Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a partial mobilization that will call up 300,000 reservists and warned Western countries that Moscow would use nuclear weapons to defend its territory.
The move marks Putin’s biggest escalation of his war in Ukraine since launching the invasion on February 24, although he is still framing the war as a “special military operation.”
“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people — this is not a bluff,” Putin said in a televised address.
“The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence, and freedom will be defended — I repeat — by all the systems available to us. Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the weathervane can turn around,” he said.
Putin didn’t specify the number of reservists that will be activated under the partial mobilization, but the Kremlin later clarified it will be 300,000, which Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu recommended. Putin said Russia will call up “Only those citizens who are currently in the reserve and primarily those who served in the army and have particular military specialties.”
The Russian leader expressed support for referendums on joining Russia that will be held in each area of Russian-controlled Ukraine from September 23-27, which were announced on Tuesday. Referendums will be held in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics in the Donbas region, and in the oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
“I would like to emphasize that we will do everything necessary to create safe conditions for these referendums so that people can express their will. And we will support the choice of future made by the majority of people in the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” Putin said.
Putin made clear that he blames the US and its allies for the current situation and said a peace deal was possible earlier in the war after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held talks in Istanbul. He said that he was making the details of the peace talks public for the first time.
“After the start of the special military operation, in particular after the Istanbul talks, Kyiv representatives voiced quite a positive response to our proposals. These proposals concerned above all, ensuring Russia’s security and interests,” he said.
Reports in Western media and Ukrainian media have also said that a deal was close after the Istanbul talks, which were held at the end of March. But according to a report from Ukrainska Pravda, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to Kyiv in April and told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that even if he was ready to sign a deal with Putin, the collective West was not.
“A peaceful settlement obviously did not suit the West, which is why, after certain compromises were coordinated, Kyiv was actually ordered to wreck all these agreements,” Putin said.
The Russian leader said that Washington, London, and Brussels were now “openly encouraging Kyiv to move the hostilities to our territory.” After Ukraine launched its successful counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, shelling was reported in Belgorod, the Russian region that borders the area.
Putin said that the focus will remain on “liberating” the Donbas region. Russia and Russian-backed forces in the region currently control virtually all of the Luhansk oblast, but Ukraine still controls a portion of Donetsk.
Putin is completely delusional.
But Boris Johnson was a genius?
Did I say that?
But it’s ok, go ahead and defend your Emperor, Putin the Great.
I criticized Boris Johnson.
Have at it, then.
He’s the idiot who stopped the peace negotiations. It doesn’t matter whether you like Putin or not.
I doubt that was really Johnson’s initiative. He was acting as proxy for US interests. It is no different than the British role in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.
Same difference though.
Try to be objective. It is eady to hurl insults.
Ukraine did nothing notable to turn the war around. Nothingvat all. Bombing nuclear power plant to cause intrnational fear is not winning stratefmgy. They took territory Russia abandoned without fight, as Russia took Bakhmut as a dest, a logistical hub for Ukraine in Donbas, Russia is not crowing about it.
What else is happening that would indicate Ukraine is winning? Anything at all? It is important to understand what is going on.
Putin is reflecting the mood of Russia.
Whether we like it or not. They concluded
that after Zelenski spoje of the need to conquer and divide Russia — and no Western leader corrected him, that Western mind is made up.
Head of Russian intelligence, Petrushev just visited China.
This war — war between West and East is getting serious. Russia is only the canary in the mine.
Biden is senile, what is the difference?
The USA is a nuclear power, why have the weapons if you are not willing to use them. Just remember the USA has used them and has been modernizing the nuclear weapons.
Biden had the option to avoid this war, he still prevents to end it. He does not care about the Ukrainians, Americans are not faced with the consequences of war on their soil. They bomb others no one bombs American homes.
Biden wants regime change in Russia. When in the last decade was a regime change successful? Not to question the morals of it. Sanctions, they are meant to destroy other nations, how does the ME look after decades of American politics?
I’m pretty sure Russian nukes can reach the US.
I am also sure the Chinese nukes can reach the US. Some firework if the nukes come from across the Pacific and the Atlantic well coordinated at the same time.
We are all vulnerable in a nuclear world…
Let me put it more plainly, OUR ASS IS GRASS! And China is the lawnmower…
Putin is steady as a rock. He’s probably the only world leader with a three digit IQ.
“Putin is smart as a rock.”
Fixed, no charge.
That was funny…
Hey that’s Thomas’ line. Get your own.
You said that before. And before. I would really alpreciate if you could expand upon it. What makes you think so?
I surely won’t write a 6 page paper like you do with Kremlin propaganda. If you don’t think he is delusional, it is because you are obsessed with Putin and his Russia. I read what you post and it’s all extremely biased. And you too are a repeat from previous postings and so everybody else here. You won’t take anything from me no matter how much I expand. You are stuck in your little Putin Hero World.
“I read what you post and it’s all extremely biased.”
Pot meet kettle.
I’m sorry DJ but I do not think that is fair. You don’t have to agree with her or me but try and not be insulting when you disagree. I’m entirely open to hearing what you have to say and even to debate, if need be. Try not to be so insulting.
DJ has no legitimate arguments. Just ad hominem and dogma. Don’t waste your time.
I felt very nervous after Putin’s speech…
No need. Putin and his people know what they’re doing. The people who don’t know what they’re doing are the collective West. That’s why Putin issued the nuclear threat – he knows they are the ones who are likely to go nuclear first. Andrei Martyanov constantly points this out, that the US has lost most of its wars even against non-peer adversaries, but can’t accept that and will go nuclear if they lose a conventional war against Russia – which they will if they try.
Putin was telling Biden,” listen to what I say, I don’t bluff, don’t underestimate me again. We have nuclear weapons to use them if we need to.”
The Germans should wake up, Ramstein would be a great target, so would be Paris, Rome, London and Berlin.
What would he say if he was bluffing? “This is a bluff”?
But isn’t Putin the person you guys are constantly elevating to a Savior Status here?
Don’t be nervous. He is just full of it. By saying he is not bluffing, he is saying he is. He is delusional but not stupid.
The only thing I can say is that I got a very strange vibe on him… Unsettling and uncomfortable…
Intellectually he knows he has lost. Emotionally he can’t accept the fact.
In the US there were people around Nixon inthe government and the military who were able to manipulate and restrain him when he was thinking about going nuclear. The scary thing today is that Putin has created an autocratic dictatorship where there may not be anyone with the opportunity or ability to restrain a leader who is cracking under the pressure of failure.
I am trying my best to be objective. Tell me, how has he lost?
Which of his stated objectives has he achieved? His NATO border is 1000km longer than before the war started, the NATO armies are bigger and more funded than before the war started. That looks like things went a bit backwards. Also he has lost some troops and equipment.
The NATO armies are bigger and more funded than before the war started ???? Can you explain how did that happened ?
Well Sweden and Finland got added to the alliance, that is more men and more money. Germany is almost doubling its defense budget.’
Russias actions have scared the Europeans into reacting
Germans are gonna freeze to death before they can utilize that “defense budget”.
Stop fooling yourself, Biden is senile and his administration is batshit crazy too. Regime change in Moscow, think about it, when was the last successful regime change? Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Libya, Afghanistan, all failed sanctions and regime changes. Not to count all the failures in Latin America. And now the delusional man thinks he can do a regime change in Moscow with a popular elected president, and a nuclear power. How crazy can he get?
We desperately need a real regime change, we have had one failed president after another, we can take no more.
I agree, we should have no opinion about who runs Russia. We want Russia out of Ukraine beyond that we don’t worry about internal Russian politics. If the Russian government collapses the next guy could certainly be worse than Putin, I am ok with the devil we know.
My husband is from Cuba and Nicaragua and he went thru lots of upheaval and eventually came to the US but he carries deep scars…
The Monroe Doctrine was not made to benefit the people in Latin America, it is to serve US business interests.
This attitude by the Americans is still the same, nothing has changed.
Sorry to hear that Donna.
I hope one day he can find peace.
Putin may be terminally ill. This combined with his megamaniacal personality does not bode well
You’ve got Biden and Putin mixed up.
I watched Putin hold interviews with the press recently. He seems fit to me.
What is megamaniacal about not allowing U.S. NATO to get a first strike advantage to nuke Russia from their border with Ukraine..!!!!
This is no time to go wobbly.
Sorry Mary.
That’s OK. Listen to to the boys over at The Duran, Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christophorou. Also listen to Scott Ritter and Lt. Col. Doug Macgregor.
Thanks.
Thank You for sharing your news sources. The mainstream is not giving us honest news. We are living a conspiracy that was born when the Obama Neocons sent Victoria Nuland with $5 billion National Endowment 4 Democracy to organize a coup to overthrow an elected president and install an American puppet to hector the Russian speakers and divide the country. A blight on our decency as the blood flows. An engineered civil conflict of American genesis, Clinton, Obama, & Biden, Nuland, and Pitt provenance that put the world on a brink of destruction.
It was meant to be. When Zelensky a few weeks ago said that Russia will be conquered and broken up in pieces, no Westrrn official corrected him. Or distanced from this statement. It was not even worthy of a commentary.
This is not a sectet — the entire Western establishment declared war on Russia by instituting full war time economiic, financial, trade and diplomatic blocade. And arming, advising Ukraine.
Hopefully wevdo rememnmber the last ditch efforts Russia made in December 2021 to resolve the crisis by reviving Minsk agreement. Refusal to talk about it, and by co-sponsors Germany and France keeping silent — signaled the death of peaceful solution and Ukraine ammasing forces meant military solution. Croatian advisors were there to plan for a Krajina-style population expulsion along the mimitary operation.
If these facts wers available throug open sources, Russia surely knew about it.
Russia slowed operation to a crawl as behind the scenes mives were made by various sides to put feelers out to end the conflict.
Message by Zelenski was — we (the West) will defeat you. Only defeat is possible.
Additionally, Rusdia is in quiet war with Israel. Zelenski touts Israel as a model of post-war Ukraine. It is clear who his Palestinians would be — all Christian Orthodox populace not just Russian.
There is a reason practically entire Gulf alllied for and was accepted into Russia-China led SCO, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain. With Iran already a permanent member — picture is clearer,
None of it portends
Perhaps it is because he sees himself and Russia as bringer of peace and prosperity, not nuclear war. It is U.S. NATO that wanted and planned squeeze him with the 2014 coup, & putting Rusophobic Nazis in positions of power and influence & get a toehold to divide Ukraine into hostile enemies to use as a cudgel to batter the Russian speakin’s Ukrainians drawing in Russia & having their proxy war on them.
Too bad the people in Washington, London, Paris, Rome and Berlin are more than stupid they are batshit crazy.
Will the U.S. and it’s NATO gnome’s really start a nunclear war with Russia just after the U.S. “modernized” their nuclear arsenal by reducing the yeild (blast) of their. Nukes and Russia has raised the yeild of some of its arsenal deployed weapons to 100 megatons, 40% higher than the largest nuclear detonation in the atomic age to date. It seems that it would be volunteering to be the first in line for the next record breaking largest ever nuclear blast. Might even be able to level some of the smaller NATO gnomes.
Giant nukes are “revenge” weapons. Small accurate nukes are war fighting weapons and really much scarier as folks maybe fooled into using them. If your weapon is accurate it doesn’t need a big bang to have the effect you want. Presuming a military effect. If the effect you want is blow up a city and kill as many as you can then for sure throw a Tsar Bomba at them.
Yes, because I am pretty sure that Biden and Blinken are not listening, lost in their own arrogance and hubris.
Let me be clear. While Putin continues to talk about the primary purpose of the operation being to liberate the Donbass region, make no mistake. Russia intends to repeat this process with every other oblast in Ukraine until all of Ukraine is annexed into the Russian Federation in some form or other.
This is necessary because the entire purpose of this war is to remake Ukraine into a Russian-friendly government which will enable Russia to place Russian strategic weapons in western Ukraine (as well as in Belarus) to counter the Aegis Ashore installations in Poland and Romania.
As for the reservists called up, these will be likely be used in the rear in order to free more of the contract forces for the front line operations. Russia can take all of Ukraine with the limited forces it has so far committed but by using new forces in the rear they can more effectively and more quickly deal with the current extended front line which is around 1,200 km long.
Once the Donbass Ukrainian forces are eliminated, however, that line should shorten considerably, although a new long line between Kherson and Transnistria might be created as Russia moves to take the entire southern coast. Eventually, however, Ukraine’s forces will be driven into a smaller and smaller area as they are decimated by Russia.
I also think that the idea that the peace negotiations in March would have led to a settlement is highly unlikely, The only “peace” Russia will agree to is a unilateral surrender by Ukraine, and that was true then as it is now. Russia can not insure its security from NATO encroachment in Ukraine without controlling the Ukraine government and the entirety of Ukraine in some form.
Another important point which is overlooked in this article is that once the current regions are incorporated into the Russian Federation, ANY attack on them by Ukraine will be an attack on the Russian Federation. This has implications as to the military response going forward, as Alexander Mercouris analyzed in his video yesterday and on The Duran channel. In short, Russia will remove the constraints it placed on itself for the SMO, and relax the rules of engagement. This may mean that areas of the Ukraine government which have hitherto not been attacked will be attacked more forcefully.
As always, we should be aware that the only people who really know the operational goals and plans are the Russian General Staff. When I claim to know what Russia will do, I am speaking about what they should logically do to insure Russia’s security interests. But what they will do is another matter.
Official translation of Putin’s speech is available on the Naked Capitalism site as well as the mobilization order (both as PDFs):
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/09/text-of-putin-speech-announcing-partial-mobilization.html
Moon of Alabama has his initial analysis:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/russia-announces-partial-mobilization-the-gloves-are-coming-off.html#more
Thanks for those links. The translation of the decree confirms an unsourced report I read elsewhere: It neither caps the number to be drafted at 300,000, nor does it limit the draft to reservists.
Shoigu’s interview in which these are specified:
Sergei Shoigu Interview Sep 21 Transcript
https://vk.com/@739151204-sergei-shoigu-interview-sep-21-transcript
Try again.
There’s nothing to “try.” The decree says what it says, and an interview is not a directive.
NATO continues to be bleed out in Ukraine. NATO might have gained some ground back in Kharkiv but at a huge loss in man power and weapons. Contributing hugely to Denazification
The partial mobilisation is only 1.5% of the total. 25 million is the total. Russia will just keep responding to NATO escalations in kind.
The breakaway regions will become Russian Federation, This means NATO/US will be at war with Russia. This also means that Russia can legally then use all 25 million reserves in a war against global Nazism.
Winter is coming and time is running out for Europe.
The number of the mobilization is unspecified in the decree.
The interesting question is what the PURPOSE of the “partial mobilization” is.
It may be not so much that additional troops are needed as that announcing it could bait the Ukrainian forces into over-extending themselves by attempting to take as much ground as possible as quickly as possible before the mobilization-created reinforcements arrive.
Or it may just be a political survival thing. A lot of prominent Russians seem to be accidentally falling to their deaths lately, and it’s not clear whether that’s Putin eliminating potential opponents, potential opponents trying to isolate Putin by taking out his allies, or some of both. The direction of sentiment within the regime at least SEEMS to run in the “keep doubling down on this fiasco until some kind of miracle makes it start working” direction rather than in the “for the love of God, withdraw to secure lines incorporating LPR, DPR, and a land corridor to Crimea, declare victory and GTFO” direction. So he may just be throwing his masters a bone to keep his job.
The purpose has been stated, its to support the inclusion of the 4 regions into Russia.
As a result of the Nazi coup detat Russia stripped Ukraine of its most valuable assets Crimea, Donbass and saddled Brussels and Washington with Kiev’s debt in the process.
Vladimir Putin continues to eat up the West’s geopolitical lunch and leave it with the tab.
“The purpose has been stated, its to support the inclusion of the 4 regions into Russia.”
That just raises more questions. Why would he openly state purposes that anyone with two neurons to rub together and create a synapse understands are incredibly unlikely to be achieved?
Since I continue to assume that he’s rational, the logical conclusion is that he’s creating space for “negotiation” — if he ever manages to secure LPR/DPR/land corridor to Crimea, he’ll float a line of control that “gives up” the two oblasts he can’t conquer and keep.
Biden said there will be no American boots on the ground. Do you think that the Ukrainians have enough boots on the ground to keep all of Ukraine against Russia?
Suppose NATO boots would really fight Russia in Ukraine, how would they contain the war inside Ukraine, if not, the European continent will be in ruins like the ME. What will Biden gain if he would get his Regime Change with Navalny in Putin’s place privatizing the natural resources of Russia or what would be left after a nuclear war?
Putin said, there will be no world without Russia.
Russia will take the US down in the Abyss with them.
Most of the world is turned against the US, the ugly American, Biden and his neocons are creating enemies, NATO and the EU are crumbling, what will be left?
See? That’s any easy one to overcome… Instead of boots, the can wear sneakers….
You are either Pro Putin or Anti US. I go with both. Clearly not antiwar based on your language.
What are you, Pro Biden and Anti war? Is Biden ready for diplomacy, and why exactly does NATO fight Russia using the Ukrainians as proxies? Which NATO ally was threatened by Russia? What is it that Biden wants?
Please don’t say it is all for freedom and democracy, that is just BS.
It’s important to understand that Biden is no more trustworthy than Putin or Zelenskyy. Just because he says no boots on the ground, that doesn’t mean he’ll still be saying that a month from now.
They already have been achieved, have i missed something? Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia Oblasts are already under local control? NATO is an invading force.
The time for negotiations has passed, remember Minsk1 and 2. NATO is not agreement capable. Its time for war, deal with it.
Russia can and will mobilise 25 million reserves, it has started. Russia is not mucking around.
Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts are contested territory, which the Russian forces are incredibly unlikely to secure and hold under any plausible circumstances.
And if Shoigu’s statement that Russia is now at war with the US and NATO is to be taken as a statement of policy, it would be silly to expect that the gloves won’t come off on the other side as well. Biden and Putin both seem resolved to escalate this to a nuclear exchange.
US/NATO have been involved in this war from the start, funding and providing the weapons, and training troops using them as proxies and more makes NATO a de facto war party. It is a war between Russia and the US. NATO was created for that very purpose, so don’t act as you are outsiders just watching the show, the US/NATO is the war party, Ukrainians are proxies and so are the Europeans, the USA will throw them under the bus is one will be left.
Sure but we are fighting to the last Ukrainian, the Russians appear to be willing to fight to the last Russian. As an American I find that to be a big distinction.
Well, according to the Russian regime, the war started yesterday — before that it was just a “Special Military Operation” and you could be imprisoned for daring to suggest otherwise.
So it would make more sense to say that US/NATO have been involved in this war since at least a decade or so before it began.
Who cares what they want to call it, the historical fact is that it all started with the Regime Change 2014, we can ignore, omit this fact, but it is what it is. Ask Biden, and Nuland, they were there at the creation way back in 2014, Biden’s son was rewarded royally too. Family business, you know.
Actually it all goes back to the beginning of NATO, recall, the man said, to keep Russia out, Germany down, and the US in” Europe”. So true, after decades nothing has changed as far as NATO is concerned.
The historical fact is that it all started in 1917 with the Russian revolution. The US and Russia have effectively been at war since then — usually through proxies — other than 1941-45 when they temporarily allied to beat the Nazis.
The story of two empires clashing for a century, and now clashing again as they always have while both are in terminal decline, is not a story of one virtuous side and one evil side. It’s a story of two criminal gangs fighting, as criminal gangs will do.
It all started in 1914. No wait, 1904. Or maybe it was the Crimean War. Possibly Waterloo. Could have been Lexington Concord. Or just before.
Could be it started when the Roman Empire did not decisively defeat the barbarians, like they wiped out the Carthaginians.
Who was imprisoned for daring to suggest it was more than a special Military Operation. For someone who is usually so concise you sure are pulling some “facts” out of thin air lately, Thomas.
Yevgeny Roizman and Alexei Gorinov, to name two of about 50.
Opposition politicians, similar to the opposition politicians/parties banned in Ukraine and an independent media banned too. Viktor Medvedchuk under house3 arrest after being detained. That would be like a future dictator in the US banning all pro-Israel political parties, which would mean “all of them”, because they opposed continuance of a war with Israel.
NATO is an invading force. The control of these Oblasts is by local forces. Currently the Russian forces have a 1:10 kill ratio.
Biden would not know what he had for breakfast.
Hope he can remember the Nuclear launch codes
the pentagon would be fools to ever give actual codes to any president ever.
imagine uncle sam cheerfully handing launch codes over to the likes of trump – “oh here you go sir, be sure to keep these in a safe place!”
Perhaps they gave him the code for starting a fiction film on his screen and the president will enjoy happily the view of destroyed Moscow.
He’s already been relieved of that duty.
You can be sure, after accepting into Russian Federation Kherson, Zaporozhie, DNR and LNR, Russian army will go to a big offensive and by next spring 4 regions more would be ready to join RF.
You are a dreamer. Be prepared to be disappointed.
Russia does not have the power to secure a land corridor between Crimea and Donbas. The Ukrainian army will fight on. If Russia succeeds in destroying the Ukrainian army the resistance will go underground and fight on. Either way Russia cannot disengage its military from Ukraine except in defeat. Zelensky is leading a very effective resistance. But even if Zelensky surrendered or became a quisling, the resistance would continue with new leadership. The Russian military is caught in a negative feedback loop where their operations, even their mere presence, builds the resistance that will defeat them. This is what happens when an imperialist invader confronts a legitimate national resistance movement. Nothing builds nationalism like adversity and fighting back against oppression. In asymmetric warfare the stronger power has to win quick and get out, like Gulf War I, or the stronger power loses. Ukraine already won its right to self determination. It just may take years or decades for the Russian leadership to recognize their defeat. Eventually the Russian people and their soldiers will demand an end to the war. Of course Putin could destroy Ukraine like Nixon threatened to destroy Vietnam. But that would destroy Russia’s credibility as a great power.
Zelensky is leading nothing, he is just a well paid Muppet a traitor to his country.
That’s what the Russian propagandists are saying but in Ukraine, he has won the respect of his people. But don’t take my word, ask a Ukrainian nearby. 91% approval rate.
You forget that during WW2 Russia defeated mighty German Wehrmacht. Defeating the Ukrainian and NATO’s latter day neoNazis will be a much easier and a long over task to finally rid the world the last followers of racist Nazi ideology. Like brain washed Germans during WW2 , racist Ukrainian and NATO Russia haters will just have to learn the hard way they cannot defeat Russia.
The Russian Empire is clearly not the military juggernaut today that it was in 1945.
And we clearly only have your word that that the Russia Army is less capable now since the advent of the Russian Revolution in milirary affairs. The current correlation of Russian military force vs NATO means the Russians are inevitably going to have Ukraine their way and the ill advised expansion of NATO military alliance to Ukraine is a lost cause;
You don’t have “only my word.” You have the ability to compare Russian military performance in this war versus previous wars. For example, Georgia and Chechnya.
So Georgia and Chechnya are your conclusive proof the Russian can’t possibly win the US/NATO proxy war with Russia? Your information data points are totally obsolete. 2014 was a wake up call for Russia to prepare for the current US/NATO proxy war with Russia. This is not Yelsin’s incompetent Red Army anymore but Putins lean and mean
professional army that is better armed, trained and lead than NATO’S paper tiger army
The Russians obviously have a different opinion than the West’s popular narrative that “Russia is losing”. Russia is currently mobilizing to finish off the Ukraine Army
“So Georgia and Chechnya are your conclusive proof the Russian can’t possibly win the US/NATO proxy war with Russia? ”
Um, no.
Georgia and Chechnya were my data points for believing that Russia COULD win the US/NATO proxy war with Russia.
Or, rather, that Russia could quickly and efficiently secure the LPR, DPR, and a land corridor with Crimea.
The last six-plus months are my data points for believing that Russia can’t possibly win the war it’s not been winning.
Thomas the last six months of the SMO was always politically restrained and undermanned and was intended to leave Ukraine a diplomatic off ramp to end the war. Ukraine has unwisely rejected that option and Russia has now been reluctantly been forced to mobilize sufficient military force to crush Ukraine’s energy, transportation and communication infrastructure ‘s and Ukraine’s armed forces ability to sustain a war with Russia. The mobilized correlation of military forces is overwhelmingly in favor of Russia to have Ukraine their way. Don’t be the last niave Westerner to give up the fake US MSM narrative that Russia is going to lose a war they have not yet begun to fight in earnest.
r
r
The US/NATO proxy war on Russia will not end well for Ukraine or Europe
The war will not end well for anyone except war profiteers. That’s how wars work.
It wasn’t the Russian Empire then, it was the Soviet Union. Kinda like the United States is the NATO Empire now.
It’s been the Russian Empire for at least 300 years.
It was still the Soviet Union in 1945 according to the history books. Actually that Georgian, Stalin was the leader of that Union.
Well, the Russians are protesting in the streets (over 1000 have already been arrested), cars are lined up at the borders and flights are packed with Russians leaving the country. So they don’t seem THAT eager to fight
All Volunteer Force of ours precludes protests and moving to Canada. That’s why we stopped drafting and went to the AVF.
The Red Army was fighting a defensive war of national resistance against the Nazi invaders. Having lost millions of Soviet citizens the Soviet army was highly motivated and highly effective in WWII. In Ukraine they are demoralized and confused like the Soviet army in Afghanistan or the US armies in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Imperial armies unravel in wars of aggression when they are confronted by weaker but highly motivated defenders who refuse to quit. Asymmetric wars of national resistance are won by hearts and minds not by force of arms. The Ukrainians have won. In the coming months that will become more obvious. Russian airports are flooded with people trying to escape conscription. Hundreds of people were arrested yesterday for protesting a war by a repressive state where people are sentenced to seven years in prison just for calling the war a war.
The war against Ukraine was a mistake. Persisting in that mistake is insanity. Putin is unstable and a danger to the human race. Until yesterday no world leader has ever publicly threatened a first use of nuclear weapons to defend conquest of territory of another nation. Putin has crossed a red line and I expect he will be hearing from President Xi who may have already reached out to explain the facts of life to Darth Vlad.
Well said Skywalker, well said.
Really? How many fell to their deaths and who are they?
The why is the part I’m asking about.
Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov on September 1.
Far East and Arctic Development Corporation director Ivan Pechorin on September 11.
Former Moscow Aviation Institute head Anatoly Gerashchenko on September 21.
That’s this month, by falling. Quite a few plain murders and alleged suicides since the war began, too.
Maybe it’s one of the preferred methods of suicide.
Russia will never mobilize 25 million. Who will work if such a lot of people leave their jobs? Russian army at the moment a little more than one million. May one million more is acceptable, but no more than that. Even now Russia is starting to recruit in the army foreigners, promising them Russian citizenship after one year of service. By the way, there are a lot of people in different countries who are happy to participate in the war on Russian side, but so far, they were rejected.
It’s on Consortium News as well Richard.
Putin speaks like a statesman as opposed to our drooling, brain-dead Fearless Leader.
I apologize Gypsy, I clicked on here by mistake….
Consortium News states that Putin did not threaten Nukes on the offensive, but only to protect Russia from attacks.
It seems that using nukes as a ‘defensive’ defeats the whole purpose of defending the country. If you’re attacked by those types of weapons, it’s a day late to effectively use them as a defense.
Not if your defenses are capable enough to ensure they do not reach their targets.
With a Russian kill ratio of 1:10 NATO and the west will need 250 million suckers to win this war…….that shouldn’t be to hard to muster, after all we are talking about westerners.
Well, I guess that remains to be seen. In any event, at this point I don’t see how this doesn’t escalate into something much more serious with many more countries involved.
It was already escalated by NATO, many more countries have already attacked Russian Forces in Ukraine. Lets see if NATO escalates again.
Let’s not minimize the U.S. role in this war.
The US is NATO, the other nations are proxies, they have nothing to say, they just pay and die, cheap cannon fodder.
Until this war hits Amerikkkan soil, Renate.
Then perhaps Amerikkkans will “get it”.
We, with NATO, are giving lessons in the use of the new toys for Ukraine Banderites, providing recon, logistics, aiding in planning. How else would Kiev had known the locations of Russian generals that were popped off?
While it’s certainly possible that US/NATO discovered and shared those generals’ locations (and the “intel-sharing” hasn’t been any kind of secret) there are other plausible explanations. Poor operational security, for one. This is the first major war involving belligerents with a lot of tech capabilities that’s come around since everyone started carrying tracking/eavesdropping/sharing location to Instagram devices with them everywhere they go, including into territories where the enemy controls the cell towers/networks.
Heck, several years ago the Taliban hijacked and took control of a US drone, in flight. And they did it with a laptop, not with a massive data center drawing on e.g. satellite data and radio triangulation.
One thing this war is re-writing is the opsec manual for conventional armies fighting adversaries with 21st century technological assets. You’re probably going to start seeing US troops explaining to their wives that their smart phones can’t deploy with them, under penalty of court-martial, quite soon.
“With a Russian kill ratio of 1:10”
You forgot the part about unicorns that piss whiskey and sh*t rainbow sherbet.
I have followed this war on a daily basis. 1:10 is very credible. You have a source with better figures?
you forget that If Russia IS attacked they have the ability to do the same to continental United States. Was funding the neo nazi coup in Ukraine in 2014 such a wise idea? Just remember that this would not be the first time the US has attacked Russia proper in its history…. it is however the first time that the Russians have the ability to attack US Soil.
No, I don’t forget that — it’s among the many reasons why I opposed the US-sponsored coup in Ukraine in 2014, and continue to oppose all US interventions in the current war.
I don’t have to pretend the US are “the good guys” in order to understand that the Russians aren’t either.
“this would not be the first time the US has attacked Russia” – if you mean US role in Russian Civil War 1917-1922, you are wrong. It wasn’t that simple. I don’t know about any other American military interference in Russia.
Alaska is not to great a reach. Nor the Pacific Northwest.
I HAVE one of those unicorns, Thomas!
Paid a great deal of cash for her too.
I have friends who have friends in the Church of All Worlds which did indeed do some kind of thing to produce “unicorns” from goats. Then they spent the money they made on an expedition to hunt for mermaids. Which is pretty cool.
Thing about unicorns, Thomas: they’re too snotty to be ridden. They think they’re above all that 😉
Thomas, perhaps a narwhal is a mermaid’s version of a unicorn 🙂
“the west will need 250 million suckers to win this war” – one good nuke can prevent this enormous massacre. I think it can be used against Poland or Germany. US leadership would be happy with such an outcome. They will be able to demonize Russia for the rest of the century and at the same time remain the undisputed leader of the free world.
He didn’t say in defense after a nuke strike. He said in defense of attacks directly on Russia.
It was NATO that first mentioned nukes. Russian policy on nukes has been clearly stated for some time, used only if the homeland is threatened. NATO needs to stop the Bio and Nuclear terrorism before its to late.
“Russian policy on nukes has been clearly stated for some time, used only if the homeland is threatened.”
True. But the rules have changed in that now “the homeland” means “any piece of land we happen to decide we want.”
They learned from the Americans, they bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the war was already over, the same on the European front, they kept bombing until the last day. Overkill is not a war crime.
i read somewhere that the japanese had been trying to surrender for several months but uncle sam would not let them surrender, all the while putting the finishing touches on the fat-man & the little-boy atomic bombs.
The Japanese had been making surrender overtures since at least as early as March of 1945, the only condition being that the Emperor not be deposed. The US demanded unconditional surrender (even though, as it happens, they decided not to depose the Emperor), probably precisely so they could demonstrate the atomic bomb in hopes of cowing Stalin.
Unleashing that kind of horror on defenseless women and children for the purpose of political posturing is about as evil as it gets.
As was the fire bombing of Dresden. Author Kurt Vonnegut was there. He was a POW consigned to work as a slave laborer in a slaughterhouse. When he emerged from the safety of the slaughterhouse, he said he saw the ruins, the bodies, that we “burned down the whole damn city”.
And Tokyo.
We bombed. Hirohito remained. In the process, we killed American POWs too. When apprised of their location, Truman still gave the green light to bomb. Disgraceful war criminal.
During the last days of the war in Europe, our brave fighter pilots were strafing anything that moved on the ground, rail or road. Chuck Yeager took part in the strafing, spoke of it. He said it was not his proudest moment.
Meaning any piece of land where Russians live and Zelenski would dearly like to see obliterated. Russia will do the only decent thing — protect them.
Things have become clear, haven’t they? Zelenski and his clique never hid the fact that “their” Ukraine shoukd not have Russian population or even Russian speaking Orthodox Ukrinians.
Zelenski just declared (for the third tiime) that post war Ukraine will be run like Israel, to keep the suspect citizens under tight military control. And who will be his Palestinians? Hard to guess!
Rebecca West in her masterpiece Black Lamb and Grey Falcon stated that nothing stinks like a carcass of an empire. Indeed, Soviet Union created arbitrary borders to conrol various nationalities. Particularly Russian. Of course any polular cohesion is a threat to governingv elites. Ukraine was no different. It became a collection of bits and lieces of lands, nationalities and faiths.
Sioviet Union is the cause of Azerbaijan Armenian conflict. And the recent return of lands back to Azerbaijan thatvwere held by Armenia happened without much hsnd wringing, no sanctions. Peace deal is signed and by large is holding. Of course, Pelosi goes there to stir up something.
Then there are periodic Kyrgizstan- Tajikistan clashes over border dispute, and there was Abkhazia and South Issetia that were given to Georgia as a gift by its famous son Stalin. As was Crimea present to Ukraine by Khrushev, Until today, Romanian polulace mives in Ukrainian Bukovina, Hungarians in Zacarpathie, while Lviv and westernmost Ukraine were Polish, Here at play was also the breakup of Austro-Hungarian empire.
It is tok late to try to recreate a multicultural, multilingual and multi-confesional country as it emerged from the break up of Soviet Union. Since 2014 everything was done to open up wounds, especially WWII wounds,
The hatreds became norm in US installed governing elite in Ukraine – and tore the country appart. Zellenski lied — and proudly so, to get the nearly 75% of the vote from Rusdians and Russian speakung Ukraunians. Now, these are the people he proposed to put iunder an apartheid regime after the war.
On over 5,000,000 sq km there is a voting taking place. These people are trying to escape Zelenski’s promised apartheid.
Words and cruel deeds count.
Zelenski serms not to care. He wants the land WITHOUT the ipolulatiin he hates.
However, the unwanted population wants to take the land they live on.
Sovereignity vs self determination?
Zelensky is about to find out what a Ukraine without Russian-speaking oblasts consists of, and it’s going to be much smaller than his ambitions.
I don’t think he cares, his suitcases and bank accounts are packed, the mansions are paid for he is ready to fly out and never look back to the ruins and graves he leaves behind.
Zelensky is a sock puppet. Ukraine is under American control from the spring 2014.
When you are talking about the borders inside USSR, don’t forget to mention, those borders were created by a criminal Bolshevik gang and therefore it is ridiculous to take them too seriously. Particular in time of the hostilities between some of the former Soviet Republics. The local people definitely have the right to decide to which of two republics they wish to belong.
Mostly your description is correct.
That assumes Zelenski is in charge. Is he? Not much of a Jew if he includes the Azov Battalion in his army.
Correct, once Donbass, Kherson etc have officially been included into the Russian Federation then any attack is an attack on the homeland.
NATO escalated in Ukraine and Russia is responding in kind. NATO has declared war of Russia, Russia has accepted.
Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War………………….
That attitude assumes that whoever’s in charge at the Kremlin is batsh*t insane.
While the evidence for that proposition does seem to be mounting, I haven’t seen convincing proof yet.
No it means that the people in NATO who escalated are psychopaths. Criminally insane psychopaths.
No it means that the people in NATO who escalated are psychopaths. Criminally insane psychopaths.
Batsh1t crazy are those that seek global hegemony. Mass murdering of people in dozens of countries to achieve that goal is “batsh1t crazy”.
And nuking a largely civilian population twice is twice as much “batsh1t crazy”.
“And nuking a largely civilian population twice is twice as much ‘batsh1t crazy.'” But we’re the only country that can do that to “save lives”… Right?
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/atomic-bombing-in-nagasaki-and-the-urakami-cathedral-nagasaki-atomic-bomb-museum/uwXRRfqvSwUA8A?hl=en
just business as usual. welcome to the New American Century.
That is your opinion, not a fact. You are entitled to your OPINION.
Yes, it continues to be my opinion that Vladimir Putin is not batsh*t insane. Do you disagree?
I think he’s crazy… I just saw him in an interview and his eyes were glazed and he very much reminded me of Hitler…
And Biden, with the Leni Riefenstahl backdrop the other night wasn’t?? A creep show, it was.
Donna, did you read the translation?
Putin spoke like a true leader, unlike the blithering idiot now inhabiting the White House.
Lots of Hitlers out there if glazed eyes are the criteria.
Russia has nuclear weapons for the same reason the US has them and keeps modernizing them for lots of money.
For illogical people the Bio and Nuclear terrorism is ok, it is propaganda, demonizing the other they never ask questions.
I am not disputing that.
Translated: Darth Vlad is threatening a nuclear first strike if Ukraine succeeds in liberating any part of Donbas after the occupying power conducts a sham referendum.
Putin has crossed over to the Dark Side. This is a Hitleresque speech. Even worse than Hitler because Putin is threatening annihilation of the human race because he can’t accept Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. Hitler didn’t have nukes.
US/NATO set this war up and instigated it. But Putin is the fool who took the bait and plunged the world into the most dangerous war it has ever seen. Even WWII did not threaten the existence of the human race and in Vietnam that was a very remote possibility because democratic forces in the US ultimately curbed Nixon’s madness and the Soviets maintained their sanity.
Putin is blind to the historical reality of the Ukrainian nation which he is fighting. 750 years of struggle against Russia and other imperialist oppressors and aggressors produced a culture, a language, a people and a nation which Russian chauvinists starting with the Czars never recognized.
US and NATO aid helps the Ukrainian resistance. But the resistance is created by hearts and minds, not dollars and cents. Even if Zelensky surrendered the resistance would continue and eventually defeat the Russians. We have seen this before when the traditional IRA ended the boycott of the British Parliament, the Provisionals supplanted them. When the official PLO sold out the Palestinian struggle, the people turned to Hamas. The US and NATO are supporting a national resistance movement based on an authentic nationalism and a history of oppression by Russia that the US and NATO did not create.For the moment Zelensky is effectively leading that national resistance movement. But the movement itself is rooted in the Ukrainian people and not in its leaders or benefactors.
Putin is playing Nixon in Vietnam. And Putin’s war will end the same way Nixon’s war did, with the invaders leaving and the Ukrainians restoring their country.
Exactly!
I agree with some of the points you have made.
Putin is a fool for taking the bait and ruining Russia
I don’t believe Ukraine is a viable country with its current borders though.
Crimea and Donbas are Russian and were never part of Ukraine.
Yelensky is leading Ukraine towards ruin and destruction by pretending otherwise.
This war will most likely end like WW II with an Atomic Bang either from a low yield tactical nuke or an errant missile striking some
critical part of nuclear power plant.
I agree with you about Crimea. But I believe that most of the people of Donbas may want to remain part of Ukraine. The separatists don’t seem to have a lot of popular support. But I could be wrong and a real plebiscite supervised by neutral peace keepers after the refugees return would be appropriate.
I discount the propaganda from Russia,Ukraine, US/NATO. But the mass graves uncovered in the Russian occupied areas are real. even if we discount the Ukrainian accusations that some of the corpses showed evidence of torture, itis clear that war crimes were committed in the areas occupied by Russia. As far as I know Russia has not produced evidence of recent atrocities by Ukraine, although there were Ukrainian atrocities carried out by neo-Nazis several years ago. In summary, it appears that the Russian occupiers may have engaged in the kinds of war crimes that occupying forces are prone to when they invade other countries.
Good points.
A referendum and the Russian army would have been more welcome in Donbas in 2014.
An occupying army of scared young kids being shelled at night may have taken out their frustrations on villagers suspected of providing Ukrainian artillery with their positions.
Similar to scared young American kids in Afghanistan calling in air strikes on villages suspected of firing on them.
Soldiers in wars will committ atrocities. They always do. This is why going to war is always a terrible choice to make.
Many politicians just don’t seem to appreciate this.
You don’t seem to get it, that when Sdoltenburg refused to negotiate, that left Russia no choice but to allow U.S. nuclear missiles on their border, way too close to Moscow for safety, or make it so NATO would of could not. He had no other responsible choice, but to protect the Russian people. The Rusins lost 20 plus million in WWII, how many would they lose in a first strike on them from Its not a chance any smart leader should take, but not a choice any decent leader would happily make.. Some times fate and terrible people leave us no choice but to resist their evil. As we have seen the U.S. talks tough and picks on the weak. Even with non peer states with second and third rate militaries the U.S. always seems to guck it up and slither away like in Afghanistsn.
I get it but Putin may have had more to gain by keeping up the threat of invasion as oppossed to actually invading.
However it is now academic, we are where we are.
If we are lucky the west will now step back from the brink.
I am not optomistic though.
We are in topsy turvy times where the Right wingers seem to be against escalating war in Ukraine and the Left seems to be championing the war ?
I am stunned by the rather strange interpretation of history, as if one can actually separate Ukrainian and Russian history. Unless you are saying that the Mongol invasion somehow created two different nationalities, or one has dissapeared whike another born — I do not follow it.
Where is the mythical resistance? Mossad style assasinations are the proof of the “resistance”. Ukrainan people cannot now speak for themseves. They could not since 2014. I would not presume to speak for them — specially not by mouthing off Zelenski propaganda. And now, their land and lives have been put on the altar of Western supremacy.
It is West that nurtured secret Nazi grievances ever since the very beginning of Cold war. In Baltic state, on Balkans, and the entire Eastern Europe. It was easy. Those were Hitler’sallies, and a large portion of population mourned the demise of the Third Reich. And it was evil Russia that did it. This is how West nurtured anti-communism and heroic “dissidents”. Now we have their undying loyalty and Russophobia. We rewarded Croatian state with ethnuc cleansing of non-Catholics. Now we are doing it in Ukraine. Baltics have a ball — no more toletating those odious monuments to the victims of Nazism or monuments to fallen in the battle with Hitler. Bandea is a hero of Ukraine.
It all bore fruit in Croatia, Romania, Baltic States, Poland, West Ukraine.
It is all rather simple, Get Russia down on its knees economically, create divisions and strife internally and dismember it. Plunder at will.
Russia’s military doctrine demands that no wars are again fought on its territory. Western military doctrine is total global supremacy on land, sea and air. With the world bifurcated now in Western and non-Western — military supremacy, and with it, economic neocolonial supremacy is in question.
We are seeing a concerted effort by the rest of the mankind to weaken Western domination. That is what the world sees, at any rate. We probably do not. The world sees aggressive
West, we see agressive Russia.
And even if we begrudgingly admit that we started it — we assume Russia should capitulate by having to admit to the grievous sin of biting Western bait.
Russia should let and let Nazis take full control of Ukraine. And as Zelenski promissed the other
day — when he wins, Ukraine will be run like Israel, with disobedient population being treated like Palestinians. And who are the disobedienrs? Russian ethnic population of course. Just them? Not really. Ukrainian Christian Orthodox will be in the same disobedient class. AND THEY KNOW IT. And who are the good guys? Catholics from Western regions. 25% of population. Sure, apartheid is in order. Why cannot Putin just let it happen?
No matter how we look at it. Nazi is what Nazi does, in Ukraine ever since 25% took power in 2014, political parties of opposition were banned. People dissapeared, murdered, in jail without judicial process. It actually hardly
matters, law is what the security aplaratus derems it to be.
In the newly reconquered territory around Kharkov, with Russian population, people are wontonly killed by the dreaded UKR security. And blame Russians for killing people. Anybody still believes this after Bucha? Who were the people who died there?
This is the stuff history is made of. Someone always pushes somebody else, believing in own might. Somebody has to stand the ground or be wiped out.
Given the perrenial , undying desire by Western elites to dismember and own Russia, what else is new?
What is new is the erosion of the legal underlinnings of Western society. This is what makes plunder possible. Money put in trust in Western banks by other countries, private property confiscation without legally determining that individuals violated laws — all signs of societies that are losing its foundation.
It is so easy to take the next step — win at all cost. Recreating Nazism to beat the new Hitler, Putin.
Russia failed again to decouple from Europe in time, before being sucked into another European mess. Perhaps if it moved capital to Vladivoostok, and ended its fatal European cinnection.
But it has now the war on its border. Granted with 300,000 added it is still about 1% of what total mobilization would be,
But it is an escallation.
With US destroying European and Japanese currencies — war is hapoening already on many fronts. It is easy to start. Nobody knows how will it end.
“What is new is the erosion of the legal [underpinnings] of Western society. This is what makes plunder possible.” Well put. The West, beginning with the United States Government, has slowly transformed into a kleptocracy, with debt-based centralized currencies and high tax rates. All to concentrate power to its elite class, with paid intellectuals to disseminate its propaganda.
What a load of bullshit you are uttering. Too bad the Ukies got used in this neocon conspiracy to “humble Russia.”
It’s a dangerous game that has put us all on the brink of destruction.
Russia tried to win cheap but the US is making them pay full price, though Americans will spend more money and Ukrainians get the butcher’s bill.
Crikey!
About right, if the first 3 days of the war had gone Putins way, the feint to Kyiv had resulted in Zelensky being deposed it would go down as an all time legendary victory. That didn’t happen, now Russia is going to lose. Their smart move is to get out but it seems that for various internal political reasons they have decided to be destroyed instead.
This is getting old but Russia has 1) air dominance, 2) overwhelming numerical superiority, 3) overwhelming firepower, and 4) strategic initiative, not to mention unified command. How is Russia supposed to lose, and for your bonus question how is Russia supposed to be “destroyed” without Russia destroying the US?
The RuAF appears to be AWOL, the Ukrainians have more troops that the Russians in Ukraine by a lot, the Russians are in retreat so I don’t know about “initiaitive”
The Russian air force is essentially unchallenged and unscathed, Russia just mobilized 300,000 additional soldiers and could potentially mobilize slightly fewer soldiers than Ukraine has civilians, the Russians are gearing up to annihilate what’s left of the Ukrainian military, and you should let professionals handle your money if you have any.
Signs of air dominance would include, pushing giant gasoline bombs out the back of low slow flying cargo aircraft, I haven’t heard of this. The Ru flies to about the border of Ukraine and lobs in few cruise missiles before running back to their bases. The UkrAF is also constrained.
The Russians are conserving their air force and Ukraine’s effectively no longer exists. You’re being deluded.
If the Russians aren’t flying, it is a good sign they don’t have dominance.
If the Russians aren’t flying in hostile airspace it’s a good sign they don’t need to. They’re called stand off munitions and you don’t risk a pilot and a $50 million aircraft unnecessarily. The Russians have been fighting with one hand behind their backs. It’s now about to come out. It’s beyond me how people can think a government that couldn’t win in Afghanistan or Iraq can prevail in a proxy war with Russia. I don’t know if it’s more stupid or immoral, but it’s plenty of both.
So hostile air space? What the USA does is we smash the air defense systems of our opponents after that we have air superiority and can push giant gasoline bombs out the back of cargo planes onto troop concentrations. What Russia is wisely doing since they seem incapable of taking down Ukraines air defenses is to instead avoid them. Sucks to be a Russian trooper under attack where a single run of an SU25 could solve his problem.
I don’t know what episode of the A-Team you’re getting your information from but except for the daisy cutters in Vietnam and the MOAB, neither of which are “gasoline bombs”, by which I suppose you mean napalm, but except for daisy cutters and MOABs I don’t recall any bombs being pushed out of US cargo aircraft. Aerial munitions are generally separated by opening release shackles on ejection racks mounted on wing hard points or in an internal bomb bay. Air defense suppression is generally done with radar homing missiles. For close air support the Russians are probably more concerned about MPADS, but if something in Ukraine needs bombing don’t you worry. They’ll get to it.
So far not right? Massive retreat from the feint at Kyiv plus as everything was collapsing around Kharkiv I would have thought a little air support could have come in handy.
Pour yourself another kool-aid and keep talking.
Well, it’s all immoral.
But the US did win the conventional conventional wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. What they lost were the occupations/counter-insurgencies. Just like Russia did in Afghanistan and will do in Ukraine if it’s foolish enough to pursue unrealistic objectives.
As for the “one hand tied behind their backs” line, that’s been the excuse for more than six months of what would have been a seven-day war if the Russian armed forces weren’t brittle and decrepit shells of their former selves. They can continue feeding their sad sack army into the meat grinder for as long as they want, and what they’ll likely continue to get out of it is their troops back as meat.
I suspect the Russians are going to move west holding referenda until the vote swings, at which point they’ll stop and consolidate. And their decrepit sad sack army reportedly has a kill ratio of 10:1 even though outnumbered, which it won’t be much longer.
Andrei Martyanov’s initial take from his blog:
I think he’s right about the Ukrainian KIAs.. I think it’s way higher than that – and if you add three times that many in wounded, which is the usual average (although it varies by war historically), the combined figure of 240,000 dead and wounded is probably pretty close to the reality. Comparing that to the Russian figures, it means about 20,000 Russian killed and wounded, or a ten-to-one advantage for the Russians.
that is probably BS, the West estimates Russian losses at about 60k. In any case at some point this will become clear.
They vastly overestimated VietCong losses too. Westmoreland and his over-estimators.
You got that right, Rightster. A Nam vet once told me that if an Amerikkkan fired in the general direction of an enemy combatant, it was considered a “kill”.
Mai Lai added to the “enemy combatant” kill numbers
Please post a link to Martyanov’s blog, there are many places where he writes but I can’t find his main one.
In total, 293 airplanes and 155 helicopters, 1,965 unmanned aerial vehicles, 375 air defence missile systems, 4,940 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 837 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,392 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 5,616 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.
Each tank price is approx. US$6 million. So there is plenty of money being issued just not for health care, education, infrastructure, heating, fuel etc etc etc.
Fraction of our spend in Afghanistan.
You keep saying that like it’s a good thing. I guess if we don’t do 20 years and spend a trillion, you will still be accurate. So, good argument.
I just want to put it in perspective we have spent far more for far longer for far less. You seem to think we can’t keep it up we certainly can.
Our economy was in much better shape then, than now.
My point would be that both were/are ill advised. The idea of it being affordable doesn’t sway me to thinking either was/is acceptable.
Add to that the fact that it isn’t affordable, Wars, with so many struggling right here.
And it’s completely irrelevant. At least it should be with anyone with even a semblance of being antiwar.
From 1961 to 1975 the US spent $141 billion on the Vietnam War and took 58,000 casualties.
During the same period Russia and China together spent about $7.5 billion on the war. Russia had 16 casualties and China had 1,400 casualties. Given that the US lost the war, this was a very effective investment for Russia and China.
The Ukraine War is a very unusual situation where the US is aiding a national resistance movement with widespread popular support. John’s point is that Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine gave the US the opportunity damage and degrade the Russian military at a minimal cost to the US. By any measure, Russia is spending more money, a higher proportional of its GDP and losing more soldiers and military assets than the US and NATO in Ukraine. Aside from being morally wrong, the Ukraine war is hurting Russia more than financial support hurts the US.
“The Ukraine War is a very unusual situation where the US is aiding a national resistance movement with widespread popular support.”
Unusual as in drumming up business? You know, first you instigate the war and then you support the “national resistance movement” so the business doesn’t dry up.
“John’s point is that Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine gave the US the opportunity damage and degrade the Russian military at a minimal cost to the US.”
I got John’s point. It’s the same as Joe Biden’s and Lloyd Austin’s. And apparently yours. And you all think Russia being destroyed will be a good thing.
Russia needs to be liberated, not destroyed. But that is a matter for the Russian people to decide. Putin is just a failed imperialist. Kinda like Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire that both got dismembered by the victorious imperialists after WWI. The preservation of Putin’s regime is no more important than the preservationof the Hapsburg dynasty was a century ago.
Putin showed his true racist colors over 20 years ago when he wanted to join NATO. In 2000 Putin said “Russia is part of European culture. And I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilized world. So it is hard for me to visualize NATO as an enemy,” After becoming president he asked for an invitation to join NATO. The US and the dominant NATO allies did not want Russia in. But Putin did join the G8 and was on board with their plans to isolate China until they kicked him out and he realized that the the US and NATO governments that worked to dismember the Soviet Union intended to dismember Russia as well.
Xi is not stupid. He knows that Putin is a racist European imperialist chauvinist who allied with China because NATO wouldn’t let him join the anti-Chjna cabal. It is good when Putin opposes US imperialism. But it is bad when Putin pushes Russian imperialism. like he is doing in Ukraine.
And just look at the Ukraine. This is a classic imperialist war that has no more to do with deNazification then the US invasion of Iraq had to do with setting up a democracy. This week Putin traded the commander and the deputy commander of the Azov Battalion and 213 other prisoners for Ruissians held by Ukraine. So much for deNazification.
Here are some links to what Putin had to say 22 years ago about joining NATO.
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/russia-could-have-joined-nato-but-why-didn-t-they-do-it-55561
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93NATO_relations
I get it. We didn’t instigate the war. And since Putin didn’t always hate NATO, what was happening in Ukraine shouldn’t have caused him concern. The Coup? didn’t happen. Constant war games on Russia’s borders, didn’t happen. The very things you bitched about yourself have morphed into figments of Putin’s/Russia’s imagination and have been replaced solely with Puti’s/Russia’s imperialistic goals.
Of course the US instigated the war. It was a trap and Putin fell for it.
“what was happening in Ukraine shouldn’t have caused him concern”
No. What was happening in Ukraine shouldn’t have caused him to launch a preemptive war of aggression. Russia had other options which I would have supported. Diplomacy, sanctions against Ukraine, joint sanctions coordinated with China, support for the Ukrainian opposition. Russia has a history of oppressing Ukraine that goes back centuries and that makes military intervention by Russia an imperialistic intervention, like the British occupation of Northern Ireland..
Putin is a racist European chauvinist imperialist. After NATO rejected his attempt to join and the G7 kicked Russia out, Putin pivoted to China. I supported Russia when it opposed US imperialism for Putin’s opportunistic reasons. But the war in Ukraine is a desperate attempt by a declining imperialist power to maintain its status as a world power by dominating a weaker neighbor.
“Diplomacy”
Seriously? And I don’t like Putin anymore than you but things just didn’t suddenly do a 180. And that applies to diplomacy and Putin’s motives.
Putin has always been a racist Euro-Centric and Russia first chauvinist whose goal was to restore the power of the Soviet Union and the imperial grandeur of the Czars. He has contempt for non-white people and tried to join NATO and the G7 where he saw Russia as the co-leader of the West with the USA. When he realized that the US/NATO intended to dismember Russia, he tilted toward China and now wants to be part of a new world order with China, BRICS and the SCO. Thats all good. But the key element of my politics is support for self determi nation and national liberation and anti-war. China supports self-determination and China is anti-war. I hope the CCP still supports self determination of people as well as nations, but that remains to be seen. What is clear is that Putin never has and never will share those beliefs. OK. Russia can still be an ally in the fight for a new world order. But Russia is also a declining imperialist power and Putin’s regime seeks imperial domination over its neighbors. His alliance with China is an alliance of convenience. I am sure Xi understands this but values Russia as an important ally in eventually establishing a post US/NATO world order.
I am sure you realize that Putin doesn’t care about Nazis in the Ukraine. Russia does have legitimate geo-political interests in preventing Ukraine from aligning with NATO and the EU. I I support Russians interest up to a point because i oppose the US/NATO-G7 domination of the world. But the principle of self determination and anti-imperialism applies to Ukraine. Russia’s relationship with Ukraine is very much like England’s relationship with Ireland. Russian military invasion of the Ukraine is a lot like a British military occupation of Ireland. It would unite all Ukrainians in opposition to the invasion as we have seen in the past few months. This is a legitimate war of national resistance (I did not say national liberation) that will only strengthen support for the Nazis in Ukraine.
Finally, the question of Nazis in Ukraine is an internal Ukrainian matter. The German fascists were a threat to the worked because Germany was a super-power that sought world domination. Francisco Franco’s fascist regime in Spain did not have the power to threaten anyone. Spanish fascists were a problem for the Spanish people and their colonial subjects in Spanish Sahara. But not a causus belli for anyone else. Even if Putin sincerely cared about racists in the Ukrainian government (and he does not), an invasion by Russia can only make the problem worse. Consider Mariupol. The Russian siege of Azovstal gave the Ukrainians their Alamo myth. The sooner Russia get a leadership that recognizes that Putin’s war is a mistake and withdraws, the better things will be for everyone.
You base everything on Putin. Even to him restoring the power of the Soviet Union. You are willing to discard everything the west does to Russia, and you use Putin as your reasoning. I disagree. And I really don’t need any more history lessons since I don’t believe they apply.
Tell that to the residents of Jackson, Mississippi.
Rand Paul, whose state is still reeling from the effects of flooding and tornadoes, recently noted that his constituents were NOT saying, Please, please, send more of our tax dollars to a foreign country!
Probably true, but I would be surprised if RP voted for government aid even to help those voters of his in any case, he might get them a tax cut
For now we can sleep in peace, but it won’t always be like this. Where are we heading now? In the Book of Daniel, we read, “And both these kings [Great Britain and Russia. In 1882 British troops occupied Egypt. Great Britain then took the role of “the king of the south”. Around the same time, Russia expanded its influence in the region, which previously belonged to Seleucus I Nicator, and took the role of “the king of the north”], their hearts (will be) to do mischief, and at one table (they) will speak a lie; but it will not succeed. Indeed yet (the) completion to (the) appointed time [then a nuclear war happen]. And [the king of the north] will go back (to) his land with great wealth [1945. This detail indicated that after the previous victories Hitler will attack the Soviet Union and will fight to the bitter end]; and his heart (will be) against the holy covenant [Soviet Union introduced state atheism and believers were repressed]; and will act; and go back to his own land [1991-1993. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The troops from the Soviet military bases returned to their country]. At the appointed time [he] will return back [Russian troops will return to where they were previously stationed. It also means military actions, a major crisis. Not only the eurozone will break up, but also the European Union and NATO], and will enter into the south [this will be the beginning of the nuclear war], but won’t be as before or as afterwards [these military actions will not lead to a global nuclear war. This war will only begin after the return of the king of the north and the detonator will be an ethnic conflict. (Matthew 24:7)], then the dwellers of coastlands of Kittim [the distant West] will come against him, and (he) will break down [mentally], and will go back.” (11:27-30a) This will be a mutual slaughter and the sword of great power will be used. (Revelation 6:4) Jesus characterized it in this way: “A frightening things both and extraordinary (related to unusual phenomena) from sky powerful will be.” Because of the use of these terrible weapons there will be significant tremors along the length and breadth of the regions [of strategic importance] and famines, and pestilences. Some ancient manuscripts contain the words “and frosts”. The Aramaic Peshitta: “and will be great frosts”. (Luke 21:11) We call this today “nuclear winter”. In Mark 13:8 there are also words of Jesus: “and disorders”. The Aramaic Peshitta: “and confusion” (on the state of public order). It won’t be Armageddon. “But all these things are a beginning of birth-pains.” (Matthew 24:8, DLNT)
“We” don’t read that; you did.
What most mystifies me: Putin has 6000+ nukes. One-half Nancy Pelosi’s brain believes he’s just a buffoon. The other half believes he’s an insane ruthless tyrant. So it’s a 50/50 proposition about what happens when you push this tyrant into a corner. Will he collapse weeping? Will he pull a nuke out of his pocket and light it? Like Schrodinger’s cat, I guess, we’ll all get to find out.
I think all of Nancy’s brain has been eaten by alien space worms.
Will his chain of command want to commit suicide as well?
Will NATO’s?
I don’t expect NATO first use
If the NATO Alliance is under threat of being defeated by an invasion somewhere, that’s what they are really for. What you are saying is that you don’t expect NATO to be in that situation.
Creepy Joe Biden was the first to throw around the words “nuclear weapons”
I’m sure Biden has discussed Nukes before but never in the same context that Putin, Medvedev, Kremlin officials, and Russian state TV have been using it since Feb. They have been making straight up threats.
Suggesting that Biden has made Nuke threats is a desperate attempt to win a counter argument.
Because their survival and existence is threatened by NATO.
I went to the credble translation. In defence. Whee did “issues nuclear threat” come from?
Shoigu indicated that the UAF lost about 50% of its personnel (over 100’000 soldiers out of a total potential of about 200’000). He also added that most of the Ukrainian weapons systems, which were of Soviet origin, was mostly destroyed. Russian KIAs are just under 6000 soldiers.
Shoigu also clearly spelled out that “we are not so much fighting against the Ukraine but against NATO plus the united (collective) West“
Shoigu added that NATO high precision weapons are deliberately used by NATO commanders to terrorize civilians.
In other words, Russia is going to war with NATO and the collective West. This is a global catastrophe.
Consider the possibility that he is lying, Armies with light losses tend not to retreat, or resort to conscription.
Poland has already threatened to conduct their own referendum in the western Ukraine. So much for Ukraines sovereignty…….the hyena’s are circling.
Ukraine is a dead country crawling in a pile of its own US/NATO filth.
Why is nobody thinking Murphy’s Law? Territories vote for annexation. Now, a future attack on them becomes an attack on Russia, and partial mobilization becomes full mobilization?
Thanks for stating the obvious. It’s been discussed for days now everywhere.
Territories will not vote for annexation, they will be annexed by force.
Did that also go for those elections held in places that we bombed and/or invaded/occupied?
This is called escalation. It is a tactic used by an imperial power when its leaders can’t accept defeat by a weaker adversary fighting a war of national resistance or national liberation. Escalation delays but usually does not prevent the defeatof the imperial power. But a lot of people get killed before the imperial power’s leadership get the message or gets replaced.
What makes Darth Vlad’s escalation especially dangerous is that he is threatening a nuclear first strike over a failed imperialist intervention. Nixon contemplated a n8uclear first strike when his Vietnam policy failed. But even Nixon never went public with the threat or communicated the threat through diplomatic channels.
All the russian bots coping hard right now defending this disastrous war.
To say that he threatened a nuclear response, is in my mind, nearly the same as the ole American,”all options are on the tableWhat is the difference, nuclear is just ONE OF MANY bad options, depending on available options. That is to say that I hope that Russia does not feel under pressure to up the ante to nukes.
What is this desperate attempt to excuse the Kremlin for the Nuclear Threats they have been making for months now. Are you embarrassed or feeling let down by your team?
The US has not made nuke threats, and you cannot find one single state official in the last 7 months threatening with a nuke attacks.
You couldn’t find one single state official making threats prior to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, either! We never gave a warning like Russia has had the courtesy to do.
This is our policy: The United States has refused to adopt a no first use policy and says that it “reserves the right to use” nuclear weapons first in the case of conflict.
“The fundamental role of U.S. nuclear weapons, which will continue as long as nuclear weapons exist, is to deter nuclear attack on the United States, our allies, and partners.”
saw putin on the TV, his russian voice sounds like “blah blah blah”.
he could be saying anything at all but what we hear is the standard issue western voice-over “be afraid of my nuclear terror – i kill you!”
putin isn’t stupid and he knows that there are literally 100+ nuclear ICBM launching sites lining the US’ western coast, with all of them aimed directly at russia.
but there should be no doubt that what he he said was “i kill you!”, right?
The Nuclear Threat was past overdue by Russia to counter the West propaganda, arrogance and ignorance…! The West only knows the language of force and threat…!
“The West only knows the language of force and threat…!”
This apply to Russia as well.
You mean ex Soviet Union…!
No, the Russian Federation.
Read this: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/22/pers-s22.html
Good article, Lily, thanks for posting.
ByeDone ain’t no JFK for sure! 😂
Putin’s mistake was to allow Victoria Nuland coup to take place. Now he must pay the price or blowup the whole world in the process.
Paying the price is better than blowing up the world.
Recognizing failure is better than doubling down on a policy mistake and compounding failure.
Many double alpha male strongmen like Nixon learned that lesson too late.
I just saw yet another article on Russia’s warnings.
Will we believe Biden and Blinken even after the first nukes go off? Yeah, we’ll rally around that too.
I’m sorry to say it is deserved. We’ve got it coming.
Nuclear war is not deserved. Putin is behaving like a kid who got his nose bloodied by a schoolyard bully and came back to the schoolyard with a gun and threatened to shoot the bully and his friends.
It was NATO that first mentioned nukes. Russian policy on nukes has been clearly stated for some time, used only if the homeland is threatened.
NATO needs to stop the Bio and Nuclear terrorism before its to late.
Really, what would Wash. do if China put bases all around the US and tried to break up the US into regions for China’s own agenda?? The US should have stayed out of European tribal conflicts, but they are soooo good for business and the oligarchs who rule Wash. through campaign funding.
Russia is an imperialist country that lost out to US/NATO imperialism. Why is that our problem?
I support national liberation and self determination. I do not support one country’s imperialism over another country’s imperialism.
I support Russia when it came to the aid of the legitimate government of Syria.
But when Russia invades its smaller neighbor then I support Ukraine’s right to self determination.
For me it is about self determination, not Russia or Ukraine.
Don’t say ‘WE’ unless you agree with the psychopaths in Wash. mongering nuclear war, right now!
They are our leaders, as much as Japan followed its own leaders to Pearl Harbor. We’ve got to own it, and change it or take the consequences.
Congratulations, Mother Russia, on your 1160th anniversary!
This is how you know the entire Russia “De-Nazification” objective was a made up BS pretext for the invasion.
In this article, members of The AZOV battalion and his commander, allegedly known for its Nazi affiliations, were released in a prisoners swap. So much for the Nazi threat.
Perhaps a goodwill gesture after the Russians bombed the Azov’s prison.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-tv-russia-has-released-some-fighters-taken-during-mariupol-battle-2022-09-21/
DeNazification was always a euphemism for regime change. For the record, I don’t approve of the Maidan coup, NATO subversion or Ukraine’s tilt to the West. But Ukraine has the right to self determination and those are internal matters. Even if the US and NATO interfered, it does not justify war.
And for the record, I oppose trying POW’s for war crimes while the war is ongoing. I opposed Ukraine trying Russian captives and I am glad Russia has not prosecuted the Azov battalion members it captured
l. The time for war crimes trials is after hostilities have ended. And the best venue for war crimes trials is an impartial international tribunal, preferably judged by citizens of neutral countries.
Putin has a Hitler complex… I will go even further to suggest, I think he is ‘mad’ enough to go nuclear…
“Putin Orders Partial Mobilization, Issues Nuclear Threat to West”
When will the retarded Western media and politicians realize the President Putin does not issue threats. President Putin states what the trigger will be for an event and then acts upon the events accordingly.
The bear said if you do not cease fascist attacks on ethnic Russian Ukrainians the bear will act to protect them.
That is the same excuse that Bill Clinton used to attack Serbia over Kosovo.
Good luck to us all if senile angry Joey Biden doesn’t stop running his mouth at the urging of obama.
If Putin is stating fact then Darth Vlad is a nuclear terrorist and needs to be taken down. No head of a nuclear armed state has ever threatened a nuclear first strike to support forcible annexation of territory of another country.
Please listen to the real news. President Putin did not threaten to use nuclear weapons in a first strike to take Ukraine.
President Putin did reinforce the same policy that America ascribes to. If NATO attacks Russia then all options are on the table.
That is not what Darth Vlad said. He is preparing to annex captured territory and is threatening nuclear holocaust if the West or the Ukrainians try to interfere. What Putin is planning to do is the same as Israel annexing East Jerusalem. And a phony plebiscite does not make annexation by an occupying power legal.
OK enjoy your derangement.
The deranged one sits alone at the end of a long table in the Kremlin.
We need to stop escalating this war. Sending billions of weapons to Ukraine is an escalation. Wars only end when parties compromise. Sit down and talk already.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE: “In his speech, Putin said, “The goal of that part of the West is to
weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are saying
openly now that in 1991 they managed to split up the Soviet Union and
now is the time to do the same to Russia, which must be divided into
numerous regions that would be at deadly feud with each other.”
Biden obviously does not believe these statements, which are
contradicted by innumerable statements from US civilian and military
officials.
In his speech, Biden combined a lying presentation of
the origins of the war with the brazen hypocrisy that is a permanent
characteristic of American imperialism. He denounced Russia for
“shamelessly violating the core tenets of the United Nations
Charter—none more important than the clear prohibition against countries
taking the territory of their neighbor by force.”
Biden would
have the world forget that the US has repeatedly and flagrantly violated
the UN Charter, which bans the use of war to achieve political aims.
The most egregious of many examples was the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which
then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said was “not in conformity with
the UN charter” and “illegal.” But this was only one of many countries
destroyed by the American military, including Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,
Libya and Syria, to which one must add the US-backed war of Saudi Arabia
against Yemen and Israel against Palestine.
Biden’s hypocritical
moralizing was an attempt to cover up the fact that, confronted with an
explicit statement that a major international crisis was leading toward
nuclear war, he had absolutely no proposal for how to avert this
catastrophe. READ ALL AT :
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/22/pers-s22.html