"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (4 Viewers)

Steady......

Ascent said:

View: https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1854080507409035764?t=05S7QRjqS9OLf9jgO-NJww&s=19

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It's about 1,000-1,100 km flight from Ukraine's front lines to Kaspiysk. The 2,000 km has been reached earlier. Distance from Kaspiysk to Tehran is about 1,000 km over the Caspian Sea, around Azeri oil fields.
I don't know why I say this.

GTX said:

Let's be brutally honest. The war to save Ukraine was just lost. They will be stabbed in the back and front now. NATO will effectively die.

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I doubt it.

Greg Boeser said:

I doubt it.

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Oh wake up!

Ok guys, let's stop with the doom and gloom.

Even if the U.S. stops support, other nations will continue theirs.
Plus, Putin bringing in DPRK troops has unwittingly created a powerful ally for Ukraine in the form of South Korea, who also is not a NATO member, so if they wanted to send troops, Putin cannot cry foul.

GrauGeist said:

Ok guys, let's stop with the doom and gloom.

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If I were the Georgians or Moldovans, now is your chance to rise up and force out the Russian separatists. You won't get another chance this generation.

GTX said:

Let's be brutally honest. The war to save Ukraine was just lost. They will be stabbed in the back and front now. NATO will effectively die.

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I disagree ....somewhat. I suspect the war will be frozen, as it was after 2014, with the Russians retaining what they have stolen to date. This will be accomplished by basically threatening Ukraine with the cessation of all aid. The Russians will obviously disregard any treaty obligations they make and will immediately start stirring up problems. The rump Ukrainian state will do one of 2 things: 1. Decide they have had enough and that existing as a Russian vassal is better than being dead; or 2. Start a nuclear program RFN. Ironically, North Korea shows them the benefits of having nuclear weapons .... no-one f**ks with you. I could also see them negotiating defence treaties with individual European countries, i.e., Poland

NATO will not die. It will change, as (regardless of any political posturing) it is clear that Putin is intent on recreating the Soviet Empire. Europe will be forced to acknowledge the threat and respond accordingly. NATO has never been totally 'monolithic'- it will change because it will have to

Of course, I could be completely wrong.....

The unpalatable truth facing the European nations is that they MUST increase defence spending and start doing it immediately.

The fact that most NATO member nations now commit 2+% of their GDP to defence is little more than a fig leaf. When I joined up in the late-80s, the UK's defence budget was around 4.2% of GDP...and even that was a marked decline from the 7.1% of the mid-60s.

Such a move would be massively unpopular with the populaces but it's the only way I can see for Ukraine to stay in the fight or for the West to maintain a deterrent pressure on Russia. At the very least, it would be a prudent insurance measure.