January 6, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, Peter_Schmuck said: You're becoming a woman? That tuna boat has long since sailed
January 7, 20233 yr LINK Quote Vladimir Putin’s struggling troops have started to use the dead bodies of fallen soldiers to create "makeshift walls” to protect themselves from the enemy Ukrainian forces, RadarOnline.com has learned. The shocking revelation comes as Russia’s death count recently surpassed 100,000 and as 300,000 more Russian soldiers are reported to have suffered "life-changing” injuries on the frontlines of Ukraine. Even more shocking are reports indicating Putin ordered the bodies of fallen Russian soldiers to be left on the battlefield rather than transported home to receive proper military funerals. According to Kyrylo Budanov, who serves as a top official within Ukraine's military intelligence division, certain areas of Ukraine have been described as "human meat grinders” due to the startling number of bodies left there by both sides of the ongoing conflict. "Soldiers showed me a section where dead bodies are piled up like something you would see in a movie,” Budanov recently told ABC News. "There are hundreds of dead bodies just rotting away in the open field,” he continued, "in places they are piled on top of other bodies like makeshift walls, when Russian troops attack on that field they use those bodies for cover, like a shield.” "But it's not working,” Budanov explained, "there are actual fields of dead bodies there.” Budanov also revealed that although the war between Russia and Ukraine has been taking place for almost one full year, he does not predict the conflict ending anytime soon. He also expects Ukraine to ramp up their offensives against Russia in the coming months, particularly in March when Ukraine is planning a "huge push.” "This is when we will see liberation of territories and dealing the final defeats to the Russian Federation,” Budanov told ABC News. "This will happen throughout Ukraine, from Crimea to the Donbas." "Our goal, and we will achieve it, is returning to the borders of 1991, like Ukraine is recognized by all subjects of international law,” he continued. "Russia is not a military threat to the world anymore, just a tall tale.” "[Russia is] a terrorist country swinging a nuclear bat at everyone and spewing threats. Not a regime that has an ethical or political right to be in control of weapons of mass destruction.” As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Putin recently suffered his largest loss yet over the weekend when 700 troops were targeted and killed in a missile strike in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s defense minister has since blamed the now-deceased troops for the strike because the soldiers were allegedly using their cell phones before the attack took place.
January 8, 20233 yr Interesting moves here in the Nordics today in the press. Finland says they are perfectly happy to wait for Sweden to get final approval for NATO. They do that via their Foreign Minister at a defense meeting in Sweden with Stoltenberg in attendance. At the same time, the Swedish Prime Minister explains today that Sweden can't/won't meet the current Turkish demands and that the ball is now with Erdogan (note: many concessions have already been made). This is all posturing to basically tell Erdogan to get on with it. Erdogan seems to be holding out until the Turkish general election in a few months time and using the Finland/Sweden NATO situation as a political topic to help him. Best bet is that we don't get Finland/Sweden formally in NATO until after the Turkish election.
January 9, 20233 yr On 1/6/2023 at 5:52 PM, Mlodj said: Ouch. We are watching a former superpower crumble. Good.
January 9, 20233 yr More than 600 Ukrainian troops killed in ‘retaliation operation’ – Moscow Quote More than 600 of Kiev’s troops have been eliminated in a Russian missile strike in the Ukrainian-held city of Kramatorsk in the Donbass, Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed. The bombardment on Sunday was a "retaliation operation” carried out in response to "a criminal attack” by Ukraine on a temporary housing area accommodating Russian servicemen in the city of Makeyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on New Year’s night, the ministry said in a statement. Over the past 24 hours, the Russian military has managed to uncover and confirm the location of Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk in the DPR, the statement read. This data revealed that dormitory No.28 in the city was hosting more than 700 Kiev soldiers, with 600 more staying in dormitory No.47. "As a result of a massive missile attack on these temporary housing areas of the Ukrainian military’s units, more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed,” the ministry said. The Ukrainian military, however, has denied sustaining heavy casualties as a result of the strikes. A spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of Ukrainian Armed Forces, Sergey Cherevaty, dismissed Moscow’s statement as a "psy-op” intended to distract from Russia’s own heavy losses of equipment and personnel. Russian military issues update on deadly Ukrainian strike Read more Russian military issues update on deadly Ukrainian strike On January 1, at precisely 0:01am, Ukrainian forces targeted a temporary housing area containing Russian troops in the city of Makeyevka. Six missiles from a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher were fired at the building. Two of them were intercepted by Russian air defenses, but four made it through, causing massive damage to the facility. The death toll from the strike has reached 89, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Earlier this week, Moscow said several HIMARS systems operated by Ukraine had been destroyed in Donbass, including the launcher that was used in the strike on Makeyevka. The strike on Kramatorsk took place following a 36-hour truce announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow Orthodox Christians, who make up the majority of the population in Russia and Ukraine, could go to church and celebrate Christmas safely. The ceasefire by Russian forces was unilateral, and the Ukrainian military continued to shell multiple areas in the newly incorporated Russian territories of Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, Moscow said.
January 9, 20233 yr There is zero propaganda Moscow puts out that you don't eat up like a good lapdog.
January 9, 20233 yr 3 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: There is zero propaganda Moscow puts out that you don't eat up like a good lapdog. Says the guy who posts every single piece of Ukrainian BS since the conflict began. Even after those sources are shown to be complete nonsense, he repeats their latest crap with the sincerity of a monk. Since the liars of Ukraine deny the truth, as a good little Banderaite, you will see whatever you're told to see.
January 9, 20233 yr 6 minutes ago, Abracadabra said: Says the guy who posts every single piece of Ukrainian BS since the conflict began. Even after those sources are shown to be complete nonsense, he repeats their latest crap with the sincerity of a monk. Since the liars of Ukraine deny the truth, as a good little Banderaite, you will see whatever you're told to see. I felt bad about about calling you a butt based solely on my initial impression of you, so I checked Wikipedia and the cited reference and, well, sure enough... you're a butt. A confirmed butt.
January 9, 20233 yr Time is not on Ukraine’s side Quote Vladimir Putin remains fully committed to bringing all of Ukraine back under Russian control or — failing that — destroying it as a viable country. He believes it is his historical destiny — his messianic mission — to reestablish the Russian Empire and, as Zbigniew Brzezinski observed years ago, there can be no Russian Empire without Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Biden shared their hopes for peace between Russia and Ukraine in a news conference on Dec. 21. (Video: The Washington Post) Both of us have dealt with Putin on a number of occasions, and we are convinced he believes time is on his side: that he can wear down the Ukrainians and that U.S. and European unity and support for Ukraine will eventually erode and fracture. To be sure, the Russian economy and people will suffer as the war continues, but Russians have endured far worse. For Putin, defeat is not an option. He cannot cede to Ukraine the four eastern provinces he has declared part of Russia. If he cannot be militarily successful this year, he must retain control of positions in eastern and southern Ukraine that provide future jumping-off points for renewed offensives to take the rest of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, control the entire Donbas region and then move west. Eight years separated Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its invasion nearly a year ago. Count on Putin to be patient to achieve his destiny. Meanwhile, although Ukraine’s response to the invasion has been heroic and its military has performed brilliantly, the country’s economy is in a shambles, millions of its people have fled, its infrastructure is being destroyed, and much of its mineral wealth, industrial capacity and considerable agricultural land are under Russian control. Ukraine’s military capability and economy are now dependent almost entirely on lifelines from the West — primarily, the United States. Absent another major Ukrainian breakthrough and success against Russian forces, Western pressures on Ukraine to negotiate a cease-fire will grow as months of military stalemate pass. Under current circumstances, any negotiated cease-fire would leave Russian forces in a strong position to resume their invasion whenever they are ready. That is unacceptable. Post Opinions provides commentary on the war in Ukraine from columnists with expertise in foreign policy, voices on the ground in Ukraine and more. Columnist David Ignatius covers foreign affairs. His columns have broken news on new developments around the war. He also answers questions from readers. Sign up to follow him. Iuliia Mendel, a former press secretary for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, writes guest opinions from inside Ukraine. She has written about trauma, Ukraine’s "women warriors” and what it’s like for her fiance to go off to war. Columnist Fareed Zakaria covers foreign affairs. His columns have reviewed the West’s strategy in Ukraine. Sign up to follow him. Columnist Josh Rogin covers foreign policy and national security. His columns have explored the geopolitical ramifications of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Sign up to follow him. Columnist Max Boot covers national security. His columns have encouraged the West to continue its support for Ukraine’s resistance. Sign up to follow him. 1/6 End of carousel The only way to avoid such a scenario is for the United States and its allies to urgently provide Ukraine with a dramatic increase in military supplies and capability — sufficient to deter a renewed Russian offensive and to enable Ukraine to push back Russian forces in the east and south. Congress has provided enough money to pay for such reinforcement; what is needed now are decisions by the United States and its allies to provide the Ukrainians the additional military equipment they need — above all, mobile armor. The U.S. agreement Thursday to provide Bradley Fighting Vehicles is commendable, if overdue. Because there are serious logistical challenges associated with sending American Abrams heavy tanks, Germany and other allies should fill this need. NATO members also should provide the Ukrainians with longer-range missiles, advanced drones, significant ammunition stocks (including artillery shells), more reconnaissance and surveillance capability, and other equipment. These capabilities are needed in weeks, not months. Increasingly, members of Congress and others in our public discourse ask, "Why should we care? This is not our fight.” But the United States has learned the hard way — in 1914, 1941 and 2001 — that unprovoked aggression and attacks on the rule of law and the international order cannot be ignored. Eventually, our security was threatened and we were pulled into conflict. This time, the economies of the world — ours included — are already seeing the inflationary impact and the drag on growth caused by Putin’s single-minded aggression. It is better to stop him now, before more is demanded of the United States and NATO as a whole. We have a determined partner in Ukraine that is willing to bear the consequences of war so that we do not have to do so ourselves in the future. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech before Congress last month reminded us of Winston Churchill’s plea in February 1941: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” We agree with the Biden administration’s determination to avoid direct confrontation with Russia. However, an emboldened Putin might not give us that choice. The way to avoid confrontation with Russia in the future is to help Ukraine push back the invader now. That is the lesson of history that should guide us, and it lends urgency to the actions that must be taken — before it is too late. The OG neocon warmongers are getting nervous.
January 9, 20233 yr Time is running out on Russia, they cannot keep up with the West. Keep posting propaganda though dude.
January 9, 20233 yr 7 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: Time is running out on Russia, they cannot keep up with the West. Keep posting propaganda though dude. It's not as if the price of oil was trading well above this "cap" and then fell when it was implemented. The oil is trading at a price irrespective of the "cap." Neither China, India, Japan, Turkiye and many others adhere to the West's schemes for price fixing. We'll see what the price is once China fully opens up for business.
January 10, 20233 yr How's the dog wagging in Europe going? Mexico is heating up too. Weather is nicer in the winter...
January 10, 20233 yr Russia Backs Law Banning Accurate Maps as Extremist Material https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-backs-law-banning-accurate-maps-as-extremist-material Quote The Russian government has backed a legislative amendment that would classify any map that disputed the country’s "territorial integrity” as extremist materials, according to state media. The change to the country’s anti-extremism laws would make punishable "cartographic and other documents and images” that differ from Moscow’s definition of the Russian Federation, the report said, adding that the amendment emerged after its authors said some maps circulating in Russia disputed the "territorial affiliation” of Crimea and the Kuril Islands. Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and Russia’s dispute with Japan over ownership of a group of islands off the Japanese coast dates back to World War II. The regions in eastern Ukraine annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin would also be likely to be affected by the new ban if it is successfully passed into law. Par for the Soviet course.
January 10, 20233 yr Quote Russian artillery fire down nearly 75%, US officials say, in latest sign of struggles for Moscow WashingtonCNN — As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its 11th month, US and Ukrainian officials tell CNN that Russia’s artillery fire is down dramatically from its wartime high, in some places by as much as 75 percent. US and Ukrainian officials don’t yet have a clear or singular explanation. Russia may be rationing artillery rounds due to low supplies, or it could be part of a broader reassessment of tactics in the face of successful Ukrainian offenses. Either way, the striking decline in artillery fire is further evidence of Russia’s increasingly weak position on the battlefield nearly a year into its invasion, US and Ukrainian officials told CNN. It also comes as Ukraine is enjoying increased military support from its western allies, with the US and Germany announcing last week that they will be providing Ukrainian forces for the first time with armored fighting vehicles, as well as another Patriot Defense missile battery that will help protect its skies. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is apparently clambering to shore up domestic political support, US intelligence officials believe, for a war he initially would only describe as a limited "special military operation.” US officials believe the 36-hour ceasefire Putin ordered in Ukraine last week to allow for the observance of Orthodox Christmas was an attempt to pander to Russia’s extensive Christian population, two people familiar with the intelligence told CNN, as well as an opportunity for Putin to blame Ukrainians for breaking it and paint them as heretical heathens. "The bucket is getting smaller” Much of the domestic opposition Putin and his generals have faced over the handling of the war has come from one of the Russian leader’s closest allies: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary organization Wagner Group. Prigozhin has complained that the Russian Ministry of Defense has botched the war effort, and that Wagner Group should be given more equipment, authority and autonomy to carry out operations in Ukraine. But Wagner Group has lost thousands of fighters in Ukraine the last two months alone, a senior US official said. Russia suffered another setback earlier this month when Ukrainian forces hit a weapons depot in Makiivka in eastern Ukraine, destroying more Russian supplies and killing scores of Russian troops housed nearby. The strike also raised questions among prominent Russian military bloggers about the basic competence of the Russian military brass, which had apparently decided to house hundreds of Russian troops next to an obvious Ukrainian target. "Maybe this one strike is a drop in the bucket, but the bucket is getting smaller,” a US defense official said, referring to the Russians’ dwindling stockpiles. 40 year-old shells To date, questions about Russia’s stockpile of weapons have mostly focused on their precision-guided munitions, such as cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. But US officials said their dramatically reduced rate of artillery fire may indicate that the prolonged and brutal battle has had a significant effect on Russia’s supply of conventional weapons as well. Last month, a senior US military official said that Russia has had to resort to 40-year-old artillery shells as their supply of new ammo dwindled. To the US, the use of degraded ammunition, as well as the Kremlin’s outreach to countries like North Korea and Iran, was a sign of Russia’s diminished stocks of weaponry. The rationing of ammunition and lower rate of fire appears to be a departure from Russian military doctrine, which traditionally calls for the heavy bombardment of a target area with massive artillery fire and rocket fire. That strategy played out in cities like Mariupol and Melitopol as Russian forces used the punishing strikes to drive slow, brutal advances in Ukraine. Officials said the strategy shift could be the doing of the recently installed Russian theater commander, General Sergey Surovikin, who the US believes is more competent than his predecessors. Ukraine has had little choice but to ration its ammunition since the beginning of the war. Ukrainian troops rapidly burned through their own supply of Soviet-era 152 mm ammunition when the conflict erupted, and while the US and its allies have provided hundreds of thousands of rounds of Western 155 mm ammunition, even this supply has had its limits. As a result, Ukraine has averaged firing around 4,000-7,000 artillery rounds per day – far fewer than Russia. "It looks ridiculous now” The Russians’ declining rate of fire is not linear, one US defense official noted, and there are days when Russians still fire far more artillery rounds – particularly around the eastern Ukrainian cities of Bakhmut and Kreminna, as well as some near Kherson in the south. US and Ukrainian officials have offered widely different estimates of Russian fire, with US officials saying the rate has dropped from 20,000 rounds per day to around 5,000 per day on average. Ukraine estimates that the rate has dropped from 60,000 to 20,000 per day. But both estimates point to a similar downward trend. While Russia still has more artillery ammunition available than Ukraine does, early US assessments vastly overestimated the amount that Russia had its disposal, a US military official said, and underestimated how well the Ukraimians would do at hitting Russian logistics sites. It appears now that Russia is focused more on bolstering its defense fortifications, particularly in central Zaporizhzhia, the UK Ministry of Defense reported in its regular intelligence update on Sunday. The movements suggest that Moscow is concerned about a potential Ukrainian offensive either there or in Luhansk, the ministry said. "A major Ukrainian breakthrough in Zaporizhzhia would seriously challenge the viability of Russia’s ‘land-bridge’ linking Russia’s Rostov region and Crimea,” the ministry said, while Ukrainian success in Luhansk would "undermine Russia’s professed war aim of ‘liberating’ the Donbas.” Ukraine’s counter-offensives last fall targeting Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the north resulted in humiliating defeats for Russia – and were aided enormously by sophisticated western weaponry like HIMARS rocket launchers, Howitzer artillery systems and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that the US had previously been reluctant to provide. "The fact of the matter is we have been self-deterring ourselves for over a year now,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of US Army Europe and NATO Allied Land Command and currently a senior advisor for Human Rights First. "There’s been so much anxiety about the possibility of Russia’s escalation – I mean ten months ago, there was concern about giving Stingers…obviously that’s ridiculous, and it looks ridiculous now.” Russia’s war with bureaucracy Tensions between Kremlin defense officials and Wagner Group leaders have also been rising amid public complaints by the mercenaries that they are running low on equipment and reports that their leader, Prigozhin, wants to take control of the lucrative salt mines near Bakhmut. In a video that ran on Russian state media, Wagner Group fighters complain that they are running low on combat vehicles, artillery shells and ammunition, which is limiting their ability to conquer Bakhmut – shortages Prigozhin then blames on "internal bureaucracy and corruption.” "This year we will win! But first we will conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption,” he says in the clip. "Once we conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will conquer the Ukrainians and NATO, and then the whole world. The problem now is that the bureaucrats and those engaging in corruption won’t listen to us now because for New Year’s they are all drinking champagne.” Prigozhin’s ambitions are not limited to greater political power, however, the US believes. There are also indications that he wants to take control over the lucrative salt and gypsum from mines near Bakhmut, a senior administration official tells CNN. "This is consistent with Wagner’s modus operandi in Africa, where the group’s military activities often function hand in hand with control of mining assets,” the official said, adding that the US believes these monetary incentives are driving Prigozhin and Russia’s "obsession” with taking Bakhmut. The official also said that Wagner Group has suffered heavy casualties in its operations near Bakhmut since late November. "Out of its force of nearly 50,000 mercenaries (including 40,000 convicts), the company has sustained over 4,100 killed and 10,000 wounded, including over 1,000 killed between late November and early December near Bakhmut,” the official said, adding that about 90% of those killed were convicts. The official said that Russia "cannot sustain these kinds of losses.” "If Russia does eventually seize Bakhmut, Russia will surely characterize this, misleadingly, as a ‘major victory,” the official added. "But we know that is not the case. If the cost for each 36 square miles of Ukraine [the approximate size of Bakhmut] is thousands of Russians over seven months, this is the definition of Pyrrhic victory.”
January 10, 20233 yr 34 minutes ago, paco said: Just because they are saving the "good stuff", obviously.
January 10, 20233 yr 4 hours ago, Boogyman said: Just because they are saving the "good stuff", obviously. Just wait for the REAL Russian army to get there
January 11, 20233 yr Author 8 hours ago, Boogyman said: Just because they are saving the "good stuff", obviously. Sure are Russia is holding back on using its most advanced fighter jets over Ukraine because it's scared they'll get shot down, UK intel says https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-holding-back-using-most-112104959.html
January 11, 20233 yr 39 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said: Sure are Russia is holding back on using its most advanced fighter jets over Ukraine because it's scared they'll get shot down, UK intel says https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-holding-back-using-most-112104959.html Do they even have any pilots left?
January 11, 20233 yr Russia demoted the 'absolutely ruthless' general who has been leading the war in Ukraine less than 3 months after promoting him https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-demoted-the-absolutely-ruthless-general-who-has-been-leading-the-war-in-ukraine-less-than-3-months-after-promoting-him/ar-AA16dXPU?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=cdec19acd4e645f1c8fc0420f0109465 Quote Russia has demoted the head of its military campaign in Ukraine less than three months after he was put in charge of the war effort. In a statement on Wednesday, Russia's Ministry of Defense said it was replacing Gen. Sergei Surovikin as commander of its forces in Ukraine with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who previously served as chief of the general staff of Russia's armed forces. Surovikin will now serve as one of his deputies, according to TASS, Russia's state news agency. Things must be going really well for the Ruskis.
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