Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[Malthus]

I heard that same thing, I honestly wondered if that was a weird "lost in translation" thing from Russian:English? Or what's going on there...

Clearly, they are not being defeated by inferior Ukrainian "little Russians".

No, it must be that they are being defeated by - axe-wielding housecarls.

[DGuller]

I just have this uneasy feeling that the way all these good stories about Ukrainian military victories end is with nuclear attack.  If Russia were a person, its personality would be of an abusive spouse capable of murder-suiciding his entire family.

[Valmy]

I just have this uneasy feeling that the way all these good stories about Ukrainian military victories end is with nuclear attack.  If Russia were a person, its personality would be of an abusive spouse capable of murder-suiciding his entire family.

Maybe. But according the Perun here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hXnQNU8ANo Russia is deploying its strategic Missile guys in Ukraine. There may not be personnel to use many of those nukes. This tells me Russia is bluffing and has no intention of even pretending to use a nuclear attack.

[The Brain]

I just have this uneasy feeling that the way all these good stories about Ukrainian military victories end is with nuclear attack.  If Russia were a person, its personality would be of an abusive spouse capable of murder-suiciding his entire family.

If it's any comfort it would be done very incompetently.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I just have this uneasy feeling that the way all these good stories about Ukrainian military victories end is with nuclear attack.  If Russia were a person, its personality would be of an abusive spouse capable of murder-suiciding his entire family.

If it's any comfort it would be done very incompetently.

They'd probably hit Beijing by accident

[Syt]

ISW has an interesting article about the portrayal of the war in Russia:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-october-2

Apparently criticism is becoming louder, including in state TV, addressing pushbacks, and calling out blunders and failures (like the botched mobilization). Mostly driven by Russian right wing milbloggers that Putin seems to have treated somewhat favorably in summer and who are starting to appear on state media programs, too. Article also comments on Kadyrov and Prigozhin (financier of Wagner group) criticizing Central and Southern Military District commanders, this possibly being an indirect (possibly unintentional) attack on Putin who had previously expressed his trust in those commanders (the Kremlin has since tried to push back on that narrative).

[grumbler]

I just have this uneasy feeling that the way all these good stories about Ukrainian military victories end is with nuclear attack.  If Russia were a person, its personality would be of an abusive spouse capable of murder-suiciding his entire family.

Maybe. But according the Perun here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hXnQNU8ANo Russia is deploying its strategic Missile guys in Ukraine. There may not be personnel to use many of those nukes. This tells me Russia is bluffing and has no intention of even pretending to use a nuclear attack.

The SRF guys being deployed are security guys, not missileers.  Still shows desperation, but doesn't have much bearing on SRF capabilities.

[Legbiter]

The Russians can't seem to hold the line anywhere.  Like their army has just melted away.

They can either defend (barely by the looks of it) the south or the north-east Kharkiv-Luhansk axis but not both at once. So trying to do both will probably result in the Ukrainians rolling them up everywhere.

[Jacob]

The Russians can't seem to hold the line anywhere.  Like their army has just melted away.

They can either defend (barely by the looks of it) the south or the north-east Kharkiv-Luhansk axis but not both at once. So trying to do both will probably result in the Ukrainians rolling them up everywhere.

Here's hoping.

[Barrister]

Elon Musk is getting rightly dragged on Twitter for posting a facile "peace plan" calling for:

-Crimea to be recognized as belonging to Russia
-UN-supervised Referendums in other disputed areas
-guaranteed water rights for Crimea
-Ukraine to be neutral

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1576969255031296000

Given the situation on the ground this sounds like complete Russian victory, not some reasonable "middle ground".

But the irony of course is that Musk has done more for Ukraine then most people in the world - access to Starlink has been a massive boon to the AFU.

[Grey Fox]

and bought by the Pentagon.


Musk seems to be having his Thai boys stuck in a cave moment.

[The Brain]

For those who haven't noticed: Musk is an attention whore. At this point in time being pro-Russian gives you a lot more attention. It's as simple as that.

[Josquius]

Strange crimea doesn't get a referendum.

And very odd from Musk given he has gained a lot of respect over Ukraine for his work in giving them net access.

[Valmy]

Given the situation on the ground this sounds like complete Russian victory, not some reasonable "middle ground".

Yeah that peace plan is a basically a giant victory for Russia. Surely in a negotiated peace Ukraine should get something as well.

[Jacob]

and bought by the Pentagon.

So Starlink is a technology developed by one of Musk's companies. It's deployment in Ukraine has been a success. So far so good.

What I was never clear on is who paid for it. I've been left with the impression that Musk contributed financially to Ukraine's Starlink deployment, but it turns out it was paid for by the American government... is that correct?

Musk seems to be having his Thai boys stuck in a cave moment.

He'll still have to follow it up by throwing his twitter followers against someone who's actually helping for the parallel to really hold.