Posted on 10/16/2022 7:11:02 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
The defence ministry in Minsk on Sunday said just under 9,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Belarus as part of a "regional grouping" of forces to protect its borders.
"The first troop trains with Russian servicemen who are part of the (regional grouping) began to arrive in Belarus," Valeriy Revenko, head of the defence ministry's international military cooperation department, wrote on Twitter. "The relocation will take several days.
"The total number will be a little less than 9,000 people."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The Russians are preparing to open a new front in the stupid war. I hope they fail.
Also, a de facto annexation of Belarus.
That’s exactly right! Lukashenko is going to hand Belarus back over to Russia.
Then Belarus is a fair target for Ukraine.
The Russians are preparing to open a new front in the stupid war. I hope they fail.
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It will take many times more than 9000 newly conscripted troops to successfully open a new front in the north. If they last the winter, it would be a miracle - even if they never cross the border.
putin isn’t very smart. He is losing and now wants to expand while Ukraine is getting more and more state of the art weapons LOL. Belarus is willingly being used ...
“Also, a de facto annexation of Belarus.”
Post hoc. Belarus was “de facto” annexed to Russia when Putin stepped in to save Lukashenko’s political bacon a couple years ago. Lukashenko may be in denial, though, and has not accepted it.
“Belarus is willingly being used ...”
I wouldn’t say “willingly;” but it is about to be used, big time.
sounds like a provocative escalation by Putin
Lukashenko wants annexation by Russia, in return for far greater influence at the top table. For now, Russian troops in Belarus are probably the only thing protecting him from being given the Ceaucescu treatment.
What might compel a rethink on his part is the increasingly frosty attitude of the other Republics toward Moscow; one recently pointed out that they’re pretty much treated as irrelevant by the central command.
One of those voices is from someone who, at the fall of the Soviet Union, took the same line as Lukashenko and feels like he’s been hung out to dry ever since.
I would consider a smart bet on Lukashenko waiting for the factions in Moscow to start attacking each other, before siding with the other Republics in “restoring order” - a new CIS with Russia far less in control of everything could emerge.
“I would consider a smart bet on Lukashenko waiting for the factions in Moscow to start attacking each other, before siding with the other Republics in “restoring order” - a new CIS with Russia far less in control of everything could emerge.”
Yes, I could see that.
Facials and guitar songs at the fire?
Needless to say, that massive missile strikes by Russia continue all over 404 and there are reports of massive explosions and power outages in Nikolaev and other places, plus Kiev remains to be targeted. And, as was expected, all VSU attempts to perform "offensives" have been repelled with massive losses for VSU, including at Kremennaya and Svatovo (in Russian), but NATO--let's drop the pretense here--will try to throw as much cannon fodder at Russian formations as possible because they need something, like "breakthrough" in some sectors, because the Midterms are coming and Russians amassing troops for obvious things. Time is running out.
So, there are signs that the realization of grim reality begins to descend on Washington D.C.
I was on record for years--pardon me for my pleasure in reminding everyone--that NATO cannot fight a real war with the peer. Russia is not just the peer, Russia fields combat capabilities many of which are simply non-existent anywhere in NATO (US, of course, included). This becomes increasingly obvious both through operational and strategic incompetence of NATO planners and through admissions of such nature as by Austin or, if you read further, by:
Mark Cancian is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who spent seven years working on DOD procurement issues for the Office of Management and Budget. His assessment based on inventory levels, industrial capacity, and information from the Biden administration is that the U.S. has "limited" supplies of HIMARs, Javelins, Stingers and M-777 Howitzers. "There are some areas where we’re basically at the bottom of the barrel," he told Fox News Digital. In some cases, this means the U.S. will likely start meeting Ukraine’s request for weaponry by sending over lower-end substitutions, such as lighter Howitzers that are serviceable but not what Ukraine is after. In other cases, the U.S. may not have much to give – Cancian said that while there is talk of the U.S. providing more air defense equipment, there is not much the U.S. can give in that area. Cancian said he reads Austin comments as a sign that the days of the U.S. giving Ukraine its best stuff are gone.
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But this fast review may give you some glimpse into the "thinking" by NATO planners who need something, anything to show for their failed "offensives" and to somehow spin (to cover up, that is) an atrocious record of the US-made weaponry (plus from other lapdogs) in real combat conditions. There will be a talk about well documented utter failure of the US AGM-88 HARM missiles against Russian Air Defense, but we need to be patient and wait for the conclusion of the active part of SMO and with anti-terrorist operations by FSB and MVD coming at the forefront of this war. In the end, terrorism is the only type of war combined West excels at.
Are you accusing Putin and Russia of starting this war because they’re tools of the WEF? That’s a new one.
It takes two to tango.
Me and my .308 can dance all by ourselves.
Lukashenko may owe Russia, but the Belarussian people don’t. Therein lies the problem for Lukashenko — and Putin.
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