Prediction Thread: When Will Ukraine Conquer Russia

[Jon Miller]

To my knowledge we had nothing to do with Putin attacking Ukraine.

Well, I have heard Far Left accusations that his interactions with Trump had encouraged him.

You can't ask people to surrender and die. It is not 'never ending war' for people to defend their country and their lives.

JM

[Berzerker]

yup, thats a reason for never ending war

[Jon Miller]

We say we are giving 1 billion (for example). This means that we payed the arms manufacturers 1 billion, but often times what is provided is old equipment that we would store or destroy or was otherwise no longer worth 1 billion (to us). Obviously if we get rid of missiles/etc, then we need to purchase more, and we are purchasing from the arms manufacturers.

If Ukraine could buy on open market, which often they can't, they would probably pay a lot less than 1 billion.

JM

[Berzerker]

Mitch McConnell admitted the quiet part out loud - he says most of that $$$ we're pouring into Ukraine is actually going to US weapons makers (who pay for his elections, no, he didn't admit to that but its true)

[Berzerker]

Saakashvili thought so in 2008, when he attacked Osetia.

Is that the same guy who ended up in charge of the Odessa region in 2014 during the right wing purge of protesters? Weren't we dangling Nato membership to Georgia too?

[Berzerker]

better make peace now and negotiate for an independent Donbas or Russia will start gobbling up more land, could even make Ukraine landlocked as Poland et al move into western Ukraine

[Berzerker]

Did Meduza reveal Biden armed the Nazis?

[BlackCat]

Zelensky has been visiting europa and have received 42 F-16 from the Nederlands and a further 19 from Denmark.

[BeBMan]

Interesting discussion of the opening of delivering F16's ti Ukraine

Russia has integrated air defence

Which means they will down all 500 F16s delivered per month in few days

[BeBMan]

Russian women fear return of murderers freed to fight for Wagner

Concern that convicts re-entering society after stints in Ukraine will bring ‘wave of murder, rape and domestic violence’


The 2020 murder of Vera Pekhteleva, by her ex-boyfriend, was so gruesome that even in Russia, where violence against women often goes under the radar, it caused a media outcry.

Vladislav Kanyus spent hours torturing Pekhteleva before she died; neighbours repeatedly called police to report horrifying screams coming from the neighbouring apartment, but the police did not show up. At trial, it emerged there had been 111 injuries on Pekhteleva’s body.

Last summer, a court in Siberia sentenced Kanyus to 17 years in prison for the murder. Pekhteleva’s family members were disappointed that the judge dismissed additional charges of rape and unlawful imprisonment, but breathed a sigh of relief that the murder charge alone would put Kanyus behind bars for 17 years.

Nine months later, in the middle of May, Pekhteleva’s mother received two photographs from an anonymous account on WhatsApp. They showed a man in military fatigues and were accompanied by a message: “Kanyus is free, and fighting in Ukraine.”

“I couldn’t believe my eyes, I tried to calm her down, I tried to say it wasn’t him, it was Photoshop. But we quickly realised it really was him,” said Vladimir Pekhtelev, Vera’s uncle, in a telephone interview from the Siberian city of Kemerovo.

(...)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/russian-women-wagner-convicts-war-ukraine

[BeBMan]

Meduza revealed that Putin armed the Nazis. And just recently Reuters found out that he also gave them roles in his presidential apparatus.

[Geronimo]

An in person gathering of drone manufacturers seems incredibly stupid. They couldn't meet virtually? Hopefully no operations critical personal were sent.

[Ming]

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) claimed wild fires were caused by Jewish space lasers...

[Berzerker]

Jamal Bowman (D-NY) was asked how he felt about Crimea and the Donbas and he didn't know what they were... at least Gary Johnson wasn't arming ISIS to destroy Aleppo when he didn't recognise the name.

[Broken_Erika]

Chernihiv: Russian missile strike kills seven and injures 144, Ukraine says

Seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed when a Russian missile struck a theatre in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday morning, officials have said.

Fifteen children were among 144 people wounded, the police said. At least 25 people were in hospital.

Among the victims were people who had been celebrating an Orthodox Christian holiday at church.

A main square and a university building were also damaged in the attack.

The UN called it "heinous", while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed a firm response by Ukrainian soldiers to a "terrorist attack".

Chernihiv is located about 50km (31 miles) south of Ukraine's border with Belarus. It was besieged by Russian troops in the first few months of President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

The city's imposing theatre was hit directly. Tiles were blown off the roofs of neighbouring buildings with one catching fire 100 metres away.

The theatre was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers, the acting mayor of Chernihiv told the BBC.

"I understand that their aim was a military event taking place in the building of the drama theatre and that it was their target," Oleksandr Lomako said.

"But it is clear that the Russians launching those missiles and those giving them orders in the middle of the day to the civilian city realised that the victims will be primarily civilians.

"There is no other way to interpret it than a war crime against civilians, yet another Russian war crime," he added.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko later said all those inside the theatre had managed to reach shelter in time.

He said that "most of the victims were in their vehicles or crossing the road at the time of the rocket strike, as well as returning from a church".

• War in maps: Ukraine advances around two villages
• ‘Russia said I was dead’ – voices of Ukraine’s front-line women

The city centre of Chernihiv is a popular area for people to stroll around, especially on the weekend, locals told the BBC.

Anna Zahreba, the manager of a Crimean Tatar restaurant just across the street from the theatre, said her staff were getting ready for a busy day when the missile hit.

"I ran outside to see what was going on," she said. "There were two 12-year-old girls here and a lot of blood. One had her leg badly wounded. Another girl was screaming.

"We applied a tourniquet and waited for an ambulance. It was taking a long time to get here, but some man stopped his car and we took a girl to a hospital."

Anna says staff rushed to help injured people with medical kit and blankets.

"There are always many people walking around here, with children and baby strollers. Many restaurants and cafes in the area," she tells us.

"We did not expect a day like this."

In his video address late on Saturday, President Zelensky said the child killed in the Russian strike was a girl named Sofia.

Earlier, he said that Russia had turned an "ordinary Saturday" into "a day of pain and loss".

The UN said it was "extremely disturbed" by the attack.

"It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to the church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians," Denise Brown, the current head of the UN in Ukraine, said in a statement.

"Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law," she said. "It must stop."

Three days of mourning have been announced in the city.

Moscow is yet to comment.

Elsewhere, Russia has claimed that a Ukrainian drone hit a military airfield in the northwest Novgorod region, causing a fire that was quickly put out.

One plane was damaged but no casualties have been reported, it added.

Ukraine has not commented on the alleged drone attack.

Meanwhile, Kyiv's air force said the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66554412