Quote from: ferdmonger on April 16, 2022, 09:58:02 PMAustrian Chancellor Nehammer stated that Putin believes he is winning this war.
Putin can block his people from knowing the truth, but he cannot block himself from knowing the truth, or from western media. What is going on this mans brain?

 

It depends on what you view as the war; if it's simply against Ukraine, he is losing it... badly.

If it is a war to see how far he can push his limits without any meaningful response from his opponents... then he is doing brilliant.

This war doesn't cost him, personally, a single cent; he will continue to be possibly the richest man in the world even if Ukraine pushed all the way to the border... and his money is mostly made by Western businesses that will continue to do business with either him directly or, more likely, shadow companies to avoid the publicity.

On top of that, he gets to emulate his hero Stalin and Lenin and commit genocide on Ukrainians without a real response from the West, something both of them did to disturbingly extreme levels. It's a no-lose situation for him at the moment, and the more the West allows him to grow comfortable... the more comfortable he is going to get (deeply profound, I know).

He's tested his limits several times before, and NATO has had peace in our time several times before - a piece of Georgia, a piece of Moldova (though that was before Putin), a piece of Ukraine...

This time, he got greedy and it hasn't quite worked out for him so far.  He was not properly prepared for quite so much resistance - from Ukraine, from NATO members, and even to some degree, from Russians themselves.

But like Shiranu said, Putin personally loses nothing and Russia has sold its share of gas this year regardless of sanctions.  And they have caused considerable death and destruction in Ukraine while the world looks on.  Less destruction than Putin wanted, but there's always next time...

First European leader to meet with Putin since the election: Putin thinks he's winning the war

There's a good chance Putin might be delusional.  He apparently had a "greeted as liberators" mindset for the first few weeks which ended in a series of sackings and purges when he finally realized that wasn't true.

There's a good chance that he's ODing on his own propaganda.  If so, that makes him even more dangerous.  He'll escalate and do some very reckless things before reality finally comes crashing down on him.

It's been noted before but his mental parallels to Hitler are uncanny.  We are always cautioned not do draw such parallels, but in general, I think it safe to say that great amounts of power can affect ones view of reality in ways that could be deemed insane.  It may require a bit of being predisposed to such an outcome, but power is probably more personally harmful than drug addiction when possessed by the wrong person.

Friends like these: large shootout between Russian troops and Russian-allied troops

Russian anti-air production falling due to sanctions

Who's there is interest to give money to Ukrainian forces ? It's legal to do so in the majority of countries of the world.

Who's there is interest to write emails (Or letters and why not a public one) to politicians in European Union/AU/CA/CH/JP/NO/NZ/SG/UK/US (Not forget others countries that put sanctions) to suggest them new ideas of sanctions against Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus ?

When I say politicians in European Union. I'm speaking about those working for countries member of this union and those working in European institutions.

There are many potential targets like MP of national parliaments and MP of European parliament.
There are also head of states , prime ministers (Vice-president in some countries , some countries have one vice-prime minister or more) , members of governments , people (Businessmen for example) for which we know they have links with a person of interest (A MP in a national parliament for example) because these people can potentially influence people of interests.

I listed only a fraction of potential targets for which we can send emails or letters.
It's better to write to politicians of a country if you're a citizen of this country.
It's better to write to politicians working in European institutions such European commission if you're a citizen of an EU state.

Quote from: viocjit on April 17, 2022, 11:48:53 PMWho's there is interest to give money to Ukrainian forces ?

Every country likely to have russian "special operations" conducted in their country, which is nearly every country that borders russia.

Every country which would benefit from Russia's sphere of influence decreasing, which is the above plus pretty much every NATO/EU country plus some other countries with heavy western ties like like Japan and Australia.

Every country that imports grain from Ukraine, which is a LOT of countries.

And last but not least, any country horrified by land-grab expansionist militarism and genocide.  Or maybe countries that just don't want trade disrupted by wars of aggression.  That's pretty much everyone.

Virtually every country on the planet would benefit in some way - small or large - by both countries returning to a state of peace.  And the best way to get there is for them to chip in and help Ukraine defend itself.

Google maps has un-hidden Russian military instillations.  The next 24 hours should be very interesting.



Either this is a hell of a glitch or the Russian airforce isn't quite as formidable as I thought.

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap: Ukrainian forces shoot down $15 million helicopter with $100 missile

QuoteWe did not want to waste a Stinger on them, so the Russian Ka-52 helicopter was shot down with an ordinary Igla

Ukraine has started receiving the $800 million military aid package from the US

Prophetic video from before the conflict:


It talks about the Slava class (like the Moskva) packs a ton of weapon systems close together and all that dakka comes with maintenance, reliability, and safety issues.  An ammo detonation could be catastrophic...

How long before Vlad starts tossing cruise missiles onto rail lines everywhere in Ukraine?  And then keeps doing it while destroying entire cities... slow but sure.

His ground forces are crap.  Terror from the skies is his fall back. He intends to grind Ukraine into into dust, slow but sure while 30 NATO nations watch.

Show this loser who's the loser. 

It's all bluster at this point.  The three day 'special operation' didn't work out, and it's too late to lob cruise missiles into Kiev.  (Wouldn't be politically correct at this point.)

Enough blackmail and more offense. 

Agreed.  Putin keeps talking nukes, but he knows what would happen next if he went that far.  He's just trying to threaten as always.  It only works if you think it's credible and it's not credible.  As reckless and amok this conflict is, Putin has been very careful so far not to attack any NATO forces.  There's a reason for that.

Quote from: Hydra009 on April 18, 2022, 10:04:09 PMUkraine has started receiving the $800 million military aid package from the US

Not near enough in my opinion. We should start at 5 times that, and then assess.