Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Omians]

https://www.anews.com.tr/world/2022/...tured-soldiers

Edit: Ukraine invites Russian mothers to fetch captured soldiers


leave the scolding to their mothers.

[Voidwielder]

https://twitter.com/aldin_ww/status/1499059624250646538

[Omians]

https://twitter.com/aldin_ww/status/1499059624250646538

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpXL...channel=TheSun
this video shows more of the barricades

[MCMLXXXII]

https://twitter.com/aldin_ww/status/1499059624250646538

How long till they run out of fuel. This shit would have been funny if this was an exercise in stead of this barbaric invasion

[Mihalik]

I legit wonder, how do the Putinistas imagine the end of all this?

How do they plan to rule over 40 something million people who absolutely fucking despise them? How do they plan to have anything resembling an economy in a world that has clearly told them that they will do whatever the fuck it takes to completely ruin them economically?

What's the outcome they are imagining here?

[Draco-Onis]

I legit wonder, how do the Putinistas imagine the end of all this?

How do they plan to rule over 40 something million people who absolutely fucking despise them? How do they plan to have anything resembling an economy in a world that has clearly told them that they will do whatever the fuck it takes to completely ruin them economically?

What's the outcome they are imagining here?

It also doesn't help that any puppet politician they could have put in charge ran for the hills like pussies. Since Zelensky stayed and god forbid he dies becoming a martyr any puppet president will be lynched the second Russia leaves for being cowards alone.

[Mamushi]

So Georgia was planning to formally apply for EU membership in 2024, but apparently they are doing it right now.

Also the Japanese government prevented their volunteer fighters (around 70 of them) from going to Ukraine.

[Breccia]

bank runs.

Russia's economy is so shit, it has the runs.

Oh god, why did I type that in public

But seriously thank you, that's either right or close enough.

[Crispin]

I legit wonder, how do the Putinistas imagine the end of all this?

How do they plan to rule over 40 something million people who absolutely fucking despise them? How do they plan to have anything resembling an economy in a world that has clearly told them that they will do whatever the fuck it takes to completely ruin them economically?

What's the outcome they are imagining here?

The Russian army is in despair.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sbreakint...19303717142529

[Endus]

I legit wonder, how do the Putinistas imagine the end of all this?

How do they plan to rule over 40 something million people who absolutely fucking despise them? How do they plan to have anything resembling an economy in a world that has clearly told them that they will do whatever the fuck it takes to completely ruin them economically?

What's the outcome they are imagining here?

The craziest part is that, without Russia fucking off back home and abandoning all claims on Ukraine wholesale and without any compromise or compensation for doing so, just a complete "we fucking lost" and turn tail and flee, those sanctions aren't ever going away. Nobody needs Russia that badly. If Russia decides to stick it out, they'll have decades of insurgency they need to spend billions keeping suppressed and managed, combined with a permanent exclusion from the global marketplace choking them off.

Hell, this would be an ideal time to apply even greater pressure, and demand they also give back Crimea, and sign a treaty agreement barring any further expansionism wholesale (yes, they'd possibly violate it, but violating such a clear treaty agreement would be such an obvious breach that it would justify swift response to punish them, more swift than it's been here, with direct military strikes).

You don't wanna sign? Sorry about your economy. We'll wait until your starving masses tear down your doors and drag the oligarchs (including Putin) into the streets and murder you. Should've played nice, fuckos.

Even if Russia does back off, and gives back Crimea, and signs off, we can discuss attenuating those sanctions over the next 10-15 years. The ones affecting the populace the most can be the first to be lifted, but the oligarchs should come out of this financially ruined and out of power.

[Belize]

The Russian army is in despair.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sbreakint...19303717142529

Putin has done a good job dispelling the myth if power surrounding Russia and highlighting it as nothing but a failed nation-state grasping on to the last shred of influence its predecessor had.

[Mihalik]

The Russian army is in despair.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sbreakint...19303717142529

The sheer fucking incompetence there is fucking shocking.

This has either been the worst organized land invasion in modern history or we in the West have shockingly overestimated the capabilities of the Russian military.

[Shadowferal]

[Endus]

The sheer fucking incompetence there is fucking shocking.

This has either been the worst organized land invasion in modern history or we in the West have shockingly overestimated the capabilities of the Russian military.

It's been so outrageously incompetent at the most basic levels that I think it's pretty damned clear the Russian military is just a mismanaged shell. In particular, see all the inane clownshoes trolls who insist that Russia's "real strength" is being held back, as if Russia deliberately sent in incompetents to fight the war wrong as a joke. Sure, if you have an elite company, you hold them back until needed, but they're not an army.

The obvious reality is that this is the best the Russians can manage. Fucking around with tech that's out of date and falling apart and crewed by children and conscripts who really just don't wanna be there. All this Ukraine venture has proven is precisely how translucently thin the paper tiger that is the Russian military actually is.

Sure, they're doing damage to Ukraine, and that's tragic. They've been puffing up like they're a serious global power, though, and that's obviously not been the case for at least a decade or more, to have gotten this bad.

[Kaleredar]

The sheer fucking incompetence there is fucking shocking.

This has either been the worst organized land invasion in modern history or we in the West have shockingly overestimated the capabilities of the Russian military.

I mean I think the main “offensive” threat of Russia has been nukes for a good long time now.

Nepotism and corruption don’t breed competent leaders.

[Mihalik]

You don't wanna sign? Sorry about your economy. We'll wait until your starving masses tear down your doors and drag the oligarchs (including Putin) into the streets and murder you. Should've played nice, fuckos.

The unfortunate truth is...sanctions almost never bring regime change. They typically just lead to further repression. See Cuba, North Korea and Iran.

The only historical outlier was Apartheid South Africa, and that only worked not because internal popular pressure, but because the local oligarchs and business interests had enough leverage over the government to force change. I'm not convinced the Russian oligarchs have that power over Tzar Putin.

[Endus]

I mean I think the main “offensive” threat of Russia has been nukes for a good long time now.

The same nukes that have likely been rotting in their silos for 50 years. If they're as poorly-managed as this invasion force has been, that nuclear stockpile probably poses a greater threat to Russia than to their enemies.

[Fugus]

I mean I think the main “offensive” threat of Russia has been nukes for a good long time now.

Nepotism and corruption don’t breed competent leaders.

At this point, I wonder how hard it would be to get spies into Russia to dismantle their ability to launch nukes and completely neuter them at that point. Give how mismanaged this has been, really can't help but wonder if the left out any real redundancy in them or just put them in easily dismantled locations.

[Shadowferal]

At this point I should wonder if those nukes aren't much better that old cold war leftover rusty firecrackers.

[Endus]

The unfortunate truth is...sanctions almost never bring regime change. They typically just lead to further repression. See Cuba, North Korea and Iran.

The only historical outlier was Apartheid South Africa, and that only worked not because internal popular pressure, but because the local oligarchs and business interests had enough leverage over the government to force change. I'm not convinced the Russian oligarchs have that power over Tzar Putin.

There's little else that can be done, though, other than outright invasion, which is even worse.

Damaging the nation's economy is important, because it reduces their capacity to field a military. North Korea may have a massive army as their entire population is essentially reserves, but there's a reason they've been relatively quiet since the Korean War other than puffing up occasionally. The sanctions and such have prevented the DPRK from feasibly accelerating their military development so as to make any additional effort to unite all of Korea under their banner. Cuba comparably so, though I think you undersell how much legitimate support the Castro regime actually held, in Cuba, even until recently. What went before the Castros was worse for Cubans. And the Americans held the embargo against Cuba for decades past its meaningful relevance.

Even if sanctions won't bring about regime change, they do tend to defang the threat, or at least vastly slow down its capacity to build that threat.