Posted on 03/18/2022 8:55:19 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
Ukraine is "humiliating" Russia on the battlefield and "wiping the floor with them in terms of world opinion", says a UK military expert.
Prof Michael Clarke, former director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, says: "The Russians are making almost every tactical mistake it is possible to make."
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he explains: "They [Russian troops] look like forces that were completely unprepared, that hadn’t thought through what a major campaign might look like.
"The Ukrainians are stalling the Russian advance in all areas and even operating now quite effective counter attacks. The Russians are losing a lot of equipment and troops."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
In the real world Ukraine did a de facto draft of all men aged 18 to 60, refusing to let them leave the country—a less charitable way of putting it is that those men were taken hostage.
The “patriotic civilians fighting” is (for the most part) a parody of what is actually happening on the ground.
“A military that fights to defend their homeland is more motivated and more willing to fight and die, than a military that invades someone else’s homeland.”
Hence, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Putin will have achieved the exact opposite of his goal when this is all said and done.
Whether it is all worth it for Ukraine in the end remains to be seen. They lost literally millions of people in the 1930s because they were subject to the whims of whomever ruled in Moscow. So maybe these tragic losses will be worth it in the end for them to be free to prioritize their own interests over Russia's.
There are so many parallels and correspondences between the US - South Vietnam interaction from 1955 to 1975, and the Russian Federation - Ukraine interaction currently occurring, it boggles the mind.
Except, of course, the Common Border.
The West will find a way to drag this on until someone releases a nuke so the whole world can go to war. From a pure military point of view, it’s over and Zelensky should sue for peace.
There’s also an ethnic cleansing of Russians in the Donbas, 13,000 dead so far that has been taking place since 2014 and that nobody in the west is willing to acknowledge.
“...They lost literally millions of people in the 1930s...”
Peace kills. Solzhenitsyn said, “At the time South Vietnam fell, one of your newspapers ran the headline, “THE BLESSED SILENCE. I would not wish that “BLESSED SILENCE” on my worst enemy.”
RE: Any sources to those claims?
See here:
https://www.politico.eu/article/what-the-use-of-russia-conscripts-tells-us-about-the-war-in-ukraine/
and here:
and here:
In case it escaped your notice, Russia is the invader of another sovereign nation, not Ukraine. Ukraine has no designs on Moscow or any other Russian cities.
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Iraq and Afghanistan had no designs on Washington DC. I’m not really sure we gave a flip about that though.
There is indeed ethnic unrest and cleansing and displacement -
nevertheless, Col. Putin wants the oil and the natural gas, probably a lot of wheat out there as well in the invaded areas.
If Col. Putin is whining about ethnic communities in the Donbas, that’s merely a cover for what he really wants: the oil, the minerals, the agricultural resources. A pretext.
None of the statements in your post are mutually exclusive.
RE: Welcome to the FR mind reading squad—you managed to read the minds of millions of people from two countries.
I admit that part of my post is extrapolation into the minds of tge fighters based on what is being observed on the ground.
But a part of what I wrote is based on what is being reported elsewhere. See Post 88 of this thread.
We are all in a sense doing our own mind reading. The only person who doesn’t read into the minds of others based on observations and reports has to say... I don’t know.
Your first two sources are identical and the third doesn’t say much.
Propaganda
Let's think of a few reasons.
(1) Because he hates to see civilians killed in militarily pointless rocket attacks on civilian targets.
2) Because the US promised to defend Ukraine in return for it giving up its nuclear arsenal. If it had the weapons today the situation would be very different.
3) Because by asking for a no-fly-zone which NATO does not want to provide he increases the likelihood of receiving air defense missiles and replacement jets which are even more useful to Ukraine.
No need to coerce. There are 100s of thousands of people earning a living working for the government of Russia who would like to get a promotion.
That's a whopper. Are you posting from St. Petersberg?
The Ukraine joined the UN in 1945. At that time is was a part of the Soviet empire, but still a separate nation. It has been an independent nation for a long time.
VERY GRAPHIC VIDEO OF DEAD RUSSIANS (you’ve been warned): https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/tgikxm/the_cabin_was_completely_torn_apart_sensitive/
I saw one empty transport truck and what looked like a wax mannequin. Not really convinced of mass casualties by that video.
The way I see it—this is a DEmocrat Party war to keep power. What do I foresee? A) A Poison Gas attack by “Russians” (CIA in Russian guise) kills children and women. B) Lots of Horrible Videos flood the Media—with crying children—a “Proof” This was a Russian attack. C) To keep this from happening again, a No fly zone and an attack with rockets on the “Gas Attack” airports. D) Russians shoot down NATO planes and attack NATO airbases. E) 10,000 NATO Troops from Poland and The Baltics and England go into Ukraine to push out the Russians. F) Russians hit them with Vacuum Bombs as Battlefield goes back and forth until Ukraine is nothing but Rubble. G) Europeans pull out in separate peace leaving the USA to hold the bag. H) Biden with war powers Closes all Russian supporting Media, arrest Truckers, Trump and Tucker Carlson. Democrats win the midterms! War drags on for ten years with losses in Millions.
Osama bin Laden certainly had designs on the destruction of prominent buildings in New York City and Washington, DC, and his goons destroyed chunks of both cities. But for the passengers on United 93, the U.S. Capitol building or the White House might be gone.
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, got kicked out, then, among other things, constantly shot at coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones protecting the Kurds and the Shiites. We didn’t depose him for no good reason. Iraq has also been sovereign for a long time post-Saddam.
You are either uninformed our pushing Putin's propaganda. The Ukrainians have been in a low intensity war with Russia since 2014. Many young men have done their military service during that time, and are re-joining now to fight for their country.
If you watch videos from Ukraine you can see their military, local defense forces, and even militia fighters in action.
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