Russian Invasion of Ukraine[In Progress]

[Branko]

These countries have strongest military

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/strong-military

[paxmao]

These countries have strongest military

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/strong-military

I am still trying to find the date of this "article" by this "outlet". I just randomly searched any other article.

The US says they have more than 13.000 planes, Ruzzia "says" that they less than 3500. An that's a Ruzzian claim, like they claim to have hypersonic capability, a tank called Armata.... A this point there is absolutely no doubt that Ruzzia is the second most powerful army... in Ukraine.

https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/ranked-the-worlds-20-strongest-militaries/slidelist/51930339.cms

Seriously, all the theoretically advanced weapons are simply missing from the scenario and we have to see shit like this published? Even if you want to judge by the number of active personnel (bad metric), China is ahead 

[BADecker]

When somebody talks about weapons that are missing, consider this about Ukraine's missing weapons, or at least, what will shortly be Ukraine's missing weapons.

Also see: https://www.rt.com/russia/586270-world-war-already-ongoing/.


Europe is dangerously ill-equipped to meet Ukraine’s ammunition demands, warns leading defense company


https://rmx.news/crime/europe-is-dangerously-ill-equipped-to-meet-ukraines-ammunition-demands-warns-leading-defense-company/
The European arms industry is not equipped to meet Ukraine’s needs for artillery ammunition, according to a report by Norwegian ammunition manufacturer Nammo.

The leading defense company claimed that Europe’s military-industrial sector would need over a decade at its current production rate to cater to Kyiv’s needs for artillery shells.

Journalists at the Ukrainian portal Defense Express analyzed the report, which estimated that currently all of Europe is capable of producing about 500,000 artillery rounds annually. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s demand is about 600,000 rounds per month.
...

[paxmao]

Update from the dnipro banks: it seems that there is certainly a mid-sized operation ongoing to cross the dniper in several points. Nothing to be scared of, just adjusting ownership of a few square kilometers of land, very close to Crimea and not covered by the so called "Surovikin line". It must be going well for Ukraine, because the local military chief psycho has been replaced with another psycho. The cannot fire the team, so they fire the coach.

[Branko]

Update from the dnipro banks: it seems that there is certainly a mid-sized operation ongoing to cross the dniper in several points. Nothing to be scared of, just adjusting ownership of a few square kilometers of land, very close to Crimea and not covered by the so called "Surovikin line". It must be going well for Ukraine, because the local military chief psycho has been replaced with another psycho. The cannot fire the team, so they fire the coach.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/10/30/7426406/

"He also said some in Zelenskyy’s team are convinced that the president "deludes himself". "We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that," one of Zelenskyy’s closest aides told Shuster."

"Some front-line commanders, he continued, have begun refusing orders to advance, even when they came directly from the Office of the President. "They just want to sit in the trenches and hold the line," the aide said. "But we can’t win a war that way." "

"political leadership in Kyiv demanded an operation to ‘retake’ the city of Horlivka, a strategic outpost in eastern Ukraine that the Russians have held and fiercely defended for nearly a decade. The answer came back in the form of a question: With what? ‘They don’t have the men or the weapons,’ says the officer. ‘Where are the weapons? Where is the artillery? Where are the new recruits?’," the author states. "


Sounds like a scene from movie "Downfall" when Hitler tried to command units that didn't exist anymore

[DaRude]

Update from the dnipro banks: it seems that there is certainly a mid-sized operation ongoing to cross the dniper in several points. Nothing to be scared of, just adjusting ownership of a few square kilometers of land, very close to Crimea and not covered by the so called "Surovikin line". It must be going well for Ukraine, because the local military chief psycho has been replaced with another psycho. The cannot fire the team, so they fire the coach.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/10/30/7426406/

"He also said some in Zelenskyy’s team are convinced that the president "deludes himself". "We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that," one of Zelenskyy’s closest aides told Shuster."

"Some front-line commanders, he continued, have begun refusing orders to advance, even when they came directly from the Office of the President. "They just want to sit in the trenches and hold the line," the aide said. "But we can’t win a war that way." "

"political leadership in Kyiv demanded an operation to ‘retake’ the city of Horlivka, a strategic outpost in eastern Ukraine that the Russians have held and fiercely defended for nearly a decade. The answer came back in the form of a question: With what? ‘They don’t have the men or the weapons,’ says the officer. ‘Where are the weapons? Where is the artillery? Where are the new recruits?’," the author states. "


Sounds like a scene from movie "Downfall" when Hitler tried to command units that didn't exist anymore

Wow, these quotes are coming from Time magazine, and apparently are even allowed to be pick up by UA sources.

Some more quotes directly from the source:

He relied on his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, to carry his message of resilience on the stage beside him, while his own delivery felt stilted, as though he wanted to get it over with. At one point, while handing out medals after the speech, he urged the organizer to hurry things along.
...
It is only getting harder. Twenty months into the war, about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory remains under Russian occupation. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and Zelensky can feel during his travels that global interest in the war has slackened. So has the level of international support. “The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine,” he says. “Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: ‘I can’t watch this rerun for the 10th time.’”

Public support for aid to Ukraine has been in decline for months in the U.S., and Zelensky’s visit did nothing to revive it. Some 41% of Americans want Congress to provide more weapons to Kyiv, down from 65% in June, when Ukraine began a major counteroffensive, according to a Reuters survey taken shortly after Zelensky’s departure. That offensive has proceeded at an excruciating pace and with enormous losses, making it ever more difficult for Zelensky to convince partners that victory is around the corner. With the outbreak of war in Israel, even keeping the world’s attention on Ukraine has become a major challenge.
...
“Now he walks in, gets the updates, gives the orders, and walks out,” says one longtime member of his team. Another tells me that, most of all, Zelensky feels betrayed by his Western allies. They have left him without the means to win the war, only the means to survive it.
...
On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. “He deludes himself,” one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”

Zelensky’s stubbornness, some of his aides say, has hurt their team’s efforts to come up with a new strategy, a new message. As they have debated the future of the war, one issue has remained taboo: the possibility of negotiating a peace deal with the Russians. Judging by recent surveys, most Ukrainians would reject such a move, especially if it entailed the loss of any occupied territory.
...
Zelensky describes it as a war of wills, and he fears that if the Russians are not stopped in Ukraine, the fighting will spread beyond its borders. “I’ve long lived with this fear,” he says. “A third world war could start in Ukraine, continue in Israel, and move on from there to Asia, and then explode somewhere else.” That was his message in Washington: Help Ukraine stop the war before it spreads, and before it’s too late. He worries his audience has stopped paying attention.

...
This time around, the atmosphere had changed. Assistance to Ukraine had become a sticking point in the debate over the federal budget. One of Zelensky’s foreign policy advisers urged him to call off the trip in September, warning that the atmosphere was too fraught. Congressional leaders declined to let Zelensky deliver a public address on Capitol Hill. His aides tried to arrange an in-person appearance for him on Fox News and an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Neither one came through.

Instead, on the morning of Sept. 21, Zelensky met in private with then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy before making his way to the Old Senate Chamber, where lawmakers grilled him behind closed doors. Most of Zelensky’s usual critics stayed silent in the session; Senator Ted Cruz strolled in more than 20 minutes late. The Democrats, for their part, wanted to understand where the war was headed, and how badly Ukraine needed U.S. support. “They asked me straight up: If we don’t give you the aid, what happens?” Zelensky recalls. “What happens is we will lose.”

Zelensky’s performance left a deep impression on some of the lawmakers present. Angus King, an independent Senator from Maine, recalled the Ukrainian leader telling his audience, “You’re giving money. We’re giving our lives.” But it was not enough. Ten days later, Congress passed a bill to temporarily avert a government shutdown. It included no assistance for Ukraine.
...
Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure have damaged power stations and parts of the electricity grid, leaving it potentially unable to meet spikes in demand when the temperature drops. Three of the senior officials in charge of dealing with this problem told me blackouts would likely be more severe this winter, and the public reaction in Ukraine would not be as forgiving. “Last year people blamed the Russians,” one of them says. “This time they’ll blame us for not doing enough to prepare.”
...
At least one minister would need to be fired, along with a senior general in charge of the counteroffensive, they said, to ensure accountability for Ukraine’s slow progress at the front. “We’re not moving forward,” says one of Zelensky’s close aides. Some front-line commanders, he continues, have begun refusing orders to advance, even when they came directly from the office of the President. “They just want to sit in the trenches and hold the line,” he says. “But we can’t win a war that way.”
...
At one point in early October, he said, the political leadership in Kyiv demanded an operation to “retake” the city of Horlivka, a strategic outpost in eastern Ukraine that the Russians have held and fiercely defended for nearly a decade. The answer came back in the form of a question: With what? “They don’t have the men or the weapons,” says the officer. “Where are the weapons? Where is the artillery? Where are the new recruits?”

In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky’s close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, “we don’t have the men to use them.”

...
Ukraine has refused to release official counts of dead and wounded. But according to U.S. and European estimates, the toll has long surpassed 100,000 on each side of the war. It has eroded the ranks of Ukraine’s armed forces so badly that draft offices have been forced to call up ever older personnel, raising the average age of a soldier in Ukraine to around 43 years. “They’re grown men now, and they aren’t that healthy to begin with,” says the close aide to Zelensky. “This is Ukraine. Not Scandinavia.”
...
Now recruitment is way down. As conscription efforts have intensified around the country, stories are spreading on social media of draft officers pulling men off trains and buses and sending them to the front. Those with means sometimes bribe their way out of service, often by paying for a medical exemption. Such episodes of corruption within the recruitment system became so widespread by the end of the summer that on Aug. 11 Zelensky fired the heads of the draft offices in every region of the country.

The decision was intended to signal his commitment to fighting graft. But the move backfired, according to the senior military officer, as recruitment nearly ground to a halt without leadership. The fired officials also proved difficult to replace, in part because the reputation of the draft offices had been tainted. “Who wants that job?” the officer asks. “It’s like putting a sign on your back that says: corrupt.”
...
One of the aides who traveled with Zelensky to the U.S. told me these proposals targeted the very top of the state hierarchy. “These were not suggestions,” says another presidential adviser. “These were conditions. [from US]”
...
Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” he says. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
...
When we sat down inside his office, Shurma told me the allegations against him were part of a political attack paid for by one of Zelensky’s domestic enemies. “A piece of sh-t was thrown,” he says, brushing the front of his sweater. “And now we have to explain that we are clean.” It did not seem to trouble him that his brother is a major player in the industry that Shurma oversees. On the contrary, he spent nearly half an hour trying to convince me of the gold rush that renewable energy would see after the war.

Perhaps, I suggested, amid all the concerns about corruption in Ukraine, it would have been wiser for Shurma to step aside while under investigation for embezzlement, or at least sit out Zelensky’s trip to Washington. He responded with a shrug. “If we do that, tomorrow everybody on the team would be targeted,” he says. “Politics is back, and that’s the problem.”
...From the earliest days of the Russian invasion, Zelensky’s top priority and perhaps his main contribution to the nation’s defense had been to keep attention on Ukraine and to rally the democratic world to its cause. Both tasks would become a lot harder with the outbreak of war in Israel. The focus of Ukraine’s allies in the U.S. and Europe, and of the global media, quickly shifted to the Gaza Strip.

“It’s logical,” Zelensky tells me. “Of course we lose out from the events in the Middle East. People are dying, and the world’s help is needed there to save lives, to save humanity.” Zelensky wanted to help. After the crisis meeting with aides, he asked the Israeli government for permission to visit their country in a show of solidarity. The answer appeared the following week in Israeli media reports: “The time is not right.”
...
But it was also an acknowledgment that, on its own, Ukraine aid no longer stands much of a chance in Washington. When I asked Zelensky about this, he admitted that Biden’s hands appear to be tied by GOP opposition. The White House, he said, remains committed to helping Ukraine. But arguments about shared values no longer have much sway over American politicians or the people who elect them. “Politics is like that,” he tells me with a tired smile. “They weigh their own interests.”

Just wow, think this is by far the most damning article I've read (exactly when i was expecting the opposite, some typical rosy propaganda). It'd be hard to imagine even gloomier outlook. 59% of Americans are against sending more weapons to Ukraine and increasing fast, Ukraine is out of options but Zelensky is delusional and feels betrayed by "West". US acts dumb and asks Ukraine what will happen if they'll stop providing aid., Ukraine was giving their lives for US money, but that's not enough now. Military commanders are refusing even direct orders by the president, there's not enough weapons, but even if by some miracle UA gets more weapons there's just not enough soldiers to man them, recruitment nearly ground to a halt, US is using corruption in UA to shift the blame and now just directly tells UA who to fire. Feeling the end is near, government officials are stealing like there's no tomorrow (which for them there might not be). On top of all that UA is also now loosing media war with headlines dominated by middle east. Thus now Ukraine aid doesn't stand a chance in Washington  

[DaRude]

This is now unfolding really fast, counter-offensive is now officially over, General Valery Zaluzhny admits the war is at a stalemate, and Russia now has advantage

...Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, says the battlefield reminds him of the great conflict of a century ago. “Just like in the first world war we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he says. The general concludes that it would take a massive technological leap to break the deadlock. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

The course of the counter-offensive has undermined Western hopes that Ukraine could use it to demonstrate that the war is unwinnable–and thus change Vladimir Putin’s calculations, forcing the Russian president to negotiate. It has also undercut General Zaluzhny’s assumption that he could stop Russia by bleeding its troops. “That was my mistake. Russia has lost at least 150,000 dead. In any other country such casualties would have stopped the war.” But not in Russia, where life is cheap and where Mr Putin’s reference points are in the first and second world wars in which Russia lost tens of millions.

An army of Ukraine’s standard ought to have been able to move at a speed of 30km a day as it breached Russian defensive lines. “If you look at NATO’s text books and at the maths which we did [in planning the counter-offensive], four months should have been enough time for us to have reached Crimea, to have fought in Crimea, to return from Crimea and to have gone back in and out again,” General Zaluzhny says sardonically. Instead he watched his troops and equipment get stuck in minefields on the approaches to Bakhmut in the east, his Western-supplied equipment getting pummelled by Russian artillery and drones. The same story unfolded on the offensive’s main thrust, in the south, where newly formed and inexperienced brigades, despite being equipped with modern Western kit, immediately ran into trouble.
...
“The simple fact is that we see everything the enemy is doing and they see everything we are doing. In order for us to break this deadlock we need something new, like the gunpowder which the Chinese invented and which we are still using to kill each other,” he says.
...
Joe Biden, America’s president, set objectives at the start of Russia’s invasion: to ensure that Ukraine was not defeated and that America was not dragged into confrontation with Russia. This means that arms supplied by the West have been sufficient in sustaining Ukraine in the war, but not enough to allow it to win.
...
Similarly, F-16 jets, due next year, are now less helpful, suggests the general, in part because Russia has improved its air defences: an experimental version of the S-400 missile system can reach beyond the city of Dnipro, he warns.
...
General Zaluzhny’s assessment is sobering: there is no sign that a revolutionary technological breakthrough, whether in drones or in electronic warfare, is around the corner. And technology has its limits. Even in the first world war, the arrival of tanks, in 1917, was not sufficient to break the deadlock on the battlefield: it took a suite of technologies, and more than a decade of tactical innovation, to produce the German blitzkrieg in May 1940. The implication is that Ukraine is stuck in a long war—one in which he acknowledges Russia has the advantage. Nevertheless, he insists that Ukraine has no choice but to keep the initiative by remaining on the offensive, even if it only moves by a few metres a day.
...
A collapse in Ukrainian morale and Western support is precisely what Mr Putin is counting on. There is no question in General Zaluzhny’s mind that a long war favours Russia, a country with a population three times and an economy ten times the size of Ukraine’s. “Let’s be honest, it’s a feudal state where the cheapest resource is human life. And for us…the most expensive thing we have is our people,” he says. For now, General Zaluzhny says, he has enough soldiers. But the longer the war goes on, the harder it will be to sustain. “We need to look for this solution, we need to find this gunpowder, quickly master it and use it for a speedy victory. Because sooner or later we are going to find that we simply don’t have enough people to fight.”

  they're actually doing it, so no one realized this before this boondoggle started and took so many lives with it ?? Now even F16 won't help (so guess now they'll send them), Ukraine needs some miracle tech which currently doesn't even exist. Even the top Ukrainian general acknowledges that now Russia has advantage, and that long war favors Russia but he has no choice but keep going [under current president]


So all those people died just because she didn't know that Russia had 3x the population?! Can't believe that that's what they're actually going with!

[paxmao]

Casualties of the Ruzzian army are not in the range of 150k but in the range of 300k. If you wait for tomorrow add between 600 and 900 more.

Ukraine officials are stating the obvious, the message is not "we got it wrong" (that is an interpretation, biased as usual) the message is that they are fighting with a country that has lots of people and a regime that is ok letting them die and a society that is ok accepting such regime so they need the right level of support from their allies.

Ukrainian officials are being straightforward with their allies and supporters and they certainly need to be straightforward: either you provide proper help or Ruzzia will eventually be knocking at your own doors or, for the US, you will be dragged into a cold war that is far more expensive than supporting Ukraine.

US people and some others are failing to realise that the alternative of peace, as of now, is not a real alternative, all that will happen is that Ruzzia would start preparing the next invasion in 5 years time, maybe less. That is not peace is just a pause to get their breath, recruit another 250.000 poor bastards from the poorest regions and send them to the next meatgrinder to capture city XYZ.

When you are a mid-size country fighting a large-size country, the strategy is to be "too expensive" or "not worth it". Ukraine has shown to be quite expensive to invade and I am not sure you can class the current holdings of Ruzzia as "worth it", I mean, half of the arsenal of soviet era stuff is now recyclable rust. Putin & the Psychos do not care for the soldiers, that has been made clear, but they may actually care for the gear they have left.

Now on the US support for aid. While support (this month, in October it was in good health at 65%) has been reduced, the majority of democrats, that will decide if Biden gets another chance, do support Ukraine, so the usual Washington trade-offs will progress as usual and eventually some form of aid will go to Ukraine. The F-16 training is ongoing, the shipments are ongoing... Ukraine should have a winning hand, but at least they do have a fighting chance.

BTW, how many spare artillery and shell does North Korea have? You know that due to the meat tactics, Ruzzia cannot be in the offensive unless they have a ridiculously large supply of shells. It could perfectly happen that the supply is just not enough.

Progress has been slow but analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) say they have confirmed that Ukrainian forces are operating armoured vehicles beyond the Russian anti-tank ditch and dragon's teeth obstacles in the area for the first time - just to the west of nearby Verbove

It has been under Russian control for several months but Ukraine has gained some ground in the surrounding areas and the MoD says Ukraine has now secured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, about 8km (five miles) south of the city.

Ukraine war: Why Kyiv's Dnipro east bank gain could be significant
Published 21 October
[...]
Ukrainian fighters on the frontline say troops have not only crossed into Russian occupied territory but held a position, apparently for the first time, on the fiercely defended east (or left) bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region.

[...]

In a text exchange, the 46th brigade told the BBC that troops were engaged in heavy fighting as they try to take full control of the village of Krynky. If successful, the force said, the settlement would give advanced units a base from which to launch a larger offensive aimed at dividing Russian troops and cutting off their supply lines.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Ukrainian forces were continuing larger than usual ground operations on the east bank and Russian military bloggers have also noted fighting in Krynky.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67182172

[Branko]

""Ukrainian nationalists, often still cherished by the current authorities of this country, committed genocide, we simply need to face this truth. These facts are denied by the Ukrainian society. This is not a good page in the history of Ukraine. Russia will always want Ukraine and Poland quarrel, Ukraine must come to terms with its past." - says the Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Jarosław Sellin. "

https://tvrepublika.pl/Sellin-Ukraina-musi-pozwolic-Polsce-na-odnalezienie-ekshumacje-i-upamietnienie-ofiar-rzezi-dokonanej-przez-UPA-wideo,152298.html

Also:

"THE UKRAINE WAR’S “CRONKITE MOMENT”: Zelensky’s own inner circle tells TIME that the war is unwinnable."

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1719815317000733153

[paxmao]

""Ukrainian nationalists, often still cherished by the current authorities of this country, committed genocide, we simply need to face this truth. These facts are denied by the Ukrainian society. This is not a good page in the history of Ukraine. Russia will always want Ukraine and Poland quarrel, Ukraine must come to terms with its past." - says the Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Jarosław Sellin. "

https://tvrepublika.pl/Sellin-Ukraina-musi-pozwolic-Polsce-na-odnalezienie-ekshumacje-i-upamietnienie-ofiar-rzezi-dokonanej-przez-UPA-wideo,152298.html

Also:

"THE UKRAINE WAR’S “CRONKITE MOMENT”: Zelensky’s own inner circle tells TIME that the war is unwinnable."

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1719815317000733153

False. He has not said at any point that the war is unwinnable, further from that he has declared that he has the highest conviction in victory. Please, do not spread fake.

‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’

- https://time.com/6329188/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-interview/

The reason, he later said, was the exhaustion he felt that night, not only from the demands of leadership during the war but also the persistent need to convince his allies that, with their help, Ukraine can win.

It is actually an unnamed source, just one, conveniently not known, that says that Zelensky has higher conviction than others. Others may be wrong. So Branko, as usual, you are saying exactly the opposite of what has happened.

[Branko]

False. He has not said at any point that the war is unwinnable, further from that he has declared that he has the highest conviction in victory. Please, do not spread fake.

Learn to read, lol

He is not "his inner circle", Time article actually said same as you...that he is delusional and suffers from messianic complex

[montaga]

......................
Please, do not spread fake.
------------

Please, do respect basic Human Rights

Resolution 217 a (III)

Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and freedom of expression; This right includes freedom to attach opinions freely as well as to seek, receive and distribute information and ideas about the media of all kinds and regardless of limits.

[suchmoon]

So all those people died just because she didn't know that Russia had 3x the population?! Can't believe that that's what they're actually going with!

Those dumb Ukrainians, what did they think was gonna happen when they invaded the 3x larger country on February 24 2022...

... or maybe that's not at all what happened and you're full of shit to the brim, we'll never know.

Please, do respect basic Human Rights

Telling delusional trolls they're delusional is part of "basic human rights". You're delusional.

[DaRude]

Casualties of the Ruzzian army are not in the range of 150k but in the range of 300k. If you wait for tomorrow add between 600 and 900 more.

Ukraine officials are stating the obvious, the message is not "we got it wrong" (that is an interpretation, biased as usual) the message is that they are fighting with a country that has lots of people and a regime that is ok letting them die and a society that is ok accepting such regime so they need the right level of support from their allies.

Ukrainian officials are being straightforward with their allies and supporters and they certainly need to be straightforward: either you provide proper help or Ruzzia will eventually be knocking at your own doors or, for the US, you will be dragged into a cold war that is far more expensive than supporting Ukraine.

US people and some others are failing to realise that the alternative of peace, as of now, is not a real alternative, all that will happen is that Ruzzia would start preparing the next invasion in 5 years time, maybe less. That is not peace is just a pause to get their breath, recruit another 250.000 poor bastards from the poorest regions and send them to the next meatgrinder to capture city XYZ.

When you are a mid-size country fighting a large-size country, the strategy is to be "too expensive" or "not worth it". Ukraine has shown to be quite expensive to invade and I am not sure you can class the current holdings of Ruzzia as "worth it", I mean, half of the arsenal of soviet era stuff is now recyclable rust. Putin & the Psychos do not care for the soldiers, that has been made clear, but they may actually care for the gear they have left.

Now on the US support for aid. While support (this month, in October it was in good health at 65%) has been reduced, the majority of democrats, that will decide if Biden gets another chance, do support Ukraine, so the usual Washington trade-offs will progress as usual and eventually some form of aid will go to Ukraine. The F-16 training is ongoing, the shipments are ongoing... Ukraine should have a winning hand, but at least they do have a fighting chance.

BTW, how many spare artillery and shell does North Korea have? You know that due to the meat tactics, Ruzzia cannot be in the offensive unless they have a ridiculously large supply of shells. It could perfectly happen that the supply is just not enough.

Progress has been slow but analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) say they have confirmed that Ukrainian forces are operating armoured vehicles beyond the Russian anti-tank ditch and dragon's teeth obstacles in the area for the first time - just to the west of nearby Verbove

It has been under Russian control for several months but Ukraine has gained some ground in the surrounding areas and the MoD says Ukraine has now secured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, about 8km (five miles) south of the city.

Ukraine war: Why Kyiv's Dnipro east bank gain could be significant
Published 21 October
[...]
Ukrainian fighters on the frontline say troops have not only crossed into Russian occupied territory but held a position, apparently for the first time, on the fiercely defended east (or left) bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region.

[...]

In a text exchange, the 46th brigade told the BBC that troops were engaged in heavy fighting as they try to take full control of the village of Krynky. If successful, the force said, the settlement would give advanced units a base from which to launch a larger offensive aimed at dividing Russian troops and cutting off their supply lines.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Ukrainian forces were continuing larger than usual ground operations on the east bank and Russian military bloggers have also noted fighting in Krynky.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67182172

So we have Zelenskyy who feels betrayed and tired that no one else but him believes that Ukraine can win, with even his inner circle saying that he's messianic and deludes himself. We have Ukraine’s commander-in-chief saying that (despite every single example in history) his whole plan relied that Russia would just stop the war after suffering current level of casualties like any other country  , he further straight out says that we're in a stalemate and long war will favor Russia, unless Ukraine reaches some massive technological leap to break the deadlock and Russian doesn't.

And your response to this is that Zaluzhny is wrong, and that according to your own "sources" Ukrainian commander-in-chief is lowering Russian casualties by 2x  

"war didn't start in February last year. The war started in 2014. And since 2014, NATO Allies have provided support to Ukraine, with training, with equipment..." -NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg logically the question of "worthiness" and expensiveness should then be asked of US/NATO, do you think Nuland's cookies in 2014 were worth all of this, or you also claiming ignorance and how no one could possibly predict that Russia would fight...well...how Russia always fought? Or you just want to disregard that whole inconvenient part and just start with the vacuum from February 2022, I guess that might work on some naive observers who don't follow this conflict at all.

Majority of democrats, will not decide if Biden gets another chance. By definition they have already decided that they'll be democrats and will vote for their candidate. It's everyone else that will decide whether it'll be enough. And let's just say it not looking good for Biden...at all President Joe Biden's support among Arab Americans, who are crucial voters in battleground election states, has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to just 17%, a new poll shows

And despite everyone saying that Ukraine is not provided with enough to win just enough not to loose for some time, you keep on spreading hopium of what could/should happen, totally disconnected from the realities of what is actually happening. Average age of a soldier in Ukraine is around 43 years, since no one under 18 should be serving you get the idea of its military force. Are you trying to encourage more younger Ukrainian to sign up and give up their lives even at this stage?

Once again, outside propaganda,  I believe it's useless to discuss these hourly/daily events that you  keep on pushing. It's day 617 and Ukraine suffers most intense bombardment of Russian shelling in a single day this year, Kyiv says at what point this notion that Russia is just about to run out of missiles/shells becomes laughable?

[TwitchySeal]

""Ukrainian nationalists, often still cherished by the current authorities of this country, committed genocide, we simply need to face this truth. These facts are denied by the Ukrainian society. This is not a good page in the history of Ukraine. Russia will always want Ukraine and Poland quarrel, Ukraine must come to terms with its past." - says the Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Jarosław Sellin. "

https://tvrepublika.pl/Sellin-Ukraina-musi-pozwolic-Polsce-na-odnalezienie-ekshumacje-i-upamietnienie-ofiar-rzezi-dokonanej-przez-UPA-wideo,152298.html

Also:

"THE UKRAINE WAR’S “CRONKITE MOMENT”: Zelensky’s own inner circle tells TIME that the war is unwinnable."

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1719815317000733153

Really?

https://newlinesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/English-Report.pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623528.2022.2099633

https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/182/182-20220307-ORA-01-00-BI.pdf

Even Ukrainian own investigation concludes CIA sponsored nazis shoot their own people
at maidan, and not Yanukovich or Russians

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1717744385079890274?t=VKTlrQ_Z5q5BeZNHHEVoUQ&s=19

really?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5382794.msg63074850#msg63074850

I guess link is removed because it followed official CIA narrative?  

really?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235546.0

[Branko]

Really?

https://newlinesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/English-Report.pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623528.2022.2099633

https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/182/182-20220307-ORA-01-00-BI.pdf

Whats that, sounds like competition to get least credible Internet source or what?

[be.open]

Just wow, think this is by far the most damning article I've read (exactly when i was expecting the opposite, some typical rosy propaganda). It'd be hard to imagine even gloomier outlook. 59% of Americans are against sending more weapons to Ukraine and increasing fast, Ukraine is out of options but Zelensky is delusional and feels betrayed by "West". US acts dumb and asks Ukraine what will happen if they'll stop providing aid., Ukraine was giving their lives for US money, but that's not enough now. Military commanders are refusing even direct orders by the president, there's not enough weapons, but even if by some miracle UA gets more weapons there's just not enough soldiers to man them, recruitment nearly ground to a halt, US is using corruption in UA to shift the blame and now just directly tells UA who to fire. Feeling the end is near, government officials are stealing like there's no tomorrow (which for them there might not be). On top of all that UA is also now loosing media war with headlines dominated by middle east. Thus now Ukraine aid doesn't stand a chance in Washington  

You're right. If this article contains at least half the truth (and it was essentially written by Zelensky’s court journalist, who is inclined to smooth out corners and embellish reality) - Ukraine is absolutely fucked, and Russia’s capture of Kiev is only a matter of time.

Update from the dnipro banks: it seems that there is certainly a mid-sized operation ongoing to cross the dniper in several points. Nothing to be scared of, just adjusting ownership of a few square kilometers of land, very close to Crimea and not covered by the so called "Surovikin line". It must be going well for Ukraine, because the local military chief psycho has been replaced with another psycho. The cannot fire the team, so they fire the coach.

You have been consistently pushing this fantastic story of Ukraine crossing the Dnieper for several months now, apparently trying to achieve some kind of reaction. Well, you achieved it, here it is - Ukraine’s crossing of the Dnieper is a pathetic media attempt to sweeten the bitter pill of disappointment from a failed counter-offensive and nothing more. There is no meaningful reason or technical feasibility to undertake any large-scale efforts to cross the Dnieper. Stop fantasizing about this topic, this is just the usual petty fuss of sabotage and reconnaissance groups.

I hope that on your part this is just a ridiculous attempt to distract the audience’s attention from really important and key areas. Because if you are sincere and this is truly your best hope for success, then your despair is even deeper than the current situation in Ukraine really deserves.

[paxmao]

Just wow, think this is by far the most damning article I've read (exactly when i was expecting the opposite, some typical rosy propaganda). It'd be hard to imagine even gloomier outlook. 59% of Americans are against sending more weapons to Ukraine and increasing fast, Ukraine is out of options but Zelensky is delusional and feels betrayed by "West". US acts dumb and asks Ukraine what will happen if they'll stop providing aid., Ukraine was giving their lives for US money, but that's not enough now. Military commanders are refusing even direct orders by the president, there's not enough weapons, but even if by some miracle UA gets more weapons there's just not enough soldiers to man them, recruitment nearly ground to a halt, US is using corruption in UA to shift the blame and now just directly tells UA who to fire. Feeling the end is near, government officials are stealing like there's no tomorrow (which for them there might not be). On top of all that UA is also now loosing media war with headlines dominated by middle east. Thus now Ukraine aid doesn't stand a chance in Washington  

You're right. If this article contains at least half the truth (and it was essentially written by Zelensky’s court journalist, who is inclined to smooth out corners and embellish reality) - Ukraine is absolutely fucked, and Russia’s capture of Kiev is only a matter of time.

Update from the dnipro banks: it seems that there is certainly a mid-sized operation ongoing to cross the dniper in several points. Nothing to be scared of, just adjusting ownership of a few square kilometers of land, very close to Crimea and not covered by the so called "Surovikin line". It must be going well for Ukraine, because the local military chief psycho has been replaced with another psycho. The cannot fire the team, so they fire the coach.

You have been consistently pushing this fantastic story of Ukraine crossing the Dnieper for several months now, apparently trying to achieve some kind of reaction. Well, you achieved it, here it is - Ukraine’s crossing of the Dnieper is a pathetic media attempt to sweeten the bitter pill of disappointment from a failed counter-offensive and nothing more. There is no meaningful reason or technical feasibility to undertake any large-scale efforts to cross the Dnieper. Stop fantasizing about this topic, this is just the usual petty fuss of sabotage and reconnaissance groups.

I hope that on your part this is just a ridiculous attempt to distract the audience’s attention from really important and key areas. Because if you are sincere and this is truly your best hope for success, then your despair is even deeper than the current situation in Ukraine really deserves.

Oh, sure, if your narrative about the article is right the Ruzzians will be in Kiev in three days. Again. And then they will do a few gestures of goodwill, and then reduce the "scope",... sure we know the drill.

I am not trying to get any reaction on the dnipro crossing, I am just stating that there is Ukranian activity in the East bank and there is video footage of fight, shelling and the usual things that happen when people cannot reach a peaceful agreement on what belongs to who. If you think it is not important, then it is not important. Nothing to worry about.

[BADecker]

Looks like Zelensky is going down the tubes himself. The Biden group tried to combine financial relief for Ukraine in a package that included financial relief for Israel. Why? To get some more money for Ukraine that the rest of America seems to NOT want to happen.


Volodymyr Zelensky Is in a Sea of Troubles


https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/volodymyr-zelensky-is-in-a-sea-of-troubles/
The first is that his country is actually receiving much less media attention. For the past month, international attention has been drawn away from his war to another.

The second is that he is confronting growing resistance in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Joe Biden's plan to tie aid to Ukraine and aid to Israel together is both a tactical maneuver to ensure continued congressional support for Ukraine and an admission that that support can no longer be taken for granted.

But the fact is that Zelensky is facing a sea of troubles, not only from foreign shores, but from domestic ones as well. That sea change comes from his inner circle, from the citizens of Ukraine, and from the battlefield.

A small number of current and former members of Zelensky's inner circle have gone public with concerning criticisms of the president.

Time magazine reports that in the face of "setbacks on the battlefield"—an understatement for the disastrous counteroffensive—Zelensky's "belief in Ukraine's ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers," saying, concerningly, that it "verg[es] on the messianic." One of Zelensky's "closest aides" said that Zelensky "deludes himself." The aide complained, "We're out of options. We're not winning. But try telling him that."
...

[DaRude]

Ohh the irony, once again the whole world overwhelmingly votes against US Cuba embargo. As usual US and Israel voted against that, but only now we also have a new absentee. Care to guess who abstained to vote if an independent nation of Cuba should have the right to self determination and be able to trade with the rest of the world without blockades? The double standards are off the charts

Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba