Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
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Can Europe defend itself without America?
It would need to replace military aid, a nuclear umbrella and leadership
Feb 18th 2024
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/02/18/can-europe-defend-itself
-without-america
THE DEATH of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s foremost opposition leader, in a Siberian gulag on February 16th would by itself have served as a shock to Europe. But for leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of defence and security bigwigs, Mr Navalny’s demise was just one of several ominous developments for the continent. On February 17th Ukraine’s army, starved of American ammunition by Congress’s failure to pass a supplemental aid bill, was forced to withdraw from the eastern town of Avdiivka. That handed Vladimir Putin his first military victory in almost a year.
The deadlock in Congress reflects the baleful influence of Donald Trump, whose fierce opposition to aid for Ukraine has cowed Republicans into submission. But the spectre of Mr Trump’s return to office in November’s presidential election cast an even darker pall over Munich. A week earlier Mr Trump had boasted of telling an ally that he would not come to their defence if they fell short of NATO spending targets: “You’re delinquent? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”
The confluence of Russia’s rearmament, Ukraine’s deteriorating position and Mr Trump’s possible return to the White House has brought Europe to its most dangerous juncture in decades. European states and armies are wondering whether they must navigate this crisis without their ally of nearly 80 years. The question is not just whether America will abandon Ukraine, but whether it might abandon Europe. For Europe to fill the space left by America’s absence would require it to do much more than simply raise defence spending. It will have to reconsider the nature of military power, the role of nuclear deterrence in European security and the far-reaching political implications of military organisation and structure.
In Munich the mood was fearful and determined rather than panicked. American and European officials remain hopeful that American aid will turn up in Ukraine. On February 17th Petr Pavel, the Czech president, said that his country had “found” 800,000 shells which could be shipped to the country within weeks. In an interview with The Economist Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister, insisted that European arms production was increasing “as fast as possible” and said he was “very optimistic” that Europe could plug American gaps. Others played down the dangers of Mr Trump. “We should stop moaning and whining and nagging about Trump,” said Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, on February 17th. “It’s up to the Americans…We have to work with whoever is on the dance floor.”
Not everyone is so sanguine. If American aid were to evaporate entirely, Ukraine would probably lose, one American official tells The Economist. Mr Pistorius is correct that European arms production is rising fast; the continent should be able to produce shells at an annual rate of 1m-2m late this year, potentially outstripping America. But that may come too late for Ukraine, which by itself needs some 1.5m per year according to Rheinmetall, a European arms manufacturer. And a sense of wartime urgency is still lacking. European producers export 40% of their shell production to non-EU countries other than Ukraine; when the European Commission proposed that Ukraine should be prioritised by law, member states refused. The continent’s arms firms complain that their order books remain too thin to warrant big investments in production lines.
A Ukrainian defeat would inflict a psychological blow on the West while emboldening Mr Putin. That does not mean he could take advantage right away. “There is no immediate threat to NATO,” says Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of NATO’s international military committee. Allies disagree over how long it would take Russia to reconstitute its forces to a pre-war standard, he
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Europe was actually split. There were a lot of Nazi sympathizers/ collaborators in nations that we think are liberal democracies.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Remember the good old days when Europe fought against Nazis instead of fighting for them?
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
But I think this has more to do with globalist plans to plunder Russia, and the uber-elite's ability to pack national governments with moronic sycophants and opportunists. I have heard some incredibly stupid things coming out of their mouths. Like Baerbock's insistence thatPutin do a 360 degree turn.
No shit! That earned her the nickname Annalena "360" Baerbock.
Nothing short of 720 degrees out of Putin should be considered acceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Putin murdered his political opponent in prison this weekend. Putin will murder Ukrainians by the millions if and when he controls them. Stalin did the same and shrugged as if it was nothing.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nothing short of 720 degrees out of Putin should be considered acceptable.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
Kremlin critics blame Putin and his government for Navalny’s death in prison
https://apnews.com/article/russia-navalny-death-global-reactions-putin
-19e7fd6318763627f6917a92678cd190
Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin,” said Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics. “That’s a fact, and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime.”
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 "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said...
SECOND: The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history
And now you're "explaining" to us that our elites are doing what they're doing because of something that happened 1000 years ago??
Dood, YOU don't know Russian history and neither do THEY. Those are just excuses for them doing what they want to do anyway: plunder Russia.
Honestly, I don't know where you get this shit from.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Tzars kill millions of Ukrainians and it means nothing. Stalin kills 4 million Ukrainians and it also means nothing. Putin threatens to kill millions in the West and it means nothing, too. Nothing means nothing to you, Signym. Instead, you create fan fiction about plundering Russia.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You're "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said...
SECOND: The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history
And now you're "explaining" to us that our elites are doing what they're doing because of something that happened 1000 years ago??
Dood, YOU don't know Russian history and neither do THEY. Those are just excuses for them doing what they want to do anyway: plunder Russia.
Honestly, I don't know where you get this shit from.
Putin pal threatens Armageddon nuclear attack on DC and London if Russia has to give back any Ukraine territory
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon | Feb. 18, 2024, 3:10 p.m. ET
https://nypost.com/2024/02/18/world-news/putin-pal-threatens-armageddo
n-nuclear-attack-on-dc-and-london-if-russia-has-to-give-back-any-ukraine-territory/
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 "explaining" what the USA did 20 years ago by what Medvedev says now???
Stop gaslighting us, SECOND. We're not as stupid as you are.
BTW, what Medvedev said...
SECOND: The rulers of Russia have a thousand-year history
SIGNY: And now you're "explaining" to us that our elites are doing what they're doing because of something that happened 1000 years ago??
Dood, YOU don't know Russian history and neither do THEY. Those are just excuses for them doing what they want to do anyway: plunder Russia.
Honestly, I don't know where you get this shit from.
SECOND: Tzars kill millions of Ukrainians and it means nothing. Stalin kills 4 million Ukrainians and it also means nothing. Putin threatens to kill millions in the West and it means nothing, too.
European killed millions, likely hundreds of millions, in their conquest of the globe.
Europeans also enslaved hundreds of thousands of dark skinned people.
They also killed each other by the millions over their border and religious disputes.
Africans enslaved each other.
Nazis killed millions of Russians and other ethnicities.
Pol Pot killed three million people.
Mayans and Aztecs killed tens of thousands of victims to appeal to the rain gods.
Of course it means "something", but WHAT?
It means that, back then, those people did those things. If you want to draw lessons from history, and not just pluck convenient narratives from thin air, then you need to know WHY and HOW these things were done and determine whether the same impulses operate today.
For example, we don't sacrifice to the rain gods anymore, do we?
Quote:
Putin pal threatens Armageddon nuclear attack on DC and London if Russia has to give back any Ukraine territory
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon | Feb. 18, 2024, 3:10 p.m. ET
https://nypost.com/2024/02/18/world-news/putin-pal-threatens-armageddo
n-nuclear-attack-on-dc-and-london-if-russia-has-to-give-back-any-ukraine-territory/
It would be helpful if you would read with comprehension. Medvedev is just restating
STANDARD RUSSIAN POLICY: IF RUSSIA FEELS EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED, EVEN WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ( EXAMPLE: A MASS ATTACK BY ALL NATO FORCES ON RUSSIA WITH EVERY CONVENTIONAL WEAPON AT OUR DISPOSAL) RUSSIA CAN RESPOND WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
In other words, Russia has NOT committed to "no first use".
NEITHER HAS THE USA.
Russia DOES limit its use of nukes to DEFENSIVE purposes.
(I know of no such statement from the USA, which keeps "first strike" on the table, AFAIK.)
Russia will not limit its strikes to the area of conflict, but will include decision-making centers in its targeting. So TPTB shouldn't feel too safe in their bunkers and distant capitals. Yanno, they're gonna have skin in the game.
*****
The latest wrinkle is that Russia now considers Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaparozhzhia, and Kherson to be part of Russia.
Yanno, if the western signatories (France, Germany) had just committed to the Minsk agreements instead of using them "to buy time to arm Ukraine" (as they later bragged) none of this would have happened. But being the weasely and dishonest people that they are, I would say they're getting what they deserve.
But trying to teach you history is like teaching a pig to read.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Putin murdered his political opponent in prison this weekend.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nothing short of 720 degrees out of Putin should be considered acceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
In that case, anything short of 1,440 degrees is unacceptable.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Russia-Ukraine War Anniversary: 8 Experts Tell Foreign Policy What's Next
February 19, 2024, 7:00 AM |
By Angela Stent, Jo Inge Bekkevold, Kristi Raik, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Agathe Demarais, Franz-Stefan Gady, David Petraeus, C. Raja Mohan, Stefan Theil
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/02/19/ukraine-russia-war-two-years-anni
versary-news-zelensky-putin/
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year, the apparent impasse on the battlefield masks decisive shifts. The war’s main front is now political, with Russian President Vladimir Putin betting that divisions and hesitations in the West will hand him the victory he has failed to achieve on the ground.
Worried about the consequences for their continent’s security if Washington disengages and Ukraine falls, European governments have increased aid in recent months. Collectively, they have now supplied or pledged more weapons to Kyiv than Washington—and more than double the assistance if economic aid is included. That marks a significant change from the war’s early days, but it hasn’t been enough to turn the tide for Ukraine.
When and how will this war end? The Kremlin has made it abundantly clear that the only negotiated end it will accept is Ukraine’s surrender, while the Ukrainians have made it equally plain that they will continue to resist being subsumed into Moscow’s empire. Two years on, peace in Europe is nowhere in sight.
To shed light on these and other shifts in the war, Foreign Policy asked eight prominent thinkers what comes next.—Stefan Theil, deputy editor
1) Bracing for a Long War
By Angela Stent, author of Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year, the current dynamic stalemate looks set to continue. Neither side is winning or losing. The Russians are making incremental territorial gains at the cost of enormous casualties and lost equipment. The Ukrainians, having failed to achieve the objectives of their 2023 counteroffensive, are on the defensive and also experiencing significant casualties. This war of attrition is taking its toll on Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelensky recently parted ways with his top military commander, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, after fissures between the two became public. Both countries need to mobilize more troops, but there will be no Russian mobilization before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sham reelection next month. For Ukraine, whose population is less than a third the size of Russia’s, it will be more difficult for to mobilize the forces it needs.
The war is not only about troops but also about the continued supply of weapons. Russia is purchasing drones from Iran and increasing amounts of artillery ammunition and some missiles from North Korea. Ukraine is dependent on weapons supplies and financial support from Europe and the United States. The European Union’s recent approval of $54 billion in financial assistance will enable the Ukrainian state to continue functioning, and European NATO members will supply some additional weapons. But the United States remains key: It is the most important supplier of advanced weaponry, and its dysfunctional domestic politics may jeopardize Ukraine’s ability to continue to fight Russia. If Congress does not approve the requested $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine and if the U.S. government does not speed up the supply of advanced weapons, then the outlook for Ukraine’s ability to push back against Russia in 2024 is much bleaker.
There is little prospect of negotiations to end the war in 2024, nor can either side achieve a decisive victory. The Kremlin has made clear that it has no interest in negotiations that do not lead to Ukraine’s surrender, including the permanent loss of the four territories illegally annexed by Russia in 2022. The stated Russian goal remains the so-called “de-Nazification”—Russian lingo for regime change—and demilitarization of Ukraine. No Ukrainian leader would ever agree to such terms. Putin is awaiting the result of this year’s U.S. election and ho
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Quote:Russian rulers and their spokesmen have been making threats to nuke the US since Aug. 29, 1949. There was no real policy other than to make threats constantly. Some lawyer wrote a "policy" about when to use nukes but the "policy" means nothing to the ruler. The only real thing keeping Russia from nuking the world is its ruler's feelings.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It would be helpful if you would read with comprehension. Medvedev is just restating
STANDARD RUSSIAN POLICY: IF RUSSIA FEELS EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED, EVEN WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ( EXAMPLE: A MASS ATTACK BY ALL NATO FORCES ON RUSSIA WITH EVERY CONVENTIONAL WEAPON AT OUR DISPOSAL) RUSSIA CAN RESPOND WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
In other words, Russia has NOT committed to "no first use".
NEITHER HAS THE USA.
The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, known in the West as Joe-1, on Aug. 29, 1949.
The relief and euphoria in the room was overwhelming. Kurchatov cried out, "It works! It works!" And Iulii Khariton, the scientific director of Arzamas, remembers Beria hugging him. All of the scientists knew that their own personal fates depended on the success of the bomb. One of them later said that if it had failed they would have all been shot.
Two months later the scientists principally responsible for designing the bomb won honors for their roles on the project. As the story goes, Beria adopted a simple rule in deciding who should get what prize. Those who would have been shot if the bomb had failed, became Heroes of Socialist Labor; those who would have been imprisoned were awarded the less prestigious honor, the Order of Lenin.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bomb-soviet-tests/
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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Russia calls pilot killed in Spain after defecting to Ukraine a "moral corpse"
February 20, 2024, 6:19 AM CST
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-spy-chief-killed-russian-
pilot-was-moral-corpse-defecting-2024-02-20/
MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign intelligence chief described a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain as a "moral corpse" for betraying his country, in Moscow's first comment on the case since news of the killing emerged.
Ukraine's GUR military intelligence service has confirmed that pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who flew to Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter last August, has died in Spain, without giving the cause of death.
Spanish officials have confirmed that a body was found riddled with bullets on Feb. 13 in an underground garage in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante in southern Spain. Spanish and Ukrainian media have reported that the shooting victim was the pilot, who had been living in Spain under a fake identity.
"In Russia it is customary to speak either good of the dead or nothing at all," Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was quoted as saying when asked about Kuzminov.
"This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime," Naryshkin was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.
Western leaders say Russia frequently assassinates those it deems traitors abroad. Moscow says the West has not provided evidence to support such assertions. 62 million Russians murdered by Russians, plus Alexey Navalny's recent death in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle, is sufficient to contradict Moscow.
A Spanish court in Villajoyosa has opened a probe into the death of the shooting victim, a judicial source told Reuters on Tuesday. At the time of his death, the victim carried documentation identifying him as a 33-year-old Ukrainian national, but his identity was still under investigation, the source said.
Kuzminov's defection to Ukraine was presented last year as a major coup for Kyiv. At a news conference in Kyiv he said he could not understand why his "beloved motherland" would enter into a war with Ukraine.
Other members of the air crew died during his defection. Moscow said Kuzminov killed them; he said they panicked and fled, and may have been killed subsequently.
Reporting by Reuters Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones, Peter Graff
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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