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As war drags on, Ukrainians start to ask: could we have prepared better?
The Guardian ^ | Fri 3 Jun 2022 | Shaun Walker

Posted on 06/05/2022 9:32:23 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in the early hours of 24 February, with mass missile strikes and the advance of a land force from several directions, many key Ukrainian officials were apparently caught by surprise. Some were fast asleep.

There had been rumours of a Russian invasion for weeks, and the previous evening US and Ukrainian intelligence received information that pointed to an invasion that night with almost certainty. Yet there was little in the way of last-minute efforts to fortify towns close to the border, or to warn citizens to brace for the inevitable.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was at home with his wife and children. Numerous officials in charge of key regions close to the border, and mayors of cities containing strategic military targets, have told the Guardian in interviews over recent weeks that they were in bed and woke up in shock at the sound of booms, rather than having spent the final hours of peace coordinating the defence of their towns.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: blueandyellowdrank; clownworld; fakecolossaldefeat; hopium; shaunwalker; theguardian; ukrainicorns
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To: NorseViking

The lies are from you guys in St. Petersburg, Russia.

How’s the FSB tracking you?


41 posted on 06/06/2022 3:04:48 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: NorseViking

The lies are from you guys in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Let’s see what you call “lies”

“Putin’s nazi dictatorship is sacrificing thousands of Russians and killing thousands of Ukrainians.

Your President has blood kn his hands as Russia is the aggressor and invaded Ukraine”

Putin is a 22 year dictator ruling over a state where he has subdued corporations to be part of the state, where he creates a myth of glorious super nationalism, where he invades neighbours to “protect ourselves “ despite the fact these are weaker and far smaller.

Putin is the aggressor and invaded Ukraine.

All the truth.

Russians u der Putin are being reduced to Mongol barbarians. All the cultures Russians have left.


42 posted on 06/06/2022 3:08:20 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

What do you mean “tracking you”? That account *is* an FSB asset, probably files daily reports to the kremlin on its progress in turning Americans into putin fans here on FR.


43 posted on 06/06/2022 3:41:07 AM PDT by lump in the melting pot
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To: Paleo Conservative

“The US and UK who are con-guarantors of Ukraine’s sovereignty under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994,”

The US and the UK dropped the ball by not forcing Kiev to follow the Minsk Accord of 2014. That is the problem.


44 posted on 06/06/2022 3:52:45 AM PDT by Not_Who_U_Think
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To: MinorityRepublican

>> For what it’s worth, I thought it was a bunch of maneuvers near the borders of Ukraine. I did not think that Putin was actually stupid enough to invade Ukraine. <<

Me, too. I thought he might openly move troops into Luhansk and Donetsk, but driving for Kiev and bombing cities all across Ukraine was astonishing. Further, his propaganda machine seemed to never notice that Ukraine ousted Poroshenko for Zelenskyy. Poroshenko WAS a Nazi, and his tactics in the Donbas precluded any possibility of ever governing them.


45 posted on 06/06/2022 3:54:47 AM PDT by dangus (I had some sympathies for some of Russia's positions... until they started a G-d-damned war.)
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To: BobL

Out of options to prevent a massacre in the Donbas? From Zelenskyy??? What evidence have you that there was any massacre in the works? Essentially, the Donbas had become a frozen state... that’s not a tolerable condition... but neither is it a crisis. Zelenskyy beat Poroshenko by an astounding margin (77-23) because UKRAINIANS were astonished at Poroshenko’s villainy. But Zelenskyy also beat the pro-Russian candidate in all of the Russian-majority states besides Luhansk and Donetsk, including Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv. The major candidates — and I’m using that term loosely — more friendly to Russia than Zelenskyy were Boyko, who got only 11%, and his party’s splinter candidate, Vilkul, who got 4%.


46 posted on 06/06/2022 4:06:27 AM PDT by dangus (I had some sympathies for some of Russia's positions... until they started a G-d-damned war.)
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To: dangus

And Joe Biden got 81 million votes.


47 posted on 06/06/2022 4:18:50 AM PDT by McGruff (Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up - Barack Obama)
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To: NorseViking

““Could have existed” is the key.”

Agree there! Opportunity is now gone.


48 posted on 06/06/2022 4:42:47 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: dangus

“Out of options to prevent a massacre in the Donbas? From Zelenskyy???”

No, it was from Azov, but I heard they got rid of their Nazi insignias, so Azovs are now as pure as Mother Teresa, so I’m full of crap on thinking they’re still bad people (despite everything I read about them for 8 years). I get it! Oh yea, Zelensky is Jewish (like Soros, by the way), so it is literally IMPOSSIBLE that he would ever work with Nazis. (see, I saved you that line of bull, too)

Anyway, too bad, your side blew it, should have worked with Putin and settled things before he had no other options left.

Now your side will have to live with the results of trying to be ‘cute’ there.


49 posted on 06/06/2022 5:15:23 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: DIRTYSECRET
Chicoms are buzzing Taiwan airspace. What happens when they’re over the island?

The government falls and the new government celebrates peaceful reunification.

50 posted on 06/06/2022 5:22:38 AM PDT by Jim Noble (I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains)
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To: MinorityRepublican
“Only aggressors are prepared.” Joe Stalin
51 posted on 06/06/2022 6:10:07 AM PDT by SMARTY (“Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.” Thomas Sowell)
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To: BobL

So screw all the your-team, my-team bull. I know the associations with Azov and Nazis. I don’t know how the hell you missed me even calling Poroshenko a Nazi. I think my tagline, which I’ve used for several weeks now (you can see my posts to confirm) states my position pretty well. I’m trying to find out what you believe would have happened.

Are you alleging that Zelinskyy would have the Azov folks massacre massive numbers of Donbas residents? That he’d deliberately turn a blind eye? Or that he has no control over them at all? Or something else I’m missing?


52 posted on 06/06/2022 6:49:27 AM PDT by dangus (I had some sympathies for some of Russia's positions... until they started a G-d-damned war.)
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To: dangus

Since you’ve made it past the denial stage, I’ll respond to you:

Nazis will be Nazis - I cannot predict their intentions. BUT they are part of the Ukrainian government. No other country in the world that the West supports comes close to this crap.

I don’t know the inner workings of Ukraine, maybe Zelensky likes them in his government...maybe he has no choice.

But I do believe that if the West wanted the Nazis out of his government, they’d be out.

So that’s what Russia has to deal with - tell the 10 million Russian speakers that they’re on their own or take the needed action to ensure their safety. They chose the latter. This is something we would never do (think Afghanistan), which is why the West has trouble comprehending Russia.


53 posted on 06/06/2022 7:12:36 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: BobL

Nazis have NOT been a factor anywhere in any government since 1945.

It is merely used to try sand defame and justify action by left such as calling Trump a Nazi,conservatives a Nazi etc-Make no mistake Putin is a lefty and knows the playbook and some people will fall for this


54 posted on 06/06/2022 7:20:41 AM PDT by TECTopcat
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To: TECTopcat

‘Nazis have NOT been a factor anywhere in any government since 1945.”

Do you think the Holocaust really happened?


55 posted on 06/06/2022 7:22:58 AM PDT by BobL (My hatred of Necons/Globalists exceeds my love of Ukraine or any other country, other than the US)
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To: BobL
Do you think the Holocaust really happened?

Are you saying it didn't?
56 posted on 06/06/2022 9:48:49 AM PDT by lump in the melting pot
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To: lump in the melting pot
What do you mean “tracking you”? That account *is* an FSB asset, probably files daily reports to the kremlin on its progress in turning Americans into putin fans here on FR.

You are 100% correct.

57 posted on 06/07/2022 7:29:09 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Navies of multiple nations are deployed in the South China sea.

China is being intensely surveilled for certain


58 posted on 06/07/2022 7:31:26 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Promoting Afro Heritage diversity will destroy the democrats)
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To: McGruff; dangus

Poroshenko was the anti-Moscow candidate. Zelenskyy was neutral.

Zelensky was also low in popularity - if Pooptin had waited a year or two, Zelensky would have been gone and there would have been a pro-Kremlin candidate AND Pooptin could have grabbed the DPR and LPR.

But he pushed too far — hubris.

And Russia failed.


59 posted on 06/07/2022 7:41:31 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: BobL; dangus

Azov battalion ended being neo-nazis in 2015.

They aren’t “mother theresas” but neither are they neo-Nazis.

The neo-Nazis are more those who have a dictator who has been in power for 22 years, who uses the pretext of “our people across the borders” and living room to invade neighbours.


60 posted on 06/07/2022 7:42:58 AM PDT by Cronos
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