Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
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Ukraine Got Independence as a Gift in 1991. Now We Pay In Blood
Ukraine escaped the empire in 1991. The empire struck back.
It took 22 years of Moscow holding the strings, and then an invasion, to make Ukrainians fight for the real thing.
By Cyril Hovorun | August 24, 2026
https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/08/24/ukraine-got-independence-as-a-g
ift-in-1991-now-we-pay-in-blood/
In 1991, Ukraine did not shed a drop of blood. It was a transition of power. We raised a flag, we declared ourselves independent, and we received our independence as a gift.
Now we are shedding rivers of blood for real independence.
That is the difference between this Independence Day and the ones before it, and I do not think we have absorbed it yet.
Colonial theory has a name for what happened to us thirty-five years ago. It is called flag independence. You raise the flag, you declare the state, and for a while you believe that was it—that this was the end, and now we simply continue as an independent nation.
In theory it was believed to be like that. In practice, every decolonized nation eventually discovered the same thing: it is not the end. It is the beginning.
The nations that gathered at Bandung in Indonesia in 1955 worked this out before us. They had their flags. They also had the former metropolis still holding the strings—to their economies, their cultures, their political classes. They named it: neocolonialism.
Much more at https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/08/24/ukraine-got-independence-as-a-g
ift-in-1991-now-we-pay-in-blood/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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I read shit like this and wonder how anyone can get thru the first para...
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 23, 2026
https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive
-campaign-assessment-august-23-2026/
Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to set unrealistic deadlines for the Russian military to seize the entirety of Donetsk Oblast, likely in part because of his misunderstanding of the battlefield realities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on August 23 that Putin most recently ordered the Russian military to complete the seizure of Donetsk Oblast by December 31, 2026
And nobody thought to ask
How could Zelensky possibly know? ?
Does the Russian General Staff consult him? Does Putin brief Zelensky once a week? Did Ukrainian intelligence torture this out of some poor sod of a Russian soldier who wouldn't even know next week's objective?
I thought "Understanding War" was supposed to be a THINK tank. But they can't ask basic questions?
Apparently not much thinking going on!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:Signym, you're fundamentally acting as if the Russian Army has no deadlines. That their job is only to show up and die forever or until Ukraine is conquered. But the Russian Army does have deadlines, you stupid asshole Signym. And if the Russian Army knows its deadlines, the Ukrainians will know, with a delay. Alternatively, if the Russian Army is as poorly managed as the US Army, their schedules will be non-existent, much like Trump's schedule for his military operations. Trump cannot fail if he never sets goals, deadlines, budgets, or other criteria for measuring success versus failure.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I read shit like this and wonder how anyone can get thru the first para...
And nobody thought to ask
How could Zelensky possibly know? ?
Does the Russian General Staff consult him? Does Putin brief Zelensky once a week? Did Ukrainian intelligence torture this out of some poor sod of a Russian soldier who wouldn't even know next week's objective?
I thought "Understanding War" was supposed to be a THINK tank. But they can't ask basic questions?
Apparently not much thinking going on!
Suddenly, I realize that is why the US Army got its ass-kicked in famous Forever Wars such as Vietnam and Afghanistan, where the US Army's real job was only to show up and die forever or until North Vietnam was conquered, whichever came first.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Russian drone with Nvidia chips signals dawn of lethal AI
The New York Times reports:
The young woman ran for her life, but it was too late.
A small Russian drone resembling a model airplane swooped down from the sky last month in the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine. As it tried to navigate toward a gas station, it crashed into a wall and exploded in a hail of shrapnel, killing Tetiana Bubynets, 19, a university student, and two others.
They were among the thousands of Ukrainian civilians who have died in Russian airstrikes, but the circumstances of their deaths came with an ominous twist. The drone that killed them was guided by an experimental artificial intelligence system, not a human pilot, according to drone experts, Ukrainian military commanders and the forensic team that examined wreckage from the deadly strike and others in the city.
The drone was programmed by human operators to travel toward a particular gas station, but once it got close, it chose its exact target — most likely propane tanks — on its own, based on its training to recognize such tanks and strike them, the experts and military officials said.
It is a development long watched for in the war in Ukraine, presaging a dystopian future in which killer robots roam the skies making life-or-death decisions that reduce targets to data points.
“This is a risk for the whole world,” said Col. Serhiy Minaiev, the commander of air defenses in Zaporizhzhia. “In a few years, we will be living in a ‘Terminator’ movie. It’s no joke. Machines are making decisions to strike.”
Analysis of debris from this attack and others in Zaporizhzhia found that the drones had onboard minicomputers, sold commercially by Nvidia, that made their targeting decisions, the experts and military officials said. Nvidia produces a majority of the chips powering the world’s most advanced A.I. systems.
The presence of Nvidia modules and a lack of antennas on the drones led Ukrainian air defense commanders to surmise that the weapons were guided by an autonomous A.I. system, which was confirmed on further investigation.
More at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/world/europe/russia-drones-autonomo
us-ai-kill-ukraine-war.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Court sets bail at $448,000 for Zelensky's ex-deputy chief of staff suspected of money laundering
August 25, 2026 4:15 pm
https://kyivindependent.com/court-sets-bail-for-zelenskys-ex-deputy-ch
ief-of-staff-in-graft-case/
Sure would be nice if the US would put in jail some politicians who are getting rich quick from their official positions. For example:
1) Donald Trump's Net Worth Surges by $600 Million in Less Than a Month: What's Driving the Jump?
August 1, 2026
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/donald-trumps-net-wo
rth-surges-123018814.html
2) Trump Is Making Three Times As Much In White House As He Did In Business
As he returned to office, America’s salesman-in-chief capitalized on the most lucrative pitch of his life. Now Trump is selling something else—the myth that he doesn’t know how he made so much money.
Jul 15, 2026, 01:12 pm EDT
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2026/07/15/trump-is-making-t
hree-times-as-much-in-white-house-as-he-did-in-business/
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:Quote:Signym, you're fundamentally acting as if the Russian Army has no deadlines. That their job is only to show up and die forever or until Ukraine is conquered. But the Russian Army does have deadlines, you stupid asshole Signym. And if the Russian Army knows its deadlines, the Ukrainians will know, with a delay. Alternatively, if the Russian Army is as poorly managed as the US Army, their schedules will be non-existent, much like Trump's schedule for his military operations. Trump cannot fail if he never sets goals, deadlines, budgets, or other criteria for measuring success versus failure.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I read shit like this and wonder how anyone can get thru the first para...
And nobody thought to ask
How could Zelensky possibly know? ?
Does the Russian General Staff consult him? Does Putin brief Zelensky once a week? Did Ukrainian intelligence torture this out of some poor sod of a Russian soldier who wouldn't even know next week's objective?
I thought "Understanding War" was supposed to be a THINK tank. But they can't ask basic questions?
Apparently not much thinking going on!
Suddenly, I realize that is why the US Army got its ass-kicked in famous Forever Wars such as Vietnam and Afghanistan, where the US Army's real job was only to show up and die forever or until North Vietnam was conquered, whichever came first.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Zelensky is, as usual, speaking out of his ass. You can flush what he says without fear of missing info.
Up until a month ago, I would have said that Russia had objectives, strategy, and tactics but no timeline. But if there IS a timeline, most ppl pin it to the upcoming Russian parliamentary elections in late September.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:Signym will love this message, which I believe is true:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Zelensky is, as usual, speaking out of his ass. You can flush what he says without fear of missing info.
Up until a month ago, I would have said that Russia had objectives, strategy, and tactics but no timeline. But if there IS a timeline, most ppl pin it to the upcoming Russian parliamentary elections in late September.
Ukraine is slowly losing, but failure isn't inevitable if only the Ukrainians would stop being stupid about simple ideas and change their ways of fighting.
Ukraine needs changes to avoid losing war, ousted defence minister says
By Max Hunder | August 25, 2026 10:09 AM CDT
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-needs-chang
es-avoid-losing-war-ousted-defence-minister-says-2026-08-25/
Summary
• Fedorov: Ukraine has a window of several months
• Cites corruption, lack of innovation hobbling war effort
• Zelenskiy has rejected ex-ally's election call
KYIV, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine appears to be slowly losing the war against Russia, ousted Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters, warning that Kyiv has a window of several months to make key decisions needed to turn the tide in its favour.
Fedorov, a young reformer whose dismissal last month sparked weeks of protests, said Ukraine lacked any overall vision for how to win the four-year-old conflict, and was hobbled by its failure to innovate.
Ingrained corruption and patronage networks, as well as a lack of political independence in government institutions, were also holding the country back, he said in an interview.
"I think that there's now a turning point which will determine our future trajectory, but it looks as though we're gradually, slowly losing," Fedorov said in a marked departure from Kyiv's official rhetoric.
Ukraine still had "every chance" to win but urgently needed a plan to end the war, he added.
Ukraine’s presidential office said in response to Fedorov’s comments that he had been positive about the conduct of the war when he was at the ministry and the only thing that had changed was his personal status.
LACK OF INTERCEPTORS HINDERS UKRAINE
Russia is hammering Ukrainian factories and warehouses with dozens of ballistic missiles a month, which Ukraine is mostly unable to take down as interceptors run low. Although Russia is gaining less ground than last year, it is still slowly crawling forward in the Donbas, while Ukraine's sparse frontline infantry dugouts are manned mostly by unmotivated conscripts.
Ukraine, in turn, has ramped up its own drone and missile attacks deep into Russia, hitting some key military factories, causing serious damage to oil refineries and creating nationwide fuel shortages.
A poll conducted at the end of July found 82% of Ukrainians believed Ukraine would win, although most expected fighting to carry on into 2027 or later.
Fedorov, 35, was fired six months after his appointment, having initiated reforms around procurement and mobilisation that put him on a collision course with the military establishment and political rivals.
Last week, he rocked Ukrainian politics by becoming the first major political figure to demand wartime elections, decrying a "systemic" crisis of governance.
In an interview on Monday, he emphasised the importance of developing autonomous drones guided by artificial intelligence, cheap interceptor missiles to stop Russia's air attacks and Ukraine's own ballistic missile program to turn the tide of the war.
Ukrainian manufacturers are already working on those technologies, but Fedorov said the country needed a joined-up strategy to maximise their effect once deployed.
He laid out a vision for a frontline covered by electronic sensors to detect enemies, with drones on land and in the air to minimise human presence.
"Technologies exist already which could completely stop the Russians, but our absence of vision ... means we do not a
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Ousted Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov says Ukraine is ‘slowly losing’ the war against Russia
August 25, 2026, 2:12 pm
Source: Reuters
https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/08/25/ousted-ukrainian-defense-minister
-mykhailo-fedorov-says-ukraine-is-slowly-losing-the-war-against-russia
Ukraine’s leadership has no overall vision for how to win the war against Russia, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters. Corruption and the slow adoption of new technology are also holding the country back, he said.
“I think that there’s now a turning point which will determine our future trajectory [in the war], but it looks as though we’re gradually, slowly losing,” Fedorov said.
Fedorov said developing AI-controlled drones, cheap interceptor missiles, and ballistic missiles could turn the tide of the war in Ukraine’s favor. Ukrainian manufacturers are already working on these technologies. What Ukraine lacks, Fedorov said, is a unified strategy to use them as effectively as possible once they are deployed.
“Technologies exist already which could completely stop the Russians, but our absence of vision … means we do not apply them,” he said.
Fedorov also criticized the Ukrainian state for its inefficiency, saying it operates at only “5% effectiveness.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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17 charts show how full-scale war reshaped Ukraine’s economy and living standards
August 25, 2026, 08:08 AM
https://english.nv.ua/business/code-of-independence-17-charts-on-how-w
ar-changed-ukraine-s-economy-50635549.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The European Union is considering allocating up to €100 billion in its future budget for a new cooperation program with Ukraine.
European Council President António Costa said this in an interview with Ukrinform.
He noted that the new political season in the EU, which begins in September, will be marked by the adoption of the European Union’s next important budget and progress in the enlargement process for Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.
Regarding funding for support to Ukraine in the future budget, Costa said: “Right now, this is under discussion by the member states, but the European Commission's proposal includes a new program of cooperation with Ukraine worth up to 100 billion euros.”
As reported, the draft EU budget for 2028–2034 envisages record spending of around €2 trillion.
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-economy/4157809-eu-discusses-new-prog
ram-of-cooperation-with-ukraine-for-up-to-100b-costa.html
Read also: EU speeds up €90 billion loan to support Ukraine’s air defense, energy – Costa
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/4157340-eu-speeds-up-eur-90b
-loan-to-support-ukraines-air-defense-energy-costa.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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