Lithuania and Ukraine not taking too kindly to Francis comments on the Russian Empire.
"Ukraine, once part of the same empire, said the comments were "deeply regrettable". The Kremlin described them as "very gratifying"."
The other way to look at that is Putin took the most compedient (I'm being generous) wing of his armed forces and it's now crushed.
Russia may be a larger country but its not the Russian country fighting, its their army. Putin might replace its broken equipment with WW11 equipment, that really doesn't help much and replacing Russian troops with untrained and poorly motivate individuals will eventually. Is it different with UKR, yes it is. They don't have an endless supply of equipment but what's coming is superior to what they currently have and their armed forces are being trained by other countries. This has probably slowed the expected offensive, but UKR are fighting for their land, their parents, their children.
Every UAF person has skin in the game, they fight so their parents can hold what they worked their life for. They fight so their children have a future and hope. With time Russia will do what its done in other countries it will slink back to its shrinking borders. But that's not the end of it.
So why don't you report back to your superior comrade, tell them the game is up, because if we in Ireland know Russia is a joke, a mere shadow of its former self, then you can take it every other country in Europe knows it too. And the future ? well who knows, maybe a cold war starts where Europe continues sanctions until Russia buckles and starts paying for its illegal invasion for the rebuilding of Ukraine, what a total waste of Human life, decades of people lives will be affected. Any Russian should be totally ashamed of their country, will the penny drop and will Russian's start to demand change, well time will tell.
Add to that ukr has been fighting Putin's forces since 2014.
For them this war is a almost a decade old.
@Gerry T
Very generous. Wagner were alright when fighting poorly-armed African rebels. When it came to fighting a proper military, their best success involved slaughtering tens of thousands of barely trained convicts in a lemming meat assault and it took eight months and that battle is still ongoing. If that was their most competent force, Russia's ambitions in Ukraine are truly unobtainable.
Bullcrap as the Donald might say.
These UAF deep strikes into Russia and occupied Crimea must be causing havoc with Russian logistics and personnel deployments. Its very clever stuff.
Great CNN interview with impressive Ukrainian former defence minister: he is totally rational, frank, seems very competent, and you don't get anything like this coming out of Moscow.
Ruble on the move again, back up to 96 RUB to the dollar.
that means this operation was successful and hurt them badly. Good.
Dead cat bounce?
...
It happens
Roger has always been a dick, just ask Dave.
Pretty good imitation of Putin.
Appreciate the support on "that other thread".
PK.
Not huge numbers but every little helps, and moral should continue sliding down because it's unlikely much will happen to reverse it (hopefully).
Great song to listen to while reading about the Ruble, Russian morale or the number of Il-76s Russia has.
Going Down by Freddy King.
Now that Wagner are unemployed and not allowed to fight in Ukraine for Russia. Could Ukraine hire them and use them as cannon fodder to break the defence lines
I couldn't think of a faster way to crash Ukrainian morale than hiring the very soldiers - literal criminals in many cases - who had been murdering and raping their way across the country since day 1 of the invasion.
They could be sent ahead as mine clearers.
The Free Russia brigade in Ukraine said they will take them.
I and I'm sure others follow and appreciate your expertise/ insights on matters aviation here :)
They've a lot of territory and assets to cover with air defence, so keeps them guessing I suppose.
The mercenaries of the former Wagner PMC were in it for the money. Most of them will either accept becoming part of some special unit under the Kremlin's control or else join other mercenary groups and continue riddling poorly-armed rebels somewhere in Africa. Few will put their arses on the line for Ukraine or revenge against Putin.
We hear about this loyalty they had to Prigozhin. Personally, I think that, upon reflection, they'll conclude that Prigozhin didn't know what the hell he was doing.
True. And every aircraft hit, is even more difficult to repair or replace. One less piece of equipment to launch at Ukrainians.
correct horse battery staple threadbanned
Strength is relative to your opponent in war. They're not strong enough to take Ukraine. They're not even strong enough to make advances anymore. If they're a strong force, the AFU are at least as much, it would seem, and the AFU's capacity to withstand pain is buoyed up by the fact that their fight is existential.
This an interesting YouTube channel.
I suppose it's possible but would you want to fight alongside people who have committed crimes against humanity against your brothers and sisters?Wagner imo are likely to dissolve now their fighters join other contractors as paid mercenaries.
Russian artillery losses are mindboggling
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
