Serious Kiev vs Moscow! Showdown! (2022)

[saynotomsm]

I am just saying out my first impressions.. I'm no way an expert. Many fake shit going around so dunno what's what

I will leave them here as it is for future reference.

 

[glockman]

Preparing for Defeat

Francis Fukuyama

10 Mar 2022, 4:03 pm

I’m writing this from Skopje, North Macedonia, where I’ve been for the last week teaching one of our Leadership Academy for Development courses. Following the Ukraine war is no different here in terms of available information, except that I’m in an adjacent time zone, and the fact that there is more support for Putin in the Balkans than in other parts of Europe. A lot of the latter is due to Serbia, and Serbia's hosting of Sputnik.

I’ll stick my neck out and make several prognostications:

1. Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine. Russian planning was incompetent, based on a flawed assumption that Ukrainians were favorable to Russia and that their military would collapse immediately following an invasion. Russian soldiers were evidently carrying dress uniforms for their victory parade in Kyiv rather than extra ammo and rations. Putin at this point has committed the bulk of his entire military to this operation—there are no vast reserves of forces he can call up to add to the battle. Russian troops are stuck outside various Ukrainian cities where they face huge supply problems and constant Ukrainian attacks.
2. The collapse of their position could be sudden and catastrophic, rather than happening slowly through a war of attrition. The army in the field will reach a point where it can neither be supplied nor withdrawn, and morale will vaporize. This is at least true in the north; the Russians are doing better in the south, but those positions would be hard to maintain if the north collapses.
3. There is no diplomatic solution to the war possible prior to this happening. There is no conceivable compromise that would be acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine given the losses they have taken at this point.
4. The United Nations Security Council has proven once again to be useless. The only helpful thing was the General Assembly vote, which helps to identify the world’s bad or prevaricating actors.
5. The Biden administration’s decisions not to declare a no-fly zone or help transfer Polish MiGs were both good ones; they've kept their heads during a very emotional time. It is much better to have the Ukrainians defeat the Russians on their own, depriving Moscow of the excuse that NATO attacked them, as well as avoiding all the obvious escalatory possibilities. The Polish MiGs in particular would not add much to Ukrainian capabilities. Much more important is a continuing supply of Javelins, Stingers, TB2s, medical supplies, comms equipment, and intel sharing. I assume that Ukrainian forces are already being vectored by NATO intelligence operating from outside Ukraine.
6. The cost that Ukraine is paying is enormous, of course. But the greatest damage is being done by rockets and artillery, which neither MiGs nor a no-fly zone can do much about. The only thing that will stop the slaughter is defeat of the Russian army on the ground.
7. Putin will not survive the defeat of his army. He gets support because he is perceived to be a strongman; what does he have to offer once he demonstrates incompetence and is stripped of his coercive power?
8. The invasion has already done huge damage to populists all over the world, who prior to the attack uniformly expressed sympathy for Putin. That includes Matteo Salvini, Jair Bolsonaro, Éric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, and of course Donald Trump. The politics of the war has exposed their openly authoritarian leanings.
9. The war to this point has been a good lesson for China. Like Russia, China has built up seemingly high-tech military forces in the past decade, but they have no combat experience. The miserable performance of the Russian air force would likely be replicated by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which similarly has no experience managing complex air operations. We may hope that the Chinese leadership will not delude itself as to its own capabilities the way the Russians did when contemplating a future move against Taiwan.
10. Hopefully Taiwan itself will wake up as to the need to prepare to fight as the Ukrainians have done, and restore conscription. Let’s not be prematurely defeatist.
11. Turkish drones will become bestsellers.
12. A Russian defeat will make possible a “new birth of freedom,” and get us out of our funk about the declining state of global democracy. The spirit of 1989 will live on, thanks to a bunch of brave Ukrainians.

https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/preparing-for-defeat/

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/russia-facing-outright-defeat-sudden-041309456.html

 

[Rogue Trader]

Holy shit this is like a video game... Anyone knows what weapons system their using?

 

[LordElrond]

I am not 100% sure about this but interesting observations

 

[jw5]

from The Independent via yahoo.com:

Elon Musk challenges Vladimir Putin to a fight for Ukraine​

Andrew Griffin
Mon, 14 March 2022, 9:29 pm·2-min read


Elon Musk has seemingly challenged Vladimir Putin to a fight for Ukraine.

“I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” he tweeted, using the Russian alphabet to write Mr Putin’s name.

“Stakes are Ukraine,” he continued, writing the country’s name in its own language.

In a follow-up tweet, Mr Musk then posted a whole message in Russian. “Do you agree to this fight?”, he wrote, tagging the Kremlin’s official English language Twitter account.

Mr Musk then replied to another Twitter user who suggested that the Russian president would easily win any fight.

“If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge,” Mr Musk wrote. “But he will not.”

Mr Musk has taken an active role in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, both on his Twitter feed and through his companies. He has mocked Russian officials on social media, as well as providing Starlink space internet equipment to Ukraine.

The tweet came after a number of bizarre posts by Mr Musk over the morning.

In the hour before that post, he had written “By the pricking of my thumbs”, an apparent reference to Macbeth – a lien that is followed by the phrase “something wicked this way comes”.

And shortly before that, he had posted “There is a beauty to the biological substrate”. It was not clear what he meant, but the phrase is used in neuroscience and psychology – something in which Mr Musk has an interest, through his startup Neuralink.

Elon Musk’s posts on Twitter have caused him and his companies trouble in the past. Mr Musk has said that he “was always crazy” on the site, and said in an interview that he saw the site as a “war zone”.

Previous posts have included one reading “Tesla stock price is too high imo”, which wiped $14 billion off the value of the company, and another commitment to sell “almost all physical possessions” and to “own no house”.

Those controversial tweets have led to a run of legal issues, including lawsuits from the US Securities and Exchange Commission as well as from one of the divers involved in the rescue of children who were stuck in a cave in Thailand.

 

[zhihau]

from The Independent via yahoo.com:

Elon Musk challenges Vladimir Putin to a fight for Ukraine​

Nyet, nyet, nyet. Nyet pesdi... Elon Musk, kak dilah?

 

[glockman]

Holy shit this is like a video game... Anyone knows what weapons system their using?

30mm cannon on a BTR-4 using thermal sights to smoke a BMP. According to :

 

[zhihau]

30mm cannon on a BTR-4 using thermal sights to smoke a BMP. According to :

You’re shitting me! Tank Porn? These chaps really fuck anything that moves?

 

[glockman]

You’re shitting me! Tank Porn? These chaps really fuck anything that moves?

More like fuck up anything that moves!

 

[zhihau]

More like fuck up anything that moves!

same same, tank porn shoot bullets and rockets. pew pew...

 

[zeddy]

Russia is selling their oil at a discounted price. Modi Government being opportunistic snakes willing to do a deal with Russia. Should sanction whichever countries that are doing deals with Putin.

 

[winners]

Even within their own propaganda Channel One TV station is protesting against this war. LOL.

The translated version: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here."

 

[winners]

Russia is selling their oil at a discounted price. Modi Government being opportunistic snakes willing to do a deal with Russia. Should sanction whichever countries that are doing deals with Putin.

Indians must never be trusted. They deserve to get their borders with China bombarded.

 

[yinyang]

Vasco Gargalo
14 March 2022

Supplies​

 

[yinyang]

Marian Kamensky
14 March 2022

BIG BROTHER XI​

 

[eatshitndie]

small backpack 60mm mortar for squad insertions near enemy howitzer battery positions. super effective for anti-arty sneak attack in forested areas. saf should take note after retiring the 60mm mortar.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Fuck ~ last night I unknowingly clicked on the link to the vid clip of Azov soldiers crucifying a Russian soldier. The guy was grunting in pain while the fuckers nailed him to the wooden cross.

I stopped feeling sleepy after that. Hope these Azov motherfuckers will get it back from the Ivans

 

[winners]

Even within their own propaganda Channel One TV station is protesting against this war. LOL.

The translated version: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here."

Just heard from the news that she's just got arrested.

 

[zeddy]

Holy shit this is like a video game... Anyone knows what weapons system their using?

Wah Piang Eh, this is like a PS or XBox game. Any Bros last time tankee? The Russians crew inside probably became roasted BBQ after that pummeling.

 

[Loofydralb]

Fuck ~ last night I unknowingly clicked on the link to the vid clip of Azov soldiers crucifying a Russian soldier. The guy was grunting in pain while the fuckers nailed him to the wooden cross.

I stopped feeling sleepy after that. Hope these Azov motherfuckers will get it back from the Ivans

Please share it so that people will learn that Ukrainian Nazis are running the country. They only get blinded thinking Ukrainians are nice people just because they have pretty blue eyes and blond hair.