Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Doing what? They have been declared neutral since the 50s, they're not a part of NATO. To my knowledge, they didn't participate in Iraq or Afghanistan in any combat capacity.

Well, helpful suggestion or not, ordinary people want to see Ukrainian MPs suffer like they and their kids do and not just make money from this war, travelling abroad on holidays like there is no war, etc. This is exactly why there are no more volunteers to fight - people are sick of all the corruption and the scale of it. They don't see why they should go and loose their lives while someone else is sitting in the mobilization center making $100K in bribes and maximum that they'd get in punishment is get sacked and...a new job a month later :)

Zelensky needs to get his house in order. The only way to do it is to send a clear signal to those that see this war as an opportunity to make as much money as possible, including his own circle. This has not happened yet and as a result he is steadily loosing the support of ordinary people, people that he wants to go and fight. Western support alone won't cut it, I am afraid.

Bit of a pointless discussion anyway. Let's say the good colonel shot someone at some point of his career - will that change what you think of his video briefings?

I never said Zelenky wasn't voted in fairly. He did everything correctly to get the vote - even finally learnt Ukrainian language right before the elections to get the votes from the West of the country, something he hadn't bothered to do all his life. Very quickly however his rating dropped through the ground way before the war.

Also, not sure if he was corrupt or a puppet or just oligarch or maybe all three in one, but Poroshenko kept things stable between 2014 and 2019, even got Ukraine visa free travel in the EU. Looks like being a businessman and an experienced politician he was able to balance between the neighbour and the EU. Had Ukranians voted for him again, it's quite possible there would have been no invasion. It's also thanks to him Ukrainian army took some sort of a shape. I wouldn't be suprised that it was Zelenky's inaptitude as a politician that was a trigger point of this disaster of a situation, with Putin then overestimating the state of his army which is also corrupt to the core...and we are now where we are.

To be fair to Poroshenko he was prepared to defend his nation alongside many others, when Kyiv was under attack from Russia, I know there are corruption charges against him, however he was still willing to fight & apparently has funded military equipment purchases from his own money. I don't think he would have left Kyiv just as Zelensky didn't either.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-former-leader-petro-poroshenko-calls-for-military-aircraft-to-give-us-the-opportunity-to-protect-you-in-the-west-12559865

I believe most governments & political leaders are corrupt, however, at least some of Ukraines politicians are patriots. In shark contrast to some western European political leaders that hide in fridges & take bungs from Russian oligarchs.

The issue is he presents himself in uniform, presumably to add weight to his opinions. He's been shown to be wrong consistently in his predictions, yet folks want to point to him as some expert due to his employment. Pointing out his lack of viable experience is valid in that context.

A Russian win in Ukraine would be a disaster for the West especially Europe. It would encourage China and its ambitions (Taiwan) and might well lead to war with N Korea and Iran. The Russians don't take verbal warnings seriously in fact unless backed up by actions they take it as a green light and will keep pressing until they are stopped.

the question really is what did the US military/Ukrainian experts think was going on?, they would have had a good handle on the Russian/Ukrainian capabilities and pipelines in terms of equipment and men, also it was probably the most observed front lines of any war in history so both sides knew whats going on with the other , the Russians didnt do anything exciting or novel , most of the tactics looked like a rerun of the battle of Kursk with drones.

I wonder were the experts fooled by the idea "well they must know what they are doing"

The plan seems to be to bring the Russians to the table by inflicting enough damage to make it their only reasonable option. One problem with this is that Putin can't be trusted with any agreement and is willing to inflict years of conflict and destruction. Waiting for the death of Putin or step up military aid to Ukraine?

We all want Russia out of Ukraine I think or hope at least..

But yet they aren't getting the support to force Russia out of Ukraine which has gotten to the the current situation, trench warfare and more gains made by Russia vs liberated areas by Ukraine as it stands neither side has the outright ability to beat the other,