Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Thursday, September 17, 2026 22:52
VIEWED: 572838
PAGE 112 of 112
Russian President Vladimir Putin is framing the State Duma elections as a referendum on his war in Ukraine after setting conditions to ensure his desired outcome. Putin stated on September 16 that participating in the State Duma elections scheduled for September 18-20 is a “responsibility” for all Russian citizens and contributes to strengthening Russia against external actors who seek to weaken Russia and undermine Russian sovereignty.[1] Putin will present his party’s inevitable victory as evidence of widespread domestic support for the war.[2]
https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive
-campaign-assessment-september-16-2026/
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Ukraine flips the script, leaving Putin’s troops more likely to die than be wounded
By Kathrine Frich | September 16, 2026
Ukrainian intelligence data pointed to this grim trend months ago. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously noted that 62 percent of Russian casualties were fatalities, but the situation on the ground has grown even more extreme.
Up to 70 percent of Russian troops who become casualties today are killed outright, according to senior commanders speaking to UNITED24 Media.
https://www.dagens.com/war/ukraine-flips-the-script-leaving-putins-tro
ops-more-likely-to-die-than-be-wounded
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As Walls Close In, Zelensky Lashes Out
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/as-walls-close-in-zelensky-las
hes-out/
He's running out of people to fire. The EU better send him some more generals along with their citizens' futures.
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Thursday, September 17, 2026 3:25 PM (U)
Quote:Unlike in America, where only Billionaire Trump can fix things, and in Russia, where only Billionaire Putin keeps the war going, Ukraine has plenty of people to replace I-wanna-be-a-Billionaire Zelensky. He looks like he needs to quit, and somebody fresh should take the job. [Unlike in America and Russia, the top guy is not irreplaceable in Ukraine.]
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
As Walls Close In, Zelensky Lashes Out
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/as-walls-close-in-zelensky-las
hes-out/
He's running out of people to fire. The EU better send him some more generals along with their citizens' futures.
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Nobody is irreplaceable.
Nobody.
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Quote:If Zelensky's plane got destroyed in the air with him on board, I wouldn't mourn. Z spends too much time traveling around the world instead of doing his job. If the same happened to Trump, there would be JD Vance to replace him. Trump spends all his time running his mouth and traveling to golf courses instead of working.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nobody is irreplaceable.
Nobody.
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Is NATO ready to fight? The Ukraine war is raising doubts among military analysts
By Daniel Flynn, Max Hunder and Olena Harmash
September 17, 2026 5:07 AM CDT
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/is-nato-ready-fight
-ukraine-war-is-raising-doubts-among-military-analysts-2026-09-17/
KYIV, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people. It has also served as a proving ground for new weapons systems and raised an uncomfortable question for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Is the alliance prepared for the next war it might have to fight?
Five Ukrainian and Western defense officials told Reuters that developments on the battlefield are moving so quickly that some NATO weapons and tactics risk becoming outdated. While Ukraine – which is not an alliance member – adapts in weeks, NATO buys and develops systems over years, sometimes decades.
The Ukraine war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s haranguing of European allies have prompted many NATO members to dramatically increase their defense spending. The Pentagon is currently reviewing its military presence in European countries, which Trump has accused of sponging off U.S. protection and refusing to help prosecute his unpopular war against Iran.
Denys Shtilerman, the co-owner and chief designer of Fire Point, a leading Ukrainian missile and drone builder, told Reuters that tanks are now “worthless” because a drone costing about $5,000 can destroy one. Yet Europe still spends heavily on tanks – which, say many military analysts, still have a key role to play in future battles despite evidence to the contrary.
Cheap drones have also transformed warfare in other ways. Troops gathering in groups or large vehicle convoys all become far easier targets.
“They are good at storming positions,” Oleksandr Pivnenko, Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, said of the international troops his units trained with last year. “But if there’s a drone overhead and you don’t even look up, what do you think will happen to your squad?”
In June, Reuters attended a NATO military exercise near Paldiski in Estonia – a small Baltic country now fortifying its 210-mile border with Russia – in which American and European troops treated dozens of simulated casualties at wartime field hospitals. But the exercise took place with the assumption that NATO would command the airspace above the hospitals – no longer a given in the age of cheap, stealthy, long-distance drones.
Rather than simply receiving NATO training and assistance, Ukrainian officials described a growing role for Ukraine in teaching the alliance lessons drawn from the war with Russia. Yet they also said NATO’s military bureaucracy struggles to absorb those lessons. A Ukrainian officer who underwent NATO psychological operations training in Romania told Reuters that some alliance training materials still relied on case studies from World War Two. NATO didn’t respond to questions about the officials’ criticism of its training and bureaucracy.
The Ukraine war has also exposed a vulnerability that NATO officials say is far harder to solve: air and missile defense. Russia’s relentless barrages against Ukrainian cities have highlighted Europe's dependence on sophisticated U.S. anti-missile systems such as the Patriot, first used in the 1991 Gulf War. Ukraine has a critical shortage of Patriot interceptors – the missiles fired to destroy incoming threats.
Fearing that its reliance on Patriots might become a strategic vulnerability, Europe is building non-U.S. alternatives. Ukraine is awaiting delivery of the new French-Italian SAMP/T-NG air-defense system, designed to intercept ballistic missiles. France has promised to accelerate its deployment to Ukraine, and European diplomats previously told Reuters it was expected to arrive by next spring.
In a statement, the Ukrainian defense ministry said its soldiers and NATO’s had much to learn from each other, hailing Ukraine’s use of drones and radio/electronic warfare as “globally unmatched" and praising European efforts to help tackle Russia’s drone and missile bombardments.
In July, Ukraine and nine European allies launched an air-defense coalition that includes plans to jointly develop a new anti-ballistic missile system. Known as Freyja, the project is a consortium of about a dozen companies with Fire Point as the lead private-sector partner. The goal is to build a system that is cheaper and faster to produce than the Patriot, while ensuring that Europe, not the U.S., controls its manufacture.
“If you spend $20 billion on your air defense system, you must be independent in your security,” said Fire Point’s Shtilerman.
Additional reporting by Andrew R.C. Marshall and John Shiffman Edited by Jason Szep.
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Thursday, September 17, 2026 6:32 PM (U)
Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
IF RUSSIA WINS ...
it will insist on
Retaining the four regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Crimea, and Zaparhozia) and quite possibly Kherson and Odessa as wel.
A formally neutral (i.e. non-NATO) Ukraine,
With limited military
And all pro-Nazi elements (like Azov) expunged.
In order to achieve all that, the government in Kiev will have to be Russia-friendly.
If the remainder if Europe insists on warring with Russia, then the war will expand. If not, that's where it stops.
And if they lose? Hey, I'm still waiting on an answer to my other question.
T
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Thursday, September 17, 2026 10:10 PM (U)
Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
No, it's not in Putins writings.
But if you really think so, find that quote and post it.
Vladimir Putin: The rebuilding of ‘Soviet’ Russia
Published
28 March 2014
"That man was a former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, and he has been in charge of the world's largest country, as president or prime minister, ever since. Few realized it at the time, because few were listening, but that speech provided a blueprint for pretty much everything he has done, for how he would re-shape a country that was perilously close to total collapse."
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26769481
Try again. And answer my question. What if Russia loses?
T
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Text of the speech please.
I don't care how BBC frames... well, anything really.
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Ubu LOVES BBC.
Just not the kind you're thinking of.
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