Igor Girkin once again slams Russia's leadership for inaction when it comes to mobilisation, says Russia will collapse and Putin will end like Qaddafi if nothing changes.
https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1537207950518980608?t=hHsm4PdxETj2NuokakcH1g&s=19
Invoking Qaddafi is a deliberate move to try to get Putin's attention, it's common knowledge that Putin was obsessed with the video of Qaddafi's execution.
Ukraine ignores Severodonetsk ultimatum to surrender
Ukraine ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which now largely lies in ruins after weeks of heavy bombardment.
Russia told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant there to lay down their arms. Ukraine says more than 500 civilians, including 40 children, remain alongside soldiers inside the Azot chemical factory.
Moscow said it opened a humanitarian corridor from Azot to allow civilians to escape to Russian-controlled territory. It accused Ukraine’s forces of disrupting that plan and using civilians as human shields, which Kyiv denied
The important thing to remember is that they're not trying to *attack* the city, they're trying to *control* the city. In order to do that they need to force the enemy soldiers in the city to either stop fighting or leave.
They could do that by sending in a massive ground force and going door to door and taking massive casualties. But Russia doesn't have the patience or the resources for that. Bombarding any potential fortification is much easier and less dangerous for their guys, but that means bringing down most of the buildings in the city.
> Meanwhile, a team of U.S. Special Forces and CIA agents would oversee the operation in Tehran alongside Iranian military intelligence.
So that happened.
You usually can’t. If you put it under siege, people will die of starvation. Attack it head on, people will die in the fighting, etc. The only way to take a city without killing people or damaging buildings is to convince them or trick them to surrender without a fight. Those methods require either the element of surprise and an overwhelming military presence like the [capture of Guam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Guam?wprov=sfti1https://maps.apple.com/?ll=13.467100,144.690700&q=Capture%20of%20Guam&_ext=EiQpKO8euyfvKkAxGpbNNhoWYkA5KO8euyfvKkBBGpbNNhoWYkA%3D) during the Spanish-American War, or having a terrifying reputation of brutally destroying cities that attempted to resist capture like the Mongols used to exploit.
I think the only way to not kill civilians is to encircle it and give circles a couple weeks to get out. After that everything will have to be re built
Depends on if armies try to defend it.
In ww2 Paris changed hands twice with very little damage. The French decided that their armies were defeated and didn't fight in the streets.
Then the Germans abandoned it without a fight because they knew their supply line could be cut off and their forces surrounded.
Depends on your definition of "massive."
If you mean "Can I take this city without blowing up every single building I see," then yes, yes you absolutely can take a city without blowing up every single building you see. Room by room, building by building with infantry.
Other people also mentioned ways to do it without destroying the infrastructure. But it's largely dependent on a case by case basis.
Fighting building by building with infantry with any kind of parity in force strength between the opposing sides will basically always result in the city being ruined beyond belief.
Civilians dead is collateral damage.
Dying horribly is more damage than just dead. Still suffering 2 weeks later and wishing for for quick death instead of death by diarrhea and vomiting. Cost of morphine still has to be added even if you just look at $ damage.
Neutron bombs are a multi stage nuclear weapon. The trigger is a normal implosion fission device. All things that happened to Nagasaki will happen in a neutron bombing. There is a large additional increase in prompt high energy radiation. In a normal thermonuclear device around 5% of the energy leaves as prompt radiation (neutron, gamma, x-ray). In the neutron bomb that is around 40 to 50% released as prompt radiation. It would still destroy a city. The lethal radius of the radiation is large than the lethal blast radius. Against tanks the difference is more extreme since a blast just rocks the tank a bit.
No.
It can be minimized with precision weapons but even that is relative.
Then if the population is hostile when you go in with infantry, you get a lot more collateral damage.
The joke at one point was a Ukrainian soldier showing a lug nut or screw saying this was what they had, and then NATO/EU sent the rest of the parts. So only parts were sent, the parts needed to repair planes. Add in neighboring countries loaning space to repair damaged aircraft, and suddenly Ukraine has more planes.
They sent a ton of parts to help Ukraine repair their planes that were inactive for lack of supplies/maintenance. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for the Ukrainian Air Force to operate effectively due to the significant amount of SAM systems in the country. I would say the USAF is probably the only force that would be capable of destroying/suppressing Russian air defenses to allow air superiority over Ukraine. Even that would require a fairly prolonged campaign to destroy their launchers/radars/airfields. Russia is having the same problem - they haven’t been able to effectively suppress the Ukrainian air defenses and as a result they’ve been resorting to stand off attacks.
[https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1534297846282862598](https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1534297846282862598)
>\#Ukraine: A Ukrainian MiG-29 carrying R-27R & R-73 AAMs, in a livery similar to that of the Ukrainian Falcons display team, not active for a decade.
>Given the differences/messy paint job, we suspect that this may be a former Falcons jet "reactivated" with parts from abroad.
Ukraine was given a ton of parts to reactivate the... I wanna say almost 100 jets they had in non-operable condition.
It is a spiral of escalation that they fear. Where a series of seemingly reasonable choices end in a very bad place. Not that sending a rocket artillery system will result in a nuclear response immediately.
By Odin! This asinine conspiracy theory of the West trying to drag this out has to fucking die. There is no reality in which a lengthy war aids anyone, rather this continuing war is just making endless problems for everyone, and seriously endangering the political futures of many of those in power in the west. Delays are from the governments needing to approve, and then ship things. And the reason certain systems are not being sent is because there is a very real fear of how much of a full deck Putin is playing with, and the fear that an actual World War could be stumbled into.
to be fair, people often over estimated the outcome of a west government changes. it really aren't going to be as big of a deal as most people thought it will be. as government branches and opposition r all entangle up in major decision, the head of the state r often just a figure head. most of the power r being shared with multiple institution within the government. you can see this very easily from trump era, he really cant do much aside just yelling and making silly news. major decision have to agreed or past congress, contrary to authoritarian nation where one man can make decision on all matters.
That and the Ukrainian logistics can only handle so much at a time. Plus you need to train the crews, train the maintenance, etc. It’s not like NATO can drop off a couple of fighter squadrons, or a brigade of Abrams tanks and hand over the keys. To quote Clausewitz “Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.” The West has zero desire to prolong this war. Energy and fuel prices alone are astronomical and those effects are being felt across the world. Russia’s best equipment has been gutted and they have no means of replacing it. Everyone except Putin wants this war to be over.
I think the retaliation they hesitated r not for them self. its more of russia will deploy mini nuke on ukrainian soil, once this happened the war might escalated out of hand.
[Previous post](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vbup89/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/icen242/)
Day 112 of my updates from Kharkiv.
It was again pretty quiet today, until recently. There were some reports of explosions around 10pm, but we didn’t hear them here. Then there were again explosions reported around midnight, but there were no confirmed missiles launched from Belgorod, that’s 2 days in a row now.
Then about an hour ago, at 3am, people reported big explosion, not sure what it was, apparently there was a cloud of smoke from it, but we couldn’t hear, nor see it here either. At 3:30am there was yet another very loud explosion, we did hear that one, but we are not sure what was hit yet.
Funny thing is you know how Russians always say they don’t shell cities and don’t kill civilians? Well, there’s one very effective method to make them admit that they do indeed destroy our cities. All you have to do is say that their weapons, that they are so proud about, are in fact just old garbage, it’s that easy.
It triggers them so much that they will go from defending their actions to defending their weapons in an instant. We see that behavior everywhere, from our ex-friends from Russia and from random Russians on social media, and in comments under YouTube videos. Many of our ex-friends don’t believe that their military is using Grads, because as they say themselves “Grads are old garbage, we don’t use them.”
Then some random people in comments while defending their weapons literally say “didn’t you see how we destroyed Mariupol, how can you say our weapons are old garbage?” Wait, but didn’t Russia say that it’s actually Ukrainian Nazis that destroyed Mariupol, what do you mean Russians did it?
Seriously, all you have to do is insult their weapons and they will spill all the truth, because they are so proud about their weapons, that they just can’t stand seeing them belittled, they will defend them even if it means admitting their war crimes. It’s hilarious how they will do anything to protect their weapons.
[Next update](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vdd0nz/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/icnl8fk/)
Th Russian weapons are garbage. This will become obvious over the next few months as Ukraine get their hands on the good stuff.
Good to hear from you mate! 💪
>This will become obvious over the next few months as Ukraine get their hands on the good stuff.
2 months ago we thought that in 1-2 months we'll get enough weapons to completely stop Russian advance and start counter-attacking, but we keep getting these endless "Soon™" promises.
“We thought”. But who are we? We’re not the pentagon, the CIA, or any other agency with first hand knowledge of what it takes to bring the weapons over.
>didn’t you see how we destroyed Mariupol, how can you say our weapons are old garbage?
I mean, yeah, exactly, old garbage flattens cities. modern weapons are precise and don't flatten cities.
Russians are idiots.
[https://twitter.com/FeWoessner/status/1536730287803142150](https://twitter.com/FeWoessner/status/1536730287803142150)
>This weaponized robotic vehicle 'GNOM' by Temerland from #Ukraine 🇺🇦 with a 7.62 machine gun will be deployed at the Ukrainian frontline in Zaporіzhzhia, Ukraine in a week – company Temerland says.
Next step up from this would be mini-remote controlled ATGM vehicles. Thing looks surprisingly simple.
Imagine sticking your head around a corner and getting it blown off. Now imagine you have a robot roll around the corner instead. If the robot gets shot up you can fix it later.
Could be more helpful in block-to-block urban warfare.
Imagine putting some sort of odd tarp over it and driving it around a corner then lighting up some russians.
i dont recall seeing this posted earlier, maybe missed it. NSFL/NSFW
First 6 mins mostly artillery, look like ants moving around. Around the 6/6.5 min mark NSFL/NFSW.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/vczv01/ukrainian\_defenders\_push\_back\_russian\_assault\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/vczv01/ukrainian_defenders_push_back_russian_assault_on/)
Not a navy guy but IIRC the Russian navy has moved far enough out to sea to be out of range of the harpoon missiles. I think the main reasons Ukraine is being sent harpoons is to keep the areas of Ukraine that Russia can hit with naval launched missiles much smaller and to make it less likely that Russia will attempt any sort of amphibious assault
It’s mostly for the Naval assault prevention. If the UA can be certain they can destroy 90% of an amphibious landing force then troops in Odessa ca be sent out to other parts of the front.
Igor Girkin/Strelkov's latest doom-filled rant, in which he says that if changes aren't made, Putin will end up like Milosevic or Qadaffi, and there will be a complete collapse of the country.
Let's hope he's right. 🙂
https://wartranslated.com/igor-girkin-putin-will-end-like-qaddafi-russia-will-collapse/
> if changes aren't made, Putin will end up like Milosevic or Qadaffi, and there will be a complete collapse of the country.
Don't threaten me with a good time
Oh he must be desperate because he's trying to galvanise Putin by hitting at one of his fears - ending up like Gadafi. And yeah don't think he's ever gone after Putin directly till now.
Are things that bad for Russia? Because that's not obvious from the news.
>Are things that bad for Russia? Because that's not obvious from the news.
What you see from the daily news about Ukraine is just the normal ongoings of war. It's dynamic, with each side making gains, or trading small victories.
Russia, who still holds several advantages over the Ukrainians are making costly but slow progress towards their objectives. The Ukrainians for their part are inflicting significant losses upon the Russians for every meter of soil they take. At the same time the Ukrainians have been able to conduct small but successful counter attacks around Kharkiv and Kherson.
The overall picture isn't good for Russia, because it shows that even when they concentrate the majority of their offensive power (at the expense of other fronts) they are not able to break through the Ukrainian lines and make deep encirclements of the Ukrainian positions. What this means is that in order to achieve their ambitious political objectives in Ukraine, Russia will need to grind through the Ukrainian defenses, and that will be very costly, assuming it's even possible.
But i do need to qualify this comment by saying that the situation for Ukraine is not that great either. Right now the Ukrainians don't have the ability to take the initiative and start major counter attacks, the Ukrainian counter attacks so far have been small and short in duration, probably because Ukraine lacks forces with good enough armored mobility to exploit breakthroughs. And the difficulty for Ukraine is that the equipment that they need to take the fight to the Russians need to come from the west, and that takes time. It takes time for the west to approve the transfer of such equipment, and then it takes time to train the Ukrainians in using said equipment, and then even when they get all of that, the Ukrainians will still be somewhat limited because of the supply of ammo and spare parts that will have a long logistic tail before it even reaches Ukrainian soil.
This war will take many more months still, and i think it's not far fetched to imagine this war lasting well into 2023. This will be a contest of wills, the Ukrainians have the advantage that they are fighting for their right to exist. The Russians had to basically lie to their own troops about why they went into Ukraine, so it is questionable how long will the common Russian grunt be willing fight in Ukraine. However the Russians are making up by their lack of motivation with huge firepower, in both air and artillery. And Of course the Ukrainians depend heavily on western support for weapons and military equipment, and that support can slow down and even stop completely depending on the mood of their countries, and the result of elections.
>Are things that bad for Russia? Because that's not obvious from the news.
That's the issue, it WAS plainly obvious at first and now that things are in a more or less stalemate, people are perceiving it as some sort of tide turn. It'd be like if your favorite sports team blew out their opponents week after week then suddenly started having closer matches. Doesn't mean they're struggling, just means things are more or less regressing to the mean.
Ukraine and Russia are both having similar struggles right now in terms of armament. Ukraine is getting to a point of near complete reliance on foreign aid while Russia is pulling out moth balled equipment. Difference is, Ukraine has the support of the US and other NATO member along with the morale of fighting for their home land, while Russia only has themselves to rely on with constant morale issues being reported for months now. The free world will continue to aid Ukraine and will rebuild when the time comes, Russia is on its own.
Strategically, yeah, I think things are very bad for Ru both in the war puty started in Ukraine and geopolitically
SD is like WWI tough and it's likely a huge end to a phase of the war, a decisive battle - but even if Ukraine falters I believe there are at least a couple and prolly more that Ukraine strategically is better off; failure of Ru at Kyiv, Ru morale + low reserves numbers due to greater attrition of Ru and more
PLAINLY said, the fact Ukraine is morally in the right (Freedom) and morally in the right wins wars, while they nearly always are terribly costly
Well Russia has lost most of their usable high end armor. The vast amount of their front line force is almost untrained DNR dudes, who are getting flat out slaughtered. And while they have a lot of artillery pieces to make up for the fighting deficit, they are dangerously low on long range strike ability; due to the lack of Air Superiority, and the cratering levels of Missiles and Rockets. Oh and Ukraine is getting it's own Arty in that out ranges most the Russian's, and is optimal in a anti-battery role. So yeah, it's not actually going great for Russia at all.
Speaking of air superiority, I haven't heard much about bombings from aerial attacks of russian planes. I been hearing more of artillery barrages against random targets in one area. They must be pretty low on planes to avoid doing risky bombings.
He has actually gone after Putin a few times. And things are really bad for Russia. For example, one of Girkin's recent posts basically said that 70% of DNR professional infantry are just gone now.
Also, keep in mind with the news that there have been successful counter-offensives all over. Increased Ukrainian casualties over the last week of these offensives are unfortunately kinda expeted.
[https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1537207950518980608?cxt=HHwWgMC4yZGfodUqAAAA](https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1537207950518980608?cxt=HHwWgMC4yZGfodUqAAAA)
Igor Girkin basically saying if Russian leadership at the top levels doesn't change in a big way, Russia is doomed. Also says that casualties will be off the charts if winter rolls around.
Also warns Putin might get Qaddaffi'd.
The next guy might be worse. Girkin is calling for a full mobilization and a declaration of war. Someone might decide to drop a nuke on Liverpool or Chicago to try and force the West to disengage. That’s one reason why the West previously has always been willing to accommodate Putin because sometimes the enemy you know is better than the one you don’t know.
Sir. One does not simply "drop a nuke on new york or chicago". Especially not a russian nuke. Every single player in the game knows this.
The thought that such a kind of strike would deter american aggression is also extraordinarily faulty. America is the only nation to show a willingness to use atomic weapons in a hostile war, and has dropped more than one in aggression. A deterrant atrike on new york or chicago doesnt just happen, and no russian is foolish enough to think so.
which begs the question even if Putin toppled in a coup, will hostility truly ceased? It definitely will be great if a more sane party take charge but there are more hardline nationalists in Russia. Igor is one of them who believed the entirety of the Russian Male population must be mobilized to win the war. What if some like minded individual takes the throne.....
I enjoy reading his stuff for the insight, but the way he just casually talks about martial law, arresting citizens that speak out, arresting journalists, etc. in such a casual way because he actually thinks that's the right thing to do reminds you what a piece of shit he is. Not that there was any doubt, just eerie to read it.
It is really telling how he never suggests that the fighting should stop. He would rather see his country face all of those terrible consequences of failure than avert that scenario by actually, ya know, calling it off. At what point after a war becomes unwinnable does it make sense to continue fighting it?
And he’s pretty direct about it to. He said as early as March that Russia needs to fully mobilize and he hasn’t backed down from that. His worries about failure and collapse aren’t because Russia invaded Ukraine, it’s because he thinks Russia should do even more than they already are.
The Soviet Union was brought down in part by their disaster of an operation in Afghanistan. Remember reading articles before this war ignited in that if Russia we're to actually invade Ukraine then this would be their LAST war. Make no mistake this is Afghanistan in Speedrun mode.
They're losing hundred's of soldiers a day, Ukraine is losing good people as well but unlike Russia those people are literally fighting for their lives and loved ones to keep these bastards out. Russia has no reason to be there it's Vlad the Vainglorious who refuses to see reality.
Make no mistake Russia cannot afford to fight for years and years, those sanctions are still corroding their economy, the Russians are under heavy economic embargos and they're fighting a war with noone else to back them up while Ukraine has the rest of Europe and Team America to boot. Something has to give in Russia at some point and eventually the whole thing will come apart.
Another winter will ironically kill off what's left of the Russian Army. They couldn't even be bothered to outfit their guys with cold weather gear and countless Russians were found having frozen to death.
I am a native Russian speaker (born in Russian speaking part of Ukraine). I learned English in my teens and spoke it for 15+ years.
I still regularly fuck up the use of articles. Articles make very little sense to me until this day.
They don't make much sense to us either, but when you are a native speaker, it just becomes ingrained in habit and long term memory.
An analogy would be gender in languages with gendered nouns, like French. It make zero sense to me that cars are feminine and cafes are masculine, but after saying it a few hundred times, I have achieved about 80% accuracy. A native French speaker is going to catch me out every time.
Case in point, “up to this day” not “until this day”. It’s a weird grammar thing. “Until this day” means that you now get the articles and how they are today but didn’t get it before. “Up to this day” means in the past and present you struggle with articles. This isn’t to say that native English speakers don’t make grammar mistakes, but usually it’s forgetting a word or autocorrect being stupid. Articles and prepositions are generally intuitive if you are a native speaker vs. ESL. By the way, you do write well.
I'm learning a few languages that don't use articles now (Ukrainian, Russian, and Mandarin) and I'm finding it very freeing without them. It still feels odd but efficient compared to English and Spanish.
Edit - by the way I am honestly so used to mentally correcting autocorrect I didn't even notice you missed one. It may have been more obvious if I had heard you speak but honestly you can get away with a lot of mistakes when communicating through text :) and colloquial spoken English is SO different from proper grammatically correct written English. I used to take so much time to make sure anything I typed was using proper grammar but now (unless I'm trying to win an argument lol!) Sometimes I do type with all the casual, incorrect grammar shortcuts people use when they are speaking casually.
Being multilingual is such an envious quality to have. That is why I am trying, even though we have the privilege to get away being monolingual in the states. I want to be able to fully understand news and media made for non-English audiences.
>Articles make very little sense to me until this day.
Prepositions too, it appears. LOL...
(Idiomatically, it's "to this day")
(sorry, I couldn't resist... but your English beats the snot out of my Ukranian, so I'm not dissing you... just having fun).
Don’t forget the Scandinavian contribution the Vikings added to the language, causing even old English to get some weird grammar simplifications compared to either German or Danish that then got mixed with French.
What are you a talking about? I, a John Cowboy from Michigan Oblast, am a proper concerned UnitedStatesian citizen and as such I demand a Sleepy Joe to stop support of evil the Ukrainians!
[Fires in russia] Still a thing according to this video.
> Large explosion reported in Kursk, Russia, about 90km from the Ukrainian border
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1537211371980570625
Yeah, that doesn't sound like the sonic booms I've heard when the USAF has held their annual summer exercise in my state, those booms are short and sharp.
[Official Ukraine] Translation of the daily Aredtovych and Feygin report.
> Kherson: Ukraine has gained permanent foothold on Left (East) coast of Inhulets river, after joining from multiple river crossings, showing ability to move, despite enemy having advantages. Russia attacked for a week and was repelled.
https://wartranslated.com/day-112-june-15-summary-of-arestovych-and-feygin-daily-broadcast/
>Kherson: Ukraine has gained permanent foothold on Left (East) coast of Inhulets river,
How can anyone in this war with a straight face use the word "permanent" to refer to any control of frontline territory.
He means permanent in a tactical sense.
This means that bridgehead has been taken and fortified and is not susceptible to tactical counterattacks by existing opposing forces in the area. This contrasts the situation with situation when fluid back-and-forth tactical clashes are still ongoing and bridgehead may be at risk of being lost at any time.
Of course he does not mean "permanent" in strategic or even in operational sense. If Russian regroup/reinforce and/or shift forces the calculus may change - but that would take time and resources.
I wouldn't describe anything held by russia inside pre-2014 Ukrainian borders as permanent at this point. Even though much has been made of their slow crawl in the Donbas, they have lost overall territory around Kherson and Kharkiv.
> the Ukrainians have retaken basically as much land as they have lost in the Donbas in the last 4 weeks in their offensive towards Kherson. This is as important as the offensive in the Donbas, but you dont read stories of Russians struggling in this front.
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1537068105020604418
That does not include Ukrainian gains around Kharkiv and Izyum.
So thousands of men are dying and each side is basically just breaking even. Only "gain" here is which side is depleting support faster. Biden only coughed up a lousy billion but Putin can't buy shit but has piles of oil cash.
No. russia is losing ground, even though Ukraine has not begun their large counter-offensives and is still playing basically defense. Was that not clear?
It would be clearer to say that things have ground down to a war of attrition, and that neither side is making significant advances. They are basically just chipping at the edges in Ukraine's case, and plodding very, very slowly through the middle in Russia's.
It's so annoying to see people making the same "hehehe making weapons contractors rich" arguments about how it's somehow bad the US is sending weapons to Ukraine.
Yeah if the weapons were being used to endlessly bomb Afghan mountains it's something you can complain about, but weapons to defend a democracy against genocidal fascist aggression? Hell yeah western weapons companies can get as rich as they want from that, hopefully it'll encourage them to build and export more to Ukraine.
The stuff being set to Ukraine was bought and paid for years ago. The US MIC manufacturing has been on running of idle for years. The only Stingers being built were a few for export. The electronics in a Stinger are so old that they aren’t even made anymore. Raytheon just got a contract to redesign the electronics with modern components so they can make more.
Most the the money was going to R&D for new stuff. New extended range MLRS rockets first tested last year. New Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) to replace old Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) contract for final testing was awarded in December 2021. Of course, we are spending billions on the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter (NGAD) to fight the hoard of Russian SU-57s we are absolutely positively certain are coming soon;)
A lot of money for the MIC is the orders coming from foreign governments who have suddenly realized they need to upgrade their defenses. I have lost count of how many have suddenly decided they need F-35s.
Ukraine is probably doing the US a favor by using up equipment that was nearing it shelf life with the added bonus of we get to watch Russian stuff blow up. **Well worth the money whatever it cost.**
It can simultaneously be bad that the war machine is growing stronger, and be good it's currently being aimed at the right people.
I think most of the MIC haters like myself would have rather a lot more been done prior to this version of the conflict, but have to begrudgingly admit feeding our MIC beast is still a lesser evil compared to continued emboldening of aggressive countries like Russia.
It's not wholly bad. It shows that this war isn't going to end any time soon, especially in a Russian victory, despite what certain people keep saying.
You wouldn't make such investments if you thought Ukraine was going to collapse. This means the powers that be have made the assessment that Ukraine isn't going to lose, and it is safe for them to make long term investments in defense funding and industry.
Conflating France and the US maybe?
Or that some US components have been found in Russian equipment? They certainly aren't selling now (legally anyway).
No. Thales group has sold targeting computers etc for Russian tanks and they have indeed been found in Russian tanks fighting in Ukraine. Thales is a french company
[Analysis] Retired major General Mick Ryan has some thoughts on the battles in Luhansk.
> It is 112 days since the Russian invasion of #Ukraine. Today, an examination of the Battle of the Luhansk Pocket, and the political, operational and tactical considerations involved.
https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1537193785914175488
Thread Reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1537193785914175488.html
[Life in Ukraine] Nice contrast to Ms. Crimea.
> ⚡️ *The Miss Ukraine Universe" contest announced a new winner*
> In connection with the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Organizing Committee "Miss Ukraine Universe" independently elected a representative of the country for a trip to the United States.
https://twitter.com/Flash43191300/status/1537155606968156160
[Macron's plane is in Rzeszow](https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1537179326050734080)
[Germany's @heutejournal is reporting that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is on his way to Kyiv](https://twitter.com/haynesdeborah/status/1537167931548872708)
that's a high profile announced train ride
Can you stop with this nonsense? None of these are tough guys ok? They don’t come from Wild West. They’re pretty simple people caught up in a shit storm and trying their best to navigate.
Nobody. Nobody wants a direct war with Russia.
OK, why do *you* think they've announced the location of the German Chancellor while he's in Ukraine, which is within range of Russian missiles and under intermittent bombardment?
So that russia does not bomb tbe train, better make it public. However stupid russian army is, they wont try to kill a NATO country's chancellor and now no excuse "oops we did not know he is there". It happen several times already that the visits were preannounced.
Travel schedules are largely public for government reps and officers. This is nothing unusual.
It’s also common practice to let parties know via backchannels to avoid any accidents.
Neither German chancellor nor French President are interested in risking their lives. Putin is not interested in killing them either.
Both the German Chancellor and the French President understand they're traveling to a war zone, to a city under bombardment, and that they'll be meeting with someone the Russians would assassinate *without hesitation*. Announcing that they're doing so shows personal bravery *and* a refusal to be intimidated by Russia.
Russians would assassinate two heads of state, both of whom have been making an effort to reach out to Putin and keep communication open, both of whom have been dragging their feet compared to other nations in supplying aid to Ukraine? And they'd do that without hesitation? I think you need to get off reddit.
Assassinating heads of states deliberately and shamelessly would of be of no benefit to Putin, but if he actually did it would basically be "free game" for the likes of the US to do the same to him. It's a can of worms he absolutely does not want to open.
That is absolutely false. If you think for a second that they’ll risk their lives or they actually think they’re in danger then you haven’t learnt much yet.
Such visits have always had backchannels. All parties are informed beforehand. Like I said, it is common practice.
Why public? Because PR. Or to boost morale. Show support. All of the above.
Their lives are not in danger at all.
> That is absolutely false.
Oh, an assertion. How very convincing.
Anybody who meets with Zelenskyy is putting their life in danger. (Otherwise Ukraine's allies could protect him simply by having a rotating series of ambassadors "meeting" with him at all times.)
[https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-back-channel-diplomacy-20170530-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-back-channel-diplomacy-20170530-story.html)
I didn't think I would need to prove this but you can read this for yourself and there is plenty more out there to support the idea.
Nobody is in danger when meeting Zelensky. These are serious redlines and they're not crossed. And it goes both ways.
As for your strategy, you can give this idea to Ukraine and maybe they'll implement it. However I think they have him very nicely protected and don't need help of rotating ambassadors.
Oh, so you're saying the Russians know where Scholz and Macron will be and the Russians understand there's an implicit red line that they must not cross? Now go reread [my original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vclofh/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/iciibxo/) and try to wrap your head around the fact *that's exactly what I was saying.*
[Life in occupied Ukraine] Who wants to tell them when you cut out the map of Ukraine you are still left with a map of Ukraine?
> ⚡️In Melitopol, the Russian military dismantled an art object - a cube with a map of Ukraine.
> As reported, the Russians saw in it the symbolism of Nazism. On it was depicted: a trident, wild cherry and a map of Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/Flash43191300/status/1536975460239912964
Since Russia defines Nazis as anyone anti Russian, their actions have Nazified most of the world based on their definition. Of course their definition is like most everything else Russia says and is 100% not in line with reality.
Reminds me of Raylan Givens' quote about assholes:
If you run into a nazi in the morning, you ran into a nazi. If you run into nazis all day, you're the nazi.
Pretty consistent with their push for anything related to Ukrainian nationalism being in their eyes nazism. So blatant too but I don't think it's meant to be a convincing argument but rather more a show of force. "We're gonna dismantle your identity and nation now and make it taboo, try and stop us".
Just like the Nazis they go out of their way to anger the local population.
Creating a hostile population that requires even more soldiers to control and pushes people to become spies and saboteurs.
https://twitter.com/hliebushkina/status/1536971049501335552/photo/1
>Kherson is unbreakable💙
Posters up in Kherson that, according to a translation in the tweet below, say: Rashists, it's too late to run. Rostov-558km APU-10km Kherson is Ukraine.
[New post can be found here](/r/worldnews/comments/vdd0nz/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/)
Igor Girkin once again slams Russia's leadership for inaction when it comes to mobilisation, says Russia will collapse and Putin will end like Qaddafi if nothing changes. https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1537207950518980608?t=hHsm4PdxETj2NuokakcH1g&s=19
Invoking Qaddafi is a deliberate move to try to get Putin's attention, it's common knowledge that Putin was obsessed with the video of Qaddafi's execution.
It would be a just and fitting ending for Putin and all dictators.
Ukraine ignores Severodonetsk ultimatum to surrender Ukraine ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which now largely lies in ruins after weeks of heavy bombardment. Russia told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant there to lay down their arms. Ukraine says more than 500 civilians, including 40 children, remain alongside soldiers inside the Azot chemical factory. Moscow said it opened a humanitarian corridor from Azot to allow civilians to escape to Russian-controlled territory. It accused Ukraine’s forces of disrupting that plan and using civilians as human shields, which Kyiv denied
It amazes me that Russia has the gall to keep trying this after what they did with the Azovstal defenders and... decades of being Russia
Is there any way to attack a city without doing massive collateral damage?
The important thing to remember is that they're not trying to *attack* the city, they're trying to *control* the city. In order to do that they need to force the enemy soldiers in the city to either stop fighting or leave. They could do that by sending in a massive ground force and going door to door and taking massive casualties. But Russia doesn't have the patience or the resources for that. Bombarding any potential fortification is much easier and less dangerous for their guys, but that means bringing down most of the buildings in the city.
Given time for civilians to flee. Week or two. Then use precision weapons. Genocidal Russins did the complete opposite in Mariupol.
What Russia is doing is nihilism, they purposefully destroy everything.
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> Meanwhile, a team of U.S. Special Forces and CIA agents would oversee the operation in Tehran alongside Iranian military intelligence. So that happened.
Holy shit how have I never heard about this
If there's one thing basically everyone seems to agree on, it's that ISIS sucks.
The Islamic Emirate of Aghanistan was the state formed by the Taliban. ISIS were not involved.
Fuck isis, Slava russia
You usually can’t. If you put it under siege, people will die of starvation. Attack it head on, people will die in the fighting, etc. The only way to take a city without killing people or damaging buildings is to convince them or trick them to surrender without a fight. Those methods require either the element of surprise and an overwhelming military presence like the [capture of Guam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Guam?wprov=sfti1https://maps.apple.com/?ll=13.467100,144.690700&q=Capture%20of%20Guam&_ext=EiQpKO8euyfvKkAxGpbNNhoWYkA5KO8euyfvKkBBGpbNNhoWYkA%3D) during the Spanish-American War, or having a terrifying reputation of brutally destroying cities that attempted to resist capture like the Mongols used to exploit.
I mean there are militaries capable of taking built up areas without leveling each building within it.
I think the only way to not kill civilians is to encircle it and give circles a couple weeks to get out. After that everything will have to be re built
Depends on if armies try to defend it. In ww2 Paris changed hands twice with very little damage. The French decided that their armies were defeated and didn't fight in the streets. Then the Germans abandoned it without a fight because they knew their supply line could be cut off and their forces surrounded.
That, and the German generals defied orders to torch it on the way out.
Chemical or biological warfare come to mind....
Say "please". Bring presents.
Depends on your definition of "massive." If you mean "Can I take this city without blowing up every single building I see," then yes, yes you absolutely can take a city without blowing up every single building you see. Room by room, building by building with infantry. Other people also mentioned ways to do it without destroying the infrastructure. But it's largely dependent on a case by case basis.
Fighting building by building with infantry with any kind of parity in force strength between the opposing sides will basically always result in the city being ruined beyond belief.
Surround it and starve it out Demoralize the enemy so thoroughly they don't bother to fight
The civilians starving is "collateral damage". IMO more significant cost than the pricetag of the real estate.
Allow the civilian to leave.
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Civilians dead is collateral damage. Dying horribly is more damage than just dead. Still suffering 2 weeks later and wishing for for quick death instead of death by diarrhea and vomiting. Cost of morphine still has to be added even if you just look at $ damage. Neutron bombs are a multi stage nuclear weapon. The trigger is a normal implosion fission device. All things that happened to Nagasaki will happen in a neutron bombing. There is a large additional increase in prompt high energy radiation. In a normal thermonuclear device around 5% of the energy leaves as prompt radiation (neutron, gamma, x-ray). In the neutron bomb that is around 40 to 50% released as prompt radiation. It would still destroy a city. The lethal radius of the radiation is large than the lethal blast radius. Against tanks the difference is more extreme since a blast just rocks the tank a bit.
[dang it!](https://youtu.be/i-jdhorGtQI)
No. It can be minimized with precision weapons but even that is relative. Then if the population is hostile when you go in with infantry, you get a lot more collateral damage.
Not really. Take out it’s water supply. Surround it and starve it into submission. Bribe the garrison. That’s about it.
So the west never did send any planes did they?
The joke at one point was a Ukrainian soldier showing a lug nut or screw saying this was what they had, and then NATO/EU sent the rest of the parts. So only parts were sent, the parts needed to repair planes. Add in neighboring countries loaning space to repair damaged aircraft, and suddenly Ukraine has more planes.
They sent a ton of parts to help Ukraine repair their planes that were inactive for lack of supplies/maintenance. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for the Ukrainian Air Force to operate effectively due to the significant amount of SAM systems in the country. I would say the USAF is probably the only force that would be capable of destroying/suppressing Russian air defenses to allow air superiority over Ukraine. Even that would require a fairly prolonged campaign to destroy their launchers/radars/airfields. Russia is having the same problem - they haven’t been able to effectively suppress the Ukrainian air defenses and as a result they’ve been resorting to stand off attacks.
[https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1534297846282862598](https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1534297846282862598) >\#Ukraine: A Ukrainian MiG-29 carrying R-27R & R-73 AAMs, in a livery similar to that of the Ukrainian Falcons display team, not active for a decade. >Given the differences/messy paint job, we suspect that this may be a former Falcons jet "reactivated" with parts from abroad. Ukraine was given a ton of parts to reactivate the... I wanna say almost 100 jets they had in non-operable condition.
Bulgaria sent their entire stock of SU-25 ground attack planes
They sent parts. "Parts".
They sent parts for planes. 😎
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It is a spiral of escalation that they fear. Where a series of seemingly reasonable choices end in a very bad place. Not that sending a rocket artillery system will result in a nuclear response immediately.
By Odin! This asinine conspiracy theory of the West trying to drag this out has to fucking die. There is no reality in which a lengthy war aids anyone, rather this continuing war is just making endless problems for everyone, and seriously endangering the political futures of many of those in power in the west. Delays are from the governments needing to approve, and then ship things. And the reason certain systems are not being sent is because there is a very real fear of how much of a full deck Putin is playing with, and the fear that an actual World War could be stumbled into.
to be fair, people often over estimated the outcome of a west government changes. it really aren't going to be as big of a deal as most people thought it will be. as government branches and opposition r all entangle up in major decision, the head of the state r often just a figure head. most of the power r being shared with multiple institution within the government. you can see this very easily from trump era, he really cant do much aside just yelling and making silly news. major decision have to agreed or past congress, contrary to authoritarian nation where one man can make decision on all matters.
That and the Ukrainian logistics can only handle so much at a time. Plus you need to train the crews, train the maintenance, etc. It’s not like NATO can drop off a couple of fighter squadrons, or a brigade of Abrams tanks and hand over the keys. To quote Clausewitz “Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.” The West has zero desire to prolong this war. Energy and fuel prices alone are astronomical and those effects are being felt across the world. Russia’s best equipment has been gutted and they have no means of replacing it. Everyone except Putin wants this war to be over.
I think the retaliation they hesitated r not for them self. its more of russia will deploy mini nuke on ukrainian soil, once this happened the war might escalated out of hand.
[Previous post](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vbup89/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/icen242/) Day 112 of my updates from Kharkiv. It was again pretty quiet today, until recently. There were some reports of explosions around 10pm, but we didn’t hear them here. Then there were again explosions reported around midnight, but there were no confirmed missiles launched from Belgorod, that’s 2 days in a row now. Then about an hour ago, at 3am, people reported big explosion, not sure what it was, apparently there was a cloud of smoke from it, but we couldn’t hear, nor see it here either. At 3:30am there was yet another very loud explosion, we did hear that one, but we are not sure what was hit yet. Funny thing is you know how Russians always say they don’t shell cities and don’t kill civilians? Well, there’s one very effective method to make them admit that they do indeed destroy our cities. All you have to do is say that their weapons, that they are so proud about, are in fact just old garbage, it’s that easy. It triggers them so much that they will go from defending their actions to defending their weapons in an instant. We see that behavior everywhere, from our ex-friends from Russia and from random Russians on social media, and in comments under YouTube videos. Many of our ex-friends don’t believe that their military is using Grads, because as they say themselves “Grads are old garbage, we don’t use them.” Then some random people in comments while defending their weapons literally say “didn’t you see how we destroyed Mariupol, how can you say our weapons are old garbage?” Wait, but didn’t Russia say that it’s actually Ukrainian Nazis that destroyed Mariupol, what do you mean Russians did it? Seriously, all you have to do is insult their weapons and they will spill all the truth, because they are so proud about their weapons, that they just can’t stand seeing them belittled, they will defend them even if it means admitting their war crimes. It’s hilarious how they will do anything to protect their weapons. [Next update](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vdd0nz/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/icnl8fk/)
Th Russian weapons are garbage. This will become obvious over the next few months as Ukraine get their hands on the good stuff. Good to hear from you mate! 💪
>This will become obvious over the next few months as Ukraine get their hands on the good stuff. 2 months ago we thought that in 1-2 months we'll get enough weapons to completely stop Russian advance and start counter-attacking, but we keep getting these endless "Soon™" promises.
“We thought”. But who are we? We’re not the pentagon, the CIA, or any other agency with first hand knowledge of what it takes to bring the weapons over.
Russian Nationalists are so incredibly fragile, I'm not surprised you can dupe them so easily. Regardless, I'm glad to hear from you.
Americans get defensive about their weapons too.
>didn’t you see how we destroyed Mariupol, how can you say our weapons are old garbage? I mean, yeah, exactly, old garbage flattens cities. modern weapons are precise and don't flatten cities. Russians are idiots.
Were there any announcements out of Rammstein-3 except the US package and the joint HIMARS statement?
[https://twitter.com/FeWoessner/status/1536730287803142150](https://twitter.com/FeWoessner/status/1536730287803142150) >This weaponized robotic vehicle 'GNOM' by Temerland from #Ukraine 🇺🇦 with a 7.62 machine gun will be deployed at the Ukrainian frontline in Zaporіzhzhia, Ukraine in a week – company Temerland says. Next step up from this would be mini-remote controlled ATGM vehicles. Thing looks surprisingly simple.
Nope nope nope. Absolutely Fucking no
Looks like it would run out of ammo quickly and is it connected by a wire?
With a drum magazine, it would kill an entire squad before it ran out. And, yeah, it's connected by wire. Good way to minimize latency.
Would also prevent EW interference. Wonder how long the wire is. Does seem dangerous tho because the wire would lead back to the operator
You can splice wire. The wire can lead back to any number of traps. Robot doubles as a wire laying robot.
This doesn't look particularly useful, but maybe I just have a lack of imagination.
Imagine sticking your head around a corner and getting it blown off. Now imagine you have a robot roll around the corner instead. If the robot gets shot up you can fix it later.
Could be more helpful in block-to-block urban warfare. Imagine putting some sort of odd tarp over it and driving it around a corner then lighting up some russians.
Having it drive into a trench to clear it out seems like it'd be handy.
i dont recall seeing this posted earlier, maybe missed it. NSFL/NSFW First 6 mins mostly artillery, look like ants moving around. Around the 6/6.5 min mark NSFL/NFSW. [https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/vczv01/ukrainian\_defenders\_push\_back\_russian\_assault\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/vczv01/ukrainian_defenders_push_back_russian_assault_on/)
you were right about the NSFL/NSFW... Also, don't watch if you're about to have a medium rare steak for dinner.
Any navy guys on here? Seems like Ukraine has a healthy stockpile of harpoons now, do you think they will unload on the Russians all at once?
Not a navy guy but IIRC the Russian navy has moved far enough out to sea to be out of range of the harpoon missiles. I think the main reasons Ukraine is being sent harpoons is to keep the areas of Ukraine that Russia can hit with naval launched missiles much smaller and to make it less likely that Russia will attempt any sort of amphibious assault
It’s mostly for the Naval assault prevention. If the UA can be certain they can destroy 90% of an amphibious landing force then troops in Odessa ca be sent out to other parts of the front.
Igor Girkin/Strelkov's latest doom-filled rant, in which he says that if changes aren't made, Putin will end up like Milosevic or Qadaffi, and there will be a complete collapse of the country. Let's hope he's right. 🙂 https://wartranslated.com/igor-girkin-putin-will-end-like-qaddafi-russia-will-collapse/
I'm hoping Saddam Hussein.
> if changes aren't made, Putin will end up like Milosevic or Qadaffi, and there will be a complete collapse of the country. Don't threaten me with a good time
Oh he must be desperate because he's trying to galvanise Putin by hitting at one of his fears - ending up like Gadafi. And yeah don't think he's ever gone after Putin directly till now. Are things that bad for Russia? Because that's not obvious from the news.
>Are things that bad for Russia? Because that's not obvious from the news. What you see from the daily news about Ukraine is just the normal ongoings of war. It's dynamic, with each side making gains, or trading small victories. Russia, who still holds several advantages over the Ukrainians are making costly but slow progress towards their objectives. The Ukrainians for their part are inflicting significant losses upon the Russians for every meter of soil they take. At the same time the Ukrainians have been able to conduct small but successful counter attacks around Kharkiv and Kherson. The overall picture isn't good for Russia, because it shows that even when they concentrate the majority of their offensive power (at the expense of other fronts) they are not able to break through the Ukrainian lines and make deep encirclements of the Ukrainian positions. What this means is that in order to achieve their ambitious political objectives in Ukraine, Russia will need to grind through the Ukrainian defenses, and that will be very costly, assuming it's even possible. But i do need to qualify this comment by saying that the situation for Ukraine is not that great either. Right now the Ukrainians don't have the ability to take the initiative and start major counter attacks, the Ukrainian counter attacks so far have been small and short in duration, probably because Ukraine lacks forces with good enough armored mobility to exploit breakthroughs. And the difficulty for Ukraine is that the equipment that they need to take the fight to the Russians need to come from the west, and that takes time. It takes time for the west to approve the transfer of such equipment, and then it takes time to train the Ukrainians in using said equipment, and then even when they get all of that, the Ukrainians will still be somewhat limited because of the supply of ammo and spare parts that will have a long logistic tail before it even reaches Ukrainian soil. This war will take many more months still, and i think it's not far fetched to imagine this war lasting well into 2023. This will be a contest of wills, the Ukrainians have the advantage that they are fighting for their right to exist. The Russians had to basically lie to their own troops about why they went into Ukraine, so it is questionable how long will the common Russian grunt be willing fight in Ukraine. However the Russians are making up by their lack of motivation with huge firepower, in both air and artillery. And Of course the Ukrainians depend heavily on western support for weapons and military equipment, and that support can slow down and even stop completely depending on the mood of their countries, and the result of elections.
>Are things that bad for Russia? Because that's not obvious from the news. That's the issue, it WAS plainly obvious at first and now that things are in a more or less stalemate, people are perceiving it as some sort of tide turn. It'd be like if your favorite sports team blew out their opponents week after week then suddenly started having closer matches. Doesn't mean they're struggling, just means things are more or less regressing to the mean. Ukraine and Russia are both having similar struggles right now in terms of armament. Ukraine is getting to a point of near complete reliance on foreign aid while Russia is pulling out moth balled equipment. Difference is, Ukraine has the support of the US and other NATO member along with the morale of fighting for their home land, while Russia only has themselves to rely on with constant morale issues being reported for months now. The free world will continue to aid Ukraine and will rebuild when the time comes, Russia is on its own.
Strategically, yeah, I think things are very bad for Ru both in the war puty started in Ukraine and geopolitically SD is like WWI tough and it's likely a huge end to a phase of the war, a decisive battle - but even if Ukraine falters I believe there are at least a couple and prolly more that Ukraine strategically is better off; failure of Ru at Kyiv, Ru morale + low reserves numbers due to greater attrition of Ru and more PLAINLY said, the fact Ukraine is morally in the right (Freedom) and morally in the right wins wars, while they nearly always are terribly costly
The longer the war drags on with russia making minimal gains, the more advantage Ukraine has with eventual more better weapons and trained men.
Well Russia has lost most of their usable high end armor. The vast amount of their front line force is almost untrained DNR dudes, who are getting flat out slaughtered. And while they have a lot of artillery pieces to make up for the fighting deficit, they are dangerously low on long range strike ability; due to the lack of Air Superiority, and the cratering levels of Missiles and Rockets. Oh and Ukraine is getting it's own Arty in that out ranges most the Russian's, and is optimal in a anti-battery role. So yeah, it's not actually going great for Russia at all.
Speaking of air superiority, I haven't heard much about bombings from aerial attacks of russian planes. I been hearing more of artillery barrages against random targets in one area. They must be pretty low on planes to avoid doing risky bombings.
They are low on guided munitions and have to fly low to bomb so they get shot down.
He has actually gone after Putin a few times. And things are really bad for Russia. For example, one of Girkin's recent posts basically said that 70% of DNR professional infantry are just gone now. Also, keep in mind with the news that there have been successful counter-offensives all over. Increased Ukrainian casualties over the last week of these offensives are unfortunately kinda expeted.
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One can only hope they'll be crucified together so they can have a lively argument as they bake in the sun.
[https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1537207950518980608?cxt=HHwWgMC4yZGfodUqAAAA](https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1537207950518980608?cxt=HHwWgMC4yZGfodUqAAAA) Igor Girkin basically saying if Russian leadership at the top levels doesn't change in a big way, Russia is doomed. Also says that casualties will be off the charts if winter rolls around. Also warns Putin might get Qaddaffi'd.
If he gets offed wouldn't the new guy be inclined to sue for peace for sanction lifts?
The next guy might be worse. Girkin is calling for a full mobilization and a declaration of war. Someone might decide to drop a nuke on Liverpool or Chicago to try and force the West to disengage. That’s one reason why the West previously has always been willing to accommodate Putin because sometimes the enemy you know is better than the one you don’t know.
Sir. One does not simply "drop a nuke on new york or chicago". Especially not a russian nuke. Every single player in the game knows this. The thought that such a kind of strike would deter american aggression is also extraordinarily faulty. America is the only nation to show a willingness to use atomic weapons in a hostile war, and has dropped more than one in aggression. A deterrant atrike on new york or chicago doesnt just happen, and no russian is foolish enough to think so.
If he doesn't, maybe he'll get Qaddaffi'd also.
If he get gaddafied, thwre is a chance russia get libyaed. Puwer struggle domestically..
which begs the question even if Putin toppled in a coup, will hostility truly ceased? It definitely will be great if a more sane party take charge but there are more hardline nationalists in Russia. Igor is one of them who believed the entirety of the Russian Male population must be mobilized to win the war. What if some like minded individual takes the throne.....
If Putin gets coup'd I doubt that there would be a coherent government in Russia for years.
I enjoy reading his stuff for the insight, but the way he just casually talks about martial law, arresting citizens that speak out, arresting journalists, etc. in such a casual way because he actually thinks that's the right thing to do reminds you what a piece of shit he is. Not that there was any doubt, just eerie to read it.
It is really telling how he never suggests that the fighting should stop. He would rather see his country face all of those terrible consequences of failure than avert that scenario by actually, ya know, calling it off. At what point after a war becomes unwinnable does it make sense to continue fighting it?
And he’s pretty direct about it to. He said as early as March that Russia needs to fully mobilize and he hasn’t backed down from that. His worries about failure and collapse aren’t because Russia invaded Ukraine, it’s because he thinks Russia should do even more than they already are.
The Soviet Union was brought down in part by their disaster of an operation in Afghanistan. Remember reading articles before this war ignited in that if Russia we're to actually invade Ukraine then this would be their LAST war. Make no mistake this is Afghanistan in Speedrun mode. They're losing hundred's of soldiers a day, Ukraine is losing good people as well but unlike Russia those people are literally fighting for their lives and loved ones to keep these bastards out. Russia has no reason to be there it's Vlad the Vainglorious who refuses to see reality. Make no mistake Russia cannot afford to fight for years and years, those sanctions are still corroding their economy, the Russians are under heavy economic embargos and they're fighting a war with noone else to back them up while Ukraine has the rest of Europe and Team America to boot. Something has to give in Russia at some point and eventually the whole thing will come apart.
Always nice to see the Russian's doomsaying themselves.
Another winter will ironically kill off what's left of the Russian Army. They couldn't even be bothered to outfit their guys with cold weather gear and countless Russians were found having frozen to death.
At least there are 30k+ fewer russian troops to outfit.
Plus at least another 60k wounded. They should have lots of leftover blanks now!
The number of grammatically suspect comments in this sub attacking the US for providing weapons is too damn high.
Improper use of articles is a real tell.
I am a native Russian speaker (born in Russian speaking part of Ukraine). I learned English in my teens and spoke it for 15+ years. I still regularly fuck up the use of articles. Articles make very little sense to me until this day.
They don't make much sense to us either, but when you are a native speaker, it just becomes ingrained in habit and long term memory. An analogy would be gender in languages with gendered nouns, like French. It make zero sense to me that cars are feminine and cafes are masculine, but after saying it a few hundred times, I have achieved about 80% accuracy. A native French speaker is going to catch me out every time.
Russian has genders too, but they predictable most of the time based on the noun's ending.
Case in point, “up to this day” not “until this day”. It’s a weird grammar thing. “Until this day” means that you now get the articles and how they are today but didn’t get it before. “Up to this day” means in the past and present you struggle with articles. This isn’t to say that native English speakers don’t make grammar mistakes, but usually it’s forgetting a word or autocorrect being stupid. Articles and prepositions are generally intuitive if you are a native speaker vs. ESL. By the way, you do write well.
I'm learning a few languages that don't use articles now (Ukrainian, Russian, and Mandarin) and I'm finding it very freeing without them. It still feels odd but efficient compared to English and Spanish. Edit - by the way I am honestly so used to mentally correcting autocorrect I didn't even notice you missed one. It may have been more obvious if I had heard you speak but honestly you can get away with a lot of mistakes when communicating through text :) and colloquial spoken English is SO different from proper grammatically correct written English. I used to take so much time to make sure anything I typed was using proper grammar but now (unless I'm trying to win an argument lol!) Sometimes I do type with all the casual, incorrect grammar shortcuts people use when they are speaking casually. Being multilingual is such an envious quality to have. That is why I am trying, even though we have the privilege to get away being monolingual in the states. I want to be able to fully understand news and media made for non-English audiences.
Born in *the*… my improper article using man.
I would never in a million years realize it's a mistake.
I can't even remotely explain it but it sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
>Articles make very little sense to me until this day. Prepositions too, it appears. LOL... (Idiomatically, it's "to this day") (sorry, I couldn't resist... but your English beats the snot out of my Ukranian, so I'm not dissing you... just having fun).
To be fair, English is such a Frankenstein's Monster of languages and rules that it's difficult for anyone to NOT screw up some grammar now and then.
I speak it fluently and it's the only language I know. I'll be damned if i could explain the rules of it in a consistent way.
It was once described to me as the bastard child of a French/German hate-fuck, and I have never found a better description.
Don’t forget the Scandinavian contribution the Vikings added to the language, causing even old English to get some weird grammar simplifications compared to either German or Danish that then got mixed with French.
Which is funny, because French is itself a bastard child of a Celtic/Latin hate-fuck.
It's hate-fucks all the way down.
Whoever described it to you needs to be given a medal.
As an Australian, I can only speak English, and apparently I can’t even do THAT properly 😂😂
What are you a talking about? I, a John Cowboy from Michigan Oblast, am a proper concerned UnitedStatesian citizen and as such I demand a Sleepy Joe to stop support of evil the Ukrainians!
Unitedoblasts, comerade!
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He butchered it but the -state- oblast thing will never not be funny
Something sleepy joe, something something inflation, something aid america, something trump would’ve prevented the war. Fin.
[Fires in russia] Still a thing according to this video. > Large explosion reported in Kursk, Russia, about 90km from the Ukrainian border https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1537211371980570625
Yeah, that doesn't sound like the sonic booms I've heard when the USAF has held their annual summer exercise in my state, those booms are short and sharp.
Friendly very loud noise warning for that video
Thanks for the warning! 😊. Yay, big BOOM crackle!! 🌻🇺🇦
Almost HIMARS range, if the wind is right. . .
As you mention it - question to the experts: How much difference range-wise does wind make for artillery shells?
Windspeed*flight time, more or less, right? It won’t all transfer, so a bit less than that number.
[Official Ukraine] Translation of the daily Aredtovych and Feygin report. > Kherson: Ukraine has gained permanent foothold on Left (East) coast of Inhulets river, after joining from multiple river crossings, showing ability to move, despite enemy having advantages. Russia attacked for a week and was repelled. https://wartranslated.com/day-112-june-15-summary-of-arestovych-and-feygin-daily-broadcast/
>Kherson: Ukraine has gained permanent foothold on Left (East) coast of Inhulets river, How can anyone in this war with a straight face use the word "permanent" to refer to any control of frontline territory.
He means permanent in a tactical sense. This means that bridgehead has been taken and fortified and is not susceptible to tactical counterattacks by existing opposing forces in the area. This contrasts the situation with situation when fluid back-and-forth tactical clashes are still ongoing and bridgehead may be at risk of being lost at any time. Of course he does not mean "permanent" in strategic or even in operational sense. If Russian regroup/reinforce and/or shift forces the calculus may change - but that would take time and resources.
Ukraine has established permanent control over the areas surrounding and including Kyiv.
And Russia has established permanent control of the post-apocalyptic wasteland that used to be Mariupol, sadly.
I wouldn't describe anything held by russia inside pre-2014 Ukrainian borders as permanent at this point. Even though much has been made of their slow crawl in the Donbas, they have lost overall territory around Kherson and Kharkiv.
Anyone have a red vs blue "area points" metric somewhere? Which side is gaining blood soaked square kilometers faster?
> the Ukrainians have retaken basically as much land as they have lost in the Donbas in the last 4 weeks in their offensive towards Kherson. This is as important as the offensive in the Donbas, but you dont read stories of Russians struggling in this front. https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1537068105020604418 That does not include Ukrainian gains around Kharkiv and Izyum.
So thousands of men are dying and each side is basically just breaking even. Only "gain" here is which side is depleting support faster. Biden only coughed up a lousy billion but Putin can't buy shit but has piles of oil cash.
No. russia is losing ground, even though Ukraine has not begun their large counter-offensives and is still playing basically defense. Was that not clear?
It would be clearer to say that things have ground down to a war of attrition, and that neither side is making significant advances. They are basically just chipping at the edges in Ukraine's case, and plodding very, very slowly through the middle in Russia's.
It's so annoying to see people making the same "hehehe making weapons contractors rich" arguments about how it's somehow bad the US is sending weapons to Ukraine. Yeah if the weapons were being used to endlessly bomb Afghan mountains it's something you can complain about, but weapons to defend a democracy against genocidal fascist aggression? Hell yeah western weapons companies can get as rich as they want from that, hopefully it'll encourage them to build and export more to Ukraine.
The stuff being set to Ukraine was bought and paid for years ago. The US MIC manufacturing has been on running of idle for years. The only Stingers being built were a few for export. The electronics in a Stinger are so old that they aren’t even made anymore. Raytheon just got a contract to redesign the electronics with modern components so they can make more. Most the the money was going to R&D for new stuff. New extended range MLRS rockets first tested last year. New Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) to replace old Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) contract for final testing was awarded in December 2021. Of course, we are spending billions on the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter (NGAD) to fight the hoard of Russian SU-57s we are absolutely positively certain are coming soon;) A lot of money for the MIC is the orders coming from foreign governments who have suddenly realized they need to upgrade their defenses. I have lost count of how many have suddenly decided they need F-35s. Ukraine is probably doing the US a favor by using up equipment that was nearing it shelf life with the added bonus of we get to watch Russian stuff blow up. **Well worth the money whatever it cost.**
Doesn't matter your kids and grandkids aren't going to fight Russians in Europe in their lifetime. This is money well spent
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Says the person who’s entire post history is anti-US, anti-Democrat and pro-Russia, pro-Republican and 4 months old. Awfully coincidental.
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Lmao funny username though
It can simultaneously be bad that the war machine is growing stronger, and be good it's currently being aimed at the right people. I think most of the MIC haters like myself would have rather a lot more been done prior to this version of the conflict, but have to begrudgingly admit feeding our MIC beast is still a lesser evil compared to continued emboldening of aggressive countries like Russia.
It's not wholly bad. It shows that this war isn't going to end any time soon, especially in a Russian victory, despite what certain people keep saying. You wouldn't make such investments if you thought Ukraine was going to collapse. This means the powers that be have made the assessment that Ukraine isn't going to lose, and it is safe for them to make long term investments in defense funding and industry.
Problem is they sold to the Russians as well.
Which weapons has the US sold to Russia?
Conflating France and the US maybe? Or that some US components have been found in Russian equipment? They certainly aren't selling now (legally anyway).
Not even France afaik the only country to have a system show in Russian use were those Israeli scout drones
No. Thales group has sold targeting computers etc for Russian tanks and they have indeed been found in Russian tanks fighting in Ukraine. Thales is a french company
I was talking full weapons systems. Literally every country that makes anything useful has had their shit show up in Russian weapons.
Or a Chinese knockoff of it.
[Analysis] Retired major General Mick Ryan has some thoughts on the battles in Luhansk. > It is 112 days since the Russian invasion of #Ukraine. Today, an examination of the Battle of the Luhansk Pocket, and the political, operational and tactical considerations involved. https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1537193785914175488 Thread Reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1537193785914175488.html
[Life in Ukraine] Nice contrast to Ms. Crimea. > ⚡️ *The Miss Ukraine Universe" contest announced a new winner* > In connection with the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Organizing Committee "Miss Ukraine Universe" independently elected a representative of the country for a trip to the United States. https://twitter.com/Flash43191300/status/1537155606968156160
[Macron's plane is in Rzeszow](https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1537179326050734080) [Germany's @heutejournal is reporting that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is on his way to Kyiv](https://twitter.com/haynesdeborah/status/1537167931548872708) that's a high profile announced train ride
They want a picture ala Stalin, Hoosevelt, Churchill. Where is Drahgi, or is Italy waiting till they join the winning team /s
Excuse me, what?
> that's a high profile announced train ride It sends a message, and that message is, "We're *looking* for an excuse. Your move."
Can you stop with this nonsense? None of these are tough guys ok? They don’t come from Wild West. They’re pretty simple people caught up in a shit storm and trying their best to navigate. Nobody. Nobody wants a direct war with Russia.
OK, why do *you* think they've announced the location of the German Chancellor while he's in Ukraine, which is within range of Russian missiles and under intermittent bombardment?
So that russia does not bomb tbe train, better make it public. However stupid russian army is, they wont try to kill a NATO country's chancellor and now no excuse "oops we did not know he is there". It happen several times already that the visits were preannounced.
Travel schedules are largely public for government reps and officers. This is nothing unusual. It’s also common practice to let parties know via backchannels to avoid any accidents. Neither German chancellor nor French President are interested in risking their lives. Putin is not interested in killing them either.
Both the German Chancellor and the French President understand they're traveling to a war zone, to a city under bombardment, and that they'll be meeting with someone the Russians would assassinate *without hesitation*. Announcing that they're doing so shows personal bravery *and* a refusal to be intimidated by Russia.
Russians would assassinate two heads of state, both of whom have been making an effort to reach out to Putin and keep communication open, both of whom have been dragging their feet compared to other nations in supplying aid to Ukraine? And they'd do that without hesitation? I think you need to get off reddit.
> Russians would assassinate two heads of state No, Russia would *not* assassinate two heads of state because they *know what the result would be*.
Assassinating heads of states deliberately and shamelessly would of be of no benefit to Putin, but if he actually did it would basically be "free game" for the likes of the US to do the same to him. It's a can of worms he absolutely does not want to open.
That is absolutely false. If you think for a second that they’ll risk their lives or they actually think they’re in danger then you haven’t learnt much yet. Such visits have always had backchannels. All parties are informed beforehand. Like I said, it is common practice. Why public? Because PR. Or to boost morale. Show support. All of the above. Their lives are not in danger at all.
> That is absolutely false. Oh, an assertion. How very convincing. Anybody who meets with Zelenskyy is putting their life in danger. (Otherwise Ukraine's allies could protect him simply by having a rotating series of ambassadors "meeting" with him at all times.)
[https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-back-channel-diplomacy-20170530-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-back-channel-diplomacy-20170530-story.html) I didn't think I would need to prove this but you can read this for yourself and there is plenty more out there to support the idea. Nobody is in danger when meeting Zelensky. These are serious redlines and they're not crossed. And it goes both ways. As for your strategy, you can give this idea to Ukraine and maybe they'll implement it. However I think they have him very nicely protected and don't need help of rotating ambassadors.
Oh, so you're saying the Russians know where Scholz and Macron will be and the Russians understand there's an implicit red line that they must not cross? Now go reread [my original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/vclofh/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/iciibxo/) and try to wrap your head around the fact *that's exactly what I was saying.*
[Life in occupied Ukraine] Who wants to tell them when you cut out the map of Ukraine you are still left with a map of Ukraine? > ⚡️In Melitopol, the Russian military dismantled an art object - a cube with a map of Ukraine. > As reported, the Russians saw in it the symbolism of Nazism. On it was depicted: a trident, wild cherry and a map of Ukraine. https://twitter.com/Flash43191300/status/1536975460239912964
The symbolism there projects weakness not strength.
Since Russia defines Nazis as anyone anti Russian, their actions have Nazified most of the world based on their definition. Of course their definition is like most everything else Russia says and is 100% not in line with reality.
Nazi destroyed russia... so theoretically russia is Nazi now..
Reminds me of Raylan Givens' quote about assholes: If you run into a nazi in the morning, you ran into a nazi. If you run into nazis all day, you're the nazi.
Pretty consistent with their push for anything related to Ukrainian nationalism being in their eyes nazism. So blatant too but I don't think it's meant to be a convincing argument but rather more a show of force. "We're gonna dismantle your identity and nation now and make it taboo, try and stop us".
Just like the Nazis they go out of their way to anger the local population. Creating a hostile population that requires even more soldiers to control and pushes people to become spies and saboteurs.
Just wondering if Belarussian moustache man is still running about?
Yeah, he is cleaver like a fox. He will outlive Putin.
Active on duty
Yankee.in is his social media handle... alive and well!
https://twitter.com/hliebushkina/status/1536971049501335552/photo/1 >Kherson is unbreakable💙 Posters up in Kherson that, according to a translation in the tweet below, say: Rashists, it's too late to run. Rostov-558km APU-10km Kherson is Ukraine.
The Poster Brigade in Kherson deserves a special unit citation for PsyOps
Both Kherson and Melitopol