Russia's War Against Ukraine

[Gusington]

I don't think the Russians would be happy to leave Ukraine completely. If so, why haven't they yet and why did they go in the first place??

[JasonPratt]

Damn, Zelensky really does have cajones of brass.

Yeah, I don't think he's right about how everything could have been solved already by going into WW3 against Russia (aka plenty of powerful nations getting involved in the fighting), but I can understand and sympathize with the chutzpah, especially if he thinks he's being backed into a corner where he'll have to negotiate a settled peace after all.

[Gusington]

Ultimately he will have to negotiate but it sucks it's going to have to be with Putin. Can you imagine the tension in that room?

[MengJiao]

I don't think the Russians would be happy to leave Ukraine completely. If so, why haven't they yet and why did they go in the first place??

  Since the whole thing was pointless from the beginning, why wouldn't they be happy to leave?  Why did they go in the first place?  Pure idiocy maybe?  What on earth are they doing in
Moldova?  Is there some point to that?  I would think they would be happy to forget the whole mess like all of their fellow "republics" (except Belarus and Chechenya).

[Gusington]

It's totally up to Putin and Russia - they could end this now, they could have ended it five minutes after they started it, they could have not done it at all...but they haven't/didn't.

[MengJiao]

Ultimately he will have to negotiate but it sucks it's going to have to be with Putin. Can you imagine the tension in that room?

   Is Putin up to this kind of thing?  Zelensky has all the cards and he knows it.  Look at what Z has: 1) he no longer cares if he's in NATO since Ukraine can beat Russian any old time now
2) He can actually say to the Russians -- get out or the war goes on...
IT doesn't matter where the Russians get to...they are falling apart a lot faster than the Ukrainians 3) and -- best of all -- he knows the Russians are (as usual) not going to respond sensibly until it is
way too late.  The Russians should have negotiated before they pulled out up north -- but no, then before they started the attack in the Donbas -- but no, then right now when it looks like they can
dig in but hold on -- but no.  Apparently, the Russians are going to wait until total disaster on all fronts is already happening in ways that are clear to everyone.  And then what?  Some minor face-saving
concessions and the message from the Ukaine -- hey attack again any time, this time we'll take big chunks of Russia and since we aren't in NATO -- who will stop us?  The whole NATO thing is irrelevant if
Ukraine can defeat Russia next time Russia attacks.
 

[Gusington]

^Zelensky is quote a few posts above here that things are not looking good long-term in the east of Ukraine. I don't like it either, and Putin's probably insanity makes anything, like the use of nukes, possible.

[MengJiao]

^Zelensky is quote a few posts above here that things are not looking good long-term in the east of Ukraine. I don't like it either, and Putin's probably insanity makes anything, like the use of nukes, possible.

  Since Putin knows he has gotten about as far as he can and Zelensky knows Putin knows that, Zelensky's double message reads: to Putin "We know you aren't going to talk until it is too late, but look;
I'm saying we'll talk because we know you won't but it will put the continuation of the war back in your court."  To the West: "Arm us and we will finish this before Putin can decide to talk -- because (as we all know ) the's not going to until it is too late for him."

[al_infierno]

115 members of Russia's "national guard" (aka Putin's private army) were sacked for refusing to fight in Ukraine.  From what I understand, these guys are supposed to be some of the most professional troops in Russia's army, so that seems to send a pretty clear sign that news is spreading and morale is in the gutter across the board.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/27/115-russian-national-guard-soldiers-sacked-for-refusing-to-fight-in-ukraine

[Gusington]

^Good, maybe this is the beginning of something more substantial in the Russian military.

[Pete Dero]

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/26/politics/us-long-range-rockets-ukraine-mlrs/index.html

The administration is leaning toward sending the systems as part of a larger package of military and security assistance to Ukraine, which could be announced as soon as next week.

Senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have pleaded in recent weeks for the US and its allies to provide the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS.
The US-made weapon systems can fire a barrage of rockets hundreds of kilometers — much farther than any of the systems Ukraine already has — which the Ukrainians argue could be a gamechanger in their war against Russia.

Another system Ukraine has asked for is the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, a lighter wheeled system capable of firing many of the same types of ammunition as MLRS.

On Friday, after CNN first reported the news, Russians warned that the United States will "cross a red line" if it supplies the systems to Ukraine.

The UK is also still deciding whether to send the systems, two officials told CNN, and would like to do so in conjunction with the US.

[steve58]

Russia deploying T-62 tanks.  Does this count as scrapping the bottom of the barrel?  :-\

[GDS_Starfury]

from what Ive read the T-62 are going to backfill the separatist militaries.

[al_infierno]

May be propaganda, but Ukrainian intelligence is all but certain Putin has cancer. 


"But it's not worth hoping that Putin will die tomorrow. He still has at least a few years left. Whether we like it or not, that's the truth."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/putin-cancer-ukraine-intelligence-chief-russia-164929127.html

[GDS_Starfury]

I really hope thats plural.
stomach and rectal cancer would be a nice combination.  :bd: