re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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“The Soviet Knight is dying inside his armour. He is a secondary power like you British. He can start a war but cannot continue one and cannot win one. Believe me.” - John le Carré, The Russia House

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Now you've touched on something else I'm a bit fascinated with... the British can't quite accept that they aren't the center of the planet anymore, either.

I think I mentioned here before that some of my first memories were watching James Bond movies on TV with my dad, and at some point I asked him why Felix, the CIA guy, was just like a sidekick. "The CIA and America are... bigger, right Dad? They'd be the main ones saving the world, not someone from England..." and my Dad said "Well, Son... oooh, these books were... well, England used to be probably the most powerful country and Empire on the planet until America blossomed around the turn of the Century and... well, they haven't taken losing the top spot very well!!!"

A friend from England here (who just got his US citizenship last week!!!) says his dad's family were Tories and always hated the EU and the thought of sublimating themselves to some dorks in Brussells... though by the time of the Brexit vote his dad, at least, had come to think "this will be a huge mistake that cripples us!" He himself didn't think much of it until he came to America, and got a camper with his wife and started traveling... "and then the enormity of it hit me. America is a continent onto itself. I grew up with a summer house in France that we'd pop over to... and traveling Europe on holidays, and then from my teens going to festivals and things, or just running off on a train with mates if the urge hit us to Prague or whatever... but having to drive across America... Britian is like a state, comparatively, it can't compete with all of this on scale. We're a decent amount of people, I guess, but land and resources... we're tiny."

And of course England's main resource was "intellectual." It was the primary historical Financial Services and Banking hub of the EU... and they've screwed themselves on that with Brexit and won;t ever get that position back, now.

Are you implying that Brexit was a mistake for Britain? That’s like saying having your leg with gangrene amputated is a mistake because it will be tough to deal with the aftermath. It will be difficult but addressing the issue before you go septic is necessary.

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Are you implying that Brexit was a mistake for Britain? That’s like saying having your leg with gangrene amputated is a mistake because it will be tough to deal with the aftermath. It will be difficult but addressing the issue before you go septic is necessary.

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More than implying it, it was a huge mistake and they may never recover from it.

That is the obvious short sighted approach to this though. Anybody with any brains knew it would be a difficult transition and the terms not being negotiated well isn’t a knock on the idea of Brexit it’s a knock on weak leadership. The amputating an infected limb before it kills you analogy is almost too perfect for this scenario. Here is another one, saying it was a mistake because of economic hits taken in the immediate aftermath is like saying getting a Tetanus shot was a mistake because it made your arm sore.

I would say about 100 other things that mattered lol. I would also say that is the only way you can frame it as a mistake and that is laughably short sighted.

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You do realize that it was Putin and not Zelensky that killed that deal. Don't you?

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He talks about that deal like the draft copies were posted on the official websites of each side.

What were the details? "Oh, they were widely reported."

Ok what were they?.....crickets.

Here is how Wikipedia summarizes the situation:

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In September 2022, Reuters reported that Putin's envoy on Ukraine Dmitry Kozak had struck a provisional deal that would satisfy Russia's demand for Ukraine to stay out of NATO, but the plan was rejected by Putin who preferred a full-scale military invasion.[26] After Russia declared it had annexed the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that these additional annexations must be recognized before any peace plan.[27] In April 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he wanted any peace negotiations to focus on creating a "new world order" to counter global hegemony of the United States.[28] In January 2024, Putin again made statements which suggested, according to the Institute for the Study of War, that his "maximalist objectives in Ukraine" remained unchanged, "which are tantamount to full Ukrainian and Western surrender". He again called for the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.[29]

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The Putin Apologists on this board and the poliboard are fairly consistent on this point: "Ukraine should negotiate immediately. Because any outcome they could possibly hope for is no better than what Russia has already offered. The only thing standing in the way of that deal happening is the NeoCon Deep State Criminal Sickening Pedophile Biden Sponsored Military Industrial Complex blackmailing the entire apparatus to ensure Forever Wars that line everyone's pockets through the Huge Money Laundering Machine that is this Dangerous Proxy War via their Bloodthirsty Gleeful War LARP Mentality" (Did I leave anything out?).

But they will never admit that where Ukraine is now is a radically improved position from the "Surrender Tenents" of 2022.

What makes them uncomforable is the fact that is is becoming more and more apparent -- even to them -- that this war has changed the calculus in Ukraine's favor. The events of the past 10 days only highlight this point.

Sometimes, you have to fight back. Sometimes it's your best bad option in an ocean of bad options.

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So I was wondering what your understanding of them is.

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The crux was Ukraine stays out of NATO. Crimea stays in Russia. Occupied eastern oblasts remain independent of Ukraine. Ukraine receives security guarantees.

From pictures on the web, Glushkovo Bridge wasnt just hit and hole put in it like the bridge hit earlier this week, but the spans are now in the Seym river

i think the end goal for Ukraine is to consolodate all area south of the Seym in the Kursk Oblast from uthe west edge at the Ukrainian border to where the river turns north near Korenevo.

Russia loses LOC with both Bridges in that area out. Now Ukraine is defending a river crossing

EDIT: also seeing reports of the Kerch Ferry being hit as well