Posts by Kate Cook27

http://www.twitter.com/europeanMedia...29000370917383

Here’s the word on the mobilization calls happening in Mariupol—all while this so-called "referendum" is still going on 🤣. They’re supposed to show up with their papers and personal belongings by September 29th, following that "partial mobilization" Putin announced
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Boychenko is saying they’ll be mobilizing over 10,000 people, and there’s a real chance the city could be shut down soon. From what I can gather, the number of people allowed to leave the city has dropped significantly. It’s possible only about 20% actually voted in this "referendum"
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http://www.twitter.com/With__Ukraine...23754550624261

Christian Torres3 said:Yeah, and they paired it right with that clip showing those bio-labs developing some special anti-Russian virus.

And we haven't even gotten a look at those high-tech bio-labs yet.🙄.

http://www.twitter.com/IuliiaMendel/...23050632667141

Word is spreading that a bunch of guys have been getting messages telling them to head over to Mariupol on September 29th—bring your documents and personal belongings along, too. 😠

Peskov says they’ll be ready to get back to the negotiating table under new terms once the referendum results are out and the territory is officially annexed by Russia 🙏 🙏.
What a circus.
Honestly, the most beautiful word I've heard all year is de-nazification 😁. In Mariupol, they're basically holding street votes 🤣. They’re expecting a 100% turnout for the referendum—let's just gloss over the fact that about 75% of Mariupol's residents before February 24th aren't even living there anymore.
Still, we should probably aim for peace and just give Putin Donbas—hoping that some other administration takes over eventually, one we can actually talk to. Any leadership coming after Putin is likely just going to demand more anyway.
Another bit of news: someone wrote that Mexicans will soon hold their own referendums to join Mexico. I'm just confused—is this happening in every country where Mexicans live, or is it just this thing in the North America?
The Russians are being somewhat "realistic" here—they just want Ukraine.

Jessica Peterson2 said:Ministry of Internal Affairs - roughly 830,000
Russian National Guard - 450,000
Bureau of Prisons - about 300,000
FBI - approximately 300,000
Federal Intelligence Service - around 50,000
Department of Justice - about 35,000
Federal Investigation Commission - nearly 20,000
U.S. Marshals Service - about 60,000

When you look at the sheer scale of the violence apparatus in Russia—those so-called siloviki—we're talking about over two million military personnel currently on the books.
Seriously, what the hell does Putin need 300,000 ill-equipped reservists with rusty Kalashnikovs for? 🤷
And just to be clear, I’m not even the one asking this; it was Ramzanov's question originally! 😂

🤣. And here I am worrying about Kadyrov—back when the fighting was happening in Mariupol, he was offering money for Prokopenko, and now suddenly Slobodan Prokopenko is free? How does that work? Plus, how are the Russians handling the fact that they let "Nazi" Azov fighters go? Honestly, I think this is just classic Putin tactics—release the Azov guys along with their commanders as a trade for Medvedchuk, then announce a mobilization just to throw some dust in his people's eyes. 🤣 😁.

Rachel Barrett8 said:For those of us who are genuinely terrified of a nuclear catastrophe, there’s a growing feeling that we need to find a way to force Putin to the negotiating table. We have to compel him to actually seek peace, don't we? If we want to avoid the worst-case scenario, shouldn't we be pushing for negotiations at any cost?
Putin isn't interested in sitting down at the negotiating table because he feels untouchable. Now, don't get me wrong—he’s certainly not showing any real strength on the battlefield in Ukraine. Thank God for that, really, since they're just firing blindly in every direction over there. But his real power? It's all happening back home. That's where the core of the problem lies.
It’s pretty wild when you look at the numbers, isn't it? Just because of that massive demand for cheap Russian energy, the EU managed to rake in more profit in just six months than they did during the entire previous year. How does that even happen?

Honestly, bravo. This is exactly how you think if you actually want to get things done. This is how you apply real pressure to a dictator, instead of the complete mess we're dealing with right now. It’s just a total disaster.
If they had just banned the wealthy elites in Russia from leaving the country, things would be looking very different right now. Can you imagine? If those people couldn't just fly off to escape the chaos, they’d actually start worrying about their own kids and families. Once they realized their own lives were on the line, the whole trajectory of the country would have shifted completely. Wouldn't that have changed everything?

So, you drop $9,000 just to make sure your kid gets safely out of the country, while everyone else left behind gets pushed straight into a war zone? And then you have the nerve to sit there and argue that the conflict is actually justified? It’s honestly relentless. It never ends, does it?

If we had shipyards scattered across the US, we would have been forced to pour massive investments into LNG tankers by now. Wouldn't we?
If they had been building that pipeline toward those African states from the start—and if they’d actually worked at the same lightning speed as Nord Stream 2—it would probably be halfway finished by now. Wouldn't it?
Do you ever see politicians like that?
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Energy companies are starting to pull back from their positions in Greece, and honestly, it’s making you wonder what exactly is shifting behind the scenes. It looks like several big players are rethinking their investments there, moving away from certain sectors that used to seem like sure bets. Why the sudden change of heart? You have to look at the broader landscape. The energy market in Europe is incredibly volatile right now, and even though Greece has been a strategic hub for a while, the math just isn't adding up for everyone anymore. Is it about shifting regulations, or are these companies just playing it safe because they can't predict where prices will land next month? It feels like a calculated retreat. When major corporations start pulling out of a specific region, it usually means they’ve spotted a storm on the horizon that the rest of us might be missing. They aren't necessarily running away in a panic, but they are definitely stepping back to reassess. It makes you think: if the giants are pivoting, what does that mean for the smaller players left holding the bag?

So, how exactly is everyone supposed to get their hands on cheap oil when every single country in the EU is basically running a side hustle with Russia? It’s become the new normal, hasn't it? They're all cutting deals behind the scenes, and we're just meant to act like it's business as usual. Honestly, does anyone really believe this kind of maneuvering is going to do anything to stop Putin?
So, they’re just going to keep transferring oil from tanker to tanker, and we're supposed to call that "policy"? I honestly don't know. Are we even counting Greece and Turkey as part of the "West" anymore? I mean, sure, they're in NATO, but that doesn't tell the whole story. That’s exactly why I said there isn't one unified "Western" strategy aimed at actually neutralizing the aggression against Ukraine. If we can't get on the same page, how are we ever going to be effective?

So... what exactly is this "peace proposal" supposed to look like?

It feels like there's some sort of deal struck between the USA and Russia just to tear Europe apart 🙄?

Is Putin going to call for a mobilization referendum in the name of democracy? Or maybe a referendum on who actually wants to stop being part of the Russian Federation?

Here’s what some of the "geniuses" are saying about Putin's strategy:
Once those "referendums" wrap up and they annex those territories to Russia, Putin is going to offer to let the Ukrainian military pull back from Russian soil 🙏 🤣. If they don't take the deal, he'll call for the total destruction of Ukraine—meaning everything from civilian infrastructure to whatever else can be leveled. That's the grand design, and supposedly, Russia wins 🙄.

jadetinker85 said:Spot on. You nailed it. 👍 If it's all a show, why the sudden outcry over mobilization? They should go to Ukraine and film it themselves. Trolling Russia on a Russian forum is a bold move. 🙏

Why do they think Ukrainians are stupid?

Well, they turned their backs on Russia for the Evil West, and now they're actually fighting them (acting as if Russia was the one invaded and the war is happening inside Russia 🙄). Now that this mobilization is hitting, everyone’s panicking—and naturally, they blame "stupid Ukrainians" for not just surrendering. It’s funny, though—at the start, everyone was so upbeat and full of hope, but lately, that energy has just... faded.

gentlerider7 said:They’re actually thinking about banning people from leaving Russia

"So, get this—this senator over there, Sergej Cekov, is out here suggesting that anyone fit for military service should be barred from even stepping foot outside of Russia because of this whole partial mobilization mess. He dropped that bombshell during an interview with RIA Novosti.

According to this guy in the legislature, the only way you'd be allowed to travel abroad is if you had some serious health issues or if you were just physically incapable of serving in the military. Can you imagine?

Then you’ve got Senator Andrei Klishas weighing in on what Tsekovljev is proposing.

Klishas says his colleague isn't just stopping at travel bans, either; he’s also pushing to jack up those fines for dodging a mobilization call from a measly 3,000 rubles all the way up to 50,000 rubles, while basically hinting that they might start looking into actual criminal charges too. Talk about going full throttle, right?

https://www-gazeta-ru.translate.goog..._x_tr_pto=wapp

I thought this was a mistake, but it isn't 😲.

Kimberly Perez82 said:That’s basically how I—and honestly, pretty much the rest of the world—see it. That is the heavy price of making a deal. Once that's done, the goal should be to cripple Russia's economy until they have no choice but to agree to voluntary nuclear disarmament, just so we don't find ourselves staring down the barrel of a situation like this ever again. In my view, China isn't acting quite as irrationally; they won't let themselves get backed into a corner like this. It's Russia that stands as the singular danger.

The Compromise was Crimea.

mistyharbor13 said:Oh, absolutely. Giving in and "playing nice" with guys like Putin and his crew has worked out so incredibly well every single time... I mean, look at the results! I guess if we kept making concessions, Putin would probably just stop at annexing parts of Ukraine. But honestly, tomorrow he might just decide it’s a great idea to march right into the rest of Ukraine or Moldova and claim those as "eternal territories" too. And after that? He’d move on to the next former Warsaw Pact country on his list. He threatens us with nukes every chance he gets, and hey, why shouldn't he if it keeps working? But I guess I'm just the crazy one here for trying to argue with his troll. 🙄

Back in 2014, they grabbed Crimea and claimed they weren't interested in anything else in Ukraine. Fast forward eight years, and now they want Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson too. Plus, Denis Pushilin keeps hinting that Odessa will eventually go back to Russia, and that Kyiv is basically the heart of the Russian world. At this rate, they'll be knocking on someone else's door in five years.

Joshua Myers432 said:Think of this as a high-stakes poker game. We'll find out pretty soon who's bluffing and who's playing for keeps.🎉

Putin has basically pushed all his chips into the middle, but his opponents haven't followed suit—he's just throwing guesses at the wall. So many rounds have passed where he's made a move and missed completely. If he hasn't learned his lesson by now, I don't know what else to tell you.

Carol Johnson21 said:So, your argument is that if we give in now, they won't remember they have nukes to use as leverage for the next century? And we should just dance around them, hoping they stay happy and promise not to sell any warheads to anyone else?
Really.🤦

People panicking over nukes clearly have a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.☕
Ignore.
The nuclear card is the only thing left for those clinging to the losing side.

If we give in now, they’ll be right back at our doorstep in 5 or 10 years. Until that Russian ideology changes, there's no fix for this—no cure. They view Ukraine as theirs, plain and simple, along with several other countries in their so-called "sphere of influence." If their military were actually any better and they'd hit their targets, NATO would be retreating all the way back to the 1997 borders by now. Russian politicians have been talking about this for 15 years. It's just that their military is currently second-best in Ukraine, so they can't demand much of what they originally wanted.

Kimberly Perez82 said:I'm actually afraid it's the other way around—that you’re the one who hasn't learned anything. Take the Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance; back then, hotheads on both sides nearly wiped out the entire planet. Personally, if there were a spare planet floating around somewhere, I wouldn't mind at all if your sidekicks just tore each other apart until nothing was left. If your only goal is to be the last ones standing, even if everything else burns down, then fine. But that kind of selfish, "my way or the highway" attitude is exactly what drives us into these irrational, dangerous situations we find ourselves in today.

Look, this isn't the Cuban Missile Crisis—this is the 1930s all over again.

Larry Sanchez7 said:As far as the language goes, I think both sound good, though I definitely understand Russian better than Ukrainian...

I've been watching clips on YouTube where people are flat-out refusing to speak Russian after the invasion, even though they used to use it all the time...

And from what I know, a huge part of Ukraine uses what they call Surzhyk, which is basically this blend of Russian and Ukrainian...

You hear it most in the areas between Kyiv and the east, like Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv...

Yeah, a lot of folks are moving away from Russian now, even the older generations. Surzhik is basically the standard way of talking in much of Ukraine 😁.

Carol Johnson21 said:A tactical nuclear strike might be the only scenario we can call a certainty right now.
If that happens, the West will lose every single shred of moral high ground used to justify withholding the tools Ukrainians need to defend themselves.

The real weak link? It’s those self-righteous Westerners who will view a nuclear move as definitive proof that Putin isn't bluffing—concluding, therefore, that we should just let him have his way.
In reality, the true vulnerability Putin is exploiting is the pampered class of Westerners: the ones who paradoxically claim to despise Western "decadence" while being the very people responsible for its collapse in the first place.

I keep coming back to this when I write about how likely a tactical scenario is—it all boils down to whether Putin thinks he can force everyone to walk away from the war by dropping a nuke somewhere. Sure, it could end the fighting, but it would be a fake peace. Russia would just come back later—plus, it sends a message to plenty of other countries that they can start wars and grab territory whenever they want. It reminds me of how people once tried to negotiate with Hitler, which just ended in millions of deaths. Has anyone actually learned anything? We saw the same thing with Crimea—everyone just looked the other way. I don't know how many politicians realize that giving in to an aggressor just invites more violence. You buy peace today, but you pay for much worse unrest tomorrow.
The best deterrent right now might be the idea that Russia will get too distracted by its own mess—especially with this mobilization stuff going on. I was reading about a village where literally every man has been drafted.

Christian Barnes said:Speaking of language, I feel like Ukrainians bear some responsibility here too, you know? They kind of let the Ukrainian language slide for a while. Even after 2014, if you were looking online—say, a foreigner wanting to pick up some Ukrainian—there was hardly anything out there. Meanwhile, the Russians had already built those massive, polished websites, like that RT network. It was confusing even on TV sometimes; you couldn't tell if people were speaking Russian or Ukrainian. I mean, didn't some people even point out that Zelenskyy speaks Russian in his service to the people?

I agree there have been mistakes since 2014, but hey, it’s never too late to fix things. I'm all for phasing out Russian as a gesture of goodwill toward switching over to Ukrainian. Mind you, we're talking about centuries of attempts to suppress the Ukrainian language, so it won't happen overnight. Still, I really believe that in 5 or 10 years, Russian speakers will be a tiny minority. As for Zelenskyy—he uses both, but personally, I think Ukrainian is much more melodic and beautiful; it has its own distinct sound 😁. A lot of people have already stopped using Russian, and I bet as the war moves forward, that trend will only grow. People from Donbas, Kharkiv, and Kherson just don't want to use Russian anymore. If there's any "Russophobia" happening, you can only blame the Russians for that, and nobody else.

Kimberly Perez82 said:It is all very easy for you people to act brave when it involves risking someone else's children. Honestly, it’s quite something how much everyone suddenly cares about the democracy of some distant country—a place most of you couldn't even point to on a map six months ago. I will say it again: this is absolutely not the moment for the hawks who would happily sacrifice foreign kids for the sake of a hollow concept of democracy that doesn't truly exist anywhere. No, what we need right now is common sense, extreme caution, and a genuine push for compromise so we don't all end up facing a global catastrophe. The only logical path forward is to provide Putin with a way to step back without looking like a complete loser.

Exactly. Ukraine is corrupt, and honestly, thanks to Putin for stepping in to clean up the mess left behind by Russian players who built that corruption in the first place.

Carol Johnson21 said:They aren't lunatics; this is just propaganda manufactured for domestic and international consumption.
Isn't it grotesque that so many Westerners support, or claim to be "neutral" toward, a state threatening them with nuclear annihilation?
If the roles were reversed, how much empathy would Russians show for such threats?

In that light, the wave of Russian emigration into Europe is actually quite concerning to me.

Yesterday, Professor Barić shared some rather intriguing insights during his "Weekly Interview." He also harbors doubts about whether anyone can truly stand up to Vladimir Putin. But the most fascinating point was his discussion regarding "national grief over the collapse of the USSR"—essentially, most Russians haven't quite swallowed the idea of losing territories from the former union. He even labeled Navalny as a nationalist (remember the stance on Crimea?), who is now wisely remaining silent on the matter.

He also noted that the idea that this war benefits Americans is fundamentally flawed. The US was trying to keep Putin at bay while marking China as their primary global rival. With this sudden excursion into Ukraine, the US finds itself facing two fronts simultaneously—something they certainly didn't need.

It isn't true that this war serves the interests of the USA.

He emphasized that the notion of this war benefiting the USA is incorrect.

- Joe Biden primarily wanted to focus on China, which is why he offered Vladimir Putin a "status quo" back in the summer of 2021. They didn't want Russia meddling in what America considers its number one adversary. Now, the US will be forced to fight on two fronts—against Russia and against China—and that comes with a massive price tag, according to Barić.

Unfortunately, I think he's right. It feels like nobody is thinking outside the box anymore; everyone seems disconnected from reality. It's like no one realizes they're being fed this narrative on TV about how the DLNR is at war with Ukraine, or how people in the referendums claim they don't want to be part of the Russian Federation. That could have been an exit strategy, but they aren't playing it that way. There's a certain level of fear here because of what Putin might reach for next. Personally, I'm convinced that if Putin thinks he can get away with it, he'd be ready to drop a nuke on Zaporizhzhia. He doesn't think like we do—and honestly, I suspect he hasn't had a clear picture of the situation for a long time. He's likely been getting bad intel, which explains the mobilization mess. Putin is just following the same path as every other leader who came before him.