Democracy’s Fiery Ordeal: The War in Ukraine 🇺🇦

[Starr-Bills]

20 hours ago, Tommy Callahan said:

Is there Russian military there.  Or just cops and civilians 

 

 

Still spreading disinformation I see. You do you.

[ChiGoose]

 

[All_Pro_Bills]

1 hour ago, Starr-Bills said:

Still spreading disinformation I see. You do you.

How do you distinguish the truth from disinformation here? Dis meaning intent to deceive and mis meaning being misinformed and repeating it. Almost all "information" on this conflict is screened, produced, and approved by the Russian and Ukrainian governments. Neither is going to say a bad word about themselves. Exaggeration of their position is standard. Truth is we don't really know the facts. There's no independent press. They'll get arrested for telling the truth if it's bad for their government or side.

If you assume everything is a lie you'll be right more than wrong.

What's curiously weird is the people who claim to be the smartest tend to be the most gullible and always believe and obey authority. 

 

[Tommy Callahan]

 

[Tommy Callahan]

 

[Starr-Bills]

7 hours ago, All_Pro_Bills said:

How do you distinguish the truth from disinformation here? Dis meaning intent to deceive and mis meaning being misinformed and repeating it. Almost all "information" on this conflict is screened, produced, and approved by the Russian and Ukrainian governments. Neither is going to say a bad word about themselves. Exaggeration of their position is standard. Truth is we don't really know the facts. There's no independent press. They'll get arrested for telling the truth if it's bad for their government or side.

If you assume everything is a lie you'll be right more than wrong.

What's curiously weird is the people who claim to be the smartest tend to be the most gullible and always believe and obey authority. 

 

He called me smart. 🤣 Did you read the community note on the post? Makes it looks like disinfo to me. 

[Tommy Callahan]

 

 

[Coffeesforclosers]

 

If anybody's wondering what Russian propaganda's current talking points are... here's Russia's actual domestic propaganda with it's current talking points.

[Tommy Callahan]

 

[Tiberius]

 

[Tommy Callahan]

 

[Starr-Bills]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:43 AM, SoCal Deek said:

These are all stupid little squabbles over stupid little countries stirred up by stupid little ‘leaders’ who seem desperate to send young men off to die. There’s been no significant border changes in the last century and yet here we are with countless graves piled up and countless treasures wasted. My two cents.

my opinion based on history is a bit different.
 

Just WW II, and the fall of the Soviet Union to name two. in both cases Poland’s borders changed significantly for example. Sudan split in half, it’s larger than Texas. This also ignores WWI (ended 1918 outside your century timeframe) and the various small wars in Europe, Asia and Africa, that led to Independance and democratic rule. Uganda, Kenya India Pakistan etc.

 

part of that stability you cite is the US playing police man. The military spending by the US tax payer seems excessive, until you factor in the trade and access to markets it allows.

 

in the case of Ukraine it is Putin’s Russia trying to reclaim the glory days of the USSR, at the cost of millions of lives displaced.  It is a privileged position to preach isolationism with two oceans and thousands of nukes, while a fledgling democracy is brutally and mercilessly attacked.

 

i grew up in an America that was the byproduct of understanding the costs of isolationism, WW II. That cost tens of millions of lives. This America helped their neighbors and protected their allies. To me as so much progress has been made in the world, now is not the time to step back, but to redouble our efforts both abroad and at home.

[Starr-Bills]

On 8/11/2024 at 5:29 PM, Tommy Callahan said:

 

 

Spreading disinformation again.

 

this is Russian held power plan and the Russians set fire to tires in one of the cooling towers.

 

but yea let’s blame the US and NATO (and abortions ruining the family)

 

sigh.

[PetermansRedemption]

This recent incursion by Ukraine, while a great propaganda/morale move, seems to have put their troops in an extremely vulnerable position. From the map I saw, all Putin has to do is cut off their escape back to Ukraine, and he has thousands of Ukrainian troops stuck in Russia with no means of re-supply. 

Edited August 14 by PetermansRedemption

[Coffeesforclosers]

55 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

This recent incursion by Ukraine, while a great propaganda/morale move, seems to have put their troops in an extremely vulnerable position. From the map I saw, all Putin has to do is cut off their escape back to Ukraine, and he has thousands of Ukrainian troops stuck in Russia with no means of re-supply. 

 

Correct. The problem is that Russia isn't really capable of large scale mechanized maneuvers anymore, which is what you'd need to pull that off. Their professional, high tech, low drag army was destroyed about a year and a half ago.

 

They've tried over and over again to ram tank/APC borne assaults through Ukraine's defences. Check out videos of Vuhledar to see how those turned out.

 

Now, they fight positional war leveraging superior manpower and firepower to advance. This generates the slow, small, consistent gains they enjoy right now.  They pay for it in 5k men killed per month if you believe Putin, much, much more than that if you believe their military bloggers.  This is fine for now, as Russian can recruit 20-30k/ men per month thanks to astronomically high military wages and bonuses, and very, very generous disability and death benefits for veterans.

 

But it also means there army is s-l-o-w, and the whole theatre is awash in recon drones.  Not much chance of building up a large assault force before it's detected. Conversely,  Ukrainian units in the assault are highly mechanized.  There's not much chance of encirclement unless the Ukrainians duplicate the mistakes of Sevierodonetsk and Lysychansk and let themselves be encircled by fighting too hard in dumb positions. Oleksandr Syrsky the current Ukrainian C in C, has been much better at avoiding dumb fights than Valeriy Zaluzhny was.

 

They're in a good spot, and they can always ***** it up, but there's not much chance of Ukrainians being cut off and encircled outside of rabid ZZZZZZZ brained spaces.

 

Russian military bloggers like Fighterbomber, Geroman and Rybar are becoming more confident, but they still note that even today, Ukraine is punching holes in the Russian defense.  Even if more and more Russian reserves are arriving in the area and the pace of Ukrainian advances is slowing down.

 

Sidenote, this whole offensive may well be Ukraine calling it's backers bluffs.  They drove the biggest military force since WWII over Russia's border, without so much as a by your leave...and have not disappeared under mushroom clouds as Putin threatens seemingly every Tuesday. 

Edited August 14 by Coffeesforclosers

[B-Man]

 

 

 

 

 

[Tiberius]

 

[Tiberius]

This guy is claiming the Russian rail system is facing catastrophic failure in the near future because of roller bearings, which are sanctioned by the west, and wearing out quickly, with no replacements in sight. Here's hoping! 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChiGoose]

 

[Tiberius]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/14/ukraine-russia-kursk-incursion-airfields-belgorod/

Published August 14, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. EDT

Ukraine’s military mounted its largest drone attack on Russian airfields since the 2022 invasion, targeting four key sites deep inside Russian territory with dozens of drones overnight, as its forces continued their advance in the Kursk region of southern Russia.

After rushing reinforcements to Kursk and announcing a “counterterrorism” operation led by top commanders, Russian forces have failed to halt the nine-day incursion, despite daily announcements from military officials that Ukrainian forces had been stopped.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said that Kyiv attacked an air base in Savasleyka, more than 400 miles from the Ukrainian border, near Nizhny Novgorod. The base houses MiG-31 warplanes that launch Kinzhal missiles, among Russia’s most advanced weapons. About 10 explosions were reported at the base, according to Russian independent media, quoting locals.

Air raid alerts sound in Kyiv and across Ukraine — sometimes numerous times in one day — each time an MiG-31 takes off, as Kinzhal missiles have the capability of striking locations throughout the country.

 

“We are waiting for satellite photos with destroyed Russian fighters and warehouses,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Nizhny Novgorod governor Gleb Nikitin said on the social media site Telegram that Russian air defenses were working to suppress the attack and “minimize the consequences.” He said no casualties had been reported.

Video aired on Russian Telegram channels showed a distant fiery blast, followed by the sound of a large explosion. Another showed a drone flying overhead.

Ukraine has had success destroying Russian warplanes with drone attacks on airfields deep inside Russian territory, but is barred by its Western partners from using Western weapons, such as long-range missiles, to do so.

In addition to Savasleyka, the official said there were attacks on airfields in Voronezh, Borisoglebsk and Kursk, targeting bases for warplanes that fire the heavy glide bombs, locally known as KABs, that have devastated Ukrainian defenses over the past year.