The Ukraine war thread
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@Renauda , that's what I figured.
Have you heard anything from friends in the area what the sentiment is? If you believe the Ukrainian press, there's a lot of coffins headed back to the Motherland.
Of course, there's no mention of the coffins staying in-country.
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Babushka talks about it disparagingly because she is over 75 years old and fears nothing. With others it is never discussed.
Ukrainians friends on the other hand are openly consumed with vengeance towards all things Russian. Like I said a year ago, the Ukrainians will make the Provo IRA look like Boy Scouts.
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The statue had been removed in the 1990s then put back sometime in the last decade. No big deal as we all know statues come and go. In any case Catherine was a German princess who usurped the throne from her Prussophile and German speaking yet nominally Russian Romanov husband, Peter III. No loss.
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IIRC, think I read where the Russians are in the midst of a big call-up.
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Couple of things.
One news report (ABC?) claimed that Russian casualties are now in excess of 100,000. The surprising thing is not the number (Ukranian sources have been saying this for months), but that a major news outlet is reporting that number. IIRC, the British Ministry of Defence reported that number a few months ago.
And this:
U.S. officials advise Ukraine to wait on offensive
Senior U.S. officials are advising Ukraine to hold off on launching a major offensive against Russian forces until the latest supply of U.S. weaponry is in place and training has been provided, a senior Biden administration official said on Friday.
The official, speaking to a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States was holding fast to its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine at this time, amid a controversy with Germany over tanks.
President Joe Biden, who approved a new $2.5 billion weapons package for Ukraine this week, told reporters at the White House, "Ukraine is going to get all the help they need," when asked if he supports Poland's intention to send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
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Proxies and Puppets. A long analytical essay but well worth the read:
https://open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/proxies-and-puppets?r=17wfy3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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Putin continues to ramp up the rhetoric at the Stalingrad memorial ceremony:
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Russia’s Casualties in Ukraine Near 200,000
Close to 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to estimates from U.S. and European officials, a toll that is likely to continue to rise as the Kremlin readies a fresh offensive in the coming weeks.
The U.S. military, which keeps rough estimates on Russian casualties in Ukraine, puts the figure for wounded and dead at roughly 180,000, though officials stressed such figures aren’t precise, a U.S. defense official said.
The tally matched assessments by Norway’s defense chief Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, who said last week that the number of Russian soldiers killed or injured was approaching 180,000. Mr. Kristoffersen estimated that 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded, in line with an estimate Pentagon officials put out in November.
The casualty count comes as Moscow’s forces press an eastern offensive in an effort to seize the advantage on the battlefield before tanks pledged by Kyiv’s allies begin to arrive in Ukraine and as the conflict approaches its one-year mark on Feb. 24.
The Kremlin and Ministry of Defense didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the Western casualty assessments.
In September, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, said 5,937 Russian military personnel had been killed in the conflict in Ukraine. That was only the second time Russian authorities had released any official casualty count. That figure hasn’t been updated since.
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SpaceX bars Kyiv from using Starlink tech for drone control
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64579267SpaceX says it provided its technology for humanitarian use, does not want its technology "weaponized," using it for communications is OK but not for offensive purposes.