Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Saturday, December 20, 2025 05:58
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Friday, December 19, 2025 12:57 PM

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

December 19, 2025

When addressing responsibility for the invasion, Putin again falsely claimed that Russia did not start the war and that he bears no responsibility for the deaths it has caused.

"We do not consider ourselves responsible for the deaths of people because we did not start this war," he said, falsely accusing Ukraine of lacking readiness for peace.

The claim contradicts overwhelming evidence that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, killing tens of thousands of civilians and displacing millions.

https://kyivindependent.com/putin-opens-annual-presser-with-maximalist
-demands/

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

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Friday, December 19, 2025 1:23 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

#Rootin4Putin

#FuckUkraine

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Saturday, December 20, 2025 4:53 AM

SECOND

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

Europe kicks the €210 billion question down the road

EU leaders told the Commission to keep trying. The deadline: end of 2027.

By Peeter Helme | Dec 19, 2025

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/12/19/eu-delays-210bn-frozen-assets-e
nd-2027/

The European Union’s €90 billion ($105 billion) loan for Ukraine isn’t an ending. It’s a countdown. EU leaders approved the emergency funding early Friday after disagreeing on tapping €210 billion ($246 billion) in frozen Russian assets, according to European Council conclusions.

But they also gave the Commission a mandate to keep working on the reparations loan mechanism—and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made clear where this is heading.

“Financing Ukraine beyond 2027 will be part of the next long-term EU budget discussion,” she wrote on X.

“We reserve our right to use the cash balances from Russian assets immobilised in the EU to finance the loan.”

Translation: the €90 billion buys time. The fight for the frozen assets continues.

The 2027 problem

The €90 billion covers roughly two-thirds of Ukraine’s estimated needs through 2027. After that, Europe faces the same question it just ducked: borrow more, or finally touch Russia’s money?

One EU diplomat told Reuters the compromise amounted to “saving face” rather than solving the problem.

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

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Saturday, December 20, 2025 4:56 AM

SECOND

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

Ukraine cannot continue to survive on Europe’s starvation rations

Editorial: Despite agreeing to a €90bn interest-free loan that could keep Kyiv afloat for two years, European leaders seem unduly nervous about forcing Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. If Europe is ever to defeat Russia, it must now go further – or risk humiliation

Friday 19 December 2025 14:43 EST

https://www.the-independent.com/voices/editorials/ukraine-russia-eu-lo
an-putin-war-b2887890.html

Unlike some of his more aloof predecessors, the latest autocrat running Russia doesn’t mind subjecting himself to lengthy media questioning, if only once a year, as a kind of pre-Christmas treat for himself.

Vladimir Putin enjoys delivering rambling lectures as much as his American counterpart, though the Russian president’s aren’t quite so angry and possess more of a scholarly veneer, fake as it is. His latest marathon press conference does, however, serve to confirm that this is a leader who is determined to achieve his maximalist strategy in Ukraine by whatever means suit him best at any given point.

These include multi-spoked diplomacy to divide the EU (Hungary being the weapon of choice), peeling America out of Nato, military activity on the battleground, espionage and disinformation abroad, and, of course, bombing and freezing Ukrainian civilians to death. He can also tap up powerful allies in China, India and Iran for financial support, dual-purpose technology, weaponry and even manpower to support his crude “meatgrinder” method of war.

At this moment, President Putin is content to maintain an involved but uncompromising stance in the peace talks, while simultaneously pressing on with his slow advances on the ground, and the indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure, be it power plants or kindergartens. If his friends in the US administration – including Donald Trump himself – manage to pressure Volodymyr Zelensky into surrendering territory that Russia hasn’t been able to capture in the fighting, and to disarm Ukraine, then so much the better. Russia can then regroup while America relaxes its economic sanctions, and prepare for the next invasion.

If not, and the war drags on, then Putin won’t mind either the human cost – more than one million Russian casualties so far – or the stress to the Russian economy. His goal of occupying Ukraine, extinguishing its national identity, and integrating it into his empire makes any sacrifice made by his people worthwhile. It would cement his regime in permanent power – and, in his review, consolidate Russia’s superpower status – and would command the respect of his enemies at home and abroad. He likes to be feared – another thing he shares with Mr Trump.

Unlike Mr Trump, though, Russia’s leader is normally calm in demeanour, and, as it suits him to at the moment, gives the impression that he is relaxed about the glacially slow progress of his “special military operation”. He also seems rather pleased about the disarray in Europe in recent days. He derides European leaders as “piglets”, and as “burglars” attempting to steal the $200bn (£150bn) of Russian financial assets that have been frozen in the European clearing system since his unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sadly for Europe, the EU leaders are far from a ruthless, well-organised gang of jewel thieves. Instead, they resemble a squabbling band of amateurs, with some members under suspicion of wanting to help the Kremlin rather than frustrate it, and openly obstructing the attempt to make Russia pay for its aggression.

In the end, the Europeans stumped up an interest-free loan of €90bn (£79bn) for Ukraine. This, it is claimed, will keep the Kyiv government running for a year or two. The unspoken assumption is that, by 2027, when the war will be in its sixth year, the Russians will be so exhausted, and their economy and war machine struggling to such an extent, that Moscow will be forced to sue for peace. At that point, a fairer settlement can be achieved – and with it, the return of most of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence.

Perhaps. But there are pressures on Ukraine, too, such as running out of soldiers. It is also beyond doubt that Russia’s friends will continue to support the Kremlin, and even possible that the US will rapidly relax its sanctions and allow Russia to rejoin the world economy, so that Mr Trump can pursue lucrative real estate and other deals.

Europe, in other words, has once again given Ukraine “just enough”. Just enough, that is, to keep Ukraine going and avoid it being overrun by the Russians – but not enough for its military to achieve decisive victories and push the enemy back, as it has managed to do before.

European allies are twitchy about the Ukrainians’ use of long-range weaponry to hit deep inside Russia and elsewhere, such as the successful strikes on Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” of oil tankers. Some fear a nuclear conflagration, though Russia has done no more than make idle threats about that.

In other words, Europe seems unduly and perversely nervous about giving Ukraine what it needs to actually force the Russians to the negotiating table. Meanwhile, some European nations are still buying Russian gas.

Contrary to President Trump’s wishful thinking, this war is unlikely to be over by Christmas. The cruelties and the attrition will continue into the spring and the summer, and in a year, the battle lines will be more or less where they are now. Europe, divided and unwilling to spend more money on its defence, seems set to be not much more resolute than it was in the early days, when Berlin wanted to limit its military assistance to some new helmets for the Ukrainian troops.

Such a dismal situation may be inevitable, given the differences between European governments and their complacent electorates – but it is not sustainable. Ukraine cannot continue to survive on starvation rations from Brussels.

Europe, including Britain, therefore needs to decide whether it actually wants to defeat Russia. The opportunity to do so is still there, and, with Ukraine as an ally, victory would turn Europe into a fortress against a revanchist Russia.

If not, then everything that has been done thus far, all the lives lost and the money spent, will have been in vain. Ukraine will cease to exist. Europe, humiliated, will be left at President Putin’s mercy, fretting about where he will act next: Estonia? Moldova? Finland? Poland?

An enlarged, emboldened and stronger Russia will menace Europe for decades to come, Europeans will have only themselves to blame, and this time the Americans won’t rescue them. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

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

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Saturday, December 20, 2025 5:46 AM

SECOND

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

“You do nothing and you can still be shot”: Ukrainian woman describes torture in Russian detention

By Kathrine Frich | Dec 20, 2025

https://www.dagens.com/war/you-do-nothing-and-you-can-still-be-shot-uk
rainian-woman-describes-torture-in-russian-detention

Life under occupation reshapes daily routines in ways that are hard to imagine from afar.

For civilians trapped behind shifting front lines, survival often depends on silence, luck and endurance.

One Ukrainian woman’s testimony offers a rare account of what that reality looked like from the inside.

Early disappearances

According to The Insider, Olena Yagupova lived in Kamianka-Dniprovska, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, when Russian forces took control of the area in the first days of the full-scale invasion.

She said order was imposed quickly through patrols, checkpoints and house-to-house searches.

“People started disappearing from the very beginning,” Yagupova told The Insider, describing how residents were detained without explanation.

She said workers from the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were among those targeted.

“They had lists of the plant’s employees,” she said, adding that some people were pressured into cooperation while others were tortured or sent to dig fortifications. Communication with the outside world, she said, was almost impossible.

Arrest without charges

Yagupova said she was detained on October 6, 2022.

Her husband served in the Ukrainian army, and she had worked in regional public administration, factors she believes made her a target.

“They had no warrant and no charges,” she said.

An FSB officer and members of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic searched her home, she said, taking property before moving her to a local police station.

“They suffocated me with bags, tortured me with electricity, simulated execution, raped me,” Yagupova said.

She described two days of abuse aimed at forcing false confessions, followed by months in detention without formal accusations.

Life in detention

She told The Insider she spent four months in pre-trial detention, often sleeping on the floor in overcrowded cells during winter. “In pretrial detention, your goal is to live one day,” she said.

Food was scarce, water limited and medical care nonexistent, she said.

Guards forced detainees to sing the Russian anthem for hours while beatings took place.

Many inmates, she added, were civilians detained for minor or unclear reasons.

A guard once gave her a book, she recalled. “Read it, it will be useful to you,” he said. The book was about the Nuremberg Trials.

Forced labor

In January 2023, Yagupova said she was transferred from detention to a labor camp. Before the transfer, she said, officials filmed a video claiming she had been released.

“They forced us to dig trenches and demine the fields,” she said. Such videos, she added, were meant to mislead families and avoid responsibility.

In October 2025, the International Criminal Court in The Hague accepted Yagupova’s testimony, according to The Insider, adding her account to a growing body of evidence about alleged abuses in occupied Ukrainian territories.

Sources: The Insider, International Criminal Court, Digi24.

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

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Saturday, December 20, 2025 5:47 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

#Rootin4Putin

#FuckUkraine

Seriously dude. Fuck yet another Democratic money laundering scheme that was your Ukraine bullshit.

We're done with that too.

The fleecing of Americans by Democrats comes to an end here.

You lose. Forever.

Checkmate.

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Saturday, December 20, 2025 5:58 AM

SECOND

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

A Russian cargo plane broke in half—because Russian industry is broken, too

A Russian air force An-22 that disintegrated near Moscow is indicative of deeper Russian dysfunction.

By David Axe | 19/12/2025

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/12/19/an-22-crash/

• The crash of a Russian air force airlifter speaks to a wider problem
• Russian warplanes are wearing out faster than Russia can replace them
• The Russian air force is doomed to shrink as more planes get grounded ... or crash

The Russian air force Antonov An-22 heavylift transport plane that broke in half and crashed near Ivanovo air base 250 km west of Moscow on 14 December may have been the last An-22 in Russian service.

The horrific crash, captured on video from the ground, underscores a growing problem for the Russian air force as Russia's wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fifth year: Russian warplanes are wearing out faster than Russian factories can replace them.

The Russian air arm is still much bigger than the Ukrainian air force and boasts capabilities the Ukrainian air arm lacks, such as heavy bombers and stealth fighters. But the Russian air force, or VKS, will almost certainly shrink, a lot—and not just because its aircraft are getting shot down by Ukrainian missiles and blown up on the ground by Ukrainian drones.

No, the Russian air force will shrink because many of its roughly 1,700 fixed-wing aircraft—fighters, attack jets, bombers, and transports—will simply wear out from overuse in the wider war.

"It wouldn't shock me if by the time the war in Ukraine ends, between combat losses, wear/tear and aging of its already old aircraft fleet, [the] VKS might end up being down ~40% from its pre-war fleet of combat aircraft," Czech analyst Jakub Janovsky predicted.

The four-engine, turboprop An-22 that crashed near Moscow, killing seven people, was around 50 years old, but continued in service a year past its anticipated retirement, likely owing to the demands of the Russian war effort. Russian transport aircraft shuttle troops and supplies around Russia and also deliver cruise missiles to Russian bomber bases shortly before those bombers strike Ukrainian cities.

The Fighterbomber Telegram channel claimed it was the last An-22 in air force use. The giant turboprop could haul 80,000 kg of cargo and land on rough airstrips.

An airlifter can safely fly for 50 years or even longer if it's properly maintained, overhauled, and upgraded. But it's evident from the An-22's mid-air disintegration that it wasn't properly maintained, overhauled, and upgraded.

The problem may be endemic across the Russian air force fleet. Maintenance isn't keeping up with use as Russian planes relentlessly bombard Ukraine.

It's a problem Defense News identified as early as March 2024. "The Russian Aerospace Forces, or VKS, continues to burn through the life span of its fighter aircraft in the war against Ukraine," the trade publication reported.

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/2000268262672896151/

Combat losses aren't the real problem

The Russians have lost around 170 aircraft in combat in Ukraine since February 2022. That's 10% of the pre-war fleet.

Russian factories have produced enough new aircraft to replace virtually all of the combat losses.

But they haven't produced enough new aircraft to make up for older planes that become unflyable owing to metal fatigue.

Consider the Sukhoi Su-34 and Sukhoi Su-35, respectively—the Russian air force's best attack plane and best fighter. The VKS went to war in February 2022 with around 130 Su-34s and 100 Su-35s. In 45 months of hard fighting, the air arm has lost 35 Su-34s and eight Su-35s.

Over the same span of time, Sukhoi has delivered around 39 Su-34s and 26 Su-35s, more than making good combat losses. But that doesn't mean the air force's inventory isn't shrinking.

"A subset of its fleets has built up significant fatigue hours," the Royal United Services Institute in London explained in a recent report.

RUSI noted that Russian industry is scaling up production of other key weapons—tanks, drones, and missiles—tenfold in order to replace lost and expended hardware ... and also hardware that simply wears out. But the Russian aviation industry probably can't increase its output tenfold.

Why Russian factories can't keep up

"At the higher level, Russia's aviation industry appears to be a strong sovereign sector with advanced indigenous capabilities," the think tank noted. "However, once one begins to examine the second- and third-tier suppliers, the robustness of Russia's aviation industry appears less assured."

The sector depends on a skilled workforce and a steady supply of foreign components. The workforce is under stress. And sanctions have disrupted the flow of foreign parts—Ukrainian intelligence has identified over 2,000 imported electronic components in Russian Su-series fighter jets.

"The difficulties Russia has encountered to achieve even small increases in [aircraft] production, in a sector with comparatively fewer sanctions than other parts of its defense industry, speaks to a range of vulnerabilities across the Sukhoi supply chain," RUSI observed.
A shrinking fleet

Those vulnerabilities are why there aren't enough new planes reaching VKS regiments. And why older planes continue to fly even when they're unsafe.

Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service has reported that Russian airlines could lose nearly 30% of their aircraft by 2030 as sanctions strangle the aviation sector—and the military side faces similar pressures. The Russian air force is doomed to shrink as more worn-out planes get permanently parked ... or crash.

Explore further
Frontline report: Russia’s military air fleet is unraveling aircraft by aircraft, crew by crew

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

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