IS Ukraine LOSING the war in Donbas? Defenders fall back to avoid capture as Russians advance after blasting towns to wastelands.... (40 photos)

FOR MAILONLINE ^ | 28 May 2022 | DAN SALES and CHRIS MATTHEWS

[dennisw]

IS Ukraine LOSING the war in Donbas? Defenders fall back to avoid capture as Russians advance after blasting towns to wastelands while Boris Johnson offers fresh support to Ukrainian president Zelensky Withdrawal from the Luhansk region likely, admits Ukraine in new war blow

Area is hugely significant and one of main aims of Putin and Russia's invasion President Zelensky said Ukraine was protecting Luhansk as best it could Putin had launched invasion under the aims of capturing Luhansk and Donetsk Boris Johnson offered renewed support for Ukraine in a phone call with Zelensky

Ukraine has admitted it may have to retreat from its last post in the Luhansk region as Russian forces continue their relentless march.

Putin's forces - now into their fourth month of the invasion - have concentrated on the east of the country in recent weeks.

Ukrainian soldiers leaving Luhansk will be a blow to the country, due to its symbolic significance in the war.

This morning Boris Johnson offered fresh support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said they spoke on the phone about 'strengthening defence support for Ukraine, intensifying work on security guarantees and supplying fuel'.

He added: 'We must work together to prevent a food crisis and unblock Ukrainian ports.'

Putin wants both Luhansk and Donetsk regions in full and their capture was one of his earliest objectives in the deranged despot's so-called 'special military operation'.

[ganeemead]

[ganeemead]

"Just how did the West "provoke" Putin? And what evidence is there that the West was "spoiling" for a proxy war against Russia?"

[Cronos]

You do realize that that is Putin's propaganda and is just like the Chavez propaganda -- false

Firstly, GDP growth -- this was purely due to oil price increases

GDP per capita -- again, the same thing, it went up with oil and gas prices, not with any value add from Putin policies

==============

Look at Russia's GDP growth year on year -- it never exceeds 2%, which is lethargic for a developing economy

This is because he has wasted the potential of his people - the smart Russians have left Russia and work in the West. The GDP growth is purely due to using Western machinery to extract stuff from the ground and sell it.

The tragedy is that Russians are smart and they could have developed an economy, but Putin and his oligarchs have not given them a chance to do so

What is the proof that the growth in GDP has been purely with extracting stuff and more so with just lining the pockets of Putin and his oligarchs?? -- look at the poverty rate in Russia

The poverty rate reduced during the commodity boom, but after that, they have NOT improved -- compare this with that other authoritarian regime, China and see how China has invested in its people (it's still an authoritarian regime, but it has realized that growing its people is a good investment - Putin didn't do that)

[Cronos]

I would also point out that you posted a picture of 1999 to 2013 -- the commodity boom years

But don't mention the next 3 years

Social inequality in Russia is en par with Nigeria

Now I know little about the people of Nigeria, so can't comment on them, but I do know Russians, all except one fled Putin - and they are smart, hard working people. Note - they fled Putin and work elsewhere.

[ganeemead]

"I would also point out that you posted a picture of 1999 to 2013 -- the commodity boom years"... (apparently ended by sanctions)...

A sufficiently ignorant person could easily mistake you for somebody who knows what he is talking about...

Putin had been handed a near totally broken country. NOBODY could expect him to have developed a fuill-blown consumer economy in ten or twenty years. What he DID do was stop all of the rape and pillage that had throttled Russia since the fall of the CCCP, even to the point of heaving the Rothschilds which WE've never managed to do and you might want to make a mental note that in the intervening time, he has totally sanction-proofed Russia so that the sanction kill-shot that the fops and wankers have tried to crush Russia with in this present case has blown up in their ugly faces and will likely reduce most of Europe to stone age conditions as their failed proxy war has already done to ukraine.

[ganeemead]

Meant as post to Cronos