Ales Dvorak

Is that a kid-sized toy rifle used for 'training' Little Oktobrists or sumfink? (the colour leads me to suspect it might be)
Because if not, then stick that beauty on a skewer and roast it rather than rely on the logistics chain.

I’m sorry, but that was f’king disgusting! There’s no reason for showing vids of soldiers burning to death! When we show those, we become desensitized to them still being human beings.

Footage from an airsoft game, unfortunately 😉

Anyone noticed cannabis at 0:06 - 0:10?

Anyone noticed cannabis at 0:06 - 0:10?

Anyone noticed cannabis at 0:06 - 0:10?

Hey, aren't you the one that says we can walk and chew gum a the same time 😀

I'm afraid at the end there will be more: "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger"

I'm afraid at the end there will be more: "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger"

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre also.

Ugh, a very quick wiki search comes up pretty quick that the actions of some sub-units of this division agains Polish civilians, on more than one occasion, were criminal.  Of course Canada held a “totally-not-cover-our-a$$es” commission back in 1986 and found the Division as innocent as lambs.  This was seriously political as we were coming under a lot of pressure for harbouring war criminals back then and surprisingly we held a commission and found we were not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Galician)
For our European readers/posters let’s just be really clear - Nazi as a brand = Evil in North American thinking.  No Grey Areas, no “hey wait a minutes” or “what about context”.  Anyone in North America who thinks Nazi = Ok, is immediately labeled a Nazi/white supremacist.  
Any further discussion of this will no doubt drag this thread down a rabbit hole we do not want to go down, so I recommend we tie off “Nazi, let’s think about it” early.  The fact that Canadian parliament invited in a veteran of this Division, in the middle of a visit from the Ukrainian president, is a screw up of epic proportions.  Even if all this guy did was guard the mess and is totally innocent, his attachment to this formation should have raised flags and put the brakes on this whole thing.  It’s link to this war is that Russia is making IO hay on this entire issue, which is doing exactly zero favours for Ukraine in the longer term.

This.
 
p.s.
The 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division (Galizische Nr. 1) (14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (galizische Nr. 1)) was a Waffen-SS division founded in April 1943 from Ukrainians, which was present in Slovenia in two different periods. Initially (February–March 1945), it primarily operated in the area of Lower Štajerska (some units also in Gorenjska and Dolenjska); then it retreated with other units (in April and May 1945) across Lower Styria to Austria, where it again clashed with Slovenian partisans. The primary combat and combat support units were: the 29th, 30th and 31st Waffen-SS Grenadier Regiments, the 14th Waffen-SS Artillery Regiment and the 14th Waffen-SS Field Replacement Regiment

I know it's almost heresy to say on these forums, but as we are now halfway through September and Ukraine is still quite far from Tokmak, and Tokmak is quite far away from the sea of Azov, I've begun considering the offensive a failure.
Of course I can't say for sure. I'm no military expert, and I don't have access to much information. Maybe the Russians are close to breaking point and collapse. Hopefully they are. But the front line is just not moving very much.
Ukraine has been fighting hard and taken heavy losses, and still only have very few gains to show for it. The Verbove penetration is only about 10x10 kilometres and even though it's now two weeks since the Russian line was claimed to be penetrated, the front line has barely moved since then.
But I'm not writing this to start another debate about whther the offensive has failed or not.
I'm thinking about what will happen if it has indeed failed. Just for the sake of the argument, let's say autumn rain and mud arrives and Ukraine is still barely halfway to Tokmak. What happens then?
I'm guessing both sides would try to struggle on through autumn and winter, but mostly the war would be in pause. How does the situation look next spring, then, both militarily and on the political level?
For all the talk about whether the Russian people are fed up with the war, how about Western voters? When I look around here in Denmark, it seems the war has gone from a matter of great urgency to just background noise. I think that a failed offensive would lead many people in the west to conclude that this was is not really winnable.
Before, there was this sense that since Ukraine had beaten Russia so badly in the beginning of the war, with Russia at full strenght and Ukraine armed with pitchforks and home-made molotovs, surely the Ukrainian counteroffensive would be a great success now that Russia has been mauled and Ukraine has been supplied with some of the best weapons NATO has to offer. Yet that's not what we see. And I think that's a sobering thought for many.

My guess the Boer war and WW1?
Am I right....
 Am I Am I....
 
DARN TOO SLOW.... Doh!!!
 

Are you serious?

Yes but that picture would appear to be not one of them
 
Maybe it's just an illustration of one 😀 

Very well put.
One thing to add: one reason why Germany and Japan were treated so well by the allies was that they were needed vs Russia and/or China. Without that, I guess the willingness to forgive would have been a bit less.
The willingness of Ukraine to forgive Russia or Russians will pay out in good PR in the West, which translates to money or things like EU membership.
Ukraine has managed to stay the 'good guy' in a horrible war. When the war ends, it needs to stay that for its own future.
That will be a very hard thing to do - not to pay back what the bastards have done to you. But the West is not in this war, we are only observing. And the West will judge Ukraine by its own standards, which are not adjusted by having been into that war.
Winning the war is only halfway to peace.

Re: possible insurgency
1. First off, as Steve already said, things can theoretically happen. We're talking about the most likely scenario. Anyone who predicts future with 100% certainty is a fraud.
2. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of bad blood. Just as you saw a lot of Crimeans genuinely cheering up and supporting the invaders in 2014, the Crimeans saw people on mainland Ukraine cheer powerlines being blown up as 2 million people plunged into darkness, water channel being cut off, the roads being blocked for cargo traffic, with all the little nasty consequences that were actually physically felt here. The reactionary post-2014 policies, laws and rethoric weren't great either. But compared to all the mayhem what's been happening since Feb 2022, this is nothing. And people are TIRED of chaos, flying jets, drones, explosions and death. Those who are currently in the trenches or came from there are tired as well.
3. What would be "the cause" to rally behind? They can't even formulate victory conditions for the current war. Nor can they achieve anything significant, with all their men and equipment in the field. Rallying (who, civilians?) to do something a huge army can't do? That requires guts and there's none. Only stupidity and hubris. They are unable to say NO when told to do something stupid or illegal. Saying no requires guts.
4. You need to understand the reality on the ground. Pretty much all Crimeans who haven't left have Russian passports. What, 1.5-2 million people? Myself included. Because living here without one is practically impossible. Hell, I know Crimeans who left and are currently on mainland Ukraine that also have Russian passports, issued in Crimea in 2014 (illegaly, obviously). For Ukrainian government to take back control, they'll have to deal with it somehow. And bunch of other documents. There's already been laws and decrees passed aimed to make the transition back as painless as possible. There's a whole ministry that's dealing with issues like these. Refer to Ministry of Reintegration sources for more information.
5. That being said, it's been nine years, and nobody can pretict how much more time will pass before that. It can happen in two months, or in two years, or in ten. And with every single day, people are growing more tired. They are trying as hard as they can not to notice what's happening now. And there's no land warfare close by yet. When it comes, they'll have much more incentive to make it stop ASAP.
 
Re: how am I doing?
My life isn't as horrible as for some others out there. But things can change literally any minute, as for everybody else in the region. So I am trying to live in the moment while I can.
For those who don't know, I tried to get to Estonia via St.Petersburg back in September. Before Feb 2022, it was illegal (by Ukrainian laws) thing to do. I managed to contact some Ukrainian officials and learned that it is okay during the war, if your purpose is to leave the occupied areas/Russia.
But, as I also have Russian passport (issued locally after 2014, and almost impossible to get rid of without being put into danger), Russia views me as Russian citizen first, and by their laws, I had to get foreign travel passport in order to leave. I did that, and it took time. I also had to prepare money and other affairs. Thus I managed to get to the Estonian border only in September. My thinking was that it would be safer to deal with Russian documents after I cross the border, not before.
I knew that Russian passports issued in Crimea are not recognized by the EU. My Ukrainian foreign travel passport was outdated by that point. The rules are: you can apply for asylum if you have no valid travel documents. But when I got to the border, Estonian police and border guard told me that everything is fine with my Russian passport (the travel document I had to use to leave the Russian side of the border, because Russian laws) and thus I cannot ask for an asylum.
I told them many things about myself, and that I would be in danger if I return, but they did not care. They were angry and not cooperative, unwilling to listen. They blamed me for not coming sooner and for other things I had no control over. That night at the border is something that still haunts me to this day. Being rejected by the people who you considered to be good and being sent back to modern day neo-USSR. And there are things that I am not telling you here, because it is dangerous...
Anyway.. I came to St.Petersburg. Got seriously ill. Still, I got tickets to Vladikavkaz in order to try crossing into Georgia. But soon I found a lot of info online that told me the same story would happen there as well. There were no other good alternatives that came to my mind. Going somewhere else eastward wasn't looking like a good idea either, legally, logistically and for other reasons.
At that time, my little sister was still in Crimea. I've decided to come back here and deal with whatever happens to all of us together. Since then, there was a harsh winter without work. Serious depression, from which I barely managed to recover on my own, without meds or therapist. The dangers that are lurking out there are real. But I know who I am and what I stand for, and where my allegiance is.
Most importantly, I know that the bastards have already lost. I knew that back in Feb 2022. They will not succeed, no matter what happens to me personally. They can't do anything good in this world, and there's no "winning" for them in any shape or form.
I've stopped working on my Unity dev career for now. I tried to find some remote work, but failed and had to return back to working in a store. I do see a future where things go at least a little bit better. But for that to happen, a lot of people have to put in a lot of effort. There's nothing free, and freedom itself is not free. We all have to work for it.
Alright, I've already said much more than I should've. Over and out.

SPIEGEL has a long article about the destruction of Nord Stream (paywalled, German):
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/nord-stream-anschlag-in-der-ostsee-die-spuren-fuehren-in-eine-richtung-in-die-ukraine-a-befcbfbb-b1cd-4912-aeaa-56bef4dd8047
They did it together with German TV ZDF who made a documentary (I'm not sure if this is accessible from abroad):
https://www.zdf.de/politik/frontal/doku-fall-nord-stream-spurensuche-ostsee-andromeda-gas-pipeline-explosion-russland-sabotage-ukraine-krieg-100.html
TL;DR:
it was done with a small sail boat with 6-man crew, specialists have confirmed that to be feasible Russian activities at the time & place likely were attempted countermeasures all trails lead to Ukraine & Ukrainians Zelensky's involvement highly unlikely, but maybe lower rank, nothing proven could be Russian false flag - biggest counterargument is that they didn't botch that highly complicated mission German government is unusually tight-lipped & has no real interest in solving the case (now or maybe never)

I don't doubt that you and many or most others went there for all the right reason. But that is not why you were sent to Iraq. We all know that the Bush administration lied to you and the whole world and good people had to suffer and die for it. And some rich people got richer. 
In fact, I think the tragedy is that even the bad guys think that they are doing it for all the right reasons.

I know she is on Ukraine's side, but that doesn't mean what she's saying is necessarily true. Disinformation can come from anywhere...

Was it successful?

That was not my point. Inside the IL English should be standard and I guess it de facto is.
But what happens if you need to talk to someone outside the IL? Some Ukrainian yokel (sorry) who has never spoken a word of English? Or, even if he has - what are the chances he learned military or medical slang in high school?
My point is that if you go to a foreign country to fight, you ought to learn the ****ing language - at least the very basics. For your own sake.
I have nothing more to add.