Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Ukraine’s Getting Nearly 200 Leopard 1A5 Tanks. Now It Needs New Tank Tactics.
By David Axe | Nov 9, 2023, 10:16pm EST

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/11/09/ukraines-getting-near
ly-200-leopard-1a5-tanks-now-it-needs-new-tank-tactics/?sh=3f4e9a74dbe5

The Leopard 1s just keep coming.

In the nine months since a German-Danish-Dutch consortium announced it would donate to Ukraine’s war effort an initial batch of 100 German-made Leopard 1A5 tanks, the consortium—as well as Denmark acting alone — have added 95 Leopard 1s to the total.

The most recent pledge, by Germany last week, includes an extra 25 tanks. The first 20 or so Leopard 1A5s already have arrived in Ukraine, where they apparently equip a company within the new 44th Mechanized Brigade.

Ukraine now is set to receive no fewer than 195 of the lightweight, 1980s-vintage Leopard 1A5s. They by far will be Ukraine’s most numerous Western-style tanks, and will be outnumbered in the Ukrainian inventory only by Ukraine’s homemade T-64s and by various T-72 models that Ukraine either inherited from the Soviet Union in 1991 or recently has acquired from its European allies.

All those Leopard 1A5s represent an opportunity, albeit a risky one. Five months into its widely-anticipated counteroffensive, Ukraine has lost at least 13 of its best Leopard 2 tanks out of just 85 of the heavy tanks its allies have pledged, and 71 that they’ve delivered.

Something must replace those tanks. There are no indications any of NATO’s allies are willing to part with any more of their Leopard 2s; nor are there are any signs the United Kingdom will add to the 14 Challenger 2 tanks it has donated to Ukraine — one of which the Ukrainians already have lost.

Yes, the United States easily could double, triple or multiply by 10 the 31 M-1 tanks it has pledged, but Republicans in the U.S. Congress — increasingly apologists for the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin — could slow or even block additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Unless and until Ukraine can resume construction of its own tanks — an unlikely prospect given the massive investment that would be necessary — German Leopard 1s, Czech T-72s and various Soviet-style tanks from Poland are the only tanks Ukraine can count on receiving in large numbers.

Which means Kyiv must figure out how best to use these tanks: mitigating their weaknesses and leveraging their strengths. For the nearly 200 Leopard 1A5s, enough for three battalions, that means deploying the tanks where they can move quickly, stay behind cover and shoot at range.

“The advantage of the Leopard over, for example, the T-64 is in accuracy, range and speed,” a Ukrainian tank gunner named Oleksiy told ArmyInform.

It’s true: the 40-ton, four-person Leopard 1A5 is a fast and accurate shooter. It’s not for no reason that one Danish tank instructor advised his Ukrainian trainees to fight while on the move. The Leopard 1 “is made for driving and shooting,” the instructor said.

German tank-maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann gave the Leopard 1A5 what was, at the time, one of the world’s leading tank guns: the rifled 105-millimeter L7 from Royal Ordnance in the United Kingdom. Forty years later, the L7 still is an effective weapon, if a bit less powerful than the latest 120-millimeter guns are.

But it’s not the gun itself that makes the Leopard 1A5 such an excellent shooter. It’s the tank’s whole integrated combat system, which includes the gun and its stabilizers, the gunner’s optics and the tank’s computerized fire-control system.

On ex-German and ex-Danish Leopard 1A5s, the FCS is the EMES-18, which also equips the much heavier Leopard 2. Ex-Belgian Leopard 1A5s, which account for 30 of Ukraine’s pledged Leopard 1s, have unique SABCA fire-controls.

The EMES-18 after all these years still is one of the best tank fire-controls. It combines a laser rangefinder with a ballistic computer. To aim the gun while stationary, the gunner — peering through his optics — uses a joystick to lay his crosshairs on the target, fires the laser to help the computer calculate range and then fires the gun.

The FCS assists by automatically adjusting the gun’s elevation based on the range data the computer gets from the laser. No need for the gunner manually to calculate the right angle. And the computer is fast, requiring just a second after reading the laser reflection to adjust the gun.

The fire-controls must work a little harder while the tank or its target — or both — is moving. After all, the gunner must lead the shot. Again, the EMES-18 automatically leads the gun by calculating the wind, the air-pressure and — most critically — the target’s motion relative to the tank.

What’s special about the EMES-18 is that it can achieve the latter without data from the laser. Instead, it measures the rotation of the Leopard 1’s turret over a second or two as the gunner holds the crosshairs on the moving target and presses a button.

All the gunner has to do is keep his crosshairs on the enemy long enough for the EMES-18 to crunch the numbers. After that, he fires the laser for elevation and then shoots. Track, laze, blaze — all in quick succession. If the lead is off, he can shoot again without taking the time first to fire the laser.

The EMES-18’s ease-of-use — and thus the Leopard 1A5’s shooting speed — is legendary. While by now all of the latest tanks have fire-controls that automatically adjust elevation and lead, most of them need data from the laser for both adjustments.

And many of them are slower than the EMES-18 is. A T-64 typically shoots no faster than eight rounds a minute despite having an automatic loader. A Leopard 1A5 with its human loader, and fast fire-controls, should manage 10 rounds a minute.

The biggest weakness of the Leopard 1A5 is that it’s thinly armored by modern standards. Additional armor protection, along with a bigger main gun, was the main requirement that drove the development of the 70-ton Leopard 2.

The Leopard 1A5 is light — weighing just over half what a Leopard 2 weighs — and that lightness mostly comes from armor that’s just 70 millimeters thick at its thickest. That’s a tenth the protection that the best Leopard 2 enjoys.

It’s a problem the Brazilian army, which also operates Leopard 1A5s, has addressed with tactics. “Work with what you have,” Brazilian tank officer Adriano Santiago Garcia wrote in a 2020 issue of Armor, the U.S. Army’s official tank journal.

When it comes to the Leopard 1A5, that means putting the tank in a position to snipe at enemy forces with its highly accurate gun while also making every possible effort to protect the tank from return fire. “Seize the high ground,” Garcia stressed. “Use camouflage.”

“Tank commanders must study how to maneuver their own vehicles,” Garcia wrote. “Approach enemy positions while protected at points that permit shooting, and disappear with steady and synchronized maneuver to gain terrain or just create damage.”

What the Ukrainians should not do is what it frequently has done with its Leopard 2s: drive them in small groups, without much infantry support, directly toward Russian positions — often across minefields and artillery and drone kill-zones.

Two hundred Leopard 1A5s is a lot of Leopard 1A5s. But even they will disappear quickly if the Ukrainians don’t deploy them the right way.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, November 10, 2023 6:48 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Putin’s New Story About the War in Ukraine
How Russian Propaganda Went From “Denazification” to Fighting the West

By Mikhail Zygar | November 10, 2023

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/putins-new-story-about-war-ukra
ine

Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has changed the story it tells itself about the war. In the beginning, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained to the Russian public and the world that he considered an invasion of Ukraine justified because there was a need to “denazify” the country. Putin claimed that a Nazi junta had seized power in Kyiv and was terrorizing the people, especially those who spoke Russian. To rescue Ukraine, Putin argued, Russian troops had once again been dispatched to save the world from Nazis.

But today you don’t hear much talk about Nazis. After the Russian military suffered a series of defeats at the outset of the war, the Kremlin quickly adjusted its propaganda. It was no longer helpful to assert that Moscow was fighting Ukrainian Nazis after the Russian military failed to take Kyiv. Being defeated by Ukrainians was too humiliating for Putin’s propagandists. Therefore, Russia changed the enemy it was fighting: the Kremlin began to say that Russia was at war with NATO and even the United States. In this telling, the war in Ukraine was a proxy war, and the Ukrainians were in the hands of “overseas puppet masters.” For Russians, this was a familiar story, reawakening the Cold War mindset of us versus them.

As the message has changed, so has the audience. Putin is no longer speaking only to his people, trying to justify an ill-conceived war. Today, he is competing with the West for allies across the developing world, where his allegations of Western hypocrisy are resonating. And in recent weeks, Putin has found new material to exploit: the United States’ unconditional support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip.

DENAZIFICATION

When Putin announced his goal of denazifying Ukraine, it was not the first time he and his propagandists had described Ukrainian nationalists as fascists. In 2014, when a popular uprising forced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from office, Putin and his supporters on Russian television claimed that there had been an armed coup in Kyiv, launched by radical nationalists. It was a laughable falsehood: if an anti-constitutional junta had seized power, why did the new government in Ukraine hold democratic elections in 2019, and how could the incumbent, President Petro Poroshenko, lose if he was an autocratic leader? And if the government in Kyiv was made up of Nazis, why did it have a president who was Jewish, Volodymyr Zelensky? But Putin doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good story.

In 2022, in the early months of the war, denouncing the Ukrainian “Nazis” was mandatory for Russian officials and news anchors. Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most odious Russian propagandists, established a tradition: every day in his Telegram channel, he would add “Denazification is inevitable!” as the final sentence for the Russian army’s daily report about the casualties on the frontlines.

But it soon became clear that the Russian public wasn’t buying this message. On June 16, 2022, at a pro-war rally organized by the authorities of Dalnegorsk, a small provincial town in the far east, the mayor, Alexandr Terebilov, tried to quote Putin, but stumbled three times on the Russian word for “denazification,” at one point unintentionally calling for the “denazification of Russia.” As the crowd broke into laughter, he corrected himself, but it was too late: the video went viral online. The furious mayor tried to punish the journalist who uploaded the video by sending him to the army, but the journalist left the city before he could be caught.

After this scandal, the Kremlin conducted a special study that revealed that the majority of Russians neither understood the term “denazification” nor believed that it applied to Ukraine. The study revealed that post-Soviet society is very pragmatic, if not cynical. The Russian public does not trust that Putin is going to save anyone, including Ukrainians. Propagandists soon stopped using the word “denazification.” By the fall of 2022, Solovyov was no longer posting his daily slogan.

WHATABOUTISM

Moscow’s early setbacks in the war convinced Russian propagandists that a bigger, more credible enemy was needed to justify the battlefield losses. Rather than fighting only the Ukrainians, Russia recast the conflict as a proxy war with NATO and the United States. Russia also stopped talking about rescuing Ukrainians from fascists. The tone of the propaganda hardened: Ukrainians were now traitors who therefore deserved punishment, not compassion. This message built on a traditional myth from Russian imperial history, in which Ukrainians repeatedly betrayed Russia by conspiring with Russia’s enemies and fighting for independence. In April 2022, Timofey Sergeytsev, a former Russian political adviser in Ukraine, now living in Moscow, published an article calling for “de-Ukrainization.” The very identity Ukrainian, in his opinion, should no longer exist.

The main target of Russian propaganda was no longer Ukraine, however, but the West, a larger opponent for the Russian public to rally against. In July 2022, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and prime minister, who had once been considered pro-Western and liberal, wrote a piece emblematic of the new narrative. Putin’s goals in Ukraine would be achieved, he contended, but the war had already solved a different problem: Russia was once again being taken seriously — “like the Soviet Union used to be.” He likened the situation to a child facing neighborhood bullies. “If you chickened out and ran away home, you are no one and you will not be invited anywhere else,” Medvedev wrote. “But if you hit first, then the chances of defending your position are significantly higher. That is why it is so important that the country is respected and taken into account.”

It was a revealing story, because Medvedev, who was raised in a professorial family in Leningrad, likely did not fight with anyone in the neighborhood as a child. But Putin, who grew up in much humbler circumstances in the same city, definitely did. The gangster values he learned in childhood — hit first or become the victim — had seeped into official speech and had become popular among Russians. This new explanation of the war in Ukraine also appealed to nostalgia for the Soviet Union, which is widespread among the older generation.

Putin doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good story.

Today, for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian authorities openly say that they are fighting the United States. But there is a fundamental difference between then and now. During the Soviet years, Russian propaganda insisted that the Soviet Union was fighting for world peace and that the Americans were warmongers. Soviet propagandists claimed that their country was just and prosperous, whereas the West was guilty of apartheid, racism, and human rights violations. Today, the propaganda in Russia is completely different: no one pretends that one side is any better than the other.

The core of Russian propaganda is now “whataboutism” — responding to any criticism by pointing to the supposed malice of the other side — and no one does it better than Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the television channel RT. She likes to tell the story of when she was 16 years old and spent a year as an exchange student at a school in New Hampshire, living with an American family. This experience made her skeptical of the United States and she learned to dislike American values, although she never elaborates on what exactly happened during her year abroad that made her think this way. She can spend hours on television making the case that it is not only in Russia where there is no freedom of speech, fair elections, or a just judicial system. According to her, these democratic values and institutions do not exist anywhere in the world. In her mind, Western politicians know how to deceive their population, but in Russia no one is pretending.

Today, the message being spread by Russian propagandists is that any superpower has the right to violence. For decades, only Americans had the opportunity to start wars and invade other countries. Putin’s allies ask, why shouldn’t that right extend to Russia? If the Americans could invade Iraq in 2003, why can’t Russia invade Ukraine? This, they argue, is the privilege of being a superpower.

Surprisingly, this second strain of propaganda about Ukraine has turned out to be much more convincing than the original one, which explains why it is still the dominant message today. Many Russians prefer to believe that it was not Russia that attacked Ukraine but the United States that provoked the conflict and dragged both sides into it.

ANTICOLONIALISM

Russian whataboutism has gained traction not only at home but also across the world. For many countries outside of the West, the war in Ukraine is not a top priority, and the idea that it is a struggle against American hegemony offers extra permission to stay disengaged. For many in the global South, the fact that Putin destroyed the United States’ monopoly on violence makes him, if not a hero, then at least a situational ally.

During last year’s presidential campaign in Brazil, perhaps the only common point of view between the two main candidates — Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — was their appreciation for Putin. In February 2022, with Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s borders, Bolsonaro traveled to Moscow and said Brazil was in “solidarity” with Russia. And Lula, during his campaign, said about Zelensky: “This guy is as responsible as Putin for the war.” In China, India, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and even some European countries, people see Putin as a strong leader and a fighter against American influence.

For many years, Putin avoided claiming the mantle of global anti-Americanism, because he was still looking to make deals with the West. But he still maintained warm relations with various notorious anti-Americanists, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi. Today, Putin eagerly plays this role. In an article published in September, Nikolai Patrushev, a top adviser to Putin, called Westerners “parasites.” “The Western-centric colonial world order,” he argued, is “undergoing a final breakdown.” And Russia now sees itself “in a large-scale battle for minds and hearts” with the United States.

The core of Russian propaganda is now “whataboutism.”

Putin himself has seized on this view. On October 6, he spoke for almost four hours at the Valdai Forum, a Moscow-based think tank. Putin’s speech focused not on Ukraine per se but on the broader confrontation with the West. Reaching back into history, he promised that “the era of colonial rule will not return.” In an interview that same month with Chinese state television, Putin returned to the theme. “Colonial countries have always said that they bring enlightenment to their colonies, that they are civilized people and bring the benefits of civilization to other peoples, who are considered second-class people,” he said. “Today’s political elite, say in the United States, speaks of its exclusivity. This is a continuation of this colonial thinking. Our approach is completely different.”

The appeal to anticolonialism is rich, given Russia’s own colonial history. Siberia, for example, was colonized by Russian Cossacks long before western European powers colonized Africa and Asia. Putin prefers to leave out this inconvenient truth, however, arguing that all Russian territories have always joined “Mother Russia” voluntarily.

PUTIN THE HUMANIST

The new crisis in the Middle East has strengthened the Kremlin’s propaganda. Putin turned 71 on October 7, and the outbreak of war in the Middle East was a gift for him in every sense. For one thing, the war in Ukraine will likely disappear from the front pages of international media, and it will look local when compared to Israel’s war in Gaza, which is still at risk of escalating to a regional war. For another, the conflict in the Middle East provides Putin a unique opportunity to demonstrate his leadership in the anti-American camp. He doesn’t even need to support Hamas openly; he just needs to repeat at every opportunity that the Americans are to blame for everything.

In the first days after Hamas’s attack against Israel, the Russian propaganda machine changed its tone. Solovyov, a TV presenter from the state TV channel Russia 1, is Jewish. Several years ago, he said in an interview with Israeli media that if a war broke out in Israel, he would fly to the country to defend his historical homeland. Today, Solovyov can be heard on television condemning Israel’s policies. Meanwhile, Simonyan, who usually reacts on RT with caustic ridicule to information about civilian victims of Russian bombardment in Ukraine, is reacting with horror to similar events in Gaza. On October 17, after an explosion rocked the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, she posted her thoughts to her Telegram channel: “I don’t even know what to write about a world in which it is still acceptable (and accepted) such executions as the one that happened in Gaza. Every day, it becomes more and more unbearable to be a contemporary of this world.”

For a long time, Putin himself held Israel in high esteem and enjoyed a close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two leaders have similar worldviews and similar political methods: neither of them cares much about democracy. That no longer matters. Putin, despite his personal feelings toward Netanyahu, has criticized Israeli airstrikes on civilian targets and has voiced sympathy for the population of Gaza.

“Using heavy equipment in residential areas is a complex matter with serious consequences for all parties,” he said on October 13. “And most importantly, civilian casualties will be absolutely unacceptable. There are almost two million people.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has called Putin’s position on Gaza cynical. But it is the Kremlin’s accusations of Western hypocrisy that are having a potent effect around the world.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, November 10, 2023 6:51 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

So it doesn't get lost in SECOND'S blizzard of shit.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think these Russian milbloggers - assuming that they're actually Russian - don't take their MoD stated goals seriously. They make the same mistake that Dima (Military Summary Channel) makes: they interpret everything in terms of territory taken or lost.

There`s a reason why the MoD recounts a list of Ukrainian losses every day on every active part of the front, and NOT meters gained or lost: they're trying to reduce the Ukrainian military, NOT take territory. Once the Kiev army collapses, the Russian army can roll thru as much of Ukraine as they want, almost without opposition.

At the moment Russians are pushing on most of the front because the Ukrainian army has gone mostly on defense. It's almost like a cat pawing a mouse to make it run some more. Ugly and brutal, but nobody ever said war was was fun, especially when your side is doing most of the dying.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, November 10, 2023 7:04 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Putin’s New Story About the War in Ukraine
How Russian Propaganda Went From “Denazification” to Fighting the West

By Mikhail Zygar | November 10,

Yanno, if I'm trying to convince you that blue is brown, or that something isn't happeing when it is, and you're an "educated" crowd, i may have to spend pages and pages torturing logic to convince you.

But I don't have to spend pages and pages on tortured logic about this. If this war was just a case of Russia v Ukraine that would be one story. But since the west has gone "all in" - until now, when we ran out of weapons and money- it's obvious to everyone except the most dunderheaded that it's now The Collective West v Russia. The story has chnaged bc the facts on the ground have changed. "WE" that is, the collective west, have moved closer and closer to a state of open warfare with Russia.

Capisce?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Saturday, November 11, 2023 7:40 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Putin’s New Story About the War in Ukraine
How Russian Propaganda Went From “Denazification” to Fighting the West

By Mikhail Zygar | November 10,

Yanno, if I'm trying to convince you that blue is brown, or that something isn't happeing when it is, and you're an "educated" crowd, i may have to spend pages and pages torturing logic to convince you.

But I don't have to spend pages and pages on tortured logic about this. If this war was just a case of Russia v Ukraine that would be one story. But since the west has gone "all in" - until now, when we ran out of weapons and money- it's obvious to everyone except the most dunderheaded that it's now The Collective West v Russia. The story has chnaged bc the facts on the ground have changed. "WE" that is, the collective west, have moved closer and closer to a state of open warfare with Russia.

Capisce?

Signym, it is pretty obvious that neither you nor the EU nor the USA knows much about winning a war. When was the last time any of them won? You don't win by gradually increasing the pressure on your enemy. You win by hitting your enemy as hard as you can at their weakest spot with no warning. Politicians like the idea of being a good sport as if war is a contest at the Olympics. If you decide to conserve your strength by slowly increasing force until you win in a sportsmanlike fashion, you are gonna be in deep trouble unless you can keep increasing force for decades. See just about every war that lasted more than 2 years at how elected politicians screw up wars. They never want to hit anything really hard because that might offend the voters by educating them at how brutal war is.

Sergej Sumlenny @sumlenny tweeted
Nico is right. This war can be swiftly won by Ukraine if we finally started to deliver enough weapons, not hoarding them. If we supported Ukraine with 10% of what we’ve sent to the USSR during WW2 to defeat Hitler (10,000s planes, tanks etc), Putin would have been in jail by now.
https://twitter.com/sumlenny/status/1610192222095396865

Stalemate in Ukraine Is the Hesitant West’s Fault

By Boris Bondarev, Russian diplomat who resigned in protest at the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/09/stalemate-in-ukraine-is-the-
hesitant-wests-fault-a83049

The commander of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, admitted in a recent interview with The Economist that expectations of a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive were, to put it mildly, overly optimistic. The Ukrainians have run into a powerful line of Russian defense, and the war has finally turned into one of attrition. Ukraine urgently needs new solutions, a new strategy and a ready supply of high-tech weaponry to advance its position.

This sad situation has not come as a surprise to anyone following the course of the war. The Ukrainian army learned a lot and achieved impressive victories in 2022. Since then, they have been unable to repeat those successes. To a large extent, the problem lies in the chronic under-equipping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which stems from the indecisiveness, and often cowardice, of Kyiv's Western partners to supply the desperately needed arms and equipment.

As has been said many times — and what Western leaders themselves recognize — President Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine is not a local conflict rooted in territorial disputes between two neighboring states. It is an attack on the very foundations of the existing world order, and an aggressive attempt to rewrite the rules that underpin it.

Putin's ideal world is one of “war of all against all,” where might makes right and powerful nations form spheres of influence, ensconcing themselves within an entourage of satellite states. This forms the basis of multipolarity, a concept that Russian diplomacy has peddled for decades. In this effort, Moscow finds support among allies like China, Iran and North Korea as well as many countries in the Global South who are particularly in favor of the idea of solving political problems by force. That is, unless that force is directed at them.

History abounds with examples of regional conflicts exploding into existential cataclysms. World War I was started by the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s attack on Serbia, which to many at the time seemed a fairly local affair. Germany’s invasion of Poland kicked off World War II. Before that, Hitler got away with rejecting the Treaty of Versailles, annexing Austria, remilitarizing the Rhineland and more. The leaders of Britain and France even abandoned Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in 1938. All of this was in the name of "a long peace for generations to come." That peace lasted for about a year.

Western countries have taken an ambivalent position since the start of the war in Ukraine. True, they have imposed round after round of sanctions on Russia and declared they would support Kyiv for as long as it takes. But on the other hand, this support had clear red lines. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, so the bloc had no obligation to come to its aid. Indeed, Kyiv’s allies have ruled out launching direct military operations. This fear of escalation, which NATO strategists for some reason decided to make explicit to Moscow, still dictates their policy.

And then began the fanfare around all kinds of arms and equipment being sent to Kyiv. HIMARS systems were described as a sort of miracle weapon, and then so were German-made Leopard tanks. More recently, hopes have been pinned on ATACMS missiles and, finally, on F-16 airplanes. Apparently, the plan is that these weapons systems alone will drive Russian troops out of Ukraine.

But no single weapon can win a war. At least not when they are supplied in such small numbers and so slowly. What does win wars is the ability to use all available forces and means at once in the best possible way. Any military textbook will tell you this.

The failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive was the obvious outcome of NATO's half-hearted policy of supporting Kyiv, which is based on the two paradoxical assumptions that the Russian army is weak on the battlefield, but the West still has reasons to fear escalation. It is this fear that paralyzes any effective assistance to Ukraine.

Unsurprisingly, the Ukraine debacle is leading more people to call for both sides to negotiate a peace agreement. The fact that Putin has repeatedly shown he will neither negotiate nor respect international agreements does not give these people pause for thought.

Some experts even suggest giving Ukraine some kind of security guarantee — without admission to NATO — in exchange for territorial concessions to Russia in the hope of ending the war. What kind of guarantees can these be? Without recalling the notorious Budapest Memorandum, we must honestly state that the only way to stop Putin's aggression against the remnants of Ukraine has to be an unequivocal commitment from NATO countries to enter the war against the aggressor. Only the prospect of encountering U.S. troops on the battlefield, which U.S. President Joe Biden has ruled out, could have a sobering effect on Putin, whose worldview is inspired by the weakness of the West. And even then, it is no longer a sure thing. https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/budapest-memorandum-25-betwee
n-past-and-future

However, it is not clear why such guarantees cannot be given right now. But the only thing that Western strategists are not afraid of is demonstrating their fear of any possible slightest serious escalation of the war.

Any outcome of the war without a return to the status quo, at least as of Feb. 23, 2022, would mean defeat for Ukraine. For Russia, retaining the captured territories would be a tangible victory. Thus, the signing of any peace agreement will consolidate Putin’s victory over not only Ukraine, but over the entire West, which loudly promised to help Kyiv resist aggression in every possible way. Thus, Putin will turn into a man who inflicted a shameful defeat on the United States and all of NATO. This will not go unnoticed in a world where many openly hope for such an outcome.

Ukraine's surrender would also mean NATO's surrender to a country whose economic resources are no match for the combined power of the West. But the amount of resources you have is not so important as whether you are willing to devote them to your goal.

In addition, NATO’s failure to ensure adequate production of weapons and ammunition has led to available stocks becoming exhausted. How did NATO plan to fight off Russian aggression without the means to produce everything necessary?

Recently, the renewed tensions in the Middle East have shifted international focus away from Ukraine. It should be noted that Israel is a very different country from Ukraine. It is quite capable of eliminating Hamas with its own forces, as long as there is no threat of a full-scale invasion by the surrounding Arab states. Since Hamas is unlikely to escalate the situation to a nuclear conflict, the West sees it as safe enough to send aircraft carriers to support Israel.

It is more than likely that Russia will be emboldened further as a result of calls for Ukraine to make peace. Washington has shown it is unwilling to make room for others in its strategic interests. Seeing this, countries that would have relied on the United States for protection against a Russian invasion will realize that in such an event, Washington would rebuke Moscow with little but stern warnings and more financial sanctions.

It is hard to imagine Biden sending troops to Estonia, for example, in the event of a Russian invasion. That would involve direct military confrontation with a nuclear power. NATO is turning into a paper tiger by the day — and the whole world can see it. This increases the likelihood that there will soon be more actors willing to test NATO's strength.

One of Putin’s conditions for a ceasefire, even a temporary one, would be a commitment from the West to lift all or at least part of the sanctions on Moscow. This would leave the U.S. and EU in an awkward position if their unwillingness to do this jeopardizes a peace agreement when Moscow says they are open to one. It hardly needs to be said that lifting sanctions on Russia after signing documents recognizing the defeat of Ukraine will finally undermine the credibility of the West in the eyes of the world community.

In 2022, history offered the West an opportunity to win World War III on foreign territory, thus preventing the war from spreading around the world. The West’s leaders apparently decided to refrain from this. The result will be the end of the era of the liberal world order built on the founding of the United Nations, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Together with the departure of this order, the quiet, safe life enjoyed by the U.S. and Europe will be gone. They only have themselves to blame — for their fear and unwillingness to stand up for that very peaceful life.

The West doesn't want to fight — so the war will come to them. As Winston Churchill said, appeasing an aggressor means being “defeated without starting a war.” Again, as he said, appeasement has thrown the equilibrium of Europe into disarray, leaving Western democracies “wanting” in the face of aggression. Once again, history is teaching us that nobody learns from it.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, November 11, 2023 7:49 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So it doesn't get lost in SECOND'S blizzard of shit.

How many times has Russia threatened to nuke the USA? Thousands of times. How many years has Russia threatened war against the USA? Every year. That is the blizzard of shit-talking from Russia.

Putin Wants the West to Give Up on Ukraine
By Anne Applebaum | November 10, 2023, 7:30 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/us-ukraine-support-p
utin-defeat/675953/

The West Must Defeat Russia
Putin hasn’t given up his plans. He thinks Ukraine’s allies will lose interest.

They planned to take Kyiv in three days, the rest of Ukraine in six weeks.

More than 21 months later, Russian forces have withdrawn from half the territory they occupied in February of last year. At least 88,000 Russian soldiers are likely dead — a conservative estimate — and at least twice as many have been wounded. Billions of dollars worth of equipment, Russian tanks, planes, artillery, helicopters, armored vehicles, and warships have been destroyed. If you had predicted this outcome before the war — and nobody did — it would have seemed fanciful. No one would have believed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a professional comedian, could lead a country at war, that the democratic world would be united enough to help him, or that Russian President Vladimir Putin would endure such a humiliation.

Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union have achieved something remarkable: Working together, they have not only preserved the Ukrainian state, but stood up to a bully whose nihilism harms the entire world. Putin backs far-right and extremist movements in Europe, provides thugs to support African dictatorships, and colludes with China, Iran, Venezuela, and other autocracies. From the beginning, Putin hoped the war would demonstrate that American power and American alliances can be defeated, not only in Ukraine but everywhere else. He still does, and for this purpose the war remains useful to him.

The fighting creates food shortages in Africa, thereby generating more unrest and more demand for Russian mercenaries. The war stokes discontent in Europe as well, giving pro-Russian parties a boost. Americans and Europeans view turmoil in country after country as a series of isolated conflicts, but Putin doesn’t think that Ukraine and the Middle East belong to different, competing spheres. On the contrary, since the conflict in Gaza erupted, he has intensified his relationship with Iran, invited leaders of Hamas to Moscow, and attacked Israel because of its links with the U.S., hoping that the spread of violence will decrease Western support for Ukraine. Iranian drones have terrorized Ukrainian cities; Iran, in turn, distributes Russian weapons to its proxies. Hezbollah is thought to have Russian anti-ship missiles that it could use against U.S. warships in the Mediterranean at any minute.

The allied fight against Russia in Ukraine has damaged Russia’s ability to project negative power in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. But despite his extraordinary losses, Putin still believes that time is on his side. If he can’t win on the battlefield, he will win using political intrigue and economic pressure. He will wait for the democratic world to splinter, and he will encourage that splintering. He will wait for the Ukrainians to grow tired, and he will try to make that happen too. He will wait for Donald Trump to win the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and he will do anything he can to help that happen too.

Right now, Putin’s bets are on the Republicans who repeat Russian propaganda — Senator J. D. Vance, for example, echoes Russian language about the Ukraine war leading to “global disorder” and “escalation”; Representative Matt Gaetz cited a Chinese state-media source as evidence while asking about alleged Ukrainian neo-Nazis at a congressional hearing; Vivek Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential candidate, has also called Zelensky, who is Jewish, a Nazi. Putin will have been cheered by the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, who is knowingly delaying the military and financial aid that Ukraine needs to keep fighting. The supplemental bill that he refuses to pass includes money that will keep Ukrainians supplied with the air-defense systems they need to protect their cities, as well as the fiscal support they need to sustain their economy and crucial infrastructure in the coming months.

The U.S. is supplying about a third of Ukraine’s financial needs — the rest comes from the European Union, global institutions, and the taxes paid and bonds purchased by the Ukrainians themselves — but without that help Ukraine will have trouble surviving the winter.

Part of the Republican resistance to helping Ukraine fight an American adversary is simply the perverse desire to see President Joe Biden fail. Another part comes from the fear that Ukraine is not able to win. The Ukrainian summer counteroffensive did have some success, especially in the Black Sea, where a combination of drones and missiles has badly weakened Russia’s navy and forced some of its ships to leave the Crimean port of Sebastopol. But the progress on land was slow. Ukraine’s ability to inflict huge casualties on Russia was not enough to create a backlash, or a reconsideration, in Moscow. General Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian commander in chief, has recently spoken of the war as a “stalemate.”

Although Zaluzhny has also described, in detail, the technology he needs to move his army forward and break that stalemate, his statement has renewed talk in the West of a truce or a cease-fire. Some are calling for a cease-fire in bad faith. In fact, they want a Russian victory, or at least a defeat for Biden. Others, however, advocate a truce with the best of intentions. They believe that because Putin will never give up, the damage to Ukraine must be limited. Lately, I’ve heard several well-meaning people, all supporters of Ukraine, argue that this conflict could end the way the Korean War once ended, with the borders frozen on the current front line and the rest of Ukraine, like South Korea, protected by an American security guarantee and even U.S. bases.

All of these suggestions, well-meaning or otherwise, have the same flaw: A cease-fire, temporary or otherwise, means that both sides have to stop fighting. Right now, even if Zelensky agrees to negotiate, there is no evidence that Putin wants to negotiate, that he wants to stop fighting, or that he has ever wanted to stop fighting. And yes, according to Western officials who have periodic conversations with their Russian counterparts, attempts have been made to find out.

Nor is there any evidence that Putin wants to partition Ukraine, keeping only the territories he currently occupies and allowing the rest to prosper like South Korea. His goal remains the destruction of Ukraine — all of Ukraine — and his allies and propagandists are still talking about how, once they achieve this goal, they will expand their empire further. Just last week, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, published an 8,000-word article calling Poland Russia’s “historical enemy” and threatening Poles with the loss of their state too. The message was perfectly clear: We invaded Poland before, and we can do it again.

In this sense, the challenge that Putin presents to Europe and the rest of the world is unchanged from February 2022. If we abandon what we have achieved so far and we give up support for Ukraine, the result could still be the military or political conquest of Ukraine. The conquest of Ukraine could still empower Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and the rest of Putin’s allies. It could still encourage China to invade Taiwan. It could still lead to a new kind of Europe, one in which Poland, the Baltic states, and even Germany are under constant physical threat, with all of the attendant consequences for trade and prosperity. A Europe permanently at war, an idea that seems impossible to most people in the West, still seems eminently plausible to the Russian president. Putin spent a memorable part of his life as a KGB officer, representing the interests of the Soviet empire in Dresden. He remembers when eastern Germany was ruled by Moscow. If it could be so once, then why not again?

The stark truth is that this war will only end for good when Russia’s neo-imperial dream finally dies. Just as the French decided in 1962 that Algeria could become independent of France, just as the British accepted in 1921 that Ireland was no longer part of the United Kingdom, the Russians must conclude that Ukraine is not Russia. I can’t tell you which political changes in Moscow are necessary to achieve that goal. I can’t say whether a different Russian leader is required — maybe or maybe not. But we will recognize this change when it happens. After it does, the conflict is over and negotiating a final settlement will be possible.

To reach that endgame, we need to adjust our thinking. First, we need to understand, more deeply than we have done so far, that we have entered a new era of great-power conflict. The Russians already know this and have already made the transition to a full-scale war economy. Forty percent of the Russian state budget — another conservative estimate — is now spent annually on military production, about 10 percent of GDP, a level not seen for decades. Neither the U.S. nor its European allies have made anything like this shift, and we started from a low base. Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute told me that, at the beginning of the war, the ammunition that the United Kingdom produced in a year was enough to supply the Ukrainian army for 20 hours. Although the situation has improved, as production has slowly cranked up all over the democratic world, we are not moving fast enough.

Secondly, we need to start helping the Ukrainians fight this war as if we were fighting it, altering our slow decision-making process to match the urgency of the moment. Ukraine received the weapons for its summer fighting very late, giving the Russians time to build minefields and tank traps — why? Training by NATO forces for Ukrainian soldiers has in some cases been rushed and incomplete — why? There is still time to reverse these mistakes: Zaluzhny’s list of breakthrough technologies, which includes tools to gain air superiority and better wage electronic warfare, should be taken seriously now, and not next year.

But the path to end this war does not only lead through the battlefield. We need to start thinking not just about helping Ukraine, but about defeating Russia — or, if you prefer different language, persuading Russia to leave by any means possible. If Russia is already fighting America and America’s allies on multiple fronts, through political funding, influence campaigns, and its links to other autocracies and terrorist organizations, then the U.S. and Europe need to fight back on multiple fronts too. We should outcompete Russia for the scarce commodities needed to build weapons, block the software updates that they need to run their defense factories, look for ways to sabotage their production facilities. Russia used fewer weapons and less ammunition this year than it did last year. Our task should be to ensure that next year is worse.

The West has already sanctioned Russia and put export controls on electronics and many other components necessary for the Russian defense ministry. Paradoxically, there may now be too many of these sanctions, which are difficult to keep track of and enforce, especially when materials go through third or fourth countries. Instead, we should target the most important supply chains, depriving the Russians of the specific machine tools and raw materials that they need to make the most sophisticated weapons. At the start of the war, the U.S. and its allies froze Russia’s foreign-currency deposits. The assets of many Russian oligarchs were frozen too, in the hope that this would make them more inclined to resist the war. With some exceptions, it did not. Now it’s time to take those assets and give them to Ukraine. We need to demonstrate that our commitment to the principle of Russian reparations for Ukraine is real.

But some of our money is needed too. Spending it now will produce savings down the line, and not just because we can prevent a catastrophe in Ukraine. By learning how to fight Russia, a sophisticated autocracy with global ambitions, we will be better prepared for later, larger conflicts, if there is ever a broader struggle with China or Iran. More important, by defeating Russia we might be able to stop those larger conflicts before they begin. The goal in Ukraine should be to end Russia’s brutish invasion — and to deter others from launching another one somewhere else.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, November 11, 2023 7:56 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Capisce?

Russian forces continue to struggle with low morale and poor discipline. The Russian State Duma is considering a bill that would impose the same harsh criminal penalties on Russian military volunteers as on Russian mobilized personnel for refusing to comply with orders, voluntarily surrendering, damaging weapons, or deserting.[80] The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that a group of mobilized personnel of the 20th Motorized Rifle Division (8th Combined Arms Army, Southern Military District) beat their regiment’s deputy commander, ”Lieutenant Muserbekov,” in occupied Simferopol on November 1 and that Muserbekov died from his injuries on November 7.[81] The GUR stated that the mobilized personnel subsequently fled to Krasnodar Krai dressed as civilians.

Russia continues to form new irregular formations to support combat operations in Ukraine. A Russian milblogger claimed on November 10 that the newly-formed “Volga” volunteer artillery brigade reinforced the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) 2nd Army Corps in an unspecified area of Ukraine.[82]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-10-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, November 11, 2023 8:36 AM

Zelensky is a dead man walking.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, November 11, 2023 9:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Zelensky is a dead man walking.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

So are you.

T

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Saturday, November 11, 2023 11:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Zelensky is a dead man walking.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

So are you.

T

So are we all Ted. So are we all.

"As soon as you're born you start dying, so you might as well have a good time"

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, November 12, 2023 6:55 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Russian opposition outlet Meduza discredited the Kremlin narrative that falsely accuses Ukrainian authorities of trafficking organs from military personnel on the black market.[68] Kremlin-affiliated actors, such as Adviser to the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Ovchinsky, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, and Russian State Duma Deputy Speaker Anna Kuznetsova, have recently promoted this narrative.[69] Meduza explained that Russian narratives that Ukraine transports organs to NATO countries, such as Turkey, via ground transportation is improbable as the route from Odesa City to Istanbul alone is 17 hours – much longer than most organs can survive outside of the body.[70] Meduza also noted that Ukraine’s healthcare system lacks doctors who can perform mass organ removals and that Ukrainian law dictates that military personnel and civilians who die in hostilities cannot be organ donors.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-11-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, November 12, 2023 10:21 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russian opposition outlet Meduza discredited the Kremlin narrative that falsely accuses Ukrainian authorities of trafficking organs from military personnel on the black market.[68] Kremlin-affiliated actors, such as Adviser to the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Ovchinsky, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, and Russian State Duma Deputy Speaker Anna Kuznetsova, have recently promoted this narrative.[69] Meduza explained that Russian narratives that Ukraine transports organs to NATO countries, such as Turkey, via ground transportation is improbable as the route from Odesa City to Istanbul alone is 17 hours – much longer than most organs can survive outside of the body.[70] Meduza also noted that Ukraine’s healthcare system lacks doctors who can perform mass organ removals and that Ukrainian law dictates that military personnel and civilians who die in hostilities cannot be organ donors.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-11-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Well... Now we know how Zelensky is getting his money ever since McCarthy was ousted.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, November 13, 2023 7:59 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Why does Ukraine fight Russia? No reason more complicated than Russians murder Ukrainians for fun and profit:

Wyoming becomes 32nd US state to recognize the Holodomor as genocide
November 13, 2023

On Nov. 2, Washington, Maryland, and Arizona had also recognized the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.

In addition to U.S. states, several countries have also recognized the Holodomor as a genocide – a change that has long been advocated by both Ukrainian historians and Ukrainian diaspora communities abroad. These countries include, among others: the UK, Slovenia, Belgium, Ireland, Romania, Moldova, the Czech Republic, Germany, Iceland, France, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, and Croatia.

On Dec. 15, 2022, the European Parliament voted for a resolution recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide against the Ukrainian people.

The Holodomor is the name given to the Soviet policy of deliberately confiscating foodstuffs from Ukrainians in the early 1930s. From 1932 to 1933, Ukraine’s National Holodomor Museum estimates that approximately 7 million people were killed via intentional famine during this period.

https://english.nv.ua/nation/wyoming-s-historic-acknowledgment-holodom
or-recognized-as-genocide-50367847.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Monday, November 13, 2023 9:19 AM

Fuck Ukraine.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, November 13, 2023 12:23 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Vladimir Putin cannot keep funding his war for ever

But after winning Russia’s presidential election in March, he will try

In March Vladimir Putin will hold a presidential election designed to demonstrate support for his regime’s invasion of Ukraine two years earlier. His achievements in those two years should not be underestimated. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions displaced. Most of them are Ukrainians fleeing Russian missiles. But as many as 1m educated Russians may have fled their country, fearful of repressions and mobilisation.

Mr Putin has strangled Russia’s nascent civil society, isolated the country from the West, made it more dependent on China and strengthened NATO. Russia’s budget for 2024 shows a 70% increase in military spending, to 6% of GDP and a third of all spending. He has long framed his war in Ukraine as part of Russia’s struggle against the West, so even if fighting were to get less intense, spending will not go down.

So far, money has not been an issue. Re:Russia, a think-tank, reckons that in the war’s first year Russia received $590bn in export revenues, mostly from oil and gas. That is $160bn more than the annual average over the previous decade. In the second year, revenues were still some $60bn above that average. War costs are estimated at over $100bn a year. Turmoil in the Middle East, which could push up oil prices, would benefit Mr Putin.

This income lets him keep up the appearance of normality at home. But the longer the war goes on the harder this will be. To fight a long war, Russia needs more men, officers and weapons. That in turn will require mass mobilisation and central planning of military production. Neither is easy in a country with Russia’s poor demography and pervasive corruption.

Mr Putin will not have a problem declaring himself winner of the election. His problems may start afterwards, as the futility of his war exposes the hollowness of his triumph. That is by no means a given. But if Donald Trump does not return to the White House, and Ukraine continues to receive support, his problems will only mount. In the past Mr Putin dealt with any decline in his approval rating by starting a war. That option has already been used.

Arkady Ostrovsky, Russia editor, The Economist

https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2023/11/13/vladimir-putin-ca
nnot-keep-funding-his-war-for-ever

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Monday, November 13, 2023 6:22 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

A guest on Russian state television program was slapped down by the show's host after saying that Moscow had far less to offer those living in occupied regions of Ukraine than the EU.

The comments on the NTV channel by political commentator Viktor Olevich follow the decision by the European Commission that accession talks should start for Kyiv to join the EU, pending agreement from other members, four months after being granted candidacy status in June.

The Kremlin has pitched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a proxy battle between Moscow and the West and a fight to keep Kyiv within its orbit. But Olevich said that residents in regions Russia has annexed would be far more attracted to what EU membership would provide.

"There's a carrot the West offers to Ukraine," Olevich told Mesto Vstrechi (Meeting Place). "The carrot is entry into the EU and NATO, some time in an uncertain future. It gives them the prospect of living, maybe not like the Germans or the French but at least like Eastern Europeans, like the Slovaks, Czechs," Olevich said. "For Ukrainians, of course, it is a positive prospect."

"What carrot does Russia offer? 10,000 roubles ($108) to people who live in the Kherson region? The prospect of being unable to travel without a visa ever? That they won't be able to go anywhere and won't see millions of their relatives in Europe?" Olevich said.

The anchor Andrei Norkin interrupted, rejecting his guest's claims, saying that "we won't compare how poorly people live in Russia and how well they do in Europe," before adding, "because your statement is untrue."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-olevich-ntv-eu-nato-1843101

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Monday, November 13, 2023 6:36 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
A guest on Russian state television program was slapped down by the show's host after saying that Moscow had far less to offer those living in occupied regions of Ukraine than the EU.

Oh, I personally think that whatever is left of Ukraine should become an albatross around the EU's economic neck.

Let's see the EU reconstruct it.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Monday, November 13, 2023 8:55 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Oh, I personally think that whatever is left of Ukraine should become an albatross around the EU's economic neck.

Let's see the EU reconstruct it.

Is that "albatross" the EU cleaning up the destruction left by the Russians after they withdraw from Ukraine? The Russians are soreheads and poor losers. Can't expect Russians to clean up anything. Their strength is in stealing, killing civilians, destroying property, and lying about history.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Monday, November 13, 2023 8:57 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

November 13, 2023 | Ukraine War Marks 'Moral Bankruptcy Of The Russian Imperial Myth,' Says Exiled Journalist

Mikhail Zygar is a Russian journalist who publicly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and fled into exile days later. Before that, he was the founding editor in chief of TV Rain (Dozhd TV), an independent news and current affairs channel. He authored the 2016 book All The Kremlin's Men: Inside The Court Of Vladimir Putin, a bestseller in Russia that has been translated into over 20 languages. His latest book is an overview of Putin's purported plans for Ukraine titled War And Punishment.

He spoke to RFE/RL's Georgian Service about the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine, collective conscience and responsibility, and whether Putin needs this war to keep Russia.

More at https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-war-russia-moral-bankruptcy-mikhail-zy
gar/32683064.html

Mikhail Zygar's books can be downloaded for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Mikhail+Zygar

Quote:
Introduction to War and Punishment (2023)

This book is a confession. I am guilty for not reading the signs much earlier. I, too, am responsible for Russia’s war against Ukraine. As are my contemporaries and our forebears. Regrettably, Russian culture is also to blame for making all these horrors possible.

Many Russian writers and historians are complicit in facilitating this war. It is their words and thoughts over the past 350 years that sowed the seeds of Russian fascism and allowed it to flourish, although many would be horrified today to see the fruits of their labor. We failed to spot just how deadly the very idea of Russia as a “great empire” was. (Of course, any “empire” is evil, but let different historians judge other empires.) We overlooked the fact that, for many centuries, “great Russian culture” belittled other countries and peoples, suppressed and destroyed them.

So that Russian culture may live on, we must act. We must start by looking inside ourselves and telling the truth about our past and our present.

Russian, Ukrainian, and indeed any history is made up of myths. Alas, our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.

This book is about myths and about people. People who lived one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago, and then turned into mythological figures. They died physically; then historians stripped away their human qualities: their weaknesses, their passions, their doubts, their true motives. They were subjected to the inexorable “logic of history,” which serves the needs of those in power.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 6:42 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Neuralgic:
1) causing or feeling very strong, painful emotions
2) involving short, severe pains felt suddenly along a nerve, especially in the neck or head

Regardless of the causes and circumstances of the TASS and RIA Novosti reports, the reaction to them suggests that events in Kherson Oblast continue to be highly neuralgic in the pro-war information space and emphasizes that the Russian media space still has not coalesced around a singular rhetorical line about what is happening on the east bank of the Dnipro. The published reports use relatively neutral language and notably do not announce a "retreat" or "withdrawal," instead discussing a "transfer" and "regrouping."[15] The Russian media frenzy that followed, including the immediate retraction of the statements, a direct response from the Kremlin, and emphatic milblogger refutations, reflects the fact that any mention of the Russian grouping in Kherson Oblast generates near-immediate information space neuralgia.[16] It also appears that the Russian information space has not yet determined how to discuss the operational situation on the east bank of the Dnipro, and that any inflection in the situation there can generate an informational shock. The Russian MoD falsely framed the Russian retreat from Kharkiv Oblast in early September of 2022 as a "regrouping," and that word and general concept apparently remains highly neuralgic for the Russian information space.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-13-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 6:57 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Oh, I personally think that whatever is left of Ukraine should become an albatross around the EU's economic neck.

Let's see the EU reconstruct it.
Is that "albatross" the EU cleaning up the destruction left by the Russians after they withdraw from Ukraine? The Russians are soreheads and poor losers. Can't expect Russians to clean up anything. Their strength is in stealing, killing civilians, destroying property, and lying about history.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Nah. That albatross is "rump" Ukraine: whatever part of Ukraine that Russia leaves for the Ukies. Probably Galicia Ukraine. Possibly not even that.

I noticed that your posts really veer away from current events and that you're maundering on about drivel. Again.

Please, give us another discourse about the Confederacy or centuries -old events or someone's theory about theories, or something. All that wordiness adds so much to the discussion!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 7:01 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

The cheese-eating surrender monkeys would gladly help Ukraine but for the strict rules preventing such help. The monkeys suggest the Americans, who have no rules, help.

EU will not supply promised 1 million ammunition rounds to Ukraine by March – Foreign Minister

Mon, November 13, 2023 at 3:32 PM CST

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that the European Union will not be able to carry out its plan to supply one million rounds of artillery to Ukraine by March 2024 due to the state of defence production and bureaucratic obstacles.

Source: European Pravda, citing Kuleba during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: The minister was asked to comment on a Bloomberg report that the EU has informed member states that the pledge to provide Ukraine with 1 million artillery rounds by March 2024 is "unlikely to be fulfilled".

"Unfortunately, Bloomberg is telling the truth. There are questions, and we are doing a lot of loud ringing of alarm bells," Kuleba replied.

He added that the reason for this problem is not a lack of political will in the EU, but the "lamentable state of the defence industry", as well as "a lot of unsynchronised things, a lot of bureaucracy".

"The European Union is working to remedy these problems, and that is why, while in Berlin, I called on the European Union to develop a coherent policy in the field of defence industries," the Foreign Minister stressed.

He said the EU has already begun to take certain steps to rectify the situation.

"But we need faster actions, and more of them. And we do really appreciate the support of the European Union, but we will push them [on this]. Because, as ever, we can see a Ukrainian infantryman standing right in front of us, and he needs ammunition," Kuleba concluded.

The provision of ammunition to Ukraine is becoming increasingly urgent as Russia has been able to increase its own production and obtain supplies from North Korea.

At the end of October, Bloomberg reported that the EU was falling behind in its plans to provide Ukraine with one million rounds of artillery. Meanwhile, NATO is pushing its member states to overcome protectionist tendencies and agree on a single standard for artillery ammunition so that production can be increased.

https://news.yahoo.com/eu-not-supply-promised-1-213219892.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 7:15 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Is Zelensky Being Prepped to Join the Friends of the U.S. Club?

If you have any doubts that Ukraine’s President Zelensky is expendable if Joe Biden decides to change course, just take a gander at the following photo essay.

When the CIA Director comes for a visit it is time to check your six (i.e., military slang for seeing if anyone is sneaking up on you from behind).

Here is one of my favorites. During the 1980s the Reagan Administration was supplying arms and military technology to both Iran and Iraq, who were engaged in a brutal war. With friends like Washington, who needs enemies. No wonder Saddam thought he could invade Kuwait and the United States would not care.

How about Muammar Gaddafi getting the old bamboozle from Barack Obama?

Are you picking up a theme here? It does not matter if it is a Republican or Democrat, once a foreign leader is no longer useful to the United States, he gets bent over the log like Ned Beatty in Deliverance and learns the “joy” of buggery. Henry Kissinger was not bullshitting when he quipped:

“it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

Looks like Volodomyr Zelensky is going to learn that truth over the coming weeks. If he survives to see the New Year it will be a miracle.

One critical point I failed to make in yesterday’s article regarding the competing narratives regarding Zelensky and General Zalushny — it looks like the Brits are backing Zalushny while the CIA is trying to save Zelensky and dump Zalushny. I base that conclusion on the fact that the Economist, a British publication with close ties to MI-6, gave Zalushny the celebrity treatment, while the Washington Post, the go-to rag for the CIA, blamed Zalushny for Nord Stream.

Simplicius the Thinker has another great piece out regarding this modern version of Game of Thrones now underway in Kiev. Worth your time.

https://sonar21.com/is-zelensky-being-prepped-to-join-the-friends-of-t
he-u-s-club/

******
SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER...

Quote:
From Rezident_UA channel:

" Ukrainian sources write that Andriy Ermak will allegedly try to coordinate with the Biden Administration the replacement of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny, who is not satisfied with the Office of the President.

It was Zaluzhny who refused to begin the second stage of the counter-offensive with crossing the Dnieper and proposed to go on the defensive instead of offensive actions."

So Yermak/Zelensky are trying to coordinate with Biden [Yermak, Zelensky's money man, recently traveled to Washington] to get rid of Zaluzhny, while other forces coordinate with Zaluzhny to boot Zelensky?
In fact the drama and intrigue is coming to such a boil as to reach levels of absurdity most of us have never seen. A People’s Deputy in the Ukrainian Rada, Oleksandr Dubinsky—who happens to be in a major quarrel with the above Mosiychuk, as well—released this statement today on his official social media accounts. He openly calls Yermak “the real president of Ukraine,” begging Tucker Carlson to intervene, and even confirms yesterday’s wild theory that Zelensky is trying to contact Trump in order to get him to “unblock” Ukrainian aid via the Republican party which Trump is perceived to control:

"I am publicly addressing journalist Tucker Carlson, who will not be afraid to cover the topic of political persecution of the only politician and former journalist in Ukraine, who openly spoke about corruption of the country’s senior officials and the facts of theft of US financial assistance through the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in which deputies of the Servant of the People Party and officials of the Office of the President are involved.

Now the real president of Ukraine named Yermak is in the United States trying to convince the American government that there is no corruption in Ukraine, and to blame the theft committed by him and those from his circle on the scheming of “Kremlin agents.” He is also trying to arrange a telephone conversation between Zelensky and Trump in order to gain support in Congress for aid to Ukraine, which he and Zelensky are plundering.

I am the only one talking about this corruption, which is supported by numerous facts and journalistic investigations, and it is for this that they want to put me in jail on yet another trumped-up charges.

By joining our forces, we will be able to reveal to the world the truth about the gang of swindlers who captured Ukraine. Reveal the Ugly Truth that Yermak and Zelensky and their associates are trying to hide."

And low and behold, now there’s a treason case against Dubinsky who was raided by the SBU.

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/wild-day-as-the-ukrainian-game-of

Simplicius goes to original videos, photos, posts, etc so if you want to
get the full flavor you'll need to go to his website. IIRC he posted a
video taken secretly of Yermak and Zelensky, and it was clear Zelensky
was getting schooled.
Also, Yermak is negotiating with Alexander Soros (George's son) about
"investment" in Uraine, which probably means Yermak greasing the sale
of Ukraine's national assets (land, mineral rights, infrastructure etc.)
to Soros in return for a significant chunk of pocket money.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 1:05 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

To Free The Baltic Grid from Russian control, Old Technology Is New Again

Spinning mega-machines will safeguard the Baltic power grid as it desynchronizes from Russia

Peter Fairley | 11 Nov 2023
https://spectrum.ieee.org/baltic-power-grid

The Baltic countries — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — recently accelerated a plan to cut the electrical chains that keep them tied to Russia. A technical lynchpin to their planned escape from the Moscow-controlled synchronous AC power zone is a constellation of synchronous condensers: free-spinning and fuel-free electrical generators whose sole purpose is to stabilize and protect power grids.

The Baltic states, all of which are members of the European Union and NATO, started freeing themselves from Russia’s electrical embrace almost a decade ago with the construction of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) connections to Finland, Sweden and Poland. Those alternative sources of electrical support ended the Baltics’ dependance on imported power from Russia and Belarus.

Now stabilizing equipment is preparing the grid to be able to physically separate from the giant grid to the East, and to synchronize instead with the continental European grid to the South. In 2019, funding from the European Union jumpstarted the required grid-strengthening upgrades required, and synchronization with Europe was scheduled for the end of 2025.

“Being on the Russian electricity grid is a risk for Estonian consumers.”

Cost increases have delayed a crucial second link with Poland and thus Europe to 2028, but the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s aerial assaults on the Ukrainian grid boosted pressure on the Baltics to break away faster. In August the Baltic states reached consensus on a plan to switch grids no later than February of 2025.

As Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas explained: “Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and its use of energy as a weapon proves that it’s a dangerous and unpredictable country, and therefore being on the Russian electricity grid is a risk for Estonian consumers.” The prime ministers, she said, agreed to, “leave the Russian network as soon as the technical capacity is in place.”

This is where synchronous condensers step in. Synchronous condensers (also called synchronous compensators) are essentially generators that, in normal operation, are spun by an AC grid’s power and synced to its frequency (rather than driven by their own fuel). When power plants and/or transmission lines shut down unexpectedly, the momentum in their spinning mass offers an instantaneous supply of energy that cushions the blow, thus protecting equipment and preventing outages.

The first of three synchronous condensers for Estonia, installed early this year south of its capitol Tallinn, provides grid support that will be crucial when the Baltic states disconnect from Russia.

“It’s like an airbag for the power grid,” says Ana Joswig, Portfolio Lifecycle Manager for synchronous condensers for market leader Siemens Energy, supplier for the nine synchronous condensers scheduled to be operating in the Baltics by the end of next year.

Joswig says the spinning machines provide three crucial grid-stabilizing services:

• Frequency regulation: When grid power crashes or surges, the device immediately releases or absorbs energy to minimize fluctuation in the AC frequency;

• Short circuit power: When the grid experiences a short circuit, the crashing voltage releases a tripling or more of current from rotating machines which signals breakers on the grid to activate and quickly isolate the fault; and

• Voltage support: Producing current and voltage that are out of phase generates so-called reactive power that pushes the local grid’s voltage up or down to stabilize system voltage and/or increase the flow of real power.

Synchronous convertors were first deployed in the early 20th century, but they were rarely used because grid stabilization could be supplied by power plants with big spinning generators. But plants with steam and turbine-driven generators are increasingly being replaced by solar panels, wind turbines and batteries that deliver their energy via electronic converters. Hence a worldwide comeback for a technology that was invented over a century ago.

In recent decades AC grids are experiencing more events where synchronization breaks down.

Joswig says there’s been an extra growth spurt as the energy transition accelerated over the last several years: “Before, some grid operators told me there is no market for the synchronous condenser. Now they can not get enough.”

Synchronizing with Europe drives added need for grid services in the Baltics. Europe has very large power plants whose failure can cause larger disruptions than the Baltics have traditionally faced. And, notes Joswig, in recent decades AC grids are experiencing more events where synchronization breaks down, leaving some regions electrically isolated — a scenario that will be extra-relevant for the Baltics while it is operating with just one AC link to continental Europe.

When Spectrum profiled the re-emergence of synchronous condensers in 2015, there was a notable trend toward the conversion of steam generators as coal-fired and nuclear power plants shut down. Today’s notable tech trend, says Joswig, is the addition of flywheels weighing hundreds of tonnes to boost momentum. All nine of the Baltics’ synchronous condensers will have power-boosting flywheels, as she explains, equipping each installation with up to 2,200 megajoules of energy. That’s roughly equivalent to the kinetic energy of a 3,000 tonne train cruising at 100 kilometers per hour.

The Harmony Link HVDC cable as shown will give the Baltics a second transmission link to Europe. But it won’t be completed until 2028, three years later than planned.

In addition to synchronous condensers and international links, the Baltics are further strengthening their electrical systems by upgrading control systems and adding and rebuilding transmission lines. Moving up the final line renovation, a circuit between Estonia and Latvia to be ready at the end of 2024, clinched the deal to accelerate synchronization with Europe.

Justinas Juozaitis, who heads the World Politics Research Group at Lithuania’s military academy, says Russian action forced the speed-up. For one thing, he says, Russia prepared faster for Baltic separation.

Russia and Belarus built new lines to strengthen their own grids. And Russia built four gas-fired power plants and an LNG import terminal in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. “By 2021 they had built the infrastructure and proved that Kaliningrad can operate independently,” says Juozaitis. That, he says, put Russia in a position to disrupt Baltic power without risk of blacking-out its own territory.

By the middle of 2022, the Baltics forged a protocol for “emergency synchronization,” by which it can switch to Europe’s grid in a matter of hours if necessary. The emergency plan calls for activation of transformers at the Polish-Lithuanian border, converting the country’s HVDC link to an AC interconnection, and provision of extra frequency regulation via plants in Sweden and Finland.

Juozaitis says the fact that European grid operators fast-tracked and completed Ukraine’s synchronization within one month of Russia’s invasion provides confidence that the Baltics can pull off an emergency switch. And he says recent events highlight the importance of being ready: mechanical damage sustained by a natural gas pipeline from Finland to Estonia and by telecommunications cables linking Estonia to Sweden. They appear to have been struck around the same time in early October.

Finnish authorities investigating the pipeline damage say their prime suspect is a Chinese-flagged container ship, the Newnew Polar Bear; Estonian authorities have said they are tracking the Sevmorput, a nuclear-powered Russian cargo ship, that was also in the vicinity of the pipeline and cables when they sustained damage.

“The Russian federation has the motive, and the chronology is very very strange,” notes Juozaitis. Russia and China have denied sabotaging the equipment.

Juozaitis says NATO has already stepped up naval patrols and other surveillance in the Baltic to protect infrastructure. But he says the Baltics also need to practice deterrence. As he puts it: “They must be signalling that if the Russians continue tampering with submerged infrastructure there are going to be consequences.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 2:08 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yermak, the gray eminence and power behind Zelensky's throne?

Quote:
Andriy Yermak

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Borysovych and the family name is Yermak.

Andriy Borysovych Yermak (Ukrainian: ?????? ????????? ?????; born 21 November 1971)[2] is a Ukrainian film producer, lawyer and the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed him on 11 February 2020.[1] He is also a member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, as well as the chairman of the Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian and Social Affairs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andriy_Yermak

Quote:
For instance, many believe that Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s head of the presidential office, is the man who really runs the country and was responsible for the “hit” on Zaluzhny’s aide. Yermak is the ‘gray eminence’ always shadowing Zelensky, who cowers before him like a chastened student. Many will remember the infamous video that made it clear who tucks whom into bed:

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/marching-toward-a-night-of-the-lon
g

Unfortunately I can't seem to grab the video URL which is probably on X or Rumble, you'll have to go to Simplicius and, if you want to find it quickly, do a word seatch for "tucks".

Yermak holds phone talks with US, UK national security advisers (Nov 12)

https://news.yahoo.com/yermak-holds-phone-talks-us-114900210.html
Yermak meets with Blinken in Washington (Nov 13)
https://news.yahoo.com/yermak-meets-blinken-washington-055152852.html

Andriy Yermak discussed with American businessman Alexander Soros the restoration of infrastructure and investments in the Ukrainian economy
https://odessa-journal.com/andriy-yermak-discussed-with-american-busin
essman-alexander-soros-the-restoration-of-infrastructure-and-investments-in-the-ukrainian-economy

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 2:33 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Nov 14, 2023 at 10:47 AM EST |

Svyatoslav Golikov, an instructor of Russia's Storm-Z penal units, took to his Telegram channel on Tuesday to outline the impact the weapons are having on troops in combat. He said ATACMS, which are capable of reaching targets 100 miles or more away, are creating large-scale casualties, and this is disrupting the execution of Russian operations.

"It is cluster shells that are now knocking out a huge mass of our infantry with the layering of a number of negative factors," wrote Golikov. "The infantry suffers heavy excess losses directly on the battlefield, as a result of which the execution of combat missions is disrupted, and in addition to this there is an overstrain of evacuation logistics and an overload of the military medical infrastructure."

Russian troops are returned to the front lines in Ukraine with shrapnel still stuck in their bodies, Golikov said. Golikov added: "The rapid depletion of infantry units, coupled with the overload of hospitals, leads to the fact that people are massively returned to the battle, primarily underrated, and often with small damaging elements in the soft tissues not removed."

Golikov said that, while there are no radical shifts in the front line, and little breakthroughs from Ukraine, Russia is also having little success in the war. "And there is a price. [A] very high and sad [price]," he added.

"Exhausting and bleeding the enemy on the defensive, and then collapsing the front with powerful counterattacks would be an excellent plan if implemented," Golikov said. "But in fact, along the way, we ourselves were pretty exhausted and bled dry."

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-troops-atacms-bombs-ukraine-war-18435
83

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 2:39 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Ukraine's Fate Will Be Decided In Coming Year, Top Zelensky Aide Admits
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023 - 11:20 AM

In surprisingly blunt words, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the coming year will essentially decide the fate of Ukraine and its war with Russia.

"A turning point in the war is approaching," Andrii Yermak, who serves as chief of staff for the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Monday. "The next year will be decisive in this regard." He issued the words while appealing for more urgent aid from Washington in an address to the hawkish DC-based Hudson Institute think tank.

Yermak sought to assure the audience that Zelensky has "a clear plan" forward even as Western media has by and large soured on Kiev's prospects for success. Much of this is about Zelensky sending envoys to do damage control in Washington at a moment the US administration's focus is off Ukraine and on Gaza events instead.

MORE AT https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraines-fate-will-be-decided-c
oming-year-top-zelensky-aide-admits

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 3:14 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Russian convicted over journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder pardoned after fighting in Ukraine

Former police officer had been serving a 20-year sentence over his role in the killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Politkovskaya, who was well known for reporting on abuses in Russia’s war in Chechnya early in Vladimir Putin’s presidency, was shot dead outside her flat in Moscow in 2006.

The killing triggered an outcry in the West and underlined the growing dangers of reporting in Russia as Putin gradually clamped down on independent media. Khadzhikurbanov was convicted along with four other men from Chechnya where Russia crushed a rebellion, under Putin, in 1999-2009.

In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that, while the authorities had found and convicted a group of men who had directly carried out the contract killing, they had “failed to take adequate investigatory steps to find the person or persons who had commissioned the murder”.

Politkovskaya, who did much of her work for the independent investigative magazine Novaya Gazeta, now banned in Russia, won more than a dozen international prizes for reporting on abuses committed in Chechnya by Russian forces, despite repeated detentions and death threats.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/14/russian-convicted-over-journ
alist-anna-politkovskayas-murder-pardoned

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 5:26 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Watching Military Summary Channel day to day, I noticed a pattern: Russia is for the most part is still fighting an attritional war. They are willing to take ground as long as it's relatively cost- free (in terms of manpower) but imposes disproportionate losses on Ukraine. But Russia is willing to let the front be elastic: they will take and give back the same line over and over, as long as it costs Ukraine a lot more than it costs them.

There's ONE place where Russian MoD is willing to take losses, and that's Avdiivka. Russians have probably lost 30 armored vehicles in the past three weeks, maybe more. Ukraine has a prioritized list of equipment to kill or disable, starting with demining equipment.(I know for a fact they destroyed two special distance-demining pieces, and one tank outfitted with a demining front end.)

But when the demining equipment is disabled, Russians are willing to use tanks to demine a path; they'll just run the tank as far as it'll keep running and then bail out once the tank stops moving.

Ukraine has used cluster rounds here, but mostly they seem to use FPV drones and the occasional HIMARS or artillery strike. Cluster munitions seem to be used at random points on the frontline, mostly where the action is infantry- intensive. Which makes sense.

Unlike Ukraine, Russia doesn't use cluster munitions altho it has them. They use thermobaric weapons instead, possibly even more deadly but at least there are no unexploded munitions laying around for their own soldiers to stumble over should they advance into Ukrainian held territory.

It surprises and - in a way, saddens- me, to see how much of the fight is treeline to treeline and trench to trench.

Simplicius addressed this as follows:

Quote:
Much of the Ukrainian conflict has its closest comparison in the Normandy campaign of World War 2, just after the famed D-Day landings. The Normandy region is known as ‘hedgerow country’, populated with an endless sprawl of fields and pastures called bocages.

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/battle-for-avdeevka-close-study

It is a region of relatively small fields, each surrounded by a "treeline" (planted I assume as a boundary marker and windbreak). The kind of landscape that requires detailed, dangerous clearing, by both sides. All those lives lost, for a treeline or trench.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 7:10 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Unlike Ukraine, Russia doesn't use cluster munitions altho it has them. They use thermobaric weapons instead, possibly even more deadly but at least there are no unexploded munitions laying around for their own soldiers to stumble over should they advance into Ukrainian held territory.

Ukraine uses cluster munitions because it is the artillery equivalent of shotgun shells. Ukrainians couldn't aim worth a damn, but since clusters spread the shrapnel over a wider area the Ukrainian gunners are more likely to kill something other than earthworms.

Reuters reported on November 12 that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition has agreed in principle to double Germany’s military aid to Ukraine next year to €8 billion.[17]

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba highlighted the importance of speeding up the EU’s plan to supply Ukraine with one million shells by March 2024 during a meeting with the EU Council of Foreign Ministers on November 13, but Politico reported on November 14 that German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius expressed doubt that the EU would be able to meet this target.[21]

Politico also reported that EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell stated that the European defense industry is exporting about 40 percent of its current production to third countries and urged European countries to shift exports to Ukraine as “priority one.”[22] Borrell stated that the EU’s ability to supply Ukraine with one million shells “will depend on how quickly orders come to the industry and how quickly the industry reacts.”[23]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated on November 14 that NATO has put in place framework contracts worth €2.4 billion, including €1 billion worth of firm orders, and stated that NATO countries are increasing production in order to reach the target of one million shells by March 2024.[24] Politico reported that Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur also announced that Estonia offered five European companies a procurement offer for €280 million worth of 155-mm artillery ammunition.[25]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-14-2023

All these billions don’t actually buy very many shells.
The German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has recently announced the conclusion of a contract with an unnamed European customer for 155-mm L15 shells. In total, 10,000 155 mm artillery rounds were ordered and the value of the announced deal was about 33 million euros. This puts the cost of one 155 mm shell at around 3.3 thousand euros. The current market situation is very different from what it was just a couple of short years ago. In 2020-2021 one artillery shell of this caliber cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 thousand euros.
https://www.technology.org/2023/01/05/how-much-do-155-mm-artillery-rou
nds-cost-now-and-how-many-are-fired-in-ukraine/

The $402 million contract could buy as many as 800,000 155mm shells at $500 apiece, though George cautioned that shipping, packaging, and other services would likely drive the per-unit cost higher.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/07/us-paying-contractor-quietl
y-supply-bulgarian-155mm-shells-ukraine/388480/

I have seen how Ukrainians expend their artillery shells. At a cost of between $500 and €3,300 per shell, Ukrainian artillerymen need to actually hit something other than the ground every time they fire. May I suggest they take aim before firing? Or is that too much to expect from tired and fearful men? Pointing their weapons in the general direction of the Russians is not the same as aiming. If they don’t start aiming better, they will lose, which means all their fear and weariness was for no purpose. The Ukrainians should make the extra mental effort to not fight dumber than the Russians do.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 9:49 AM

Ukrainians have taken back half the land Russia took. And they for sure can shoot straight. As for using cluster bombs, they are using them on their own soil. And yes, Russia has used them in Ukraine. Along with other illegal munitions. Like thermobaric bomb (also called a vacuum or aerosol bomb - or fuel air explosive)

The Russians are getting their asses kicked.

T

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 10:26 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Ukrainians have taken back half the land Russia took. And they for sure can shoot straight. As for using cluster bombs, they are using them on their own soil. And yes, Russia has used them in Ukraine. Along with other illegal munitions. Like thermobaric bomb (also called a vacuum or aerosol bomb - or fuel air explosive)

T

To be blunt about this, neither Ukrainians nor Russians are competent at anything other than dying for their country. There are a small number of exceptional people on any side who are doing most of the actual work of killing the enemy. As for the rest? All they usefully do is maintain equipment and carry ammo and food to the real warriors. How has the ratio of rounds per kill in war shifted over time and why? It's often reported that 300,000 rounds have been fired for each rebel killed in Afghanistan, though this includes training. This says that it took 100 bullets to inflict each casualty at Gettysburg, which would require 99.97% of shots in Afghanistan to be outside combat to have equal rounds per kill.

Is the Gettysburg figure right? Is it representative of musket warfare in general? How do modern wars compare? If it takes many more rounds in modern warfare to kill one enemy, what is the chain of causality that caused the shift? Much more at https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/d5d237/how_has_the_ratio_
of_rounds_per_kill_in_war/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 10:55 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Ukrainians have taken back half the land Russia took. And they for sure can shoot straight. As for using cluster bombs, they are using them on their own soil. And yes, Russia has used them in Ukraine. Along with other illegal munitions. Like thermobaric bomb (also called a vacuum or aerosol bomb - or fuel air explosive)

The Russians are getting their asses kicked.

T

I imagined that you might get SOMETHING right in one of your posts, but this isn't the one.

A) Cluster rounds aren't universally banned. They are banned by 100 nations, but since there are about 200 nations across the globe... Signifincantly, cluster rounds aren't banned by the USA or Russia. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/05/1197578353/a-new-study-examines-the-tol
l-of-cluster-munitions. It is a war crime, however, to fire cluster munitions at civilian areas, which Military Summary Channel has documented Ukraine doing a few times in the past couple of months.

B) Thermobaric warheads aren't banned either. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon Their use against civilian targets hasn't been legally tested, but is probably illegal

C) Russia hasn't used cluster munitions. There was an allegation that someone did (a village where people were apparentky killed by cluster munitions that used flechettes) and Ukraine, of course, blamed Russia. But Ukraine has a proven habit of blaming Russia for something that it did (like Ukraine's S300 that landed in Poland, immediately blamed on Russia https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/18/ukraine-missile-poland
-nato-russia/ )

D) Ukraine has not taken back 'half" the land that Rusia took. Look at a map, willya?

E) Russia is taking losses. This is war, after all. But Russia is not "getting its ass kicked" .

How you get so much wrong in one short post is astonishing. It's jam packed with errors.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 11:24 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

The USA can scrape Ukraine off and try to memory- hole it, but the EU has to live with Russia on its border AND with the political, financial, and economic mess it made for itself in trying to destroy Russia.

Consequently the pro- war faction (those that participated in the summit where Biden* urged them to join the "destroy Russia" campaign, and they climbed on board. That includes Scholz, Macron, BoJo, and Stoltenberg & Co, and probably Ursula van der Crazy and "Jungle Jim" Josep Borrell) have to have this succeed, no matter how irrational a plan they come up with.

Two ex- NATO heads (Rasmussen and an ex- admiral) have both recently witeen articles promoting the plan to include Ukraine in NATO NOW!! And the EU is talking about accession of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and NOW!!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 1:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

Ukrainians have taken back half the land Russia took. And they for sure can shoot straight. As for using cluster bombs, they are using them on their own soil. And yes, Russia has used them in Ukraine. Along with other illegal munitions. Like thermobaric bomb (also called a vacuum or aerosol bomb - or fuel air explosive)

The Russians are getting their asses kicked.

T
I imagined that you might get SOMETHING right in one of your posts, but this isn't the one.

A) Cluster rounds aren't universally banned. They are banned by 100 nations, but since there are about 200 nations across the globe... Signifincantly, cluster rounds aren't banned by the USA or Russia. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/05/1197578353/a-new-study-examines-the-tol
l-of-cluster-munitions. It is a war crime, however, to fire cluster munitions at civilian areas, which Military Summary Channel has documented Ukraine doing a few times in the past couple of months.

B) Thermobaric warheads aren't banned either. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon Their use against civilian targets hasn't been legally tested, but is probably illegal

C) Russia hasn't used cluster munitions. There was an allegation that someone did (a village where people were apparentky killed by cluster munitions that used flechettes) and Ukraine, of course, blamed Russia. But Ukraine has a proven habit of blaming Russia for something that it did (like Ukraine's S300 that landed in Poland, immediately blamed on Russia https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/18/ukraine-missile-poland
-nato-russia/ )

D) Ukraine has not taken back 'half" the land that Rusia took. Look at a map, willya?

E) Russia is taking losses. This is war, after all. But Russia is not "getting its ass kicked" .

How you get so much wrong in one short post is astonishing. It's jam packed with errors.

Ukrainians tied to Biden probe face treason charge

Three Ukrainians who aided the Donald Trump campaign's efforts to discredit the Biden family have been charged with treason.

The 2019 drive was led by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was Mr Trump's personal lawyer at the time.

It centred on unproven allegations that Joe Biden had corrupt dealings with Ukraine as vice-president.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukrainians-tied-to-biden-probe-fa
ce-treason-charge/ar-AA1jXZrK?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d53b6c200da4428f8c0c229982696999&ei=54

And again claims of collusion with Russia are shown to be true. Go figure, aye comrade signym.

T

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 4:48 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

The Zelenskiy regime banned opposition parties, banned the Russian Orthodox Church (and stole their assets), jailed a critic for "treason", is pilfering hundreds of thousands of dollars from military and monetary aid, and is dragooning men off the streets.

So, you take the word of a lying, corrupt, undemocratic regime (Zelenskiy) for anything?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 4:52 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
HOW THE United States and Its NATO Allies Sabotaged Peace Between Russia and Ukraine

14 November 2023 by Larry Johnson

We now know that the United States played the primary role in sabotaging the March 29, 2022 tentative peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine thanks to the recently published article by Hajo Funke and Harald Kujat, HOW THE CHANCE WAS LOST FOR A PEACE SETTLEMENT OF THE UKRAINE WAR — AND THE WEST WANTED TO CONTINUE THE WAR INSTEAD. The United States persuaded its NATO allies that pursuing the war against Russia, using Ukraine as a proxy, offered a legitimate opportunity to destroy Russia. You want a definition of evil? This is it. Instead of helping end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the United States and its NATO puppets condemned hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers to death in a war with Russia they could not win.

In the course of strong arming Ukraine’s Zelensky into rejecting the peace agreement, the West prepared and launched a propaganda campaign that claimed that Ukrainian military forces defeated the Russian forces and compelled them to retreat. It was a lie. As you will read in the timeline below, Putin ordered the withdrawal of Russian forces starting on April 1, 2022 as a good faith gesture about Russia’s seriousness in complying with the 29 March Istanbul Agreement.

So now we know what happened to the cease fire agreement between Ukraine and Russia: Same thing that happened to the Grain Deal and Minsk I and Minsk 2

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 5:18 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
HOW THE United States and Its NATO Allies Sabotaged Peace Between Russia and Ukraine

14 November 2023 by Larry Johnson

We now know that the United States played the primary role in sabotaging the March 29, 2022 tentative peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine thanks to the recently published article by Hajo Funke and Harald Kujat, HOW THE CHANCE WAS LOST FOR A PEACE SETTLEMENT OF THE UKRAINE WAR — AND THE WEST WANTED TO CONTINUE THE WAR INSTEAD. The United States persuaded its NATO allies that pursuing the war against Russia, using Ukraine as a proxy, offered a legitimate opportunity to destroy Russia. You want a definition of evil? This is it. Instead of helping end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the United States and its NATO puppets condemned hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers to death in a war with Russia they could not win.

In the course of strong arming Ukraine’s Zelensky into rejecting the peace agreement, the West prepared and launched a propaganda campaign that claimed that Ukrainian military forces defeated the Russian forces and compelled them to retreat. It was a lie. As you will read in the timeline below, Putin ordered the withdrawal of Russian forces starting on April 1, 2022 as a good faith gesture about Russia’s seriousness in complying with the 29 March Istanbul Agreement.

So now we know what happened to the cease fire agreement between Ukraine and Russia: Same thing that happened to the Grain Deal and Minsk I and Minsk 2

Your story comes from https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/how-united-states-its-nato-al
lies-sabotaged-peace/

What is your website known for? The Gateway Pundit (TGP) is an American far-right[2] fake news website.[1] The website is known for publishing falsehoods, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gateway_Pundit

Signym's fake stories are well-know at this website which keeps track of Russian lies:

https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_
developpement/response_conflict-reponse_conflits/crisis-crises/ukraine-fact-fait.aspx

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 5:25 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:

March 15-19, 2022 — Only a month after the outbreak of the war, Ukraine and Russia agreed on the broad outlines of a peace settlement. Ukraine promised not to join NATO and not to allow military bases of foreign powers on its territory, while Russia promised in return to recognize Ukraine’s territorial integrity and to withdraw all Russian occupation troops. Special arrangements were made for the Donbas and Crimea.”

March 24, 2022 — NATO decided at a special summit on March 24, 2022, not to support these peace negotiations.

March 27, 2022 — Zelensky defended the results of the Ukrainian-Russian peace negotiations in public before Russian journalists

March 28, 2022 — Putin, as a sign of goodwill and in support of the peace negotiations, declared readiness to withdraw troops from the Kharkov area and the Kiev area

29 March, 2002 — Turkiye’s President Erdogan hosted a Ukrainian-Russian peace conference in Istanbul and an armistice agreement was approved in principle.

April 1, 2022 — Putin orders Russian troops to initiate withdrawal from Kiev and Kharkiv in show of good faith in accordance with the armistice agreed to in Istanbul.

April 5, 2022 — NATO was firm in its position that continuing the war is preferred to a cease-fire and negotiated settlement: “For some in NATO, it’s better for Ukrainians to keep fighting and dying than to achieve a peace that comes too soon or at too high a price for Kiev and the rest of Europe.”

April 6, 2022 — Russia completes withdrawal from Kiev suburbs and Kharkiv.

April 9, 2022 — Boris Johnson arrived unannounced in Kiev and told the Ukrainian president that the West was not ready to end the war.

April 25, 2022 — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. wants to use the opportunity to permanently weaken Russia militarily and economically in the wake of the Ukraine war.

April 26, 2022 — Meeting with defense ministers from NATO members and other countries convened by Austin in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate/ Germany, the Pentagon chief declared the military victory of Ukraine as a strategic goal.

April 28, 2022 — According to Britain’s Guardian, PM Johnson “instructed” Ukrainian President Zelensky “not to make any concessions to Putin.”

Nice try. NOT the Gateway Pundit

From https://sonar21.com/how-the-chance-was-lost-for-a-peace-settlement-of-
the-ukraine-war/

Summary of

Michael von der Schulenburg, Hajo Funke, Harald Kujat – Peace For Ukraine
https://braveneweurope.com/michael-von-der-schulenburg-hajo-funke-hara
ld-kujat-peace-for-ukraine

Michael von der Schulenburg is a former UN Assistant Secretary-General, who worked for over 34 years for the United Nations, and shortly for the OSCE, in many countries in war or internal armed conflicts often involving fragile governments and armed non-state actors
Hajo Funke is Professor Emeritus for political sciences of the Otto-Suhr-Institute/ Freie University Berlin
General (ret.) Harald Kujat was the highest ranging German officer of the Bundeswehr and at NATO

----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 5:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

The Zelenskiy regime banned opposition parties, banned the Russian Orthodox Church (and stole their assets), jailed a critic for "treason", is pilfering hundreds of thousands of dollars from military and monetary aid, and is dragooning men off the streets.

So, you take the word of a lying, corrupt, undemocratic regime (Zelenskiy) for anything?

No source aye comrade?

T

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 5:56 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh, PLENTY of primary sources, THUGR. Yanno, from Ukraine announcements and everything. But you won't bother to look at them so why should I bother to post them?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 6:55 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, PLENTY of primary sources, THUGR. Yanno, from Ukraine announcements and everything. But you won't bother to look at them so why should I bother to post them?

Signym, I will show you how that works: "I, Donald J Trump, am guilty of tax evasion, rape, and treason." - signed Donald J Trump. Now we have conclusive evidence that Trump is a tax cheater, rapist, and betrayer of America from the well-known fireflyfans.net. In real life, the Russians executed millions of Russians by providing fake evidence to courts that ruled those who had beliefs that annoyed Stalin should die, but the paperwork had to be properly filed with the correct authorities. Stalin needed paperwork to show history that he wasn't arbitrary and capricious about who died.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 7:10 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I have no idea what your point is.

If the Ukrainian parliament says they've banned opposition political parties, should I disbelieve that opposition political parties have banned?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 8:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I have no idea what your point is.

If the Ukrainian parliament says they've banned opposition political parties, should I disbelieve that opposition political parties have banned?

SOCEND'S point, is probably that he did not source what he just said. Did he just pull what he posted out of thin air? Only he knows.

T

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 9:08 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I have no idea what your point is.

If the Ukrainian parliament says they've banned opposition political parties, should I disbelieve that opposition political parties have banned?

Obviously you and the Russians create imaginary stories to "legally" prove Russians are NOT murderous thieves who starve/torture their victims before killing them. Unfortunately, Russians have murdered Russians by the tens of millions. See every story ever written by a Russian who survived about how Russia's Gulag Archipelago killed off their political opposition.

Russia is still murdering people, moving its operations into Ukraine, where Russians are stealing land and killing the previous owners who complain about the unfairness of Russians. Russia is run by people who are fundamentally absurd. It is no surprise what a huge effort such people will go to convince themselves they aren't crazy, evil, or stupid and that their hard lives are not their fault. Blame the Ukrainians, instead, lamenting about the unreasonable Ukrainians not surrendering to Russians' tender mercy and goodness!

Personally, I think the Ukrainians could teach the Russians about what Russians truly are, but the Russians will forget the lessons as soon as possible, protecting themselves from such revelations about Russian character and motivation.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 9:14 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

You had to swallow that you were wrong about USA/UK hand in cratering a Ukrainian peace deal.

And that you were wrong about not believing what the Rada passed.

So now you drag out that moldy old trope about what Russians did a century ago? That's like blaming "Germans" for the Holocaust and "Japanese" for WWII internment camps.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 9:16 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I have no idea what your point is.

If the Ukrainian parliament says they've banned opposition political parties, should I disbelieve that opposition political parties have banned?

SOCEND'S point, is probably that he did not source what he just said. Did he just pull what he posted out of thin air? Only he knows.

T

. Educate yourself, THUGR. You're the only one who can. Do a search on "Ukraine bans political parties" for example.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Thursday, November 16, 2023 6:48 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Recent Russian opinion polls indicate that roughly half of Russians maintain support for the war in Ukraine and for Russia to engage in peace negotiations. The Levada Center – an independent Russian polling organization – reported on October 31 that 55 percent of respondents to a recent poll believe that Russia should begin peace negotiations while 38 percent favor continuing to conduct the war.[13] The Levada Center observed that while these numbers slightly increased between September and October by four percent, they have largely remained consistent since July 2023.[14] The Levada Center added that support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine remained high with 76 percent of respondents stating that they support Russian military operations in Ukraine. The Levada Center reported that 62 percent of surveyed Russians believe that the full-scale invasion is progressing well, while 21 percent of respondents believe that the war is going reasonably or very poorly for Russia.[15] The Levada Center reported on November 14 that two-thirds of respondents believe that Russia is headed in the right direction and of those who believe the opposite, 45 percent cited the war in Ukraine.[16] Opposition-leaning Russian research organization Russian Field reported similar numbers supporting negotiations on November 15, noting that 48 percent of respondents said that Russia should engage in peace negotiations and that 74 percent would support Russian President Vladimir Putin if he signed a peace agreement “tomorrow.”[17] Russian Field stated that 36 percent of respondents believe that the war is going well for Russia whereas 25 percent believe that the war is going poorly for Russia and that respondents who trust Telegram channels are twice as likely to believe that the war is going poorly for Russia as those who rely on Russian television.[18]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-15-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, November 16, 2023 7:22 AM