Posted on 02/02/2023 7:40:07 PM PST by Cronos
Russia launched its attack on Ukraine in February 2022 with plans for a quick victory.
Those plans depended in part on seizing Ukraine's nuclear power plants and using them for leverage.
Russia's ambitions for those plants were foiled when Ukraine fended off the initial attack.
====================
When he launched his invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin had ambitious goals for Ukraine.
Within three days to a week of attacking, Putin planned to capture Kyiv, topple Ukraine's government, and demilitarize Ukrainian forces.
According to an analysis of the first five months of the war by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank, the Russians had big plans to use Ukraine's nuclear power plants to help make it all happen.
According to the RUSI report, Russia's war plans viewed Ukraine's nuclear power plants as a means to achieve Moscow's larger aims. Key to that planning was southern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant, which is Europe's largest.
First, Moscow planned for Ukrainian nuclear power facilities to function as bases for Russian troops and their equipment as well as ammunition depots.
2 to gain control over Ukraine's energy system. Nuclear power generates more than 60% of Ukraine's electricity
Finally, Moscow wanted to control the Ukrainian nuclear facilities so as to have "leverage for blackmailing" European countries. By threatening Europe with radiation pollution from potential accidents, the Kremlin hoped to deter direct or indirect foreign intervention.
...After almost a year of fighting and the deaths of tens of thousands of Russian troops, it's evident that Putin's plans for Ukraine failed miserably, and there are other signs that Ukraine and the world thinks those ambitions are thwarted for good.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Bakhmut has been encircled trapping nearly 25,000 Ukros and supplies cut off
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4128124/posts
That article is hilariously wrong.
There aren’t 25k Ukrainian troops there, and , while the battle is close, Ukraine still has Chasiv Yar .
Then the third paragraph is the same Russian propaganda canard about carving up western Ukraine. Next you’ll be trying to claim bioweapons labs again.
All while Ukraine was attacking them.
In June 2020 , possibly as part of a Russian blackmail effort, there was a release of radioactive isotopes from some part of Europe that was detected by The Swedes.
Chasov Yar, a new tactical group, Karpaty, has been formed with the task of defending the town. Despite this, the threat of an operational encirclement of Bakhmut is growing, as members of the AFU also say in radio communications.
Russian troops are less than two kilometres from the Chasov Yar - #Bakhmut highway. Assault troops have advanced into the forested area.
Putin has just been just throwing tens of thousands of men, largely from what he views as his private & expendable Wagner Group, composed 80% of criminal “volunteers” at Bakhmut to achieve some sort of victory there, albeit an apparent Pyrrhic one. Ukraine, realizing how desperate he is for some kind of “victory” is leaving enough forces there for the moment to bleed the Russians, particularly the Wagner Group, dry.
25,000 is very close to the estimate of how many men Russia has lost trying to take Bakhmut over the last 6 months
Nah, you Russians aren’t 2 km from there. No more than you found “bioweapons labs”
Well we know you Poles hate Russians, are making big bucks from the war, love sucking up to your daddy Biden, and won’t be in the US when the nukes fly.
Therefore nothing you say has one iota of credibility.
Following the news I can tell one thing. Russia is gaining the upper hand and is gaining momentum. Watching Zelensky calling for nuclear strikes on Russia and all of the apparent frenetic activity surrounding arms procurements leads one to believe that Ukraine is now losing. Would you agree?
“Zelensky calling for nuclear strikes on Russia and all of the apparent frenetic activity surrounding arms procurements leads one to believe that Ukraine is now losing”
Did you miss when the Russian leadership publicly declared “the defeat of a Russia in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war?” (Dmitry Medvedev, Jan 25)
The Kremlin is the one admitting they have been defeated on the ground.
Russia came into this war considered a near peer to the USA and China.
It is now understood as a near peer to Bangladesh or Nigeria.
The war revealed how far Russia has fallen since Soviet times, a secret Putin had kept hidden as he hollowed out the country for 20 years.
We Americans love the Poles and they are emerging as our best ally and great friend.
Why would you so despise our friend and ally?
Poland is where Trump moved our European headquarters for the GIs of our beloved V Corps.
The reliably, Left-Wing Globalist site
Business Insider tells us it is so, so it must be true, right?
Even if Russia is able to take Bakhmut, Ukraine will shortly be getting the GLSDB.
Taking MONTHS to get weapons delivered is “frenetic”?
Well we know you Poles hate Russians,
Not without good reason
are making big bucks from the war,
Peanuts compared to the arms purchases the Russians have convinced the Poles to make
love sucking up to your daddy Biden,
HIGHLY unlikely, as the Poles are generally socially quite conservative, freedom loving, and obviously, by arming up big time, think "daddy" won't defend them if push comes to shove. They gave Trump a very warm reception, however.
and won’t be in the US when the nukes fly.
Most scenarios begin with nuclear escalation in Europe, first.
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