The Ukrainian special forces unit that crushed Putin’s surprise advance

On Aug 11, Russian soldiers breached Ukraine’s front-line defences and penetrated at least six miles behind enemy lines.

Battlefield maps, kept studiously up to date by open-source intelligence groups, showed a red tendril reaching north into Ukraine’s territory through several villages in the contested eastern Donetsk region coveted by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

The advance set off alarm bells among Kyiv’s supporters, who feared it marked the start of an offensive aimed at the stronghold city of Kostiantynivka or the logistical hub of Pokrovsk, both of which could provide Russia with a foothold in Ukraine’s fortress belt.

What Russian soldiers did not know was that Ukrainian forces had discovered the attack before the mission even began. In response, on Aug 12, Ukrainian forces began what Ukraine’s General Staff euphemistically referred to as “active measures”.

Within days of the offensive, Russian soldiers found themselves surrounded by the Azov Corps, one of Ukraine’s elite forces. The incursion, one of the deepest since the shift to attritional warfare, quickly became a costly and deadly failure.

This grim Russian tactic has become a feature of the war as Moscow probes for weaknesses in Ukraine’s defences. Small groups of Russian soldiers are sent forward on motorcycles, dirt bikes and electric scooters without support to break through Ukrainian lines at speed

If that’s the case, Putin really screwed his own pooch.
He may have gained some land, but he ends up with Euro troops right on that border, and Euro-NATO defense spending more than doubled.

From the Russian point of view, they need Ukraine as a buffer state.

But Putin is failing to do that.

EVENTUALLY, this thing has to evolve to the point of peacekeepers in Ukraine, because Trump seems to have too much of his own reputation at stake to not get there. IMO, he will gradually increase pressure until something gives.

Since the Euro’s are by themselves woefully inadequate @ present, pressure on THEM in the form of us basically telling them to get their **** in order to provide peacekeeping forces, even though we may not put it that way, is in order and will be for some time. It’s hard to see how the Euro’s become adequate in under 2 years or so.

There is another thread talking about Germany’s economy. They cannot afford peacekeepers. If they cannot afford peacekeepers Francis certainly cannot. Who does that leave?

I cannot imagine American troops being posted there. And I cannot imagine it even if there was a ceasefire. And frankly that doesn’t have to be ideological. We can’t afford it either. We’re running a 2 trillion dollar deficit and there’s no evidence of any substantial reduction in that upcoming.

It has been noted that terrorists have increased government revenue. That hasn’t reduced the deficit because government spending increased also. We can’t afford it, and almost certainly Trump is aware of it. Everything costs money. Even sanctions cost money. Trump went out of his way to mention specifically that just a few weeks ago.

There is no ceasefire so there are no peacekeepers. It’s probable that the only way a ceasefire could occur is conditionally and the primary condition would be no peacekeepers. Ukraine won’t accept that so there will be no ceasefire.

It’s time to accept the powerlessness of the us in this situation. You can do that quietly so that it does not have to be admitted we should be contrary to an awful lot of attitudes.

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