For Putin’s Russia, the war they started with Ukraine has now reached the scale of a struggle for its own survival. They initially hoped for a quick military operation within a few weeks, but in practice, Ukraine put up unexpectedly tough resistance and ruined all the Kremlin’s plans. Stopping aggression for Putin and his regime means the collapse of this regime and practically physical death for Putin himself. They cannot agree to this and we actually see a further escalation of hostilities.

On the other hand, for Ukraine it is also a struggle for its existence, because Russia wants to destroy Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation. Any attempts to freeze the conflict or establish an interim peace just to stop the war will lead to larger losses as Russia replaces its significant losses in manpower and equipment and begins a new phase of hostilities. Therefore, only victory of one of the parties is possible here. At the same time, a Russian victory will mean the beginning of an offensive by authoritarian states against weaker states around the world, because international agreements and laws will no longer be valid, and terror will begin throughout the world.

The Russians themselves could stop the war by overthrowing their aggressive government led by Putin. But over the two-year period of military operations against Ukraine, about 70 percent of the population consistently supports this war of aggression. Therefore, the only way out of this situation is the complete military and economic defeat of the Russian aggressor; there are no other options for establishing lasting peace in this region.

Even if cryptocurrency were an ideal way to bypass international sanctions, it would not be enough to do so. Finance is only half the story. The second half is the movement of sanctioned goods. If you can try to hide the movement of cryptocurrency from international regulatory authorities, then it will not be possible to quietly move sanctioned goods regularly and in large volumes.

But in general, for Russia it is a constant search for new opportunities to circumvent sanctions, and for the United States and the West - a search for opportunities to stop them. It would be much easier for Russia to stop the aggression against Ukraine and thus stop the sanctions. Sanctions are gradually isolating Russia from international innovation and setting its development back decades. If the Kremlin has chosen this path, let them live with it.

Putin's Russia continues to become impudent where it feels the uncertainty and fear   potential enemy. This is proven by the current case of an attempt to revise borders in the Baltic Sea region. It was also an attempt to test whether the NATO alliance is ready for an open military confrontation with Russia. But due to the fact that the USA, Finland and the Baltic countries reacted sharply negatively to these attacks by Russia, Moscow urgently abandoned its publicly announced plans to revise the border in the Baltic Sea. The proposal of the Russian Ministry of Defense to change the border and territorial waters of the country in the Baltic Sea, which caused a sharp reaction from Lithuania and Finland, was removed from the government website without explanation.
Before its removal, three major Russian news channels published a statement from an unnamed "military-diplomatic source" denying that Moscow had any plans to redraw the state border in the Baltic or review its territorial waters. They did not explain why the document was published.
It seems that the Kremlin is simply scared and is not ready to open a second front.

https://www.dialog.ua/russia/295386_1716377016

Let me disagree with you. Now the average person is already feeling climate change on our planet. Every year and almost every season, temperatures break absolute records for the entire observation period. I live in Ukraine and here, due to the constant increase in temperature, the summer period is becoming much longer, and the winters are shorter and have little snow. In the event of a sharp melting of glaciers, flooding of the southern regions of the country is predicted. But in general, the climate in Ukraine will remain good, there will simply be a change in the cultivation of different crops. However, due to changing winds, currents, and sudden changes in warm and cold air, agriculture will remain in an extreme risk zone for a long time.

@gloffs. You are using the available functions incorrectly when writing a post. Apparently, you simply copy your opponent’s text, changing its font, and then write your comment. Other forum users may perceive this post design as your contradictory thoughts, and not a dialogue with your opponent.

First, click on the “quote” option, which is located on the right side of the topic title line above the text of your opponent’s post and in the window that opens, after your opponent’s text, insert or write your text.

  If you need to give a comment on a specific phrase of your opponent, then after clicking “quote” in the window that opens, delete the text of your opponent that you do not need and write your text below.

If you need to place your opponent’s text a second time in order to write your comment under it, then you first need to copy the first two lines at the top of the window with your opponent’s data and date, which begin with the words “quote author”, then the opponent’s text, after which you can write or insert your comment.

And here is the proof.   A document prepared by the Ministry of Defense appeared on the website of the Russian government, according to which Russia intends to declare part of the water area in the east of the Gulf of Finland, as well as near the cities of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region, as its internal sea waters. The 40-year-old resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers regulating the borders in the Baltic Sea is proposed by the Ministry of Defense to be partially “recognized as invalid.”

Unilateral change of existing borders at the expense of the territories of other states or other deterioration of their geographical position actually means a declaration of war on these states. And to whom is Russia actually declaring war?   Finland and one of the Baltic countries. Of course, the possibility cannot be ruled out that Putin, as always, is bluffing. He is used to acting with arrogance and intimidation, but now this could well lead to a full-scale war with NATO, for which Russia is clearly not ready.

https://abn.org.ua/ru/novosti/putin-nachinaet-gibridnuyu-agressiyu-protiv-nato-chto-na-eto-otvetit-severoatlanticheskij-soyuz/

Putin begins hybrid aggression against NATO. A document prepared by the Ministry of Defense appeared on the website of the Russian government, according to which Russia intends to declare part of the water area in the east of the Gulf of Finland, as well as near the cities of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region, as its internal sea waters. The 40-year-old resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers regulating the borders in the Baltic Sea is proposed by the Ministry of Defense to be partially “recognized as invalid.”

To do this, it is planned to change the geographic coordinates of the points that determine the position of the baselines from which the width of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation, as well as the adjacent zone off the coast and islands, is measured.   Thus, Putin is again beginning to raise the stakes in the confrontation with the West. Previously, this position of intimidation was successful, but now the situation has changed due to the protracted war with Ukraine and, in fact, defeat on the Ukrainian front. Russia has always acted with impudence and intimidation, but now this could well lead to a full-scale war with NATO, for which Russia is clearly not ready.
https://abn.org.ua/ru/novosti/putin-nachinaet-gibridnuyu-agressiyu-protiv-nato-chto-na-eto-otvetit-severoatlanticheskij-soyuz/

In all cases, when faced with inconvenient questions, you have a habit of referring to the influence of the United States and its CIA. In the case of Finland and Sweden, the US has nothing to do with it. These states would still be outside NATO, but Russia's direct military aggression in Ukraine changed their attitude towards a neutral status and they also became concerned about their security. And the best guarantee of security for European states against the threat of Russian invasion is NATO membership. For many residents of Finland, the attack of Russia as part of the former USSR on Finland in 1939-1940 is still fresh in their memory. Therefore, like no one else, they immediately soberly assessed the growing military threat from Russia.

So, as a result of a direct and open military attack on Ukraine, Russia has 1,271.8 kilometers of land border with NATO member Finland. But here’s a paradox: instead of strengthening the border with this new NATO member, the number of Russian troops on the Kola Peninsula decreased by five times in February 2023 and continues to decline. Maybe the reason for this is that Finland joined some other NATO alliance, more friendly to Russia, than Ukraine wanted? But no. The reason is that Russia does not have enough troops or military equipment for this. Back in early 2023, the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade, the 61st Separate Marine Brigade, and the 80th Arctic Motorized Rifle Brigade, which are now fighting in Ukraine, were withdrawn from the Kola Peninsula. Therefore, in order to somehow save his face, Putin had to once again lie that the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO does not create an immediate threat to Russia.
https://24tv.ua/ru/chto-izvestno-ob-armii-finljandii-chto-budet-baltijskim-morem_n2289607

Another year or two of war in Ukraine and Putin will have to declare that the United States is the most friendly country for Russia...

Can you tell us in more detail who exactly promised Gorbachev as President of the USSR in 1990 that NATO would not expand eastward and under what circumstances this happened? If this happened, it happened in a private conversation and such a promise does not have any legal consequences. Do, for example, the promises of Putin and other Russian officials that the Russian Federation will not attack Ukraine have any force? If such promises are not enshrined in the relevant agreements, these conversations mean nothing at all.

Finland, which has a direct border with Russia of more than 1,200 kilometers, recently became a new NATO member. I am absolutely sure that all Finnish missiles are now aimed at Russia, and recently there was information that Finland wants to locate NATO bases on its territory. This is not even the illusory desire of Ukraine to join NATO by 2014, this is Finland’s direct participation in this alliance. Finland even closed its borders with Russia.

In this regard, the question is: where is Russia’s special military operation in Finland? Or is the reason for Russia’s attack on Ukraine something else?

Tell us more specifically how the United States wants to destroy Russia, as well as subjugate it economically? This is complete nonsense of the Kremlin propagandists, who constantly create the image of an external enemy in order to mobilize the population of their country to fight this external enemy and, thus, divert their attention from the ever-increasing internal problems. But using this pretext, Russia attacked Georgia in 2008 and, as a result, now controls its region - South Ossetia, where it creates its military bases and builds seaports for military needs. Also, until now, after the collapse of the USSR, Russia refuses to withdraw its troops from Moldova and created the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic under its control, which also creates military tension in this region.

Well, the desire to seize Ukraine by military means for ten years now is generally the limit of arrogance and impunity of today’s Russia. And after this, is it any wonder why the United States and Europe have such a negative attitude towards Russia? Behave in a civilized manner, do not attack your neighbors, and not only your neighbors, and you will have a normal attitude towards Russia. However, it seems that Putin is leading Russia to an inevitable disaster, since he cannot stop in his aggression and there is no longer an acceptable way out of this situation created by Russia itself.

Gone are the days when Russia tried to block Ukrainian commercial shipping with the help of its Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine is methodically and purposefully drowning the maritime greatness and pride of Russia.

Thus, on the night of May 19, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked Russian-occupied Sevastopol with ATACMS missiles, and that as a result of the attack, the Russian small missile ship Cyclone was sunk.
  "Cyclone" is a new Russian rocket ship of Project 22800. It was built at the Zaliv shipyard in occupied Kerch, laid down in 2016, launched in 2020. In July 2023, the occupiers in Kerch “solemnly” accepted him into the Russian Navy.

Small missile boats of Project 22800 "Karakurt" are designed to perform tasks both as part of detachments and groups of warships, and independently. They are armed with the Kalibr complex with high-precision long-range cruise missiles designed to destroy sea and coastal targets, as well as the Pantsir-M anti-aircraft missile and gun system.

As noted by the head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Dmitry Pletenchuk, the Russian occupiers could have lost their last cruise missile carrier in Crimea.
Sources:
https://investigator.org.ua/news-2/novosti-krym/266858/

https://war.telegraf.com.ua/war-in-ukraine/2024-05-20/5852903-posledniy-raketnyy-korabl-v-krymu-vsu-mogli-utopit-ne-tot-korabl-o- kotorom-soobshchali/amp

The remnants of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are now hiding behind civilian ships in the port of Novorossiysk, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces have begun to actively attack this main port of Russia.
https://24tv.ua/ru/ataka-na-novorossijsk-17-maja-pojavilis-sputnikovye-snimki-posledstvij-prileta-24-kanal_n2558497

And what evidence do you need and most importantly, what do you consider appropriate evidence. Do you want me to publish secret documents from the relevant Kremlin offices about plans to seize the Suwalki corridor and its timing? But even then you will call it fake.

Let's remember that until the last day of the large-scale attack on Ukraine in 2024, Putin assured at all official levels that he was not going to attack Ukraine. And in the appearances of “little green men” in Ukrainian Crimea back in 2014, he also did not recognize Russian soldiers for a long time and admitted this after a long time, when such denial was stupid and pointed to Putin’s deceitful nature. The same thing happened with the appearance of Russian soldiers on the border between the so-called DPR and LPR and Ukraine. At all levels, Russia declared that “they are not there,” for which Russians there began to be called “ichtamnets.”

Therefore, Putin’s Russia will not recognize the fact of preparation of such an attack and will deny it in every possible way, even if the facts of such preparation become obvious. Europe and NATO already know this and are working on various scenarios for such an attack, and most importantly, they are actually preparing for it.

Have Russian historians and propagandists already begun to refute this? Although during the existence of the USSR they also boasted of their power and their great history, they did not dare to refute the existence of three centuries of dependence on the Mongol-Tatars and the constant payment of tribute to them as a conquered state. But in today's Russia they often try to refute the most obvious, and if this does not work, they simply say that it did not happen.

Since you do not provide any evidence for your statement, I tried to find what arguments for the lack of dependence on the Mongol-Tatars are given in Russia itself. Here's what they write in "RG" (Russian newspaper):
“It is widely believed that the Mongol rulers imposed tribute on the entire Russian people in the conquered lands: collectors regularly traveled around the lands, and the princes personally came to the conquerors to, among other things, confirm their consent to pay tribute. However, not everyone paid tribute, and it went not always to the highest Mongol leadership. The clergy, which the Great Khan tried with all his might to subordinate to the interests of strengthening his power, was exempt from tribute. Part of the rest of the tribute went past the Mongol treasury: it was collected by “besermen” - Muslim merchants who bought the right to collect “Horde burdens.” "at the great khan."

That is, it is recognized that there was covetousness, tribute was paid, but not everyone and not always directly into the Mongolian treasury. A strong excuse.
Source:
https://rg.ru/2013/11/11/igo-site.html

But at the end of this article it is indicated that even Peter the Great recognized such dependence before his reign, which was indicated in the Treaty of Constantinople of 1700, namely:
"Standing on the Ugra" marked the overthrow of the yoke, but was it the end of dependence? Just as the Golden Horde was a fragment of the vast Mongol empire, several khanates became fragments of the Golden Horde. For example, one of the heirs of this state was the Crimean Khanate, which for another two centuries remained the subject of headaches for Russian princes. Only under Peter I this was put to an end, when the following lines appeared in the Treaty of Constantinople of 1700: “And since the Moscow State is an autocratic and free State, it is a dacha, which to this day has been given to the Crimean Khans and Crimean Tatars, either in the past or now, henceforth there will be no need to give from His sacred Tsar's Majesty of Moscow."

In today's Russia they can even refute the text of the Treaty of Constantinople of 1700?

I have already said that a Russian attack on Ukraine will have fatal consequences for it. After this war, or even in its final stage, it is most likely that Russia will fall apart into independent republics. Many nations and nationalities of the former USSR, which are now part of Russia, will see the weakness of the central government after this war and will want to secede from Russia. After all, they were kept within Russia mainly by fear and repression. Yes, oil and gas will remain in Siberia, but it will not belong to Russia. This is one of the facets of the price of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

It turns out that Putin wanted to conquer Ukraine especially slowly at the initial stage of the invasion, when the Russian invasion group on February 22, 2022 was tasked with reaching the outskirts of Kyiv by nine o’clock in the morning. That is, in four hours Putin wanted to take Kyiv. No, the calculation was precisely for the lightning speed of the strike, the isolation and partial destruction of the political leadership of Ukraine, so that the puppet regime then appointed by the Russians would convince the West that everything is normal in Ukraine. Europe would hardly have had time to react to the military takeover of Ukraine, and it’s unlikely that they would have adopted it much, given the passivity of the reaction to the takeover of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, as well as parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2014. Only the decisive resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian people ruined Putin’s plans for this next blitzkrieg.

And even now it is impossible to say that the Russian invaders are in no hurry, almost constantly attacking Ukraine along the entire front line since October last year. On the contrary, Putin always set specific tasks to seize the entire territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by certain dates, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine always thwarted Putin’s plans. He wanted especially big victories at the front for his New Year’s address to the Russians, and then for his inauguration and the day of victory over fascism. Therefore, you are disingenuous once again.

You have not yet taken into account two essential points in this war.

Firstly, the United States and NATO are not yet directly at war with Russia with their soldiers and their military power. While the onslaught of the “second army of the world” has been held back for three years by the Ukrainians, the Russian occupiers have managed to occupy only 20 percent of the territory of Ukraine over this long period of time. If NATO troops had entered the war, Russia would have lost it long ago. The war back in 2022 could have ended in Russia’s defeat if NATO had provided the Ukrainian Armed Forces with more military assistance. But in the West they fear the collapse of the Russian Federation due to the unpredictability of further events, including the fate of the Russian nuclear arsenal.

Secondly, in the wars against Napoleon and Hitler, the Ukrainians were always the first to bear the brunt. Now, as you understand, the situation is a little different. It was in vain that Russia attacked Ukraine. The myth of Russia's invincibility, which has been created for a very long time. finally defeated by the Ukrainians. Therefore, France, Great Britain and some other countries are already declaring that they are ready to fight with Russia if the situation at the front for Ukraine worsens.

The Nazis brought war and destruction to Ukraine, trying to free Ukrainians from the communists, now the Putinists are destroying Ukraine, allegedly trying to free Ukraine from the mythical Banderaites. Why are you all going into Ukraine with weapons in your hands and trying to establish your own rules here by force? And did you forget to ask the Ukrainians whether they need to be “liberated”, and at the cost of massacres and the almost complete destruction of their housing and the infrastructure they use?

If earlier it was possible to say that there is a lot in common between Ukrainians and Russians, now forget about it. After killing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians over the past two years, the Russians are now the worst enemies of the Ukrainians for at least several generations. Any relations between Ukraine and Russia will now be reduced to a minimum. Therefore, live there in your swamps and forget about Ukraine. Pay reparations to the Ukrainians for what you did in Ukraine, only then will it be possible to talk to you about something.

Russia can come up with any explanations it wants to justify its aggression against Ukraine and such explanations, by the way, are constantly changing. But the fact remains: Ukrainians and Russians lived relatively normally together until Putin’s Russia began first a hybrid and then an open war against the Ukrainians. But even after eight years of hybrid war, Russians in Ukraine were treated quite normally, because they understood that ordinary Russians had succumbed to the massive influence of the Kremlin elite led by Putin. But the situation changed dramatically after the open invasion of the 200,000-strong Russian army in February 2022, when Ukrainians saw the atrocities inflicted on civilians in the occupied territories, which sometimes exceeded the fascists in brutality. Therefore, Russians in Ukraine began to be called racists, and the blame for what they had done gradually shifted entirely to the entire Russian people, who supported 70 percent of the military aggression against Ukraine.

The Russians are now seizing the territory of Ukraine and killing Ukrainians so that they do not fall under the influence of the United States, and do you consider this a good thing for the Ukrainians? No, the occupiers themselves will pour fertilizer into the black soils of Ukraine. And the result of this aggression will be the adoption of English instead of Russian as the second state language in Ukraine. This is so that in the future Russia will no longer have a far-fetched reason for invading Ukraine - the protection of the Russian-speaking population.

And you can already tell fairy tales about a single people to the Kazakhs and Uzbeks, in relation to whom the Kremlin already expresses the opinion that such peoples do not exist and that the Russian-speaking population on their territory needs to be protected. But there, using the example of Ukraine, they long ago understood what Russia is like. These are the descendants of the Mongol-Tatar horde, under whose yoke the territory of present-day Russia was for three centuries. At the same time, the Kremlin also realized that the people rally around the corrupt elite when there is an image of an external enemy from which they need to defend themselves by preemptively attacking it. The period of constant wars is the best period for the Kremlin to keep its own people in obedience.

Does Ukraine have no army left? Then, probably, the Russian occupiers are now fighting with the ghosts of killed Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers. But this army is much more serious and will not leave any chances for the enemy. In addition, on May 18, a new law on mobilization comes into force in Ukraine and there will be replenishment. If the Russians were unable to significantly change the situation at the front over the last six months of their offensive, when arms assistance to Ukraine was suspended during this period and the Ukrainian Armed Forces could respond to ten shells with only one shell, and in the presence of complete Russian air superiority, now , when weapons have already begun to arrive, the occupiers will very quickly begin to feel it.

Already, Russian losses have increased to one and a half thousand soldiers per day, which is already a record in this war. During the six days of attacks in the Kharkov direction, Russian units suffered losses of up to 70 percent, so the pace of attacks dropped sharply. In about a month, the long-awaited F-16 aircraft should appear in the skies of Ukraine, then there will be at least some parity and this war will become much more interesting.

Well, if you think that Ukraine has already lost this war, name the date when the Russians will win.

The fact that foreign corporations pay rent in Ukraine much lower than the market price is all just your assumptions, which are not based on anything. You just want everything to be bad in Ukraine. But the standard of living of Ukrainians is much higher than in Russia, where people live well mainly in Moscow, St. Petersburg and several other large cities. Having the largest reserves of natural gas, only 71-73 percent of its territory is gasified in Russia.

Ukrainians, of course, do not want to fight with the Russians, as well as with other nations of the world. But in this case, the Russians are attacking and trying to seize as much of Ukraine as possible. Therefore, the right and duty of every Ukrainian to defend their territory and their state from an attack by an aggressor. Moreover, such an obligation exists in every democratic state, and not just in Ukraine. To save Ukrainians from having to fight and die at the front against the Russians, Russia only needs to withdraw its occupation forces from the territory of Ukraine. Then the war will stop and no one will die.