Wait, hold up. So this massive iron army—this supposed giant of both morale and military might, this beast from Asia and Europe that supposedly planned everything out perfectly for their special operation, accounted for all the sanctions, and hasn't even fully kicked off yet... they have to CROWDFUND their equipment?! I mean, if this keeps up, they'll be crowdfunding firecrackers soon just to scrape out the gunpowder because that's probably all they've got left.
Honestly, calling them orcs is an insult to orcs. At least those guys had a decent supply of swords. I think their menu even expanded for a bit there.
Look, Ukraine is determined to get their land back. If Ukraine *wanted* to give up territory to sign a truce, they could.
But Putin started this war, so he's the one who has to stop it. He needs to pull all his troops out of the sovereign country Ukraine.
The war can end, but that responsibility lies with Putin, not the West. It's on him. Putin is fighting until the very last Russian soldier and whatever foreign troops they manage to mobilize.
Ukraine has zero intention of handing over their land. Besides, nobody can guarantee that the Russians won't just try this again later. The Budapest memorandum was supposed to guarantee Ukraine's independence and freedom—it was a promise from the Russians that they wouldn't mess with Ukraine's territorial integrity or try to fold it into the Russian Federation.
That was just Linak being sarcastic when the Russians first started floating those trial balloons about peace talks. Now, I guess they're moving on to actual bullshit negotiations where they demand unconditional surrender and annexation to mother Russia, along with mass extermination of the population and, oh yeah, wiping out Ukrainian statehood, the language, the people, and the whole culture.
It's funny how they claimed from the start that this was just a NATO proxy war, but now suddenly everyone's saying NATO is right there helping kill Ukrainians by giving them enough gear to surrender so the Russians can just pillage them indefinitely.
Honestly, the mindset in Russia is wild. Claiming that Ukrainians don't even exist and are just Russians, while simultaneously attacking the country... I mean, that's basically just a civil war at that point. 😁
I mean, those are pretty massive losses for something people claim isn't even a full-blown war yet. You'd almost think these are some of the worst equipment losses outside of an actual wartime era... and if you factor in that claim that nothing has even really kicked off yet, I guess you have to wonder how much bigger the losses will actually get? Is the neo-USSR going to lose its entire military in Ukraine? Does that mean some rogue outfit from a place like Chicago could just walk right into Moscow?
Kate Cook27 said:Sanctions are definitely hitting Russia where it hurts, and there’s already talk about a peace deal—but it feels like the West isn't interested in letting Ukrainians find peace just yet. From where I'm sitting, it looks more like the West wants to keep this fight going until there's nothing left to fight with. It's funny how things shift overnight; suddenly the term "war in Ukraine" is being used by people like Lavrov instead of the old "special military operation" label.
That’s the truth. This whole operation is going so "well" that people are starting to call it a full-blown war. They're out there offering deals in places like lower New York and recruiting folks straight from prisons. And like you noticed, now there's all this crying about how the wicked West won't let a peace deal happen with Ukraine (which apparently exists all of a sudden). We probably shouldn't talk about dishonest Lavrov meeting up with the G20 just because he hates being labeled the aggressor. I guess that shows just how ready Russia is for war.
If those sanctions weren't actually starting to bite—and if things didn't already look like they were headed toward an even bigger mess—maybe the Russians wouldn't be acting out so much and begging to have them lifted. I mean, maybe they wouldn't be making all those threats about Kaliningrad, either. They probably wouldn't be threatening massive famines if the sanctions stayed put, either. And honestly, companies like Ford wouldn't have started cranking out cars again that feel like they're straight out of the 1950s, you know, lacking basic stuff like ABS and all that. We wouldn't even have to deal with keeping the currency artificially high by banning ruble sales. And I guess the random forum trolls supporting those Kremlin extremists wouldn't be whining so much about why they aren't making 🙂 .
brightheron64 said:First of all, most of this "news" is pure garbage—nothing more than blatant propaganda.
Secondly, you can sing your battle songs all you want and pin all your hopes on headlines and posts suggesting that someone can just stick a pipe in the ground in Saudi Arabia and watch the oil flow... but everyone seems to be ignoring the massive "shit happens" variable. We're talking about everything from random accidents, like an explosion at an LPG plant in Freeport, to malicious actors like the Iranians who might goad the Houthis into hitting Saudi oil facilities. What lies ahead for us... well, even Vanga wouldn't know (and she’d probably be kicked out of Saudi Arabia for her fortune-telling)... but it’s certainly interesting to see some people still feeling so incredibly secure and carefree...
As for the bickering on this forum, I find it all rather entertaining, which is exactly why I’m spending my weekend servicing three bicycles that have been rotting in my basement for years... 😉
And just try imagining what it's like trying to ride a bike in San Diego. Especially when you're pushing 220 pounds or more... 😬
It’s all fun and games until you try driving an old Opel through Imotski!
The West is honestly just caught off guard here. I mean, nobody actually expected that idiot to pull the trigger on operations, right? Not from regular people, and certainly not from most governments. And what did we get for it? Total chaos. Everyone was so sure the Russians would just stroll into Kyiv in a matter of days and call it a day... but well, here we are. Now, instead of seeing that cocaine-fueled Nazi Jew mentioned in every single breath regarding Ukraine, everyone’s pivoted to this other kind of childish competition—just constant threats about leveling the entire United Kingdom. Like, you really think India or China would back them up after something like that? Probably not. It’d more likely lead to some weird global pseudo-NATO situation where they'd just try to flatten all of Russia.
driftingfox66 said:Funny how their tank crew ads use a photo of a T-90A instead of the old T-62M they'll likely actually be driving. 😂
I mean, they might as well have put pictures of smart TVs and fancy furniture in there too, since that’s basically what’s coming their way. Honestly though, you gotta wonder... if this whole thing is such a perfectly planned operation, then why all the heavy recruiting of prisoners and those super short-term contracts?
I wouldn't say a Jeep Wrangler isn't an off-roader. That's kind of like those people who claim a Mercedes is the only real car and everything else is just a ride. But then again, it's honestly such an impractical vehicle if you aren't driving through some rugged terrain or deep woods somewhere. There's zero space inside and it gulps gas like crazy... I guess you'd basically have to be driving through mud just to make it worth it in the city.
Did Russia actually prepare themselves for sanctions? I mean, they left hundreds of billions sitting in banks and kept pumping money into NS2... They probably expected some backlash, but maybe not this much. Losing over 500 billion practically overnight? That's wild.
Man... That’s a pretty heavy blow, both economically and morally, to Russia. I wonder if this marks the beginning of the end for the Commonwealth of Independent States? Maybe Kazakhstan actually prefers the West over a motherland like Russia that just starts "bombarding" things immediately...
In all seriousness, it's not nothing. When your partner is someone who enjoys attacking their own people and throwing around nuclear threats like some bratty kid, you gotta wonder if any of this even makes sense.
rowdyraven112 said:Of course prices dropped once those 5 million barrels hit the market. My earlier point remains: why would other OPEC members play ball with Europe and the US?
Even reading this—taking the sources with a grain of salt—I can basically thank Putin. By invading Ukraine, he proved exactly how vulnerable the EU is. I'm seeing reports from various nations and the European Council about needing to "reduce dependence on Russian energy"... but there's a logical flaw here. What happens if the countries Europe turns to end up in the same spot as Russia? Let's face it: Saudi Arabia is fighting an open war against Yemen. ☕
To boost their margins, I guess. If a major retail chain disappears from the American market, what happens then? Well, someone else is just gonna step in, whether they buy it out outright or just open more locations themselves. Like how ExxonMobil took over Bill.
If Russian energy vanishes from the EU market, why wouldn't some trader just jump in and offer it? If they don't, they're basically just leaving money on the table.
steelheron25 said:Honestly, isn't he being a bit delusional? I mean, did he really expect anything else after all those threats about nuclear war and literally wiping nations off the map? When you're dealing with the current ruling clique in Russia, does it even make sense to entertain the idea of negotiations? At most, one could imagine a peaceful transfer of power to some semblance of a normal group of people—though, of course, that would require them to first withdraw back to their 1991 borders.
Echo chambers are honestly the worst. At home, you're surrounded by people who just kiss your ass and tell you you're right because they're too scared of getting punished to say otherwise. Then you step out into the real world where you can't just boss people around, you can't even punish them, and what's worse—they don't even have to hang out with you or talk to you at all.
Look, Russia has been under a total media blackout for years... the dominant narrative is so deeply baked into the minds of most Russians, and when you factor in their historical baggage and being used to living under those kinds of conditions, I think it's pretty damn optimistic to think the "people" are actually going to step up and start something. I really hope I'm wrong, but honestly, I doubt it.
And you see a similar vibe in our own backyard—not quite as rigid as what's happening in Russia, but definitely hitting some of the same notes—with Mexico. When you read their news sites and stuff, you feel like you've stepped into another dimension or some parallel reality where all of Europe and the UK are supposedly falling apart, there's chaos everywhere, shortages are rampant, the Russian ruble is king, and basically the entire West is collapsing... meanwhile, Mexico is obviously just playing this super "wise" balancing act... and a huge chunk of the population is totally convinced that's exactly what's happening. It's wild, especially since hundreds of thousands of them are out there working in the US. In Russia, the whole situation is just cranked up to eleven.
I definitely wouldn't pin my hopes on some massive "people's uprising." Unlike pretty much every other socialist state, Russia didn't have that kind of movement back in the 90s... so I really don't believe it's coming now.
At the start of the war, a bunch of their influencers were all out there backing the "special operation." The only funny thing was that they were all saying the exact same stuff, word for word, so someone made this edit where it sounded like six different people were speaking in unison... obviously acting like a choir because they were clearly reading from the same script. If anyone had any doubts about the propaganda before that, well, after seeing that, there shouldn't be any left.
Honestly, it’s not even that far from the truth. I mean, once you start passing laws that force private industry to basically act as an arm of the military—like being forced to supply labor whenever they feel like it—it kind of signals that the whole thing isn't really functioning like a normal country anymore. Maybe it's just me, but it feels pretty sketchy.
So Vladimir Putin is basically claiming they haven't even done anything serious in Ukraine yet, and that the West actually started this whole war instead of them. Like, seriously? 😁 If nothing "serious" has even started, then I guess there are way too many dead people for a statement like that to make any sense.
It’s kinda funny to me how the people here pushing the Russian agenda love using phrases like "she decided," "they're bombing," or "exactly" and stuff like that 🙂
Man, we’re getting pretty close to that point where people might actually start saying the USA won the Cold War just because they decided to back off out of the goodness of their hearts... I guess.
