Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The Russians might be inclined to just throw bodies at that kind of a fight, but it seems that the AFU are better armed & trained for this kind of thing. Crimea is historically a difficult place to invade, but Ukraine have a shot at taking it if they’re smart about how they fight.

If they can fight their way to the Azov Sea and disable the Kerch bridge, then all bets are off. The Russians would seriously need to up their logistics to keep the peninsula stocked for a fight, especially if that bridge is gone. Airfields and ports can be disabled, robbing them of resupply, troop rotation or escape. I don’t have much faith in the resolve of a trapped Russian garrison on that peninsula. Some might choose to die for Putin or Mother Russia, but when it comes to it I think they’d surrender.

But all of that depends on a successful summer offiensive that retakes the southern coast and eleminates the land-bridge between Donbass and Crimea.

You can only have strength in negotiations if negotiations occur, and Ukrainians aren't negotiating because Russia can't be negotiated with, hence no strength whatsoever.

This is complete nonsense. You keep repeating this canard about Boris Johnson without foundation.

There was no tangible peace deal.

What happened was that Boris Johnson said Russia can't be trusted to abide by any deal based on past record. Also given the security assurances of Budapest failed, he was doubtful of a security framework outside NATO.

Zelensky and his advisors shared that concern and further, had no mandate to give up Donbas etc

So can you explain why this was a tangible peace deal, why it wouldn't have been a Budapest mark 2, and why you keep denying Ukraine agency in making the decision?

This article is a good summary about the realities and some of the myths that have grown up around it. To suggest there was a tangible peace deal somehow nixed by Boris Johnson is a gross misrepresentation, if not outright disinformation.

Britain’s prime minister hadn’t come to Kyiv to order a termination of the peace deal; this was advice at best, and as such, his scepticism about Russia’s trustworthiness wasn’t unique. There were strong concerns within Zelensky’s closest entourage that the Kremlin wouldn’t stick to an agreement for any longer than it suited its interests. The risks of signing the Istanbul agreement were high for Ukraine: key provisions, to do with the status of Donbas and Crimea, couldn’t be agreed until a later meeting between the presidents of the two states. Zelensky and his negotiators’ most important worry about the Istanbul agreement was, Romaniuk said, that “Ukrainian society might not accept such a deal”... With Ukrainian officials and commentators speaking out against the deal at the time, Zelensky must have understood that he had no mandate for territorial concessions to Russia.

https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article7852

This act again. Did Bucha make you "sad" as well? Because that's what life looks like under Russian occupation, systematic murders, rapes, disappearances, totalitarian rule by the occupier, cultural and national identity erased, children being forced to speak only Russian, perpetual occupation.

The Ukrainians are more aware of this than any of us.

There isn't any "dispute" here, Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine, and hasn't deviated from that, bombing and attacking the country 24/7 since February 2022. The only choice forced on Ukraine was to capitulate or defend themselves. They've decided to defend themselves and grind down Putin's war machine. They are the ones bleeding and dying, that's their decision. Since April 2022 they've driven the Russians back and regained a significant portion of their country from the invaders, as well as severely depleting the Russian military's ability to take territory.

Putin has never, and I mean never, held a free fair and democratic election or referendum. The results are always organized and known in advance. Crimea is and will remain a part of Ukraine.

What the rest of the world thinks will not affect Ukrainian thinking. Feb 2022 when they had little or no support at all, they took on Russia with the supposedly 2nd best army in the world. And not only took them on, but pushed them way back to a fraction of the territory they had held. They, Ukraine, and the Baltic states, Poland etc. know full well what the Russians are like and have no intention to be controlled by the by them again, ever. And they wont either, because they are prepared to die rather than submit. But that's a price Putin is unable to pay, because the Russian death toll extracted by the Ukrainians will be so high, that it will bring down the Kremlin and the Russian Federation.

Russia today is not the Soviet Union. It doesn't have the population, brute force, resources or huge forces. Russia is spent.

In your example of truth you have referenced a blogger who has cherry-picked reductionist information from dubious sources. A cursory look at any of their blogs reveals their partisan views immediately:

Probably not the best way to make a point about propaganda.

Relevant.

Laughable. This is Russian propaganda at its most blatent. The blog is a series of pseudo-intellectual nonsense articles praising Putin and the efforts of the Russian army. They're full of lies and bizarre predictions disconnected from reality. For instance here are some of his/her predictions from earlier this year:

• Russia is about to launch an offensive in the coming days that will take back the territory it has lost in Ukraine and bring its army all the way to Kiev.
• The US have amassed troops in Romania and are about to stage a false flag operation in Odessa so that they can invade it.
• Taking 'Artemovsk' will lead to a collapse in Ukraine morale, an immediate rout of its troops, and the fall of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.
• The Russian economy is currently ranked number 5 (!!!) in the most powerful economies in the world, but should actually be ranked higher, and above the US

You post this shite and you expect someone to debate it?

Are you the author of these articles? 

If you're not the author, then why not post the original article from the New Yorker rather than some putinbot's biased interpretation of it?

Seems d1ckhead is okay. Pity.

I wonder what sort of a shallow life one lives that they constantly need petty little wins on an Internet forum to make themselves feel better?

Another question, who are these people on here? I have seem people discuss it alright and surely that is relevant considering the history of poisoning from Russia.

As much as I'd love to see Luka hung from a lamppost beside Putin when this is all over, I've been hoping all along that he survives until that moment.

So far Putin has not managed to convince Lukashenko to roll his troops across the Northern Ukraine border. A newly planted puppet could disrupt that stability. Even if the Belarussian public don't have the stomach for invading Ukraine I'd really rather that hornet nest not kicked just yet. One fight at a time.

Also known as your Gooch..