Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Hardly surprising. Russia still has massive foreign currency reserves which North Korea desperately needs.

Some times you've got to stand up to a bully as should have been done to Hitler , Ukraine is fighting for their very survival, they've experienced being under Russian control previously and have no wished to return. If the UK invaded Ireland should we just roll over for them?

Those estimated KIA numbers have really blown up in the past week. Are the Russians using WW1 tactics with their mobiks or what?

It's pure cope from the ukrainians, almost 80k russians "liquidated" would means anywhere from 240k to 800k wounded which is the entire russian army gone, including logistical/support roles who wouldnt even be in combat.

None of these figures are verified independently, simply taken as gospel from the ukrainian MoD. They do not hold up to any real scrutiny however.

That seems to be the Ukrainian take on the meeting the US are so recently concerned about. I hope it's just more orchestrated sabre rattling. Are they really so naive that they think making such noises is going to magically stop a hot war and give them a breather or a win via peace talks?

Ukraine is not in NATO and it is none of Russia's business if they want to apply to join. You know NATO was a handy excuse to invade and that has been debunked countless times here already, most likley to yourself under one of your other accounts. Leave N Ireland out of it as you haven't a clue about that either. The only stupidity I see is in your posts.

What scrutiny? Yours?

That was 6 weeks ago, I get a sense things have really picked up in the last week - 60 tik tokkers in their Barracks one day, and 200 Wagner group wiped out the next via close order battles in their own base of operations.

I am inclined to believe the figures that the US and UK give. They had the Russian casualties number at 80k (killed, wounded, captured, missing). This number is out of date, we're probably looking at a number north of 100k now.

I don't see them making much inroads in Kherson in the next few weeks myself. Hopefully I'm wrong. Svatove though could and should be under siege from the Ukrainians within a few days.

Hearing so many mixed messages about Kherson but yeah it seems like that's going to be a tough slog. The guys on the War on the Rocks podcast have just visited Ukraine and that's the sense that they had about it.

Is there any possibility liquidated is losing something in translation and refers to all killed and captured / wounded and captive in Ukraine?

The problem, you are dealing with a dog in the manger attitude, or rather dogs in the Kremlin. When they can't have Ukraine, they deny everyone else. That's why the nuclear weapons question keeps coming up. Even if the Ukrainians can militarily force the Russians back to the positions on February 23rd, that's not the end of it, for that to happen the Kremlin has to fall or the Ukrainians will not be able to rebuild, the Russian security apparatus will lick their wounds, apply lessons, re-establish control and come back again.

The demand is "The Russians need to withdraw from Ukraine". If that happens today what then? There is no line of sight to an off ramp for the Kremlin (by that I mean the Silioviki). There is no evidence that the Russian population is going to turn on them bar a significant military defeat whereby the security state loses the will to power, therefore as long as the military have access to resources they will keep going. Who is going to march on Moscow?

At present the Russians are destroying the electrical and water infrastructure across Ukraine. Limiting electricity makes it harder to move trains and soldiers and it also limits military intelligence gathering, fuel and food distribution (Diesel supply is constrained). The Russians are laying the ground work (from their point of view) for an attack on a NATO country infrastructure (specifically Britain). Their current actions on the ground are establish lines they can hold over Winter and use the time to train up the reinforcements before launching a major attack in the Spring. For that to succeed they somehow need to stymie NATOs intelligence gathering to give themselves time to establish control of the battle space.

The Spring fighting will be bloody and if it fails the Siloviki will turn on each other, indications are they are already at each other throats. If however, it succeeds NATO countries will marshall their forces and directly engage the Russians i.e. the war will expand further.

I am surprised this seems to hardly have raised an eyebrow. Ukrainian special ops blew up 4 helicopters at a millitary airbase in Pskov - 839 km from Kyiv, deep inside Russian territory.

This and other incidents likely prompted this assessment:

Nov 1, 2022 - Press ISW

I have seen video evidence that some are - those fortunate enough to be captured by Ukrainian forces after being left to die by their fellow Orcs.