Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Even if Avdiivka will fall in the end. I suspect it will eventually but who knows.

It is not "about to fall". If it falls you can be sure Ukraine will make the Russians pay thousands of corpses for every 100 metres they take just like Bakhmut.

No it's not

It's funny that so far this winter Russian infrastructure is hurting more then Ukraine. I hope the West don't get complacent and keep sending more AA.

Don’t believe everything you read. If you believe that theory, you’re gullible.

I think that Ukrainian nuclear rearming has to be point 2 in the peace talks.

Point 1, of course, is the DMZ along the 2014 border, and how far into Russia that extends from the line.

Nobody is going to be giving them nuclear weapons certainly not as part of any peace plans

To the eternal shame of the west. The severe ammunition shortage for Ukraine continues to get worse.

The modern Western belief that things like domestic energy security, food security,domestic security, political stability in neighbouring regions etc are all unimportant and long term boring topics, it's not going to have a good outcome.

Ukraine has held Russia with limited resources and lots of tough sacrifice for their home, kept them at a a fifth of the country taken, without massive advantage in firepower they will not take it back, and the pressure this year from much of Europe and Biden for a ceasefire is going to mount.

The in thing for imperialists today is to call a ceasefire and talk of humanitarian pauses, and that is the way it will be presented.

The West should have taken this serious from the start, it didn't and the consequences will play out for years.

Ukraine got lucky that Russia and it's army are such fuk ups, Putin got lucky with the West lacking the bottle or motivation to beat him out if what he took.

Communist countries hadn't as much as a washer after the war. Cheap ugly blocks of flats were built out of necessity in order to house the millions of refugees. However some city centres were rebuilt brick by brick using old photographs, the old towns of Warsaw and Gdansk immediately come to mind but outside these old towns the budget didn't exist to continue with the rebuilding of the beautiful boulevards.

They don't have to be "given" the nukes, they can develop them themselves.

Russia has been in all out attack mode for 4 months now. Will this slow after Putin's reelection or is this the new normal where Russia mobilises 30k troop's a month indefinitely to replace the loses and keep this going. It's interesting how they attack so much during bad months of the year. I hope they go full steam ahead into the mud season as well.

"Again soon" ? Does that mean you don't consider the strikes on Russia's oil depots, weapons factories, naval bases and aircraft some kind of offensive attack?

We're back to this same "Russia's so big it can't lose" argument that ignores the reality on the battlefield: Ukraine makes the most efficient use of its limited resources to accurately strike targets of signficant military and strategic value hundreds of kilometres behind the front lines, while Russia blindly lobs men and bombs in the vague general direction of Kyiv/Poland/America in the hope of hitting something important.

Just because one starts with a great fortune, there's no guarantee one won't end up in a pauper's grave; and the same holds true for any (wannabee) emperor.

If Ukraine do get nukes, it won’t be with help from the west.

the US doesn’t want anymore Nuclear capable countries, and would pull any support as would the EU.

im sure any type of future integration in the EU or the like would be dependent on them not developing nukes.

They are nice to see and they are important single strikes but they are only one slice of the pie.

It's a matter of scale though. Ukraine are getting enough artillery for 2000 fired a day, on a 600 mile front, their soldiers talk of having 2 shells delivered and nothing again for days, and that's where the action is hottest in a 600 mile front.

Israel fired 100k shells in the first 7 weeks in a small strip of land 15 miles long and that was it being secondary to air strikes, because the reality of urban warfare calls for that.

Precision strikes by Ukraine are all well and good but they also need to level areas. The Russians were firing 60k a day at one stage.

Russia can lose, If the will is there in the West, it can also have a victory of sorts, in that it holds what it has, that might come at near a million dead and injured and their economy on a par with Pakistan, this is the kicker though. Their leadership is willing to do that.

The Ukrainians have been short changed for the first 2 years, their best troops are dead or injured or exhausted by the reality of war, the West should have backed them to the hilt from day one, stepping up military aid is far less effective now but it should start.

Putin has more reason to be hopeful than this time last year and Zelensky has more concerns. The Ukrainians might be forced into defensive positions themselves, which is what is happening now, and a stalemate settles in.

Stalemates, ceasefires etc, in the current wars we hear lots of are a benefit and victory of sorts for the aggressor.

It's only 220k shells, with first deliveries at the end of 2025. It's also to replenish NATO stocks and to supply Ukraine.

Maybe countries will give more to Ukraine from their current stockpiles knowing they will be replenished in about 2 years time.