The president of the Chechen republic, who is a Putin ally and has claimed to be sending Chechen forces to Ukraine, posted a picture of himself capturing a Ukrainian vehicle personally. Problem is, you can see the Chechen presidential palace in the background of the photo.
It would appear at this point that the goal of Putin has changed somewhat. Initially the goal was indeed to “win” and acquire Ukraine as a whole entity, install a puppet government and then reap the rewards of milking the Ukraine economy.
Now that the Russian army has been curb-stomped, it seems Putin’s goal has changed. Now, the goal is to dig in, plant minefields, and shell the civilian cities into rubble from long range. The goal is to kill as many civilians as possible, and hopefully draw NATO into the war so that he can then show his people that the big bad NATO was always against him/them.
If NATO is not drawn into the war, he’ll just keep killing as many civilians as possible, or shipping them off in rail cars to camps somewhere in Russia. Ukranian people are not actual human beings to him (and to many Russians)
My concern is that the only people whose opinion on the distinction matter live inside the Putin propaganda bubble.
Moderating:
That’s a bit personally adversarial for MPSIMS. This isn’t the pit.
Well that’s just proof Ukrainian troops have invaded Chechnya. Good for them.
And the Western media hasn’t told us!
Yeah, that’s the sadly hilarious thing about this whole situation. Yes, truth is the first casualty of war, but you have to consider the track record when evaluating a source of information. So far I haven’t seen much out of Ukraine’s ministries, etc. that haven’t been corroborated somehow. Some have been proven to seem inaccurate, but those instances can convincingly be explained through a fog of war. Conversely, the Russian propaganda reads like a Jack Chick tract, and is about as believable.
When Ukraine is manipulating its releases, it’s mostly lies of omission. When Russia is doing the same, it’s a completely loony sounding lie. They might as well say Putin is fighting imaginary Nazis hand-to-hand.
You mean he isn’t?? I coulda sworn …
Quite frankly, I find the “free” in that to be disturbingly superfluous.
The idea that this is a stalemate has been mentioned a few times. This article agrees.
That’s a military victory for Ukraine but not good news for anyone. It means the killings and destruction will continue. Probably much better news for Vlad than for Ukraine since it’s Ukraine that’s being destroyed, not Russia. Lives are being lost on both sides – in large numbers – but Vlad couldn’t care less about losses on either side.
Meanwhile Biden is off to Europe with the expectation that he will be heavy on the rhetoric and light on actual action.
I’m not surprised. Odessa is next if Mariupol falls.
British (
) Defence Intelligence update:
If Kyiv is Russia’s “primary military objective” why are they dicking around on an additional two fronts? That’s just… well, stupid. That just divides their forces and makes achieving anything more difficult.
This is a merry muddle of dead Russian Major Generals.
Glad he took the time to give it a good wash and wax before the photo.
Excellent summary of the whole mess.
Moderating
Remember, this is breaking news in MPSIMS. That political jab wasn’t appropriate in this thread. We have lots of other threads where it would be fine.
Mariupol has been utterly devastated. It is estimated that 90% of buildings have been damaged and they are burying bodies in roadside verges. Absolutely disgraceful by the Russians.
This again is why the US needs to intervene swiftly and decisively. Otherwise we’re looking at a drawn out years long humanitarian catastrophe that will harm, affect or kill millions more and is in no one’s interest - Russian, Ukrainian, or anyone else.
End this thing with one swift blow and everyone can get to post-war rebuilding.