Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed Ukraine and the Middle East with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a meeting in New York at which the former US president said he was 'behind Poland all the way'

Sometimes I wonder is Trump actually the real president at the mo and not Biden .. Note no mention of behind Ukraine.

We don't really know exactly how many Russians have died so far, but even going with the low end BBC estimate of 50,000, that alone would be absolutely staggering within the timeframe, from a western perspective at least. That's nearly as many confirmed KIAs as the US suffered in Vietnam in the decade or so they were involved. That's nearly as many soldiers as were killed on all sides in the Yugoslav wars. Again, this is only the Russian low estimate. It's almost certainly more than 50,000 but maybe not quite as high as 450,000, which I think is what the Ukrainian military are reporting themselves and is on Minusrus. FWIW, Russian sources are reporting they've killed the same figure of Ukrainian soldiers.

The fog of war is thick at the moment and these figures will probably only come into sharp focus whenever this conflict ends and some proper independent verification can happen.

The black swan event ?

The estimate of confirmed in newspapers dead on Russian side is waay on the small side, these are the soldiers whose bodies returned in some sort of shape and more importantly whose families were descent enough to buy an obituary in a paper. Russian military has a direct interest in not confirming someone is dead as that would mean payouts to families.

We see both on this thread and in innumerable videos just how little Russians value the lives of their men, often abandoning or looting wounded, never mind the abuse of their own soldiers they film

And then there’s the 35,000 Wagner criminals killed in Bakhmut alone, no one will pay for an obituary for them

On Ukrainian side with have Zelensky who gave us figures

On Russian side you have endless lies upon lies, Russian estimates and claims are less worthy and useful than a fanny rag in a shared bathroom of a Moscow whorehouse

Yes, the fog of war. Or another name for it is propaganda.

And it has been really quite unintelligent propaganda from the west.

Western sources: "Russian military is weak, pathetic, useless… comically inept…"

Also western sources: "Ukraine is struggling… I know we've given them eyewatering amounts of military aid, but they need much more to defeat this useless Russian army…"

Also western sources: "Putin and Russia are grave threat to Europe and the world. Putin will reform the soviet union and take back Alaska if we don't stop him now…"

No wonder people in the west are losing interest in this conflict, and particularly the Americans. How could anyone with a smidgen of intelligence believe all these contradictory messages being put out there? It's ridiculous… the west has actually shot itself in the foot with how poorly they've played the information war, despite having almost total control over it. Own goals don't come much bigger.

Most people either don't believe the numbers of dead, or at this point just don't have a clue what to believe.

Not to mention having to scrounge around the world for manpower and weapons…..yeah, things are going well for Putin allright!!! NOT.

The brain drain is a very valid point. Russia still produces top talent, but as with anywhere on earth, few educated and ambitious people chose to remain under a de facto dictatorship where their talents are not appreciated. Putin rewards a small sector of Russian society, none of whom make any meaningful contribution to Russian life, culture of science.

Even as a non-techie I've noticed the number of Russian and Belarussian IT workers drifting westwards over the past 15 years. It seemed as though if you had a tech idea and needed motivated top notch programmers, Russia was the place to look.

When you've lived and rebelled under a genocidal dictatorship, stood up to unrestrained, corrupt, omnipotent power and risked jail for standing in the street with a placard, come back to me and I'll listen to your condemnation of those who suffer in silence for fear of their families being targeted. If anything, its us in the West who enabled the War on Terror and the ongoing abuse of power by successive Israeli governments who should be navel gazing in shame.

Of course there are plenty of ordinary Russians with twisted morals who gladly support any form of military chest thumping on the grounds of nationalism, who were ecstatic at the idea of going to war. Every country and every generation has them. We've had Catholic priests in our own country actively participate in terrorism and the defence of terrorists. But of course every country will defend their own support of murders on the basis of "ah yeah, but our situation was different".

So, how many more "massive aid packages" do you think Ukraine will need, to defeat this inept Russian military?

And how many more years will they need to defeat an army that is very obviously inferior to them?

They found a good use for all them bodies

https://m.censor.net/en/video_news/3484620/russian_official_suggests_heating_russian_homes_with_heat_from_burning_bodies_in_crematoria_its_very

So, are the Russian military a strong or weak opponent for the Ukrainians to overcome? If they're strong, that might explain why Ukraine have needed so much time and money, and are struggling to achieve their goals.

I think the Russian objectives are very attainable too, continue to defend their new annexed territories and prevent the Ukrainians from reclaiming them. I think they'll achieve that goal, unless something very big changes with the Ukrainian war effort.

I don't think Russia has any ability to reform the soviet union or pose any significant threat to Europe militarily. I don't think they have the manpower or resources to do anything remotely like that. But then I don't think even the US would have the ability to take over Europe with military force, I think it's ridiculous notion cooked up by people who are very bad at the art of propaganda.

Orcs in Mordor continuing to amaze us with innovative ideas

https://censor.net/en/video_news/3484620/russian_official_suggests_heating_russian_homes_with_heat_from_burning_bodies_in_crematoria_its_very

Propaganda from the WEST?It seems to have escaped your notice that several of the most outlandish, vicious and ominous threats are emanating straight from the mouths of the Kremlin puppets on RT:Skabayeva, Solovyov, Simonyon and the rest of that motley crew. These included the promises to reoccupy not only Alaska, but California no less, and threats to destroy London, level Warsaw and attack the Baltic States-to name only a few. And that's before we even get to the threats-too numerous to mention-to eradicate the entire state of Ukraine, "re-educate" its people and kill as many as it takes to turn it into a subservient vassal of Moscow. Calls for genocide, in short.

"leaving Europe vulnerable to vastly increased nuclear threats without any confidence of cover if Russia tried the unimaginable"

The British have 225 nuclear warheads, and the French have 300. Both have weapons deployed on submarines.