Please use this thread to continue discussing the war in Ukraine.
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Original thread:
Russia will reduce it's population from 144.2 million to 139.7 million by the end of the war.
Id like to see the evidence for what is clear as day. To my mind, it is clear as day that the US has already provided far more in aid to Ukraine than it had originally intended. In Feb 22 Biden noted the record amount of military aid to Ukraine - $650m, vs over $100bn since. They made it clear they wouldnt get involved militarily and, while the US did warn that Russia would pay a high price if they invaded, this is an economic price due to sanctions and not a military price:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/02/18/remarks-by-president-biden-providing-an-update-on-russia-and-ukraine-2/
Since then, America has become a lot more involved and at each stage it has been a painful debate between helping Ukraine and not escalating to a Russia-NATO war, with the added factor of the US national debt and competeting issues from Israel and Taiwan. Now, it may well be argued that some of those arguments and some of the high profile arguers were in bad faith, but the point is that thr US struggled to get the last 60bn through and has shown reluctance to bring it up again. Clearly, more aid for Ukraine is a political difficulty in the US, and logically the debate is between whether to give it or not, not whether to give all Ukraine needs vs enough to slow bleed Russia:
https://www.crisisgroup.org/united-states/behind-debate-over-us-military-aid-ukraine
Thus, there are clear reasons to indicate that the US aid to Ukraine is curtailed, not by a desire to drip feed Ukraine or slow bleed Russia, but by other issues, namely cost, escalation and lack of interest in Ukraine (coupled with greater interest in other regions).
The reality is that war is difficult and expensive and the burden on the US, while a fraction of their overall budget, is still fairly significant. Asking even more of them is politically impossible. For all the talk, the US isnt sufficiently interested in the conflict to do more than they are already doing. Indeed, I suspect that (but admit I have no direct evidence of) the US and particularly the EU wanted the Ukraine war to be long over by now.
So I'll ask again what the basis of your view is that it is clear as day that drip feeding Ukraine is the plan, that they want a war over 4/5 years and/or that its not in US interests for the war to end in 2 years.
Thankfully they've managed to go nearly 3 years without mobilising these guys.
Well said, maybe as clear as tin foil.
Russian counteroffensive in Kursk continues to move well .. in the rearward direction
not gonna post the link but it’s all over social media, these Russians decided to stab a dead soldier with a sword (engraved with “for Kursk”) and the widely disseminate the bloody images, these ordinary Russians can’t spend a day without committing crimes
Seen that. Also seen a video from a russian pit where they squashed in soldiers who refused to operate a tank. Barbarians.
On that Kursk image above it looks a little different then some I've seen but with both sides counter attacking an area not fortified thing's can change fast.
An attack on Belarus will be the beginning of the Third World War, — Lukashenko
He also stated that the USA is preparing to escalate the situation in Belarus, and Lithuania will initiate a process against him in The Hague
😂
Lukashenko's as thick as mince. The fool thought Belarus was going to get their nukes back from Russia, these being handed to Russia when the old USSR member states handed over theirs. I don't think he's got them back yet. 😛 All that he's done is to hand over Belarus to the Russians and flushed any sovereignty down the toilet.
It's a safe bet that many Belarusians want him dead.
The Zelensky story on BBC is excellent. Much better and different to what I was expecting. Directing and pacing is top notch.
Ukraine is going to win this war.
Why?
It's simple. The military/industrial targets within Russia will continue to be bombed and sanctioned, while the military/industrial supply chain of Ukraine lies in NATO countries, which Russia will not dare strike for fear of being destroyed.
Unfortunately this process is going to take time, but it's inevitable. Russia will continue to get weaker and weaker, but the strength of Ukraine will grow and grow. It could take well into 2026, but it is a irreversible process.
Nice strike overnight in Tver, look forward to the videos
Notice the shockwave, stuff still exploding
Good guardian article on situation around Pokrovsk. Cautiously optimistic that Ukraine might just hold it especially if they can continue hitting ammo depots within Russia:
it’s amazing how Russia has every attack under control. Must be the only country in history to have constant under control surprise attacks
That's even more impressive then the huge depot explosions in russian occupied parts of Ukraine earlier in the war. Looks like someone dropped a pager. Can't wait to find out what they were storing there.
If she'd just held the phone in landscape there would have been no need to pan over and back 🙄
Very impressive just how far behind enemy lines that is. I wonder did the drone fly through spudhead's airspace.
The guy keeping daily visually confirmed and geolocated equipment lists
There’s a video on ukrainewarvideos subreddit where two Russian soldiers walking down a mud track recording each other and joking, and there’s just body after body of their comrades on side or road, seems there’s no attempts to even recover the dead as one would assume these two were far from front to be walking like that unafraid of drones
Wow. Also, Drone debris is the new lit cigarette.
@RoyalCelt "Can't wait to find out what they were storing there."
Pagers?
Maybe they'll push back that October 1st Kursk date.
Spare a thought for the Russians who have to listen to the same bullshit excuses.
30,000 tons of ammunition. Impossible to imagine.
The force of the blast from the Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT
I know these things aren't exactly equivalent but they must be in the same ballpark.
Like Mount St Helens but in slow motion
150mm shells are around 15% explosive by weight and there were probably a lot of them in that 30,000t. So around 4kt-5kt I'd guess. There are a few perforated ear drums around Toropets today.
2.4 on the Richter scale.
F16’s took an age so don't get your hopes up for this year but would be a big addition if they arrived at some point even next year..
Right enough, it doesn't sound like a drone strike
What a spectacular strike!!
Great to see 30,000 tons of weaponry wiped out.
Listening to the explosions on my car speaker, that is absolutely terrifying.
The jet engined UAV Ukraine had been developing? I'm sure any sound or video available will be analysed to determine if it matches any known device.
Nope,Nothing to see here.
All the while there are multiple explosions in the background!
🤣
