Ukraine

[tamada]

Breaking News: Trump advised Putin not to escalate war with Ukraine during a Thursday phone call, people familiar with discussion say...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... l-ukraine/

Moscow targeted as Ukraine and Russia trade huge drone attacks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx28jd0114ro

[tamada]

Looks like Zeklenskiyy's only allies at the moment are Biden, Starmer and Macron. Once Biden goes...he better have a Plan B.

[tamada]

Trump’s reported Ukraine peace plan is doomed to fail. There is simply no way the proposals can be implemented if the current leadership in Kiev remains

https://www.rt.com/russia/607469-trump- ... eace-plan/

[tamada]

Biden has approved Ukraine's use of US-made long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia. This within 24-hours of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine that targeted the nation's power infrastructure.

[tamada]

And within a day, Ukraine rattles their sabres and fires a batch at Bryansk which is hardly a "long distance" from their shared border. Depending on who you want to believe, six were launched but five were intercepted, or eight were launched with only two being stopped.

Anyway, the good news for the rest of the world is that Putin has rattled his sabre by subsequently reducing the threshold for their use of tactical nuclear weapons.

[FrazeeDK]

yeah, good ol' Slow Joe gave a resctrictive permission to use only in Kursk. As for "long range" those ATACMs go about 185 miles max. Hardly deep into Russia... Plus nobody has disclosed how many ATACMs Ukraine possesses nor if any of them have the large unitary wardhead instead of the cluster munition warhead..

[tamada]

With an alleged 52% of Ukrainians preferring peace negotiations including the relinquishing of land to Russia rather than the ongoing war, the stage is being set for Trump the Peacemaker.

[papafarang]

Here's an interesting thought. We keep saying Putin won't use a nuke. If Putin decides to use the new weapon on the UK. What response would we have if it was non nuclear and hit a British arms factory.? How exactly could we respond ?
Does NATO have the 2,000,000 troops ready. We've been told the Russians are heading to London ,Berlin,Paris. Guess it's lucky we spent the last 3 years building our armies up ready for the invasion

[glalt]

I fear that the world press underestimates the might of Russia. Russia is a high tech country and they still have a big hammer. Trump maybe the greatest hope for Ukraine. No winner, just an end to the murdering madness.

[AlexO]

I fear that the world press underestimates the might of Russia. Russia is a high tech country and they still have a big hammer. Trump maybe the greatest hope for Ukraine. No winner, just an end to the murdering madness.

glalt
The might of Russia?
Having to recruit from prisons, having to plead with Iran and North Korea for munitions.
They may be a mighty nuclear arms nation but conventionally they are pretty poor.

[papafarang]

I fear that the world press underestimates the might of Russia. Russia is a high tech country and they still have a big hammer. Trump maybe the greatest hope for Ukraine. No winner, just an end to the murdering madness.

as the west says Putin wouldn't use the nukes . So what is the point in nukes ? If they are not a deterrent for either side and both sides won't use them then why do we have them. Also if biden says Putin's nukes won't deter NATO, then surly Russia has to use one even they they don't want to. This is Dr strange love script I'm sure.

[Doodoo]

"I fear that the world press underestimates the might of Russia."
I never heard of the country "World Press" I dont think they have many troops much like the UN, USELESS

[tamada]

I fear that the world press underestimates the might of Russia. Russia is a high tech country and they still have a big hammer. Trump maybe the greatest hope for Ukraine. No winner, just an end to the murdering madness.

Indeed, Russia is so high-tech and bolstered for war, they get their munitions from China, drones from Iran and 'special forces' from North Korea.

[tamada]

Here's an interesting thought. We keep saying Putin won't use a nuke. If Putin decides to use the new weapon on the UK. What response would we have if it was non nuclear and hit a British arms factory.? How exactly could we respond ?
Does NATO have the 2,000,000 troops ready. We've been told the Russians are heading to London ,Berlin,Paris. Guess it's lucky we spent the last 3 years building our armies up ready for the invasion

It's all sorted mate. Starmer just told the NATO boss that he will up the UK's budget for the armed forces by 0.2% of GDP after Hogmanay. Maybe.

https://news.sky.com/story/starmer-says ... 5-13258642

[AlexO]

Here's an interesting thought. We keep saying Putin won't use a nuke. If Putin decides to use the new weapon on the UK. What response would we have if it was non nuclear and hit a British arms factory.? How exactly could we respond ?
Does NATO have the 2,000,000 troops ready. We've been told the Russians are heading to London ,Berlin,Paris. Guess it's lucky we spent the last 3 years building our armies up ready for the invasion

It's all sorted mate. Starmer just told the NATO boss that he will up the UK's budget for the armed forces by 0.2% of GDP after Hogmanay. Maybe.

https://news.sky.com/story/starmer-says ... 5-13258642

So Happy Hogmanay for the UK Armed Forces, wonder if they feel the same on the 1st January.

[papafarang]

I fear that the world press underestimates the might of Russia. Russia is a high tech country and they still have a big hammer. Trump maybe the greatest hope for Ukraine. No winner, just an end to the murdering madness.

Indeed, Russia is so high-tech and bolstered for war, they get their munitions from China, drones from Iran and 'special forces' from North Korea.

Well of course they need shells from North Korea , they do have ten times the amount of artillery pieces. The only thing the Russians are running out of is russian flags to plant.

[FrazeeDK]

western political and military leadership extolled the modernization, training, professionalism of the Russian military until February 2022 showed it was pretty much crap. I'd always believed the Russian military were crap, are crap and always will be crap.. Corrupt, poorly trained, badly led. It all made me wonder why Russia was portrayed in such a positive light militarily. Maybe to keep those defense funds flowing to the military industrical complex?

Can Ukraine defeat Russia at this point? Not likely.

Can Russia continue to slowly push westward across Ukraine? Probably.

Will it end with a armistice in place assisted by Donald Trump's arm twisting?? Possibly...

[AlexO]

Hard one to guess Fraz.
For sure Ukraine is running short of men willing to put themselves in danger, but so is the POOtin forces
During the latter stages of the Cold War it was becoming pretty evident to the wests analysts that the mass forces of the Soviet Union were not all that the propaganda was spouting. Non Russian states in the Bloc were becoming less happy to shed treasure and blood for the Dictatorship. Things have not become much better for Mother Russia since the break up of the USSR. But POOtins aggression is probably the last card in trying to prove they are a real threat to anyone.
Ukraine needs trained fighters as well as hi-tech weapons, hopefully the West will 'openly' acknowledge this even when Trump takes over.

[tamada]

If I recall correctly, Ukraine signed the "Minsk agreements" that went towards granting autonomy to the Donbass. I am unaware if this was under duress. The convoluted events all fell during what's been described as a Ukrainian "power vacuum." Either way, Putin ultimately abrogated them with the invasion of Crimea.

Putin wants to completely restore the territorial extents of the former Soviet Union. When one considers how deeply into eastern Europe this was enabled via the socialist satellite states, Ukraine is obviously just the first of half-a-dozen potential (ultimate?) dominos.

[AlexO]

It was a Russian puppet in charge in Ukraine when the Minsk agreement was signed.
Trouble for POOtin is that the former Soviet satellite sites are all members of NATO now, so if he does have a brain fart he is taking on the whole of NATO not just an individual nation. Obviously Trump will be a factor in future developments but Russia's pretty poor performance in the attack on Ukraine must be a bit sobering for POOtins ambitions to re-establish the old Soviet Empire.