Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 10:05
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 397551
PAGE 197 of 197

Sunday, February 22, 2026 11:25 AM

Why bother quoting me before posting that shit?

If I haven't made it clear enough by now, I don't give a fuck.

Nobody else does either, faggot.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Sunday, February 22, 2026 1:11 PM

SECOND

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Why bother quoting me before posting that shit?

If I haven't made it clear enough by now, I don't give a fuck.

Nobody else does either, faggot.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

“Hello!” Ilyukhina lunged forward and hugged Stratt. “I’m here to die for Earth! Pretty awesome, yes?!”

I leaned to Dimitri. “Are all Russians crazy?”

“Yes,” he said with a smile. “It is the only way to be Russian and happy at the same time.”

“That’s…dark.”

“That’s Russian!”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10857981-hello-ilyukhina-lunged-forwa
rd-and-hugged-stratt-i-m-here-to

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

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Sunday, February 22, 2026 2:07 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

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Monday, February 23, 2026 7:54 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 6ixStringJack:
Why bother quoting me before posting that shit?

If I haven't made it clear enough by now, I don't give a fuck.

Nobody else does either, faggot.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

Day 1461 of Putin’s Three-Day War
Courage, betrayal — and reasons for hope

Paul Krugman
Feb 23, 2026
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/day-1461-of-putins-three-day-war

Source: Institute for the Study of War

Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2002. Putin expected a quick Russian triumph — reports are that he expected the Ukrainians to fold in days. He never said “three days,” but this meme has become shorthand for his belief that it would be a walkover. Western military analysts who had bought into propaganda about Russia’s military strength shared his assessment.

U.S. right-wingers were especially enthralled with what they perceived as the toughness, masculinity, and anti-wokeness of Russian soldiers.

But Putin’s dream of a short, victorious war has turned — as such dreams usually do — into a long nightmare of blood, destruction and humiliation. Ukrainian courage and Russian incompetence — combined with the effectiveness of British and American man-portable weapons — ensured that the attempt to seize Kyiv became an epic debacle. The three-day war is about to enter its fifth year.

I am not a military expert. But I pay attention to those who are — especially Phillips O’Brien, who has been far more right about this war than anyone else I know. Furthermore, the future of the war will depend greatly on an issue I do know something about, Europe’s ability to provide Ukraine with the support it needs. So I thought I would use the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the war to talk about where we are right now.

First, about the military situation. The maps at the top of this post show how the area of Ukraine under Russian control — shaded pink — has changed over the past year. You may ask, what change? Exactly. The Ukraine war isn’t like World War II, in which breakthroughs could be exploited by armored columns sweeping into the enemy’s rear. It’s a war in which the battlefield is swarming with drones, where there isn’t even a well-defined front line, and the “kill zone” within which even armored vehicles are basically death traps is many kilometers wide.

Some observers still don’t understand how the reality of war has changed. Thus there have been breathless reports about the danger Ukraine would face after Russia seized the “strategic city” of Pokrovsk since July 2024. Russian forces finally entered Pokrovsk late last year and may now occupy most of the rubble. But it made no difference.

This reality shows how idiotic it is for the U.S. Department of Defense — sorry, Department of War — to decide that its mission is to embrace a “warrior ethos.” Bulging biceps and macho posturing won’t help you prevail in modern war, while bombastic stupidity is a good way to get many soldiers killed.

So if modern technology has turned war on the ground into a bloody stalemate — much bloodier for Russia than for Ukraine, but still indecisive — what will determine victory and defeat? The answer, which has been true in most wars, is that it will come down to resources and logistics.

If this were purely a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainians, for all their heroism, would be doomed. Russia, after all, has four times Ukraine’s population and ten times its GDP.

But Ukraine has powerful friends.

For the first three years of the war, the United States was the most important of these friends. Indeed, Ukraine wouldn’t have been able to resist Russia without U.S. aid.

Unfortunately, top Biden officials were too cautious. They didn’t want Putin to win, but they clearly lost their nerve at the prospect of outright Russian defeat. So they slow-walked aid and kept putting restrictions on the use of U.S. weapons. Without those restrictions, Ukraine would have been able to hammer Russian rear areas, and this war might well have ended in its first year.

As it was, Ukraine was able to hang on but not triumph. And now we have a U.S. president who clearly wants to see a Russian victory. He’s unwilling or unable to openly throw America’s weight behind Putin, but he has effectively cut off all U.S. aid to Ukraine. That’s not hyperbole. Here are the numbers:

Source: Kiel Institute https://www.kielinstitut.de/fileadmin/Dateiverwaltung/IfW-Publications
/fis-import/dd24a73f-4270-46c5-9c40-bcc9df4f1672-KPB2023_EN.pdf

This is a betrayal of everything America used to stand for. We’re witnessing a war between freedom and tyranny, between an imperfect but decent government and a monstrous mass murderer — and the U.S. government is de facto backing the tyrannical monster.

Yet despite Trump’s pro-Putin policy, Ukraine is still standing, while Russia’s year-long offensive has been a bloody failure. While Trump may have thought that he could discreetly hand Ukraine over to Putin, it turns out that he didn’t have the cards.

Crucially, as you can see from the chart above, Europe has for the most part stepped up to the plate, replacing most of the lost aid from the United States. True, some of the military aid takes the form of U.S. weapons purchased by European nations and transferred to Ukraine. In particular, there is still no good alternative to Patriot air defense systems. And the Trump administration has been stalling some military deliveries even though Europe is paying.

But European — and, increasingly, Ukrainian — arms production has been ramping up. One indicator of European potential for arms manufacturing is that U.S. officials have gone ballistic over proposed buy-European provisions in Europe’s ongoing military buildup and threatened retaliation. This is quite rich: America in effect reserves the right to use its control over weapon systems to hobble other countries’ military efforts — on behalf of dictators the president likes — but is furious at any attempt to reduce dependence on those systems.

But does Europe have the resources to ensure Ukrainian victory without the United States? Mark Rutte, a Dutch politician who is currently secretary-general of NATO, made waves last month when he told people who believe that Europe can defend itself against Russia without the United States to “keep on dreaming.” One sees similar declarations of helplessness from some other Europeans. But it’s really difficult to see where this defeatism is coming from. Combined, the economies of the European nations that have strongly supported Ukraine are vastly larger than Russia’s:

Source: International Monetary Fund

It’s true that Europe has in the past had great difficulty acting like the superpower it is. But that may be changing.

So, how will this war end? Russia’s strategy now appears to be to terror-bomb Ukraine into submission, but as far as I know that has never worked. The more likely outcome is that European aid and Ukraine’s own growing prowess in arms production will gradually shift the military balance in Ukraine’s favor, and that Russia’s war effort will eventually collapse.

I hope that’s how it turns out. But even if it does, shame on America, for betraying a valiant ally.

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

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Monday, February 23, 2026 8:01 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

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Monday, February 23, 2026 8:24 AM

THG

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
An ultimatum is a demand with consequences if the demand isn't acted on: "Do X, or Y".

Deterrence is a stated response to the OTHER party's initiating action: "If YOU do X, we'll do Y".

You're dropping ultimatums bc you don't have a leg to stand on.

Logic. Not your strong point, is it?

Meanwhile, Russia keeps advancing along the entire front.

Too funny...

T

Animated map: Changes in Russian military positions in Ukraine

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/animated-map-changes-in-russian-m
ilitary-positions-in-ukraine/vi-AA1WSSCt?

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Monday, February 23, 2026 8:59 AM

SECOND

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

Russia threatens to aim nukes at Estonia — then claims it’s “not a threat”

By Olena Mukhina | 23/02/2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/02/23/russia-threatens-to-aim-nukes-a
t-estonia-then-claims-its-not-a-threat/

No better way to start the Russian work week than by making death threats against countries just across the western border of Russia. The Russians are hungover from a weekend of heavy drinking. Making threats makes them feel more alive.

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

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Monday, February 23, 2026 11:22 AM

THG

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

You may need to start a new thread here SOCOND?

T

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Monday, February 23, 2026 4:19 PM

THG

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

Love it...

T

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Monday, February 23, 2026 4:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

_______ Insert nobody gives a fuck emoji here.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Monday, February 23, 2026 5:52 PM

SECOND

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

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
You may need to start a new thread here SOCOND?

T

This thread works fine, and it is important to remember precisely what was happening 4 years ago. Signym has been predicting Russia's victory for all the years this thread has existed. Victory might actually arrive in two, maybe four, months:

Hungary blocks EU sanctions AND $106 billion loan for Ukraine, risking a domino collapse

By Peeter Helme | 23/02/2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/02/23/hungary-blocks-eu-loan-sanction
s-ukraine-imf-domino/

“Without that support from the EU and the IMF, Ukraine’s economy would most likely collapse,” Maksym Samoiliuk, an economist at Kyiv’s Centre for Economic Strategy, told the Financial Times.

The Centre for Economic Strategy and DiXi Group warned in December that Ukraine needed to start receiving EU tranches by the end of March 2026. That deadline is five weeks away.

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

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Monday, February 23, 2026 6:18 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
You may need to start a new thread here SOCOND?

T
This thread works fine

Agreed. No reason to split this up into 10 other threads when we can keep all of your embarrassing post history on this topic right here.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026 6:36 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 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
You may need to start a new thread here SOCOND?

T
This thread works fine

Agreed. No reason to split this up into 10 other threads when we can keep all of your embarrassing post history on this topic right here.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

Looking back in this thread and discovered 6ixStringJoker has been writing "Nobody cares" for four years. Obviously, he does care that the Russians win.

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

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026 6:37 AM

SECOND

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

KYIV, Ukraine, Feb. 23, 2026 — Four years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an updated joint Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5) released today by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations currently estimates that as of 31 December 2025, the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine is almost $588 billion (over €500 billion) over the next decade, which is nearly 3 times the estimated nominal GDP of Ukraine for 2025. https://tinyurl.com/4zj4v46y

Of the total long-term needs, reconstruction and recovery needs are the highest in the transport sector (over $96 billion (€82 billion)). This is followed by the energy sector (nearly $91 billion (€77 billion)), the housing sector (almost $90 billion (€77 billion)), commerce and industry sector (over $63 billion (€54 billion)), and agriculture sector (over $55 billion (€47 billion)). The cost of explosives hazard management and debris clearance is almost $28 billion (€24 billion), despite some progress in surveying and demining that helped to contain losses in this sector.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/02/23/world-bank-maps-ukraines-deepes
t-scars-195b-in-direct-damage-and-a-588b-bill-for-survival/

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

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026 6:42 AM

SECOND

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

Editorial: Trump’s theater and Europe’s fear could bring 4 more years of war

By The Kyiv Independent

February 24, 2026 10:46 AM

https://kyivindependent.com/editorial-this-war-can-last-another-4-year
s-but-it-doesnt-have-to/

The year is 2030.

With spring around the corner, Ukraine has just endured the toughest winter of the war yet. It was Russia’s eighth winter campaign against the country’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s air defenses have improved. Its grid has grown more resilient. But Russia’s weapons are deadlier, its drone swarms larger, its tactics more adaptive — inflicting severe damage and forcing millions to live in darkness.

Another U.S. administration has come and gone after promising to end the war swiftly. European leaders are once again renewing sanctions and announcing aid packages on the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The United Nations has just released a report calling 2029 the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since 2022, when the full-scale invasion started.

Sounds impossible?

It shouldn’t.

Because here we are in 2026, marking four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion — and the pattern is already set. Russia escalates. Ukraine adapts. The West deliberates. Talks resume. Talks stop. The war grinds on — and Ukraine buries its dead.

In 2022, it was hard to imagine this level of destruction lasting more than a year. In 2023, it was hard to imagine it lasting three. Today, the idea that it could continue until 2030 feels unbearable — but not unrealistic.

Both Ukraine and Russia have demonstrated unwavering determination — one to attack, the other to defend — resulting in a war of attrition that has now lasted for years.

Backed by China and buoyed by continued global demand for its oil, Moscow has sustained its war effort, paying lucrative bonuses to volunteer recruits, upgrading its weapons, and scaling up their production.

With Western — or at this point, European — support, Ukraine has received enough financial and military assistance to keep its guns firing, expand its drone industry and largely hold Russian forces at bay, suffering only incremental territorial losses that come at enormous cost to Russian soldiers.

But what about the peace deal that U.S. officials insist is just around the corner?

When U.S. officials boast about the progress they are making in peace negotiations, they omit an inconvenient but crucial detail.

On the surface, the main barrier to ending the war is a piece of land – specifically, the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast that Russia wants, and that Ukraine refuses to surrender.

But the impasse is not the land itself.

Russia continues to openly seek nothing less than military-political capitulation from Kyiv, and demanding the bloodless handover of Ukraine’s most fortified strongholds is just the first step. Ukraine, meanwhile, sees Russia’s real intentions for exactly what they are, and has no intention of capitulating.

For Russia, this war is about imperial restoration — whatever name the empire takes this time. Without Ukraine, that project will never materialize.

For Ukraine, the stakes are existential — its sovereignty, its statehood, its identity are on the line.

When both sides view the war in existential terms and both retain external backing, a multi-decade-long conflict is not far-fetched. History offers plenty of such precedents.

So yes, this war could last until 2030 — if the West’s current strategy remains unchanged.

In 2022, the West helped Ukraine survive but not win. Too many decisions that could have shifted the balance early — from advanced weapons systems to sweeping sanctions — were delayed, diluted, or delivered incrementally.

The logic behind this caution was clear: escalate gradually and leave space for Russia to reconsider its course before facing harsher consequences.

Thanks to this, visions of a truly just end to the war, with the return of all occupied territories, have faded.

Four years of full-scale war later, Ukraine is fighting again for survival, and the most important lesson still remains to be learned. Russia does not respond to incentives. It responds to pressure.

The only way to end this war is to make it militarily and economically impossible for Moscow to continue it.

That would require decisions Western leaders have hesitated to take — from cutting off the remaining lifelines of Russian oil exports, to seizing frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defense, to assuming a far greater share of the burden rather than outsourcing the risk almost entirely to Ukrainians – yes, boots on the ground.

Such steps demand true leadership and political courage — the courage to explain difficult choices to voters, to accept short-term costs, and to act with strategic clarity rather than perpetual caution.

It is the kind of courage Ukrainians showed in the first days of the full-scale invasion, when they chose resistance over surrender and altered the course of history.

After four years of Ukraine doing the impossible, the question is still whether its allies can finally match that resolve.

The next chapter of this war is not predetermined.

It can be another four years of hesitation, incrementalism, and tens of thousands more Ukrainian graves.

Or it can be the chapter in which the West finally decides that managing the war is no longer enough — and chooses instead to help Ukraine end Russia’s aggression once and for all.

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

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026 9:32 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
You may need to start a new thread here SOCOND?

T
This thread works fine

Agreed. No reason to split this up into 10 other threads when we can keep all of your embarrassing post history on this topic right here.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026 10:05 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 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
You may need to start a new thread here SOCOND?

T
This thread works fine

Agreed. No reason to split this up into 10 other threads when we can keep all of your embarrassing post history on this topic right here.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.

I presume you are unaware that every comment you have made reveals personal failure and the certainty of a shortened life. Kind of like everything the Russians do reveals that they cause their own suffering, their own relative poverty compared to Europeans, and their shortened lives on the actuarial tables of life expectancy.

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

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Tuesday, February 24, 2026 10:05 AM

SECOND

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

What is Putin hiding? 115 Russian statistics suddenly go dark

By Kathrine Frich | Feb 24, 2026

https://www.dagens.com/war/what-is-putin-hiding-115-russian-statistics
-suddenly-go-dark

Economic transparency in Russia is shrinking, according to Ukrainian intelligence officials.

Dozens of key statistical indicators have stopped being updated, while others have disappeared from public databases altogether.

Kyiv now claims the move is an attempt by the Kremlin to conceal the real state of Russia’s economy.

Data disappears

Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) says Russian authorities have stopped updating 115 statistical indicators since the end of 2025.

According to the agency, 168 statistical tables have either been removed or reduced in official data collections.

The Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistics System reportedly no longer provides current figures for dozens of categories.

New entries are instead marked as “temporarily closed.”

The Kremlin has not publicly explained the changes.

Income and spending classified

The SVR claims that household income and expenditure data are now classified. This includes figures on public sector wages for teachers, doctors, nurses, researchers and cultural workers.

Information on social benefit payments has also reportedly been restricted.

As a result, it is no longer possible to see how much Russian households spend on essentials such as food, utilities, housing and medicine.

War and prison figures hidden

The Ukrainian intelligence service further alleges that data related to what Moscow calls its “SVO” campaign in Ukraine is no longer publicly available.

According to the SVR, figures on troop numbers and funeral costs have been removed. Media reports also indicate that data on prison populations is again being withheld.

Officials in Kyiv argue the data blackout is aimed at limiting public reaction to economic hardship.

In 2025, 31% of Russians reportedly said they did not have enough money for groceries, while 39% described the economic situation in their region as worsening.

Sources: Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SVR), Dialog.ua, LA.lv.
https://www.la.lv/115-statistikas-raditaji-vairs-netiek-atjauninati-pa
t-dati-par-partiku-klaisifceti-ko-kremlis-slepj#google_vignette

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

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