Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 15, 2026 11:41
VIEWED: 568211
PAGE 48 of 111
Ukraine’s Smallest Drones Are Decimating Russia’s Heavy Artillery
Ukrainian forces are making increasing use of FPV kamikazes, racing quadcopters modified into loitering munitions by the addition of an RPG warhead and an outsize battery. They look ungainly, but FPVs are highly effective at hitting targets several miles away; a skilled operator can put one right through a specific window. And volunteer groups are making them in vast numbers – one group, Escadrone, say their production alone is up to 1,500 a month and rising and there are several others equally active. Each drone costs less than $400 to produce, just add your own RPG warhead.
Commercial racing FPVs are designed very much for speed and agility rather than range. Ukrainian engineers will have their own priorities, and some recent designs may be optimized for long-range strike. Exactly how much performance they can squeeze out of a small drone is anyone’s guess.
In the longer run though, several Ukrainian groups are already working on aircraft-type FPVs which will be able to strike much further. Again, how far is a matter of speculation, but some hobbyists claim ranges of 100km from the Skywalker X8. This is a drone which is popular among developers and previously been outfitted as a loitering munition by ISIS.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/09/ukraines-smallest-drones-are-decim
ating-russias-heavy-artillery/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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“The Ukrainians are defending the legal order established after the Second World War. They have performed the entire NATO mission of absorbing and reversing an attack by Russia with a tiny percentage of NATO military budgets and zero losses from NATO members. Ukrainians are making a war in the Pacific much less likely by demonstrating to China that offensive operations are harder than they seem. They have made nuclear war less likely by demonstrating that nuclear blackmail need not work. Ukraine is also fighting to restore its grain exports to Africa and Asia, where millions of people have been put at risk by Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian economy. Last but not least, Ukrainians are demonstrating that a democracy can defend itself.
(snip)
“This war will not end because of one sudden event, but nor will it go on indefinitely. When and how it ends depends largely on us, on what we do, on how much we help. Even if we did not care at all about Ukrainians (and we should), getting this war to end with a Ukrainian victory would be by far the best thing Americans could do for themselves. Indeed, I do not think that, in the history of US foreign relations, there has ever been a chance to secure so much for Americans with so little effort by Americans. I do hope we take that chance.”
https://angrybearblog.com/2023/09/ukraine-update
Read the full article here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-state-of-the-war
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:By being inveigled into trying to ethnically cleanse their eastern oblasts and provoke Russia, thereby providing the west with an excuse for "sanctions from hell"?
0riginally posted by second:
“The Ukrainians are defending the legal order established after the Second World War.
Oh BTW I have news for you: If Russia miscalculated their first military approach, hoping to scare Kiev into negotiating, the collective west REALLY miscalcuated their sanctions! They really believed those sanctions would bring Russia to its knees, and just to make sure that Germany and other N EU nations couldn't negotaite their way around them, they blew up Nordstream. Well the sanctions haven't crippled Russia yet, but they HAVE bommeranged in the form of inflation and de-industrialization in the EU.
Quote:How many hundreds of billions of weapons in dollars/Euros has NATO sent to Ukraine since 2014? How many hundreds of billions of dollars/Euros has NATO send in direct cash assistance since 2014? What has happened to the European and UK economies as a result of sanctions ... oh, and blowing up Nordstream?
They have performed the entire NATO mission of absorbing and reversing an attack by Russia with a tiny percentage of NATO military [bloated military] budgets
Try as I might, I can't find a total figure, and I don't have time to total it up, but I'll bet it's a over a trillion.
Quote:Oh, baloney. There were NATO officials, officially from NATO, in those command centers that were blown up. NATO can't admit it, of course, bc they were there.
and zero losses from NATO members.
Quote:The only reason why this might be so is because the USA (and NATO) are currently occupied in Ukraine.
Ukrainians are making a war in the Pacific much less likely by demonstrating to China that offensive operations are harder than they seem.
The prediction is that the collective west will cut Ukraine loose to focus on China, and we will do EVERYTHING possible to provoke war with China over Taiwan. Eventually, we will push hard enough on THEIR 'red lines', whether its flying our planes through their airspace or steaming our carrier groups though their waters or arming Taiwan with nuclear-capable missile installations, or regime-changing nations on China's border, or interfering again in Taiwanese elections. We'll do something to force China's hand.
Quote:China's nuclear policy, unlike Russia's, is 'no first use'.
They have made nuclear war less likely by demonstrating that nuclear blackmail need not work.
Bet you didn't know that, did you?
That puts China in a vulnerable position. And of course, we'll never know whether China is fully committed to that policy until nuclear missiles are flying, but that also makes it MUCH less likely to portray China as a nuclear boogeyman. Unless, of course, you're OK with lying.
Quote:Again, I call bullshit
Ukraine is also fighting to restore its grain exports to Africa and Asia
First of all, it's been heavily documented that Urkainian grain was almost completely absorbed BY EUROPE as ANIMAL FEED to keep food inflation lower than it might be otherwise, bc important elections are coming up* and inflation, which is already high there, is a politically sensitive topic. (*This year, Luxemburg Parliament, Polish Parliament, Swiss Federal, and Spanish general elections. Next year Finnish Presidential, Lithuanian Presidential, Belgian national Parliament, Austrian Natinal Parliament, and important regional parliaments in Germany). https://europeelects.eu/calendar/
Inflation in the EU region:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/225698/monthly-inflation-rate-in-e
u-countries/
Secondly, if the collective west was REALLY interested in the grain deal, they would have KEPT THEIR END OF THE BARGAIN, which was to reconnect Russia's agriculltural bank to the SWIFT, un-sanction Russian grain and fertilizer exports, and not use O
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Quote:The state of the war, Thoughts from Kyiv
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This is a carefully-constructed load of manipulative hogwash. Nearly everything in it is counterfactual, and the parts that aren't are pure copium. Yep, angrybear, gonna flush you down the crapper!
Timothy Snyder, Sep 7, 2023
Greetings from Kyiv. I have spent the last several days in Ukraine, here in the capital, and in the southerly regions of Odesa, Mykolaïv, and Kherson, trying to get a sense of the state of the war. I will write more about the experience, but I thought that it might be a good time to share my most general sense.
It is a crucial moment, partly because of what is happening, and partly because of our own sense of time. One and a half years is an awkward period for us. We might like to think that it can be brought to a rapid conclusion, with this or that offensive weapon. When the war does not quickly end, we jump to the idea that it is a “stalemate,” which is a situation that lasts forever. This is false, and serves as a kind of excuse not to figure out what is going on. This is a war that can be won, but only if we are patient enough to see the outlines and the opportunities.
Russia’s gains in this invasion were made almost entirely during its first few weeks, in February and March 2022. Those gains were largely possible thanks to the fact that Russia had seized the Crimean Peninsula in its earlier invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Over the course of 2022, Ukraine won the battles of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson, and took back about half of the territory Russia gained.
In the first half of 2023, Russia undertook an offensive that gained almost nothing but the city of Bakhmut. In the second half of this year Ukraine has undertaken a counter-offensive which has taken far more territory than did the Russian offensive, but which has not (yet) changed the overall strategic position (but could). In Russia, a military coup was attempted by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary group that took Bakhmut. He and Putin made a deal, after which Putin killed him. In a related development, Sergei Surovikin, probably the most capable Russian general, has been relieved of his command. Russia now has no meaningful offensive potential. Its strategy is to continue terror against civilians until Ukrainians can endure no longer. This, judging from my experience anyway, is not a tenable approach. On the other hand, Russia has had time to extensively fortify a long long of defense in the east and south, and to prepare for Ukrainian offensives. This makes Ukrainian offensives very difficult.
Ukraine did want to press forward last year, before the fortifications were built. It lacked the necessary weapons, and Elon Musk chose to cut Ukraine off from communications. That move likely extended the war. Because Musk’s decision was based on his internalization of Russian propaganda about nuclear war, and was accompanied by his repetition of that propaganda, he made a nuclear war more likely. If powerful men convey the message that just talking about nuclear war is enough to win conventional wars, then we will have more countries with nuclear weapons and more conventional wars that can escalate into nuclear ones. Ukraine has been resistant to this line of Russian fearmongering, fortunately for us all.
Ukraine did not have the arms it needed last year in part for the same reason: Americans allowed Russian propaganda to displace strategic calculation. By now, though, the American side has generally understood that Russia’s nuclear threat was a psychological operation meant to slow weapons deliveries. The United States and European partners have delivered arms to Ukraine, which has been absolutely indispensable. Historically speaking, though, the pace is slow. Fighter planes are coming, but a year late for the current offensive. So Ukrainians are now trying an offensive in conditions that American staff officers would find challenging. Americans take for granted economic superiority, prior
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Quote:Oh goody. More maniuplative "man on the street" "observations".
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This is a carefully-constructed load of manipulative hogwash. Nearly everything in it is counterfactual, and the parts that aren't are pure copium. Yep, angrybear, gonna flush you down the crapper!
SECOND; The state of the war, Thoughts from Kyiv
Timothy Snyder, Sep 7, 2023
Greetings from Kyiv. I have spent the last several days in Ukraine, here in the capital, and in the southerly regions of Odesa, Mykolaïv, and Kherson, trying to get a sense of the state of the war. I will write more about the experience, but I thought that it might be a good time to share my most general sense.
Quote:AWKWARD?? This is an AWKAWRD time? It's 'awkward' bc the collecive west is running out of weapons it and money it can credibly funnel to Ukraine. The cupboard is bare, and the "allies" definitely don't want to become cannon fodder themselves.
It is a crucial moment, partly because of what is happening, and partly because of our own sense of time. One and a half years is an awkward
Nobody could be that stupid as to believe this load of crap. Synder is a plant.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
US Intel Official: Media Misleading Americans About Ukraine’s Battlefield Success
Kyle Anzalone
In an interview with renowned reporter Seymour Hersh, https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/why-putin-killed-prigozhin a US intelligence official scolded the media for misleading the American public about Ukraine’s battlefield failures during the Spring counteroffensive. The unnamed official additionally told Hersh he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assassination of PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to deescalate tensions with NATO.
Responding to reports in recent weeks that Ukrainian forces were gaining momentum and recapturing territory, the official remarked, “Where are the reporters getting this stuff?” he asked. “There are stories talking about drunk Russian commanders while the Ukrainians are penetrating the three lines of Russian defense and will be able to work back to Mariupol.”
He continued, “The goal of Russia’s first line of defense was not to stop the Ukrainian offense, but to slow it down so if there was a Ukrainian advance, Russian commanders could bring in reserves to fortify the line.” The official added, “There is no evidence that Ukrainian forces have gotten past the first line. The American press is doing anything but honest reporting on the failure thus far of the offense.”
MORE AT https://news.antiwar.com/2023/09/07/us-intel-official-media-misleading
-americans-about-ukraines-battlefield-success/
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:You misspelled Snyder so it is not surprising you could not find him or his books using Google:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Nobody could be that stupid as to believe this load of crap. Synder is a plant.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Timothy+Snyder
Snyder is real and Signym is real crazy.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Prigozhin's March on Moscow
Ten lessons from a mutiny
by Timothy Snyder, Jun 25, 2023
How to understand Yevgeny Prigozhin's march on Moscow and its sudden end? Often there are plots without a coup; this seemed like a coup without a plot. Yet weird as the mercenary chief’s mutiny was, we can draw some conclusions from its course and from its conclusion.
1. Putin is not popular. All the opinion polling we have takes place in an environment where his power is seen as more or less inevitable and where answering the question the wrong way seems risky. But when Putin’s power was lifted, as when the city of Rostov-on-Don was seized by Wagner, no one seemed to mind. Reacting to Prigozhin's mutiny, some Russians were euphoric, and most seemed apathetic. What was not to be seen was anyone in any Russian city spontaneously expressing their personal support for Putin, let alone anyone taking any sort of personal risk on behalf of his regime.
The euphoria suggests to me that some Russians are ready to be ruled by a different exploitative regime. The apathy indicates that most Russians at this point just take for granted that they will be ruled by the gangster with the most guns, and will just go on with their daily lives regardless of who that gangster happens to be.
2. Prigozhin was a threat to Putin, because he does much the same things that Putin does, and leverages Putin's own assets. Both the Russian state itself and Prigozhin's mercenary firm Wagner are extractive regimes with large public relations and military arms.
The Putin regime exists, and the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are relatively wealthy, thanks to the colonial exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in Siberia. The wealth is held by a very few people, and the Russian population is treated to a regular spectacle of otherwise pointless war -- Ukraine, Syria, Ukraine again -- to distract attention from this basic state of affairs, and to convince them that there is some kind of external enemy that justifies it (hint: there really isn't).
Wagner functioned as a kind of intensification of the Russian state, doing the dirtiest work beyond Russia, not only in Syria and Ukraine but also in Africa. It was subsidized by the Russian state, but made its real money by extracting mineral resources on its own, especially in Africa. Unlike most of its other ventures, Wagner's war in Ukraine was a losing proposition. Prigozhin leveraged the desperation of Russia's propaganda for a victory by taking credit for victory at Bakhmut. That minor city was completely destroyed and abandoned by the time Wagner took it, at the cost of tens of thousands of Russian lives.
But because it was the only gain in Russia's horrifyingly costly but strategically senseless 2023 offensive, Bakhmut had to be portrayed by Putin's media as some kind of Stalingrad or Berlin. Prigozhin took advantage of this. He was able to direct the false glory to himself even as he then withdrew Wagner from Ukraine. Meanwhile he criticized the military commanders of the Russian Federation in increasingly vulgar terms, thereby preventing the Russian state (and Putin) from gaining much from the bloody spectacle of invaded Ukraine. In sum: Wagner was able to make the Putin regime work for it.
3. Prigozhin told the truth about the war. This has to be treated as a kind of self-serving accident: Prigozhin is a flamboyant and skilled liar and propagandist. But his pose in the days before his march on Moscow made the truth helpful to him. He wanted to occupy this position in Russian public opinion: the man who fought loyally for Russia and won Russia's only meaningful victory in 2023, in the teeth of the incompetence of the regime and the senselessness of the war itself.
I'm not sure enough attention has been paid to what Prigozhin said about Putin's motives for war: that it had nothing to do with NATO enlargement or Ukrainian aggression, and was simply a matter of wishing to dominate Ukraine, replace its regime
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
I see signym is confessing to living with a drunk. That explains where a lot of her anger comes from.
T
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Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire titled “Elon Musk.”
As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes.
Musk’s decision, which left Ukrainian officials begging him to turn the satellites back on, was driven by an acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons, a fear driven home by Musk’s conversations with senior Russian officials, according to Isaacson, whose new book is set to be released by Simon & Schuster on September 12.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter
-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html
Here is Walter Isaacson's version:
Although he had readily supported Ukraine, he believed it was reckless for Ukraine to launch an attack on Crimea, which Russia had annexed in 2014....The [Russian] ambassador had explicitly told him that a Ukrainian attack on Crimea would lead to a nuclear response. Musk explained to me in great detail, as I stood behind the bleachers, the Russian laws and doctrines that decreed such a response.
Throughout the evening and into the night, he personally took charge of the situation. Allowing the use of Starlink for the attack, he concluded, could be a disaster for the world. So he secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast. As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.
In Musk's version, he was asked to activate coverage around Crimea to support an "obvious" Ukrainian attack. In Isaacson's version, he deactivated coverage that already existed and didn't tell anyone. The attack went forward and failed.
There's a big difference between the two. Isaacson's version seems most likely to be the true one, which means Musk is lying to make himself look better. I'm surprised that more people haven't commented on this difference in their stories.
https://jabberwocking.com/did-elon-musk-deactivate-starlink-coverage-a
round-crimea/
Elon Musk forced a Ukrainian attack that had already been launched to fail, which is not the same thing as preventing the attack from happening.
Musk turned off StarLink coverage after the attack was launched without telling Ukraine so their resources are wasted and their plan exposed precisely aids the Russian cause.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:typoed
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Nobody could be that stupid as to believe this load of crap. Synder is a plant.
SECOND: You misspelled
Quote:
Snyder so it is not surprising you could not find him or his books using Google:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Timothy+Snyder
Snyder is real
Hey, plants are real people too! So now you micraggressed against plants everywhere, you bully!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
I see signym is confessing to living with a drunk. That explains where a lot of her anger comes from.
T
Glad to see you're still alive, Ted.
I was worried about you.
--------------------------------------------------
How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Ammo sales from US are fueling the war in Ukraine
The planes were bound for Rzeszów, Poland. The ancient city sits at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains in southeastern Poland. It has a gleaming modern airport next to a major east-west freeway. From there, it’s barely 60 miles to the border with Ukraine.
It was an expensive journey. The trucking company’s bill for those 18 semis? $85,000. Chartering the two 747s? $625,000. Each.
But this shipment of .50-cal rounds was profitable for Battle Born Munitions, according to Brown.
The company purchased the 3 million rounds from Northrop Grumman at a bargain and resold them for more than double the price.
Retail prices for .50-caliber ammunition run roughly $5 per bullet. At that rate, the whole shipment would have been worth $15 million.
How many Russians will this kill? If 999 rounds miss out of every 1,000, that is 3,000 dead Russians, or $5,000 in ammo to kill one Russian. A competent gunner could aim much better, but how competent are the Ukrainians? As far as I can tell, not so competent. Even Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars are better marksmen.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/09/07/war-in-u
kraine-private-ammunition-sales/70708811007/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated boilerplate rhetoric justifying the current war in Ukraine while commemorating a Soviet military victory during the Second World War on September 8. Putin claimed that soldiers of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics’ (DNR and LNR) militias inherited their courage and resilience from ancestors who fought to recapture Donbas in the Second World War and reamplified the narrative falsely portraying the current Ukrainian government as “Nazis.”[34] Putin’s September 8 speech is a continuation of the rhetoric from his September 5 speech invoking the memory of significant Soviet military victories to set ideological conditions for a prolonged war effort.[35]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-8-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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And I think there may a Russian offensive this winter that could bring the war to a quick close.
I'm seeing a lot of hopium and copium in western press, which makes me think they're deliberately trying to fool everyone. Yanno, like usual.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Putin's general thinks the war will go on and on for years and years. No quick end, Signym. Just more and more war:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And I think there may a Russian offensive this winter that could bring the war to a quick close.
I'm seeing a lot of hopium and copium in western press, which makes me think they're deliberately trying to fool everyone. Yanno, like usual.
Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe
A key Russian general whom Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted this week views the invasion of Ukraine as a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Europe.
Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sparking fears from many analysts that the Kremlin may have greater ambitions beyond taking control of its former Soviet neighbor. Russian commentators and lawmakers have often heightened those fears with their anti-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) rhetoric throughout the war—routinely encouraging direct strikes on European and even American targets.
This week, Putin promoted Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev to the rank of Colonel-General. The military leader had already been serving in the role of commanding the Central Military District and Russian Central Grouping of Forces in Ukraine.
In a recent interview with Moscow's state-run Russia-1, a clip of which circulated widely on social media Saturday, Mordvichev said he believes Putin's war will last quite a long time and expand in the future.
"I think there's still plenty of time to spend. It is pointless to talk about a specified period. If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer," the general said.
"Ukraine is only a stepping stone?" the interviewer then asked.
"Yes, absolutely. It is only the beginning," Mordvichev responded, who went on to say that the war "will not stop here."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian embassy via email for comment.
Ahead of the invasion of Ukraine, Putin laid out a vision to reconstitute the long-defunct Russian Empire's territories into a unified block. The Russian leader and his allies have repeatedly said they do not view Ukraine as independent from Russia, saying that the sovereign nation should be brought back under Moscow's control.
Some of Putin's allies have often floated the possibility of expanding the Kremlin's invasion into NATO countries, including Poland and several other Eastern European nations. Analysts have citied the Russian president's vision and the suggestions to expand the war from his various allies as worrying signs that Moscow could push its military efforts beyond Ukraine.
NATO leaders have defended their military and humanitarian aide to Ukraine, saying their aim is to prevent Putin from pushing his forces further west into Europe. Eastern European nations, such as Poland, have been some of Ukraine's loudest defenders as their leaders fear their borders could be next to be challenged by Putin's forces.
Russian leaders claim that their Ukraine invasion was defensive to prevent NATO's expansion, and to protect Russian-speakers in Ukraine from "genocide." They claim that Kyiv's government is led by Nazis, while also saying that Ukraine is too supportive of LGBTQ+ rights.
Many view the Nazi claim as particularly bizarre. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish, and is himself a native Russian-speaker. During his 2019 election campaign he drew criticism for his accent when he spoke Ukrainian. At the time when Zelensky won and took office, Ukraine's prime minister was also Jewish.
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-general-admits-ukraine-just-stepping-
stone-invade-europe-1825776
Putin Promotes General With Eye for Attacking Eastern Europe
LONGER AND LONGER
Shannon Vavra, National Security Reporter
Updated Sep
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And I think there may a Russian offensive this winter that could bring the war to a quick close.
I'm seeing a lot of hopium and copium in western press, which makes me think they're deliberately trying to fool everyone. Yanno, like usual.
SECOND: "Putin's general thinks the war will go on and on for years and years. No quick end, Signym. Just more and more war:
Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe
Translation: Russian General ALSO sees a near-term end to Ukraine as we know it
Quote:
A key Russian general whom Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted this week views the invasion of Ukraine as a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Europe.
Translation: Unless the collective west takes Russian border security SERIOUSLY, items which have been expressly stated since 2007 (NATO expansion, USA missile installations on Russia's western border) and most recently explicitly stated Dec 2021 (and ignored by the west) then expect more military action.
*****
After
* having had the promise not to expand NATO "one inch eastward" broken (1991)
* having Ukraine and Georgia invited into NATO in 2008
* seeing a coup engineered in Ukraine in 2014 (and other attempts in neighboring nations)
* watching the west arm Kiev while it ethnically cleansed its eastern oblasts,
* being diddled for 7 years with the Minsk agreements by Kiev, France, and Germany.
* having contract after contract broken (destruction blessed by EU courts) and its pipelines blown up,
* being the subject of "sanctions from hell",
* watching BoJo (and the west) press Zelensky into reneging on peace deal initialed in March 2022 ...
* being diddled on "The Grain Deal" which the west never intended to honor and
* watching the USA successively withdraw from nuclear treaties
...
Russia has learned that the collective west can't be trusted, is 'not agreement capable' AND ONLY RESPONDS TO MILITARY FORCE.
Yanno, tough luck for the EU who are led mostly by mush-brains, and tough luck for the us, the USA. But like with China, we brought this on ourselves by assuming we (NATO) could roll over Russia like we rolled over everyone else. We will be economically bleeding endlessly over this, and if we're not careful a lot of actual American blood will be spilled.
My only hope is that there still are some realists hiding in their offices somewhere in the vast USA military, political, foreign affairs, and spook agencies who will one day have a come to Jesus moment and see the error of our ways.
Russia didn't want to be our enemy, but we made it so. Maybe some time in the distant future, we can learn to let our hubris go and deal with other nations even-handedly instead of as vassals or enemies, or hollywoodesque "good guys" and "bad guys" (us being the main "good guy", of course!)
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin has a new opposition and it’s furious at defeat in Ukraine
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia didn't want to be our enemy, but we made it so. Maybe some time in the distant future, we can learn to let our hubris go and deal with other nations even-handedly instead of as vassals or enemies, or hollywoodesque "good guys" and "bad guys" (us being the main "good guy", of course!)
A loose coalition of far-right ideologues and militant extremists are spreading a dangerous “stab-in-the-back” myth to explain Russia’s crushing defeats.
Alexey Kovalev
Sep 15, 2022 – 8.00am
A new Russian protest movement is coalescing, but it’s neither pro-democracy nor anti-war. Instead, it’s the most extreme of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supporters, who have grown increasingly furious at the unfolding military disaster for Russia in the six-month-long war in Ukraine.
They want Putin to escalate the war, use more devastating weapons, and hit Ukrainian civilians even more mercilessly. And they’ve openly attacked the Russian military and political leadership for supposedly holding back Russia’s full might – even as they rarely mention Putin by name.
Vladimir Putin is under pressure to use more brutal force in Ukraine from right-wing nationalists.
Their push to escalate the war, including widespread demands to use nuclear weapons, is dangerous in itself. But by creating a fantasy world in which a supposedly all-powerful Russian army is being defeated by domestic enemies – instead of by superior Ukrainian soldiers fighting for their own land with modern tactics and Western weapons – the movement has potentially disturbing implications for a postwar and possibly post-Putin Russia.
In fact, the narrative sounds a lot like the Dolchstosslegende, the German “stab-in-the-back” conspiracy theory that blamed the country’s defeat in World War I on nefarious enemies at home, including Jews. This narrative of military defeat became an integral part of the propaganda that brought the Nazis to power.
The promoters of the Russian stab-in-the-back myth aren’t a single party, movement, or group. Rather, the protesters are a loose coalition – mostly active online – of far-right ideologues, militant extremists, veterans of the 2014 Donbas war, Wagner Group mercenaries, bloggers, war reporters running their own Telegram channels, and individual Russian state media staff.
Some are soldiers or mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, and their channels have doubled as recruitment tools. Others already had a modest following before the war by promoting different causes, some obscure but mostly nationalist or right-wing issues: restoring the Soviet Union’s rule over Eastern Europe, building a new Russian empire, or promoting “Russia for the Russians.”
Their loyalty to the Kremlin varies from veneration of and complete submission to Putin as a god-like historical figure to activism in right-wing opposition movements. But unlike the Kremlin’s mouthpieces on state television and in its troll factories, members of this amorphous war escalation camp are united in their scathing criticism of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Nuclear strike on Kyiv
Their demand comes down to this: They want more war crimes – no mercy, no remorse, no pretense to even caring about civilian deaths until Ukraine is completely subdued and the very idea of Ukrainian-ness erased forever. Frustrated by the astonishing, unexpected defeat on Ukraine’s Kharkiv front, many pro-war bloggers demanded a swift retribution without regard for civilian deaths.
Some recommended a nuclear strike on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to decapitate the government; popular blogger Maxim Fomin (who blogs as Vladlen Tatarsky), called for a nuclear warning strike against Ukraine’s Snake Island. Others called for “total war” against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. When the Russian military appeared to oblige by launching missiles at several Ukrainian cities’ electricity grids overnight, an or
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia didn't want to be our enemy, but we made it so. Maybe some time in the distant future, we can learn to let our hubris go and deal with other nations even-handedly instead of as vassals or enemies, or hollywoodesque "good guys" and "bad guys" (us being the main "good guy", of course!)
SECOND:
"Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin has a new opposition and it’s furious at defeat in Ukraine
A loose coalition of far-right ideologues and militant extremists are spreading a dangerous “stab-in-the-back” myth to explain Russia’s crushing defeats." It
Somebody is either delusional or joking.
I'm going with delusional.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Signym, instead of writing Putin/Russian fan fiction, please use your talent to write Firefly fan fiction. The Firefly and Russian actors are real, but the stories both tell are fake. Because the stories were believable, I was sad for the actors when Firefly was canceled by Fox. What would they do with their lives? When the Russian War gets canceled by Ukraine, I won't be sad for the dead Russians because the stories Putin and Signym were telling weren't believable.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Somebody is either delusional or joking.
I'm going with delusional.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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You're insane, SECOND.
And you spend way too much time finding and blast-posting walls of gibberish.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Nobody gave a shit about Ukraine when all of this started.
Nobody gives a shit about Ukraine now.
--------------------------------------------------
How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Ukraine's former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has warned the West that Russia's intentions towards Ukraine are far more sinister than mere conquest.
According to Reznikov, negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, as Vladimir Putin is determined to completely destroy Ukraine and "assimilate" its citizens into the Russian Federation.
Reznikov states that any "deal" with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. Russia demands the recognition of Ukraine's occupied territories as its own in exchange for ending the war.
However, this is merely a tactic to buy time, regroup, and ultimately "solve the Ukrainian problem" using new resources. Russia does not recognize the existence of Ukraine and its people; its goal is the annihilation of the Ukrainian state and the assimilation of Ukrainians.
Drawing parallels with the events leading up to World War II, Reznikov compares the international demands in 1938 for Czechoslovakia to cede Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
He argues that Putin's actions follow a similar pattern, and history shows that such concessions do not stop aggressors.
The situation is further complicated by the lack of "meaningful diplomacy" with Moscow, as stated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Despite some recent successes, Ukraine's counteroffensive has not yet liberated a significant portion of southern Ukraine occupied by Russia since last year's full-scale invasion.
Some Western allies have suggested that Ukraine may need to make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for peace and NATO membership, a proposal that has sparked outrage in Kiev.
https://www.dagens.com/news/disturbing-revelation-putins-goal-is-not-t
o-conquer-ukraine
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Ukraine reports significant blow to Russia: 600 Russian forces killed and party headquarters destroyed
Jakob A. Overgaard
According to official statements, approximately 600 Russian military personnel were neutralized in a single day. This recent event has added to the growing number of casualties since the conflict began in February 2022, bringing the total to a staggering 268,140.
The Mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, further disclosed that the United Russia Political Party's main office in Polohy, Ukraine, was obliterated in an assault that took place on Friday. This information was corroborated by the Kyiv Independent. Fedorov, communicating through the Telegram messaging platform, mentioned that locals depicted the Russians as being "evicted" from the headquarters during the tumultuous "pseudo-elections" period.
In a somber note, Fedorov hinted at the aftermath of the attack, stating, "Some were rushed to medical facilities, while others were taken directly to the morgue."
The Ukrainian armed forces' general staff has been actively monitoring and estimating the number of Russian casualties. Their recent estimate aligns with the government's claim of 600 Russian personnel losses on that fateful Friday.
The destruction of the United Russia Political Party's headquarters is seen as a symbolic blow to Russia's influence in the region. The exact reasons and circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear, but it underscores the volatile nature of the ongoing conflict between the two nations.
https://www.dagens.com/news/ukraine-reports-significant-blow-to-russia
-600-russian-forces-killed-and-party-headquarters-destroyed
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Ukraine's former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has warned the West that Russia's intentions towards Ukraine are far more sinister than mere conquest.
According to Reznikov, negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, as Vladimir Putin is determined to completely destroy Ukraine and "assimilate" its citizens into the Russian Federation.
Reznikov states that any "deal" with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. Russia demands the recognition of Ukraine's occupied territories as its own in exchange for ending the war.
However, this is merely a tactic to buy time, regroup, and ultimately "solve the Ukrainian problem" using new resources. Russia does not recognize the existence of Ukraine and its people; its goal is the annihilation of the Ukrainian state and the assimilation of Ukrainians.
Drawing parallels with the events leading up to World War II, Reznikov compares the international demands in 1938 for Czechoslovakia to cede Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
He argues that Putin's actions follow a similar pattern, and history shows that such concessions do not stop aggressors.
The situation is further complicated by the lack of "meaningful diplomacy" with Moscow, as stated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Despite some recent successes, Ukraine's counteroffensive has not yet liberated a significant portion of southern Ukraine occupied by Russia since last year's full-scale invasion.
Some Western allies have suggested that Ukraine may need to make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for peace and NATO membership, a proposal that has sparked outrage in Kiev.
https://www.dagens.com/news/disturbing-revelation-putins-goal-is-not-t
o-conquer-ukraine
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
BORG!
Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Quote:And we're supposed to believe Reznikov because he has such a stellar history of honesty?
Originally posted by second:
Ukraine's former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has warned the West that Russia's intentions towards Ukraine are far more sinister than mere conquest.
According to Reznikov...
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Quote:
SECOND: Ukraine reports ....
Aaaaand.... That's as far as I got with THAT one, too! Ukraine ALSO 'reports' that they killed something like 268,000 Russians. And yet, neither the BBC nor Meduza can find all of those death notices or graves. Must be invisible as well as dead!
Dood, get new material....
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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What the West Still Gets Wrong About Russia’s Military
Moscow’s Overlooked Manpower Problem—and How Washington Can Exploit It
By Zoltan Barany, September 8, 2023
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/what-west-still-gets
-wrong-about-russias-military
In the spring of 2022, as the West watched Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine unfold, one of the greatest surprises was what it revealed about Russian military strength. When the assault began, many Western leaders and analysts assumed that Ukraine would be quickly overpowered by Russia’s vast army, powerful air force, and deep reserves of major weaponry. Instead, Russia’s ground forces proved to be disorganized, poorly trained, and lacking crucial supply lines, while Russian planes failed to gain control of Ukrainian airspace. It took weeks for the West to fully recognize these weaknesses and help Ukraine exploit them.
In recent months, there has been a similar misreading. In the weeks after Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive began in June, many commentators dwelled on the strength and depth of Russian defenses. Some expressed pessimism about Ukraine’s ability to break through them at all; others warned that Moscow could order a second mobilization, bringing hundreds of thousands of new troops into combat. Yet by late August, Ukraine was making solid gains, with Biden administration officials acknowledging “notable” progress, including against Russia’s second line of defenses.
This pattern is not new. For decades, Western analysts and policymakers have consistently overrated Moscow’s military strength. In part, this has been the result of a lack of reliable information. Although Russia (and the Soviet Union before it) has fought in many wars, there have been few examples of Moscow facing off against resolute and well-armed enemies, and Russian propaganda and repression by the Kremlin have effectively limited independent analysis inside Russia. But another factor may be even more important: in assessing Russia’s strength, U.S. and other Western experts have tended to focus on quantitative assessments of weapons systems—tanks, planes, and missiles—and raw manpower, rather than on the qualitative and psychological characteristics that often determine a military’s performance on the battlefield.
In fact, on many qualitative measures, Russian forces have been woefully lacking. Moscow lacks the kind of highly trained officer corps that has proved essential to the world’s best armies. Relying in part on conscription that is imposed unequally across the population, it suffers from low troop morale. Many of Russia’s best young minds have sought to avoid service altogether or have fled the country. And because of Russia’s autocratic system and pervasive corruption, it has proved difficult to bring the kinds of innovation, adaptability, and versatility that tend to produce the best outcomes on the battlefield.
Paradoxically, the West is acutely aware of qualitative issues when assessing other militaries. Take the cases of Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Although their per capita defense outlays are among the highest in the world, few analysts would rank the effectiveness of their armed forces at a similar level: it has long been demonstrated that they lack sufficient training, morale, discipline, and experience in operating under demanding and adverse conditions. Yet because of Russia’s historic reputation as a superpower, analysts have tended to view its armed forces differently, concentrating on material strength while neglecting crucial intangibles such as the quality and experience of its troops—and, more specifically, the way that Russia has built up its manpower. As a result, the United States and its allies may be foreclosing more effective policy responses to the war or even inhibiting Ukraine’s warfighting strategy.
SUPERPOWER OR SUPER HYPE?
The overestimation of Moscow’s military goes back at least to the mid-twentieth century. Following World War II, experts often overrated Soviet forces, with major consequences for U
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Victory at What Price in Ukraine?
By David Lapp-Jost
September 09, 2023
How many Ukrainian lives is full-out victory over Putin and recovery of the Donbas and southern Ukraine worth? 100,000? 500,000? A million? It´s a more relevant question than most realize. Despite the flurry of Ukraine War coverage in Western media, a February 2023 Responsible Science Journal article on the war with insight into the true human cost until now went almost completely without notice. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-05/SGR_RS5_2023_Parkin
son1.pdf
That article asked an obvious question that almost everyone else seemingly intentionally avoids “how many Ukrainians have died as a result of this war?” and the likely answer was 150,000 excess deaths – deaths above the normal expected rate -- only by February of this year. One might expect this question in every article about the war – how many people are dying? To improve human security in Ukraine and prevent future conflicts, we need to ask new questions, scrutinize war in new ways, and reflect on what it means to work for peace.
More at https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/09/09/victory_at_what_p
rice_in_ukraine_978456.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Ukraine collects Russian bodies on 'road of death'
Russia and Ukraine have conducted regular exchanges of prisoners of war, as well as the bodies of dead soldiers, since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Wearing face masks, the Ukrainian soldiers poked sticks into the undergrowth along a deserted country road, searching for the bodies of Russian soldiers they hoped to exchange for their own comrades, living and dead.
They called it the "road of death" after the number of Russian soldiers killed there when Ukrainian forces retook the southeastern village of Blahodatne at the start of their counteroffensive in June.
Three months on, the frontline had shifted south and it was finally safe enough for the three-man team of Ukrainian soldiers to start their operation in this liberated part of Donetsk region.
"We're going to search," said Volodymyr, a 50-year-old marine, as artillery fire boomed in the distance. "Search with our eyes. And using smell."
The route was dotted with gutted vehicles and shattered buildings. At one point, they used a rope to tug a body to make sure it had not been booby-trapped by retreating Russian forces.
The group recovered nine bodies in their day-long search on Friday. Each was loaded onto the back of a truck and taken for forensic examination.
Volodymyr said Russian forces had been forced to retreat rapidly from Blahodatne and that the only other route out had been unusable because it was heavily mined.
"There was probably an exchange of fire. But they retreated very quickly," he said.
"They left the wounded and killed on the way and escaped to Urozhaine. But they didn't stay in Urozhaine for long either. There was intense fighting for Urozhaine," he said, referring to a nearby village that was later retaken.
Retreating forces and prisoner exchanges
"Here's what we do. We gather up their bodies. We arrange exchanges for our prisoners who are alive. And for bodies. Our boys," Vasylii, a 53-year-old volunteer, said. "You know, so that a mother can go and visit the cemetery."
https://www.jpost.com/international/internationalrussia-ukraine-war/ar
ticle-758505
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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From your article, SECOND:
Quote:
With tens of thousands of Ukrainians since dead, this adds up to maybe four to five times the Russian losses, based on estimated Russian excess deaths. Hundreds of thousands of healthy young people have been injured and/or traumatized in an already-poor health care system. Millions are live as refugees in Europe, with only 1/3rd of the refugees wanting to return to Ukraine despite impoverishment and vulnerability to sex exploitation. Ukraine´s birthrate has plummeted. Realistically hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already died and next winter may well again be very hard, perhaps even harder. War is crucifying Ukraine, and Ukraine may also be losing.
Russians report Ukrainian battlefield deaths based on (they say) radio intercepts of field officers reporting in to their commanders. (Of course, they don't report on their own deaths) That doesn't account for behind-the-line deaths from longer-range weapons like drones, artillery, rockets, and missiles which can't necessarily be observed or intercepted. It also doesn't count soldiers who died in hopsital later. I haven't totaled up Kremlin MoD reports, so all I have are estimates but people have claimed 200,000-400,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the start of the war, with about 60,000 just from the start of the "counteroffensive".
Meanwhile, using Russian death and inheritance notices and other tools, Meduza and Mediazone says
Quote:
According to their analysis, 25,000 more inheritance cases were opened in 2022 for males aged 15 to 49 than expected. By May 27, 2023, the number of excess cases had shot up to 47,000.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/ukraine-war-has-killed-about-50
000-russians-data-suggests/102587006
NOT the 460,000 that "Kiev says"! It almost seems to me that Kiev is actually reversing the numbers .... their "Russians killed" is actually "Ukrainians dead", and vice versa.
Various (realistic) estimates from various battlefields report anywhere from 4-10:1 ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths. Probably closer to 5:1, but whatever the ratio clearly Ukraine is losing far more soldiers than Russia, and won't be able to keep the war going indefinitely because they've already run out of traditional 155 mm shells and sooner or later will run out of soldiers.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Wartime Russians Fall Back on an Ancient Survival Strategy
Conformism and acquiescence have a long tradition in a culture of chaos and repression.
Alexey Kovalev | Sept 10, 2023
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/10/russia-war-putin-prisposoblenches
tvo-conformism-adapt-support-culture-history/
One of the strangest aspects of the mutiny that took an army of Wagner Group mercenaries almost to the gates of Moscow in June was the deafening silence of the vast majority of Russians. Even Russian media propagandists and other establishment figures—normally not shy in their demonstrative support for President Vladimir Putin—were mostly invisible for the day and a half that the mutiny was underway. When Putin subsequently praised the population’s cohesion in support of his regime, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Almost complete silence in the face of the most dramatic challenge to Putin since he took power might be hard for non-Russians to imagine. Just think, for example, of Americans reacting to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2021: They were either up in arms or loudly cheering.
But few Russians—or those familiar with Russian history and culture—were even a tiny bit surprised by a population scrupulously avoiding taking sides, waiting who would come out on top. That’s because for centuries, Russians have been masters of survival in times of repression, upheaval, chaos, or uncertainty, which have permeated and even defined so much of the country’s history.
In fact, they have a special word for their survival strategy: prisposoblenchestvo, which roughly translates to “adaptability to one’s surroundings.” (It’s a mouthful, but the approximate pronunciation is pris-pah-sah-BLEN-chest-vah.)
There is no single word in English that can adequately convey all the word’s subtleties when it is used by Russians. Acquiescence, conformism, opportunism, lying low, and avoidance of conflict only reflect some of its many aspects. What’s more, the evocative word is used almost exclusively to capture Russians’ behavior in their own country’s social and political context. In today’s Russia, not sticking your neck out during a possible power grab by a now-dead mercenary is, in fact, the best possible response.
The prisposoblenets—the person doing the adapting—is a stock character in classic Russian literature, just like the adventurer in 19th-century American novels. In literature, the prisposoblenets is almost always an antagonist, a lickspittle or craven turncoat whose purpose as a plot device is to contrast the protagonist’s passionate rigor or noble self-sacrifice.
Such is, for example, Alexey Molchalin, a character in Alexander Griboyedov’s Woe From Wit, an early-19th-century play that has been a standard part of the Russian school curriculum since Soviet times. In Act IV, Molchalin lays out his worldview:
Make yourself agreeable to all bar none.
The master and the mistress where you lodge,
Your employer, with the key to your promotion,
His servant, so he’ll put your clothes in order,
The doorman, the footman, and the porter,
To keep them sweet, in case they bear a grudge,
The porter’s dog, to stop his yapping.
Yet if excessive agreeableness and avoidance of conflict is an object of derision for authors such as Griboyedov, their fellow Russians often treat it as an existential necessity. Indeed, the concept is deeply embedded in Russian history: Under the despotic rulers that have dominated Russian and Soviet history for centuries, prisposoblenchestvo was an essential survival tactic, even if it often meant a choice between the bad and the terrible.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Sergius I, for example, struck a pact with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1927, pledging loyalty to the young Soviet state. Attempting to preserve what little was left of his flock and clergy under an aggressively atheist regime, Sergius succeeded in preventing the church and its adherents from bei
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Quote:The ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths was 1,000,000 to 1 during Holodomor, which is why Ukrainians fight Russians, now.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Various (realistic) estimates from various battlefields report anywhere from 4-10:1 ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths. Probably closer to 5:1, but whatever the ratio clearly Ukraine is losing far more soldiers than Russia, and won't be able to keep the war going indefinitely because they've already run out of traditional 155 mm shells and sooner or later will run out of soldiers.
Holodomor
https://www.google.com/search?q=Holodomor
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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As usual, you lie like a rug, SECOND.
Ukrainians WEREN'T all that crazy about joining NATO in 2007 -2008, according to polls taken then. They WEREN'T burning with anti-Russian feeling. They voted overwhelmingly for Zelenskiy because he promised unification with eastern (Russian-speaking) oblasts and peace with Russia. (Unfortunately, like most politicians, he lied.*)
Ukrainaians DON'T carry your overwhelming historical grudges. THAT'S YOU.
Aside from YOU saying it, there are no quotes from modern reportage that even mentions the Holdomor. Do you read about soldiers dying with "Remember the Holdomor!" on their lips?
Nah.... That's YOUR INVENTION. Whatever anti-Russian feelings have been whipped up since 2007, they're modern, and a result of western NGOs/ State Dept working in Ukraine.
You seem to think that everyone carries deep historical grudge. YANNO, LIKE YOU, constantly going back to the Confederacy, or Catherine the Great, or some long-dead historical figure who is no longer available to counter your tropes, memes, and disinfo.
So, not in touch with the here - and -now, ARE YOU, SECOND? Whipping up false narratives to whip up hate, are you, SECOND?
Of course you are!
Most soldiers fighting in Ukraine are fighting for, like most drafted soldiers everywhere, for their individual survival and (sometimes) their immediate squad/platoon. Altho at this point, given the loss rate, I doubt there is much squad/platoon cohension: Veteran soldiers look at new recruits and consistently say "Most of them will be dead in a few days/weeks" so I doubt there is much bonding going on.
And, of course, surrender is highly frowned on, and any Azov-style commissars will willingly shoot you in the back if your squad/ platoon/ company turns around or refuses orders. Yanno, maybe fragging would come back in style, except they're afraid to issue ammo too early to frontline soldiers bc they're too afraid they'll disable thmeselves by shooting themselves in the foor/leg, or checking out entirely and committing suicide. (According to quotes)
Save your catoonish POV for others, SECOND. Except for THUGR (who IMHO is unable to think beyond how he was conditioned) everybody here knows you're a liar. And, over time, they get to see how deeply you're saturated with lies.
*Yanno, you lie so easily, so often, and in such self-contradictory fashion, why are you wasting your time here? Go RUN FOR OFFICE. You've got everything it takes to be a successful politician.
Except YOU prefer to be string-puller. Don't you, SECOND?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:First thing, learn how to spell Ukrainian, Signym.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
As usual, you lie like a rug, SECOND.
Ukrainaians DON'T carry your overwhelming historical grudges. THAT'S YOU.
Aside from YOU saying it, there are no quotes from modern reportage that even mentions the Holdomor. Do you read about soldiers dying with "Remember the Holdomor!" on their lips?
Nah.... That's YOUR INVENTION. Whatever anti-Russian feelings have been whipped up since 2007, they're modern, and a result of western NGOs/ State Dept working in Ukraine.
Second thing, the Russians deny Holodomor happened, claiming it is a myth to make Russia look bad. The Ukrainians are well aware of what Russia did and it motivates them in the same way as the holocaust motivates Israel.
Signmy, please google Putin Holodomor because Putin is the biggest denier of Holodomor in Russia. https://www.google.com/search?q=putin+holodomor
Or read "Why does Russia still deny the Holodomor?"
https://holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/news/why-does-russia-still-deny-the-
holodomor/
The Ukrainians will continue to fight the Russians because the alternative is four million or more deaths of Ukrainians, which is what happened the previous time Russia conquered Ukraine during Holodomor.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I don't give a fuck if Russians claim the Holdomor never happened*
That's NOT on Ukrainian's minds right now, and hasn't been for 50 years.
Stop propagnadizing, and get right with reality, SECOND.
*BTW that's NOT what Russia claims. As usual, you lie like a rug about that, too.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Quote:Sure, Signym. The Ukrainians are Nazis and that is why they fight Russians, not because Russians have murdered four million Ukrainians and would do it again if the Ukrainians surrender.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I don't give a fuck if Russians claim the Holdomor never happened*
That's NOT on Ukrainian's minds right now, and hasn't been for 50 years.
Stop propagnadizing, and get right with reality, SECOND.
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Ukrainians are fighting bc once they're drafted they don't have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Kiev is busy drumming into civilian heads that Russia wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map and invade the rest of Europe".
Not true, stop lying.
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Quote:Don't forget, Finland and Sweden joined NATO because those countries have leaders who are Nazis, same as the Nazi leaders of Ukraine. Sadly, the poor people are being drafted into an alliance that THEY DO NOT WANT, an alliance against their good friends in Russia. The Swedes and Finns will have no choice but to fight Russia.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Ukrainians are fighting bc once they're drafted they don't have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Kiev is busy drumming into civilian heads that Russia wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map and invade the rest of Europe".
Not true, stop lying.
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Yanno, if you were to learn some ACTUAL HISTORY (as opposed the the propaganda reel running continuously in your head) you would have learned that far from being "civilized democratic states" that respected "European values" and "human rights", MOST European states have a barbarous history of grabbing each other's territory (including invading Russia), fighting over religion, and capturing foreign colonies. Sweden and Poland-Lithuania figure into that!
Also, you would have learned that many modern European nations have STRONG PRO-NAZI histories, and that includes France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, Hungary, and Franco's Spain.
But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.
Why Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/23/why-finland-allied-itsel
f-with-nazi-germany
****
So, no, Russia is not going to "wipe Ukraine off the map". After all, they need a viable neutral buffer state. And, no, Russia is not going to go ravening
thru Europe. They just really, really want to get those NATO missiles off their border.
You're a waste of CO2, you troll.
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Quote:It is Russia that pumped fear into Europe. Signym, you should have warned the Russians to not say these things on TV:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.
Russia general says Ukraine just ‘stepping stone’ to invade Europe: ‘Won’t stop'
By Mallika Soni, Sep 10, 2023 10:34 PM IST
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/russiaukraine-war-russian-ge
neral-says-ukraine-just-stepping-stone-to-invade-europe-101694364931943.html
Russia threatens to nuke
https://www.google.com/search?q=Russia+threatens+to+nuke
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.
SECOND: It is Russia that pumped fear into Europe. Signym, you should have warned the Russians to not say these things on TV:
Russia general says Ukraine just ‘stepping stone’ to invade Europe: ‘Won’t stop'
By Mallika Soni, Sep 10, 2023 10:34 PM IST
EXCEPT THAT'S NOT WHAT HE SAID.
YOUR constant misquotes, out of context snippets, projection, and mind- reading ('what he really meant to say..') are just part of your neverending disinfo campaign.
He used the word CONFLICT. "Conflict" can mean anything from WWIII with nuclear weapons to a dispute. Stop fear-mongering.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/russiaukraine-war-russian-ge
neral-says-ukraine-just-stepping-stone-to-invade-europe-101694364931943.html
Quote:
Russia threatens to nuke
https://www.google.com/search?q=Russia+threatens+to+nuke
What YOU NOW CALL NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL WE USED TO CALL DETERRENCE. And we both counted on it to keep each other in check.
That's your fear-mongering again. You sound as obsessed with Russia as Auraptor sounded about Saddam's so-called WMD.
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Quote:A former key adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Britain with nuclear strikes in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, shortly after Moscow announced a widespread mobilization of troops.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
What YOU NOW CALL NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL WE USED TO CALL DETERRENCE. And we both counted on it to keep each other in check.
That's your fear-mongering again. You sound as obsessed with Russia as Auraptor sounded about Saddam's so-called WMD.
“In Russia there’s partial mobilization and for your British listeners Vladimir Putin told you that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons against Western countries, including nuclear weapons against Great Britain,” Sergei Markov told the BBC.
“Your cities will be targeted,” said the former Russian lawmaker, who serves as a key public defender of the Kremlin to the international press.
“Everybody in the world now is thinking of nuclear war,” Markov said, claiming that a potential escalation would be due to the “crazy behavior” of US President Joe Biden, as well the former and current British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
“Biden, Johnson and Truss are fully responsible for the war in Ukraine,” he claimed, nearly seven months after Russia invaded its neighbor.
“It was absolutely clear that Russia has no war against Ukraine, Russia has no reason to use technical nuclear weapons against Ukrainians,” Markov said.
“Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves,” Markov said. “[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization.”
“Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy,” Markov said.
In response to Markov’s threat, Foreign Officer minister Gillian Keegan said “talk of nuclear war is completely unhelpful.”
Signym, you are as crazy as Sergei Markov.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-putin-adviser-threatens-nuclear-s
trikes-on-uk-your-cities-will-be-targeted/
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Yes, SECOND, what is he saying???
"We will strike you IF YOU DO SOMETHING CRAZY."
YOU DUMB SHIT, THAT'S CALLED DETERRENCE.
And "crazy" has been delineated by Russia over and over. It's not some sort of hidden hoop or secret "fail" that we have to live in fear of.
Gawd you're dumb. Why don't you do the world a favor and stop wasting so much oxygen on fear-mongering and bullshit? Yanno, do something useful with all the CO2 you're exhaling? At least make a positive difference in the world?
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Quote:“Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves,” Markov said. “[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization.”
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yes, SECOND, what is he saying???
“Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy,” Markov said.
You didn't comprehend what Markov said, Signym, but now you have a second chance to read his words.
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Quote:No, YOU misrepresent what he said
Originally posted by second:Quote:“Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves,” Markov said. “[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization.”
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yes, SECOND, what is he saying???
“Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy,” Markov said.
You didn't comprehend what Markov said, Signym, but now you have a second chance to read his words.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Is it not true the we- the collective west- are at war with Russia thru our Ukrainian proxy?
Was it not YOU who posted we need to regime change Russia, break it apart and take its resources?
Or how about YOU portraying Russians as cannibalistic savages who haven't advance past orc-like status in 2000 years?
Do you read THAT coming from Markov about you?
Up your "reading with comprehension" skills, moron.
And go fuck yourself.
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Quote:Russians are sensitive artists, delicate souls, with feelings hurt by younger brother Ukrainians.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
No, YOU misrepresent what he said
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Russian officials introduced a bill to the Russian State Duma that would punish Russian servicemen fighting within volunteer armed formations for losing or deliberately destroying military equipment or supplies.[55]
Chairperson of the Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapalov and other deputies submitted the bill, which stipulates that volunteers do not currently bear financial responsibility for the loss or deliberate destruction of military property unlike Russian regular military personnel, despite receiving military equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-12-2023
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Russian occupation officials continue to deport children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia under the guise of recreational programs.
A source affiliated with the Kherson Oblast occupation administration announced on September 12 that 37 children from the Skadovsk Raion of occupied Kherson Oblast went on a 21-day “recreational vacation” to the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic and will receive medical and psychological assistance at the “Rainbow” rehabilitation center.[59] The occupation source posted footage of the children accompanied by an individual in military uniform, suggesting that Russian security forces are overseeing such “trips.”
ISW continues to assess that any removals of children from their homeland during the course of military conflicts by the occupying power is inherently coercive, and therefore inherently deportation and a violation of international law.[60]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-12-2023
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At least 27 Russian soldiers in Donetsk attempting to retreat from their positions were killed by friendly fire from their comrades, according to a Ukrainian lawmaker.
Yuriy Mysiagin, a Ukrainian member of parliament, said in a Telegram message on September 10 that Russian fighters had "retreated to new positions chaotically and almost in a panic."
According to Mysiagin, the Russian forces assumed their troops were Ukrainians attempting to recapture territory near the Donetsk airport. The rushed exit caused the soldiers to endure friendly fire from their own artillery, Mysiagin added.
"The result was 27 dead and 34 wounded. Approximately half of the wounded had their arms or legs blown off," Mysiagin said. "Several pieces of equipment were lost."
Kostyantyn Mashovets, a colonel from Ukraine's armed forces, said in a September 10 Facebook post that the friendly fire likely kicked off because of poor coordination by the Russians.
"For some unknown reason, the enemy artillery began to fire, not near the front line or behind Ukrainian positions in order to suppress our firepower, but on the positions and rear of this unit," Mashovets said in his post, published on September 10.
Representatives for Russia's Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.
This wouldn't have been the first time Russian forces gunned down their own troops.
In August, a deputy battalion commander of Ukraine's 129th Territorial Defense Brigade told The New York Times that he saw Russian soldiers taking fire from their own side.
The soldier, who goes by the call sign Kherson, was fighting the Russians in the village of Neskuchne as part of the Ukraine's counteroffensive. Kherson said he saw Russian forces firing rockets at the battlefield just as their soldiers were starting to retreat.
"They buried quite a lot of their own guys," Kherson told The Times.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/over-2-dozen-russian-soldiers-045404
720.html
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Quote:This is the only reliable part.
Originally posted by second:
... according to a Ukrainian lawmaker ...
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Quote:
Originally posted by second: ... ISW [Institute for the Study of War, the neocon Nuland-Kagan propaganda machine] continues ...
Yep, the ISW continues ... to propagandize. As does SECOND.
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I'm surprised that THUGR isn't all over these boards with KIEV MISSILE STRIKE ON SEVASTOPOL!
Well, you heard it here first.
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Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has promised a "tough response" and "punishment" for trying to "finish off" the Crimean Bridge.
In the spirit of Russian propaganda, Zakharova called the attacks on the bridge extremism on the part of the "Ukrainian regime covered in blood".
Quote: "A few days ago, [Nataliia – ed.] Humeniuk, the spokesperson for Operational Command Pivden [South], said that the Crimean Bridge had very little time left. He [sic] noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would ‘continue their work’... Probably trying to bring down the bridge...
... [the Ukrainian ‘regime’] is not ceasing in its efforts to prove that it intends to continue its attempts to target exclusively civilian infrastructure, such as the Crimean Bridge. Kyiv does not think about the consequences.
I would like to remind [Kyiv] that the response, if everything they have said here happens, will be harsh. Those who hatch such plans against our country will not be able to hide from punishment."
Details: Zakharova mistakenly referred to Nataliia Humeniuk as a man several times.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/09/13/7419604/
The bridge should have fallen during the first month of this war. Unless Ukraine wants to lose, Ukraine had better hurry its most knowledgeable structural engineers to execute a competent plan rather than the amateurish plans tried so far.
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The West Needs a Russia — Not a Putin — Policy
by Artin DerSimonian https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-west-needs-a-russia-not-a-
putin-policy/
Demonizing Putin is not a policy. It’s an excuse for the absence of one.
September 13, 2023
Even before the latest phase of the war in Ukraine, the narrative surrounding Western policy toward Moscow has focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Such an approach ignores the reality that Putin acts rather as the adjudicator, and ultimate stabilizer, of the country’s fractious political elite. Nevertheless, recent reporting on Russia has remained fixated on Putin, effectively dismissing the rest of society and institutions as inept and insignificant.
In March 2014, following the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger wrote in The Washington Post that “the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.” Unfortunately, this assessment has become only more pertinent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February. As a result, the very possibility of a policy based on and directed toward Russia, not Putin, has seemingly faded from Western public “debate.” This approach, beyond skewing our perception of the more fundamental problems we face vis-à-vis US-Russia relations, allows the West to march blindly ahead without considering its own role in the current state of troubled relations.
Washington has a history of adopting confrontational foreign policy stances toward individual leaders (admittedly often less-than-savory characters), rather than toward strategic objectives that support or defend US national interests. This has been the case with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Moammar El-Gadhafi in Libya, and Bashar al-Assad in Syria. These three countries continue to suffer political, economic, and humanitarian challenges, which therefore raises the question: What has Western policy achieved?
While many in the West like to believe that the values we hold dear and that form the basis of our societies are universal, the reality is quite different. As such, by demonizing leaders who don’t adhere to our principles, we often end up misunderstanding different cultures and how their societies produced such individuals and elevated them to positions of power.
While a policy solely directed toward an individual leader does indeed make for an easy-to-digest narrative for domestic audiences, it often undermines strategic US interests and regional stability, ultimately limiting our room for maneuver. By characterizing leaders whom we dislike as the embodiment of evil (or even the proverbial Hitler) and ourselves as the benevolent democratic crusader, we not only delude our own populations, but engage in diplomatic malpractice too.
While support amongst Russians for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine remains harder to assess from a sociological perspective (although indicators point toward a general acceptance of the conflict), the example of Crimea’s annexation offers a salient point of reference. Studies have demonstrated that most Russians view the annexation of Crimea as a positive event; so too, in fact, do a majority of Crimea’s residents, according to Western-funded research surveys.
Reportedly, Putin was being pushed by hard-line members of the political elite to go even further in 2014, along the lines of what’s unfolding across eastern and southern Ukraine today. While in the West, Crimea’s annexation was a clear breach of international law, for many Russians it was a “reunification” and historically justified. Clearly, our problems aren’t limited to Putin, but rather in our overall relations with Russia.
Indeed, Putin has been at the helm of the Russian state for over 23 years, during which time he’s increasingly silenced domestic opposition and engaged in a more assertive foreign policy. However, as my colleagues Anatol Lieven and George Beebe wrote in Responsible Statecraft: “Far from being the Stalinist autocrat often portrayed in the West, Putin has generally operated more
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The European Parliament adopted a resolution on September 13 recognizing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as complicit in Russian crimes committed in Ukraine and called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for him.
The European Parliament’s resolution stated that Belarus is complicit in the war in Ukraine and is involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus, Russia, and occupied areas of Ukraine.[22]
ISW continues to assess that Belarus is a co-belligerent in the war and is involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children.[23]
ISW has also assessed that Belarus may be facilitating sanctions evasion schemes for Russia.[24]
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko will meet in Sochi, Russia on September 15.[25]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-14-2023
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More hypocritical virtue-signalling from the heights of the non-democratic EU bureaucracy!
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Russian State Duma Deputy and former Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District (SMD) Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev complained about lying within the Russian military and highlighted the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defenses against Russian helicopters.
Gurulev published a Telegram message on September 15 largely reiterating known Russian challenges, though with several notable points. Gurulev complained that the culture of lying in the Russian military is the main issue preventing a Russian victory in Ukraine and claimed that false reports are leading to poor decision-making at many levels within the Russian military.[4]
Gurulev also stated that Ukrainian air defenses at the front are effective against Russian helicopters and are preventing Russian helicopters from using previously highly effective anti-tank missiles, and he reiterated common complaints about Ukraine’s ability to conduct drone strikes on Russian rear areas and insufficient Russian counterbattery capabilities.[5]
Gurulev is notable for having previously leaked the audio message of former Commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army (SMD) Major General Ivan Popov’s grievances over the lack of support for Russian forces on July 12, and Gurulev‘s likely senior ties with the SMD lend weight to his complaints.[6]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-15-2023
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Quote:Finland will ban entry to passenger vehicles registered in Russia starting Saturday, the Nordic country’s top diplomat announced Friday afternoon.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
More hypocritical virtue-signalling from the heights of the non-democratic EU bureaucracy!
“Our decision is for the ban to come into force after midnight,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster Yle.
“We estimate the new rules will significantly reduce traffic on the border between Finland and Russia,” she added.
EU citizens and “their immediate circle,” as well as diplomats and those traveling for humanitarian reasons, would be exempt from the restrictions, according to Yle.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia issued no-exception entry bans this week for Russian-registered cars after the European Commission clarified that existing regulations prohibit the import or transfer of goods originating in Russia.
Finland’s neighbor Norway, which has joined the EU’s sanctions against Russia despite not being a member of the bloc, said it was also considering banning entry to Russian-registered vehicles.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/15/finland-follows-baltics-bans
-entry-to-russian-vehicles-a82472
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Russian ultranationalists continued to complain about endemic lying within the Russian military after Russian State Duma Deputy and former Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District (SMD) Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev voiced similar complaints on September 15.
A Russian milblogger posted a statement reportedly from a subscriber on September 16 that concurred with Gurulev’s assertion that the culture of lying in the Russian military is the main issue preventing a Russian victory in Ukraine.[16] Another Russian milblogger stated that the issue is a “disaster” and that lies occur at all levels of the Russian military as subordinate commanders are afraid to report the truth about the condition and needs of units and formations.[17] The milblogger stated the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Russian President Vladimir Putin are likely receiving false reports. The milblogger added that tyranny (bad command culture), fraud, and a lack of military resourcefulness are some of the issues affecting the Russian military in Ukraine and that the main goal of the Russian military should be to minimize personnel losses. A Russian insider source compared Gurulev to deceased Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin in his role as the “front line truth teller.”[18]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-sept-16-2023
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The government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been dragging out a decision to supply German-made Taurus cruise missiles. Scholz has not explained the reasons for his waffling.
The fact that Taurus cruise missiles or ATACMS are unlikely to be game-changers on the battlefield does not mean that they should not be sent. On the contrary: Western support for maintaining Ukraine’s precision-strike capability is an important component of the Ukrainian armed forces’ overall attrition strategy. One way to increase the missiles’ potential effectiveness would be to lift restrictions on their use — for example, by allowing Ukraine to target the Kerch Bridge.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/14/ukraine-russia-taurus-germany-ata
cms-weapons-attrition-strategy-deep-battle/
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This rather lengthy article is an analysis of USA military shortfalls. It could have been titled "How the United States Military would fare in a modern,large-scale, near-peer war"
Quote:
What The US Will Learn, and Not Learn, From Its War In Ukraine
The quarterly magazine Parameters by the U.S. Army War College published an interesting paper about U.S. war capabilities:
A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force
Its abstract says:
Fifty years ago, the US Army faced a strategic inflection point after a failed counterinsurgency effort in Vietnam. In response to lessons learned from the Yom Kippur War, the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command was created to reorient thinking and doctrine around the conventional Soviet threat. Today’s Army must embrace the Russo-Ukrainian conflict as an opportunity to reorient the force into one as forward-thinking and formidable as the Army that won Operation Desert Storm.
This article suggests changes the Army should make to enable success in multidomain large-scale combat operations at today’s strategic inflection point.
It is normal for a military to analyze ongoing or just finished wars and to draw conclusions from them. Such efforts should then lead to changes in the military structure or its procedures.
The above effort though is unlikely to lead to the changes the authors want to see.
The authors correctly point out that command and control of troops via radio is problematic when the enemy has the means to detect all radio traffic:
The Russia-Ukraine War makes it clear that the electromagnetic signature emitted from the command posts of the past 20 years cannot survive against the pace and precision of an adversary who possesses sensor-based technologies, electronic warfare, and unmanned aerial systems or has access to satellite imagery; this includes nearly every state or nonstate actor the United States might find itself fighting in the near future.
The solution lies the extensive use of Mission Command (in the original German: Auftragstaktik) which allows subordinate leaders to do their own planning and operation within the given context:
When Milley served as Chief of Staff of the Army, he explained mission command through a concept of “disciplined disobedience” in which subordinates are empowered to accomplish a mission to achieve the commander’s intended purpose—even if they must disobey a specific order or task to do so. Without perfect communication, a subordinate officer or soldier must be trusted to make the right judgment call during battle, unencumbered by the need to seek approval for small adjustments. to
To do that is a cultural issues. Mission Command must be lived and experienced from the very first day a civilian becomes a soldier. The U.S. officer corp is more used to direct order and control. The culture of Mission Command is not liked because mistakes of subordinate units still gets blamed on the higher command level.
Mission Command uses way less communication than direct order and control and is more robust when the crap hits the fan. But, unlike the German military, the U.S. army has never really lived up to it. I doubt that is going to change.
The next problem are high casualty numbers:
The Russia-Ukraine War is exposing significant vulnerabilities in the Army’s strategic personnel depth and ability to withstand and replace casualties. Army theater medical planners may anticipate a sustained rate of roughly 3,600 casualties per day, ranging from those killed in action to those wounded in action or suffering disease or other non-battle injuries. With a 25 percent predicted replacement rate, the personnel system will require 800 new personnel each day. For context, the United States sustained about 50,000 casualties in two decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. In large-scale combat operations, the United States could experience that same number of casualties in two weeks.
The 25% replacement rate is probably too
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Human Rights In Russia Have 'Significantly Deteriorated,' UN Rapporteur Finds
The human rights situation in Russia has significantly deteriorated since it invaded Ukraine in February last year, a United Nations expert said on September 18, describing a "systematic crackdown" on civil society and calling for redress. The report by Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova, alleges that Russian authorities have carried out mass arbitrary arrests of critics of the war and says those detained risk death due to the "persistent use of torture and ill-treatment." It is the first time the UN Human Rights Council has been mandated to examine the record of one of its so-called "P5" members, which hold permanent seats on the Security Council.
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-united-nations-report-human-rights/3259
7605.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Human rights have disappeared in Ukraine and significantly deteriorated in the EU, UK, USA, and Canada. Why no reports about THAT???
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:North Korea violated human rights, per the UN. Related, North Korea supplies Russia with ammo to murder Ukrainians.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Human rights have disappeared in Ukraine and significantly deteriorated in the EU, UK, USA, and Canada. Why no reports about THAT???
https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-idprk/commission-inquiryon-h
-rin-dprk
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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You imagine that if you keep repeating Russia and N Korea in the same sentence, people will eventually link the two nations in their minds. In reality, the only thing it does for me is demonstrate that your propaganda techniques are so crude that they're irritating and counterproductive.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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a war with no end?
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Quote:You imagine denying commonalities and shared goals will work to Russia's advantage.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You imagine that if you keep repeating Russia and N Korea in the same sentence, people will eventually link the two nations in their minds. In reality, the only thing it does for me is demonstrate that your propaganda techniques are so crude that they're irritating and counterproductive.
Ukraine war: reports suggest that Russia has been deliberately targeting journalists – which is a war crime
Published: September 18, 2023 10.54 am EDT
At least 15 media workers have been killed in Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale war in February 2022. Along with targeting civilians, hospitals, schools, orphanages, residential buildings, communications centres and places of worship, the Russian state has been accused by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine of deliberately targeting journalists.
In a conflict such as the war in Ukraine, many journalists risk their lives to report the truth and reveal war crimes committed by both sides. But when journalists themselves are targeted, these war crimes almost always go unpunished.
Research from advocacy group Human Rights Watch has found that a de facto impunity exists for those responsible due to a lack of effort by many governments to bring killers of journalists to justice.
According to Unesco, the perpetrators go unpunished in nine out of ten cases when journalists are murdered, and this impunity “leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems”.
Russia: a dangerous place for journalists
Threatening, attacking, disappearing and murdering journalists is not a new tactic of war in general. It is certainly not unknown in Russia, where the state is involved in targeting or issuing assassination orders for Russian journalists such as Elena Kostyuchencko for her reporting on the war in Ukraine.
Forty-eight journalists and media workers have been killed in Russia since Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999. Many of them were killed in contract-style murders without arrests or trials.
This includes Russian war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya who was assassinated in October 2006 after covering the second Chechen war. Although it remains unclear who ordered her murder, as is the case with many journalist killings in Russia, Politkovskaya exposed corruption in Russia at the highest levels.
She wrote in her 2004 book Putin’s Russia: “If you want to go on working as a journalist, it’s total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial – whatever our special services, Putin’s guard dogs, see fit.”
Since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has been at pains to restrict media coverage, passing new laws targeting journalists and freedom of expression. It is now a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment, to call the war anything but a “special military operation”.
In March 2022, Putin signed a law calling for prison sentences of up to 15 years for people who publish “false news” about the Russian military. In July 2022, the Russian president also signed legislation allowing Russian officials to close down foreign media organisations for what it interprets as “hostile actions against Russian media abroad”.
As part of a crackdown on non-government and international media organisations, Russia has restricted access to, stripped the licensing of, or banned from operating Novaya Gazeta, Radio Echo, BBC Russia, Radio Liberty and Meduza, among others. Most independent media organisations have had to cease operations, with their reporters fleeing the country.
One broadcaster, TV Rain, was targeted by the Kremlin back in 2021 and declared a “foreign agent”. Advertisers shunned it and it was forced to go online only. Then, in March 2022, when the new media laws came into force, Russian authorities suspended it over its war coverage. As a result, TV Rain was forced to operate in exile.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You imagine that if you keep repeating Russia and N Korea in the same sentence, people will eventually link the two nations in their minds. In reality, the only thing it does for me is demonstrate that your propaganda techniques are so crude that they're irritating and counterproductive.\\
SECOND: You imagine denying commonalities
SUCH AS??
Quote:SUCH AS??
and shared goals
Betcha you can't even answer those questions.
Cue "Trumptard" in 3...2...1...
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Milley & Stoltenberg Agree: 'We Must Prepare Ourselves For A Long War In Ukraine'
Oh, they wish!!!
They've scaled back their ambitions from "victory in Ukraine" and "regime change in Russia" to "prepare for a long war".
Guys, it's too fucking late to "prepare" for a long war.
NATO/USA are out of ammo and weapons that can be conveniently spared, weapons manufacturing capability is paltry and vastly exceeded by Russia, troop levels are insufficient to tackle anything other than a third-world military, and many economies are in serious trouble. NATO and the USA will fall further and further behind. And now, they want to tackle China???
I think what they're REALLY doing is preparing the USA/NATO public for putting Ukraine on the back burner and eventually trying to memory-hole the entire clusterfuck. But I don't think Russia will let them. Russia has security issues it needs to resolve, ie. NATO expansion to the east. Creating a neutral Ukraine is just the first step.
If Russia succeeds, I don't know if it will pause, or move on to the next hot issue, which is those missile installations in Poland and Romania.
Just trying to bring some, yanno, reality to the realworld forum.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Milley & Stoltenberg Agree: 'We Must Prepare Ourselves For A Long War In Ukraine'
Oh, they wish!!!
They've scaled back their ambitions from "victory in Ukraine" and "regime change in Russia" to "prepare for a long war".
Guys, it's too fucking late to "prepare" for a long war.
NATO/USA are out of ammo and weapons that can be conveniently spared, weapons manufacturing capability is paltry and vastly exceeded by Russia, troop levels are insufficient to tackle anything other than a third-world military, and many economies are in serious trouble. NATO and the USA will fall further and further behind. And now, they want to tackle China???
I think what they're REALLY doing is preparing the USA/NATO public for putting Ukraine on the back burner and eventually trying to memory-hole the entire clusterfuck. But I don't think Russia will let them. Russia has security issues it needs to resolve, ie. NATO expansion to the east. Creating a neutral Ukraine is just the first step.
If Russia succeeds, I don't know if it will pause, or move on to the next hot issue, which is those missile installations in Poland and Romania.
Just trying to bring some, yanno, reality to the realworld forum.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
Poor comrade Signym. She lives in a delusional state. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO has expanded. Expanded in a way that is a nightmare for Russia. NATO countries have also enlarged their military budgets. And as far as what America has sent in the way of munitions, it is mostly systems that are being phased out of service. No loss there.
Russia has lost many naval vessels including a submarine, unimaginable amounts of its combat capabilities; its hardware and munitions. And 3 hundred thousand troops killed and injured. All this without NATO firing a shot.
I told you comrade when Putin was raising a glass of Champaign to Trump being elected, that payback was going to be a bitch. Russia as you know it will never recover from this; ever.
Can_you_see_me_laughing?
T
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You really think so?
Well, time will tell, won't it?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Zelensky Fires Top Defense Officials In Corruption Purge Ahead Of Washington Trip
BWAHAHAHA!
Corruption has been endemic in Ukraine since whenever. Seems a little LATE, dontcha think, to be addressing this now? Especially at the END of a (failed) counteroffensive? I mean, really, if Kiev really wanted this to succeed they would have tackled this three years ago.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Corruption was endemic in the USA during WWII:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Zelensky Fires Top Defense Officials In Corruption Purge Ahead Of Washington Trip
BWAHAHAHA!
Corruption has been endemic in Ukraine since whenever. Seems a little LATE, dontcha think, to be addressing this now? Especially at the END of a (failed) counteroffensive? I mean, really, if Kiev really wanted this to succeed they would have tackled this three years ago.
Shortly after the formation of the special committee, Truman delivered a radio address describing rumors circulating in Washington of profiteering and favoritism in the awarding of defense contracts. "When people create delays for profit, when they sell poor products for defense use, when they cheat on price and quality," he declared, "they aren't any different from a draft dodger and the public at large feels just the same way about it." Truman encouraged Americans to report to the committee "information of irregularities, based on facts, where the Government's interests have been violated." Thousands of Americans from across the country responded, flooding the committee with letters.
https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/truman.h
tm
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Swiss army suspends sale of old bunkers due to Russia-Ukraine war
Swiss army takes measures to enhance self-protection capabilities
Timo Kirez | Update : 19.09.2023
GENEVA
The Swiss military has halted the sale of its aging bunkers that dot the country as the war in Ukraine continues, the country's army chief told local media on Monday.
"We have to take what we have," top Swiss military official Thomas Sussli told newspapers owned by the Tamedia Group media company, adding that the military is in the process of assessing the country's bunker stock.
Among these facilities, Sussli said, are bunkers whose locations are known and are currently in use by the army, which aims to ensure that the country's military cannot be knocked out of action with just a few bombing raids.
The Russia-Ukraine war has also prompted the Swiss army to seek to decentralize its structure, with the air force, for example, to train to operate from improvised sites.
Switzerland's military had already announced in August that it would focus more on defending itself and its assets in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
"We always have to protect our shelters and camps first before we can protect others," Sussli had told public broadcaster SRF in August.
He also announced plans to enhance its counterintelligence capabilities, along with further measures on supplies and infrastructure.
Switzerland has for decades been home to hundreds of thousands of shelters and bunkers for its civilians to take refuge in the event of military conflict, having adopted a policy of "one shelter for every inhabitant."
According to the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), there are about 370,000 private and public shelters capable of housing around 9 million people for a unique coverage rate of over 100%. This system of shelters was created during the Cold War.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/russia-ukraine-war/swiss-army-suspends-sale-o
f-old-bunkers-due-to-russia-ukraine-war/2994890
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Oh, like this is new and unusual?
NYT In Rare About-Face Now Says Ukraine (Not Russia) Behind Mass Casualty Missile Strike On Market
The New York Times has issued a surprise about-face regarding the September 6 deadly missile strike on the center of the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, which is in Donetsk Oblast.
. . .
The fresh Tuesday Times report https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/world/europe/ukraine-missile-kostia
ntynivka-market.html underscores that less than two hours after the market was struck, "President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russian 'terrorists' for the attack, and many media outlets followed suit."
Quote:And that's what's missing from most "Kiev says" echo chamber reports ... evidence. Perhaps some of you have heard of the concept?
The NY Times was at the time among those major outlets which uncritically went with Zelensky's version of events.
But the missile came from the Ukrainian side, with the NY Times' investigators finding that it was a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile that hit the busy civilian area and killed and wounded scores.
One of the key videos which the NYT analyzed to reach this conclusion was actually provided by Zelensky's office, ironically enough.
According to the New York Times report, "evidence collected and analyzed by The New York Times, including missile fragments, satellite imagery, witness accounts and social media posts, strongly suggests the catastrophic strike was the result of an errant Ukrainian air defense missile fired by a Buk launch system."
MORE AT https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nyt-rare-about-face-now-says-uk
rainian-missile-likely-behind-mass-casualty-strike
That's why I reject fatuous claims from Kiev about "300,000 Russians killed", and why you should, too.
Oh, and don't bitch at me, THUGR, that this comes from ZH since I linked the original NYT article.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Zelensky: ‘War Crimes Must Be Punished’
Ukraine’s president made an impassioned plea at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly to bring wrongdoers—such as Russia—to justice.
By J. Alex Tarquinio, September 19, 2023, 5:37 PM
Zelensky arrived in New York with a small entourage and a big agenda, hoping to garner multilateral support for Ukraine’s ambitious peace plan and perhaps even his government’s cherished goal of establishing a special tribunal to try Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression.
“For the first time in modern history, we have a real chance to end the aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked,” Zelensky said in his much-anticipated turn at the U.N. General Assembly’s famous rostrum today. Speaking in English, he told the assembly that “while Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation. Weaponization must be restrained. War crimes must be punished.”
With a Ukraine delegation including Zelensky’s wife and foreign minister joining him in the assembly hall, and Russia represented by its deputy ambassador to the U.N., Zelensky made it clear that he didn’t believe promises would be enough to reassure Ukraine. “Evil cannot be trusted,” he said. “Ask [dead mercenary boss Yevgeny] Prigozhin if one bets on Putin’s promises.”
Putin is already facing charges in the International Criminal Court for the alleged unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine. But an independent tribunal for the crime of aggression has been among Kyiv’s goals since the early days of the war, and its diplomats were circulating a draft resolution for the U.N. General Assembly’s consideration as early as last October. Ultimately, the proposal was left out of the resolution that was supported by 141 member states in February in order to persuade more countries to sign on.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has been more explicit than many of Ukraine’s allies in his support for the idea. He told the U.N. General Assembly today, “we support the idea of establishing an ad hoc special tribunal.” Then, foreshadowing Zelensky, he added, “The crimes must be accounted for, and the perpetrators punished.”
But Zelensky may need to use all of his powers of persuasion to win over new converts to the idea in New York. “I’m not sure he’s going to find that the fence-sitters are very receptive to the idea of a tribunal,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group. Zelensky might be arriving in New York with a stronger hand, Gowan said, if Ukraine’s slow-moving counteroffensive were further along. “It’s a lot harder to get other U.N. members to sign up to that sort of plan when they’re still very skeptical about how things are going to turn out on the battlefield.”
Moscow and Kyiv are locked in a diplomatic tussle for the hearts and minds of some traditionally nonaligned countries. For example, the foreign ministers of both countries recently made swings through African countries that have abstained in U.N. General Assembly votes about Russia’s war in Ukraine. Thomas G. Weiss, a CUNY Graduate Center political science professor and a longtime U.N. watcher, finds it baffling that more than 40 countries can still be sitting on the General Assembly sidelines.
“In rhetorical terms, the one thing they can usually agree on is that colonization was not a great idea,” he said. “And yet they do not condemn this blatant return to empire.”
More at https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/19/unga-zelensky-speech-united-natio
ns-ukraine-russia-biden-war-crimes/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russian soldiers are being slaughtered as they go up against their Ukrainian counterparts without ammunition, according to a recently released interview with a soldier's wife.
Three Russian brigades were virtually destroyed in the fight for the settlement of Andriivka about eight miles south of Bakhmut, according to a Ukrainian general.
One Russian soldier’s family described the dire situation he and his comrades faced on the ground with near-zero support from their officers.
The man’s wife said: “They are thrown into this Andriivka practically without weapons. [My husband] said that basically ‘we are going at them with shovels and without artillery support’.”
Even in the face of an almost certain death, there can be no retreat, according to the soldier's wife. Speaking to Radio Liberty, she said: “There's no retreat because there are people behind us who won't spare us either.”
The use of so-called barrier units by the Russian side has been documented throughout the war and in June video emerged of retreating Russian soldiers appearing to be gunned down by their own side.
In addition, a video purportedly from Andriivka appears to show surrendering Russians shelled in friendly fire as they made their way to Ukrainian lines.
Later, the soldier - who has had his name withheld for his protection - told reporters: “We send 25 people on a mission, and only six return. Our artillerymen are currently launching assaults.
“They were told 'you still have no ammunition; go in as infantry'. But the guys don't even know what an assault is.
“Essentially, they send us there as cannon fodder. We need the coordinates for our artillery and information about the targets we should engage, but our artillery can't function because they lack shells.”
He claims that when desperate soldiers facing cluster bombs and intense Ukrainian bombardments relay the hopeless situation to their commanders, the response is often: “So what?”
https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/112346/russian-soliders-uk
raine-war-andriivka
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Timothy Snyder on why we should thank Ukrainians
Joel Eissenberg | September 20, 2023 9:14 am
Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and an expert on Russian and Eastern European history. Yesterday, he narrated an essay on his Substack site https://snyder.substack.com/p/thanking-ukrainians#details on the occasion of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the US and expression of gratitude for UN support. Snyder believes that we should be thanking Ukranians. Here, I summarize his ten reasons:
1. Security in Europe: Ukraine has been the victim of a long-anticipated Russian military attack, the first such attack since NATO was established, and Ukraine is fulfilling the NATO mission of European security singlehandedly on the strength of 3% of the US defense budget;
2. Audit, in practice, of the US defense budget: using US military technology* and equipment, Ukraine has won back half the territory it lost to Russia in 2022 and has thereby shown us what a portion of the US defense budget can do in the field;
3. Increasing security in the Pacific: Ukraine’s success in absorbing Russian military power serves as a caution to China in its ambition to attack and conquer Taiwan and to threaten the South China Sea by showing the difficulty in carrying out offensive military operations;
4. Helping to feed the world: before the war started, Ukraine was a major source of food for Asia and Africa, and has some of the most fertile soil on the planet and is close to ports on the Black Sea. Russia has destroyed dams, irrigation, farm fields and port facilities, and Ukraine continues to try to get food out to feed the world;
5. Making nuclear war less likely: by refusing to give in to Russian nuclear blackmail and fighting back, Ukraine shows that other nations don’t have to possess nuclear weapons in order to stand up to nuclear powers, thereby making nuclear proliferation less likely;
6. Giving democracy a chance; democracy has been in decline for most of the 21st century, and the Russian attack on Ukraine is an explicit attack on democracy that Ukraine has steadfastly resisted in the name of democracy, demonstrating the strength of democracy;
7. Talking about freedom; freedom as a way of talking about a future in which people can realize their own possibilities;
8. Modeling courage; Zelenskyy exemplified this by staying in Kyiv when it was under siege and under threat of assassination, but that’s just the most visible example of the physical and moral courage the Ukrainian soldiers and civilians show every day that they remain in, and fight for, their homeland;
9. Search for truth; journalists, scholars, writers continue to report and discuss difficult truths about their society and culture during the stress and violence of war;
10. Giving us a chance to be on the right side; our people are not in Ukraine taking the risks to resist an illegal war, but the opportunity to help is important for us in evaluating our own democracy and our place in the world.
*Snyder overlooks the critical role of Starlink technology, which is privately owned, although the Ukraine military use is paid for by US tax dollars
https://angrybearblog.com/2023/09/timothy-snyder-on-why-we-should-than
k-ukrainians
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Well!
I didn't see THIS coming!
Quote:
NATO Fractures: In U-Turn, Poland Announces It Will No Longer Arm Ukraine
Wednesday, Sep 20, 2023 - 06:00 PM
The dam is breaking on unified Western support for Ukraine, and the timing couldn't be worse for Zelensky, given tomorrow he's expected to meet with President Biden at the White House. On Wednesday evening there is monumental news out of Poland which could potentially change the entire course of the war.
"Poland will no longer arm Ukraine to focus on its own defense," Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced just hours after Warsaw summoned Ukraine's ambassador related to a fresh war of words and spat over blocked grain, according to the AFP. Warsaw has throughout more than a year-and-a-half of the Ukraine-Russia war been Kiev's staunchest and most outspoken supporter.
Will this massive and hugely significant about-face mark the beginning of the end? Are peace negotiations and ceding of territory in the Donbas inevitable at this point?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nato-fractures-u-turn-poland-an
nounces-will-no-longer-arm-ukraine
From
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1704617373561397316
Also
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/21/poland-stop-ukraine-weap
ons-supply-grain-exports-dispute
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Russia Quietly Orders 230,000 Certificates for Families of Dead Soldiers
By Isabel van Brugen On 9/19/23 at 11:10 AM EDT
Russian authorities have quietly ordered 230,000 certificates for family members of deceased veterans, an investigative news outlet has found, giving a rare insight into the scale of the death toll sustained by Moscow in the nearly 19-month-old war in Ukraine.
The certificates were ordered by Russia's Ministry of Labor and Social Development, independent Russian-language news outlet Verstka found on Monday, reporting that Moscow has inadvertently revealed the scale of possible losses among Russia's military in Ukraine.
"Russia claims that only several thousand of its soldiers were killed in the 'special military operation'. The indirect numbers, like these certificate orders, give a clearer picture," Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The ministry ordered more than 750,000 certificates for veterans of combat operations and 230,000 certificates for family members of deceased veterans, the publication found, citing data published on the Russian state procurement portal.
Verstka reported that the figures may indirectly indicate the approximate scale of the Russian losses in the war. According to the news outlet, in total, more than 900,000 combat veterans' certificates have been ordered since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The figures have not been independently verified by Newsweek. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Russia's death toll continues to rise amid a counteroffensive from Ukraine to recapture its occupied territories. According to figures released by Kyiv's military, more than 270,000 Russian troops have been "liquidated" in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As part of its daily update on the war, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces posts figures on Russia's troop and equipment losses. Moscow lost 520 soldiers over the past 24 hours, according to the military's Tuesday casualty toll of Russian troops—bringing the total to 273,460.
Estimates of casualty figures vary, with Kyiv's figures usually exceeding those of its Western allies.
Russia itself rarely releases figures on troop losses. In September 2022, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said 5,937 Russian troops had been killed in the war in Ukraine since February 24, 2022.
Ukraine similarly avoids publishing casualty figures for its own forces; however, Western intelligence estimates suggest they are also substantial. In April, a leaked U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment estimated that Kyiv had suffered 124,500-131,000 casualties, including 15,500-17,500 dead and 109,000-113,500 wounded.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-orders-certificates-families-dead-sold
iers-ukraine-war-1828178
Also see the story: Putin gives biggest hint yet at staggering number of Russians he’s sent to die
By Brooke Davies, Wednesday 20 Sep 2023 12:29 pm
https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/19/putin-ordered-almost-250000-certificate
s-for-soldiers-killed-in-war-19520035/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The War in Ukraine Is About Europe’s Future
By Judy Dempsey, August 29, 2023
Dempsey is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and editor in chief of Strategic Europe.
@Judy_Dempsey
Europe needs to rapidly increase its military support for Ukraine to ensure victory for Kyiv. A failure to do so would threaten the EU’s security and credibility—and embolden Moscow.
The Europeans cannot afford to let the war in Ukraine drag on.
The longer it continues, the more casualties and destruction will increase. Entire villages, towns, and cities have already been reduced to smithereens. Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced or have left the country. Large swathes of the eastern regions have been turned into mine fields.
As the EU’s institutions get back to work after the summer break, its leaders and European governments cannot afford to accept the war in Ukraine as the new normal. Nor can the West—and that includes NATO—consider it is time for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow even though a certain war fatigue may be setting in.
Negotiations can only begin if Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is in a strong enough position to set the terms. Those terms are not just about restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity. They are about ensuring that Russia does not attack or threaten Kyiv again. An end to the war is about ending Russia’s imperial ambitions in this part of Europe.
Without those goals in mind, the European continent will be unstable, divided, and weak. It will be unable to act strategically. And it will be unable to deal with the immense challenges exacerbated by Russia’s two invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.
One of those challenges is how to deal with Europe’s security deficit. It was bad enough during the war in the former Yugoslavia, which elicited a weak and divided European response. The Europeans simply didn’t have the military capacity to end it. And despite endless complaints by the United States about Europe’s unwillingness to spend more on defense and integrate its military structures, little has since been achieved.
More than that, former U.S. President Donald Trump never tired of criticizing the Europeans for taking America’s security guarantees for granted and for not spending enough on their own defense. (As a matter of fact, Pentagon chiefs, whether serving under Republican or Democrat presidents have also not minced their words about the parlous state of European defense.)
Trump’s tenure should have given Europeans the ideal opportunity to start taking their security seriously. They didn’t jump. Moreover, Russia’s war in Ukraine shows once again that many European countries still fail to understand that their own security is at risk.
This is the other aspect of the war. It has left the Europeans increasingly dependent on the United States for supporting Ukraine. And it has still not inculcated among Europeans a strategic culture that is based on security and hard power. Without a strong, integrated security infrastructure, Europe will remain vulnerable regardless of who is elected the next president of the United States in 2024.
It is hard to see which EU country is going to take the lead in pushing forward this strategic culture. Certainly not Germany, given how Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition is watering down the Zeitenwende that was aimed at making Berlin a serious defense and security player through higher spending and a modernization of the armed forces.
It is also hard to understand why the EU—with the exception of Poland, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, and Romania—does not see why a Ukrainian victory would make Europe more stable and secure.
The other challenge facing the Europeans, and this includes NATO, is the need for conviction.
It is not enough for leaders and defense ministers to say ad nauseam that they will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes” or that Ukraine must win. How is that going to happen if the country is not provided with the essential military equipment? And if there are mutterings in some Eur
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One of Ukraine's strongest allies says it will no longer supply Kyiv with weapons
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/09/21/poland-says-it-will-no-longer-supp
ly-kyiv-with-weapons.html
Quote:
Poland has said it will no longer supply its neighbor Ukraine with weapons, as a rift over agricultural exports deepens.
"We no longer transfer weapons to [Ukraine], because we are now arming Poland," Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland's prime minister, said Wednesday on the X social media platform, previously known as Twitter, according to a Google translation.
"Ukraine is defending itself against the brutal Russian attack and I understand this situation, but as I said, we will protect our country," he added.
Holy shit. Taking care of your own citizens first in 2023? What a novel concept.
--------------------------------------------------
How you do anything is how you do everything.
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UKRAINE, THE GRIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
Quote:
Rebooted Clinton Global Initiative Licks Chops Over Ukraine 'Humanitarian' Aid
Thursday, Sep 21, 2023 - 02:45 AM
The now-revived Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) has found a new grift - Ukraine.
But first - a short review. The Clintons, through their foundation, fleeced Haiti to the tune of Billions following the 2010 earthquake which killed an estimated 220,000 people.
* Hillary Clinton's State Department pressured Haiti to suppress minimum wage in sweatshops in order to benefit US clothing manufacturers.
* Clinton Foundation donors were were handed government contracts to clean up in the aftermath of the earthquake.
* Bill Clinton intervened in the jail sentence of Laura Silsby, a convicted child trafficker who attempted to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti.
* A former Haitian government official set to expose the Clinton Foundation's misdeeds in Haiti shot himself in the head a week before he was able to testify.
* The Clinton Foundation even grifted Haiti's lime industry.
* Haiti's former Senate president said Hillary Clinton 'tried to bribe me!'
CGI was shuttered in 2017 after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election and donations mysteriously dried up. It was rebooted in 2022.
And now, Ukraine.
According to the ABC News, CGI will launch the "Ukraine Action Network" with the stated mission of delivering 'humanitarian aid' to Ukrainians, which will "mobilize existing CGI partners, as well as new leaders from around the world, to create and finance new commitments for Ukrainians."
Pope Francis kicked off the new initiative in a videoconference with Bill Clinton on Monday, where he said "No challenge is too great if we meet it starting with personal conversion and the personal contribution that each of us can make to solve it... No challenge can be overcome alone — not alone, only together, sisters and brothers, children of God."
The CGI Ukraine Action Network is the result of a collaboration between Hillary Clinton and Olena Zelenska, first lady of Ukraine, that began last year. The new organization, which will be formally announced Tuesday, is designed to mobilize existing CGI partners, as well as new leaders from around the world, to create and finance new commitments for Ukrainians, according to CGI. Numerous monetary commitments for Ukraine are also set to be announced Tuesday. -ABC News
We're sure this will go well, particularly for the children of war-torn Ukraine, and CGI donors.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rebooted-clinton-global-initiative
-licks-chops-over-ukraine-humanitarian-aid
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
blah, blah, blah...
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Meanwhile, if you have any doubts that the United States is the number one country in the World for military “interventions” just take a look at this report from the U.S. Congressional Research Service, Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad 1798 – 2023. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R42738 Since 1991, the United States has launched more than 200 military operations in foreign countries. Russia and China combined have been involved in less than 20 such activities. Just think about those numbers the next time you hear some American politician bloviate about the imperial ambitions of Russia and China. To paraphrase comedian Jeff Foxworthy, “If you launch an average of 9 foreign invasions a year you might be an Imperialist.”
https://sonar21.com/did-poland-just-torpedo-nato-and-ukraine/
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Ukrainian armored vehicles are operating beyond the final line of the Russian defensive layer that Ukrainian forces in western Zaporizhia Oblast are currently penetrating, although ISW is not yet prepared to assess that Ukrainian forces have broken fully through this Russian defensive layer. Geolocated footage posted on September 21 indicates that Ukrainian armored vehicles advanced south of the Russian anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth obstacles that are part of a tri-layered defense and engaged in limited combat immediately west of Verbove (18km southeast of Orikhiv).[1] It is unclear if Ukrainian forces retain these positions, however. This is the first observed instance of Ukrainian forces operating armored vehicles beyond the Russian tri-layer defense.[2] The presence of Ukrainian armored vehicles beyond the final line of the current Russian defensive layer indicates that the Ukrainians have secured their breach of the first two lines of this layer sufficiently to operate vehicles through the breach. Ukrainian forces have likely suppressed Russian artillery and other anti-tank systems in the area enough to bring their vehicles forward.[3] The Ukrainian ability to bring armored vehicles to and through the most formidable Russian defenses intended to stop them and to operate these vehicles near prepared Russian defensive positions are important signs of progress in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.[4] Additional geolocated footage published on September 20 and 21 indicates that Ukrainian forces also advanced west and southwest of Verbove.[5]
Russian opposition news outlet Meduza reported on September 21 that the Russian Presidential Administration distributed a manual on September 19 instructing Kremlin-affiliated media to highlight Ukrainian equipment and personnel losses and emphasize that Russian artillery fire and air strikes are effectively suppressing Ukrainian offensive actions.[37] ISW has routinely observed Russian units actively engaged in ground assaults, and the Russian information space has repeatedly complained about Russian forces’ poor counterbattery capabilities.[38]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-21-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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One in five mobilized Russian soldiers who died in the Ukraine war were killed less than two months after being enlisted, the independent investigative outlet IStories and the war monitoring project Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) reported Thursday, citing publicly available data.
IStories and CIT said their figures are based on data related to the deaths of nearly 3,000 draftees who have died since President Vladimir Putin announced a "partial" mobilization last September.
However, the two outlets stressed that the true death toll among mobilized troops is likely much higher.
The approximately 3,000 draftee deaths were documented by media reports, official announcements and relatives of soldiers who chose to speak publicly.
Only four of the mobilized reservists who died in the conflict lasted more than 11 months before being killed, according to IStories and CIT.
More than half of the mobilized troops killed were between the ages of 30 and 45 at the time of their death, according to the analysis, while nearly a third died between the ages of 20-29.
Moscow rarely comments on its war dead and the Russian Defense Ministry last updated its soldier death toll in September 2022, placing the figure at under 6,000 killed.
Western intelligence documents leaked earlier this year put the actual number closer to 110,000 Russian soldiers wounded and killed by February 2023.
Since announcing a "partial" mobilization of 300,000 reservists on Sept. 21, 2022, Russian authorities have digitized military records and tightened criminal punishment for draft evasion, as some observers have speculated that the Kremlin is preparing for a new draft campaign.
Yet the first wave of mobilization initiated last year is technically still in place as Putin, who publicly declared its end in November, has not signed a presidential decree that officially concludes mobilization.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/09/21/scores-of-ukrainian-drones-d
owned-over-annexed-crimea-western-russia-a82529
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:HAHAHAHA!!!
Originally posted by second:
Ukrainian armored vehicles are operating beyond the final line
Quote:Somebody needs to look at a map! Verbove is at the FIRST actual defensive line, not the third. I refer you to Military Summary Channel, which has the "Surovikin line" indicated, as well as the geolocations of all strikes and advances, Ukrainian and Russian.
of the Russian defensive layer that Ukrainian forces in western Zaporizhia Oblast are currently penetrating, although ISW is not yet prepared to assess that Ukrainian forces have broken fully through this Russian defensive layer. Geolocated footage posted on September 21 indicates that Ukrainian armored vehicles advanced south of the Russian anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth obstacles that are part of a tri-layered defense and engaged in limited combat immediately west of Verbove
The are STILL fighting around Verbove and Rabotino. The slaughter of Ukrianians continues. That hasn't changed in four months.
Fucking propagandist.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Last Resort: Russian Soldiers Are Committing Suicide or Deserting After Receiving Faulty Weapons, No Ammunition
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
HAHAHAHA!!!
By David Wetzel, Sept 21, 2023
Conditions have gotten so bad among the Russian military that soldiers would commit suicide or desert rather than put themselves at risk of death after being given faulty ammunition and weapons in Ukraine, Knewz.com has learned.
Members of the 1,442nd regiment fighting in the Ukrainian village of Klishchiivka near Bakhmut said via video that they are getting out of there one way or another because choosing to fight would mean "guaranteed death."
The soldiers expressed frustration that they would be put in a desperate situation if they continue to fight using dud weapons and ammunition. They also say they fear they would be killed by fellow fighters if they were to retreat.
So, instead of fighting, many of the soldiers are killing themselves or deserting rather than face death in other directions.
In the video, the Russian soldiers told their wives and girlfriends that they are aware that they likely will eventually be killed for deserting.
"[We are] fighting … around Klishchiivka," they said in the video. "Almost all our infantry were killed…. An order came today to create a 10-person group for some assault - guaranteed death. Our ammunition is terrible. Some doesn't shoot, and those that do fail to explode …"
"Today… a man not from our regiment hanged himself, committed suicide because of fear."
The soldiers added that they "made a decision. We have fled. We left our weapons behind … but there are death squads …"
Such squads were used by Joseph Stalin in World War II to kill those retreating from the front lines.
"One retreating group was…shot dead …" said the spokesmen for the men. "People are fleeing, hanging themselves."
"We have served a year without holiday…. We are sent to a certain death."
The soldiers described themselves as "artillery without ammunition."
"When the ammunition ran out, we were made into the infantry. But we had no training to be infantry," they said.
According to a report from Astra, wives of the men sent a message to Russia President Vladimir Putin, saying, "Understanding the complexity of the situation, our men refuse to face certain death."
"For refusal, our men are beaten and sent into battle anyway. They do not [even] allow them to take out the wounded. They fire at them. Our men are forced to defend themselves not only from the enemy but also from their own people, who should help and not kill them."
According to the Daily Mail, the wives have not heard back from Putin.
The video comes just days after inebriated Russian soldiers blew themselves up with a grenade.
David Wetzel -- Previously a journalist for FrontPageDetectives.com and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, David Wetzel is a News Editor and Reporter for Knewz. He has more than 20 years’ experience in journalism across various roles in sports, news, features and breaking news.
https://knewz.com/russian-soldiers-suicide-desert-ukraine-war/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Child rapist Zelensky cancelled next year's elections.
Ukraine is no longer a Democracy.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
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It was such an odd name, I looked up 1442 regiment.
Western search engines can't find it on western internet.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Look up this name: Abbas Gallyamov.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It was such an odd name, I looked up 1442 regiment.
Western search engines can't find it on western internet.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Abbas+Gallyamov
I Worked for Putin — He Was Rational, Patient and Logical
By Abbas Gallyamov, On 9/22/23
Everything worked just as Adolf Hitler had described: "[People] more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
Few understood that Putin could lie so colossally, and believed him.
Several years later, though, this asset started turning into a great liability, which ultimately led to a debacle that the Russian army suffered in Ukraine. The system began imitating its founder.
Seeing the enormous gap between what was said officially and what was actually done, seeing that no connection between the former and the latter was required, the ruling bureaucracy understood that such were the rules of the game: Just keep saying the right words and do whatever you consider necessary.
If you need money—just get access to the state funds. If you can't—sell any administrative resources you control.
I had an acquaintance who was responsible for personnel appointments in regional administrations. He was taking bribes from candidates like there was no tomorrow.
He justified himself by saying: "Well, I am a small person, I have neither Gazprom nor Rosneft (companies notorious for being controlled by Putin himself), I can't earn billions. My poor destiny is to sell petty vacancies."
It was obvious he was justifying himself by making references to the president.
A quarter of a century under these rules led to almost disastrous results.
Despite Russia's inexhaustible resources, full control over the country's political system, and the most favorable market conditions, the system Putin created turned out to be unable to achieve victory even in a sudden attack against a much smaller opponent.
The problem is that the ruling institutions in the country now are barely governable. When the situation was more or less comfortable, they seemed to somehow cope with the challenges that they were created to solve.
But when the system came under stress, it became obvious that they couldn't function. To run them effectively one needs to understand their real capabilities, to know the real state of affairs in them, but all one can get is just a bunch of false reports full of self-glorification and vain promises.
Why didn't the Russian army and all the other security agencies prepare for war? Their top brass couldn't believe that it would actually happen. They were so accustomed to empty speeches that they perceived Putin's orders as just a game of words.
"That's how the game is played. Putin should make a show that he is giving commands to prepare for war, while we should make a show that we are obeying him and following his instructions."
Even when the generals understood that it was no longer a game, they couldn't change anything. What could each of them do? Come to Putin and tell him: "Sorry, my president, I didn't think you were serious. I thought you were kidding. So now—when I see the degree of your earnestness—I need to confess that my ministry is not prepared for war."
It's obvious that one couldn't tell this to Putin, as it was clear what reaction would follow. We should keep in mind that members of his government are not samurais, they are mere opportunists. So they just let the matter slide hoping to hold on somehow.
After all, there was always a chance to shift responsibility for lack of success onto neighboring agencies. Russian bureaucrats are extremely professional i
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Quote:
Russia Confirms Ukrainian Missile Strike On Black Sea Fleet HQ, [one] Personnel Missing
Others probably injured or dead.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-confirms-major-ukrainian
-attack-black-sea-fleet-hq-personnel-missing
People have questioned the purpose of drone attacks on Moscow and missile attacks on the the Black Sea fleet. Those people (the Duran, etc) believe that these attacks are not meant to win the war or topple the Putin government, but to shove a 'peace deal' down Moscow's throat that the WH is also trying to shove down Zelensky's throat.
The "peace deal", which was floated most recently (and openly) by NATO Scy General Jens Stoltenberg's chief deputy Stian Jenssen https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/16/nato-official-suggests-u
kraine-could-give-up-territory-in-exchange-for-membership but also bruited about by ex-USA officials in the CFR, and hinted at by Blinken himself, is a "land for peace" deal. Russia would get to keep Crimea and the four eastern oblasts (without change of status recognized by the west) in exchange for a cease fire, while the remainder of Ukraine gets security guarantees from the west and eventual accession into NATO and the EU. Seems to me like a sweet deal for Zelensky, but he's having none of it. And it sounds totally unacceptable to Russia. Hence, the political, military, private, and/or financial pressure applied to both sides
This is Blinken's way of trying to weasel out of Ukraine in time for 2024.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:What does this have to do with a regiment that may or may not be fictional?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It was such an odd name, I looked up 1442 regiment.
Western search engines can't find it on western internet.
SECOND; Look up this name: Abbas Gallyamov.
Oh, I get it! You're just changing the topic to avoid being exposed as a liar!
Quote:
Originally posted by Second:
blah blah blah blah ...
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:You are absolutely crazy, Signym. How is that working for you? Doesn't being crazy make your life harder? Abbas Gallyamov pointed out that Putin's behavior has spread to many other Russians who imitate his style. That style hasn't worked to the Russians' advantage.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:What does this have to do with a regiment that may or may not be fictional?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It was such an odd name, I looked up 1442 regiment.
Western search engines can't find it on western internet.
SECOND; Look up this name: Abbas Gallyamov.
Oh, I get it! You're just changing the topic to avoid being exposed as a liar!Quote:
Originally posted by Second:
blah blah blah blah ...
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Ukrainian Armed Forces Center for Strategic Communications (StratCom) stated that Ukrainian forces launched a successful strike on the Russian BSF Command headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea on September 22.[1] Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces used Storm Shadow cruise missiles to conduct the strike, and social media footage of the headquarters indicates significant damage to the building.[2]
The Russian information space heavily focused its attention on the Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol on September 22. One Russian milblogger complained about Russian authorities’ inability to control the spread of Ukrainian information about the consequences of the strike, and other milbloggers criticized Russian authorities and the Russian military for not retaliating sufficiently.[8]
Several unnamed people familiar with ongoing deliberations on ATACMS also told the Washington Post that the Biden administration plans to provide Ukraine with a version of ATACMS armed with cluster bomblets rather than a single (unitary) warhead.[18] The Washington Post reported that cluster-armed ATACMS have a range of up to 190 miles (depending on the version) and could allow Ukraine to strike Russian military positions far into the rear.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-22-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Morality of Ukraine’s War Is Very Murky
The ethical calculations are less clear than you might think.
September 22, 2023, 3:12 AM by Stephen M. Walt, the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University.
What is the morally preferable course of action in Ukraine? At first glance, it seems obvious. Ukraine is the victim of an illegal war, its territory is occupied, its citizens have suffered mightily at the hands of the invader, and its adversary is an autocratic regime with any number of unsavory qualities. Strategic calculations aside, surely the proper moral course is to back Ukraine to the hilt. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a gathering at the Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kyiv this month: “When we are talking about this war, we are always talking about morality.” Not surprisingly, he conveyed the same message when he visited Washington this week.
If only the moral calculus were that simple.
Ever since the war began, those who favor giving Ukraine “whatever it takes” for as long as it takes have sought to portray the war in the usual U.S. fashion: as a straightforward contest between good and evil. In their telling, Russia is solely to blame for the war, and Western policy had absolutely nothing to do with the resulting tragedy. They portray Ukraine as a struggling but plucky democracy that has been brutally attacked by a corrupt, imperialist dictatorship. They see the moral stakes as nearly infinite, because the outcome of the war will supposedly have a far-reaching impact on the future of democracy, the fate of Taiwan, the preservation of a rules-based order, etc. Not surprisingly, they are quick to condemn anyone who challenges this view as a naïve appeaser, a Russian lackey, or someone lacking any sense of moral judgment.
None of these claims should be accepted without qualification. There’s no question Russia started the war and deserves to be condemned for it, but the claim that Western policy had nothing to do with it is risible, as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently acknowledged. Yes, Ukraine is a democracy, but also one that still contains some unsavory elements, even if Russian President Vladimir Putin’s depiction of it as a “Nazi regime” is grossly exaggerated. The suggestion that the outcome of this conflict will have a profound impact around the world is even less convincing: The Korean War ended in a stalemate and negotiated armistice and the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were clear U.S. defeats, but the geopolitical consequences of these failures were mostly local; this is likely to be true in Ukraine, whatever the ultimate outcome. The same is true in reverse, by the way: The West’s overwhelming victory in the first Gulf War and Serbia’s defeat in the Kosovo War didn’t spark an enduring democratic renaissance. Democracy is in trouble in many places—including the United States—but military setbacks abroad are not the main reason, and a decisive Ukrainian victory wouldn’t restore the U.S. Republican Party to sanity or make France’s Marine Le Pen and Hungary’s Viktor Orban abandon their illiberal political programs.
Even so, it’s understandable why almost everyone in the West—including me—thinks the moral case favors Ukraine. Whatever Moscow’s prewar fears or grievances may have been, Russia did start an illegal preventive war. This fact doesn’t make Russia uniquely evil (Operation Iraqi Freedom, anyone?), but Ukraine is still the victim here. Russia has deliberately attacked civilian targets and committed other war crimes on a scale that greatly exceeds Ukraine’s own violations of the laws of war (although the U.S. decision to give Kyiv cluster munitions muddies this picture somewhat). It is hard to see a lot of moral virtue in a Russian regime that poisons exiles and rejects key human rights principles, and in which opposition figures fall from high windows or suffer other fatal “accidents” with statistically improbable frequency. These and other features go a long way to explaining w
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https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/09/fact-russia-is-losing-the-ukraine-
war-badly/
Contrary to those Western analysts who believe the Russo-Ukrainian War has reached a stalemate, pro-regime Russians admit that they are losing—badly.
Two pieces of evidence make a convincing case.
On September 15, Major General Andrei Gurulyev, a combative Duma deputy of markedly illiberal tendencies who in recent months has argued that Russia should “burn” Ukraine, bomb Great Britain, and reintroduce the Stalinist terror, suddenly had a change of heart and described conditions on the front lines as being near-catastrophic. He even had the temerity to call the war a war, eschewing the prescribed official terminology (“special military operation”) and thereby engaging in a criminal offense for which many Russians have been punished.
According to Gurulyev’s Telegram posting, the Ukrainians are resilient, adaptive, and resourceful, and have succeeded in pushing back the Russians, imposing high casualties, evading Russian artillery, neutralizing Russian helicopters, deploying huge numbers of virtually limitless drones, and dealing effectively with the minefields. Indeed, “the enemy has seized some of our defensive positions.” Naturally, concludes Gurulyev, “we will win,” though “only one serious problem keeps us from Victory.” What might that be?
It’s lying.
Gurulyev’s answer is shocking, considering that he’s spent much of his career doing just what he now denounces. “Mendacious reports, unfortunately, lead to incorrect decisions on a variety of levels.” The major general is right, of course, though what he fails to see is that the problem is inherent in the very nature of the overcentralized political (and military) system created by Russia’s illegitimate president, Vladimir Putin. Mendacity, to put it simply, is the best way to survive and thrive in today’s Russia, just as it was in the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.
The lying begins at the lowest levels and then proceeds upwards. By the time it reaches the corridors of power, Russia’s decision-makers, Putin included, have a false, sugarcoated picture of actual events on the ground. Hence his belief that invading Ukraine would be a cakewalk. Fixing the problem requires more than stopping to lie. The only effective solution is to dismantle Putin’s top-heavy fascist regime and replace it with something approaching democratic accountability.
Gurulyev paints a depressing picture — for Russia, that is — but just how bad conditions are on the front was made crystal clear in mid-September by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, which ordered 230,000 death certificates for family members of deceased combat veterans. Back in May 2023, it ordered 23,716 such certificates; in 2022, the number was 5,777.
The last two numbers — 23,716 and 5,777 — look like accurate tabulations of war dead, though keep in mind that they probably do not include the thousands of Russians left to rot on the battlefield, the approximately 50,000 dead Wagner mercenaries (of whom many were inmates), and the tens of thousands of fighters from the occupied Donbas territories. The first figure — 230,000 — may reflect the actual number of dead or an estimate of how many will die or both.
Now, let’s engage in some conservative “guesstimating.” We know that 29,493 definitely died. Add 10,000 left to rot, 50,000 Wagnerites, and another 50,000 Donbasites, and we get approximately 140,000 dead Russians. Let’s assume that of the 230,000 just-ordered death certificates only half are intended for actually killed Russians and the rest are intended for future use. That comes out to 115,000; add that figure to 140,000 and you get 255,000 dead Russian soldiers. Significantly, the Ukrainians estimate that about 274,000 Russians have been killed.
Whatever the exact number of Russian fatalities, it’s obviously very high—probably no fewer than 150,000 and no more than 275,000. These numbers are decidedly not evidence of Russian battlefield success or even of a stalemate. And viewed in tandem with G
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Originally posted by second:
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/09/fact-russia-is-losing-the-ukraine-
war-badly/
Contrary to those Western analysts who believe the Russo-Ukrainian War has reached a stalemate, pro-regime Russians admit that they are losing—badly.
Two pieces of evidence make a convincing case.
On September 15, Major General Andrei Gurulyev, a combative Duma deputy of markedly illiberal tendencies who in recent months has argued that Russia should “burn” Ukraine, bomb Great Britain, and reintroduce the Stalinist terror, suddenly had a change of heart and described conditions on the front lines as being near-catastrophic. He even had the temerity to call the war a war, eschewing the prescribed official terminology (“special military operation”) and thereby engaging in a criminal offense for which many Russians have been punished.
According to Gurulyev’s Telegram posting, the Ukrainians are resilient, adaptive, and resourceful, and have succeeded in pushing back the Russians, imposing high casualties, evading Russian artillery, neutralizing Russian helicopters, deploying huge numbers of virtually limitless drones, and dealing effectively with the minefields. Indeed, “the enemy has seized some of our defensive positions.” Naturally, concludes Gurulyev, “we will win,” though “only one serious problem keeps us from Victory.” What might that be?
It’s lying.
Gurulyev’s answer is shocking, considering that he’s spent much of his career doing just what he now denounces. “Mendacious reports, unfortunately, lead to incorrect decisions on a variety of levels.” The major general is right, of course, though what he fails to see is that the problem is inherent in the very nature of the overcentralized political (and military) system created by Russia’s illegitimate president, Vladimir Putin. Mendacity, to put it simply, is the best way to survive and thrive in today’s Russia, just as it was in the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.
The lying begins at the lowest levels and then proceeds upwards. By the time it reaches the corridors of power, Russia’s decision-makers, Putin included, have a false, sugarcoated picture of actual events on the ground. Hence his belief that invading Ukraine would be a cakewalk. Fixing the problem requires more than stopping to lie. The only effective solution is to dismantle Putin’s top-heavy fascist regime and replace it with something approaching democratic accountability.
That's why I look at Military Summary Channel, which does twice daily updates of geo-located videos of Russian and Ukrainian strikes, advances, and failures. It's pro-Ukie website, but the details create an inescapable picture
Quote:As I understand it, it was budgeting to print BLANK forms.
Gurulyev paints a depressing picture — for Russia, that is — but just how bad conditions are on the front was made crystal clear in mid-September by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, which ordered 230,000 death certificates for family members of deceased combat veterans. Back in May 2023, it ordered 23,716 such certificates; in 2022, the number was 5,777.
The last two numbers — 23,716 and 5,777 — look like accurate tabulations of war dead, though keep in mind that they probably do not include the thousands of Russians left to rot on the battlefield, the approximately 50,000 dead Wagner mercenaries (of whom many were inmates), and the tens of thousands of fighters from the occupied Donbas territories. The first figure — 230,000 — may reflect the actual number of dead or an estimate of how many will die or both.
Quote:
Now, let’s engage in some conservative “guesstimating.” We know that 29,493 definitely died. Add 10,000 left to rot, 50,000 Wagnerites, and another 50,000 Donbasites, and we get approximately 140,000 dead Russians.
Mediazona, Meduza, and the BBC have done their best to estimate military casualties and came up with 50,000 across the boatd.
Get a grip.
Quote:
blah blah blah...
Go to Military Summary Channel and g
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