"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (9 Viewers)

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I sure hope you're right, brotha, But we've also seen the willingness to spend blood and treasure for relatively paltry, and even non-existent, gains.
 

The gist of that article strikes me as China assuming a colonial-ruler position vs Russia assuming a dependency position. This is pretty much what Western colonial powers did between the 16th and 20th centuries: extract natural resources from colonies at healthy discounts, and then turn around and sell the colonies value-added products of those resources (once refined and manufactured) back to their colonies.

In short, Russia being sucked into a Chinese orbit. This war, far from making Russia Great Again®, would seem to be reducing it to the status of Chinese vassal. Another goal of Putin's short-circuited by his historically stupid decision to invade, apparently.
 
MiTasol said:
Ukraine has a sales outlet on Amazon for all their stamps which apparently is creating considerable income for the country.

A good case of thinking outside the Postbox
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If you've got a link, I'd be happy to buy some and put a little money into the fray. No doubt others here share this feeling.

ETA: Just saw GrauGeist 's post, bookmarked pending further investigation and hopefully a purchase of a tee- or sweat-shirt.
 
Russian forces currently appear able to sustain only 2 significant offensive operations in Ukraine, both in Donetsk Oblast; the Russian offensive remains likely to culminate before seizing additional significant population centers.
These operations have focused on advances in the Siversk, Donetsk Oblast, direction from Verkhnokamianka and Bilohorivka, and in the Bakhmut direction from the areas of Novoluhanske and the Vuhlehirska Thermal Power Plant since the end of the operational pause on July 16. /2
Russian forces have committed enough resources to conduct near-daily ground assaults and to seize territory on these two axes but have been unable to sustain a similar offensive operational tempo or to make similar territorial gains elsewhere in Ukraine. /3
The Russian offensive, therefore, remains likely to culminate before seizing any other major urban areas in Ukraine. /4
 

KYIV, July 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine stepped up its drive to retake the Russian-controlled south of the country by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas, but said it saw evidence that Moscow was redeploying its forces to defend the territory.

Ukraine's southern Kherson region, which borders Russian-annexed Crimea, fell to Russian forces soon after they began what Moscow calls "a special military operation" on Feb. 24.


Ukraine, which describes Russia's actions as an imperial-style war of conquest, said on Thursday its planes had struck five Russian strongholds around the city of Kherson and another city in the area.

British military intelligence, which helps Ukraine, said it was likely that Ukrainian forces had also established a bridgehead south of a river which runs along the wider Kherson region's northern border.

"Ukraine's counter-offensive in Kherson is gathering momentum," it said in a statement.

[...]

A Ukrainian strike on Wednesday on the Antonivskyi bridge, the sole span serving Kherson city, prompted its closure to traffic. That forced Russia to open a ferry service, the route of which it said would constantly change for security reasons.

Ukraine steps up drive to retake Russian-controlled south with air strikes

Ukraine stepped up its drive to retake its Russian-controlled south by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas, but it said on Thursday it saw evidence that Moscow was redeploying its forces to defend the territory.
www.reuters.com
 
RogerdeLluria said:
View attachment 679382
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I just imagine the gleeful attention the men and women operating the USA's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as they watch and listen in on the Russian movements and communications, sending it all to their Ukrainian counterparts. Unless the Russians can somehow block NATO's satellites and SIGINT they're going to lose the info/intel war hard. Praying for cloudy weather doesn't help.

Russian forces have set up a ferry next to the destroyed E97 bridge in Kherson Antonivka - Ukraine Interactive map - Ukraine Latest news on live map - liveuamap.com

Russian forces have set up a ferry next to the destroyed E97 bridge in Kherson. Live Universal Awareness Map Liveuamap is a leading independent global news and information site dedicated to factual reporting of a variety of important topics including conflicts, human rights issues, protests...
liveuamap.com

No way you can hide a AFV-capable ferry service. Those boats will be sunk.
 
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Russian media has, for the first time, openly mentioned the Wagner Group PMC as being active in Ukraine. I find this interesting because not acknowledging the Wagner Group gave Moscow some plausible deniability of Wagner's actions. That's no longer the case if, as the article states, Wagner fight as "equals alongside Russian troops and people's militia from the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics":

Russian media outlets have begun openly mentioning the shadowy private military company, the Wagner Group.

The country's state media has always referred to the group indirectly or avoided mentioning it altogether. But they now appear to have broken the taboo.

British military intelligence says mercenaries from the Wagner Group have been deployed to eastern Ukraine.

The group has been active over the past eight years in Ukraine, Syria and African countries, and has repeatedly been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.

On Wednesday, the main evening news bulletin on Russia's most popular TV station, state-run Rossiya 1, acknowledged that fighters from Wagner were involved in the war in Ukraine.

It featured the channel's war correspondent, Yevgeny Poddubny, reporting from the ruins of a power station in eastern Ukraine.

"The site has been liberated by specialists from the Wagner private military company - the musicians, the orchestra," Poddubny said, listing words used mainly on social media to denote Wagner.

This appears to be the first time that Wagner was mentioned by name by a state TV reporter in a news bulletin as a force active in Ukraine.

The same day, key pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda called Wagner "a legendary unit".

"This private military company, Wagner PMC, as these professional military are known, has long since become a Russian brand known across the whole world," the reporter said.

"They performed tasks both in Syria and Africa. They are now fighting in Donbas as equals alongside Russian troops and people's militia from the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics."
 
GrauGeist said:
Russian hypocrisy at it's finest - they state that foreign fighters in Ukraine's international units are to be treated as "mercinaries" and subject to the death penalty YET they have been using actual mercinaries and it's ok.
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Oh, don't worry, Putin couldn't care less if UAF put any captured Wagner mercenaries against the wall to take a bullet. He may feign outrage for the domestic and foreign media, but a dead Wagner mercenary is better than a dead Russian son (not that he cares much there either) and his outraged mother. Plus, (especially if Chechen or another oppressed minority) a dead Wagner is one that can't later turn against Putin when the cheques begin to bounce.
 

Putin doesn't care, regardless of who gets killed. He seems entirely lacking in human empathy, something that hindered his promotion when he served in the KGB.

Mothers and widows of Russian soldiers are trying to make their voices heard, however I doubt it will meet with much success:

Ukraine war: Mothers and wives of missing Russian servicemen face relentless fight for answers

"No-one hears us": Russian mothers speak of the deep pain of not knowing if their sons are dead or missing - and of the battle for information on what has happened to them.
news.sky.com
 
The rage of mothers after the Kursk sinking was a big risk to Putin's government. How will his regime survive thirty thousand mothers? Along with tens of thousands of wounded and surviving troops coming home after participating in this lie?
 
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