Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

I wonder if Trump is even aware of it. Could be Hegseth going solo like previously halting arms deliveries to Ukraine for a period.

There are many people now in Russia, who realise who and what Putin is, and are actively acting against him and his regime. Of course, many of these people would have Ukrainian friends and relatives, and its plain now that a lot of the acts of sabotage occurring's on Russian territory (railway lines being particularly susceptible, but also buildings mysteriously catching fire.) were being carried out by such people. Definitely, these last drone attacks, from Trucks and rail carriages had to have had local input.

Oh don't buy into the "one man" fallacy.

They're are 10s of millions who support an utterly rotten culture that leads to the invasion we're looking at now.

Russian culture is the root of this war.

99% of the Russian elites wish they could go back to the way things were before the war when they, and their families, were free to live lives of luxury and travel the world. If only one could push Putin out a window

While it may be the oligarchs who take Putin down, I doubt it. He has them in an iron grip, and they are terrified of him. if its anyone from his inner circle, it will be one or perhaps several members of the Silovicki, the KGB / FSP who he worked with in Berlin and brought with him when became President.

There are two ways to look at it for sure. Don't disagree with you that there's no way when this is all over that Russians as a whole should be allowed to claim 'not my act'. At the same time, I don't think they're fundamentally different that the populations of most other nations - I don't think there was any great clamour for war from them before the invasion. I guess that most of them just want relative peace and prosperity to do all the mundane and semi-entertaining things that most of us do. They've almost nothing to gain from this war.

On the other side of things again - to touch on what another poster above suggested… threat of an independent Ukraine - I'm not so sure that this was such a threat to Putin that war was the only option. The Russians seem like a lot who are happy enough to keep plodding along as things are. I don't get the impression that they'd suddenly turn around and think how well Ukraine is doing - we must get a bit of that action for ourselves.

That said, I don't profess to be a social/ political/ economic expert on all things Russia/ Eastern Europe… to what extent does Putin's regime really need Ukraine and Belarus, in terms of economy? Lots of talk about woowoo Rare Earths since Trump stumbled on the term, but given the vastness of its size and the centralisation of economic and financial power in Moscow, does Putin really need Ukraine and Belarus? There aren't really any other countries that would be candidates for EU membership… would he not be better off focusing on promoting relations with countries on the southern border and trying to milk diplomatic and economic ties there - Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan etc.

I can't see how Russia comes out of this war in a better position than when it went in, regardless of the battlefield lines and any territory gained.

And their permanent positions

When did Ukraine definitively switch its strategy from trying to take on the Russians on the battlefield - either by regaining territory or contesting every advance to containing the Russians where they are, with minimal military casualties, and instead disembowelling the Russian military machine piece by piece on Russian territory? It's bloody clever and seemingly very effective.

What options does Putin have now? He can't seem to hit valuable Ukrainian military targets, so he just hits civilian targets and infrastructure. He's clearly thrown everything at battlefield gains and is making f**k all progress. His Black Sea Fleet is castrated, he can't gain air superiority, he's lost a huge section of his entire bomber fleet. He's used up 1,000,000 men. He's seen massive amounts of armour - tanks, AFVs, personnel carriers etc, massive amounts of artillery systems. A significant number of air defence systems. Not to mention the number of ordinary transport and troop carrying vehicles that must be the back bone of any army. Meanwhile his economy is tanking and he's lost a large percentage of the world as trading partners, let alone diplomatic partners.

He's a bit f**ked if China turns off the tap. Unfortunately China has its own eyes on Taiwan so it's extremely difficult for the West to leverage any pressure on them to squeeze Putin. But even with China's help, that's help at a $$ cost to Russia.

Huge credit is due to Zelensky for his management of this war. Picking the right people, ousting the right people and letting the right people do their jobs. All while his work ethic in travelling the globe relentlessly courting leaders of countries from East to West is incredible.

They are hardly expecting 20,000 houthi drones though. That seems a little excessive.

Didn't US servicemen already die from a drone attack in Syria last year while the US had this technology?

Maybe BAE should start to produce the fuses outside of the US.

My friend travelled in Russia several times before 2020. He said that the anti-Ukrainian propaganda on TV was relentless. More than 10 years of brainwashing convinced a lot of Russians that somehow Ukraine is the root of their problems.

Looking from the outside , it is understandable that Putin needs an enemy to cover up the effects of corruption and decay in Russia. Plus nobody stopped him when Crimea was occupied, and a quick, easy way it was done really improved Putin's poll numbers. So another easy win over the whole of Ukraine would have given Putin another huge popularity boost.

The signs of torture on this Ukrainian POW, including burned in words "glory to Russia"

Many Ukrainian POWs are coming back with testimony and signs of systematic torture

The Putin apologists and supporters are deathly silent on all this of course