They'll be outside the presidential palace by the end of the day. Even if he was killed and replaced by another guy who will do what Vlad says, the same scenario will take place. In fact it would be more likely to happen because the new guy wouldn't have the overall power of Lukashenko.
The only options for Russia to keep the status quo or to annex it, which will create another clusterfuck.
I feel that Belarus has the potential of following Ukraine’s example with their own EuroMaidan movement. The protests at Lukashebko’s dubious re-election indicates that there is a public element that want rid of pro-Kremlin nonsense.
Trick is, Putin is not likely to just stand by and let that happen. If the Ukraine war wraps up, this could be the next conflict.
Cruise missile shot down
The ironic thing for Putin is that he was well on his way to capsizing the entire world order as we know it just via the cyber war Russia was waging, and he even had some degree of deniability on that. Not much, but something. And this was all without many Russian boots on the ground (officially). Although Ukraine would have continued to pivot westward, it stood little chance of joining the EU or NATO in the short term. Now, it looks like both of those things are being fast tracked and the West is largely united on a common goal of defeating Russia.
If there's a lesson in this for Putin, it's that sly subterfuge was the way forward for Russia, but Putin became overconfident in his gains there and thought he could move on to direct confrontation. Months sequestered in a lockdown dacha probably didn't help his decision making. I'm glad he's been exposed for what he is, but not so glad that it's resulted in this terrible war.
Any tips on good video mapping reports updating what's happening on the front.
I use these two already.
https://www.youtube.com/@andrewperpetua
It’s of interest to note that all the posts re what way will Belarus go / what will Russia do if Luka goes is being discussed as if everything stays as it is which may not be further from the truth
. The fact that Moscovy has now exposed itself re it’s military strength , how weak it now is - and getting weaker by the day and it’s poor strategy in how it has gone about trying to win the war, would this not encourage ‘some members and ex members of the Russian Federation to think about decoupling themselves from the RF or/and claiming back land confiscated by Moscovy - Georgia, Moldova , Chechyna,.Some of the current members have been making statements at meetings attended by Putin re independance.
o if Putin tries to take over Belarus he may also have to be busy with Poland , Ukraine , Moldova, Chechnya, Georgia and some of the current members of the RF. JUST IMAGINE he trying to manage a war on all of those fronts
PS I forgot about China and it taking back some of its land that The RF is occupying
Most recent UK intel release
TLDR: the Russian force now is worse than the Russian invasion force.
So at some point we may have to pivot to supporting Russia?
Could we be looking at the end of the USSR #2 ?
Well, yeah, and that's why anyone saying that the sanctions are not working do not know what they're talking about. Russia cannot easily replace its heavy equipment losses, thanks to those very sanctions and also endemic Russian corruption. Being that it's these things that actually do most of the killing on a modern battlefield, Russia will have major problems pressing forward in Ukraine.
Hopefully the recent ammo shortages for the Russians was not as a result of political infighting and instead that Russia are running low on ammo across the board.
Any updates on these videos? If genuine, what sort of materials would have been needed to explode simultaneously to produce explosion and cloud like that. They dwarf the city landscape. Anything known of the sources quoted - are they recognised as disinformation channels?
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