The Russia-Ukraine War has begun

[Free]

Definitely needs to be bigger now.

 

[Govi]

Things Putin needed: a bigger table!

Fear of polonium.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov dating back in May 2022 calming down people worried about the war in Ukraine.

TikTok - Make Your Day

www.tiktok.com

 

[Soen Eber]

Definitely needs to be bigger now.

Huge intimidating tables are part of the facists' standard kit and it doesn't look like Trump is going to be using his for a while, maybe they can work something out?

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Trump recently said, he would end the war in Ukraine within a day. Zelensky about this statement by Trump: "Former President Trump said that about 24 hours, that he can manage it and finish the war. For me, what can I say? So he’s very welcome as well. President Biden was here, and I think he understood some details which you can understand only being here. So I invite President Trump. If he can come here, I will need 24 minutes.”

The Ukrainian president said he would need just 24 minutes instead of 24 hours to explain to Trump that he can’t end the war as easily as he thinks he could.

Zelensky invites Trump to Ukraine: ‘He can’t manage this war’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited former President Trump to his country’s war zone, saying the former president “can’t manage this war.” Zelensky, who joined NBC “Meet …

thehill.com

 

[Noodles]

Note: Trump did not specify it would be an ending favorable for Ukraine.

 

[Soen Eber]

The Ukrainian president said he would need just 24 minutes instead of 24 hours to explain to Trump that he can’t end the war as easily as he thinks he could.

Zelensky invites Trump to Ukraine: ‘He can’t manage this war’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited former President Trump to his country’s war zone, saying the former president “can’t manage this war.” Zelensky, who joined NBC “Meet …

thehill.com

Zelensky has an optimistic opinion on Trump's intellectual capacity.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Very optimistic.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Well for me this visit offer by Zelensky is a poisoned pill so to speak: I am sure that Zelensky counts on Trump being a coward, and not coming to Ukraine. And so making Trump in future shutting his mouth about Ukraine, because Zelensky gave him the opportunity to speak his wisdom, which Trump then refused.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Time Mazagine has a long rebout about Zelensky's struggle to keep Ukraine in the fight, written by Simon Shuster.

It's quite a grim tale about dwindling support, corruption in Ukraine and the toll this war has on the land with not much hope on winning it.

Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight

“Nobody believes in our victory like I do. Nobody,” Zelensky told TIME in an interview after his trip to Washington, D.C.

time.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Would you sell them out?

A question for American lawmakers about Ukraine

snyder.substack.com

 

[Cindy Claveau]

UK estimates indicate Russia has lost 15% of its tank inventory in Ukraine

The figure as a percentage of active platforms is likely to be higher, with Russia also potentially unable to effectively replace battlefield losses of more modern equipment.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has estimated the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now 631 days old, to have cost Moscow more than 2,400 main battle tanks (MBTs) – equivalent to around 15% of its pre-war inventory.

The figures, released on 13 November as a UK parliamentary written response, also detailed Russian equipment losses to be “over 7,117 armoured vehicles”, including 2,475 MBTs and 1,300 artillery systems. In the air and maritime domains, the UK has estimated Russian losses to include 93 fixed-wing aircraft, 132 helicopters, 320 uncrewed aerial vehicles, and 16 naval vessels of all types.

In terms of military personnel losses, the MoD estimated that Russia has sustained 302,000 killed or wounded during operations. Russian losses from private military contractors, such as the Wagner Group, which have played a significant role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are not included in the casualty figures but are thought to be around 100,000, bringing the potential total Russian casualty figure to up to 400,000.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Finland closes almost the entire border to Russia but one point.

Finland to close all but northernmost border crossing with Russia

Finland will close all but the northernmost crossing point on its border with Russia from midnight to halt a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, PM Petteri Orpo said.

www.reuters.com

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Putin held a speech via video transmission during the G20 summit about the war in Ukraine. It was the to be expected pile of bullshit.

Quotes: "Yes, of course, military actions are always a tragedy. And of course, we should think about how to stop this tragedy."

"By the way, Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine."

"I understand that this war, and the death of people, cannot but shock." He also gave the well known bag of justifications why Russia did it.

Putin G20 speech: Russian leader calls Ukraine war a ‘tragedy’

This is the first time Putin has used placatory language on an international diplomatic table on his stance on Ukraine war

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Noodles]

"By the way, Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine."

Yeah, step one, remove your people from Ukraine. And not what you consider to be Ukraine, what IS Ukraine. Take a map from outside of Russia from before 2014's invasion, and follow that.

 

[detrius]

From an actual Russian pov - a left leaning one at that [he left right as the 'special military engagement' started]

Sadly, this guy now seems to have fallen off the deep end after making some whataboutist comments about the recent Israel/Gaza conflict.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Sadly, this guy now seems to have fallen off the deep end after making some whataboutist comments about the recent Israel/Gaza conflict.

No surprise there, given his take on 1993. Admittedly I've only watched the first few minutes of the video but I was a frequent visitor to Russia in the early 90s, and the politics were considerably more complicated than he seems to think they were.

Essentially, you had an incompetent, corrupt and authoritarian president, backed by the West, privatising everything they could (i.e. selling it off to their cronies and to Western businesses who paid big enough bribes) vs an incompetent, corrupt and authoritarian opposition in the Russian Parliament, led by former Communists and by Fascists (sounds familiar?) who felt they weren't getting their fair share.

The only competent and efficient organisations in the country seemed to be the various mafias, who would, by and large, stick to their agreements and delivered what they'd been paid for. (Of course, if they didn't get paid, things became rather unpleasant).

Meanwhile the people suffered dreadfully.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Finland now has closed the last open border point to Russia. Finland accuses Russia, that it is transporting migrants from North Africa specfically to there so that they can enter the EU.

Finnland sperrt mit Blick auf Migration auch letzten Grenzübergang zu Russland

Die Regierung in Helsinki wirft Moskau vor, Asylsuchende gezielt an die Grenze zur Europäischen Union zu schleusen

www.derstandard.at

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Russians classify minefield maps, occupiers explode on their own mines - General Staff

The leadership of the Russian army has classified maps of minefields in Ukraine. As a result, occupiers often find themselves hitting their own mines and suffering losses, according to the spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andrii Kovalov.

"In the area of the temporarily occupied Krynky in the Kherson region, one of the units of the 810th Marine Infantry of the Russian occupation forces refused to follow orders and advance to storm the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Russian terrorists justified their refusal by the lack of coordination with artillery, poor weather conditions, and the absence of reconnaissance data," the spokesperson said.

According to Kovalov, the assault actions are further complicated by the mine obstacles set up by the occupiers.

"The maps of these minefields are classified, and information is transmitted to the assault units of the occupiers only by squares and without clear coordinates," he added.

Thus, in the past month, the 810th Marine Infantry Brigade of the Russian Federation has lost approximately 50 soldiers due to detonations on their own mines.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Ex US Army general and NATO commander-in-chief Philipp M. Breedlove gave an interview in the German newspaper "Berliner Zeitung" about the current state of the Ukraine war.

He was asked if we should take Russias threats about a nuclear strike seriously. His answer is: Russia has ready to use nuclear weapons at its disposal, so we need to adapt our politics around that keeping on mind that Russia might make its threats a reality. This is not the first time in history, that we were in such a situation, the Cuba crisis in the past was similar. Back then America was willing to take a risk, and contained the USSR.

In our times though he misses the readiness to take a risk at the same level. He thinks that it was a grave mistake to tell Russia at the beginning of the war that we don't want the war to expand and risk an escalation which might involve the use of nuclear weapons. This is a mistake, which will cost us a lot for a long time and we will have to think about also a long time.

Why? Because Iran, North Korea and China are keeping a close eye on what is happening right now. If these states learn anything from the Ukraine war, then it only takes nuclear weapons to make the UNO, NATO or EU do whatever they want. And if this becomes widely successful, a new nuclear arms weapons race might start due to that.

Regarding why the war in Ukraine is so stuck: because Russia has mined a lots of the occupied area, and Ukraine has no air supremacy. Ukraine didn't get enough weapons and also not the right weapons to achieve that, which is a bad thing because in Western battle field tactics reaching air supremacy over the battle field is the first necessary step. The US Army would never start a ground battle without its long range artillery systems.

He also thinks that leading politicians of the West don't really want Ukraine to win the war. He considers this a bad thing, because in his eyes we are rewarding Russia for its bad deeds since 2008, and this would be just the newest addition to that and it would not stop then to attack the rest of Ukraine another time in order to "bring it back". Also the lack of industrial capacity to produce the ammunition required to lead a long war is a big problem as well.

Asked about multiple conflicts he answers that he thinks America alone is able to lead war at 1 1/2 different sides. The capacity is big enough to win war on one side, while on another side to maintain an attack and hold it. Having enough personal is not the problem, but the low quantity of high tech weaponry at disposal and its heavy need for complicated maintenance.

Ex-Nato-Oberbefehlshaber: „Westliche Staaten haben Angst vor einem Sieg der Ukraine“

Die Ukraine könnte auf absehbare Zeit den Krieg verlieren, warnt Ex-Nato-Oberbefehlshaber Philip M. Breedlove. Von westlichen Politikern fordert er ein radikales Umdenken.

www.berliner-zeitung.de