billbindc

Not sure about that, in contrast to the Soviet Union, Putinist Russia is a classic bonapartist regime that needs diplomatic or military victories to suggest to the population that despite rampant inequality and bad living conditions, they at least live in a powerful and respected state. So a defeat could well destabilize the regime more than the Soviet one.

Russia attacked Ukraine and after the debactaculer showing it has made so far must win decisively and outright at this point to come somewhere within shouting distance of the strategic goals Putin was set on achieving. Ukraine must simply survive as an independent state to achieve its own. 
How exactly has the Kharkiv offensive furthered Russia's strategic goals? How has giving up some low single digit percentage of turf in exchange for ruinous losses to the attacker significantly endangered Ukraine's? 
We both know the answers which is why it's obvious you are simply trolling.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Russia attacked Ukraine and after the debactaculer showing it has made so far must win decisively and outright at this point to come somewhere within shouting distance of the strategic goals Putin was set on achieving. Ukraine must simply survive as an independent state to achieve its own. 
How exactly has the Kharkiv offensive furthered Russia's strategic goals? How has giving up some low single digit percentage of turf in exchange for ruinous losses to the attacker significantly endangered Ukraine's? 
We both know the answers which is why it's obvious you are simply trolling.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Getting the distinct impression that in true Russian fashion, nobody bothered to prepare staging areas across the border to effectively minimize the damage should the rules of engagement imposed by the US and other nations change. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Your continued use of Kharkov instead of Kharkiv belies your intentions here. Everyone I have talked to in Ukraine, including Russian speakers since the invasion never refer to the Russian spellings for city names because the Russian propaganda pushes it so hard (To convey the notion that they 'belong' to Russia or otherwise legitimise their claim. They will -never- refer to these cities according to their Ukrainian names)

The fact you insist to use such nomenclature is a dead give away to me that you are not being genuine with us here, not to mention your lack of actual evidence supplied. 

Russia attacked Ukraine and after the debactaculer showing it has made so far must win decisively and outright at this point to come somewhere within shouting distance of the strategic goals Putin was set on achieving. Ukraine must simply survive as an independent state to achieve its own. 
How exactly has the Kharkiv offensive furthered Russia's strategic goals? How has giving up some low single digit percentage of turf in exchange for ruinous losses to the attacker significantly endangered Ukraine's? 
We both know the answers which is why it's obvious you are simply trolling.

Russia attacked Ukraine and after the debactaculer showing it has made so far must win decisively and outright at this point to come somewhere within shouting distance of the strategic goals Putin was set on achieving. Ukraine must simply survive as an independent state to achieve its own. 
How exactly has the Kharkiv offensive furthered Russia's strategic goals? How has giving up some low single digit percentage of turf in exchange for ruinous losses to the attacker significantly endangered Ukraine's? 
We both know the answers which is why it's obvious you are simply trolling.

Russia attacked Ukraine and after the debactaculer showing it has made so far must win decisively and outright at this point to come somewhere within shouting distance of the strategic goals Putin was set on achieving. Ukraine must simply survive as an independent state to achieve its own. 
How exactly has the Kharkiv offensive furthered Russia's strategic goals? How has giving up some low single digit percentage of turf in exchange for ruinous losses to the attacker significantly endangered Ukraine's? 
We both know the answers which is why it's obvious you are simply trolling.

I can tell you that being au fait with traffic studies engenders the necessary level of humility and respect for complex systems and processes (check out the concept of “induced demand”) in which one should approach a military conflict.  

The best thing about letting this sovok stick around for a bit is that he illustrates exactly why Ukraine must fight and will win. 

Concur with this except that should Putin prevail in Ukraine, things won't get much better for Russia or his political prospects. Yes, for a year or two he will bask in triumphalism but the fundamental demographic and strategic weaknesses of Russia will not go away and Putin will have merely whetted the appetite of the extremists in his own camp. 
Attacking NATO would be suicidal...in fact, attacking Poland and Finland alone would be pretty suicidal...but that doesn't mean a sclerotic Putin attempting to retain a grip on power won't do it. This isn't the Cold War and to the Kremlin this isn't a cold war. Sober calculation doesn't rule.

The best thing about letting this sovok stick around for a bit is that he illustrates exactly why Ukraine must fight and will win. 

The best thing about letting this sovok stick around for a bit is that he illustrates exactly why Ukraine must fight and will win. 

Gotta admit, my troll timer had run into overtime.  Good to see though, means we are still relevant enough for Russian IO to make the effort.  Perversely it has the exact opposite effect that they are shooting for and demonstrated how poorly Russia understand the West.  Want us to go away?  Let us get bored and distracted.  Want us engaged?  Tell us we "can't or won't do something".  This guy did more to motivate me to support this war more than anything for quite some time.

Just as a general comment about propaganda, I have continually been impressed from page 1 that the overwhelming majority of posts have been well vetted, or if not, along the lines of "I found this, can anyone confirm?" There are people here with vast experience, and not just militarily, who aren't easily fooled by specious claims. Posting the verified facts and then getting some good discussion on what those mean is very good reading.
So basically, good job everyone, and keep it up.  I don't post too much - just mainly about things I really know a lot about, and sometimes do catchup reading, but I do read almost everything, and follow a lot of the links.
Dave

It is not russian fear of nuclear catastrophe we need to worry about. It's a series of miscalculations and misunderstandings that lead to an irrevocable nuclear exchange. 

It is not russian fear of nuclear catastrophe we need to worry about. It's a series of miscalculations and misunderstandings that lead to an irrevocable nuclear exchange. 

It is not russian fear of nuclear catastrophe we need to worry about. It's a series of miscalculations and misunderstandings that lead to an irrevocable nuclear exchange. 

So after two years of this thing, you have not noticed that the Russians tend to up-play things they do not care about and stay silent of stuff they do?  An apartment building gets taken down and it is all over the RUS-IO sphere but things that actually hurt - like deep strikes on oil infra - they really don’t make a fuss. Ya think maybe it is a bit of a ploy?