People in Britain who think they are governed by fools should take a closer look at the Russian and US presidents. Vladimir Putin is systematically ruining his country. His war of choice in Ukraine is an economic, financial, geopolitical and human calamity for Russia that worsens by the day. For his own murky reasons, Donald Trump, another national menace, offered him a lifeline last week. Yet Putin spurned it. These two fools deserve each other.
On the table in Moscow was a “peace” deal that, broadly speaking, rewarded Russia’s aggression by handing over large chunks of Ukrainian land, compromised Kyiv’s independence and weakened its defences against any future attack. The Trump deal, if forced through, would have split the US and Europe; ruptured Nato, perhaps fatally; reprieved Russia’s pariah economy; and probably toppled Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
These are key Russian war aims. But Putin, suffering from neo-imperial fantasies and legacy issues, said “no”. He reckons he can get it all, and more, by fighting on. He has persuaded the idiot Trump that Russia’s victory is inevitable – and that scheming Europeans are the real warmongers. Yet his premise is fundamentally flawed. Hard facts confound him. Almost four years on, he’s still trapped in Donbas mud and ice. And at home, things fall apart.
Fuck the US deal. Handing large parts of Ukraine to the russia. Fuck tRump.
We just need to keep up the pressure, and to do that America needs to either shut the fuck up and keep out of it, or come back into the fold
If all American foreign policy just disappeared the world would be at a net positive overnight - and it’s not even close.
3 years of us arming Ukraine, encouraging them to NOT negotiate (when they had much better position to previously than they do now), and then abandoning them once we finished dumping all our weapons. America was proud to fight to the last Ukrainian.
Russia is like the bullie that punches you in the face.
America is like the bullie that spends weeks pretending to be your friend just so they can steal your lunch money, humiliate you in front of your friends, and then push you into the other bullie that’ll punch you in the face for bumping into them.
Also, Trump just puts a blunt face to what America has always been. Foreign wars in this country are bipartisan. Ukraine would be just as fucked if Harris was president. She’d just have a better narrative for it to make Americans feel less guilty for the fucked up way we treat our “allies”.
the war has “dramatically improved” the incomes of 20% of Russians, it is hugely socially divisive. “For the bulk of Russians, real incomes have fallen by 16% to 42%,”
Like most wars, this is why they tend to go on so long - because those that are making the most money from the war, reinvest some of it to keep the war going as long as possible. After all, they aren’t paying the price in money or blood, they just collect the spoils.
Putin’s readiness to risk the lives and wellbeing of ordinary Russians is only too evident, symbolised by the cynical signing-up fees and death benefits paid to infantry volunteers from poor rural areas – whose average frontline life expectancy is 12 days.
This is what will eventually end the war - they will simply run out of draftees, or the people will finally get sick of sacrificing their sons to advance corruption, and revolt, although that could be tough with any fighting-age men off getting slaughtered less than two weeks after joining. We may see something crazy like a Mother’s Rebellion, with a million mothers marching on the Kremlin and taking it over. It would be pretty tough to get Russian soldiers to fire on their own mothers.
It would be pretty tough to get Russian soldiers to fire on their own mothers.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. Those who would refuse to fire would get shot. Now they may not try very hard to aim well, but still.
We may see something crazy like a Mother’s Rebellion, with a million mothers marching on the Kremlin and taking it over.
Thankfully, Putin has already aimed to prevent this since Second Chechnya by refusing to use Conscripts exactly for this reason.
Even the Ukrainians admitted that the Russians have refused to send conscripts into Ukraine.
A Mother’s Rebellion is far more likely to occur in Ukraine due to Busification.
the people will finally get sick of sacrificing their sons
This is what happened in the US with Iraq and Afghanistan, arguably similar forever-wars instigated to benefit a few. But holy fuck, it took nearly two decades.
I don’t know about that, I wasn’t hearing too many calls to end the over the number of soldiers being killed. Casualties were fairly low in the 9/11 wars, compared to Vietnam, which had 55,000 deaths in about a decade.
Calls to end the war over the high body count were much, MUCH, louder in the Vietnam era, to the point that it became a political liability beyond the young protesters. That’s why they finally abolished the draft, then probably would have left soon anyway, if they hadn’t been chased out by the North Vietnamese.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, there seemed to be more outrage over the amount of money that was being wasted to keep a war going with no real agenda or final objective. After a while it gets hard for Republicans to complain about the National Debt when they are wasting trillions of dollars on wars over nothing.
Been waiting for Russia to collapse since 2014ish
Might outlast the US.
Couldn’t care less if they all fall. The only good thing about the US is they speak the same language as me.
Also Scarlett Johansson
We will still speak the same language and Scarlett Johansson would still exist presumably if the US collapses. Hell depending on how it collapses it may even result in more good things popping out of it’s former territories, kinda like how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wouldn’t exist without the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hell of a trade lmao that’s like saying the 2008 crash was good because we got a cool movie out of it
All empires collapse it’s moreso what you get out of themwhen they do that matters. Frankly I’d say the collapse of the United States will be ultimately good in the long run.
Pretty solid and good read. Also love the last paragraph.
I hope Putin is discovered while fleeing, and promptly suffers the divine plight of kings…
Really, all dictators should end up this way.
I’ve been hearing the same since the start of the war - Russia is running out of weapons, economy is collapsing etc. but here we are, Russia still kicking Ukraine’s ass and sending hundreds of drones and plenty of missiles each day. Russia is resilient plus help from NK, China and Iran - I doubt they will collapse anytime soon. But even if they collapse, who will get the helm? Will it be better for Ukraine? World?
Bullshit. They planned to conquer Kiev in 3 days. Here we are almost 4 years later. It’s surprising how weak they are.
They planned for Zelenskyy’s government to collapse. It didn’t. That doesn’t mean they’re unable to carry on the war indefinitely with a major advantage in manpower and war material.
They were already importing arillery shells, and they are out of Soviet reserves.
They won’t collapse, but they will drift even more into the Chinese sphere of influence, while they have already lost their own.
Point is, the West and China can keep Ukrainians and Russians killing each other as long as they don’t stop funding either side, which will then collapse pretty much immediately.
In any case, Russia is pretty much done as a world power, and the only two questions is whether the US and the EU will become independent world players after Trump, and when the killing will actually stop.
It’s a purely political question, because both China and the EU can keep this up forever.
If i was Xi I’d be invading Eastern Russia and annexing Siberia/Kamchatka/Vladivostok and seizing the oil reserves.
Why invade when they can colonise without invasion?
There is no point doing that as long as the Belt and Road takes over old Russian aligned states’ infrastructure and the kids of the Moscow elite start learning Mandarin, both of which is happening.
I expect when climate change melts the permafrost, the companies exploiting Siberia’s riches will be all Chinese. If Russia is luckier than most, they will at least employ Russians for the more menial jobs. As long as they can speak fluent Mandarin.
China wisely prefer s economic domination rather than military. And Russia’s still got nukes.
I don’t think it’s this simple. Russia is primarily relying on China as a buyer for its hydrocarbons. It has a large and developed military industrial complex. Ukraine has had to bootstrap its arms industry since the war started. Russia also imports artillery from North Korea. Europe has historically had a dearth of war material and industry, so Ukraine can’t just order a million shells from Germany or something, although maybe this is where we’re headed. Just because we don’t want Russia to win doesn’t mean they don’t have major military and economic advantages. Ukraine hasn’t gained any territory since the Kursk offensive, which was short lived, and they lose ground slowly every day. While I agree that this can go on indefinitely, I don’t think the sides are evenly matched.
They can’t and have neither. The soviet era equipment is a crumbling pile of junk and if they try to draft more soldiers Putin faces mutiny, something he absolutely doesn’t need right now. Russias economy is in shambles. After 4 years of war.
The best thing they can do is just pretend they are so strong that they can carry on in this war forever. So… just shut the fuck up.
And yet, there are pushing forward all over the front. Also take a look who is eager to strike a peace accord even when it comes at heavy price, and who is not interested in it at all.
Yes, they’re pushing so much all over the front it will take 100 years to conquer Ukraine. Lol.
take a look who is eager to strike a peace accord even when it comes at heavy price
Lol, who? Donald Trump?
Yes, they’re pushing so much all over the front it will take 100 years to conquer Ukraine. Lol.
You do realize that the ground lost is most likely forever, unless something really bad happens to Russia which is highly unlikely, right? They don’t need to conquer entire Ukraine.
They are legitimately moving slower than a snail’s pace, and Ukraine is even retaking territory in places. There’s no conceivable way this could be considered to be going well.
In the first 2 years, we waited for use of armoured vehicles to hit their monthly rate of production. This has largely happened, the reserves of armour that USSR built up have been spent by Russia. Vehicles that still stand in parking lots require deep renovation (slow and costly). So this prediction has largely come true.
In the first 3 years, we waited for Russia’s sovereign wealth fund to empty, ending Putin’s ability to shelter the economy against the cost of war. This now seems to have largely happened, as the central bank is selling reserves of gold. It follows that more appropriate things to sell are scarce.
We also waited for Russia’s inventory of civilian planes and railway locomotives + carriages to degrade due to lack of spare parts. This has not fully come true. Planes fly less, railways transport less, but they smuggle spare parts from third countries.
We have waited for Russia’s oil and gas revenues to fall, and they have fallen, considerably. At current levels, under Ukrainian “sanctions by drone”, Russia has to cut other budget lines to finance the war - and it has cut or frozen other budget lines (social security, health care, education, almost everything - war makes up approximately 40% of the government budget).
We have waited for the wages of soldiers to drop, and for soldiers to understand that inflation will make the money they got worthless. This has only partly happened - several regions have announced that they cannot pay large one-time compensations to people going to war.
We have waited for a crisis in Russia’s economy, and in some sectors there already is a crisis. Purchases of new cars, real estate and agricultural equipment have fallen sharply. Many companies have reduced work weeks (reduced pay), owe employees wages, or cannot service their debts.
If Putin overplays his hand and economy does collapse, this does not automatically mean his replacement. He’s a dictator and has a KGB background, he knows to expect rebellions and can supress them. He knows to expect a coup and may prevent one.
Eventually he’ll be replaced. We can’t influence or predict the personal characteristics of his successor, but whoever replaces him will very surely want to end the war, and doesn’t have to save face while doing that.
However, Levada’s polls - arguably the only polls which could indicate the real state of Russian society - do not indicate the ground shifting yet. They indicate that people are universally tired of the war, but not yet willing to end it by returning land to Ukraine.
For example, the “country is going in the right direction” indicator currently stands at 65%. Surfing on waves of war propaganda, it topped at 75% last year (rising from a low of 48% before the war - explains why Putin needed the war - to secure his own power), but it’s in a downward trend.
So, sadly, propaganda is still working, but it’s not working as well as it used to. In the “battle of the fridge and TV” (for people’s opinion) sadly the TV still prevails.
Russia still kicking Ukraine’s ass
What, in your mind, is the attrition/casualty rate per kilometer of advancement by the Russian army?
I don’t think you’re getting information from an impartial news source.
What does that matter? Is Russia efficient? Probably not. Does Russia care about their casualties? Likely not. Are they throwing a ton of manpower and resources at Ukrainians? Yep. Are they advancing? Slowly, but yes, all over the front. If I have impartial news sources, please, show yours where it is shown that Ukraine is pushing Russians out instead. I’ll be more than happy to see those.
Have you ever fought/served in an armed conflict?
The phrase “Russia is kicking Ukraine’s ass.”, to me, comes from someone who is, at best, an AirSoft cosplayer.
It’s hyperbolic propaganda at face value, and doesn’t match up with credible intelligence analysis reporting from news agencies both in and outside of NATO countries. The narrative spun by such hand-waiving talk is that casualty attrition rate per kilometer gained has no bearing on logistic or strategic capability.
Anyone who has been seriously involved with warfare knows that the casualty rates of the supposed 2nd/3rd most capable military in the world are appalling considering the relatively small size of the Ukrainian military. This is an absurd gamble Putin has made. The men lost now will not be there to finally take Kyiv.
On top of that, there’s very little to stop the PLA from rolling his entire South-Eastern flank and putting their giant dick in his puckered asshole. It’s convenient for them for the Russian Federation and NATO to be occupied so they may sell their influence with relative ease, and continue dicking with their other Asian neighbors.
Do you believe that the Ukrainians will just stop fighting after Kyiv has fallen, by the way?
I also don’t take the view that the Russian Federation is “losing”. The Ukrainians are certainly barely managing a desperate struggle for survival; their only hope is international military pressure from other geographic theaters of operations and/or a collapse of Putin’s regime. They must also try to keep engaging the invading forces in a war of maneuver instead of static defense with dwindling man-power and arms.
However, despite all of that, the Orcs are far from “kicking Ukraine’s ass”. If they were, in my opinion, we’d see Russian Federation flags a few kilometers outside of Kyiv, and even more probing of Polish, Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian, and Finnish airspaces.
I had to say something. The bullshit of “Russia is kicking Ukraine’s ass,” is too strong of an odor to ignore.
Haven’t they been liquidating good reserves just to make ends meet?
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Ruzzia is a grey, third world toilet, that will be paying reparations forever once they finish losing.
Worked great against Germany after world war 1.
Yeah, but no-one cares about ruzzia, it’s a bunghole country. Germany eventually got it’s shit together, and is a very respected, valuable member of humanity again. ruzzia isn’t capable of that because it only has sheep who need to be told what to blindly do between vodka shots and smokes, assuming that they don’t destroy themselves by smoking next to a gas storage tank. Ruzzia should learn to package mediocrity for export, because that’s all they do well. Oh wait, they are already exporting that… !
Russia still has plenty of customers for their exports and they won’t lose any territory after this is over.
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Its so cringe to assume any realistic comment is Russian. Its clear from your comments in this thread you have no idea what’s happening. You must get only feel good stories like the one op posted.
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Do you genuinely think im russian or support russia? I hate Russia. I wish they were losing. I am happy the war has slowed to a crawl but im not stupid enough to think its going well for Ukraine. You have no idea how moronic it looks to be gloating over the current situation as if Ukraine is about to crush Russia. So cringe
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People in Britain who think they are governed by fools should take a closer look at the Russian and US presidents.
That bigger fools exist doesn’t stop your fools from screwing up too.
Two fools don’t make a lesser fool.
Fucking good. I’m tired of the petty North Atlantic and Arctic sabotage missions. Ukraine can keep hitting oil refineries and eventually they won’t be able to afford to buy foreign fuel.
You know that’s hilarious after another post from the same news paper says that we are now aligned with Putin’s plan for the future.
So yes we are killing them but I’m reality we are helping them and killing ourselves. Yay.
Fuck maga fuck the pedos of the GOP for being traitors to the US. They should be hanged. Billionaires should also be hanged.
But oh well, one last thing the US is coming for the dual citizenship in the US. People are gonna have less opportunity to leave once the shit falls off the fan.
It’s an opinion piece. It’s not uncommon for newspapers to run conflicting opinion pieces.
You know that’s hilarious after another post from the same news paper says that we are now aligned with Putin’s plan for the future.
Really not that different than Israel when you think about it
False hope title.
The modern internet and media age in a nutshell: “Everything you believe in is succeeding and your enemies are getting DESTROYED with facts and logic.”
Scary
News websites need to stop saying Russia’s economy is crashing, I feel like I’ve read this headline 100 times over the last 3 years. It’s the wartime economy of a petro-state, they don’t need that many outside buyers of their oil to make their highly controlled domestic wartime production work. Traditional global indicators of economic health shouldn’t be applied for as long as this continues, claiming otherwise is just false hope and a poor excuse for providing less help to Ukraine.
Yep. It’s far from over for Putin. Got really lucky with Trump, and with slow and divided EU. Plus Gaza genocide to avert the attention. Still ain’t over but i feel Ukraine is on the ropes. I hope they prove me wrong.
None of the circumstances you mentioned were luck. Trump is his patsy, Trump is closely aligned with Israel (Netanyahu), and Russia is a primary instigator of European discord. His international game is on point.
The election of Trump was lucky. He helped but it was not like he knew trump would win.
Don’t worry everyone if Russias economy collapses our American economy will help them out, nothing bad will ever come out of this…
Ukraine: are we a joke to you?
they still have potentially 70million men, they arnt running out of that.
But how many are willing to fight?
Sucks to suck, Vlad.
