Billy Ringo

Infamous old USSR school RU Nat Alksnis commits thought crime (from his VK, sorry did not save the link. Adjusted for readability)
Alsknis laid out how they are going to throw Putin under the bus - he is traitor/western puppet who sabotaged RU defense capabilities and caused it to lose war with Ukraine.

And just to finally end this pointless back and forth topic of misunderstanding - I want to clarify what I want to all people crying "omg you want genocide". I want russian empire to cease existing, ideally, baring that I want a big wall between us and Russia for at least the next century, until they repaid us all the reparations and made sure we rebuilt everything, until this war is just a bunch of pictures in the books to our grand-grandchildren - and if Russia falls down and disintegrates during this time - then I want a big bucket of popcorn and a front seat atop that wall. That's it. I certainly don't want Ukrainians to bloody our hands any more than how it already is. Our lives are too precious for revenge wars.

Thus far, in 7 months, at the very least 100.000 Ukrainian civilians were murdered, half a million got deported god knows where to Russia: not a genocide.
Me writing on some niche forum that russians should be barred from visiting Ukraine until they pay back reparations, prosecute every criminal and completely change their mentality towards us: genocide.
OK.

Deleted

In your posts, the influence of Russian propaganda is noticeable. Obviously, frequent exposure to pro-Russian resources does not benefit the objectivity of judgments

Turkey isn't a country any nuclear country will ever fight over. We aren't getting into NATO because we are that country. You have a whole NATO member wanting to occupy our territories and having an agreement with Russia to do it, remember? Hungarian vote NO alone will be enough to make sure we are alone.
Not me, just historical facts being cold and cruel. There have been zero times when russian culture showed any humane traits, instead it produces non-stop wars, misery and suffering for literally everyone around them. There's literally no indication that russians will change this time either. Their whole population is absolutely pro-war (as long as most aren't fighting or suffering consequences personally - but that's another story) and shows no signs of wanting to change.
Do you know what a "russian identity" even is? 'russian' is not an ethnicity or nationality. It's just an artificial construct designed to obliterate identities and make everyone a grey mass without history, ethnicity and roots. Now buryats, kalmyks, chechens, dagestanians, mordvins, tatars, tuvins and about 20 other nationalities and ethnicities of the empire are... nationalities and ethnicities. So them having separate countries is bad how? Sure Chechnya becoming free will erase their "russian" identity. Because it will just make them have their own, finally.
Those "elderly" and "women" are responsible for murdering our elderly and women and even our children. So why exactly should we give them free ticket from responsibility? Their husbands and children came here to murder us in cold blood - and now we should give them warm welcome so that they or their descendants will get to kill us a lot easier when they get the chance since they got no consequences? You really don't see anything horribly wrong with your argument?
If my narrative of making sure my kids aren't getting killed by russians because I'm not pretending russians aren't murdering my friends (they killed two yesterday, as it turned out) - lets my kids survive - then so be it. I get that it's very easy for you to sit in a peaceful country, while trying to put equal signs between our refugees and russian "refugees" (who on multiple occasions beat up our refugees abroad without consequence) - but it will not change the reality. And the reality is - it's either us or them. There's no other way - russians made sure it is like that. Go convince them to stop, why are you convincing me I should love them for it?

Regarding broadcasting the truth to RU population (and conduction Psy-Info-Ops) there are set of issues.
First, imagine you have a flat earthers cult that kills anyone who says earth is not flat. They are conditioned to believe in a flat earth by years of constant indoctrination from childhood. It starts at school. It is unwise to expect that simple facts will undo it in days or even weeks. 
Second, you are trying to convince people that they are evil murderers because they kill innocent people for the lie about earth. That's not something they are eager to accept at all. I mean inside they can believe you are right. Publicly they will still act as if nothing has changed.  
Third, the required linguistic skill level for effective PsyOp communication is too high. It is much higher than what is normally required and as such Western Intel orgs rarely have it. For example, I monitor UK MOD Telegram channel in RU. Their RU linguists are good. Like really good. But even they still fall a little tiny bit short compared to native speakers. Unfortunately, it makes their message somewhat awkward, less serious and significantly less effective. Their messages will not establish trusts required for successful PsyOps.
Fourth, which is continuation of third - even if you have required linguistic skill (Ukrainians have it) you still need to have knowledge of the enemy minds on level that even Ukrainians do not have. Ukraine is different country with different culture. With all their knowledge of RU they still struggle to craft effective message to RU population and have hard time finding psychological weak spots that can be exploited. Effective anti-RU PsyOps are unbelievably hard even for Ukranians.
But all is not lost. I like most of Steve suggestions above - limited and targeted PsyOps aimed at driving wedge where cracks already exist will work regardless of other shortcomings. For example, Western articles that Ultranationalists not liberals are threat to Putin got RU Nats very worried. Simple western media articles managed to get under RU Nat skins. Imagine what a persistent campaign would do. 

Well you should not have been dismissed, and if I was part of that dismissal I owe you a Coke.  
The potential of information warfare is - and has been - definitive in this war.  We have been largely playing defence and Ukraine has been weaponizing truth brilliantly.  However, this is one area of warfare we in the West are coming from behind compared to Russia - or at least were.
For example, during 2014 in Crimea the Russian had hacked the telecommunications system and were able to send individual texts to protestors against the annexation - while they were protesting.
Mis and Dis information are one area that the Russians excelled at prior to this war, right up until they started throwing up all over themselves.  You can still see it in some circles but neither the information warfare acumen, nor cyber-Geddon seems to be doing much for the Russians.  We know they are out there and up to stuff but not at the levels we were expecting.  It kind of looks like they have divorced the methods of subversive warfare and conventional - which is another sign we overestimated their sophistication.
So why are we not doing the same:
- Policy.  We have very limited policy authority for these actions.  Mainly based on political risk aversion and lack of legal frameworks.  For example, is it legal to use disinformation to attack the RA logistical system when it may cause civilian suffering?  How much?  The LOAC does not account for some of the 2nd and 3rd order effects, so the lawyers have largely avoided then issue.  We can get a lot of people killed with information and subversive warfare and right now in the West we have yet to rationalize that with the rules based order - Russia, and China, do not have so much trouble.
- Tactics and doctrine.  The expertise to do this work exists but it is not concentrated within the military.  Hell, we are grappling with how to recruit cyber and information operators - these guys can make seven figures in private industry out of college and we offer them a rank of private and a lot of being yelled at.  Then there is the corporate knowledge base.  Try briefing a 50 year old general on what information warfare targeting and see why you get - a serious lack of knowledge and experience as it is something we let public affairs deal with.  Finally offensive information warfare is really an area we get icky with because it is basically lying to hurt, which is very unsportsmanlike and not something we have spent a lot of time studying.
- Human Terrain expertise.  We have specialists and experts but nowhere near the capacity and density we had back during the Cold War.  This means we could come off sounding like Tokyo Rose if we tried your massive info warfare plan - “Russian gangsters, your Putin is sub-optimal leader and your borscht is getting cold”.  Building that to a competitive point is going to take time.
So should we get in this game - definitely, about ten years ago.  Are we there yet, nope.  

Yeah, I'm getting married tomorrow (it's 11 PM now in Poland, we are saying the vows at 2PM). Just as we speak the missus is getting annoyed that I nerd about the war on the internet  But it is 100% worth it!

@Grigb this is the paper I mentioned I am writing on comparing the T-64BV 2017 and T-72B3M (2016): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DBBz-3MkZUoBLnvRX8qyFtMZmn8rKslAsgG4-8_Y1SM/edit
 
I need to update it to add more information about tank combat in Ukraine that has occurred since the Kyiv withdrawal in April (such as the information from Shawshank Redemption's channel and the interview with Roman Bahaiev etc.), but I'd welcome your feedback (and that of anyone else knowledgeable about Ukrainian and Russian armour).

When every single leader in their history is an "*sshole" - maybe the problem isn't with the leader?

Had the West told Russia to get the hell out of Ukraine, and backed up Ukraine in 2014, in hindsight, this whole freaking conflict could have never occurred. 
Instead, we sat back on the sidelines, let Russia think it could do what it wanted in Ukraine, and prolonged a conflict that today we see the shameful results of Western inaction where in 2022, Russia thought it had the ability to swallow one of the largest European states without regard for international outcry. 
The initial aggression by Russia was in Ukraine in 2014. Instead of actually slamming the brakes shut, we let two puppet republics entrench themselves in the Donbas and Putin enjoy the fruits of his Crimean seizure. Had we actually cared about the principles of territorial integrity, those republics should have been ended via force of arms and for its trouble of promoting the uprising and filling the ranks of the separatists with men and equipment, Russia should have gotten back the body bags containing Girkin and the rest of those "separatists" to be buried in Russia. Instead, now cannon fodder Russian citizens are about to join their fellow cannon fodder of the republics to give their lives wholesale simply for Putin to try and hold some part of Ukraine forevermore.
Why Ukraine must be made whole boils down that this conflict started in 2014, in Crimea and Donbas, and Russia has used them to be a cancer on Ukraine and its people, nearly killing both a few months ago. (please, let us not get caught up in me referring to Russia and the republics as a cancer considering Putin, who's power only grew more and more since 2014, is currently prepping to pile the bodies of poor Russians in a bid to choke Ukraine in Russian blood)
It does not sit right with me we "need" to acknowledge these 8 year old conquests as deserving a special place and special consideration (nuclear red line or any other red line or any division between 2014 and 2022 borders) when the West refused to acknowledge Soviet legitimacy over the Baltic states for 51 years until they finally restored themselves in 1991. 
I mean, imagine a scenario where Ukraine does not get to the February 2022 borders (still quite possible), is there a imagery 8 year timer before Russia gets to lump them together with the republics and Crimea and tell Ukraine "this is ours now"? and the West needs to caution Ukraine to not rock the boat, or we get nuked? Can we not make the connections between the West's collective actions since 2014 to now, and not recognize the pattern of accommodation of Putin and Russia that has led to this invasion, this outright attempt to place a country of 44 million under Russian boots? With such disdain towards the UN that they barely bothered to set up the pretexts needed to invade (no apartment bombings here...), where they probably spent more time making sure that all the missiles they fired after Putin's speech declaring war did so while the UN Security Council meeting was ongoing.
I mean look at Azov, they spent years calling them war criminals, nazis, people who tortured the Russian speakers of the Donbas, touted their crimes, pledged to have their heads, to bring holy justice on these Nazis....and Putin ****ing sends  Denys Prokopenko and co to Turkey with barely a acknowledgement to the criticism and outcry of outraged Russians. 
A tower of lies and slander promising only righteous death to true enemies of the Russian people and it just tumbled to the ground like nothing. I'm not promising Crimea will be the same, I'm just saying we don't need to bring up nukes every time someone suggests landing some troops on a Crimean beachhead or entering the pre-war borders of the LNR and DPR or that Crimean Russians will shoot from every open window, I'm saying there is a context to Russia and Ukraine and the West, it began in 2014, and I may be bold in saying, acting like the West can be good and happy for helping Ukraine get to the 2022 borders, no, that is not enough, 2014, restoring the complete territorial integrity of a state is still something the West can do today. 
(im preempting any nuclear escalation comment by noting its only been 8 years, are you really saying Russia gets to wave a nuke to keep non-internationally recognized territory by waiting only 8 years? Sorry there's nothing deeculatory about that.)

Outside of the US, what countries still have a sizeable amount of expendable military assets to provide to Ukraine that don't cut into their self-preservation?   Have many/most of those resources been tapped out? 
The rest of the world may think Russia is a joke-state, but Russians seem to think they still wield power and influence well above their current pay-grade.  Are they able to fully comprehend they aren't in a position of power and, thus, come to any negotiating table or make strategic economic or military decisions based on some semblance of reality?  I learned, the hard way through recent divorce proceedings, that trying to negotiate with a completely irrational individual is futile.  Their decision making process is not based any form of reasonable logic, thus requiring more drastic measures to force any type of settlement or capitulation.
Who is there currently to negotiate with in Russia in a meaningful rational manner?   And, IF is there anyone that might be rational, do they have the power and influence to garner internal Russian support across different factions? 
I disagree, Ukraine has solid bipartisan support.  There will be bitter opposition to the President on many issues, but Ukraine will be either off or way down the list of priorities.  The voices of the few who oppose or question Ukrainian support are being magnified beyond their actual influence.

Agreed, engaging in the same sort of deal making EE alleges France and Germany are doing is the easy way to throw American goodwill out into the trash. Mind you, there's a very good reason why the UK has taken a almost opposite position to France and Germany, largely to do with wedging EE from France and Germany. And indeed, its been long standing policy to be more aggressive with Russia than France and Germany simply to reassure the Eastern flank of NATO. 
Also, frankly, the West needs to ignore Putin and Russia. Things like hitting the nuke button, or that Russia is on the verge of chaos, or that Russia is gonna collapse. This did not come to pass due purely to Russia being a bastard, had the West been more forceful in 2014, maybe Putin might not have betted the farm in 2022. Russia has time and time again, acted like complete lying scum, deception, with near abandon in Europe assassinating opposition, hacking, damaging Europe and the world via hybrid warfare, etc. This action, the annexation of Ukraine must be placed into context as a huge, huge attack on the West. This idea that we need Russia to be a gas station for the West or in between us and China is stupid as hell, (and it was just as stupid when the head of the German Navy said it out loud and got fired for it) implying Russia just didn't try to destroy NATO and the EU in one go, collapse the international order, and show the U.S as a declining power unable to do anything, anywhere. 
Now, you have said some variation of this over and over, and up until now, I've been sorta confused about it, tbh, I think i got it now, and frankly its stupid as hell, same stuff as Merkel and cooperation co and discredited as such. Nothing about Russia since the collapse of the USSR has ever indicated a viability in Russia being a gas station, or a puppet? and absolutely not a small dime player to bounce off China, and everything about this attitude expressed is actually a validation of Russian Nationalist worse fears. RU Nat worst nightmares are not collapse of the Federation, it isn't, Russia does not have a fear of the dismemberment of its nation by force, the nuclear triad assures its existence. Its the destruction of Russian superiority and the degeneration of Russia into a puppet state, in both mind and body, that is the worse nightmare for Russia and those nationalists. 
One, nothing about Putin's rise to power, the maintenance of Russian power since 1991, the use of hybrid warfare, indicates any willingness on Russia's part to enter a "puppet state" willingly. As long as its nuclear weapons are there, Russia has no fear of invasion. 
Two, the use of hybrid warfare to counter the EU, the threat posed by the EU in Ukraine and not NATO (it has never, ever been NATO) are because the cultural values that the EU brings are direct threats to Russian power, not in body, but in the mind. The nukes will keep Russia safe physically, but the sneaking influence of the EU is much harder to oppose. 
Three, the reason why we did not expect the full scale invasion of Ukraine has precisely to do with NATO and the EU and our confusion with the goals of Russian hardliners, nationalists. Again, there is no risk to Russia from NATO. What is the risk is the encroachment of EU values with Ukraine turning away from Russia and towards the EU, and the disappearance of the Russian mir, the abandonment of its subject peoples and the turning of Russia from a  regional/world-ish power to insignificant backwater. 
Four, Russia is the superior nation and people, and Ukraine, and its people are supposed to aspire to Russia, be grateful for being part of Russia, and certainly not supposed to wave ****ing EU flags, and liberalize gays and weak values like feminism and blah, blah. 
The Donbas means nothing, only worth to Russia for its value in forcing the Ukrainians to heel. And Crimea may be worth something to Russia, but letting "poor old Russia" keep a island is not going to smooth stuff over and make them grateful for Western benevolence and be suddenly okay with snatching their slaves and freeing them. 
The goal has always been the restoration of Russia as a great power and the Russian people as a great people and part of that goal is the subjection of Ukraine and its people. Hell, one should say that the only way for the Russian Empire to exist, to flourish is with Ukraine under its heel first. 
If you want to spare Russia from collapse, you need to stop supporting Ukraine and let Russia take it over, cause otherwise, it will be the success of Ukraine that drives the Russians over the cliff. 
There is no point in accommodating Russia cause what Russia wants is opposed to everything the West stands for, in both physical power and mindset. And we only barely made it to this point, cause that bastard Putin figured he was a viper that snuck in and got too greedy and the West got lucky. Trying to turn Russia into a gas station got us to this point. 

The man is from a country fighting a war against genocidal enemy. His is a different perspective. I think that this would be the case for many other forum members, if we were in his place.  War is by definition collective violence and by definition makes people guilty by association and enemies for no other reason, than their nationality. This extends to emotions about the enemy, which of course tends to be hate. 
The imperative not to say anything racist or "hate-speachy" is something for people not concerned with life or death or, yes, feelings of revenge for the destruction of their country and barbaric murder of their compatriots.   Let us respect that this is a different situation and move along. Nobody is required to support what Kraze is saying but it should be acknowledged this is something else than trolling about WW2 war crimes or Middle East ethnic issues, which the forum rules are intended to prevent.

I'm happy to see fresh batch of "how dare the Ukranians be racist against Russians by calling them barbaric" from people living far away from Russia is well timed with fresh batch of Russian atrocities: Ukraine Army Discovers Mutilated Bodies With 'Genitals Cut Off' During Mop-Up Operations https://www.ibtimes.com/ukraine-army-discovers-mutilated-bodies-genitals-cut-off-during-mop-operations-3614606
But sure, keep talking about being angry at Russians is the true evil here.

This is the flag of Novorossia, the united state of the DPR and LPR, which Girkin and his accomplices initially tried to create. This unification did not last long due to the ambitions of the heads of the DPR and LPR and the intelligence services that stood behind them.

Hi guys,
Long time lurker, first time poster here. I have been reading these boards since early March and I have to say that this is the single best source on the internet I have found to find out what is actually going on on the ground in Ukraine. I also really respect the way you guys generally keep it civil and the community you have built with things like the laptop for Haiduk. So massive respect to you all from me.
 
One question I have, if I may. Something I have not seen a lot of discussion of recently is that early in the war the Ukrainians were terrified of the Russian Air Force. There was a lot of pressure to "close the skies" and a lot of debate about how NATO trying to run a no-fly zone / SEAD mission could easily escalate into war. But we have not heard much recently on this front. The Russian Air Force are absent. My question is, why? What turned the tide?
I know the Ukrainians managed to disperse their fighter jets and miraculously are still flying six months later using highways to take off. So that is one threat. And there is the MANPAD threat and those MANPADs are all over Ukraine now. We have the British Starstreak system went in. And we saw in July that the US announced some NASAMS systems (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) that went in.
 
But is that it? If you guys have time I would be interested in your take on what exactly turned the tide in the air war here. Apologies if this topic was previously addressed in some of the posts on here (it is a challenge to read it all).
 
Anyway thanks again for all the hours you put in making sense of this conflict to the extent that you can in the midst of the fog of war.
 
Slava Ukraini!

All joking apart, a more serious post by someone who knows what he is talking about.
 

Apologies if this has already been shared - I did check the last 20 pages.
Its, uhh, getting dusty in here. Dusty. That's it.

There seems to be a recurring pattern of people who live safely thousands of kilometers away from Russia telling people who live right next to it how they should feel and what they should do about Russians. People who have no personal experience and aren't (and never will be threatened) in any way chastising people who had to live with Russian terror for generations.
Their "just give Russians another chance" is other people's "our children born this year will face next war Russia starts as teenagers and adults". Sacrificing yourself for your humanist values is fine, but asking other people to sacrifice themselves (and their safety, their lives, their children's lives) for your values, while cushily living far away is very much not fine. It is easy to be a saint in Paradise, but don't put the same standard on those living in Hell.
And moreover, where were all these defenders of human rights when Bucha happened? Where will they be once we see more crimes against humanity in liberated territories? Why is it they always care more about protecting the bullies from vengeance than protecting the bullied from the bullies?
Because it almost feels like I'm hearing some people of the West (not necessarily in this thread, that's why am not quoting anyone) say "let's give Russians few more second changes and it's fine if they murder and rape and torture few hundred thousand Eastern Europeans while getting it right" and it is completely rotten attitude, opposite of being humane as it claims.

Site I go to published this today in summary of latest in the war:
"And really, this offensive is truly possible to all those Territorial Defense Force units stuck in trenches up and down the front for the past six months, getting slammed daily, oftentimes feeling abandoned. Their impossible heroism allowed Ukraines regular army units and 300,000 reserves to prepare in the country’s west, while Western allies equipped and trained them in proper war fighting techniques."
While we're feeling good about progress it's good to remember who's months of suffering and deaths made this possible. 
 

Reportedly just before Khakriv offensive.

Now, another play for this evening. People in comments compare position of moles on this guy cheeks in order to determine if it is him...🤣
Whack a mole
Now, who else rewind to 0:35 to check if it is true...?😎
Vlad The Self-Impaler
 
Ok, Too much beer this evening. But day is good, I hope gains in the North did not take  too many loosess.