Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that a new “stage” of Russia’s attack on Ukraine is starting as Russian attacks stepped up in eastern Ukraine. Over the past few weeks, Russian forces have withdrawn from areas of northern Ukraine to focus on an assault in the east, primarily in the Donbas region.
“Another stage of this operation (in eastern Ukraine) is beginning and I am sure this will be a very important moment of this entire special operation,” Lavrov said.
Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the “battle for Donbas” began on Monday. He said a “very large part of the entire Russian army now focused on this offensive.” Russian attacks were reported across the east on Tuesday along a front that stretches 300 miles long.
The Donbas has been mired in war since 2014, when the separatists in the breakaway Donestk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) declared independence in response to the US-backed ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2014 and 2015, Ukraine and Russia signed the Minsk agreements in an attempt to end the war. Under the deal, Kyiv would cede some autonomy to the DPR and LPR, but the territories would remain part of Ukraine. While the war was at a stalemate for years, ceasefire violations and shelling were common, and Ukraine never fully implemented the Minsk agreements.
Before launching his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the DPR and LPR. Last month, Russia’s military announced it was shifting the focus of its assault to “liberating” the Donbas. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Russian forces are now “methodically carrying out” plans to “liberate” the region.
In the next phase hopefully Russia can eliminate that clown Zelensky!
That’s like saying eliminating Biden will solve all of our problems.
That would be a good start.
Then Harris? Pelosi? The succession line would bring one piece of sh!T after another. ONE election cycle with people refusing to vote for “R’s” or “D’s” would be a better start.
This stage has been ongoing for probably some days now. It’s merely an incremental escalation, primarily in the movement of Russian forces going south and going north to close the cauldron, and a very extensive increase in shelling in Donbass and missile strikes across Ukraine. The Russians are hitting over a thousand targets a day with missiles.
Its Afghanistan all over again for the russians. Or vietnam for the americans. Or
afhganistan for the americans…Pattern?
Yep, Russia watched the USA piss away a generation and a fortune in the ME and all it had to say on the matter was “hold my vodka”
Worse than a crime, a blunder.
What do you think of NATO’s encroachment of Russia? Are they imagining that? Missiles minutes away from Moscow? Another figment of their imagination? Your comparison would hold water if not for Russia’s REAL security concerns you continuously ignore. The US ventured to the other side of the world and warred against countries that didn’t pose one iota of a threat to their security. See any difference?
No all that is true, but this is an unacceptable solution. Prior to this nonsense I was sympathetic to Russian arguments, I thought the expansion of NATO and the EU willy-nilly was a mistake. This invasion has changed my mind utterly and I see only brute force as the play here
Why would the invasion change your mind? Russia is being punished for the invasion. Their security concerns haven’t lessened. Why should Russia be destroyed for warring while others face no penalty at all?
Russia’s whole intent was to liberate the Donbas. The incursions into western Ukraine were meant to destroy weaponry and Nazi personnel.
To you supporters of the Cokehead of Kiev, explain to me why this shouldn’t happen, after the Nazis have murdered between 12 and 14 thousand ethnic Russians there.
That glorious “feint in force” towards Kiev was a ruse and got rid of a lot of old equipment and stupid generals that frankly were more trouble than they were worth. Better dead than alive.
It seems likely that Russia will wear down the Ukrainian conventional forces and occupy the Donbas. The occupation usually is the decisive stage of the resistance in aysmmetric war. The success of the resistance will depend on which side has won the support of the people. A guerrilla movement cannot succeed without popular support. Likewise, an occupation cannot defeat a guerrilla unless the ocupying forces are perceived as liberating forces. Most of the information out of Ukraine that is not MSM propaganda is Ukrainian or Russian propaganda. Donbas is heading for the moment of truth. Who do the indigenous people blame for the 14,000 casualties? If Nazis committed the depredations the Russians accuse them of, then the Russians will be welcomed as liberators and the guerrilla war will fail.
If the guerrillas succeed, it will be because they have popular support.
Commenters on this site forget that the majority of people in Donbas are Ukrainians (about 50%) not Russians (less than 40%).
Regardless of ethnicity, independence received overwhelming popular support in the Donbass because they have never seen themselves as Ukrainians. That was a decision Lenin made for them. Even Nazi occupied Mariupol voted to secede with the rest of Donetsk. The trouble will be removing colonizers from land occupied since 2014. This could turn into Northern Ireland. The guerrillas lost there because they sold out their sovereignty to the colonizers. I hate Putin but I will always stand with Donbass.
It is hard to say who “they”are in the Donbas. You can’t conduct a meaningful plebiscite in the middle of an armed struggle.Most commentators on this site assume that the people of Donbas are Russian. The last census in 2001 showed ethnic Russians as less than 39% of the Donbas. Most sources agree that about 14K people were killed there since 2014. But how many were combatants and how many were civilians and who did the killing? There is propaganda on both sides.
The best thing would be to have a cease fire with a UN peacekeeping force from neutral countries like China, the African Union or India, repatriation of the refugees and then a UN supervised plebiscite. But the Ukrainians and the Russians are both too racist to permit that.
so the next best and most probable solution is a test of arms which will begin after the Russians defeat the Ukrainian army. If the good people of the Donbas believe that they have been persecuted by domestic Nazis, the Russians will be greeted as liberators and the Nazi resistance will be put down in short order.
If, on the other hand, most people of the Donbas see the Russians as murderous imperialist invaders, then there will be a deep rooted resistance and the Russians will eventually be forced to withdraw. That will be the main war.
As for de-Nazification, no country goes to war for de-Nazification, or to bring democracy to less fortunate people. Wars of choice are fought for geopolitical purposes. But every war has a high minded slogan to entice idealistic young soldiers to die for profit or power for the few. Has Putin ever defined what he means by ‘Nazi?” How are Ukrainian Nazis worse than the Nazis in Russia who support Putin? Or the Nazis in the USA?
Putin is in this war to reverse the advances that NATO made since the Soviets stupidly went to war in Afghanistan. But that is the danger of revanchism. Russia lost out strategically after the USSR collapsed and NATO went from 16 to 30 countries. Whether or not Ukraine becomes #31 will only marginally affect the strategic balance in Europe. In other words, Putin is trying to reset the geopolitical realities of 2022 Europe. But even if Russia wins, Putin will not have achieved his goal.
Like Hitler, Putin’s Revanchism will lead to more wars because the cause of the war is not Nazis in Ukraine. The cause is expansion of NATO, If strategic Revanchism is Putin’s goal, then big wars are in all of our futures.
The Irish struggle was a guerrilla war primarily conducted in cities and towns. The guerrillas succeeded in eventually liberating 3/4 of Ireland. Britain held onto Ulster because there was an armed and militant Unionist majority. The Catholic and Protestants both became fed up with the generations of violence and brokered a peace agreement. It is clear to everyone except the most diehard Unionists that Ireland will eventually be united peacefully. Many of the Unionists have left for the UK and now the Catholics and Protestants are almost equal with the Catholics soon to be in a majority. Bottom line is the British lost out to urban guerrilla war in Ireland. As for Ulster, I like to look at it like the glass is 3/4 full rather than the glass is 1/4 empty. Eventually the glass will be full again.
In 2010 the area of Russian incursion voted overwhelmingly for the pro-Russian candidate for Ukraine’s presidency. The remainder of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly for the pro-Western candidate. The first won by about 3% of the vote.
So that allows a another party to come in and carve you up? No it doesn’t. Now we are getting reports of all military age men in the “liberated” areas being pressed into service for the glory of Russia. I hear it isn’t going well and some are objecting to the point of firefights breaking out in the Russian ranks.
Kremlin Insiders Alarmed Over Growing Toll of Putin’s War in Ukraine:
Almost eight weeks after Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, with military losses mounting and Russia facing unprecedented international isolation, a small but growing number of senior Kremlin insiders are quietly questioning his decision to go to war.
The ranks of the critics at the pinnacle of power remain limited, spread across high-level posts in government and state-run business. They believe the invasion was a catastrophic mistake that will set the country back for years, according to ten people with direct knowledge of the situation. All spoke on condition of anonymity, too fearful of retribution to comment publicly.
Putin has dismissed attempts by other officials to warn him of the crippling economic and political cost, they said. However, more and more top insiders have come to believe that Putin’s commitment to continue the invasion will doom Russia to years of isolation and heightened tension that will leave its economy crippled, its security compromised and its global influence gutted.
Wait for all the Pro Putin & US/NATO/Ukraine haters to comment.
Why don’t you two get a room?
👏
If I may interject, I am PRO-PEACE. Being pro-peace means engaging with as many people and countries as possible, to come to reasonable agreements with each other, so we can avoid the possibility of conflict and potentially nuclear engagements or just warfare in general, which can easily escalate….
Or maybe just from people that don’t buy into US propaganda. That doesn’t equate to being pro Putin or Ukrainian haters. You on the other hand have no problem with Ukrainians dying since you cheerlead every MIC toy sent in to bring about more death.
It has been suggested, many times, that we need to understand our perceived enemies and their positions, in an effort to come to better understandings and possibly co-operation so that all sides can avoid potential conflicts which could easily escalate into the worst dynamics such as nuclear conflict…
As I have said a number of times on this site, we need to see the world from the other guy’s point of view instead of just laughing at and denigrating him, as we have done to Putin for years,
I saw that article’s headline on the MSM. I didn’t read it. Don did.
Why do you look at MSM, I don’t!
Here is hoping, humanity has to figure out that war is a bad way to do business.
Yes it is , John.
My question is, how do you feel about Amerikkka sending Ukraine billions of dollars worth of weapons, thus prolonging the war?
And the fact that Bye-Done and Putin have not spoken since the war’s inception?
Where are the negotiations?
Putin holding a gun on Ukraine’s head? That kind of negotiations? Give up the land or die? GTFOH
As compared to NATO/US holding a gun to Putin’s head? Accept NATO encroachment and missiles minutes from Moscow? GTFOH.
I think it is great. The Russians need to fuck off home. I don’t see what there is to talk about at this point. Once the Russians are on the 1999 boarder I suppose we can talk trials and reparations.
More death is great? Ther might be a place in the Biden administration waiting for you.
More death isn’t great but it is entirely in the Russians hands, they go home they get to live. They stay death, the Ukrainians are in their own country they can’t go anywhere.
You left out that the Ukrainians will be dying side by side with the Russians.
“I don’t see what there is to talk about at this point.”
Same thing as when it started.
The US provoked the War and the US is trying to prolong the war. But the greater evil is the decision to go to war. The US provoked war with Nazi Germany and Japan. And UK and France provoked the invasion of Poland. Russia had a legitimate grievance. But that did not justify going to war. Many more people have died and will die in the war than in the civil war in Donbass.
The problem is that Putin has chosen a path that is likely to lead to world war. I hope you don’t believe Putin went to war to de-Nazify the Ukraine. Countries go to war for geopolitical reasons. The slogans are to convince young soldiers to become cannon fodder. Putin went to war to push back against 30 years of NATO expansion. When NATO expanded from 16 to 30 countries and the USSR dissolved, the strategic situation in Europe drastically changed. Whether or not Ukraine becomes the 31st NATO nation will only marginally affect the strategic balance in Europe. That is the problem with Revanchism. It leads to more wars. Even a victory in Ukraine will not remove the NATO threat to Russia.
Putin or his replacement will need to develop a long term strategy with China to redress the control of the world by NATO and the G7. But war is not the solution. It will only make things worse. For Russia, China Ukraine and the people of the world.
Lets see if the people of Donbas greet the Russians as liberators or oppressors, But regardless, the path Putin chose is a disaster unfolding.
If Russia had embraced the US-glorified Powell doctrine and the associated testosterone laced idea of “shock and awe”, Russia would have preceded its land invasion by a bombing campaign destroying every piece of infrastructure that existed; The US did this in Iraq and gloated over it as if it were “brilliant”. Russia has *not* done this. This idea was found palatable to the US population because those Iraqis are just a bunch of “dirty Arabs” who don’t even embrace Jesus. Furthermore, Russia continues to allow Zelensky to exist—US went immediately to kill the leader of Iraq.
What is the ratio of civilian: military deaths in Ukraine compared to what the US inflicted on Iraq? Love to see this data..
Yes the Russians miscalculated–they actually came into Ukraine “soft”
Why? Probably because the Ukrainians are so similar to the Russians
in regards to being Slavs, same religion, etc..
It seems pretty clear now that a lot of Ukrainians don’t want to be Russian