REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Saturday, June 7, 2025 09:51
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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 7:26 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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






That should be what did we do to deserve, Gilligan. Not what did we deserve to be inflicted with.

T




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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:07 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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.






Why should I use your sources lass, when I have plenty of reputable, world-renowned sources of my own. I see what you've posted claiming to be fact. It is mostly propaganda. That garbage comes from your sources. And just because you post a source here to show you have good sources, doesn't mean you use said source.

And don't tell me to step into the real-world lass as though I don't already exist there. It’s you who doesn’t. Or you’d realize I know everything about you through your garden thread.

You and the others have posted everything you do, and everything about yourselves, including medical histories into that thread. Why, because you are not worldly enough to know better.

The only one bubble wrapped here is you and the others who share with each other everything about your lives. Yup, thousands of pages containing all your personal information. Good luck deleting it all should you chose to. If you start now, you guys may be done by Christmas.

If I were the person, you Jack and some others say I am, I would have dismantled you guys using your personal info a long time ago. Instead, I’ve been decent about it, only posting shit there when people did similar too threads, I’d created. I left the personal shit out.

I’ve had enough of Jacks shit. He said something including “dead mother” so I gave him a taste of what I could post if provoked. I'm sure he wasn't happy about it.

Sorry, I've been in a bad mood lately. Maybe you should tread lightly around me for a bit.

T






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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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.






Why should I use your sources lass, when I have plenty of reputable, world-renowned sources of my own. I see what you've posted claiming to be fact. It is mostly propaganda. That garbage comes from your sources. And just because you post a source here to show you have good sources, doesn't mean you use said source.

And don't tell me to step into the real-world lass as though I don't already exist there. It’s you who doesn’t. Or you’d realize I know everything about you through your garden thread.

You and the others have posted everything you do, and everything about yourselves, including medical histories into that thread. Why, because you are not worldly enough to know better.

The only one bubble wrapped here is you and the others who share with each other everything about your lives. Yup, thousands of pages containing all your personal information. Good luck deleting it all should you chose to. If you start now, you guys may be done by Christmas.

If I were the person, you Jack and some others say I am, I would have dismantled you guys using your personal info a long time ago. Instead, I’ve been decent about it, only posting shit there when people did similar too threads, I’d created. I left the personal shit out.

I’ve had enough of Jacks shit. He said something including “dead mother” so I gave him a taste of what I could post if provoked. I'm sure he wasn't happy about it.

Sorry, I've been in a bad mood lately. Maybe you should tread lightly around me for a bit.

T








Shut the fuck up.

The world is done with you, Ted.

And fuck your dead failure of a mother too.



Don't you fucking dare threaten an old woman like that. She's got enough on her plate.

You want to be a big man, you come right at me.


Do your worst, faggot.

Nothing but empty threats out of you and Second all the time.

Come at me. See what happens to you.

Don't say you weren't warned.

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

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

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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:28 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut the fuck up.

The world is done with you, Ted.

And fuck your dead failure of a mother too.





You write with the emotions of a third grader Gilligan. And at least I knew my mother. Not sure you knew yours. Or was she a drunk too? She was, wasn't she?

T


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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:31 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Read it again. I will bury you. Don't come at Sigs. Come at me, pussy.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:42 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Read it again. I will bury you. Don't come at Sigs. Come at me, pussy.





Comrade signym posted a bunch of shit designed to insult me. You must not have read it. And I respond to whom I chose Gilligan.

T


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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Read it again. I will bury you. Don't come at Sigs. Come at me, pussy.





Comrade signym posted a bunch of shit designed to insult me. You must not have read it. And I respond to whom I chose Gilligan.

T




I don't give a single fuck who insulted who. Your mere presence before us every day is an insult to our intelligence.

You are laying down threats now. You are threatening people. You are implying the possibilites ranging anywhere from taking people's lives out of context in an attempt to discredit or insult them, to an attempt at your part to blackmail, manipulate or extort them with their post history. One of these people is an Elderly Woman taking care of an adult disabled daughter not too far off from being a senior herself, and a husband who is having a harder time pulling his own weight every year.

What is wrong with you?


I would suggest that you go back and read my post history. Get a really, really good feel for it. Understand it. Understand the lion's den that you're standing in front of and what it means if you take that first step.

There is no going back, son.


Up until now, you've been nothing but a gnat in my presence.

You have absolutely no idea what I am capable of if you make that decision to make yourself a true enemy of mine.



I would advise you against replying to this post and you just sleep on this for a night or two before you do.

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

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

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Wednesday, June 4, 2025 9:00 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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.


THGR: Why should I use your sources lass, when I have plenty of reputable, world-renowned sources of my own.

Because your "reputable, world-renowned sources" have been proven wrong (at best) and liars (at worst) over and over again? Yanno, maybe THAT'S a good reason to not trust them?

Quote:

I see what you've posted claiming to be fact. It is mostly propaganda. That garbage comes from your sources. And just because you post a source here to show you have good sources, doesn't mean you use said source.
Of course I use those sources! I even post links! YOU could use those sources, too! I especially refer you to Military Summary channel. Dima's heart is really with Ukraine but he's not in the habit of ignoring events.

Quote:

And don't tell me to step into the real-world lass as though I don't already exist there. It’s you who doesn’t. Or you’d realize I know everything about you through your garden thread.

You and the others have posted everything you do, and everything about yourselves, including medical histories into that thread. Why, because you are not worldly enough to know better.

What are you going to do with a medical history?? Harass me about it online like SECOND does? Unless you wanted to do something truly criminal, there's not that much "there" there. And I don't believe you're a criminal, or a sociopath.

Quote:

The only one bubble wrapped here is you and the others who share with each other everything about your lives. Yup, thousands of pages containing all your personal information. Good luck deleting it all should you chose to. If you start now, you guys may be done by Christmas.

If I were the person, you Jack and some others say I am...



What have I said you are? Think back, and try not to conflate me with SIX.

Quote:

... I would have dismantled you guys using your personal info a long time ago. Instead, I’ve been decent about it, only posting shit there when people did similar too threads, I’d created. I left the personal shit out.
Well, FWIW I can't imagine you dismantling me online unless you want to do something truly criminal. There isn't much there to pick on.

And I never thought you were criminal, just gullible when it comes to the "establishment" media.

Quote:

I’ve had enough of Jacks shit. He said something including “dead mother” so I gave him a taste of what I could post if provoked. I'm sure he wasn't happy about it.

Sorry, I've been in a bad mood lately. Maybe you should tread lightly around me for a bit.




Huh. Missed that exchange. Maybe for the best.
Sigh.
Ok, then, thanks for the warning.

Whatever is causing the bad mood I hope resolves.



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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Thursday, June 5, 2025 3:37 AM

SECOND

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


Putin's Ukraine War Pandora's Box He Can't Close

On the one hand, the brazenness of the attack undermines Putin’s legitimacy as Russia’s leader. Who, but an incompetent, would permit such a disaster to happen on his watch? On the other hand, the attack underscores the rottenness of Putin’s political and military systems.

The Ukrainians smuggled in over 100 drones, placed them in trucks driven by Russians who appear not to have known what they were transporting, and directed the whole operation from a site near a local Russian Security Service headquarters.

Clearly, a vast array of Russian officials weren’t doing their jobs.

Russia’s political, security, and economic elites know that Putin and his system have failed and that he’s got to do something to reestablish his authority.

But what? And when?

Some unhinged Russians have called for retaliation with nuclear weapons, but even Putin knows that would immediately transform Russia into a pariah.

A large-scale attack against Ukrainian cities and civilians would be doable, but the problem is that it’s been done many times before and would rather be interpreted as a sign, not of strength, but of weakness.

That leaves targeting some Ukrainian military installations, but figuring out how to overcome their defenses could take time. Ideally, he should have retaliated immediately after the strike—but he didn’t. If he waits too long, he risks alienating Russian elites. If he hurries, he risks doing something stupid that could end in a military embarrassment and loss of face.

Putin’s pickle is Russia’s pickle. The Ukrainian attack demonstrated that Ukraine is far from defeated and that Mother Russia may be on the slippery slope to disaster.

Her son, Putin, started the war. She may end it by losing.

Written By Alexander Motyl

Dr. Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. He is a specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR.

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/russia-could-lose-putin-has-no-way
-out-of-the-ukraine-war
/

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

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Thursday, June 5, 2025 3:49 AM

SECOND

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


The Kremlin is fixating on recent train derailments in Russia in order to further long-standing Kremlin narratives claiming that Ukraine is an illegitimate negotiating partner that is uninterested in peace, likely to distract the broader information space from recent Kremlin officials' statements about Russia's own disinterest in a negotiated settlement. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with members of the Russian government on June 4 and discussed the May 31 collapse of two railway bridges in Kursk and Bryansk oblasts.[1] The meeting included a staged statement from a children's doctor who promoted the Kremlin's longstanding justifications for its initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian Investigative Committee Head Alexander Bastrykin claimed during the meeting that Ukrainian special services "without a doubt" conducted an operation to down railway bridges in Kursk and Bryansk oblasts on May 31, but did not present concrete evidence to link the collapsed bridges to Ukraine. Putin claimed that the train derailments confirm that the "already illegitimate" Ukrainian government that previously "seized power" is "gradually degenerating into a terrorist organization." Putin questioned if Russia can negotiate with "terrorists" and questioned why Russia should agree to Ukraine's proposed 30-day or longer ceasefires, claiming that Ukraine will use the ceasefires to continue to receive Western weapons provisions, mobilize military personnel, and prepare "other terrorist acts." Putin claimed that the Ukrainian government "does not need peace at all" and values power over peace. Russian Presidential Aide Yuriy Ushakov stated that Putin later emphasized Ukraine's alleged "terrorism" during a phone call on June 4 with US President Donald Trump.[2] Ushakov repeated Putin's claim that Ukraine has "degenerated into a terrorist organization."

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-4-2025


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

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Thursday, June 5, 2025 11:04 AM

SECOND

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


Exclusive: Ukraine could face 500+ Russian drones a night as Kremlin builds new launch sites

By Kollen Post | June 4, 2025 4:42 PM

https://kyivindependent.com/exclusive-ukraine-could-face-500-russian-d
rones-a-night-as-kremlin-builds-new-launch-sites
/

Their effectiveness — those neither shot down nor lost en route to the targets — has increased over the past six months due to modifications to the drones themselves, as well as how they are deployed.

An increasing number of new Russian-made deep-strike drones are being equipped with jet engines, allowing them to carry heavier payloads at higher speeds and altitudes.

Almost all of Russia’s deep-strike drones are divided into three similar varieties — Iranian-made imported Shaheds, which have been in use since late 2022, Russian-made Gerans, which are direct copies of Shaheds, and more recently Garpiya-A1s, which look similar but use Chinese parts.

There are also inexpensive "dummy drones," or Gerbers, which resemble Shaheds but do not carry explosives.

----------

Ukraine's intelligence: Russia produces around 170 Shahed drones daily, aims to increase output

By Yevheniia Hubina | Wednesday, 4 June 2025, 17:17

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/06/4/7515633/

As of May 2025, Russia has reached a daily production rate of approximately 170 Shahed loitering munitions and decoy drones, with plans to increase output to 190 per day by the end of the year, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (DIU) has reported.

The explosive payload has increased from 50 to 90 kg. Some drones are now equipped with Starlink terminals, allowing real-time remote control.

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

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Thursday, June 5, 2025 2:49 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


And what about Ukraine's strike on Russia's NUCLEAR assets?

Russian policy REQUIRES a strategic response in that situation.

Is this Putin's "Oreshnik moment"?

Some talking heads say no. The drone strike, as dramatic as it was, apparently did little damage and Russia counts that as acceptable war losses. Other planes were parked at those bases, and in any case the "air" leg of the triad isnt all that important to Russia. Russia, they say, is responding to the deliberate targeting of a passanger train and civilian freight train as terrorism (which it is) but putting the drone attack in the background.

Others say that Russia is calling the drone strikes a "terrorist attack" (along with the attacks on civilian trains) NOT bc they honestly believe it to be terrorism but because it allows them to avoid that clause in their nuclear doctrine that requires a strategic strike.

I think the second interpretation is probably correct. Russia is, if nothing else, very legalistic. When Putin was asked DIRECTLY whether Russia would launch Oreshniks, he said "not yet", it depends on what Trump does. What Russia thinks Trump can, or should, do IDK.

A wrinkle in the proceedings is that Russia has a LEGAL requirement not to negotiate with terrorists. By saying that Kiev is devolving into a terrorist regime, along with its sponsors, they seem to be ruling out negotiations with anyone in the current Kiev government.

One thing is certain: A 30-day ceasefire is out of the question.

CONFLICTING VIEWS



The youtube link to the Dialogue Works video isn't working, but go here and look for the ORESHNIK MOMENT video
https://www.youtube.com/@dialogueworks01/streams

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Thursday, June 5, 2025 3:38 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Hey SIX, thanks for defending me. IDK what the original post was that set THGR off, but it's nice to know someone is in my corner.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Thursday, June 5, 2025 3:45 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Hey SIX, thanks for defending me. IDK what the original post was that set THGR off, but it's nice to know someone is in my corner.






Yeah, thanks Gilligan.

T


PUTIN FURIOUS After Attacks On Russia's Nuclear Force!



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Thursday, June 5, 2025 4:54 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey SIX, thanks for defending me. IDK what the original post was that set THGR off, but it's nice to know someone is in my corner.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA




I got your back against either of these worthless chodes. Don't you worry about that.

And if Ted ever wants to graduate beyond being a stupid asshole saying stupid shit to actually attempting to cause either of us any real life problems, let's just say I've got a lot of free time on my hands and I've been looking for another project.

I will destroy what little is left of Ted's life if he tries anything.





And I particularly liked this sad little bit at the end of his insane, threat-laden rant last night...

Quote:

Sorry, I've been in a bad mood lately. Maybe you should tread lightly around me for a bit.


I bet you are Ted. I bet you're damn near suicidal right now.

No. Nobody is treading lightly around you because you are a worthless fuck stick who would never show anybody else that same consideration.

If you're in a bad mood because the world you thought you were living in no longer exists and that's finally dawning on you, then you just go run and hide for 3 weeks like you did after you lost the election.

Nobody gives a fuck about your feelings. Not even your dead whore of a mother did.

Get the fuck out of here with your stupid ass. We're through with you.

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

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

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Thursday, June 5, 2025 6:02 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



Quote:


PUTIN FURIOUS After Attacks On Russia's Nuclear Force!





Well, if he is he's got good reason to be. Planes parked in the open by START treaty requirement. It's a good thing he doesn't go off halfcocked like our neocons ... including Linsday Graham.

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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Thursday, June 5, 2025 6:43 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:


PUTIN FURIOUS After Attacks On Russia's Nuclear Force!




Well, if he is he's got good reason to be. Planes parked in the open by START treaty requirement. It's a good thing he doesn't go off halfcocked like our neocons ... including Linsday Graham.






I'm not surprised anymore about your lack of forthrightness. These bombers were used to bomb women and children. Hospitals and schools' comrade. If there was an agreement like you say, it doesn't mean they get a free pass. It doesn't mean they can bomb a city and be guaranteed safety when in Russia.

As a matter of fact, they fire their ordinance, i.e. missiles, from inside Russia. And it's a stupid argument to suggest they are untouchable. Don't look now but your bias towards Putin is showing.

T


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Thursday, June 5, 2025 7:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Shut up, Ted.

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

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

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Thursday, June 5, 2025 8:53 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.




Quote:

THG:
PUTIN FURIOUS After Attacks On Russia's Nuclear Force!

SIGNY:
Well, if he is he's got good reason to be. Planes parked in the open by START treaty requirement. It's a good thing he doesn't go off halfcocked like our neocons ... including Linsday Graham.

THG:
I'm not surprised anymore about your lack of forthrightness. These bombers were used to bomb women and children. Hospitals and schools' comrade.

SIGNY:
No, they weren't. Unlike Ukraine, Russia targets weapons, military installations, warehouses, command centers etc., NOT civilians.

THG:
If there was an agreement like you say, it doesn't mean they get a free pass. It doesn't mean they can bomb a city and be guaranteed safety when in Russia.

Well, there is an agreement, it's called the New START Treaty, and yes, it means Russia's nuclear assets are supposed to be protected.
Quote:

Russia's nuclear triad includes strategic bombers such as the Tu-160 (Blackjack) and Tu-95MS (Bear H)


I agree that Russia can't expect to use bombers in Ukraine and have them protected by treaty, but ...

Quote:

THG:
As a matter of fact, they fire their ordinance, i.e. missiles, from inside Russia. And it's a stupid argument to suggest they are untouchable. Don't look now but your bias towards Putin is showing.

The TU95s used for launching KH101s are NOT the same as the nuclear asset TU95MS. The TU95MS is highly modernized, so it's extremely unlikely that Russia would be using those assets for striking Ukraine.
Just FYI.

And if I can figure that out by going to Wikipedia, so can Kiev, and so can you.



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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Friday, June 6, 2025 6:38 AM

SECOND

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


Russian forces are sustaining an average casualty rate of 1,140 personnel per day, of whom nearly 975 are killed in action (KIA) – a much higher number of killed than the standard one-to-three KIA-to-wounded-in-action (WIA) ratio.[1]

Ukrainian Presidential Office Deputy Head Pavlo Palisa stated on June 4 that Russia seized only 0.4 percent of Ukraine's total territory in 2024 and just 0.2 percent thus far in 2025.[4] Palisa stated that Russia is suffering roughly 167 casualties per square kilometer of advance.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-5-2025


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

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Friday, June 6, 2025 9:11 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Quote:

THG:
PUTIN FURIOUS After Attacks On Russia's Nuclear Force!

SIGNY:
Well, if he is he's got good reason to be. Planes parked in the open by START treaty requirement. It's a good thing he doesn't go off halfcocked like our neocons ... including Linsday Graham.

THG:
I'm not surprised anymore about your lack of forthrightness. These bombers were used to bomb women and children. Hospitals and schools' comrade.

SIGNY:
No, they weren't. Unlike Ukraine, Russia targets weapons, military installations, warehouses, command centers etc., NOT civilians.

THG:
If there was an agreement like you say, it doesn't mean they get a free pass. It doesn't mean they can bomb a city and be guaranteed safety when in Russia.

Well, there is an agreement, it's called the New START Treaty, and yes, it means Russia's nuclear assets are supposed to be protected.
Quote:

Russia's nuclear triad includes strategic bombers such as the Tu-160 (Blackjack) and Tu-95MS (Bear H)


I agree that Russia can't expect to use bombers in Ukraine and have them protected by treaty, but ...

Quote:

THG:
As a matter of fact, they fire their ordinance, i.e. missiles, from inside Russia. And it's a stupid argument to suggest they are untouchable. Don't look now but your bias towards Putin is showing.

The TU95s used for launching KH101s are NOT the same as the nuclear asset TU95MS. The TU95MS is highly modernized, so it's extremely unlikely that Russia would be using those assets for striking Ukraine.
Just FYI.

And if I can figure that out by going to Wikipedia, so can Kiev, and so can you.






Let me start by saying sorry. I'm about to destroy your argument above. It looks like you put a lot of hard work into it. Unfortunately for you it's nonsense.

Comrade, the bombers have a dual purpose. But be that as it may, you conveniently forget, “Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in 1994 in exchange for safety from a U.S. or Russian invasion. And If I remember correctly, the SALT treaty expired and Russia is at war with Ukraine.

In 1994, Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. signed the Budapest Memorandum.” Which was after the START treaty signed in July, 91. So, any agreement about the nuclear capable bombers was null and void the moment Russia entered Ukraine in 2014. And to quote you comrade "And if I can figure that out by going to Wikipedia, so can Kiev, and so can you."


But what’s the larger issue here? What has always been the larger issue here at Fireflyfans? You comrade, your behavior comrade, and yes, the behavior of all of us here.

All your posts deny the truth. All your posts ignoring and denying Putins’ war crimes land squarely on your head. Those posts tell the story of you comrade.

The story of the inhumane, void of compassion characteristic you share with Putin. A characteristic directed at innocent Ukrainians. Also, women, children and civilians in Syria and other areas of global tensions.

And that comrade, is what the issue at Fireflyfans has always been; our humanity. When it comes to that, you fall flat. You fail at that miserably.

T


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Friday, June 6, 2025 10:05 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


And once again we come to your fundamental issue: you believe the establishment media.

90%, if not more, of how you "see" the world is hogwash.

Russian war crimes?
Russian aggression?
Trump- Russia collusion?
Hogwash, hogwash, and more hogwash.

Here's the truth: son.
Since WWII the biggest war criminal has been the USA.
Russia hasn't moved its borders towards NATO, NATO expanded to Russia.
There was no "collusion" between Trump and Russia, no "kompromat", no secret communication between Trump Tower and Russia, none of the bullshit that you (and others) were frothing about. It was all fabricated. A lie.

Here are a few more whoppers:
The 'Golden Dome" will work.
Joe Biden was mentally competent.
We were "winning the war" in Afghanistan.
There were WMD in Iraq.
Assad was "gassing his own people"
Qaddafi was "massacring his own people"
Toppling an elected government is not a coup.
Israel is our ally in the Middle East.

All of the clusterfucks, the people we killed, the smoking ruins that we left behind were all based on those lies.

With THAT kind of history of misinformation by our media, how can you NOT reassess what you think about the world?

Yanno, maybe Putin really is just a great leader who brought Russia back from the grave and is only looking after Russia's border security?
Maybe extreme financialism always leads poverty for most?
Maybe Zionist Israelis are just another fucking nutty extremist middle east religion?
Maybe the answer to the China problem is for our government to pull up its pants, stop catering to the 0.01%, and start directing investment away from the military and speculation, and towards agricultural, industry, infrastructure, and healthcare for all?
Maybe we should stop trying to control everybody everywhere, and mind our own business?

I was once like you. I believed as you believe. But Vietnam opened my eyes and I haven't been able to close them since.


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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Friday, June 6, 2025 10:24 AM

THG


I'm certainly not going to repost that garbled mess above signym. Instead I'll leave you with this.

Subjective bullshit comrade. You’ve convinced yourself over the years it works; it doesn’t. What you’ve posted is off topic. It's you, going to your computer and selecting and copying an old rant, and reposting it.

It is you rambling and having a hissy fit. Lass, you are trying to insert injustices and media snatched out of thin air to deflect from our posts. It's more whataboutism.

What is most obvious, is you don’t address what I posted about your claim of provisions in the SALT agreement. And by extension, Ukraine's right to defend itself.

You’re a joke. Hey, maybe I’ve misspelled a word or two comrade so you can attempt to save face by pointing that out? Too funny, and so childish.

T


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Friday, June 6, 2025 11:41 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You and your 15 never-ending tick tock threads chronicling the slow death of the Democratic Party is the joke, son.

That and your never-ending obsession with Russia and Ukraine when absolutely nobody gives a fuck.

Your twitter weirdo co-horts stopped putting Ukraine flags in their bio YEARS before they stopped putting the gay pride flags in their bio every June.

Nobody cared back then. Not really. And it's been YEARS since any of them even bothered to pretend they care anymore.

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

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

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Friday, June 6, 2025 12:13 PM

THG


What are you attempting to say Gilligan? Cause your attempt is failing miserably.

T


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Friday, June 6, 2025 3:14 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
I'm certainly not going to repost that garbled mess above signym. Instead I'll leave you with this.

Subjective bullshit comrade. You’ve convinced yourself over the years it works; it doesn’t. What you’ve posted is off topic. It's you, going to your computer and selecting and copying an old rant, and reposting it.

It is you rambling and having a hissy fit. Lass, you are trying to insert injustices and media snatched out of thin air to deflect from our posts. It's more whataboutism.

What is most obvious, is you don’t address what I posted about your claim of provisions in the SALT agreement. And by extension, Ukraine's right to defend itself.

You’re a joke. Hey, maybe I’ve misspelled a word or two comrade so you can attempt to save face by pointing that out? Too funny, and so childish.



You think that's a "rant"?
My first list is just a list of our most recent, historically known, and widely accepted foreign policy "mistakes".

It's history, son. Just plain, factual history, and denying it puts you in the realm of a flat earther.

Calling it a "rant" is just YOUR avoidance of fact. No wonder you don't want to address it.

*****

So, when our govt keeps making the same "mistake" over, and over, and over ... and over ... and over ... and over .... at some point, they lose the benefit of doubt. At some point, these policies should be moved from category "mistake" to category "deliberate". Yes, we intended to destroy Iraq, Libya, and Syria. And, yes, we intend to destroy Iran and Russia.

AFA SALT: Despite your insistence that Ukraine had nuclear weapons but gave them up ... well, it was decided that since the launch controls were in Russia they were Russian , [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction] merely stationed in Ukraine, and should be returned to Russia for dismantlement.

The agreement to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity was made in the context of assurances from the west that NATO would not expand one inch eastward. If THAT agreement had been respected, or if Ukraine had AT LEAST respected the Minsk agreements, this war would never have been started.

But Russia now has to deal with the threat of NUCLEAR CAPABLE missile launchers in Poland and Romania. And Ukraine, post-coup, clearly agreed to be yet another NATO cat's paw, creating yet another threat on Russia's border.

Well. Another "mistake" on our part, and too bad for Ukraine bc the threat that they pose is about to be eliminated.

And that's not a rant. That's just statement of ugly reality.



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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Friday, June 6, 2025 3:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
What are you attempting to say Gilligan? Cause your attempt is failing miserably.

T




Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You and your 15 never-ending tick tock threads chronicling the slow death of the Democratic Party is the joke, son.

That and your never-ending obsession with Russia and Ukraine when absolutely nobody gives a fuck.

Your twitter weirdo cohorts stopped putting Ukraine flags in their bio YEARS before they stopped putting the gay pride flags in their bio every June.

Nobody cared back then. Not really. And it's been YEARS since any of them even bothered to pretend they care anymore.



Looks pretty basic to me.

Your 3rd grade reading level is the bottleneck here. Demand your money back.

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

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

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Saturday, June 7, 2025 6:05 AM

SECOND

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


Russia’s Battlefield Woes in Ukraine

By Seth G. Jones and Riley McCabe | June 3, 2025

https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine

The Issue

Russian military forces have failed to advance along multiple axes in Ukraine effectively, seized limited territory, lost substantial quantities of equipment relative to Ukraine, and suffered remarkably high rates of fatalities and casualties since January 2024, according to new CSIS data. While some policymakers and experts argue that Russia holds “all the cards” in the Ukraine war, the data suggests that the Russian military has performed relatively poorly on the battlefield.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russia is decisively winning on the battlefield: “Overall, we can clearly see what is happening right now. Our troops have the strategic initiative along the entire contact line.” He continued that “we have reason to believe that we are set to finish them off. I think that people in Ukraine need to realize what is going on.”4 Andrei Kartapolov, head of the defense committee in the Duma, Russia’s lower legislative chamber, followed Putin’s comments with threats that if Ukraine did not accede to Russia’s maximalist demands in peace negotiations, Ukrainian leaders would be forced to listen to “the language of the Russian bayonet.”5

To better understand the state of the war and Russia’s battlefield performance, this analysis asks: How successful has the Russian military been in achieving the Kremlin’s objectives? What factors have contributed to this outcome? To answer these questions, this assessment examines several indicators of Russia’s battlefield performance: the relative rate of advance of Russian forces, the size of Russian territorial gains, the scope of equipment losses, and fatality and overall casualty rates. The evidence suggests that Russia has largely failed to achieve its primary objectives and has suffered high costs.

First, Russian forces have advanced an average of only 50 meters per day in such areas as Kharkiv, slower than during the Somme offensive in World War I, where French and British forces advanced an average of 80 meters per day. Russian rates of advance have also been significantly slower than during such offensives as Galicia in 1914 (1,580 meters per day), Gorzia in 1916 (500 meters), Belleau Wood in 1918 (410 meters), Leningrad in 1943 (1,000 meters), and Kursk-Oboyan in 1943 (3,220 meters). Even Russia’s rate of advance in parts of Donetsk Oblast, averaging 135 meters per day, has been remarkably slow.

Second, Russia’s seizure of approximately 5,000 square kilometers of territory in Ukraine since January 2024 has been paltry, amounting to less than 1 percent of Ukrainian territory, and has occurred mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv Oblasts. Russia’s marginal gains are particularly noteworthy compared to its conquest of 120,000 square kilometers during the first five weeks of the war and Ukraine’s recapture of 50,000 square kilometers in the spring of 2022.

Much more at https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine

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

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Saturday, June 7, 2025 6:12 AM

SECOND

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


Russia's Central Bank lowered its key interest rate for the first time since September 2022, likely prematurely due to increased Kremlin pressure to project economic stability. The Russian Central Bank announced on June 6 that it had lowered its key interest rate from a 22-year high of 21 percent to 20 percent.[37]

ISW has observed reports of rising tensions between Kremlin officials and the Central Bank, namely between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Central Bank Chairperson Elvira Nabiullina, over Russia's compounding economic constraints related to sanctions and labor shortages that very likely factored into the Central Bank's decision.[38] The Kremlin intensified pressure on Nabiullina to lower the key interest rate from 21 percent and maintain the facade that Russia's economy is stable. Putin postured the Russian economy as "stable and reliable" in December 2024, soon after Nabiullina raised the key interest rate to 21 percent – the highest since 2003 – in October 2024 to combat rising inflation rates and blamed Nabiullina for mishandling rising interest rates.[39] ISW observed unverified reports in March 2025 of a federal audit of the Central Bank, and Russian officials indicated in the days leading up to the announcement that they "expect" the Central Bank to lower the key interest rate.[40]

The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that the Russian inflation rate hovered around nine to 10 percent, when the actual figure is likely closer to 20 percent as of March 2025.[41] The Kremlin's efforts to pressure the Central Bank into prematurely lowering its key interest rate to maintain the facade of economic stability will likely drive further economic instability and contribute to elevated levels of inflation.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-june-6-2025


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

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Saturday, June 7, 2025 7:43 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Oh, BTW THGR, I forgot to address this: SALT may be dead, but Russian nuclear assets are protected under the START treaty signed in 2010.

START, not SALT. Russia suspended inspections in 2023 but continues to abide by other terms of the treaty, including numeric limits and transparent placement of planes.

And your assertion that Russia would risk its highly modernized nuclear fleet for tactical operations .... well, that's just your assertion, but it makes no sense. Especially when Russia has so many older versions available.


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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Saturday, June 7, 2025 8:16 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Russia’s Battlefield Woes in Ukraine

By Seth G. Jones and Riley McCabe | June 3, 2025

https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine

The Issue

Russian military forces have failed to advance along multiple axes in Ukraine effectively, seized limited territory, lost substantial quantities of equipment relative to Ukraine, and suffered remarkably high rates of fatalities and casualties since January 2024, according to new CSIS data. While some policymakers and experts argue that Russia holds “all the cards” in the Ukraine war, the data suggests that the Russian military has performed relatively poorly on the battlefield.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russia is decisively winning on the battlefield: “Overall, we can clearly see what is happening right now. Our troops have the strategic initiative along the entire contact line.” He continued that “we have reason to believe that we are set to finish them off. I think that people in Ukraine need to realize what is going on.”4 Andrei Kartapolov, head of the defense committee in the Duma, Russia’s lower legislative chamber, followed Putin’s comments with threats that if Ukraine did not accede to Russia’s maximalist demands in peace negotiations, Ukrainian leaders would be forced to listen to “the language of the Russian bayonet.”5

To better understand the state of the war and Russia’s battlefield performance, this analysis asks: How successful has the Russian military been in achieving the Kremlin’s objectives?



Well, what ARE Russia's primary objectives? A lot of western "analysts" likevto substitute their own statements in place of what the Kremlin said repeatedly, so as a refresher here they are

Neutrality
Denazification
Demilitarization
Protecting the rights of Russian speaking people in Ukraine

And since five oblasts have been folded into Russia, that includes taking full control of those oblasts up to their current borders.

To continue ....

Quote:

What factors have contributed to this outcome? To answer these questions, this assessment examines several indicators of Russia’s battlefield performance: the relative rate of advance of Russian forces, the size of Russian territorial gains, the scope of equipment losses, and fatality and overall casualty rates. The evidence suggests that Russia has largely failed to achieve its primary objectives and has suffered high costs.

First, Russian forces have advanced an average of only 50 meters per day in such areas as Kharkiv,

NOT PART OF RUSSIA'S OBJECTIVES
Quote:

slower than during the Somme offensive in World War I, where French and British forces advanced an average of 80 meters per day. Russian rates of advance have also been significantly slower than during such offensives as Galicia in 1914 (1,580 meters per day), Gorzia in 1916 (500 meters), Belleau Wood in 1918 (410 meters), Leningrad in 1943 (1,000 meters), and Kursk-Oboyan in 1943 (3,220 meters). Even Russia’s rate of advance in parts of Donetsk Oblast, averaging 135 meters per day, has been remarkably slow.
Speedy war? NOT AN OBJECTIVE

Quote:

Second, Russia’s seizure of approximately 5,000 square kilometers of territory in Ukraine since January 2024 has been paltry, amounting to less than 1 percent of Ukrainian territory, and has occurred mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv Oblasts.
Taking control of all of Ukraine? NOT AN OBJECTIVE

Quote:

Russia’s marginal gains are particularly noteworthy compared to its conquest of 120,000 square kilometers during the first five weeks of the war and Ukraine’s recapture of 50,000 square kilometers in the spring of 2022.


Much more at https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine

The "analysis" misrepresents Russian objectives, confuses battlefield strategy with objectives, and misrepresents Russian losses.

I've already restated Russia's objectives, and "taking territory" isn't one of them.
They intend to meet their objectives thru attritional battle. That means attriting the enemy even if Russian troops withdraw tactically to draw Ukrainian troops into a pre-targeted kill zone. As long as the enemy is being "neutralized" at a rate much faster than their own forces, they're happy to advance at a slow pace.

There was also a fatuous comment that Russia is losing equipment faster than Ukraine. Well, Ukraine doesn't have much equipment left to lose. That's why they're fighting primarily with drones.



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

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA


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Saturday, June 7, 2025 8:17 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, BTW THGR, I forgot to address this: SALT may be dead, but Russian nuclear assets are protected under the START treaty signed in 2010.

START, not SALT. Russia suspended inspections in 2023 but continues to abide by other terms of the treaty, including numeric limits and transparent placement of planes.

And your assertion that Russia would risk its highly modernized nuclear fleet for tactical operations .... well, that's just your assertion, but it makes no sense. Especially when Russia has so many older versions available.

Maybe Russia should punish Ukraine for breaking the treaty? Perhaps by invading Ukraine or bombing Ukraine with drones and missiles?

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

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Saturday, June 7, 2025 9:08 AM

SECOND

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


The Ukrainians’ New Way of War

The audacious drone attack deep into Russia’s rear fits a larger pattern of wartime innovation.

By Christian Caryl, the former Moscow bureau chief for Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.

June 6, 2025, 5:25 AM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/06/ukraine-russia-war-drone-attack-a
irbase-bombers
/

In the fall of 2022, Kyiv faced a difficult problem. The Russians were bombarding Ukrainian cities with swarms of Iranian Shahed drones. The challenge was spotting them, since their low altitude, small size, and stealthy design made them hard to follow on radar.

A pair of Ukrainian engineers quickly jury-rigged a solution. Today, the country is blanketed with a network of 9,500 microphones mounted on six-foot-tall poles. The microphones, which are attached to cell phones, track the Shaheds by sound (the propeller-driven drones have loud engines) and send that data to a central system that calculates their courses. That information is then passed on to iPad-wielding soldiers in gun trucks that shoot down the slow-moving drones. Each sensor pole in the network costs less than $500—which makes the entire network, known as Sky Fortress, cheaper than a pair of Patriot missiles.

I experienced Sky Fortress in action during an extended visit to Kyiv last fall. Shaheds, which sound a lot like lawn mowers in the sky—passed over my apartment building several times. Ukrainian air defenses succeeded in shooting down the majority of them, and they did so at a fraction of the cost of Western-supplied anti-aircraft systems.

All this should explain why I wasn’t entirely surprised when I heard about last weekend’s shrewd Ukrainian drone attack on air bases deep inside Russia. Operation Spiderweb, which appears to have inflicted serious damage on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, brilliantly exemplifies the Ukrainian way of war, born out of Kyiv’s struggle to survive attacks from an enemy with far larger manpower and resources. This disparity has forced the Ukrainians to get creative, bypass traditional bureaucracies, and empower soldiers and entrepreneurs in the search for unorthodox solutions that quickly address battlefield needs. Since it largely ignores traditional military hierarchy and its slow, top-down processes, one might call Ukraine’s new philosophy “flat war.”

Flat war is less a planned strategy than an organic reflection of Ukraine’s predicament. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s defense establishment was still dominated by top-heavy, Soviet-style structures. But military and political leaders quickly shifted to a nimbler approach, bringing private companies directly into the process of developing weapons and giving front-line units greater leeway to develop and procure their own systems. In some ways, that shift reflects the country’s recent political history. Decentralization has been a pillar of reform efforts over the past decade or so, which might explain why it has been embraced so thoroughly by soldiers.

One of the most striking traits of the new philosophy is its emphasis on cost-effectiveness. Each of the 117 drones deployed in Operation Spiderweb cost something in the ballpark of $1,000. Kyiv has said that the attack inflicted billions of dollars of damage on Russia, which could well be true given satellite images confirming that around a dozen Russian bombers were destroyed. No matter the actual figure, the cost-benefit calculation skews dramatically in Ukraine’s favor. And the precise number of lost aircraft doesn’t even begin take into account the broader effects on the Russian economy, which is now being thrown into chaos as paranoid security officials stop every truck on the road in search of more drones.

From a Ukrainian perspective, the most unusual thing about Operation Spiderweb is precisely the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have been directly involved. Today, many of the most vital warfighting decisions are made not by the president’s office or the Ministry of Defense, but at the brigade level—the fundamental building block of the Ukrainian military. Brigades recruit their own soldiers (whom they can divert to technology development work according to their qualifications), liaise directly with companies about the weapons they need, and even manufacture drones in their own 3D-printing facilities. (Zelensky recently said that Ukraine made 2.2 million drones in 2024; the production target for this year is more than double that.)

In the best cases, the flattening of distance between decision-makers and warfighters promotes rapid innovation. Not many militaries in the world would have had the audacity to field a missile-equipped naval drone of the kind that shot down two Russian fighter jets over the Black Sea last month. Operating outside bureaucratic constraints in the months after Russia launched its invasion, Ukrainian tech experts quickly developed an app that allowed troops, spotters, and artillery units to coordinate attacks. Ukrainians have also made remarkable strides in adapting artificial intelligence systems to the battlefield. Kateryna Bondar, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has outlined how some of the drones in Operation Spiderweb used AI applications to hit their targets.

Speed has become a weapon. “Ukraine’s advantage has not been in the individual technologies it has deployed, but in its ability to regularly outpace Russia in the innovation cycle,” wrote Joyce Hakmeh, deputy director of the international security program at Chatham House, in a recent report. And Hakmeh’s right. Ukraine’s strength hasn’t been in developing clever new gadgets, but in exploiting already available solutions and putting them together in innovative ways. (It was the Ukrainians who were the first to realize that they could put 3D-printed fins on mortar shells and drop them from off-the-shelf consumer drones.)

Ukrainians are constantly adapting to the battlefield. Last year, a friend from Kyiv, who works on the development of naval drones, showed me a spreadsheet tracking all naval drone attacks on Russian targets, and it included vital variables like electronic warfare measures used by the enemy. The data, he explained, was constantly being updated in real time and immediately flowing into the calculations of the drone designers.

My friend was working in conjunction with one of the Ukrainian security services, which operate at the cutting edge of flat war. Granted broad latitude by Zelensky, they have prosecuted an audacious program of covert actions against Russia. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which ran the recent attack on the Russian bases, has made a name for itself with targeted assassinations, such as the December killing of a top Russian general in Moscow, possibly with an exploding scooter. The SBU’s rival, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR), has been equally aggressive. It was likely behind the 2023 hit on a former Russian submarine commander, who was killed during his morning jog; his assailants had prepared for the attack by hacking into an exercise app that he used. Just hours after Operation Spiderweb left Russian aircraft in flames, HUR announced that its hackers had infiltrated the computer systems of one of Moscow’s leading aircraft designers.

The United States could learn a lot from Ukraine’s flat war, and plenty of people in the U.S. military know it. The Defense Department’s Replicator program, which aims to produce swarms of cheap drones in direct collaboration with private companies, clearly reflects Ukraine’s experience. So, too, is the Pentagon’s Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies initiative, designed to stimulate innovation by detouring around hidebound procurement procedures. Of course, the U.S. defense establishment isn’t going to mimic everything that Ukraine is doing. But a bit more flatness wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

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

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Saturday, June 7, 2025 9:51 AM

SECOND

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


Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says

Government defence expert Fiona Hill warns UK to respond to threats by becoming more cohesive and resilient

By Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor | Fri 6 Jun 2025 13.32 EDT

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/06/russia-is-at-war-with
-uk-and-us-no-longer-reliable-ally


Russia is at war with Britain, the US is no longer a reliable ally and the UK has to respond by becoming more cohesive and more resilient, according to one of the three authors of the strategic defence review.

Fiona Hill, from County Durham, became the White House’s chief Russia adviser during Donald Trump’s first term and contributed to the British government’s strategy. She made the remarks in an interview with the Guardian.

“We’re in pretty big trouble,” Hill said, describing the UK’s geopolitical situation as caught between “the rock” of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and “the hard place” of Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable US.

Hill, 59, is perhaps the best known of the reviewers appointed by Labour, alongside Lord Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, and the retired general Sir Richard Barrons. She said she was happy to take on the role because it was “such a major pivot point in global affairs”. She remains a dual national after living in the US for more than 30 years.

“Russia has hardened as an adversary in ways that we probably hadn’t fully anticipated,” Hill said, arguing that Putin saw the Ukraine war as a starting point to Moscow becoming “a dominant military power in all of Europe”.

As part of that long-term effort, Russia was already “menacing the UK in various different ways,” she said, citing “the poisonings, assassinations, sabotage operations, all kinds of cyber-attacks and influence operations. The sensors that we see that they’re putting down around critical pipelines, efforts to butcher undersea cables.”

The conclusion, Hill said, was that “Russia is at war with us”. The foreign policy expert, a longtime Russia watcher, said she had first made a similar warning in 2015, in a revised version of a book she wrote about the Russian president with Clifford Gaddy, reflecting on the invasion and annexation of Crimea.

“We said Putin had declared war on the west,” she said. At the time, other experts disagreed, but Hill said events since had demonstrated “he obviously had, and we haven’t been paying attention to it”. The Russian leader, she argues, sees the fight in Ukraine as “part of a proxy war with the United States; that’s how he has persuaded China, North Korea and Iran to join in”.

Putin believed that Ukraine had already been decoupled from the US relationship, Hill said, because “Trump really wants to have a separate relationship with Putin to do arms control agreements and also business that will probably enrich their entourages further, though Putin doesn’t need any more enrichment”.

When it came to defence, however, she said the UK could not rely on the military umbrella of the US as during the cold war and in the generation that followed, at least “not in the way that we did before”. In her description, the UK “is having to manage its number one ally”, though the challenge is not to overreact because “you don’t want to have a rupture”.

This way of thinking appears in the defence review published earlier this week, which says “the UK’s longstanding assumptions about global power balances and structures are no longer certain” – a rare acknowledgment in a British government document of how far and how fast Trumpism is affecting foreign policy certainties.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683d89f181deb72cce2680a
5/The_Strategic_Defence_Review_2025_-_Making_Britain_Safer_-_secure_at_home__strong_abroad.pdf


The review team reported to Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, and the defence secretary, John Healey. Most of Hill’s interaction were with Healey, however, and she said she had met the prime minister only once – describing him as “pretty charming … in a proper and correct way” and as “having read all the papers”.

Hill was not drawn on whether she had advised Starmer or Healey on how to deal with Donald Trump, saying instead: “The advice I would give is the same I would give in a public setting.” She said simply that the Trump White House “is not an administration, it is a court” in which a transactional president is driven by his “own desires and interests, and who listens often to the last person he talks to”.

She added that unlike his close circle, Trump had “a special affinity for the UK” based partly on his own family ties (his mother came from the Hebridean island of Lewis, emigrating to New York aged 18) and an admiration for the royal family, particularly the late queen. “He talked endlessly about that,” she said.

On the other hand, Hill is no fan of the populist right administration in the White House and worries it could come to Britain if “the same culture wars” are allowed to develop with the encouragement of Republicans from the US.

She noted that Reform UK had won a string of council elections last month, including in her native Durham, and that the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, wanted to emulate some of the aggressive efforts to restructure government led by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) before his falling-out with Trump.

“When Nigel Farage says he wants to do a Doge against the local county council, he should come over here [to the US] and see what kind of impact that has,” she said. “This is going to be the largest layoffs in US history happening all at once, much bigger than hits to steelworks and coalmines.”

Hill’s argument is that in a time of profound uncertainty, Britain needs greater internal cohesion if it is to protect itself. “We can’t rely exclusively on anyone any more,” she said, arguing that Britain needed to have “a different mindset” based as much on traditional defence as on social resilience.

Some of that, Hill said, was about a greater recognition of the level of external threat and initiatives for greater integration, by teaching first aid in schools or encouraging more teenagers to join school cadet forces, a recommendation of the defence review. “What you need to do is get people engaged in all kinds of different ways in support of their communities,” she said.

Hill said she saw that deindustrialisation and a rise of inequality in Russia and the US had contributed to the rise in national populism in both countries. Politicians in Britain, or elsewhere, “have to be much more creative and engage people where they are at” as part of a “national effort”, she said.

If this seems far away from a conventional view of defence, that’s because it is, though Hill also argues that traditional conceptions of war are changing as technology evolves and with it what makes a potent force.

“People keep saying the British army has the smallest number of troops since the Napoleonic era. Why is the Napoleonic era relevant? Or that we have fewer ships than the time of Charles II. The metrics are all off here,” she said. “The Ukrainians are fighting with drones. Even though they have no navy, they sank a third of the Russian Black Sea fleet.”

Her aim, therefore, is not just to be critical but to propose solutions. Hill recalled that a close family friend, on hearing that she had taken on the defence review, had told her: “‘Don’t tell us how shite we are, tell us what we can do, how we can fix things.’ People understand that we have a problem and that the world has changed.”

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

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