Russia

[rabidtictac]

Point is, it's inconceivable Russia could lose to Ukraine without direct military intervention from another first world western power, which is exactly why Zelenskyy has been crying so much about the US needing to "do more" (lolwut nigga?) and demanding that no-fly zone. He knows better than anybody how the war is REALLY going. I'm sure there is a lot of information about the war, especially regarding Ukrainian military losses, which we are just not receiving. The western powers have zero incentive to report on Russian victories. Russia has their propaganda and we have ours.

I also agree that sanctions, while potentially crippling to Russia's engagement with the global market, will not stop Putin. Russia is a big country with a lot of resources. It can sustain its own population and there will always be countries who continue to buy gas and oil from them.

SpoilerShow

I think I said at the start of this conflict that the smartest move for America might be to just stay out. Pretend not to see anything and be stone-cold bastards about the death and destruction. America really needs to stop trying to police and control the world. The global economy/government has been a massive failure and resulted in extreme poverty and human suffering worldwide. Many poorer nations are in hock to megacorps and groups like the IMF. This all started from a desire to meddle in everything, everywhere. But if you even start to speak along those lines, people will call you isolationist. No nigga, I'm not saying close up everything. I'm saying, try to stay in your lane. Don't expand. Don't allow megacorps to corrupt government with their money. Keep things local where you can. Spend less on military and more on your own people. Create sustainable systems wherever possible/reasonable.

What is NATO if not a giant globohomo machine? The USSR was another side of the same coin. The only time the USA should step in is if another country actually fucking sets off a nuke or pollutes the environment so badly that it affects us. And why should we send our fucking tax dollars to Ukraine? Do you shitposters have any conception of the number of homeless, insane and poverty-stricken in the USA? There are no institutions for the mentally ill and no more shelter beds for the homeless. We spent billions on fucking fighter jets and drones so we can go kill people across the world, and for what? What the fuck is the point?!?

If we're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, we should be spending it on us, not on Ukraine.

[Kugelfisch]

Some of our top brass are suspecting that Russia has only about ten or so more days of fight in them before their advance completely stalls, and goes into some kind of gay trench warfare.

Absolute nonsense. There is no such thing as trench warfare these days.
Our "top brass" consists of faggots that have never fought in a single war and only seldom seen a skirmish, let alone one against a nation that wasn't turbo poor.

If Russia had done a full scale invasion on Ukraine and wanted to steamroll them, they would've.
Yes, they likely thought that mild initial push would have them surrender immediately - like they fucking should've. They didn't think Krusty would be hellbent on throwing every single Ukrainian male in front of the bus to fight to the last bullet just to save his ass.

[McGinnis]

The irony is that - the longer the war goes on - the more likely it is Zelenskyy will be killed. Either by the Russians, who will want to leave no doubt about who 'won' this war, or by his own Ukrainians, who will come to resent being used as cannon fodder just to keep this worthless maggot alive.

Recall that Zelensky's approval ratings, before the invasion, made Joe Biden look popular.

[Kugelfisch]

Has he shown up in public somewhere? I wouldn't be surprised if he had left the country before a single Russian tank touched ground.

[McGinnis]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised either. That whole quote of 'I don't need a ride, I need ammo' was fake, there's no evidence of him saying that, and there's certainly no evidence that he's still in Ukraine

[rabidtictac]

The irony is that - the longer the war goes on - the more likely it is Zelenskyy will be killed. Either by the Russians, who will want to leave no doubt about who 'won' this war, or by his own Ukrainians, who will come to resent being used as cannon fodder just to keep this worthless maggot alive.

Recall that Zelensky's approval ratings, before the invasion, made Joe Biden look popular.

He certainly knows he will not be getting out of this conflict alive unless he gets NATO involved and sparks WW3, which is why he is trying to do exactly that, with repeated cries for a no-fly zone. One of the first conditions for Ukraine's surrender would be the turnover of the Ukrainian administration, to be tried in Russian courts. I know that's the first thing I would ask for if I were Putin. How else do you ensure control over Ukraine after its surrender?

[Le Redditeur]

One of the first conditions for Ukraine's surrender would be the turnover of the Ukrainian administration, to be tried in Russian courts. I know that's the first thing I would ask for if I were Putin. How else do you ensure control over Ukraine after its surrender?

That would be WW3, then. WW1 started with an ultimatum which was rejected, among other reasons, for containing a clause similar to that.

Recall that Zelensky's approval ratings, before the invasion, made Joe Biden look popular.

Which begs the question: why didn't Russia exploit that before going on very costly war? Putin is an ex-KGB, they write half the book on regime destabilization, and that's much facilitated when the current regime has shitty popular support. Seems to me that covertly supporting a "non-alignment" populist could achieve the same goals long term.

[McGinnis]

How else do you ensure control over Ukraine after its surrender?

Once they've eliminated Ukrainian military, Ukrainian government will basically be sitting ducks. They can't afford to be hostile to Moscow. If Zelensky didn't keep trying to escalate the conflict I wouldn't be surprised if Putin would have let him keep his position, for PR reasons of course, just to say 'See, we're civilised, we believe in democracy'. Until the next election, by which time Putin would have had him (((fortified))) out of office.

But now? Even if he flees, expect him to get the Trotsky treatment

Which begs the question: why didn't Russia exploit that before going on very costly war?

Azov is why. The CIA are also very good at regime destabilisation and they've funded the Neo-Nazi national guard with the aim of making sure that something like the Iranian Revolution just doesn't happen in Ukraine.

[RedLine]

Do you shitposters have any conception of the number of homeless, insane and poverty-stricken in the USA? There are no institutions for the mentally ill and no more shelter beds for the homeless.

If we're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, we should be spending it on us, not on Ukraine.

I'm not especially interested in spending all our money on gibs for people like Dicksucker Mike and Hog Rachel either.

[McGinnis]

Hog Rachel's Cucknadian, so no problem there.