Master-Debater131

Thats just......wow. So damn sad.

I think its a combination. He wants to regain control over former soviet states, but he also has been working to split NATO. All the Russian propaganda and disinformation in the US was working right up until he attacked. Opinions of NATO were pretty low, now they are sky high. There used to be a fairly visible split between the US and other NATO nations, particularly Germany. That split is basically gone. Sure, Germany may be slow to uptake some sanctions, but they are absolutely moving in a pro-NATO and anti-Russia direction. For China, I totally agree. This has been a disaster for them. It also proves to China that the entire Western world can rally around a cause when a larger nation invades a smaller one. You have to know that they have watched how the West reacted and realized what would happen if they try and invade Taiwan. Not to mention that Taiwan is a far more complex target military speaking than Ukraine. Cant just drive tanks across the ocean. Russia is going to turn into a client state of China from this, but that also hurts China. Russia is going to be a net-drain on anyone they interact with for the near and medium term future.

Crazy to think that Getzlaf is going to retire. Hes been in the league forever, and all of it as a Duck. Going to be interest to see what happens with him and the HoF. I wouldnt be shocked if he makes it in, maybe even on his 1st try.

X That is all.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finland-clarify-next-steps-possible-nato-entry-within-weeks-foreign-minister-2022-04-07/ Finland will clarify next steps regarding a possible decision to seek NATO membership in the coming weeks, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters after attending a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, opinion polls commissioned by Finnish media outlets have shown a swift U-turn in public opinion in Finland with the majority now favouring joining U.S.-led NATO. The Pikachu face memes for this are obvious. Russia has a clear goal of stopping NATO expansion, and thanks to its war in Ukraine its accelerating NATO expansion. Depending on how the application goes, Finland could be a NATO member by the end of the year.

Looonnggg way to go until November, but if these numbers hold then Democrats are in deep deep trouble.

Good. Just one more nail in their economic coffin.

Update: Guess theres an issue with translation. Its unclear if Russia is going to hand Kherson over or if the Ukrainians are about to push the Russians out. Sounds like Russia currently controls the city, but doesnt expect to hold it for much longer.

I don't even know where to begin. Lets start with NATO. One of Putin's clearest goals over the past 20 years has been to divide NATO and prevent its expansion. Both of these now appear to be a total failure. NATO is more united now than it has been since the end of the Cold War. Nations that had previously not been spending on their military are pumping billions into their military. Germany freaking woke up. Nice job Putin! And for expansion? Yea, that's absolutely happening. Finland and Sweden are both looking very likely to join NATO sooner than later. And there are other nations looking to speed-run a NATO membership thanks to this war. NATO is at its strongest position ever, and is only going to get stronger in the coming years and decades. The Russian Economy. Its done. Absolutely done. No Western company is going back to Russia anytime soon. European nations are working to cut off their energy supply from Russia as fast as possible. Thats the single biggest chunk of the Russian economy and the only thing that kept them afloat all these years. You take that away and they are screwed. China and India are going to buy, but its going to take years to build the infrastructure needed to deliver that energy to those nations. The sanctions are absolutely working as well. Russia is close to a default on its debt, and when that happens its going to be a generation before their economy recovers. The only reason the Ruble and their stock market havent failed is because of manipulation that they are doing. That manipulation wont last forever thanks to the sanctions. We dropped the equivilant of multiple nuclear bombs on the Russian economy, we are just waiting for the fallout to fully destroy it. Putins Popularity Yea, trust the polls from a dictatorship. I'm sure they are true. Now for the big one, Ukraine itself. No, Russia has not achieved its goals. Not even close. From the start their stated goal was to completely take over Ukraine and either absorb it back into Russia or set up a puppet government. Neither of those are going to happen anytime soon. Russia tried for a full blown takeover and failed. Their military has been exposed as a complete joke and its painfully clear that if Russia tried to fight any organized and modern military they would be routed. The few places where Russia had gained control they have lost it. Outside of the Donbas the Russians are being pushed back on all fronts. As for control of the Donbas, good luck with that. There is going to be a generation long insurgency in that are that is going to drain Russia of resources that it doesnt have. And thats assuming that Ukraine doesnt start to push Russia back there as well. We are arming Ukraine with some high-tech and high-power weaponry and its shredding the Russian military to pieces. The Ukrainians are far from being rendered combat ineffective. If anything they have gained strength thanks to NATO weaponry and the massive inflow of Western fighters who are joining their foreign legion. Thousands of well trained, well armed, and highly experienced fighters are joining the Ukrainians and are tearing Russia apart. The whole idea that Russia is achieving their goals is nothing more than some of the most epic goal-post shifting you will ever see. They've shifted from a stated goal of total control of Ukraine to "well, maybe just this little part here". The only ones who think that Russia is actually achieving anything here are the Russian Propagandists and Tucker Carlson, but I repeat myself. Russia has failed, and the fallout from this war is going to cause Russia to suffer for decades to come. Ukraine is going to rebuild with billions of dollars from the Western world. It will likely end up in a stronger position in 10 years than they were before the war started. Russia will have nothing but the smoking ruble of its economy and an insurgency to deal with for decades.

Im not going to link to the articles or pictures, but there are clear examples of war crimes happening anywhere that Ukraine liberates. Civilians are being tied up and executed. Some are having swastikas carved into them. And as tsar pointed out, there is a lot of rape happening. The world really needs to isolate Russia even further. Its time to cut off their oil from the world. Really crush them.

That doesnt make sense though. Russia was already firing long range missiles into Ukraine. They didnt need an excuse to continue to do that. If the goal was to increase support for the war or justify even more savage attacks, or even WMDs, then you attack a large civilian area, not a military target. Russia is having a ton of logistics problems as it is, so it really doesnt make sense to take out a fuel depot.

No one is confirming or denying anything. I will repeat what I said about the armory false flag idea though, it doesnt make sense to take out a key military logistics hub when their logistics are already shit. A fun new theory that popped up was it could have been Russians, not as a false flag but as mutiny trying to stop the war. Absolutely zero reason to believe that is true right now, but man that would be something else.

Ukraine has now hit a Russian fuel depot, inside of Russia. Apparently they used helicopters and were able to get into Russian air space, attack the depot, and get out. If Ukraine is able to pull attacks like that off they really are in a strong position. I dont think anyone would have predicted this.

I thought that to but it doesnt make sense for a false flag to hit a munitions depot. Russia already is having huge logistical problems getting weapons and ammo to their troops, taking out a key supply depot doesnt make sense. If it was a false flag I would bet it would hit something like a mall, or an apartment bloc, or some other civilian area. The other option is that it could be pure incompetence. After seeing how the russian army has performed I wouldnt be shocked if the entire depot went up because of someone being a total idiot.

Ukraine may have just hit a Russian arsenal inside of Russia itself. That would be one hell of a swing in things if true.

Australian Nazis is a really nice touch to that map.

Almost right on cue, this suggests that Russia is losing its hold on some of its occupied territory. Hard to know if this is true or not, but its not out of the realm of possibility anymore. the UA is proving to be extremely effective and has started to counter attack in recent days.

Oh I absolutely recognize that what we are seeing is filtered with propaganda in mind. But I also think that the Ukraine is winning when you consider the full context of what happened. Russia invaded with the goal of decapitating the current government, setting up a puppet regime, and fully absorbing Ukraine back into the Russian sphere of influence. None of those things are going to happen. If anything the Russian-Ukraine split is going to become even more pronounced with Ukraine trying to get into the EU. Russia may take control of a few cities and regions, but they wont take the whole country. And the places they are taking are, as you said, being bombed into dust. Thats not setting up for a benefit to the Russians. If anything it will be a huge drain. And thats assuming that Ukraine doesnt retake those ares or that there isnt a prolonged resistance in those areas that continues to drain Russian assets. At this point there really isnt a way for Russia to "win" in any conventional sense. Their initial goals are now totally unreachable, and even some of their new goals may become unreachable before long. The West is poised to pump billions into Ukraine to help them rebuild when this war ends, the same cant be said for Russia. Theres no bringing back the people who Russia are murdering, but the long-term outlook for Ukraine looks better than it does for Russia.

But what happens if he starts to lose those places? Morale in his army is already rock-bottom, and thats before Ukraine really starts to counter attack. They have started in a few places and seem to be having success. What happens if the UA suddenly pushes Russia out of cities it controls in the Donbas? I agree that the odds he uses something are low, but I dont think its 0. And I do think that the worse his army does the more likely he is to something extremely stupid. The "escalate to descalate" doctrine that they use also may push him to do some sort of limited chemical attack. If the UA totally frees Mariupol for example, would he drop a chemical weapon in that city and then try and sue for peace saying that its gotten out of hand? I dont think the reaction from Ukraine, or the rest of the world, would be to accept that, but thats apparently how the Russian playbook operates. You make things worse to try and make them better.

As awesome as it is to see Ukraine starting to actually win this war, I do wonder if that increases the odds that Putin uses a WMD. He is being thoroughly embarrassed right now on all fronts. If he has to pull back to Donbas, what happens when he starts losing there? I really dont think its crazy to think that Ukraine can retake some of the big cities there, and maintain control on ones they currently control. Hes shown he is more than wiling to commit war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, whats to stop him from using chemical weapons?

The fact that russian troops are openly killing their commanders tells you all you need to know about how this war is going for Russia.