Someone posted something the other day on why bombing them into oblivion isn’t good for Russia because they need the infrastructure and building as intact as they can so they don’t have to rebuild them. Not sure how true that is but it made sense. Especially now that their money is worthless and they can’t even upkeep their own infrastructure in Russia as it is.
You know what would tie this war up neatly in a nice little bow? A globally crowd-sourced assassination bounty on Putin. I don’t know to know if we should, I just need to know if we could. That would fit right into this crazy narrative.
Putin has been thinking like an insane person that has to be the leader of his country for the rest of his life because he has made so many enemies along the way he would get murked within a few hours of stepping down.
They don't want Kiev. They want the govt gone. I don't think the infrastructure there matters to Russia. I really don't understand why Putin doesn't issue an ultimatum to Zelensky. Everyone who wants to get out in the next 48 hours, get out. If you stay, we will bomb you to shit until Zelensky resigns and cedes control. I feel like he's practicing restraint, which isn't necessary esp considering the international response to what he's done so far.
This is why it’s so sad. All the progress Ukraine made is going to be wiped out and they won’t be able to rebuild any of it.
Yeah I don’t really see the way to a good resolution, Russia needed to implode with the ruble today in my limited opinion
Putin knows NATO forces won't attack the caravan because that is grounds for Russia to respond with the most destructive of their armory and justification to enter NATO countries. But it seems like he's dangling this caravan out there to test the restraint of western leaders. Either way, it's a win for him.
It would be nice if Russian soldiers were just saying “fuck this. I quit,” and abandoning their tanks.
At this point I think our best hope is the Russian military just says "Fuck this" and quits. Seems unlikely but I'll hope.
Anyone who lived in the Soviet block during the cold war will tell you that the wall was probably the only infrastructure the Russians invested in during their 50 year occupation. Spent some time touring around all of East Germany with my sister when she lived there in the late 90s. Ten years after the wall, whole place still looked like not a single new doorknob had been installed since before WWII. In fact, there were very few doorknobs at all as Russian soldiers scrapped absolutely every bit of those countries that they could on their way out. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Russia's a shithole, everywhere they touch turns into a shithole, and it's absolutely no mystery why you see all these pictures of 80 year old Ukrainian women getting a crash course in sharpshooting because the idea of once again being under Russian occupation is just the ultimate "fuuuuuuuuck that."
Yeah Kyiv is a bit like Rome is to the Catholics for The Eastern Orthodox Church. Russian Orthodox Church going PATRIOTS are Putins most loyal supporters.
This is not 100% how it works, but the rest of the economy is in the shitter so probably worth a try for a week. If Russian companies, investors, etc can’t get liquidity via the Russian stock market, the collapse intensifies. Halting trading is meant to be a band aid to a chaotic situation, not fiscal policy.
ive seen varying #s of the amount of troop buildup it would take to occupy a resistant Ukraine...and Russia isnt remotely close to that right now. the longer this drags out + the more men and resources they have to churn thru before even pivoting to occupation, the better.
unfortunately I was assuming Putin is determined to end this thing in the next 1-7 days with indiscriminate bombing of Kyiv
I’ve had three separate friends text about a supposed cyber attack coming and we should stock up on water, food, and fuel. If Russia did bring down a power grid of a NATO country they would automatically be vaporized, so not buying it.
Like every schism, it’s complicated. The official separation of Ukrainian Orthodox and Russian Orthodox happened just in 2019. Kyiv in terms of history and “holiness” puts its Moscow offshoot to shame.
The leader of the Russian Orthodox church described Kiev as the Jerusalem of the faith. That was in 2019 when the church split and the Ukrainian church broke off to make its own national church. That’s a big cause of all of this. Putin and the ROC felt that the US played a major role in the split.
Some of y'all need to breathe, turn the channel for an hour or so, go for a jog or something. At this rate half of this thread will have convinced themselves Putin is going to bomb Berlin by the end of the week.