Y’know, come to think of it, this is probably bad news… Not in itself inherently, but in what it means for Russia’s decision-making process. Decreasing the benefits for prisoner-soldiers means they’ll get fewer of them. And a move to decrease the number of soldiers, but improve their average quality, is the opposite of what we’ve seen thus far from Russia’s leadership. They might be starting to make an attempt to build a real fighting force.
Seems like it would be hard to create “a real fighting force” of dedicated, well-trained soldiers if they’re scraping the bottom of the prison barrels, though.
Well, I hadn’t thought of it from that angle, but I think it’s more that the powers that be would rather not be accused of letting the prisoner off easy. Since the conscripts currently are getting forced into contracts, and I think those contracts are being automatically renewed like the ones the prisoners have to sign, it’s probably more them covering their asses.
They’re playing into Putin’s hands. Disrupting Ukraine’s elected government is an obvious goal of the invasion.
Hid speculation that started a hijack. {What Exit?}
I hope this doesn’t trigger a coup. Zelenskiy already canceled the election.
The US saw a change in government several times during the Vietnam War. A prolonged war puts a lot of strain on any government. There’s going to be differences in opinion over what polices should be followed.
It could get awkward if NATO finds itself supporting a government that wasn’t elected.
Just commenting on this news. Any prolonged discussion would require a new thread.
Interesting strategy that frustrates Putin and probably costs Ukraine very little in resources
The partisan attack on a bomber pilot inside Russia is a similar strategy of frustrating and demoralizing Russian forces. I suspect Russian pilots are sharing this story and warning each other to watch out when they’re off base. It doesn’t really matter whether Oleg Sergeevich Stegachyov survived or died. The message has been sent.
The Ukrainian constitution forbids elections while under martial law. The only sense in which Zelensky canceled the election is that he issued the decree of martial law when Russia invaded. Holding an election when vast numbers of people are displaced, both internally and having fled the country entirely, while fighting an enemy who is entirely likely to target polling stations, and while a very significant portion of the country is under occupation is an extremely complicated proposition.
Comparisons with US during Vietnam are ridiculous. The US was not fighting for its survival with 15-20% of the country occupied by a foreign invader when it held elections during the Vietnam War.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian opposition supports the cancelling of elections for the above reasons.
Moderating: You have to refrain from this type of comment in thread. It is very speculative and likely to lead to a hijack. In fact it started one. I’ll hide the quoted portion.
Typing “Just commenting” does not change the fact the speculation did not belong here.
Understood. This thread is only for Ukraine news links.
There is the most excellent parallel “regional situation” thread which has much more freedom to explore side topics, if this topic merits more consideration.
I’ll direct any future Ukraine posts to the Regional thread.
Unanimous vote.
“to confiscate money, valuables and other assets from people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the country’s military.”
Oh, man, is Putin in for it now!
So they are going to take assets from military personnel. They are probably spreading this ‘false’ information.
That should work out well…
Lots of changes in Ukraine’s top military leadership.
General Zaluzhnyi has been replaced. Also awarded Ukraine’s top medal. The new Commander in Chief is Oleksandr Syrskyi. Some other Generals are moving up as a result of this.
Leading up to an argument regarding the handover of territory following World War II, Putin described the circumstances that led to Germany’s invasion of Poland.
There are multiple translations of this part of the conversation, most of which do not use the word “forced” but impart a similar meaning.
The voiceover translation provided by Carlson’s Network states that Poland “went too far pushing Hitler to start World War II by attacking them,” adding “Poland turned out to be uncompromising and Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland.”
The Kremlin’s translated transcript of the interview states Poland went “too far… pushing Hitler to start World War II” while the voice dub of the interview says “the Poles played too much and you know, as a result of that Hitler started the war… against them on the 1st of September 1939”, adding “Poland turned uncompromising.”
However, Newsweek has verified with a Russian speaker, based on a Russian transcript from Parlamentskaya Gazeta, a Kremlin newspaper, that Putin said the Poles “forced” Hitler to invade, as the posts on X say as well.
The translation states: "So, before the Second World War, when Poland collaborated with Germany, it rejected Hitler’s demands, but nevertheless participated with Hitler in the division of Czechoslovakia, but since it did not give up the Danzig corridor, the Poles nevertheless forced him - they got carried away and forced Hitler - to start The Second World War against them first.
“Why did the war start on September 1, 1939 precisely against Poland? Because it turned out to be uncooperative. Hitler had no choice but to implement his plans, starting specifically with Poland.”
Just like Russia was forced to invade Ukraine.
Same “logic” as trump. Somebody else made him do everything.