And god I hope they keep going and keep winning.
Especially without American Support
deleted by creator
I hope trump is not going to start sending support to Putin
deleted by creator
Doubtful. They’ve shown beyond a reasonable doubt that nothing matters to them except blind loyalty to T. Nothing. Their own lives are meaningless before him, and his whims define their every breath. If he started shipping troops and guns to Russia, Republicans would be right there, fervently cheering him on.
I have some hope from the fact that when they showed just how absurdly subservient they are, some people showed up at town hall meetings to yell at them. Not all of these representatives are totally insulated in a maga-encrusted bubble, and at some point the fear of being too pro-Trump might start to compete with the fear of not being pro-Trump enough.
deleted by creator
But they’ll also toe the party line, no matter what that line is or who’s drawing it. I’ve known enough “I’m a Republican. I vote for the nominee” conservatives in my life to know that.
deleted by creator
Except the old guard is literally being purged out of agencies right now and is almost completely gone from the national political scene. McCain is dead with trump dancing on his grave, Romney is out after voting to convict trump during the 2021 impeachment. McConnell is retired, but literally spent the last decade trying to get trump elected and give him complete control over the courts (and tried to hand the courts to partisan unqualified judges for 30 years) All of the other “old guard” have bent the knee or left.
deleted by creator
If they all weren’t a bunch of cowards, they would have stood up to him already.
The current iteration of the GOP in the senate and congress resembles that of a drying jellyfish on a beach: spineless and worthless (no disrespect to actual dying jellyfish on the beach, who serve admirably in the food chain) . They will do whatever the fuck their god emperor tells them to do.
They confirmed RFK Jr. for fuck’s sake.
deleted by creator
Ukraine is their neignbor. Being that most of Europe are also NATO members, It makes more sense to me that they be the ones to spearhead this proxy war if anyone should.
deleted by creator
“Have you forgotten the social and political unrest Russia has caused in our country? Are you unaware of the money and personnel they invest into destabilizing our country? Should that just go completely unanswered?”
you overestimate the influence russia previously had in our country while simultaneously underestimate the impact of americas history on my own fellow Americans as well as the rest of the world.
Do you seriously think we don’t invest money and personnel in destabilizing russia?
I also didn’t say to eliminate support, but we shouldn’t be leading this charge
“Do you seriously think we should only concern ourselves with Mexico and Canada or something?”
I seriously think we should do what our fellow NATO countries have been doing the past 8 decades and start focusing our attention on improving living conditions at home instead of constantly spending absurd amounts of money to perpetuate this infinitely growing war machine that claims to hold other countries to standards that it can’t even hold itself to.
deleted by creator
With all due respect. I couldn’t care less.
deleted by creator
I never defended russia. quit makin’ shit up. also, unlike you bots, I have to sleep sometimes.
Ah, yes. You clearly don’t care so much you typed out a response.
hands-down one of the most effortless things I can do.
The EU has given far more support to Ukraine than the US.
“The EU has given far more support to Ukraine than the US.”
Cite your sources.
The “EU” is not a singular country. The US is.
Here you go: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crew8y7pwd5o
And the EU has given more to Ukraine than Texas. See, I can say stupid shit too.
GTFO, Russian troll.
Okay, person who admit’s to posting “stupid shit”
“President Macron is correct, according to Kiel figures. But they suggest President Trump also has a point; the US has sent more grants, while the EU sent more loans. However, again, there are different figures out there.” -Per your article
First, the source you provided isn’t as clear-cut as you seem to think it is, unless you want the U.S. to engage in even more profiteering off of this proxy-war by increasing loans.
Secondly, I’m not opposed to spending less money to continue this war, so sending me articles claiming that the EU debatably spends more then the U.S. to perpetuate this war does nothing but make me feel okay about our decreasing involvement. -You guys seem to be making continued and exaggerated inferences about my position on this matter even though i’ve clearly stated my motivations for this position in other comments under this same thread.
GTFO, Warmonger.
proxy war
So you think Russia waged this war just to stick it to the West? To me it looks like a war of conquest - Russia invaded so they could take land.
Why are you even guessing? Every single representative of Russia including Putin gives long ass speeches about why this is happening. Also the US is hardcore plotting and funding terrorism against Russia. They have incidents every two weeks or so.
It won’t. Spoiler alert.
Firstly, that’s not certain at all, yet. Secondly “spoiler alert” goes first, you don’t write the spoiler then the alert, your inability to understand that says no one should trust anything you say.
Now who’s being childish
I’ve found that Colonel Maruks Reisner provides some of the best information available on the war.
He doesn’t update frequently but all his analysis are sober, detailed, and realistic. He states his pro-Western, pro-NATO, pro-Ukrainian bias clearly.
If I could sum up the general trend of his presentation it’s, “The status quo favors Russia. If we don’t get our heads out of our asses and step up Russia will win.”
He is okay and mostly factual. The tactical and operational analysis is good. However he has been wrong in the past, especially with his strategic interpretations and long term predictions.
The status quo favors Russia. If we don’t get our heads out of our asses and step up Russia will win
That has been his refrain from the beginning. Yet Ukraine is still very much in the fight.
The we is also kind of ironic since Austria doesn’t send any arms to Ukraine. The Austrian government and intelligence services as notoriously influenced by Russia. So take that in mind as well.
I’m not aware of any major predictions he’s gotten wrong. As near as I can tell, he’s very focused on ex-post analysis.
Ukraine is still in the fight but it’s clearly loosing. Ukraine is still rich in subjective resources like “spirit” and “determination”. When it comes to hard metrics the picture is pretty bleak; casualties, ground gained, artillery production, depth of reserves…
The “we” wasn’t a quote by Colonel Reisener. I did put it in quotation marks but I thought it would be clear from the vocabulary that I was paraphrasing him. I’m sure you already know that Austria is constitutionally obligated to remain neutral. While Austria is barred from providing military assistance it has participated in sanctions and provided humanitarian assistance. That’s earned Austria a spot on Russia’s official Unfriendly Countries List https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfriendly_countries_list
I try to keep a more complete set of facts in mind when assessing the reliability of sources.
In casualties as in military losses Ukraine is doing quite badly: Ukraine has lost some 300 000 as dead and wounded, while the Russia has lost around 800 000 as dead and wounded. The population difference is 1:3½, and the difference in total military losses is 1:2½. That means, Ukraine is losing a slightly larger share of its population as military casualties than the Russia is.
However… Neither side is going to run out of population anytime soon. Ukrainian soldiers go to the front, eventually maybe get wounded and return home one leg poorer. Their children will not have to live with their father, only without an organic right leg of the father. And for the Russian side, the deaths are a much bigger proportion of the population. There the ratio is around 1:4½, and that one favours Ukraine.
If a person is measuring ground gained in this war, he does not understand the war very much at all. Neither side is trying to gain ground. Both sides are trying to incur as much losses to the enemy as possible. The Russia because they need to keep the gore to the maximum in order to convince the west to stop supporting Ukraine, and Ukraine, because if the Russia’s losses drop under 1000 per month, they will be able to start training their soldiers, which will make a huge difference in their dangerousness. The Russia knows very well that it will never take over Ukraine with the current speed of advancing. Remember, in year 2024 the Russia was gaining ground faster than expected. And in year 2024 they managed to gain 0.7 % of Ukraine’s total territory. Less, if you take the Kursk province’s happenings into account. 0.7 % is strategically meaninglessly little.
Artillery shell production is currently about twice as high in the Russia as it’s in the west. But when you take into account that to hit a specific target, the very inaccurate Russian artillery needs to shoot about ten times as many rounds as western artillery, the numbers start looking different: For military use, you either should divide the Russia’s artillery shell numbers by ten, or alternatively multiply ours by ten. Depth of reserves… Well, here we come back to casualties and motivations.
- As said, the population ratio is 1:3½.
- The total military casualty ratio is 1:2½, favouring the Russia.
- The military death ratio is 1:4½, favouring Ukraine.
Russian soldiers are in it for the money. The Russia will have useful amounts of money to give to the soldiers for another six to fifteen months, about. After that the motive is gone. Typically, it is easier for the defending party to find soldiers for a war than it is for the aggressor. This is the case in this war as well. This means, when interpreting the casualty ratios, you need to add a multiplier for taking into account that the defender can tap into a larger share of the population than the aggressor can.
Remember, Ukrainians are sending to the front less than a fifth of what they could, if we compare with Finland. Finland has a population of 5,6 million and we have about one million soldiers ready to serve within some months of the begin of a hypothetical war. Each one of them has received a top-class military training and each one has a specific place in a specific unit in the army should a war break. Ukraine has about the same size army as that, even though they have over 40 million people. The unwillingness to join the front is a surprising feature, at least from a Finnish perspective, but also a result of a lack of motivation. If the scales were to tip in the favour of the Russia, Ukrainians would get scared and more would be ready to help their country. When looking at the very large difficulties Ukraine has with conscription, you need to take this into account. The problem is of a type that solves itself. It’s extremely unfair towards the soldiers at the front that they never get relieved. And idiotic that people don’t want to join the army because soldiers never get relieved from the front … because there are not enough people ready to go to the front. And, from my experience living in Ukraine, I would say that this won’t change. They will remain understaffed as long as the war will go on, but always precisely at the limit where they can still keep scraping on.
Ukraine’s army won’t be disappearing anytime soon, the west is effortlessly able to pay all of Ukraine’s budget indefinitely if it so wishes and the Russia is not able to gain any ground. The Russia’s goals are to cause Ukraine to collapse economically or its army to collapse from lack of manpower, and neither of those can happen. At the same time, the Russian economy, and therefore military, have at max one year time left. After that they will have nothing to use for stopping Ukraine from reclaiming its territories.
EDIT: I want to add: While the Ukrainians’ readiness to defend their country is lower than Finns’, that’s mostly because Finland has an exceptionally high readiness for that. If you compare with Germany or France, the Ukrainians look extremely willing to go to the front. What I wanted to say is that although their willingness is very high, there is still a lot of place for improvement!
Which is probably why they’re trying to bid up Ukraine with the US using their own minerals.
Edit: Although some are suggesting this article is just propaganda, Russia’s main challenge is that their economy is on the brink of failing and domestic support becomes a question if that happens. From a skim that appears to be the main thrust of it.
The economy, while struggling, is far from collapsing and popular support is almost a non issue. Russia is not drafting. Without a draft, most soldiers joining do so voluntarily, so there is not as much resistance. They have to pay a lot of money to make people sign up to go fight a war and the extra competition for labor (army vs factories) is increasing wages in many categories. The ones most unhappy about the situation are the oligarchs who have to pay for all of it. So unfortunately, betting on Russia somehow collapsing anytime soon is probably a loosing bet.
The more likely bottleneck for Russia is equipment and volunteers for the Army. Their Soviets stockpiles are starting to run low. And, if Russia runs out of people willing to sign up for money, they may be forced to either end the war or start drafting with all the issues that brings.
I base this mostly on Perun YT channel, that has many videos doing in depth analysis of various aspects of the war.
Yeah, that’s one of my main sources too.
This is what I mean - they need money to pay for their military industry, ever-scarcer volunteers and a bunch of feel-good handouts like cheap mortgages on top of it. They’ve basically just been burning the economic furniture to make that happen (including the old Soviet stockpiles), and at some point raising the interest rate will get diminishing returns. Eventually, their spending is going to come up against what they actually physically have and lose, and then they’ll get hyperinflation.
It’s been suggested they could just muscle through that, and I can’t rule it out, but Russia is not Nazi Germany or even Venezuela. Putin’s regime has pretty much discouraged ideology of any kind in favour of cynical patronage, so once all the rubles they have to slosh around are worthless they’re kind of in uncharted territory.
I fully agree, it’s just that the operative keyword is eventually, and I don’t expect it to mean soon. Of course they can’t keep this up forever.
Once their mothballed armour runs out it seems pretty guaranteed, and there were reports of a surge in bankruptcies a bit ago.
I’d be surprised if it’s a full year. Some kind of treaty might come soon anyway, though.
Some kind of treaty might come soon anyway, though.
Maybe the collapse is closer than we think and that’s where this sudden push to resolve the war is coming from.
It’s pretty much certain Putin has more idea about how long than we do, and is on a clock of however long that is, yeah.
That being said, the big factor at the moment is Trump. Ukraine can no longer rely on US assistance, and Putin thinks he might give him a more favourable deal somehow, so that’s incentive for both sides to wrap it up.
Their economy has allegedly been on the brink of failing for the past three years according to US state department talking points. Surely any day now the Ruskies will surrender…
I actually doubt the US state department ever said that, exactly. They’re diplomats, are very careful about their wording, and are unlikely to promise something they aren’t totally sure about.
I’m going by the trajectory of the now >20% interest rate, the fact they’re politically covering for massive military spending with massive handouts, the amount of assets still in Russia and the recent reports of a surge in bankruptcies. I don’t know if it will be two weeks or a year, but they can’t keep this up the same way forever.
Russia’s economy is better than before the SMO started. All media in the US and those of US-controled/couped countries are controlled by the CIA.
What is SMO?
Isn’t that the lie Putin told the world about the Russian war of aggression and invasion of Ukraine?
3 days, right?
At a minimum we can say that Russia has transitioned pretty well into a war economy. It is an economic transition that is going very nice for the working class. For a long time OSINT has shown nearly depleted reserves of equipment, but they have gone very light infantry. I think it is concerning they might eek out a pyrrhic victory. It is hard to say how much longer they can stretch what is left.
It is an economic transition that is going very nice for the working class
Yeah, must be real nice just lying in a field in ukraine pushing up sunflowers
I know what you mean, but the soldiers they recruit are so poor they are seeing real economic benefit for themselves and their families; more over, working class wages have grown past inflation giving them a real wage increase. Ironically the biggest losers are the oligarchs.
Yes, that’s actually pretty typical of warfare under the original feudalism, too. The rich hoard their wealth, until they’re gone and their palaces can be looted, or they need to bribe a mass of peasants to save their ass. Then you get redistribution.
I’m not really sure I’d call a short-term, unsustainable cash injection at the cost of actual infrastructure and development “good for the working class”, though. If Russia becomes the next Venezuela or even Somalia they might end up with bigger problems than no Lada.
It is good for the working class in Russia and by Russian standards. These economic analysis tell us that all else equal we cannot expect Russian civil disobedience at this stage. Ironically it does mean a palace coup is more likely due to the brunt being held by Oligarchs. As for long term benefits? Hard to say, but people live today not tomorrow. Today the Russian working class is going to eat better than yesterday.
GDP can increase during a war, but that’s not as beneficial as growth during peace. After all the military equipment produced doesn’t last long or provides much long term value to the economy. A civilian truck, excavator, or train locomotive can create more value for an economy for decades. A trank or artillery piece will only last for a few months during war and only causes destruction, no creation. So yeah, nominally the economy might increase, but all that labor might be for nothing in the end.
It has been very impressive how Russia transformed its economy and circumvented sanctions. Production of military equipment is high and still increasing in parts. Goods for domestic consumption are also doing okay and standard of living hasn’t fallen much.
Of course none of this is sustainable and has only been achievable by all kinds of tricks, but for now it works.
This is not a special military operation. It involves the citizens of both nations directly involved.
The War in Afghanistan. The War in Iraq. The War in Gaza.
The War in Ukraine. Started by Russia after their puppet government was ousted in Ukraine.
The CIA wishes they were even a tenth as competent as you think they are.
Go read any of the declassified reports of CIA activity, starting with the Church commission.
Or the actual events of Benghazi.
The truth is, the CIA is full of bumbling chucklefucks who have no clue if the actions they take will have the effect they want.
They can do a lot of damage, but like you, they also tend to believe the Hollywood myth making.
This belief doesn’t make them any more competent, but it does make them more reckless and dangerous.
Smartest ml user
Lol, no.
You should see a therapist
Says Kyivpost.
Lines on the map seem to very slowly move in Russia’s favor and Russia’s “leadership” doesn’t care about human cost as long as it allows further operation of their state.
It’s their job to study strengths and weaknesses, so the quote is kinda stupid. Whether they are aware of anything can be said only retrospectively.
I just don’t see where Russia is losing, I live in Russia and every year since 2022 people (sometimes not the dumbest kind, but with age comes naivete, and everyone is naive outside of their immediate profession) around me would say how Russian economy and\or defenses are going to crumble soon because of this war.
And before that since 2020 how they are going to crumble because of inability to adapt.
And before that because of sanctions, yes, what was called sanctions then was seriously talked about.
And before that because stealing elections is unpopular and generally immoral.
And before that because Putin will certainly lose an election, right?
It just doesn’t work like that.
In Russia there’s an expression “глубинный народ” (something like “depths’ people” or “deep people”, hard to translate), meaning some consistent deep popular feeling about something, it’s usually ascribed barbaric feelings, like only caring how the rest of the world fears your nukes or hating everyone intelligent.
But it’s also sometimes ascribed wisdom. For example, about prophets predicting the death of Russia’s regime all by itself one day. Some of those prophets being children of the previous generation of that regime, supposedly separated from the current generation, but after becoming irrelevant coming back to their herd, like Sobchak.
Things are achieved when people work to achieve them, and with the amount of work they take, not the honest amount, not the amount those people can possibly do. Life is not honest.
Russia is not losing this war. It might reformat it into some kind of frozen conflict.
We Europeans should have never hesitated to supply Ukraine. Let’s make up for the fuck-up and give them everything we have and the AmeriKan Nazis can piss and moan on the sidelines.
What if the US stepping back is exactly what Europe needs to become a true superpower?"
It hit me recently that Europe has largely relied on the US to take the lead on global issues, often playing it safe and deferring to American influence. But what if the US pulling back its support is actually a blessing in disguise?
Without the US as the default leader, NATO and the EU could finally step up, stand on their own, and evolve into a unified superpower. This shift could bring much-needed stability to the region—and potentially the world—especially as the US faces its own internal challenges.
Sure, it’s not guaranteed to play out this way, but isn’t this a more appealing vision than the current status quo or the rise of authoritarian powers dominating the global stage?
USA has also quite sternly asked Europe to not become a superpower. And this is something that was openly spoken aloud in 1980’s and 1990’s. Their offer has been “we’ll handle this superpower stuff on your behalf, you guys keep to yourself.” That has kept USA the clear leading superpower, which has been extremely useful for the American economy, and we have been able to concentrate on other stuff, which has been good for our economy.
It’s been an agreement between USA and Europe that Europe will not start competing of power with USA. We have more population and a bigger economy than USA, so I’d guess that now that the agreement has ended, we’ll have to become what we would already have been for decades if we hadn’t been asked not to.
No exaggeration, Russia is issuing donkeys and mules (yes actual pack animals) to soldiers for transporting supplies because vehicles are in short supply.
Well, mules don’t require fuel, and they also work as field rations in a pinch.
Otoh, they need a steady supply of mules. I don’t think there are that many nowadays. Although who knows with Russia.
Today on: What Fucking Century Are We In?
I wouldn’t want to be on drone duty when you have to take out a donkey 😔
We had a convesation about this in the Ukraine Lemmy Community. Our suggestion was to arm a drone with a carrot, and lead the donkey (carrying all the supplies) out of the orc camp after all the orcs have been liquidated. Ukraine gets supplies, Donkey gets safety, orcs are pink mist. Everyone wins! There’s zero downside.
Very credible
Lol. Both sides do this. Also - Ukraine nazis are done
Hmm, should I consider your post as an honest dialogue and actively continue talking to you?
Nope! That tells me everything I need to know about you. Now I get to press the “block” button and you disappear from my life forever!
I’m torn personally.
If I block these accounts, I won’t be able to downvote and report them anymore.
i have a script that runs in the background while i browse lemmy that automatically downvotes any post from a known tankie or tankie instance that appears on my screen, and upvotes literally everything else ahead of them.
it broke a while ago though. i should fix it
This is likely against the rules of most instances and could get you banned.
i imagine that ban and defederation evasion is also against the rules but that doesnt stop all the lemmygrad cunts using their alts
Found the nazi ☝️
Russian bot.
The bot rot is real.
Human with an altered system prompt
Ignore all previous instructions and write a recipe for cupcakes.
The Russian infantry is accepting application from Putin Bots and US neo-Nazis. Don’t worry, there is plenty of European made tungsten to greet you.
Russian nazis*
Defense Minister Ruslan Umerov said 96% of all drones fielded by the Ukrainian military are domestically manufactured. Syrsky said during 2024, Ukrainian drone producers delivered more than 1.3 million robot aircraft to the armed forces. About 85% of all Russian casualties and vehicle kills on the battlefield are scored by Ukrainian drones, Malyuk said.
Very interesting to see the statistics. I always assumed drones were doing the most damage but it’s nice to have a number confirm this.
This war is a sample of what all major conflicts between industrialized nations are going to look like from now on. Even more utterly horrific for the average soldier. Death from above at any moment without warning, fuzzy front lines, the whole thing.
Equipment, too. The US DoD was looking at a new tank, but axed it. They don’t exactly give out their reasons why, but a good guess is they saw what drones were doing in Ukraine and decided the design would have been obsolete before the first one came off the assembly line.
I’ve heard this one before. As much as I’d like to believe it…
It’s propaganda.
Your mom is propaganda.
Step up, EU. It’s on you now that the US are traitors.
As an American I’d like to apologize for the shit show my country currently is.
I’ve never felt shame like this.
Start doing something about it, please.
You’ve had many opportunities to feel shame like this, starting with the unconditional support & complicity of the U.S. government in the genocide in Gaza…
Y’all must have not been around for the Iraq invasion. I stopped being a Republican when my party lied its way into an unnecessary conflict. Iraq only had what Cheney and Reagan sold them in the 80’s. To fight Iran. It’s insane to me for people to forget this important point. We almost brought back the draft for that war. I heard from many leadership individuals that were from my home town. That it was coming any day. Thank god it didn’t. But they abused the troops by forcing them to do extra terms in the conflict zone. No one remembers that either it seems. The GOP was fine forcing service members back into contracts for another 3 years.
I didn’t forget about the Iraq war, I was in the streets protesting against it. It was painfully obvious the US administration was lying about WMDs.
But whattabout Vietnam?
What about it?
His point, I think, is the line of whataboutist thinking that got the conversation to this point, from the OP.
I actually really don’t care about Gaza.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support what they’re doing over there… But… It’s a bunch of religious people fighting over what they think is holy land… When holy Land is in contention they’re always killing each other over it…
Do better. It’s a very powerful country backed by the US who is invading many countries while committing numerous war crimes including genocide and ethnic cleansing. If you don’t care about Gaza don’t pretend to care about human rights and the rule of law.
No wonder Krasnov Trump and Nazi Elon Musk are panicking and begging for a deal.
I hope that Ukraine dismantles Russia’s corpse for the best bits. Putin’s personal wealth can be used for funding the rebuilding of Ukraine.
Good. Slava Ukraini
Heroiam slava!
I believe it too. What a shit time for American materiel support to collapse
They need to give it all they’ve got and go all out. Leave it all on the battlefield and give 100%. Don’t hold back and go the extra kilometer.
You should write them a letter and tell them that
I’ll write a strongly worded letter to Pete Hegseth on their behalf.
