Russia and Ukraine

[Fake Messiah]

Yeah, I watched on CNN that Russian officials admitted that they don't have the means to defeat Ukraine with its new weapons. Russian state media said that their airborne forces lost 40 to 50% staff that they can not replace, nor they can replace 100k Russians who died on the battlefield.

https://youtu.be/8RGsTY_aXwI

[Thumpalumpacus]

Also:

The introduction of Russian conventional forces to the Bakhmut frontline has offset the culmination of the Wagner Group’s offensive and retained the initiative for Russian operations around the city. The ISW December 27 forecast that the Russian offensive against Bakhmut was culminating was inaccurate.[1] The Wagner Group offensive culminated, as ISW assessed on January 28, but the Russian command has committed sufficient conventional Russian forces to the effort to reinvigorate it, thus forestalling the overall culmination of the offensive on Bakhmut, which continues.[2] The commander of a Ukrainian unit operating in Bakhmut, Denys Yarolavskyi, confirmed that "super qualified" Russian conventional military troops are now reinforcing Wagner Group private military company (PMC) assault units in an ongoing effort to encircle Bakhmut.[3] Another Ukrainian Bakhmut frontline commander, Volodymyr Nazarenko, also confirmed ISW’s observations that the Russian military command committed Russian airborne troops to the Bakhmut offensive.[4] Russian forces are continuing to conduct offensive operations northeast and southwest of Bakhmut and have secured limited territorial gains since capturing Soledar on January 12.[5]

ISW does not forecast the imminent fall of Bakhmut to Russian forces, although the Ukrainian command may choose to withdraw rather than risk unacceptable losses. It is extraordinarily unlikely that Russian forces will be able to conduct a surprise encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut. Yaroslavskyi noted that the Ukrainian military command would conduct a controlled withdrawal of forces from Bakhmut to save Ukrainian soldiers’ lives, likely if the Ukrainian command assesses that the risk of an encirclement of the city is imminent.[6] Ukrainian Eastern Grouping of Forces Spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty stated on January 31 that Ukrainian forces are still able to effectively supply units in Bakhmut and noted that the Ukrainian military command has developed several contingency plans to respond to Russian operations around Bakhmut.[7] Cherevaty added that Russian forces are continuing to suffer heavy casualties and noted that Ukraine’s previous defense and subsequent withdrawal from Severodonetsk and Lysychansk over the summer of 2022 exhausted Russian forces and disrupted their plans for an immediate attack on Bakhmut.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgro...ct-updates

[The Architect Of Fate]

Good history lesson here for the warmongers to ignore.

https://medium.com/@benjamin.abelow/west...402a67f44e

An article from a guy who has written for you guessed it Russia Today and has consistently shown a Pro-Kremlin stance.

Bel seems desperate to dig up any source to back up his delusions that the only country that bares any responsibility for the war is the one that marched its troops across another nation's borders.

Australian mercenary describing how the Ukrainian army is outmatched, for the warmongers to ignore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4spaBZR0LY

So guys Youtube video is evidence of nothing. I could find a Merc any opinion under the sun about the war. So nice try Bel

[The Architect Of Fate]

Russia has enormous industrial capacity. They produce more tanks than any other country. They are NOT just using up old Soviet stocks. That's why they are not begging other countries for weapons, unlike some people we could mention.

Russia does not have the ability to produce more tanks than all other countries combined that's just nonsense. Also, you are straight-up lying about Russia not begging for the equipment they have been. Hell, they were buying ammunition from freaking North Korea and Drones from Iran and a crap ton of junk from China.

Since Putin announced very limited goals when things got going last year, there is every reason to think that Russia would negotiate for these goals. Ukraine out of NATO, safety for the Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. If the regions that were added to Ukraine by Lenin in 1922 were declared autonomous, with international peacekeepers and a long-term plan for self-determination, that would achieve the stated goals. 

Yeah because we can totally Putin's word because he's been so honest up to this point and Bel suffers from the delusion that Putin will let any of the illegitimate made-up countries that he created at gunpoint remain independent when they will simply be Russian puppet states if he doesn't eventually just absorb them into his empire.

But there seems to be a slight change in the script that we're supposed to believe. Today the Washington Post has a column suggesting that a negotiated settlement with Russia would be a good idea. And Tucker Carlson (who is often horrible, but who is one of the most-watched people on TV) has acknowledged that the US was almost certainly involved in blowing up the Nordstream pipeline. 

The US has always been asking Ukraine to negotiate and Ukraine has been negotiating since the start of the war. That's not evidence of anything. Tucker Carlson has been shilling for Russia since the start of the war so using him as a source is just nonsense.

And the Associated Press has actually admitted that things are not going well for the Ukrainian army, which is losing its "best troops" in Bakhmut. This is a change from the constant positive narrative. Of course it helps to justify the desires of the escalationists, but it also lets people know that Russia is not the only one taking losses.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrain...bbd62efe91

No one argued Ukraine has not taken losses and no this article proves nothing about the state of the war. God,  you are such a shameless shill. 

As of now of course the warmonger/escalationists are dominant, but these are encouraging signs. If the corporate media has begun to hint that something other than WWIII is possible, it may prepare people for some kind of sane outcome. 

Literally, nothing you have cited here is a change 

Keep an eye on the people who obediently parrot the military/industrial complex party line. When they start to change their tune (and conveniently forget what they said before, as they frequently do) then sanity may return.

You really are a deranged person, aren't you?

[The Grand Nudger]

Not deranged, just not serious. If the problem is warmongers - then we can't ignore a giant russian elephant and their elective invasion of Ukraine.

[Deesse23]

Russia has enormous industrial capacity. They produce more tanks than any other country.

Again, someone shows his utter incompetence.

The GDP of Germany is more than TWICE that of Russia. The only reason Germany is producing less tanks than Russia is because Germany HAS DECIDED NOT TO DO SO.
There are TEN countries in the world with a higher GDP than Russia, being able to produce more of whatever-they-want (Korea is is one of them by the way. So fear the enormous industrial capability of Korea. Seriously, you should Look at how many tanks they actually produce and export, you would be surprised).

Russia is producing more tanks than Germany because Russia has decided to allocate a higher PERCENTAGE of its GDP to military spending. Its basic math, every middle school kid could figure than out. Bel of course didnt, since he didnt want to:

GDP Russia: 1.7T
GDP Germany: 4,3T
Military spending Russia: 65Bn
Military spending Germany: 56Bn

Russia decided*, with less than half the GDP to allocate more than twice its PERCENTAGE to military spending, resulting in a 20% superior total sum. Its really no rocket science.

Sure maybe Russia has more tank factories at the moment, being able to churn out more tanks. But guess what: How long do you think it would take a country like Germany to ramp up its production (lines)?** Hint: USA 1941+

Out of the ten countries with a higher GDP than Russia, 6 are NATO members, and excluding the US, they have almost NINE times Russias GDP. Including the USA its TWENTY TWO times that.

Ukraines existence is in no way depening on Russias 2023 tank production or ABILITY to conquer, but on the political WILL of a bunch of Russias opponents / Ukraines supporters to do whats required to stop Russia from doing so.
THATS why you see this creeping escalation in involvment.

*all things like efficiency being equal, and i suspect Russia is not as efficient as Germany, because.....corruption, ya know
** Been there, done that. Speer got 20y of jailtime for it, and no t-shirt.

[The Grand Nudger]

However many tanks russia can produce, they're down 1663 of them at a minimum, in a years time.

Folks may wonder how many tanks they can make, or how many they had in storage, or how many in storage could be made operational by cannibalizing the others...but none of that matters when you're losing them at that rate. It's obviously a bad idea to use them against the ukranian forces..even if you could make that many, even if you had a bunch, and even if they were all operational.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Finally, someone is telling the truth about Trump and Russia. Namely, that everything we heard about their connection was false.

People have been propagandized to hate Russia for generations. Here is a case where this hatred was used in the US for partisan purposes.

The main thing to take away from this is that the corporate media is more than willing to lie. (As if we didn't know that already.)

https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trump...part-1.php

This crap doesn't belong in a thread about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Isn't there an ongoing Trump thread here where these turds could be dropped?

[arewethereyet]

Finally, someone is telling the truth about Trump and Russia. Namely, that everything we heard about their connection was false.

People have been propagandized to hate Russia for generations. Here is a case where this hatred was used in the US for partisan purposes.

The main thing to take away from this is that the corporate media is more than willing to lie. (As if we didn't know that already.)

https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trump...part-1.php

This crap doesn't belong in a thread about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Isn't there an ongoing Trump thread here where these turds could be dropped?

Excellent suggestion Thump.

Bel, get back on track.  The thread...not the track you have rolling around constantly in your head.

The damned Trump thread may be appropriate.

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[Belacqua]

The Russians have just taken a tiny village called Sacco and Vanzetti.

I only mention it because I like the name.