The Ukraine war thread

[George K]

@taiwan_girl said in The Ukraine war thread:

They were already having population problems, and now this war, and the fact that any male who is able to leave has left, means that a whole generation + is wiped out.

Link to video

The number of military-aged men is quite small.

[taiwan_girl]

Wow! Seeing that movie shows that. I guess if you are guy who is looking to date, you are in a good position, but other than that........... not so good.

[Jolly]

Mirage to Ukraine...

https://defence-blog.com/ukraine-to-get-fighter-jets-from-france/

That's not as promising as it sounds. Ukraine is getting over 100 F-16 fighters, but only has 22 pilots trained to fly them and is begging for training slots at any nation that will take them. I suppose the same problem will exist with the Mirage fighters...

[Wim]

Training us supposed to take 6 to 7 months, starting this summer...
Go figure ️

[Mik]

Should have supplied them in 22.

[Jolly]

@Mik said in The Ukraine war thread:

Should have supplied them in 22.

You are right.

I'm not big on foreign wars, but if Ukraine needed the tools to stop Mr. Putin, they need the tools. Not in dribs and drabs, but in sufficient quantity to achieve the mission.

The Biden Administration has been very careful to never give the Ukranians quite enough at the right time, to make a distinctive difference.

[George K]

@Jolly said in The Ukraine war thread:

never give the Ukranians quite enough at the right time,

Yeah, it's almost like he's a Russian agent. I wonder what dirt Putin has on him.

Wait, once again, that's from the wrong year.

Sorry.

[Renauda]

The ambiguity and emptiness of Putin’s red lines in Ukraine:

https://open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/fuzzy-red-lines-in-ukraine?r=17wfy3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

[Axtremus]

https://wapo.st/3Vll45U

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/biden-zelenskyy-sign-us-ukraine-security-agreement-g7/story?id=111061390

Biden, Zelensky to sign 10-year U.S.-Ukraine security deal at G-7 summit

Supposedly the agreement "will commit Washington to supply Kyiv with a wide range of military assistance." But unlike NATO, it does not require the U.S. to respond if Ukraine is attacked.

[Mik]

An interesting piece on the possibility of going nuclear.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-s-nuclear-arsenal-is-crumbling-ukraine-can-take-it-out-for-good/ar-BB1oe8Nv?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=78d48b0c768a4563879c728536b1d3dc&ei=13

[Wim]

Russia hosts approx. 5900 nuclear arms. Assuming that a lot of them are out of use, Putin still has enough to make his threats believable.
I think this article is a tad too optimistic.

[Renauda]

Putin offers compelling and generous terms:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday demanded Ukraine effectively surrender to Moscow if it wants to open peace talks, drawing anger and rebukes from Kyiv and the West.

In a combative speech in Moscow on the eve of a major Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland, Putin said Russia would halt its offensive only if Ukraine fully withdraws its troops from the east and south and drops its bid for NATO membership.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/06/14/putin-says-ukraine-must-withdraw-troops-to-start-peace-talks-a85413

I am confident that Putin is just emulating Trump and spitballing riffs that happen to pop into his mind.

[George K]

"We'll stop shooting at you (for now) if you give us everything we've taken."

[Renauda]

Something like that. Most Christian of Putin to be so magnanimous about it.

[Wim]

Another headache for Putin:
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/34739

[George K]

My Great Grandfather was governor of Tambov…before 1917.

[Wim]

@George: was that Luzhenovsky or his successor?

[George K]

Pavel Kandidov - here he is in 1905.

[Jolly]

That's some really nice log work...

[George K]

Pavel was the governor of the Tambov oblast. I’m told that he was friends with Leo Tolstoy. However, I don’t know anything beyond that.