Russia - threadbanned users in OP

It's coming from that Mark Milley interview from last week (?) where he estimated the Russian losses to be at around 100k (wounded and killed), and Ukrainian losses "probably the same".

Edit: source added

The facade of SMO (special military operation) has well and truly been wiped away, its frequently heard now, even the propaganda show run by the 3 puppeteers, Skabeeva, Simonyan and Solovyov. Even back in the heady days leading up to the invasion, Putin had said on Russian TV that if the Mother / Fatherland were under attack, he would go nuclear. In the last few months, when Ukraine started to turn the tide against Russia, there was a big increase in nuclear talk from Russia until China told Putin to shut it, this was reinforced by Biden, when he had his department brief their opposite Nrs on the Russian side as to what exactly would happen, and happen very quickly, if any nuclear device or so-called dirt bomb was used. Basically, he could say "Good-Bye" to his black sea fleet, and his military on the territory of Ukraine. And since then, the nuclear rhetoric has indeed been dialed back. But there's another reason why he will not go nuclear, and that's his own life, it's the most important thing in existence to him, and I doubt very much if he will risk that.

Basically, when someone is pushing for "peace talks". and using humanitarian grounds as the basis for their position, it always seems to be that Ukraine has to "accept" the Russian position. Now why would they agree to that? when in every location that Ukraine has liberated, thousands and thousands of horror stories are emerging, Torture, Rape, Murder. So what's changed? The Russians will change their barbaric ways? There will be peace talks only on Ukrainian terms, and no others. And what civil war are you talking about? In Ukraine???? Forget it!!! Russian atrocities have welded the Ukrainian people together into a solid block, that's being reinforced each day, Putin's plan has backfired. And soon now, he will have his own civil insurrection to worry about, it has already started with more and more soldiers refusing to go and fight for him.....wait until they start coming back home and spreading the truth of what Putins war really is about.

I myself have no desire to watch any videos or links of anyone being blown up, run over by a tank, or beaten to death with hammers.

so back to one of my boring posts and links about other things.

This story tells me that the USA is still 100% behind Ukraine and has not wavered in the least despite what the last week might suggest.

The US has all but said if Ukraine fancies their chances at retaking Crimea then the US will support them in that endeavour.

Quote from the link

 Austin said. “We won’t [and] haven’t prescribed to the Ukrainians what they can and cannot do. And so our focus is to continue to provide them the means to be successful in their endeavors ... Crimea is an issue to be thought through and sorted out by the Ukrainian leadership.”

As for the pow-pow between President Joe and Zelensky... I think that was a bit of play acting on both guy's parts aimed at duping Putin.

That's a meaningless statement. They haven't prescribed to what Ukraine "can and can't do?"

It was a very short video, a few seconds. I thought it was a joke vid. Might have been too...

"And what civil war are you talking about? In Ukraine???? Forget it!!! Russian atrocities have welded the Ukrainian people together into a solid block, that's being reinforced each day"

Definitely! Any of my Russian friends (which is only 5 to be fair) who live in Ukraine have #Russiaterroriststate all over their socials.

The basic problem with this post is that your hypothesis assumes the worst possible scenario for Ukraine and the best possible position for Russia.

Both are incredibly unlikely to hold true.

The Iraqi situation isn't remotely comparable. That conflict exposed long-standing and deep-rooted cultural and sectarian divides within that country, which was basically held together forcefully by a dictator. Once he was gone, it reverted to unstable tribalism on both a local and wider scale for a long time.

Same thing happened in Afghanistan with the collapse of the national army post US withdrawal. A collective of people bound together as a country, who had no real interest in being part of said country, no real sense of national identity, just a forced collective of regions and tribes across a vast landscape.

Ukraine is completely different, they have a rock solid cultural and national unity, and are solidly unified against the Russian invasion.

This war couldn't have gone any worse for Russia, nor any better for Ukraine, given the circumstances. The idea that they now should enter into negotiations with a vicious, unwanted invader is wrong. Russia is free to withdraw at any time.

Anyone who even insinuates that both sides have an equal responsibility to end this war is plain wrong. The onus is entirely on Russia. They launched this illegal invasion, they're the ones perpetrating war crimes on a scale not seen in Europe for decades.

If Ukraine decides to come to the table, fine, but let it be on their terms, they are the ones fighting this war against an unjust, illegal, and vicious invasion, which they have every right to resist to the fullest extent possible and for as long as they see fit.

Russia is losing this war as it currently stands. Ukraine is fighting a war of survival, Russia is fighting a war of conquest. Very different things, and very different war aims to try and achieve and pursue even medium term.