All they want is the land that joins theirs.
Where/how do you “hunker down” 300k soldiers for the winter in a manner that isn’t susceptible to artillery? That is - after you get them there by some means other than teleportation.
Sure. But Zelensky and the non-Russian toadies from NATO are also aware of this, and won’t allow Putin to pursue this plan. The only way the plan works is if Ukrainian forces are weak enough to be overrun by a WWII style charge of a cannon fodder meat shield.
Maybe a million guys in one location, armed with AK 47s and instructions to march in the general direction of Kiev until they get there or get shot on the way are enough to overrun the Ukrainian defenses. Most likely not, but that seems to be Putin’s last hope.
In other words, Russia has no chance of winning no matter what they do. They might manage to take Ukraine or even the rest of the world down with them, but there’s no chance that they emerge with a victory, not even a Pyrrhic victory.
Putin’s best, but very slim hope, is as above, but Russia as a country has a better option as I mentioned in an earlier post. Get rid of the fascists, take the loss, and beg the west to be rebuilt the way we rebuilt Japan and Germany after WWII.
Some Azovstal defenders released in prisoner exchange.
Kateryna ‘Ptashka’ Polischuk:
Mykhailo ‘Pianist’:
Five Britons also released, including those sentenced to death by Donetsk kangaroo court:
A plane carrying 10 prisoners of war arrived from Russia to Riyadh on Wednesday following successful mediation efforts by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) and sources familiar with the matter.
The Saudi Crown Prince had been in direct contact with the Kremlin and Ukraine as part of the mediation efforts for the release of the prisoners, which included five British citizens, one Moroccan, one Swede, one Croat, and two Americans.
Includes Americans Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh and amongst the Brits, Aiden Aslin aka cossackgundi
Not a window or smoking; very suspicious.
In Russia, stairs fall on you.
Azovstal commanders also released:
The deal:
Old-fashioned POW parole:
We in the US don’t get to see that since military law prohibits US servicemembers from accepting parole.
An invasion of Russia would be just the thing to get Russia to launch more nukes.
I agree with iiandyiiii’s suggestion: a nuke should be met with a full NATO conventional intervention in Ukraine, but no further.
I’m not sure how that would make a difference. The hypothetical is that Russia has already launched one nuke due to the Ukrainian army having even greater conventional success. In that scenario Putin wouldn’t all of a sudden stop just because the Russian troops in Ukraine are now being killed by American, German, British, French etc. troops rather than Ukrainian troops. The only hope at that point would be to attack Russia itself and hope that enough of the generals realize that their best interest is to overthrow Putin and surrender to NATO. That won’t happen if the NATO troops limit themselves to operations within the borders of Ukraine.
Sure, but you don’t want Putin to turn this into Great Patriotic War version 2.0.
If Russia tries it’s “escalate-to-deescalate” gambit, I think the best thing to do would be diplomatic pressure on any country that considers itself close to Russia, especially China and India who would have the most to lose, and a general air attack against Russian air and anti-air bases in European Russia and the Russian Far East, a full Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses campaign, and an announcement to the people of Russia that it must stop the war in Ukraine, go back to pre-2014 borders with disposition of Crimea to be determined by a fair plebiscite, and it can keep its nukes as long as Vladimir Putin no longer has any authority to launch them.
Even if he were telling the truth–
That’s an average of roughly 857 men killed per month. Contrast that with Afghanistan, when they lost 15,000 over ten years, or 125/month.
In the event Putin deploys even a small battlefield nuke, China and India will need to pick sides. They will need to come together with NATO and other countries to enforce a complete and total embargo on everything going into or out of Russia, along with a land and naval blockade. Complete and utter cut-off from the rest of the world. Every Russian citizen deported back to Russia.
Russia can content itself with allies North Korea and Syria.
This followed by an ultimatum that unless there is a change in Russia’s military stance, and/or leadership, the country will cease to exist.
It’s a little late to be worrying about that when nuclear war is already underway.
Time is not on his side. Europe is rapidly working on a Russian-free energy policy while at the same time restricting technological products to Russia.
Putin is already facing a declining population and this war will accelerate the process. He isn’t just digging a hole, he’s created a sinkhole that will grow on it’s own. Imagine how demoralizing it’s going to be to be bombed with your own weapons.
I don’t think that’s fair at all to the men fleeing involuntary service in an unjust war. More like… doves take flight.
If he gets 1/10th of the supposed 300,000 men at all trained and into Ukraine by, say, the end of this year I’ll be stunned, and he ought to bless his lucky stars. Like the mention of nukes it’s a bluff and attempted morale strike against Ukraine and NATO. Which has already not worked as they probably have more accurate information about the true state of his troops in Ukraine then he does.