That meme is gold, lol. One thing I've found so odd about this conflict is the Ukrainians and the west/NATO always announcing their secret plans. The first part of executing a good plan is actually having a plan (which they don't have); the first part of keeping a plan secret from the enemy is don't tell the media. Bizarre!
All of this back and forth in Washington over Ukraine, the border, etc., is just a lot of public posturing, in my opinion. They're all on the same team; it seems like what's really happening is that they are just stalling for time since this has become a downward spiral militarily, financially and politically. Buying time to try and figure out how to salvage this situation with the least amount of political damage to themselves.
Looking at the face of this new Minister of War, it would be difficult for anyone to convince him of his Tatar origin ! :) I've seen enough Tatar people to be sure of that !
Excellent update, Stephen. Also, I'd like to thank you for consistently giving us the hard, cold facts about this conflict no matter how grim they were. Since the beginning, when everyone and their mother were convinced Ukraine could destroy the Russians with time and money, anyone that dared to disagree was ridiculed and you shrugged off the propagandists and gave people the unvarnished truth. Bravo.
Krynky was always an odd little adventure with no clear strategic goal... except perhaps as a flimsy PR talking-point: "We've crossed the Dnieper and will soon cut off Crimea, send more money soon!".
The Russian forces that quicky moved in to contain the small bridgehead in a destroyed village are now squeezing the small AFU infantry deployment in the cellars of demolished houses on one road, while closing resupply across the river.
Meanwhile Robotyne, in the summer trumpeted as the gateway to the Sea of Azov, is pressured from the south and west, Russia is expanding the Verbove axis, and rapidly gaining ground around Adviivka, Bakhmut and further north.
I read a few days ago about a mutiny on that North-Eastern front in which a Ukrainian officer was fragged, after failure to deliver munitions and rotate troops. I also read of increasing desertion.
When does slow attrition suddenly become a rout, as in Kharkiv a year ago, but in the other direction?
How will Ukrainian morale survive a long cold winter without heat, light, munitions and a third of collapsed GDP coming from the West?
But hey, you guys in Congress, keep drinking Zelensky's Kool-Aid... it's only a matter of faith and time (say, 20 years) before evil Putin is forced back to 2014 borders!
Oh, yeah, and forget about that other stuff in Israel. I got here first.
I hope you're wrong on this one, but I have to admit that Republicans have been a big disappointment in this area (as well as others). But reportedly their meeting with Lloyd Austin went very badly last week, and they have dug in their heels even more. We'll see--only a few more days before they adjourn for the year.
The entire Republican party except for a few Trump supporting holdouts has been bought out by the defense industry. Ditto for the Democrats. But you can throw in the Defense industry unions into the Democrats' policy position on Ukraine as well.
"Theater" is right. If funding is not approved, they'll probably just figure out a way to steal money from another part of the budget using an Executive Order. Seems like the coming thing now. Who needs democracy? (Oh, you say you VOTED for the president?)
That meme is gold, lol. One thing I've found so odd about this conflict is the Ukrainians and the west/NATO always announcing their secret plans. The first part of executing a good plan is actually having a plan (which they don't have); the first part of keeping a plan secret from the enemy is don't tell the media. Bizarre!
All of this back and forth in Washington over Ukraine, the border, etc., is just a lot of public posturing, in my opinion. They're all on the same team; it seems like what's really happening is that they are just stalling for time since this has become a downward spiral militarily, financially and politically. Buying time to try and figure out how to salvage this situation with the least amount of political damage to themselves.
Looking at the face of this new Minister of War, it would be difficult for anyone to convince him of his Tatar origin ! :) I've seen enough Tatar people to be sure of that !
Excellent update, Stephen. Also, I'd like to thank you for consistently giving us the hard, cold facts about this conflict no matter how grim they were. Since the beginning, when everyone and their mother were convinced Ukraine could destroy the Russians with time and money, anyone that dared to disagree was ridiculed and you shrugged off the propagandists and gave people the unvarnished truth. Bravo.
Thank you Mick
Krynky was always an odd little adventure with no clear strategic goal... except perhaps as a flimsy PR talking-point: "We've crossed the Dnieper and will soon cut off Crimea, send more money soon!".
The Russian forces that quicky moved in to contain the small bridgehead in a destroyed village are now squeezing the small AFU infantry deployment in the cellars of demolished houses on one road, while closing resupply across the river.
Meanwhile Robotyne, in the summer trumpeted as the gateway to the Sea of Azov, is pressured from the south and west, Russia is expanding the Verbove axis, and rapidly gaining ground around Adviivka, Bakhmut and further north.
I read a few days ago about a mutiny on that North-Eastern front in which a Ukrainian officer was fragged, after failure to deliver munitions and rotate troops. I also read of increasing desertion.
When does slow attrition suddenly become a rout, as in Kharkiv a year ago, but in the other direction?
How will Ukrainian morale survive a long cold winter without heat, light, munitions and a third of collapsed GDP coming from the West?
But hey, you guys in Congress, keep drinking Zelensky's Kool-Aid... it's only a matter of faith and time (say, 20 years) before evil Putin is forced back to 2014 borders!
Oh, yeah, and forget about that other stuff in Israel. I got here first.
I hope you're wrong on this one, but I have to admit that Republicans have been a big disappointment in this area (as well as others). But reportedly their meeting with Lloyd Austin went very badly last week, and they have dug in their heels even more. We'll see--only a few more days before they adjourn for the year.
Republicans are under a lot of pressure. we'll see how it plays out
The entire Republican party except for a few Trump supporting holdouts has been bought out by the defense industry. Ditto for the Democrats. But you can throw in the Defense industry unions into the Democrats' policy position on Ukraine as well.
It's all just theater in Congress.
"Theater" is right. If funding is not approved, they'll probably just figure out a way to steal money from another part of the budget using an Executive Order. Seems like the coming thing now. Who needs democracy? (Oh, you say you VOTED for the president?)
News flash: Wars are tough. Sometimes it takes longer than a year. And yes, they're expensive.
Shocker.
If people folded this easily back in 1943 the world would only be speaking two languages: German and Japanese. Lol.
Luckily back then people and men didn't balk at spending money on the important stuff. These days it's just penny-pinching and whining.