Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 404 of 1104
Quote:Ukraine won't be giving any warning to Russia other than the H-bombs exploding in trucks parked next to the Kremlin.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're repeating yourself, troll.
Putin's goal of making Ukraine "neutral" is a failure. Instead, Russia made the Ukrainian military into an enemy that proved to be as strong as the Russian military. The only advantage Russia has, Which.It.Mentions.Every.Day.Of.The.Week, is nukes. But for all Russia knows, Ukraine has nukes and is willing to wipe Moscow off the map if Ukraine looks like it will lose. Russia could be in a nasty situation where Ukraine is willing to commit suicide to murder Russia with no chance of reincarnation for either country. The US could have nuked Russia for many years after WWII but magnanimously did not. Unlike Americans with leftover positive feelings toward Russia from WWII, I don't think Ukraine has enough wholesome feelings toward Russians to not kill them all, especially if Ukraine feels it is losing.
Russia can't stop talking about committing suicide: “Why do we need a world if Russia is not in it?”
Russian state television host Dmitry Kiselyov opened his Sunday primetime show with an ominous allusion to nuclear war.
The comments came just hours after President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army to put its nuclear arsenal, the world's largest, on “high alert” in response to what he called "unfriendly" steps by the West.
“Putin warned them. Don’t try to frighten Russia,” Kiselyov said, repeating the Kremlin message on state broadcaster Rossiya 1.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/28/why-do-we-need-a-world-if-ru
ssia-is-not-in-it-state-tv-presenter-opens-show-with-ominous-address-a76653
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're repeating yourself, troll.
Its you who is repeating themselves comrade.
Oh yeah, it has begun.
T
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Europe’s energy crisis is Putin’s problem now
With Europe’s fuel prices returning to pre-war levels, Russia has lost its leverage
European wholesale natural gas prices have reached a two-year low, ending last week at €24.84 per megawatt hour, according to analytics firm ICIS.
That's close to the 2010s average of €20.11 — and a major drop compared with April 2022, when gas price benchmarks hit the colossal €200 mark after Russia shut off much of its usual flows of gas to Europe in retaliation.
In 2021, supplies from Russia made up around half of all of the EU's natural gas imports at 150 billion cubic meters a year. By November 2022, it accounted for just under 13 percent — and that number has continued to fall.
Nobody is going to sign a new contract with Gazprom.
https://www.politico.eu/article/putins-gas-problem/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Ukraine won't be giving any warning to Russia other than the H-bombs exploding in trucks parked next to the Kremlin.
And Ukraine is getting its H-bomb from...???
You're whacked, troll.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
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Quote:I'm not a plural, THUGR
THUGR: Its you who is repeating themselves...
Also, I may be repeating myself but what happens if I'm RIGHT? It just means you wasted opportunities to actually LEARN something for a change.
Quote:Yeah, right - the cryptic "it". That's ONE way not to get caught in a bad prediction: Keep it secret!
THUGR: Oh yeah, it has begun.
dood, EVERYONE can see that's a 5-year-old's trick.
****
Seems like Ukraine's go-to-guy for assasination and terrorism, Badunov...or is it Budanov? ... is MIA. And now Kiev has got real-live Nazis attacking over the border. Not a good look for Kiev.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
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Quote:For example of a counting error, 4 million Ukrainians died in Holodomor but the Russians say that number is inflated since no one died. I assume you have forgotten that Ukraine had the third largest number of H-bombs in the world. You assume that Ukraine transferred all to Russia. Since Russians live in the land of "one death is a tragedy, and a million is a statistic", the Russians might not retrieve all their weapons because they make counting errors. So many errors.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Ukraine won't be giving any warning to Russia other than the H-bombs exploding in trucks parked next to the Kremlin.
And Ukraine is getting its H-bomb from...???
You're whacked, troll.
Ukraine inherited about 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 nuclear warheads remained on Ukrainian territory.
Despite Russia's claimed annexation of Crimea, which the UN General Assembly rejected as invalid,[17] the Government of Ukraine in 2014 reaffirmed its 1994 decision to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear-weapon state.[18]
Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, told USA Today that Ukraine may have to arm themselves with their own nuclear weapons if the United States and other world leaders do not hold up their end of the agreement. He said, "We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement. Now, there's a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake."[19] He also said that, "In the future, no matter how the situation is resolved in Crimea, we need a much stronger Ukraine. If you have nuclear weapons, people don't invade you."[20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Too bad that Russia cannot decide what to do about criminals:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Seems like Ukraine's go-to-guy for assasination and terrorism, Badunov...or is it Budanov? ... is MIA. And now Kiev has got real-live Nazis attacking over the border. Not a good look for Kiev.
Elements of the all-Russian pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR) conducted another limited raid into Belgorod Oblast on June 4 and are reportedly continuing to operate in a Russian border settlement.
Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov responded to a RDK and LSR demand to negotiate for the exchange of captured Russian prisoners of war (POWs). The LSR and RDK addressed a video to Gladkov purporting to show RDK and LSR fighters with two Russian POWs whom they said they captured near Novaya Tavolzhanka. The RDK and LSR demanded that Gladkov arrive at the temple in Novaya Tavolzhanka by 1700 (Moscow Standard Time) to negotiate for the release of the POWs.[5] Gladkov stated that he was ready to meet with the RDK and LSR fighters at the Shebekino checkpoint to negotiate the exchange of the POWs.[6] Gladkov later reportedly refused to meet with the RDK and LSR fighters because he believed that the Russian POWs were already dead.[7] The RDK and LSR released a subsequent video showing themselves with 12 Russian POWs, criticizing Gladkov for lacking courage, and stating that they would send the POWs to Ukraine.[8]
The dissonant Russian responses to and reporting about the limited raid in Belgorod Oblast continue to suggest that the Russian leadership has not yet decided how to react to these limited cross-border raids. The contradictory reporting from official Russian sources about the situation in Belgorod Oblast and Gladkov’s apparent personal decision to respond to the RDK and LSR suggests that the MoD and Gladkov are not coordinating their responses to the raids. ISW has previously reported that Russian officials have disproportionately responded to the limited raids into Russian territory in an effort to assuage growing Russian anxiety about the war in Ukraine while also supporting ongoing information operations that aim to present the war as existential to Russia.[9] Russian responses have primarily centered on informational effects, and there is no indication that the Russian leadership has set a wider policy for preventing further limited raids into Russian border oblasts. It is also not clear if Russian authorities are orchestrating the evacuation response to this activity. An RDK fighter claimed on June 4 that Belgorod Oblast authorities have not organized the announced evacuation measures in the Shebekino area and that Russian citizens have largely fled of their own accord, leaving many settlements in a semi-abandoned state.[10] Gladkov claimed that 4,000 residents from the area are currently staying at temporary accommodation centers in connection with evacuation efforts, however.[11] Ukrainian Advisor to the Internal Affairs Minister Anton Herashchenko stated on June 4 that the RDK and LSR activity has prompted Russian leaders to divert significant forces to stop border incursions, although ISW has not observed confirmation that Russian forces have done so.
The limited raids and border shelling in Belgorod Oblast are increasingly becoming the current focal point for criticism against the Russian military leadership. Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin continued to use the situation in Belgorod Oblast to criticize the MoD on June 3 and 4, specifically calling out the lack of response from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Colonel General Alexander Lapin, and Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valeriy Gerasimov.[12] Prigozhin offered to negotiate the release of POWs held by the RDK and LSR if Russian authorities failed to do so, and responded to criticism of his offer by sarcastically stating that Russia has a problem with people who have “balls.”[13]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensi
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How Russia Got the Ukraine War Wrong
by Jordan Michael Smith
https://newrepublic.com/article/172799/russia-got-ukraine-war-wrong-ov
erreach-book-review
In August 1991, President George Bush delivered the most infamous address of his one-term presidency. Speaking to the legislature of Ukraine, then still part of the Soviet Union, Bush expressed concerns about the country’s potential push for complete sovereignty. “Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism,” he said. “They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.”
Bush’s speech has gotten an unfairly bad rap. His administration reasonably feared that the USSR’s disintegration would mimic Yugoslavia’s descent into devastating ethnic conflicts but with the added catastrophic danger of nuclear weapons. The relatively peaceful demise of the Soviet Union looks inevitable only with hindsight’s benefit; the process could have been much bloodier, as the current Russo-Ukrainian war demonstrates.
The address is striking now for its suggestion that Ukrainian independence would be an act of self-destruction, however. Russia’s invasion in early 2022 showed that Ukrainian nationalism was more powerful, cohesive, and widely shared than anyone knew. Before the war, few would have predicted that this small, newly independent, ethnically and linguistically divided country led by a former comedian would successfully resist the former empire boasting the world’s largest nuclear weapons arsenal.
Two new books by veteran experts in the region help explain this puzzle. Owen Matthews is a longtime foreign correspondent in Moscow, whose book Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine focuses on decision-making within Moscow circles. Serhii Plokhy is a Harvard University historian, whose book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History presents the centuries of complicated history between the two countries and surveys Russian myths about Ukraine. Plokhy shows how Russian leaders used these precedents and legends to justify invasion, while Matthews focuses on how Putin exploited the intellectual currents flowing through post–Cold War Russia as a way to keep Ukraine in his country’s orbit. Together, these books help us understand how Russia decided to try to conquer Ukraine—and how Ukraine managed to shock the world with its astonishingly strong resistance.
Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine by Owen Matthews
Mudlark, 448 pp., $21.99
The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy
W.W. Norton & Company, 400 pp., $30.00
Both Overreach and The Russo-Ukrainian War devote significant chunks—about half of each book—to the longer history leading up to the war. Plokhy emphasizes that Ukraine had an even more difficult time during the 1990s than Russia did, as its economy cratered, regions splintered, and politicians plundered the country’s resources. In the twenty-first century, however, the country gradually coalesced around a democratic ethos. Meanwhile, President Boris Yeltsin failed either to keep Ukraine in Russia’s orbit or resign his countrymen to the loss of their former empire—and fatefully, he handpicked Putin as his successor.
“Yeltsin placed Putin in charge of waging war against Chechen rebels” when he became prime minister, Plokhy writes. “Putin took control of the war effort in the most public way possible, appearing on television again and again to threaten the rebels and demonstrate his and Russia’s resolve to defeat the insurrection.” Within a few months, he was the most popular politician in the country, with a reputation for effectiveness, patriotism, and ruthlessness. This reputation lasted for more than two decades, until he ordered the Russian military to occupy all of Ukraine in early 2022.
Matthews and Plokhy spend time plumbing the depths of Putin’s psyche, but they arrive at different conclusions. Matthews believes the Russian leader is simpler than the genius strategist that he
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War is always a partial or full miscalculation. You miscalculate how strong you are and you miscalculate how weak the enemy is. You miscalculate how easy it’s going to be, how low the costs are, how great the benefits. - Stephen Kotkin
We used to believe the Russians had the second-best army in the world. Now we know they have the second-best army in Ukraine. - Ukrainian soldiers’ joke
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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NATO-trained units will serve as tip of spear in Ukraine’s counteroffensive
By Isabelle Khurshudyan and Kamila Hrabchuk
Updated June 4, 2023 at 12:50 p.m. EDT
When Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive finally begins, the fight will be led by brigades armed not only with Western weapons but also Western know-how, gleaned from months of training aimed at transforming Ukraine’s military into a modern force skilled in NATO’s most advanced warfare tactics.
As other Ukrainian units were fighting to expel the Russian occupiers from the country’s east and south, the brand-new 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade was preparing for the next phase of war from a classroom at a NATO base in Germany.
The brigade’s leadership trained with computers that simulated situations they might face in real life. Deputy commander Maj. Ivan Shalamaha and others planned their assaults and then let the program show them the results — how their Russian enemies might respond, where they could make a breakthrough and where they would suffer losses.
“You understand the overall picture, how it works,” Shalamaha said. “You understand where and what your shortcomings were. And we pay attention to what we failed to do during this simulation.”
Now the war games are over. The 47th brigade and other assault units have been armed with Western weapons, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and relocated to a secret location closer to the front line. During a recent visit by Washington Post journalists, the soldiers were waiting for the order to charge ahead to retake a large swath of Ukrainian territory and tip the war back in Kyiv’s favor.
The counteroffensive will be the biggest test yet of the U.S.-led strategy of giving the Ukrainians weapons and training to fight like an American army might — but on their own.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called it the “next level” of security assistance, something he and other officials requested from their Western partners. The United Kingdom has been providing basic training to thousands of Ukrainian recruits since last summer. But more recently, whole Ukrainian units have been sent to Germany and other countries to learn “how to operate simultaneously together, like interoperability among the different units,” Reznikov said.
“We need company-level, platoon-level, battalion-level training courses with techniques, with their infantry fighting vehicles, with a commander who will understand how to conduct his forces, support artillery, support reconnaissance operations,” Reznikov said.
Critics of the West’s new emphasis on training the Ukrainians in combined-arms warfare, in which tanks, artillery, combat vehicles and other weapons are layered to maximize the violence they inflict, have pointed out that Kyiv is still missing key elements to fully implement that attack, mainly modern fighter jets. Ukraine is expected to receive U.S.-made F-16s after Washington agreed not to stop allied nations from providing them, but they won’t reach the battlefield in time for the counteroffensive.
One goal of the training is to teach Ukraine’s soldiers how to go on offense. For years, the Ukrainian military focused mainly on defensive tactics — how to protect its territory from attack. Even soldiers who fought Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine for eight years before Moscow’s full-scale invasion had little experience with planned assaults.
The quick, sweeping counteroffensive last fall to liberate nearly all of Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region in less than a week was the military’s first planned large-scale offensive in the country’s more than 30 years of independence.
The success in Kharkiv, and last year’s successful defense of Kyiv, were credited in part to previous NATO training for Ukraine’s military, which began after Russia invaded Crimea and fomented war in the eastern Donbas region in 2014. Many Ukrainian commanders, now in senior leadership, took part in such training.
At the training in Germany earlier this year, “the main tasks that were played there were offens
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