What’s the point? Does anyone believe Putin gives a rip about the World Court?
tl;dr version of this article: the rate of weapons shipments to Ukraine has accelerated, an effort involving 14 countries and coordinated by the US European Command (EUCOM). The Ukrainian forces have been impressive in how effectively they’ve been using them.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/06/politics/mark-milley-ukraine-military-assistance/index.html
The point, as with the International Criminal Court, and the US push to establish that Russian forces have committed war crimes, is that it becomes much more difficult for other countries to pretend to be neutral.
Ok, I see the logic in establishing the basis for a War Crimes case in the courts.
Thanks
The shipments of weapons is making a big difference. I think we’re sharing satellite intel. The Ukraine commanders know exactly where Russian troops,aircraft, and supplies are positioned.
This guy brings up a number of valid points, but his pious and pompous delivery undercuts his credibility. When he claimed that “global white supremacy” applies to “the major powers, those that have the force, those who have the economic power to shape the world”, he lost me decisively. This may indeed have been true in earlier eras, but China changed things, to say the least.
If the video of the prisoners is true then Putin pulled police officers from around the country for “training” in Belarus and used them in place of actual troops. It sounds as if the plan was to walk in and do crowd control.
Trading MiGs for F16’s is a big win for Poland and Ukraine. The deal helps NATO by strengthening a vulnerable member.
I hope the deal goes through. There probably won’t be a public announcement that Ukraine received jets. No one wants to antagonize Russia. They’ll certainly know about it.
How hard would it be for the USAF to simply station some extra fighters in Poland to help guard Polish skies until their new F-35s arrive in 2024-2030? Unless the Poles consider that unsatisfactory?
Poland’s F-16s are already most of their fighter force. Handing some MiG-29s to Ukraine doesn’t degrade Poland’s air defences that much, especially with Russia being preoccupied in Ukraine.
Your negative assessment of the situation is no better than a guess. So far the Russians haven’t gotten close to getting their shit together, logistically speaking (which would be necessary to surround a huge city like Kyiv). Maybe they will, but we don’t have any real evidence of that right now.
Based on the past week or so, I don’t think we can say the Russians have high-quality anything. Why would those AAA batteries and interceptors be any better maintained, their crews any better trained and motivated, than what we’ve seen of the rest of the Russian military?
Kyiv extends over an area of 320 square miles, on both sides of the Dnieper River.
There’s absolutely no way it can be surrounded with the forces at Russia’s disposal.
If Russian forces ever get to Kyiv, which is unlikely, they’ll be like the dog who caught the car and didn’t know what to do with it.
They were expecting to waltz into the centre of Kyiv in a couple of days with little or no resistance, and simply take over the government. Now they have no plan except bombarding.
But even so… Putin is making a big deal about uniting countries with Russian culture, and Kyiv is the absolute centre and origin of Russian culture, with many, many important cultural buildings and landmarks. It would be like the West bombarding Rome.
For a nation that touts Stalingrad so much as part of its history and legacy, you’d think the Russians would know better than anyone else the foolishness of trying to capture a huge urban center that hates you and has thoroughly prepped its defenses by the time your army arrives.
Documentary:
Magnificent Kiev - The mother of all cities in the Russian Empire
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/kyiv-shrines-memorials-powerful-symbolic-risk-83224208
“We’re talking about a very old city,” said Jacob Lassin, a postdoctoral research scholar at the Arizona State University’s Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies. “The center part is densely packed. Even if you’re trying to hit one thing, you could easily hit something else.”
The symbolic value of the shrines is powerful even to people who don’t share the religious faith they commemorate.
The symbols matter not only to the Ukrainian people but to Putin, too.
Whether Kyiv’s Orthodox shrines come under direct attack or receive collateral damage, such an action would be a “total refutation” of another of Putin’s claims — to be defending Orthodox Ukrainians loyal to Moscow’s patriarch, Lassin said.
“It would literally be destroying the main seat of Russian Orthodoxy according to his own rhetoric,” Lassin said.
The shrines’ oldest parts date back to the medieval Kievan Rus kingdom, soon after its adoption of Christianity under Prince Vladimir in the 10th century. Putin has claimed the kingdom is the common ancestor of today’s Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainians counter that theirs is a distinct nation now under fratricidal attack from its Slavic neighbor.
The cathedral and nearby monastic complex represent “a masterpiece of human creative genius in both its architectural conception and its remarkable decoration,” says a summary by UNESCO, which lists them as World Heritage Sites.
A good one that gives an idea of the size and beauty of the city:
That’s a wild card in many ways. In the past chemical weapon use hasn’t always triggered Western intervention (see Syria, among others). If it’s just withing Ukrainian borders I’m thinking not. If it slops over into NATO territory maybe.
We’re running out of “very harsh sanctions” already.
^ This - and Putin knows it. Hence the saber-rattling.
^ This (allowing for some hyperbole) - and Putin knows it. Hence the saber-rattling.
I think this is the case. However, it takes a long time to siege a city - sometimes years. It gets really hellish inside those cities, but this is not something that can be wrapped up in a month. And that’s after you actually surround a city - Kyiv covers a large land area, it’s no small thing to actually surround it enough to put it under siege.
^ This. Although the Russians also know about the Mud Season and have used it themselves against invaders, yet this spring they seem to have forgotten all about it.
Well… it did. How many of those buildings and landmarks are still standing today?
Um… all of them. Kyiv hasn’t suffered any war damage. Did you watch the videos?
I don’t know what kind of idea you have of Kyiv, but I suggest you click on the drone video and watch it for a couple of minutes.
There’s no city in America, and few in Europe that can match it for beauty and historical interest.
I agree, and being very cynic in describing what will (?) happen, starving them also has the advantage that there is no sudden EVENT (that could trigger opponent’s actions), but rather a longer, drawn out PROCESS that also “plays” the ** SUNK COST FALLACY ** on NATO side.
Extra cynical browny points if the let initially pass food transports, but make it later ever more difficult, again playing the SunkCostF.
Ukrainian tractor drivers hate the B-1.
also, the .ru army will - by then - NOT have ground up the Ukr. army … the ukr. might have to sidestep a bit, but their doctrine of attacking and destroying the supply lines (and getting weaponry for free) seems very efficient (as opposed to be worn down by fighting the attack force (which is also happening)
so you might eventually wind up with a besieged city, where the besieging forces might (also?) get starved - with the potential of a Stalingrad moment, really
At this stage I really get the feeling that the russians have not sorted out the CRAWL - WALK - RUN sequence … (being crawl obv. having your supply shit in order) …