quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
History is just that, history! We need to STOP prolonging this war, and START promoting a peace agreement, before it too late!

That is where President Trump comes in. He needs to end this bullshit. I think the day he's elected a whole bunch of good things will start happening between Russia and Ukraine.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
^^^ This "culture" goes back centuries. Do you seriously believe this fucking around in and with Ukraine is going to change any of that? And trust this incompetent administration to do it?

I mean, if it doesn't, we can just nuke them into the 21st century, amirite?

I think war is too profitable for select few just to stop it.
Iraq and Afghanistan wars went on for almost 20 years.
These weapon manufacturers are making a lot of easy money. Politicians approve sales using our money.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
^^^ This "culture" goes back centuries. Do you seriously believe this fucking around in and with Ukraine is going to change any of that? And trust this incompetent administration to do it?

I don’t trust Biden/Harris to ensure that Biden gets his diaper changed regularly.

Russia has a history of changing autocrats, when they fail in a war. They have a history of not changing autocrats during a war. (FWIW, that’s an opinion of why Putin invaded, along with a desperate need for population/the threat a “free” Russian speaking nation poses to Putin, and his hold on the population.)


The war in Ukraine will not fix Russian culture - it might fix Ukraine’s.

There are almost no resources for spreading the Reformation and Enlightenment in Russian.

Our church is working on that - our pastor found Christ under the Soviets, and is fluent in Russian.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
The war in Ukraine will not fix Russian culture - it might fix Ukraine’s.

Maybe you could enlighten us on how the war MIGHT fix Ukraine's historically corrupt government. Seems like a lot of money is being spent on a "MIGHT fix".

quote:

I don’t trust Biden/Harris to ensure that Biden gets his diaper changed regularly.

Protest to the contrary all you want, it is still exactly what you are doing.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
The war in Ukraine will not fix Russian culture - it might fix Ukraine’s.

Maybe you could enlighten us on how the war MIGHT fix Ukraine's historically corrupt government. Seems like a lot of money is being spent on a "MIGHT fix".

That's my view as well.
You don't stop corruption by feeding it.
You stop corruption by starving it.

U.S. culture was formed, in large part, by the struggles we went through, and the various travails of the pre-Revolution Germanic populace and the French Huguenots.

I think this may be the first time Ukraine is actually fighting “on its own”, and for itself.

At some point, most of the men will be armed, and most of them will be combat vets. (What really cleaned up the South was combat vets coming home from WWII and Korea.)

Stealing from armed vets might lead them to not want to tolerate it.

It’s a long shot, and there’s a serious spiritual deficit to address, but it might help.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
The war in Ukraine will not fix Russian culture - it might fix Ukraine’s.

Maybe you could enlighten us on how the war MIGHT fix Ukraine's historically corrupt government. Seems like a lot of money is being spent on a "MIGHT fix".

The last thing DC wants is to “fix” Ukraine’s corruption.

It’s like expecting DC to seriously back a reform movement in MX.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I think this may be the first time Ukraine is actually fighting “on its own”, and for itself.

Except... they're not.

quote:

At some point, most of the men will be armed, and most of them will be combat vets. (What really cleaned up the South was combat vets coming home from WWII and Korea.)

Except... they're running out of men.
The ones who are left don't want to fight.

And I'm absolutely opposed to getting NATO or the US involved (further) by sending in troops to fight for them.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
The war in Ukraine will not fix Russian culture - it might fix Ukraine’s.

Maybe you could enlighten us on how the war MIGHT fix Ukraine's historically corrupt government. Seems like a lot of money is being spent on a "MIGHT fix".

The last thing DC wants is to “fix” Ukraine’s corruption.

It’s like expecting DC to seriously back a reform movement in MX.

So you're saying the war "Won't" instead of "Might" fix this problem? Seems like really big spend here for a "Won't" or "Might". If you really want to make the Russians pay a price pick a battle that "Will" fix this problem. The Ukraine debacle aint one of those battles. Maybe produce enough oil and/or natural gas here in the US that gut's one of their main sources of income. Tariff's will slow down China, especially if they are dependent on China's and Russia's cozy relationship since US decided to jump into this debacle in such a big way. Trump can't take office soon enough for me.

Gee, imagine that. What a shocker. Who could've guessed this?

https://x.com/Jesse_Morgan_/st.../1854210737100751057

Can you imagine a peace deal before he is even in office?

Sploding heads everywhere

I was telling my brother last night that I could see this war over before Trump takes office and that Trump will be make calls and negotiate this thing to a conclusion. Kind of like Reagan getting the hostages back.

quote:

Originally posted by jer830:
I was telling my brother last night that I could see this war over before Trump takes office and that Trump will be make calls and negotiate this thing to a conclusion. Kind of like Reagan getting the hostages back.

With F-35's and B-2B's afterburners in the background.

I read somewhere that the Houthis are already planning to surrender. I bet we also see Hamas release the remaining hostages before the inauguration. Trump is coming back onto the scene like a tidal wave, and malefactors around the globe are keenly aware of what is coming.

Donald J Trump...Ender of Wars, Peacemaker, and Protector of the Realm

Anybody that brokers a lasting Ukraine / Russia peace has earned the Nobel Peace Prize. Even FJB if he were to come out of his coma long enough to take an interest.

If PDJT facilitates peace, he won't get any recognition, of course. Except by the people that matter - the cannon fodder.

Ukrainian defences in Donbas risk getting steamrolled by Russian advance

https://www.france24.com/en/eu...d-by-russian-advance

As Russian troops chart a steady advance in east Ukraine, worn-down Ukrainian forces are struggling to plug holes in their front-line defences. At stake is the “fortress” town of Pokrovsk, a transport and logistics hub that could give Russia a clear pathway to advance in the Donetsk region and beyond.

On the front lines in Donbas, the situation “remains difficult”, Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a Telegram message on November 2. Ukrainian forces there are “holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the beginning of the full-scale invasion”, he added.

A renewed push by Russian forces that began in springtime now seems to be bearing fruit in east Ukraine.

The Russian army advanced 478 km² into Ukrainian territory in October, according to an AFP study analysing data from the American thinktank the Institute for the Study of War. This is the largest advance it has made since the early days of the full-scale offensive in Ukraine in spring 2022.

‘A war of attrition’
In recent months, Russian forces have maintained “a huge continuous offensive and continuous pressure” in east Ukraine, says Gustav Gressel, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“This is a war of attrition. Capabilities are degrading on both sides,” says Gressel. “It’s a race to see who will reach the bottom first – and on many issues, it seems that will be Ukraine, especially on heavy equipment. Armoured fighting vehicles haven’t been replaced by Western deliveries. And, of course, personnel is a critical issue.”

Russia “doesn’t have more troops or weapons”, says Dr Huseyn Aliyev, senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow and specialist on the war in Ukraine. “But the real shift, where things have changed quite dramatically, is on the Ukrainian side where there’s a big problem in their defensive line."

Essentially, territorial gains are less a show of superior Russian force than an indication that Ukraine’s defences are collapsing. Ukrainian front-line forces are facing the enemy with ever dwindling arms and personnel, slowly but surely unable to plug the holes that Russia is inflicting on its defensive line.

According to Aliyev, “poor organisation” of troops is one of the biggest problems the Ukrainian army faces.

For two years, experienced regiments that have been fighting against Russia have received hardly any reinforcements. And instead of fortifying these existing units, “new brigades have been created with less experienced officers and quickly trained troops, mostly from recent mobilisation efforts. They don't have the same level of morale as the veterans, but these are the brigades sent to stop the Russian advance,” says Aliyev.

The result is that battle-hardened units are depleted and new units deployed on the frontlines are critically inexperienced.

‘A failed gambit’
Proof of Ukraine’s organisational failure can be seen in Ukraine's surprise occupation of Russia's Kursk region in August.

One of Ukraine's military objectives was to push Russia to redeploy some of its troops in Kursk to fend off advances in Ukraine.

But subsequent territorial losses in east Ukraine are “proof the Kursk operation was a failed gambit", says Frank Ledwidge, senior lecturer in law and strategy at the University of Portsmouth, and specialist in military activity in Russia and former Soviet states.

Had the elite troops sent to Kursk been sent to Donbas instead, "Ukraine might have had a far better chance of holding the defensive line", Aliyev adds.

Instead, “Russia has managed to defuse and bring the Kursk situation under control and, contrary to Ukrainian expectations, Russia has not decided to withdraw significant numbers of soldiers from other parts of the front," says Patrick René Haasler, political analyst of geostrategies in the post-Soviet space for the security collective, the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona.

Breaching the line of defence
The Russian advance is all the more worrying for Ukraine as enemy troops are getting closer and closer to the town of Pokrovsk, around 60 kilometres west of the occupied city of Donetsk.

"For the last two or three months, Pokrovsk seems to have been the main objective for Russians in the region," says Ledwidge.

Russia said on November 3 its troops had advanced into the village of Vichneve, a dozen kilometres from the town.

If Pokrovsk fell into Russian hands it would make Ukrainian military operations in the Donetsk region especially difficult. The town is a logistics hub, well connected to surrounding cities.

"It's at a crossroad for trains and roads,” says Ledwidge. From Pokrovsk there are good connections to surrounding cities including Zapo, Dniepr, Kramatorsk and Kupiansk.

The town is also symbolic. It was established as a defensive line in 2014 when Russia occupied and annexed Crimea. Gressel describes it as “a huge fortress, built with very good defences [and] a deep system of bunkers”.

"It's one of the last significant defensive positions before the Dnipro River," adds Haasler.

Kamikaze drones, glide bombs
The steady Russian advance towards Pokrovsk in recent weeks has changed the momentum of the conflict in Ukraine.

Instead of trench and positional warfare, "it is looking more and more like a war of movement", says Aliyev. "Ukraine now can lose up to two villages a day compared to some months ago when it was just one each month."

The use of glide bombs has helped Russian troops push forward as they can be “employed against large fortified positions or facilities", Haasler says. They can be launched from a distance meaning “for Ukrainians it’s much harder to do something against the glide bombs than to do something against Russian artillery", Gressel says.

Kamikaze drones have also played an important role. Russia’s Lancet 3 UAV model had 600 confirmed deployments in May 2024 and 2,500 in October, Haasler says.

The drones are “designed to destroy armoured vehicles and air defence systems. [They] represent a cost-effective method for inflicting significant and financially relevant damage on the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Haasler adds.

But despite recent success, Ledwidge doubts that Russia will be able to maintain a war of movement for long. “The Russians don't have enough experienced troops for the level of combined warfare that such a manoeuvre war asks for. You need engineering, infantry and armoured vehicle units.”

He believes Russia will fall back on brute force to continue its war of attrition in the hopes of wearing down Ukraine until its defensive positions fall like dominoes.

If Russian troops do capture Pokrovsk, “they will have managed to break an important Ukrainian line and then they will probably fulfil their objective of managing to conquer the Donetsk Oblast”, Gressel says.

From there troops would be well placed to start new offensives towards Zaporizhzhia in the south and then into the north.

Even freezing winter temperatures may do little to slow a Russian advance. “The logistical nightmare of going through winter is much worse in Russia or south Ukraine where you have a very low-density road and railroad network,” Gressel says. “In the Donbas you have a lot of good, well-built roads and railroads.”

I think there is movement here. It may get started(serious talks) even before Jan 20th.