There's a lot of truth in the reports and articles that cover how Russia views Ukraine just as an extension of their own country, and there's virtually nobody of any influence who actually takes the time to study and understand Ukraine, its language and its cultural. It's pure colonialism all over again.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Reports that planes who violated swedish airspace early in march were armed with nuclear weapons but I'd take those reports with a huge pinch of salt.
‘I can’t keep up’: Russia is losing so much military equipment in Ukraine that weapons monitors are overwhelmed:
The Russian military is losing so much equipment that weapons monitors are overwhelmed | The Independent
The Russian military is losing so much equipment that weapons monitors are overwhelmed | The Independent
I don't think that he doesn't know at all what is going on, that wasn't my point.
I do however think that he was severily misinformed about the state of his army, his economy and the internal state of Ukraine's public feelings and the state of their army.
No wonder he looks panicked, everything went different than expected and he now has to quickly catch what the real situation is and how to get out of it.
Not sure what to think of this article. First of all, it ignores the current heavy sanctions imposed on Russia. The war dragging on won't be nice for Russia in that sense, surely?
It also contradicts reports that they planned to take Kyiv in mere days, hence a quick victory over the Ukrainian government.
I think the article could have been better if the author took these things into account.
It does make an interesting case for Russian reluctance to unleash all their capabilities.
I watched the first four seconds and can't see what is wrong?!
It is a comparison of before/after footage.
Maybe you should have watched more seconds.
Oh come on, guys. I had my Rossiya 1 hat on for that post.
достаточно честнo
The problem with this argument is Putin's Achilles heel - Russia's complete reliance on expertise and tech, from the very European countries he wants to destablise in order to keep prices high. It's pretty clear that his customers aren't going to let that happen.
Thanks for sharing. The part in bold reminds me of how Xi was selected by people who thought they could control him.
why does Xi not get the same worldwide scrutiny as other dictators like Putin or Trump?
Interesting article and that path is one of the reasons I invested in oil a couple of years ago. However, I'm not sure about the framing of it being the reason behind the war as the tools to manipulate the price higher have always been available to Putin.
I ”hate” Trump and despise almost everything. He stands for. But calling him a “dictator” doesn’t make much sense. “Wanna be dictator” maybe.
He does.
I tend to agree that Putin probably did want to end the war quickly and overestimated his ability to do so. Destabilising Europe from closer to its borders is presumably preferable than from further away. The interesting thing from my point of view is the argument they make about Energy Return on Investment of oil, it's a factor that's quite simple to understand on the face of it but so rarely discussed and considered publicly in reality. I can certainly see how it could have been a huge contributing factor in Russian decision making, even if some of the other more widely discussed factors are also true. He may well have thought that the war dragging on a bit wouldn't be the worst outcome, but clearly he's almost certainly massively miscalculated if so.
I'd like to see Ukraine armed to the teeth, nothing would concentrate Russian minds more on a negotiated settlement than a Ukraine with the ability to fire 500 cruise missiles at Moscow. If there are to be "security guarantees" that are sort of like Article 5, then they have to have a lot more teeth than the last lot of Western security guarantees. Ukraine doesn't need to host Western troops or be a member of NATO to benefit from Western military know how. It seems to me that anything that prevents Ukraine from being able to evolve into the kind of European facing state it clearly wants to be, isn't sustainable.
The moment there's a pause in fighting the Ukrainians will be quickly armed to the gills with sophisticated NATO weapons. Putin has ruined his pre-war posture where he could saber rattle and NATO appeased him by not arming the Ukrainians in any meaningful way. Now that he has blown his credibility by invading, NATO will provide the Ukrainians with the most sophisticated weapons imaginable to where the only way Putin could mess with them again would be through WMDs.
The BB reports:
"The US military's top commander in Europe ... Gen Tod Wolters, who leads the military's European Command, ... said that the US has established two centres - each with about 100 personnel - that are working to funnel military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian liaison officers are present at these centres."
"The US military's top commander in Europe ... Gen Tod Wolters, who leads the military's European Command, ... said that the US has established two centres - each with about 100 personnel - that are working to funnel military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian liaison officers are present at these centres."
I don't think he is right on the "no one" part but it is interesting to see how united the Ukrainians are. I myself was quite surprised too. For example, in 2014 a Ukrainian navy chief defected.
The Ukrainians seem to capture so many intact vehicles. I wonder how many of these - tanks, trucks, APCs etc - are just deliberately abandoned by the occupants when not under attack ... so they they can escape the possibility of being attacked and then just either (a) walk back to the Russian lines to claim that they were attacked; or (b) head westward to surrender or desert?
yes its crazy , UA has more tanks then when the war started.
https://www.rferl.org/a/nuland-ukraine-incredible-losses/31777845.html
"Russia has been sustaining "incredible" losses since the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. State Department official says, putting the figure at more than 10,000 killed since the attack was launched just over a month ago.
"I think that, unfortunately, the Russians have not yet fully learned how tough the Ukrainian military is," U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in an interview with Current Time on March 29.
"They are taking incredible losses on the Russian side -- you know, by our estimates, more than 10,000 Russian dead," Nuland said."
Meanwhile ... https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/russian-losses-cause-result-impact-1.6400495
"Sean Maloney is a professor of military history at the Royal Military College who served as the Canadian army's historian for the conflict in Afghanistan. He told CBC that, based on his knowledge of Russia's military and sources inside of Belarus and Russia, the high-end NATO estimate [mid March] of Russian casualties is likely accurate.
"I am confident, with the sources that I have, that the number of Russians killed in action is above 15,000," Maloney said."
If Maloney is right, that would imply around 60,000 Russian troops now out of action one way or another!
"Russia has been sustaining "incredible" losses since the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. State Department official says, putting the figure at more than 10,000 killed since the attack was launched just over a month ago.
"I think that, unfortunately, the Russians have not yet fully learned how tough the Ukrainian military is," U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in an interview with Current Time on March 29.
"They are taking incredible losses on the Russian side -- you know, by our estimates, more than 10,000 Russian dead," Nuland said."
Meanwhile ... https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/russian-losses-cause-result-impact-1.6400495
"Sean Maloney is a professor of military history at the Royal Military College who served as the Canadian army's historian for the conflict in Afghanistan. He told CBC that, based on his knowledge of Russia's military and sources inside of Belarus and Russia, the high-end NATO estimate [mid March] of Russian casualties is likely accurate.
"I am confident, with the sources that I have, that the number of Russians killed in action is above 15,000," Maloney said."
If Maloney is right, that would imply around 60,000 Russian troops now out of action one way or another!
I can’t tell if this is some sort of fecked up joke.
I saw the beginning of the video and thought “what a madman”. Then I saw the trailer behind him. Absolute lunatic.
I've no idea if this video is genuine (it looks like it is), but:
"'We've been thrown into the s**t! Our rifles don't f***ing fire!' Young Russian conscripts complain they have been given 1940s guns and are suffering heavy losses against Ukraine"
https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/vide...150934243/640x360_MP4_3374642500150934243.mp4
"'We've been thrown into the s**t! Our rifles don't f***ing fire!' Young Russian conscripts complain they have been given 1940s guns and are suffering heavy losses against Ukraine"
https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/vide...150934243/640x360_MP4_3374642500150934243.mp4
So the Ruble is back to pre invasion levels, what's up with the sanctions ?
Eight years of seeing just how shit life could be, life under a Russia that can’t be fecked with any real investment in Crimea, or worse still in a militia fiefdom of the LNR or DNR, will help galvanise that.
I had seen somewhere of reports that Russian conscripts were given Mosin-Nagant rifles. Designed in 1891.
I presume that the Kremlin is using all the money they had stored up to shore up the Ruble. Which means it cannot last forever. And they are spending their money on currency manipulation and not on guns or tanks.
In fairness, driving over that is far easier than 99% of the pot-holled Ukrainian roads!
Makes sense if they're using guns made in the 40s.