Ukraine should do to Putin what he tried to do to Alexei Navalny - cut off the head of the snake.

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Ukraine’s Deadly Gamble

https://www.tabletmag.com/sect...raines-deadly-gamble

Great read. Puts a lot of things into perspective and connects a lot of dots- Thanks.

Hopefully this update on Kharkiv is true

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...y-happening-n2603850

Ukrainians Have Held Off Russian Forces from Taking Control off Kharkiv

The Ukrainian people keep fending off Vladimir Putin's Russian forces. As Matt covered earlier this morning, they held onto the capital city of Kyiv once more. And they're reportedly done the same in the second largest city of Kharkiv, where Russians had entered earlier on Sunday local time and blew up a natural gas pipeline there. Residents were urged to protect themselves from smoke by covering their windows with damp cloths or gauze.

Throughout Sunday, which at Eastern European Standard Time is seven hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, street fighting reportedly took place in Kharkiv. It's now 5:00pm local time there, and getting close to dark. The ill-equipped Russian forces are said to not be fighting in the dark, but rather do so close to dawn.

A short time ago, more reports came pouring in as various sources covered Ukrainian victory in holding down the city, especially when faced with "demoralized" Russian enemy troops.

Various reporters:

"There's not that much daylight left in Ukraine, and Russian forces find it hard to move at night in foreign terrain. As far as I can see, they are no closer to their objectives of taking Kyiv and Kharkiv and decapitating the Ukrainian state. Momentum lost."

"The Commander of Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv has claimed that dozens of Russian troops have surrendered, and that the captured soldiers had complained of demoralization and not understanding the mission, as well as being short of fuel."

"Ukrainian forces back in control of second largest city after hours of fighting. Russian special forces ‘demoralized,’ Kharkiv mayor says"

[Note: embedded video and hyperlinks found at linked website article.]

=================

Condoleezza Rice: Putin ‘seems erratic,’ ‘descending into something’ never personally seen before

'He was always calculating and cold. But this is different,' former Secretary of State Condoleezza said of Putin

By Emma Colton | Fox News
Published February 27, 2022 10:58am EST

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russian President Vladmir Putin appears "erratic" and is "descending" into something she’s never personally seen before.

"He was always calculating and cold. But this is different. He seems erratic. There is an ever-deepening, delusional rendering of history, it was always a kind of victimology about what had happened to them, but now it goes back to blaming Lenin for the foundation of Kyiv … in Ukraine," Rice said on "Fox News Sunday."

Rice has met with Putin at least a half a dozen times across her career and said he is "descending into something I haven’t personally seen before."

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Ukraine has agreed to talks with Russian officials "without preconditions."

"We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River," Zelenskyy announced on his official Telegram channel.

Rice said that this meeting might signal "Russians bit off more than they can chew."

"We'll see what terms the Russians offer, and I'm sure that it's a good thing that they're going to talk. But if anything, what this may show is that Vladimir Putin expected an easy win here. He thought he would waltz into the capital, into Kyiv. In his own delusional rendering of history, Ukrainians and Russians are the same, and he would overthrow this government and might even be welcomed as a liberator. And of course, the reality has been something quite different," Rice said.

Zelenskyy announcing Sunday he will meet with Russian officials comes as Putin raised the alert status for his nuclear forces to "special regime of combat duty."

"He is right now threatening a nuclear escalation," said former DIA intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler. "This a veiled threat – or maybe such a veiled threat - he just met with his chief of general staff and minister of defense. He is escalating the conflict into the nuclear domain in order to de-escalate – that is topple Kyiv’s regime quickly."

Sunday marks the fourth day of fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine forces continued defending the capital of Kyiv into Sunday, while Russian forces penetrated Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and reportedly blew up a natural gas pipeline.

At least 64 civilians have been killed since Russia entered Ukraine last week, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Saturday. The office added that the number is likely "considerably higher."

Thousands have been left without electricity or water due to damage to infrastructure, while hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N. office.

The United Nations’ refugee agency estimated Sunday that 368,000 Ukrainians have fled the country. The number is expected to continue rising.

quote:

"The Commander of Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv has claimed that dozens of Russian troops have surrendered, and that the captured soldiers had complained of demoralization and not understanding the mission, as well as being short of fuel."

"Ukrainian forces back in control of second largest city after hours of fighting. Russian special forces ‘demoralized,’ Kharkiv mayor says"

The best way to take out their tanks is not molotov cocktails. It's cutting them off from fuel. They don't operate that long without re-fueling. The fuel trucks are the best targets and can often be taken by sniper fire.

There is a fire hose stream of wartime propaganda flowing out of everywhere that I just don't believe any of it.

No war goes according to plan - well, certainly much more often than not.

Looks like Germany is planning to spend a lot of money on defense - 100 Billion Euros. I sort of had to chuckle at his speech. Preaching freedom, protect the democracy, while enforcing draconian Soviet or GDR covid measures. This from a lefty Kanzler, whose been a bolshevik since he could crawl. Olaf is considered a moderate? Looking at his roots in Hamburg and SDP membership since 17, I tend to see it differently.

Funny to see an anti-war protestor go pro-defense budget - must be mellowing in his old age. Or, Putin is really a fascist in his eyes, not a good fellow bolshevik like his idol's Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Kruschev, Breznehev, Gorbi. Ok, to use violence by peace loving bolsheviks against perceived fascists.

No hydrocarbon products from Russia - no problem. Germany is very experienced in running war and war economy with extremely limited Hydrocarbon supplies (all we need is coal) and almost win.

Place I'm contracting at, has some Ukraine based SW support, that I have been working with in getting them up to speed, before my US enterprise profit unfriendly salary contract expires. They've been off line since things went hot there. Hope they are ok. I know one, a lady had small offspring that i could hear having fun, while on chat calls with her and the team there. Worry about them a bit - hope they are ok.

Thanks, "icom"... some good points; interesting read. For a while there I thought Germany was behaving as they were just to spite an old wartime foe. But I guess when they finally saw that their butt was in the fire & going to fry they changed their attitude, huh? And I haven't even mentioned that it gets awfully cold in Germany about this time of year, right?

quote:

Originally posted by icom706:

Looks like Germany is planning to spend a lot of money on defense - 100 Billion Euros. I sort of had to chuckle at his speech. Preaching freedom, protect the democracy, while enforcing draconian Soviet or GDR covid measures.

Berlin recently protesting "against Russia", every single one of them still wearing face masks.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Ukraine’s Deadly Gamble
https://www.tabletmag.com/sect...raines-deadly-gamble

Great read. Puts a lot of things into perspective and connects a lot of dots- Thanks.

From the perspective of the U.S. national security establishment, Biden’s victory over Trump signaled that its actions in Ukraine would stay hidden. So long as the media continued to bark that the 45th president of the United States is Putin’s stooge, no one would be held accountable for anything.

Let’s see Potatus went to convalesce in Delaware on Friday, won’t hear from him until SOU on Tuesday, maybe a touch on Ukraine in SOU, much more important stuff for speech, COVID victory, Supreme Court, CRT in DOD.

quote:

"There's not that much daylight left in Ukraine, and Russian forces find it hard to move at night in foreign terrain

I've never been in the service. Does this sound as shocking to someone who knows what they're talking about as it did to me when I first read it?

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:

quote:

"There's not that much daylight left in Ukraine, and Russian forces find it hard to move at night in foreign terrain

I've never been in the service. Does this sound as shocking to someone who knows what they're talking about as it did to me when I first read it?

If your main components aren't equipped with Night Optic Devices, FLIR, or any of the other advanced technology, it is aggravating at best and downright excruciating bordering on suicidal to try and fight at night. Your night vision goes to complete shit after the first few bursts of gunfire during twilight. It also becomes much riskier when having to move positions during a nighttime engagement. You may not be aware of whom you are actually shooting at or who is shooting at you. Target ID is very important in battle and fratricide normally happens when you cannot properly ID your target. Expect the heaviest fighting to occur from dawn to dusk. Not saying firefights don't happen at night, just that it's difficult to pull off operationally without NOD's. When I deployed to Iraq in '03 we all pretty much had NOD's and the better funded SOCOM had all kinds of goodies.

There's a reason the US likes to do capture/kill missions at night. Most of the time we caught the bad guys in bed or just ill prepared for a nighttime engagement. They didn't have the tech that we did. I am rather surprised that Russia isn't as well equipped as I thought they were but I am also sure they don't spend nearly as much as we do on Defense.

I am no tactical expert, but it seems to me that successful high mobility modern warfare requires an army to gain initiative and dominance at the outset and maintain it.
I think the term "shock and awe" is kinda corny, but its possible the Russians just did not have the initiative and momentum from the outset.
That may make all the difference for Ukraine.

quote:

Originally posted by spunk639:
Let’s see Potatus went to convalesce in Delaware on Friday, won’t hear from him until SOU on Tuesday, maybe a touch on Ukraine in SOU, much more important stuff for speech, COVID victory, Supreme Court, CRT in DOD.

Potus went to the basement to allow the MSM to rehab his image

https://www.newsmax.com/world/...22/02/27/id/1058748/



US Embassy: US Nationals Should Leave Russia 'Immediately'



The United States Embassy in Moscow made an announcement telling all U.S. nationals to leave Russia "immediately."

"An increasing number of airlines are canceling flights into and out of Russia, and numerous countries have closed their airspace to Russian airlines," a U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia security alert read Sunday. "U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available."

The alert comes after Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrence arsenal at the ready, pointing to the sanctions being put in place by the U.S. and other NATO countries.


"This particular decision is not in response to the situation in Ukraine, not even what is going on in Ukraine right now, but as a response to American readiness to apply to sanctions," Andrei Illarionov, senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., told Sunday's "Wake Up America" on Newsmax. "The situation now is unbelievably grave."

The move is "incomparable" to any nuclear threat the world has faced to date, and the U.S. and NATO must respond in kind immediately, Illarionov told co-host Amanda Brilhante.

"If the United States will not respond with adequate reaction to this decision, it means not only Ukraine but the whole Europe and at some point the United States will be under nuclear threat, direct nuclear threat," Illarionov said in a dire warning.

"That is why United States and NATO countries need to respond immediately, right now, to this nuclear blackmail of Putin."

Illarionov made an urgent call for the Biden administration to activate the U.S. nuclear deterrence arsenal.

"That should be exactly the same," he said. "It should be putting all nuclear arsenal of the United States and NATO on the highest alert – at least equal response to what Putin has done."

Additionally, a security alert one week ago warned Americans to "carry proper identification, including a U.S. passport with a current Russian visa," and to be on alert "in locations frequented by tourists/Westerners."

The alert also tells Americans to have "evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance."

"According to media sources, there have been threats of attacks against shopping centers, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine," the alert read.



.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
It's really time to put this tired old "Russia controls Europe's energy supply" canard to sleep.

The fact is that is exactly what is still going on. Some might be tired of it but others are raking in the coin over it.

The sons of Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, and Romney are all on Ukraine Energy company boards hauling down money. Biden pressured the Ukraine investigators to cease or no money from the US, it got the investigator fired, and Biden even bragged about it on camera.

The Ukraine was taken over during the Obama era, the elected government overturned, and it's been a mess since.

BTW have you noticed the new way to spell Kyiv? Because it needed a Ukrainian spelling and the news media immediately adopted it. Why? The previous spelling is Russian, can't have that.

Russia did try to get around Ukraine with the Nord 2 pipeline - it bypasses Ukraine. But Biden and his administration did all they could to stop it. Why?

I will sum up with the latest from an Internationally known figure supporting Ukraine - George Soros. But that just confirms what I already knew.

There’s no conspiracy around the use of Kyiv vs Kiev, the latter is derived from the Russian spelling and the former from the Ukrainian.

Given that in the 20th and 21st century, Ukraine has suffered just a bit from Russian/Soviet policies (you may have noticed the news, it appears there’s a minor incursion into Ukraine right now by Russian forces…) it’s easy to understand why there might be a desire to have your capital referred to by your name for it, rather than someone else’s.

Also, not sure how the current events line up with your “targeted, surgical strikes at key locations” bit, but I’m glad that world events will still drive disbelief.

quote:

Originally posted by Tirod:

Russia did try to get around Ukraine with the Nord 2 pipeline - it bypasses Ukraine. But Biden and his administration did all they could to stop it. Why?

What are you talking about? Biden and the cronies around him did everything but try and stop the new pipeline from coming online.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
There’s no conspiracy around the use of Kyiv vs Kiev, the latter is derived from the Russian spelling and the former from the Ukrainian.

Given that in the 20th and 21st century, Ukraine has suffered just a bit from Russian/Soviet policies (you may have noticed the news, it appears there’s a minor incursion into Ukraine right now by Russian forces…) it’s easy to understand why there might be a desire to have your capital referred to by your name for it, rather than someone else’s.

Also, not sure how the current events line up with your “targeted, surgical strikes at key locations” bit, but I’m glad that world events will still drive disbelief.

No, no, the fact that the English names for tons of places are significantly or totally different from the names actually used by the people that live there is clearly the work of a shadowy global cabal, and any effort to use names more like the names actually used by locals is clearly the work of a competing shadowy global cabal.