Yep. Any proposal like this is transparent bullshit, and should simply be laughed at.
Even taking those figures at face value, that’s over 10 times higher than the average monthly death rate of what the Soviets suffered in Afghanistan.
Here’s a proposal the rest of the world should be giving Putin:
You remove every troop from Ukraine including Crimea, and we will consider lifting sanctions in 5 years time.
I’d like to see a complete and total blockade of anything coming into or out of Russia. I know it’s not even remotely feasible, but it would certainly send a strong signal to any other country who tries this. (And yes I know that China in particular won’t ever do this, because they have designs on doing almost the same thing at some point.)
Sadly, we have to give Putin some sort of win. Otherwise he might go nuke.
Ukraine should offer to give up any claims to Crimea, that is a done and dead deal anyway. This way Putin can declare a victory.
And agree to full nuclear disarmament under UN supervision.
Putin would never, ever take that offer.
So don’t make the offer to him.
“To whomever has the gumption to remove Putin from power: If you deliver him to the Hague and enact an immediate withdrawal from Ukraine, we’ll begin ramping down sanctions and, hell, nominate you for the Nobel.”
and one Billion dollars. You can be the hero of Russia for saving the people from a madman.
(does not matter if you consider Putin to be a madman or not. The point is, he can be the scapegoat, and save face for Russia leaving the Ukraine in entirety.)
EDIT: This may be referring to Kherson Oblast as a whole, rather than the city itself.
Although the citizens of Kherson apparently sang the Bayraktar song to the Russian soldiers. Bayraktar is the Turkish drone that Ukrainian army is using to drop munitions on Russian invaders.
What is “TB2”, please?
And here’s the Wikipedia page for the song:
ISW also thinks Russia’s claims of just wanting the Donbas now are bullshit:
The absence of significant Russian offensive operations throughout most of Ukraine likely reflects the inability of the Russian military to generate sufficient combat power to attack rather than any decision in Moscow to change Russia’s war aims or concentrate on the east. Rudskoi’s comments are likely an attempt to gloss the Russian military’s failures for a domestic audience and focus attention on the only part of the theater in which Russian troops are making any progress at this point. The West should not over-read this obvious messaging embedded in a piece of propaganda that continued very few true statements.
It doesn’t take learned scholars to realize that.
I’m not so sure it is bullshit, not 100%. It gives them a convenient pivot point if they can’t regroup and resupply to achieve their initial aims - the real question is: do they really believe they can do that?
It’s certainly consistent with their shelling of Maryiopul - they want a land link to Crimea.
If my aircraft identification is correct – and I’m hardly an expert – that looks like a MiG-17 to me, pretty old school.
MiG-21 ‘Fishbed’.
You’re right – I’d assumed the dorsal ducting was some kind of upgrade. Still, it was last produced in 1985.
Ukraine reports that the commander of a Russian tank regiment has committed suicide.
Apparently this happened in Russia, near the Ukraine border. He was supposed to reactivate tanks from a long-term storage depot, but everything of value had long since been removed from the tanks, including optical sights and electronics. Some didn’t even have engines.
It’s probably the same at many other Russian storage depots. The whole army is rotten with corruption.
Translation of the bulletin from Ukrainian.
That’s… actually sad. I mean, it’s war, yay those tanks can’t be used against the people we’re rooting for, but I can’t really applaud someone in such despair they kill themselves.