Official Russia vs Ukraine War Thread

I’ve told you the truth. I know enough people in Kyiv and Ukraine to support my statement that Russian strikes against civilian infrastructure has galvanized support for Zelensky and against Russia.

You, on the other hand, have no evidence what-so-ever that it isn’t true.

Now for the hard part, rub both your brain cells together for a minute, and try to figure out how I could have family in Ukraine and not be Ukrainian. I’ll give you a few hours to puzzle over this mystery (note, I just asked a random three year old how this apparent paradox could be true and they figured it out in under 60 seconds. Let’s see how long it takes you!)

It’s not? Man, I’m going to have to have a serious talk with my math teacher. I thought 1 + 1 = enough.

You forgot to answer these questions (or you’re too stupid to do so on your own)

• Do you live in your mommy’s basement?
• Does she charge you rent?
• Did you buy your tinfoil hat or make it yourself?
• Have you always been an idiotic nutjob? Or is that a recent development?

1 hour down, and Carmine has not yet solved the riddle! At least 10 Russian soldiers have died in that time.

Sevastapol naval drone strike against RU's Black Sea fleet prompts RU to pull out of grain deal and double down on attacks on civilian power and water infrastructure. But Turkey has indicated that it will free up 16 ships and let them through. Turkey's willingness to go against RU on the grain blockade is huge because Turkey actually has a much larger and more powerful Black Sea fleet than RU. RU really has no choice if Turkey puts its foot down against RU's blockade. However, RU pulling out of the grain deal is probably a temporary tirade. In Iran, political leaders are sending assets and family abroad as student protestors defied a government order to refrain from further protests. There is real fear of a revolution in Iran right now. If RU blockades Ukraine grain shipments for an extended period of time, grain prices will hit Iran's economy very hard and will likely cause a full blown revolt with working class people getting behind the students. Iran will force Putin to go back to the grain deal or else Iran may have a new government that won't be willing to sell Putin arms.

In Kherson, Russia appears to be preparing a Leningrad defense of the city on the western bank of the Dnipro. RU cleared out civilians and had destroyed civilian infrastructure. RU is flooding Kherson with thousands mobiks (some reports claim up to 40,000). UA forces are approaching Kherson with caution, using missile and UAV strikes to hit command centers and weapons depots.

UA is starting to make slow progress outside of Kherson and now has almost complete control over the highway between Kreminna and Svatove. This is a key supply line for RU forces in the East. Also, UA has pushed RU forces out of Bakhmut and retaken most of the ground lost to a weeks long RU/Wagner offensive.

Lula De Silva's election in Brazil (assuming no Bolsinaro coup, which is a big assumption) is a big loss for RU. Bolsinaro was a big Putin backer and would ride or die with Putin on war with Ukraine. Lula has been much more even handed, calling out Zelensky early in the war for not working harder to reach a deal to avert war with RU before the invasion while being clear that RU is the aggressor. Lula is much more interested in relations with the EU than with Russia and may potentially work with Turkey on facilitating a return to peace negotiations.

Let's call Russian Soldiers, Russian Soldiers instead of marginalizing them with other names. I hope Ukraine can prevail in this war, but I don't think outsiders should be calling them names. This is something soldiers call opposing soldiers. If you're not a front line fighting man/women keep your insults to yourself. My 2 cents for that.

I feel really bad for Russian Cannon Fodder. Most of them don't wan't to be there. There are videos showing Russian Soldiers putting sand in the gas tanks of their vehicles so they can't make it to the front lines.

Putin is the pest, not the new Russian recruits. However and but, some of these new recruits will fight, not for Putin but their own honor.

You only get to live once. Some of these Russian Soldiers don't want to be there, but they have their manly pride. Sometimes people believe death is better than being accused of betraying your homeland. It's difficult to understand sometimes from a Western perspective, but different cultures have differing opinions.

Slava Ukraine!

"Mobik" is a term Ukrainians use to describe the mobilized soldiers who are recently arriving in Ukraine. It is a combination of mobilized and "vatnik". Vatnik is a pejorative for a Russian who stupidly and blindly supports everything Putin does. It is generally an accurate term for the lion share of the mobilized who are headed to fight in Ukraine. RU's soldiers have been looting, raping, torturing and brutalizing Ukrainians. Mobiks may be too kind a term.

Roy, insulting your enemy is something that pre-dates written history. But usually it was the men fighting the battles that did the name calling. Only recently have civilians gotten into the act of that. And I for one don't think this is the best idea for civilians to do. Eventually this war will end. And if you are a student of history, you'll know that the soldiers who fought the wars are the first group to reach out to their foes.

Comrades in arms they call it. Both sides fought the good fight for their nations. One side wins, the other side loses. But when the bullets stop flying these former enemies actually become close friends because they shared the same dangerous battlefields together.

However, some folks who never risked life or limb during war, want to continue with the marginalizing of other peoples for whatever reason. We are all on this planet together. There is no place else to go. Are there going to be wars sometimes? History shows that this is true, and going forward, this will probably continue to be our fate. But maybe we, and I mean "We" as all humans let the name calling be restricted to the guys and gals who are actually shooting bullets at each other. This is a far lot different than politics, where mud being slung in your face is your biggest concern.

Thank you your reply, and I'll ask you to consider mine with an opened mind.

As Sammy Davis, Jr. use to say, Peace, Love, Dove!

Is that supposed to make sense?

The worst thing you can do in a war is rationalize away the crimes of the combatants. RU is losing this war primarily because its soldiers are poorly trained and have no real chain of command. Russians have been fed a steady diet of propaganda about Ukraine since 2014 and have a cultural chauvinism against Ukrainians that dates back to Tsarist Russia. Even of those who fled fighting, you will rarely hear a disparaging word about the war. You can post your word salads about how we have to be nice when talking about soldiers who rip washing machines out of civilian's homes, subject women and children to electric shocks to find out whether their husbands and fathers are fighting for Ukraine, force 4 year old girls to perform oral sex and summarily execute civilians and bury their bodies in mass graves. Germany and Japan were pacified after WWII not because everyone patted them on the back and told them that they understood they were just following orders. In fact, at Nuremberg, the defense of following orders was rejected as a defense to war crimes and was only allowed as a consideration regarding punishment. Germany and Japan were pacified because the Nazis and Imperial Japanese were held accountable for their crimes and their political movements were thrown in the trash bin of history. Anything less for Putin's people would just mean that it would only be a matter of time before the next invasion.

cnbc.com

UN report details horrifying Ukrainian accounts of rape, torture and executions by Russian troops

https://www.facebook.com/CNBC

In preparing the report, the commission conducted 191 interviews and traveled to 27 cities over five separate visits.

Open link

Still curious as to how you have "enough" family members in Ukraine yet are not Ukrainian.

As I said, a three year old figured this out in under a minute. You’re going on six hours. This is one of the many reasons you’re completely unqualified to discuss this topic (or really, any topic).

I find it odd that with your first sentence you admonish Precious Roy to "call Russian Soldiers, Russian Soldiers" while with your second paragraph you call Russian Soldiers "Russian Cannon Fodder."

Please explain.

How is it you have family members in Ukraine but are not Ukrainian?

It's a reasonable question.

I am surprised (maybe only a bit) by your post. I thought that Happy Jack made a good point. Certainly it did not deserve the pejorative "word salad" that you ascribed to it.

Regarding war crimes - yes, unspeakably terrible things have been done by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. And yes, you can post pretty much whatever you want.

But every Russian soldier is an individual and should not be judged by the crimes of other individuals. Some are far beyond being a-holes and deserve far worse than death. Others are decent human beings thrown into something that they did not ask for and doing the best they can while trapped within the horrors of war.

Your lack of analytical thinking skills is truly appalling.

You are cornered.

Please put forth your explanation.

Or, alternatively, you can admit that you are lying about talking to people in Ukraine

Russian soldiers are cowardly scumbags. If that is too long a phrase to type out, use "Orcs" or "Mobiks" as shorthand, and we will know what you mean.