re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

quote:

---

There are very, very persistent rumors that the M1A1 Abrams tanks will arrive in Ukraine by early June & that F-16 training concluded long ago.

So far we have no confirmation for either; but once F-16 arrive we will quickly know as there will be so many russian air forces losses.

---

quote:

---

This war was completely avoidable. The party in this conflict that actually sought diplomacy repeatedly was Russia. Not something you'd read in the NY Times actually, but the fact.

---

quote:

---

The party in this conflict that actually sought diplomacy repeatedly was Russia.

---

quote:

---

How anyone can say this with a straight face is beyond me.

---

quote:

---

Nineteen-year-old Alina lives in Nizhny Tagil, a blighted industrial city in Russia’s Ural region. When she’s not studying for her degree in graphic design, she does all the things anyone else of her age might. She hangs out with her boyfriend, Sergey, and goes to the local cinema to watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters, now pirated to circumvent Western sanctions. They down fearsome quantities of alcohol in local bars. She dreams of moving to Moscow to work in the capital’s high-tech industry.

Alina, like most young people in Russia, is addicted to her smartphone. She has uploaded all the trappings of ordinary teenage life to her page on VK, Russia’s version of Facebook. She shows off photos of beach vacations in Egypt and shares videos about nail design, fashion, movies, and TV. She is a big fan of Maisie Williams’s Game of Thrones character, whom Alina calls a “fierce” role model of modern womanhood.

But since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia sent a massive invasion force into Ukraine, Alina’s VK page has become a different world. Gone are the fripperies of consumerist life. Like hundreds of thousands of other Russians, Alina has joined dozens of government-run and -promoted online groups with names like “REAL Ukraine,” “Antiterror Z,” “Z for Victory,” “The Russian Spring,” and “Ztrength in Truth.” Whether holed up in her bedroom or posting from class, the back seat of a bus, or a bar while chatting with her friends, Alina’s thirst for the world of Russia’s war against Ukraine seems unquenchable.

Alina began by sharing posts from the war groups she had joined. In this conspiracy-fueled world, new “truths” about alleged Ukrainian depravities are uncovered every day, Russia is under constant threat from shadowy U.S. and NATO forces, and Ukraine has to be destroyed to save itself—and Russia—from a spectral Nazi threat. Alina’s VK wall is packed with apocalyptic images of a burning White House in “Fascington, DC,” Orthodox priests blessing the troops at the front, and of Russian President Vladimir Putin depicted as a “savior.” In this alternate reality, a sacred Russia is surrounded by enemies bent on its total obliteration.

As the war in Ukraine unfolded, Alina began to add her own commentary. “Khokhols are assholes,” she wrote, using a derogatory term for Ukrainians. “The white of our Russian flag means cleanliness”; “Ukrofascists, you’re RABID DOGS”; “If I was [in charge] you frickers would get what you deserve”; “Ukrainians, better not talk in Ukrainian, it just sounds stupid, like fricked up Russian.” Putin, Alina posted, is “a gift from God. We are all Putin.”

---

quote:

---

I don't have much time this morning to elaborate but I can later on today. I mean it has been a complete disaster for Russia,

---

quote:

---

Sachs says he had direct knowledge of a draft U.S./Russia security agreement in December 2021

---

quote:

---

I don't have much time this morning to elaborate but I can later on today. I mean it has been a complete disaster for Russia, there is no other way to put it. I think they expected Ukraine to roll over after the first 24-72 hours and it was a massive miscalculation, costing them dearly, in loss of life & armor.

---

quote:

---

I think people are still underestimating their resilience as a people,

---