The Russians have gone in

[Absalom]

I think this will have lots of unintended consequences, the opposite of what Putin intended.

Hitler wanted to build an empire in Europe to stand alongside the British Empire. Instead, the war he started devoured him and his country, sounded the death knell of the British Empire and turned the US, until then a self-absorbed bystander, and the USSR, until then an isolated pariah, into superpowers.

Osama bin Laden wanted to terrorize the US into pulling out of the Middle East. Instead, his plan sucked the US and especially the US military into the Middle East and the larger Muslim world on a scale never seen before.

General prediction: Putin isn’t going to do any better in the long run.

On a side note, at a UN climate conference the Russian delegate just apologized to the Ukrainian delegate for the invasion. The meeting was virtual; if that means he was in Russia, that was courageous, even though it was not public, and might not bode well for his future.

 

[LCC]

Let's frame Russia for what it currently actually is, not what it pretends to be.
It's economy is the same size as Texas.
It's average citizen wage is $15,000 a year.
The vast majority of it's wealth is held by Putin's plutocrats who do not pay tax's into the economy, they merely pay a tithe to Putin.
Their military force is comprised of 95% draftees putting in their two years of compulsory service, required of all males between 18 - 27 years old.
Their military equipement is old and ill maintained with spare parts a huge problem.
Intelligence reports the majority of Russia's aging nuke silo missile's are non-functional due to decades of neglect.

Putin severely miscalculated. He underestimated the resolve of the Ukrainan citizens as well as the will of NATO to stand together.
His armor is getting destroyed, hundreds of Russian soldiers are now prisoners, the NATO nations are sending in hundreds of tons of personal weapons and ammo including thousands of highly effective anti-tank missles, and Russia, Putin and it's plutocrats are facing crippling economic sanctions as global banking services are cut off, and non-Russian corporations begin their pull away from in country investments.

Do not be surprised if Putin and Ukraine make a settlement that gives Russia the eastern quarter of Ukraine, which is already pro-Russian, and putin pulls his forces back across the border and declares a hollow victory.
Parrt of that agreement will be a pledge that Ukraine will not join NATO. Which does not mean that NATO cannot arm Ukraine to the teeth and create a death trap along it's eastern border with Russia.

 

[tlawler]

I just read a news report that the Ukrainian road and highway department that produces road signs has been busy replacing the directional signs with official looking signs that now say essentially what the Snake Island defenders told the Russian warship. I won’t post the link since it contains actual profanity, but you can google it. The Ukrainian defiance in the face of possible annihilation is truly courageous.

 

[pharmer]

Remember, his background is that he was a
TV comedian.

Lotsa clowns running things these days. Rare when one has ***** to match the giant red shoes. Joe

 

[alwslate]

Better a day on your feet than a lifetime on your knees.

Yeah, death with dignity, death with honor, death in the name of a just cause. Easy to say for those left behind to remember and revere. But for the individual who’s incredible gift of life is cut short death is just the return to endless non existence. If there’s anything good about that I’ve missed it. As long as there’s life there is hope.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Great comments, folks. Listening to the news today, it's obvious that the worldwide weight of public opinion is with the Ukrainians, and no, things are not going as well as Putin expected. (Is it too much to hope that his evil little head explodes?)

Russian conscripts will never fight as passionately as Ukrainians defending their homeland...it simply isn't possible. And even if Putin is somehow able to kill or capture President Zelensky, and install a puppet government, the citizens of Ukraine will never surrender...he will be fighting a committed and increasingly effective insurgency every moment he stays there.

Listening to the various Sunday news shows today, and reading between the lines, while Ukraine is not a NATO member, NATO -- and the rest of the free world -- clearly wants to see the Ukrainians kick Putin's butt. (Even the Germans are sending weapons there.) While we'll likely never know for sure, I would love to think that the USA is providing a lot of behind-the-scenes help to the Ukrainians: Satellite surveillance data and photos, electronic intelligence, perhaps CIA or military special operators on the ground. We are the world's bastion of freedom; I sure hope we are actively helping to defend it!

 

[DWalt]

Several quotes from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata which seem appropriate to the current Ukraine situation:

"I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees."

"We do not want the peace of slaves nor the peace of the grave."

"Seek justice from tyrannical governments not with your hat in your hands but with a rifle in your fist."

"The land free, without overseers and without masters."

 

[StakeOut]

The shoulder fired stingers would surely help take a toll on the Russin air power advantage

 

[ladder13]

Several quotes from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata which seem appropriate to the current Ukraine situation:

"I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees…………."

So that’s where James Brown got that.

 

[oldbrownhat]

The shoulder fired stingers would surely help take a toll on the Russin air power advantage

But these personal arms- from this BBC article - may not quite be up to par:

I'm writing this in a bomb shelter several storeys below ground with a crowd of people, four dogs and a pet rabbit.

Hotel staff ran round banging on doors soon after midnight before herding us down multiple flights of stairs at high speed.

It looks like they've overreacted to a rumour about a landing of Russian paratroopers but it's hardly surprising; everyone's on edge here.

Earlier in the evening we visited Hanna Syva and her family in a giant apartment block across the road.

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began two days ago, she moved the whole family into the living room to sleep behind the sofa.

Her husband brought out his gun. It now lies beside a big stuffed toy on their window ledge...."

A C-96 Mauser? Winston Churchill's sidearm during the Boer War!

 

[Absalom]

But these personal arms- from this BBC article - may not quite be up to par:
……
A C-96 Mauser? Winston Churchill's sidearm during the Boer War!

If he actually has ammo for it. I can see the shotgun shells …

But I think it’s the thought that counts.

Just looking at whatever footage is available of actual fighting or fought-over areas, it just gives the impression that the Russian military’s nerve is not where Putin’s mouth is.

Some burned-out trucks. A lonely destroyed tank. A handful of Ukrainian fighters popping off some RPG rounds from behind a street corner. A quote like this from a BBC report a few hours old:
“Maria Avdeev, another resident, said groups of Russian troops were eliminated "one by one" by the Ukrainian military.
Also, a number of Russian soldiers and officers were captured, so they did not basically fight back, when they saw that they had no other option," she said.”

Whatever this is, it does not sound and look like a major combined-arms push by the best-armored army in the world.

It’s as if the Russians really believed their own propaganda and expected a largely political war. Here comes the fearsome Russian war machine, the “Nazi clique” in Kyiv bolts for the exit and the Ukrainian military surrenders; game over.

It seems to be disconcerting to discover on site that the Ukrainians don’t want to be liberated so quickly. And the Russians apparently didn’t even pack a change of underwear, figuratively speaking.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Just looking at whatever footage is available of actual fighting or fought-over areas, it just gives the impression that the Russian military’s nerve is not where Putin’s mouth is....

I hadn't read the BBC reports of lack of steel of those Russian troops. I certainly hope you are right. The fewer casualties - on both sides** - and the sooner this is over, the better.

** I'm thinking of smithman's comment a while back

To a teen-age looking Russian soldier in 1971 so I could travel from West Berlin to West Germany while on leave. I remember at the time thinking, I bet this boy would rather be at home with his girlfriend than doing this.

I am willing to bet that the Russian conscripts in the units invading Ukraine don't have half the motivation as the folks they are attacking and I think that will make a world of difference.

I hope so.

 

[Aggie1906]

Playing softball with their cousins? Gunshy reporters?
Had to square all this.
Not the guys we faced off at the border during the Cold War.

 

[LCC]

The shoulder fired stingers would surely help take a toll on the Russin air power advantage

Ukraine already had 300 Javelins from the US which have taken down multiple Russian choppers and a few aircraft.
Germany has sent 500 Stingers, UK has sent 1000 UNLAW's, multiple countries are sending in portable missiles. The skies over Ukraine are about to become a kill zone for anything flying under 10,000', and by the time this is over, a lot less Russian armor will be returning home than originally crossed.

 

[Onomea]

I'm concerned about escalation by the Russians to cruise missiles. Launched from bombers deep within Russia.

Russian Bombers Could Pummel Ukraine ... Without Going Anywhere Near Ukraine

 

[Kevin J.]

Musk says Starlink active in Ukraine as Russian invasion disrupts internet | Reuters

Musk to help provide internet. Extremely important in todays world for both families to keep in touch as they split up to evacuate and stay in county to fight. Not to mention the need for any guerrilla war and resistance communication. I remember reading how the Poles had an underground network of pirate radio stations during the Solidarity revolution in 1989. Internet access is huge and a game changer.

 

[oldbrownhat]

‘I had no idea he was there’: families’ shock at video of captured Russian soldiers

Guardian article here (Should be accessible; you'll get a banner that can be dismissed

"Ukrainian officials have published dozens of videos of what they say are captured Russian soldiers, as the brutal fighting in Ukraine enters its fourth day.

In one of the videos, published early on Sunday morning on the Telegram channel Find Your Own, set up by Ukraine’s interior ministry, a visibly injured soldier identifies himself as Leonid Paktishev, the commander of a sniper unit based in the Rostov region.

The Telegram channel, which first went live on Saturday, has posted numerous videos and photos showing captured Russian troops, which have led to an outcry from their families who say they were shocked to find out about the involvement of their loved ones in the invasion of Ukraine.

The Guardian spoke to three family members who confirmed the identity of Paktishev and said they were shocked and angry when they found out after seeing the video that their loved one had been captured..."

"...On Saturday the independent TV channel Dozhd published an interview in which a visibly distressed father of a young Russian soldier said he did not want his son to become “cannon fodder”, denying that he had any prior knowledge of his son’s involvement in the conflict.

The Find Your Own Telegram channel also published a number of graphic photographs of what were said to be Russian troops killed in action. If confirmed, the images appear to shine a light on the true toll the war has had on the Russian army...."

​

 

[Kevin J.]

As said to a Russian soldier by a Ukrainian grandmother.

“Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow where you all die here,”

Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine.

 

[UncleEd]

As said to a Russian soldier by a Ukrainian grandmother.

“Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow where you all die here,”

Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine.

Saturday Night Live's cold opening featured
the New York Ukrainian Chorus on a stage
festooned with sun flowers and a vigil light
center piece spelling out Kyiv. The chorus
sang "Prayer for Ukraine."

 

[Rudi]

Stoli is made in Latvia, one of the Baltic states that is now a member nation of NATO.

Those skaliwags!!