Saw a report that a senior Russian intellegence office was killed in Moscow? Could be Ukraine or even Putin..
‘The Russians have more of everything’: Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back enemy in Mariinka | Ukraine | The Guardian
Sasha suggested Russia’s generals were winning because they were prepared to accept huge battlefield casualties, with sometimes hundreds killed and wounded in a single offensive operation. “They send in conscripts to take a machine gun position. All their men are wiped out. But our location is discovered,” he said. “They then call in air support to drop a 500kg bomb on one or two of our guys. There is nothing we can do.”
Grim.
Even if deployed as a kind of rear-guard, maybe a defensive shield against attacks on cities, civilians or at potentially vulnerable rumps, it could make a difference in allowing Ukraine focus its assets on critical areas. I wonder are there many Ukrainian troops stationed around the BElarussian border, for instance.
Cos I presume whatever's percolating in Macron's head, it isn't French troops, opening fire on Russian ones. It couldn't, cos that would be a naked act of war by France, and drag the continent along with it. We truly would have Russian ships off our coast before we knew it.
Well done! If only 1% of EU troops and firepower was deployed to aid Ukraine it would make a huge diffference to the war.
The problem with Ukraine at the moment is that they're slowly and consistently losing territory and really struggling to take any back.
Ukraine really needs to be able to hold their lines without heavy losses at this stage and they can't do that.
They can't win the war by slowly losing territory.
Once the elections in Russia are over Putin can go ahead with another mass mobilisation, he could empty every prison in the country if he wanted.
They've no issue with throwing troops and equipment for small gains.
America military support is looking increasingly unreliable, if Trump wins it's very bad news for them.
I feel concerns about Ukraine are warranted and it's why we're seeing increasingly alarming statements from European leaders, even contemplating direct intervention should Ukrainian lines collapse.
“We will no longer tolerate criticism of our democracy and claims that it is not what it should be. Our democracy is the best, and we will continue to build it,”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/08/patriotic-films-youth-festivals-the-1bn-push-to-get-vote-out-for-putinr-russia-election
I think it's no different than when Russia was advancing on Bakhmut. They took massive losses and did eventually take it. Some people though Ukraine was about to fall.
Then onto Avdiivka, that took even longer for Russia to take. They also lost massive amounts of armor on their advance etc...
And now people say Ukraine is about to fall.
I'm not dismissing the fact that Russia have and are taking towns, but let not kid ourselves that it's been a quick and swift advance for the Russians.
Is the new thing now, predicting when Ukraine will fall/Russia wins? Like a reverse Kyiv in 3 days?
Nothing might come of it considering it's the Swiss but heres hoping. Maybe they can finally see that hiding all that blood money will be unprofitable in todays world.
I think it's more the worry like the arm wrestle analogy.
Both sides wrestle arms, one guy begins to eventually buckle, and when the arm goes it goes fast. Game over.
Presuming it's the reason for strong words from the French, they wanna stop that buckle from happening.
Why is every little gain that Ukraine makes dismissed and any little gain the Russian make jumped on as Kyiv gonna fall anytime now?
Because the zeitgeist is fatalistic, within or without he Ukraine war. Populism, climate change, social media amplifying all problems ten fold etc etc; the prevailing western mood is inherently glum and despairing so within this war it's easy to glom onto any russian "success" as somehow indicative that the sky is about to inevitably fall.
The blue line is back in Feb 17th, when UAF left Andiivka. So the Russian have progressed 2.4km in 19 days (575km to Kyiv or over 10 years at that pace) . Yes it's progress but to suggest Russia is winning (the opposite of Russia loosing as you claim people suggest) is a little crazy.
Strange map. Looks like Russia is happy to give up it's land south of Rostov on Don connecting into Crimea on Kerch bridge.
Amatuer hour again in Russia propaganda circles
New Russian aims
And back at you with this ...
"I'm in Kyiv to sound the alarm," British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said
"I am in Kyiv to sound the alarm to the democratic world - we must make sure that Ukraine wins this war. The United Kingdom has done more than ever by providing the largest package of military support to date. Now every nation must do the same and ensure victory freedom over tyranny," Shapps emphasized.
I also mentioned few pages back when this whole France taking action came up .. We are not privy to alot. One wonders have likes of France, NATO, US, UK etc heard or saw some sort of serious escalatory info re Putin, possibly after he is "elected" president again for 6 years soon
Mod - Posters who choose to talk about other posters instead of the topic are going to be threadbanned as its getting ridiculous now. You know who you are, drop it now, last chance.
I didn't see the objectionable comments you refer to. There was a video that purported to show a Russian military vehicle being blown up. Some Russian soldiers died or were badly injured. I didn't shed a tear. Zero sympathy for them or their families, after 2 years they know full well what they're at. They not fecking stupid enough to not know what they're involved in.
Just thinking about your comment mentioning Afghanistan. It took 2 years from Trump signing the withdrawal agreement with the Taliban before they left. They had either removed all of their military and other gear, or else donated it to the Afghan Government by the departure date, but it took the 2 years to organize. The collapse of the ANA was what started the panic at the Airport.
Yes and it's making a difference, the Russians are progressing, hence Macron's words (see above) and UK ambassador today also "raising the alarm". Some people here think if they keep saying Russia has lost the war it'll somehow be true, but European politicians are sending a very different message and that's why Europe needs to do much more (and hopefully will)
Bloody héll, that's some escalating language. Again I can't imagine this is only the threat of Trump pushing Macron into his more hawkish stance. Presumably as well France's polling quite strong in support for Ukraine that Macron would even suggest the deployment of troops.
Or is the reckoning that if Russia manage either they'd have expended so much of their crack, high tech equipment to do so, France would be confident they could take this weakened Russia alone without too much sacrifice?
France taking no sh1t it seems
Since the start of this war Russia had outnumbered Ukraine in the following:
Soldiers, tanks, IFV, AA, artillery*, drones, missiles, ships, fighter bombers, ships etc...
*Excluding a few weeks Ukraine shot more artillery than Russia.
It's nothing new. Ukraine has always been outnumbered.
Exactly, the Ukrainians themselves keep saying the Russians have more of everything. Much more weapons needed!
I don't think Putin is going to do that, it will only make him look weak and incapable of protecting Russian citizens in the capital when surely he wants to project the opposite idea this close to the sham election
For:
The first 3 the invader held defacto control over the area for a prolonged period of time. There was insurgency, but it was "managed". IE the invasion was successful and government was overthrown.
For Vietnam, that was a Civil war which the US took a side on, and the South did not hold defacto control over most of the country. But even at that, the Vietnam war was a huge time of political unrest the USA.
instead of wasting your breath like a peacock, why don't you just google?
One example - 1941 to 1948 many people from Baltic states were escaping as refugees to Sweden during and after WWII, particularly in the period when SU illegally occupied/annexed Baltic States and started their cleansing by shipping these nations in trainloads to Siberia. Stalin requested these refugees to be returned back, and what did Sweden do (being already known as sympathetic to Nazi regime during war). Sweden returned these back only for these people to end up in Siberia and die. Thanks Sweden!
another example - MS Estonia disaster in 1994. Ever heard of? 852 people died. People from Baltic states, Finland and Sweden. Sweden quickly decided to put the ban on recovery of vessel and bodies despite the outrage of other nations, even suggesting to cover the vessel with concrete. What were they hiding?
another one - current days, kurdish people situation in Sweden vs what Turkey wants.
What else would you call it, other than bearing witness. Statistics, words and opinions are one thing but visual confirmation, when genuine, is compelling. That's why we have war photographers since WW1.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
