Prediction Thread: When Will Ukraine Conquer Russia

[Geronimo]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ar...nto-second-day

I'm astonished that Russia hadn't already entrenched massive defence infrastructure to guard against this all up and down the length of the border with Ukraine. They've definitely done so all along the front within Ukraine.

[BeBMan]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/07/ukraine-incursion-into-russia-kursk-region-continues-into-second-day

[Bereta_Eder]

I like Sevastopole

sevastoupolis


ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΥΠΟΛΗ

the city of reverance


pretty darn good name if you ask me. very religious and awe inspiring


we don't have names like that anymore

[Bereta_Eder]

it is the same in many other parts of the world. she's nothign special in that regard

[Bereta_Eder]

cherson chersona ΧΕΡΣΩΝΑ

it means peninsula


Oddessa ΟΔΔΥΣΟΣ

Simply means the citgy of Ulyses

Mariopole ΜΑΡΙΟΥΠΟΛΙΣ


simply means the city of virgin mary


i can go on and on


bascailly urkaine for some reason is a miniscule map of greek history

[Bereta_Eder]

also half of ukranian cities have greek names


why? i wonder

[Bereta_Eder]

Nice map it was before alxender the great.


and before the bhzantine empire.

so it is rather small but still cute

[BeBMan]

Give Crimea back to the Greeks

[Dauphin]

I think what you do not seem to understand Serb is the extent to which the most passionate dedication to a separate national identity can be wholly and entirely "artificial" and have nothing to do with ancient history and shared heritage.

Exhibit A could be examining the relationship between Canada and the US. The only thing that really separated them initially was the fact that the 13 colonies that started the US voted to go to war to secede and the rest of British North America declined to do so. There was no meaningful cultural or historical divide along the new national border when the Crown officially recognized the independence of the 13 colonies (along with a generous portion of the less organized portions of British North America to the West of the colonies). At that time the closest thing to a divide was the very recent at the time influx of Crown loyalists from the seceding colonies into the rest of British North America. Even that, however, did not define any national identities to be discerned across the border. The borders between the colonies and between the new US "states" were at least as meaningful in the usual national identity sense. However, when friction between the US and Britain pushed the US to consider invasion of the rest of British North America as a way of leveraging redress from the Crown for their grievances in 1812 *that* totally and permanently changed the national identity dynamics of the border, especially infamous provocations like the burning of the tiny provincial capital of York. Ever since this war Canadians were able to gravitate to a new national identity. Was it a distinctive "Canadian" national identity? no. not at all in fact. It was a distinctive "whoever we are we are *not* those guys who call themselves "Americans" to our south" national identity. For many, if not decisively most Canadians nationalism would develop almost entirely as a rejection of US national identity above all else.

My point, Serb, is that all of your misguided history lessons that you and Putin keep returning to to try to argue that Ukraine isn't a really a nation have zero relevance. People *not* wanting to be part of a nation can be as much of a division (and far stronger typically) than any amount of shared history language or shared anything else really. To the extent that residents of Ukraine may have previously viewed themselves as being as much "Russian" as "Ukrainian" and viewed any division between the two states as meaningless the special military operation has no doubt massively undermined that sentiment. If Ukrainians didn't see themselves as separate before, they surely do now to a *massively* increased degree.

I think this is true of most if not all kinds of us vs them scenario. Be it tribes through nations, or undying support for a sports club, or political party.

Split a group of people random into team A and team B, and you will find both sides want theirs to win, regardless of why how that team came to into existence.

[Geronimo]

I just thought I would drop this here.

https://youtube.com/shorts/M6hClRAOn...BqOq4rDn7vZRig

talk is cheap. especially anonymous narrator you-tube video talk. Do you have any credible sources?

[BeBMan]

Just noticed:

Russia to free Gershkovich and Whelan in major prisoner swap

Three US citizens imprisoned in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, are expected to be released on Thursday under a prisoner exchange deal.

Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva will be released under the deal agreed by the Biden administration, a senior US official confirmed.

In total, the exchange will involve 24 prisoners held in Russia, the US, Germany and three other Western countries. The swap has not happened yet but is expected later on Thursday.

Eight Russian nationals are expected to be returned to Russia, including several with suspected ties to Russian intelligence.

One of them is Vadim Krasikov, identified by German officials as a colonel in Russia’s FSB intelligence service, who is serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of a Kremlin opponent in a Berlin Park.

German media reported that he is on a plane to the Turkish capital Ankara.

The swap comes after days of speculation about a major swap between various countries, which increased after several dissidents and journalists jailed in Russia were moved from their prison cells to unknown locations.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin opponent with dual Russian-British citizenship, is one of those detainees whose whereabouts are unknown which has fuelled expectations that he too could be released.

Others potentially on the list are Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin and veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov.

Although secret prison transfers are common in Russia, the multiple "disappearance" of well-known prisoners was unusual.

Earlier this week, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardoned a German citizen Rico Krieger who had been sentenced to death for terrorism and other charges.

If all the releases take place, it will be one of the biggest exchanges between Russia and the West in history.

The last high-profile prisoner swap took place in December 2022, when US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged on the tarmac at Abu Dhabi airport for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had been held in an American prison for 12 years.

The last comparable one occurred in Vienna in 2010, when 10 Russian spies held in the US were swapped for four alleged double agents held in Russia.

One of them was Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence officer, later poisoned by nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.

Tensions between Moscow and the West have been high in recent years, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c29d6k382k5o

Earlier this week, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardoned a German citizen Rico Krieger who had been sentenced to death for terrorism and other charges.

Lil tidbit on this supposed terrorist:

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/07/25/they-ve-raised-the-stakes

[BeBMan]

Russia didn't exist in XYZ, so let's give it all back to them dinos. Oh wait, the dinos are gone. Then let's clone some to give it all back, and hope the amoebae don't complain that they were there first.

[Dinner]

I just thought I would drop this here.

https://youtube.com/shorts/M6hClRAOnzc?si=l4BqOq4rDn7vZRig

[BlackCat]

We have an alike saying: "First remove the log from your own eye, then say to other man that he should remove a speck from his".

Well, I'm pretty sure that you still have that log inside your eye
Try pulling it out and you might find yourself as a member of a partisan group that works for ending the facist putin regime

[Geronimo]

I think something that observers might get extremely wrong about Russia may be the way they think they understand what makes Putin tick. Most seem to take for granted as a demonstrated fact that Putin is motivated by gaining personal power and personal wealth. Personally I don't understand how that has been established. I've always felt that everything about Putin could be just as easily explained as a genuine love and devotion to the Soviet Union as a state, a state that he equates with the current Russian federation. He, as a dedicated former KGB agent saw enormous corruption eating Russia alive under Yeltsin along with enormous geopolitical losses associated with the end of the USSR. There's plenty of accounts and anecdotes to suggest that Putin engaged in a battle against the corruption and that he used that battle to enrich himself personally but I don't think this was to feed his personal avarice. No, the vast sums of money he placed under his personal control were simply another lever of power alongside political power to personally lead Russia away from the ruin of the Yeltsin era. I don't think he intended to do so by invading originally but when he saw the US and it's NATO partners pursue might-makes-right in the Balkans and in the middle east and north africa he was determined that Russia would show that it can play by such rules as well. Of course absolute power truly does corrupt and Putin has so much power in Russia now that it no longer pays for anyone to tell him anything he doesn't want to believe, so his leadership is becoming more and more unhinged as time goes on.

So why are so many convinced that Putin is primarily motivated by personal money and power rather a love of the state he served when he was a dedicated and largely apolitical KGB agent? Yes his actions and policies seem terrible for the welfare of the Russian people lately but according to the information he gets from subordinates they are the best way to enhance and protect the geopolitical power of Russia.