Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 174 of 1104
Quote:You wouldn't need them if you had been paying the slightest attention at any time during the last EIGHT FUCKING YEARS!
Originally posted by THG: Cites
Nazi torchlight parade
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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Meanwhile, parts of Kherson are being evacuated in prep for the anticipated Kiev offensive in the region.
Overall command has been given to General Surovikin. 
He gave an interview in which he laid out Russia's overall plan for the SMO in Ukraine. They will focus on using standoff weapons to "grind down" the Kiev army, and preserving civilian and infantry lives. That explains the absence of large numbers of Russian infantry on the frontline. In addition, they're degrading Kiev's military by striking military targets and electrical generation far behind the front lines. Gaining or defending territory is not the top of priorities.
Meanwhile Kiev is fighting a different war, using "human waves" to claim territory, and sabotage to demoralize Russians. So large number of soldiers are being sent into Russian artillery, air force and tank fire.
So the question is whether Russian standoff weapons can degrade Kiev's military capability faster than Kiev can throw people at it.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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Quote:Great piece of Putin fan fiction, Signym. You make Russians sound heroic and turned the Ukrainians into aliens from Tom Cruise's movie "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) or the rumored sequel "Live Die Repeat and Repeat". The aliens keep coming in wave after wave after wave. Cruise needs endless ammo if he is going to win.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meanwhile Kiev is fighting a different war, using "human waves" to claim territory, and sabotage to demoralize Russians. So large number of soldiers are being sent into Russian artillery, air force and tank fire.
So the question is whether Russian standoff weapons can degrade Kiev's military capability faster than Kiev can throw people at it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1631867/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5617712/
This is NOT Putin fan fiction:
Over the past year, it has become evident that there are key weaknesses at the core of seemingly strong authoritarian states. By Francis Fukuyama
The weaknesses of strong states have been on glaring display in Russia. President Vladimir Putin is the sole decision maker; even the former Soviet Union had a politburo where the party secretary had to vet policy ideas. We saw images of Putin sitting at the end of a long table with his defense and foreign ministers because of his fear of COVID; he was so isolated that he had no idea how strong Ukrainian national identity had become in recent years or how fierce a resistance his invasion would provoke. He similarly got no word of how deeply corruption and incompetence had taken root within his own military, how abysmally the modern weapons he had developed were working, or how poorly trained his own officer corps was.
The shallowness of his regime’s support was made evident by the rush to the borders of young Russian men when he announced his “partial” mobilization on September 21. Some 700,000 Russians have left for Georgia, Kazakhstan, Finland, and any other country that would take them, a far greater number than has actually been mobilized. Those who have been caught up by the conscription are being thrown directly into battle without adequate training or equipment, and are already showing up on the front as POWs or casualties. Putin’s legitimacy was based on a social contract that promised citizens stability and a modicum of prosperity in return for political passivity, but the regime has broken that deal and is feeling the consequences.
Putin’s bad decision making and shallow support have produced one of the biggest strategic blunders in living memory. Far from demonstrating its greatness and recovering its empire, Russia has become a global object of ridicule, and will endure further humiliations at the hands of Ukraine in the coming weeks. The entire Russian military position in the south of Ukraine is likely to collapse, and the Ukrainians have a real chance of liberating the Crimean Peninsula for the first time since 2014. These reversals have triggered a huge amount of finger-pointing in Moscow; the Kremlin is cracking down even harder on dissent. Whether Putin himself will be able to survive a Russian military defeat is an open question.
Politicians such as Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour in France, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, and of course Trump in the U.S. have all expressed sympathy for Putin. They see in him a model for the kind of strongman rule they would like to exercise in their own country. He, in turn, is hoping that their rise will weaken Western support for Ukraine and save his flailing “special military operation.”
Liberal democracy will not make a comeback unless people are willing to struggle on its behalf. The problem is that many who grow up living in peaceful, prosperous liberal democracies begin to take their form of government for granted. Because they have never experienced an actual tyranny, they imagine that the democratically elected governments under which they live are themselves evil dictatorships conniving to take away their rights, wh
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Lots of words, no evidence.
For example, yu would have thought the Finns would have reported on the total number of military-age men crossing their border. While they reported an increase (approx double the number seeking visas) how many Russian travel to Finland each month anyway? Was that an increase of, say, 500 to 1000?
Georgia, no friend of Russia, would hav no issue reporting the number of military-age Russians crossing their border, both legally and illegally. Number of bus tickets? Airline tickets? Visas applied for? Border interceptions? This is an article of assertion without actual investigation.
I'm sure there are military-age men leaving Russia but like the number of Russian KIA in Ukraine, the number is greatly exaggerated.
And we both know that the western press doesn't hesitate to publish lies that would cause a mortal human being to blush.
Quote:
Kyiv has claimed that while over 9,000 of its troops have perished in the fighting, nearly 55,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/finland-shuts-borders-russia-conscriptio
n-age-men-flee-putin-order
Like the USA military, there are weaknesses in the Russian military. But Russians are great at counting missiles, shells, tanks and rockets, and they seem to have plenty of those.
*****
My civilian intepretation is that the ease with which the LDNR took Kherson early on, and the overall acceptance of the general population, led to complaisance - much like in Kharkov. General Surovikin looked at defensive preparations, and said "What? No minefields? No tank traps? No fortified counter-batteries? No anti-air radar? No trenches?????" and has started to remedy to situation. Meanwhile, Kiev is (apparently) attempting to blow the Novaya-Kharkova dam to flood the areas downstream.
What I'm reading is that Kiev is directing its military to keep up a steady stream of attacks along the Kherson line of contact- anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand men in each attempt- but that so far the attacks have been repulsed with heavy losses for Kiev. Some people have explained these attacks as "reconnaissance in force" - my imterpretation is that means sending in a group large enough to activate Russian artillery so that western intelligence can locate them before the BIG offensive takes place. Which is still expected, bc Biden* and western neocons and NATO need SOMEthing before the mid-terms/various governments fall apart. The BIG attack is yet to be launched.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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Trump's yearslong crusade against Ukraine has finally come home to roost as Republicans call for abandoning Kyiv
A far-right faction of the GOP has increasingly pushed against continued assistance to Ukraine, saying the billions the US has provided to Kyiv are too costly and not worth the risk of sparking a wider conflict with Russia.
The GOP's gradual shift away from Ukraine and toward Russia has been years in the making, but right-wing hostility toward Ukraine hit a pivotal point during Donald Trump's presidency.
In addition to peddling the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election, Trump was impeached in 2019 for withholding hundreds of millions in vital aid to Ukraine as it fought a war against Kremlin-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region.
While withholding the aid, Trump and his allies pressured Zelenskyy, a political neophyte who won the 2019 election in a landslide victory, to launch an investigation targeting the Bidens ahead of the 2020 US election.
Foreign policy experts said Trump's actions — dangling security assistance in exchange for political favors — were a threat to the US's national security and bipartisan support for Ukraine. But the vast majority of congressional Republicans rallied to Trump's defense, and ultimately, just one Senate Republican, Mitt Romney, voted to convict the former president over his actions.
In the years since, Trump has continued to take a controversial stance on Ukraine, praising Russian President Vladimir Putin's justifications for invading as "genius" and "savvy." The former president has often lauded the Russian leader, going out of his way to avoid criticizing Putin amid a historically contentious period in US-Russia relations.
Anti-Ukraine sentiment doesn't just come from the top of the GOP. Putin has long been seen as a hero by the alt-right and white nationalists, and since Russia invaded Ukraine, many prominent right-wing politicians and media figures have moved in lockstep with the Kremlin, creating a feedback loop where each side amplifies and recycles the other's propaganda.
On Fox News, for instance, the far-right host Tucker Carlson has repeatedly echoed a nonsense conspiracy theory, which originated in Moscow before taking root in the US, suggesting that Ukraine houses US-funded bioweapons labs.
Russian state-sponsored media outlets in turn frequently feature Carlson's segments, and in March, Mother Jones reported that the Russian government instructed state media that it was "essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson" to spread negative information about Ukraine, the US, and NATO.
"When we see Fox News commentators, from our perspective, promote isolationist positions — that looks like support for Russia," Mykola Kniazhytskyi, a member of Ukraine's parliament, recently told NPR.
Some GOP opposition to continuing aid to Ukraine is tied to Trump's "America First" policy vis-a-vis foreign affairs. Trump embraced a non-interventionist stance and was often critical of US spending abroad, particularly when it came to NATO and European security.
Congressional Republicans like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have echoed these sentiments in their criticism of US assistance to Ukraine.
It's a remarkable shift for the Republican Party, which for years touted a hawkish position on foreign policy, especially as it related to leading adversaries like Russia. But under Trump's stewardship, the party has become increasingly isolationist, and its growing opposition to aiding Ukraine is the latest and clearest sign of that.
https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-midterms-win-could-threaten-ukrain
e-help-putin-2022-10
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:Kherson Flooding Would be Like Dropping 'Atomic Bomb' if Putin Strikes Dam
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meanwhile, Kiev is (apparently) attempting to blow the Novaya-Kharkova dam to flood the areas downstream.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S. think tank, assessed this week that Russian forces may be preparing to carry out a false-flag attack on the Kakhovka HPP where Kyiv is conducting extensive military action to take back its territory.
The ISW in its assessment on Wednesday cited Vladimir Saldo, head of Kherson's Russian-installed administration, as claiming this week that Ukraine intends to destroy the strategic facility.
The new commander of Putin's army in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, also claimed on Wednesday that he had received information that Kyiv intends to strike the dam at the Kakhovka HPP, which he alleged would cause destructive flooding in Kherson.
The ISW said Russian authorities likely intend these warnings about a purported Ukrainian strike on the Kakhovka HPP to set an information environment for Russian forces to damage the dam themselves, and blame Ukraine for the subsequent damage and loss of life, all while using the resulting floods to cover their own retreat further south into the Kherson region.
https://www.newsweek.com/kherson-flooding-atomic-bomb-putin-kakhovka-d
am-1753506
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The flight of Russian men shows Russian propaganda failures
As in any autocracy, it is difficult to know in Russia why people claim to support the “special military operation” in surveys and refrain from protesting. Is it because they agree with the government — or because they fear the consequences of opposing it?
For this reason, the response to the military call-up last month was revealing. Tens of thousands of fighting-age men rushed to Russia’s borders to exit the country; those who could afford last-minute plane tickets flew wherever they could. Ordinary citizens attacked military recruiting offices and held demonstrations in regions where they were previously rare.
If people actually believed the official rationale for the war and the Kremlin’s repeated claims of battlefield successes, we would expect that eligible draftees would voluntarily, even enthusiastically, sign up for the cause — as Ukrainians did after the invasion, or as so many Americans did after 9/11. But we saw the opposite. People with skin in the game revealed they did not buy the claim that Russia was fighting an existential battle against the West.
Why are Russians skeptical?
People might be skeptical of Kremlin propaganda for several reasons. First, while state television is the most common way people get their news, Russians, especially youths, are also active on social media, which is not censored as thoroughly.
Second, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war, according to the U.S. government. Military recruiters have sought new troops most aggressively in the parts of Russia that have already lost the most young men. Seeing relatives and neighbors return in body bags can be a reality check against televised propaganda about the war.
Third, Russians have been exposed to baseless claims for years — which may have numbed them to it. The West has been portrayed as an enemy for so long that the war rhetoric may have lacked the urgency it might have had otherwise. People may have accurately discerned Putin’s resolve while discounting his rationale for the invasion.
Incendiary rhetoric may lose its persuasive power while still being intimidating
Many Russians may still support the war, whether or not they believe Putin’s rhetoric. Others may go along with the regime simply because they feel that is the safest attitude.
But as Russian casualties mount and ordinary people are asked to sacrifice for the war, the propagandists’ job becomes more difficult. The Kremlin will need to rely increasingly on policing and surveillance to maintain stability.
To alert people to the fact that dissent will be punished, Putin may further intensify his rhetoric, even as it rings ever more hollow. His recent speech accusing the West of “Satanism” and issuing nuclear threats was probably intended not only to signal his resolve to the West, but also to deliver a warning to Russian citizens.
Once a regime loses its ability to persuade, ruling becomes more costly. But the Kremlin apparently hopes that as long as it can instill fear, including through strident rhetoric, it will be able to deter massive resistance — even as the consequences of its invasion hit closer to home.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/21/russia-public-opini
on-ukraine/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The flight of Russian men shows Russian propaganda failures
As in any autocracy, it is difficult to know in Russia why people claim to support the “special military operation” in surveys and refrain from protesting. Is it because they agree with the government — or because they fear the consequences of opposing it?
For this reason, the response to the military call-up last month was revealing. Tens of thousands of fighting-age men rushed to Russia’s borders to exit the country; those who could afford last-minute plane tickets flew wherever they could. Ordinary citizens attacked military recruiting offices and held demonstrations in regions where they were previously rare.
If people actually believed the official rationale for the war and the Kremlin’s repeated claims of battlefield successes, we would expect that eligible draftees would voluntarily, even enthusiastically, sign up for the cause — as Ukrainians did after the invasion, or as so many Americans did after 9/11. But we saw the opposite. People with skin in the game revealed they did not buy the claim that Russia was fighting an existential battle against the West.
Why are Russians skeptical?
People might be skeptical of Kremlin propaganda for several reasons. First, while state television is the most common way people get their news, Russians, especially youths, are also active on social media, which is not censored as thoroughly.
Second, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war, according to the U.S. government. Military recruiters have sought new troops most aggressively in the parts of Russia that have already lost the most young men. Seeing relatives and neighbors return in body bags can be a reality check against televised propaganda about the war.
Third, Russians have been exposed to baseless claims for years — which may have numbed them to it. The West has been portrayed as an enemy for so long that the war rhetoric may have lacked the urgency it might have had otherwise. People may have accurately discerned Putin’s resolve while discounting his rationale for the invasion.
Incendiary rhetoric may lose its persuasive power while still being intimidating
Many Russians may still support the war, whether or not they believe Putin’s rhetoric. Others may go along with the regime simply because they feel that is the safest attitude.
But as Russian casualties mount and ordinary people are asked to sacrifice for the war, the propagandists’ job becomes more difficult. The Kremlin will need to rely increasingly on policing and surveillance to maintain stability.
To alert people to the fact that dissent will be punished, Putin may further intensify his rhetoric, even as it rings ever more hollow. His recent speech accusing the West of “Satanism” and issuing nuclear threats was probably intended not only to signal his resolve to the West, but also to deliver a warning to Russian citizens.
Once a regime loses its ability to persuade, ruling becomes more costly. But the Kremlin apparently hopes that as long as it can instill fear, including through strident rhetoric, it will be able to deter massive resistance — even as the consequences of its invasion hit closer to home.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/21/russia-public-opini
on-ukraine/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
The closest Scott Radnitz has ever been to war was a multi-player HALO match while he was being rawdawged by one of his soy-filled college roommates.
I'd ask why you idiot Leftists talk about Russians as if they're some sort of homogeneous blob, but because you're part of a hive-mind yourself it's not a question worth asking. And if I did bother asking several of you, you'd all give me the same answer because you are soulless NPCs.
How the hell are any of you going to function after all of your social media and news sites die off now that the unlimit
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Quote:Russia has an economy smaller than Canada's because Russians are lazy, stupid, and belligerent. It is no surprise when Russian assholes brag endlessly despite doing poorly in this world and lash out at people who are doing far better. The same dynamic happens between North Korea and South Korea. In case you don't know, 6ix, South Korea has an economy about 57 times larger than North Korea, despite South Korea having zero H-bombs. To hear North Koreans and Russians tell their "success" stories, H-bombs are the very foundation of a successful country. Evidence proves that is a lie. North Koreans brag continuously, just like Russians do, about their superiority while at the same time claiming their opposition is vastly inferior and will be conquered, one of these days. Republican angry poor white trash learned how to behave from the belligerent braggarts of North Korea and Russia.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The closest Scott Radnitz has ever been to war was a multi-player HALO match while he was being rawdawged by one of his soy-filled college roommates.
I'd ask why you idiot Leftists talk about Russians as if they're some sort of homogeneous blob, but because you're part of a hive-mind yourself it's not a question worth asking. And if I did bother asking several of you, you'd all give me the same answer because you are soulless NPCs.
How the hell are any of you going to function after all of your social media and news sites die off now that the unlimited venture capital has dried up?
GDP between South Korea and North Korea from 2010 to 2021
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1035390/south-korea-gdp-comparison
-with-north-korea/
Putin’s Last Hope to Win in Ukraine Is a GOP Victory in November
VLAD’S ALLIES: Just when Russia is on the ropes, Republican leaders are already signaling they’ll cut aid to Ukraine if they win control of Congress.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-last-hope-to-win-in-ukraine-is-a-
gop-victory-in-november
Putin and the Republican Party are supportive because they are like-minded.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Still waiting for Kiev's Big Offensive in Kherson. Or anywhere, for that matter.
It doesn't matter how many lies are published in western press. They can (and do) tell us endless fairy tales, but in the end reality trumps fiction.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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