Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Part 5

analogbear5 said:Dobojska school of accounting.

I have no idea what that's referring to.🕺

By the way, we totally glossed over that speech Putin gave right when the war kicked off.
He made it crystal clear to the nation that this would be a job for professionals only—no calling up the reserves, no drama.
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Everything’s going exactly according to plan. 😁

Jessica Peterson2 said:And apparently, those who died two years ago weren't considered "safe" either.

We saw the exact same thing back home... my neighbor actually died in a motorcycle accident back in '89... then he gets a draft notice for the military in '91... they were even sending Military Police to his house looking for him! Good grief... honestly, the data just isn't being updated at all.

gentlestag15 said:By the way, we totally glossed over that speech Putin gave right when the war kicked off.
He made it crystal clear to the nation that this would be a job for professionals only—no calling up the reserves, no drama.
View on twitter

Everything’s going exactly according to plan. 😁

I can't help but wonder if he's actually planning to swap out those Russian pros for reserve teams instead. Maybe send the remaining elite players straight into Ukraine right now, even if it means leaving their own domestic security looking pretty thin. Honestly, though, who is actually going to attack them? Even if they sent everything they had left, I doubt it. He probably realizes that those mobilized folks would just fall apart and surrender on the spot. I don't really believe he'd push them directly into the line of fire. Aside from maybe those political activists picked up during the protests, they might end up on the front lines immediately.

wiredfalcon2 said:Is that what your local euroskeptic news outlets drilled into your head? Seriously, just look at which single country poured the most money into training Ukrainians between 2014 and 2022—before the war even started. Or better yet, check the reports on how much weaponry has been shipped to Ukraine from EU soil while leaders kept quiet about the specifics for security reasons or to maintain a strategic edge.

The EU is basically a punching bag for every euroskeptic bully out there because everything is happening "so far away." Since those stories don't reach every backwater corner of the states, people can just feed their own sense of self-importance and nationalism by attacking an opponent that isn't fighting back. Most people aren't even following the details, and the local media loves feeding them sensationalist headlines like "Putin mocked the EU," while the local useful idiots push nonsense like "sanctions hurt the EU more than Russia." It's all total nonsense.

Since this whole conflict kicked off in February 2022, the EU hasn't been anything but solid.

Macron would probably hand Putin a slice of Ukraine if he could; the Germans were hoping they could somehow charm Putin, so they sent tanks, tried to block Spain from sending Leopards, and so on... all while sending practically nothing significant over two years. Between Nord Stream 2 and Canada, that’s pretty much the whole EU story right there.

I don't know anything about "euroskeptical media"—I'm not a skeptic myself, and I have no idea which outlets you're talking about. Most of that kind of trash you can just read on some tabloid site.

Look, I'm not saying nobody in the EU sent aid, or even a lot of aid, but in the beginning, things were a mess coming from all different directions. Nowadays, some of those stances have shifted a bit, both within the EU and outside of it. I'm not saying this as a skeptic, but as a citizen who is honestly embarrassed by that specific behavior.

The EU definitely has its issues, but I'm not looking for an exit; I just want those problems fixed so we can actually make the union better.

hollowdriver13 said:Then you’ve got those Z-zombies who are actually cheering and toastng while they head off to war.🤮

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/st...88254005198849

On the flip side, the Yakuts don't look nearly as thrilled about this either.

https://twitter.com/sonjaeftimovska/...92022947979264

Even the Dagestanis aren't exactly dying to go fight in Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/sonjaeftimovska/...95471786016768

This kind of mobilization is a fast track to internal unrest. If this idiot keeps going down this path, we could be looking at total disintegration of the Russian Federation.

So, did they send a woman over there just to recruit them? 😵

It’s honestly pretty grim watching these videos of young men being loaded up and sent off to war. You end up with some becoming criminals, others becoming invalids, and then there are the ones coming home in bags to their mothers—and even those who make it back physically whole won't ever really be right in the head again. It feels even more tragic seeing people from small ethnic groups being drafted; it’s going to deal an irreparable blow to their future and their standing within Russia as they've known it.
Watching this is just heavy; some of them don't even seem to realize where they're actually headed. It reminds me of scenes out of "The Deer Hunter."

Apparently, according to reports coming out of ZDF, the vast majority of those 300,000 mobilized individuals are going to be from Western Russia—basically ethnic Russians.
Best regards,

gentlestag15 said:Lavrov let slip some nonsense about Nazis in Kyiv being supported by the West and stormed out of the session; now I see some folks here claiming we actually have to play nice with those kinds of assholes.
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China's statement is interesting—they don't seem to view anyone as a Putin ally, even in their wildest rhetoric.

“Sovereignty and territorial integrity of All countries should be respected , ” Wang says about China's stance on the #warinUkraine.

I’ve maintained from the start that a wiser approach was needed to prevent this unfortunate war by the Russian aggressor. You can say whatever you want, but that is the reality. I sincerely hope I won't be sitting here in a month writing about how a nuclear war could have been avoided.

analogbear70 said:I’ve maintained from the start that a wiser approach was needed to prevent this unfortunate war by the Russian aggressor. You can say whatever you want, but that is the reality. I sincerely hope I won't be sitting here in a month writing about how a nuclear war could have been avoided.

http://www.en.kremlin.ru/misc/66182

Do yourself a favor and actually read what Putin was personally writing back in 2021 regarding Ukrainians and their nation. After seeing that, tell me again how anyone could have avoided a conflict with a guy like him.

Honestly, I couldn't care less. If the choice is between wiping out the entire world or letting Ukraine fall, I’ll take the global meltdown every single time. Ukraine has to fight for itself, even if it means the end of humanity. To hell with the world if we just sit back and let tyrants get whatever they want.

Paul Anderson7 said:So, did they send a woman over there just to recruit them? 😵

It’s honestly pretty grim watching these videos of young men being loaded up and sent off to war. You end up with some becoming criminals, others becoming invalids, and then there are the ones coming home in bags to their mothers—and even those who make it back physically whole won't ever really be right in the head again. It feels even more tragic seeing people from small ethnic groups being drafted; it’s going to deal an irreparable blow to their future and their standing within Russia as they've known it.
Watching this is just heavy; some of them don't even seem to realize where they're actually headed. It reminds me of scenes out of "The Deer Hunter."

This

analogbear70 said:I’ve maintained from the start that a wiser approach was needed to prevent this unfortunate war by the Russian aggressor. You can say whatever you want, but that is the reality. I sincerely hope I won't be sitting here in a month writing about how a nuclear war could have been avoided.

Oh, I am quite certain you won't be writing about a nuclear war.

Nancy Gomez26 said:I find that hard to swallow, though they certainly squander money in other ways. Take aircraft carrier development, for instance. Both France and the United Kingdom pour resources into developing their own carriers. It’s an astronomical cost, only for them to end up with maybe one or two vessels. In the US, development is just as pricey, but at least we produce a dozen ships over twenty or thirty years. Then you have the jet fighters needed for those carriers. Same story there—massive R&D costs—but they fare slightly better by producing about fifty units over the carrier's lifespan. A fortune is spent, yet the strategic impact remains marginal. Americans actually see a return on investment because we maintain actual scale.

Ask any Argentine how much influence an aircraft carrier actually has; even when using smaller ones, the impact is minimal.

velvetbadger11 said:Oh, I am quite certain you won't be writing about a nuclear war.

I have to say, I don't quite see things that way. I guess my take is that Putin possesses this specific mindset where he simply cannot stomach defeat, and honestly, it seems more likely he'd resort to nuclear options rather than actually retreating. It feels like his whole modus operandi from the very beginning has been that if brute force isn't working, then perhaps not enough force has been applied yet.

Maybe at the start of the conflict, people thought those surrounding him would never let him touch those nuclear weapons, but I suppose we can probably forget about that now, since the people in his inner circle seem even more unpredictable than he is.

Megan Thomas5 said:Honestly, I couldn't care less. If the choice is between wiping out the entire world or letting Ukraine fall, I’ll take the global meltdown every single time. Ukraine has to fight for itself, even if it means the end of humanity. To hell with the world if we just sit back and let tyrants get whatever they want.

I'm with you on this, there's just no negotiating with aggressors, and history has shown us over and over again, both near and far, that it never works...

Kenneth Cruz67 said:I have to say, I don't quite see things that way. I guess my take is that Putin possesses this specific mindset where he simply cannot stomach defeat, and honestly, it seems more likely he'd resort to nuclear options rather than actually retreating. It feels like his whole modus operandi from the very beginning has been that if brute force isn't working, then perhaps not enough force has been applied yet.

Maybe at the start of the conflict, people thought those surrounding him would never let him touch those nuclear weapons, but I suppose we can probably forget about that now, since the people in his inner circle seem even more unpredictable than he is.

Do you honestly expect to have internet or electricity after a nuclear war, assuming you even survive?

Ugh, seriously guys, can we please chill with all this nuclear talk? You’re totally cluttering up this thread for no reason at all 🙄

There is already a dedicated thread specifically for that stuff, so go ahead and argue about whether or not someone's gonna push the button over there instead ☕

Matthew Young35 said:Do you honestly expect to have internet or electricity after a nuclear war, assuming you even survive?

I suppose I'm just wondering what my personal expectations have to do with anything at all here... 🤔

Gregory Ramos3 said:Ugh, seriously guys, can we please chill with all this nuclear talk? You’re totally cluttering up this thread for no reason at all 🙄

There is already a dedicated thread specifically for that stuff, so go ahead and argue about whether or not someone's gonna push the button over there instead ☕

Well, if you look closely, nuclear weaponry is actually right there in the thread title itself. Plus, I guess it's hard to ignore when all the major global players are pointing to it as a genuine, looming threat.

Kenneth Cruz67 said:I suppose I'm just wondering what my personal expectations have to do with anything at all here... 🤔

"My point was that we should have played this much smarter from the start. This whole disastrous war by the Russian aggressor could have been avoided entirely. You can argue with me all you want, but that’s the reality. I just hope I won't be sitting here in a month writing about how a nuclear war could have been prevented."

"Oh, I'm certain you won't be writing about a nuclear war."

Get it now?