And then Big Brother stepped in to prolong the war."
I see you live in a fantasy world, fed by information sewer pipes from Moscow's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda, and I'm sorry to learn it.
The fact is, there was never an agreement between Vlad the Invader and Ukraine's elected government, Putin's 2023 claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
There were preliminary proposals, but never an agreement signed by the government in Kiev.
And Vlad the Invader's withdrawals from Kiev, Kharkiv and Kherson had nothing to do with alleged negotiations and everything to do with Vlad's defeats on the battlefield.
woodpusher: "Moreover, you failed to see the Russians execute a planned retreat as the conflict transitioned to one of attrition as the Western world started a failed plan to throw money and equipment at Ukraine in their failed attempt to make other than a durational difference."
My goodness, FRiend, you really are guzzling down the Kremlin's propaganda KoolAid, aren't you?
Seriously, why would you do that, surely you realize it's all pure nonsense?
The facts are, that after Vlad's failed invasion, Spring and Summer of 2022, Ukrainians pushed Russians out of about half the territories Russians had occupied, and the battle-lines have not changed much since, despite Russians throwing hundreds of thousands of "Meat Wave" troops at Ukrainian defenses.
In the past year, Russian advances have averaged about a square mile per day at a cost of around 1,000 Russian casualties and 100 military vehicles per day, with a ratio of roughly six Russian casualties when Russians attack to every one Ukrainian, when Ukrainians defend.
Sure, dispute those numbers if you want, but they are as good as any I can find from other sources.
woodpusher: "Because you operate in a fog, you failed to notice that Russia has a fleet and Ukraine does not.
It follows the old adage, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Russia remains the undisputed king of the Black Sea, as Ukraine does not have one ship, much less a navy."
Yeah... sure, but not so much anymore.
Roughly 1/3 of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been sunk or damaged beyond repair by Ukraine's non-fleet.
Russia's remaining ships were pulled out of Crimea and other forward positions to safer places, some to the Caspian Sea!
woodpusher: "Because you operate in a fog, you missed that some planes moved out of range of missile attacks, something Ukraine has no capability of doing.
And you missed they remain quite capable of launching attacks on Ukraine. "
I'm certain that Ukrainians are fully aware of Russia's remaining air force capabilities, and those are not insignificant.
What Russians cannot do is fly over Ukraine or anywhere near the front lines, nor are Russian aircraft based in Crimea anymore.
Of course, all the hype over F-16s will be meaningless if the missiles they carry don't have enough range to reach out and touch their Russian air force enemies.
We'll have to see...
woodpusher: "Moreover you missed that the Ukrainian power grid as been destroyed and Ukrainians are sitting in the dark, and just have to deal with heat and cold without electricity."
You know, of course, that attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure such as power plants is a war-crime, right?
Can you explain why you're OK with that?
Russians have certainly damaged Ukraine's civilian power grid, by some reports up to 80% in some areas.
So now thousands of Ukrainians are at work restoring lines and adding new, highly dispersed, power sources, including imports of power from neighboring countries.
Hopefully, someday Russian war-criminals will be brought to trial for their crimes in Ukraine.
woodpusher: "The fog interfered with you seeing that they formed an economic coalition called BRICS+, implemented a SWIFT replacement, and moved off the dollar as the reserve currency.
BRICS+ consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia also participates as an invited member which has not yet officially joined.
In its relatively short life, it now includes nearly half the population of the world."
BRICS GDP measured by Purchase Price Parity (PPP) totals roughly 1/3 of global GDP, but China alone represents nearly 3/5 of that.
And BRICS is far from a tight nit trade cartel.
Indeed, at least 80% of BRICS countries' trade is with non-BRICS countries, and for China and Russia, that number is well over 90%.
Further, countries like Brazil and India are western style democracies and partners with US allies in national defense.
The US is India's and China's biggest trading partner, Brazil's second biggest after China.
So, India and Brazil are far from insane dictatorships bent on dominating or destroying the world!
woodpusher: "It seems the fog of war led you to include North Korea as a member."
No, NoKo's Little Kim is Russia's client and military ally, supplying Russia with military equipment and ammunition.
NoKo has no economy to speak of.
woodpusher: "While Russia is involved in building such an economic alliance, Ukraine cannot pay salaries or pensions without being given the money to do so.
They have become a beggar nation.
Or as Napolean Joe would say, "We're winning!""
Sure, Vlad the Invader spent the past 20+ years building up a huge war-chest of nearly $1 trillion dollars, to pay for his foreign adventures.
Unfortunately for Vlad, he forgot to tell his financial people what he planned to do with all that money, and so they invested about half of it in foreign accounts, which are now frozen and will eventually be used to pay reparations to help rebuild Ukraine.
New Axis of Evil Dictators
Vlad the Invader, Annexed Lukashenko, Xi-Snake, Moolah Mullah & Little Kim:
Still, Vlad had a huge war-chest built up in Russia, maybe $400 billion to throw at Ukraine and he is now rapidly depleting it.
That's why Vlad went hat-in-hand to visit NoKo's Little Kim and Vietnam's ToLam to beg for their support -- and that's not even to mention Vlad's "unlimited partnership" with CCP's Xi-snake and buddy-buddies with Iran's Moolah-Mullahs.
woodpusher: "Hidden in the fog of war, Ukraine is losing to the extent that it may well lose status as a nation state, and that Russian Wagner are not mercs."
Yeah, I understand the Wagners "won" a big battle in, where was that, Mali?
Anyway, they seem to have lost some of their leaders and Ukrainians were somehow involved...
As for Ukraine losing status as a nation state... where does that fantasy even come from?
woodpusher: "Hidden in your fog is the source of your false statistics from western propaganda mills.
The casualty ratio is vastly greater on the side of the Ukrainians, on an order of magnitude.
Such is the result of fighting a conflict with no navy, a barely there air force, begged and borrowed equipment, and a general lack of artillery and shells, complemented by an air defense system that used to exist."
See? This exactly is your problem, because your words are only true in the information sewer pipes of Moscow's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda -- nowhere else are they confirmed or even somewhat supported.
All of the western and independent sources -- including Mediazona -- more or less support Ukraine's estimates of Russian casualties and their own estimates of Ukraine's.
In 2023 Ukrainians on defense reported roughly three Russian casualties to every one of their own.
In 2024 that ratio, when Ukraine is on defense, rose to six to one and occasionally ten to one during Russia's insane "Meat Wave" assaults.
woodpusher: "Cutting through the fog, the latest claims say that the desperate Ukrainian attempt to take the NPP was stopped after 18 miles in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by Russians on three sides in a cauldron of their own making.
It was reported that they are digging trenches and do not know how long they will stay.
I can cut through the fog and say they will stay for the rest of the lives."
So, you've just confirmed some the most optimistic Ukrainian reports!
About 20 miles deep, times 25 miles wide is 500 square miles of Kursk taken by Ukrainian troops.
Some of the most optimistic Ukraine reports said they've taken 1,000 square kilometers, which is roughly 400 square miles.
Sounds like we're reading the same page on this, if on nothing else.
woodpusher: "The Russian army is doing what armies do — killing people and breaking things.
They are killing Ukrainian soldiers and breaking their toys.
There is no waiting.
There is no cease fire.
There is no Minsk III.
There is no electricity.
There are no longer any lines holding.
In a war of attrition, it is about destroying the opposing army and its toys.
Ukraine is losing."
Sure, if you call what Russia does "winning", including, according to Ukraine's estimates, since February 2022:
- ~600,000 total Russian casualties
- ~8,500 tanks
- ~16,000 armored combat vehicles
- ~16,000 artillery systems
- ~1,100 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems
- ~900 air defense systems
- ~365 fixed-wing aircraft;
- ~300 helicopters;
- ~13,000 UAVs;
- ~2,400 cruise missiles;
- ~28 ships and boats;
- 1 submarine;
- ~22,000 support vehicles and tankers
So, sure, if you call all that "winning", then I'd have to guess that "winning", like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder?
To me it looks pretty ugly for Russia right now.