Russia's War Against Ukraine

[Skoop]

I'm absolutely loving the fight the Ukrainians are putting up.  I'm starting to think this might lead to a cue that topples Putin if this keeps going this bad for Russia.

I went and bought a Ukrainian flag tshirt to show solidarity.  I vow to wear it all day 24/7 until the end of the crisis.  Might have to by a couple more as the original might start to stink after a few weeks.

[Gusington]

^Where'd you get the shirt from?

[SirAndrewD]

^I agree. It's as if the Russians did not know Ukrainian national character, even after coexisting with them literally 'next door' for 1000+ years, never mind the past 8 years.

I know, right? 

I mean, the Cossacks didn't have a reputation as fierce fighters at all.....

Oh wait...

This is actually, in my opinion, another symptom of Putin buying into his weird alt history of the relationship between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples.

[Skoop]

^Where'd you get the shirt from?

Amazon for 13 bucks.  Also got one for my 9 year son to wear to his third grade class and piss off all the woke care bears.  Nothing like seeing a foreign policy conscious 9 year old.

[Gusington]

My younger daughter (13 years old) has been watching coverage with me and seems truly fascinated. She takes after me a lot more than I thought. Maybe I will get her a t shirt too.

[MengJiao]

Ukrainian forces destroy convoy of 56 Chechen tanks, kill general near Kyiv

  Was that at Bucha?  Holy shit!  The video from Bucha (I found it on the NY Times) is mind-boggling -- just endless Russian stuff blown absolutely to bits.  What hit them?  It looks like Godzilla obliterated them or something.  It's one of the wierdest things I've ever seen.  There are APC turrets sitting in people's front yards having been blown off from stuff in the street.

[GDS_Starfury]

anyone up for some Twilight 2000?

[Jarhead0331]

I'm really beyond the nuke jokes. It's actually gotten pretty bloody serious and the possibility of nuclear war is getting much more real in my view.

Even if it means granting short term concessions and ceding eastern Ukraine, if it de-escalates and ends the war I think it will be justified, at least until some plan can be implemented to rid the world of Putin.   

[Skoop]

Nah brah no backing down.  If we concede Ukraine today then tomorrow it's Estonia and next week it's Poland.  Putin ends here in Ukraine.

[GDS_Starfury]

gallows humor and I get exactly where you're coming from.
I still think the oligarchs who control him wont let him go that far.  I keep turning the chess board around and try to look from their perspective.

[GDS_Starfury]

if we had the option here I'd upvote Skoops post.

[Jarhead0331]

Nah brah no backing down.  If we concede Ukraine today then tomorrow it's Estonia and next week it's Poland.  Putin ends here in Ukraine.

...and if it ends in a wider confrontation with NATO involvement and the use of nuclear weapons, you think that's justifiable?

[Jarhead0331]

gallows humor and I get exactly where you're coming from.
I still think the oligarchs who control him wont let him go that far.  I keep turning the chess board around and try to look from their perspective.

I hope you're right. I honestly don't know how the Russian political system operates or how much influence and control anyone can exert over Putin, particularly if something inside him has changed, as some are suggesting.

[GDS_Starfury]

my second line of defense consists of Jewish space lasers.

[SirAndrewD]

I hope you're right. I honestly don't know how the Russian political system operates or how much influence and control anyone can exert over Putin, particularly if something inside him has changed, as some are suggesting.

James Clapper Jr today said that it was his opinion, and one informed by speaking to people who are very close to Putin and speaking clandestinely to the west, that Putin has become unhinged. 

There are apparently quite a few inside the Kremlin that understood that this was a potential disaster.  Without massive mobilization the ratio of troops to occupied persons would be 3 soldiers for every 1000 potential insurgents.  That's untenable.

I don't think anyone has any real control over him.  If they did it wouldn't have gone this far.