Coffeesforclosers

Yup. I think it's safe to say that everyone in this thread hopes Ukraine is doing as well as they're telling us they're doing.

Russia's said it over and over again. They don't want peace, they want to win. For them, winning is erasing Ukraine and Ukrainians from the history books through torture, murder, reeducation and deportation. Ukraine's offered concessions for peace, Russia has rejected them all. Zelensky called Putin personally the day before the invasion because he thought it was a bluff and wanted to negotiate more. Putin didn't pick up the phone. One side wants to annihilate the other side, and says so repeatedly. What I don't understand are people saying "well they really should find common ground and wrap this thing up". Great, what's the common ground between a free country vs. we're going to destroy you utterly and have fun doing it?

So far as new states go...you could do worse... Hopefully most of that gets paid with seized assets from Putin-friendly oligarchs.

How?

Revisiting this exchange, let's not go crazy and think this shows some kind of critical fault line in Russian society based on the war. But it's where Russian conservatism has jumped the shark from conservatism to fascism. Old dude didn't get all those medals, ribbons and white hair delivering pizza. Still, young guy in the slick network gettup jumps right down his throat because he might be telling the naked emperor that he's naked. And the emperor can never be naked because that's the party line and you tow the party line.

FWIW, I think that's exactly what they mean too.

The egghead screaming at the guy with all the medals is trying so hard to look like Tucker Carlson.

Not a day goes by without Russia crying wolf about their nuclear arsenal. Whenever they start fantasizing about nuking all their enemies, what I hear is Fredo is smart and he wants respect.

Yup. This war has me reading a lot of stuff, re-reading a lot of stuff with new perspective...and if you asked my woman, reading way too much about Soviet era weapons systems. Doesn't help one of my coworkers is a Tanker in the Reserves.

Hooooo boy yeah. Russia uses 3 man tank crews and replace the loader crewman with an automatic loading system. The automatic loader stores the ammunition in a "carousel" around the turret ring, instead of a sealed off compartment in the back of the turret. So as a Russian tank fires, the carousel clicks around like a cylinder in a revolver. It's a great idea for keeping your tanks small and your crew sizes small, but the crew is also sitting in the middle of a ring of 125 mm shells if the tank gets hit. The Soviets wanted smaller, lighter tanks to keep them cheap and mobile. They figured in a WWIII type scenario, getting there first, with the most and the biggest guns trumped ergonomics and crew survivability.

*Clutches Pearls*. How dare Joe Biden escalate against a country whose only policy is escalation! Cooler heads need to come together, and tell other people to give up their land and liberty so we can be safe! My lord the Federalist author is happy to turn over Ukrainian civilians for rape, torture, murder and "reeducation", but for the love of God don't arm them, people might get killed and Russia might get angry! It's perfectly alright to feed Ukrainians into Russia's police dungeons, filtration camps and mass graves if it leads to peace, but for them to die fighting their would-be conquerors is some kind of moral swamp we have to climb out of? What a joke.

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them"-Sir Arthur Harris "There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare"-Sun Tzu Man, all those deals full of Ukrainian concessions that Russia left on the table a month ago so they could get their Short Victorious War...

Power derives from a popular mandate from the masses, not some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Sad. And why not? His pet patriarch will bless anything he does.

Man, it's like Russia is going through all the stages of the Vietnam experience in fast forward. There's growing chatter that May 9th will be Russia's formal declaration of war against Ukraine instead of the big victory celebration. The much vaunted offensive in the Donbass is doing what everyone though it would so far, which is gain ground here and there and achieve very, very little. Now if Russia is going to declare war on May 9th, expect some kind of insane gesture to try and "reset" the situation. Like Russia also declaring war on Finland or Sweden, or the Baltics. Quite possibly on us, so they can have a life-or-death "struggle for survival" that's entirely of their own making, due to their own stupidity.

What the ***** is up with that country. I might just watch Tucker Carlson tonight, so he can go on explaining why Russia's "interests" need to be respected or whatever he's on about

I'm behind on this part of the Ukraine war news. So critically important bits of Russian industry have all started catching fire at the same time?

Per Russia, their losses are: KIA, 13,441 MIA, 7,000 WIA, no number given. 116 Sailors when down with the Moskva, 100+ are still missing and at this point are probably lost at sea. Make of this what you can.

We only just learned. Instead of knocking over some tiny, 3rd world country, Russia thought it could roll over a real military supported by a determined, patriotic people and their government. Of the three things I mentioned, the bluff part was the most important. Nobody, not Bush, Obama, or Trump ever called it, and Biden only got to call it by accident.

A fraud of a superpower based on petrodollars, mountains of rusting Soviet weapons and a few hi tech toys, and bluffing.

Kreminna was a tough hold. All the roads are on the west and northwest sides, with farmland or impassible terrain everywhere else. The defenders wouldn't have had the easy access to supplies, reinforcements, and very predictable escape routes. If the Ukrainians did any counter attacking around Izyum, they were probably more like raids. Or spoiling attacks to throw off Russian preparations rather than attempts to retake the city. The Russians are attacking from the very same places they supposedly captured.

Heading into Day 2 of The Big Attack, news is very sparse from the front. Ukraine has confirmed that North African mercs have been killed in Russian service. There's video of their bodies for anybody that wants to look for it. The city of Kaminna was taken by the Russians, population about 18k before the war. It's right on the front lines, so Russia's making *some* progress through Ukraine's defences. More people falling into Russian hands is very bad for them, but Ukraine has some space to trade if it increases the burdens of Russian logistics.

If you get a chance, check out Attack on Europe where they're documenting vehicle losses of all types from both sides. It's an eye opener, and the post the proof they're using to make the determinations right there for you to see. I don't know if they scrub/edit out KIA, so be warned now.

Looks like Russia's big attack has started. This is supposed to be their war winning offensive, so we're going to learn a lot about a lot in the next week or so. Ukraine had reportedly been counter-attacking around Izyum and making good progress. The city is Russian held and Ukraine had almost cut all the supply routes leading to it. So if all that's true it, Russia had to go now to bail out the Izyum garrison. Operative words being if all that's true. Good luck Ukraine, and good hunting to the JFO, Regulars, and Territorial Defense force units.

If Russia were just beating up on Ukraine to prove they're top dog in the region, JD Vance is right. But Russia has said over and over and over again that they want to erase the Ukrainian state and assimilate the Ukrainian people to restore their empire and break US power. So JD Vance is an idiot.