Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I liked the idea of a collapse in the defensive lines putin's troops set up in occupied Ukraine but it was not US or NATO troops on the ground and by all accounts there appears to have been much more land mines supported by artillery, drones and aircraft in those defensive lines for a major breakthrough to have been established as many would have hoped. The Ukrainians are the ones who are fighting to free their country from putin's occupation so I give much more value to what they have said about the war over the summer just gone and from sources I have seen they consider that they have made progress. To me it is not so much in territory that they have progressed but in weakening the military forces putin has sent to Ukraine with another update on major progress in destroying putin's military machine across the front lines yesterday.

Each day they are making big strides in depleting the ability of putin's forces to fight and with committed aid to Ukraine from countries with a much greater economic power than putin has, I fail to see how he can believe time is on his side. Free democratic countries will always have debate between politicians but already the EU has committed to more aid for Ukraine than the USA has and this is understandable as to defeat putin will work out to be money well spent for the EU when Europe sees the benefits of peace once again. According to this site the aid promised from the EU now amounts to 77billion euro while the USA has committed to a further 25billion and the EU also outstrips the USA in aid already dispersed. Much talk also of the arms industry in the EU and in Ukraine itself being built up which will have knock on effects on what the armed forces of Ukraine can do to putin's forces.

Again , there is no mention of the severity/ impact of the actions carried out by UKr BEHIND THE LINES - and most of these actions have an intermediate/ long term effect

The US knew and said the counter offensive would fail before it began.

All 50 of them! As it happens I think the bill needed 60 votes to pass so it wasn't even close which ever way Bernie Sanders voted or not because every single Republican voted against it.

On "they could have made advances without air support", I don't know, maybe, but was a big gamble involving a lot of lives, maybe future of their country. It is not how the US/NATO fights (if Ukraine is supposed to be fighting in a "US/NATO" way now, and you accuse it of not doing so). Some kind of air support is on call and lots of long range (cruise) missiles are available. I expect that will be true in any war that US/allies will fight, even if they don't gain full air superiority and aircraft they put up are at a much higher risk than in recent US wars (as they would be in Ukraine, even were the US/NATO itself fighting I think).

Yes, I understand both are losing a lot of men and equipment, with Russia coming off much worse afaik. What Russia are doing here does not seem sustainable for them, but of course Ukraine is a much smaller country and if its backers don't have the will or courage to provide right level of support and then keep it up long enough, it is in trouble. That is what Putin is hoping for. Ukraine might be able to "get by" without getting much more US support (i.e. Ukraine may be capable of holding more or less where it is or Russia may only be able to creep forward with these giant losses, as now) but it will finish possibility of Ukraine regaining lost territory IMO, and that is bad news.

On US/NATO I never agreed with you that they should intervene directly here unless it looked like Ukraine would be overrun after surviving the initial attack. That still seems unlikely to me now no matter what the US does. I agree a handful of F16s from Europeans are not enough. I think many more of those Putin "red lines" + "escalations" should have been breached decisively, and the ones that were finally crossed in the end like providing IFVs, tanks, aircraft, missiles etc. should have been ignored far earlier and in a bigger way. Even to extent of sending "advisers" if numbers of trained people in the background is a blocker for Ukraine getting provided weapons up and running quickly. Anyway, that is the past. What was done (or not done) back then is done.

i think Ukraine are doing ok considering the limitations on them i also think while maybe time isnt quite on their side its even less so on putins side...also think theres more going on then what we hear or see on the news...

That latter part is the big one, I think. Ukraine has massively tightened on information control and OPSEC in recent months, and indeed for much of this year. And to be honest, I'm okay with that. The events of the first year of the renewed war left us in the west a bit "spoiled" with regards to access to battlefield information, but that kind of insight also means that the opposing side has equal asset to that information. And while we like to point our fingers at the massive deficiencies evident in the Russian military, the poor attempts at false flags (Sims 3, anyone?) or similar issue, there is still a worrying number of people on the Russian side that know what they're doing and can exploit such information. After all, you need at least some competent officers to even keep the current sh!tshow running. So I'm all for restricting the flow of information.

On today's Russian furniture factory on fire watch..

We have one in Moscow.

Planning in Russia seems weird too. Supposedly an electronic component factory among residential flat complexes. And someone channel hoping in the dark in shot of the factory on fire.

No the rules in the US Seante are just crazy and there are a lot of things you need 60 votes for in order to pass and this bill was one of them. As for Bernie Sanders well yes I disagree with him on this vote but not going to lose all respect for him. He clearly didn't side with the Russian dictator he made it clear his vote was based on the Israeli-Hamas war not Ukraine.

Been a few suggestions it could be Christmas If not the new year

It's in the article provided....

Different accounts same nonsense suprise