Russia-Ukraine War

thatsdaft

Medvedev- “total and unconditional capitulation of Ukraine”

https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status/1813477538104050008

rogber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122390920#Comment_122390920

Exactly, putting head in sand and pretending everything is going great helps no one. The head of Ukraine's security service just said there will be little good news this year yet still some people will claim the opposite and that victory is just around the corner. It's wilful delusion

We all know Ukraine has done a great, heroic job, but the overall situation is still extremely difficult and no end in sight.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122389644#Comment_122389644

So the cracks in Putins empire are growing wider…. good!

junkyarddog

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1813460914131140770

10 years ago today.

R.I.P.

Sleepy

It really would be the perfect day for a Dutch-provided F16 to take out the Kerch bridge… sadly reality rarely provides such Hollywood moments!

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391348#Comment_122391348

In 2028, he'll be what, 84? I think the 'suspending the Constitution' stuff, is a GQP wet dream only, but Vance being the nominee is pretty likely if CFTrump wins.

fly_agaric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122390839#Comment_122390839

I am not sure about that. I actually think reason put forward you claim as bogus, flight of investments/money held in the EU (and probably US/UK as well) by autocracies is the reason, and they are being honest.

We know Saudia Arabia appealed to them not to seize Russian state assets (paywall) + made that threat.

Saudis Warned G-7 Over Russia Seizures With Debt Sale Threat

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-09/saudi-arabia-veiled-threat-to-g7-over-russia-assets?embedded-checkout=true

I wonder has China has done similar?

However I think they (EU/G7 leaders) probably need to get real about what is going on in the world at the moment. I agree these assets should be seized, preferably IMO as an enforced reparation to Ukraine when the war ends (we know Russia will never pay a cent under current leadership), not as a means to help fund their ongoing defence.

If likes of Saudi or China pull assets and deepen the rift/cut off/cold war that is brewing up between these autocracies and the West, so be it.

Might be a blessing in disguise as the fewer critical connections there are between our societies and economies, the less afraid we + our politicians all need to be about stepping up to push back much harder on use of below threshold of war/greyzone tactics to corrupt and destroy us.

junkyarddog

https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1813508281488556535

Took longer than I though for them to push a Ukrainian angle on this.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391535#Comment_122391535

I guess after all the age-related mud Trump threw at Biden, he couldn't really claim immunity from the same age-related mud himself, but then again this is Donald Trump we are talking about, and TBH, I'd put nothing past him.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391348#Comment_122391348

 (unless he pulls a Putin on the constitution ??)

Not the running assumption?Think he will accept defeat in 2028 if he does lose (or even allows proper elections)?

Are the free press in his line of sight this time?

Does he want to be Florida's Mugabe?

Guffy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391776#Comment_122391776

Accept defeat in 2028? Are you assuming he looses 2024 and runs again in 2028?

If he wins in 2024 he won't be allowed to run and lose in 2028 🙄

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391666#Comment_122391666

That’s the thing, where else can crappy badly run “countries” and “kingdoms” stash their assets safely but the “west”?

The previous example and precedent of Iraq in 90s which would be about $129 billion in todays dollars (so about half of what was frozen for Russia) didn’t deter likes of Russia or Saudi or China from stashing trillions in the west

With a stroke of a pen europe can sustain Ukraine for 5-6 years without costing us a cent, and hence help keep Russia away for the duration of any Trump shitshow

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391818#Comment_122391818

Try and keep up .This is Despicable Trump and Jellybean GOP we are talking about.

If he wins in 2024 then his plans for 2028 are whatever serves his interest.A third term by "popular demand"? Why not?

This is God's anointed representative in the Greatest Country in the Solar System .You hadn't heard?

RGARDINR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391906#Comment_122391906

Could he do terms as VP tho?

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391906#Comment_122391906

Just have a look back at how he reacted when he lost the last reaction, and see what he thinks about law and order, and the constitution…then bear in mind that he's a big fan of Putin. He admires Putin and how he operates, including Putin's attitude to laws. Put nothing past Trump….

thatsdaft

https://kyivindependent.com/germany-to-halve-ukraine-military-aid-reuters-reports/

And here we go

”According to Reuters, Berlin is hoping that the shortfall will be made up by the profits from frozen Russian assets.”

Same Germany that is loudest in opposition to said frozen assets being given to Ukraine

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391925#Comment_122391925

Quite possibly,but now I think all he may need is a spineless GOP . He hardly needs to run for office of any kind to direct operations in the background as he did with the immigration bill and now his threats to the Head of the Federal Reserve Bank regarding interest rates.

America is a third world country and proud of it.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391818#Comment_122391818

Yes, that's exactly what they said about Putin too, yet look where we are today, and remember how Trump reacted when he lost in 2016? I'm not saying that its going to happen, mind you, hopefully the US constitution is in better shape than the Russian one. But neither do I think that Trump will go quietly into the night either if he can possibly avoid it.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122390920#Comment_122390920

+1 I have found the Times Radio outlet to be so one sided it's farcical. And remarkably wrong on many fronts.

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122391086#Comment_122391086

This. (The video is over a year old, by the way).

I was at a briefing by a Ukrainian colonel just over a year ago in which he brought up the T-62s and T-55s being placed in service. "They are being used as assault guns, and they are effective".

This is not maneuver warfare the likes of which modern tanks are particularly suited for. This is positional warfare, where putting a 100mm HE round into a trench at 500 yards is going to be about as effective as putting a 125mm HE round from a much more expensive tank into the trench at 500 yards. And a Ukrainian rifle is going to be just as ineffective against a T-55 as it is against a T-90, whilst a Javelin will kill a T-90 about as well as it will kill a T-55. All they need to do to a T-62 or T-55 to make it pretty respectable in today's conflict is to upgrade the sight to a thermal.

To a rifleman, this sixty-year-old tank, a T-62 Obr 2022, is extremely dangerous. It's the contemporary to the Leopard 1s which Ukraine has received from Europe, and also upgraded with thermals and ERA.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122392693#Comment_122392693

Well he's been given free reign by the supreme court to remove any roadblocks he perceives and maintain immunity in the process so he can do pretty much as he wants from November on.

Not only will he look to stay a 3rd term but he won't even wait until January this time to get his feet under the desk. Expect him to push to be installed as soon as the results are finalised. He's not going to wait two months to do as he pleases.

Say my name

A petition has been signed by 760 people in Buryatia for authorities to open an investigation into the death of a Russian soldier. The soldier was found hanging from a tree away from the military unit with beat marks on his body and his teeth knocked out. The military unit were claiming he killed himself. He previously complained back to home of the "hazing" the military were doing to recruits and the beatings and that others in the unit were stealing his money.

http://sibreal.org/a/v-buryatii-760-chelovek-potrebovali-rassledovat-gibel-srochnika/33040233.html

riffmongous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393410#Comment_122393410

The Russian military is notorious for hazing related to the mandatory service.. dedovshchina

Say my name

A twitter post that's getting some reaction in Russia. Racism is very evident in Moscow and those not white Ruzzke born in moscow particularly feel it. Replies wouldn't be beating around the bush either. A fair bit of tension there and they all living in Russia supposedly.

http://twitter.com/citrusinst/status/1813444929110127016

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393606#Comment_122393606

How do you read the replies?They are all in Russian

It allows me to translate the post into english but not the replies or comments.

That guy assumed the Russian from outside Moscow is "foreign"?

Is that the gist of it?

thatsdaft

Economist thinks Russia is running out of equipment

https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/07/16/russias-vast-stocks-of-soviet-era-weaponry-are-running-out

TheValeyard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393899#Comment_122393899

Ive no idea what to make out of these stories. On the one hand we hear Russia is fcuked and running out of supplies. On the other hand we hear military chiefs speaking about a European war with Russia by 2029.

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393921#Comment_122393921

the two are not mutually exclusive

especially if Russia gets its hand on Ukrainian equipment and industrial capacity and what remains of Ukrainian army (minus the purges) that is convinced and pissed off that they were abandoned by Europeans and US

WW2 lasted for years longer than it should have due to factories and slave labour Germans captured and years of appeasement

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393853#Comment_122393853

Go to the comments and click on them. When they open, you will see the translation icon underneath them.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393999#Comment_122393999

Thanks.Still it is tedious going through 1 comment at a time,translating them and trying to make sense of the whole piece.

I can't understand what the guy is saying (no subtitles?) but I can see from the comments /reactions that they don't like him because (?) he is from Moscow and doesn't seem to appreciate folks from other parts of Russia.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394053#Comment_122394053

No, and the feelings are mutual. Generally, ethnic Russians are not well tolerated in the republics, with good reason. A lot of the Republics are held in the federation, but not by choice.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393921#Comment_122393921

If it comes to war with Russia due to not supporting Ukraine when we had the chance, it will be viewed as the greatest incidence of shooting yourself in the foot, in history.

6 months of real support would see the destroyed. Instead we could see 100s of thousands of young Europeans dying for nothing, all because some asshole politicians want to keep cosy on some level with a rogue state.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394064#Comment_122394064

Is the danger that Russia actually takes control of Ukraine and uses its people and resources to attempt to take the rest of "NovoRussia " with America happy to watch disinterestedly from the sidelines.

Will Ukraine feel betrayed if Europe allows this to happen and allow itself to be used by Russia after the expected mass slaughter has abated?(would Europe even accept all the refugees from Ukraine that would have to leave after such a defeat?)

BorneTobyWilde

Trump will end war in Ukraine, I've no doubt. Of course it only ends with Zelensky and the Ukrainian people happy of the conditions to end it, so why are left so scared of that, if it's what Ukraine wants.

amandstu

...

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394060#Comment_122394060

Do they have any attachment to China?

Is that where things are heading if Russia falls apart?

I suppose China would not make any formal move unless there were secessions and even then might support Russia in putting them down..

20silkcut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394088#Comment_122394088

It’s not the left that are afraid of Trumps peace deal. It’s the millions of people on the Eastern edge of Europe that fear it. Handing over territory and people to appease Russia into stopping the war is pretty **** for the people living in that territory especially if they opposed Russian occupation and sends out the message that Land grabs pay off in the end. It’s Czechoslovakia 1938 2.0 . A proven utter failure of a strategy that led to nothing only prolonged and much worse further hardship. And Trump will laud it as some new found super genius strategy.
Anyone who has a mild grasp of History knows exactly where it leads.
The Russians want to reach the Carpathian Mountains. They have said that. They have done that many times in the past. That is the natural border they need to reach to plug their security gaps. If they are continually appeased that is where they will expand to at the very least. Appease over the Donbas region now and you will be appeasing over Odessa and Moldova and Kiev in two to three years time. Maybe even the Baltics. Europeans will do nothing and return to business as usual during any downtime following appeasement. As they done in 1945 and again post 1989. Europeans demobilise and return to industrial endeavors . Russia will do the opposite and re- arm and recoup and suck the new found territories dry and become ever more militaristic emboldened by their gains. It’s a disaster strategy that will heap hardship on millions of Europeans again.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394083#Comment_122394083

If Ukraine is taken its people won't have a choice, they'll either end up dead for their part in this war or end up dead as the human wave fodder in the next conflict.

The women will be put to work generating the revenue from the minerals and assets and Europe will revert back to cheaper gas and oil basically funding the war which Russia will bring to their door. Scholz and Co are basically hoping this war goes away so they can go back to the economic pyramid scheme that they're all so obsessed with.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394088#Comment_122394088

I'm pretty confident neither Zelensky or the Ukrainian people would be happy with Trump's concept of peace..

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394111#Comment_122394111

Strictly out of necessity I'd say under the present circumstances. Under normal circumstances, yes trade and embassy interaction. Russia gained a large chunk of China in 1858 and Xi would like to get it back now, ASAP.

rogber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122392261#Comment_122392261

Just yesterday I was attacked for pointing out that German support for Ukraine is starting to wake. That article provides some of the evidence....

The only political party unambiguously in favour of proper military support for Ukraine are the Greens, and they are currently very unpopular and probably out of government at the next elections. The far left and far right are unashamedly pro appeasement or even pro Russian, half of SPD are pro Russian, and the centre right only care about German economic prosperity. Definitely cause for concern looking ahead in terms of medium term EU support

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122394562#Comment_122394562

Both sides are sort of right in this debate, the problem with internet is that people read something like “Europe was slow to help” and in their heads it transforms into “Europe is sending zero help” and round we go bickering while Russians laugh as in their society open debate is not permitted and everything is a lie piled on other lies

There is an obvious worry about Trump / Vance presidency (and maybe even destruction of US republic) and not just with regards to this war, it is probably safe to ignore what Trump says, I learned a long time ago his actions are based not on what he said but the last person in room to have had his ear coupled with his desire to enrich his crime family.

However the solution lies staring in our faces in servers in Belgium, there’s about $300bn worth of Russian assets frozen which can fund Ukraines defence with Russian own money for 5-6 years well past a Trump presidency

But we get limp d**k excuses possibly based on European politicians wanting to appease likes of Saudis and not hurt their businesses which continue to operate in Russia

Say my name

The number of Chinese tourists in Primorye has exceeded pre-pandemic figures, the regional government said. In the first half of 2024, almost 170 thousand Chinese tourists visited the region. This is 13% higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. Almost 89 thousand arrived without a visa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3AMap_of_Russia_-_Primorsky_Krai.svg

Little green men Chinese style learned from Putin's actions in Crimea. 😆

http://twitter.com/SibirPost/status/1813879841818812442

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122393921#Comment_122393921

It's both. Russia is running out of e.g. tanks, but it is doing better in regards to other elements e.g. drones.

As a result they are forced to adapt, change tactics and so on.

If we stand back and look at the bigger picture from the Russian perspective, the war is taking an increasing toll on the economy, it's taking a toll on Russian troop morale, it's turning into a very costly grind for the Russians, and for what? Losing equipment permanently and gaining a couple of villages? Unless something dramatic happens, there is a timer on this campaign for Russia.

Economics101

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/07/18/ukraine-time-for-negotiations-to-end-war/

I don't know whether the Irish Times paywall will block this, but to-day's letter from Ray Bassett is totally irresponsible, from a retired diplomat who should know better. Real " 2 sides" stuff.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122395349#Comment_122395349

It is now time to stop this obscene conflict and in a way which guarantees the legitimate security interests of Ukraine and Russia.

Russia has no legitimate security interests so that bit is easy…

It's depressing to think that that is the standard of our former diplomats. It gets multiple plain facts wrong. Brussels and DC don't have a "non-negotiation" policy, they have a "whatever Ukraine wants to do" policy. I mean, going so far as to call that stance immoral is frankly disgusting. Essentially he's saying he'd rather Russia had the time and freedom to perform as many Buchas as they feel like in their occupied territories with no fear of reprisal in exchange for us getting rid of a bunch of immgrants and he is framing that as the more moral choice.

Disgusting man.

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122395261#Comment_122395261

There is something like 300 drone companies in Ukraine doing some seriously innovative stuff with drones, if these companies and their employees fall into Russian hands, it won’t be tanks that Europe would have to worry about in 2029 but drone swarms

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1813566755434017023

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122395349#Comment_122395349

I'm sure Dr Bassett would be equally accommodating if I were to demand a share of his house, property and any members of his family to do with as I pleased. 🙄

fly_agaric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122395349#Comment_122395349

Wasn't he the guy who used to say the Irish govt. should follow the brave path blazed by the UK mothership + plan our own exit from the EU? So another very poor take is not a surprise.

Say my name

Kadyrov does lethal injection instead of Putin's plutonium tea.

A distant relation of Kadyrov was killed in a penal colony for publishing online negative comments about Kadyrov and his crew.

http://twitter.com/sotanews/status/1813689499928461773