coming back to the article (I started reading it tonight and finished just now) …
… it leaves me as a westener quite proud/content/conform on our collective reactions, b/c there is a sense of that things were done well, lots of “off-ramps” offered, everything we could possibly do was done … but Hitler wanted to start WWII - and there is no way to keep him from doing it.
It also makes me very certain that there were and are docens of scenarios / wargames being played and there is a playbook for pretty much everything now (esp. nuclear escalation) …
so very little needs to be improvised ad-hoc as there already are a lot of options-to-react thought out and filtered through numerous layers of experts.
So, I feel (from this POV) we are in a good place.
At this point in time, Crimea is part of Russia. That is Realpolitik. That does not mean that Russia deserves to keep it, or wont have to give it back, but note we say that about Crimea- “Russia should give it back” which of course recognizes that currently Russia has it.
I don’t know… We’re hearing about a lot of things like fires and other accidents at strategic facilities far from the front lines. Those might be crack Ukrainian special ops teams, but I think they’re more likely to be locals.
There is little in the way of independent journalism in Vladistan, so you can prettymuch count on any internal mischief being “caused by Ukrainian commandos” or some sort of industrial accident. Although, to be fair, there is not much coming out Ukraine that is independent either.
I just came to post this. I think it’s a pretty good take on the situation on the ground. Russian forces gained so little and expended so much.
A couple of small quotes, with my bolding.
Unknown actors killed a Russian occupation Ministry of Internal Affairs Patrol Service platoon commander with a car bomb in occupied Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian media hypothesized that the attack may have been a partisan attack or a result of Russian infighting.
Infighting is the best kind. More of that please.
Russian federal communication supervisor Roskomnadzor blocked a website that helped Russians escape mobilization in continued crackdowns against resistance to mobilization.
I hadn’t realized there was a organized resistance to mobilization. I thought people were just fleeing. More of that is needed too.
Calvin Trillin wrote in one of his books that he wouldn’t give his grandfather’s real name because, “We think the Russian army is still looking for him.”
My paternal grandfather reputedly deserted TWO Russian armies (White Russian and Red Russian) as well as three others (Polish, I think German, and I forget the fifth.) Slonim area, WWI.
– none of them had drafted him as a soldier; they’d all impressed him as a dishwasher, or for similar work. He was Jewish; none of them were in any real sense his army. Any of them would have shot him if they’d caught him, though; as well as if they’d caught him smuggling bits of food back to his starving family.