kevinkin

Who said they won? Who said this war is existential for Russia? These are future predicting statements, one I would caution people against believing firmly are decided.
A Ukraine where if the front line froze right here is unlikely to get NATO or EU membership, unlikely to get security assurances without a formal peace (which I highly doubt Russia would give if it stopped Ukraine here, mindful of those potential security assurances), it would unlikely to be rebuilt, with a unstable security situation, a dead carcass tied to Europe. Hardly winning.
As for unrest in Russia, the population is cowed, the elites are mindful of the system's benefits, the wobbliness of Putin's regime is there, but definitely less than anticipated.
 

Wrong thread.
 

Thanks for joining the discussion. 
One side thought is to never allow the enemy the operational time and space to place minefields in the first place. This is one of the reasons some cringed when Ukraine needed to stop their fall offensive due to exhaustion. Mines may be the one thing preventing a quick rather than fast UA breakthrough and with that more losses. Add close air support to that too. 

Thanks for joining the discussion. 
One side thought is to never allow the enemy the operational time and space to place minefields in the first place. This is one of the reasons some cringed when Ukraine needed to stop their fall offensive due to exhaustion. Mines may be the one thing preventing a quick rather than fast UA breakthrough and with that more losses. Add close air support to that too. 

Thanks for joining the discussion. 
One side thought is to never allow the enemy the operational time and space to place minefields in the first place. This is one of the reasons some cringed when Ukraine needed to stop their fall offensive due to exhaustion. Mines may be the one thing preventing a quick rather than fast UA breakthrough and with that more losses. Add close air support to that too. 

As a society strives to improve decade by decade and does so with stops and starts, the line "these are the good old days' by Carly Simon comes to mind. 
 

Wish the guy in the background had a briefcase primed and ready. Explosives have improved since 1944 I would think. 

The argument for a slow defeat to allow for rational decision making was far stronger last Thursday than is this morning. The larger problem is that we have been expecting Russia to behave like a rational adult super power for fifteen months. What they have actually been doing is shoving every last gram of state capacity they can physically mobilize into Ukraine and setting it in fire with a torch. people, money, and the vast legacy Soviet armory. It has been incinerated while Putin prays for a miracle. Instead the Russian state is starting to fail, and Putin's idea of a peace offer involves crucifying Zelensky, and Russian troops owning the entirety of the Black Sea coast. On this trajectory Russia is not going to give up until it has no state capacity left to hold itself together. I think that point is coming rather soon as this weekends rather large cracking sound demonstrated loudly.
We need to tell the Russians they have weeks, not months, weeks, to make a rational offer. Or we will make very sure things get ten times worse for them on the Ukrainian battlefield, and in every financial market on earth. It is literally for their own good, not to mention several billion poor people who were just getting used to eating regularly. Blowing the Khahovka dam was crime against them at least as much as it was Ukraine proper.

The first use was in 2017 in Afghanistan. I think it's a matter of delivery i.e. getting it to the target safely. There may be other constraints. Russians have their own version too. 
 

Wish the guy in the background had a briefcase primed and ready. Explosives have improved since 1944 I would think. 

Wish the guy in the background had a briefcase primed and ready. Explosives have improved since 1944 I would think. 

BBC:
After a weekend of mayhem, I'm beginning to understand why Russia's national symbol is the double-headed eagle: two heads staring in opposite directions.
Ha
Reporting on the Wagner uprising, the presenter played an extract from an old Putin interview.
"Are you able to forgive?"
"Yes. But not everything."
"What can't you forgive?"
"Treachery."
I wonder if Yevgeny Prigozhin was watching.
Prig's apparent bailout and retirement will be closely watched and might be informative. 

I don't think Prigozhyn cared about removing Shoigu and Gerasimov at all.
He just used the frustration of his troops to build their loyalty as the sensible commander who wanted to spare them from being shoved into the meatgrinder.
Then he used their loyalty to march them towards Moscow in order to present a credible coup threat to Putin, but it was only because he knew that he would receive a generous counteroffer to call off the rebellion. Then he cashed in on that.
Prig knows that he is now a target for Putin's revenge, but he believes Putin will not be in power too much longer.

Gary Kasparov:
A war to take Kyiv in three days has turned into taking Moscow in two! 
Having been defeated repeatedly by Ukraine, Russian forces have found an easier opponent, one with corrupt leadership, incompetent commanders, and low morale.

Instead of comparing Wagner's uprising to the 1917 revolution lets instead compare it to something a bit closer to home, the recent stalemate over US the debt limit. One side uses threats to throw the economy into default as a hostage bargaining chip. They make demands on issues unrelated to the debt limit. The two sides come to a mutual agreement and the debt limit hostage is released. It was never about the debt limit. Same applies to recent events in Russia. Threats to destroy Putin's regime was just used as leverage in negotiations over other matters. It was never really about overthrowing the government. That was just a convenient hostage in a blackmail scheme.

Holy **** they kidnapped ZZ Top and their manager. 

Got to love the sense of humor:
Speaking to BBC World Service Newshour, Saks says just before Russia began its 2022 attack on Ukraine the world thought Russia had “the second most powerful army in the world”.
“Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we're seeing how... the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia."

Someone once said that it's not real in Russia unless their are a lot bodies. This is a very odd coup. 

Got to love the sense of humor:
Speaking to BBC World Service Newshour, Saks says just before Russia began its 2022 attack on Ukraine the world thought Russia had “the second most powerful army in the world”.
“Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we're seeing how... the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia."

Got to love the sense of humor:
Speaking to BBC World Service Newshour, Saks says just before Russia began its 2022 attack on Ukraine the world thought Russia had “the second most powerful army in the world”.
“Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we're seeing how... the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia."

Gary Kasparov:
A war to take Kyiv in three days has turned into taking Moscow in two! 
Having been defeated repeatedly by Ukraine, Russian forces have found an easier opponent, one with corrupt leadership, incompetent commanders, and low morale.

Got to love the sense of humor:
Speaking to BBC World Service Newshour, Saks says just before Russia began its 2022 attack on Ukraine the world thought Russia had “the second most powerful army in the world”.
“Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we're seeing how... the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia."

Got to love the sense of humor:
Speaking to BBC World Service Newshour, Saks says just before Russia began its 2022 attack on Ukraine the world thought Russia had “the second most powerful army in the world”.
“Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we're seeing how... the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia."

Got to love the sense of humor:
Speaking to BBC World Service Newshour, Saks says just before Russia began its 2022 attack on Ukraine the world thought Russia had “the second most powerful army in the world”.
“Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we're seeing how... the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia."

War Zone reports on the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB):
A top Pentagon official on Thursday testified before Congress that those weapons won’t come online until this Fall. She also said while controversial cluster munitions would “be useful” to Ukraine, the U.S. has no immediate plans to provide them for a host of reasons.