Ukraine developments

[727Sky]

I think I understand Russia's reasons for invading Ukraine but what a piss poor execution of their plans not to mention what a waste of life on both sides of the conflict.

[/url]Russia Withdrawing Troops From Ukraine After ‘Heavy Losses,’ Intelligence Agency Says
By Jack Phillips
May 12, 2022 Updated: May 12, 2022
biggersmaller
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Russia is now withdrawing some of its troops after suffering “heavy losses” in recent days, claimed the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday.
In an update posted on social media, the ministry alleged that “Ukrainian forces are continuing to counterattack to the north of Kharkiv, recapturing several towns and villages towards the Russian border.”
“Despite Russia’s success in encircling Kharkiv in the initial stages of the conflict, it has reportedly withdrawn units from the region to reorganize and replenish its forces following heavy losses,” the agency said, referring to the second-largest city, located in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border.
But “the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kharkiv Oblast is a tacit recognition of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited resistance from the population,” the ministry continued.
Those withdrawn forces, it added, will “likely” be sent to the Siverskyi Donets River to form a blockade “to protect the western flank of Russia’s main force concentration and main supply routes for operations in the vicinity of Izyum.”
Russian military officials have not made a public comment after the United Kingdom’s assessment.
Meanwhile, it comes as Moscow threatened to retaliate against Finland after the Scandinavian country indicated that it wishes to join the NATO security alliance. Finland, which shares a border with Russia and has long remained neutral even during Soviet times, stated on Thursday it would apply to join NATO “without delay,” and Sweden is expected to follow suit.
[url=https://img.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2022/05/1.2.66789082.jpg-1200x746.jpg] The Grande Pettine Hotel in Odessa, Ukraine, was destroyed by a missile. (Max Pshybyshevsky/AP)
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Finns would be “warmly welcomed” and promised a “smooth and swift” accession process. French President Emmanuel Macron said he fully supported Finland’s choice to join the alliance.
But through state-run media, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s proclamation will trigger a negative response from Russia.
“There is a current instruction from the president to develop a list of measures to strengthen our western flanks in connection with the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flanks,” he told state media Thursday.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow would be forced to take “retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature,” giving no further details. Russian officials have spoken in the past about potential measures including stationing nuclear-armed missiles on the Baltic Sea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long said that NATO is attempting to expand its borders in a bid to place military pressure on Moscow. He cited that assertion as a major reason for invading Ukraine, describing it as a “special military operation.”
Reuters contributed to this report.

https://lists.youmaker.com/links/94QIY4k...FlgZVmiuVn

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Look like my phone made a double post.

Oops!

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I think I understand Russia's reasons for invading Ukraine but what a piss poor execution of their plans not to mention what a waste of life on both sides of the conflict.

I am not a military scholar. But looking at it from a commonsensical point of view, not taking sides, it looks like Russia is being preemptive.

We are looking at a large land mass that is "bordered by 14 countries, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine. It also shares maritime borders with Japan, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States."

The majority of those countries are potential enemies. It looks like NATO is moving to expand into those territories, placing Russia in a pretty precarious position.

I can see them thinking the time to stop the barbarians at the gate, is to stop the Trojan horse from crossing over the border.

Just a thought.

[DISRAELI]

I think I understand Russia's reasons for invading Ukraine but what a piss poor execution of their plans not to mention what a waste of life on both sides of the conflict.

I am not a military scholar. But looking at it from a commonsensical point of view, not taking sides, it looks like Russia is being preemptive.

We are looking at a large land mass that is "bordered by 14 countries, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine. It also shares maritime borders with Japan, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States."

The majority of those countries are potential enemies. It looks like NATO is moving to expand into those territories, placing Russia in a pretty precarious position.

I can see them thinking the time to stop the barbarians at the gate, is to stop the Trojan horse from crossing over the border.

Just a thought.

To set up an even larger context;
The Russian anxiety about access to the oceans has been happening for centuries, ever since Peter the Great, or arguably since Muscovy took over the Republic of Novgorod.
And for exactly that reason, all those surrounding countries have come to understand Russia as aggressively expansionist.
It's a vicious circle, possibly unbreakable.

[Snarl]

I think I understand Russia's reasons for invading Ukraine but what a piss poor execution of their plans not to mention what a waste of life on both sides of the conflict.

Indeed.  Irritating how Washington DC continues to pour money into a bottomless pit ... and that Zelensky just keeps getting personally richer and richer somehow.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Blog post from that Russian Orlov guy...

Russian Victory Cult

Somewhat unusually for me, this post is an actual site report (accompanied by some commentary). Yesterday, May 9, 2022, I participated in a million-person march down Nevsky Avenue in St. Petersburg: the annual march of the Immortal Regiment. A million people (probably quite a bit more) marched under portraits of their relatives who fought in the Great Patriotic War (a.k.a. World War II). We marched under a portrait of my wife’s grandparents, who served together in the signal corps and got along so well that my mother-in-law was born a couple of months before the fall of Berlin. They lived long and happy lives; but many other participants marched under portraits of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents whose lives were cut short. Some died in battle; many others died of mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis. It was a tragedy of immense proportions and hardly any family in Leningrad/St. Petersburg remained untouched by it, but the immensity of the tragedy is matched by the immensity of the victory, and the raw power of a “Hurrah!” sweeping across several kilometers of the six-lane Nevsky Avenue, packed wall-to-wall, was tremendous.

In that war, Russia vanquished Nazi Germany and (as is often overlooked) also Rumania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia and Austria, which sent their troops into Russian territory, as well as numerous mercenaries and volunteers from the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France and Spain, and, of course, Britain and the US which bankrolled the German Nazis and provided them with key technologies and fuel. Thus, the Russian victory was not even specifically against Germany but against the combined West. The cost in human life was absolutely staggering—a human tragedy beyond comprehension—but most Russians will tell you that it was entirely worth it. Furthermore, many Russians will say that they will repeat the lesson if necessary.

Luckily, as often happens in history, the tragedy is being repeated as a farce. In place of Hitler we have German Bundeskanzler Liverwurst who made a name for himself in Russia: he thought out loud that calling tens of thousands of civilian casualties accumulated during eight years of Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk and Lugansk as “something like genocide… is really ridiculous.” The ridiculousness doesn’t stop there: there is the aptly named lady-gynecologist Ursula von der Lyin’ in charge of lyin’ for the entire European Union and the various foreign and defense ministresses who like to go on joyrides atop NATO tanks (a ritualistic humiliation for any politician, but these ones are too stupid to realize that).

And then there is the rest of NATO, which looks impressive only on paper and keeps sending all sorts of useless or obsolete military junk to the Ukraine, where it gets either stolen on the way or remotely blown up by the Russians. The little bit that does reach the front ends up lying abandoned in heaps by the retreating Ukrainians who are, at this point, mostly raw recruits who hate their commanders with a passion and are often quite eager to surrender—because, you see, Nazi Ukraine is running out of Nazis! The Nazis are part of a neopagan death cult, are high on special battlefield drugs that the Americans have been providing, and so tend to fight to the death, but their numbers are being quite successfully whittled down by Russian artillery. The Russians are treating the entire “Special Mission Of Demilitarization and Denazification of Ukraine” (SMODDU) as a live fire training exercise and are currently busy rotating their forces.

Unfortunately, he had to put his writings behind a paywall due to pesky trolls. So, the above is what is available.

It would not surprise me if American troops will eventually be sent over. At least for a while I think not as you might have noticed the new military recruitment campaign is geared toward psychological warfare. But, if that fails, like it did in the past what then? The pressure must be getting intense on Putin as Finland & Sweden are now planning to join NATO.

Sweden launches 'Psychological Defence Agency' to counter propaganda from Russia, China and Iran

Sweden has launched a new agency dedicated to defending the country against disinformation, propaganda and psychological warfare in the latest part of its efforts to bring military and civil defence back towards Cold War levels.

The official opening of the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency came on the same day that Finland's President Sauli Niinistö accused Russia of "challenging the sovereignty of several EU member states, including Sweden and Finland" by demanding security guarantees ruling out “Nato’s further movement eastward”.

[Snarl]

Wonder who wasn't expecting this:

Western Weapons in Ukraine Being Sold via Encrypted Messaging App

[SimeonJ]

Wonder who wasn't expecting this:

Western Weapons in Ukraine Being Sold via Encrypted Messaging App

Ppl from black sea region can stole anything, even during piece times
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodit...021-11-24/
and the fog of war just make this easier.

Sadly I cannot get AS Val through two customs, and I am stuck with the AK from Yugoslavia wars.

[Snarl]

Sadly I cannot get AS Val through two customs, and I am stuck with the AK from Yugoslavia wars.

[727Sky]

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Day 127: Bluecheck's Battle for Snake Island claim victory. LOL.




https://twitter.com/AVindman/status/1542495888731414529


https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1542481616978714625

Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky flew to Snake Island, where there are no voters but some sheep, to emphasize that it mattered. "This island, like the rest of our territory, is Ukrainian land, and we will defend it with all our might," he said.
CNN

https://twitter.com/RolandOliphant/statu...1955263490

"allow grain exports"? GTFO!




Perhaps the real story is Ukraine forces helping Russia forces destroy the Ukraine.?

[727Sky]

[727Sky]

Corruption in the Russian military

[Bally002]

Corruption in the Russian military

Good insight.  But, and yeah but, this is no different from every other wealthy nation.  Typical example from my perspective is the submarine deal here.

Just an example here only.

France and Australia agree for France to supply subs to the Aussie Navy in preference to US subs . Previous PM cancels the deal.  France obviously has it's nose out of shape.

New Prime Minister pays off the French Government just recently.  We're mates again meanwhile US has the contract to supply just 6 subs by 2035.  I'll be dead by then.  Just 6.  What deterrent is that?

Oh gee, Australia will have 6 new subs by the middle of the 2030's.  Meanwhile in China....

And it goes on and on.  

Order and buy F35's - we can't use them!!!!  They'll be obsolete by 2030 when the order is fulfilled.  If not already obsolete.

I comment here Sky Man that the guy in the video is targeting Russian corruption, for some reason, where the whole global system even to smaller countries is the same but proportional.

So, for me, to take this video seriously the narrator may need to expand and not just focus on Russia. It seemed bias to me.

I don't like what Putin did in Ukraine but the vid should broaden the exposure to other countries.

Cheers for the post,

Bally:)

[727Sky]

A great Sitrep