No, the point is to demonstrate why Azovstal combatants holding out for some time was beneficial to the overall Ukrainian objective by depleting the resources of Russian troops that were tasked with capturing them.
This theme is being played up by the Ukraine military and Western media. That a long, hopeless holdout at the Azovstal plant drained Russian resources from the front lines, diluting and hampering Russia's war effort.
But last week, Time and other major news outlets acknowledged the Russian force remaining in Mariupol was smaller, with combat-experienced units already shifted.
"Taking the Azovstal steel plant... would be a mostly symbolic victory at this point, since the city is already effectively in Moscow’s hands and analysts say most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the battle there have already left."
That action seems complete now. Today, the last 531 soldiers at Azovstal surrendered, bringing the total this week to 2,439.
Their capitulation seems brought on by lack of supplies - food, water, medicine, and ammunition. Zelenskyy announced having attempted to re-supply by air, but that "a very large number of our pilots died".
The Russians now have liberated Mariupol from the Nazis and drug addicts, and what are they going to do with it? Tear down the steel plant and evidently put in some restaurants, turning Mariupol into a tourist destination. Such a victory. And such an indication of the degree to which Russia is overextended that the best they can do with the city they conquered is continue to pull it down. Their own sources indicate that "60% of structures in Mariupol have been destroyed to the point where they cannot be rebuilt." At least Putin can build another villa on the Black Sea to celebrate this critical step in rebuilding the Glorious Russian Empire.
From The Institute for the Study of Ware:
Russian occupation authorities announced plans to destroy the Azovstal Steel Plant and turn Mariupol into a resort city, depriving Russia of some of the most important economic benefits it hoped to reap by taking the city in the first place. Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Denis Pushilin stated that DNR authorities are planning to level Azovstal after completing its capture.[1] Azovstal was a major element of Mariupol’s economy before the war because of its unique function as a full-cycle metallurgical complex, the 10,000 jobs associated with production at the plant, the billions of dollars of foreign exchange earnings and taxes it generated, and its production output of 7,000 tons of steel, 6 million tons of iron, and 4.5 million tons of rolled metal, according to the Mariupol City Council.[2] Pushilin stated that the DNR intends to rebuild Mariupol to be a “resort city,” while admitting that 60% of the structures in Mariupol have been destroyed to the point where they cannot be rebuilt.[3] The announced plan to turn Mariupol into a center of tourism and leisure following the complete destruction of a major center of economic activity in Mariupol, is indicative of the damage that Russian troops have inflicted on themselves through the destruction of Mariupol. Russia does not need another resort town on the Black Sea. It does need the kind of hard currency that a plant like Azovstal had generated. This announcement epitomizes the kind of Pyrrhic victories Russian forces have won in Ukraine, to the extent that they have won victories at all.
Do fools like carmine moran believe that if the Ukrainians would just drop their weapons and wave the white flag, that Putin and his goons will just shake hands and sing "Kumbaya" and go home confident in their "denazification" of their little brothers next door? In what kind of infantile make-believe world do these simpletons dwell?
Asking for oversight on $40 billion in unplanned spending to ensure it's distributed efficiently and honestly.
How un-American.
So, you would prefer it was a $50B billion package with $10B set aside for oversight? And do the overseers require oversight? Better make it $55B. Should be good for a few tens of thousand new government jobs, where people can't be fired and get a hefty pension when they retire. Oversight and efficiency are mutually exclusive goals.
I would prefer that $1,000,000,000,000 of our tax dollars are not spent annually on weapons and killing people and spying on and propagandizing us for the billionaire oligarchs empire.
You guys think Putin is the Big Evil? That Russia is the aggressor?
I would prefer that $1,000,000,000,000 of our tax dollars are not spent annually on weapons and killing people and spying on and propagandizing us for the billionaire oligarchs empire.
You guys think Putin is the Big Evil? That Russia is the aggressor?
Suckers
Another I hate America and love commies post from the racist.
I would prefer that $1,000,000,000,000 of our tax dollars are not spent annually on weapons and killing people and spying on and propagandizing us for the billionaire oligarchs empire.
You guys think Putin is the Big Evil? That Russia is the aggressor?
Suckers
Another I hate America and love commies post from the racist.
Look at who spends all the money on weapons. On military bases all over the world. On invading and occupying nations. On dumbing down its citizens.
I love America.
Why do you love the psychos who control us and hate us?
Russia is getting clobbered by the Sanctions The Ruble was 139 to the USD when the war started, Now The Ruble has shrunk to 58 and everyday it seems to get lower at this rate in 2 months the Ruble will be at Zero.
Ummm, no. It is opposite of what you think. The Ruble is strengthening. When the number is moving CLOSER to 1:1, it is strengthening. The Ruble is the best performing currency on the planet
Another I hate America and love commies post from the racist.
Look at who spends all the money on weapons. On military bases all over the world. On invading and occupying nations. On dumbing down its citizens.
I love America.
Why do you love the psychos who control us and hate us?
Maybe the reason we have military bases all over the world is to dissuade countries like Russia from invading their neighbors. And, when countries like Russia are not dissuaded, we can help countries like Ukraine defend themselves.
Sure, we could spend less on the military. Then we would have an antiquated military like Russia that is getting humiliated by modern weaponry. Given the choice, I would prefer to have modern weaponry (in case Russia decides to invade Alaska).
But, you're right. We should defund the police and devote that money to increasing LGQBT+ rights, teaching critical race theory, supporting women's rights, and providing free education / student loan forgiveness, and increasing vaccine literacy / enforcing vaccine mandates. How enlightened of you, Carmine! Or, did you have other priorities for that money?
While it will be very messy, Putin & Russia will probably get what they want in this war. Most of the land gained by Catherine the Great and Potemkin from the Ottomans, and later transferred to the Ukraine by Lenin, will likely be returned to Russia. The remaining rump Ukraine will then have to pledge never to join NATO.
Our $40B in military aid will likely serve only to ensure that large swaths of the Ukraine look like Dresden and Hamburg after WWII.
BTW, what's up with the progressives being all gung-ho for this war? Many are the illegitimate offspring of the hippies who protested Vietnam. $40B in military hardware and the very real threat of escalation is hardly "giving peace a chance."
$40 billion from USA and $20 billion from G7 for Ukraine.
The Ruble is being artificially inflated, if you don’t understand that you’re a brainless moron. Who was the idiot who stated the Ruble is the best performing currency on the planet? I would like to hear the reasoning behind that. Ha ha. I don’t mean the exchange rate either, but the economic conditions and forecasts that created this “strong” ruble. That will be hilarious reading.
“Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Switzerland-based Syz Bank, suggested that while the Russian central bank has deployed a range of tools to make the ruble look valuable, very few people outside Russia "want to buy a single ruble unless they absolutely have to," and traders "no longer see the ruble as a free trade currency."
I knew that. I think most people do. And like I said previously, I don't wan't to derail this thread. So the last thing I'll post about Iran is, you/me/we/us can always look back in history a play the what about this or what about that game.
That's backwards thinking. With that logic a person could go all the way back to when Cain killed Abel. And how would that be applicable to todays world/events. Let's get back on topic.
History matters.
History did not begin in Iran with the kidnapping of the members in the US Embassy in 1979.
You don't know this?
Thanks for trying to drag my chain or for grinding my grits. But I already told you that I won't respond anymore to on an off topic discussion on this thread. Start another thread and perhaps I'l reply. Ok? Other wise, good bye.
Asking for oversight on $40 billion in unplanned spending to ensure it's distributed efficiently and honestly.
How un-American.
That is a very misleading statement. The money was already subject to inspector general oversight. Senator Paul was just trying to get another inspector general appointed just for this spending. You know, the sort of 'bigger government' that Paul rails against unless he needs to be in favor of it to call attention to himself.
Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is facing the first war crimes trial since Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian soldier could get life in prison for shooting a 62-year-old unarmed civilian in the head.
