Ukraine (Mod Note & Threadbanned Users in OP)

She misspoke and it was clarified after. It's cheap to use something that was mis-stated and doing so suggests an agenda on your part.

The truth is we don't know how many have died on either side, we just have estimates. Both militaries, for obvious reasons, don't want to release the figures of how many they have lost. Some leaked information on the Russian side last year suggested a high amount of casualties on their side, that coupled with OSINT and other sources give us a (very) rough idea. For the Ukr side, it's hard to tell, but estimates have put it at about 10k to 20k killed with a higher ratio of casualties (they seem to have much better medical than the Russians)

As for the amount of Russian troops in Ukraine. It would appear there was more now, but it's widely believed that their quality has dropped significantly due to elite brigades being practically wiped out in the past year, coupled with using many conscripts and e.g. prisoners. Russia has been throwing everything at this and they can barely take a town for 7 months. It's still a potent force, but quantity doesn't seem to be a key factor.

The Russian armed forces have been shown to be poor. They are now in a weakened state and barring a large input from China/n Korea they will collapse under a strong targeted offensive from Ukraine.

Russians should be fighting against their mortal enemy, Vladimir Putin, truth be told. Because he is singlehandedly destroying the federation of Russian Republics..

I've commented on this Mearsheimer character before:

Yeah I saw that when the Russian ministry of Defense reposted it, and when it popped up on the conspiracy forum. Mearsheimer, like most realists, has some very questionable views. In a nutshell, according to him, democratic countries existing beside Russia were a threat to Putin which culminated in the invasion of Ukraine, so those countries, alongside the West are ultimately to "blame" for the invasion. It has a twisted sort of technical truth to it, but using that same logic then e.g. the war reparations and Versailles treaty created the groundwork for the rise of Hitler, therefore, the West is ultimately to "blame" for WW2. This kind of schtick is why people don't take political scientists very seriously these days.

Anyway here's a decent rebuttal and explainer.

Someone recently pointed out this term:

Campist

Noun[edit]

campist (plural campists)

1. Synonym of third-campist
2. (derogatory, politics, socialism, slang) A leftist who supports any country/organization simply for being opposed to the United States or the West, including authoritarian governments who would otherwise not follow leftist beliefs.

Mearsheimer ( and his fellow theorists) really need to live in Ukraine ( even Bakhmut.. but that might be asking a bit much.) but any of Ukraine's cities that are under attack will do and allow him to see the real face of Putins Russia. Then let him re-write his theory of the war being the west's fault.

I doubt very much if Prigozhin will take the bus back to Moscow....He'll be taking his military ( what ever remains of it) in a convoy, with all their weapons and equipment. IF HE LEAVES, THAT IS. I'll wait and see what actually happens. He's now coming under pressure in Syria, and most recently in Sudan, and may have to withdraw some of his forces from these places to strengthen his position in Russia, or vice-versa. This might explain his present threat to withdraw from Bakhmut.

The Unicersity of Chicago has 14 Nobel Laureates to its credit. One of them is James Heckman, for whom I had the honour of arranging a lecture in Ireland. While his Nobel was for theoretical developments in Econometrics, his big contribution to applied work was to quantify the benefits of early intervention in childhood education to combat disadvantage. He worked on this with Irish economists from UCD and the ESRI. So much for any dismissal of Chicago.

Firedman is best known for his fairly radical free market stance, but he is hardly the cut-out cardboard villain you seem to think. His Nobel citation was for "achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy".

Don't use Mearsheimer (who is totally discredited now) to attack Chicago in general, or even Friedman. I am reminded a bit about the Michael D Higgins attitude to Economics and economists: attacking something he doesn't understand.

He ( Prigoshin) used the Convicts as cannon fodder, while keeping his more experienced mercenaries' away from the front lines both to enforce the convicts, and preserve / protect his mercenaries. One of his problems now ( with Putin and Co, there are many problems, always) is that the convict pipeline has been shut down ( one reason being that convict's were being used as slave labour, earning thousands for the management , who were far from happy with Prigoshin interfering with their income generating projects and called a halt. It was for sure not on moralistic grounds that it was stopped.) So now that he has the ammunition that he needs , he needs more men, but his options are limited..take some from Syria, Sudan or any of the other places he has them? Backhmut by the 9th, or bust seems to be the goal...and maybe save his own hide??

He Claims the war in Ukraine is the Wests fault,

He now lives of his notorious posts that get shared by Kremlin and Beijing officials and one of his friends is one Viktor orban

Discredited.

Well it seems to be causing internal issues in Russia while they hold it so it seems to be effective. Russia seems to have seen it as a nice easy PR win that has gone bad so now they have to shovel men into it or appear weak.

Aside from that I guess they figured they kill Russian troops effectively there. If they give up then those Russian troops will be deployed elsewhere. Certainly many of the deaths may be conscripts but Ukraine was likely going to have to deal with those units at some point so this works.