O/T:- Ukraine [Incorporating 'Congrats to Russia' thread]

[i961pie]

While Putin's crazy attack on the Ukraine has undoubtedly been faltering in military terms, his approval ratings domestically seem to booming, as they did when he invaded Crimea. Obviously from a Western perspective it's easy to presume that this as a symptom of the Russian people being subject to a constant stream of pro-state propaganda and some of the popularity polls being run and manipulated by the Russian state, but I've heard/read a number of apparently impartial and even pro-West commentators acknowledging that Russian public opinion genuinely is quite different from what we might hope, expect or be led to believe. I'm not saying the sanctions approach is wrong, because in truth there's little alternative, but a lot of ordinary Russians feeling the pinch will find it difficult not to believe they're under siege from the West.

Of course they believe what they are told it's the only news and information that they hear, but the young Russians are more likely to believe what is really happening.

[keldsyke]

Seems to be ramping up again.

[irishpete]

Seems to be ramping up again.

He is full of hot air. He knows Winter is around the corner & trying to make people in the West panic. They are suffering big losses now the Ukrainians have Western Artillery & know how to use it. They are not as powerful military wise as they like to think they are.

[Notts78]

He is full of hot air. He knows Winter is around the corner & trying to make people in the West panic. They are suffering big loses now the Ukranians have Western Artillery & know how to use it. They are not as powerful military wise as they like to think they are.

Completely agree. Sending over ‘reserves’ to fight a resurgent Ukrainian army is desperate at best by Putin. Doing it on the eve of winter is mind boggling and I can’t see how Russia achieve there objective. They might have the numbers, but not the weapons and will to fight. He can only be hoping to hold ground whilst chipping away at Ukrainians defences. Sadly, a lot of lives will be lost and Putin will use it as further propaganda with a much more sinister end game that could impact the world!

[BigFatPie]

I wish I could see what’s going through Putin’s mind as well as what so many others seem to.

Seems to me that when someone’s choices are reduced to death or glory, they may well choose death.

[nw6pie]

I wish I could see what’s going through Putin’s mind as well as what so many others seem to.

Seems to me that when someone’s choices are reduced to death or glory, they may well choose death.

He must feel pretty humiliated - what was meant to be a three-day campaign and victory parade in Kyiv has turned into a second Afghanistan and a discredited Russian military (the Red-faced Army). Where once he kept the queen and the pope waiting, now the leaders of Turkey and India keep him waiting. He’s reduced to going to rogue states (Iran, North Korea) for arms/drones. And now he’s back to playing the nuclear card, because he doesn’t have an awful lot else.

Kudos to Joe Biden and Antony Blinken, who united the West behind Ukraine, are giving it arms and, no less importantly, made China understand that it shouldn’t aid the Russians.

[drillerpie]

I think the last few months have really showed what Russia is - a dangerously backwards, corrupt, imperialist mess with an unfathomable superiority complex.

It has also shown exactly why Ukranians are so desperate to move away from it and move towards the west.

The Russian solution to any military problem has always been to throw more lives and human suffering at it, but this invasion really has been an eye opener as to what modern-day Russia really is.

Even leaving aside the raping, pillaging, mass graves, torture chambers and all the other war crimes, in the last few months we've seen:

The dirt poor people from the regions lured there with the promise of a few dollars for the family, or a looted washing machine, a toilet bowl, and some used Ukranian lingerie for the missus.

The Chechen psychopaths castrating Ukranian soldiers alive with box cutters. Now deployed to mop up deserters.

The soldiers sent to fight with cardboard body armour and WW2 rifles because they didn't/couldn't bribe the quartermaster enough to get proper gear.

The snatch squads on the streets of the people's republics and their 'recruitment process' of beating fighting age men up, chucking them in the van and sending them to the front (to fight against their own country, which is also a war crime, but at this point who's counting?

The cumbersome, old-fashioned and thankfully totally ineffective military doctrine and centralised chain of command.

Recruiting violent criminals from maximum security prisons to send into Ukraine. What could possibly go wrong there? To quote the guy from Wagner: "We don't take *** offenders...although we understand that mistakes happen". Gross.

The mental nightly current affairs talk shows on Russian state TV. Which western country will they fantasise about nuking tonight? Last one I saw it was the UK for the Queen's funeral. Or was it Germany. I can't remember there have been so many. Check out Russian Media Monitor on YouTube to get an idea.

I could go on but it's time to go to work.

[Old_pie]

The mental nightly current affairs talk shows on Russian state TV. Which western country will they fantasise about nuking tonight? Last one I saw it was the UK for the Queen's funeral. Or was it Germany. I can't remember there have been so many. Check out Russian Media Monitor on YouTube to get an idea.

I could go on but it's time to go to work.

And still the United Nations and its Security Council can only wring their hands in fear of upsetting China or escalating into a nuclear war.

Tomorrow will see the fake democratic choice of parts of Ukraine voting to become Russian. This means that Putin can declare any future attack a cause for a tactical nuclear response.

As you say Putin and his anachronistic chronies are gangsters doing what Russia has always done in my lifetime, invade neighboring countries.

1948 Czechoslovakia
1951 Yugoslavia
1958 Hungary
1978 Afghanistan

plus countless others, taking action in the knowledge that the West would not wish to intervene.

Churchill was not far wrong in thinking:

The plan called for a massive Allied assault on 1 July 1945 by British, American, Polish and German – yes German – forces against the Red Army. They aimed to push them back out of Soviet-occupied East Germany and Poland, give Stalin and bloody nose, and force him to re-consider his domination of East Europe. But the plan was fraught with danger and the Allied force risked being dragged deeper into Soviet territory to face the nightmare of fighting in a Russian winter. The ghosts of Hitler and Napoleon were never far away.

USSR/Soviet Union/Russia has bred a criminal thug and a criminal empire. Fortunately the criminals have no honour and that is showing in the pathetic army and equipment they have built up.

[countygump]

Check out Russian Media Monitor on YouTube to get an idea.

I could go on but it's time to go to work.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

[LaxtonLad]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

There's quite a few Yanks who'd do exactly the same to them - they're on YouTube too. No shortge of loonies on either side.