sburke

https://www.yahoo.com/news/40-employees-russian-embassy-leave-103800774.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/runners-deliver-flag-bakhmut-nato-095722378.html

Well can’t say your pessimism is unwarranted but regarding iPhones, wasn’t that the first question that woman asked when her son was capture?. We also are talking Oligarchs who don’t live in shacks that are the ones we are hitting with sanctions.

I think you are jumping to a conclusion too early. We have a lot of time yet to play out for war crimes trials. One article cited above is Lukashenko possibly having a card to play in turning over Wagner folks to The Hague. I get this is the “immediate gratification is too slow” era, but the fat lady isn’t schedule to sing for quite a while yet.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/wagner-revolt-could-leave-putin-023653169.html Despite all of Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s chest thumping about his involvement in negotiating an end to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising in Russia, he might have set himself up for political instability, a top U.S. diplomat tells The Daily Beast. With Lukashenko agreeing to have Prigozhin exiled to Belarus—and potentially having Wagner fighters move to Belarus—there are likely elite Belarusian politicians in Lukashenko’s circle who are eyeing the outcome of his negotiations with great distaste, U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter told The Daily Beast. “I’m sure the top power in nomenklatura in Belarus is looking very carefully at what has occurred,” Carpenter, who has tracked the ins and outs of Lukashenko’s rule for years, told The Daily Beast. “Some of them are beholden to Russia and others very much want to chart a course for an independent, sovereign Belarus.”

If you look at specific areas they are. Nothing really new in that statement. You are reading it too literally. If you just read some of the posts above you can clearly see UA advances in different areas. Granted it would be nice to see 500 & 1000 & 2000 all in one sector. He didn’t however say that.

He can correct me if I am wrong, but I think he was specifically referring to use by the UA. With the RA having limited offensive capacity I assume his thinking there is less need for them. Not sure I agree but he wasn’t saying what think your response implied.

While I generally agree, the nature of this fight is existential. A lot of things have to be put to the side unfortunately. Reality trumps what may have been desired. I am sure the UA would prefer not to mine their own country, but considering how many Russia is dumping, that earlier figure of them clearing 10x as many as they laid is likely going to be a low ball for the reality facing Ukraine.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/mike-pence-volodymr-zelenskyy-surprise-trip-ukraine-rcna91763 "I believe America’s the leader of the free world," Pence told NBC News. "But coming here just as a private citizen — being able to really see firsthand the heroism of the Ukrainian soldiers holding the line in those woods, see the heroism of the people here in Irpin that held back the Russian army, to see families whose homes were literally shelled in the midst of an unconscionable and unprovoked Russian invasion — just steels my resolve to do my part, to continue to call for strong American support for our Ukrainian friends and allies."

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000008893083/ukraine-frontline-hospital.html?smid=em-share Treating the wounded The Wagner paramilitary group’s brief mutiny in Russia and the fallout from it has eclipsed attention on the war in Ukraine over the past few days. The war slogs on in the meantime: Russian soldiers kill or wound as many as thousands of Ukrainian troops a week, adding to the invasion’s toll. My colleagues Yousur Al-Hlou, Masha Froliak and Ben Laffin published a striking video today from the front lines, following Ukrainian combat medics. Before the war, they were civilian doctors and nurses. Now, they treat their wounded countrymen while trying to protect themselves from artillery fire and rocket attacks. I urge you to watch the video, which changed how I look at the sacrifice Ukrainians have been forced to make. I spoke to Yousur and Masha about their experience following these medics for a week. German: What is the mood among Ukrainian medics, more than a year into the war? Masha: They compared the grinding workload to the film “Groundhog Day,” reliving the same day over and over and losing sense of whether it’s day or night. They have been living in that hospital, as well as working there. They’re tired. They don’t have a sense of when this is going to end. What they say in the video has an existential sense to it. They seem motivated to keep going because they feel their country needs them. Yousur: They’re not just defending their country. They’re defending their families’ lives and their own lives. It’s a very personal struggle. It’s a very personal motivation — a very personal risk. One of the doctors asks: “How could I not take this on? How could I not be at this frontline hospital? How can I not risk my life if it’s in service of protecting my family and protecting my country?” They acknowledge they have fatigue. They acknowledge that they have doubts about when this conflict might end. But they also have this relentless motivation. Masha: One doctor said these young soldiers were the same age as her child. She spoke about imagining it’s her child in the operating room — and she just wants to hug and protect them all. It seems like an important point: As tired as they may be, these doctors are not giving up on the war. Yousur: That’s right. These doctors were not shy about voicing the toll the war is having on them. But it doesn’t negate their motivation and their hatred toward the enemy — feelings they also expressed openly. These feelings live in parallel. What were their lives like before the invasion? Yousur: They were anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses and so on at civilian hospitals. They were wearing white coats. When the invasion began last year, their lives changed drastically. It is a nearly universal aspect of the war. Once it began, a lot of civilians suddenly found themselves in service of their country. People volunteered to stitch camouflage nets for soldiers. Grandmothers made Molotov cocktails. Similarly, these doctors began working practically overnight in a frontline military hospital having to tend to the wounded amid rocket fire.

T54s versus leopard 2s. Who wrote this alternate history crap, or is this some crazy scenario from the cesspool?

Oh sure just like there is no Antifa leadership, I’ll betcha you are part of the deep state! funny thing, I was once a member of a group that the FBI blamed for a lot of stuff. There were people in the group who were responsible but they were acting independently. The general members of the organization blamed hadn’t a clue. Even the state with all its intel networks never really understood that. Just easier to label the whole.

If only the partisans could carry out a hit making it look like the shooting turf war had started.

Blow the god damn bridge. Make supply truly difficult. Not even the whole bridge, just that RR line.

So computers are getting smarter slower and humans are dumber faster?

I think it is more about lessons learned. Being able to judge people’s real motivations for example. When I was younger my father warned me of things like that. Being more idealistic I just wrote off his lack of trust to a more conservative outlook. It took some painful lessons to learn what he had already learned. if you look for example of the recent experience for BLM and how folks in leadership took advantage of the organization financially. It is for so many folks in that movement a bitter betrayal. That in turn leads to folks being more conservative in who they trust.

Putin continues to hunt for his enemies https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/world/europe/putin-prigozhin-russia.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleSharePutin Moves to Punish Prigozhin Allies

And I had hair.

It takes a younger generation indignant at the status quo with little materially to lose and little appreciation for the long term consequences to push for change. It takes the older generation to keep things in perspective that in fact change is a constant and progress even if slow does occur. Having been on both ends of that experience, I prefer being on the older end.

satire aside it does look deliberate and sadly a Ukrainian in the employ of the GRU may have provided the target. https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-says-caught-sleeper-agent-153820369.html

I think you way low balled that estimate. Now if you’d said the 30% who CAN’T read believe anything they hear I’d have been with you.

Not able to access much at the moment (cause I am busy drinking and eating my way through Barcelona!j but how much could this position be used to leverage the RA out of any of its defensive positions? And no I don’t think the RA figured this all out as I don’t credit the RA with much of a strategic vision these days.

Well getting them back across the border is the goal right? After that it becomes an international issue where sanctions would hopefully determine what the Russian state in whatever form it exists then concedes to its new global position ie the dog that just doodied all over the floor and needs to sit outside for a while. (After getting its face shoved in the doody)

Probably the better option for Ukraine as well. Likely the first target of a Russian nuke would be Kiev frankly.

NYT article on Prig and their own perspective. Not sure if paywalled one area of interest is other bits of Prig’s financial empire that were being undermined specifically his catering business to the Russian army https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/world/europe/prigozhin-wagner-russia-putin.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare