Politics Ukraine / Russia

I wish that we wouldn't use our energy arguing with each other. I think everyone on here, with one exception, supports Ukraine and wants them to win. Let's put our energy into this support. Here is a great place to do it. The guys are always short on medical supplies and often need new helmets and better armored vests.
https://ukraineaidops.org/donate/

 

Or let's contact Biden and ask for long range rockets, which Britain and France are already supplying; just look what they can do: Sevastopol last night, damaged a ship and sub in drydock

 

"Speed is essential, therefore, and maintaining momentum is paramount. The deep fight is the determining factor and ATACMS are essential to deliver the win. The “third line,” as Maul described the successive Russian defensive positions — along with ammunition holding areas, fuel and supply depots, headquarters providing command and control, and troop staging areas — would be the high payoff targets for ATACMS.

The decision is easy: Get ATACMS to Ukraine. Together with HIMARS-delivered cluster munitions, ATACMS becomes a part of Ukraine’s multidomain operations and enables winning the close fight."

https://themessenger.com/opinion/bidens-latest-dilemma-in-ukraine-send-atacms-or-not

 

The mad rush to privatize everything because supposedly private business works better than government. I have plenty of criticisms of government but when crucial infrastructure is ceded to private company one rich guy, and virtually always guy, for whom no one voted, can override foreign policy voted on by elected representatives and with support of majority of citizens.

 

He's been paid, what the hell does he care?...and he's just now decided he doesn't want to "be responsible" anymore?...really? ...Elon, you could have removed yourself a long time ago.

...What an attention whore.



...Fuck Elon Musk.

 

Interesting to see what top russian general said early in the war and what he says now:

 

"Depending on estimates — Russian Ministry of Defense casualty counts are notoriously unreliable — more than 283,000 Russian soldiers have died in Putin’s wars in Chechnya, Georgia, the North Caucasus, Syria, Central African Republic and Mali. And if Kyiv’s estimate of the Kremlin’s losses is accurate, nearly 270,000 have died since Putin began his war against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022."
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4202074-putins-kingdom-of-the-dead/

 

Woah, that's a big deal.

 

The sub might be eventually salvageable at great cost but the ship next to it in dry dock is completely destroyed. Ukraine has also hit a couple of large patrol boats since then with sea drones. They also knocked out a big anti aircraft unit, knocking out the radar first and then using Ukrainian made missiles to finish it off. they used Britain's Storm Shadow missiles to knock out the sub and big ship.

 

Yeah, but if I'm Russian "submariner", I'm not exactly all giddy about having to serve on that repaired sub during it's maiden voyage.

 

Democrats question Pentagon on Musk disabling internet for Ukraine military;

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...musk-disabling-internet-for-ukraine-military/


A trio of Democratic senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday over concerns that tech billionaire Elon Musk may have personally impacted the war in Ukraine and by extension, U.S. foreign policy.

Musk confirmed earlier this month that he refused access to his Starlink satellite internet service to the Ukrainian military when they wanted to use it for an offensive operation in Crimea last year.

“These allegations… raise serious concerns about whether Mr. Musk has personally intervened to undermine a key U.S. partner at a critical juncture — and if so, how and why he was allowed to do so, what actions the Department of Defense (DoD) will take or has taken to address these actions and prevent further dangerous meddling, and whether further legislation is needed for DoD to effectively pursue these ends,” Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote in the letter.

The allegations were first raised in a biography about Musk released in early September. The SpaceX CEO contested some specifics of the account, but confirmed that he did limit access to Starlink.

The senators asked Austin to fully investigate the extent of the allegations and find out what actually happened.

“The confusion over what actually happened during this Ukrainian attack – and Mr. Musk’s specific role – demands answers,” the senators wrote.

Specifically, the biography’s account states that when Ukraine asked for Starlink access for a drone strike on the Russian Navy in Sevastopol, Musk intervened.

The book claims he was concerned Russia would respond to an attack on their warships with a nuclear strike. Ukrainian officials begged him to turn the service on, but he refused, the author wrote.

“Such reports appear to indicate that Mr. Musk’s decision provided de facto protection to Russian military assets which continue to launch strikes on Ukrainian population centers and critical infrastructure and enforce a Russian embargo on grain shipments in the Black Sea,” the senator’s letter continued. “These actions have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and driven an increase in global food prices, bringing the world to the brink of a food security crisis.”

The revelation brought Musk criticism from Ukrainian authorities and praise from Russians, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Starlink internet system has been credited for assisting Ukraine’s advances, though they have been limited by Musk’s insistence that it not be used on offensive operations into Russia and threats the program would be shut down.

 

I know that some people (including me) have been doubtful about the huge amount of russian soldiers Ukraine claim they have killed. Well, Forbes has done some research on various russian expenses in this war. I did some calculations. If those figures from Forbes are correct, then Ukraine is not exaggerating how many russian soldiers they have killed. Forbes claims that russia has spent 25 billion dollars on compensation to families of dead soldiers. Each family gets 68 thousand dollars. According to Google, 25 billion divided by 68 thousand equals 367 thousand .
Ukraine is only claiming 271,000 russian dead so either they are under-estimating or there is a huge amount of fraud in russia, or both.

 

Here is the link to how much Putin pays to families.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/puti...t Vladimir Putin signed,in the war in Ukraine.

 

Sad, in a way, that soldiers, who didn't choose, die while the turd who chose lives in luxury. The way of war.

 

Has anyone figured out the flaw in my reasoning yet? I just noticed that the source for Forbes numbers is Ukraine! You guys are probably too polite to have pointed this out! I tried to read the entire article to get some insight but it's in Ukrainian language which I had to use Google translate to read. If I understood it correctly, the payment to families of dead soldiers is now $110.000, not 68. 000 supposedly because of the weakening of the ruble, which doesn't make sense. If they pay a fixed amount of rubles to each family, as the ruble weakens against the dollar, the dollar amount would be smaller, not larger. And the article gave the impression of being a propaganda piece, not serious journalism. So I think I now go back to being a doubter. I still think that Ukraine is killing three times as many russians as they are losing them selves, but I think their calculations of russian personnel losses are exaggerated, just guessing by maybe a quarter.) Although, early in the war some people actually bought data from russia on the amount paid to surviving families and that data closely reflected Ukrainian figures, so I just really don't know. And it's possible that Ukraine, who seem to have contacts within the russian government, has those figures also. I DO believe the figures on equipment losses as those are closely traced by individuals who require visual confirmation.
BTW, using the $110,000 figure, it would imply about 227,000 dead whereas Ukraine is claiming about 271, 000. That would seem to make some sense.

 

Elon Musk likes to think he saved us from Armageddon. He’s just brought it closer;

https://apple.news/AdY2M2CK4T4Gpop_072QB3g

 

It might seem like nothing much is happening in Ukraine, but in the last week, besides all the strikes on the russian navy, Ukraine is making some advances in critical areas
https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/09...rainian-counteroffensive-is-gaining-momentum/

 

The video "Liberation of Andriivka: a Ukrainian soldier's first-person view" is very graphic and clearly shows the complete devastation of that area...all of the foliage on what once were trees, has been stripped away.

My hope is, that after Russia eventually throws in the towel, they should be severely sanctioned until they make reparations for what they have done to Ukraine's once beautiful country.