Posted on 02/24/2022 7:08:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The scenes out of Ukraine as Russia continues to invade its sovereign neighbor have painted a picture of chaos. We’ve seen street fighting, apartment buildings being hit with rockets, and tanks rolling down highways. But, what we haven’t seen is a decisive victory for Vladimir Putin.
Part of the invasion strategy was to quickly take the major airports in order to fly in men and materials to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses. Surprisingly fierce opposition has prevented that, though. As of Thursday afternoon, Ukrainian military forces had actually recaptured one of the airports initially lost. That apparently happened with the help of a Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot, who shot down multiple planes and helicopters taking part in the airborne assault.
⚡️⚡️⚡️BREAKING:
Ukrainian troops in full control of the Hostomel Airport, Russian airborne force eliminated.— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) February 24, 2022
I'm seeing reports (but can't confirm) that a Ukrainian Mig 29 pilot has become an ace today.
First, how incredible in this day and age.
Second, holy shit the balls on that guy.
— Mike Nelson (@mikenelson586) February 24, 2022
NEW: Ukraine reports 350 Russian troops were killed in the first day of the invasion.
— Election Wizard 🇺🇸 (@ElectionWiz) February 24, 2022
For comparison, the United States lost only 154 servicemembers killed in action over the entire Gulf War. Over the first year of fighting the second Iraq War, 486 US service members were killed in the theater. That’s a testament to the technological and training superiority of the U.S. military, compared to the Russians, who have always been less formidable than they present. It also puts into perspective how much blood has already been extracted from Putin in an invasion that has barely gotten started.
That begs the question of how much resolve Russia truly has. Are they in this for the long haul, and possibly thousands killed in battle and via an insurgency? Or is Putin looking to tag the bag at Kyiv, claim victory, and then back off with his ego still intact? It’s hard to say because even though Russia is a dictatorship, the dynamics are not the same as other authoritarian regimes. While the Taliban had unlimited stamina when it came to absorbing losses and setbacks, I do not get the feeling Putin has that luxury. If things start to get really bloody, the protests already happening in his country are going to escalate, and that could cause major problems at home.
Further, it looks like the Ukrainians are in this for the long haul. They have already barred the exit of able-bodied men aged 18-60, meaning they are expected to stay and fight. Guns and Javelins are being handed out to militia forces in an effort to bolster defenses.
Still, I don’t want to give the impression that Ukraine is going to win this fight. Russia has a massive amount of forces ready to go in reserve along the border. If Putin is willing to accept the costs of blood and treasure, he will eventually reach his goal of decapitating the current government. I’m not so sure that’ll work out well for him in the end, though. If an insurgency takes hold, it’s going to be a nightmare for the Russian occupiers. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market is down over 40 percent today, a massive drop. Pain is coming for Putin, and we are going to find out how committed he actually is to this misadventure.
A peaceful constructive happy solution needs to be instituted.
Well...
Welcome to FR 2021 Russia boot-licker!
Not to mention 20 million civilians.
Hopefully with great success.
If we see Putin start expanding his censorship of the internet, that may be a sign that high casualties in the Ukraine invasion are becoming a problem for him and he is trying to limit knowledge of them by the Russian people.
As I noted in another thread, high casualties could prompt protests in Russian cities in greater numbers than the security services could handle.
Tweets about number of dead Russians. Yup, seems legit
Many more Ukrainians than Russians by percentage died during WWII.
They were reported dying with Covid diagnosis
The propaganda is getting piled higher and deeper.
Also, the pro-Putin media in Russia has flooded Russia with propaganda selling the idea that Ukraine is a captive nation of people yearning to unite with mother Russia but under the control of a group of Nazis paid by the USA.
Russian soldiers who have heard only this message may be thinking the invasion is going to be little more than a walkover and morale may take a hit when they realize they were misled.
The Civil War.
Putin so wants to believe that his military is a rival to ours, but:
*Total US deaths in the Gulf War - 154
*Total US deaths in the invasion period of the Iraq War - 77
If the 350 number is anywhere close to reality, the Russian armed forces are vastly less capable than ours.
Unfortunately lives have been lost in ukraine.
The number of deaths is beginning to approach the Clinton body count, but still remains less than the NY nursing home covid death count
There was public pushback against losses in the Chechen wars.
Sorry facts got in the way of your delusions, neocon
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1496959123707109394
I agree, sounds like sunshine pumping.
With a name like “Election Wizard” you know it must be solid information.
The Solzhenitsyn Solution— make them pay for every incursion on the populace, so they never know if they will survive a “mission” by being slaughtered by militia and undercover operatives. RESIST— for real, not hitlery’s moronic mumblings. We need to finance them— somehow.
Quote: “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
Thinking there is Mossad in secret— they trained these brave fighters.
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