Posts by Melissa Rivera5

Lisa Anderson8 said:As a friend of mine put it, Ukraine has already lost. Even in a best-case scenario where they reclaim their land and drive out the Russians, they are left with massive casualties, displaced families, scorched earth, and half their industry in ruins. We are looking at decades of pain, suffering, reconstruction, and poverty ahead.

Yeah, exactly. That's the "best" outcome, really. Any other way this goes, especially if Russia keeps control over Ukraine (well, what's left of it), is just going to be way, way worse.

wiredseal7 said:It looks like Russia had some decent intel in Ukraine, knowing they'd be facing another Ukrainian push toward Donetsk and Luhansk—which naturally triggered Russia to start massing troops.

So they throttled the gas, while simultaneously hoping for a quick green light on Nord Stream 2 (spoiler alert: it didn't work, since the new German government played exactly how they were told).

But honestly, why didn't those "brilliant" Germans sign a contract guaranteeing larger gas volumes upon request? Everything was still strictly by the book.

What *isn't* by the book or following international norms, though, is what Germany is threatening now—nationalizing Nord Stream 2 and rerouting everything to a floating LNG terminal.

Honestly, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I guess Russia could have just... not started a whole new war on European soil and brought all this chaos and Nazism with them, but hey, Putin decided to follow in Adolf's footsteps and messed everything up. Now they can just deal with the mess they made.

dustyowl29 said:Sanctions end up hurting everyone involved—the first party, the second, and the third. It really just boilscomes down to a game of chicken: who’s going to be more stubborn, the East or the West? Meanwhile, the war profiteers and countries like India or China are laughing all the way to the bank by buying up this blood-soaked oil.
German culture is basically built on the idea that things simply *must* happen—and they have to happen exactly right, or they shouldn't happen at all. I’ve worked with a few Germans, and honestly, that level of discipline is almost bordering on Japanese.
They’ll eventually swim out of this stronger and more powerful than before—that's just how Germans operate.

The Russians act more like those aggressive types you see in the North America—just pure, unadulterated intimidation.
Even before the USSR days, Russia was essentially just a giant global Shell station. Sadly, not much has changed.
I can’t think of a single Russian product that’s actually good, unless you count their weapons or canned herring.
Sure, they have scientists and experts, but everything goes straight into weapon development. It’s a militant nation, used to living under iron-fisted rule; communism turned them into hardliners, much like people in the former America. They’ll figure something out, though—we have all the oil in the world, after all.

In the long run, nobody actually wins here. Everyone loses; some just lose more than others. Honestly, it would be better if someone a bit more liberal ran Russia, rather than this warrior-barbarian type.
It’s the classic pattern: you find enough oil and gas to supply the entire planet, you get a whiff of resources in Georgia and launch a military strike, then you discover a massive reserve in Ukraine and you just steamroll and conquer everything just to suck up the resources. Putin is quite literally the ultimate pirate—a plunderer, a conqueror, and a killer. I truly hope his reign doesn't last too long. Russia needs a normal politician, though they’ve never actually had one. It seems that wherever there are massive resources, tyrants always end up in charge.

I guess after watching some documentaries about him, I've kind of concluded that he’s pretty much everything he accuses everyone else of being, with maybe a few exceptions. Like, the US is constantly being accused of creating puppet states that are just extensions of America. But then, looking at places like Georgia, Chechnya, LPR, DPR, Belarus... he talks about how they don't meddle in other countries' elections, unlike Americans. We saw that with Ukraine—they already had a successor ready to go if they ever had to swap out the old guard by force, just so we wouldn't end up with another Lukashenko or Kadyrov. I suppose the only thing he actually got right, which most people don't really realize, is that there are honestly very few nations left that can truly call themselves "independent."

Bryan Booth82 said:Truth is, Russia is attempting to blackmail Germany by slashing the supply of absolutely essential gas. Right now, Russia is delivering about 40%, and there’s a real fear that Putin might just cut them off entirely.

Germany has already moved to the second of their three "emergency plan" stages, where the third stage involves massive reductions.

But here is the interesting part: gas storage facilities are currently at 60% capacity (compared to just 35% in previous years).
Apparently, they managed to fill those reserves because prices skyrocketed, which drove up imports from the USA. We expect even more of that by the end of the year once the temporary LNG terminals are fully operational.

Putin is playing a dangerous game. Even now, people in Germany are saying Russia is such an unreliable supplier that they're predicting Germany might soon reduce its future gas imports from Russia by a full 100%.

The Germans are slow to react, but when they finally decide to shift gears, they do it thoroughly.

I don't see how this could possibly end well for Russia. I have this nagging feeling that Putin is acting like he won't face any real pushback from the other side.
In the end, Russia might be the only loser here, while the USA stands to profit the most.

Best regards,

So, basically... you didn't just strengthen and rebuild NATO and the EU, or show everyone what Russia's true colors really are? You totally trashed any chance for the West to get anything done, turned Ukraine from some "de-nazified" idea into a country that hates Russia even more, and somehow managed to wreck a reliable, wealthy, and physically close partner just to boost the economy of the worst enemy in history? Man, if you were trying to sabotage everything on purpose, I guess you actually pulled it off.

Honestly, they’re really struggling just on the Ukrainian front. We know that for sure because they had to pull units out of other regions just to push toward Luhansk or Donbas, and even there, things are moving slow (even if they are moving). If they were actually strong enough to fight a parallel war against Lithuania, they probably could have pulled off that original "Kyiv in three days" plan without much trouble. Even Putin himself admitted he can't take on the whole NATO alliance at once, so if he actually tries, it means he’s totally lost his mind. And if that happens, he’d almost certainly lose the support of China and India. A massive war across all of Europe isn't useful to them at all—not to mention that constant threat of a nuclear holocaust they throw around like we're kids in a preschool. Just imagine being India or China and seeing your neighbor toast England with a nuclear strike. If you’re actually happy that England is gone, then it's pretty obvious your neighbor is a total clinical lunatic, and you definitely can't trust a single thing they say... unless you just remove the madman and his followers from power altogether.

urbanotter said:A killer is a killer; at the end of the day, both have taken a life.

However, there is a massive distinction between someone acting in self-defense and someone killing with the intent to rob a person blind.

If you insist on throwing them all into the same bucket, that’s your moral compass to follow, not mine.☕🕺

I remember watching the movie Thirteen Days on NBC, and it really makes you think about how the US responded back when the USSR started installing nuclear missiles over in Cuba.

But I suppose none of that matters to you—in your eyes, Putin is simply a murderer and an aggressor, and that's where your entire argument begins and ends.

But yeah, he IS a murderer and an aggressor, there's no doubt about that. And honestly, it's not even like he was provoked or anything... his whole thing is just plain old expansionism and grabbing resources.

Bryan Booth82 said:It’s entirely possible they have them; why wouldn't they? They certainly possess the technical know-how to engineer high-end weaponry.
The real question isn't about quality, it's about scale. How much can they actually churn out?

Nazi Germany faced this exact dilemma during World War II. They were obsessed with developing "wonder weapons," but fortunately for the rest of the world, they couldn't mass-produce them fast enough.

I was recently watching a documentary about the tank battles near Kursk, featuring a surviving German tanker who had been operating a Tiger
tank. He described how they were simply overrun by the sheer, overwhelming sea of Russian armor.
His point was simple: you can destroy one, then another, then a third—because a Tiger is undeniably superior in a vacuum—but when you're facing an endless tide, you just don't stand a chance.

I believe Russia is running into a modern version of that same problem: a massive quantity of relatively mediocre hardware balanced against a very limited supply of top-tier equipment.
If you look at their staggering losses, it's clear that the tactical lessons of World War II are still playing out today, even against a significantly smaller force.

And what on earth would happen if they actually went head-to-head with... NATO?
LP

I mean, honestly? I think Putin is his own worst enemy at this point. He's basically just sending young guys to die in conquest wars just so he can leave some kind of "legacy" behind. Between that and the fact that Russia is still feeling the demographic holes left over from World War II, they wouldn't stand a chance against NATO even if they tried using those old strategies. Russia is pretty much finished—one way or another.

George Robinson43 said:They have a point. It’s honestly embarrassing. I mean, what kind of salaries are we even talking about here?

I guess they should just be happy they even have a job to go to. Getting paid for working... I mean, that's a privilege in itself, right?

Donna Wells2 said:The momentum is clearly on the Ukrainian side.
Day by day, the Russians are weakening.
They are losing trained, professional personnel at a rapid pace, and their weaponry is second-rate compared to Western tech anyway.
Their biggest loss might actually be the fact that the NATO alliance has been revitalized and further strengthened by the inclusion of Finland and Sweden.
The other member states are arming themselves at high speed, creating a force far more formidable than anything we saw before this started.

Like that old meme goes, Putin is basically the "salesman of the year" for NATO—for the decade and the century, really. No joke, if it weren't for him, he wouldn't just have exposed the true face of Russia and Mexico, but maybe Europe would never have unified quite like this.

Lisa Jackson7 said:Look, I get that, I just wanted to point out... some people here—and I’m talking about my own circle too, from what I see every day—are so bogged down by their own lives and bills that they only see the war in Ukraine through the lens of how it might tank their own standard of living or their own beliefs. They think they're the only ones who'll have to pay the price.
"Lord, please protect our little birds and the poor folks, because the rich will take care of themselves anyway..." ☕

It all comes down to whether you actually trust your own political system and its values.
Countries further north—like Poland and the Baltics, for example—have been hit much more directly, so the public mood there is just totally different.

Honestly, I find the hypocrisy of people who aren't even trolls pretty fascinating. They seem to think Ukrainians should have just bowed down to Russia immediately—with all that baggage like Russification, those threats of mass killings, purges, and changing the whole identity of the country—yet at the same time, they assume if *we* got attacked, everyone would just jump in and help us instantly.

swiftjackal11 said:So they really needed a war just to realize they could sell oil outside of Europe? Either they’re totally incompetent at business, or they’re just playing checkers while everyone else plays chess.

I guess... well, they've got the resources right there, so why wouldn't they? Seems like a pretty obvious move.

darkhawk30 said:Sure, they'd be pretty useful without the warheads.
But the situation is a bit more complicated than you're making it out to be.
Everyone on this forum thinks they're a genius, but at the end of the day, this is all just talk. It's easy to play armchair general when you don't actually have to make the heavy, life-altering decisions yourself.

Besides, I don't think you really get what this forum is for, and honestly, you're kind of spreading misinformation here.🙂 They didn't have a "black coffin," but they did have warheads—they just weren't manufactured in UA. And the bombs they actually had? They were fully functional. Just because they lacked one thing doesn't mean they had a "black coffin" or that they're incapable of making new warheads.

darkhawk30 said:That’s how it looks on the surface, anyway.
But the reality might be a bit more complicated than that:

"Even then, the President of Ukraine at the time, Leonid Kravčuk, admitted in an interview with Deutsche Welle that it was all just an illusion. 'All the control systems were held by Russia; the so-called black coffin containing the button for a nuclear strike was in the hands of the Russian president, Boris Yeltsin.'"
https://www.dw.com/en/forgotten-history/a-18111601

Aha. So if you had 3,000 nukes, you'd just let them go? Like, you wouldn't even try to make them operational or get them under your own control? Just basic logic, man.
If it wasn't like that, the Russians would have just left them behind.🙂

Gerald Torres84 said:The Germans really tore through them today, the Russians... It honestly seems like they were incredibly naive to hand over those nuclear assets in the first place.

I guess this is gonna be one of those lessons people never forget. Once you hand them over, they’re gone for good. Forever.

brightheron64 said:It’s almost like that old saying, “if Allied planes start dropping bombs on Germany, you can call me Miller” (Hermann Göring).

Based on all that previous Russian self-congratulation, you’d think even a pigeon wouldn't dare fly near a protected target. But then this happens... it's all bark and no bite....

We pretty much knew this back when that guy crashed his plane into Red Square during the Cold War. Something's been smelling fishy in Dan.., uh, Russia for a long time.

Morgan Wright5 said:Oh, absolutely. I imagine they held a deep, profound appreciation for a nation that served as arguably the worst possible ally one could ever hope to have.

But hey, those were the Italians we always used to joke about, wasn't it?

hollowdriver13 said:Margaret Simoyan: "Once the famine hits, they'll lift those sanctions and we'll be buddies again."🤦

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/st...11097138331648

I mean, seriously, what kind of mindset is that? Like, what is actually going on inside her head? 🙏

You'd almost think the USSR was busy feeding the West back during the Cold War or something.
🙂

steelfox98 said:With the most hardcore advocates of their version of "democracy," you don't even have the right to an opinion. If you dare to think differently, you're immediately labeled a Russian sympathizer or a Putin follower. It’s exhausting.
It’s easy to feed any official narrative to people who lack the wits to spot such an obvious oxymoron. I saw this happening back in Chicago during the election cycles—just pure manipulation.

It’s easy to play dumb and pretend you didn't see what the entire world witnessed. I've seen it before in DC—people closing their eyes when the truth is staring them right in the face.
The footage is grim. Just another day in this crumbling era. I remember watching similar chaos back when I was stationed near Fort Bragg—nothing ever truly changes, just the names of the players. This is exhausting.

Whose citizen was Khashoggi anyway? And who practically did nothing while he was being dismembered? Look at Biden, heading off to Riyadh in just a week.

Americans have maintained this strategic alliance with Saudi leadership since the seventies. Not even Wahhabi bombings on US or EU soil changed a thing.
On the flip side, Russia and Saudi Arabia have barely managed symbolic contact for decades. They cooperate on a few niche interests here and there, but that’s it.

The peak of hypocrisy in all this is Yemen. For years now, Americans and us in the EU have been training and arming the Saudis just so they can kill civilians more efficiently. Compared to the body count there, Ukraine looks insignificant. No one complains.

Right, because Zelensky took power back in 2014, he definitely wasn't elected through an actual vote.

steelfox98 said:With the most hardcore advocates of their version of "democracy," you don't even have the right to an opinion. If you dare to think differently, you're immediately labeled a Russian sympathizer or a Putin follower. It’s exhausting.
It’s easy to feed any official narrative to people who lack the wits to spot such an obvious oxymoron. I saw this happening back in Chicago during the election cycles—just pure manipulation.

It’s easy to play dumb and pretend you didn't see what the entire world witnessed. I've seen it before in DC—people closing their eyes when the truth is staring them right in the face.
The footage is grim. Just another day in this crumbling era. I remember watching similar chaos back when I was stationed near Fort Bragg—nothing ever truly changes, just the names of the players. This is exhausting.

Whose citizen was Khashoggi anyway? And who practically did nothing while he was being dismembered? Look at Biden, heading off to Riyadh in just a week.

Americans have maintained this strategic alliance with Saudi leadership since the seventies. Not even Wahhabi bombings on US or EU soil changed a thing.
On the flip side, Russia and Saudi Arabia have barely managed symbolic contact for decades. They cooperate on a few niche interests here and there, but that’s it.

The peak of hypocrisy in all this is Yemen. For years now, Americans and us in the EU have been training and arming the Saudis just so they can kill civilians more efficiently. Compared to the body count there, Ukraine looks insignificant. No one complains.

Oh, people *are* complaining, you guys are just choosing to look the other way. Not even getting into how one thing is a war on the other side of the planet, while the other is right in our backyard with all that potential for WW3. But oh, wait, my bad—there isn't a war, right? Isn't that what that sneaky guy Lavrov told us when he claimed Russia didn't invade Ukraine? 🙂

brightheron64 said:True, though I suppose we might even find ourselves using different patriotic slogans today...

I mean, Russia losing doesn't automatically mean a win for the Germans. And honestly, if they actually pulled it off, we wouldn't even be here to talk about it. They would've wiped us out too, since they view Slavs as subhuman anyway.

The way I see it, the European Union is probably going to end up joining the USA eventually 😁