The start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Part 1)

Kenneth Bennett2 said:I gotta say, some of these Russophobic or Putin-obsessed comments out there are just incredibly childish, totally delusional, and frankly, pretty idiotic... It’s basically just a carbon copy of the media circus we saw during the whole COVID craze. But honestly, I’m not even surprised, since most of this seems to be coming from—as far as I can tell—immature, ridiculous, and even "woke" millennials. Just keep on talking your nonsense

ok thanks

Jack Kelly5 said:I really just want this whole madness to stop, honestly. You've got the lives of over 200 million people indirectly caught up in this mess, but please, don't try telling me that the USA or NATO is actually going to go to war with Russia over somewhere like Latvia or America.
War is such a weird anomaly, it doesn't just happen out of nowhere, and if you look at history, the big players never, ever truly give a damn about the little guys.

It isn't about having genuine concern for the small nations; it's about protecting the strategic interests and the overall survival of NATO. That sense of purpose would vanish if there weren't a clear reason to act against an attack on a member state. In other words, the idea is to respond to an assault because it serves the interests of all other members, not because they actually care about the victim.

Rachel Turner2 said:Scrolling back through old posts like an idiot and seeing people blaming Ukraine and the US for this whole mess. 🤣

Russia feels threatened by NATO? 🤣
The same Russia that holds more nukes than anyone else on Earth is actually scared for its safety? John Doe

Have you guys even watched Putin's videos? He straight up denies Ukrainians are even a real nation...

Man, there are some seriously clueless people in this country.

He isn't denying anyone.
Everything actually started with that coup at Maidan back in 2014, which was organized by Albanian pastry chefs and Uruguayan snipers. Forget the CIA or neo-Nazis, it was them. ☕

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/...1fSGvTKkJLWceg

The Canadians are on board too... Russians are getting booted from SWIFT

Dennis Davis8 said:Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah... you're just talking nonsense. 🙂 There's nothing to see because it's all fake news—this whole information war is just the sequel to the COVID-19 intro. Those weather balloons were just one example of how this works, like what happened in Bergamo with those bodies they used to scare everyone... the circus keeps rolling. Sure, the US/Russia conflict is playing out on the Ukraine training ground, but there's no actual destruction or civilian casualties. Even that guy who supposedly died twice once in Kabul and is now in Ukraine is basically serving as a useful idiot. At least nowadays you can actually verify info and connect the dots logically without relying on MSM media. I saw Ursula quoting a pre-packaged pile of sanctions last night, so only an idiot wouldn't see that this is all designed to "knock Russia out of the game" to redistribute power. From what I hear, the stuff being blown up are actually those American biological weapons labs scattered all over Ukraine (and if you look at the Kyiv webcams, everything looks perfectly peaceful), so how does that work? 🤔

View on facebook

Then there are no problems at all. Russia will easily avoid that trap by simply not attacking Ukraine. Only idiots don't realize this is all designed to kick them out of the game so power can be redistributed.

Laura Scott7 said:Everything is going exactly according to the Russian playbook—they’ve basically got total air superiority at this point. Airports are already under control, resistance is looking pretty thin, and tanks are just cruising down the highways like they're out for a Sunday drive through the suburbs. Gaza is practically sitting there with a target on its back, wide open. Honestly, Ukraine doesn't stand a chance anymore, and it's pure madness for Zelenskyy to keep pushing this; he needs to just call it, surrender, and actually try to save what's left of his people's lives.

Mexicans don't seem to grasp the concept of defending one's own territory. They haven't had their own El Paso, their own Lasvanski valley, Ottawa, or Goražde...

It’s perfectly natural for them to flee when faced with an organized military force. That explains why they keep calling for Ukrainians to surrender and why they find heroic resistance so baffling.

☕

brightheron64 said:Honestly, Hmh, it feels like you just have to take a massive detour to avoid reading Index altogether... 👎

At this point, Forum.hr actually ends up being the most reliable source of information out there, and I am being completely serious about that...

Real talk, right now Reddit is the best source out there.

Our people are holding the line
Zelensky isn't interested in sitting at the negotiating table yet
The Ukrainians need more time to properly gear up and coordinate... meanwhile, the Russians have been training for months and rolled in high on adrenaline and ready for action
The Russians aren't going to get the easy win they expected

John Patel6 said:If this war drags on any longer, I’m betting those daily stipends for all you loudmouth Russian trolls on these forums are gonna dry up—and honestly? That’s the dream. We might finally get a chance to catch our breath without you guys constantly breathing down our necks. Seriously, I am so incredibly done with you people.

Look at us now—constantly being fed paid-for lies from the "Soros crowd" in every single aspect of life.

That Ukrainian grit is wide awake—the Russians aren't just going to stroll right in. Honestly, it reminds me of that sheer, stubborn confidence you saw from certain groups back at the start of the American Civil War.

Check out this video—there's an elderly Ukrainian man out there digging a trench right next to one of the main highways in Kyiv.

Terry Hernandez10 said:Residential building struck by projectile

It is quite interesting to observe the specific way they are attempting to strip a sovereign European nation of its legitimacy. 🙂

gentleharbor3 said:Really interesting lecture by American neorealist John Mearsheimer
who visited the University of Chicago back in 2015, about a year and a half after Maidan.
He lays out a very clear, well-argued case
on why the West is actually responsible for what’s happening in Ukraine and explains exactly how everyone played their part.
It’s an easy watch. He breaks down all the necessary elements
needed to grasp the broader context
of the conflict and the competing interests in that part of Europe. If you know English, give it a look...

[/I]

The West is to blame because they act as if life is somehow easier over there than in Russia, especially in the countries caught in Russia's orbit. I think even the pro-Putin Americans see this—after all, not a single member of their families ever headed East looking for a better life; they always looked toward the West.

mistycanyon67 said:I wouldn't call it an ultimatum. There was plenty of time to settle this—to neutralize Ukraine through more peaceful means. I guess Putin just ran out of patience.

I heard the USA didn't react too kindly when weapons were placed right in their backyard 😉 but I suppose those aren't considered ultimatums if the USA starts hysterically reacting?... 🤔

Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. Total rookie mistake.

Richard Wilson4 said:Any word on whether they've actually used them over the last three days?

There are two different versions regarding that strike on the Russian airfield at Millerov: Tochka U and Baryaktar.

gentleharbor3 said:Really interesting lecture by American neorealist John Mearsheimer
who visited the University of Chicago back in 2015, about a year and a half after Maidan.
He lays out a very clear, well-argued case
on why the West is actually responsible for what’s happening in Ukraine and explains exactly how everyone played their part.
It’s an easy watch. He breaks down all the necessary elements
needed to grasp the broader context
of the conflict and the competing interests in that part of Europe. If you know English, give it a look...

[/I]

Do you honestly believe he thinks Russia's current aggression is justified, or that he'd actually defend Putin's latest move?

Richard Wilson4 said:Russia has those same types of separatist areas in Georgia and Moldova.
What kind of excuses are they even using for that?

Check this out

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...1/nato.georgia

Frank Nguyen37 said:This is the perfect spot to grab a quick laugh before heading downtown for coffee. Between the IBM strategists, the armchair experts, and the self-proclaimed war gurus—it’s quite the show!🤣

It's especially hilarious how people claim the Russians are stuck and haven't captured a single significant city. Listen, kids—if you actually look at the Russian push deep into the directions they hit, it was nothing short of the fastest advance in warfare history. Maybe try comparing it to German blitzkriegs or the American invasion of Iraq before drawing conclusions? It beats embarrassing yourselves by parroting propaganda pamphlets from "independent media" or some British Defense Minister whom even Biden wouldn't bother meeting because he's just that irrelevant. Honestly, it's fascinating that there aren't massive casualties yet—thank God for that. The only real carnage I saw was near Kherson, where a 15-kilometer convoy was absolutely wrecked—something the IBM warriors insist were Russian losses. They weren't; those were Ukrainians caught in the crosshairs of Russian airpower.

If only the IBM-tire strategists would actually do some research and realize Russia is currently attacking with only about 30,000 to 40,000 troops, plus maybe 30,000 local rebels (for context, Americans stormed Iraq with over 300,000 and it still took them about three weeks to take Baghdad)...

Look, I hate war. I don't support what Russia is doing (even if, geostrategically speaking, it's a move forced by necessity—otherwise, we'd be talking about the collapse of Russia and the carving up of its remains within a decade or two). But I despise the dishonest West even more—those who wrap their own warmongering and coup-driven nonsense (which is incomparably larger than Russia's) in pretty little propaganda packages about fighting for democracy and human rights. They're basically just showing up in Russia's backyard to cause trouble and stir the pot.

Nicely put.

Russia didn't really have a choice, did they? They had to launch that military operation in Ukraine.

Russian forces are making quick moves in Zaporizhzhia

Man, I guess it doesn't really matter who you believe anymore

Joseph Cruz said:Even those initial sanctions triggered by the situation in Crimea back in 2014 should have, by now, resulted in a total collapse of the Russian economy and sparked a Maidan-style uprising in Moscow. But if all those sanctions haven't yielded results up to this point, can we really expect any new measures to carry significantly more weight?

Sanctions aren't a silver bullet or some kind of magic wand.

They do work, though. The real question is whether they work enough.

It’s a paradox: they actually tend to hit harder in autocratic regimes. Since power is held by a tiny circle of people, they don't necessarily need to worry about public opinion. It's much easier for them to maintain their own lifestyle while the rest of the country suffers economic damage.

Look at South Korea—despite all the pressure, they kept developing nukes. Iran hasn't collapsed either. Both have felt the sting of sanctions, even if they manage to bypass them through gray markets involving China and others.

That said, Russia has a much larger economy and was far more integrated into the West than the others, regardless of how much that changed in recent years.
But that’s a double-edged sword; it means the West ends up hurting its own economy too.

At the end of the day, it's a tool for pressure. A total collapse isn't guaranteed, though there is a chance that economic strain could force a different faction of leadership to step in against Putin, or weaken the military's budget. Even then, it's hard to say how much the state can squeeze its citizens versus the military, or how long they can keep exporting weapons to countries that can navigate the sanction systems.

If sanctions stay in place long enough, and if the West doesn't start pulling them back due to their own economic interests, they will eventually have an effect. You just have to view them as one tool in the toolbox, rather than a standalone solution.

Terry Hernandez10 said:Residential building struck by projectile

If the Russians were anything like the Mexicans, they’d be claiming right now that the Ukrainians did this to themselves with their own rockets.