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Posted on 08/01/2025 11:30:06 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
So the summary is this:
Putin’s Strategic Dilemma
The presenter argues that Putin is now deeply committed to escalating Russia’s war in Ukraine, making any prospects for peace politically untenable. Retreat could destroy his personal reputation and political position.
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“Retreat could destroy his personal reputation and political position.”
What does he care? He’s got one foot in the grave. Posterity is going to judge him harshly no matter what he does next.
Hardly a new development.
I was saying he had to have a way out which allowed him to stay in power, at the beginning of the war.
He has continued to double down and double down. He is in a pickle as the war has devolved into a stalemate. He now depends on China, which has its own historical problems with Russia, for much of his income and ability to produce weapons.
I would much rather be in Trump’s position than in Putin’s.
Zelenski’s problem is different. He has to fight in order for the country of Ukraine to survive. He could have fled the country at the start of the war. The Biden administration encouraged him to do so.
Ukraine has grown more nationalistic as the war has progressed, it can still be destroyed. If it is, it will be a burden on Russia for decades to come.
I think there was an exit ramp at the beginning of the war. After the battle of Kyiv, Zelensky signs an agreement to pledge that Ukraine will never join NATO.
The Russian troops retreat to Crimea and the Donbass.
Ukraine has grown more nationalistic as the war has progressed, it can still be destroyed.
If Ukraine manages to hold on, they will finally be able to secure their sovereignty.
Before the war, Ukraine was on track to become another version of Belarus.
Zelensky spoke Russian, not Ukrainian.
I imagine it sucks to be him in general.
I don’t think he cares what people think of him. And until the people of Russia get sick of the war, nothing will change. They will keep sending their sons (but the sons of Moscow or St Petersburg) in patriotic fervor to die in Ukraine. The propaganda machine will continue to tell Russians that they NEED to win in Ukraine.
So, Putin will just keep grinding away. Until the oligarchs get tired of him.
I would stay away from 3rd floor windows if I were him.
I disagree.
If it was a stalemate, Ukraine wouldn’t be so desperate for a cease fire and end. They are desperate for it.
Attritional wars can appear to be a stalemate for quite a while, until one side can’t replace losses enough and there is a more broad and rapid collapse.
There was a way to stop this war with negotiations in turkey, which Boris Johnson convinced Ukraine to scuttle. They would have had drastically less people and territory losses had they agreed
zelensky and supposed pro Ukrainian Europe absolutely do not give a damn about hundreds of thousands more Ukrainian dead and maimed, actual Ukrainian desperately trying to avoid getting pushed into vans and taken to the front. Millions fled the country because they do not want to fight. Those outside are not volunteering at all
This article talks in terms of outings personal motives instead of Russia’s, which is totally misleading for the reader it is the opposite, zelensky is the one motivated by personal interests.
It took the Russians 16 months to capture Chasiv Yar.
So what? They are not in a hurry.
They lose less men if they go slowly.
Russia is not trying to get territory quickly
This is attritional warfare
Drop the price of oil by $10BBL and Putin will come to the table. Should have done this 4 years ago.
Hitler was willing to let Germany die rather than surrender.
Putler is following that lead.
Putler is a Chekhist (secret policeman) through and through. In “The First Circle” Solzhenitzyn spoke of how many Soviet youth wanted to be Chekhists so they could have Western goodies and privileges.
Sick. And so is Vladolf Putler.
Unless it's a decisive Russian victory in Ukraine.
He stays in and his armed forces will be totally annihilated, pull out and he’s personally toast. His economy cannot stay focused on a wartime footing forever.
Putin's all in. Obviously, he's hoping that Ukraine will eventually capitulate.
I suppose one day you will learn that nothing can be accomplished proclaiming how evil Putin is. Everybody already knows that. So has been most leaders in world history.
Is Biden a good person when he tried to destroy the United States, let hundreds of thousands of criminals in here to murder and rape Americans? And let in millions more to change the demographics of the country forever? Is he a better person than Putin?
The United States partnered with Stalin in World War II and Stalin killed more civilians than Hitler did by a large number. He killed seven million Ukrainians before Hitler ever got started.
Putin had recieved bad intelligence. He thought that they were going to welcome his troops in Kyiv.
They welcomed the Nazis after Holodomor.
Think Dr. Zhivago. The scene when they quit in WW1. All of them turned around and came face to face with their replacements. That’s what has to happen.
They're not at breaking point...yet
This a war we and NATO provoked by endangering Russia's naval base in Crimea and by expanding NATO to the Russian border and building and arming a 600,000 man army in Ukraine.
Russia has been very consistent with its demands to end the war -- fully concession by Ukraine of the annexed territory and a removal of NATO/Ukraine military threat from its borders.
Russia was never going to settle for anything less than that.
And, the people in the annexed territory never wanted to part of Ukraine after a coup in 2014 illegal removed a President they overwhelming voted for.
The situation and solution to the end the war are very simple when one acknowledges those facts.
Very close. Putin is now Dow to T-64 and T-62s. Next in the inventory are the T54/55 era tanks.
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