Ah, I mean that is the sort of image it conjures to be fair. Anyway, they know now.
Russia is handling this war like a professional boxer. Pacing themselves, rarely over-extending (the initial failed Kiev gamble being the biggest one, Kherson the second). I mean the vast majority of the fighting has even been in the territories they're seeking to liberate - the Zelensky forces are mostly coming to them. It's hard to say without seeing casualty figures, but it feels like Russia is letting Zelenksy and the NATOvites exhaust themselves quickly, whilst Russia is still ready for round 5 to start.
That is because Russia is pretty constrained on finances and resources, they can’t just print hundreds of billions of dollars and force all their allies to deplete their own weaponry. That is a card America can only pull once and they choose to use it here. You’re right, they’re pacing themselves for a long war and NATO has never had a strategy beyond the total war/shock and awe. I was going to say it works in camel country but it doesn’t, as we see with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. America losing Saudi Arabia as an ally means they’re going to be even less effective with this strategy.
Legitimately the only reason Putin is in power and Russia despises the West is because the West and these boomer cunts decided to treat Russia like they're treating Ukraine now, a nation to exploit for resources and punish for being an enemy. This is the biggest mess the boomers have created and we're all going to suffer for their fantasies.
The Reddit thread is hungrily swallowing Ukrops bait regarding a crossing of the Dnieper from Kherson and the imminent taking of Crimea.
Five (former) guys in a boat. Something something peremoga, something zrada.
In other news withered EU shill Borrell says European navies should patrol the Taiwan Straits (archive), which will surely elicit the desired results from China, and not angry recitations of Europe's past interventions, such as Britain's Opium Wars or other events from the Century of Humiliation.
All the heavy lifting will be done by the US, this is more like the "Coalition of the Willing" thing neocons conjured up for the invasion of Iraq. A few token ships so the yuros can get participation trophies and go home.
On one side will be around 35,000 Ukrainian soldiers, bolstered by western battle tanks. They will face more than 140,000 enemy troops along a 950km frontline. Separating the two forces will be a deadly obstacle course of mines, earthworks and tank-stopping bollards set by the Russians.
Out numbered 3:1 against a dug in enemy with vast artillery superiority and no air support, what could possibly go wrong?
How will they overcome the multi layered Russian defences? They'll do the thing to the thing. How will they stop Russian bombers and missiles? Hope for the best.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy may be forced to accept an unpalatable compromise, however well his troops do on the battlefield, writes foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall
Simon is a shitlib globalist shill who routinely calls for NATO boots on the ground, invasion and break up of the Russian Federation and the assassination of Putin. In other words he's the most slavering at the mouth warmonger writing at the Guardian. But some may note a slight change in tone
Amid huge destruction, big Russian losses, critical Ukrainian manpower, weapons and equipment shortages, and waning appetites for an endless war of attrition, Kyiv’s western backers begin to push for a negotiated ceasefire or “durable truce”, pending a longer-term settlement. China gets in on the act, too.
While maintaining its claim to four regions illegally annexed last year, Russia eventually agrees a conditional ceasefire. Vladimir Putin hails the “strategic neutralisation” of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is obliged to temporarily postpone his drive to restore his country’s pre-2014 borders.
It's the most downbeat and pessimistic he's been. He knows the Ukraine is done and he knows the coming offensive is doomed to fail.
“As much as we’d all like to see the swift liberation of Ukrainian territory, a spring offensive [is] unlikely to make far-reaching gains,” Harvard’s Stephen Walt, another well-informed observer, concluded last week.
“I suspect most top officials in the Biden administration understand this cruel reality, whatever they may say in public,” Walt wrote. “Instead, they are hoping Ukraine’s armed forces do well enough to convince [Putin] to move toward a ceasefire and eventually negotiate a full peace agreement.”
Gloomy leaked Pentagon assessments of Ukraine’s prospects, and America’s election timetable, reinforce expectations of a US-backed shift towards talks this autumn. America’s top general, Mark Milley, says he does not expect Ukraine to succeed in expelling all Russian forces this year.
So if everyone knows the Ukraine offensive cannot succeed and will lead to disaster why the fuck is it happening? Don't know, apart from 'getting Putin to negotiate'.
All the heavy lifting will be done by the US, this is more like the "Coalition of the Willing" thing neocons conjured up for the invasion of Iraq. A few token ships so the yuros can get participation trophies and go home.
It’s not about letting the EU vassals show they can help, but about showing China that when USA says jump, EU can only ask how high. Making your vassal demonstrate his obedience through symbolic acts is a very old playbook, and in this case the intimidation is directed to both the Chinese and the European bootlickers.
That's great doublespeak. Russia has huge losses. Ukraine only has "critical shortages" of fucking men and equipment.... I wonder what is causing that shortage....
Will the journos be taken out back and shot if they even mention Ukraine taking losses?
Bakhmut goes through more rainstorms, giving a hellish WW1-vibe to Russian and Ukrainian soldiers that are sheltered within trenches around the O0506 Road. (April 23)
A brief account of Wagner PMC operators with Russian state-news outlet RT. (April 21)
Archive: https://archive.ph/wFP8t Wagner PMC operators operate a Metis-M ATGM (or a Metis-M1) to destroy Ukrainian infantry that are holding inside a house in West Bakhmut. (April 21)
Archive: https://archive.ph/87PKv Military correspondent Oleksandr Yaremchuk shows positions captured by Wagner PMC operators, including a local park (probably around Rose Alley) and the Bakhmut-2 railway station. (April 22)
Archive: https://archive.ph/rqp33 UAV footage of the O0506 road at Khromove, with craters and destroyed vehicles in the area. (April 22)
Archive: https://archive.ph/jO3UQ A conversation with a Wagner PMC operator by Yaremchuk is interrupted by a grenade attack. (April 23)
A tank belonging to VDV paratroopers fire at Ukrainian positions in the forest. (April 21)
Archive: https://archive.ph/PWt88 Ivanovo paratroopers (VDV?) capture some Ukrainian positions (no location was given, but I assumed to be Kreminna due to the forests). (April 21)
Snipers and infantry of the 24th special forces brigade of the RF Armed Forces ambush the reconnaissance group of the 100th Ukrainian territorial defense brigade, killing most except one, of whom he was interrogated. (April 22)
For every dead Ukrainian male you can import at least half a dozen niggers once the war is over, honestly at this point getting nuked is probably preferable to what awaits those who live in the NATO-controlled areas of Ukraine.
