First, I wanted to thank you for being so well informed as to what is going on over there. Just want to question one little thing. Because Ukraine represents the light in this conflict, I want to clear up one thing. I don't want us to be like some on here who just throw out blatant falsehoods with no evidence. I don't think they have anywhere near 17,000 russian POWs. Although Ukraine puts a lot of effort into providing information to russians on how to surrender, in practical terms it is very difficult to surrender without being shot down by their own troops. It was a big event that 60 surrendered over a 20 day period on one front recently. I would be surprised if they have more than a couple thousand. BTW, russia is refusing to participate in prisoner exchanges any longer. Most likely hoping to use all the Ukrainian soldiers and civilians as hostages.
Short update. russia is still continuing all out offensive against well entrenched Ukrainian positions and are losing 1000 troops a day on average over the last month. Haven't seen that they have gained more than a km on any front. Ukraine has somehow destroyed a tunnel in the far east connecting russia and China. They just hit a big drone storage facility in russia with one of their own large drones. russian partisans are destroying railroad relay stations in the Moscow region. Ukraine hacked into Crimean TV stations and broadcast speeches by their president and intelligence agency head. Also it was confirmed this week that Ukraine used a Patriot system earlier this year to shoot down four russian airplanes.
Sometimes, I just have to shake my head at both the creativity and depravity of the disturbed minds that conceive of such scenarios. The dude who writes all the stuff on that site is interesting to say the least.
Ukraine aid’s best-kept secret: Most of the money stays in the U.S.A. Great charts in this piece by conservative columnist, Interesting that districts benefitting the most are supposedly represented by Republicans who oppose aid to Ukraine. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/ukraine-military-aid-american-economy-boost/
The only verified info I have on cannibals is that russia has released a serial killer who killed and ate his victims. He was released as a reward for serving in the war against Ukraine.
People ask Stephen King, to his annoyance, where he gets his ideas. Which can certainly be gruesome. But he acknowledges they are fiction. And by all accounts he is in truth a nice person. Those who invent shit and call it fact? Not so much.
If you believe my 17,000 is off, then it probably is. I will try to find the pow report I saw, and try to figure what is going on. Thanks for the heads-up.
Putin is urging women to have as many as 8 children after so many Russians died in his war with Ukraine https://www.businessinsider.com/ukr...ssians-8-kids-amid-demographic-crisis-2023-11
Ukrainefan, an update on the Russian POWs in Ukraine. Short version, I don't have a clue. I couldn't find any "official" reports. There are many reports which are probably propaganda. I finally gave up when I was looking at at two reports, both believable, yet they contradicted each other. Conclusion for now. Whoever controls the propaganda coming out of Ukraine, is damn good.
This is part 1 of a really in depth and concerning article. I personally thought Ukraine should have used their own tanks (which are soviet made and death traps) to cut off Crimea in summer of 2022 before russia had built any defenses. But, the generals, just like coaches, never listen to me! https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/04/ukraine-counteroffensive-us-planning-russia-war/
Part 2. If anyone is blocked and wants to read I can post excerpts. Let me know. https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...counteroffensive-stalled-russia-war-defenses/
Second guessing is easy for people far from the action but the generals in Ukraine had to make decisions that affected the lives of their beloved soldiers. It's especially wrong for anyone in the Biden administration to criticize them, considering how little military aid went to them and how late it came. Just learned recently that USA only sent 20 of the ATACM long range rockets and they only had half the range of most ATACMs. These rockets could have done the job of cutting off Crimea from the rest of russian-occupied Ukraine just as well as a counteroffensive and without losing any lives.
Agree, also I believe a strong case can be made that Biden doesn't want this war to end soon. He brags about the $billions worth of military hardware donated to the fight. However, everything he sent, other than the few air defense systems, and the few rockets, was all older equipment marked to be scrapped soon or sold for pennies. And I agree with your comment about the equipment arriving late. Ukraine had the Russians making a big retreat on several fronts. However, Ukraine ran out of equipment and had to stop. Biden gave the Russians 8 months to build very extensive defensive fortifications. Therefore the latest offensive was not as successful as hoped for. And cost Ukraine and Russia many extra lives. The battle is now deadlocked. Biden didn't send the equipment asked for, and what he did send arrived too late.
Agreed. I fully expect that Biden (the establishment), wants Russia tied up in war for as long as possible.
None of the Nato countries have given Ukraine their latest and greatest weapons. That would be dumb for multiple reasons, the biggest being weapons fall into the enemy's hands. There are tons of videos of Ukrainian troops taking and using Russian weapons. We're not going to give Russia access to our latest weapons. Also, even our old weapons and weapon systems require substantial training. Training Ukrainian troops to use our newest and most advanced weapons would also make any captured Ukrainian troops a security risk to our armed forces.
Not true. Ukraine has been begging for our longer range missles, Biden refused. England did give them their version of the long range missle called Storm Shadow. It only took 3 Storm Shadow missles fired into Crimea to scare most of the Russian navy out of Crimea. The missles took out a submarine, another ship was damaged, and the Russian navy headquarters was destroyed.
Storm Shadow was developed in 1994 by Britian and France and has been in use since 2003. It is not their latest and greatest missile system. Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Qatar, Saudia Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates along with Britain and France all use the Storm Shadow. It is older equipment, which is what part of your complaint was. Yes, the US will not sell Ukraine weapons that can strike deep into Russia.
