Russia - threadbanned users in OP

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045804#Comment_121045804

It just shows me what iv'e known all along and that's that all Putin's red lines are pure bluster. Imagine what Ukraine could achieve if they hadn't one hand tied behind their backs by the west and where actually given the equipment to finish the job. It's tragic that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives have been lost and millions displaced because of this.

TheValeyard

March forward continues

https://twitter.com/julianroepcke/status/1696815228388889043

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045879#Comment_121045879

Is it jinxing to invoke the comments from pages back, when the counter-offensive was being accused as "failing": first slow, then very quickly. Once the dam breaks it can be very hard to stem the flow, and this is the fundamental problem with entrenched positions; if they fail you can be quickly overrun from all sides.

TedBundysDriver

From the BBC. Awful price being paid. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66581217

The part that jumped out at me was "Russia's ability to absorb pain appears limitless"

There has been a dramatic rise in Ukraine's number of dead, according to new estimates by unnamed US officials. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville has been on the front line in the east, where the grim task of counting the dead has become a daily reality.

<snip> Copyrighted article - only 1 paragraph allowed

swampgas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045868#Comment_121045868

The flip side of that is we could not know that it was pure bluster earlier. There seems to have been a deliberate slow ramping up of capabilities and of a gradual increase of attacks into Russia itself, which makes sense to me. The nuclear threat has always been, and always will be a factor. Slow escalation seems to be the way to neutralise that threat as much as possible.

rogber

<snip> Quote including copyrighted article removed

Saw that article too, very sad, didn't bother mentioning it as would doubtless be accused of promoting Russian propaganda (via the BBC). A reminder of the huge human cost of the war, all the lost husbands, fathers, sons, brothers. All for one psychopath's imperial ambitions. If there's any cosmic justice Putin will one day have his Gaddafi moment.

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046072#Comment_121046072

Why would anyone be accused of promoting Russian propaganda for posting that?

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045919#Comment_121045919

If you look at a map of the whole east of Ukraine, that village is just to the right of Robtyne , The dam analogy doest really work here, the Russian lines are several km deep. If Ukr forces are strong enough here they can round out the pocket so they arent being fired on from 3 sides and then they would need to take it form there.

zv2

@correct horse battery staple "Russian propagandist openly blaming NATO and Brits for bringing down planes and helicopters deep in Russia "

Every dog in the street knows who it was.

briany

@TedBundysDriver

The part that jumped out at me was "Russia's ability to absorb pain appears limitless"

Somehow I'm not surprised that this is the part that jumped out at you.

Russia's ability to take pain is obviously not limitless. For example, it apparently didn't want to deal with the pain of a future without Ukraine in its political sphere of influence.

And obviously, if they had a 'limitless' ability to absorb pain, they wouldn't have ran out of Afghanistan, despite having only suffered about half the casualties of the current conflict.

The historical idea that Russians can take more pain than anyone else is a complete myth. They do perhaps like to commemorate their historical woes more than anyone else, though, I'll give them that.

rogber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046120#Comment_121046120

Because it's not promoting a sufficiently positive narrative. Which is, of course, ridiculous

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045977#Comment_121045977

That’s very sad alright.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045977#Comment_121045977

The word "appears" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting. No country can sustain indefinite war, and indefinite upwardly trending losses of men, munitions, vehicles - all the while firefighting an economy strangled by sanctions. The center cannot hold forever and the USSR collapsed in large part because of another costly invasion & war in a foreignand.

"Big Strong Russia" is a dead trope, as is "Bigger Army Diplomacy". The only thing keeping this war active is Russia's leader knowing the result if he turned tail now. No country can just take pain like Russia, we're far past the point where Russian troops in Kyiv could be called Pyrrhic.

yagan

A neighbour was complaining about a favourite hotel in Killarney been taken over for Ukrainians, that we were doing too much.

A neighbour who respects boundaries wouldn't even say such a thing.

Wes M.

The war is deeply depressing now, more so than ever. Whatever objectives the Kremlin had in the weeks before the invasion, it seems the only plan now is to destroy Ukraine, whatever the cost. I saw some panelists on the Olga Skabeyeva show yesterday, salivating over Ukraine's natural resources and calculating their worth when they finally seize them, but I think this is all a side show for the viewers: I think Putin only wants revenge now for the humiliation Ukraine and the West have dished out. I read in The Times this morning that Moldova is watching the war with great anxiety now - their prime minister's thinking is that if Ukraine falls, Moldova, which has taken steps to break from Russia; expelling Russian agents, taking a Russian channel of the air (all to the dissatisfaction of the Kremlin) will be Russia's next target.

You see so much flippant commentary on Twitter about Russia being finished, as if it's some punch-drunk fighter stumbling around the ring, but they remain deadly dangerous, and this is a fearful time for Europe.

AlanG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045804#Comment_121045804

It could be that Russia doesn't want to risk the neutral or positive view of it held by the 70% of the worlds population outside of Europe and NA. It is likely they will try to sustain something of a stalemate until the US elections and then review their tactics.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046172#Comment_121046172

Mr Bean did it?

I feckin' knew it.

He did play some James Bond type character once. Might have been his cover

SaoPaulo41

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046267#Comment_121046267

Ukraine won't fall though, Russia are severely on back foot, matter of when not if war ends. Putin messed up big time with this invasion.

AlanG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046222#Comment_121046222

From a russian perspective the loss of men is something they are probably willing to take. The numbers sound unsustainable but the US suffers a similar number of deaths and injures from gunfire each year and they wont even change the laws in reaction so it is easy to see how a government can allow this to happen. The loss to the economy will depend on China, this is all playing into their hands. They will get more access to Russian raw materials and energy as things tighten. It's hard to see how a Russian collapse would serve their interest.

Akabusi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046267#Comment_121046267

Easy to tell which side you're rooting for.

In essence, what you are saying is that you would be much happier if the evil Russians were able to continue raping, torturing and killing Ukrainians. Well, may your depression continue to deepen.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046357#Comment_121046357

Not a particularly convincing argument. Countries lose sectors of their population year on year for various different reasons. That the country can sustain those deaths should not automatically mean that they can sustain a similar number of military dead per year because there are many factors to whether you can successfully prosecute a war including resources, supply of trained men, motivation and good tactics.

breezy1985

Well whatever about the Russian army it's clear the Putinbots have rallied from recent defeats and are on the counter offensive.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046357#Comment_121046357

Yea but the stats in isolation don't tell the whole story either: Russia already a famously shrinking birthrate and population; the death rate supposedly quite startling too thanks to things like alcoholism and high suicide rates; mobilisation saw 300k (right?) men leave the country; COVID of course has its own moment to thin the population of fertile or working-age people. And with a crippled economy I don't think things are gonna get better. All these add up - and I haven't even mentioned the war dead. All this for a country 1/2 the population of America.

America's gun deaths are at epidemic levels, no question, but contextual to the country's healthy demographics there's no critical problem relative to its economy and overall society. Christ they've had... 3, 4 wars since the USSR collapsed. Even militarily, there's a better institution that can sustain a war footing by dint of its stronger economy and more drilled, non conscription based armed forces. America could weather better than Russia ever can IMO.

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046205#Comment_121046205

"We hear nothing"?? The article actually states Russia is losing much more men/women on the battlefield. Like did you actually read it?

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046191#Comment_121046191

It's bizarre carry on.

rogber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046205#Comment_121046205

Talk about stating the obvious.

Of course the ideal solution would be for Russia to go home, war over. I never said anything different. But that's not going to happen with Putin in power. Hence as I said many times: he has to go, either through coup or assassination, I'd welcome either option.

And the BBC article IS balanced, that's the whole point. As expected, the person has already been attacked by several people for posting it.

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046267#Comment_121046267

Willfully ignoring the fact Russia is still a very strong fighting force is childish.

Homelander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046357#Comment_121046357

There is a limit to the number of men and material you can lose in a modern war. Manpower alone isn't worth much past a certain point without the necessary training, equipment and logistical support.

The limit for Russia is lower than Ukraine which is literally fighting for survival against an invading army behaving like a barbarian horde.

Russia cannot restock its military with tanks, artillery and other equipment with modern equivalents at the rate it is being lost. Their air force is barely even in the conflict for whatever reason.

The Russia army was incomparably bigger and better equipped than Ukrainian army at the outset. Look at them now. It's broadly a 1:1 stalemate with Ukraine making some respectful gains and inroads that are certainly pressing Russia extremely hard.

Russia cannot win the war. It's literally not possible. 18 months after their invasion they still only hold relatively small areas of Ukraine they didn't already control (Crimea, Donetsk/Luhansk) and the best and decent elements of their army have been destroyed.

The war is over, the invasion was a colossal blunder that will go down with the biggest in history, but unfortunately a ton more people will die before Putin/Russia actually accepts that.

If this was 1944 certain people in this thread would be saying "Germany is still very dangerous, and it's willing to sacrifice as many men as it takes, the USSR is going to suffer horrendous casualties" and "Everyone needs to sit down and talk peace to save Soviet lives".

Germany hadn't the faintest hope by that point of anything other than eventual defeat. A staggering amount of the Eastern Front casulties happened between summer 1944 and May 1945, but there was zero question long before then of what the outcome would be.

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046480#Comment_121046480

There is zero point having a discussion with someone who thinks posting an article from the BBC is pushing Russian propaganda. Like do you ever listen to yourself?

TedBundysDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046515#Comment_121046515

You seem like a very angry person, there is zero need for cursing. I posted a link to a very good BBC article explaining the situation on the ground in invaded Ukraine. You went off on some rant about Russian bingo cards?? and propaganda. Look i'll leave you to it.