Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-26

[Syt]

[Syt]

Co-worker visited her family in Kyiv last week. Her uncle was on leave from the front. She said it's kind of hard to talk to him - on the one hand side the hardship and trauma he's enduring (like mentioning when he was going back to the frontlines that his unit was in the zone of heavy fighting and he will have to find them and figure out the supply situation, and that he also got news that 5 more guys had been killed. She mentioned he's getting worked up about little things where he thinks "people aren't doing what they should" or "not doing enough." Her mom also seeing many things through the lens of how much people are doing to help with the war, who's evading military service etc.

Meanwhile she said the metro station closest to her family apartment is near a factory that gets regularly hit with ballistic missiles (they've moved most production underground), but there's an apartment building next to it. She thought people would have abandoned it, but there's still lights on at night, even though even a near miss would destroy it or at least blow out the window.

She found it pretty jarring compared to her relatively quiet life with her Polish husband in Vienna, occasionally travelling to NYC or the Canaries etc. and wasn't quite sure how to deal with the realities back home or talk to some people.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It would be useful if Trump could remember, for more than just a few hours at a time, that Putin is an evil dictator who is playing him for a dummy.

[Tamas]

It would be useful if Trump could remember, for more than just a few hours at a time, that Putin is an evil dictator who is playing him for a dummy.

For real. It's the same ridiculous cycle playing out again and again. We are at most a few weeks away from another phone call with Putin followed by a scathing of Ukraine demanding they accept Russian demands.

[DGuller]

To give Trump credit where it's due, you certainly can't blame him for holding on to his views rigidly.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It would be useful if Trump could remember, for more than just a few hours at a time, that Putin is an evil dictator who is playing him for a dummy.

For real. It's the same ridiculous cycle playing out again and again. We are at most a few weeks away from another phone call with Putin followed by a scathing of Ukraine demanding they accept Russian demands.

But in the meantime Ukraine keeps producing more and more domestically. It decreases leverage of anyone over Ukrainian operations.
Which is good, since Ukraine needs to be able to pursue its goals unburdened by others as much as possible

[Tamas]

I certainly agree that having a loudly flip-flopping Trump who maintains at least intel support of Ukraine is much preferred over a Trump who finally locates the excuse to side with his man-crush, Putin.

[Zoupa]

From Kyiv in 3 days to ISIS-style air defense around the Kremlin.

[Jacob]

Article on the drone strikes in Moscow: https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/explosions-shake-moscow-streets-as-drones-1761513740.html

[Valmy]

Russia's actions have puzzled me for years. They already lost this war years ago. Even if Ukraine were to collapse tomorrow, the damage to Russia has already been severe and possibly terminal. So...why do they keep fighting? They could just pull out of Ukraine and Crimea and go back to status quo 2013 and probably be in far better shape, well ok they would still be in deep shit but it would at least give them a chance to possibly recover.

It isn't like Russia has never lost a war before. Why are they determined this is the hill Russia will die on?

[crazy canuck]

Russia's actions have puzzled me for years. They already lost this war years ago. Even if Ukraine were to collapse tomorrow, the damage to Russia has already been severe and possibly terminal. So...why do they keep fighting? They could just pull out of Ukraine and Crimea and go back to status quo 2013 and probably be in far better shape, well ok they would still be in deep shit but it would at least give them a chance to possibly recover.

It isn't like Russia has never lost a war before. Why are they determined this is the hill Russia will die on?

Because this war has never been about what is best for Russia.  It's always been about Putin exerting control and staying in power.