Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Putin is blowing a golden opportunity to escape his Ukraine disaster

By David Ignatius | May 30, 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/05/30/putin-trump-ukraine
-peace-deal-opportunity/

Russians have an expression that translates in colloquial English as “we blew it.” That’s an accurate summary of President Vladimir Putin’s failure so far to seize the diplomatic opportunity presented by the election of President Donald Trump.

Kremlin officials gloated when Trump took office in January. After Trump called Putin on Feb. 12, spokesman Dmitry Peskov purred that “the U.S. is taking a much more balanced position” on the Ukraine war. In early March, as Trump began squeezing Ukraine for concessions, Peskov said: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. … This largely coincides with our vision.”

Administration officials offered a deal that seemed to meet Putin’s minimum goals: If Russia agreed to a ceasefire, it could keep the territory it occupied in Crimea and four other regions. Moreover, Ukraine wouldn’t be allowed to join NATO after the war, and sanctions against Russia would be eased. Rather than a pariah, Putin would become an economic partner for the United States.

But an arrogant Putin rejected Trump’s deal. He refuses to accept a ceasefire until after negotiations about the war’s “root causes,” where Russian sources say he plans to demand limits on Ukraine’s military and political independence. Putin’s version of a peace deal would give him control over Ukraine that he hasn’t been able to win on the battlefield.

“Putin got greedy. He thought he could get more than what was on the table,” explained Eric Ciaramella, a former top Russia analyst for the CIA who’s now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Now, Putin might get nothing. Russia plans to submit its terms for settlement next month, but this diktat is likely to be rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

If Trump walks away from a failed negotiation, as he has threatened to do, Putin will have a free hand. But what will that mean? The war will continue, probably more brutally than before. Ukraine’s cities will be pounded by missiles and drones, but Russia’s might be, too. And Putin will be further than ever from his goal of creating a friendly, pro-Russian Ukraine on his border.

“Putin has created his own nightmare,” Ciaramella argued. “Ukraine was weak militarily before the war, but now it’s getting stronger and stronger, and closer to Europe. Russia has produced exactly what it wanted to prevent.”

To appreciate the magnitude of Putin’s failure, it helps to go back to his statement when he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, coyly labeling it a “special military operation.” He protested that “in the territories adjacent to us … an ‘anti-Russia’ hostile to us is being created … and is supplied with the most modern weapons.”

Putin vowed that Russia would regain control of a country that was “historically ours.” And he warned the West: “Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so to create threats for our country, for our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history.”

Three years later, Putin has not even managed to gain control of the region of Donetsk, let alone the country. In the first year of the war, his army suffered more casualties than in all its wars since 1945 combined. And though Russia now has the upper hand, Ukraine has shown that, with European backing, it can keep fighting for at least several more years.

Some Russian analysts saw signs last fall that Putin had realized his goal of reversing Ukraine’s “anti-Russia” status was impossible. Konstantin Remchukov, a well-connected Russian journalist, argued in October that “Russia recognizes that a significant number of Ukrainians choose the current government in the country, consider themselves Ukrainians, and do not want to see any future together with Russia.”

But that optimistic analysis turned out to be wrong. Putin was set in his hard-line position, and he believed Trump’s election would allow him to neuter Ukraine, at last. That was Putin’s mistake. He overreached.

Russia’s predicament “is an irony of Putin’s own making,” Ciaramella explained in a December 2023 paper. “Despite claiming to have invaded Ukraine to increase Russia’s security, Putin’s blunder saddled his country with a far more dangerous challenge. So long as Russian forces occupy Ukrainian territory, Ukraine will constitute, in the words of Carnegie scholar Eugene Rumer, ‘the most threatening, hostile, irreconcilable enemy on Russia’s western frontier.’”

Tatiana Stanovaya, a Carnegie scholar with close ties to Putin’s inner circle, was skeptical that Trump would provide a safe hatch in November, after his election. She explained: “The problem is that no Western leader — including Trump — has a plan for ending the war that would be remotely acceptable to Putin.”

Stanovaya, probably the best Putin-watcher outside Russia, explained his current goal in a May 19 post on X: “What he truly wants is for Ukrainians to accept that they cannot win, that there is no point in continuing to fight against Russia, and that Moscow is prepared to persevere regardless of the cost because it views the conflict as existential.”

Putin’s mistake, now as in 2022, is that he underestimates Ukraine’s will to fight. When I visited Kyiv this month, I found a population hardened to war, even as ballistic missiles ravaged Ukraine’s cities. Putin had tried to destroy Ukraine’s energy grid. He failed. The idea that he can bomb his way to victory by breaking Ukraine’s morale is probably mistaken. Wars don’t work that way.

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a death spiral. Tragically, this war could go on for years, leaving both sides in bloody ruin — and raising the risk of a wider European war. The only way Trump can stop the carnage is to significantly raise the cost for Putin and alter the Russian president’s decision calculus. Otherwise, the missiles will keep flying.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 5:48 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

‘$16,700 to Go Die’: How Russia Keeps Finding Troops for Ukraine War

By Caleb Larson | May 31, 2025

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/16700-to-go-die-how-russia-keeps-f
inding-troops-for-ukraine-war/

Key Points – Despite staggering losses in Ukraine (approaching one million casualties and nearly 4,000 tanks according to some estimates), Russia is reportedly girding for a major summer offensive, likely centered on Donetsk.

-Moscow sustains its manpower through substantial financial incentives for recruits, including large signup bonuses (appx. $16,700) and high salaries, particularly attracting men from remote regions. (Their signup bonus equals several years’ income because well-paid Russians don’t sign. Mostly, it is the poor who agree to go to war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_federal_subjects_by_aver
age_wage )

-While these measures currently allow Russia to replenish its forces at a rate of 1,000-1,500 new soldiers daily, analysts like Michael Kofman question the long-term fiscal sustainability of these astronomical payouts, even as peace talks remain stalled and Russian offensive tactics grow more sophisticated.

Despite Massive Losses, Russia Preps New Ukraine Offensive With Money & Mass

According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russian losses since February of 2022 are rapidly approaching one million in terms of both men killed and wounded. Oryx, an open-source tracking website that tables losses of both Ukrainian and Russian equipping during that war, tabulates Russian tank losses at nearly 4,000. Armored + infantry fighting vehicle losses are almost 8,000.

Show Me the Money

How can Russia convince men to enlist, given the massive losses in Russia notwithstanding?

Who would be willing to sign up to fight in Ukraine? Perhaps the most substantial incentive for new recruits today is financial gain—particularly in Russia’s more remote regions.

In places like Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, in Siberia, signup bonuses and other financial incentives, such as mortgage payment freezes, preferential university selection for children, low-interest loans, debt forgiveness, and salaries significantly higher than average regional wages, attract men to recruitment offices. One man from Irkutsk reported that the signup bonus he saw was 1.4 million rubles, equivalent to approximately $16,700. “It’s supposedly what they’re paying you to go die. Or kill. It depends how it turns out, I guess,” he said.

Although Russian wages were slowly increasing before 2022, the data show a sharp and marked uptick in wages after that year, a result of the injection of high war wages that soldiers received from a mix of local and federal funding.

“According to Kluge’s analysis, approximately three-quarters of the sign-on bonuses to military recruits — around 1.5 billion rubles ($18.3 million) per day — are shouldered by regional governments, many of which are now allocating nearly 3% of their annual budgets to the recruitment campaign. The remaining 500 million rubles ($6.1 million) come from the federal budget,” The Moscow Times reports.

“Despite a slowdown in increases of sign-on bonuses across the country,” the Times said, “recruitment levels remain consistent with late 2024, with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 new soldiers joining the Russian military each day.”

The Coming Russian Offensive in Ukraine

In the meantime, Ukrainian forces are bracing for an anticipated Russian offensive this summer, potentially centered around Donetsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Though Russian forces control parts of Ukraine’s Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and nearly all of the Lugansk oblasts, as well as the entirety of the Crimean Peninsula, the fight in the east has been incredibly slow and costly in Russian lives and treasure.

With negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow stalled, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would hope to deepen the slow gains the Kremlin’s forces have made along the extensive eastern front and punch through Ukraine’s defensive lines. While Russian troops continue to mount incredibly costly direct assaults against the Ukrainian lines, those attacks have become more sophisticated as the war in Ukraine drags on.

Mobile groups of soldiers on motorcycles, quads, personnel carriers, and other ersatz forms of transportation are reinforced by or follow artillery bombardments and barrages of glide bombs as well as waves of FPV drones. Though very costly, these assaults slowly push Ukrainian forces back, nibbling at the frontline in a piecemeal but steady fashion.

“While Putin is under no pressure on the home front, he will be keen to achieve some kind of meaningful breakthrough in the coming months in order to demonstrate to domestic and international audiences that the Russian army is capable to achieving victory in Ukraine,” the Atlantic Council, a think tank, explained.

Putin recently said that Moscow has “sufficient strength and resources to take the war in Ukraine to its logical conclusion.” This is despite the fact that Russia failed to capture Kyiv, Kherson, Odesa, and many other major Ukrainian cities.

Although the sanctions imposed on Russia following the 2022 full-scale invasion are extensive, the Russian defense industry remains capable of producing munitions, building vehicles, and recruiting new troops through ongoing recruitment drives.

However, despite the incredible losses Russia has sustained, those losses are remarkable and have been absorbed. Posting to Bluesky, Michael Kofman, a Russian defense analyst, said the following:

“Yes, Russian losses are significant, but the current RF contract rate is still providing replacements and enabling rotations. Russian payouts and bonuses have grown astronomically, raising questions about how long they can sustain this pace into 2025. Eventually, no amount of RUB will be enough.”

Ukraine War: What Happens Now?

There is a tipping point where the amount of money offered to new volunteers would be insufficient to keep recruits coming in — but that point has not yet been reached. Recent estimates indicate that the number of new recruits entering the Russian ranks ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 per day. The old, infirm, and feeble-minded are seemingly all eligible to sign up. A cease-fire remains elusive, as do the prospects for a lasting peace.

If Russia’s summer offensive comes to fruition, Ukraine will have to absorb what could prove to be several devastating blows.

About the Author: Caleb Larson

Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 5:51 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia fills frontline ranks with foreign mercenaries amid manpower crisis - video

By Danylo Kramarenko, Bohdan Babaiev | Sat, May 31, 2025 - 18:00

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/russia-fills-frontline-ranks-with-fore
ign-1748703406.html

Problems with personnel in the Russian army are forcing Moscow to recruit mercenaries from around the world. This raises questions about the already absurd claim of the "war to defend the Russian world," reports the Russian Telegram channel Rospartizan.

The channel posted a video showing recent reinforcements to Russia's 102nd Motor Rifle Regiment.

"China, Kenya, Colombia, Bangladesh, Iran. Also Caucasians and a few 'Orthodox,'" the caption said.

In the video, a person with a camera asks where the new recruits came from. Among them are people from the Russian republics such as Ingushetia and Dagestan. There are also recruits from Kenya, Iran, China, Colombia, Ghana, Egypt, and Bangladesh, who have "strengthened the ranks" of Putin's guard.

Warning: The video contains profanity.

Judging by the video, mercenaries are being recruited from all over the world. These fighters appear to be of questionable quality. This likely indicates a severe personnel shortage and recruitment problems for the enemy.

Notably, this regiment is deployed to the hotspots of the Russia-Ukraine war. The number of volunteers willing to fight from within Russia is declining.

Details about Russia's 102nd Motor Rifle Regiment

The 102nd Motorized Rifle Regiment (102nd MRR, military unit 91706) is a tactical formation of Russia's Ground Forces. It is part of the 150th Guards Motorized Rifle Division and is based in the settlement of Persiyanovsky, Rostov region.

The regiment was formed in November 2018. It was named the "Slonim-Pomeranian Red Banner Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov Regiment."

At the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it suffered heavy losses in the battles for Mariupol. Afterwards, it participated in the capture of Popasna, Bakhmut, and Marinka. Since the spring of last year, it has fought for Chasiv Yar.

On April 16, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded it the title "Guards."

The Russian media reports that Moscow recruited over 400,000 people on contract in 2024. Effectively, about 1,000 people are sent to the war against Ukraine daily.

According to a British intelligence report, from April 2023 to May 2024, Russia recruited more than 1,500 foreigners.

Notably, dozens of foreign mercenaries are in Ukrainian captivity. Among them are soldiers with Chinese and North Korean citizenship. It was reported that a pair of North Korean soldiers did not take part in the largest prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, which took place May 23–25 on a 1,000-for-1,000 basis.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 5:53 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Kremlin is continuing efforts to prepare Russian society and the Russian defense industry base (DIB) for a protracted war with Ukraine and potential future war with NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on May 30 allowing the Russian government to revoke the rights of shareholders of defense industrial enterprises in the event that the enterprise fails to fulfill state defense orders during martial law.[4] The decree enables the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to appoint a management company to act as the sole executive body of the enterprise in order to fulfill contractual obligations to the Russian government. The decree applies to civilian aviation and shipbuilding companies, military development and production companies, and government subcontractors. Putin is likely setting legal conditions to allow the Russian government to commandeer elements of Russia's economy and DIB should the Kremlin introduce full martial law in order to transition the country to a full wartime footing. ISW continues to assess that the Kremlin is preparing Russian society and economy for a protracted war in Ukraine, indicating that Russia is not interested in engaging in good faith negotiations to reach a diplomatic settlement to its war in Ukraine.[5]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-may-31-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 6:18 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Western hesitation continues to undermine Ukraine

May 31, 2025 6:04 PM

https://kyivindependent.com/western-hesitation-continues-to-undermine-
ukraine/

While investing in Ukraine’s defense industry is necessary — something President Zelensky himself has emphasized in urging allies to strengthen the country’s defensive capabilities — the fact that he returned from Germany without a Taurus delivery promise reveals a deeper issue.

These missiles represent not only a powerful symbolic gesture, demonstrating that the West is truly committed to Ukraine’s defense, but also an immediate and tangible impact on the battlefield.

As recently highlighted by the Kyiv Independent, the Taurus missile can be programmed to detonate only after penetrating multiple layers of protection, making it especially effective against strategic targets like the Crimean Bridge.

Beyond being an important symbol for Russian President Vladimir Putin, that bridge is a crucial logistical link between mainland Russia and the occupied peninsula — a target of both symbolic and operational significance.

The absence of the Taurus in this package highlights a familiar blind spot: many Western governments still underestimate how much timing matters.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 8:13 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Did you wonder why tens of millions of Russians died during WWII? It wasn't only because of Nazis. It was mostly because of how Russians, at the front, in contact with the enemy, fight a war:

Russian soldiers surrendered because 'abuse in units is worse than captivity'

June 1, 2025 10:49 AM

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-soldiers-surrendered-because-abuse
-by-commanders-is-worse-than-captivity-ukrainian-paratroopers-say/

A group of Russian soldiers fighting in the Kursk direction surrendered to Ukrainian paratroopers because "abuse in units is worse than captivity," Ukraine's Airborne Assault Forces said in a video posted on social media on May 31.

"In their units on the territory of the Russian Federation, they were subjected to inhumane treatment, psychological pressure and threats," the post reads.

Russia's abuse of its own soldiers has been well documented throughout the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

An investigation by the Insider last July reported that Russia uses a systematic program of "gulag-style" abuse directed at its soldiers in Ukraine in order to "maintain order" and punish perceived offenders.

According to the Insider, the patterns of abuse of Russian soldiers in Ukraine "borrow heavily from Soviet labor camp traditions."

Russian units have employed "punishment squads" that seek out soldiers who are abusing alcohol, refuse orders, or are simply disliked, and then subject them to a variety of abuse, including beatings and "confinement pits."

A report in Foreign Policy in 2023 detailed a decades-long system of "sadistic hazing" in the Russian army that included one soldier who had to have his legs and genitals amputated after he was forced to squat in the snow for several hours.

The video released by Ukraine's Airborne Assault Forces shows at least eight Russian soldiers interviewed at an undisclosed location.

One describes being sent to the front less than a month ago and being "blown up immediately," leaving just two men alive in his unit. Another said his unit was left to dig trenches and fend for themselves when they were spotted by a Ukrainian drone and "after that everything fell apart."

"The prisoners were provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance," the military said.

Intercepted calls released by Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) suggest numerous abuses by Russian commanders against their own troops, including one incident where one lost his temper and ordered his soldiers to shoot at their own comrades in a neighbouring unit.

"F**k the 55th (an adjacent Russian unit), shoot them, that’s the battalion commander’s order, shoot them," a Russian commander can be heard saying in an audio published by HUR on April 5.

The unidentified Russian commander appears frustrated at the adjacent Russian unit for not properly following an order and revealing their positions to Ukrainian troops.

If Russian officers stopped being hostile toward Russian soldiers, the soldiers' death rate would drop and their battlefield effectiveness would rise.
Ukraine's best hope is that Russia keeps thinking that its Army's ineffectiveness and high death rate is not caused by bad leadership.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 8:21 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Not much in the news is Ukraine's massive drone atracks on Moscow and other targets in "old Russia", which actually began before Russias May 9 Victory Day parade. I've lost count of how many drones were swarmed into Russia, but I estimate in the realm of 2000 or more, about 500 drones per wave.

Given Ukraine's history of (literally) every offensive having been planned, funded, armed, and actively overseen by Britain and the USA from a station in Germany, this drone swarm attack has probably been in the works since last summer, with lots of funding, building, planning, and targeting by the west.

And like the 2024 Kursk offensive (aimed at the Kursk NPP] , the counteroffensive in Krynky (lots of Ukrainian solders fed onto the eastern side of the Dnieper and killed), and the summer counteroffensive of 2023, and the offensive of 2022 (which broke on the Surovikin line) this offensive was also a failure.

Presumably it was meant to clear a path thru Russias air defenses for TAURUS missiles launches, ALREADY STAGED IN UKRAINE and aimed at Moscow.

THIS offensive, like previous offensives, was also meant to give Ukraine/ NATO/ USA leverage, and most likely the basis for General Kellogg pushing his wholly unrealistic "22-point peace plan".

I wonder whether Trump was promised leverage from a successful counteroffensive, same as he was promised victory against Ansarallah (Houthis).

With the failure of the drone swarms the USA, and Trump specifically, faces a choice: escalate AGAIN by launching longer-range missiles into old Russia against a still-effective air defense (Don't forget that European missiles are air launched, and with their ranges need to be launched from aircraft near the front line, vulnerable to attack. The only realitic targets are in Crimea.)

Or throw in the towel.

Trump IMHO isn't committed to this war. OTOH there is a political price to pay if he can be painted as having lost this war, when in reality it was a victim of American Generals' overpromises.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 8:31 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Trump IMHO isn't committed to this war. OTOH there is a political price to pay if he can be painted as having lost this war, when in reality it was a victim of American Generals' overpromises.

Trump Delays Again

Phillips P. OBrien | Jun 01, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-135-has-the-russ
ian

It took all of two days this time for Trump to admit that he is full of BS. When, on Monday May 26, Trump released his public, performative tweet expressing irritation with Putin for bombarding Ukrainian cities on Monday and threatening harsh sanctions against Russia, some people once again took Trump seriously.

As I mentioned in the piece above, please do not do that. Trump is using these tweets to protect Putin, not threaten the Russian dictator. As long as Trump looks irritated with Russia and threatens sanctions, he can hold US-backers of Ukraine at bay and keep some Europeans hopeful that he might stand with them. However, all that really matters now is actions—and Trump did what he always does and come up with reasons not to do anything to hurt Russia. Two days after that tweet, on May 28, Trump announced that he was so irritated with Putin that he would need “about two weeks” to think things through.

For those who don’t know—the two week claim is Trump’s standard delaying claim. In Trump’s first term he regularly claimed, for instance, that he was going to produce a replacement for Obamacare in two or a few weeks time. None ever appeared. In this term he has regularly said that a deal with Russia is only a few or two weeks away—or that he needs two weeks more to decide whether to sanction Russia.

And it never happens.

This week to make it clear that it will not happen, by Friday Trump was back making excuses for Putin, In arguably the second most unnerving press conference of the last 4 months (the first was the press conference during with Vance and Trump ambushed Zelensky), Trump trotted out his regular defense of the Russian dictator.

This was the “farewell” press conference for Elon Musk, who is reportedly stepping back from his very influential position in the Trump administration. The Press conference was unnerving because of Musk’s behavior, which seemed spacey (following hard on the heels of the news reports of his very heavy drug use during the presidential campaign—drug use the supposedly involved so much ketamine that at times he could not control his bladder). If you want to watch Musk and the whole press conference—here is a link. From the very beginning its profoundly weird.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 8:47 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Meanwhile, at the battlefront, it would be safe to say that Russia is advancing "like a lava flow'.

Listing the advances (from north to south) for most people is just a list of unfamiliar names, but ...

Russia is continuing its defense of Kursk by advancing across the border into Sumy (northern Ukraine), and also into Kharkiv (northeastern Ukraine), opening up another front. They've been tasked with creating a "buffer zone" to protect Moscow.

The way this front is shaping up, it looks to cut off a huge chunk of northeastern Ukraine if one incursion drives southeast and the other drives northwest to meet it

The northeastern city of Kupiansk"s exurbs are being entered from the north. Villages to the west are being evacuated.

The greatest movement is on the central eastern front, in the Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk region. At one point there was a huge bight that avoided both cities, but Pokrovsk became semi-encircled from the south, and Russian troops are now creating a huge wedge between the cities, cutting off their supply lines.

South of Pokrovsk, Russia is busy driving to Dneipro, creating and the destroying pockets as they go.

Russian troops are also aiming at the city of Zaparizhzhia, currently creating a path thru villages on the route.

Nowhere do Ukrainian troops seem able to stabilize the frontline, and between Pokrovsk and Konstantinovka its reasonable to talk of a collapse.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 9:01 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

40 Russian aircraft downed in Ukraine's massive drone attack on air base: Report

Ukrainian drones attacked a military unit in the Sredny settlement in Russia's Irkutsk region, local authorities claimed.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/explosions-ukraine-massive-drone
-attack-russia-air-base-moscow-aircraft-downed-2734024-2025-06-01

By Vivek Kumar | Jun 1, 2025 18:14 IST

In Short

• Ukrainian drones target Russian Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers

• Attack at military unit in Russia's Irkutsk region, say local authorities

• Explosions reported near Olenya Air Base in Murmansk

Ukraine conducted a major drone attack hitting over 40 Russian military aircraft on Sunday, news agency Reuters reported, quoting officials from Ukraine's domestic security agency, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The SBU further claimed that the Ukrainian forces hit Russian aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers, which it deploys to fire long-range missiles at Ukraine, the report added.

Igor Kobzev, the regional governor, said that the Ukrainian drones attacked a military unit in the Sredny settlement in Russia's Irkutsk region.

Explosions and heavy smoke have been observed near the Olenya Air Base in the Murmansk region, Belarusian news media outlet NEXTA reported, while sharing images and videos of the aftermath on X (formerly Twitter).

"Preliminary reports suggest a possible drone strike. Olenya is one of Russia’s key strategic aviation facilities, hosting aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

However, it clarified that there was no official confirmation of the same, adding that, if confirmed, this would mark one of the most sensitive strikes on Russia’s military infrastructure since the start of the war.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries or casualties in the drone attack.

This came a week after Russian forces unleashed 367 drones and missiles across Ukrainian cities, marking the war's largest aerial attack to date. The barrage claimed 13 lives, including three children in Zhytomyr, and injured dozens, with strikes hitting Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Ternopil and Khmelnytskyi.

Though Ukraine's air force downed 266 drones and 45 missiles, damage was widespread, with apartment blocks and infrastructure heavily impacted.

The Russian assault had come hours after Moscow claimed it intercepted and destroyed around 100 of the unmanned Ukrainian weapons, including some aimed at the capital.

The Defence Ministry reported its air defence units intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. That included two near Moscow, but most were over Russia's central and southern regions.

The latest skirmishes have come amid the US calling on Russia at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to accept a comprehensive ceasefire proposal in Ukraine, calling it "Russia’s best possible outcome" and urging President Vladimir Putin to seize the opportunity for peace.

The US proposal includes a 30-day halt to all hostilities—land, air, sea, and attacks on critical infrastructure, and has already been accepted by Ukraine, pending Russia’s agreement.

US President Donald Trump has made ending the Ukraine war a key foreign policy goal. The conflict, which began in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has persisted despite international pressure and failed peace efforts.

The recent peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on May 16 ended without agreement. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow has drafted a memorandum outlining its terms for a ceasefire but has yet to share it with Ukraine. A second round of talks is proposed for Monday in Istanbul.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 6:22 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Drones were apparently driven into Russia in trucks and launched nearby the airbases. Russia confirms the attacks but not the extent of damage - they never do.

Some of the planes reportedly attacked were strategic (i.e. nuclear capable) bombers, part of Russia's nuclear deterrence triad, far from the front line and not involved in Ukraine.

Clearly, not intended to affect the war, but an extreme provocation.

Also, two bridges blown up, taking out two trains. One train in Kursk was a freight train, possibly a legitimate target. The other tho, was a PASSANGER train; the bridge was blown just as the train was on it, killing many and injuring many more.

That could credibly be called a terror attack.

Militarily weak groups resort to sabotage and terror. Just an indication of the west's desperation, bc I'll bet dollars to donuts Britain, at least, was behind this.

Events timed to derail (so to speak) negotiations taking place tomorrow?

FWIW Russia doesn't target civilians. When they have struck hotels (which is seldom) it's bc there's a meeting of western and Ukrainian commanders abd other military mucky-mucks taking place there. And despite Kiev's propaganda, Russia doesn't slaughter civilians.

If Russia is smart they'll send their delegation, wait for a couple of days for Ukraine reps to show up, then declare Ukraine a terrorist state.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 6:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:

What an evil selfish prick Putin is. Does anyone but him benefit from this? And now? After 2 years of covid crap? Kill thousands and crash the world economy so he can redraw a MAP?!?? What fcking dinosaur. I look forward to watching this blow up in his face.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-uk
raine.html

Word by Word and Between the Lines: A Close Look at Putin’s Speech

T

At least 41 planes taken out in one day. Comrade Signym, I bet you won't post here today. Can you see me laughing?

T

Ukraine DESTROYS Russia's Bomber Fleet; MAJOR Explosions At Nuclear Base

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, June 1, 2025 9:15 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I already posted. About this very topic.

In fact, it's literally JUST ABOVE yours.

Do try to keep up!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 6:39 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian officials blamed Ukraine for the collapse of two bridges and subsequent train derailments in western Russia on May 31, likely as part of efforts to justify the recent launch of Russian offensive operations in Sumy Oblast and the Kremlin's disinterest in peace negotiations to end the war. Two railway bridges in Bryansk and Kursk oblasts collapsed on the night of May 31, causing two trains to derail.[28] Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation Head Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko responded to the derailments, stating that Russia may be conducting false flag operations to disrupt the peace process and prolong the war.[29] Russian officials and milbloggers largely blamed Ukraine for the collapsed bridges but did not provide any evidence to support these claims.[30] Russian State Duma Deputy Andrei Kolesnik claimed that Russia should respond harshly and not limit its response to the train derailments.[31] Chairperson of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrei Klishas claimed that the derailments indicate that a "terrorist group" controls Ukraine, which Klishas claimed has turned into a "terrorist enclave" without borders or legitimate authorities.[32] Klishas called for Russia to create a "vast" buffer zone in Ukraine to protect Russia from Ukrainian attacks and for Russia to "denazify" and "demilitarize" Ukraine and "reestablish" the Ukrainian state (a reference to Russia's original war aims to replace the current legitimate Ukrainian government with a pro-Russian proxy government and to prevent Ukraine from being able to defend itself in the future). A Russian milblogger responded to Klishas, claiming that Russia should establish a "buffer zone" that extends to western Ukraine and that Ukraine should exist as a rump state with its capital in Lviv City.[33] The milblogger's claim mirrored Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev's recent call for Russia to control a buffer zone encompassing nearly all of Ukraine, apart from a relatively small part of Volyn and Lviv oblasts.[34]

Ukrainian authorities recently reported that Russia has deployed 125,000 personnel to the borders of Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts — two oblasts in which Russian forces are conducting offensive operations that Russian officials have framed as part of efforts to create buffer zones in Ukraine.[35] ISW continues to assess that Russian offensive efforts in Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts demonstrate that the Kremlin's territorial ambitions are not limited to the seizure of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and that Russia is attempting to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to make additional battlefield gains.[36] Russian officials appear to be claiming that Ukraine is responsible for the train derailments at least partly in order to justify Russia's recent launch of offensive operations in Sumy Oblast as necessary and defensive in nature. Russian officials may be trying to frame Ukraine as the party that is not interested in peace negotiations and to justify Russia's prolongation of the war in order to achieve its original war goals.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-1-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 9:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I already posted. About this very topic.

In fact, it's literally JUST ABOVE yours.

Do try to keep up!

You crack me up comrade. I read your post. I'm sure that is how they are reporting about it in Russia. Not much to see here, move on. However, the rest of the world's reporting includes the details. Details that show how much of a massive blow this is to Putin and Russian defenses. So no, you didn't post about it.

Nice try, trying to get in front of the story. Although I'm afraid your post doesn’t address the story at all.

"While there are differing accounts on the extent of the ensuing damage of Sunday’s “Spiderweb” operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 40 Russian aircraft — 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers — were hit." This is an online statement.

That 34% is also how Russia would deliver nukes if they needed to. So 34% of that capability is shot to shit. That's a third of the Russian nuclear delivery system gone. That’s huge...

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 4:53 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump silent on Ukraine drone attacks as MAGA blames "Deep State"

By Tal Axelrod | June 2, 2025

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/02/trump-ukraine-drone-operation-maga

While Trump seeks to present himself as a neutral mediator trying to bring broker peace, large swathes of his base see Ukraine — not Russia — as the enemy.

Driving the news: Ukraine's successful operation, which took 18 months to covertly plan, delivered a major strategic coup in a war that has otherwise been mired in stalemate and trench warfare.

As Ukrainians and their allies praised the breakthrough, some MAGA influencers expressed suspicion and anger that Kyiv had not informed Trump about the operation ahead of time.

My opinion: Trump was NOT informed because he would have warned Putin, who then might have been able to prevent the attack. Trump would deny passing the information to Putin, but Ukrainians can't trust blabbermouth Trump.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 5:01 PM

Nobody cares, faggot.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 5:09 PM

I have no doubt Trump would have told Putin SECOND. Fuck MAGA...

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 6:18 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump silent on Ukraine drone attacks as MAGA blames "Deep State"

By Tal Axelrod | June 2, 2025

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/02/trump-ukraine-drone-operation-maga

While Trump seeks to present himself as a neutral mediator trying to bring broker peace, large swathes of his base see Ukraine — not Russia — as the enemy.

Driving the news: Ukraine's successful operation, which took 18 months to covertly plan, delivered a major strategic coup in a war that has otherwise been mired in stalemate and trench warfare.

As Ukrainians and their allies praised the breakthrough, some MAGA influencers expressed suspicion and anger that Kyiv had not informed Trump about the operation ahead of time.

My opinion: Trump was NOT informed because he would have warned Putin, who then might have been able to prevent the attack. Trump would deny passing the information to Putin, but Ukrainians can't trust blabbermouth Trump.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

You and THGR are both retarded, and your heads live in a constantly swirling shit fillled toilet bowl.
You'll see why in my next few posts...

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 7:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

So, instead of constantly dipping into the toilet bowl for "your" opinions, you might want to get cleaner sources, and apply logic.

Striking Russia's STRATEGIC bombers ... you DO know what "strategic" means, right??

LONG RANGE, NUCLEAR CAPABLE, DETERRENT FORCES..

has fuck-all to do with Ukraine.

They could destroy ALL of Russia's strategic bombers and it wouldn't make one scintilla difference to Ukraine's ultimate defeat.

But here is what it COULD do...

It could totally destroy USA-Russia nuclear treaties. Treaties that reduce the potential of nuclear Armageddon.

There's been a lot of laughing and pointing at Russia for keeping its strategic bombers out in the open

What you retards don't realize is that Russia was REQUIRED to do that by the new START Treaty, signed by Obama and Medvedev.

Quote:
The New START treaty is a nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia that limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and delivery systems. It was signed in 2010 and is set to expire on February 5, 2026, unless extended or replaced by a new agreement.

This was to provide accountability and transparency.

The drone strikes on Russia's STRATEGIC bombers just blew a giant, sucking hole thru the treaty, and thru thr prospects of negotiating another one. NO DOUBT, THIS WAS THE INTENT OF THE OPERATION, AND ZELENSKY WAS PROBABLY JUST A STUPID PATSY.

How the fuck does Russia sign ANY agreement with the current regime in Kiev, or with any representative of NATO, including the USA? Who does Russia blame now for this clusterfuck?

Well, Zelensky, certainly. His admin was the cat's paw. The only way Russia will sign anything with Ukraine at this point is if the entire Kiev establishment is swept from power, top to bottom.

And good fucking riddance.

But SOMEBODY put Ukraine up to this. SOMEBODY provided the money, the contacts, the planning... rented the assembly buildings, bought and modified the trucks, SOMEBODY provided the satellite pictures and targeting data.

Trump says he didn't know. Zelensky says the WH was informed. So either Trump is lying or Zelensky is lying or Trump isn't being fully informed/ doesn't have control of his staff. And who gave Kiev the sat photos? One of our own neocons under Biden? A Brit neocon? Can we trust our so-called allies not to torpedo our agreements with Russia?

Quote:
Playing With Fire
The Sunday strikes by Ukraine on Russia’s ‘nuclear triad,’ i.e., intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines, and intercontinental bombers, are a serious escalation. Ukraine claims that it would have destroyed one-third of Russia’s strategic bombers. This assertion is likely to be a gross overstatement, but the actual numbers are irrelevant. The strike, once again, targeted Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which can serve only two aims:

* Ukrainian leadership is desperately trying to fully commit NATO to the war in Ukraine, or

* Strikes are preparation for NATO's nuclear strikes on Russia.

We listed these in our May 30, 2024, warning on the possibility of a nuclear strike in Europe, after Ukraine had struck Russia’s early-warning (over-the-horizon) radars. The strikes on the over-the-horizon radars were already a dangerous provocation, which had zero relevance to the war in Ukraine (radars look for launches of intercontinental and medium-range ballistic missiles at high altitudes). Sunday, however, was a provocation at an entirely different level.

Firstly, this was (again) a strike to Russia’s nuclear forces, which enables (essentially demands) a response with nuclear weapons according to Russia’s nuclear doctrine. This is why we issued an updated warning of a nuclear strike in Europe yesterday.

MORE AT
https://mtmalinen.substack.com/p/playing-with-fire

LOSS OF REPUTATION, AND NOT JUST FOR RUSSIA

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 9:10 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

SOMEBODY provided the satellite pictures and targeting data.

SOMEBODY is Google Maps:

It’s these huge distances from the border with Ukraine that likely made Russia complacent about protecting the sites. Its most prized aircraft at the Belaya base were regularly parked in plain sight in the airfield, clearly visible in publicly available satellite images – including on Google Maps. Moscow likely believed the distance itself was enough to keep the aircraft safe from Ukrainian attacks.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/02/europe/inside-ukraine-drone-attack-russ
ian-air-bases-latam-intl

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 9:26 PM

What is this CNN you post from?

Never heard of them before.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 10:11 PM

CNN's total number of viewers varies based on time of day, primetime viewership, and digital platforms. In primetime, CNN averages around 426,000 total viewers. Total day viewership averages around 353,000. CNN also has a strong digital presence, with 147 million monthly unique users worldwide and 117 million in the U.S.

I see you're posting a link to CNN SECOND. They're well known around the world I see.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 11:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

SOMEBODY provided the satellite pictures and targeting data.
SOMEBODY is Google Maps:

It’s these huge distances from the border with Ukraine that likely made Russia complacent about protecting the sites. Its most prized aircraft at the Belaya base were regularly parked in plain sight in the airfield, clearly visible in publicly available satellite images – including on Google Maps. Moscow likely believed the distance itself was enough to keep the aircraft safe from Ukrainian attacks.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/02/europe/inside-ukraine-drone-attack-russ
ian-air-bases-latam-intl

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

And it's those huge distances that make these aircraft irrelevant to Ukraine.

But Kiev isn't intent on winning the war thru relevant application of force.

NOPE!

Bc they know the war is already lost.

What they're doing is running a campaign to drag in NATO directly or, failing that, to screw up any negotiations that may be going on between Russia and the USA.

WWIII?
Piffle!

Screw Zelensky and screw our neocons.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, June 2, 2025 11:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
CNN's total number of viewers varies based on time of day, primetime viewership, and digital platforms. In primetime, CNN averages around 426,000 total viewers. Total day viewership averages around 353,000. CNN also has a strong digital presence, with 147 million monthly unique users worldwide and 117 million in the U.S.

I see you're posting a link to CNN SECOND. They're well known around the world I see.

T

Those numbers might have meant something 6 months ago in the world that no longer exists, but they're far from the truth today. In fact, since you don't even provide a link to where you got that fake news, I have little reason to believe those numbers were ever true to begin with.

CNN can't even hit 100k in the prime demo anymore. They've lost all relevance in 2025 and they're fading from existence just a little more every day. Just like I told you they would.

I suggest you come along with the rest of us, lest you suffer the same fate.

Second is a hopelessly lost cause. I think there's still a chance for you.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 6:52 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

SOMEBODY provided the satellite pictures and targeting data.
SOMEBODY is Google Maps:

It’s these huge distances from the border with Ukraine that likely made Russia complacent about protecting the sites. Its most prized aircraft at the Belaya base were regularly parked in plain sight in the airfield, clearly visible in publicly available satellite images – including on Google Maps. Moscow likely believed the distance itself was enough to keep the aircraft safe from Ukrainian attacks.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/02/europe/inside-ukraine-drone-attack-russ
ian-air-bases-latam-intl

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

And it's those huge distances that make these aircraft irrelevant to Ukraine.

But Kiev isn't intent on winning the war thru relevant application of force.

NOPE!

Bc they know the war is already lost.

What they're doing is running a campaign to drag in NATO directly or, failing that, to screw up any negotiations that may be going on between Russia and the USA.

WWIII?
Piffle!

Screw Zelensky and screw our neocons.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

In both large and small things, Signym and Russians are belligerent without end, which is pretty much the reason this war between Ukraine and Russia will go on as endlessly as the one between South Korea and Russia's student, North Korea:

The Russian delegation dismissed Russia's systemic kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Ukrainian Presidential Office Head Andriy Yermak reported that the Ukrainian delegation gave Russia the names of "hundreds" of kidnapped Ukrainian children that Russia must return to Ukraine.[18] Medinsky claimed that the Ukrainian list contained 331 names yet downplayed this list as not "thousands" or "millions" of children but "dozens."[19] Medinsky claimed that Russia returns Ukrainian children when Russian authorities can locate the children's parents or other legal representatives and that Russia does not kidnap Ukrainian children but "saves" them.[20] Medinsky's statement downplays the true extent of Russia's pre-war preparations, legal mechanisms, and various schemes to hide and justify the forced deportation, forced assimilation, and militarization of Ukrainian children.[21] Ukraine has verified Russia's deportation of at least 19,456 Ukrainian children, and only 1,345 deported Ukrainian children have been returned to Ukraine as of June 2.[22] Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab placed the number of deported children closer to 35,000 as of March 19, 2025.[23] Kremlin Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova (against whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in March 2023 for her role in abducting Ukrainian children) claimed that Russia had “accepted” a stark 700,000 Ukrainian children between February 2022 and July 2023.[24] The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide explicitly forbids the forcible transfer of children from one group to another group for the purpose of destroying, in whole or in part, a national or ethnic group, and considers these violations as constituent acts of genocide.[25]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-2-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 10:29 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces

Expensive planes, tanks, and ships can be destroyed on the cheap.

By Phillips Payson O’Brien | June 2, 2025, 4:25 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/06/ukraine-new-
war-drone-strike/683008/?gift=BQHDq1p24LRO8cUUEyLQ6-Q6UN0NVFgQ03HqSytrkLM

Relying on its own resources, Ukraine has just carried out what might be the most complex, elaborately planned, and cost-effective military operation of its current war with Russia. Yesterday, the Ukrainians used drones to attack, almost simultaneously, at least four Russian airfields separated by thousands of miles. Among them were two airfields just inside Russia, but the targets also included Olenya air base, above the Arctic Circle, and, remarkably, Belaya air base, in Siberia, which lies just over the border from Mongolia.

The attack showed how much audacity, ingenuity, and effectiveness the Ukrainians can bring to their own defense when Western leaders aren’t pressuring them to hold back. It also revealed the vulnerability of the large, expensive planes and other hardware treasured by major powers around the world.

Images circulating immediately after the attacks appeared to show that Russian aircraft had been hit with remarkable accuracy at some of their most vulnerable points. The Ukrainians seem to have placed relatively small drone swarms in cavities built into the top of trailer trucks. Then, when the trucks were close to the targets, the trailer roofs opened up, and the swarms of drones flew out, surprising and overwhelming Russian defenses. Even how the drones themselves were operated represents something notable. In many cases, they seem to have been flying courses preprogrammed via the open-source software ArduPilot, which has proved effective in navigating unmanned aerial vehicles for hundreds of miles and precisely reaching targets.

Although details remain limited, the operation testifies to how rapidly drone technology is evolving. Human operators might well have been observing some of yesterday’s flights and been in a position to take control if necessary, but some of the vehicles may have operated outside of human authority, flying preprogrammed courses. Ukrainian officials have said that some of the drones were basically AI-trained to recognize the most vulnerable parts of Russian aircraft and automatically home in on those areas.

The Ukrainians have claimed that more than 40 advanced Russian aircraft were hit and that at least 13 were destroyed. How much of the damage is reparable is not yet clear. Kyiv boasted of destroying more than a third of Russia’s large Tu-95 bombers, which have been a primary launch system for the large volleys of missiles that regularly strike Ukrainian cities. The Tu-95s are literally irreplaceable: Russia has no production facilities making more of these aircraft, and it has not yet designed a successor to the model. Yesterday’s attack also appears to have damaged a large number of Tu-22 M3 bombers and probably one A-50 command aircraft, the Russian equivalent of a U.S.-made airborne warning and control aircraft. The total cost of Russian losses likely runs into several billion dollars.

In contrast, the cost of one of the Ukrainian drones used in yesterday’s attack has been estimated at about $1,200—so that even if the airfields were attacked with 100 drones each (a seemingly high estimate), the total cost of the drones used would have been less than $1 million. I struggle to think of a recent military operation where one side suffered so much damage at so little cost to the other.

In one sense, the Ukrainian attack represents a culmination of what we have seen happen since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022: Seemingly outmatched by Russia’s much larger military, Ukraine has used drones and other improvised equipment to destroy tanks, large warships, bombers, and other large legacy systems. Military planners and many outside commentators have been too slow to acknowledge the significance of Ukraine’s defensive tactics, but the most recent attacks plainly show the need for major changes in how all militaries are constructed and trained.

For the United States and other major Western militaries, Ukraine’s use of trucks parked outside secure areas near military sites will pose uncomfortable questions. How closely do they—or can they—monitor all the truck traffic that streams past their bases? Do they know what happens in every nearby property from which an adversary could hide drone swarms and then launch them with no warning? For many years now, for instance, Chinese interests have been buying large amounts of farmland right next to important U.S. military bases. They could be growing soybeans, but they could also be staging grounds for drone swarms that would make the Ukrainian attacks look minuscule.

Meanwhile, in Europe, military bases have in the past few years been regularly overflown by a large number of unknown drones, which are presumably gathering intelligence. Whichever power is responsible obviously has the ability to deploy a larger number of drones in kinetic attacks. The Ukrainians are showing U.S. and European militaries that better security against drone flights is long overdue.

For Ukraine’s doubters, these attacks should lead to a period of quiet reflection. President Donald Trump has insisted that Ukraine has “no cards.” The New York Times editorial board recently implied that Ukraine is unlikely to produce a military breakthrough that can change the basic course of the war. But pessimism about Ukraine’s capabilities is ahistorical and wrongheaded.

For three years, the Biden administration simultaneously supported Ukraine and discouraged major attacks on Russian soil, for fear of provoking Vladimir Putin too much. That constraint no longer exists, now that Trump has written off Ukraine and appears eager to end the war on Putin’s terms.

Until now, Ukraine has had only a limited ability to launch attacks as ambitious as the one it just executed. If Ukraine’s remaining allies help arm it properly to undertake similar operations at scale, it can still win the war.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 10:53 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Dbl

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 10:59 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces

Expensive planes, tanks, and ships can be destroyed on the cheap.

Yep! And it works both ways, Kiev.

Quote:
In both large and small things, Signym and Russians are belligerent without end,

This, from the guy who routinely enourages "somebody" to kill the people he doesn't like, who investigates and harasses people online and IRL?
Wow, SECOND. You have NO self reflection and NO moral code, do you?? And no honesty, either.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 11:45 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces

Expensive planes, tanks, and ships can be destroyed on the cheap.

Yep! And it works both ways, Kiev.

Quote:
In both large and small things, Signym and Russians are belligerent without end,
This, from the guy who routinely enourages "somebody" to kill the people he doesn't like, who investigates and harasses people online and IRL?
Wow, SECOND. You have NO self reflection and NO moral code, do you?? And no honesty, either.

I'm guessing you misunderstood the story about Noah and the Flood, or the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or Samson destroyed the Philistine temple of Dagon, where God killed evil people, without ever asking the people to please be slightly better than their usual selves. Kaboom! Dead. That's how God does things. Ukraine should follow God's example. Either the Russians learn that impersonal lesson about reality, or they end up dead. Reflect on that, Signym.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 12:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces

Expensive planes, tanks, and ships can be destroyed on the cheap.

Yep! And it works both ways, Kiev.

Quote:
In both large and small things, Signym and Russians are belligerent without end,
This, from the guy who routinely enourages "somebody" to kill the people he doesn't like, who investigates and harasses people online and IRL?
Wow, SECOND. You have NO self reflection and NO moral code, do you?? And no honesty, either.

Notice how Comrade signym doesn't see the difference between Ukraine striking military objectives, i.e. combatants, and the Russians striking Kiev, a city full of civilians. And when she mentions Russia targeting Kiev, she posts a laughing emoji. This is just one of her many many posts, proving that she is a sewer rat.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 12:57 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Report to Congress on Russian Military Performance
U.S. Naval Institute Staff
May 29, 2025 8:54 AM

https://news.usni.org/2025/05/29/report-to-congress-on-russian-militar
y-performance

The following is the May 28, 2025 Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Russian Military Performance and Outlook.

From the report

Despite the advantages of a larger recruitment base and defense industrial capacity, the Russian military has not been able to decisively defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Russian military has suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment. Its performance has been hindered by a rigid command and control structure, a weakened corps of trained and professional units, and a reliance on tactics that have contributed to high casualty rates. The Russian military, however, appears to remain a resilient and capable adversary and is likely to sustain its operational tempo in the near term.

Since 2022, Congress has supported Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s renewed invasion through enacting five supplemental appropriations measures that have provided assistance to Ukraine. Members may consider the Russian military’s condition and performance as they evaluate the state of the war, assess the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions on Russia, evaluate the Russian military’s prospective reconstitution and longer-term threat to U.S. and European security, and deliberate about whether to appropriate further military or other assistance for Ukraine.

Command and Control

Despite attempted reforms to increase lower-level leadership and autonomy, the Russian military continues to operate with a Soviet-style centralized command. This centralized command style at the tactical level has contributed to the types of inflexible operations that led to previous failures and casualties.

In May 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with a former economic official, Andrei Belousov. This change came after persistent poor Russian military performance. Some observers assess that Belousov’s appointment reflected the Russian leadership’s recognition that the war in Ukraine is a longer-term challenge and that managing economic and defense industrial resources is key to sustaining Russia’s war effort.

Some observers argue that Russia’s leadership prioritizes the political loyalty of officers over their battlefield effectiveness. Multiple Russian military leaders, including some reported to be highly competent, have been relieved of command (and in some cases imprisoned), seemingly for perceived criticism of or insufficient loyalty to Russian political leaders.

Nevertheless, the Russian military leadership appears to remain a cohesive force. It has gradually consolidated various semi-independent security force units and organizations fighting for Russia and brought them under central command. Additionally, the military leadership has proven capable of adopting changes to force structure, operations, and equipment since the 2022 invasion. Observers continue to debate the speed and breadth of these changes. Some reforms appear to address specific problems, remain isolated to specific units, or have been implemented only after extended debate.

Personnel

Russia’s leadership continues to encounter challenges to recruiting and training sufficient troops. Continued casualties and challenges fielding well-trained troops have hindered, but not stopped, Russian military operations.

Casualties

As of April 2025, U.S. officials estimate Russia has suffered over 790,000 killed and wounded. Other estimates place Russian casualties as high as 900,000. These rates arguably reflect Russia’s continued use of high-casualty tactics—including a reliance on massed personnel attacks and massed artillery fire—and limited operational-level flexibility. Casualty totals likely include mobilized personnel, volunteers, members of the Russian National Guard, recruited prison convicts, and personnel from Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions.

The loss of experienced soldiers has been particularly detrimental. Many of the casualties have been among Russia’s elite and professional soldiers, as well as its junior officer corps. New recruits, including new junior officers, often have less training than those they are replacing, exacerbating the impact of the losses and seemingly eroding the effectiveness of some Russian military units. Some observers say the loss of experienced troops and junior officers will have a long-term detrimental effect on Russia’s military capabilities.

Recruitment and Mobilization

In September 2024, President Putin issued an order to increase the size of the Russian military to 1.5 million active-duty troops. Russia’s draft budget for 2025-2027 annually allocates 30 billion rubles (about $370 million at current exchange rates) for sign-on bonuses. Russian authorities announced a mobilization of 300,000 personnel (outside of Russia’s regular draft) in September 2022 but have not announced another large-scale mobilization since, likely due at least in part to domestic opposition.

Russian law prohibits the combat deployment of conscripts, leading the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) to prioritize recruitment of contract soldiers. Contract recruits may earn high salaries as well as sign-on bonuses offered by both regional and federal authorities. MoD salaries may be several times the average Russian monthly wage (including sign-on bonuses reportedly as high as 22 times the monthly wage), as well as additional payments should soldiers be killed or wounded. Since late 2024, Russia’s regional authorities have increased one-time signing bonuses and advertising campaigns to attract new recruits. These measures may indicate increased recruitment difficulties.

Full report (3 pages) at https://news.usni.org/2025/05/29/report-to-congress-on-russian-militar
y-performance

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 1:43 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SECOND:

Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces
Expensive planes, tanks, and ships can be destroyed on the cheap.

SIGNY:
Yep! And it works both ways, Kiev.

SECOND:
In both large and small things, Signym and Russians are belligerent without end.

SIGNY:
This, from the guy who routinely enourages "somebody" to kill the people he doesn't like, who investigates and harasses people online and IRL?
Wow, SECOND. You have NO self reflection and NO moral code, do you?? And no honesty, either.

THUGR:

Notice how Comrade signym doesn't see the difference between Ukraine striking military objectives, i.e. combatants, and the Russians striking Kiev, a city full of civilians. And when she mentions Russia targeting Kiev, she posts a laughing emoji. This is just one of her many many posts, proving that she is a sewer rat.

Awww, that's sweet, coming to psychopath SECOND'S defense! FYI, its KIEV that strikes fully civilian targets: apartments, marketplaces, passanger trains, theaters ... in Moscow, Kursk, and up and down Donbas, since 2014.

Russia doesn't strike "Kiev". Kiev is a big place, full of military targets: warehouses full of ammo and weapons, weapons factories etc. If you paid the slightest attention to what is ACTUALLY happening ... I again refer you to the PRO- UKRAINIAN "MILITARY SUMMARY CHANNEL", hosted by Dima, that follows the war IN DETAIL ON A MAP -strike by strike, missile by missile, battle by battle, announcement by announcement- WITH VIDEOS, twice a day without fail ... you might have a fucking clue.

CHANNEL:
youtube.com/channel/UCUnc496-PPmFZVKlYxUnToA (link broken on purpose, you'll have to add the usual prefix)

VIDEO

As it is, you've still got your head in a shit-filled toilet, and you're fucking clueless.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 3:11 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
SECOND:

Ukraine’s Warning to the World’s Other Military Forces
Expensive planes, tanks, and ships can be destroyed on the cheap.

SIGNY:
Yep! And it works both ways, Kiev.

SECOND:
In both large and small things, Signym and Russians are belligerent without end.

SIGNY:
This, from the guy who routinely enourages "somebody" to kill the people he doesn't like, who investigates and harasses people online and IRL?
Wow, SECOND. You have NO self reflection and NO moral code, do you?? And no honesty, either.

THUGR:

Notice how Comrade signym doesn't see the difference between Ukraine striking military objectives, i.e. combatants, and the Russians striking Kiev, a city full of civilians. And when she mentions Russia targeting Kiev, she posts a laughing emoji. This is just one of her many many posts, proving that she is a sewer rat.

Awww, that's sweet, coming to psychopath SECOND'S defense! FYI, its KIEV that strikes fully civilian targets: apartments, marketplaces, passanger trains, theaters ... in Moscow, Kursk, and up and down Donbas, since 2014.

Russia doesn't strike "Kiev". Kiev is a big place, full of military targets: warehouses full of ammo and weapons, weapons factories etc. If you paid the slightest attention to what is ACTUALLY happening ... I again refer you to the PRO- UKRAINIAN "MILITARY SUMMARY CHANNEL", hosted by Dima, that follows the war IN DETAIL ON A MAP -strike by strike, missile by missile, battle by battle, announcement by announcement- WITH VIDEOS, twice a day without fail ... you might have a fucking clue.

As it is, you've still got your head in a shit-filled toilet, and you're fucking clueless.

Putin 'running out of road' as Kerch bridge bombed and US rounds on Kremlin allies

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 3:59 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

OMG, I listened to something like the first two minutes of your doomsayer video and every single sentence was a lie, or just massively ignorant.

Examples:

Russia has not "lost" a million men. (That would be Ukraine.)
There are no food shortages in Russia or its military.
The Kremlin is NOT saying that nothing is happening. Just go to RT, or Tass, and find out what the Kremlin REALLY is saying.

Dood, come up for air once in a while. Listen to westerners who have been to Russia recently

Or frontline western reporters
https://patricklancasternewstoday.substack.com/p/russia-ukraine-war-up
date-on-the

Or Military Summary channel

or a myriad of knowledgeable analysts, and not just mouthpieces who spew the same garbage script.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 4:21 PM

No comrade. Just reading your post tells me you need to find new sources of information. Cause the ones you do use sure don't cut it.

Your source Lancaster is known for filming staged scenes in his videos and attempting to pass them off as real. Ya know, like you do to spread Putin's lies and propaganda comrade. But hell, you know that. It's why he is one of your sources.

You are so stupid it is beyond words.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 7:40 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

If you don't like Patrick Lancaster try Military Summary. Or any number of American and British or Swiss former military men: Kalibrated (Scott), New Atlas (Brian Berletic, Marine tech), Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, a British military think tank), Col Douglas MacGregor, Col Larry Wilkerson ...

Or The Duran (Alexander Mercouris, Greek born British citizen, widely traveled with international contacts in Europe, India, and Russia), Alex Krainer, Naked Capitalism (Yves Smith), Swiss military analyst Jacques Baud...

Former spook agency analysts Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson. General interview shows like Dialogue Works (hosted by Nima, an Iranian Brazilian who interviews all of the above, and more ...)

Son, I could name you dozens and dozens of credible sources. They don't all say the same thing, THAT'S HOW I KNOW THEY'RE NOT ALL SINGING FROM THE SAME HYMN SHEET, LIKE YOUR FUCKING "SOURCES"..

YOU are stupid beyond words. Stupid and scared. Scared to look outside that comfy, cozy, shitty bubble wrap that you've cocooned yourself in.

Step into the real world, son. It's a big one, and it doesn't give a shit how you've been conditioned. Or stay wrapped up in your shit. 'Cause I don't care either.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 8:33 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Our Russia Problem

By Timothy Snyder | May 20, 2025

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-weaponization-czar

Ed Martin is a major actor in Trump's attempted regime change to authoritarianism. His particular role is to transform the law into a tool to intimidate Americans. After a stint as interim US Attorney for DC which was marked by unprecedented weaponization of the position, Martin will now continue his work for Trump as the official "weaponization czar."

Julia Davis, who does the important work of contextualizing Russian propaganda television available for a global viewership, has made Martin's appearances visible. With her permission, I am sharing her work in the following paragraph. It provides samples, with video links back to his appearances, of how Ed Martin spreads untruth in the service of Russian and American authoritarians. If you want to take the time to judge more of his appearances than the ones I cite below, here (again thanks to Julia Davis) is a longer compilation of Martin's appearances on Russian propaganda television.

Trump as American president can do, says Martin on Russian propaganda television, whatever he wants. Martin proposes that we should live in the alternative reality provided by the Russian propaganda he serves, since American media cannot be trusted. He instructs us that American elections are rigged and that the January 6th criminals are political prisoners. (Note that Martin was thereby on Russian propaganda television forecasting his own role in seeking pardons for these people and raising money for them.) Martin denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, although this was quite blatant -- and indeed continuous, right down to the uncontested reports that Russians called in bomb scares to predominantly Democratic precincts in 2024. Martin also quite clear on the American role in the world, which is that the US should serve Putin and his wars. Echoing Russian claims at the time, Martin claimed that US intelligence was wrong about the coming full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, when is in fact it was entirely correct. In his view, the NATO alliance is unnecessary. The United States should be Russia's ally.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when long service to hostile foreign propaganda networks would have been disqualifying for positions in the federal government. Now, as the head of RT boasts, it seems to be a qualification. Since Trump wants loyalists to him rather than to the United States, willingness to serve foreign countries, at least corrupt dictatorships, would be a useful filter. Repeating Russian propaganda tropes could hardly be offensive to Trump; he does this all the time. Taking part in Putin's propaganda system would be naturally understood as the right kind of apprenticeship for work on Trump's own regime change. We know that Trump chooses his people by treating their television appearances as auditions. So why not Russian television appearances? All the better.

No surprisingly, Martin says that his key assignment as weaponization czar will be to punish those who investigated Trump's very real connections to Russia. This country has paid a huge price for not recognizing Russia's intervention in the 2016 election for what it was: highly consequential and quite possibly decisive in the moment, and a sign of the coming age of oligarchical cooperation via digital tools to build right-wing regimes. That age is now upon us. There is, unmistakably, something very strange about the Trump's submissiveness to Russia: appointing its media darlings (the list includes Tulsi Gabbard, who is of all things director of national intelligence); exempting it from tariffs when everyone else was targeted, refusing to pressure Putin to end a war when that is the obvious policy, sending as his envoy to Moscow a man who simply repeats Russian claims and uses Russian translations. Too many of us have allowed ourselves to be intimidated by the fear that Trump will use the word "hoax" when we point to the Russian elements of our present reality: such as, for example, that our "weaponization czar" apprenticed in the role in the service of Russia. With our weaponization of the law and our czars, we have a Russia problem.

Working with Russian institutions will not hurt Martin with Trump's followers, who have been trained to see Russia not as an actual country with interests but as part of a "hoax," a conspiracy against Trump. This is the sad convenience of "America First": it really means "America Only": no matter how things get, we get to be first, since no other countries exist in our minds. If other countries are meaningless, then MAGA people can rest assured that there is nothing like the complicity of international oligarchs, or the guild of international fascists, or the plans of countries like Russia to destroy the United States from within. If other countries do not matter, then it never seems right to ask: just why is it that Russian propaganda and Trumpian rhetoric so often overlap, to the point that training on one is preparation for mouthing the other?

Much more at https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-weaponization-czar

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 9:02 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Bullshit opinion masquerading as fact.

TRUMP!! RUSSIA!!RUSSIA!! COLLUSION!! INVESTIGATE!!

Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

Didn't we do this already, already?

/snicker

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 9:32 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Bullshit opinion masquerading as fact.

TRUMP!! RUSSIA!!RUSSIA!! COLLUSION!! INVESTIGATE!!

Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

Didn't we do this already, already?

/snicker

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

Signym, you are faking unawareness of the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election Volume I of II
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III
Submitted Pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c)
Washington, D.C.
March 2019

https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl

Signym, don't forget: Senate panel finds Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election
Aug 18, 2020 4:49 AM EDT

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-panel-finds-russia-interf
ered-in-the-2016-us-election

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 9:40 PM

What did we deserve to be inflicted with the two stupidest people in the world, Sigs?

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 5:31 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukrainian outlet New Voice (NV) reported on June 3, citing Ukraine's Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR), that Russian forces had stockpiled over 13,000 ballistic, cruise, and other missiles as of mid-May 2025, including:
almost 600 Iskander-M ballistic missiles,
over 100 Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles,
almost 300 Kh-101 cruise missiles,
over 400 Kalibr cruise missiles,
up to 300 Kh-22/32 cruise missiles,
about 700 Oniks cruise missiles and Zirkon anti-ship missiles,
about 60 North Korean-produced KN-23 ballistic missiles, and
about 11,000 S-300/400 air defense missiles.[18]

NV reported that the GUR also estimated that Russia can produce roughly 150–200 missiles per month, including:
60 to 70 Iskander-Ms,
10 to 15 Kinzhals,
20 to 30 Kh-101s,
25 to 30 Kalibrs,
up to 10 Kh-32s, and
20 to 30 total Oniks and Zirkon missiles.

ISW continues to assess that Russian efforts to increase domestic drone and missile production and ongoing adaptation of strikes packages are likely part of a broader effort to prepare for a long war in Ukraine and possibly a future war against NATO.[20]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-3-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 5:32 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev claimed on June 3 in posts on his Russian- and English-language Telegram channels that Russia needs the negotiations in Istanbul to result in Russia's "swift victory [in Ukraine] and the complete destruction" of the Ukrainian government and not a "compromise[d] peace on someone else's delusional terms."[1]

Medvedev stated that Russia's June 2 Istanbul memorandum was in line with these goals and threatened that Russia will "explode" everything and "disappear" anyone who opposes Russia in response to the June 1 long-range Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-3-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 6:53 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine drone strike exposed Russian vulnerability, and sent a signal to Trump

By Anna Mulrine Grobe | June 04, 2025, 5:50 a.m. ET

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2025/0604/ukraine-russia-drone-zelensk
yy-trump

A spectacular drone attack by Ukraine that hit deep into Russia ?this weekend has shaken the Kremlin and shown the world how technology is changing modern warfare. What remains to be seen is whether it can move Ukraine closer to peace on favorable terms.

The top-secret operation – a year and a half in the making – reportedly damaged 30% of Russia’s long-range aircraft, including planes used to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities and nuclear-capable bombers.

While damage assessments are ongoing, what is clear is that Ukraine has once again redefined modern warfare with cheap drones and exceptional spy craft, dealing a considerable blow to a great power.

In the process, the audacious asymmetric attack has raised questions among military analysts about everything from the future of air defenses to the nature of nuclear deterrence.

The country’s defiance in the face of stepped-up Russian bombardments and seemingly endless supply of soldiers, analysts say, also reassures Kyiv’s supporters that the democracy still stands – and that it will fight on despite the odds.

“Surprise attacks carry significance in military history,” said Col. Martin O’Donnell, U.S. spokesperson for NATO’s Supreme Allied Command. “They provoke response, can alter attitudes, [and] are known to reshape military tactics and strategies.”

One such attitude that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hoped to alter is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spurning of peace talks. The hope, Mr. Zelenskyy said, is that such strikes “are what will push [Moscow] toward diplomacy.”

This has not proved to be the case so far: Russia once again rejected a ceasefire in Istanbul on Monday in a meeting that lasted just over an hour.

A message to Russia or the U.S., or both?

But Mr. Zelenskyy’s true target audience could be the United States. After the operation, he urged President Donald Trump to place more sanctions on Russia.

As Moscow continued hammering civilian targets, contrary to Mr. Trump’s stated wishes, the U.S. president expressed some skepticism about Mr. Putin’s good faith. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war – he’s just tapping me along.”

Vice President JD Vance, for his part, said recently that perhaps Russia is “asking for too much” in negotiations.

Yet many of Mr. Trump’s supporters, who routinely express distrust of Mr. Zelenskyy, warn that the latest Ukrainian attack on Russia crosses Mr. Putin’s red lines. They also worry aloud that it has the potential to be escalatory and, at the extreme, to unwittingly draw the U.S. into a nuclear war.

The U.S. “should not only distance itself from this attack but end any support that could directly or indirectly enable attacks against Russian strategic nuclear forces,” Dan Caldwell, a former Pentagon aide to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, said Sunday in a social media post.

The Kremlin has been largely silent on the Ukraine operation. Newspapers friendly to Mr. Putin describe it as a terrorist attack and say it proves Kyiv isn’t ready for peace.
“I got some cards”

Operation Spider’s Web, the code name for the covert June 1 drone strike, was personally overseen by Mr. Zelenskyy, Ukrainian government sources say.

The attack has “seriously weakened” Moscow’s military operations and will go down “in the history books,” President Zelenskyy said Monday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, says he now likes to contemplate Mr. Zelenskyy’s involvement in the operation as he thinks back to the Ukrainian leader’s contentious February meeting in the Oval Office with President Trump and Vice President Vance.

“They were telling Zelenskyy, ‘You’ve got no cards.’ And it’s interesting that Zelenskyy, when he was getting yelled at by these two people, already knew that this plan was approaching,” General Hodges says. “So it’s kind of cool, from a human standpoint, that he’s sitting there listening and thinking, ‘You just wait. I got some cards.’”

?The capacity of relatively low-cost drones to damage strategic big-power assets is a lesson that is rippling worldwide. The threat hadn’t been unknown, but from the Pentagon to Beijing, the operation is highlighting how technology may rewrite military playbooks in fast-evolving and unexpected ways.

The drone raid by Ukraine was aimed at stopping incessant Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure, like hospitals and electrical grids. While the conflict has been at a stalemate for some time, with Russia controlling roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory, Mr. Putin has far greater reserves of soldiers and firepower.

This latest attack involved dozens of small, first-person view drones. Hidden in large container units with retractable roofs, the drones were designed to circumvent Russia’s sophisticated air defenses. They were reportedly smuggled in, in part by unwitting Russian truck drivers who thought they were delivering building materials and drove their loaded trucks straight onto remote Russian bases.

By keeping its aircraft out of range of Ukrainian strikes, Russia had presumed its air assets – some of which were kept more than 2,600 miles from the border – were safe. There are also indications that the attack’s targets included Russia’s Northern Fleet headquarters, where nuclear submarines are docked.
Echoes of previous stealth attacks

Operation Spider’s Web echoed Ukraine’s 2023 attack using drones and missiles that destroyed an estimated one-third of Russia’s Black Sea assets, forcing Moscow to relocate its fleet farther east.

In terms of its tradecraft, Operation Spider’s Web resembled the Israeli Mossad’s pager attack on Hezbollah last year, in which Israeli intelligence replaced Hezbollah fighters’ regular pagers with devices containing explosives. That attack killed top Hezbollah leaders and sowed widespread uncertainty within its ranks.

“Achieving a surprise effect like this will create so much distrust and uncertainty inside Russia,” General Hodges says. “You can imagine it would’ve been no fun to come into the office in Moscow to explain how truckloads of Ukrainian quadcopters got so deep into multiple bases inside Russia.”

Pro-war Russian bloggers, for their part, have dubbed the attack “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” and are urging that retaliation on Ukraine be punishing.

Despite Moscow’s efforts to downplay the damage, many of Mr. Putin’s supporters, in decrying the operation, could not help but point to its success.

The attack will discredit Russian security services and create “colossal tension” in Russian society, one popular pro-Kremlin blogger predicted.

That is in keeping with Ukraine’s aims, analysts say. It also forges one more potential path, they add, toward an end to the war.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 2:59 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Trump Breaks Silence On Brazen Ukraine Drone Op In Lengthy Putin Call

Wednesday, Jun 04, 2025 - 10:20 AM

After two days of deafening silence from the White House on Ukraine's Sunday massive drone assault, dubbed 'Operation Spider's Web' - which took out many key Russian aircraft, including long-range strategic bombers and likely even Russia's extremely rare A-50 Radar Plane - President Trump has finally reacted publicly.

The president revealed he has held a phone call with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, which significantly lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. Trump warned that peace is not very close on the horizon and that the two leaders covered several pressing issues in their conversation.

"We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides." Trump went on to call it a good conversation, however "not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace."

That's when Trump clarified that "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."

MORE AT
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-breaks-silence-brazen-ukr
aine-drone-op-long-putin-call

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 3:16 PM

Zelensky is a dead man.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 6:07 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Lindsay Graham is running around negotiating with foreign leaders. Something a Senator doesn't have authority to do, in contravention to Trump's stated foreign policy, and a violation of the Logan Act.

******

Now, AFA "Ukraine's" attack on Russia's nuclear assets: This was planned under the Biden administration. It breaks the START III treaty, is a HUGE red line, and under Russian nuclear policy could justify a nuclear response.

In other words, it's a ginormous foreign policy fuckup. I'm sure Putin schooled Trump about that during their 1 1/2 hr phone conversation.

But here's the thing:

If Trump knew about it, that's bad. Really stupid, really dangerous, and really bad. We have his tweet about Russia "playing with fire" and that "bad things" would be happening except for Trump. Next day Graham goes to Kiev. Day following ... BOOM. NOT a good look for Trump. Seriously, who the fuck is Trump listening to? Is he being played?

If Trump DIDN'T know about it, that's bad too bc ... then, who's running the show?? The CIA ops group? Lindsay Graham? Keith Kellogg? Marco Rubio? BlackRock? Holdover neocons and spooks from the Biden admin? All of the above?

If Trump keeps fucking up, that's going to be the end of his leadership of the MAGA movement.

I don't get why Trump keeps pushing the Kellogg plan. I think Kellogg keeps promising Trump that Russia can be forced to accept the plan because... Russia's army is experiencing unsustainable losses ... the Russian economy is on the verge of cracking ... Putin is hanging on by his fingernails ... all we need to do is apply a little more pressure ... provoke Russia into a reaction that excuses those "bone crushing" tariffs on 3rd parties that Graham is lusting for. (I think that's what these attacks on Russua are all about.)

But everything Kellogg promised so far is shit, bc Kellogg's understanding of everything is shit.

Personally, I think Trump should tell Kellogg to sit down and STFU.

And as far as Graham is concerned, I think he should be charged with violating the Logan act and sedition, and investigated.

But Trump isn't a strong leader, and not willing to face that firestorm of criticism.

Trump has really fucked up his involvement with Ukraine, and he's a terribly indecisive leader who's trying to ride two horses with one ass, and play the NYC wheeler-dealer when he's got no cards to play.

The Kremlin will do something big in response to the attack on its nuclear assets and there's nothing we should do about it.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 7:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Bullshit opinion masquerading as fact.

TRUMP!! RUSSIA!!RUSSIA!! COLLUSION!! INVESTIGATE!!

Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

Didn't we do this already, already?

/snicker

Ukraine doesn't trust Trump with their war plans.

T

Not Telling Trump #jamescarville #ukraine #drones

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 7:10 PM