Russia has three territories not the complete ones that Ukraine made them but they still have three territories. If they had been smart about it and secured them properly they'd have a lot more. This is going to get nastier this is proof of this. Winter is going to make them angry and spiteful. Ukraine is just about to face what hungry and angry people can do this is not the other way around.
While I've generally avoided news coverage on the topic, I did have to find this one line from an interview with a supposed Ukranian soldier kind of hilarious, just due to how truly Slavic it sounded. Paraphrasing since I don't remember it word for word:
"Russia acts like an injured dog, trying to bite everyone after getting hit in the nose"
Which makes them more dangerous because they have the strength, the size, and the manpower to do a lot of damage if they just stop giving a damn or we're angry enough.
Which is pretty much happening right now. They've been incredibly restrained the entire war up until the Crimea bridge bombing, and since then they've switched to infrastructure attacks and are systematically dismantling Ukraine's entire power grid piece by piece. My opinion was that they probably wanted to keep it intact but the west's complete commitment to this war changed the equation.
Yep. Ukraine's been acting like they're fighting an invader, posting tiktok videos of wasting missiles in massive launches and personal drones dropping grenades on soldiers taking a shit. They've been fucking around this entire time while Russia tried different strategies. Winter is coming, and Russia's long game is finally dawning on them.
Very much so. Which is probably a large part of why I've not been wanting to watch most coverage on the whole thing. Everyone's trying to push the most fakeass madeup narratives and angles, but Western media especially has been trying to play up the "fighting for freedom" angle, which while not necessarily strictly "false" in that they are fighting to preserve their national sovereignty, it is not "exactly" a David and Goliath, underdog story either.
Russia's been pulling punches so they can min-max their gains with minimal costs and damage. And the "heroic Ukraine" is largely only holding their own because the "big bad wolf" doesn't want to overcook and spoil his entree, and because they're basically receiving open-NATO support without NATO countries actually firing anything themselves. I don't know if that makes it more or less proxy, as far as proxy wars go.
And in my previous comment I guess I should've emphasized that I didn't have an opinion either way on the statement I was quoting. I just found it amusing due to the way he was phrasing it. Maybe I've just been too immersed in Slavic memes lately.
The only way this ends is if they turn Kiev into a bombed out crater with little man still inside. If they don't kill him, the war will continue no matter what gains they make. He is the figure head, and without him, the west won't support much more than they have. It's disgusting that our governments have given anything to this after all they did to help bring this about.
That's why the media hyped him up with all those lies at the start. When in reality he is a little shithead that doesn't care about his citizens dying because he gets paid regardless
does still indicate Russia's overall weakness in comparison to expectations
I don't understand statements like this in light of the american defeat in Afghanistan after 20 years. By all measures the technological imbalance was much greater in that case.
The world just doesn't have the stomach for true total war anymore, not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
Given the presence of nuclear arsenals in the world, that would be an undeniably good thing in balance with potential extinction. I just don't believe it
Humanity isn't fundamentally that different from a century or two ago. It hasn't changed enough to just lose the stomach for total war, but it did make a successful conscious effort to lock the forks away once complete nuclear destruction was the centerpiece on that table. The modern global powerhouse cultures just haven't been hungry enough to consider breaking open the lock or digging in bare handed yet. But hard, hungry times are coming, so we may see how strong the world's resolve really is.
That's what I figured, but I see this "expectations" argument come up time and time again, by folk critical of the loopy left. I guess the russia-man-bad-and-weak is a uniparty endeavor.
The very beginning of the war where Russia tried to fight it by not killing Ukrainians or damaging anything was weird, They clearly didn't start the war assuming that the US was going to turn it into an existential conflict where the only end conditions are completely interdicting Ukraine and killing every fighting age male living there or vaporizing and replacing the entire Russian government.
It's weird from our point of view but from what I've seen from Russian media since the start of the war, they see the Ukrainians as wayward brothers so it's understandable to a degree why they've led the war with restraint.
I'm sure the west's support surprised them and even to this day I'm still not sure why we have turned this into a existential crisis and risk a nuclear conflict over Ukraine of all places. I'm curious too how long this can go on especially if they're dumb enough to go ahead with the oil price cap which will totally end up fucking the west harder than anything before now.
It's an indication of their lack of experience and leadership. They have never really had a military command structure. What they've had since they're founding has been nepotism and rich elites in command of a bunch of cannon fodder. They would have been shelling these fucking cities from the start to weaken them and then sent their ground forces in to clean up the mess if they had had any idea or learned any lesson from the past. I think they finally learned a little bit or it's just one hell of a coincidence that their anger finally got them the right move.
Is Russia still occupying the areas they initially invaded and stated goal was to liberate? Crimea and the Donbass region?
Most of those territories. They never really controlled the entirety of those three provinces.
It's been 9 months and Russia has nothing of value to show of it.
Guess I know how my mother feels.
Russia has three territories not the complete ones that Ukraine made them but they still have three territories. If they had been smart about it and secured them properly they'd have a lot more. This is going to get nastier this is proof of this. Winter is going to make them angry and spiteful. Ukraine is just about to face what hungry and angry people can do this is not the other way around.
No peace negotiations with Russia.
The US will bravely fight the Russians, down to the last Ukrainian.
While I've generally avoided news coverage on the topic, I did have to find this one line from an interview with a supposed Ukranian soldier kind of hilarious, just due to how truly Slavic it sounded. Paraphrasing since I don't remember it word for word:
"Russia acts like an injured dog, trying to bite everyone after getting hit in the nose"
Which makes them more dangerous because they have the strength, the size, and the manpower to do a lot of damage if they just stop giving a damn or we're angry enough.
Which is pretty much happening right now. They've been incredibly restrained the entire war up until the Crimea bridge bombing, and since then they've switched to infrastructure attacks and are systematically dismantling Ukraine's entire power grid piece by piece. My opinion was that they probably wanted to keep it intact but the west's complete commitment to this war changed the equation.
Yep. Ukraine's been acting like they're fighting an invader, posting tiktok videos of wasting missiles in massive launches and personal drones dropping grenades on soldiers taking a shit. They've been fucking around this entire time while Russia tried different strategies. Winter is coming, and Russia's long game is finally dawning on them.
Very much so. Which is probably a large part of why I've not been wanting to watch most coverage on the whole thing. Everyone's trying to push the most fakeass madeup narratives and angles, but Western media especially has been trying to play up the "fighting for freedom" angle, which while not necessarily strictly "false" in that they are fighting to preserve their national sovereignty, it is not "exactly" a David and Goliath, underdog story either.
Russia's been pulling punches so they can min-max their gains with minimal costs and damage. And the "heroic Ukraine" is largely only holding their own because the "big bad wolf" doesn't want to overcook and spoil his entree, and because they're basically receiving open-NATO support without NATO countries actually firing anything themselves. I don't know if that makes it more or less proxy, as far as proxy wars go.
And in my previous comment I guess I should've emphasized that I didn't have an opinion either way on the statement I was quoting. I just found it amusing due to the way he was phrasing it. Maybe I've just been too immersed in Slavic memes lately.
The only way this ends is if they turn Kiev into a bombed out crater with little man still inside. If they don't kill him, the war will continue no matter what gains they make. He is the figure head, and without him, the west won't support much more than they have. It's disgusting that our governments have given anything to this after all they did to help bring this about.
That's why the media hyped him up with all those lies at the start. When in reality he is a little shithead that doesn't care about his citizens dying because he gets paid regardless
I don't understand statements like this in light of the american defeat in Afghanistan after 20 years. By all measures the technological imbalance was much greater in that case.
America lost Afghanistan for the same reason Russia is have some issues in Ukraine:
Not wanting to kill everyone and maintain infrastructure intact.
If America went into Afghanistan and killed every fighting age male indiscriminately, Afghanistan would be America's territory.
We did not, so we had to let it go.
Russia has been restrained as fuck in this war. If they let loose -- even just a little -- it'd been over already.
The world just doesn't have the stomach for true total war anymore, not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
People also have a warped sense of how long, well anything really, should actually take because of the internet.
Given the presence of nuclear arsenals in the world, that would be an undeniably good thing in balance with potential extinction. I just don't believe it
Humanity isn't fundamentally that different from a century or two ago. It hasn't changed enough to just lose the stomach for total war, but it did make a successful conscious effort to lock the forks away once complete nuclear destruction was the centerpiece on that table. The modern global powerhouse cultures just haven't been hungry enough to consider breaking open the lock or digging in bare handed yet. But hard, hungry times are coming, so we may see how strong the world's resolve really is.
That's what I figured, but I see this "expectations" argument come up time and time again, by folk critical of the loopy left. I guess the russia-man-bad-and-weak is a uniparty endeavor.
The very beginning of the war where Russia tried to fight it by not killing Ukrainians or damaging anything was weird, They clearly didn't start the war assuming that the US was going to turn it into an existential conflict where the only end conditions are completely interdicting Ukraine and killing every fighting age male living there or vaporizing and replacing the entire Russian government.
It's weird from our point of view but from what I've seen from Russian media since the start of the war, they see the Ukrainians as wayward brothers so it's understandable to a degree why they've led the war with restraint.
I'm sure the west's support surprised them and even to this day I'm still not sure why we have turned this into a existential crisis and risk a nuclear conflict over Ukraine of all places. I'm curious too how long this can go on especially if they're dumb enough to go ahead with the oil price cap which will totally end up fucking the west harder than anything before now.
There was no leadership in Afghanistan on either side. That is why Afghanistan always wins against modern armies.
It's an indication of their lack of experience and leadership. They have never really had a military command structure. What they've had since they're founding has been nepotism and rich elites in command of a bunch of cannon fodder. They would have been shelling these fucking cities from the start to weaken them and then sent their ground forces in to clean up the mess if they had had any idea or learned any lesson from the past. I think they finally learned a little bit or it's just one hell of a coincidence that their anger finally got them the right move.